TABLE OF CONTENTS Air interface standards have recently started to take smart antenna techniques into account, making it possible to optimize radio system design for spatial processing and integrate those advanced antennas into future adaptive modems. The main advantages expected with smart antennas include higher sensitive reception, interference cancellation in uplink and downlink functions, and mitigation of multipart fading effects. On the system level, this will lead to higher capacity, extended range, improved coverage of current dead spots, higher quality of service, lower power consumption at the mobile, and improved power control (PC). While smart antennas increase system complexity and cost, they also provide an additional degree of freedom for radio network control and planning. To improve radio network performance, the propagation and interference environment as well as expected traffic and user s mobility in the cell should be taken into account when optimizing the smart antenna receiver structures and algorithms. While smart antenna receiver parameters are important for capacity, coverage, and interference planning, they also interact with different network control protocols. In addition, when evaluating different smart antenna receivers and algorithms one must consider their high degree of dependence on the air interface and its parameters, such as the multiple access method, the type of duplexing, pilot availability, modulation, diversity, physical channels splitting, and frame structure. Smart antenna algorithms should also be compatible with radio network protocols because link level control protocols must maintain the required link quality dynamically while carrying out channel and interference monitoring. Several smart antennas strategies are...
