Macrodiversity
Encyclopedia
In the field of wireless communication, Macrodiversity is a kind of space diversity scheme using several receiver antennas and/or transmitter antennas for transferring the same signal. The distance between the transmitters is much longer than the wavelength
Wavelength
In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a...

, as opposed to micro-diversity where the distance is in the order of or shorter than the wave length.

In a cellular network
Cellular network
A cellular network is a radio network distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area...

 or a wireless LAN
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...

, macro-diversity implies that the antennas are typically situated in different base station
Base station
The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...

 sites or access points
Wireless access point
In computer networking, a wireless access point is a device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards...

. Receiver macro-diversity is a form of antenna combining, and requires an infrastructure that mediates the signals from the local antennas or receivers to a central receiver or decoder. Transmitter macro-diversity may be a form of simulcasting, where the same signal is sent from several nodes. If the signals are sent over the same physical channel (e.g. the channel frequency and spreading sequence), the transmitters are said to form a single frequency network - a term used especially in the broadcasting world.

The aim is to combat fading
Fading
In wireless communications, fading is deviation of the attenuation that a carrier-modulated telecommunication signal experiences over certain propagation media. The fading may vary with time, geographical position and/or radio frequency, and is often modelled as a random process. A fading channel...

 and to increase the received signal strength and signal quality in exposed positions in between the base stations or access points. Macro diversity may also facilitate efficient broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 and multicasting services, where the same frequency channel can be used for all transmitters sending the same information. The diversity scheme may be based on transmitter (downlink) macro-diversity and/or receiver (uplink) macro-diversity.

Examples are:
  • CDMA soft handoff:
    • UMTS softer handover.
  • OFDM and frequency domain equalization (FDE) based Single Frequency Networks (SFN) are a form of transmitter macrodiversity used in broadcasting networks such as DVB-T
    DVB-T
    DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...

     and DAB
    Digital audio broadcasting
    Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....

    • Dynamic Single Frequency Networks (DSFN), where a scheduling scheme adapts the SFN formations dynamically to traffic conditions and/or receiver conditions
    • 802.16e macro diversity handover (MDHO)
    • 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) multicast-broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN), making it possible to efficiently send the same data to many mobiles in adjacent cells.
    • Cooperative diversity
      Cooperative diversity
      Cooperative diversity is a cooperative multiple antenna technique for improving or maximising total network channel capacities for any given set of bandwidths which exploits user diversity by decoding the combined signal of the relayed signal and the direct signal in wireless multihop networks...

      , for example 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) coordinated multipoint transmission/reception (CoMP), making it possible to increase the data rate to a mobile situated in the overlap of several base station transmission ranges.

See also

  • Antenna diversity
    Antenna diversity
    Antenna diversity, also known as space diversity, is any one of several wireless diversity schemes that uses two or more antennas to improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link. Often, especially in urban and indoor environments, there is no clear line-of-sight between transmitter and...

  • Diversity scheme
    Diversity scheme
    In telecommunications, a diversity scheme refers to a method for improving the reliability of a message signal by using two or more communication channels with different characteristics. Diversity plays an important role in combatting fading and co-channel interference and avoiding error bursts...

    s
  • Diversity combining
    Diversity combining
    Diversity combining is the technique applied to combine the multiple received signals of a diversity reception device into a single improved signal.- Various techniques :Various diversity combining techniques can be distinguished:...

    • Maximum ratio combining
    • Selective combining
  • Diversity gain
    Diversity gain
    In wireless communications, diversity gain is the increase in signal-to-interference ratio due to some diversity scheme, or how much the transmission power can be reduced when a diversity scheme is introduced, without a performance loss. Diversity gain is usually expressed in decibel, and sometimes...

  • Microdiversity
  • Many Antenna
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