Soft hand off in CDMA cellular networks

Question

Hi, In the CDMA cellular networks when MS (Mobile Station) need to change a BS(Base Station), exactly necessary for hand-off, i know that is soft hand-off (make a connection with a target BS before leaving current BS-s). But i want to know, because connection of MS remaining within a time with more than one BS, MS use the same code in CDMA to communicate with all BS-s or different code for different BS-s ? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

For the benefit of everyone, i have touched upon few points before coming to the main point.

Soft Handoff is also termed as "make-before-break" handoff. This technique falls under the category of MAHO (Mobile Assisted Handover). The key theme behind this is having the MS to maintain a simultaneous communication link with two or more BS for ensuring a un-interrupted call.

In DL direction, it is achieved using different transmission codes(transmit same bit stream) on different physical channels in the same frequency by two or more BTS wherein the CDMA phone simultaneously receives the signals from these two or more BTS. In the active set, there can be more than one pilot as there could be three carriers involved in soft hand off. Also, there shall also be a rake receiver that shall do maximal combining of received signals.

In UL direction, MS shall operate on a candidate set where there could be more than 1 pilot that have sufficient signal strength for usage as reported by MS. The BTS shall tag each of the user's data with Frame reliability indicator that can provide details about the transmission quality to BSC. So, even though the signals(MS code channel) are received by both base stations, it is achieved by routing the signals to the BSC along with information of quality of received signals, which shall examine the quality based on the Frame reliability indicator and choose the best quality stream or the best candidate.