Trunking Efficiency for Multiple-Carrier CDMA Systems

When the number of carriers in a wireless network is increased, conventional wisdom (based on analog systems) is that, the required hardware resources (typically radios) increase linearly, and the capacity increases non-linearly, and the capacity increases non-linearly. The latter is the well-known "capacity trunking efficiency". For multiple-carrier CDMA systems, however, such wisdom does not apply anymore, as revealed in this paper. Based on analyses, simulations and field observations, we have found little or no capacity efficiency, but some hardware resource efficiencies. So for a CDMA system with N-carriers, its total capacity is most likely to be N times the capacity of a single carrier, and it may require less than N times the hardware resources required by a single carrier.