imulation step (i.e. snapshot) we obtain as many local-mean-SIR values as UE(s) in the simulation. The outputs from a simulation include SIR-distribution, outage probability, and capacity figures, etc. 5.5.4 Modeling of Handover and Power Control 5.5.4.1 Handover Modelling Here we model non-ideal soft handover, where an active set for the UE gets selected from a pool of candidate BSs for handover. The candidate set consists of BSs whose path loss is within handover margin, i.e. BSs whose received pilot is stronger than the received pilot of the strongest BS subtracted by the handover margin. We select the active set of BS randomly from the candidate BSs, where a single UE may be connected to maximum of two base stations simultaneously. We assume 3 dB as a soft handover margin. 5.5.4.1.1 Uplink and Downlink Combining In the uplink, selection combining among active BSs takes place to use the frame with the highest average SIR for statistics collecting purposes, while the other frames get discarded. In the downlink, we model macro diversity to sum together the signal received from active BSs. Thus, we realize maximal ratio combining by summing measured SIR val- ues i.e.: (5.13) 5.5.4.2 Power Control Modelling of Uplink Traffic Channels In these simulations Power Control (PC) corresponds to the SIR based fast inner loop power control. Here we assume perfect PC, i.e. during the power control loop, each UE achieves perfectly the Eb/No target, assuming that the maximum TX power is not ex- ceeded. Assuming perfect power control, we imply that PC error equals 0%, and PC delay equals 0 S. As noted earlier, UEs, which cannot achieve the target Eb/No at the end of a power con- trol loop, are in outage. We base the initial TX power for the PC loop of the UL traffic channel on path loss, thermal noise and 6 dB noise rise. However, the initial TX power should not affect the convergence process (PC loop) to the target Eb/No [5]. 5.5.4.2.1 Simulation Parameters UE Max TX power. The maximum UE TX power is 21 dBm (both for speech a