 WCDMA two types of soft handovers characterise the cell transition process. These include Softer and Soft hand- overs. In the 1st case, a MS finds itself in the overlapped cell coverage area of two adja- cent sectors of a BS. The MS communicates simultaneously with BS through two chan- nels (2 DL codes) corresponding one to each sector. The MS's rake receives and proc- esses the two signals, where its fingers generate the necessary de-spreading codes for each sector. The UL process occurs in the BS, where the BS receives the MS's channel in each sector and routes them to the same rake receiver for the typical maximal ratio combining process under one active power control loop per connection. In the 2nd case, i.e. soft handover, a MS finds itself in the overlapping cell coverage area of two sectors corresponding to different BSs. Communications between MS and BS occur simultaneously through two channels, one from each BS. In the DL, the MS receives both signals for maximal ratio combining. In the UL, the MS code channel arrives from both BS, and is routed to the RNC for combining, in order to allow the same frame reliability indicator provided for outer loop power control when selecting the best frame. Two active power control loops participate in soft handover, i.e. one for each BS. System Analysis Fundamentals While softer handover may occur only in about 10 % of links, soft handover may occur in about 30 % of the links. Thus, for the latter provision in terms of extra power, Rake processing, RNC transmission lines will be essential. THE 3G COMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT This section provides dedicated reference models for the test environments cited in the forthcoming chapters, in particular the deployment contents presented in Chapter 7. These test environments aim to cover the range of UMTS operating environments. Thus, the necessary parameters to identify the reference models include the test propa- gation environments, traffic conditions and user information rate for reference voice and data services. It also 