System-level simulation has been widely used to evaluate system performance. Simulation methodologies have also been comprehensively discussed in different organizations or institutions. Most of the simulation methodologies proposed, however, mainly focus on one area of specific technologies. How to evaluate the performance of multiple air interface systems (e.g., cdma2000, WCDMA, WiMAX, and their evolutions) in a fair and comprehensive manner has not been addressed extensively. This article presents a unified simulation methodology, including fading channel models, system configurations, and how to consider technology-dependent algorithms such as scheduling, overhead modeling, interference margin definition, and resource allocation based on system loading. This article uses this framework to compare three major existing radio technologies: cdma2000 1x EV-DO Rev. A, WCDMA HSPA, and mobile WiMAX based on 802.16e. Key simulation results based on our suggested system models and settings are presented and analyzed. It is shown that under our unified framework, the two CDMA systems exhibit higher spectrum efficiency than mobile WiMAX, especially on the downlink, while mobile WiMAX provides a higher peak rate.
