Mobile Communication

The Cellular Concept – System

Design Fundamentals
 Cellular Concept
• Optimize the operation of low-power radios spread out
over the geographical area

• Cell: service area where a group of mobiles or terminals

(referred to as users) are served primarily (1)by one base
station – usually located at the centre of the cell

• Cell radius depends on the propagation conditions and

the network design
– ranges from few meters for indoor or microcellular
networks to 10’s of kilometers of rural service areas

(1) As we will see, there can be situations where a mobile is served by more than
one base station
 Cellular Concept
• A base station/network provides service for users by
coordinating access (time slots, frequency channels, or
codes) to channels

• Bandwidth (channels) is (are) split amongst a group of

cells – called cluster
• Cluster is repeated to cover a wider geographical area

• Radio coverage is irregular – depending on terrain – first

order approximation is the use of hexagonal cells
 Cellular Concept
• Radio coverage is irregular – depending on terrain – first order
approximation is the use of hexagonal cells
• Other shapes (circular, squares) may be used depending on the
intended purpose
• E.g. indoor networks may assume squares/rectangular

coverage in practice ideal coverage for omni- shape used for design
directional antenna at the BTS - mostly
Cellular Concept
Cellular Design – Frequency Reuse

• If service area is divided into cells as shown,

then it is desirable to use one set channels in
more than one cell Reuse Concept
• This would increase utilization and overall
capacity
Network design should also take into
consideration “co-channel” interference
Too much reuse may lead to unacceptable
signal quality deteriorating capacity
Function of distance or “Reuse Factor” and
communication technology
let system which has total of S duplex channels available for use. if each
cell is allocated group of k channels (k<S), if S channels are divided
among N cells into unique and disjoint channel groups which each
have same number of channels,
Total number of available radio channels can be S = k N
N cells which collectively use complete set of available frequencies is
called acluster . if cluster is replicated M times within system. total
number of duplex channels C
(measure of capacity ) C = M k N = MS
Factor N is called cluster size
If cluster size N is reduced while cell size is kept constant ,more clusters
are required to cover given area, hence more capacity is achieved.
Large cluster size indicates that ratio between cell radius and distance
between co-channel cell is small. conversely,a small cluster size
indicates that co-channel cells are located much closer together.
The frequency reuse factor of cellular system is given by 1/N ,since each
cell within cluster is only assigned 1/N of total available channels in
system.
 Frequency Reuse Factor of 1
• One set of channel is used in
every cell
• Interference is expected to be
high (cluster made of 1 cell )
• Distance between co-channel
cells equal to
Q = D / R = √3N
HereN = 1
D =√3R
 Frequency Reuse Factor of 3
• One set of channel is used in
every cell
• Interference is expected to be
high
• Distance between co-channel (cluster made of 3 cell )
cells equal to

Q = D / R = √3N
HereN = 3
D =3R
Frequency Reuse Factor of 7
 19-cell reuse example (N=19)

Method of locating co-channel cells in a cellular system. In this

example,N = 19 (i.e.,I = 3,j = 2). (Adapted from [Oet83] © IEEE.)
Cluster Size and Reuse Distance
 Co-channel Interference Ratio
• Distance between co-channel cells
• For example for a reuse factor of 7 (in figure):
• N=7
• D = (√3N)R = √ (21)R ( Where Q = D/R = √3N )
• Q = √ (21) = 4.58
Co-channel Interference Ratio –
cont’d
• The AVG received power at distance d from the
transmitting antenna: Pr = Po x (d/do)-n
or Pr(dBm) = Po(dBm) -10 n log(d/do)
• Here Po is power received at close-in ref. point
in far field region of antenna at small distance do
from tx antenna and n is path loss exponent

• If Dk is distance of kth interferer from mobile,

received power at given mobile proportional to
(Dk) -n
S/I= 1/∑ (Di/R) –n = ∑ (Di/R) n
• If all interfering base stations are equidistant
from desired base station
S/I=(D/R) n / io = (√3N) n / io
Co-channel cells for 7-cell reuse
• The Signal to Interference ratio for the worst case
can be closely approximated as:

S/I = 2(D – R ) 4 + 2(D + R ) 4 + 2D 4 / R 4

Q = D / R so that eq. simplify follow

S/I = 2(Q – 1) 4 + 2(Q + 1) 4 + 2Q 4

if N =7 ;
=> Q = 4.6
=> S/I = 17 dB ( < 18 dB for sufficient
voice quality )
 Problem 1
• If SIR of 15dB is required for forward channel performance of
cellular system, what is freq. reuse factor and cluster size that
should be used for max. capacity if the path loss exponent is
• (a) n = 4
• (b) n = 3
• Assume that there are six co-channel cells in first tier , and all
are at the same distance from the mobile.
Prove that for hexagonal geometry, the co-channel
reuse ratio is given by Q =√3N,
where N = i^2 + i j + j^2.

Cosine Rule :

Cos(c) = (a^2 + b^2 – c^2) / 2 a*b

For AMPS (using analog FM) uses an SIR level of
18dB. Calculate the reuse frequency factor
– Assume a path-loss exponent of 4
 Adjacent Channel Interference
• Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in
frequency to desired signal is called adjacent channel
interference

-- imperfect receiver filter

-- near-far effect
-- minimized by careful filtering,
channel assignments ( keeping freq. sep. betn each ch.)
-- S/I = (20)-n
 CH 2
filter

Ideal Real CH1

CH2
 Channel Planning for Wireless Systems

Available Radio Spectrum

Voice Channel Control Channel

Control Channel :- 5% of entire mobile spectrum

 vital for initiating,requesting,or paging a call
Nature of data – very brief & bursty

Voice Channel :- 95% of entire mobile spectrum

 carrying revenue-generating traffic

CDMA : Cluster Size N = ? (1.25Mhz,1 C ch,64 V ch)

 f1 / f2 Planning ( power control capabilities)

 Breathing Cell
Handoffs – the basics
Umbrella Cells
AMPS Duopoly Channels
 Trunking and GOS
•Traffic intensity

•Load

•Grade of Service (GOS)

•Holding time

•Request Rate

•Set-up time

•Blocked Call
Each user generates traffic intensity of
Au= λ H (E r
lan
g s)

For system containing U users and an unspecified no of

channels, total offered traffic intensity
A = U Au

In C channel trunked system,if traffic is equally distributed

among channels, traffic intensity per channel is
Ac = A /C= U Au/C
• Erlang B formula :

• Erlang C formula :
Erlang B Trunking GOS
If no channels are immediately available call is delayed, and
probability that delayed call is forced to wait more than t sec is given
by probability that call is delayed, multiplied by the conditional
probability that delay is greater than t sec.
GOS of trunked system where blocked calls are delayed is given by :

The average delay D for all calls in a queued system is given by

Erlang B
Erlang C
How many users can be supported for 0.5% blocking
probability for the following number of trunked channels
in blocked calls cleared system?
a)1, b)5, c)10, d)20, e)100.
assume each user generates 0.1 Erlangs of traffic.
An urban area has a population of 2 million residents. Three competing trunked
mobile networks (systems A, B, and C) provide Cellular service in this area.
System A has 394 cells with 19 channels each, System B has 98 cells with 57
channels each, and System C has 49 cells, each with 100 channels.
Find the number of users that can be supported at 2% blocking if each user
Averages 2 calls per hour at an average call duration of 3 minutes. Assuming
that all three trunked systems are operated at Maximum capacity. Compute
the percentage market penetration of each cellular provider.
The area of a cell ( hexagon) = 2.598 R^2
• A hexagonal cell within a 4 – cell system has a
radius of 1.387 km. A total of 60 channels are
used within the entire system. If the load per
user is 0.029 Erlangs, and λ = 1 call / hour,
compute the following for an Erlang C system
that has a 5% probability of a delayed call:

a) How many users per square kilometer will this

system support ?
b) What is the probability that a delayed call will
have to wait for more than 10s
c) What is the probability that a call will be delayed
for more than 10 seconds ?
a ) What is the maximum system capacity ( total and
per channel) in Erlangs when providing 2%
blocking probability with 4 ch ,with 20 ch,
with 40 ch?
b) How many users can be supported with 40 ch at
2% blocking ? Where H = 105 s, λ = 1 call / hour
c) Using the traffic intensity per channel calculated
in part (a ) , find the grade of service in a lost call
delayed system for the case of delays being
greater than 20 s. where H = 105 s,determine
the GOS for 4 ch , for 20 ch, for 40 ch.
d) Comparing part (a) and part ( c ) ,does a lost call
delayed system with a 20 s queue perform better
than a system that clears blocked calls ?
Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems

• Cell Splitting
 allows orderly growth of cellular system

• Sectoring
 control the interference and frequency reuse of chn

• Zone microcell concept

 distributes the coverage of a cell and extends its
boundary
Cells are split to add channels with no new
spectrum usage
Area covered by Circle R is four times as large as
the area covered by a circle with radius R/2.

Circle
with
radius
R/2

Circle
with
radius R
 Cell Splitting
 Received power :

At old cell boundary:

Pr ≈ Pt
R-
n
1
At new cell boundary:
Pr ≈ Pt
(R
/-
n
2
)
2

Set the received power equal to each other , take n = 4

Pt2
= P t
1/16  r
educ edb y 12 dB

Channel group
1) for smaller cell reuse requirement
2) for larger cell reuse requirement
Cell Splitting increases capacity
Sectoring improves S/I
 Sectoring improves S/I

S/I= 1/∑ (Di/R)^-n = R^-n / ∑ (Di)^-n

 How Trunking efficiency decreased

• Consider cellular system in which avg. call lasts two min.

Prob. Of blocking is to be no more than 1%.assume that
every subscriber makes one call / hour,if there are total
395 traffic ch / seven-cell reuse system,there will be
about 57 traffic ch / cell.
• It is found that unescorted system may handle 44.2
Erlangs or 1326 calls / hour.
Repeaters for Range Extension
The Zone Cell Concept
Zone Cell Concept