UNIT-I

INTRODUCTION TO CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

Limitations of conventional mobile telephone systems

One of many reasons for developing a cellular mobile telephone system and deploying it in
many cities is the operational li8mitations of conventional mobile telephone systems:
1.limited service capability
2. poor service performance
3. Inefficient frequency spectrum utilization.

1. Limited service capability:

A conventional mobile telephone system is usually designed by selecting one or more

channels from a specific frequency allocation for use in autonomous geographic zones, as
shown in Fig.1. The communications coverage area of each zone is normally planned to
be as large as possible, which means that the transmitted power should be as high as the
federal specification allows. The user who starts a call in one zone has to reinitiate the call
when moving into a new zone (see Fig.1) because the call will be dropped. This is an
undesirable radio telephone system since there is no guarantee that a call can be completed
without a handoff capability.
The handoff is a process of automatically changing frequencies as the mobile
unit moves into a different frequency zone so that the conversion can be continued in a
new frequency zone without redialing. Another disadvantage of the conventional system
is that the number of active users is limited to the number of channels assigned to a
particular frequency zone.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Poor service performance:

In the past, a total of 33 channels were allocated to three mobile telephone systems:
Mobile Telephone Service (MTS),Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS) MK
systems.MTS operates around 40MHz and MJ operates at 150 MHz; both provide 11
channles;IMTS MK operates at 450 MHz and provides 12 channels. These 33 channels
must cover an area 50 mi in diameter. In 1976, New York City had 6 channels of MJ
serving 320 customers, with another 2400 customers on a waiting list. New York City
also had 6 channels of MK serving 225 customers, with another 1300 customers on a
waiting list. The large number of subscribers created a high blocking probability during
busy hours. The actual number of blocking probability during busy hours. The actual
number of blocking will be shown later. Although service performance was
undesirable, the demand was still great. A high-capacity system for mobile telephones
was needed.
Inefficient frequency spectrum utilization:
In a conventional mobile telephone system, the frequency utilization measurement M 0
is defined as the maximum number of customers that could be served by one channel at
the busy hour. Equation (1.1-1) gives the 1976 New York City data cited earlier.

Assume an average calling time of 1.76 min and apply the Erlang B model (lost-calls-
cleared conditions). Calculate the blocking probability as follows: Use 6 channels, with
each channel serving the two different numbers of customers shown in Eq. (1.1-1). The
offered load can then be obtained by Eq. (1.1-2).

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Given that the number of channels is 6 and the offered loads are A1 = 9.33 and
A2= 6.51 ,read from the table in Appendix 1.1 to obtain the blocking probabilities
B1= 50 % (MJ system) and B2= 30 % (MK system), respectively. It is likely that half the
initiating calls will be blocked in the MJ system, a very high blocking probability.
If the actual average calling time is greater than 1.76 min, the blocking probability
can be even higher. To reduce the blocking probability, we must decreases the value of
the frequency spectrum utilization measurement M 0 as shown in Eq. (1.1-1)

As far as frequency spectrum utilization is concerned, the conventional system

does not utilize the spectrum efficiently since each channel can only serve one customer
at a time in a whole area. A new cellular system that measures the frequency spectrum
utilization differently from Eq. (1.1-1)
Basic Cellular system
A basic cellular system consists of three parts: a mobile unit, a cell site, and a mobile
telephone switching office (MTSO) as shown in the following figure shows, with
connections to link the three subsystems

A general view of cellular Telecommunications systems

Mobile unit: Contain a control unit, a Trans receiver and an antenna system.
Cell site: this is an interface unit between the MTSO and the mobile units. It is also
having control unit, radio cabinets, Antennas, a power plant and data terminals.
MTSO: is a central coordinating element for all sites. It contains the cellular processor
and cellular switch. It control call processing, interfaces with voice circuits of telephone
network, billing activities etc.

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 Connections: The radio and high speed data links connect the above three sub-systems.
Each mobile unit can only use one channel at a time for its communication link. But the
channels is not fixed, it can be any one in the entire band assigned by the serving area.
Each cell site having multi-channel capabilities can be connected simultaneously too
many mobile units.
The MTSO is the heart of the cellular mobile system. Its processor provides central
coordination and cellular administration. The cellular switch (analog or digital), switches
calls to connect mobile subscribers to other mobile subscribes and to telephone network.
It uses the voice trunks to telephone company interoffice voice trunks. It also contains
data links providing supervision links between the processor and the switch and between
the cell sites and the processor. The radio link carries the voice and signaling between the
mobile unit and the cell site. The high-speed data links cannot be transmitted over the
standard telephone trunks and therefore must use either microwave links or T-carries
(wire lines). Microwave radio links or T-carries carry both voice and data between the
cell site and the MTSO
Performance criteria
The performance criteria can be specified in the following three categories.
1.Voice Quality:

Voice quality is very hard to judge and can be judged by subjective test from user’s
opinions. The voice quality is based on a set value x at which y percent of customers rate
the system voice quality (from transmitter to receiver) as good or excellent and the circuit
merits (CM) are listed below:

CM SCORE QUALITY SCALE

CM - 5 5 Excellent (perfectly understandable)

CM - 4 4 Good (speech understandable, some Noise)
CM - 3 3 Fair (understandable with occasional repetitions)
CM - 2 2 Poor ( understandable only with effort)
CM - 1 1 Unsatisfactory (not understandable)
If the customers choose CM - 4 and CM - 5, the cost of the system increases. The CM
score is the mean opinion score (MOS) from all the listeners and usually MOS score is
around MOS ≥ 4.
2.Service Quality

The service quality of a cellular system is decided by three factors, they are
1. Coverage
2. Required grade of service
3. Number of dropped calls.
ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept
 1. Coverage:

The cellular system must cover a large area for good service quality. But due to improper
terrain structures it is not possible to serve the complete area for two reasons.
(i) In order to illuminate weak spots in the coverage area with adequate reception of
high transmitted power is required. This requirement adds cost factor.
(ii) As the transmitted power increases the ability to control interference decreases.
Hence, systems generally serve 90 percent of an area in flat terrain and 75 percent of
an area in hilly terrain.
The criteria of both voice quality and coverage in AMPs cellular system assert that,
(i) In flat terrain conditions, 75 percent users rank the voice quality as good or excellent
in 90 percent of an area covered.
(ii) In hilly terrain conditions 90 percent of users must rank the voice quality as good or
excellent in 75 percent of an area covered.
The percentage values of voice quality and coverage can be adjusted according to various
terrain conditions.
Required Grade of Service:
The blocking probability of 0.02 for initiating calls at the busy hour. To decrease
blocking probability requires good system plan and sufficient number of radio channels.
The traffic carried by the system is generally lower than the actual traffic offered to the
system by the subscribers. The overload traffic is rejected and hence is not carried by the
network. The amount of traffic rejected by the network is an indication of the quality of
service offered by the system. This is termed as Grade of Service (GOS) and is defined as
ratio of lost traffic to offered traffic. The smaller the value of grade of service, the better
is the service. The recommended value of GOS is 0.02 for initiating calls at the busy
hour. The GOS value is not same for all cells sites. Due to heavy automobile traffic near
freeways during busy hours the GOS value is greater than 2 percent at some cell sites. A
good system plan and adequate number of radio channels are required to decrease the
value of Grade of Service (GOS).
Number of Dropped calls
During Q calls in an hour, if a call is dropped (Q-1 calls completed), then the call drop
ratio is 1/Q and this rate must be kept low. A high drop rate will be caused by either
coverage problems or hand off problems (due to limited channel availability).
Special features:
The special features like call forwarding, call waiting, automatic roaming etc. are to be
provided.

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 Uniqueness of Mobile Radio Environment
1. Description of mobile radio transmission medium.

In mobile radio transmission medium, we need to consider two parameters for good line-
of-sight propagation, they are
1. Propagation attenuation 2. Fading
1. Propagation Attenuation there is a loss in signal power as the radio wave propagates
from cell site to mobile unit, this loss is known as propagation attenuation or propagation
path loss. This increases with increase in distance between cell site and mobile unit.
Figure (a) shows the direct path and reflected path of a signal propagating from cell site
to mobile unit. The angles 1 and 2 represent the incident angles of direct wave and
reflected wave respectively. The angle 1 is also known as elevation angle. The angles
and 2 are very small if the height of antenna at cell site is between 30 to 100m, height of
antenna at mobile unit is around 3 m and the distance between cell site and mobile unit is
2km.

A propagation path loss of 40 dB/dec is a general rule for the mobile radio environment,
where dec is a short form of decade. That is the receiver of the mobile unit perceives a
loss 40 dB, when it moves from 1 to 10km.
Hence, C is inversely proportional to R4.

Where,

 = constant

 R4 = Distance between transmitter and receiver

 C= Received carrier power

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 If C1 is power received at a distance R1 and
C2 is power received at a distance R2 then,

C= R2-4

C= R1-4 and

The difference in power reception is obtained by equation (2) in decibels as,

The propagation attenuation in real mobile radio environment is given as,

C R
C= R --- (4)

The value of (gamma) varies between 2 and 5 based on the conditions of environments.
In free space condition the value of  is 2.
Equation (4) can be written in decibel scale as,



Fading:

The rapid fluctuations of the amplitudes, phases or multipath delays of a radio signal
over a short period of time or travel distance is known as fading.
In radio propagation multipath waves are generated due to,
1. Lower antenna height of mobile unit compared to its surroundings.
2. Much less wavelength of carrier frequency compared to its surrounding
structures.
This multipath components combine vectorially at the receiver antenna and causes the
signal received by the mobile to fade. Figure shows the nulls of the fluctuation at the
baseband and an amplitude fading of 10dB above the average signal and 30dB below
the average signal is noticed. If the speed of the mobile unit increases the rate of
fluctuations also increases.

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 Model of Transmission Medium

Depending on natural physical phenomena, a mobile radio signal r(t) shown in figure (a)
is mathematically described as,

r t   mt r0 t      1

Where the component m (t) is known as local mean or long -term fading or log
normal fading, this occurs due to path loss of signal as a function of
distance and shadowing by large objects such as hills. The component r 0
(t) is known as multipath fading (or) short-term fading (or) Rayleigh fading, this occurs
due to constructive and destructive interference of the multiple signal paths between
transmitter and receiver. The expression for long-term fading is given as,

Where 2T is the time period for averaging r (t). The value of T is obtained using fading
rate of r (t) which is general between 40 to 80 fades. Hence, m(t) is the envelope of r (t)
as shown in figure (a). the long term fading m(t) can be expressed in spatial scale as,

The length of 2L is in between 20 to 40 wavelength and is obtained by averaging 36 to 50

samples in an interval of 40 wavelengths.

The short-term fading r0(t) is given by,

This shown in figure (b). The short term fading component r0(t) exhibits a Rayleigh
distribution. Hence, it is known as Rayleigh fading.
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 Mobile Fading Characteristics.

Since the antenna height of the mobile unit is lower than its typical surroundings
and the carrier frequency wavelength is much less than the sizes of its surrounding
structures, multipath waves are generated. At the mobile unit, the sum of multipath
waves, causes the fluctuations in signal in a particular range of bandwidth (i.e., about 40
dB). This phenomenon is popularly known as signal fading.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 The multipath waves bounce ‘back and forth’ due to the buildings and houses,
they form many standing wave pairs in space which are summed together and become an
irregular wave fading structure. When a mobile unit is standing still, a constant signal is
observed. But if the mobile unit is moving, the fading structure of wave in the space is
received. It is known as multipath fading.

Therefore, the characteristics of mobile fading are changed by the following

components,
i. The radius of the active scatter region

ii. standing waves expressed in a linear scale and log scale

iii. First order and second order statistics of fading

iv. Delay spread and coherence bandwidth.

(i)The Radius of the Active Scatter Region

The radius of the active scatter region at 850 MHz can be roughly 100wavelengths.
Always the active scatter region moves with the mobile unit as its center. It means that
some houses were inactive scatters and became active as the mobile unit approached them,
some houses which are active scatters become inactive as the mobile unit drive away from
them.

(ii)Standing Waves Expressed in a linear scale and log scale

The symmetrical waveform in a log plot becomes an unsymmetrical waveform when

plotted in linear scale. Hence, it is clear that the sine waveform in a log scale becomes a
complete different waveform when expressed on a linear scale and vice-versa which
indirectly causes change in fading.

First Order and Second Order Statistics of Fading

When the mobile unit is moving, generally the fading occurs on the signal
reception. The first order characteristics such as average power probability cumulative
Distribution Function (CDF) and bit error rate are independent of time. Whereas the
second order characteristics, such as level crossing, average duration of fades and word
rate either time or velocity related functions. So the mobile fading may be changed
depending upon these characteristics.

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 Delay spread and coherence bandwidth

In mobile radio environment, as a result of multipath reflection phenomenon, the

signal transmitted at the cell site reach the mobile unit takes different paths.

The radio signal can take two paths

i. Direct path

ii. Indirect path.

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 (i) Direct Path

The signal from cell site to mobile unit is called “direct path” and the angle of direct path
is denoted by 1.

(ii) Indirect Path

The signal from cell site to surface and surface to the mobile unit is “indirect path”. The
angle is known as reflection angle (or) elevation angle.

Each path has a different path length, the time arrival of each path is different.

For an impulse transmitted at the cell site, by the time this impulse is received at the
mobile unit it is no longer an impulse but rather a pulse with a spread width, we call
“delay spread”.

The value of the delay spread is varied depending upon the type of environment.

Type of Environment Delay Spread s

1. Open area <0.2
2. Urban area 3
3. Suburban area 0.5
4. Inside the building <0.1

Delay Spread

In the mobile communication, due to the occurrence of multipath reflection, the

signal conveyed from a cell site will travel through different path and appear at a mobile
unit. Because every single path has a distinct path length, the time of arrival for every
single path at a mobile unit is different. For instance, if an impulse signal is transmitted
from the cell site, then by the time it reaches a mobile unit it will be a ‘pulse’ with a
spread width  known as delay spread.

Typical values of delay spread in various environments is shown in table below.

Type of Environment Delay Spread s

1. Inside the building <0.1
2. Open area <0.2
3. Suburban area 0.5
4. Urban area 3

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Coherence Bandwidth

Coherence bandwidth is defined as, the bandwidth in which either amplitudes (or) the
phases of two received signals have a high degree of similarity. It is a statistical measurement of
the range of frequencies over which the channel can be considered “flat”, or in other words the
approximate maximum bandwidth or frequency interval over which two frequencies of a signal
are likely to experience comparable or correlated amplitude fading. If the multipath time
delay spread equals  seconds, then the coherence
Bandwidth Wc in hertz is given approximately by the equation,

For cellular communication in an urban area the coherence bandwidth is,

Since, for urban areas from table, Wc= 53Khz.

Amplifier noise in the cellular system

The amplifier present either at cell site or at the mobile unit will amplify the mobile radio signal
received by the receiving antenna. Consider the available noise power at the output of amplifier
is N0 and the available power gain is ‘g’.

Therefore if input signal to noise (S/N) ratio PS / N i The output signal to noise ratio is P0/N0 and
the internal amplifier noise is N0.

Then the output ‘P0/N0’ becomes.

The noise figure of an amplifier (F) is given by,

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Since, (Ps/KTB) is the maximum possible signal to noise (S/N) ratio when load is open circuit.

Therefore from equations (1) and (2) we get

Hence, the noise figure is a reference measurement between a minimum noise level due to
thermal noise and the noise level generated by both the external and internal noise of an amplifier.
Accordingly the mobile radio signal passing through the radio systems is by amplifier noise.

Hexagonal- shaped cells

We have to realize that hexagonal shaped communication cells are artificial and that such a
shape cannot be generated in the real world. Engineers draw hexagonal-shaped cells on a layout to
simplify the planning and design of a cellular system because it approaches a circular shape that is
the ideal power coverage area. The circular shapes have overlapped areas which make the drawing
unclear. The hexagonal shaped cells do not have overlapping areas. Today, these hexagonal
shaped cells have already become a widely promoted symbol for cellular mobile systems.

Operation of Cellular system:

Mobile Unit Initialization

When a cellular phone is turned-on-but is not yet engaged in a call, it first scans the
group of forward control channels to determine the one with the strongest signal and then
monitors that control channel until the signal drops below a usable level. At this point, it again
scans the control channels in search of the strongest base station signal. For each cellular system
the control channels are defined and standardized over the entire geographic area covered. Since
the control channels are standardized and are identical throughout different markets within the
country or continent, every phone scans the same channels while idle.

Network Originated Call

When a telephone call is initiated by a landline subscriber to connect a mobile user, the
Mobile switching Center (MSC) forwards the request to all base stations in the cellular system.

The mobile identification number, which is the subscriber’s telephone number, is then
broadcast as a paging message over all of the forward control channels throughout the cellular
system. The mobile receives the paging message sent by the base station which it monitors and
responds by identifying itself over the reverse control channel.

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 The base station relays the acknowledgement sent by the mobile and informs the MSC
of the handshake. Then, the MSC instructs the base station to move the call to an unused voice
channel within the cell. AT this point the base station signals the mobile to change the
frequencies to an unused forward and reverse voice channel pair, at which point another data
message (called an alert) is transmitted over the forward voice channel to instruct the mobile
phone to ring, thereby instructing the mobile user to answer the phone.

Mobile Originated Call

When a mobile originates a call, call initiation request is sent on the reverse control
channel. With the request the mobile unit transmits its telephone number (MIN), Electronics
Serial Number (ESN) and the telephone number of the called party. The cell base station
receives this data and sends it to the MSC. The MSC validates the request, makes connection to
the called party through the PSTN and instructs the base station and mobile user to move to an
unused forward and reverse voice channel pair to allow conversation to begin.

Call Termination

When the cellular phone is turned off, a signaling tone is conveyed to the cell site, which
frees the voice channel at both the ends.

Handoff

Once a call is in progress, the MSC adjusts the transmitted power of the mobile and
changes the channel of the mobile unit and base station in order to maintain call quality as the
subscriber moves in and out of range of each base station. This is called a handoff. Special
control signal is applied to the voice channels, so that the mobile unit any be controlled by the
base station and the MSC while a call is in progress.

Planning of cellular system

Planning is very crucial in the design of cellular system. The service provided by the system
is poor if we does not have the skill to develop a good plan. Initially, we must find out two
elements.

1. Regulation

2. Market situation.

Regulation

The federal regulations controlled by the Federal communications Commission (FCC)

are similar in every part of the United States. The regulation may vary from state to state and
within the state, each city and town have their own building codes and zoning laws. So, we must
be acquainted with all rules and regulations.

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Market Situation

The marketing division has to manage three tasks. They are,

(i) Prediction of gross income

(ii) Understanding competitors

(iii) Decision of geographic coverage.

(i) Prediction of gross income

In this task we have to find out the population of the market area (in which we are
constructing the cellular system). We also need to find out the average income, business types
and business zone. All this information is utilized to predict the gross income.

(ii) Understanding competitors

We must have a knowledge of the competitor’s coverage area, system performance and the
number of customers the competitor is serving. To overcome the competition, we must design a
system that provides unique and magnificent service.

(iii) Decision of geographic coverage.

In this task, we need to answer the following questions before passing the decisions onto the
engineering department.

(a) What general area should ultimately be covered?

(b) What near-term service can be provided in a limited area?

Analog and Digital Cellular systems

NTT Network

NTT is acronym for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. The corporation has
developed an 800MHz land mobile telephone system in the year 1979 to provide service to
Tokyo area. The operation of this system is analogous to AMPs system. The system provides
service to approximately 40000 subscriber 500 cities. It serves 60 percent of Japan’s population,
covers 25 percent of livable areas and assist 75 percent of Japan cities.

As on February 1985, in Japan there are

9Automobile switching Centers (ASCs)

51 Mobile control stations (MCSs)

465 Mobile Base Stations (MBSs)

39000 Mobile Subscriber Stations (MSSs)

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In operation, around 30,000 subscribers are served in the metropolitan Tokyo area by the
Japanese mobile telephone network. The structure of the network is as shown in figure (a). The
system functions with a total bandwidth of 30MHz and contains 600 channels each with a
bandwidth of 25 kHz.

Advanced Mobile Phone Systems (AMPS):

AMPS is the analog mobile [phone system developed by Bell labs and officially
introduced in America in 1983 and Australia in 1987. It was the primary analog phone system in
North America through the 1980’s and into the 2000’s. AMPS isb the first-generation cellular
technology that uses separate frequencies or “Channels” for each conversation. It therefore
requires considerable bandwidth for a large number of users. In general terms AMP is very
similar to the older “0G” (Zero-Generation) improved mobile telephone service, but
uses considerably more computing power in order to select frequencies, handoff conversations
to PSTN lines, and handle filling and call setup.

In AMPS, the cell centers can flexibly assign channels to handsets based on signal strength,
allowing the same frequency to be reused in various locations without interference. This allowed
a large number of phones to be supported over a geographical area.

In suffered from some weakness when compared to today’s digital technologies. Since it
is an analog standard, it is very susceptible to static noise and has no protection from
eavesdropping using a scanner. In the 1990s, “cloning” was an epidemic that cost the industry
millions of dollars. An unscrupulous eavesdropper with specialized equipment can intercept a
headset Electronic Serial Number (ESN) AND Mobile Identification Number (MIN). The ESN
is a packet of data which is sent by handset to the cellular system for billing activities effectively
identifying the phone on the network. The system then allows or disallows calls and or features
based on its customer file. If an ESN/MSN pair is intercepted, it could then be cloned on to a
different phone and used in other areas for making calls without paying.

AMPS has been replaced by newer digital standards such as digital AMPS, GSM and
CDMA2000 which brought improved security as well as increased capacity though cloning is
still possible even with digital technologies. The cost of wireless service is so low that the
problem has virtually disappeared.

AMPS and D-AMPS are now being replaced by either CDMA 2000 or GSM, which allows
higher capacity data transfers for services such as WAP, multimedia messaging system and
wireless internet access.

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 The Evaluation of the Analog and Digital Cellular Mobile System

Cellular telephone systems can be “analog” or “digital” older systems (AMPS,

TACs, NMT) are analog and newer systems (GSM, PCs) are “digital”.

The major difference between the two systems is, how the voice signal is transmitted
between the phone and base station. Analog and “Digital” refer to this transmission
mechanism. It like audio cassettes and CDs. Audio cassettes are analog and CDs are
digital.

In either system, the audio at the microphone always starts out as a voltage level that
varies continuously over time. High frequencies cause rapid changes and low frequencies
cause slow changes. With analog system, the audio is directly modulated on to a carrier.
This is very much like FM (not identical) radio where the audio signal is translated to the
RF signal.

With digital systems, the audio is converted to digitized samples at about 800 samples per
second so. The digital samples are numbers that present the time varying level at specific
points in time. The samples are now transmitted as 1’s and 0s’. At the other end the
samples are converted back to voltage levels and “smoothed out” so that, you get about
the audio signal.

With analog transmission interference (RF noise or some other anomaly that affects the
transmitted signal) gets translated directly into the recovered signal there is no “check”
that the signal make sense. The neat thing about the digital is that the 1s’ and 0s’ cannot
be easily confused or distorted during transmission, plus extra data typically included in
the transmission to help, detect and correct any errors.

Difference between the analog and digital cellular systems with their operating
capacities:

The most commonly used digital cellular system in America is IS-136,

colloquially known as D-AMPS. This system is all digital, unlike the analog AMPS. IS-
136 uses multiplexing technique called TDMA or time division multiple access. The
TDMA based IS- 136 puts three calls into the same 30 kHz channel space that AMPS
uses carry one call. AMPS is analog cellular system.

TDMA is a transmission technique or access technology while IS-136 or GSM are

operating systems. Similarly, AMPS is an operating system using FDMA access
technology or transmission technique. FDMA is the acronym for frequency division
multiple access. Frequency division means calls are placed or divided by frequency that is
one call goes on frequency, say 100MHz and another call goes on 200MHz.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Multiple access means the cell site can handle many calls at once. Time division
multiple access handles multiple and simultaneous calls by dividing them in time, not by
frequency. This is purely digital transmission. Voice traffic is digitized and portions of
many calls are put into a single bit stream, one sample at a time.

TDMA’s chief benefit to carriers or cellular operations comes from increasing call
capacity. A channel can carry three conversations instead of just one. The analog systems
like AMPS, NAMPS locked the error correction that digital system provided and are not
sophisticated enough to handle encryption or advanced services, like calling number
identification, extension phone service and messaging.

The most noticeable disadvantage that is directly associated with the digital
systems is the additional bandwidth necessary to carry the digital signal as opposed to it
analog counterpart. A standard T1 transmission ink carrying a DS-1 signal transmits 24
voice channels of about 4 kHz each. The digital transmission rate on the link is 1.544
Mbps and the bandwidth required is about 772 kHz. Since, only 96 kHz would be
required to carry 24 analog channels (4 KHz * 24), about 8 times as much bandwidth is
required to carry the digital signals (722 kHz 196 = 8.04). The extra bandwidth is
effectively traded for the lower signal to noise ratio.

Another important drawback of digital cellular systems is audio quality. Analog

cellular phones sounds worlds better. In poor signal areas or when cell sites are struggling
with high call volume. Digital phones often lose full duplex capability and your voice
may break up and sound garbled.

Differentiate the generations in the cordless phones and cellular phones.

Cellular Phones

In 1945, the zero Generation (OG) of mobile telephones was introduced. OG

mobile phones, like mobile telephone service, were not cellular, and so did not feature
"handover" from one base station to the next and reuse of radio frequency channels. Like
other technologies of the time, it involved single, powerful base station covering a wide
area, and each telephone would effectively monopolize a channel over that whole area
while in use. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff as well as a number of other
concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology are first described in U.S.
patent 4, 152,647 issued on May 1, 1979 to Charles A. Gladden and Martin H. Parelman,
and assigned by them to the United States Government. This is the first embodiment of
all the concepts that formed the basis of the next major step in mobile telephony, the
analog cellular telephone.

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 The first commercial city wide cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in
1979. Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid-1980s
(the IG generation). The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system went on-line in
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1981.

Personal Handy-phone system and modems used in Japan around 1997-2003. In

1983, Motorola Dyna TAC was the first approved mobile phone by FCC in the United
States. In 1984, Bell labs developed modern commercial cellular technology, which
employed multiple, centrally controlled base stations (cell sites), each providing service
to a small area (a cell). The cell sites would be set up such that cells partially overlapped.
In a cellular system a signal between a base station (cell site) and a terminal (phone) only
need, be strong enough to reach between the two, so the same channel can be used
simultaneously for separate conversations in different cells.

The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (Second Generation)

cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard
which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja
challenged incumbent Telecom Finland who ran a I G NMT network.

The first data services appeared on mobile phones starting with person-to-person
SMS text messaging in Finland in 1993. First trial payments using a mobile phone to pay
for a Coca Cola vending machine were set in Finland in 1998. The first commercial
payment system to mimic banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999
simultaneously by mobile operators Glove and Smart. The first content sold to mobile
phones was the ringing tone, first launched in 1998 in Finland. The first full internet
service on mobile phones was i-mode introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999.

In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (third generation) was again ill Japan
by NTT DoCo1Vlo on the WCDMA standard.

Until the early 1990's. most mobile phones were too large to be earned in a Jacket
pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones with the
miniaturization of digital components and development of more sophisticated batteries,
mobile phones have become smaller and lighter. George Sweigert, an amateur radio
operator and inventor from Cleveland, Ohio, is largely recognized as the father of the
cordless phone. He submitted a patent application in 1966 for a "fulduplex wireless
communication apparlus". The U.S. patent and trademark office awarded him a patent in
June of 1969. Sweigert, a radio operator in World War II stationed at the south pacific
islands of Guadalcanal and Bouganville, developed the full duplex-concept for untrained
personnel, to improve battlefield communications for senior commanders. He was also
licensed as W8ZIS and N9LC in the amateur radio service. He also held a first class radio
telephone operator's permit issued by the Federal Communications Commission.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 In the 1980's a number of manufacturers, including Sony, introduced cordless
phones for the consumer market. They used a base station that was connected to' a
telephone line and a handset with a microphone, speaker, keypad and telescoping
antenna. The handset contained a rechargeable battery, typically Ni Cd. The base unit is
powered by household current, via a wall wart. The base included a charging cradle,
which was generally a form of trickle charger, on which the handset rested when not in
use.

Some cordless phones now utilize two rechargeable AA or AAA batteries in place
of the more expensive traditional proprietary telephone batteries cordless phones because
commercially feasible. In the United States only with the breakup of the Bell systems
monopoly on land-line telephone service around 1984. Before breakup, all telephones
were made by Western electric and rented to the customer.

Since the 1980s, several companies have entered the cordless phone market: V-
Tech, Uniden, Philips, Giga Set and Panasonic. They advertise many new features, a few
provided by the phone and most provided by the network.

NMT & NTT system

NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) is the first fully-automatic cellular phone

system. It was specified by Nordic telecommunications administrations (PTTs) starting in
1970, and opened for service in 1981 as a response to the increasing congestion and
heavy requirements of the manual mobile phone networks: ARP (150 MHz) in Finland
and MTD (450 MHz) in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The Swedish electrical engineer
is considered as the father of this system, and of the cell phone. NMT is based on analog
technology (first generation or 1G) and two variants exist: NMT-450 and NMT-900.

The numbers indicate the frequency bands uses. NMT-900 was introduced in
1986 because it carries more channels than the previous NMT-450 network. The
technical principles of NMT were ready by year 1973 and specifications for base stations
were ready in 1977. The NMT specifications were free and open, allowing many
companies to produce NMT hardware and pushing the prices down.

The success of NMT meant a lot to Nokia (then Mobira) and Ericsson. First
danish implementers were Storno (then owned by General Electric, later taken over by
Motorola) and AP (later taken over by Philips). Initial NMT phones were designed to
mount in the trunk of a car, with a keyboard/display unit at the driver’s seat. "Portable"
versions existed: one could definitely move them, but they were bulky, and battery
lifetime was a big problem. Latter-day models (such as Benefon's) were as small as 100
mm and weighed only about 100 grams.The network was opened in Sweden and Norway
in 1981, and in Denmark and Finland in 1982. Iceland joined in 1986.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 However, curiously for a mobile phone standard that has the word "Nordic" in it,
the first commercial service was introduced in Saudi Arabia on September 1st 1981 to
1200 users, one month before Sweden. By 1985 the network had grown to 110,000
subscribers in Scandinavia and Finland, 63,300 in Norway alone, which made it the
world’s largest mobile network at the time. The NMT network has mainly been used in
the Nordic countries, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, The
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia, Baltic countries and
Russia but also in the Middle East and in Asia. The introduction of digital mobile
networks such as GSM has reduced the popularity of NMT and some of the Nordic phone
companies have suspended their NMT networks. In Finland TeliaSonera's NMT network
was suspended on December 31, 2002. Norway's last NMT network was suspended on
December 31, 2004. Sweden's TeliaSonera NMT network was suspended on December
31, 2007.

The NMT network (450 MHz) however has one big advantage over GSM which
is the range; this advantage is valuable in big but sparsely populated countries such as
Iceland. In Iceland, the GSM network reaches 98% of the country's population but only a
small proportion of its land area. The NMT system however reaches most of the country
and a lot of the surrounding waters, thus the network is popular with fishermen and
those traveling in the mountains.

The cell sizes in an NMT network range from 2 km to 30 km. With smaller
ranges the network can service more simultaneous callers; for example in a city the range
can be kept short for better service. NMT used full duplex transmission, allowing for
simultaneous receiving and transmission of voice. Car phone versions of NMT used
transmission power of up to 15 watt (NMT-450) and 6 watt (NMT-900), handsets up to 1
watt. NMT had automatic switching (dialing) and handover of the call built into the
standard from the beginning, which was not the case with most preceding car phone
services, such as the Finnish ARP. Additionally, the NMT standard specified billing as
well as national and international roaming. A disadvantage of the original NMT
specification is that voice traffic was not encrypted.

So anyone willing to listen in would just have to buy a scanner and tune it to the
correct frequency. As a result, some scanners have had the NMT bands "deleted" so they
could not be accessed. This is not particularly effective as it isn’t that hard to obtain a
scanner that doesn't have these restrictions; it is also possible to re-program a scanner so
that the “deleted" bands can be accessed. Later versions of the NMT specifications
defined optional analog scrambling which was based on two-band audio frequency
inversion.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 If both the base station and the mobile station supported scrambling, they could
agree upon using it when initiating a phone call. Also, if two users had mobile stations
(=mobile phones) supporting scrambling, they could turn it on during conversation even
if the base stations didn't support it. In this case audio would be scrambled all the way
between the two mobile stations.

While the scrambling method was not at all as strong as encryption in newer
digital phones, such as GSM, it did prevent casual listening with scanners. Scrambling is
defined in NMT Doc 450-1: Description (1999-03-23) and NMT Doc 450-3 and 900-3:
Technical Specification for the Mobile Station (1995-10-04)'s Annex 26 v.1.1: Mobile
Station with Speech Scrambling - Split Inversion Method (Optional) (1998-01-27).NMT
also supported a simple but robust integrated data transfer mode called DMS (Data and
Messaging Service) or NMT-Text, which used the network's signaling channel for data
transfer.

Using DMS, also text messaging was possible between two NMT handsets before
SMS service started in GSM, but this feature was never commercially available except in
Russian and Polish NMT networks. - Another data transfer method was called NMT with
transfer speeds of 380 bits per second. It required external equipment. NMT signaling
transfer speeds vary between 600 and 1200 bits per second, using FFSK (Fast Frequency
Shift Keying) modulation. Signaling between the base station and the mobile station was
implemented using the same RF channel that was used for audio, and using the 1200 bit/s
FFSK modem. This caused the periodic short noise bursts, e.g. during handover, that
were uniquely characteristic to NMT sound.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

It is commonly known as NTT, is a telephone company that dominates the

telecommunication market in Japan. Ranked the 40th in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the
largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms
of revenue. While NTT is listed on Tokyo, New York, and London stock exchanges,
the Japanese government still owns roughly one-third of NTT's shares, regulated by the
NTT Law.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 ELEMENTS OF CELLULAR MOBILE RADIO SYSTEM DESIGN

General Description of the problem:

For efficient spectrum utilization, the cellular mobile radio system design is
divided into the following elements, and each element can be analyzed and related to
others.

(1) Concept of frequency reuse channels

(2) Co-channel interference reduction factor

(3) desired carrier – to interference ratio

(4) hand off mechanism and

(5) Cell splitting.

Since the limitation in the system is the frequency resource, the challenge is to serve the
greatest number of customers with a specified system quality. The following are the
problems

1. How many customers can we serve in a busy hour?

2. How many subscribers can we take into our system?

3. How many frequency channels do we need?

Maximum number of calls per hour per cell:

To calculate the prescribed number of calls per hour per cell Q in each cell, we have to
know the size of the cell and the traffic conditions in the cell. The calls per hour per cell
is based on how small the theoretical cell size can be. The control of coverage of small
cell is based on technological development.

Maximum number of frequency channels per cell:

The number of frequency channels per cell N is related to average calling time in the
system. The users calling habits change if the rate of charging is high and also on income
profile of the users.

If the average calling time T is 1.76 min and maximum number of calls per hour
per cell Qi is obtained as in the previous section, then the offered load

Assuming the blocking probability is given, then the required number of frequency
channels (radios). In each cell can be calculated.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Concept of frequency reuse channels:

A radio channel consists of a pair of frequencies for duplex operation, one

frequency for each direction of transmission. A particular radio channel (say F) is used in
one geographic zone to call a cell (say C1) with a coverage radius R can be used in another
cell with the same coverage radius at a distance ‘D’ away.

In the frequency reuse system, users in different geographic locations (different

cells) must simultaneously use the same frequency channels. The frequency reuse system
will increase the spectrum efficiency but if the system is not designed properly by serious
interference problems may occur. Interference due to common use of the same channel is
called co-channel interference.

(a)Frequency reuse scheme:

Frequency reuse in the time domains results occur of the same frequency in different time
slots and is called Time Division Multiplexing (TDM). Frequency reuse in the space
domain is divided into two categories:
1)Same frequency assigned in two different geographic areas (AM or FM)
2)Same frequency repeatedly used in a same general area in cellular systems. There are
many co-channel cells in the system. The total frequency allocation divided k frequency
reuse patterns as shown in fig. for k = 4, 7, 12 and 19.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 (b)Frequency reuse distance:
The minimum distance which allows the same frequency to be reused depends on
- Number of co-channel cells around a particular center cell.
- The type of geographic terrain contour
- The antenna height.
The frequency reuse distance ‘D’ is given by

Where k is frequency reuse pattern

The ratio of D/R

If all the cell sites transmit the same power, when k increases, the frequency reuse
distance D increases. This increase in D, reduce the chance of co-channel interference.
Generally large k value is desired. However the number of channels is fixed.

When k is too large, the member of channels assigned to each of k cells becomes
small. If the total number of channels in k-cells is divided as k-increases and results in
trunking in efficiency. If the total number of channels are divided into two networks
serving in the same area, spectrum inefficiency increases.

Co-channel Interference reduction factor

Reuse of an identical frequency channel in different cells is limited by a co-

channel interference between cells. To reduce this co-channel interference, it is necessary
to find the minimum frequency reuse distance.

Assume nearly all cells are of the same size. The cell size is determined by the
coverage area of the signal strength in each cell. As long as the call size is fixed, co
channel interference is independence of the transmitted power of each cell. The co
channel interference is a function of parameter q, defined as

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 And q is the co-channel interference reduction factor when the ratio q increase, co
channel interference decreases. The separation D in the equation is a function of KI and
C/I.

When KI is the number of co channel interfering cells in the first tier and C/I is the
received carrier to interference ratio at the mobile receiver.

In a hexagonal – shaped cellular system, there are six co channel interfering cells in the
first tier as shown in fig. and KI = 6.

The maximum number of KI in the first cell is (6*2piD/D=6) Co channel interference

will be both at cell site and the mobile units at the center. If the interference is much
greater, then the carrier interference ratio (C/I) at the mobile units caused by the six
interference sites is the same as C/I received at the center cell site caused by the
interfering mobile units in the six cells. These two values of C/I are very close.

For a mobile environment, the propagation path loss slope varies as

CCR 

(  varies between 2 and 5)

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 In a mobile radio medium, gamma is assumed to be 4. The six co channel interfering
cells in the second tier cause weaker interference than those in the first tier. Therefore
the co channel interference from the second tier of interfering cells is negligible. The
above C/I can be written as

Desired C/I from a Normal case in an omnidirectional system

Analytic solution:

The two cases to be considered are

(1)The signal and co-channel interference received by the mobile unit.

(2)The signal and co-channel interference received by the cell site.

The local noises at the mobile unit (Nm) and the cell site (Nb) are small and neglected
when compared to interference level.

As long as the received carrier-to-interference ratios at both mobile unit and cell
site are the same, the system is called balanced system and in this, we can choose either
of the two cases to arrive at the system requirement as the result is the same for other.

Assume all Dk are same, then D = Dk and q = qk and

Thus

In this equation (C/I) value is based on the required system performance and gamma
value is based the terrain environment. For the given (C/I) and gamma values, q can be
determined.

Normal cellular practice is to specify (C/I) to be 18 db or higher, based on

acceptance of voice quality. The path loss slope gamma in equal to 4 in a mobile radio
environment.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 The 90% of covered area will be attained by increasing the transmitter power at each cell,
which does not effect the value of q (4.41) as it is not dependent on transmitter – power.
The factor q is also related to finite set of cells K in a hexagonal shaped cellular system
by
q  3k
Substituting q = 4.41 and then K =7. This indicates that 7-cell re use pattern is needed
For a C/I of 18 db as D can be calculated by choosing a radius (R). Usually
value of q is taken greater than 4.41. Greater q value leads to the lower co channel
interference.
Handoff Mechanism

The two co channel cells using frequency F1 separated by a distance D are shown
in fig.2.4. The radius R and the distance D are related to q = D/R = 4.6). In between the
two F1 channel (co channel) cells, it has to be filled with other frequency channels, say
F2, F3 and F4. The channel frequencies are also assigned to the corresponding C2, C3
and C4 cells which satisfy the value of q as in the case of F1.
Suppose a mobile unit is starting a call in cell C1 and then moves to C2. The call
can be dropped and reinitiated in the frequency channel from F1 to F2 while the mobile
unit moves from cell C1 to cell C2. This process of changing frequencies can be done
automatically by the system without the USER’S INTERVENTION. This process of
handoff is carried out in the cellular system.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Handoff is needed where (1) the cell site receive weak signals from mobile unit
(at the cell boundary -100dbm is the level for requesting a hand-off in a noise limited
environment) (2) when the mobile unit is reaching the signal strength holes (gaps) within
the cell site.
There are two types of handoff (1) that based on signal strength and (2) based on
carrier-to-interference ratio. In type (1), the signal strength threshold level for handoff is -
100dbm in noise limited systems and - 95dbm in interference limited system. IN type 2,
the value of C/I at the cell boundary for hand off should be 18db to have good quality
voice.
If the call holding is 1.76min, the chance of reaching the boundary is 11% or the
chance that a hand off will occur for the cell is 11%. If the call holding times are 3, 6 and
9 minutes, then the chance of reaching the boundary is 18%, 42.6% and 59.3%
respectively. In rural areas handoffs may not be necessary.
The smaller the cell size, the greater the number of handoffs per call. For 20kms,
5kms and 2kms cell size the hand offs per call are 0.2, 1 to 2 and 3 to 4 respectively.
At the cell site, signal strength is always monitored from a reverse voice channel.
When the signal strength reaches the level of a handoff, then the cell site sends a request
to MTSO for a hand off on the call. MTSO usually control the frequency assignment in
each cell and can rearrange channel assignments. A handoff could be delayed if no
available cell could take place. The mobile unit to randomly moving in an uneven
contour terrain, the received signal strength varies up and down and if the mobile unit is
less than 5 seconds in a hole, the delay off will play without hand off.

Cell splitting:
To improve the utilization of spectrum efficiency, the frequency reuse and cell
splitting are the concepts. When the traffic density increases and the frequency channels
Fi in each cell Ci cannot provide sufficient mobile calls, the original cell can be split into
smaller cells. Usually the new radius is one half the original radius as shown in fig.2there
are two ways, that is using original cell site fig. and not using original cell site

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Let each new cell carry the same maximum traffic load of the old cell, then

There are two kinds of cell splitting:

(1)Permanent Splitting:
For installation of new split cell, it is necessary to plan the number of
channels, the transmitted power, the assigned frequencies, choosing of cell – site selection
and the traffic load condition. When the system is ready after splitting, the service
cutover should be set at the lowest traffic point (midnight and at week end) and only few
calls will be dropped in this cut over and assuming that the down time of the system is
within 2 hours.

(2)Dynamic splitting
This is for utilizing the allocated spectrum efficiency in real time. The
algorithm for dynamically splitting cell sites is a difficult job.
The transmitted power for a new cell of reduced size must be 12db less
than the old transmitted power when the cell splitting occurs, and the value of frequency
re-use ratio (q) is always held constant. The traffic load can be increased to four times in
the same area after the original cell is split into four sub-cells. Each sub-cell can again be
split into four sub-cells, which allow the traffic to increase 16times. As splitting
continues, new traffic load is four times the traffic load of startup cell, where n is the
number of splitting. For n=4, the traffic load is 256 times larger than the startup cell.

Splitting limitations
(1) Radio aspect - the size depends on coverage pattern control and accuracy of vehicle
locations.

(2) The capacity of switching processor: The small the cells, more handoffs will occur and
the capacity of a switching processor is larger than that required for coverage areas of
small cells.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Effect on cell splitting:

Cell splitting is done to maintain the freq reuse distance radio q in system. The
effects of cell splitting are:
(1) Effects the neighboring cells and cause unbalanced situation in power and freq reuse
distance. This effect is same as that of ripple factor in power supply.
(2) Certain channels are to be used as barriers. To eliminate interference between large cells
and small cells, a group of frequencies will be used in the cells located between the
large cells on one side and small cell on the other side.

Consideration of the components of Cellular systems

The elements of cellular mobile radio system are mobile radios, antennas, cell site
controller and MTSO. These will effect the system design if not selected property.
Antennas:
Antenna pattern, antenna gain antenna tilting and antenna height effect the design of cellular
system. The antenna pattern can be omni directional, directional or any shape in both the
vertical and horizontal planes. Antenna gain compensates for the transmitted power. The
antennas will effect the system performance at cell site and mobile units.
The antenna patters in cellular systems are different from free space. If mobile unit travels
around a cell site having buildings, omni directional antenna is not omni pattern. Also the
front to back ratio of a directional antenna is found to be 20db in free space and will be 10db
at cell site.
Antenna tilting reduce the interference to the neighboring cells and increase the weak spots in
the cell. Also the height of the cell-site antenna can effect the area and shape of the coverage
in the system.

Switching equipment
The capacity of switching equipment in cellular system is based on the capacity of the
processor associated with switches. The processor should be large in big cellular system. The
service life of the switching equipment is determined by the time period it takes to reach its
full capacity. If the equipment is modular, modules can be added to meet the demand. In
future trend, the switching equipment can link to other switching equipment so that a call can
be carried out form one system to another system without dropping a call.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept

 Data links
Each Data link can carry multiple channel data (10Kb data transmitted per channel) from the
cell site to the MTSO. This fast speed data cannot be passed on telephone lines but special
devices are needed. The data can be multiplexed on many channels passing on micro-wave
radio line at higher frequencies (>850MHz) or wide band T- carrier wire line.

ECE/LIET C410 CMC NOTES Sudheer Asst Prof ECE Dept