CHAPTER -4-

Cellular Concepts
 4.1. Introduction
2  It is a wireless communication technology in which several
small exchanges (called cells) equipped with low-power radio
antennas (strategically located over a wide geographical area)
are interconnected through a central exchange.

 As a receiver (cell phone) moves from one place to the next,

its identity, location, and radio frequency is handed-over by
one cell to another without interrupting a call.

 Providing wireless service over wide areas requires different

schemes to efficiently use spectrum in different locations
while avoiding interference.

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 4.2. Basic Cellular System
3  There are mainly two types of basic cellular system:
1. Circuit Switched:
o In this system, each traffic channel is dedicated to a user until its cell is
terminated.

2. Packet Switched:
o In this system, the packets are sent towards the destination irrespective of
each other.
o Each packet has to find its own route to the destination.
o There is no predetermined path; the decision as to which node to hop to
in the next step is taken only when a node is reached.
o Each packet finds its way using the information it carries, such as the
source and destination IP addresses.

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 Elements of Basic Cellular System
4

1) A Mobile Unit
o Mobile Station (MS)
2) Cell Site
o Base Station (BS)
o Cell
o Cluster
3) Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO)
4) Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
5) Connections

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 Elements of Basic Cellular System, Cont. …
5 1. A Mobile Unit
 A mobile telephone unit contains a control unit, a transceiver, and an
antenna system.
o Mobile Station (MS)
 Mobile handsets, which is used by a user to communicate with another
user.
 It consists of Mobile Equipment (ME) and Subscriber Identity Module
(SIM) - contains all subscriber-specific data stored on the MS side.

2. A Cell Site
 It provides interface between the MTSO and the mobile units.
 It has a control unit, radio cabinets, antennas, a power plant, and data
terminals.

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 Elements of Basic Cellular System, Cont. …
6 o Base Station (BS)
3. A Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO)

 The switching office, the central coordinating element for all

cell sites, contains the cellular processor and cellular switch.

 It interfaces with telephone company zone offices, controls

call processing, provides operation and maintenance, and
handles billing activities.

 It is the heart of the analog cellular mobile system.

 Its processor provides central coordination and cellular

administration.
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 Elements of Basic Cellular System
7 4. Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN):
 It is the central office for mobile switching. It houses the MSC, field
monitoring and relay stations for switching calls from cell site to
wireline central office.
5. Connections
 The radio and high-speed data links connect the three subsystems.
 Each mobile unit can only use one channel at a time for its
communication link.
 But the channel is not fixed; it can be any one in the entire band
assigned by the serving area, with each site having multichannel
capabilities that can connect simultaneously to many mobile units.

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 The Architecture of Basic Cellular System
8  It is shown in fig below.

Fig. 4.1. The architecture of basic cellular system.

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 4.3. Frequency Reuse
9  Cell - is a small regions in a cellular service area.
 Clusters – is a group of cells. Cell Representation:
o No channels are reused in a cluster. • The possible choices of
o It is assigning to each cell a group of radio cells to represent are square,
circular, triangle and
channels used within small geographic area. hexagonal.

• Thus by using hexagonal

geometry, the fewest
number of cells can cover a
Fig. 4.2. Cell
representation geographic region and it
closely approximates circle.
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 Frequency Reuse, Cont. …
10  Cells are assigned a group of channels that is completely d/t
from neighboring cell.

 The coverage area of cells are called footprint.

 This footprint is limited by a boundary so that the same group

of channels can be used in different cells that are far away
from each other so that their frequencies do not interfere.

 Each of these cells is assigned multiple frequencies (f1-f6)

which have corresponding BSs.

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 Frequency Reuse, Cont. …
11  The group of frequencies can be reused in other cells to increase both
coverage and capacity.
 Cells with the same letter use the same set of frequencies, called reusing
cells.
 Mostly cells are represented in hexagonal pattern.
 N cells which collectively use the available frequencies (S = k.N) is
known as cluster (k).
 If a cluster is replicated M times within a system, then total number
duplex channels (capacity) is
C = M.k.N = M.S.
 Capacity is directly proportional to the replication factor in a fixed area.
 Factor N is called cluster size and is typically equal to 3, 7, 12, etc.
How?

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 Frequency Reuse, Cont. …
12  Cells with the same number have the same set of frequencies.

Reuse Factor:
• Fraction of total available
channels assigned to each cell
1
within a cluster is .
𝑁

• The number of available

frequencies is 7, the frequency
1
reuse factor is , i.e. each cell is
7
1 Fig.4.3. Frequency reuse
using of available cellular
7

channels. 2/5/2022
 Frequency Reuse, Cont. …
 a

13

• As the demand increases in a

particular region, the number of
stations can be increased by
replacing a cell with a cluster.
• However, this will be possible
only by decreasing the
transmitting power of the base
stations to avoid interference.
Fig. 4.4. A cell is replaced by a cluster
• Here cell C has been replaced
as demand increases
with a cluster.

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 4.4. Channel Assignment Strategies
14 1). Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA)

 Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channels.

 Any cell attempt with in the cell can only be served by the
unused channels in that particular cell.

 To improve utilization, a borrowing option may be considered.

 The borrowing of channels is done by the MSC.

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 4.4. Channel Assignment Strategies
15 2). Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA)

 Each time a call request is made, the serving BS requests a

channel from the MSC.

 The MSC determines the availability of a channel and

executes its allocation procedure accordingly.

 The MSC only allocates a given frequency if that frequency is

not used presently.

 It reduces the probability of call blocking, which increases the

Trunking capacity of the system.

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 4.5. Handoff / Handover Strategies
16  It the ability of a subscriber to maintain a call while moving within a
network.

 It means that a subscriber travels from one cell to another while engaged
in a call, and that call is maintained during the transition (ideally without
the subscriber noticing any change).

 Depending on the two cells in question, the handoff can be between two:
o Sectors on the same base station,
o Base Station Controllers (BSCs),
o Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) belonging to the same operator, or
o Networks.

 Etc.

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 Handoff Strategies, Cont. …
17

 It is also possible to handoff a call between two channels in the same

cell.

 This could occur when a given channel in a cell is experiencing

interference that is affecting the communication quality.

Fig. 4.5. (A). Pre-Handoff (B). Post-Handoff

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 Types of Handoff
18  There are two types of handoff. They are

1). Hard-Handoff

 It is based on principle called “Break Before Make” connection.

 A MS communicates with one BS.

 As a MS moves from cell A to cell B, the communication between

the MS and base station of cell A is first broken before
communication is started between the MS and the base station of B.

 As a consequence, the transition is not smooth.

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 Types of Handoff
19

2). Soft-Handoff

 It is based on principle called “Make Before Break”

connection.

 As a MS moves from cell A to cell B, the communication

between the MS and base station of cell A continues to talk to
both A and B.

 As the MS moves from cell A to cell B, at some point the

communication is broken with the old base station of cell A.
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 4.6. Interference

20

WCMC Lecture Note, Year: 2018-19 2/5/2022

 4.6. Interference
21

 It is anything which disrupts a signal as it travels along a

channel between a source and receiver.
 Sources of Interreference:
o Another mobile in the same cell (if distance and frequency
are close).
o A call in progress in neighboring cell (if frequency is
close).
o Other BS operating in the same frequency band.
o Non-cellular system leaks energy into the cellular
frequency band (from co-channel cell).
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 Interference, …
22  All signal received are useful.

 Simplest interference network is the two-user interference channel.

• Interference in voice channel:
oCross-talk
oMissed and blocked calls
• Urban areas usually have more interference, because of:
oGreater RF noise floor.
oMore number of mobile users.
 There are basically two types interferences,
 co-channel and

 adjacent.

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 4.6.1. Co-Channel Interference
23  It is an interference that happened because of cells using the
same set frequency in a given coverage area.

 It cannot be overcome just by increasing the carrier power of a

transmitter, because increase in carrier transmit power
increases the interference.

 It is mostly caused by frequency reuse.

 How to reduce co-channel interference?

o Co-channel cell must be physically separated by a minimum
distance to provide a sufficient isolation.

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 Co-Channel Interference, Cont. …
24  It is shown in the diagram below.

Fig. 4.6. Co-channel

interference
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 Co-Channel Interference, …
25  Two types co-channel interference:

a) Intracell Interference – interferences from other mobile

terminals in the same cell.

b) Intercell Interference – interferences from other cell.

• Co-channel interference
increases as the cluster size
N decreases.
• Most interference come from
the first tier of co-channel
cells.
Fig. 4.7. Co-channel2/5/2022
interference tier
 Cell Geometry
26  By increasing the ratio of distance between the cells and radius of
the cell (D/R):
o Separation between co-channel cells relative to coverage distance of
the cell increased.
o Interference reduced.
 The parameter Q (Co-Channel Reuse Ratio) is related to cluster
size. Thus for the hexagonal geometry:
o A small value of Q provides larger capacity
since N is a cluster size.
o Large value of Q improves transmission quality
due to smaller level of co-channel interference.
𝑆
o The of 18 dB is the measured value for the
𝐼
accepted voice quality from the present day
cellular mobile receivers.
𝑆
o Sufficient voice quality is provided when is
𝑆 𝑞𝑘 𝑆 𝐼
Fig. 4.8. Cell = = (in dBWCMC
= 10log ( )) greater than or equal to 18 dB.
Lecture Note, Year: 2018-19 2/5/2022
𝐼 𝑁𝐼 𝐼
geometry
 Cell Geometry, Cont. …
27

 Where; N = i2 + ij + j2
o R – is the radius of a cell
• Where i & j are non-negative
o D – is the distance between the cells.
o q – is the co-channel reuse ratio integers.
o N – is the cluster size or total number of cells • To find the nearest co-channel
o K – is the cluster of cells. neighbors of a particular cell,
o NI – is the co-channels one must do the following:
o S – is the total number of frequencies.
a) Move i cells along any chain
o I – Interference
𝑆 of hexagons and then,
o – signal to interference
𝐼
b) Turn 60 degrees counter-
clockwise and move j cells.
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 Methods of Locating Co-channel
28  When N= 19, i =3, & j = 2. When N = 3, i = 1, j = 1

Fig.4.9. Locating co-channels cells

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 Example – Co-channel Reuse Ratio
29  This sample is used for some values of N.

No Cluster Size (N) Co-channel Reuse Ratio (Q)

1. i = 1, j = 1 12 + 1*1 + 12 = 3

2. i = 1, j = 2 12 + 1*2 + 22 = 7

3. i = 2, j = 2 22 + 2*2 + 22 =
12

4. i = 1, j = 3 12 + 1*3 + 32
=13
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Table 4.1. Co-channel reuse ratio examples
 Example: Co-Channel Interference
𝑆
30  If = 15 dB required for satisfactory performance for forward
𝐼
channel performance of a cellular system:
a) What is the Frequency Reuse Factor q (Assume k = 4)?
b) Can we use k = 3?
 Assume 6 co-channels all of them (the same distance from the
mobile), i.e. N = 7
Answer: b). Given: NI = 6, N = 7, k = 3
a). Given: NI = 6, N = 7, k = 4 Required: q = ?
Required: q = ? 𝐷
q= = 3𝑁 = 3 ∗ 7 = 4.583
𝑅
𝐷
q= = 3𝑁 = 3 ∗ 7 = 4.583 𝑆 𝑞𝑘 4.583 3
96.261
𝑅
= = = = 16.044
𝐼 𝑁𝐼 6 6
𝑘 4
𝑆 𝑞 4.583 441.163
= = = = 73.527 Or 12.05 dB -> REJECT IT – less
𝐼 𝑁𝐼 6 6

Or 18.66 dB -> ACCEPT IT – greater than the than the required level.
maximum required level. 2/5/2022
 4.6.2. Adjacent Channel Interference
31  It is an interference resulting from signals which are adjacent
in frequency to the desired signal.
 Near-far effect occurs, when a mobile close to a BS transmits
on a channel close one being used by a weak mobile.
 It results from imperfect receiver filters, allowing nearby
frequencies to leak into pass-band.
 How to reduce?
o Careful filtering
o Channel assignment – no channel assignment which are all
adjacent in frequency.
o Keeping frequency separation between each channel in a given
cell as large as possible.

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 4.7. Trunking and Grade of Service
32  Trunking:
o It helps in establishing a trunked system which provides
communication services to a large group of users with limited
number of available channels in the system.
o All PSTN/ cellular radio systems exploits Trunking theory to
cover large user community with limited number of circuits/
frequency spectrum.
o It is used to determine the required capacity and allocate the
proper number of channels in order to meet GOS.
o In a trunked radio system, each user is allocated a channel on a
per call basis, and upon the termination of the call, the previously
occupied channel is immediately returned to the pool of channels.
o In telephone system, it is used to determine the number of
telephone circuits that need to be allocated for office buildings
with hundreds of telephones.

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 Common Terms in Trunking Theory
33
 Set-up Time – is the time required to allocate a channel to a
requesting user.
 Blocked Call – is a call which cannot be completed at the time of
request.
o It is also called lost call.
 Holding Time – is the average duration of a typical call.
o Denoted by “H” in seconds.
 Load – is the traffic intensity across the entire trunked system.
 Request Rate – is the average number of requesting call requests per
unit time.
o It is denoted by λ
 Traffic Intensity – is a measure of channel time utilization or the
average channel occupancy measured in Erlangs (A).
o Each user generates a traffic intensity of Au = λH
o It is a dimensionless quantity.

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 Erlang
34  It is a unit of telecommunication traffic measurement.
 It represents the continuous use of one voice path.
 It is used to describe the total traffic volume of one hour.
 A channel kept busy for one hour is defined as having a load
of one Erlang.
 Example:
o A radio channel that is occupied for thirty minutes during an hour
carries 0.5 Erlangs of traffic.
o For 1 channel:
 Min load = 0 Erlang (0% time utilization).
 Max load = 1 Erlang (100% time utilization).

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 Types of Trunked System
35  There are basically two trunked system used.
1) Blocked Calls Cleared
 It offers no queuing for call request.
 For every requesting user, it is assumed to have no any set-up
time and user is given immediate access to channel if available.
 If no channel is available, the requesting user is blocked and is
free to try again latter.
2) Blocked Calls Delayed
 It offers the queue to hold the calls, which are blocked.
 If channel is not available for the requesting user, the call request
may be delayed until a channel becomes available.

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 Example: Traffic Intensity
36  There are 3000 calls per hour, each lasting an average of 1.76
min. What is the traffic intensity?
Solution:
Given:
H = 1.76 min, λ = 3000 / hour = 50 calls
Required: A = ?
A = λ * H = 50 * 1.76 min = 88 Erlangs.
 A group of 100 users made 30 calls in one hour, and each call
had an average call duration of 5 minutes. What is the traffic
intensity?
Solution:
Given:
H = 5 min, λ = 30 calls
Required: A = ?
A = λ * H = 30 * 5 min = 150 hour.
A = 150 / 60 = 2.5
WCMCErlang.
Lecture Note, Year: 2018-19 2/5/2022
 Grade of Service (GoS)
37
 It is the measure of the ability of a user access a trunked system during
the busiest hour.
 It is a measure of performance of a telephone system.
 Telephone networks are designed with a specified GoS, usually for the
busiest hour.
 If a subscriber is able make a call during the busiest hour, he will be able
make a call at any other time.
 GoS, B is used to observe and measure how many calls are offered,
carried and lost in the system.

 The lower this number, the higher GoS.

1
 It is simply the ratio of call, i.e.
𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙
WCMC Lecture Note, Year: 2018-19 2/5/2022
 GoS, Cont. …
38  It is the volume of traffic offered to a switch that are all
processed.

 The Carried Traffic – is the actual traffic carried by the switch.

 The Overflow (Blocked) Traffic – it is the portion of traffic
not processes.
 There are two types of GoS. They are
1) Busy Hour Call Attempt (BHCA):
o Used to evaluate and plan capacity for telephone networks.
o It is the number of telephone calls made at the peak hour.
o The higher the BHCA, the higher the stress on the network
processors.
2) Busy Hour Call Completion (BHCC):
o It measures the throughput capacity of the network truly.
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 Example:
39 1) If GoS = 0.05, means that one call in 20 will be blocked
during the busiest hour because of insufficient capacity.
2) If GoS = 0.02, means that two users of the circuit group out
of hundred will encounter a call refusal during the busy hour.
3) 1200 calls are offered to a channel and 6 calls are lost. The
duration of a call is 3 minutes. Find:
Solution:
a) Offered traffic, A
Given: HC = 1200, HL= 6, λ = 3 min
b) Carried traffic a) A = (1200 * 3) / 60 = 60 Erlang.
b) Carried Traffic= ((1200 – 6) * 3) / 60 = 59.7
c) Lost traffic Erlang
c) Lost Traffic = (6 * 3) / 60 = 0.3 Erlang
d) GoS, B
d) B = Lost Traffic / Offered Traffic = 6 / 1200 =
e) Congestion time 0.005
e) Congestion Time = B * 1 hours (seconds)
= 0.005 * 60 * 60
WCMC Lecture Note, Year: 2018-19 = 18 seconds.
2/5/2022
 Example, Cont. …
40 4. During the busy hour, the “EthioTelecom Company” makes
120 outgoing calls of average duration 2 minutes. It also
receives 200 incoming calls of average duration 3 minutes.
Find:
a) The outgoing traffic Solution:
Given:
b) The incoming traffic OC = 120, OCT = 2 min,
c) The total traffic IC= 200, IIT = 3 min
a) The Outgoing Traffic = (120 * 2) / 60
= 4 Erlang.
b) The Incoming Traffic = (200 * 3) / 60
= 10 Erlang
c) Total Traffic = 4E + 10E = 14 Erlang.

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 4.8. Improving Capacity in Cellular System
41  The capacity of the system can be improved based on the
cellular layout and antenna design.
 There are five popular mechanisms to increase capacity of a
cellular system.
1. Cell Splitting
2. Antenna Sectoring
3. Microcell Zone Concept
4. Adding New Channels
5. Frequency Borrowing

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 1. Cell Splitting
42  As the service area becomes full of users, subdivide the
congested cell into smaller cells, each with its own BS and a
corresponding reduction in antenna height and transmit power
is called cell splitting.
 It increases the capacity of the cellular system since it
increases number of times that channels are reused.
 The central area of the original large cell with radius R in the
𝑅
center is split into the medium cells with radius and the
2
medium cell in the center further split into a small cells with
𝑅
radius .
4
 The cell splitting reduces the call blocking probability in the
area, and increases the frequency with which mobiles handoff
from cell to cell.

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 Cell Splitting, Cont. …
43  Here the procedure of cell splitting.

Fig. 4.10. Cell splitting

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 2. Antenna Sectoring
44  Antennas are omnidirectional.
 Directional antennas can increase the system capacity relative to that
of omnidirectional antennas.
 In terms of capacity increase through sectorization, the
omnidirectional case can be used as the benchmark.
 With hexagonal cells, sectorization can be done in multiples of 600.
 Assuming a 7-cell reuse, for the 3-sector case (with 1200 in each
sector) the number of interferences in the first tier reduced from 6 to
2.
𝑆 1 𝑆 1
 With Di = D we have ( )omni = ∗ 𝑞𝑘 and ( )1200 = ∗ 𝑞𝑘
𝐼 6 𝐼 2
𝑆
0
𝐼 120
 The increase in the signal-to-interference ratio is then 𝑆 =3
𝐼 𝑜𝑚𝑛𝑖

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 Antenna Sectoring, Cont. …
45  The cell sectoring procedure can be undertaken as follows:

Fig.
4.11.

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 Antenna Sectoring, Cont. …
46  The cell sectoring procedure can be undertaken as follows:

Fig. 4.12. Illustration of how 1200 sectoring reduces interference from

co-channel cells. Out of the 6 co-channel cells in the first tier, only two of
them interfere with the center cell. Of omnidirectional antennas were
used at each BS, all 6 co-channel cells would interfere with the center
cell. WCMC Lecture Note, Year: 2018-19 2/5/2022
 3. Microcell Zone Concept
47
 The zones are connected by coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, or
microwave link to the base station.
 Multiple zones and single BS make up a cell.
 As mobile travels within the cell, it is served by the zone with the
strongest signal.
 Antennas are placed at outer edge of the cell, and any BS channel
may be assigned to any zone by the BS.
 As the mobile travels from one zone to another within the cell, it
retains the same channel.
 Handoff is not required when the mobile travels between the zones
within the cell.
 The BS simply switches the channel to a different zone site.
 In this way, a given channel is active only in the particular zone in
which the mobile is travelling and hence the BS radiation is localized
and interference is reduced.

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 Microcell Zone Concept, Cont. …
48  Here it is.

Fig. 4.13. Microcell concept

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 4. Adding New Channel
49  When a system is set up in a region, not all the channels are
used, and growth and expansion can be managed in an orderly
fashion by adding new channels.

5. Frequency Borrowing

 Frequencies are taken from adjacent cells by congested

cells.

 The frequencies can be also be assigned to cells

dynamically.

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 Summary
50  The basic cellular system consists of the following parts:
o Mobile Unit, cell site, MSC, PSTN, and connections.
 The MSC is used to coordinate the routing of calls in a large
service area. It is also called MTSO.
 Handoff is a process of maintaining a call when a mobile
moves from one cell to another cell.
 The different techniques used to improve the coverage and
capacity of cellular systems are
o Cell splitting, sectoring, microcell Zone, adding New
Channels, and frequency Borrowing

Thanks!

2/5/2022