Wireless and Mobile Communication

(ECEg5307)
Chapter 3: Cellular Concepts

AASTU
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering

12/20/2023 1
Outline
Chapter 3: Cellular Concepts
• Introduction
• Frequency reuse
• Channel assignment strategies
• Handoff strategies
• Interference and system capacity
• Trunking and grade of services
• Improving capacity

2
Introduction
• In cellular system, the available radio spectrum is limited
• E.g., because of regulator issues
• Hence, the number of simultaneous call supported is limited
• How to achieve high capacity (or support simultaneous calls) at the
same time covering very large areas?
• Frequency reuse by using cells?
• Overview system design fundamentals on cellular communication
• Cell formation and the associated frequency reuse, handoff, and power
control

3
 Introduction
The Basic Architecture
• Early wireless systems had a high-power transmitter, covering the entire service
area. This required a very huge amount of power and was not suitable for many
practical reasons.
• The cellular system replaced a large zone with a number of smaller hexagonal
cells with a single BS (base station) covering a fraction of the area. Evolution of
such a cellular system is shown in the given figures, with all wireless receivers
located in a cell being served by a BS.

4
Introduction
The Basic Architecture
• The area covered by the cell is called Cell Size and there is no
standard fixed value defined for this. It varies from service provider to
service provider. The cell size ranges from 10 Km to 50 Km based on
the population in that area. The following Figure shows the basic
structure and elements of a cellular system.
A cellular system consists of three
important elements. They are:
Mobile Stations (MS),
Base Stations (BS) and
Mobile Switching Centre(MSC)/ mobile
telephony switching office (MTSO)
Public switching telephony system(PSTN)
5
Introduction
• High capacity is achieved by limiting the coverage of each base
stations to a small geographic region called a cell.
• Single, high power transmitter (large cell) are replaced with many low
power transmitters (small cells)
• A portion of the total number of channels is allocated to each cell or
base station.
• Available group of channels are assigned to a small number of
neighboring base stations called cluster
• Near by base stations are assigned d/t groups of channels to minimize
interference
• Same channels (frequencies/timeslots/codes) are reused by spatially
separated base stations
 Reuse distance and frequency reuse planning?
6
Introduction
 A switching technique called handoff enables a call to proceed from
one cell to another
• As demand (or number of users) increases, the number of base
stations may be increased to provide additional capacity
 Smaller cells, e.g., Microcells, Picocell, Femtocell
 Also cell sites in trucks to replace downed cell towers after natural disasters,
or to create additional capacity for large gatherings (football games, rock
concerts)
 Transmission power reduction => interference decreases
• Typical power transmitted by the radios in a cell system
• Base station: Maximum Effective Radiated Power (ERP) is 100W, or up to
500 W in rural areas
• Mobile station: Typically 0.5 W. For CDMA, transmit power is lowered when
close to a BS
7
Introduction
Forward and Reverse Channels
• Forward Voice Channel (FVC): Used for voice transmission from
BS to MS

• Reverse Voice Channel (RVC): Used for voice transmission from

MS to BS

• Forward Control Channel (FCC): Used for initiating a call from

BS to MS

• Reverse Control Channel (RCC): Used for initiating a call from

MS to BS
8
 Introduction
 When a cellular phone is turned ON, but 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 level drops below a
usable level.

Call initiation by a landline (PSTN) subscriber to mobile user:

• The mobile switching center (MSC) dispatches the request to all base station in a cellular system.
• The Mobile Identification Number (MIN) which is subscriber telephone number is then broadcast
as a paging message over all of the forward control channels(FCC) throughout the cellular
system.
• The mobile receives the paging message sent by BS which monitors, and responds by identifying
itself over the Reverse Control Channel (RCC).
• The BS relays the acknowledgement sent by the mobile and informs the MSC of handshake.
• The MSC instructs the BS to move the call to an unused voice channel pair within the cell.
• The BS signals the mobile to change frequencies to an unused forward and reverse voice channel
pair.
• Another data message is transmitted on forward channel to instruct the mobile telephone to ring
and mobile user to answer the phone.
9
Introduction
A Call FROM a Mobile User
• A call initiation request is sent to the RCC

• Along with this, the MS transmits its MIN, Electronic Serial Number
(ESN) and the phone number of the called party

• The MS also transmits the Station Class Mark (SCM) which indicates
the maximum transmitter power level for the particular user

• The BS forwards the data to the MSC, which validates the data and
makes connection to the called party through the PSTN

10
Introduction

Figure shows sequence of events involved in call connection. 11

Introduction
• The design objective of early mobile radio systems was to achieve a large
coverage area by using a single, high powered transmitter with an antenna
mounted on a tall tower.
• While this approach achieved very good coverage, it also meant that it was
impossible to reuse those same frequencies throughout the system, since
any attempts to achieve frequency reuse would result in interference.
• For example, the Bell mobile system in New York City in the 1970s could
only support a maximum of twelve simultaneous calls over a thousand
square miles.
• The cellular concept was a major breakthrough in solving the problem of
spectral congestion and user capacity. It offered very high capacity in a
limited spectrum allocation without any major technological changes.
• The cellular concept is a system-level idea which calls for replacing a single,
high power transmitter (large cell) with many low power transmitters
(small cells),each providing coverage to only a small portion of the service
area.
12
Introduction
Cell Shape
• A hexagon is to cover cell shape with a pattern in which cells can be
laid next to each other with no overlap; therefore, they can cover the
entire geographical region without any gaps. This approximation is
frequently employed in planning and analysis of cellular networks.

Has dead zones 13

Introduction
Cell Shape
 When using hexagon to model coverage areas
 Center-excited cell: Base station (BS) depicted as being in the center of the cell
 Omni-directional antenna is used

 Edge-excited cell: on three of the six cell vertices

 Sectored direction antenna is used

14
Frequency reuse
• Used by service providers to improve the efficiency of a cellular
network and to serve millions of subscribers using a limited radio
spectrum
• After covering a certain distance a radio wave gets attenuated and the
signal falls below a point where it can no longer be used or cause any
interference
• A transmitter transmitting in a specific frequency range will have only
a limited coverage area
• Beyond this coverage area, that frequency can be reused by another
transmitter.
• The entire network coverage area is divided into cells based on the
principle of frequency reuse
15
Frequency reuse
• A cell = basic geographical unit of a cellular network; is the area
around an antenna where a specific frequency range is used.
• when a subscriber moves to another cell, the antenna of the new cell
takes over the signal transmission
• a cluster is a group of adjacent cells, usually 7 cells; no frequency
reuse is done within a cluster
• The frequency spectrum is divided into sub-bands and each sub-band
is used within one cell of the cluster
• In heavy traffic zones cells are smaller, while in isolated zones cells are
large

16
Frequency reuse
• The design process of selecting and allocating channel groups for all
of the cellular base stations within a system is called frequency reuse
or frequency planning.
• Cell labeled with same letter use the same set of frequencies.
• The actual radio coverage of a cell is known as the footprint and is
determined from field measurements or propagation prediction
models.

(a) is theoretical coverage area and (b) measured coverage area where red,
blue, green, and yellow indicate signal strength, in decreasing order 17
Frequency reuse

18
Frequency reuse
• A cellular system having “S” duplex channels, each cell is allocated “K” channels
(k<S).
• If S channels are allocated to N cells into unique and disjoint channels, the total
no of available channel is S=kN.
• N cells collectively using all the channels is called a cluster, is a group of adjacent
cells.
• If cluster if repeated M times, the capacity C of system is given as
C=MkN=MS
• Capacity of system is directly proportional to the number of times cluster is
repeated.
• Reducing the cluster size N while keeping the cell size constant, more clusters are
required to cover the given area and hence more capacity.
• Co-channel interference is dependent on cluster size, large cluster size less
interference and vice versa. 19
Frequency reuse
• Example: Consider a
cluster of 7 cells

• Same color labeled

cells use the same
frequency
• Frequency reuse factor
is 1/7 since each cell
contains one-seventh of
the total available
channels

20
Frequency reuse
• Due to the fact that the hexagonal geometry on the previous figure has
exactly six equidistant neighbors
• and that the lines joining the centers of any cell and each of its neighbors
are separated by multiples of 60 degrees, there are only certain cluster
sizes and cell layouts which are possible.
• In order to tessellate—to connect without gaps between adjacent cells—
the geometry of hexagons is such that the number of cells per cluster, N,
can only have values which satisfy the following Equation.

• where i and j are non-negative integers. To find the nearest co-channel

neighbors of a particular cell, one must do the following: (1) move i cells
along any chain of hexagons and then (2) turn 60 degrees counter-
clockwise and move j cells.
21
Frequency reuse
• Here it is illustrated in the following Figure for i = 3 and j = 2
(example, N = 19).

22
Frequency reuse
• Using these equations, to locate the co-channel cells, start from a
reference cell and move
• i-hexagons along the U-axis and
• j-hexagons along the V-axis
• The distance, D, between co-channel cells in adjacent clusters is given
by
D i 2  ij  j 2

where i and j are non-negative integers

• There are only certain cluster sizes and layouts possible
• Typical values of N are 1, 3, 4, 7, 12, ……

23
 Frequency reuse
• Assume that:
• 50 MHz is available for
forward channels
• GSM is deployed
• Each channel is 200 kHz
• In GSM, TDMA is used so
that 8 simultaneous calls can
be made on each channel

• How large is k?
• How many forward calls
can be made
simultaneously for the
deployment containing 28
cells as in the figure?

24
 Frequency reuse
• Assume that:
• 50 MHz is available for Solution:
forward channels
There are 50 MHz / 0.2 MHz = 250 channels
• GSM is deployed
• Each channel is 200 kHz per cluster
• In GSM, TDMA is used so With N = 4, then k = 250/4 = 62.5
that 8 simultaneous calls can
be made on each channel With 62.5 channels, 8(62.5) = 500
simultaneous calls can be made in each cell
• How large is k?
There are 28 cells on the cell map in Figure,
• How many forward calls so the total forward calls is 28(500) = 14×103
can be made calls can be made simultaneously
simultaneously for the
deployment containing 28
cells as in the figure?

25
 Frequency reuse
• Suppose 33 MHz BW allocated to particular FDD cellular system, where 25 KHz
simplex channel to provide full-duplex for voice/data
• Compute the number of channels per cell if a system uses
• Four-cell reuse
• Seven-cell reuse
• Twelve-cell reuse
• If 1 MHz of the allocated spectrum is dedicated to control channels, determine
an equitable distribution of control channels and voice channels in each cell for
each of the three systems

• Solution:
• Given that
• Total BW = 33 MHz, channel BW = 25 KHz x 2 = 50 KHz/duplex channel
• S = 33,000/50 = 660 channels
• For N = 4, k = 660 / 4 ≈ 165 channels
• For N = 7, k = 660 / 7 ≈ 95 channels
• For N = 12, k = 660 / 12 ≈ 55 channels

26
 Frequency reuse
Locating Co-Channel Cells: Example N=7, i=2 & j=1
• To find out the nearest V
co-channel neighbors
of a particular cell, do
the following BS1
• Move i cells in the U
direction U
• Then turn 60 degree
counter clockwise and
move j cells in the V BS1
direction, normalized
BS1
radius R= 1/√3
1/3

27
Frequency reuse
Example

Re-use Coordinates Number of Cells in Normalized repeat

the cluster distance
i j N D
1 0 1 1

1 1 3 1.732

2 1 7 2.646

2 2 12 3.464

1 3 13 3.606

3 2 19 4.359

1 4 21 4.583

28
Channel assignment strategies
• A scheme for increasing capacity and minimizing interference is
required.
• CAS can be classified as either fixed or dynamic
• Choice of CAS impacts the performance of system.
• In Fixed Channel Assignment each cell is assigned a predetermined
set of voice channels
• Any call attempt within the cell can only be served by the unused
channel in that particular cell
• If all the channels in the cell are occupied, the call is blocked. The
user does not get service.
• In variation of FCA, a cell can borrow channels from its neighboring
cell if its own channels are full.

29
Channel assignment strategies
Fixed Channel Assignment
• Each cell is assigned a fixed number of voice channels
• Any call attempt within the cell can only be served by the unused channels
in that particular cell
• If all the channels in the cell are in use, the call is blocked
• I.e., the user will not get service
• Simple, but a busy cell will run out of channels before a
neighboring cell
• Service variations of fixed assignment strategy exit
• System performance will be limited by the most crowded.
• In a variant of the fixed channel assignment, a cell can borrow channels
from its neighboring cells if its own channels are full
• MSC supervises such procedures and ensures that the borrowing of a
channel does not disturb any call in the donor cell
30
Channel assignment strategies
Dynamic Channel Assignment
• In dynamic channel assignment (DCA), channels are
not assigned to cells permanently
• Each base station can change the channels it uses
• When a call request is made, the BS requests a
channel from the MSC
• MSC only allocates the channel after verifying that the channel is not
presently in use
• To ensure a required QoS, the MSC allocates a given
frequency if that frequency is not currently in use in
• The cell, or
• In any other cell which falls within the limiting reuse distance, i.e.,
channels in neighboring cells must still be different
31
Hand-off strategies
• Mobile moves into a different cell during a conversation, MSC transfers
the call to new channel belonging to new BS.
• Handoff operation involves identifying the new BS and allocation of
voice and control signal to channels associated with new BS.
• Must be performed successfully, infrequently and unnoticeable to user
• To meet these requirements an optimum signal level must be defined
to initiate a handoff.
• Minimum useable signal for acceptable voice quality is -90 to -100dBm
• A slight higher value is used as threshold at which a handoff is made.

32
Hand-off strategies
• By looking at the variations of signal strength from either BS it is
possible to decide on the optimum area where handoff can take place

33
Hand-off strategies
• Handoff is made when received signal at the BS falls below a certain
threshold
• During handoff: to avoid call termination, safety margin should exist
and should not be too large or small
∆=Power_handoff – Power_min usable
• Large results in unnecessary handoff and for small insufficient time to
complete handoff, so carefully chosen to meet the requirements.
• In the following Fig (a), handoff not made and signal falls below min
acceptable level to keep the channel active.
• Can happen due to excessive delay by MSC in assigning handoff, or
when threshold is set to small.
• Excessive delay may occur during high traffic conditions due to
computational loading or non availability of channels in nearby
cells
34
Hand-off strategies
• Handoff is made when received signal at the BS falls below a
certain threshold
• During handoff: to avoid call termination, safety margin should
exist and should not be too large or small
• Consider the following two power levels
• Pr,min. usable be the minimum received power in dB, below which a call
cannot be received
• A handoff has to be initiated much prior to this point
• Pr,handoff be a higher threshold in dB at which the MSC initiates the
handoff procedure
• Handoff is made when the received signal at the BS falls below the threshold

∆=Power_handoff – Power_min usable

35
Hand-off strategies
• Large results in unnecessary handoff and for small insufficient
time to complete handoff, so carefully chosen to meet the
requirements.
• In the following Fig (a), handoff not made and signal falls below
min acceptable level to keep the channel active.
• Can happen due to excessive delay by MSC in assigning handoff,
or when threshold is set to small.
• Excessive delay may occur during high traffic conditions
due to computational loading or non availability of
channels in nearby cells

36
Hand-off strategies

37
Hand-off strategies
Hand –off margin
• In deciding when to handoff , it is important to ensure that the drop in signal level is
not due to momentary fading.
• In order to ensure this the BS monitors the signal for a certain period of time before
initiating a handoff
• The length of time needed to decide if handoff is necessary depends on the speed
at which the mobile is moving
• How much margin is needed to handle a mobile at driving speeds?
• The margin ∆ should not be too large or too small
• The handoff threshold power is selected such that it is slightly greater than the minimum usable
signal power for an acceptable voice quality

• If ∆ is too large, it may lead to unnecessary handoffs which may burden the MSC
• The call may be headed over to the neighboring BS when the MS is well inside the home cell

• If ∆ is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete a handoff before a call
is lost due to weak signal conditions
38
Hand-off strategies
Hand –off margin
• A call drop can also happen when there is an excessive delay by the MSC in
assigning a channel
• E.g., during high traffic conditions

• To effect handoff, it is important to ensure that the mobile is actually moving

away from the serving base station
• The measured signal level drop may be due to momentary fading
• In order to ensure this, BS monitors signal level for a certain period of time before a
handoff is initiated
• The length of monitoring depends on the speed of mobile units
• Where to get information about the mobile speed?

• At high mobile speeds, handoff needs to happen quickly

• In GSM, handoff is typically within 1-2 seconds
• In AMPS, this was 10 seconds (higher potential for dropped calls!)

39
Hand-off strategies
• In 1st generation analog cellular systems, the signal strength
measurements are made by the BS and are supervised by the MSC.
• A spare Rx in base station (locator Rx) monitors RSS of RVC's in
neighboring cells
• Tells Mobile Switching Center about these mobiles and their channels
• Locator Rx can see if signal to this base station is significantly better
than to the host base station
• MSC monitors RSS from all base stations & decides on handoff

40
Hand-off strategies
• In 2nd generation systems Mobile Assisted Handoffs (MAHO)are used
• In MAHO, every MS measures the received power from the surrounding
BS and continually reports these values to the corresponding BS.
• Handoff is initiated if the signal strength of a neighboring BS exceeds
that of current BS
• MSC no longer monitors RSS of all channels
• reduces computational load considerably
• enables much more rapid and efficient handoffs
• imperceptible to user

41
Hand-off strategies
Hard handoff: The channel in the source cell is released only when the
channel in the target cell is engaged
• I.e., assign different radio channels during a handoff
• For 1st generation analog systems, if takes about 10 seconds and the
value for is on the order of 6dB to 12dB
• For 2nd generation digital systems, typically requires only 1 or 2
seconds, and usually is between 0 dB and 6 dB
N.B : In 2nd generation systems, handoff decisions is also based on a co-
channel and adjacent channel interference levels

42
Hand-off strategies
• Soft handoff :The channel in the source cell is retained and used while
in parallel with the channel in the target cell is called.
• CDMA spread spectrum cellular systems provides a unique handoff
capability
• Unlike channelized wireless systems that assigns different radio channel
during handoff (called hard handoff), the spread spectrum MS share the
same channel in every cell
• The term handoff here implies that a different BS handles the radio
communication task
• The ability to select between the instantaneous received signals from
different BSs is called soft handoff

43
Hand-off strategies
Inter-system Handoff
• If a mobile moves from one cellular system to a different system
controlled by a different MSC, an inter-system handoff is necessary
• MSC engages in intersystem handoff when signal becomes weak in a
given cell and MSC cannot find another cell within its system to transfer
the on-going call
• Many issues must be resolved
• Local call may become long distance call
• Compatibility between the two MSCs

44
Hand-off strategies
Prioritizing Handoffs
Issue: Perceived Grade of Service (GOS) – service quality
as viewed by users
• “quality” in terms of dropped or blocked calls (not voice quality)
• assign higher priority to handoff vs. new call request
• a dropped call is more aggravating than an occasional blocked call
Guard Channels
• % of total available cell channels exclusively set aside for
handoff requests
• makes fewer channels available for new call requests
• a good strategy is dynamic channel allocation (not fixed)
• adjust number of guard channels as needed by demand
• so channels are not wasted in cells with low traffic
45
Hand-off strategies
Prioritizing Handoffs
• Queuing of Handoff Requests
• use time delay between handoff threshold and minimum useable
signal level to place a blocked handoff request in queue
• a handoff request can "keep trying" during that time period, instead of
having a single block/no block decision
• prioritize requests (based on mobile speed) and handoff as needed
• calls will still be dropped if time period expires

46
Hand-off strategies
Practical Handoff Considerations
• Problems occur because of a large range of mobile velocities 
pedestrian vs. vehicle user
• Small cell sizes and/or micro-cells → larger # handoffs
• MSC load is heavy when high speed users are passed between very
small cells  use different antenna heights and Tx power levels to provide
large and small cell coverage
• multiple antennas & Tx can be co-located at single location if necessary (saves on
obtaining new tower licenses)
• large cell → high speed traffic → fewer handoffs
• small cell → low speed traffic
example areas: interstate highway passing through urban center,

• Umbrella Cells
• office park, or nearby shopping mall

47
Hand-off strategies
Umbrella Cells
• office park, or nearby shopping mall

48
Hand-off strategies
Typical handoff parameters
❑ Analog cellular (1st generation)
• threshold margin △ ≈ 6 to 12 dB
• total time to complete handoff ≈ 8 to 10 sec
• ❑ Digital cellular (2nd generation)
• total time to complete handoff ≈ 1 to 2 sec
• lower necessary threshold margin △ ≈ 0 to 6 dB
• enabled by mobile assisted handoff

49
Hand-off strategies
Reuse Ratio:
• For hexagonal cell reuse distance is given by
D=R(√3N)
• Where R is cell size or cell radius and N is cluster size
• D increases as we increase N
• Reuse factor is given by
Q=D/R=(√3N)

50
Interference and system capacity
• Interference is a major performance limiting factor in cellular radio
• It limits capacity thereby increasing the number of dropped calls

• Interference are difficult to control in practice largely due to random

propagation effects

• Sources of interference include

• Another mobile in the same cell or in a neighboring cell
• Other BSs operating in the same frequency band
• Any cellular (e.g., from competing cellular carriers) or non-cellular system which inadvertently
leaks energy into the cellular frequency band

51
Interference and system capacity
Effects
• Interference in the voice channels causes crosstalk
• A subscriber hears interference in the background due to an undesired
transmission

• Interference in the control channels causes error in digital signaling

which causes
• Missed calls
• Blocked calls
• Dropped calls

• Interference is more severe in urban areas, due to the greater RF noise

floor and the large number of base stations and mobiles
52
Interference and system capacity
Types
• There are two major types of Interferences:
• Co-channel Interference (CCI)
• Adjacent channel Interference (ACI)

 CCI is caused due to the cells that reuse the same frequency set
 These cells using the same frequency set are referred to as co-channel cells

 ACI is caused due to signals that are adjacent in frequency

53
Interference and system capacity
Co-Channel Interference – First-tier Interference
First-tier co-channel BSs

D1
D6

D5 D2

D4
D3

Serving Base Station

54
Interference and system capacity
Co-Channel Interference – First-tier Interference
• Unlike thermal noise, CCI cannot be overcome by increasing the carrier
power of a transmitter
• This is because, any increase in the transmitter power also increases the
interference to other co-channel cells

• Instead, co-channel cells must be physically separated by a minimum

distance to provide sufficient isolation due to propagation
• To reduce CCI the co-channel cells must be sufficiently separated

• Co-channel interference is a function of

• The radius of the cell, R, and
• The distance to the center of the nearest co-channel cell, Di

55
Interference and system capacity
Co-Channel Interference – First-tier Interference
• For a hexagonal geometry, the co-channel reuse ratio, Q is related to the
cluster size
D
Q   3N
R

• It determines the spatial separation relative to the coverage distance of the

cell
• N small gives Q small
• Provides a larger capacity (i.e., can re-use more), but higher CCI
• N large means Q large
• Better transmission quality due to a small level of co-channel interference but small
capacity

• Hence there is capacity vs. interference tradeoff

56
Interference and system capacity
Co-Channel Interference

57
Interference and system capacity
Signal-to-Interference Ratio
• Signal-to-interference ratio (S/I) for a mobile which monitors a forward
channel is S S
 m

I
I
j
j 1

• Where S: desired signal power, Ij: interference caused by the jth co-channel cell, and m:
first-tier co-channels cells
• The average received power at a distance d from the transmitting antenna is
approx. by
n
d  d
Pr  Po   or Pr (dB)  P0 (dB)  10n log( )
 do  d0
• Where Po is the received power at a close-in reference distance in the far-field and n is
the path-loss exponent
• The path loss exponent, n, ranges between 2 and 6
58
Interference and system capacity
Signal-to-Interference Ratio
• If Di is the distance of the ith interferer, the received power
is proportional to ( Di )n
• If transmit power of each BS is equal & n is the same throughout the
coverage area, S/I for a mobile is approx. as
S R n
 m

 (D )
I n
i
i 1

• To simplify, assume all first-tier interferers are equidistance

S  R  
D n n
3N
 
I m m
• This relates S/I to the cluster size, and in turn determines the overall capacity of the system
• Puts a limits on how low we may set N
59
Interference and system capacity
Signal-to-Interference Ratio
• For a hexagonal cluster of R
cells with the MS situated
D
at the center of the cell
D
D
 
n
S 1D 1
    3N n

I 6 R  6 D
D
D
• As long as all cells are of the
same size, S/I is independent of
the cell radius, R

60
Interference and system capacity
Signal-to-Interference Ratio – Example 1
• Design parameters:
• Desired S/I = 15dB
• Path-loss exponent n = 4
• Assume that there are six co-channel cells in the first tier and all of them are at
the same distance from the mobile

• What is the required re-use factor and cluster size that should be used
for maximum capacity?

61
Interference and system capacity
Signal-to-Interference Ratio – Example 1
Six co-channel cells in the first tier
 Let’s try for N= 4. The co-channel • Let’s try: N= 7
re-use ratio is
D
 3.46 D
 4.58
R R
 And the signal-to-interference
  4.58 
S 1 4

ratio is I 6
 73.5  18.66 dB
 3.46   24  13.8 dB
S 1 4

I 6
• Which is greater than
 Smaller than the desired 15 the desired
dB • Hence, N=7 can be used
 We must move to the next reuse • The frequency reuse factor
distance = 1/7
62
Interference and system capacity
Signal-to-Interference Ratio – Example 2 - Repeat Example 1 for n = 3
Solution
 Let’s try for a seven-cell reuse pattern, i.e. N= 7. Like the previous example
 4.58  16.04  12.05 dB
D S 1
 4.58
3
and
R I 6

 Which is smaller than the desired 15 dB, hence we need to use larger N
 Let us try N=12
 6.00   36  15.56 dB
D S 1
 6.00 
3
and
R I 6

 Since this is greater than 15 dB, N=12 can be used

 Note: n=3 is typical value for sub-urban area
Exercise: Try for n=2, which represents rural area

63
Interference and system capacity
Summary - Re-Use Factor for n=2, n=3, and n=4
30

25 Path loss n= 2
Path loss n = 3
Path loss n=4
20
SIR in dB

15
N=7 N=12
10

-5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Cluster Size, N 64
 Interference and system capacity
Worst Case Calculation of S/I

• The MS is at the cell boundary

• The approximate S/I is given by:

S R n

I 2D  R  n  2D  n  2D  R  n

S 1
 
I 2Q  1n  2Q n  2Q  1n

65
Interference and system capacity
Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
Results from signals that are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal
• Due to imperfect receiver filters, that allow nearby frequencies to leak

• Near-far effect: The adjacent channel interference is particularly serious.

This occurs when:
• When an interferer close to the BS radiates in the adjacent channel, while the
subscriber is far away from the BS
• The BS may not discriminate the desired mobile user from the “bleed over” caused by the
close adjacent channel mobile
• Or, an interferer which is in close range to the subscriber’s receiver, is
transmitting while the receiver receives from the BS

66
Interference and system capacity
Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
Near-Far Effect - Interferer Close to BS
• One solution is power control, i.e., reducing the power level transmitted by
mobiles close to the BS

Interferer Subscriber

67
Interference and system capacity
Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
Near-Far Effect - Interferer Close to BS

Interferer Subscriber

68
Interference and system capacity
Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
• ACI can be reduced by
• Careful filtering
• Careful channel assignment
• The frequency separation between each channel in a cell should be made as
large as possible
• Assign non-adjacent channels within each cell’s channel group

Example: Assign S = 50 channels into groups for N = 7.

• Solution
• There are about k = 50/7 ≈ 7 channels per cell
• For group 1, use forward channels {1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, 43, 50}
• For group i, i = 2, . . . 7, let the channels for group i consist of {i, i +7, i + 14, i + 21, i + 28,
i + 35, i + 42}

69
Interference and system capacity
Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
• Example: The frequency separation between each channel in a cell
should be made as large as possible while assigning them

70
Interference and system capacity
Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
• If a subscriber is at a distance d1 and the interferer is d2 from the base
station, then SIR (prior to filtering) is:
n
S  d1 
  
I  d2 

• Example
• Suppose a subscriber is at d1 = 1000m from the BS and an adjacent channel
interferer is at d2 = 100m from the BS
• Assume: Path-loss exponent is n = 3
• The signal-to-Interference ratio prior to filtering is then
n 3
S  d1   1000 
     10 3   30 dB
I  d 2   100 
71
Interference and system capacity
Power Control to Reduce Interference
• In practice, power levels transmitted by every subscriber are under
constant control by the serving BS
• Each MS transmits with the smallest power necessary
• In power control
1. Reduces the transmit power level of MSs close to the BS since a high TX power is not
necessary in this case
2. MSs located far away must transmit with larger power than those nearby
• Advantages of power control
• Reduces out-of-band interference
• Prolongs battery life
• Even reduces co-channel interference on reverse channels

72
Trunking and grade of services
• Trunking accommodates large & random users:
• By providing access to each user on demand from a pool of available channels
• When a user requests service and if all channels are in use
1. The user is blocked, or denied access to the system
2. In some systems, a queue may be used to hold the requesting users until
a channel becomes available
• Upon termination of the call, the previously occupied channel is immediately
returned to the pool

• Designing a trunked system, that can handle a given capacity at a

specific “grade of service”, requires trunking and queuing theories

73
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Definition of Terms
• Setup time: The time required to allocate a radio channel to a
requesting user
• Users request may be blocked or have to wait
• Blocked Call: A call that cannot be completed at the time of request
due to congestion
• Also called lost call => lost revenue, e.g., pick hours, holidays, …

• Holding time: Average call duration in seconds, denoted ‘H’

• Depends on users and operator's tariff
• Request (or call) rate: Average number of calls per unit time, denoted
‘λ’ seconds-1
• Typically taken to be at the busiest time of day
• Depends on type of users community: Office, residential, call center, …
74
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Definition of Terms
• Traffic Intensity: A measure of channel time utilization
• Is the average channel occupancy measured in Erlang, denoted by ‘A’
• Load: Traffic intensity across the entire trunked radio system
• Measured in Erlang

• Erlang: A “unit” of measure of usage or traffic intensity

• A channel kept busy for one hour is defined as having a load of one Erlang
• Grade of Service (GoS): Measure of congestion (or ability of a user to access a
trunked system) during the busiest hour
• Typically given as likelihood that a call is blocked, called Erlang B or
• The likelihood of a call experiencing a delay greater than a certain amount of
time, called Erlang C

75
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking
Average arrival rate, λ:
• Average number of MSs requesting service (call request/time)
• Average hold-time, H
• Average duration of a call (or time for which MS requires service)

• An average traffic intensity offered (generated) by each user

Au  H (Erlangs)
Example-1:
If a user makes on average two calls per hour, and that a call lasts an
average of 3 minutes 2
Au  3 min  0.1 Erlang
60 min
76
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking

Example-2:

In a cell with 100 MSs average of 30 requests are generated in an hour

with average holding time of 6 minutes.

Solution:

The arrival rate:   30 60 calls / min  1 2 calls / min

Offered load is: 1

Au  calls / min * 6 min/ call  3 Erlangs
2
77
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking
• The total offered traffic intensity for ‘U’ users A  UAu
• Note: A is not necessarily the traffic carried by the trunked system

• In a ‘C’ channel trunked system, if traffic is distributed equally among

channels, then traffic intensity per channel
UAu A
AC  
C C

Exampl-3:
Assume that there are 100 users and 20 channels in example 1 give above.
• Then A = 100(0.1)= 10 and Ac = 10/20 = 0.5
• Note: Ac is a measure of the efficiency of channels utilization

78
Trunking and grade of services
• Offered traffic is not necessarily the traffic carried by the trunked
system, only that is offered to the system
• Maximum possible carried traffic is the total number of channels, C, in Erlangs

• AMPS system is designed for a GOS of 2% blocking

• Channel allocations for cells are designed so that 2 out of 100 calls will be
blocked due to channel occupancy during the busiest hour

• What do we do when a call is offered (requested) but all channels are

full?
• Blocked calls cleared? Offers no queuing for call requests, Erlang B
• Blocked calls delayed? Erlang C

79
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Blocked Calls Cleared
1. Calls arrival request follows a ‘Poisson distribution’
2. Memoryless arrivals of requests
• I.e., all users, including blocked users, may request a channel at any time
3. The probability of a call durations (or a user occupying a channel) is
‘exponentially distributed’
• I.e., longer calls are less likely to occur
4. There are “infinite number of users” and “finite channels”
• Rather than a finite number U of users each requesting Au traffic, set the total
offered traffic as a constant A, and then let U   and Au  0 in a way that
preserves A = UAu

• These assumptions leads to the Erlang B formula

• Also known as the “blocked calls cleared formula”
80
Trunking and grade of services
Erlang B Formula - Table Form

81
Trunking and grade of services
Erlang B Formula - Graphical Form

82
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Blocked Calls Delayed
• Instead of clearing a call, put it in a queue and have it wait until a channel is
available
• First-in, first-out line: Calls will be processed in the order received

• There are two things to determine here

1. The probability a call will be delayed (enter the queue), and
2. The probability that the delay will be longer than ‘t’ seconds

• The first is no longer the same as Erlang B

• It goes up, because blocked calls aren’t cleared, they “stick around” and wait for the
first open channel

• Meaning of GOS
• The probability that a call will be forced into the queue AND it will wait longer than t
seconds before being served (for some given t)
83
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Blocked Calls Delayed
• Additional assumptions:
1. The queue is infinitely long: Translates to infinite memory
2. No one who is queued gives up/hangs up (rather than wait)

• The probability of an arriving call not having an immediate access to a

channel (or being delayed) is given by Erlang C Formula.
Ac
Pr [delay  0] 
A C 1 Ak
A  C!(1  )
c

C k  0 k!

• It is typically easiest to find a result from a chart

84
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Blocked Calls Delayed
• Once it enters the queue, the probability that the delay is greater than t
(for t > 0) is given as
 CA 
Pr [delay  t delay  0]  exp  t
 H 

• GOS: The marginal (overall) probability that a call will be delayed AND
experience a delay greater than t is then
Pr [delay  t ]  Pr [delay  0]Pr [delay  t | delay  0]
 CA 
 Pr [delay  0] exp  t
 H 

• The average delay for all calls in a queued system

H
D  Pr [delay  0]
CA 85
Trunking and grade of services
Trunking – Blocked Calls Delayed [Erlang C Formula - Graphical Form]

86
Trunking and grade of services
Example-4:

How many users can be supported for 0.5% blocking probability for the
following number of trunked channels in a blocked calls cleared system?
Assume each user generates 0.1 Erlangs of traffic.

a. 5 c. 20

b. 10 d . 100

87
Trunking and grade of services
Solution

Using Erlangs B table, we can find the total capacity

in Erlangs for the 0.5% GOS for different numbers
of channels.
By using the relation A  UAu , we can obtain the
total number of users that can be supported in
the system.

88
Trunking and grade of services
Solution
a. Given C  5, Au  0.1, GOS  0.005

From Erlang B traffic table, we obtain A  1.13

Therefore, total number of users is :

U  A/Au  1.13 / 0.1  11 users

b. Given C  10 , Au  0.1, GOS  0.005

From Erlang B traffic table, we obtain A  3.96

Therefore, total number of users is :

U  A/Au  3.96 / 0.1  39 users

89
Trunking and grade of services
Solution
c. Given C  20 , Au  0.1, GOS  0.005

From Erlang B traffic table, we obtain A  11.10

Therefore, total number of users is :

U  A/Au  11.1/ 0.1  110 users

d . Given C  100 , Au  0.1, GOS  0.005

From Erlang B traffic table, we obtain A  80.9

Therefore, total number of user is :

U  A/Au  80.9 / 0.1  809 users 90

Trunking and grade of services
Example-5:

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.
91
Trunking and grade of services
Assuming that all three trunked systems are operated at maximum
capacity, compute the percentage market penetration of each cellular
provider.

Solution:
System A :
Probabilit y of blocking  2%  0.02
Number of channels per cell used in the system, C  19
Traffic intensity per user, Au  H  2 * ( 3 / 60 )
 0.1 Erlangs 92
Trunking and grade of services
For GOS  0.02 and C  19, from the Erlang B table,

the total carried traffic, A, is obtained as 12 Erlangs.

Therefore, the number of users that can be supported

per cell is :

U  A/Au  12 / 0.1  120

Since there are 394 cells , the total number of subscribers

that can be supported by System A is equal to :

120 * 394  47280

93
Trunking and grade of services
System B :
Probability of blocking  2%  0.02
Number of channels per cell used in the system, C  57
Traffic intensity per user, Au  H  2 * ( 3 / 60 )
 0.1 Erlangs
For GOS  0.02 and C  57, from the Erlang B table,
the total carried traffic, A, is obtained as 45 Erlangs.

94
Trunking and grade of services

Therefore, the number of users that can be supported

per cell is :

U  A/Au  45 / 0.1  450

Since there are 98 cells, the total number of subscriber

that can be supported by System B is equal to :

450 * 98  44 ,100

95
Trunking and grade of services
System C :

Probabilit y of blocking  2%  0.02

Number of channels per cell used in the system, C  100

Traffic intensity per user, Au  λλH  2 * ( 3 / 60 )

 0.1 Erlangs

For GOS  0.02 and C  100, from the Erlang B table,

the total carried traffic, A, is obtained as 88 Erlangs.

96
Trunking and grade of services

Therefore, the number of users that can be supported

per cell is :

U  A/Au  88 / 0.1  880

Since there are 49 cells, the total number of subscribers

that can be supported by System C is equal to :

880 * 49  43,120

97
Trunking and grade of services

Therefore, the number of users that can be supported

per cell is :

U  A/Au  88 / 0.1  880

Since there are 49 cells, the total number of subscribers

that can be supported by System C is equal to :

880 * 49  43,120

98
Trunking and grade of services

Therefore, total number of cellular subscribers that can

be supported by these three systems are :

47 ,280  44 ,100  43,120  134 ,500 users

Since there are 2 million residents in the given urban

area, the percentage market penetratio n by each system

is given below.

99
Trunking and grade of services
47,280
Market penetratio n of System A is equal to :  2.36%
2,000,000

44,100
Market penetratio n of System B is equal to :  2.205 %
2,000,000

43,120
Market penetratio n of System C is equal to :  2.156 %
2,000,000

The market penetratio n of the three systems combined is equal to :

134,500
 6.725 %
2,000,000

100
Trunking and grade of services
Example-5:

A certain city has an area of 1,300 square miles and is covered by a cellular system using a
seven-cell reuse pattern. Each cell has a radius of four miles and the city is allocated 40
MHz of spectrum with a full duplex channel bandwidth of 60 kHz. Assume a GOS of 2% for
an Erlang B system is specified. If the offered traffic per user is 0.03 Erlangs, determine:
a. the number of cells in the service area

b. the number of channels per cell

c. traffic intensity of each cell

d. the maximum carried traffic

e. the total number of users that can be served for 2% GOS

101
Trunking and grade of services
• Solution
a. Total coverage area, Atot  1300 sq.mil , and
cell radius, R  4 miles
The area of a cell (hexagon) can be shown to be,
Acell  2.5981R 2

Thus, each cell covers Acell  2.5981* ( 4 )2  41.57 sq. mil.

Hence, the total number of cells are :
N cell  1300 / 41.57  31 cells

102
Trunking and grade of services
• Solution
b. The total number of channels per cell (C ) is :

BWtot 40,000,000
C   95 channels/cell
BWchan * N 60,000 * 7

c. C  95 and GOS  0.02

From the Erlang B traffic table, we have :

Traffic intensity per cell, Acell  84 Erlangs/cell

d . Maximum carried traffic, Atot  N cell * Acell

 31 * 84  2604 Erlangs
103
Trunking and grade of services
• Solution
b. The total number of channels per cell (C ) is :

BWtot 40,000,000
C   95 channels/cell
BWchan * N 60,000 * 7

c. C  95 and GOS  0.02

From the Erlang B traffic table, we have :

Traffic intensity per cell, Acell  84 Erlangs/cell

d . Maximum carried traffic, Atot  N cell * Acell

 31 * 84  2604 Erlangs
104
Trunking and grade of services
• Solution

e. Given traf fic per user, Au  0.03 Erlangs

Total traffic Atot

Total number of users, U tot  
Traffic per user Au

2604
  86,800 users
0.03

105
Trunking and grade of services
Exercise 6:

A hexagonal cell within a four-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 10 s?

c. What is the probability that a call will be delayed for more than 10 seconds?

106
Improving Capacity
• A network may need to expand because of
• Increase in traffic or demand for service
• Or because of a change in the environment (e.g., a new building)

• As traffic increases, the channels originally assigned to each cell will be

congested

• System designers have to provide more channels per unit coverage area

• Common techniques
• Cell splitting, sectoring, microcell zoning, and use of repeaters
107
Improving Capacity
Cell splitting
• Cell splitting: Process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells (called
microcells), where each cell has
• Its own BS (increase in BSs deployed) and
• Reduction in the transmitter power and antenna height

• Splitting the cells reduces the cell size and thus more number of cells have to
be used
• More number of cells = > more number of clusters => more channels => higher capacity
• Cell splitting allows a system to grow by replacing large cells by small cells
without new spectrum usage
• Additional channels per unit area are created
108
Improving Capacity
Cell splitting Large cell
(low density)
• Depending on traffic patterns,
the smaller cells may be Small cell
activated/deactivated in (high density)
order to efficiently use cell
resources

• The co-channel re-use factor

D/R is unchanged
• Only increases the
number of channels per Smaller
unit area cell (higher
density)

109
Improving Capacity
Cell splitting- Example
• Suppose the radius of cell is reduced by half
• To cover the entire area, Approx. four times microcells are required
 area covered by such a circle is 4 * area of circle with radius R/2
• What is the required transmit power for these new cells?
• We have: n
• Power at the boundary of un-split cell:
Pu  Ptu R
• Power at the boundary of a new microcell: Pmc  Ptmc ( R / 2)  n
• Where Ptu : transmitted power for un-split cell, Pmc : transmitted power from for
microcell

• For same CCI (S/N) performance Pu = Pmc implies

Ptmc  Ptu / 2 n

110
Improving Capacity
Cell splitting-Example
• For n = 4; (a typical suburban area)
Ptu
Ptm c 
16
• Thus, the transmit power must be reduced by 12dB in order to fill in the
original coverage area with microcells, while maintaining the S/I
requirement

111
Improving Capacity
Cell splitting-Example 2

4 Cell Cluster
7 Cell Cluster

Smaller Cells

7 Cell Cluster
12 Cell Cluster

• Typical city cellular radio cell plan – different cell sizes and
clusters
• Combination of cell size and cluster size to increase capacity 112
Improving Capacity
Cell splitting-Example
• Suppose a congested service area is originally covered by
• 5 Cells
• Each with 80 Channels
• Capacity = 5*80 = 400
• After Splitting: R  R / 2
new
• Let
• We now have 20 cells to cover the region
• New Capacity = 20*80 = 1600
 In general, the relationship in capacity between cell splitting and subscriber addition can
be expressed as
Cn  4 C
n

 Where Cn : network capacity after “n” times cell splitting and C: Network capacity
before cell splitting
113
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring
• Sectoring uses directional antennas to further control interference and
frequency reuse

• As opposed to cell splitting, where D/R is kept constant while decreasing R, in

sectoring keeps R untouched and reduces the D/R ratio
• Capacity improvement is achieved by reducing the number of cells per
cluster, thus increasing frequency reuse
114
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring
• In order to do this, it is necessary to reduce the relative interference
without decreasing the transmitter power

• CCI is reduced by replacing single omni-directional antenna by several

directional antennas, each radiating within a specified sector

• A directional antenna transmits to and receives from only a fraction of

the total number of co-channel cells
• Thus CCI is reduced

• CCI reduction factor depends on the amount of sectoring

• A cell is normally partitioned into three 120⁰ sectors or six 60⁰ sectors
115
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring

116
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring
• Assume 7 cell reuse and
1200 sector
• Number of interference
in the first tier reduces
from 6 to 2
• Significant compared to
omni-directional case
• Sectored groups

117
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring
For a 7-cell cluster, the MS will receive
signals from only 2 other clusters (instead of
6 in an omni-directional antenna)

For worst case, when mobile is at the

edge of the cell

R n
SIR   n
D  ( D  0. 7 R )  n

Desired channel Interfering co-channel cells @ D distance

118
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring
• Increased number of antennas at each BS

• Decrease in trunking efficiency due to sectoring

• Dividing the bigger pool of channels into smaller groups

• Increased number of handoffs (sector-to-sector)

• Good news: Many modern BSs support sectoring and related handoffs
without the help of the MSC

119
Improving Capacity
Cell Sectoring- Modern BSs

1
2 120o
1-1 3
2
1-2
1-3
Sector in use CCI

120
Improving Capacity
Microcell Zone concept
• The problems of sectoring, i.e., increased handoff, can be addressed by
the Microcell Zone concept

• A cell is divided into microcells or zones

• Each microcell (zone) is connected to the same base station via fiber,
microwave link, or coaxial
• Each zone uses a directional antenna
• As a MS travels from one zone to another, it retains the same channel,
i.e., no handoff
• The BS simply switches the channel to the next zone site
121
Improving Capacity
Microcell Zone concept • Let each cell be divided
into three zones

Zone
Selector

122
Improving Capacity
Microcell Zone concept
• While the cell maintains a particular coverage area, the CCI is reduces
because:
• The large central BS is replaced by several low power transmitters
• Directional antennas are used

• Decreases CCI, improves

• Signal Quality
• Capacity

123
Improving Capacity
Microcell Zone concept

124
Improving Capacity
Microcell Zone concept
• Example:
• Suppose the desired S/I = 18 dB,
• Path loss exponent n = 4,
• How much capacity increase can occur if we use Microcell zoning with 3
zones per cell?

• Solution
• To achieve S/I = 18 dB, we need N=7
• Now we create 3 zones within a cell
• The cluster size has been reduced to N = 3
• A capacity increase factor of 7/3 = 2.33
125
Improving Capacity
Repeaters for Range Extension
Useful for hard-to-reach areas
• Within buildings or basements
• Tunnels
• Valleys
• Radio transmitters, called repeaters, can be used to provide coverage in
these areas
• Repeaters are bi-directional
• Receive signals from BSs
• Amplify the signals
• Re-radiate the signals
• Problem: received noise and interference is also reradiated!
126
Summary
• Concepts such as handoff, frequency reuse, trunking efficiency, and
frequency planning are covered
• Capacity of cellular system is a function of many things,
• E.g., S/I that limits frequency reuse, which intern limits the number of channels
within the coverage area
• Trunking efficiency limits the number of users that can access a trunked
radio system
• Capacity can be improved by cell splitting, sectoring, and the zone
microcell techniques

127
Last slide

128