Wireless Communication

Instructor : Dr. Dil Nashin Anwar

WIRELESS WIDE AREA NETWORKS (PART-I) Introduction to mobile telephony, the conventional mobile telephone service
– basis limitations; The concept of cellular telephony – how cellular telephony works; channel assignment,
interference; capacity augmentation techniques – frequency re-use, cell sectoring, cell splitting, handoff.
Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN)
• Definition: A WWAN provides wireless communication over large
areas, often using cellular technology.
• Key Technologies: GSM, CDMA, LTE, 5G
• Characteristics: Global Coverage: Can span cities, countries, and even
continents.
• Lower Speed: Generally slower than WLAN but designed for mobility.
• Infrastructure Dependent: Relies on cellular towers and service
providers.
• Applications: Mobile internet access
WWAN
• Definition: A WWAN is a wireless network that covers large
geographic areas, enabling mobile communication over long
distances.
• Key Technologies:
• Mobile telephony (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G)
• Satellite communication
• Applications: Used for cellular communication, connecting mobile
devices to the internet, voice calls, and multimedia.
Conventional mobile telephone systems & its
limitations:
Conventional mobile telephone systems, also known as first-generation
(1G) systems, have several limitations that led to the development of
cellular mobile systems:
Limited service capability
• Communications coverage area of each zone is planned to be as large
as possible, requiring high transmitted power
• User has to reinitiate the call when moving into a new zone, as the
call will be dropped
• No guarantee that a call can be completed without a handoff
capability
Conventional mobile telephone systems & its
limitations:
Inefficient frequency spectrum utilization
• Number of active users limited to the number of channels assigned to
a particular frequency zone. Limited bandwidth is divided into limited
number of users.
Poor service performance
• High blocking probability during busy hours due to large number of
subscribers
Conventional mobile telephone systems & its
limitations:
Lack of handoff capability
• User has to reinitiate the call when moving into a new zone, as the
call will be dropped
• No automatic process of changing frequencies as the mobile unit
moves into a different frequency zone

Limited Infrastructure: Limited customers can be served

High costs: More demand , More escalation
Cellular Telephone System:

MS (Mobile Station) or MU (Mobile Unit)

Cellular Telephone System:

Schematic Diagram of a Cellular Telephone System

Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
• The Mobile Switching Center (MSC) is a critical component in the core of cellular networks. Its
primary job is to manage and route calls, texts, and data between mobile users and other
networks.
Functions of MSC:
• Call Setup and Termination: The MSC establishes and terminates voice calls by connecting mobile
users to the correct recipient, either another mobile device or a landline.
• Handoff Management: MSC handles the handoff process when a user moves between cells,
ensuring the call continues without interruption.
• Mobility Management: It tracks the location of mobile devices within its area using data from
Home Location Registers (HLR) and Visitor Location Registers (VLR).
• Interfacing with Other Networks: MSC connects the mobile network to other MSC units and to
external networks like the PSTN and Internet.
• Billing and Authentication: MSC manages billing records, charging subscribers for usage, and
performs authentication to ensure only authorized users can access the network.
• SMS Handling: It also manages the sending and receiving of SMS (Short Message Service) texts.
Cellular technology Advantages:
Increased capacity
• Dividing the coverage area into smaller cells allows reuse of frequencies in different cells,
greatly increasing the number of subscribers that can be served
• Each cell can use the same set of frequencies as long as the cells are sufficiently
separated geographically to avoid interference
Improved spectrum efficiency
• Cellular systems use the available spectrum more efficiently by reusing frequencies in
different cells
• Smaller cells require less transmitter power, allowing the same frequencies to be reused
in different cells
Handoff capability
• Allows a call to continue as a mobile user travels between cells during a conversation
• Enables uninterrupted service as the user moves between cells
Cellular technology Advantages:
Increased reliability
• Cellular systems are more robust as they are decentralized, with multiple
base stations and no single point of failure
• If one cell site fails, others can pick up the traffic
Flexibility and scalability
• Cells can be added or removed as needed to accommodate changes in
usage patterns or subscriber density
• Allows for expansion of capacity and coverage as demand grows
Improved coverage
• Smaller cells provide better coverage in difficult terrain and urban areas
with buildings and other obstacles
Why Hexagonal cell shapes?
Hexagonal cell shapes are preferred in cellular network design for several reasons, making them superior to square or triangular shapes:
Efficient Coverage: The hexagonal shape provides the most efficient and uniform coverage without any gaps or overlaps, ensuring that cells
fully cover the service area without leaving dead zones or creating excessive overlap. This is harder to achieve with squares or triangles.

Equal Distance Between Centers: In a hexagonal grid, each cell's distance to its neighbouring cell centers is the same. This symmetry helps in
maintaining a more consistent signal strength and quality across the coverage area, which is crucial for handoff and load balancing in cellular
networks.

Minimizes Interference: The use of hexagonal shapes helps to minimize interference between neighbouring cells. Since hexagons can fit
together perfectly without any gaps, the number of neighbouring cells a base station communicates with is consistent, and frequency planning
can be done effectively.

Better Approximation of Circular Coverage: While the coverage area of a cell tower is usually a circle (as the signal radiates in all directions), a
hexagon is a better approximation of a circle compared to squares or triangles. This makes hexagons more appropriate for representing actual
coverage areas.

Simplified Frequency Reuse: Hexagonal cells facilitate easier frequency reuse patterns due to their symmetry. This allows network designers to
more effectively reuse frequencies at greater distances, which is critical for improving network capacity while minimizing interference.
Why not square or octagon ?
How call is connected?
When call is coming to MU (Mobile Unit)
How call is connected?
When MU starts call

MIN (Mobile Identification Number)-Purpose: The MIN is a unique

identifier assigned to a mobile phone by the service provider. It is used
to identify a subscriber within the network.
ESN (Electronic Serial Number)-Purpose: The ESN is a unique number
that identifies the mobile device itself, regardless of the phone number
or subscriber.
SCM (Station Class Mark)- Purpose: The SCM is a parameter sent by
the mobile phone to the network that provides information about the
capabilities and class of the mobile device.
Cellular Technology:

Mobile Unit: Antenna, Circuitry, SIM card

Base Station: Act as a bridge between MU/MS and MSC,
consist of several full duplex channels, BS is assigned a small
number channels which are different from the neighbouring
Base Station.
Mobile Switching Centre: Coordinates activities of all BS and
connects with PSTN
Frequency reuse:
Frequency reuse is the technique of using the same radio
frequencies across several cell sites in a cellular network.
The cells are organized so that the same frequencies can
be reused in non-adjacent cells, which leads to reducing
interference and increasing spectrum efficiency.

Figure. Illustration of the cellular frequency reuse

concept. Cells with the same letter use the same set of
frequencies. A cell cluster is outlined in bold and
replicated over the coverage area. In this example, the
cluster size, N, is equal to seven, and the frequency reuse
factor is 1/7 (1/N) since each cell contains one-seventh of
the total number of available channels.
Frequency reuse:
Cellular radio systems rely on an intelligent allocation and reuse of channels throughout a coverage region.
Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels to be used within a small geographic area called
a cell.
Base stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel groups which contain completely different channels than
neighbouring cells.
The base station antennas are designed to achieve the desired coverage within the particular cell.
By limiting the coverage area to within the boundaries of a cell, the same group of channels may be used to
cover different cells that are separated from one another by distances large enough to keep interference levels
within tolerable limits.
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.
Frequency reuse:
To understand the frequency reuse concept, consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels
available for use. If each cell is allocated a group of k channels (k < S), and if the S channels are divided among
N cells into unique and disjoint channel groups which each have the same number of channels, the total number
of available radio channels can be expressed as
S = kN

The N cells which collectively use the complete set of available frequencies is called a cluster. If a cluster is
replicated M times within the system, the total number of duplex channels, C, can be used as a measure of
capacity and is given by:

C = MkN = MS
frequency reuse pattern
The nearest co-channel neighbors of a particular cell can be obtained by the following two steps
• (i) Moving i cells along any chain of hexagons.
• (ii) Turn 60 degrees counter-clockwise and move j cells.

Equation for frequency reuse pattern:

Q1: If a total of 33 MHz of bandwidth is allocated to a particular
FDD cellular telephone system which uses two 25 kHz simplex
channels to provide full duplex voice and control channels,
compute the number of channels available per cell if a system
uses (a) four-cell reuse, (b) seven-cell reuse, and (c) 12-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.
Channel Assignment Strategies

For efficient utilization of the radio spectrum, a frequency reuse scheme that is
consistent with the objectives of increasing capacity and minimizing interference is
required. A variety of channel assignment strategies have been developed to achieve
these objectives.
Channel assignment strategies can be classified as either fixed or dynamic.

The choice of channel assignment strategy impacts the performance of the system,
particularly as to how calls are managed when a mobile user is handed off from one
cell to another.
Fixed channel assignment strategy
Each cell is allocated a predetermined set 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 that cell are occupied, the call is blocked and the subscriber
does not receive service.
Several variations of the fixed assignment strategy exist.
In one approach, called the borrowing strategy, a cell is allowed to borrow channels
from a neighbouring cell if all of its own channels are already occupied. The mobile
switching center (MSC) supervises such borrowing procedures and ensures that the
borrowing of a channel does not disrupt or interfere with any of the calls in progress
in the donor cell.
Dynamic channel assignment strategy
Voice channels are not allocated to any cells permanently.
Instead, each time a call request is made, the serving base station requests a channel
from the MSC. The switch then allocates a channel to the requested cell following
an algorithm that takes into account the likelihood of future blocking within the cell,
the frequency of use of the candidate channel, the reuse distance of the channel, and
other cost functions. Accordingly, the MSC only allocates a given frequency if that
frequency is not presently in use in the cell or any other cell which falls within the
minimum restricted distance of frequency reuse to avoid co-channel interference.
 Dynamic channel assignment strategy:
Disadvantages: Require the MSC to collect real-time data on channel
occupancy, traffic distribution, and radio signal strength indications (RSSI)
of all channels on a continuous basis. This increases the storage and
computational load on the system.

Advantages: Increased channel utilization and decreased probability of a

blocked call.
Interference:
Interference is caused by other signals that are unintentionally picked up by
the communication system. These signals can come from other electronic
devices, communication systems, or users operating in the same or
neighbouring frequency bands.

Co-channel interference: Occurs when two transmitters use the same

frequency.
Adjacent channel interference: Occurs when signals from neighbouring
frequency channels spill over into the desired channel.
Is noise same as Interference?
SNR vs SIR?
Co-channel interference
• When the size of each cell is approximately the same and the base stations transmit the same power, the
co-channel interference ratio is independent of the transmitted power and becomes a function of the
• radius of the cell (R) and the
• distance between centres of the nearest co-channel cells (D).
By increasing the ratio of D/R, the spatial separation between co-channel cells relative to the coverage
distance of a cell is increased. Thus, interference is reduced from improved isolation of RF energy from
the co-channel cell. The parameter Q, called the co-channel reuse ratio, is related to the cluster size. For a
hexagonal geometry:

Q = D/R = sqrt(3N)

• A small value of Q provides larger capacity since the cluster size N is small, whereas a large value of Q improves the
transmission quality, due to a smaller level of co-channel interference.
• A trade-off must be made between these two objectives in actual cellular design
Co-channel interference
Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells. Then, the signal-to-
interference ratio (S/I or SIR) for a mobile receiver which monitors a
forward channel can be expressed as:
Co-channel interference
Considering only the first layer of interfering cells, if all the interfering base stations
are equidistant from the desired base station and if this distance is equal to the
distance D between cell centres,

i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells

n: path loss exponent typically ranges between

two and four in urban cellular systems
Adjacent Channel Interference

Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal is called adjacent
channel interference. Adjacent channel interference results from imperfect receiver filters which allow nearby
frequencies to leak into the passband.
Adjacent channel interference can be minimized through careful filtering and channel assignments. Since each
cell is given only a fraction of the available channels, a cell need not be assigned channels which are all adjacent
in frequency. By keeping the frequency separation between each channel in a given cell as large as possible, the
adjacent channel interference may be reduced considerably. Thus instead of assigning channels which form a
contiguous band of frequencies within a particular cell, channels are allocated such that the frequency separation
between channels in a given cell is maximized.
As the demand for wireless service increases, the number of channels assigned to a cell eventually becomes
insufficient to support the required number of users. At this point, cellular design techniques are needed to
provide more channels per unit coverage area. Techniques such as cell splitting, sectoring are used in practice to
expand the capacity of cellular systems.

1st layer co-channels

Cell Splitting
Cell splitting is the process of subdividing a congested
cell into smaller cells, each with its own base station
and a corresponding reduction in antenna height and
transmitter power.

Cell splitting increases the capacity of a cellular system

since it increases the number of times that channels are
reused.
By defining new cells which have a smaller radius than
the original cells and by installing these smaller cells
(called microcells) between the existing cells, capacity
increases due to the additional number of channels per
unit area.
Illustration of cell splitting
Cell Splitting
For the new cells to be smaller in size, the transmit power of these cells must be reduced. The transmit power of
the new cells with radius half that of the original cells can be found by examining the received power Pr at the
new and old cell boundaries and setting them equal to each other. This is necessary to ensure that the frequency
reuse plan for the new microcells behaves exactly as for the original cells.

where Pt1 and Pt2 are the transmit powers of the larger and smaller cell base stations, respectively, and n is the path
loss exponent. If we take n = 4 and set the received powers equal to each other, then

In other words, the transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB in order to fill in the original
coverage area with microcells, while maintaining the S/I requirement
Cell Splitting
Advantages
• Increases the capacity of the channel considerably.
• Enhances dependability of cellular networks.
• Increases the frequency reuse factor.
• Increases signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio.
• Reduces interference.
Disadvantages
• For each individual cell, an individual base station is required so a
huge number of base stations are needed in this process.
• Handoff occurs frequently.
• Assigning channels is difficult
Cell sectoring
Another way to increase capacity is to is to keep the cell radius unchanged and seek methods to decrease the
D/R ratio.
The co-channel interference in a cellular system may be decreased by replacing a single omnidirectional antenna
at the base station by several directional antennas, each radiating within a specified sector.
By using directional antennas, a given cell will receive interference and transmit with only a fraction of the
available co-channel cells. The technique for decreasing co-channel interference and thus increasing system
performance by using directional antennas is called sectoring.
The factor by which the co-channel interference is reduced depends on the amount of sectoring used. A cell is
normally partitioned into three 120° sectors or six 60° sectors as shown
Cell sectoring
When sectoring is employed, the channels
used in a particular cell are broken down into
sectored groups and are used only within a
particular sector. Assuming seven-cell reuse,
for the case of 120° sectors, the number of
interferers in the first tier is reduced from six
to two. This is because only two of the six
co-channel cells receive interference with a
particular sectored channel group.

Illustration of how 120° 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. If omnidirectional antennas were used at each base station, all six co-
channel cells would interfere with the center cell.
Cell sectoring
Advantages
• Reduces interference without altering the system performance.
• Increases channel capacity without necessarily changing the cell radius.
• Increases frequency reuse by reducing the number of cells in the cluster.
• Assigning a channel is easier.
Disadvantages
• Increases the number of antennas per base station.
• It decreases efficiency as sectoring reduces the channel groups.
• The number of handoffs increases as the working area of the cell
decreases in Cell Sectoring.
Q2: Calculate the number of times a cluster of size 4 has to be repeated
with respect to cluster of size 7 in order to approximately cover the
entire cellular area, if area of cell = 7Km2 and that of system is 3530
Km2.

Q3: Calculate the value of I and j for the cluster of size:

a) 7
b) 12
Handoff
When a mobile moves into a different cell while a conversation is in progress, the MSC automatically
transfers the call to a new channel belonging to the new base station.
Handoff operation
– identifying a new base station
– re-allocating the voice and control channels associated with the new base station.

Dwell time: The time over which a call may be maintained within a cell without handoff.

• Network Controlled Handoff

• Mobile Assisted Handoff
Handoff

Illustration of a handoff scenario at cell boundary

Hard Handoff
Hard handoff: “break before make” connection
Soft Handoff
Soft handoff: “make-before-break” connection.