Wireless Communications Engineering

Lecture 8: Cellular Fundamentals Prof. Mingbo Xiao

Nov. 18, 2004

Mobile Radio Environment

Mobile Radio Environment

The transmissions over the wireless link are in general very difficult to characterize. EM signals often encounter obstacles, causing reflection, diffraction, and scattering. Mobility introduces further complexity. We have focused on simple models to help gain basic insight and understanding of the wireless radio medium. Three main components: Path Loss, Shadow fading, Multipath fading (or fast fading).

Mobile Radio Channel: Fading

PHY Technologies

Previous lectures have covered topics such as modulation, source/channel coding, equalization, and many more. These nice technologies (and others) have enabled reliable communication over errorprone wireless links. You may ask: Isnt this the end of story? Unfortunately, even the modest wireless network needs a lot more to accomplish .

Protocol Layers

The previous lectures mainly deal with what is called the physical (PHY) layer of the networks. Network protocols are often organized in layers, with higher level of abstraction in higher layer. => Simplify design and implementation. From now on, we assume most PHY details have been taken care, and focus on some higher layers, such as MAC and networking.

Abstractions

Consider only the large-scale channel behavior Introduce a generic concept of channel, which can be time slot in TDMA, frequency band in FDMA, or orthogonal code in CDMA systems (to be elaborated in next lecture). System performance metrics are changing from BER to Blocking prob., Throughput and Delay... Note: unlike wired networks, wireless system may require cross-layer design.

Radio Systems

Fixed telephone network runs wires to every household Suppose we give every household their own allocation of radio spectrum using analogue speech of 4 kHz bandwidth (single sideband) 12.5 million households x 4 kHz = 50 GHz! Clearly impractical!

no other services possible using radio transmission whole range of radio transmission modes to address and most of the spectrum unused most of the time! remember traffic statistics

Limitations of Wireless

Channel is unreliable Spectrum is scarce, and not all ranges are suitable for mobile communication Transmission power is often limited

Battery Interference to others

Early Mobile Telephone Services

First introduced in the U.S. by AT&T (1946) Used to interconnect mobile users (in automobiles) to telephone networks. A single powerful transmitter from the BS to cover up to approx. 50 miles radius. Few channels for many people Early Bell Mobile Phone service in New York had 12 channels, serving 543 customer, waiting list of 3,700 and market of 10 million!! - CAPACITY LIMITED Advanced systems for their time but very inefficient, and service was terrible (blocking probabilities as high as 65%).

Noise-limited System

Range limited by thermal (and man made) noise Example: 100 W Tx at 30m, 30 km range, 25 kHz FM, 2 m Rx

kTB = 1.3803x10-23 x 290 x 25,000 = -130 dBm. transmit power 10log(100/10-3) = 50 dBm path loss over say 30 km: 40 log 30,000 - 20 log 60 = 143 dB receive signal = +50 - 143 = -93 dBm receive S/N ratio = 37 dB (17 dB system plus 20 dB fade margin)

Advent of Cellular Systems

Noting from the channel model, we know signal will attenuated with distance and have no interference to far users. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, work began on the first cellular telephone systems. The term cellular refers to dividing the service area into many small regions (cells) each served by a low-power transmitter with moderate antenna height.

Cellular Networks

Cellular Network Organization

Use multiple low-power transmitters Areas divided into cells

Each served by its own antenna Served by base station consisting of transmitter, receiver, and control unit Band of frequencies allocated Cells set up such that antennas of all neighbors are equidistant

Consequences

Transmit frequencies are re-used across these cells and the system becomes interference rather than noise limited

the need for careful radio frequency planning colouring in hexagons! a mechanism for handling the call as the user crosses the cell boundary - call handoff (or handover) increased network complexity to route the call and track the users as they move around

But one significant benefit: very much increased traffic capacity, the ability to service many users

Cellular System Architecture

Cellular Systems Terms

Mobile Station

users transceiver terminal (handset, mobile)

Base Station (BS)

fixed transmitter usually at centre of cell includes an antenna, a controller, and a number of receivers

Mobile Telecommunications Switching Office (MTSO) /Mobile Switch Center (MSC)

handles routing of calls in a service area tracks user connects to base stations and PSTN

Cellular Systems Terms (Contd)

Two types of channels available between mobile unit and BS

Control channels used to exchange information for setting up and maintaining calls Traffic channels carry voice or data connection between users

Handoff or handover

process of transferring mobile station from one base station to another, may also apply to change of radio channel within a cell

Cellular Systems Terms (Contd)

Downlink or Forward Channel

radio channel for transmission of information (e.g.speech) from base station to mobile station radio channel for transmission of information (e.g.speech) from mobile station to base station a message broadcast over an entire service area, includes use for mobile station alert (ringing) a mobile station operating in a service area other than the one to which it subscribes

Uplink or Reverse Channel

Paging

Roaming

Steps in an MTSO Controlled Call between Mobile Users

Mobile unit initialization Mobile-originated call Paging Call accepted Ongoing call Handoff

Frequency Reuse

Cellular relies on the intelligent allocation and reuse of radio channels throughout a coverage area. Each base station is allocated a group of radio channels to be used within the small geographic area of its cell Neighbouring base stations are given different channel allocation from each other

Frequency Reuse (Contd)

If we limit the coverage area within the cell by design of the antennas

we can re-use that same group of frequencies to cover another cell separated by a large enough distance
transmission power controlled to limit power at that frequency to keep interference levels within

tolerable limits

the issue is to determine how many cells must intervene between two cells using the same frequency

Radio Planning

Design process of selecting and allocating channel frequencies for all cellular base stations within a system is known as frequency re-use or frequency planning. Cell planning is carried out to find a geometric shape to

tessellate a 2D space represent contours of equal transmit power

Real cells are never regular in shape

Two-Dimensional Cell Clusters

Regular geometric shapes tessellating a 2D space: Square, triangle, and hexagon. Tessellating Hexagon is often used to model cells in wireless systems:

Good approximation to a circle (useful when antennas radiate uniformly in the x-y directions). Also offer a wide variety of reuse pattern Simple geometric properties help gain basic understanding and develop useful models.

Coverage Patterns

Cellular Coverage Representation

Geometry of Hexagons

Hexagonal cell geometry and axes

Geometry of Hexagons (Contd)

axes u,v intersect at 60o unit scale is distance between cell centres if cell radius to point of hexagon is R then 2Rcos30o = 1 or
1 3 To find the distance of a point P(u, from the origin v) us e x - y to u - v co- ordinate transformations : R= r 2 x2 y2 x ucos30o y v usin 30o r (v 2 uv u 2 )
1 2

Geometry of Hexagons (Contd)

Using this equation to locate co-channel cells, we start from a reference cell and move i hexagons along the u-axis then j hexagons along the v-axis. Hence the distance between cochannel cells in adjacent clusters is given by: D = (i2 + ij + j2)1/2

where D is the distance between cochannel cells in adjacent clusters (called frequency reuse distance).
and the number of cells in a cluster, N is given by D2

N = i2 + ij + j2

Hexagon Reuse Clusters

3-cell reuse pattern (i=1,j=1)

4-cell reuse pattern (i=2,j=0)

7-cell reuse pattern (i=2,j=1)

12-cell reuse pattern (i=2,j=2)

19-cell reuse pattern (i=3,j=2)

Relationship between Q and N

Proof

Cell Clusters
Reuse coordinates

i
1 1 1 2 1 2 1

j
0 1 2 2 3 3 4

Number of Normalised cells in rereuse use pattern distance N SQRT(N) 1 1 3 1.732 7 2.646 12 3.464 13 3.606 19 4.359 21 4.583

since D = SQRT(N)

Cochannel Cell Location

Method of locating cochannel cells Example for N=19, i=3, j=2

Cell Planning Example

Suppose you have 33 MHz bandwidth available, an FM system using 25 kHz channels, how many channels per cell for 4,7,12 cell re-use?

total channels = 33,000/25 = 1320 N=4 channels per cell = 1320/4 = 330 N=7 channels per cell = 1320/7 = 188 N=12 channels per cell = 1320/12 = 110

Smaller clusters can carry more traffic However, smaller clusters result in larger cochannel interference

Remarks on Reuse Ratio

Co-channel Interference with Omnidirectional Cell Site

Propagation model

Cochannel interference ratio

Worst-case scenario for cochannel interference

Worst-case scenario for cochannel interference

Reuse Factor and SIR

Remarks

SIGNAL TO INTERFERENCE LEVEL IS INDEPENDENT OF CELL RADIUS! System performance (voice quality) only depends on cluster size What cell radius do we choose?

Depends on traffic we wish to carry (smaller cell means more compact reuse or higher capacity) Limited by handoff

Adjacent channel interference

So far, we assume adjacent channels to be orthogonal (i.e., they do not interfere with each other). Unfortunately, this is not true in practice, so users may also experience adjacent channel interference besides co-channel interference. This is especially serious when the near-far effect (in uplinks) is significant

Desired mobile user is far from BS Many mobile users exist in the cell

Near-Far Effect

Near-Far Effect (Contd)

Reduce Adjacent channel interference

Use modulation schemes which have small out-of-band radiation (e.g., MSK is better than QPSK) Carefully design the receiver BPF Use proper channel interleaving by assigning adjacent channels to different cells, e.g., for N=7

Reduce Adjacent channel interference (Contd)

Furthermore, do not use adjacent channels in adjacent cells, which is possible only when N is very large. For example, if N =7, adjacent channels must be used in adjacent cells Use FDD or TDD to separate the forward link and reverse link.

Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems

Adding new channels often expensive or impossible Frequency borrowing (or DCA) frequencies are taken from adjacent cells by congested cells Cell splitting cells in areas of high usage can be split into smaller cells (microcells with antennas moved to buildings, hills, and lamp posts) Cell sectoring cells are divided into a number of wedge-shaped sectors, each with their own set of channels

Sectoring

Co-channel interference reduction with the use of directional antennas (sectorization) Each cell is divided into sectors and uses directional antennas at the base station. Each sector is assigned a set of channels (frequencies).

Site Configurations

120 Sectorized Cell Sites

Worst case scenario

Sectorizd Cell Sites

Worst case scenario

Illustration of cell splitting 1

Illustration of cell splitting 2

Illustration of cell splitting 3

Cell Splitting

Design Tradeoff

Smaller cell means higher capacity (frequency reused more) However, smaller cell also results in higher handoff probability, which also means higher overhead Moreover, cell splitting should not introduce too much interference to users in other cells

Handoff (Handover) Process

Handoff: Changing physical radio channels of network connections involved in a call, while maintaining the call Basic reasons for a handoff

MS moves out of the range of a BTS (signal level becomes too low or error rate becomes too high) Load balancing (traffic in one cell is too high, and shift some MSs to other cells with a lower load) GSM standard identifies about 40 reasons for a handoff!

Phases of Handoff

MONITORING PHASE measurement of the quality of the current and possible candidate radio links initiation of a handover when necessary HANDOVER HANDLING PHASE determination of a new point of attachment setting up of new links, release of old links initiation of a possible re-routing procedure

Handoff Types

narrow-band interference => change carrier frequency controlled by BSC

Intra-cell handoff

Inter-cell, intra-BSC handoff

handoff between cells controlled by different BSCs controlled by the MSC

Inter-BSC, intra-MSC handoff Inter-MSC handoff

handoff between cells belonging to different MSCs controlled by both MSCs

Handoff Types (contd)

Handoff Strategies

Relative signal strength Relative signal strength with threshold Relative signal strength with hysteresis Relative signal strength with hysteresis and threshold Prediction techniques

Intra-MSC Handoff (Mobile Assisted)

Handover Scenario at Cell Boundary

Handoff Based on Receive Level

How to avoid ping-pong problem?

Handoff 1G (Analog) systems

Signal strength measurements made by the BSs and supervised by the MSC BS constantly monitors the signal strengths of all the voice channels Locator receiver measures signal strength of MSs in neighboring cells MSC decides if a handover is necessary

Handoff 2G (Digital) TDMA

Handoff decisions are mobile assisted Every MS measures the received power from surrounding BSs and sends reportsto its own BS Handoff is initiated when the power received from a neighbor BS begins to exceed the power from the current BS (by a certain level and/or for a certain period)

Handoff 2G (Digital) CDMA

CDMA uses code to differentiate users Soft handoff: a user keeps records of several neighboring BSs Soft handoff may decrease the handoff blocking probability and handoff delay

Avoiding handoff: Umbrella cells

Mixed Cell Architecture

Handoff Prioritization

The idea of reserving channels for handoff calls was introduced in the mid 1980s as a way of reducing the handoff call blocking probability Motivation: users find calls blocked in midprogress a far greater irritant than unsuccessful call attempts. The basic idea is to reserve a certain portion of the total channel pool in a cell for handoff users only.

Performance Metrics

Call blocking probability probability of a new call being blocked Call dropping probability probability that a call is terminated due to a handoff Call completion probability probability that an admitted call is not dropped before it terminates Handoff blocking probability probability that a handoff cannot be successfully completed

Performance Metrics (Contd)

Handoff probability probability that a handoff occurs before call termination Rate of handoff number of handoffs per unit time Interruption duration duration of time during a handoff in which a mobile is not connected to either base station Handoff delay distance the mobile moves from the point at which the handoff should occur to the point at which it does occur

Summary

cellular mobile uses many small cells hexagonal planning, clusters of cells cell repeat patterns 3,7,12 etc... re-uses frequencies to obtain capacity is interference not noise (kTB) limited S/I is independent of cell radius choose cell radius to meet traffic demand N=7 is a good compromise between S/I and capacity. handoff