1.

1- Beginning of wireless
communication
•1897- Marconi first demonstrated radio’s
ability to provide continuous contact with
ships sailing the English Channel.
•In 1946- the first public mobile telephone
service was introduced in twenty-five major
American cities.
Each system used a single, high-powered
transmitter and large tower in order to cover the
distances over the 50KM in a particular market.
• DUPLEX, HALF-DUPLEX (only one person on the
telephone call could talk at a time).

• MOBILE: the term mobile has historically been used

to classify any radio terminal that could be moved
during operation.

• Portable: (used by some one at walking speed)

• Subscriber: it is used to describe a mobile user or

portable user because in most mobile
communication systems each user pays a
subscription fees to use the system and each user’s
communication device is called a subscriber unit.
• Table 1.4 on page 10

• GSM (Global System Mobile)

• Early mobile radio: (to achieve a large
coverage area by a mobile user)
– High powered transmitters
– Antenna mounted over tall tower
– But impossible to reuse the same
frequency in that coverage area
(because any attempt to reuse
frequency will cause interference)
– E.g. Bell mobiles in 1970s (Max. of 12
calls)
• Government regulation authority
Base Station:
• A fixed station in a mobile radio system used for
radio communication with mobile station. Base
station are located at the center or on the edge
of a coverage region and consists of radio
channels and transmitter and receiver antennas
mounted on a tower.
• Base station antennas are designed to achieve
the desired coverage between the particular cell.

Cell:
Geographic area covered by one base station.
 1.2- Concept of Frequency Reuse

• To distribute the available channels

throughout the geographic region without
interference.

• 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.
• System design: (The Cellular Concept is a system,-level
idea which calls for replacing a single high power transmitter (large cell) with
many low power transmitter (small cells), each providing service to only a
small portion of the service area.
– Circular form

– A Square

– An Equilateral Triangular

– Hexagonal shape (conceptual & Simplistic (for future growth))

– Footprint
A cell must be designed to serve the
weakest mobiles within the footprint, and
these are typically located at the edge of
the cell.
 1.3- Channel Assignment
• Each base station is allocated a portion of the
total number of channels available to the entire
system. And nearby base station are assigned
different groups of channels so that the
interference between the stations is minimized.
• 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.
 1.3.1- Mathematics in Channel
Assignment
Total no. of channels available = S
(Duplex)

No. of channels allocated to each cell = k

N = Total number of cells among which total

available channels are divided with
reusing any (channels are equally divided)
 S=KN

Cluster:
The N cells which collectively use the
complete set of available frequencies
(channels) is called a Cluster. Or we
can say that the factor N is called the
cluster size.
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
 1.4- Frequency Reuse Factor

• The frequency reuse factor of cellular

system is given by 1/N, since each cell
within a cluster is only assigned the 1/N of
the total available channels in the system.
 1.4.1- Calculating the Cluster Size
• The cluster size is typically equal to 4, 5 or 12 or
etc.
• If a cluster size N is reduced while the cell size is
kept constant more clusters are required to
cover a given area, and hence more capacity is
achieved (a larger value of C).
• The value for N is a function of how much
interference a mobile or base station can
tolerate while maintaining a sufficient quality of
communications.
.
B
G C
A

D
F jD o
B D
E
G C B
A iDo
G C

F D A
o
120
E F D

E
D: centre-to-centre distance between
reused cells

Do: centre-to-centre distance between

adjacent cells

N: cluster size
N = D2/Do2
 Proof
D2 = (iDo)2 + (jDo)2 – 2(iDo)(jDo)cos120o

D2 /Do2 = i2 + j2 + i j

and

N = D2/Do2
Where N is the cluster size
 1.5- Channel Assignment
• Channel Assignment strategies can be classified
as either

1- Fixed
2- 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.
• 1- Fixed Channel Assignment Strategy:
• In fixed channel assignment strategy, each
cell is allocated a predetermined set of
channels. Any call attempt within a cell
can only be served by the unused channel
in that particular cell.
• If all the channel in that particular cell are
occupied, the call is blocked and the
subscriber does not receive the service.
Variations in the Fixed Assignment Strategy

• Borrowing Strategy:
• In this strategy, a cell is allowed to borrow
channels from a neighboring cell if all of its own
channels are being occupied.
• The mobile switching center (MSC) supervises
such borrowing procedures and ensures that the
borrowing of a channel does not disrupt (To
throw into confusion or disorder ) or interfere
with any of the calls in progress in the donor cell.
• 2- Dynamic Channel Assignment Strategy:
• In a dynamic channel assignment strategy, the
channels are not allocated to different cells
permanently.
• Each time when a call request is made, the
serving base station requests a channel from the
MSC.
• The switch then allocates the channel to the
requested cell following an algorithm takes into
account the following things
1- the likelihood of future blocking within the cell
2- the frequency of use of the candidate channel
3- the reuse distance of the channel
 1.6- 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.
• Many handoff strategies prioritize handoff request
over call initiation request when allocating new
channel in a cell site.
• Handoff must be performed successfully and as
infrequent as possible and be imperceptible to the
user.
• In order to meet these requirements, system
designers must specify an optimum signal level at
which to initiate a handoff.
.

 = Pr handoff - Pr minimum usable

Where  may not be too large or too small ?

.
Received
signal Level at point A
power

Handoff Threshold

Minimum acceptable signal to maintain a call

Level at call B (call is terminated)

Time
A B
• In deciding when to handoff, it is important to
ensure that the drop in the measured signal level
is not due to momentary fading and that the
mobile is actually moving away from the serving
base station.
• In order to insure this, the base station monitors
the signal level for a certain period of time before
a handoff is initiated.
• The length of time needed to decide if the
handoff is necessary, depends on the speed at
which the vehicle is moving. Is the slope of the
short-term average received signal level in a
given time interval is steep, the handoff should
be made quickly.
 Dwell Time
• The time over which the call may be
maintained with a cell, is called the dwell
time.
• Dwell time of a particular user is governed
by a number of factors including
propagation, interference, distance
between the subscriber and the base
station, and other time varying effects.
 Ist Generation Handoffs

Mobile Assisted Handoffs (MAHO)

Intersystem Handoff
 Prioritizing Handoffs
1. Guard Channel Concept:

2. Queuing the Handoff request: (to

decrease the probability of forced
termination of calls due to lack of
available channels.
Umbrella Cell Approach
• By using the different antenna heights
(often on the same building or tower) and
different power levels, it is possible to
provide coverage to “large” and “small”
cells which are co-located at a single
location.
• Large area coverage to high speed users
and small area coverage to users traveling
at slow speed.
 1.7- Interference and the System
Capacity

• Interference is the major limiting factor in

the performance of the cellular radio
system.
• Source of Interference:
1. Another mobile in the same cell
2. A call in progress in the neighboring cell
3. Other base station operating in the same frequency
4. Any noncellular system inadvertently leaks energy into
the cellular frequency band
• Interference on voice channel causes cross
talks, where the subscriber hears the
interference in the background due to an
undesired transmission.
• On control channels, interference leads to
missed and blocked calls due to errors in the
digital signaling.
• Interference is more severe in the urban areas,
due to the greater RF noise floor and the large
number of base stations and mobiles.
• Interference has been recognized as a major
bottleneck in increasing capacity and is often
responsible for dropped calls.
1.7.1- Types of interference

• There are two major types of interference

1. Adjacent Channel Interference

2. Co-Channel Interference
 Adjacent Channel Interference
• Interference resulting from the channels
which are adjacent in frequency to the
desired signal is called adjacent channel
interference.

• Adjacent channel interference results from

imperfect filters which allow nearby
frequencies to leak into the passband.
 Near Far Effect
• This happens in adjacent channel
interference.

How ?
 Co-Channel Interference
• From the concept of frequency re-use we see
that there are several cells that use the same set
of frequencies.
• These cells are called co-channel cells and the
interference between signals from these cells is
called co-channel interference.
• Co-channel interference can not be combated by
simply increasing the carrier power of a
transmitter. This is because an increase in
carrier transmit power increases the interference
to the neighboring co-channel cells.
• To reduce co-channel interference, co-
channel cells must be physically separated
by a minimum distance to provide
sufficient isolation due to propagation.
• Before doing anything, first have to
confirm that

1. Size of each cell must be

approximately same

2. Each base-station transmits the

same power
• Now we see that when the above said are
met, then the co-channel interference ratio
becomes independent of the transmit
power and becomes function of the radius
of the cell and the distance between the
centers of the nearest co-channel cells.

– R = radius of the cell

– D = distance between the nearest co-

channel cells.
 Co-channel reuse ratio
• D is the distance between reuse cells
• R is the distance between the BS and the
farthest Mobile (which is at the edge of the cell).
• Q is the co-channel reuse ratio which is given
by

Q = D/R = 3N
 Proof
• Do/2 = R cos30o
• Do2 = 3R2 R

Do
Do
• N = D2/Do2
• N = D2/3R2
• D/R = 3N
• Q = D/R = 3N
• The parameter Q in the above equation is called
the co=channel reuse ratio and is related to the
cluster size.
• So we see that the small value of Q provides
larger capacity since the cluster size N is small.
• Whereas the larger value of Q improves the
transmission quality due to a smaller level of co-
channel interference.
• So a trade of must be made between these two
objectives in actual cellular design.
• We can increase or decrease the value of co-
channel reuse ratio by increasing or deceasing
the value of D or R.
• Let io be the number of co-channel
interfering cells.

• S is the desired signal power from the

desired base station.

• Ii is the interference power caused by the

ith interfering co-channel cell base station.
• The signal-to-interference-ratio (S/I)
which monitors a forward channel
can be expressed as
S S
 6
I
I
i 1
i
• Propagation measurements in a mobile
radio channel show that average received
signal strength at any point decays as a
power law of the distance of separation
between a transmitter and receiver.
• The average received power Pr at a
distance d from the transmitting antenna is
given by n
d 
Pr  Po  
d
 o
• Where n the path loss exponent.
• When the transmit power of each base
station is same and the path loss
component is same throughout the
coverage area then the S/I for mobile can
be approximated as
n
S R
 6
I
D 
n
i
i 1
 n
S R

I 6 D n

D R
• --------------- ---------------
n
S

I 6
• --------------- ---------------

S

 3N  n

I 6
• --------------- ---------------
S C
Where 
I I
• The path loss component ranges between 2 and
4 in the urban cellular systems. If we take n=4,
we get the following result
S

 3N  4

I 6

S 9N 2

I 6

2 S
N
3 I
 1.8- Capacity Equation
• Capacity of the cellular system is given by the
following equation

f  A
C% 
2 C
f c PR
3 I
 Proof
• R = radius of a cell
• A = total area of a complete cellular system
• P = population in thousands
• 10 = trunking gain
• nc = number of channels per cell
•  R2 = area of a cell
• A /  R2 = total number of cells in complete
cellular system
• f  total frequency or bandwidth available

• f c  bandwidth of one channel

• Capacity is defined as the total number of
subscribers in the cellular system which can use
the cellular mobile facility.

• Capacity = C
C = total no. of cells  subscribers per cell
 A 
C   2 
10nc
 R 
• From the above equation we get the following
result
10nc A
C  2
R
• But the capacity is in percentage is given by the
following
10nc A
C%  2
 100
1000 PR
Because the population is taken in thousands.

nc A
eq. A C%  2
PR
• We know that f
nc 
kf c
• By putting the value of nc in eq.A we get
A  f 
C  
 kf c
2
PR 
• By putting the value ok k in the above equation
we get  
 
A  f 
C 2 
PR 2 C 
 f c 
 3 I 
 1.9- Improving the Coverage and
Capacity in Cellular System
• As the demand increases, the number of
channels assigned to a cell eventually
becomes insufficient to support the
required number of users, following
techniques are being used to expand the
capacity of cellular system:
» Cell Splitting
» Sectoring
» Microcell Zone
• 1.9.1 Cell Splitting