Chapter 5

The Cellular Concept

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 1
 Outline
 Cell Shape
 Actual cell/Ideal cell
 Signal Strength
 Handoff Region
 Cell Capacity
 Traffic theory
 Erlang B and Erlang C
 Cell Structure
 Frequency Reuse
 Reuse Distance
 Cochannel Interference
 Cell Splitting
 Cell Sectoring
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 2
 Cell Shape

R
R
R
Cell
R R

(a) Ideal cell (b) Actual cell (c) Different cell models

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 3
 Impact of Cell Shape and Radius on
Service Characteristics

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 4
 Signal Strength
Signal strength
(in dB)

Cell i Cell j
-60 -60
-70 -70
-80 -80
-90
-90 -100
-100

Select cell i on left of boundary Select cell j on right of boundary

Ideal boundary
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 5
 Signal Strength
Signal strength
(in dB)

Cell i Cell j

-60
-70
-60
-80
-70
-90
-80
-90 -100
-100 Signal strength contours indicating actual cell tiling.
This happens because of terrain, presence of obstacles
and signal attenuation in the atmosphere.
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 6
 Handoff Region
Signal strength Signal strength
due to BSi due to BSj

Pi(x) Pj(x)

Pmin
BSi MS BSj
X1 X3 X5 Xth X4 X2

• By looking at the variation of signal strength from either base station it is

possible to decide on the optimum area where handoff can take place.

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 Handoff Rate in a Rectangular
Since handoff can occur at sides R 1 and
R 2 of a cell
side H  R1  X 1 cos  X 2 sin    R2  X 1 sin   X 2 cos 
side
R2 where A=R 1 R 2 is the area and assuming it
X2  constant, differentiate with respect to R1 (or R
X1 2) gives
R1 X 1 sin  X 2 cos 2 X 1 cos  X 2 sin 
R
2
A R2  A
 1 X 1 cos  X 2 sin X 1 sin   X 2 cos

Total handoff rate is

  2 A X cos  X sin   X
H 1 2 1
sin   X 2 cos 

H is minimized when =0, giving

R1 X 1
H  2 AX 1 X 2 and 
R2 X 2
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 Cell Capacity
 Average number of MSs requesting service (Average
arrival rate): 
 Average length of time MS requires service (Average

holding time): T
 Offered load: a = T

e.g., in a cell with 100 MSs, on an average 30 requests are

generated during an hour, with average holding time T=360
seconds.
Then, arrival rate =30/3600 requests/sec.
A channel kept busy for one hour is defined as one Erlang (a),
i.e.,
30 Calls 360 Sec
a   3 Erlangs
3600 Sec call
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 9
 Cell Capacity
 Average arrival rate during a short interval t is given by  t
 Assuming Poisson distribution of service requests, the
probability P(n, t) for n calls to arrive in an interval of
length t is given by

P ( n, t ) 
 t n
e  t
n!
 Assuming  to be the service rate, probability of each call
to terminate during interval t is given by  t.
Thus, probability of a given call requires service for time t
or less is given by

S (t )  1  e   t

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 10
 Erlang B and Erlang C
 Probability of an arriving call being blocked is
aS 1
BS , a    S k , Erlang B formula
S! a

k 0 k !

where S is the number of channels in a group.

 Probability of an arriving call being delayed is
aS
C S , a  
S  1!S  a 
,
S S 1 i Erlang C formula
a a

S  1!S  a  i 0 i !
where C(S, a) is the probability of an arriving call being delayed with a
load and S channels.
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 Efficiency (Utilization)
Traffic nonblocked
Efficiency 
Capacity
Erlangs  portions of nonrouted traffic

Number of trunks (channels)

 Example: for previous example, if S=2,

then
B(S, a) = 0.6, ------ Blocking probability,
i.e., 60% calls are blocked.
Total number of rerouted calls = 30 x 0.6 = 18
Efficiency = 3(1-0.6)/2 = 0.6
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 12
 Cell Structure

F7 F2
F1 F2 F1 F2
F6 F1 F3
F1 F2 F3
F3 F3 F4
F5 F4

(a) Line Structure (b) Plan Structure

Note: Fx is set of frequency, i.e., frequency group.

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 Frequency Reuse

F7 F2

F7 F2 F6 F1
F1 F3

F6 F1
F1 F3 F5 F4 F7 F2

F5 F4 F7 F2 F6 F1
F1 F3

F6 F1
F1 F3 F5 F4
Re
u
se

F5 F4
dist

Fx: Set of frequency

a
nc
e
D

7 cell reuse cluster

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 Reuse Distance

R Cluster
•For hexagonal cells, the reuse
distance is given by
F7 F2
D  3N R
F6 F1
F1 F3
where R is cell radius and N is the
reuse pattern (the cluster size or the
F5 F4 F7 F2 number of cells per cluster).

F6 F1
F1 F3
• Reuse factor is
D
Re

q   3N
us
ed

F5 F4
R
ist
an
c
eD

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 Reuse Distance (Cont’d)

 The cluster size or the number of cells per cluster is given by

j
N  i 2  ij  j 2

where i and j are integers. 60o

 N = 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 19, 21, 28, …, etc.

The popular value of N being 4 and 7.

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 16
 Reuse Distance (Cont’d)

j=1

j=1 i=2
i=2 j=1
j direction
i=2
60° i=2
i direction j=1
j=1
1 2 3… i i=2 i=2
j=1
(a) Finding the center of an adjacent cluster (b) Formation of a cluster for N = 7
using integers i and j (direction of i and j can with i=2 and j=1
be interchanged).

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 17
 Reuse Distance (Cont’d)

j=2 i=3 j=2 i=3

j=2 i=2 j=2 j=2

i=2 j=2
i=2 i=3
i=2 i=3
i=2 j=2
j=2
j=2 i=2 j=2

j=2 i=3 j=2 i=3

(c) A cluster with N =12 with i=2 and j=2 (d) A Cluster with N = 19 cells with i=3
and j=2

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 18
 Cochannel Interference
First tier cochannel
Second tier cochannel Base Station
Base Station

R
D6
D5
D1

D4 Mobile Station
D2

D3

Serving Base Station

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 19
 Worst Case of Cochannel Interference

D6
R
D5
D1

D4
Mobile Station
D2

D3

Serving Base Station Co-channel Base Station

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 20
 Cochannel Interference

 Cochannel interference ratio is given by

C Carrier C
  M
I Interferen ce
 Ik k 1

where I is co-channel interference and M is the maximum

number of co-channel interfering cells.

For M = 6, C/I is given by

C C where  is the propagation path loss slope

 
I M
 Dk  and  = 2~5.
  
k 1  R 

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 21
 Cell Splitting

Large cell
(low density)

Small cell
(high
density)
Smaller cell
(higher density)

Depending on traffic patterns the

smaller cells may be
activated/deactivated in order to
efficiently use cell resources.
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 22
 Cell Sectoring by Antenna Design

c
c
120o 120o
a
b a
b

(a). Omni (b). 120o sector (c). 120o sector (alternate)

d f
90o e 60o a
a
c
d b
b c

(d). 90o sector (e). 60o sector

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 23
 Cell Sectoring by Antenna Design

 Placing directional transmitters at corners where three

adjacent cells meet

C
X
A

Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 24
 Worst Case for Forward Channel
Interference in Three-sectors

BS
D + 0.7R
BS
MS

R
BS
D

BS
C C
 
I q  q  0.7 
q  D/R
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 25
 Worst Case for Forward Channel
Interference in Three-sectors (Cont’d)

BS
D

D’ BS
MS

R
BS
D

BS
C C
 
I q  q  0.7 
q  D/R
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 26
 Worst Case for Forward Channel
Interference in Six-sectors

MS
BS
R

D +0.7R

C C

I q  0.7 

BS

q  D/ R
Copyright © 2004, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved. 27