UNIT-II

THE CELLULAR CONCEPT- SYSTEM

DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS
 Three Generations

AMPS
WCDMA
NMT GSM
CDMA2000
TACS GPRS
TD SCDMA
HCMTS

1G 2G 3G
Why “Cellular”?
Component of cellular System
 Shape of Cells
 The coverage area of cellular networks are divided into
cells, each cell having its own antenna for transmitting
the signals. Each cell has its own frequencies. Data
communication in cellular networks is served by its
base station transmitter, receiver and its control unit.
– The shape of cells can be either square or hexagon −
Square

 A square cell has four neighbors at distance d and four

at distance Root 2 d
 Better if all adjacent antennas equidistant
 Simplifies choosing and switching to new antenna
 Hexagon
 A hexagon cell shape is highly recommended for
its easy coverage and calculations. It offers the
following advantages −

Provides equidistant antennas

Distance from center to vertex equals

length of side.
 Frequency reusing
 Frequency reusing is the concept of using the
same radio frequencies within a given area, that
are separated by considerable distance, with
minimal interference, to establish
communication.
Frequency reuse offers the following benefits −
 Allows communications within cell on a given
frequency
 Limits escaping power to adjacent cells
 Allows re-use of frequencies in nearby cells
 Uses same frequency for multiple conversations
 10 to 50 frequencies per cell
 Principles of cellular frequency reuse
 To avoid the mutual interference between users
remains below a harmful level, adjacent cells use
different frequencies.

 In fact, a set of C different frequencies {f1, ..., fC}

are used for each cluster of C adjacent cells.

 Cluster patterns and the corresponding

frequencies are re-used in a regular pattern over
the entire service area.
 Principles of cellular frequency reuse

Frequency reuse plan for C = 3, Frequency reuse plan for C = 7

with hexagonal cells. (i=1, j =1) (i=2, j =1).

The total bandwidth for the system is C times the bandwidth

occupied by a single cell.
 Reuse Distance
• For hexagonal cells, i.e., with 'honeycomb' cell
lay-outs commonly used in mobile radio, possible
cluster sizes are C = i2 + ij + j2, with integer i and j
(C = 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, ...). Integers i and j determine
the relative location of co-channel cells.

7-cell reuse
with i = 2 and
j =1.
RSSI- (Received signal strength indicator)
Distance to frequency reuse ratio
BCCH: Broadcast control channel
TCH: Transmission control channel
Frequency Reuse Ration
 q value is high @ 2 case
a. When distance d between co-channel is high
b. When radius of cell is small.
Umbrella cell approach in mobile communication
• The cell with low traffic speed is called as micro-cells and
large high-speed traffic called macro-cells.

A hexagonal cell method is one of the closest

approximation of a circle device. It is being typically used
for the system.

• The smaller cell is grouped and assumed to be under a

large cell. This method called as an umbrella cell concept.
•
It can be used to provide a large area to high-speed users
while small area coverage to users that travel at low
speeds.
 Umbrella cell approach in mobile
communication
Some advantages of using an umbrella cell concept in
cellular technology
• Umbrella cell provides a large coverage area to high-speed users.
• Minimize the number of handoff for high-speed users.
• Speed estimation can be performed by slop of short term
average calculation of receive power.
• If a high-speed user in large umbrella cell is near the base station
and if its velocity is decreasing then the BS stands for can decide
whether to hand the user into the co-located micro-cell without
the intervention of the mobile switching center (MSC stands for).
• Provide additional micro-cell channel for pedestrian user.
Remarks on Reuse Ratio
Co-channel Interference with
Omnidirectional Cell Site
Propagation model
Cochannel interference ratio
Worst-case scenario for co-channel
interference
Worst-case scenario for co-channel
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
 Improving Capacity
• Sectoring
• Cell splitting
– Process of subdividing a congested cell into
smaller cells.
– Each has its own base station
– Smaller antenna and reduced transmission power
– These smaller cells are called microcells
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
60
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
• Intra-cell handoff
– narrow-band interference => change carrier frequency
– controlled by BSC
• Inter-cell, intra-BSC handoff
– typical handover scenario
– BSC performs the handover, assigns new radio channel in the
new cell, releases the old one
• Inter-BSC, intra-MSC handoff
– handoff between cells controlled by different BSCs
– controlled by the MSC
• Inter-MSC handoff
– handoff between cells belonging to different MSCs
– controlled by both MSCs
Handoff Types (cont’d)
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 – 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 reports to 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 mid-progress 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 (Cont’d)
 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
 Repeater
 In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device
that receives a signal and retransmits it.
Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the
signal can cover longer distances or be received on the
other side of an obstruction.

 Cellular repeater: This is a radio repeater for boosting

cell phone reception in a limited area. The device functions
like a small cellular base station, with a directional antenna
to receive the signal from the nearest cell tower, an
amplifier, and a local antenna to rebroadcast the signal to
nearby cell phones. It is often used in downtown office
buildings
 Reasons for weak signal
Rural areas:
In many rural areas the housing density is too low to make
construction of a new base station commercially viable.
Building construction material
Certain construction materials can attenuate cell phone signal
strength.
Building size
Large buildings, such as warehouses, hospitals, and factories, often
lack cellular reception in underground area.
Multipath interference
Even in urban areas (which usually have strong cellular signals
throughout), there may be dead zones caused by
destructive interference of waves.
Areas where mobile phones cannot transmit to a nearby mobile site,
base station, or repeater are known as dead zones.
Donor antenna
A "donor antenna" is typically installed by a window or on the roof a building and used to
communicate back to a nearby cell tower. A donor antenna can be any of several types,
but is usually directional or omnidirectional. An omnidirectional antenna (which broadcast
in all directions) is typically used for a repeater system that amplify coverage for all
cellular carriers. A directional antenna is used when a particular tower or carrier needs to
be isolated for improvement. The use of a highly directional antenna can help improve
the donor's signal-to-noise ratio, thus improving the quality of signal redistributed inside
a building.
Indoor antenna

Some cellular repeater systems can also include an omnidirectional antenna for
rebroadcasting the signal indoors. Depending on attenuation from obstacles, the
advantage of using an omnidirectional antenna is that the signal will be equally
distributed in all directions.
Signal amplifier

Cellular repeater systems include a signal amplifier. Standard GSM channel selective
repeaters (operated by telecommunication operators for coverage of large areas and big
buildings) have output power around 2 W, high power repeaters have output power
around 10 W. The power gain is calculated by the following equation:
A repeater needs to secure sufficient isolation between the donor and the service
antenna. When the isolation is lower than actual gain plus a margin (of typically 5–
15 dB), the repeater may go into in loop oscillation. This oscillation can cause
 Trunking and Grade of Service (GOS)
Trunking:
• A means for providing access to users on demand from
available pool of channels.
• With trunking, a small number of channels can accommodate
large number of random users.
• Telephone companies use trunking theory to determine number of circuits
required.
• Trunking theory is about how a population can be handled by a limited
number of servers.
 Terminology:
1. Traffic intensity is measured in Erlangs:
– One Erlang: traffic in a channel completely occupied. 0.5 Erlang:
channel occupied 30 minutes in an hour.
2. Grade of Service (GOS): probability that a call is blocked (or
delayed).
3. Set-Up Time: time to allocate a channel.
4. Blocked Call: Call that cannot be completed at time of request due to
congestion. Also referred to as Lost Call.
5. Holding Time: (H) average duration of typical call.
6. Load: Traffic intensity across the whole system.
7. Request Rate: (λ) average number of call requests per unit time.
Traffic Measurement (Erlangs)