BECE307L - Wireless and Mobile

Communications
WS 2023-24
D. Thiripurasundari
AB1, 7th floor, Cabin #3
9443007246
[email protected]
 Course Objectives
1. To familiarize the concepts of wireless
communication.
2. To teach students the fundamentals of
multipath fading and propagation models.
3. To acquaint students with different
generations of mobile networks.
4. To describe the diversity and MIMO schemes
as applied in wireless communication
 Course Outcome
The students will be able to
1. Infer the wireless channel using path loss models and
interpret the impact of multipath channel parameters.
2. Examine the functions and services of cellular networks.
3. Demonstrate the principles of multicarrier modulation.
4. Select a suitable diversity technique to combat the
multipath fading effects.
5. Identify suitable MIMO techniques to enhance the
spectrum efficiency.
6. Describe the features of next generation wireless
technologies
 Course Information
Pre Requisite: Communication, Probability

Textbook
1. T.S.Rappaport, Wireless Communication -Principle and
Practice ,Pearson Education, 2018.
References
1.Andrea Goldsmith, Wireless Communications, 2020,
2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press
2. Aditya K. Jagannatham,” Principles of Modern Wireless
Communications Systems”, 2015, McGraw Hill Education
3. T L Singal, Wireless Communications, 2014, (Reprint),
Tata McGraw Hill Education, 1st edition, New Delhi, India
4. Keith Q T Zhang, Wireless Communications: Principles,
Theory and Methodology, 2016, 1st edition, John Wiley &
Sons, West Sussex, UK
 Course Information

All information will be posted in Teams

Grading policy
ANCIENT METHODS
MODERN COMMUNICATION - 1

1876 – Electric Telephone

1835 - Telegraph 1889 – Dial Phone

1925 – First TV Transmission

1921
 MODERN COMMUNICATION - 2

1963 – Geosync Satellite 1969 - ARPANET

1947 – Commercial TV
Spectrum Users
 Why Wireless/Mobile?
• Flexibility: Wireless communication enables the people to
communicate with each other regardless of location. There is no
need to be in an office or some telephone booth in order to pass
and receive messages.
• Cost effectiveness: In wireless communication, there is no need of
any physical infrastructure (Wires or cables) or maintenance
practice. Hence, the cost is reduced.
• Speed: Improvements can also be seen in speed. The network
connectivity or the accessibility was much improved in accuracy and
speed.
• Accessibility: With the help of wireless technology easy accessibility
to the remote areas is possible. For example, in rural areas, online
education is now possible. Educators or students no longer need to
travel to far-flung areas to teach their lessons.
• Constant connectivity: Constant connectivity ensures that people
can respond to emergencies relatively quickly. For example, a
wireless device like mobile can ensure you a constant connectivity
though you move from place to place or while you travel, whereas a
wired landline can't.
Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report, 2018-2023
BECE307L Wireless and Mobile Communications
(Syllabus)
BECE307L Wireless and Mobile Communications
(Syllabus)
BECE307L Wireless and Mobile Communications
(Syllabus)
 How does Mobile Communication
Work?
• See this small video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WTKb5n-aoM
Module 1 Mobile Radio Propagation: Large Scale Fading
Overview of Wireless Communication, Cellular concept – Frequency
reuse – Channel assignment strategies – Handoff strategies –
Interference and system capacity – Trunking and grade of service –
Improving coverage and capacity in cellular system. Propagation
mechanisms, Free space model, Two ray model, Outdoor and indoor
propagation models, Link budget design
Cellular Concept – Evolution of cell Structure

• Design objective of early mobile systems: achieve larger coverage

• Early system used single high-power transmitter with antenna

mounted on a tall tower to cover a large area (~50 miles)  12
simultaneous calls

Conventional Mobile radio Service

 Cellular Concept – Evolution of cell Structure
• Lot of bandwidth was dedicated in early
mobile radio systems.
• To avoid the above difficulty single cell is
divided into smaller “cells”
• Cell is a system-level idea: replace single /
high power transmitter with many low
power transmitters.
• This offered very high capacity in a limited
spectrum allocation without major
technological changes. Early mobile system and Cellular System

Circle to hexagonal Cell Approximation

 Polygonal Geometry
• The coverage area pattern for each of these
polygons and how a polygon can be inscribed in a
circle of radius R, the cell (coverage) radius is shown
in the figure below.
• within the circle of radius R, the area covered by the
hexagonal pattern is the largest

Coverage area within a regular polygon (a) Equilateral triangle; (b) Square; (c)
Hexagon
 Polygonal Geometry
• Different ways of circular overlapping areas are shown.
• The pattern resulting in a triangular grid, rectangular grid and
hexagonal grid is shown
• .The overlap is getting reduced when circular cells are deployed
along a hexagonal grid
• For these reasons, a hexagonal cell layout is chosen as the basis for
designing cellular systems.
• The hexagonal layout is the most economically efficient as it
requires the least number of cells to cover a given area

Overlap in circular cells using a (a) Triangular grid;

(b) Rectangular grid; (c) Hexagonal grid Real cells formation
 BASIC CELLULAR ARCHITECTURE
Cell: An area covered by a single base
station
Mobile station (unit): carried by a user
Base station: installed at the cell center,
collects calls from all MSs in the cell
Mobile Switching Center: all BSs in a given
region are connected to it. It coordinates all
the BSs (hand off) and directs call to PSTN
Hand off: transferring a MS from one BS to
another
Roamer(ing): MS operates in a service area
other than from where it is subscribed

Cellular Network

• The users are called as mobile stations (MSs) to transmit/receive calls while moving in the
cellular network.
• Each cell has a base station (BS) that supplies frequency channels to MSs. BSs are also
referred to as cell sites.
• These cell sites are linked to a mobile switching center (MSC) which is responsible for
controlling the calls and acting as a gateway to other networks
 Frequency Reuse
• The increase in system capacity is achieved with
the use of smaller cells, reuse of frequencies, and
cell sectoring.
• Frequency reuse is the core concept of the
cellular communications.
• The design process of selecting and allocating
channel groups for all the cellular base stations
within a system is called frequency reuse.
• Thus, large coverage area, efficient spectrum
utilization and enhanced system capacity are the
major attributes of cellular communication
 Frequency Reuse
Cluster – group of adjacent cells that uses different frequency
• That means, the cluster can be repeated any number of times in a
systematic manner in order to cover the designated large
geographical service area.
• Two or more different cells can use the same set of frequencies or
channels if these cells are separated in space such that the
interference between cells at any given frequency is at an acceptable
level.

1 cell 3 cells 4 cells 7 cells 9 cells 12 cells 13 cells

Frequency reuse for a cluster

size of 7
 Cell Excitation

Real location of the BS = 1/4th of the ideal location

What type of antenna should be used in the above cells?

Cellular Capacity and Frequency Reuse
• Consider a cellular system with a total of S duplex channels
available for use in a cluster.
• If each cell is allocated a group of k channels (k < S) and S
channel is divided among N Cells ( N Cluster size) into
unique and disjoint channels
• Total number of available radio channels can be expressed
as S = k × N
• If the cluster is repeated M times over the given geographic
area, total number of duplex channels C is used as a
measure of capacity
• the overall system capacity is given by
C=M×k×N=M×S
cluster size N frequency reuse factor 1/N since each cell
within a cluster is assigned 1/N of the total available channel
 Locating Co-Channels
Nearest co-channel neighbors can be determined from:
1. Move i cells along any chain of hexagon
2. Turn 60 degrees counter clockwise and move j cells
Number of cells/cluster should satisfy the equation
𝑁 = 𝑖 2 + ij + 𝑗 2
i and j are non negative integers
 Frequency Reuse
Following technical issues need to be considered
for proper design and planning of cellular network
• Selection of a suitable frequency reuse pattern
• Physical deployment and radio coverage
modeling
• Plans to account for the expansion of the cellular
network
• Analysis of the relationship between the capacity,
cell size and cost of infrastructure
 Problems
1. Consider a cellular system in which the total
available voice channels to handle the traffic are
1,200. The area of each cell is 9 km2 and the total
coverage area of the system is 3,600 km2.
a. Calculate the system capacity if the cluster size, N is 4.
b. Calculate the system capacity if the cluster size is 7. Does
decreasing the reuse factor N, increases the system
capacity? Explain.
c. How many times should a cluster of size 7 be replicated
to cover the entire cellular area?
 Problems
2. A total of 24MHz bandwidth is allocated
to a particular cellular telephone system,
that uses 30kHz duplex channels. Find out
the capacity of the system, if a frequency
reuse factor of 5 is used to cover a
geography of 300 sq.km.
3.A cellular communication service area is
covered with 12 clusters having 7 cells in each
cluster and 16 channels assigned in each cell.
Show that (a) the number of channels per
cluster are 112 (b) the system capacity is 1344
 Problems

4.Determine the number of cells in clusters for

the following values of the shift parameters i
and j in a regular hexagonal geometry pattern:
(a) i = 2 and j = 4 (b) i = 3 and j = 3
 Problems
5. As a total of 33 MHz of bandwidth is allocated to a
particular frequency division duplex 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,
(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.
6. As a total of 30 MHz of bandwidth is allocated to a
particular frequency division duplex 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,
(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.
 Problems
6. Assume a system of 32 cells with a cell radius of
1.6 km, a total frequency bandwidth that supports
336 traffic channels, and a reuse factor of 7.
(a) If there are 32 total cells, what geographic area
is covered, how many channels are there per
cell, and what is the total number of concurrent
calls that can be handled?
(b) Repeat for a cell radius of 0.8 km and 128 cells
Mobile Call Flow (GSM)

BSC MSC GMSC

LAI
 Channel Assignment Strategies
A scheme for increasing capacity and minimizing
interference is required.
Channel assignment strategies classified as fixed
or dynamic.
Choice of channel assignment strategy impacts
performance of the system particularly how calls
are managed when a mobile user is handed off
from one cell to another.
 Fixed Channel Assignment
• each cell is assigned a predetermined set of voice
channels
• Any call attempt within the cell can only be
served by 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
• In a variation of fixed assignment, a cell can
borrow channel of neighboring cells if its own
cells are full.
 Dynamic Channel Assignment
Voice channels are not allocated to different cells
permanently
Each time a call request is made BS request a
channel from the MSC
MSC allocate a channel to the requested call using
an algorithm that takes into account
• the likelihood of future blocking
• the frequency of use of the candidate channel
• the reuse distance of the channel
• other cost functions
 Dynamic Channel Assignment
• To ensure minimum QoS, the MSC only
allocates a given frequency if that frequency is
not currently in use in the cell or any other cell
which falls within the limiting reuse distance
• DCA reduces the likehood of blocking thus
increasing the capacity of the system
• DC strategies require the MSC to collect real
time data on channel occupancy and traffic
distribution on a continuous basis
 Handoff
• The network procedure, which switches a connection
of a call made by a mobile phone, from one BS or cell
to another, is called a handover or handoff
• When a mobile moves into a different cell while the
call is in progress, the MSC automatically transfers the
call into a new channel belonging to the new BS
• The handoff operation involves identifying a new BS
and the allocation of voice and control signals
associated within the new BS
• Handoffs must be performed successfully as
infrequently as possible and must be imperceptible to
the user
 When to Hand off?
Handoff
• signal level drops is not due to momentary fading
• BS monitors the signal for a certain period of time before initiating h
• Length of time – depends on the speed of the vehicle

 Fix a threshold, slightly > the min level

for acceptable voice quality (-90 to -
100 dBm)
Reasons for improper handoff?
• Delay @ MSC – due to heavy traffic/ lack of channel availability
• too small ∆
 Handoff
 Dwell time – time over which the call may be
maintained within a cell, without handoff
 Factors for Dwell time: propagation,
interference, distance between subscriber
and BS, other time varying effects (which
affects even stationary subscriber)
 cells for highway users: dwell time is a
random variable with a distribution
concentrated around mean
 Microcells: large variation about mean
 Statistics of dwell time important for handoff
algorithms
 Handoff
• Handoff is made when the received signal at the
BS fall below a pre-specified threshold
• In deciding when to handoff it is important to
ensure that the drop in the signal level is not due
to momentary fading
• In order to ensure this, the BS monitors the signal
for a certain period of time before initiating
handoff
• The length of the time needed to decide if
handoff is necessary depends on the speed with
which mobile is moving
 Interference and System Capacity
Sources of interference
- another mobile in the same cell
- call progress in neighboring cell
- Other base station operating in same frequency
- Other noncellular system leaking energy in this band
Effects of interference
- Voice channel -cross talk
- Control channel - Missed and blocked calls due to error
in signaling
Interference is more in urban areas due to greater
noise floor, more number of base stations and
mobiles
 Interference and System Capacity
Types of system generated interference
- co-channel interference
- adjacent channel interference
• Interference generated within cellular system is
difficult to control due to random propagation
effects
• More difficult to control is due to out of band
users which occur without warning which over
load subscriber equipment
• Out of band interference is due to close proximity
of in the location of base station
Co-channel Interference and System Capacity
• cells that use same frequency are co-channel cells
• Interference between signals from these cells is
co-channel interference
• co-channel interference can’t be reduced by
increasing transmitted power, as increase in
carrier power increase interference to
neighboring co channel cells
How to reduce co-channel interference?
Physical separation between co-channel cells by
minimum distance to provide isolation due to
propagation
Co-channel Interference and System Capacity
• For same cell size and transmitted power, Co-
channel Interference is a function of cell
radius (R) and distance between centers of the
nearest co-channel cell (D)
• Increasing D/R spatial separation between co-
channel cell relative to coverage distance of a
cell is increased and interference is reduced.
𝐷
• Co-channel reuse ratio Q = = 3𝑁
𝑅
 Co-channel Interference and System Capacity

𝐷
Co-channel reuse ratio Q = 𝑅 = 3𝑁

Q small improved capacity as cluster size N is small

large Q improved transmission quality due to small co-
channel interference
Trade off between these is the objective of cellular
design
 Co-channel Interference
• Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells. The
signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for a mobile receiver can
be expressed as
S S S: the desired signal power
 i0
I Ii: interference power caused by the ith
I
i 1
i interfering co-channel cell base station

• The average received power at a distance d from the transmitting

antenna is approximated by d 0
n
d 
Pr  P0  
 d0  P0 :m easued pow er
TX

d 
Pr (dBm)  P0 (dBm)  10n log  
 d0 
• d –distance between transmitter and receiver
• do- distance from transmitter to a close in reference point, Po- power close in
reference point
• n is the path loss exponent which ranges between 2 and 4 in urban cellular systems
 Co-channel Interference
 When the transmit power of each base station is equal and n is same
throughout the coverage area, SIR for a mobile can be approximated as
n
S R
 i0
I
 i
 D
i 1
n

 Consider only the first layer of interfering cells and all interfering BSs are at
equidistant (D), then

S ( D / R)
 
3N n
  n

I i0 i0
 Co-channel Interference
• For hexagonal geometry with 7-cell cluster, path loss exponent n=4, with the
mobile unit being at the cell boundary, the signal-to-interference ratio for the
worst case can be approximated as
𝑆 𝑅 −4
= −4 + 2 𝐷 + 𝑅 −4
𝐼 2 𝐷−𝑅 + 2𝐷−4
• Rewriting in terms of Q,
𝑆 1
= −4 + 2 𝑄 + 1 −4
𝐼 2 𝑄−1 + 2𝑄 −4

• For N=7, Q= 4.6 and the worst case S/I

= 49.56 = 17 dB < required S/I.
• To meet performance requirement, N
has to be increased (to 12)  decrease
in capacity (7/12)  not acceptable
• Proves that CCI determines link performance, in
turn dictates the frequency reuse plan and
overall capacity.
 Problems
7. Determine S/I for
• A. N=7, n=4
• B.N=4, n=4
 Problems
8.If a signal to interference ratio of 15 dB is required for
satisfactory channel performance of a cellular system,
what is the Co-channel reuse ratio and cluster size that
should be used for maximum capacity if the path loss
exponent is
(a) n=4 and (b) n=3?
Assume that there are 6 co-channel cells in the first tier
and all of them are at the same distance from the
mobile. Use suitable approximation
 Problems
9.Determine the distance from the nearest co-
channel cell for a cell having a radius of
0.64km and a co-channel reuse factor of 12
 Adjacent Channel Interference
• Interference from channels that are adjacent in frequency,
• Reason for interference
- Imperfect receive filters which cause the adjacent channel
energy to leak into your spectrum
• This is a serious problem if the user of adjacent channel is
transmitting very close to the subscribers receiver  Near-Far
Effect
• The other transmitter (who may or may not be of the same
type) captures the receiver of the subscriber.
• Near field also occurs when a Mobile Station close to the Base
Station transmits on a channel close to the one being used by
a weaker mobile
• The BS faces difficulty in discriminating the desired mobile
user from the “bleed over” of the adjacent channel mobile.
 Near field Effect- Case 1

• The Base Station faces difficulty in recognizing the actual

mobile user, when the adjacent channel bleed over is too
high.
 Near field Effect- Case 2

• The Mobile receiver is captured by the unintended, unknown

transmitter, instead of the desired base station
 Minimizing Adjacent Channel interference
(1) Careful Filtering ---- min. leakage or sharp transition
(2) Better Channel Assignment Strategy

• Channels in a cell need not be adjacent: For channels

within a cell, keep frequency separation as large as
possible.
• Sequentially assigning successive frequency channels in
the frequency band to different cells
• Also, secondary level of interference can be reduced by
not assigning adjacent channels to neighboring cells.
• For tolerable ACI, we either need to increase the
frequency separation or reduce the passband BW.
−𝑛
𝑆 𝑑1
=
𝐼 𝑑2
d1- distance of the subscriber
d2-distance of interferer
Power Control for minimizing Interference
• Power levels transmitted by every subscriber unit
are under constant control by the Base Station.
• Mobile station should transmit minimum power
to maintain quality link on reverse channel.
• This has benefits of longer Battery Life at the
Mobile Station Reduced reverse SIR.
• In CDMA systems, it is extremely important to
control the power, as the neighboring cells are
using the same channel.
• Reduced interference increase capacity
 Problem
10. Suppose the subscriber is at 1000m from
the BS and the adjacent channel interferer is at
100m from BS, path loss factor n=3, determine
S/I
−𝑛
𝑆 𝑑1
=
𝐼 𝑑2
d1- distance of the subscriber
d2-disatnce of interferer
 Improving Coverage and Capacity
As demand for wireless service increase, number of
channels that can be accommodated decrease.
Techniques to provide more channel/coverage area:
Cell splitting –orderly growth of cellular system by
increasing no of base stations
Sectoring-uses directional antennas to control
interference and for frequency reuse
zone microcell - distribute coverage of cell and extend
cell boundary
Sectoring and microcell rely on antenna to increase
capacity and reduce interference. Also reduce
computational load at MSC
 Cell Splitting
• Process of subdividing congested cell into
smaller cells with its own base station and
corresponding reduction in antenna height
and transmit power
• This increase channel capacity as number of
reuse channel increases
 Cell splitting
• For the new smaller cells, power need to be reduced
• Transmit power can be determined by examining
received power at new and old boundary
𝑃𝑟 𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 ∝ 𝑃𝑡1 𝑅−𝑛
𝑅 −𝑛
𝑃𝑟 𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 ∝ 𝑃𝑡2
2
Where Pt1 and Pt2 are transmit powers of large and
small cells, n path loss exponent
Eg: n=4
𝑃𝑡1
𝑃𝑡2 =
16
 Transmit power is reduced by dB
 Cell Splitting
Challenges in cell splitting
• all channels are not split at the same time
• Difficult for service providers to find real estate that perfectly situate cell
splitting
• Care need to be taken to keep co-channel at required minimum distance
• Channel assignment is more complicated
• Handoff issue must be addressed so that high speed and low speed traffic
can be simultaneously accommodated
• If large Tx power is used for all cells, some smaller cells may not be
sufficiently separated from co channel cells
• If smaller tx power is used for all cells, part of large cell would not be
served
• Optimum solution old cell must be broken to two channel groups one cell
corresponds to smaller cell reuse and other corresponds to large cell reuse
• Large cell dedicated to high speed traffic so that hand off is less frequent
 Problems
11. Consider situation as shown in Figure
. Assume each base station uses 60
channels, regardless of cell size. If each
original cell has a radius of 1 km and
each microcell has radius of 0.5km, find
the number of channels contained in a
3km  3km square centered around A
(a) without the use of microcells
(b) when the lettered microcells as
shown in Fig are used
(c) If all the original base stations are
replaced by microcells.
Assume cells on the edge of the square
be contained within the source
 Cell sectoring
• Sectoring is another way to increase capacity.
• same coverage space but instead of using a
single omni-directional antenna that transmits
in all directions directional antennas can be
used
• either three or six directional antennas are
used and each with beamwidth of about 120°
or 60°

A cell divided into (a) 120° and (b) 60°

 Cell sectoring
• The channels allocated to a particular cell are divided among the
different sectors.
• channels assigned to a particular sector are always at the same
direction in the different cells.
• For example, group A of channels assigned to the sector S1, group B
of channels are assigned to the sector S2 at the top of all cells, and
so on.
• each sector causes interference to the cells that are in its
transmission angle only.
• Unlike the case of no sectoring where six interfering co-channel
cells from the first-tier co-channels cells cause interference, with
120° sectoring, two or three co-channel cells cause interference and
with 60° sectoring, one or two co-channel cells cause interference.
 Cell sectoring

Interference in (a) 120° and (b) 60° cell sectoring

 Cell Sectoring
Signal to Interference for N=7
𝑆 𝑅−𝑛
𝑆 𝑅−𝑛 (6 − 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟) −𝑛
(3 − 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟) = −𝑛 𝐼 𝐷 + 0.7𝑅
𝐼 𝐷 + 0.7𝑅 + 𝐷−𝑛

𝑆 𝑛
𝑆 1 (6 − 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟) = 𝑄 + 0.7
(3 − 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟) = 𝐼
𝐼 𝑄 + 0.7 −𝑛 + 𝑄−𝑛

Worst case interference for 120  sector Worst case interference for 60  (6
(3 sector) cells sector) sector cells
 Cell Sectoring
Issues in cell sectoring
• Increased number of antennas in BS
• Decrease in trunking efficiency due to
sectoring(dividing the bigger pool of channels
into smaller groups)
• Increased number of handoffs (sector-sector)
• Many modern BS support sectoring and
related handoff without the help of MSC
 Problems
12. A cellular system is designed with a 3-sector directional antenna
cellular configuration. A cluster pattern of size 7 is deployed. Let the
mobile receiver be located at the boundary of its operating cell, and be
under the influence of interfering signals from two co-channel
interfering cells in the first tier. Compute the worst-case signal-to-co-
channel interference ratio S/I at the mobile receiver. If the S/I value for
a practical system requires 6 dB higher than the theoretical value of S/I
= 18 dB then comment on the results obtained. Assume the path-loss
exponent as 4 in a mobile radio environment.
13. a) Compute the worst-case S/I value at the mobile receiver located
at the boundary of its serving cell if it is under the influence of
interfering signals from two nearest co-channel interfering cells in a
cellular system. The system is designed with 3-sector directional
antenna cellular system with a reuse pattern of 4. (b) Does this system
yield an adequate value of S/I for a practical system which requires 6
dB higher than the theoretical value of S/I = 18 dB? Assume the path-
loss exponent as 4 in a mobile radio environment. Repeat for 6 sector
with one interfering cell.
 Microcell Zone Concept
• Problem of sectoring can be
addressed by Microcell Zone
Concept
• A cell is divided into microcells or
Zones
• Each microcell (Zone) is
connected to the same base
station (fiber/ microwave link)
• Each zone uses a directional
antenna
• As a mobile travels from one zone
to another, it retains the same
channel i.e, no hand off
• The BS simply switches the
channel to the next Zone site
 Microcell Zone Concept
• While the cell maintains a particular coverage
area, the CCI is reduced because:
- The large central BS is replaced by several low power
transmitters
- Directional Antennas are used
• Decreased CCI improves
- Signal quality
- Capacity
 Problem - Microcell Zone
14.Determine the increase in capacity when 3
microcell zones are used within a single cell to
achieve S/I=18 dB
 Repeaters for Range Extension
• Radio transmitters called repeaters can be use to
provide coverage in these areas
• Useful for hard to reach areas
– Within buildings
– Tunnels
– Valleys
• Repeaters are bidirectional
– Receive signals from BS
– Amplify the signals
– Reradiate the signals
• Received noise and interference is also reradiated
 Trunking and Grade of Service
• Trunking is 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.
• Trunking exploits the statistical behavior of
users so that a fixed no. of channels may
accommodate large, random user community.
• Trunking theory is about how a population can
be handled by a limited number of servers.
• Telephone companies use trunking theory to
determine number of circuits required.
 Terminology
1. Set-Up Time: time to allocate a channel.(block/wait if
channel not available)
2. Blocked Call: Call that cannot be completed at time of request
due to congestion. Also referred to as Lost Call (lost revenue).
3. Holding Time (H): average duration of typical call. (can be
regulated by changing tariff)
4. Request Rate (λ): average number of call requests per unit
time.
5. Traffic intensity: Measure of channel time utilization, is
measured in Erlangs:
-One Erlang: traffic in a channel completely occupied. 0.5
Erlang: channel occupied 30 minutes in an hour.
6. Grade of Service (GOS): measure of the ability of the user to
access a trunked system during the busiest hour.
7. Load: Traffic intensity across the whole system.
 Grade of Service (GOS)
• Measure of congestion which is specified as a
probability. Benchmark to define the performance of
the trunked system.
• GOS is given as the likelihood that a call is blocked/
delayed > queuing time
- Probability of a call being blocked ( Erlang B )
- Probability of a call being delayed beyond certain
amount of time ( Erlang C )
 Traffic Theory
• Traffic intensity offered by each user (𝐴𝑢 ) = call request rate () 
Holding time (H)
𝐴𝑢 = 𝐻 (𝐸𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠)

• For a system containing U users and unspecified no. of channels,

total offered traffic intensity 𝐴 = 𝑈𝐴𝑢

• In a C channel trunked system, if the traffic intensity is equally

distributed among the channels, traffic intensity per channel
𝑈𝐴𝑢
𝐴𝑐 = 𝐶
For eg. AMPS is designed for 2% GoS, which implies that channel allocations for cell
sites are designed so that 2 out of 100 calls will be blocked due to channel occupancy
during the busiest hour.
Designer’s job: estimate the max required capacity and allot channels to
meet GoS
 Traffic Theory
The assumptions made in the Erlang B formula are as follows:
• Traffic originates independently from an infinite number of traffic
sources.
• Lost calls are cleared assuming a zero holding time.
• Limited number of trunks or service channels.
• Inter-arrival times of call requests are independent of each other.
• The service time (probability of a user occupying a channel) is based
on an exponential distribution.
• Traffic requests are represented by a Poisson distribution implying
exponentially distributed call inter-arrival times
• Probability of an arriving call being blocked and is a measure of
GOS.
𝐴𝐶
𝐶!
Pr 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 𝑘 (Erlang-B formula)
𝐶 𝐴
𝑘=0 𝑘!
where
C  No. of trunked channels
A  Total offered Traffic
Fig 3.6 Erlang B Chart probability of blocking as function of number of channels and traffic intensit
 Traffic Theory
• The Erlang C formula assumes that a queue is formed to
hold all requested calls that cannot be served immediately.
• This means that the blocked customers are delayed.
• No server remains idle if a customer is waiting.
The assumptions in the Erlang C formula are as follows:
• Traffic originates from an infinite number of traffic sources
independently.
• Lost calls are delayed.
• Number of trunks or service channels is limited.
• The probability of a user occupying a channel (called service time) is
based on an exponential distribution.
• Calls are served in the order of arrival
𝐴𝐶
𝑃𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦 > 0 = 𝐴 𝑘 (Erlang-C formula
𝐶−1𝐴
𝐴𝐶 +𝐶! 1−𝐶 𝑘=0 𝑘!
 Traffic Efficiency
𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑛𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 =
𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝐸𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠×𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐

=
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑘𝑠 (𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑠)
 Problems
15. Consider a cell with 100 mobile stations, 2 channels generating 30
requests/ hour and average holding time 360 seconds, determine:
(a) Traffic intensity offered by user
(b) Blocking probability
(c) Total number of rerouted calls
(d) Efficiency
𝐴𝐶
𝐴𝑢 = 𝐻 (𝐸𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠), Pr 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 𝐶!
𝑘 (Erlang-B formula),
𝐶 𝐴
𝑘=0 𝑘!
𝐸𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠×𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐
Efficiency=
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑘𝑠 (𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑠)
 Problems
16. Consider a system with 100 cells, 20
channels, average number of call request 2 calls/
hour, average duration of each call is 3 min. How
many numbers of users can be supported if the
allowed probability of blocking is 2%?
Repeat for probability of blocking is 0.2%?
 Problems
17. A total of 24 MHz bandwidth is allocated to a particular FDD cellular
telephone system that uses two 30KHz simplex channels to provide full duplex
voice and control channels. Assume each cell phone user generates 0.1 Erlangs of
traffic. Assume Erlang B is used.
a) Find the number of channels in each cell for a four cell reuse system
b) If each cell is to offer capacity that is 90% of perfect scheduling, find the
maximum number of users that can be supported per cell where omni
directional antennas are used at each base station.
c) What is the blocking probability of the system in (b) when the maximum
number of users are available in the user pool?
d) If each new cell now uses 120sectoring instead of omni dirctional for each
base station, what is the new total number of users that can be supported
per cell for the same blocking probability in (c)
e) If each cell covers five square kilometers, then how many subscribers could
be supported in an urban market that is 50 km  50 km for the case of
omnidirectional base station antennas?
f) If each cell covers five square kilometers, then how many subscribers could
be supported in an urban market that is 50 km  50 km for the case of