Chapter 2

Fundamentals of Wireless (Cellular) Communications

Asst. Prof. Bijaya Shrestha

Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
nec
Cellular Concept
In early mobile radio systems, a single, high powered
transmitter with an antenna mounted on a tall tower was
used to serve a large coverage area.
With limited spectrum, this system could not serve the
large number of subscribers.
The cellular concept was evolved to increase the capacity by
implementing the frequency reuse technique.
In a cellular system, instead of using a single, high power
transmitter (large cell), many low power transmitters
(small cells), each serving a small area are used.
By this concept, the same frequencies can be reused in
different cells thereby increasing the capacity.
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Hexagonal Cell Shape (I)
The hexagonal cell shape is conceptual and is a
simplistic model of the radio coverage for each base
station .
Hexagon permits easy and manageable analysis of a
cellular system.
Though it seems natural to use a circle for a cellular
coverage, we cannot cover the whole service area
without leaving gaps or creating overlapping regions.
The choices of geometric shapes are: square,
equilateral triangle, and hexagon.
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Hexagonal Cell Shape (II)
For a given distance between the center of a polygon and its
farthest perimeter points, the hexagon has the largest area
of the three.
So, by using the hexagon geometry, the fewest number of
cells can cover a geographic region.
Also, the hexagon closely approximates a circular radiation
pattern for an omnidirectional base station antenna.
For hexagonal coverage areas, base station transmitters are
either placed in the center of the cell (center-excited cells)
or on three of the six cell vertices (edge-excited cells).

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Hexagonal Cell Shape (II)
Normally, omnidirectional antennas are used in
center-excited cells and sectored directional antennas
are used in corner-excited cells.

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Frequency Reuse (I)

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Frequency Reuse (II)
Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio
channels to be used within a cell.
Base stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel
groups with different channels than neighboring cells.
The same group of channels may be used to cover
different cells that are separated from one another by
distances large enough to limit 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.
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Frequency Reuse (III)
In the figure illustrating the concept of cellular
frequency reuse, the cells labeled with the same letter
use the same group of channels.
Consider a cellular system with S number of duplex
channels; each cell allocated with a group of k
channels (k < S) and S channels are divided among N
cells. Then,
S = kN
The N cells using the complete set of available
frequencies is called a cluster.
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Frequency Reuse (IV)
If a cluster is replicated M times within the system, the
total number of duplex channels (capacity) is
C = MkN = MS
The factor N is called the cluster size and is typically
equal to 4, 7, or 12.
If the cluster size N is reduced without changing the
cell size, more clusters are required to cover a given
area thereby increasing the capacity C.
Conversely, the distance between co-channel cells is
decreased thereby increasing the co-channel
interference.
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Frequency Reuse (V)
The frequency reuse factor of a cellular system is given by
1/N meaning that each cell within a cluster is assigned only
1/N of the total available channels in the system.
The number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values
satisfying
N = i2 + ij + j2
where i and j are non-negative integers.
To find the nearest co-channel neighbors of a particular
cell, one must do the following:
1. move i cells along any chain of hexagons and then
2. turn 60 degrees counter-clockwise and move j cells.
Example in figure in the next slide is for i = 3 and j = 2
such that N = 19.
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Frequency Reuse (VI)

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Channel Assignment Strategies (I)
Fixed Channel Assignment Strategy
Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice
channels.
Any call attempt within the cell can only be served by
the 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.
The borrowing strategy can be used in which a cell is
allowed to borrow channels from a neighboring cell if all
of its own channels are already occupied.

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Channel Assignment Strategies (II)
Dynamic Channel Assignment Strategy
Voice channels are not allocated to different cells
permanently.
Each time a call request is made, the serving base sation
requests a channel from the MSC.
The switch then allocates a channel to the requested cell.
This strategy reduces the liklihood of blocking, which
increases the trunking capacity of the system since all the
available channels in a market are accessible to all of the cells.
A disadvantage of this strategy is that storage and
computational load on the system is increased.

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Handoff (I)
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. This operation is called the handoff.
Handoffs must be performed successfully and as infrequently as
possible, and be imperceptible to the users.
A particular signal level, Pr minimum usable , is specified as the minimum
usable signal for acceptable voice quality at the base station receiver (-
90 dBm to -100 dBm).
An optimum signal level, Pr handoff, (slightly greater than Pr minimum usable
) is specified to initiate a handoff.
The margin, Δ = Pr handoff - Pr minimum usable , should not be too large or too
small.
If Δ is too large, unnecessary handoffs which burden the MSC may
occur, and if Δ is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete
a handoff before a call is lost due to weak signal conditions.

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Handoff (II)

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Interference and System Capacity
Interference is the major limiting factor in the performance of
cellular radio systems.
Sources of interference include another mobile in the same cell,
a call in progress in a neighboring cell, other base stations
operating in the same frequency band, or any noncellular system
which leaks energy into the cellular frequency band.
Interference is more severe in urban areas, due to the greater RF
noise floor and the large number of base stations and mobiles.
Interference is a major bottleneck in increasing capacity and
often responsible for dropped calls.
The two major types of system-generated cellular interference
are co-channel interference and adjacent channel interference.

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Co-Channel Interference and
System Capacity (I)
Different cells using the same set of frequencies are called co-
channel cells.
The interference between signals from co-channel cells is called
the co-channel interference.
To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cells must be
physically separated by a minumum distance to provide
sufficient isolation due to propagation.
For a hexagonal geometry, the co-channel reuse ratio is defined
as

where R is the radius of the cell, D is the distance between

centers of the nearest co-channel cells, and N is the cluster size.

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Co-Channel Interference and
System Capacity (II)
A smaller value of Q provides larger capacity since the the
cluster size N is small, whereas a large value of Q improves
the transmission quality, due to a smaller level of co-
channel interference. A trade-off must be made between
these two objectives in actual cellular design.
Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells. Then,
the signal-to-interference ratio (S/I or SIR) for a mobile
receiver can be expressed as

where S is the desired signal power from the desired base

station and Ii is the interference power caused by the ith
interfering co-channel cell base station.

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Co-Channel Interference and
System Capacity (III)
The average received power Pr at a distance d from the
transmitting antenna is approximated by

where P0 is the reference power received at a small distance

d0 and n is the path loss exponent.
If Di is the distance of the ith interferer from the mobile,
the received power at a given mobile due to the ith
interfering cell will be proportional to (Di)-n .
When the transmit power of each base station is equal and
the path loss exponent is the same throughout the coverage
area, SIR for a mobile can be approximated as

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Co-Channel Interference and
System Capacity (IV)
Considering only the first layer of interfering cells, if all the
interfering base stations are equidistant from the desired base
station and if this distance is equal to the distance D between
cell centers, then SIR can be simplified as

Example:
Assume that the six closest cells are close enough to create
significant interference and that they are all approximately
equidistant from the desired base station.
Suppose, SIR of greater than or equal to 18 dB is required for
sufficient voice quality.
Assume n = 4.
Then, using the above equation, we can find that the minimum
cluser size of 7 is required to meet an SIR requirement of 18 dB.

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Co-Channel Interference and
System Capacity (V)
The performance is better for increased SIR which
requires larger cluster size.
On the other hand, the capacity is decreased for larger
cluster size.
Therefore, co-channel interference is directly related
with the system capacity.

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Homework
For given path loss exponent n = 3, find the cluster size
that should be used for maximum capacity. The
signal-to-noise interference ratio of 16 dB is minimum
required for satisfactory forward channel performance
of a cellular system. There are six co-channel cells in
the first tier, and all of them are at the same distance
from the mobile. Use suitable approximations.

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Adjacent Channel Interference (I)
Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent
in frequency to the desired signal is called adjacent
channel interference.
Adjacent channel interference results from imperfect
receiver filters which allow nearby frequencies to leak
into the passband.
For example, if an adjacent channel user is
transmitting in very close range to a subscriber’s
receiver with imperfect filter, the receiver attempting
to receive a base station will receive the undesired
signal. This is referred to as the near-far effect.

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Adjacent Channel Interference (II)
Adjacent channel interference can be minimized
through careful filtering and channel assignments.
Instead of assigning channels which form a contiguous
band of frequencies within a particular cell, channels
are allocated such that the frequency separation
between channels in a given cell is maximized.
If the frequency reuse factor is large (e.g., small N), the
separation between adjacent channels at the base
station may not be sufficient to keep the adjacent
channel interference level within tolerable limits.

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Trunking and Grade of Service (I)
Cellular radio systems rely on trunking to accommodate a
large number of users in a limited radio spectrum.
The concept of trunking allows a large number of users to
share the relatively small number of channels in a cell by
providing access to each user, on demand, from a pool of
available channels.
In a trunked radio system, each user is allocated a channel
on a per call basis, and upon termination of the call, the
previously occupied channel is immediately returned to the
pool of available channels.

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Trunking and Grade of Service (II)
In a trunked mobile radio system, when a particular
user requests service and all of the radio channels are
already in use, the user is blocked, or denied access to
the system. In some systems, a queue may be used to
hold the requesting users until a channel becomes
available.
One Erlang represents the amount of traffic intensity
carried by a channel that is completely occupied (i.e.
one call-hour per hour or one call-minute per minute).
For example, a radio channel that is occupied for thirty
minutes during an hour carries 0.5 Erlangs of traffic.

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Trunking and Grade of Service (III)
Some Definitions for Trunking Theory:
Set-up Time: The time required to allocate a trunked radio channel to a
requesting user.
Blocked Call: Call which cannot be completed at time of request,due to
congestion. Also referred to as a lost call.
Holding Time: Average duration of a typical call. Denoted by H (in
seconds).
Traffic Intensity: The average channel occupancy measured in Erlangs.
Denoted by A.
Load: Traffic intensity across the entire trunked radio system,
measured in Erlangs.
Grade of Service (GOS): A measure of congestion which is specified as
the probability of a call being blocked (for Erlang B), or the probability
of a call being delayed beyond a certain amount of time (for Erlang C).
Request Rate: The average number of call requests per unit time.
Denoted by λ (in per second).

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Trunking and Grade of Service (IV)
The traffic intensity offered by each user is equal to the call
request rate multiplied by the holding time. That is,
Au=λH
where H is the average duration of a call and λ is the average
number of call requests per unit time for each user.
For a system containing U users and an unspecified number of
channels, the total offered traffic intensity is given as
A=UAu
In a trunked system with C channels, if the traffic is equally
distributed among the channels, then the traffic intensity per
channel is given as
Ac=UAu/C

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Trunking and Grade of Service (V)
The offered traffic is not necessarily the traffic which is
carried by the trunked system.
When the offered traffic exceeds the maximum capacity of
the system, the carried traffic becomes limited due to the
limited capacity (i.e. limited number of channels).
The AMPS cellular system is designed for a GOS of 2%
blocking. This implies that the 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.
Trunking Systems: (A) Blocked Calls Cleared and (B)
Blocked Calls Delayed.
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Trunking and Grade of Service (VI)
(A) Blocked Calls Cleared Trunking System:
This type offers no queuing for call requests.
For every user who requests service, it is assumed there is no setup time
and the user is given immediate access to a channel if one is available.
If no channels are available, the requesting user is blocked without
access and is free to try again later.
The Erlang B formula determines the probability that a call is blocked
and is a measure of the GOS for a trunked system which provides no
queuing for blocked calls.
The Erlang B formula is given by

where C is the number of trunked channels and A is the total offered

traffic.

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Trunking and Grade of Service (VII)

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Trunking and Grade of Service (VIII)

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Trunking and Grade of Service (IX)
(B) Blocked Calls Delayed Trunking System:
A queue is provided to hold calls which are blocked.
If a channel is not available immediately, the call request
may be delayed until a channel becomes available.
In this case, GOS is defined as the probability that a call
is blocked after waiting a specific length of time in the
queue.
The liklihood of a call not having immediate access to a
channel is determined by the Erlang C formula given as

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Trunking and Grade of Service (X)
If no channels are immediately available the call is
delayed, and the probability that the delayed call is
forced to wait more than t seconds is given by

The average delay D for all calls in a queued system is

given by

where the average delay for those calls which are

queued is given by H/(C-A)

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Trunking and Grade of Service (XI)

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Trunking and Grade of Service (XII)
Example:
How many users can be supported for 0.5% blocking probability for 5 trunked
channels in a blocked calls cleared system? Assume each user generates 0.1
Erlangs of traffic. Find the result also for 10 trunked channels.
Solution:
Given,
Au=0.1, GOS = 0.005
Using Erlang B table or Erlang B chart, we get
for C=5: A=1.13, therefore, total number of users,
U=A/Au=1.13/0.1≈11 users
for C=10: A=3.96, therefore, total number of users,
U=A/Au=3.96/0.1≈39 users
Trunking efficiency is a measure of the number of users which can be offered a
particular GOS with a particular configuration of fixed channels. In the
example, it is seen that the trunking efficiency of a 10 channel system is better
than that of a system with two groups of 5 channels each.

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Cell Splitting (I)
Cell splitting is the process of subdividing a congested
cell into smaller cells (microcells), each with its own
base station and a corresponding reduction in antenna
height and transmitter power.
Cell splitting increases the capacity of a cellular system
since it increases the number of times that channels
are reused.
The increased number of cells increases the number of
clusters over the coverage area, which in turn increases
the number of channels, and thus capacity, in the
coverage area.

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Cell Splitting (II)
Let the new cells have radius half
that of the original cells. Then,
Pr[at old cell boundary]αPt1R-n
and
Pr[at old cell boundary]αPt2(R/2)-n
where Pt1 and Pt2 are the transmit powers of the larger and
smaller cell base stations, respectively, and n is the path
loss exponent.
The received power at the new and old cell boundaries
must be equal. For n=4, the transmit power of smaller cells
must be set as
Pt2=Pt1/16

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Sectoring (I)
Sectoring is another way to increase the capacity.
In this method, directional antennas are used to
improve the SIR so that the number of cells in a cluster
can be reduced to increase the capacity.
The co-channel interference in a cellular system may
be decreased by replacing a single omnidirectional
antenna at the base station by several directional
antennas, each radiating within a specified sector.
By using directional antennas, a given cell will receive
interference and transmit with only a fraction of the
available co-channel cells.
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Sectoring (II)
The technique for decreasing co-channel interference
and thus increasing system performance by using
directional antennas is called sectoring.
The factor by which the co-channel interference is
reduced depends on the amount of sectoring used.
A cell is normally partitioned into three 120˚ or six 60˚
sectors.

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Sectoring (III)
When sectoring is employed, the channels used in a
particular cell are broken down into sectored groups
and are used only within a particular sector.
For a seven-cell reuse system with 120˚ sectoring, the
number of interferers in the first tier is reduced from
six to two.

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Sectoring (IV)
The further improvement in SIR is achieved by
downtilting the sector antennas.
The disadvantages of sectoring are the increased
number of antennas at each base station, decrease in
trunking efficiency due to channal sectoring at the
base station, and increased number of handofs due to
reduced coverage area of a particular group of
channels.

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References
Theodore S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications,
second edition, Prentice Hall, 2012.

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