WIRELESS NETWORK GENERATIONS:

1. First-Generation Analog Cellular Systems:

 The first-generation (1G) analog cellular communication systems are voice-oriented analog cellular systems using frequency
division multiple access technique.
 The AMPS(Advanced Mobile Phone System) and ETACS(Enhanced Total Access Communication System) systems use a
seven-cell reuse pattern with provisions for cell- sectoring and cell-splitting to increase capacity when needed.
 The systems transmit speech signals employing FM and Important control info. is transmitted in digital form using FSK.

 The entire service area is divided into logical cells, and each cell is allocated one specific band in the frequency spectrum.

 To explore a frequency reuse pattern, the frequency spectrum is divided among seven cells, improving the voice quality as

each subscriber is given a larger bandwidth.

 AMPS and ETACS cellular radio systems deploy cell-sites with tall towers that support several receiving antennas and have

transmitting antennas that typically radiate a few hundred watts of effective radiated power.
 All these systems use two separate frequency bands for forward (cell-site to mobile) and reverse (mobile to cell-site) links.

 Such a system is referred to as a frequency division duplex ( DD) scheme.

 The dominant spectra of operation for these systems are the 800-and 900-MHz bands. In an ideal situation, all countries

should use the same standard and the same frequency bands.
 All the 1G cellular systems use analog frequency modulation (FM) for which the transmission power requirement depends on

the transmission bandwidth.

 power is also related to the coverage and size of the cells.
 Therefore, one can compensate for the reduction in transmission bandwidth per subscriber by reducing the size of a cell in a

cellular network.
 Reduction in size of the cell increases the number of cells and the cost of installation of the infrastructure. The channel spacing,

or bandwidth, allocated to each subscriber is either 30 kHz or 25 kHz or a fraction of either of them.

2. Second-Generation Digital Cellular Systems:

 The second generation (2G) cellular systems represent the set of wireless air interface standards that rely on digital

modulation and sophisticated digital signal processing in the handset and the base station.
 Digital cellular technologies support a much larger number of mobile subscribers within a given frequency allocation, thereby

offering higher user capacity, providing superior security and voice quality, and lay the foundation for value-added services
(including data) that will continue to be developed and enhanced in future.
 To have efficient use of the frequency spectrum, time division or code-division multiple access technique is used in 2G digital

cellular systems so that low-rate data along with voice can be processed.
 The most popular 2G cellular standards include three TDMA standards and one CDMA standard.

 Based on the analog AMPS cellular system, the TDMA system IS-54/136 was developed in the US that adds digital traffic

channels. IS-54/136 uses dual-mode mobile phones and incorporates associated control channels, authentication procedures
using encryption, and mobile assisted handoff.
 The IS-136 includes digital control channels which enable to provide several additional services such as identification, voice

mail, SMS, call waiting, group calling, etc.

 The popular 2G CDMA standard (IS-95), also known as cdmaOne, can support up to 64 mobile subscribers that are

orthogonally coded and simultaneously transmitted on each 1.25 MHz channel.

- In digital communications, information is transmitted in packets or frames.
- The duration of a packet/frame in the air should be short enough, so that the channel does not change significantly during the
transmission, and long enough, so that the required time interval between packets is much smaller than the length of the packet.
- A frame length of around 5 to 40 ms is typically used in 2G cellular networks.

Evolution from 2G to 3G Cellular Network:

There are two steps of 3G evolution paths from present 2G technologies based on GSM and IS-95 CDMA respectively.
 GSM is an open, digital cellular technology which supports voice calls and data transfer speeds of up to 9.6kbps, together with
the transmission of SMS (Short Message Service).
 GSM provides international roaming capability that enables users to access

the seamless services when travelling abroad. HSCSD (High Speed Circuit
Switched Data) enables data to be transferred more rapidly than the standard
GSM system by using multiple channels.
 GPRS is a very widely deployed wireless data service, available now with

most GSM networks. GPRS offers throughput rates of up to 53.6 kbps

 Enhancements to GSM networks are provided by Enhanced Data rates for

GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology or EGPRS, which offers up to three times

the data capacity of GPRS.
- Various mobile data services such as multimedia messaging, high-speed
Internet access and e-mail are possible
- EDGE allows it to be overlaid directly onto an existing GSM network with
simple software- upgrade.
 WCDMA is the air interface for third-generation mobile communications systems. It enables the continued support of voice,

text and MMS services in addition to richer mobile multimedia services.

Third-Generation Digital Cellular Systems:

 The fundamental purpose of the 3G mobile communications system is to provide a globally integrated wireless communication

system combining different incompatible network technologies already deployed across the world.
 All 2G and 2.5G cellular communications systems and mobile phones will eventually evolve towards a global standard, which is

referred to IMT-2000.
 The third generation aims to combine telephony, Internet, and multimedia into a single device. it supports the Internet

protocols and be based on a packet-switched network backbone.

The IMT-2000 system incorporates three variations of CDMA.

- The modes differ in how duplexing is accomplished and how many carriers are used.
- All variations operate in a 5-MHz channel, as compared to 1.25 MHz for cdma One systems.

3G cellular network capabilities:

 High degree of worldwide commonality of design

 Compatibility of services with fixed networks and within IMT-2000

 More efficient use of the available spectrum

 Voice quality comparable to that of PSTN

 Support for 2-Mbps data rate for office use

 Symmetrical and asymmetrical data-transmission rates

 Support for both circuit-switched and packet-switched data services

 Support for wide variety of mobile phones for worldwide use including pico, micro, macro, and global cellular/satellite cells

 Worldwide roaming capability

 Capability for multimedia applications and a wide range of services

 Flexibility to allow the introduction of new services and technologies

Services offered by 3G Cellular Networks:

 Voice 3G systems will offer speech quality at least as good as the fixed telephone network. Voicemail will also be eventually

integrated fully with email service through computerized voice recognition and synthesis techniques.
 Switched data This includes dial-up access to corporate networks or fax service or the Internet access that doesn’t support a

fully packet-switched network.

 Messaging This is an extension of paging, combined with Internet e-mail service. Unlike the text-only messaging services built

into some 2G systems, 3G systems will allow e-mail attachments. It can also be used for payment and electronic ticketing.
 Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) The MMS is designed to allow rich text, colour, icons and logos, sound clips,

photographs, animated graphics, and video clips. It works over the broadband wireless channels in 3G networks.
 Immediate messaging MMS features push capability that enables the message to be delivered instantly if the called mobile
user is active. It avoids the need for collection from the server. This always-on characteristic of the mobile users opens up the
exciting possibility of multimedia chat in real time.
 Medium multimedia This is likely to be the most popular 3G service. Its downstream data rate is ideal for web surfing, games,

location-based maps, and collaborative group working.

 High multimedia This can be used for very high-speed Internet access, as well as for high- definition video and CD-quality audio

on demand. Another possible application is online shopping for intangible products that can be delivered over the air such as a
software program for a mobile computer.
 Interactive high multimedia This can be used for high-quality videophones, videoconferencing or a combination of

videoconferencing and collaborative working.

 Sending multimedia postcards A clip of a holiday video could be captured through the integral video cam of a user’s mobile

handset or uploaded via Bluetooth from a standard camcorder, then combined with voice or text messages and mailed instantly
to any other mobile user.

Basic signal propogation Mechanisms:

In a wireless signal propagation environment, apart from direct waves, the receiver will get a number of reflected waves,
diffracted waves and scattered waves.

As shown in Figure, ht is the height of the cell-site antenna from the

earth’s surface, hr is the height of the mobile antenna from the earth’s
surface, and r is the distance between the cell-site and the mobile unit.
The three basic propagation mechanisms are reflection, diffraction, and
scattering which influence signal propagation in a mobile communication
environment.

Reflection:
 Reflection occurs when incident electromagnetic waves are partially

reflected when they impinge on obstructions of different electrical

properties.
 A propagating electromagnetic wave impinges on objects the sizes of

which are large compared to its wavelength, such as the surface of the earth, buildings, walls, etc.
 The electromagnetic radio waves get reflected from tall building structures which have a good amount of conductivity.

Reflection can also occur due to metal reinforcement.

 The extent of reflection of radio waves depends on the composition and surface characteristics of the objects.

 Upon reflection, the signal strength of the radio wave gets attenuated that depends on many factors like the frequency of the

radio waves, the angle of incidence, and the nature of the medium including its material properties, thickness, homogeneity, etc.
Generally, higher frequencies reflect more than lower frequencies.
 As an instance, let a ground-reflected wave near the mobile unit be received. Because the ground- reflected wave has a 180ο

phase shift after reflection, the ground wave and the line-of-sight wave may tend to cancel each other, resulting in high signal
attenuation.
 The vector sum of the phases of the multipath received signals may give a resultant zero amplitude at certain time instants and

large signal amplitude at some other time.

 Most of the times, the vectorial addition of these multipath reflected signals produce an undetectable signal. Further, because

the mobile antenna is lower than most human-made structures in the operational area, multipath interference occurs.
 These reflected waves may interfere constructively or destructively at the receiver.
 In outdoor urban areas, the reflection mechanism often loses its importance because it involves multiple reflections that

reduce the strength of the signal to negligible values. However, reflection mechanisms often dominate radio propagation in
indoor applications.
 The reflections are a source of multipath signals which cause low strength in signal reception. Reflection results in a large-scale

fading of the radio signals.

Diffraction:
 Diffraction is referred to the change in wave pattern caused by interference between waves that have been reflected from
a surface or a point.
 It is based on Huygen’s principle which states that all points on a wavefront can be considered as point sources for production
of secondary wavelets that can combine to produce a new wavefront in the direction of propagation of the signal.
 Diffraction occurs when the radio path between a transmitter and receiver is obstructed by a surface with sharp irregular

edges.
 Waves bend around the obstacle, even when a line-of-sight condition does not exist. It causes regions of signal strengthening

and weakening irregularly.

 Diffraction can also occur in different situations such as when radio waves pass through a narrow slit or the edge of a reflector

or reflect off from two different surfaces approximately one wavelength apart.
 At higher frequencies, diffraction depends on the

geometry of the object, as well as the amplitude, phase, and

polarization of the incident wave at the point of diffraction.
 Diffraction is a description of how a radio signal

propagates around and over an obstruction, and is measured

in dB. Diffraction often results in small-signal fading.
 In effect, diffraction results in propagation into shadow

regions because the diffracted field can reach a receiver,

which is not in the line-of-sight of the transmitter.

Scattering:
 Scattering is a special case of reflection caused by irregular objects such as walls with rough surfaces, vehicles, foliage, traffic

signs, lamp posts, and results in many different angles of reflection and scatter waves in all directions in the form of spherical
waves. Thus, due to availability of numerous objects, scattering effects are difficult to predict.
 Scattering occurs when the size of objects is comparable or smaller than the wavelength of the propagating radio wave, and

where the number of obstacles per unit volume is large.

 Propagation in many directions results in reduced received-signal power levels, especially far from the scatterer. So an

incoming radio signal is scattered into several weaker outgoing radio signals.
 As a result, the scattering phenomenon is not significant unless the receiver or transmitter is located in a highly noisy

environment. In a mobile radio environment, scattering provides

additional radio energy levels at the receiver to what has been
predicted by reflection and diffraction models alone.
 In radio channels, Knowledge of the physical location of

large distant objects, which induce scattering, can be used to

accurately predict scattered signal strength levels.
 In a mobile radio environment, heavy foliage often causes

scattering.
 Scattering too results in small-scale fading effects.

Refraction:
 Refraction occurs because the velocity of the electromagnetic waves depends on the density of the medium through which it

travels.
 Waves that travel into a denser medium are bent towards the medium. This is the reason for line-of-sight radio waves being

bent towards the earth since the density of the atmosphere is higher closer to the earth.

MOBILE RADIO CHANNEL:

Fading:
In a mobile communication system, a signal experiences multipath propagation which causes rapid signal level fluctuations in
time, called fading. Mobile radio channels introduce noise, fading, interference, and other distortions into the signals that they
transmit.
1. Rayleigh Fading:
If there is a large number of multiple reflective paths with no line-of-sight signal path, it is Rayleigh fading. The Rayleigh flat-
fading channel model assumes that the channel induces amplitude which varies in time according to Rayleigh distribution.
2. Rician fading:
When there is a dominant non-fading signal component present, the small-signal fading envelope is described by a Rician fading.
Small-signal fading results into signal dispersion and time-variant behaviour of the channel.
Causes for Rayleigh and Rician fading phenomena:
 Include multipath scattering effects, time dispersion, and Doppler shifts that arise from relative motion between the

transmitter and receiver.

 The major paths result in the arrival of delayed versions of the signal at the receiver.

 In addition, the radio signal undergoes scattering on a local scale for each major path. Such local scattering is typically

characterized by a large number of reflections by objects near the mobile.

 These irresolvable components combine at the receiver and give rise to the phenomenon known as multipath fading. As a

result, each major path behaves as a discrete fading path.

 Typically, the fading process is characterised by a Rayleigh distribution for a non-line-of- sight path and 6) A Rician distribution

for a line-of-sight path.

 In mobile radio channels, The Rayleigh distribution is commonly used to describe the statistical time varying nature of the

received envelope of a flat fading channel, or the envelope of individual multipath components.

Multipath Fading:
 As the location of the mobile unit keeps on changing in real time, the resultant radio signal incident on its antenna varies

continuously.
 Multipath in the mobile communication channel creates small-scale fading effects such as rapid changes in signal strength over

a small time interval or small distance traveled by a mobile; random frequency modulation due to varying Doppler shifts on
different multipath signals; and time dispersion caused by multipath propagation delays.
 Fading is the rapid fluctuation of a radio signal’s amplitude in a short time or over a short distance.

 In reality, the received signal rapidly fluctuates due to the mobility of the mobile unit causing changes in multiple signal

components arriving via different paths.

 These multiple waves can combine constructively or destructively.

 Multipath waves are also generated because the antenna height of the mobile unit is lower than its typical surrounding

structures such as in builtup urban areas of operation, and the operating wavelength is much less than the sizes of the
surrounding structures at the mobile unit.
 The sum of multipath waves causes a signal-fading phenomenon. The rapid fluctuation of the signal amplitude is referred to as

small-signal fading, and it is the result of movement of the transmitter, the receiver, or objects surrounding them. Over a small
area, the average value of the received signal is considered to compute the propagation path loss and received signal strength.
But the characteristics of the instantaneous signal level are also important in order to design receivers that can mitigate these
effects.
 Multipath fading results in fluctuations of the signal amplitude because of the addition of signals arriving with different phases.

This phase difference is caused due to the fact that signals have traveled different path lengths.
 Because the phase of the arriving paths are too changing rapidly, the received signal amplitude undergoes rapid fluctuation

that is often modeled as a random variable with a particular distribution, called Rayleigh distribution.
 The multipath waves at the mobile receiver bounce back and forth due to the surrounding buildings and other structures

The rapid fluctuations of the signal amplitude caused by the relative movement of the mobile unit towards or away from the
cell-site transmitter, is called Doppler effect.

Types of Small-Scale Fading:

1) The type of fading experienced by a signal propagating through a mobile communication channel depends
- On the nature of the transmitted signal with respect to the characteristics of the wireless channel,
- The speed of the mobile, and
- The direction of motion of the mobile with respect to the incoming received signal from the cell-site transmitter.
- Fading effects in a mobile radio environment can be classified as fading effects due to multipath time delay spread; and
fading effects due to Doppler spread.
2) Due to multipath time-delay spread, fading effects can also be classified as Flat fading and Frequency selective fading.

Flat fading, or non-selective fading: is that type of fading in which all frequency components of the received signal fluctuates in
the same proportions simultaneously.
 Flat fading occurs when the radio channel has a constant gain and linear phase response but its bandwidth is greater than that
of the transmitted signal.
 It implies that the desired signal bandwidth is narrower than, and completely covered by, the spectrum affected by the fading.

 In flat fading, the multipath structure of the channel is such that the spectral characteristics of the transmitted signal are

preserved at the receiver. However, the strength of the received signal changes with time due to fluctuations in the gain of the
channel caused by multipath.
 In a flat fading channel, sometimes referred to as a narrowband channel, the bandwidth of the transmitted signal is much

larger than the reciprocal of the multipath time-delay spread of the channel.
 The bandwidth of the applied signal is narrow as compared to that of the wireless channel. The distribution of the

instantaneous gain of flat-fading channels can be best described by Rayleigh distribution and is important for designing wireless
communication links.

Frequency-selective fading: affects unequally the different spectral components of a radio signal.
 Selective fading is usually significant only relative to the bandwidth of the overall wireless communication channel.

 If the signal attenuates over a portion of the bandwidth of the signal, the fading is considered to be selective in frequency

domain.
 Frequency selective fading on the received signal occurs when a radio channel has a constant gain and linear phase response,

but the channel bandwidth is less than that of the transmitted signal.
 Under such conditions, the channel impulse response has a multipath delay spread which is greater than the reciprocal

bandwidth of the transmitted signal.

 Frequency selective fading is due to time dispersion of the transmitted symbols within the channel, and the channel induces

intersymbol interference.
 Frequency-selective fading channels are also known as wideband channels since the bandwidth of the transmitted signal is

wider than the bandwidth of the channel impulse response.

Multipath Delay Spread:

 Multipath interference is the reflection of radio signals from concrete structures that results in multiple copies of the received

signal.
 Multipath interference can allow radio signals to reach hard-to-reach areas.

 It can also create some problems such as delay spread which occurs when several signals reach a receiver at different times
due to different lengths of transmission paths. Delay spread also occurs due to Rayleigh fading which results from the signal’s
amplitude and phase being altered by reflections.
 In a digital communication system, the delay spread along with fading causes intersymbol interference, thereby limiting the

maximum symbol rate of a digital multipath channel.

 If the multipath delay spread is comparable to or larger than the symbol duration, the received waveform spreads into

neighbouring symbols and produces intersymbol interference. The intersymbol interference results in irreducible errors that are
caused in the detected signal.

Doppler Shift:
There is always a relative motion between the cell-site transmitter and the mobile receiver. As a result, Doppler effect occurs in
the shift of the received carrier frequency. Doppler spectrum is the spectrum of the fluctuations of the received signal strength.
Multipath fading provides the distributions of the amplitude of a radio signal. A study of Doppler spectrum is important to design
the coding and interleaver schemes for efficient performance.

Coherence Bandwidth:
The coherence bandwidth is a statistical measure of the range of frequencies over which the channel can be considered flat. A
flat channel is one which passes all spectral components with approximately equal gain and linear phase and without any
distortion.

Coherence Time:
Coherence time is the time duration over which two received signals have a strong potential for amplitude correlation. In other
words, coherence time c is inversely proportional to the Doppler spread. It is used to characterise the time-varying nature of the
frequency dispersiveness of the channel in the time domain. If the reciprocal bandwidth of the baseband signal is greater than
the coherence time of the channel then the channel will change during the transmission of the baseband signal, thus causing
distortion at the receiver.

CELLULAR TERMINOLOGY:
 A cell is the basic geographic unit of a cellular system.
 A cell is the radio area covered by a cell-site that is located at its centre. In other words, the radio coverage by one base station
or a cell-site is referred to as a cell, which is also called a footprint.
 In a cellular system, the most important factor is the size and shape of a cell. Because of constraints imposed by natural

irregular terrain, man-made structures, and non uniform population densities, the actual shape of the cell may not be either a
circle or a regular geometrical shape but may be a little distorted.
 For proper analysis and evaluation of a cellular system, an appropriate model of a cell shape is needed.

 The actual shape of the cell is determined by the desired received signal level by the mobile subscribers from its base-station

transmitter in its operating area.

 The received signal is affected by many factors including reflections, refractions, and contour of the terrain as well as multipath

propagation due to presence of natural and man-made structures.

 The base station, also called Cell-Site (CS), located approximately at its centre, serves all mobile users in the cell.

 The shape of the cell can be circular around the cell-site transmitting tower under ideal radio environment.

 The periphery of the circle is equal to the acceptable received signal level from the transmitting signal. It means that if the cell-

site is located at the centre of the cell, the cell area and periphery are determined by the signal strength within the region.
 This depends on many factors, such as the height of the cell-site transmitting antenna; contour of the terrain; presence of tall

buildings, hills, valleys, vegetation; and atmospheric conditions.

 Therefore, the actual shape of the cell may be a zigzag shape which indicates a true radio coverage area. However, for all

practical purposes, a regular hexagonal geometry shape approximates the cell boundary, which is a good approximation of a
circular region. However, the square is another alternative shape that can be used to represent the cell area.

CELL STRUCTURE AND CLUSTER:

 In practice, cells are of arbitrary shape which is quite close to a circle, is the ideal radiation pattern of an omnidirectional
antenna.
 Because of the randomness inherent nature of the mobile radio propagation and irregular geographical terrain, it is easier to

obtain insight and plan the cellular network by visualising all the cells as having the same shape.
 By approximating a uniform cell size for all cells, it is easier to analyse and design a cellular topology mathematically. It is highly

desirable to construct the cellular system such that the cells do not overlap, and are tightly packed without any dead signal spots.
 The cellular topology formed by using ideal circular shape results into overlaps or gaps between them which is not desirable in

cellular communications which has to be essentially continuous.

 This form of layout requires the use of regular topologies (say, a hexagonal topology) instead of a circular shape

 The cell shape can be of only three types of regular polygons: equilateral triangle, square, or regular hexagon

 A cellular structure based on a regular hexagonal topology, though fictitious, offers best possible non-overlapped cell radio

coverage.
 Traditionally, a regular hexagonal-shaped cell is the closest approximation to a circle out of these three geometrical shapes

and has been used for cellular system design.

 In other words, hexagon has the largest area. Moreover, it allows a larger region to be divided into nonoverlapping hexagonal

subregions of equal size, with each one representing a cell area.

 Octagons and decagons geometrical patterns do represent shapes closer to a circular area as compared to hexagons, but they

are not used to model a cell as it is not possible to divide a larger area into non- overlapping subareas of the same size.
 A mobile radio communication system is generally required to operate over areas too large to be economically covered by a

single cell-site.
 Therefore, several or many widely spaced transmitter sites are required to provide total area coverage.

 The spacing between the base stations need not be regular and the cell or the area served by a base station need not have any

particular shape. However, the absence of an orderly geometrical structure makes the system design more difficult and results in
inefficient use of spectrum and uneconomical deployment of equipment.
 The propagation considerations recommend the circle as a cell shape for defining the area covered bya particular base station.

 This is impracticable for design purpose, since there could be areas which are contained either in no cell or in multiple cells. On

the other hand, any regular polygon can cover the service area with no gaps or overlaps.
 The regular hexagonal shape results in the most economical system layout design. In most modeling, simulation,
measurements, and analysis of interference in cellular systems, hexagons are used to represent the cell structure.
 A hexagon is closer to a circular area and multiple hexagons can be arranged next to each other, without having an overlapping

area or uncovered space in between. In other words, the hexagonal-shaped cells fit the planned area nicely, with no gap and no
overlap among the adjacent hexagonal cells. Thus, it simplifies the planning and design of a cellular system.

A cell-site gives radio signal coverage to a cell. In other words, the cell-site is a location or a point at the centre of the cell,
whereas the cell is a wide geographical service area.

1) A Cellular Cluster A group of cells that use a different set of frequencies in each cell is
called a cellular cluster. Thus, a cluster is a group of cells with no reuse of channels within
it. It is worth mentioning here that only a selected number of cells can form a cluster.
2) It follows certain rules before any cell can be repeated at a different location.
3) 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. 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.

Let there be K number of cells having a different set of frequencies in a cluster. Then K is termed as the cluster size in terms of
the number of cells within it.

Each cell size varies depending on the landscape. Typical size of a cell may vary from a few 100 metres
- in cities (or even less at higher frequencies) to several kilometres on the countryside.
- Smaller cells are used when there is a requirement to support a large number of mobile users, in a small geographic region, or
when a low transmission power may be required to reduce the effects of interference.
- So typical uses of small cells are in urban areas, low transmission power required, or higher number of mobile users.
 It is clear that if the cell area is increased, the number of channels per unit area is reduced for the same number of channels

and is good for less populated areas, with fewer mobile users. Generally, large cells are employed in remote areas, coastal
regions, and areas with few mobile users, large areas that need to be covered with minimum number of cell-sites.
 It may also be noted that the cell area and the boundary length are important parameters that affect the handoff from a cell to

an adjacent cell.
 A practical solution for optimum cell size is to keep the number of channels per unit area comparable to the number of mobile

subscribers to be served within that cell.

FREQUENCY REUSE CONCEPT:

 Mobile users communicate only via the base stations. Each cell is allocated a finite number of Radio Frequency (RF) channels,
depending upon the number of simultaneous users required to be served.
 This enables the cells that are located sufficiently physically apart to reuse the same set of frequencies, without causing

cochannel interference.
 However, each adjacent cell within a cluster operates on different frequencies to avoid interference.

 Cells, which use the same set of frequencies, are referred to as cochannel cells. The space between adjacent cochannel cells is

filled with other cells that use different frequencies to provide frequency isolation.
 If the system is not properly designed, cochannel interference may occur due to the simultaneous use of the same channel.

 This is the major concern in frequency reuse. Specifically, if the available channels are reused for additional traffic, it is possible

to serve more number of users, thereby increasing the system capacity within allocated RF spectrum, and hence enhancing
spectrum efficiency as well.
 The total number of channels available in a cellular system is finite because of limited RF spectrum allocation.

 The capacity of a cellular system is defined by the total number of channels available, which depends on how the available

channels are deployed. So, the total number of available channels without frequency reuse, N, is the allocated RF spectrum band
divided by the number of RF channels having equal channel bandwidth.

Frequency Reuse Distance:

Reusing an identical frequency channel in different cells is limited by
cochannel interference between cells and the cochannel interference can
become a major problem in cellular communication. So it is desirable to find
the minimum frequency reuse distance D in order to reduce this cochannel
interference. The minimum distance, which allows the same frequency to be
reused in cochannel cells, will depend on many factors such as:
• the number of cochannel cells in the vicinity of the centre cell,
• the type of geographic terrain contour,
• the antenna height, and
• the transmitted power at each cell-site

Cochannel Interference and Signal Quality:

The cochannel interference is caused due to the reuse of the same carrier
frequency at different geographical locations. Because cochannel interfering
signals are amplified, processed and detected in the same manner as the desired
signal, the receiver is particularly vulnerable to these emissions. Thus, cochannel
interference may either desensitize the receiver or override or mask the desired
signal. It may also combine with the desired signal to cause serious distortions in
the detected output. The cochannel interference can then be measured by
selecting any one channel (as one channel represents all the channels) and
transmitting on that channel at all cochannel sites. In a fully equipped hexagonal-
shaped cellular system, there are always six cochannel interfering cells in the first
tier.

Let the symbol C, I, and N denote respectively the power of the desired signal, the
power of the cochannel interference, and the power of the noise at the output of
the receiver demodulator. Cochannel interference can be experienced both at the
cell-site and at mobile units in the serving cell. If the interference is much greater
then the carrier to interference ratio C/I at the mobile units caused by the six-
interfering cell-sites is (on the average) the same as the C/I received at the serving
cell site caused by interfering mobile units in the six cells. According to the
reciprocity theorem and the statistical summation of radio propagation, the two C/I values can be very close.