Mobile Cellular Communication

EEE 4247

Lecture - 5
The Cellular Concept

Sarah Cynthia Gomes

Lecturer
Department of EEE
University of Dhaka
Cell Capacity

• High cell capacity is achieved by limiting the coverage of each base station to a small
geographical region.
• Same channels (frequencies/time slots/codes) are reused by spatially separated base stations.
• Cells sharing the same set of channels is called co-channel cells.

For a certain hexagonal geometry, reuse distance is given as-

The reuse factor is given as-

Where, N is the cluster size and R is the radius of coverage.

Cell Capacity

Consider a cellular system with a total S available channels. These channels are divided among N
number of cells forming a cluster. Let each cell in a cluster is allocated k channels. Therefore,

To cover an entire geographical region, if this cluster of N cells is repeated M number of times,
then the system capacity can be given as –

If the cluster size is reduced keeping the cell size fixed, more clusters are required to cover the
area and hence M increases. This in turn increases the system capacity.
However, smaller N (higher capacity) leads to greater amount of co-channel interference, which
results in poor Quality of Service (QoS).
Traffic Theory

Some Important Parameters:

• Setup Time: The time required to allocate a radio channel to a requesting user.
• Blocked Call: A call that cannot be completed at the time of request due to congestion (lost call).
• Holding Time: Average duration of a typical call (T).
• Request Rate: The average number of calls per unit time ()
• Traffic intensity/Traffic load (a): Measure of number of requested calls in a certain period and
the holding time. It is measured in a unit called Erlangs.
Erlang: If a channel is kept busy for one hour, then we are having a load of 1 Erlang.
The traffic load can be determined as-
Traffic Theory

Example:
In a cell there are 100 MSs and on average there are 30 calls requested in an hour, with an
average call duration of 6 minutes. What should be the traffic load?

Here, request rate, and holding time, T =

We know,
Traffic Theory

Probability of blocked calls

the probability, P(S) of an arriving call being blocked is equal to the probability that all channels
are busy, that is-

where, S represents the total number of channels and a represents the traffic load.
This equation is called the Erlang B model and is mostly denoted as B(S, a). B(S, a) is also called
blocking probability, probability of loss, or probability of rejection.
Traffic Theory

Efficiency of the system

Relates to the number of calls established within the available channels.
Traffic Theory

Example:
Consider in a cell, there are 100 MSs and the number of channels is 2. On average there are 30
calls requested in an hour, with an average call duration of 6 minutes. What should be the
efficiency of the system?

• By calculating, we get load, a= 3 Erlangs and for this the probability of blocked calls become
B(S,a) = 0.53
We know,
Interference
• Interference is the prime concern and has to be taken into consideration while designing cellular
communication system.
• Interference is the limiting factor in the performance of cellular communication system. It limits capacity and
increases the number of dropped calls.

Sources of interference:
1. Different MSs in the same cell
2. A call in progress with a neighboring cell
3. Other BSs operating in the same frequency band.
Interference is hence more severe in urban areas.

Effect of interference in-

2. Voice Channels:
1. Control Channels:
• Crosstalks
• Dropped calls
• Missed calls • Background Noise

• Blocked calls
Interference

Two major interferences:

1. Co-channel interference (CCI): It is caused due to the cells that reuse the same
frequency band or set of channels.
2. Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI): It is caused due to the signals that’s are
adjacent in frequency.

Co-Channel Interference
• As indicated earlier, there are many cells using the same frequency band. All the cells using
the same channel are physically located apart by at least reuse distance. Even though the
power level is controlled carefully so that such “co-channels” do not create a problem for
each other, there is still some degree of interference due to nonzero signal strength of such
cells.
• Unlike thermal noise, CCI cannot be removed by increasing the carrier power of the
transmitter. Increasing the transmitter power increases the probability of more CCI.
Co-channel Interference (CCI)

Second tier
co-channel cells Mobile station
For similar sized cells, the CCI is
independent of the transmitted power and
depends on the cell radius and the reuse
distance. To reduce CCI, the co-channel
D2
cells must have sufficient spatial separation.
D3 D1
In a cellular system, with a cluster of seven
cells, there will be six cells using co- D4
channels at the reuse distance; this is D6
illustrated in the Figure. The second-tier co- D5
channels, shown in the figure, are at two
times the reuse distance apart, and their 2D
effect on the serving BS is negligible.
First tier
Base station co-channel cells
Co-channel Interference (CCI)
The co-channel reuse ratio is, , which represents the spatial separation relative to the coverage distance of the cell.

Here we can see that smaller the value of ‘q’, greater will the capacity. However this in turn increases CCI. Hence a
trade-off must be made between CCI and system capacity.

Signal to Interference Ratio

The co-channel interference ratio can be given as- Where, C is the desired
carrier signal power and is the
interference caused by the k-
th cochannel cell.

If the MS is located very near to the base station (at the centre), then the
distance of the MS from the co-channel BSs will be equal. In this case, the C/I
ratio can be reduced as-

Where, m =no. of co-channel cells and = path loss exponent

Co-channel Interference (CCI)
Example:

Desired C/I = 15 dB. If the path loss exponent is 4, what is the required reuse factor?

1. Let us try N = 4

2. Let us try N = 7

Therefore, the desired reuse factor is

Do the same math for a path loss exponent of 3

Co-channel Interference (CCI)

the co-channel interference ratio in the worst case-

Where, q = reuse factor and = path loss exponent

Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Splitting

• Until now, we have been considering the same size cell across the board. This implies that the BSs
of all cells transmit information at the same power level so that the net coverage area for each
cell is the same. At times, this may not be feasible, and, in general, this may not be desirable.
Service providers would like to service users in a cost-effective way, and resource demand may
depend on the concentration of users in a given area. Change in number of users could also occur
over a period of time. One way to cope with increased traffic is to split a cell into several smaller
cells; this is illustrated in Figure 5.15.
• This implies that additional BSs need to be established at the center of each new cell that has
been added so that the higher density of calls can be handled effectively.
• As the coverage area of new split cells is smaller, the transmitting power levels are lower, and this
helps in reducing co-channel interference.
• It will also need a corresponding reduction in antenna height
Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Splitting
• Cell splitting reduces cell size  more no. of cells have to be used
• More cells  more clusters  higher capacity
• Cell splitting allows a system to grow by replacing large cells by small cells without upsetting the
channel allocation.
• No new bandwidth or channel needed.

No new spectrum needed

Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Splitting

Example :

Suppose the cell radius has been reduced by half, what is the required transmit power of
these new cells?

Received power of old cell,

Received power of new cell,

For ,

Thus the transmit power of new cells should be 9 dB lower than the original one.
Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Splitting

Example :
• Suppose the congested service area is originally covered by five cells, each cell having 80
channels.
Hence, the capacity =

• After some congestion, the 5 cells have been splitted into 24 cells, each having a radius equal to
half of the original cell.
Hence, the new capacity = 24
Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Sectoring
• In cell splitting we kept the reuse factor constant but by lowering the radius per cell.

• However in cell sectoring, we shall keep the radius constant and decrease the reuse factor for increasing
capacity
We have been primarily concentrating on what is known as
omnidirectional antennas, which allow transmission of radio
signals with equal power strength in all directions. It is difficult
to design such antennas, and most of the time, an antenna
covers an area of 60 degrees or 120 degrees; these are called
directional antennas, and cells served by them are called
sectored cells. Different sizes of sectored cells are shown in
Figure 5.16. From a practical point of view, many sectored
antennas are mounted on a single microwave tower located at
the center of the cell, and an adequate number of antennas is
placed to cover the whole 360 degrees of the cell. For example,
the 120 degree sectored cell shown in Figures 5.16(b) and
5.16(c) requires three directional antennas. In practice, the
effect of an omnidirectional antenna can be achieved by
employing several directional antennas to cover the whole 360
degrees.
Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Sectoring
• The advantages of sectoring are that it requires coverage of a smaller area by each antenna and hence
lower power is required in transmitting radio signals.
• It is found that a quad-sector architecture of Figure 5.16(d) has a higher capacity for 90% area coverage
than a tri-sector cell.
• It also helps in decreasing interference between co-channels (CCI).

The co-channel interference ratio (CCIR) [also known as signal to interference ration] for cells using
directional antennas can also be computed.

1. For a tri-sector cells

• Two interfering co-channel cells.

• One at a distance D (reuse distance)
• And another one at D’
D’ can be calculated as-
D’= D + 0.7R
Hence the CCIR can be computed as-

Which is an approximately 7 dB rise compared to CCIR without cell-sectoring

1. For a quad-sector cells

• One interfering co-channel cell at a distance D’

Hence the CCIR for (dense area) can be
computed as-

Hence reducing co-channel interference!

Improving Cell Capacity – Cell Sectoring

It is worth mentioning that there is an alternative way of

providing sectored or omni-cell coverage, by placing
directional transmitters at the corners where three
adjacent cells meet
Thank You!