2 Cellular Systems

2/19/2017 2 Cellular Systems
Copyright ©2016 Thomas Schwengler
Chapter 2
Cellular Systems
Wireless communications are especially useful for mobile applications, so wireless systems are often designed
to cover large areas by splitting them into many smaller cells. This cellular approach introduces many
difficulties such as how to avoid interference, or how to handover from one cell to another, while maintaining
good service quality. Coverage, capacity, interference, and spectrum reuse are important concerns of cellular
systems; this chapter reviews these aspects as well as the technologies, tools, and standards used to optimize
them.
2.1 Cellular Concepts
Providing wireless service over wide areas requires different schemes to efficiently use spectrum in different
locations while avoiding interference.
2.1.1 Frequency Reuse
Covering a large geographic area with limited amount of spectrum leads to the reuse of the same frequency in
multiple locations; this leads to cochannel interference considerations, meaning interference from different
areas (or cells) that use the same frequency channel.
Cochannel interference considerations are usually approached by considering the following parameters:
St: total number of RF channels available (given the amount of spectrum and channel width dictated by
technology standard),
S0: number of channels per cell, which reflects system capacity at a given location,
K: the reuse factor, the number of cells that is repeated to provide coverage over a large area.
The three quantities are linked by the straightforward relation:
(2.1)
The reuse factor K is therefore an important parameter for capacity. The lowest reuse factor (K = 1) maximizes
capacity; but this has to be balanced with interference considerations: indeed a higher reuse factor (K = 3, 4, 7,
or higher) provides more distance between cells using the same frequency, which lowers interferences.
2.1.2 Interference and Reuse
Spectrum reuse causes interference; quantifying them require us to consider how a signal propagates from one
cell to another. We will study propagation models later in chapter 3, but we need a few simple notions here.
Assume a propagation model using a power path loss exponent n, that is a model where power decays in 1∕Rn (R
being the distance separating transmit station from receiver). This means that the ratio of received power to
transmit power may be expressed as Pr∕Pt = A∕Rn, where A is some constant.
http://morse.colorado.edu/~tlen5510/text/classwebch2.html 1/17
Figure 2.1: Frequency reuse patterns K =3, 4, and 7, on hexagonal cells. Bold contour shows the
pattern of cells repeated to provide wide area coverage. Di shows the shortest distance between
cells reusing the same frequency.
With this model, signal to interference ratios are estimated as
(2.2)
where i0 is the number of cochannel cells nearest to the cell (called first tier or tier one); that number increases
with K. And Di is the distance to the tierone cells reusing the same frequency (as shown in figure 2.1). In the
case of hexagonal cell approximation the expression simplifies to [1]:
(2.3)
We’ll see more details on n further, its values vary typically between 2 and 4 with the types of terrain. We’ll
also see that specific wireless technologies require a certain signal to noise and interference ratio (mostly based
on data rates); so equation (2.3) leads to a minimal acceptable value for K.
2.1.3 Multiple Access
A major requirement of cellular networks is to provide an efficient technique for multiple devices to access the
wireless system. These techniques include:
FDMA:
frequency division multiple access, perhaps the most straightforward, in which every user device uses its
own frequency channel. This method was used in the first generation analog systems.
TDMA:
time division multiple access, in which a radio channel is divided in time slots, and use devices use their
allocated time slots. In fact TDMA systems are often hybrid FDMA as well as multiple channels are used,
most 2G systems were TDMA.
CDMA:
code division multiple access, in which orthogonal (or pseudo orthogonal) codes are used to differentiate
user devices. CDMA is very spectrum efficient, and was used by 3G standards. There are several
approaches to achieve CDMA, such as frequency hooping (FHCDMA)or direct spreading (DSCDMA).
These are the main multiple access techniques, but subtle extensions and combinations can be devised to obtain
more efficient schemes, which we will examine in later chapters (including orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing OFDMA).
2.2 System Capacity
Wireless communications deal with at least two main concerns: coverage and capacity. We will look at coverage
prediction in the next chapters, and start here with a few words on capacity.
2.2.1 Channel Capacity
One fundamental concept of information theory is one of channel capacity, or how much information can be
transmitted in a communication channel. In the 1940’s Claude Shannon invented formal characterization of
information theory and derived the wellknown Shanon’s capacity theorem (Theorem 17 in [15], p.628). That
theorem applies to wireless communications. A great presentation of this equation can be found in [8] p.82; it
presents a concise derivation of the equation, and includes a good introduction to important information theory
concepts such as information and entropy. 1
The Shannon capacity equation gives an upper bound for the capacity in a nonfaded channel with added
white Gaussian noise:
(2.4)
where C= capacity (bits/s), W=bandwidth (Hz), S∕N= signal to noise (and interference) ratio.
That capacity equation assumes one transmitter and one receiver, though multiple antennas can be used in
diversity scheme on the receiving side. The formula will be revisited for multiantenna systems in §9.1.3. The
equation singles out two fundamentally important aspects: bandwidth and SNR. Bandwidth reflects how much
spectrum a wireless system uses, and explains why the spectrum considerations seen in §1.2 are so important:
they have a direct impact on system capacity. SNR of course reflects the quality of the propagation channel, and
will be dealt with in numerous ways: modulation, coding, error correction, and important design choices such as
cell sizes and reuse patterns. Copyright ©2016 Thomas Schwengler
2.2.2 Cellular Capacity
Practical capacity of many wireless systems are far from the Shannon’s limit (although recent standards are
coming close to it); and practical capacity is heavily dependent on implementation and standard choices.
Digital standards deal in their own way with how to deploy and optimize capacity. Most systems are limited
by channel width, time slots, and voice coding characteristics. CDMA systems are interference limited, and have
tradeoffs between capacity, coverage, and other performance metrics (such as dropped call rates or voice
quality).
Cellular analog capacity:
Fairly straight forward, every voice channel uses a 30 kHz frequency channel, these frequencies may be
reused according to a reuse pattern, the system is FDMA. The overall capacity simply comes from the
total amount of spectrum, the channel width and the reuse pattern.
TDMA/FDMA capacity:
In digital FDMA systems, capacity improvements mainly come from the voice coding and elaborate
schemes (such as frequency hopping) to decrease reuse factor. The frequency reuse factor hides a lot of
complexity; its value depends greatly on the signal to interference levels acceptable to a given cellular
system ([1] ch. 3.2, and 9.7). TDMA systems combine multiple time slots per channels.
CDMA capacity:
a usual capacity equation for CDMA systems may be fairly easily derived as follows (for the reverse link):
first examine a base station with N mobiles, its noise and interference power spectral density dues to all
mobiles in that same cell is ISC = (N 1)Sα, where S is the received power density for each mobile, and α is
the voice activity factor. Other cell interferences IOC are estimated by a reuse fraction β of the same cell
interference level, such that IOC = βISC; (usual values of β are around 1∕2). The total noise and interference
at the base is therefore Nt = ISC(1 + β). Next assume the mobile signal power density received at the base
station is S = REb∕W. Eliminating ISC, we derive:
(2.5)
where
W is the channel bandwidth (in Hz),
R is the user data bit rate (symbol rate in symbol per second),
Eb∕Nt is the ratio of energy per bit by total noise (usually given in dB Eb∕Nt ≈ 7dB),
α is the voice activity factor (for the reverse link), typically 0.5,
and β is the interference reuse fraction, typically around 0.5, and represents the ratio of interference
level from the cell in consideration by interferences due to other cells. (The number 1 + β is
sometimes called reuse factor, and 1∕(1 + β) reuse efficiency)
This simple equation (2.5) gives us a number of voice channels in a CDMA frequency channel 2.
We can already see some hints of CDMA optimization and investigate certain possible improvement for a
3G system. In particular: improving α can be achieved with dim and burst capabilities, β with interference
mitigation and antenna downtilt considerations, R with vocoder rate, W with wider band CDMA, Eb∕Nt
with better coding and interference mitigation techniques.
Some aspects however are omitted in this equation and are required to quantify other capacity
improvements mainly those due to power control, and softer/soft handoff algorithms.
Of course other limitations come into play for wireless systems, such as base station (and mobile) sensitivity,
which may be incorporated into similar formulas; and further considerations come into play such as: forward
power limitations, channel element blocking, backhaul capacity, mobility, and handoff. Copyright ©2016
Thomas Schwengler
2.3 Modulation and Coding
Modulation techniques are a necessary part of any wireless system, without them, no useful information can be
transmitted. Coding techniques are almost as important, and combine two important aspects: first to transmit
information efficiently, and second to deal with error correction (to avoid retransmissions).
2.3.1 Modulation
A continuous wave signal (at a carrier frequency fc) in itself encodes and transmits no information. The bits of
information are encoded in the variations of that signal (in phase, amplitude, or a combination thereof). These
variations cause the occupied spectrum to increase, thus occupying a bandwidth around fc; and the optimal use of
that bandwidth is an important part of a wireless system. Various modulation schemes and coding schemes are
used to maximize the use of that spectrum for different applications (voice or high speed data), and in various
conditions of noise, interference, and RF channel resources in general.
Classic modulation techniques are well covered in several texts [1][8], and we simply recall here a few
important aspects of digital modulations (that will be important in link budgets). The main digital modulations
used in modern wireless systems are outlined in table 2.1.
Modulation Bits encoded by: Examples

Amplitude Shift Keying Discrete amplitude levels On/off keying
Frequency Shift Keing Multiple discrete frequencies
Phase Shift Keying Multiple discrete phases BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK
Quadrature Ampl. Mod. Both phase and amplitude 16, 64, 256 QAM

Table 2.1: Digital modulations
Modulation is a powerful and efficient tool used to encode information; a few simple definitions are
commonly used:
Symbol
denotes the physical encoding of information, over a specific symbol time (or period) Ts, during which the
system transmits a modulated signal containing digital information.
Bit
denotes a logical bit (0 or 1) of information; one or more bits are encoded by a modulation scheme in a
symbol.
Higher order modulations can encode multiple bits in a symbol, and require higher SNR to decode errorfree.
Figure 2.2 illustrates how multiple phases and amplitudes are used to combine multiple bits into one symbol
transmission. The tradeoff between bits encoded per symbol is often referred to as a measure in bits per Hertz
(b/Hz), its relation to SNR is bounded by Shannon’s theorem seen earlier (§2.2.1).
Figure 2.2: Digital modulations encode multiple bits of information over the transmitted signal. The
simplest modulation (BPSK) simply encodes one bit of information in the sign of the wave.
Higher order modulations combine orthogonal signals (sine and cosine) and multiple amplitudes
to encode multiple bits: 2 in QPSK, 4 in 16 QAM, and 6 in 64QAM.
2.3.2 Coding
Efficient coding schemes are the powerful engines behind the growth of the wireless industry. They have
allowed wireless systems to be both spectrally efficient and robust in terms of error corrections.
Block coding are the classical approach: blocks of data are used as input to produce usually larger output
blocks containing added redundancy.
Second generation wireless systems like cdmaOne introduced the use of convolutional coding. The coding
scheme provides an efficient redundant and errorcorrecting scheme. This is particularly useful for voice
transmission where the need for retransmission causes delays and degrades voice quality.
Figure 2.3: Convolutional coding consists in sending a data stream of bits into an encoder that
produces multiple output streams.
Wireless data systems of higher rates often use turbo coding, which are a combination of two convolutional
coders reading each other (the name comes from the turbocharged engine, which uses some of its output power
to compress some air fed to the intake, and is somewhat reminiscent of the turbo coding diagram of figure 2.4).
Figure 2.4: Turbo coding consists in splitting a data stream, and sending it and an interleaved replica
into convolutional encoders.
Convolutional coding and turbo coding are example of continuous coding schemes, where a bit stream is
encoded into another bitstream, usually of greater speed (with a multiplier of 2, 3, 4 or more). The added number
of bits can be seen as spreading the spectrum, and the information, which requires more data to transmit, but
inherently contains useful redundancy properties (a form of time diversity). The decoding of such schemes was
historically difficult and has become possible only with recent processing power (see for instance Viterbi
algorithms [103]).
2.3.3 Combined Modulation and Coding
The combination of modulation and coding provides great flexibility between redundancy and throughput.
Higher modulation increases spectral efficiency in good propagation condition; when conditions worsen, lower
modulation helps, but increased redundancy is sometimes an efficient alternative. Combined, the two schemes
can reach impressive efficiencies, close to Shannon’s limit (§2.2).
2.4 Standard Air Interfaces
We first briefly review current mobile digital technologies, how they were initially introduced, and how and they
evolved. 3
First Generation Analog cellular phones:
Advanced mobile phone service (AMPS) was developed by Bell Laboratories in the 1970’s, and started in
the US after FCC allocation in 1983 of 40 MHz paired spectrum in the 800 MHz frequency range. The
system used a frequency divided modulation access (FDMA), duplex frequencies for up and down link
(frequency division duplexing FDD), with 30 kHz channels, one user per channel, analog voice
modulation (FM), blank and burst transmission.
RF channel 30 kHz
Reuse pattern typically 7
Duplex FDD
Multiple access FDMA
Multiplex 1 traffic channel per RF channel
Voice FM modulation
Second Generation Digital wireless systems:
Second generation cellular systems are characterized by the introduction of voice digitizing and digital
encoding, thus opening a number of DSP possibilities such as forward error correction schemes.
Frequency or time division multiple access techniques are used (FDMA or TDMA). Code division
multiple access (CDMA) is introduced by Qualcomm (TIAEIA IS95, or ANSI95) and becomes the
basis for the main 3G systems. Overall capacity is increased, signaling capabilities and system intelligence
is considerably enriched.
RF channel 30 kHz, 200 kHz in GSM, 1.25 MHz for CDMA
Reuse pattern 7 (less with frequency hopping), 1 for CDMA
Duplex mostly FDD (emergence of TDD)
Multiple access FDMA, TDMA (8 fullrate time slots for GSM), or CDMA
Voice Digital encoded: GSM full rate 13.4 kbps, CDMA 13 kbps QCELP or 8 kbps EVRC
Third generation systems:
Digital systems were further improved upon, mostly for higher voice capacity and higher data rates; they
evolved into third generation standards.
RF channel 1.25, 5, 10, 15 MHz
Reuse pattern 1 (CDMA)
Duplex mostly FDD, some TDD
Multiple access CDMA
Voice Digital encoded: bit rates 8 kbps and below
Data Up to several Mbps (3.1 Mbps for EVDO, 15 Mbps for HSDPA)
Fourth generation systems:
Fourth generation standards deal with higher throughput, low latency, IP network architecture. Air
interfaces focus on multicarrier techniques like OFDM, and advanced antenna systems such as multiple
input multiple output (MIMO) systems.
RF channel generally wider: 10, 20 MHz, more
Reuse pattern 11.5 (OFDMA – see §8.3.3)
Duplex FDD or TDD depending on spectrum
Multiple access OFDMA
Voice VoIP
Data IP based, flat architecture, convergence
Fifth generation systems:
Fifth generation definition vary greatly, from software defined radio (SDR) to adaptation to any new radio
interface as needed. Today’s 5G focus revolve around improving throughput, lowering latency,and target
products to be deployed in the year 2020.
2.5 Speech Coding
The introduction of digital wireless systems means that the acoustic voice wavefront is not simply converted to
an electrical signal directly transmitted over RF channel. Voice is now digitized, encoded, and the resulting bit
stream is transmitted and of course decoded on the receiving side. Although this process requires additional
digital signal processing (DSP), it opens the door to many optimization algorithms and is much more efficient
than usual analog voice transmission.
2.5.1 Basic Vocoder Theory
Digital voice coding (vocoding) is very important yet very subjective. Voice coding theory is a domain of study
of its own; introductory overviews are presented for instance in [1] ch. 8 or [2] ch. 15.
2.5.2 Classic Cellular Vocoders
Analog vocoders have emerged at Bell Laboratories in the late 1920’s, and have become more elaborate and
efficient in dealing with harmonics important to a good understanding of voice (500 Hz to 3400 Hz) while
minimizing bandwidth. The digital area brought significant changes. Initial digital systems sampled that range,
which at the Nyquist rate leads to a 64 kilobits per second (kbps, kbit/s, or kb/s) bandwidth. This is referred to as
pulsecode modulation (PCM). More elaborate algorithms however can achieve reasonably good voice
transmission by transmitting a codebook (set of parameters for a given voice coding algorithm) with as little as
2.4 kbps rate: a 26fold improvement. Usually these algorithms provide acceptable voice quality, but may
provide poor performance in specific situations such as in a noisy environment, with background music, or when
combined with different voice coding systems (such as PCM or voice mail systems). Several vocoder systems
exist and have been chosen in 2G and 3G standards:
CELP:
Code Excited Linear Prediction, 2.4 and 4.8 kbps, Federal Standard 1016, used in STUIII.
QCELP:
Qualcomm Code Excited Linear Prediction, developed in 1994, was used in initial IS95 CDMA
networks. Two bit rates available: QCELP8 and QCELP13 using 8 and 13 kbps respectively, which is well
adapted for this standard’s 9.6 kbps and 14.4 kbps frames. It was later improved upon by EVRC.
RCELP:
Relaxed Code Excited Linear Prediction, a more advanced advanced algorithm that does not attempt to
match the original signal exactly but a simplified pitch contour.
EVRC:
Enhanced Variable Rate CODEC is a speech codec used in CDMA networks, it uses RCELP 8 kbps and
improves quality over 8QCELP. Half rate EVRC were also developed to further lower bitrate at the cost of
some quality.
CVSD:
Continuously Variable Slope Deltamodulation, 16 kbps, used in wide band encryptors such as the KY57.
MELP:
Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction, MIL STD 3005, 2.4 kbps.
ADPCM:
Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (G.721, G.726).
AMR:
Adaptive MultiRate, extensively used for GSM with variable rates from 12.2 kbps for enhanced full rate
down to 4.75 kbps and even 1.8 kbps. The latest voice coding effort revolve around Voice over LTE
(VoLTE), also rely on AMR. Narrowband AMR (AMRNB) has a 8 kHz sampling rate. Wideband AMR
(AMRWB) has double the sampling rate to cover the 50 to 7000 Hz voice range, and has 9 different
codec modes with data rates from 6.6 to 23.85 kbps.
Comparing the quality differences between vocoder is usually done by testing a number of standard phrases,
and assessing the quality of the transmitted result under various conditions. That assessment is subjective and is
usually given a grade called Mean Opinion Score (MOS) between 0 (completely unintelligible) and 4 (perfect
quality). Initial tests relied on actual opinion surveys, but test devices now offer algorithms providing a MOS
and are regularly used by wireless network operators to benchmark network quality.
2.6 Migration to 3G
Second generation cellular systems certainly achieved major capacity improvements and contributed to the fast
adoption of wireless handsets throughout the world. And the growth continues.
Third generation systems focused on increasing capacity yet again, and on introducing efficient highspeed
mobile data systems. Given past heavy investments in different 2G networks, adoption of a common 3G
standard had tremendous cost implications and competitive advantages.
These efforts from the wireless industry focused on improving widely deployed systems, and migrate them
towards a third generation. All major digital technologies proposed an evolution path to a next generation,
typically broader band (in throughput and spectrum).
Several proposals:
Initially 10 new proposals were submitted to the ITU body responsible for standardizing next generation
systems: 2 TDMA, 8 CDMA. (See details in a US contribution to the ITU: US8F0116, February 2001.)
Harmonization process:
A difficult harmonization effort was undertaken from 1998 to 2001 by the ITU. Many technical
comparisons and discussions ensued, resulting in some harmonization, but falling short of selecting one
unique worldwide standard.
Successes:
TDMA solutions disappeared. CDMA solutions were narrowed down to two. Other issues such as
spectrum plans and emission levels were also discussed and approved with relative success.
Failures:
One major issue remained: to merge the last two CDMA camps: the 3G partnership project (3GPP)
proposed UMTS (WCDMA), and 3GPP2 proposed cdma2000. The former was very reluctant to tread on
intellectual property of the latter, and the latter was adamant about conserving smooth evolution and
backward compatibility with cdmaOne. And discussions stalled; it seemed obvious that neither camp had
any incentive in giving in, hence two competing standards: UMTSWCDMA and cdma2000.
Figure 2.5: Existing CDMA carrier use (left) is convenient for migration to multicarrier
standard, but may be less efficient than full spreading on same frequency block (right).
In short two major 3G standards remain in competition, and the choice of any carrier is clear: GSM operators
clearly opt for a migration to UMTS (3GPP), and cdmaOne operators to cdma2000 (3GPP2). The latter is
certainly initially cheaper, has advantages in equipment availability, and has wellknown performances; but the
former may benefit from larger economies of scales as GSM carriers migrate to UMTS services.
In 2002, CDMA Americas Congress (San Diego, December 2002) estimated that cdmaOne operators
benefited from a smooth transition and a wellknown standard, thus giving them a one or two year advance over
GSM efforts towards UMTS. Indeed cdma2000 (3G 1X) systems have been available since 2002, IS856 (3G
1X EVDO) have been widely available in the US and Asia since 2004. GPRS and UMTS are finally catching
up in 2006. Highspeed data services (HSPA) still lag in coverage behind EVDO in 2008, but most dense areas
in the US are well covered by both technologies.
Choosing a migration path is only the first step; upgrading the network is of course very costly. Initially
service providers had to decide how long to delay network upgrade: voice capacity and time to market for high
speed data services were the driving factors. Now service providers have to decide how much resources to
dedicate to voice versus data.
2.7 Migration to 4G
Second generation cellular systems achieved digital voice efficiency, third generation systems focused on
increasing capacity and data rates, what more can a fourth generation standard achieve?
According to most definitions (from the ITU in particular), 4G systems are required to achieve throughput
rates around 100Mbps for mobility and 1Gbps for fixed wireless access; so the air interface has to be incredibly
efficient. There are certainly additional requirements (mostly on the network infrastructure) such as low latency,
flat IP architecture, and the use of small cells, heterogeneous networks, and more (which we’ll review in later
chapters).
The main 3G standards have an evolution towards a 4G standard; these have a number of commonalities:
LTE:
Long Term Evolution of the current GSM/UMTS/3GPP set of standard is OFDMA on the forward link,
and SCFDMA (a single carrier OFDMA scheme) on reverse link. Interestingly, GSM carriers migrated
once to CDMA, and now propose to abandon it for OFDMA. LTE promises to carry much of the
international crowd of operators and create economies of scale, allow for international roaming, etc.
WiMAX:
WiMAX is a wireless standard based on IEEE 802.16e (and its evolution 802.16m). Its strength is that
(unlike other 4G standards) its evolution path preserves backward compatibility with current 802.16e
systems.
Oddly enough two different camps emerged again: LTE and WiMAX, each backed up by different suppliers,
and different operators, both using very similar technologies (based on OFDMA), yet unable to harmonize to a
unique standard.
An important argument to consider is that of spectrum: the vast majority of mobile operators operate in FDD
spectrum (see sections 1.2.3 and 1.3) LTE provided an evolution first FDD. WiMAX on the other hand chose to
focus first on TDD bands, becoming more attractive for TDD spectrum owners. Practically however, since 2010
the vast majority of the mobile industry is following LTE plans, and that standard is becoming the de facto
standard for the 4G mobile wireless world.
2.8 Migration to 5G
4G systems are barely out, so 5G is starting to loom. 5G definitions are still in the works; an FCC order on 5G
spectrum [14] notes no current intend to define what qualifies as 5G, but mentions that standard bodies like
3GPP and the ITU plan to develop the requirements by early 2017. 4
Techniques largely revolve around LTE advances and focus on higher throughput, lower latency; they
include: flexibility around many spectrum bands (including unlicensed, and millimeterwaves), higher order
(even massive) MIMO, considerations for many more devices (Internet of things), direct device to device
communications (D2D), and many more features described in releases 14 and beyond of LTE (see §8.4).
2.9 Technology Advances
Recent technology advances aim at increasing capacity further. Technology improvements are sometimes the
result of a major standard modification, but sometimes simple schemes that can be added to existing standards
and allow for additional improvements with minimal infrastructure changes.
2.9.1 Speech Coding Improvement
Voice coding algorithms and DSP capabilities have improved, and current voice codecs operate on less power,
and with greater processing efficiencies. (Refer to [2] ch. 15, or [1] ch. 8 for speech coding details). GSM for
instance is improving voice digitization and quantizing from RPELPT to a series of Adaptive MultiRate
(AMR) standards. IS95 systems have a parallel evolution, with EVRC (at 8 kbps), and halfrate EVRC.
Another standard for selectable mode vocoder (SMV) was in the work but never saw any success in the
industry; it based requirements on: operation in presence of frame erasures, noise suppression recommended for
background noises, reasonable performance with music for onhold situations, equivalent performances with
different languages, multiple quality modes and multiple bit rates, seamless transition from mode to mode. SMV
was design to offer four modes of operations: from mode 0 designed to improve voice quality over EVRC with
the same capacity to mode 3 for operators willing to sacrifice some voice quality robustness in order to realize a
significant capacity gain. The resulting capacity vs. quality tradeoffs seem useful and attractive to service
providers, yet this standard never took off, which may illustrate that some standard evolutions (even when based
on sound requirements and good improvements) may miss their window of opportunity.
Voice over LTE (VoLTE), usually relies on wideband AMR with 9 different codec modes with data rates
from 6.6 to 23.85 kbps.
2.9.2 Efficient Coding and Modulation
For systems primarily designed for voice, latency was a main concern, and modulations were chosen to be
reliable and operating well at fairly low SNR (like QPSK). For data systems it is advantageous to take advantage
of higher modulation schemes such as 16QAM and 64QAM when the radio link allows it. Higher modulations
are more spectral efficient but prone to more bit error rates and may cause more retransmissions, latency, or
jitter.
Data bursts:
when low SNR allows for it, use higher modulation and coding rates for better spectral efficiency.
Adaptive modulation:
fast modulation changes frame by frame allow for efficient scheduling of high speed data bursts when the
radio channel is capable of it.
Forward Error Correction:
a very important aspect of wireless communication: errorcorrecting coding varies from voice to data
bursts; block coding, convolutional coding, and turbo coding can be used optimize efficiency.
ARQ:
automatic retransmit requests are used to lower modulation when necessary and retransmit faded data.
2.9.3 Interference Mitigation
Interferences may be cancelled or mitigated by changing antenna patterns as required. Such systems are
sometimes referred to as smart antennas, and are in essence an elaborate extension of sectoring. The aim may be
to balance the load, or steer a main lobe toward a user, or create a null in the direction of an interferer. Some
systems are static, others are dynamic and change with cell load. Some systems are passive others include active
amplification devices. The main types of smart antenna systems may be described as follows:
Active antennas:
An array of passive and active elements using multiple power amplifiers on the transmit side, and a low
noise amplifier on the receive side.
Switched beams:
A fixed array of narrow beams, combined to form various size sectors.
Adaptive arrays:
An array of elements offering several degrees of freedom to steer a beam in a certain direction, or create
nulls. Array element are sometimes amplified, or attenuated, or are purely passive and utilize phase shift
to create the wanted patterns.
Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA):
A sophisticated combination of many adaptive elements.
Smart antenna systems are efficient in dense areas. Their cost of equipment however (sometimes due to the
complex transmit aspect) and large antenna sizes are major drawbacks [9]. Smart antennas are now replaced by
MIMO systems covered in chapter 9.
2.9.4 Diversity
Antenna diversity is a wonderful technique to improve link budgets; receiving diversity simply consists in
having more than one antenna at the receiving site. Given the power limitations of a mobile handset, receiving
diversity has been implemented at cell site from the early days of cellular systems. Good diversity schemes can
add 8 to 11dB on the uplink budget, thus significantly improving coverage, quality and capacity on that link.
The goal of antenna diversity is to provide two uncorrelated paths and combine the two signals, thus reducing
the probability of deep fades. A general guideline is to measure or calculate the correlation coefficient ρ, and try
to achieve the lowest possible correlation between the two paths.
Diversity improvements are of two kinds: improvements on existing receive diversity in the uplink, and
introduction of transmit diversity for the forward link.
Figure 2.6: Test setup to measure several antenna spacing for horizontal space diversity for a PCS
system: antennas are placed 2λ,5λ, and 10λ apart.
Figure 2.7: Cellular networks utilize many types of towers and poles, and even some disguise
depending on the areas to cover. Different antennas make use of different diversity schemes
(space for the left two, polarization for the far right). And some antennas are slightly downtilted
(right) to reduce interferences to neighboring cells.
Receive diversity has been used from the early days of cellular, and is as popular as ever. Classic diversity
schemes use two antennas at the base station and some algorithms to combine signals 5
Spatial diversity:
Used at every sector, well known combining techniques, probably the most efficient type of diversity.
Angular diversity:
Typically of little use, its benefits are usually exploited by softer handoff (within a site) or smart antennas.
Time diversity:
Heavily used in modern standards like CDMA: interleaving, half chip offset in I and Q transmission, rake
receivers.
Polarization diversity:
Widely used, convenient for small base station sites where antennas cannot be separated.
Transmit diversity is an important feature for forward link capacity improvement. Since handsets are rather
small, their receive diversity capabilities are limited and there transmit diversity schemes were long ignored, but
are now used in many standards.
Orthogonal Transmit Diversity (OTD):
Coded symbol streams are split into two data streams, each containing half the number of symbols,
modulated and spread separately (with two different codes), and transmitted on two different antennas
thus doubling transmit rate.
SpaceTime Spreading (STS):
Coded symbol streams are duplicated into two identical streams, modulated and spread separately (with
two different codes), and transmitted on two different antennas. The key difference with OTD is that in
STS all of the data is sent out on each antenna. This scheme provides redundancy rather than data rate
improvement.
Multiple input, multiple output systems (MIMO):
These systems are key to recent wireless standards, from wireless LAN like 802.11n to cellular evolutions
like LTE. MIMO systems use multiple streams encoded differently, transmitted over different antennas,
and received by multiple antennas. (See more on MIMO in chapter 9.)
2.9.5 Other Optimization Techniques
Technology advances and standard improvements target an increase in capacity, coverage, data rate, or some
other system performance aspect. In many cases however some simple optimization techniques can be used to
increase performance:
Antenna height: higher for further range, or lower to reduce interference.
Cell splitting (into smaller cells: microcells, picocells, femtocells).
Sectoring: often 3 to 6 sectors.
Improving RF components: duplexers, combiners, jumper cables, connectors.
Range extension by repeaters or lownoise amplifiers increase coverage.
Changing antennas according to needs: diversity, gain, beam width, downtilt, etc.
And a number of parameter adjustments (power levels, handoff parameters, etc.)
These techniques are very important tools used by operators to optimize capacity and coverage. In some cases
optimization may be seasonal due to foliage or different usage patterns. In all cases RF network demand
constant tweaking to provide optimal performance. More recently self optimizing networks (SON) have the
ability to continually and automatically optimize these parameters.
2.10 Fixed Wireless Access
Fixed wireless access is sometimes referred to as wireless local loop (WLL), and is an alternative to provide
Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) and highspeed data services in remote areas where wired solutions are
impractical for various reasons. In most cases, trenching long distances to place communication conduits (for
fiber or copper) is very costly, such as in mountainous areas. Cellular service is often scarce too in remote areas.
2.10.1 Classic Architectures
Radio solutions for wireless local loops were rolledout extensively since the 1970’s. Some such radio services
are still in place, and in use today. Early systems use analog radios to offer voice service over fairly long
distances. Newer WLL system need to be costeffective, reliable, adaptable to a wide range of situations, and
compliant with local exchange carrier technical, legal, and regulatory standards. But the demand for WLL
services are generally low, and suppliers consequently treat the opportunity as a fairly low priority.
Initially WLL focused on providing extensions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to reach
remote customers. As the PSTN evolved to digital voice, digital switching, and Class 5 features (such as call
waiting, caller ID, 3way calling, and others), WLL systems evolved to include many of these features. WLL
products therefore focused on providing feature parity for these class 5 services. Connectivity to Class 5
switches like Lucent 5ESS or Nortel DMS100 is specified in Telcordia standards such as GR303 or GR008;
and WLL systems evolved to use these standard interfaces to the PSTN.
Radio frequencies were allocated for wireless local loop applications, and are referred to as Land Mobile
Radio (LMR). LMR radio links for telephony use frequencies in the UHF/VHF band (138512 MHz), which
provide great propagation characteristics even in difficult terrain and heavy tree density. These frequencies
however are becoming very rare. In fact, they are in such demand that the FCC recently mandated radio systems
to increase their spectral efficiencies, and use only a narrow band of spectrum. Many legacy LMR equipment
using 2025 kHz RF channels must migrate to narrowband LMR 12.5 kHz channels by January 1, 2013. In
addition, the FCC order mentions the goal to reach 6.25 kHz channelization so new WLL systems are urged to
deploy these narrow RF channels. 6
Other radio solutions work in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed bands, building on the popularity and
therefore economies of scale of 802.11a/b/g radios. Unfortunately the popularity of these radios for WiFi LAN
also creates a lot of interferences, which is a concern when providing emergency service (911 life line). A few
systems therefore have a 900 MHz version; although less spectrum is available and less power is allowed, that
frequency can be a very useful alternative. Finally, new TV white spaces are a wonderful new opportunity to
explore.
2.10.2 Cellular WLL
In addition to frequencies mentioned above, wireless carriers can use their licensed spectrum to provide fixed
applications. Fixed radio links usually behave differently from mobile radio links, they are typically less variable
in time (therefore easier to predict and equalize), and their fading statistics are generally easier to deal with.
Consequently fixed propagation is usually advantageous for a wireless system and has a significant impact on
reach, capacity, and therefore overall cost of a fixed wireless system:
Mobile radio links often incur fast changing fading conditions. Fixed links on the other hand experience
slower fading, mostly due to the changes in the neighboring scatterers. As a result error rates are typically
improved for a given SNR. In an IS95 CDMA system for instance, the industry usually accepts Eb/No
levels of 4 for fixed communication, rather than 7 needed for mobility. All other parameters being equal, a
reduction of Eb/No target of 3dB nearly doubles capacity. (Refer to CDMA capacity in 2.2.)
Fixed users using narrow antenna beamwidths oriented toward a given base station offers more efficient
spectrum reuse patterns than what mobile omnidirectional users require.
Fixed usage increases system capacity as it does not require the radio resources that mobile users need to
handover between base stations.
Another advantage of narrow beamwidth antennas is that antenna gain is improved. In addition, repeaters
can be strategically placed at customer premise to further improve the link.
Antenna heights can be increased to benefit propagation characteristics. Antennas can be placed outdoors
with a cable reaching an indoor device.
Another important aspect of the wireless channel is its variability: the mobile channel is typically much
more variable, a fixed access channel is easier to predict and can therefore be more spectral efficient.
Fixed wireless links can therefore provide increased reach and capacity than equivalent mobile links. As a
result, some of these otherwise costly cellular systems have been used for fixed use, sometimes with minor
modifications. In some cases, wireless local loop base stations became handy to deploy in rural areas to provide
extended coverage, and reach minimum service mandated by the FCC for PCS spectrum auctions for instance.
More recently 3G and 4G systems are advertising their fixed capabilities again and may be trying to compete
with other wired broadband services.
2.10.3 Voice Integration
Voice over IP (VoIP) is an efficient and widely accepted method of providing telephony. Its efficient voice
compression is especially valuable for wireless. Many WLL radio solutions therefore use VoIP transport; this is
especially convenient as most consumer and enterprise radio solutions are based on IP and Ethernet.
Consequently fairly cheap offtheshelf systems can be adapted to WLL voice and data delivery.
Figure 2.8: Fixed wireless links, or wireless local loop (WLL) provide fixed wireless voice and/or
data links. Voice services use a voice over IP gateway; additional data services are routed to a
broadband data network, and bypass the voice gateway.
The problem remains however to interface these systems with the telephony network. A VoIP gateway is
required; today small inexpensive gateways are available awith good interface standards. Interfaces from the
gateway to the telephony switching fabric have to rely on legacy telephony standards such as GR008 or GR
303. These Telcordia standards allow for a gateway to connect to a switch (with one or two T1 lines), and to
access classic telephony features (such as call waiting, caller ID, 3way calling, etc.) An alternative solution
when GR008 or GR303 interfaces are not supported are to simply interface with analog tip and ring lines.
The remainder of the voice transport between the voice gateway and the customer endpoint simply uses IP
transport, including Ethernet and radio systems based on standard physical layers such as WiFi. A number of
protocols are available to establish a reliable IP session that can provide voice transport, including session
initiation protocol (SIP), or and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP); ITU recommendation H.323 also
provides interoperability standards for multimedia communications over IP including voice features.
Data features are also available on many WLL radios, but are somewhat different; higher data rates can no
longer interface with the voice switch and need to be split into a data network of its own. If a highspeed internet
network is available in the area, data sessions have to be routed to that network while voice traffic needs to be
identified as such, and routed towards the VoIP gateway.
2.11 Homework
1. In a table, list all the wireless technologies popular in modern wireless services (2G, 3G, WiFi, WiMAX,
HSPA, LTE). Research and list their main parameters such as: (a) frequency of operation; (b) RF channel
bandwidth; (c) peak uplink and downlink data rates; (d) standard body for air interface; (e) modulation
type; (f) multiple access; (g) and some kind of capacity estimate such as throughput per MHz.
2. Examine the Shannon capacity equation and comment on what happens in to channel capacity in the
following different situations.
a. You operate in a fixed bandwidth W0, and increase the power (S) in the channel. How does capacity
behave?
b. You have a limited power radio (therefore S is fixed); you increase system bandwidth, but as you do
that system noise typically increases as well: N = N0W (where N0 is a fixed noise density). How
does capacity behave as bandwidth increases indefinitely? (calculate limit of C as W →∞).
c. You now fix the power spectral density: S0 (recall that S = S0W,S0 is your fixed transmit power
density). How does capacity increase with bandwidth W?
3. Calculate the capacity (in voice channel per cell per MHz) of the following standards (see §2.2 and 2.4).
In each case, simply assume K = 7 as the reuse factor.
a. Verify that AMPS system capacity in independent of the amount of spectrum available, and is m =
4.7 ch./cell/MHz.
b. Calculate GSM full rate system capacity. (Answer: m=5.7)
4. CDMA capacity improvement:
a. What capacity gain does a CDMA service provider achieve by changing its handset from QCELP
vocoders to EVRC vocoders?
b. In addition, the better speech coding allows typical Eb∕Nt to be reduced from 7 dB to 6.5 dB. What is
the total capacity gain?
5. CDMA capacity:
a. Derive in details the capacity formula (2.5) for CDMA systems.
b. Compute a radio system capacity (mCDMA) for IS95 half rate EVRC (Eb∕Nt=6.5 dB)
6. Different radio standards system capacity:
a. Compare radio system capacity for above IS95 half rate EVRC, GSM half rate voice frames,
DECT, and PHS (search online, or refer for instance to [1] chapter 11 for the last 2).
b. What are the chances of PHS or DECT to evolve into a 3G standard?
7. You invented a new voice coder that allows you to code voice in 4.8 kbps rather than 9.6 kbps with no
significant voice degradation.
a. What will the link budget improvement be?
b. Using capacity equations, quantify network capacity impact.
8. As an operator, you are faced with the difficult decisions of having to regularly upgrade your network to
better standards and newer equipment. Assume you are operating a GSM network and you consider
upgrading it to UMTS. Consider (a) price and availability of equipment, (b) timeline to upgrade, (c)
impact of other carriers timeline, (d) field experience and proven technology, (e) other considerations.
9. Similarly to the above problem, you now operate a UMTS network with voice and highspeed packet data.
Write a proposal to upgrade it to a fourth generation system using LTE (with the same above
considerations).
10. You operate a wireless service in a small town. You installed a CDMA system that can typically support
50 mobile calls per sector, but you chose to offer fixed service only. Refer to section 2.10.2, estimate all
the gain you can realize and assume that they have a direct impact on the system Eb/No. How would you
estimate your fixed system capacity.
Copyright ©2016 Thomas Schwengler

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Modulation Bits encoded by: Examples

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