FREQUENCY REUSE

Cellular Concepts
Frequency Reuse (I)
Frequency Reuse (II)
 Frequency Reuse
 How many cells must intervene between two
cells using the same frequency?
D: Minimum distance between centers of cells that use the same band
(co-channels)
R: Radius of a cell
d: distance between adjacent cells (d=3 R)
N: Number of cells in a repetitious pattern (reuse factor)

D/R = √(3N)
or D/d = √N
 Frequency Reuse is the core concept of cellular
mobile radio
 Users in different geographical areas (in different
cells) may simultaneously use the same frequency
 Frequency reuse drastically increases user
capacity and spectrum efficiency
 Frequence reuse causes mutual interference (trade
off link quality versus subscriber capacity)
 Channel Reuse
 The total number of channels are divided into K
groups.
› K is called reuse factor or cluster size.
 Each cell is assigned one of the groups.
 The same group can be reused by two different
cells provided that they are sufficiently far apart.
Example:
K=7
 Frequency Reuse

F7 F2

F7 F2 F6 F1
F1 F3

F6 F1
F1 F3 F5 F4 F7 F2

F5 F4 F7 F2 F6 F1
F1 F3

F6 F1
F1 F3 F5 F4
Re
us
ed

F5 F4
ist

Fx: Set of frequency

an
ce
D

7 cell reuse cluster

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 Reuse Distance

R Cluster
• For hexagonal cells, the reuse distance
is given by
F7 F2
D  3N R
F6 F1
F1 F3
where R is cell radius and N is the
reuse pattern (the cluster size or the
F5 F4 F7 F2 number of cells per cluster).
• Reuse factor is
F6 F1
F1 F3
D
Re

q   3N
u
se

F5 F4
d

R
ist
a nc
eD

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 Reuse Distance (Cont’d)

 The cluster size or the number of cells per cluster is given by

j
N  i  ij  j
2 2

where i and j are integers. 60o

 N = 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 19, 21, 28, …, etc.

The popular value of N being 4 and 7.

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 Reuse Distance (Cont’d)

j=1

j=1 i=2
i=2 j=1
j direction
i=2
60° i=2
i direction j=1
j=1
1 2 3… i i=2 i=2
j=1
(a) Finding the center of an adjacent cluster (b) Formation of a cluster for N = 7
using integers i and j (direction of i and j can with i=2 and j=1
be interchanged).

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Frequency Reuse (III)
Co-Channel Cells
 Finding the Nearest Co-Channel

(1) Move i cells along any chain of hexagons

(2) Turn 600 counter-clockwise and move j cells, to reach

the next cell using same frequency sets
this distance D is required for a given frequency reuse to

provide enough reduced same channel interference

ie, after every distance D we could reuse a set of frequencies

in a new cell
Co-Channel Cells
Cellular Frequency Reuse
Concept
Coordinate System
Use (i,j) to denote a
particular cell.

A
Example:
Cell A is represented
by (2,1).

Prof. Sridhar Iyer Session: 2 2.21

 Distance Formula
D  3(i  ij  j ) R
2 2

 3K R
where
R

K  i  ij  j
2 2
D

Reuse factor

Note: i and j are integers

Prof. Sridhar Iyer Session: 2 2.22

Relations between Cluster Size
and i, j
Relations between Cluster Size
and i, j
 L*j
L*i In this case: j=2, i=1

r
D

L  3r
D 2  ( L  i ) 2  ( L  j ) 2  2( L  i )( L  j ) cos(2 / 3)
D 2  L2  i 2  L2  j 2  2 L2  i  j  (0.5)
D 2  L2 (i 2  j 2  ij ) Compute D based on “law of
cosine”
D / r  3(i 2  j 2  ij )  3 N
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How frequency Reuse Increases
Capacity
Example:

A GSM communication system uses a frequency reuse factor of 1/7 and

416 channels available. If 21 channels are allocated as control channels,
compute its system capacity. Assume a channel supports 20 users

Channels available for allocation = 416 - 21 = 395

Number of cells = 395 / 7 = 57

Number of simultaneous users per cell = 20 x 57 = 1140

Number of simultaneous users in system = 7 x 1140 = 7980

 Cell Planning Example
 Suppose you have 33 MHz bandwidth available, an
FM system using 25 kHz channels, how many
channels per cell for 4,7,12 cell re-use?
 total channels = 33,000/25 = 1320
 N=4 channels per cell = 1320/4 = 330
 N=7 channels per cell = 1320/7 = 188
 N=12 channels per cell = 1320/12 = 110
 Smaller clusters can carry more traffic
 However, smaller clusters result in larger co-channel
interference
 Practical deployment issues
 Location to setup antenna
› Antenna towers are expensive
› Local people do not like BSs
 Antenna/BS does not look like antenna/BS
 Antenna
› Omni-directional
› Directional antenna

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Remarks on Reuse Ratio
 Cochannel Interference
First tier cochannel
Second tier cochannel Base Station
Base Station

R
D6
D5
D1

D4 Mobile Station
D2

D3

Serving Base Station

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 Cochannel Interference

 Cochannel interference ratio is given by

C Carrier C
  M
I Interference
 Ik k 1

where I is co-channel interference and M is the maximum

number of co-channel interfering cells.
For M = 6, C/I is given by

C C
= where  is the propagation path loss slope
-g
I M æD ö and  = 2~5.
å ç k ÷
è R ø
k =1

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Worst Case of Cochannel Interference

D6
R
D5
D1

D4
Mobile Station
D2

D3

Serving Base Station Co-channel Base Station

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