Cellular Network Planning

ICT 10 December 2003

Usman Wadood
D.E. Traffic Analysis, Peshawar

Why Cellular?
Fastest growing technology

25000 in 1984; 25 million in 1993

after 1993 growth rate is in excess of 50%
630 million against 1 billion wireline in December 2001
crossover in May 2002 with both wireline and cellular > 1 billion

Gaining ground as the sole telephone access since wireline

customers are churning to cellular
Universal access
Ideal platform for convergence
PC vs. Cellular is the expected major technological war

Tons of charisma and charm

more to cellular than just fancy ringtones

 Hierarchy

How Cellular Works

MS--BTS--BSC--MSC

Coverage provided by BTS (a.k.a RBS)

MS tunes into strongest control channel
VC allocated by BTS under supervision of either MSC or BSC
Handoff from either BTS or BSC or MSC
can be initiated by MS (MAHO) or BTS

Call initiation and termination by MSC

Three main access techniques - FDMA, TDMA, CDMA
A combination of above techniques is also used

Trunking Efficiency
Band Allocation in AMPS
Uplink (MS to BS)

825
MHz

Downlink (BS to MS)

System A

System B

30KHz Spacing

VC

CC

System A

System B

30KHz Spacing

870
MHz 30KHz Spacing

30KHz Spacing

VC

VC

845
MHz

CC

890
MHz

VC

1,2,3,4 .. 666 voice channels

1,2,3,4 .. 666 voice channels

313 - 333 control channels

334 - 354 control channels

Trunking Efficiency
Band allocation in GSM
915 MHz

Carrier Freq 124

960 MHz

Mobilink

Carrier Freq 75

Uplink

Carrier Freq 50 - 74
Carrier Freq 50

Downlink

Ufone

Carrier Freq 1
890 MHz

960 Mhz

Guard Band Freq

Unused

935 MHz

124

935 Mhz

TDMA structure of each channel

CDMA2000 Typical Band Allocations

CDMA2000 allows the following

5 wideband
carriers with 625 kHz
guard band
20 MHz

3 wideband
carriers and additional
IS-95 carriers
15 MHz

1 wideband
carrier with 625 kHz
guard band

5 MHz

CDMA Band Planning

Co-existence of 1.25 MHz and 3.75 MHz gives better band packing
1.25 MHz at edge of frequency block reduces spurious emissions in
adjacent blocks

Allocated Block
5 MHz
10 MHz
15 MHz
20 MHz

3x Carrier Deployment
1 x 3.75 Carrier + Guard Band
2 x 3.75 Carrier + 1 x 1.25 Carrier +
Guard Band
3 x 3.75 Carrier + 2 x 1.25 Carrier +
Guard Band
4 x 3.75 Carrier + 3 x 1.25 Carrier +
Guard Band
or
5 x 3.75 Carrier + Guard Band

Trunking Efficiency
CDMA spread spectrum
Data Bit Time

O/P =Digital Signal

X-NOR

Data Signal

PN Code
Output

+ PN Code

Chip
Time

PN Code and how it spreads data for a spreading factor of 5

Trunking efficiency
Mobile Assisted Handoff (MAHO)
hard handoff
used in GSM, DAMPS and CDMA
mobile station (MS) assists in handoff

Soft Handoff
used in CDMA
MS receives control channel information from neighbouring cells
handoff is initiated from one cell to another without change in
frequency and is controlled by MSC
the associated handoff is called soft handoff
CDMA systems use a combination of soft and hard handoffs

Grade of service (GoS)

Required grade of service
Usually 2% blocking probability during busy hour. This means
that during the busy hour, 2 out of every 100 calls would be
blocked due to congestion
Busy hour may be (1) busy hour at busiest cell (2) system busy
hour (3) system average over all hours

Estimated traffic distribution

Traffic intensity is measured in Erlang (mathematician AK
Erlang)
One Erlang = completely occupied channel, eg, a radio channel
occupied for 30 min. per hour carries 0.5 Erlang

GoS signifies the likelihood that a call is blocked or is

queued for more than the designed time

Grade of Service .. Contd

Erlang B formula is used for non-queuing systems
and is given by

Pr(blocking)

A / C!
C

A
k0

where C = number of channels

A = traffic intensity

/ k!

Queued Trunking System

Erlang C formula is used to find GoS in queued trunked
systems
A queue is provided to hold blocked calls
Pr (delay) =
AC
C-1

k=0

AC+C!(1-A/C) Ak/k!

Erlang B and Erlang C formulae are used to determine

important network parameters such as maximum number
of users for a given GoS and number of channels

Erlang B Graph

Erlang C Graph

A practical example
Find maximum number of users that can be supported for a
0.5% blocking probability if connected trunks are100.
Assume each user generates 0.1Erl traffic.
Solution:
Traffic/subs Au = 0.1 Erl; Trunks C = 100; GoS = 0.5 %
Users U = A/Au; where A is traffic intensity for a given GoS.
From graph we can see that A for 0.5 GoS and 100 trunks
equals 80.9.
So U = 80.9/0.1 = 809 users.
For practice repeat the above example for
C=20; GoS = 2%, Au = 0.2 Erl
C=50, GoS = 0.1%, Au = 0.2 Erl

Frequency Planning

S = total channels within a cluster

k = total channels within a cell
N = cells within a cluster
S = kN (if frequencies are not reused)
If cluster is replicated M times, then C, total channels in the system is
given by
C = MkN = MS
Small cluster size--more clusters and more co-channel interference
Frequency reuse factor is given by 1/N

When To Reuse Frequency

Number of cells per cluster has to satisfy the equation
N = i2+ij+j2 where i and j are non -ve integers
move i cells along any chain of hexagons
turn 600 counter clockwise and move j cells
A

Frequency reuse for i=3; j=2

Cluster size, N = 19

j=0
j=1
j=2
j=3

i=0
i=1
N=0 N=1
N=1 N=3
N=4 N=7
N=9 N=13

i=2
N=4
N=7
N=12
N=19

i=3
N=9
N=13
N=19
N=27

Frequency planning in FDMA and

TDMA systems

Things to consider

sparse radio spectrum

Judicious assigning of radio channels
interference

Q = D/R where Q is co-channel reuse ratio

S/I = (D/R)n/io = ((3N)1/2)n
io
where D = distance between centres of nearest co-channel cells; R =
radius of a cell; n = path loss exponent

This S/I equation is for first layer of interfering cells if all

interfering base stations are equidistant from desired base station
and this distance is equal to the distance D between cell centres

 MS at cell edge faces worst SIR

MS is D-R distance from 2 nearest
cells

From other cells, it is at a distance of

D+R/2, D, D-R/2, D+R, D-R

D+R
A

A The diagram is a simplified approach

D
R A

D-R

R-4

S/I =

D+R

2(D-R)-4+2(D+R)-4+2D-4

In terms of Q

D
A

D-R

S/I =

1
2(Q-1)-4+2(Q+1)-4+2Q-4

For a 7 cell cluster, Q=(3N)1/2 = 4.6

and worse case S/I is 49.56 or 17 dB

If S/I<18 dB, then a 9 cell cluster is

considered, hence decreasing capacity
Co-channel interference thus
determines capacity of a system

 About 5% of mobile spectrum is taken by

control channels and 95% is taken up by voice
channels
Only one CC is needed within a cell
Channel assignment depends upon
propagation conditions, terrain, number of
users etc
This holds true for AMPS and GSM

Example
A cellular system requires 15 dB for satisfactory performance. Find
frequency reuse factor (Q) and cluster size (N). Suppose path loss
exponent (n) = 3.
Solution:
Consider 7 cell reuse; N = 7
S/I = (D/R)n/i0 = 1/6 ((3x7)1/2)3 = 16.04 or 12.05 dB
Since SIR < 15 dB, the next higher reuse plan is considered
which is 9 cell reuse. S/I still has value less than 15 dB, so the
next higher value of N is tried (i = 2; j = 2), which gives a
value of SIR = 1/6 x (6)3 = 36 or 15.56 dB
This is greater than the minimum required SIR and should be
used

1A

2A

1
22
43
64
85
106
127
148
169
190
211
232
253
274
295
313
-

3A

2
23
44
65
86
107
128
149
170
191
212
233
254
275
296
314
-

4A

3
24
45
66
87
108
129
150
171
192
213
234
255
276
297
315
-

AMPS Frequency Planning

5A

4
25
46
67
88
109
130
151
172
193
214
235
256
277
298
316
-

6A

5
26
47
68
89
110
131
152
173
194
215
236
257
278
299
317
-

7A

6
27
48
69
90
111
132
153
174
195
216
237
258
279
300
318
-

1B

7
28
49
70
91
112
133
154
175
196
217
238
259
280
301
319
-

2B

8
29
50
71
92
113
134
155
176
197
218
239
260
281
302
320
-

3B

9
30
51
72
93
114
135
156
177
198
219
240
261
282
303
321
-

4B

10
31
52
73
94
115
136
157
178
199
220
241
262
283
304
322
-

5B

11
32
53
74
95
116
137
158
179
200
221
242
263
284
305
323
-

6B

12
33
54
75
96
117
138
159
180
201
222
243
264
285
306
324
-

7B

13
34
55
76
97
118
139
160
181
202
223
244
265
286
307
325
-

1C

14
35
56
77
98
119
140
161
182
203
224
245
266
287
308
326
-

2C

15
36
57
78
99
120
141
162
183
204
225
246
267
288
309
327
-

3C

16
37
58
79
100
121
142
163
184
205
226
247
268
289
310
328
-

17
38
59
80
101
122
143
164
185
206
227
248
269
290
311
329
-

670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686
691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707
712 713 714 715 716 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998
1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019

4C

5C

6C

7C

18
19
20
21
39
40
41
42
60
61
62
63
81
82
83
84
102
103
104
105
123
124
125
126
144
145
146
147
165
166
167
168
186
187
188
189
207
208
209
210
228
229
230
231
249
250
251
252
270
271
272
273
291
292
293
294
312 330
331
332
333
667
668
669
687
688
689
690
708
709
710
711
999
1000
1001
1002
1020
1021
1022
1023

Frequency planning for side A of 832 channel AMPS

Channels 313 - 333 are CC, channels 1-312, 667-716, 991-1023 are VC
7 cell reuse with minimum interference from neighbouring channels

AMPS Frequency Planning

Each RBS can have up to 57 channels
The RBS would contain subsets 1A, 1B and 1C
Each subset has 19 channels, total channels in RBS = 19 x
3=57
Separation between channels of a subset = min 21 channels
Separation between subsets in an RBS = 7 channels for a 7 cell
reuse pattern
RBSs utilise frequencies of iA, iB, iC, where value of i = 1 to 7

Frequency planning in CDMA

Since cluster size N = 1, frequency planning is not a big
issue
Adjacent base stations may use the same frequency
However limited frequency is required in certain
conditions
Interfering cells on the same channel as the serving cell
may create interference overload leading to dropped calls
f1/f2 cell planning (hard handoffs)
Near far effect

Frequency planning in CDMA Contd

IS-95 has a total available bandwidth of 25 MHz for
uplink and 25 MHz for downlink
1.25 MHz (10% of available bandwidth for one
system) radio channel is used for simultaneous
transmissions of 1 CC and up to 64 VCs
User data rate changes in real time
Coverage region and interference levels are not well
defined, but depend on users at a particular time
Breathing cell phenomenon

Frequency planning in CDMA Contd

If number of users increase beyond a certain
level, there may be an abrupt increase in
dropped calls
More users mean degraded performance
Power levels and thresholds for VC and CC
have to meticulously designed

CDMA specific behaviour

f1/f2 cell planning
nearest cells use different radio frequencies
implemented where interference is experienced
used for hard handoffs

Soft handoff
MSC monitors MS from two or more base stations
the strongest channel is automatically allocated to MS
without a change in frequency

CDMA specific behaviour Contd

Near Far Effect
precise power control for each user
power from each user should be equal at base station. If not, near far effect
occurs
generally stronger signal at Rx drowns weaker signals
this is avoided by sending power change commands over the forward radio link
to all mobiles
each MS provides the same signal level to the base station Rx and near far
effect is avoided from mobiles within a cell
however, out of cell mobiles may cause near far effect

Breathing Cell
dynamic, time varying, user dependent cell boundaries

End of Part I