Chapter II

Basic Concept of
Cellular
Communications
Miftadi Sudjai, Ir., MSc., Mphil.
Lab. Transmisi Telekomunikasi
Jur. Teknik Elektro
STTTelkom
MobileCommSystem/MJI/03

System Architecture
Mobile Stations
(MS)

A interface

Base Transceiver
Station (BTS)

Base Station
Controller (BSC)

Base Transceiver
Station (BTS)

Abis interface

Base Station (BS)

Um interface

Mobile
Switching
Centre
(MSC)

Public Switched
Telephone Network
(PSTN)

Base Transceiver
Station (BTS)

Base Station
Controller (BSC)

Base Transceiver
Station (BTS)

Abis interface

Base Station (BS)

CCITT
Signalling
System No. 7
(SS7)
interface

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Cellular Systems: Basic Issues

What makes cellular radio work?

Attenuation of the propagating radio waves like
d- n , n > 2
Allows frequency reuse
Requires handoff or handover from one cell to
the next

Other important considerations

Multipath/fading
Other-user interference
Spectral efficiency
Quality of service
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Example: Power Received at Mobile

from Two Base Stations

Power received at mobile

from station l:
Pl dl K 0 K1 log10 d l / d 0 dBm

where dl distance from MS to BS

d 0 reference distance (power K 0 )
K1 rate of change constant

base B

from base C

-60
-70

received power
from base A
received power
from base B

Received Pow er dBm

base A

-80
-90
-100
-110

received power
from base C

-120
-130
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2.0

Normalized Distance from Base A

If stations A and B are using the same

channel, the signal power from B is
SIR d A , D PA interference:
d A PB D d A K1 log10 D / d A 1 dB
cochannel
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Hexagonal Grid Geometry

Define coordinate axes,

U & V, at 60o angles
V
For given frequency
reuse plan, go i steps
in U direction and j
steps in V direction
Number of cells in
reuse pattern is
N i 2 ij j 2

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N = 7 reuse pattern

j=1

(u,v)

(1,3)

U
(2,1)

1/ 3

Signal-to-Interference Ratio - 7
Cell
Reuse
Plan
Consider closest ring
of interfering BSs:
SIR min K1 log10 Dco / R 1 10log10 7 -1
= K1 log10 Dco / R 1 7.78 dB

dB

6
3

Dco

It shows that
Dco / R 3N

5
7

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3
4

2
1

5
7

6
3

5
7

4
2

N i ij j

No. of cells in reuse plan:

2

3
4

Interference and Capacity

1st tier of co-ch cell, N=7

D+R
D-R/2

D+R/2

R
MS

D-R

D-R

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Interference and Capacity

Co-ch reuse ratio, Q = (D/R)0.5 =

i=1, j=1
i=1, j=2
i=2, j=2, etc

Cluster size
(N)
3
7
12
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(3N)0.5

Q
3
4.58
6
8

Simple Case
An FDD/FDMA system has 33 MHz bandwidth
provide 25 khz simplex channel. Compute number
of channels per cell if
use: a). N =3; b). N = 7; c). N= 12
****
Total BW = 33 MHz. Ch BW = 25 x 2 = 50 kHz.
Total # of Ch = 33000/50 = 660 Ch.
a)
# ch per cell = 660/4 = 165 ch
b)
# ch per cell = 660/7 = 95 ch
c)
# ch per cell = 660/12 = 55 ch
Smaller N has greater capacity per cell, however suffer
Higher interference since co-ch distance is reduced.
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Interference

SIR of a MS:

S
m

where m = number of interfering cells in 1st tier i 1

Propagation law (path loss exponent):

n = 2 ..5

(1)

d
Pr Po
do

(2)

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Interference

If the interfering BS are equidistant:

R n
m

n
(
D
)
i

( D / R) n
( 3N ) n

m
m

(3)

i 1

From figure above (non-equidistant), N=7

S
R 4

I 2( D R ) 4 ( D R / 2) 4 ( D R / 2) 4 ( D R ) 4 D 4
S
1

I 2(Q 1) 4 (Q 1) 4 (Q 0.5) 4 (Q 0.5) 4 1

4
2
4
2
4
(Q 1)
(Q 0.25)
Q
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(4)

(5)

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Handover in FDMA/TDMA Cell.

Level at B

RSL

Level which HO occured

time

BS1

BS2
A

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CDMA : Soft Hand Over

BS 1

RNC

BS 2

The same signal is sent from BS1 and BS2 within one RNC,
Except Power Control Command
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Softer Hand Over

Sector 1

RNC
Sector 2

BS

The same signal is sent from both sectors to an MS

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W-CDMA Hand Over Algorithm

If the pilot Ec/Io > Best_Pilot Ec/Io reporting_range +Hys_event 1A, then event 1A or
radio link addition (RLA)
If pilot Ec/Io < Best_Pilot Ec/Io Rep._Range + Hys_event 1B, then event 1B or radio
link removal (RLR)
If best_candidate pilot Ec/Io > old_pilot Ec/Io, the event 1C or Radio Link Replacement .

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Power Control
Minimize the effect of shadowing and near-far problem

d2

If user 1 at 3 km from BTS transmistting with 100

mWatt, how much power is needed by user 2 at 9 km
away from BTS using Okumura Hatta model in urban
area to achieve the same power at the BTS with 10 m
high above ground level?

Pr2

d1
Pt1
Pr1
Basestation

User 1

Pt2

User 2

Answer: Path loss slope Hatta-Urban is( 44.9

6.55 log 10) =38.35.
W2 = (d2/d1)3.835 W1 = 38.3 dBm =6.76 Watt

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Power Control
Rayleigh fading
30

Received signal amplitude

Controlled transmit power
Controlled SIR (target = 10 dB)

Signal level (dB)

20

Target
SIR

10

RSL
0

TX power

-10
-20
-30

50

100
150
200
Time slot (0.67 ms)

250

300

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Channel is estimated at
the receiver, then Tx is
instructed to adjust Tx
power according to the
estimated channel (e.g.
SNR).
Problem:
Control rate >> fading rate
Control step size single
step or variable step
What is the
benefit/drawbacks of
single or variable step size
?

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Fast Power Control

P1
P2

PN

BTS

FPC is aimed to keep received power level P1, P2, , Pn same

To mitigate near-far interference
Maintain an optimum capacity
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Fast Power Control

W-CDMA/UMTS use 1500 Hz, compare to 800 Hz of

IS-95 CDMA, and 2 Hz in GSM (Slow PC)
Step size is 1 dB with dynamic range of 80 dB
Required Eb/No and gain from FPC (Simulation
result for a 8 kbps speech with BER 1% and 10 ms
interleaving) :

*ITU Vehicular A is a five channel, with WCDMA resolution

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Trunking and Grade of Service

Trunking allows a large number of users

to share limited capacity (channels) in a
cell using pooling system.
A Ch is used by user only when he is
on communication. If the comm. is
finished, the ch is released and held back
to the pool.
If all ch.s are already used, then the
request for access from users will be
blocked.
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Definitions

Set up time : time required to allocate a ch to requesting

user
Blocked Call : calls which can not be completed at time of
access due to congestion.
Holding time (H): average duration of a call
Traffic Intensity (A): channel time utilisation which
measured ave. ch occupancy, in Erlangs.
Load : Traffic intensity across the system
GOS : measure of congestion in the prob. Of calls being
blocked (Erlang B), or calls being delayed (Erlang C).
Request rate : ave. call request per unit time (m sec.)

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Traffic And GOS

A user generate traffic intensity :

Au = H (erlangs)
is ave. number of call request per unit
time

For U number of users, total offered

traffic:
A = H.U (erlangs)
If traffic equaly distributed among C
channels, the traffic per channel is:
A = H.U/C (erlangs)
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Traffic And GOS

Erlangs B (no queue):

Pr( Blocking )

AC
C

k 0

Erlangs C (with queue):

Pr(delay 0)

C!
k
A
k!

C
C 1

A
A
A C!(1
)
C k 0 k!
C

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CAPACITY OF ERLANG B SYSTEM

# of
Ch.
2
4
5
10
20
40

Capacity of Erlang B for GOS:

1%
0.5%
0.2%
0.1%
0.153
0.869
1.36
4.46
12
29.0

0.105
0.065
0.701
0.535
1.13
0.900
3.96
3.43
11.1
10.1
27.3
25.7
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0.046
0.439
0.762
3.09
9.41
24.5

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System Design and Performance

Base station placement dependent on

Propagation environment
Anticipated geographic distribution of users
Economic considerations (minimize number of base stations)
Political and public opinion considerations
Traffic types (3G)

Performance figure of merit

Spectrum efficiency for voice: v voice circuits/MHz/base
station
Spectrum efficiency for information: i bps/MHz/base station
Dropped call rate fraction of calls ended prematurely

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Increasing Total Capacity by

Cell Splitting

Consider N , the number of voice circuits per given service area

If a base station can support a certain number, X, of voice
circuits, then cell splitting as shown on the next view graph
can be used to increase capacity
For example, a rough calculation shows a factor of 4 increase
This is the reason for using more base stations in a given area
This increase does not hold indefinitely for several reasons:
Eventually the base stations become so close together that
line-of-sight conditions prevail and path loss exponent
becomes less (e.g., 2 versus 4)
Obtaining real estate for increased number of base stations
difficult
As cell sizes become smaller, number of handoffs increases;
eventually speed of handoff becomes a limiting factor

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Cell Splitting: 7-Cell Repeat

System

before cell splitting

after cell splitting

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Sectoring

Using directional antennas at the base station can

improve performance in the presence of other users
On transmit, it focuses the power in the direction of interest
On receive, only users in the sector being illuminated
contribute to the interference
Situation is illustrated on the next view graph

No sectoring on the left in (a) means every cell using the same set
of frequencies contributes to the interference
Reuse patterns of 7 and 3 are illustrated in (b) and (c) where
sectoring is employed
Note that the frequency band must be further subdivided (denoted
1-1, 1-2, 1-3, etc.). This does not use up frequencies faster (same
number of channels in each cell)

Cost of sectoring is more expensive antennas and more

handoffs per call

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Using Sector Antennas to Increase

Capacity
3-1 3-2

3-3

2-1 2-2

1-1 1-2

2-3

1-3

F
G

a) omnidirectional antennas with

reuse pattern of N = 7

F
G

b) sector antennas with

reuse pattern of N = 7

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c) sector antennas with

reuse pattern of N = 3

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Hierarchical Cell Structure 3G

Micro Cell

'Indoor' Pico Cell

Range: some 50 300 m

Hot spots
Medium mobility (>
10 km/h)
Up to 384 kbps

Range: some 10 m
Office / Home
environment
Low mobility (< 10
km/h)
Up to 2 Mbps

Macro Cell
Range: 350 m up to 20 km
(outdoor)
Suburban / rural
High mobility (vehicle
speed)
Approximately 144 kbps

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