Chapter 1

The Cellular Concept

 Contents
• Introduction to cellular concept
• Frequency Re-use
• Channel Assignment Strategies
• Handoff Strategies
• Practical Handoff Consideration
• Prioritizing Handoffs
 Contents
• Interference and System Capacity
• Co-channel Interference and System
Capacity
• Adjacent channel Interference
• Power Control for Reducing Interference
• Improving capacity in Cellular System
• Packet Radio
 Introduction to Cellular Systems
• Solves the problem of spectral congestion and user capacity.
• Offer very high capacity in a limited spectrum without major
technological changes.
• Reuse of radio channel in different cells.
• Enable a fix number of channels to serve an arbitrarily large number of
users by reusing the channel throughout the coverage region.
 Frequency Reuse
• Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels within
a small geographic area called a cell.
• Neighboring cells are assigned different channel groups.
• By limiting the coverage area to within the boundary of the cell, the
channel groups may be reused to cover different cells.
• Keep interference levels within tolerable limits.
• Frequency reuse or frequency planning

•seven groups of channel from A to G

•footprint of a cell - actual radio coverage
•omni-directional antenna v.s. directional
antenna
• Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels.
• Each cell is allocated a group of k channels, k  S .
• The S channels are divided among N cells.
• The total number of available radio channels
S  kN
• The N cells which use the complete set of channels is called cluster.
• The cluster can be repeated M times within the system. The total
number of channels, C, is used as a measure of capacity
C  MkN  MS
• The capacity is directly proportional to the number of replication M.
• The cluster size, N, is typically equal to 3, 7, or 12.
• Small N is desirable to maximize capacity.
• The frequency reuse factor is given by 1/ N
• Hexagonal geometry has
– exactly six equidistance neighbors
– the lines joining the centers of any cell and each of its neighbors are
separated by multiples of 60 degrees.
• Only certain cluster sizes and cell layout are possible.
• The number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values which satisfy
N  i 2  ij  j 2

• Co-channel neighbors of a particular cell, ex, i=3 and j=2.

 Channel Assignment Strategies

• Frequency reuse scheme

– increases capacity
– minimize interference

• Channel assignment strategy

– fixed channel assignment
– dynamic channel assignment
• Fixed channel assignment
– each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice
channel
– any new call attempt can only be served by the unused
channels
– the call will be blocked if all channels in that cell are
occupied

• Dynamic channel assignment

– channels are not allocated to cells permanently.
– allocate channels based on request.
– reduce the likelihood of blocking, increase capacity.
 Handoff Strategies
• When a mobile moves into a different cell while a conversation is in
progress, the MSC automatically transfers the call to a new channel
belonging to the new base station.

• Handoff operation
– identifying a new base station
– re-allocating the voice and control channels to the new base station.
Illustration of handoff scenario at cell boundry
• Handoff Threshold
– Minimum usable signal for acceptable voice quality
– (-90dBm to -100dBm)

– Handoff margin   Pr ,handoff  Pr ,minimumusable cannot be too large or

too small.

– If  is too large, unnecessary handoffs burden the MSC

– If  is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete handoff

before a call is lost.
• Handoff must ensure that the drop in the measured signal
is not due to momentary fading and that the mobile is
actually moving away from the serving base station.

• Running average measurement of signal strength should be

optimized so that unnecessary handoffs are avoided.
– Depends on the speed at which the vehicle is moving.
– Steep short term average signal strength -> the hand off should be made
quickly
– The speed can be estimated from the statistics of the received short-term
fading signal at the base station
• Dwell time: the time over which a call may be
maintained within a cell without handoff.

• Dwell time depends on

– propagation
– interference
– distance
– speed
• Handoff measurement
– In first generation analog cellular systems, signal strength measurements
are made by the base station and supervised by the MSC.
– In second generation systems (TDMA), handoff decisions are mobile
assisted, called mobile assisted handoff (MAHO)

• Intersystem handoff: If a mobile moves from one cellular system to a

different cellular system controlled by a different MSC.

• Handoff requests is much important than handling a new call.

 Practical Handoff Consideration

• Different type of users

– High speed users need frequent handoff during a call.
– Low speed users may never need a handoff during a call.

• Microcells are used to provide capacity, the MSC can become

burdened if high speed users are constantly being passed between very
small cells.

• Minimize handoff intervention

– handle the simultaneous traffic of high speed and low speed users.
• Large and small cells can be located at a single location
(umbrella cell)
– different antenna height
– different power level

• Cell dragging problem: pedestrian users provide a very

strong signal to the base station
– The user may travel deep within a neighboring cell
Umbrella Cell Approach
• Handoff for first generation analog cellular systems
– 10 secs handoff time
–  is in the order of 6 dB to 12 dB

• Handoff for second generation cellular systems, e.g., GSM

– 1 to 2 seconds handoff time
– mobile assists handoff
–  is in the order of 0 dB to 6 dB

– Handoff decisions based on signal strength, co-channel interference, and

adjacent channel interference.
• IS-95 CDMA spread spectrum cellular system

– Mobiles share the channel in every cell.

– No physical change of channel during handoff
– MSC decides the base station with the best receiving signal as
the service station
 Prioritizing Handoffs
• Guard Channel Concept

– A fraction of total available channels in a cell is reserved exclusively for

handoff requests from ongoing calls which may be handed off into the
cell.

– Disadv: Reduce total carried traffic as fewer channels are allocated to

originating calls

– Adv: Offer efficient spectrum utilization when dynamic channel

assignment strategies are used
 Prioritizing Handoffs
• Queuing

– Used to decrease the probability of forced termination of a call due to lack

of available channels

– Trade off between the decrease in probability of forced termination and

total carried traffic.

– It is possible due to the fact that there is a finite time interval between the
time the received signal level drops below the handoff threshold and the
time the call is terminated due to insufficient signal level.

– The delay time and size of the queue is determined from the traffic pattern
of the particular service area
 Interference and System Capacity

• Sources of interference
– another mobile in the same cell
– a call in progress in the neighboring cell
– other base stations operating in the same frequency band
– noncellular system leaks energy into the cellular frequency band

• Two major cellular interference

– co-channel interference
– adjacent channel interference
Co-channel Interference and System Capacity
• Frequency reuse - there are several cells that use the same set of
frequencies
– co-channel cells
– co-channel interference

• To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cell must be separated

by a minimum distance.
• When the size of the cell is approximately the same
– co-channel interference is independent of the transmitted power
– co-channel interference is a function of
• R: Radius of the cell
• D: distance to the center of the nearest co-channel cell

• Increasing the ratio Q=D/R, the interference is reduced.

• Q is called the co-channel reuse ratio
• For a hexagonal geometry
D
Q  3N
R

• A small value of Q provides large capacity

• A large value of Q improves the transmission quality - smaller level of
co-channel interference
• A tradeoff must be made between these two objectives
• Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells. The signal-to-
interference ratio (SIR) for a mobile receiver can be expressed as
S S
 i0
I
I
i 1
i

S: the desired signal power

I i : interference power caused by the ith interfering co-channel cell base
station
• The average received power at a distance d from the transmitting
antenna is approximated by
n
d  close-in reference point
Pr  P0  
 d0  d0
or
d  P0 :m easued pow er
Pr (dBm )  P0 (dBm )  10n log   TX

 d0 
n is the path loss exponent which ranges between 2 and 4.
 • When the transmission power of each base station is equal, SIR for a
mobile can be approximated as
S Rn
 i0
I
 i
 D
i 1
n

• Consider only the first layer of interfering cells

S ( D / R)n
 
 3N n

I i0 i0

• Example: AMPS requires that SIR be

greater than 18dB
– N should be at least 6.49 for n=4.
– Minimum cluster size is 7
• For hexagonal geometry with 7-cell cluster, with the mobile unit being
at the cell boundary, the signal-to-interference ratio for the worst case
can be approximated as
 Adjacent Channel Interference
• Adjacent channel interference: interference from adjacent in frequency
to the desired signal.
– Imperfect receiver filters allow nearby frequencies to leak into the
passband
– Performance degrade seriously due to near-far effect.
receiving filter
response

signalon adjacentchannel signalon adjacentchannel

desired signal

FILTER
interference
interference desired signal
• Adjacent channel interference can be minimized through careful
filtering and channel assignment.

• Keep the frequency separation between each channel in a given cell as

large as possible

• A channel separation greater than six channel bandwidths is needed to

bring the adjacent channel interference to an acceptable level.
 Power Control for Reducing Interference

• Ensure each mobile transmits the smallest power necessary to maintain

a good quality link on the reverse channel
– long battery life
– increase SIR
– solve the near-far problem

– Near-Far Problem: Adjacent channel user is transmitting in a very close

range to a subscriber’s receiver while the receiver attempts to receive a
base station on the desired channel.
– i.e. A nearby transmitter captures the receiver.
 Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems
• Methods for improving capacity in cellular systems

– Cell Splitting : subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells.

– Sectoring : directional antennas to control the interference and frequency

reuse.

– Coverage zone : Distributing the coverage of a cell and extends the cell
boundary to hard-to-reach place.
 Cell Splitting
• Split congested cell into smaller cells.
– Preserve frequency reuse plan.
– Reduce transmission power.

Reduce R to R/2
microcell
• Transmission power reduction from Pt1 to Pt 2
• Examining the receiving power at the new and old cell boundary
Pr [at old cell boundary ]  Pt1R  n
Pr [at new cell boundary ]  Pt 2 ( R / 2)  n

• If we take n = 4 and set the received power equal to each other

Pt1
Pt 2 
16
• The transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB in order to fill in the
original coverage area.
• Problem: if only part of the cells are splitted
– Different cell sizes will exist simultaneously
• Handoff issues must be addressed so that high speed and low speed
traffic can be simultaneously accommodated
 Sectoring
• Decrease the co-channel interference and keep the cell radius R
unchanged
– Replacing single omni-directional antenna by several directional antennas
– Radiating within a specified sector
The factor by which the co-channel interference is reduced depends on the amount
of sectoring used.
A cell is normally partitioned into three 120° sectors or six 60° sectors as shown in
Figure (a) and (b).

120° sectored cell

60° sectored cell

 • Interference Reduction

position of the mobile

interference cells
Disadv – Sectoring reduces the coverage area of particular group of channels
so there are more no. of handoffs

Increased number of handoffs results in increased load on switching and

control link elements of the mobile system

Adv - Resulting S/I is 24.2 dB over 17dB for worstcase S/I of 17 dB, using
omnidirectional antenna

S ( D / R)n
 
 3N 
n

I i0 i0
 Microcell Zone Concept
• Antennas are placed at the outer edges of the cell
• Any channel may be assigned to any zone by the base station
• Mobile is served by the zone with the strongest signal.

• Handoff not required within

a cell
– No channel re-assignment
– Switch the channel to a
different zone site
• Reduce interference
– Low power transmitters are
employed
 Microcell Zone Concept

• A given channel is active only in the particular zone in which the mobile
is travelling and hence the base station radiation is localized and
interference is reduced

• The channels are distributed in time and space by all the three zones and
are also reused in co-channel cells in the normal fashion

• This technique is particularly useful along highways or along urban

traffic corridors
 Repeaters for Range Extension
• Provide dedicated coverage for hard-to-reach areas such as
within buildings, valleys or tunnels

• Radio trasmitters known as repeaters are used to provide such range

extension capabilities

• Are bidirectional in nature and simultaneously send to and receive signals

from a serving base station

• Work using over-the-air signals so they may be installed anywhere and are
capable of repeating an entire cellular band

• Upon receiving signals from a base station forward link, the repeater
amplifies and reradiates the base station signals to the specific coverage
region
Packet Radio
 Introduction
• Many subscribers attempt to access a single
channel in an uncoordinated manner.
• Data bursts are sent in the form of packets
• ACK and NACK signals
• Feedback mechanism
• Low spectral efficiency
• Delays
 Pure Aloha
• Users can transmit
data anytime they
want.
• Transmitting
subscribers listen to
ACK/ NACK signals.
• If collision occurs
subscribers retransmit
after a random time.
• Advantage:
– Allows to serve a large
number of subscribers
with virtually no
overhead
• Performance:
• Throughput (T): Avg no of
msgs successfully
transmitted per unit time
• Average delay (D): Delay
experienced by msg burst
• Assumptions:
– Constant packet length
– Constant channel data rate
– Independent transmission rate of every
individual user
– Packet transmission follows a Poisson
distribution
 Packet Radio Protocols
– λ – mean arrival rate : packets per second
– t : packet duration in seconds = G
– R : Normalized channel traffic (in Erlangs)
– R = λG
– T= throughput
– R>1 – packets generated by the users exceed the max transmission
rate of the channel
– Reasonable throughput: 0<R<1
– Normalized throughput is always less than or equal to unity
Packet Radio Protocols
 Slotted Aloha
• Discrete time slots
• Maximum Throughput
• A terminal station can
send only at the
beginning of a
timeslot
• Each Subscribers have
synchronized time
slots
• Collisions are reduced
 Carrier Sense Multiple Access
Protocols
• Each terminal on the network is able to
monitor the status of the channel before
transmitting information

• Parameters:
– Detection delay : Time required for the terminal
to sense if the channel is idle
– Propagation delay: It is a measure of how fast it
takes for a packet to travel from BS to MS
• Several variations of CSMA strategy:

– 1-persistent CSMA
• Terminal listens to the channel and waits for it to be idle
• When channel is idle, the message is transmitted

– Non-persistent CSMA
• After receiving NACK, wait for a random time before
retransmission
– P-persistent CSMA
• For slotted channels
• When channel is idle, the packet is transmitted in the first slot
with probability p and in the next slot with probability (1-p)

– CSMA/CD
• CSMA with collision detection
• Transmission is aborted if collision is detected
• User had both transmitter and receiver which is able to
support Listen while talk operation
– Data sense Multiple Access (DSMA)

• Demodulates the forward channel before broadcasting data

back on the reverse channel
• User attempts to detect the busy idle message which is
interspersed on the forward control channel
• When the busy idle message indicates that the channel is
idle, the user can send the packet
• Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) cellular network
 Reservation protocols
A] Reservation ALOHA
• Packet access scheme based on time division
multiplexing.
• Certain packets are assigned with priority.

B] Packet reservation multiple access (PRMA)

• Discrete packet time technique.
• Each TDMA time slot is allowed to carry voice or data
• voice is given priority.
 Capture Effect
• Near-far effect : closest transmitter captures the receiver due to
the small propogation path loss

• Advantage: many packets may survive despite collision in the

channel

• Disadvantage: Strong transmitter may make it impossible for

the receiver to detect a weaker signal.

• Capture ratio: Min power ratio of an arriving packet to the

other colliding packet

• It is dependent upon the receiver and the modulation used