COMSATS Fall2016 (Rev.1.

0)

Principles of Communication Systems (PCS)

EEE 351

Cellular Concept and Architecture

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Cellular Networks
Cellular Concept
is the foundation of
mobile wireless cellular networks
and supports users
in locations
that are not easily served by
wired networks.

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Cellular Mobile Telephony

 Mobile Telephony emerged in the late 1940s
 1946 – 1st public mobile telephone service in 25 US cities
 single, high power transmitter, 80km radius cell
 FM, push-to-talk phone systems
 25 Channels, 120 KHz, half-duplex
 1950 – improvements in technology - channel bandwidth cut
to half, i.e. 60 KHz
 Mid 1960s – further improvements reduced FM bandwidth
of voice transmission to 30 KHz
 1976 – Bell Mobile Phone Service, New York City (market of
about 10,000,000 people) :
 12 channels, 543 paying customers, waiting list of 3700
people, poor service due to call blocking
 The concept of cellular radio emerged in the late 1960s
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Cellular Concept
 1968 – AT&T proposed the concept of cellular mobile system
to FCC, although technology was not available until late
1970s to implement cellular telephony
 1979 – world’s first cellular system implemented by NTT in
Japan
 600 FM duplex channels (25 KHz for each one-way link) in the
800 MHz band
 To get around the limitations on available frequencies, the
following approach was implemented:
 A large number of low-power transmitters (<=100W) with
shorter radius
 Because the range of the transmitter is small, an area can be
divided into cells
 one base station per cell - transmitter, receiver, control unit
 A range of frequencies allocated to each cell.
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Cellular Concept
 Frequency allocation such that co-channel interference is limited
 Adjacent cells assigned different frequencies.
 Cells sufficiently distant from each other to allow frequency reuse
 “Hand-over“ (handoff) techniques for mobile units moving from
cell to cell.

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Cell Shape
• Square Cell Pattern
– If cell width is d, then a cell has four neighbors at a
distance d and 4 neighbors at a distance SQRT(2d) from
cell centre
– As a mobile user moves towards cell’s boundaries, it is
best if all adjacent antennas are equidistant. This
simplifies the task of determining when to switch the
user to an adjacent antenna and which antenna to use.
• Hexagonal Cell Pattern
– Provides for equidistant antennas
– Radius R, is radius of circle that circumscribes it
– Distance between adjacent cell centres is d = SQRT(3R)
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Cellular Concepts
• Areas divided into cells:
– Each served by its own antenna => multiple low-power
transmitters.
– Served by base station consisting of transmitter, receiver, and
control unit.
– Band of frequencies allocated.
– Adjacent cells assigned different frequencies to avoid
interference or crosstalk.
=>> Frequency reuse.

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Cellular Concepts: Frequency Reuse
Base station
(BS)
coverage
coverage
coverage
Backbon
e
Network

 Transmit signals on a particular frequency band

with “limited power” so that the same frequency
band can be reused in other location.

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Cellular Concepts: Frequency Reuse

4-cell frequency reuse

(N=4)
7-cell frequency reuse
(N=7)
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Cellular Concepts: Frequency Reuse

D
R d

 N = Frequency reuse factor

 R = Radius of a cell
 dadj = Distance between centers of adjacent cells
 Dmin = Minimum distance between centers of cells that
use the same band of frequencies (cochannel)
 K = Total number of channels (frequency bands) allocated
to the systems.
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Cellular Concepts: Frequency Reuse

 In a hexagonal cell pattern:

D
d  3R  3N
R
N  I 2  J 2  ( I  J ) I , J  0,1,2,.....
N  1,3,4,7,9,12,13,16,19,21,...

 If each cell is assigned equal number of channels,

then the number of channels per cell:
K
N cpc 
N

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Cellular Concepts: Calculation

Given a cell radius of R = 1.6 km, Nreuse = 7
calculate:
1) Minimum distance Dmin, between centers of cells
that use the same band of frequencies (co-channels)
2) Distance dadj, between centers of adjacent cells

D d  3R
 3N
R
Dmin = 1.6 x SQRT(3 x 7) = 1.6 x 4.58 = 7.3 km

dadj = SQRT(3 x 1.6) = 2.19 km

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Cellular Concepts: Calculation

Given a system with Ncells = 32, R =1.6 km, total number
of traffic channels K = 336, Nreuse = 7, calculate:

Ncpc number of traffic channels per cell

Tcalls total number of concurrent calls that can be handled

Tcalls = Ncpc x Ncells Ncpc = K/Nreuse

Ncpc = 336/7 = 48 traffic channels per cell

Tcalls = 48 x 32 = 1536 concurrent calls (ie 1536 channels available)

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Cellular Concepts: Interference and Capacity

 Interference affects reuse plan.
 Major interference:
- Cochannel (or same frequency interference):
=> most important.
- Adjacent Channel: => less important.

 The smaller value of Nreuse, the:

 Wider available bandwidth in each cell.
 Higher interference.
 For AMPS, K=395 and Nreuse = 7 is the smallest pattern
that can provide sufficient isolation between two users of
the same frequency, about 57 frequency channels per cell
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Cellular Concepts: Cochannel Interference

4-cell frequency reuse

(stronger)

7-cell frequency reuse

(weaker)
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Cellular Concepts: Adjacent Channel

Interference
Frequency band of
the mobile phone
wanted

power
…

Interference
Adjacent channel
interference

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Cellular Concepts: Increasing Capacity

• In time as more customers use the system,

traffic may build up so that there are
not enough frequencies assigned to a cell to
handle its calls.

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Cellular Concepts: Increasing Capacity

• Adding new channels.
• Frequency borrowing:
– Frequencies are taken from adjacent cells by congested cells.
• Cell splitting:
– Cells in areas of high usage can be split into smaller cells.
– Power level used must be reduced to keep the signal within the cell
• Cell sectoring:
– Cells are divided into a number of wedge-shaped sectors, each with their
own set of channels.
• Multiple Antennas:

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Cellular Concepts: Cells

Different sizes and types of cells are used in a cellular
network. The choices of a cell depend on the bandwidth
usage in a region.
- Macrocells:
- Used to serve low density traffic area.
- Tens of kilometers, served by base stations.

- Microcells:
- Used to serve high density traffic area.
- 100m to 1km, supported by a rooftop level base
station antenna.

- Sectored cells:
- Used to reduce cochannel interference.

- Umbrella cells:
- Used to reduce the need for handover in microcells.
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Cellular Concepts: Cells

Large cells are used to
serve low traffic
areas.

Microcells are used

for high traffic
demand regions.

Umbrella cells are

used in areas where
users are moving fast
from one cell to
another (eg. freeways)
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Cellular Concepts: Sectored Cells

• 3 or 6 sectors per cell:

Rhombic Hexagonal Triangular

• The output power of an antenna in a sectored cell:

antenna coverage

-3dB
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Cellular Concepts: Interference in Sectored Cells
• Each sector is operated at
a different frequency
band.

• The number of main

interference is reduced
from 6 to 2
interference

7-cell frequencyMobile
reuseBroadband Networks – Cellular
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Spatial Diversity
 Multipath in wireless transmissions results in
“Rayleigh Fading” (or fast fading).

 Multiple antennas are used to receive signals

from a mobile phone to reduce Fading
effects.

Two receivers
Base
station
tower 
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Operation of Cellular System

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Operation of Cellular System

• Mobile equipment (ME):
– Physical terminal, includes radio transceiver, digital signal processors and
subscriber identity module (SIM).
• Base Station (BS):
– Includes antenna, controller, and a number of receivers.
– Use multiple low-power transmitters.
– Areas divided into cells, and each served by its own antenna.
– Band of frequencies allocated.
• Mobile telecommunications switching office (MTSO):
– Connects calls between mobile units.
• Two types of channels available between mobile unit and BS.
– Control channels: used to exchange information for setting up and
maintaining calls.
– Traffic channels: carry voice or data connection between users.

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Operation of Cellular System

• Mobile unit initialization:
– Scanning => Select the strongest setup channel.
– Handshake => Identify and register location.
• Mobile-originated call:
– Request for connection on the pre-selected setup channel.
• Paging:
– MTSO sends message to certain BSs to identify the called number.
• Call accepted:
– Mobile recognizes the call respond to BS -> MTSO.
– MTSO assigns traffic channels.
• Ongoing call:
– Monitoring stage.
• Handoff:

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Operation of Cellular System

• Call blocking:
– No free traffic channels, busy tone returned to user.
• Call termination:
– MTSO is informed, traffic channels released
• Call drop:
– Resulting from weak signal, MSTO is informed
• Calls to/from fixed and remote mobile subscriber:
– MTSO sets up the connection.

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Handover or Handoff
Base cell boundary Base
station f1 f2 station


Handover occurs when a mobile phone moves from a cell
to another.
Power levels are constantly measured by base stations
and/or mobile phones to decide whether a handover is
needed.
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Handover or Handoff
• Handoff types
– Network initiated, based on received signals from the mobile unit.
– Mobile assisted, via providing info to network concerning signals
received at mobile unit

• Performance metrics for handoff decision.

– Call blocking probability: probability of a new call being blocked, due
to heavy load on Base Station traffic capacity.
– Call dropping probability: probability that a call is terminated due to a
handoff.
– Call completion probability: probability that an admitted call is not
dropped before it terminates.

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Handover or Handoff

• Principal parameter used to make the Handoff Decision

is measured signal strength from the mobile at BS.
• BS averages the signal strength over a moving widow
of time to remove the rapid fluctuations due to multi-
path effects

• Handoff strategies

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Handoff Strategies
• Relative signal strength.
– The mobile unit is handed off from BS A to BS B when signal strength
at B first exceeds that at A
– Can result in ping-pong effect

• Relative signal strength with threshold.

– Handoff only occurs if
(1) the signal at current BS is sufficiently weak (less than a pre-
defined threshold) and
(2) the other signal is the stronger of the two
– The intention is that so long as the signal at current BS is adequate,
handoff is unnecessary

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Power Control
• Dynamic power control in a cellular system.
– Received power must be sufficiently above the background
noise for effective communication
– Desirable to minimize power in the transmitted signal from
the mobile
• Reduce cochannel interference
• Alleviate health concerns
• Save battery power

– In spread spectrum systems using CDMA, it’s desirable to

equalize the received power level from all mobile units at
the BS.

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Power Control
• Open-loop power control
– Depends solely on mobile unit.
– No feedback from BS.
– Not as accurate as closed-loop, but can react quicker to fluctuations in
signal strength.

• Closed-loop power control

– Adjusts signal strength in reverse channel based on:
• Received signal power level.
• Received signal to noise ratio.
• Received bit error rate.
– BS makes power adjustment decision and communicates to mobile on
control channel.
– Also used to adjust power in forward channel.
• Mobile provides power adjustment information to BS.
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Traffic Engineering
• Ideally, available channels would equal number of subscribers
active at one time
• In practice, not feasible to have capacity handle all possible users.
• For N simultaneous user capacity and L subscribers
• L < N => non-blocking system
• L > N => blocking system

 Blocking system:
 Blocking probability (B):
 Probability that call request is blocked.
 What capacity is needed to achieve a certain upper
bound on probability of blocking, B?

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Traffic Engineering
• Traffic intensity (A):
– Load presented to a system:

A  h
•  = mean rate of calls attempted per unit time.
• h = mean holding time per successful call.
• A = traffic intensity =  * h Erlang

 Manner in which blocked calls are handled

 Lost calls delayed (LCD) – blocked calls put in a queue awaiting a
free channel.
 Blocked calls rejected and dropped.

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Traffic Engineering - Example

• h = mean holding time per successful call = 3mins
•  = mean rate of calls attempted per unit time = 20 calls/min
• Hence A = traffic intensity = 3 * 20 = 60 Erlang
• Erlang: a measure of traffic intensity; represents average number
of channels that are engaged
• Number of channels needed ?
– 120 expected 50% utilization
– 50 clearly inadequate
– 60 would meet average demand, but would not cater for
fluctuations around the mean rate A

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Traffic Engineering
 Performance is measured by the blocking probability.
 Blockage rate depends on the number of circuits available,
the number of initiated calls, and the length of the
conversation.
 Erlang B formula:

- Calls are lost if a channel (circuit) is not available.

AN
B( N , A)  N!
N

 A i

i 0
i!

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Traffic Engineering - Example

• A larger capacity system is more efficient than a smaller
capacity system for a given grade of service:
– Consider two cells:
• each with a capacity of 10 channels
• They have a joint capacity of 20 channels
• can handle a combined offered traffic intensity of 6.86
for a grade of service of 0.002
– However, a single cell:
• capacity 20 channels
• will handle 10.07 Erlangs at a grade of 0.002
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Traffic Engineering - Example

• A larger capacity system is more susceptible to reduction of the grade of
service:
– Consider a cell of 10 channels:
• giving a grade of service of 0.002 for load of 3.43 Erlangs
• A 30% increase in traffic to 4.459 Erlangs reduces the grade to
0.01
– However, a cell of capacity 70 channels:
• giving a grade of service of 0.002 for a load of 51 Erlangs
• only a 10% increase in traffic to 56.1 reduces the grade to 0.01

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