Cellular Radio System

Introduction
In wireless communication, we attempt to accommodate as many users as possible, and the way we do this is by frequency reuse. We split the area that we want to cover into many small "cells" and in each of these cells we use a different frequency. If we use a frequency in one geographical area, we want to reuse it in another area. Relative to the size of the cell, we want to make the distance between the cells that use the same frequency as small as possible. The price that we pay is that we get interference from one cell to other cells. So we have to build a system in which the receivers are relatively immune to interfering signals
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Introduction
Cellular phone networks use frequency reuse. In the cellular reuse concept, frequencies allocated to the service are reused in a regular pattern of areas, called "cells", each covered by one base station. In mobile-telephone nets these cells are usually hexagonal. To ensure that the mutual interference between users remains below a harmful level, adjacent cells use different frequencies. However in cells that are separated further away, frequencies can be reused

Introduction
Cellular system developed to provide mobile telephony: telephone access anytime, anywhere. First mobile telephone system was developed in the U.S. in 1945.

One and only one high power base station with which all users communicate.

Normal Telephone System Wired connection

Entire Coverage Area

Cellular Concept
The core idea that led to todays system was the cellular concept. The cellular concept: multiple lower-power base stations that service mobile users within their coverage area and handoff users to neighboring base stations as users move. Thus, instead of one base station covering an entire city, the city was broken up into cells, or smaller coverage areas. Each of these smaller coverage areas had its own lower-power base station. User phones in one cell communicate with the base station in that cell.

Conventional Mobile Radio vs Cellular Radio System

No of channels = 7 X 700 = 4900
1 RBS 49 RBS

Same area

Cluster Cell

Conventional vs. Cellular

Conventional Mobile System No frequency reuse Used before 1980s Low capacity Cellular Radio System Frequency reuse Used after 1980s High capacity

Interference to adjacent service No interference with acceptable areas C/I High transmitted power High antenna height Equipment bulky Low transmitted power Low antenna height Hand portable
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Cellular Concept: Handover

1 6 5 7 4 3
Handover allows uninterrupted communication as the MS moves a cell to another. The process is done automatically When MS moves from one cell to another while a call is in progress, the system periodically examines the signal strength from the RBS. When the signal strength falls below a predetermined threshold compared with an adjacent RBS, a message is sent to MS as to retune to another voice channel in the new RBS. 8

Handover
The base station takes the initiative by sending a request to the Mobile Switch Center (MSC). The MSC asks several base stations to do measurements. Based on the results the MSC decides to which base station the handoff will be made

Cellular Concept: Frequency Reuse

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 Frequency reuse causes mutual interference (trade off link quality versus subscriber capacity) Co-channel cell
The cells that have the same frequency and channel set. Co-channel cells must be spaced far enough to reduce interference (cochannel interference) But co-channels must also be close enough for high frequency reuse factor and system capacity

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Frequency Reuse: Cluster

Cluster: the minimum number of cells that have the complete set of available channels set of different frequencies used in group of cells Cluster size, N = 7
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Frequency Reuse
Define:

S : total number of channels N : total number of cells that have different channels k : total number of channels in each cell
Cluster size: N usually 4, 7, 12, etc. Number of channel in a cluster: S = kN Capacity total number of channels channels in an area after frequency reuse

C = MkN = MS
Assume replicating (reusing)

M times
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Example
(i) If a total of 33 MHz of bandwidth is allocated to a particular FDD cellular telephone system which uses two 25 KHz simplex channels to provide full duplex voice and control channels, compute the number of channels available per cell if a system uses :
(a) (b) (c)

four-cell reuse seven-cell reuse 12-cell reuse.

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Frequency Reuse
N = i 2 + ij + j 2 , where i , j non-negative intergers
To locate co-channel cells, starting from a reference cell: move i cells along any chain of hexagons Turns 60 degrees counterclockwise and move j cells. In this example, N = 19 ; i = 3, j = 2 The number of cells N in a cluster is proportional to D2 i.e. N= D2 Number of cells per cluster, N

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Theoretical Network Planning

Honeycomb (hexagonal) cell structure

Radius of a cell
R cos 30 = , R = 1/3 = 0.57735
o

SET 5514 (2006)

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Distance between co-channel cell

Hexagonal cell geometry and axes

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Distance between co-channel cell

The distance D between co-channel cell in adjacent cluster is D = ( i2 + ij + j2 )

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Co-channel Reuse Ratio (D/R)

Co channel reuse ratio =
Distance between centres of co-channel Radius of cell
i 2 + ij + j 2 D Q= = = 3 ( i 2 + ij + j 2 ) R 1/ 3

Since N = i2 + ij + j2 , Thus
Influence the choice of the number of cells per cluster

D = 3N R

A small value of Q provides larger capacity since the cluster size is small A large value of Q improve the transmission quality, due to a smaller level of co-channel interference. A trade off between two objectives, a large capacity and good transmission quality must be made to determine the number of cells per cluster.
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Design Objectives for Cluster Size

High spectrum efficiency many users per cell Small cluster size gives much bandwidth per cell

High performance Little interference Large cluster sizes

Interference in Cellular Radio System

Two types of interference are Adjacent channel interference Co channel interference Adjacent Channel Interference The interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal Co-channel Interference The interference between signals from co-channel cells (cells that use the same set of frequencies)
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Adjacent Channel Interference

Channel spacing Signal strength Interference Receiver sensitivity Frequency In order to prevent adjacent channel interference the adjacent channel has to be spread out
1 2 3 4 5 6 . . 1 2 3 4 5 6 . .

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Channel Allocation: To avoid adjacent interference

CELL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 CHANNEL 1,8,15,22, 2,9,16,23, 3,10,17,24,.. 4,11,18,25, 5,12,19,26, 6,13,20,27, 7,14,21,28,..

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Channel Allocation: Example for GSM System with 7 cell per cluster
CELL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

CHANNEL
1,8,15,22, 2,9,16,23,. 3,10,17,24,.. 4,11,18,25,.. 5,12,19,26,.. 6,13,20,27,.. 7,14,21,28,

FREQUENCY MHZ
890.1, 891.5,892.9,894.3,.. 890.3,891.7,893.1,894.5, 890.5,891.9,893.3,894.7,.. 890.7,892.1,893.5,894.9,.. 890.9,892.3,893.7,895.1,.. 891.1,892.5,893.9,895.2,.. 891.3,892.7,894.1,895.5,..

890

915

935

960

Total Bandwidth = 25 MHz Channel bandwidth = 200 kHz

N=7
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Channel Allocation: Hexagon cell

1,8,15 6,13,20 2,9,16

7,14,21 5,12,19 4,11,18... 1,8,15 6,13,20 2,9,16 7,14,21 5,12,19 3,10,17 4,11,18... 3,10,17

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Channel Allocation: Sectorized Cell

2B 2A 1A 1B 2C 1C
1,22 ,43 8,29 ,50 15,36, 57 2,23 ,44 16,37, 58 9,30 ,51

1A 2A 3A 4A 5A 6A 7A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 50 51 52 53 54 55 56

1C 2C 3C 4C 5C 6C 7C 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 26

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

Co-channel Interference
R RBS D

MS

Co channel cell D = distance between 2 co-channel cells R = cell radius C = carrier in the desired signal, I = interference comes from other cells using same channels , D/R = co channel reuse ratio For analog cellular system , C/I >18 dB For digital cellular system C/I > 11 dB
C/N C C/I I N
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Co-channel Interference
Example f1 = 900 MHz GT = 8 dB PT = 20 W R = 1 km f2 GT PT D =900 MHz = 8 dB = 20 W = 5 km

BS R MS

BS

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Example: Determine C/I for (i) MS1 and (ii) MS2

Pt1 = 10 dBW R = 1 km
D = 7 km MS1 MS2 D = 5 km
6,13,20

Pt2 = 20 W R = 1 km

Pt3 = 42 dBm R = 1 km

f = 950 MHz Gt1 = Gt2 = Gt3 = 8 dB Gr = 1 dB

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Co-channel Interference
Let io be the number of co-channel intefering cell. C / I at MS C C = i =io I Ii
i =1

where C desired power, I i interference power caused by i thinterfering call 1 or PR d n dn Considering only the first layer of interfering cells, if all the interfering BS are equidistant from the desired BS and if thus distance is equal to the distance D PR between cell centers, C = I Rn ( Di ) n
i =1 i =io

( D / R)n ( 3N )n = = io io

The equation relates C/I to the cluster size N, which in turn determines the capacity of the system

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Example
i) Show that C/I (co-channel interference) for a mobile may be expressed as

C ( 3N ) n = I io
where n : propogation power law N : number of cell per cluster io : number of co-channel interfering cells

ii) State 2 assumptions to be made for the above expressions.

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Co-channel Interference
D = 3N R

can be used to calculate C/I

If a seven cells cluster is employed

D = 21R = 4.58R

Assuming 4th power law propagation loss

( D R )4 Carrier 4 = = ( 3.58 ) Co-channel interference R 4

C/I = 22.16 dB Hexagon cellular geometry allows us to determine co-channel interference which must be controlled to achieved transmission quality as well as system quality.
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Worst Case for Co-channel Interference

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Worst Case for Co-channel Interference

C Rn = I 2( D R ) n + 2 D n + 2( D + R ) n 1 D C Since, Q = , = R I 2(Q 1) n + 2Q n + 2(Q + 1) n 1 C = I 2( 3 N 1) n + 2( 3 N ) n + 2( 3 N + 1) n For N = 7, Q = 4.6, n = 4 (for worst case channel) C = 17dB I For N = 7, C / I is slightly less than 18 dB (for analog system) for worst case condition and no problem for digital system. To design the cellular system for proper performance in the worst case, it is necessary to increase N to the next largest size, i.e. N = 12 (i = j = 2)
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Cells Sizes
Global Satellite Suburban Urban In-Building

Macrocell

Microcell

Picocell

Macro cells Micro cells Pico cells

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Cell Sizes

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Type of Cells
Macro cells
The cells typically have a radius of 10 35 km For outdoors: rural, suburban & urban areas Medium traffic densities RBS antenna height greater than surrounding buildings

Micro cells
Radius up to 2 km For outdoor and indoor: suburban & urban areas High traffic densities RBS antenna height lower than or near by building roof top

Pico cells
For indoor only High traffic densities and high data rate Coverage defined by characteristics of room and floor
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Cell Shapes
There are only certain patterns of cells which can be repeated over a plane (i) Regular Hexagon (ii) Square (iii) Equilateral Triangle

Hexagon

Square

Triangle
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Cell Shapes
Why hexagon? Best approximation to the circular omni directional radio patterns More economical to use, since hexagon requires fewer cells and fewer base station Combines the ease of geometry to practical realizations

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Types of Cell Sites

Using hexagon to model coverage areas, RBS antenna used are either omni or sectorized antenna Omni Cell Site Used omni antenna For rural areas Sectorized Cell Site Used directional antenna For urban areas Advantages:
Power is 1/3 of an omni-directional antenna Better interference control (reduces interference) Improved capacity Better building penetration, provide better indoor coverage

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Sectorized Cell
One way to increase to subscriber capacity of a cellular network is replace the omni-directional antenna at each base station by three (or six) sector antennas of 120 (or 60) degrees opening. Each sector can be considered as a new cell, with its own (set of) frequency channel(s). The base station can either be located at the center of the original (large) cell, or the corners of the original (large) cell. The use of directional sector antennas substantially reduces the interference among co-channel cells. This allows denser frequency reuse.

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Sectorized Cell

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Sectoring reduces interference

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Cell Splitting
Another characteristic feature in a cellular mobile telephone system is its ability to adjust to the increasing traffic demand in any single coverage areas. This is achieved by cell splitting Further dividing a single cell into smaller cells. When the traffic exceeds the capacity of the cell, cell split in required to redistribute the traffic Theoretically the cell can have unlimited cell split The factor that limit the cell split The number of frequency available The minimum cell reuse distance
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Cell Splitting
Cells are split to add channels with no new spectrum usage

SET 5514 (2006)

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Cell Splitting

typical city cellular radio cell plandifferent cell sizes and clusters.
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Cell Split in real Life

New cell at midway between original cell Build smaller surrounding cell Reduce transmit power from the original cell until it coverage is cut into half
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Coverage
Coverage is defined as geographical areas whereby the signal strength from base station is at a level good enough to provide service to customers in relation to being able to make, receive and maintain calls with good level of voice quality (e.g. Mobile is accessible to the network).

Conceptual CELL

Actual CELL

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Factors that influence coverage

Transmit Power Height of Transmitter Terrain Customer Expectations

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What causes of low coverage .

There are possibilities that certain areas will not be covered fully. These areas are known as LOW RF areas or low coverage areas. Typical areas would be behind tall buildings, located in a valley, basements or metal cabin at a construction site.

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Low Coverage
The further you are from the BTS the lower the signal you will get. The diagram below shows that Car A is in a good coverage area and Car B is in a low coverage area.

Signal Strength
Low signal strength

Low signal strength

Car B Distance

Distance

Car A

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In building coverage
In-building coverage depends on various factors such as: 1) Building material 2) Number of windows 3) Internal structure

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In Building Coverage
The building material used in the construction of a building has strong influence upon the in-door coverage,if coverage was provided by an external BTS. A thick brick wall will reflect a larger portion of transmitted signal compared to a wooden wall. Therefore, coverage will be better in a building made of wooden structure compared to that of a brick structure.

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In Building Coverage
The internal structure of a building, (compartments, wide open spaces) has an impact upon in-building coverage which can be compared to the urban concrete jungle. In short, the more walls the signals have to penetrate, more RF is lost.

Strong RF signal

A little weaker

Weaker

Low RF

SET 5514 (2006)

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Trunking and Grade of Service

Cellular radio system relies on trunking to accommodate a large number of users in a limited radio spectrum - How a large population can be accommodated by a limited number of services. Concept of Trunking Allows a large number of users to share the relatively small number of channel in a cell by providing access to each user, on demand, from a pool of available channel. each user is allocated a channel on a per call basis, and upon termination of the call, the previously occupied channel is immediately returned to the pool of available channel. Trunking exploits the statistical behavior of users so that a fixed number of channels may accommodate a large, random users. Initiated by Danish mathematician, Erlang. Erlang: Measuring the amount of traffic intensity carried on a channel Thunking theory Statistical study of capacity and grade-of-service of trunking system
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Grade of Services (GOS)

Measure the ability of a user to access a trunking system (available channel) during the busiest hour GOS is given as the likelihood that a call is blocked or delayed longer than certain time

number of lost calls GOS= number of offered calls

e.g. AMPS had GOS of 2% blocking (i.e. 2 out of 100 calls will be blocked due to the channel occupancy during the busiest hour) Objective of trunking system design optimal trade-off in reducing channel number C and reducing call block/delay rate GOS

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Types of Trunked System

Blocked calls cleared No queuing for call request (serviced or blocked) If no channel are available, the requesting user is blocked without access and is free to try again later. GOS: the blocking rate Use Erlang B formula Blocked calls delayed Queuing is provided to hold calls which are blocked If a channel is not available immediately, the call request may be delayed until a channel becomes available. GOS: probability that a call is blocked after waiting a specific length of time in queue. Use Erlang C formula
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Trunking and Grade of Service

Trunking is closely related to the concept of Grading

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Parameters for Trunking System

Traffic intensity = Request rate Holding time Au = H A = U Au Traffic intensity per channel (C : number of channels): A U Au Ac = = C C Maximum possible carrier traffic: C (Erlangs)
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(unit: Erlang = 1/sec sec)

Total traffic intensity = traffic intensity users

Erlang B

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Erlang B Trunking GOS

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Example
How many users can be supported for 0.5% blocking probability for the following number of trunked channels in a blocked calls cleared system? a) 5 b) 10 c) 20 d) 100 Assume each user generates 0.1 Erlangs of traffic.

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Erlang C

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Example
An urban area has a population of two million residents. Three competing trunked mobile networks (Systems A, B and C) provide cellular services in this area. System A has 394 cells with 19 channels each, System B has 98 cells with 57 channels each, and system C has 49 cells, each with 100 channels. i) Find the number of users that can be supported at 2% blocking if each user averages two calls per hour at an average call duration of three minutes. ii) Assuming that all three trunked systems are operated at maximum capacity, compute the percentage market penetration of each cellular provider.

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Example
A certain city has an area of 1,300 square miles and is covered by a cellular system using a seven-cell reuse pattern. Each cell has a radius of four miles and the city is allocated 40 MHz of spectrum with a full duplex channel bandwidth of 60kHz. Assume a GOS of 2% for an Erlang B system is specified. If the offered traffic per user is 0.03 Erlangs, compute a) The number of cells in the service area b) The number of channels per cell c) Traffic intensity of each cell d) The maximum carried traffic e) The total number of users that can be served for 2% GOS f) The number of mobiles per unique channel g) The theoretical maximum number of users could be served at one time
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Example
A hexagonal cell in a 4-cell system has a radius of 1.387km; and a total of 60 channels are used within the entire system. If the traffic intensity per user is 0.029 Erlangs, compute the number of users per square km will the system support for an Erlang C system that has a 5% probability of a delayed call.

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