HOW 1X 3 OR 1X1REUSE PATTERNS IN FREQUENCY PLANING Isolated reuse technology refers to 1*3 or 1*1 reuse with short reuse

distance and severe interferences, radio frequency hopping technology has to be adopted. The aggregate of hopping frequencies needs to be far more larger than the number of TRX (more than twice), MA, HSN and MAIO parameter are used to avoid frequency conflict. Lets explain the feature of isolated reuse technology with an example. As shown in the figure, supposing there are 50 frequency carriers with 10MHz bandwidth, 14 of them are occupied by BCCH, 36 of them are used by TCH.

Planning with 4*3 reuse mode, each cell is allocated with 3 frequency carriers, the site mode is S4/4/4. With 1*3 isolated reuse, each cell is allocated with 12 frequency carriers. The actual frequency carriers available for the cell depend on isolated reuse rate (RF-LOAD: TRX of frequency hopping/total frequency carriers allocated by frequency hopping). To be specific, RF-LOAD can be up to 50% in theory, at this time: TRX=12*50%=6 The 6 TRX will use radio frequency hopping and can only be realized through radio frequency hopping technology, which means all these 6 TRX work on the 12 frequency carriers. By setting relevant parameters, make sure they wont have co-

channel conflict due to working on the same frequency carrier at the same time. When RF-LOAD is 50%, the largest site mode is S7/7/7 when using 1*3 frequency reuse technology.

For the frequency carriers allocated to one cell, TRX1 uses 1 of the 14 BCCH carriers, TRX2, TRX3, TRX4, TRX5, TRX6 and TRX7 work on 1 of the 12 carriers allocated to this cell in 1*3 mode respectively at certain time. All TRXs (2~7) have the same MA and HSN but different MAIO to make sure different carrier boards in the same cell wont work on the same frequency carrier.

What is Principle for Frequency Planning in GSM

The actual frequency planning of certain areas is usually conducted with such areas divided into segments geographically, i.e., first divide a complex network into small networks. However, there should be some frequency carriers (when the frequency is enough) reserved at the boundary of the segments or the frequency carriers should be divided. Such boundary should avoid hotspots or complex networking areas. Planning is usually started from the area with dense BTS. In the actual network, there is no guarantee that the frequencies of the same layer carrier can be completely planned with common modes such as 4*3 or 3*3, due to the irregular distribution of sites. Principle for Frequency Planning

There should be no co-channel frequency carriers in one BTS. The frequency separation between BCCH and TCH in the same cell should be not less than 400K.

When frequency hopping is not used, the separation of TCH in the same cell should be not less than 400K. In non-1*3 reuse mode, co-channel should be avoided between the immediately neighbor BTS. Neighbor BTS should not have co-channels facing each other directly. Normally, with 1*3 reuse, the number of the hopping frequencies should be not less than twice of the number of frequency hopping TRX in the same cell. Pay close attention to co-channel reuse, avoiding the situation that the same BCCH has the same BSIC in adjacent area.

Advantages of Multi layer frequency Reuse Pattern

Capacity increase when reuse density is multiplied:

Supposing there are 300 cells Bandwidth: 8 MHz (40 frequency)

Normal 4*3 reuse: reuse density=12 Network capacity = 40/12 * 300 = 1000 TRX Multiple reuse: 0 BCCH layer: re-use =14, (14 frq.) + Normal TCH layer: re-use =10, (20 frq.) ^- Aggressive TCH layer: re-use = 6, (6 frq.) *+ Network capacity = (1 +2 +1)* 300 = 1200 TRX

If there are 40 frequency carriers, main site mode is s3/3/3 when using regular reuse. With Multi-layer reuse pattern, site mode is divided into 3 layers ( 4 layers actually, but two layers have the same number of carriers) as shown in the figure above. The site mode can be s4/4/4. BCCH frequency carrier reuse density is 14 (loose reuse) in each cell.

The longer co-channel distance in the network ensures that the frequency carrier interference complies with the requirement. There are two frequency carriers with reuse density 10 in each cell, the co-channel reuse distance is shorter than BCCH frequency carrier and certain interferences exist, thus it is very hard to maintain good communication quality. The remaining frequency carrier has a reuse density 6 and short co-channel reuse distance, severe interferences can make these frequency carriers unavailable for communication at all. To solve this problem, baseband frequency hopping is adopted in the network. The voice of same channel is transmitted by different frequency carriers, so the frequency carrier with severe interferences (reuse density is 6) only affects the fragmentary timeslot of a communication. With the error correction and detection function of the system, the entire communication quality can be guaranteed and the system is able to work normally. The main reason that Multi-layer reuse pattern technology can realize close frequency reuse layer by layer to add TRX is: though the interference on specific frequency carrier is increased in the cell, the frequency carriers with slight interference and the frequency carriers with severe interference are mixed together by using frequency hopping technology, the same information flow is transmitted through different frequency carriers, and the interferences are averaged. The bit error rate is very high when transmitting from the frequency carrier with more interferences, but it only lasts a short time, the Viterbi decoder still can demodulate correctly. For better performance of frequency hopping, at least three carriers are needed for baseband frequency hopping. Usually, BCCH is not involved in frequency hopping. Its obvious that layered close frequency reuse poses certain requirement on site mode, the minimum configuration of the site mode should be s4/4/4. In practical application, the average reuse density is about 7.5~8 at least (varying with network condition, environment, traffic and distribution, etc.). Taking 8 as an example, there must be more than 32 total frequency resources available.

Multi layer Frequency Reuse Pattern in GSM

Multi-layer reuse pattern technology means to divide the whole frequency resources into different subgroups according to specific principles. Each subgroup allocates frequency carriers to every cell by means of different reuse models, so the reuse density of each frequency carrier as well as the interference will be different in each cell. The frequency carrier with higher reuse density receives less average interference, while the frequency carrier with lower reuse density receives more average interference.

For example: BCCH frequency carrier uses 4*3 reuse mode, TCH frequency carrier uses 3*3 and 2*3 mode. The structure of Multi-layer reuse pattern is illustrated in the above figure. One color represents the same group of frequency in the figure, and the frequencies are reused. L1, L2Lm represent frequency layers in the cell. As seen in the figure, the reuse density becomes more close on higher layer. When the frequency number is fixed, Multi-layer reuse pattern gains more channels in unit area compared with same reuse density on each layer. BCCH: n1 TCH1: n2 TCH2: n3 TCHm-1: nm n1 n2n3 n4 nm

And n1+n2++nm=n Multi-layer reuse technology requires equipment which supports baseband frequency hopping or radio frequency hopping. It is created on the idea of carrier layering (in fact, single frequency reuse model is the exception of Multi-layer reuse pattern and it can be regarded as layered reuse with same carriers on each layer). That is to divide all available frequency carriers into several groups, each group serves as a carrier layer (frequency subgroup). Suppose that the whole frequency resource consists of n frequency carriers which falls into m groups, the carrier resource allocated to each group is shown in the above .

4*3 Frequency Reuse in GSM

The basic frequency reuse mode of GSM is 4*3 frequency reuse. It is the basic of other frequency reuse modes, we also call it regular frequency reuse model. 4 represents 4 sites, 3 represents 3 cells in each site.

Totally 12 cells become a basic frequency reuse cluster. Different cells in the same cluster have different frequencies. The above figure shows a cell cluster of 4*3 frequency reuse mode, while those inside the bold black line is a basic cell cluster model, including 4 BTS which have 3 frequency reuse group, there are 12 cells totally.

In a specific allocation, all frequencies are allocated to each cell according to certain principle and same as other cell clusters. In this way, each frequency carrier is reused in different cell cluster time and time again. Certainly, other reuse model n*m means that each basic reuse cell cluster contains n BTS, and each BTS includes m frequency reuse group. All frequency carriers in this cell cluster are allocated to respective cells according to certain principle, and by analogy for other surrounding cells. Illustration of Frequency Allocation of 4*3 Frequency Reuse

Suppose that available bandwidth is 12.2MHz, channel number from 34 to 95, the above table illustrates the frequency carrier distribution of 4*3 frequency reuse of 12 cells in a basic cell cluster. From which cell to start the allocation of beginning frequency carrier 34 is not restricted. As seen from the table, 5 frequency carriers can be allocated to most cells, some cells even have 6 frequency carriers. Therefore, average largest site mode is S5/5/5 under 12.2MHz condition. Under the above regular allocation mode, its impossible to have co-channel or adjacent channel in the same cell or adjacent cells.

How many Frequency Hopping Modes in GSM

The requirement that the BCCH TRX must transmit continuously in all the time slots sets strict limitations on how the frequency hopping can be realized in a cell. The current solutions are Baseband Frequency Hopping (BB FH) and Synthesized Frequency Hopping (RF FH).

In the baseband frequency hopping the TRXs operates at fixed frequencies. Frequency hopping is generated by switching consecutive bursts in each time slot through different TRXs according to the assigned hopping sequence. The number of frequencies to hop over is determined by the number of TRXs. Because the first time slot of the BCCH TRX is not allowed to hop, it must be excluded from the hopping sequence. This leads to three different hopping groups. The first group doesnt hop and it includes only the BCCH time slot. The second group consists of the first time slots of the non-BCCH TRXs. The third group includes time slots one through seven from every TRX. This is illustrated in below Figure.

In the synthesized frequency hopping all the TRXs except the BCCH TRX change their frequency for every TDMA frame according to the hopping sequence. Thus the BCCH TRX doesnt hop. The number of frequencies to hop over is limited to 63, which is the maximum number of frequencies in the Mobile Allocation (MA) list covered in Section 1.4. Synthesized hopping is illustrated in below Figure.

The biggest limitation in baseband hopping is that the number of the hopping frequencies is the same as the number of TRXs. In synthesised hopping the number of the hopping frequencies can be anything between the number of hopping TRXs and 63. However in synthesised hopping the BCCH TRX is left completely out of the hopping sequence.

Hopping Effect in Cell Coverage area and on Mobile Speed

Effect in Cell Coverage Area In coverage limited cells the frequency hopping may increase the cell coverage area because of the frequency diversity gain, but since the BCCH time slot doesnt hop, the increased coverage area is relevant only for the ongoing calls that have been successfully established and are allocated a hopping TCH. According to the simulations, the non-hopping signalling channel (BCCH / SDCCH) has a better performance than a non-hopping TCH but a worse performance than a hopping TCH channel. Therefore, the cell coverage area could be increased, but not according to the full FH gain, but by considering the performance of the BCCH time slot. In RF FH case, the whole BCCH carrier is non-hopping. Thus, the frequency diversity gain should be considered as a quality gain in the cell border area rather than the gain increasing the cell service area. Effect of Mobile Speed The frequency diversity gain for the fast moving mobiles is not significant. The movement as itself causes the same gain which is lost from the frequency diversity gain. Therefore, the fast moving mobiles get the same gain than the slow moving ones, the gain just comes more or less from the moving as itself. In GSM, the speed of Power Control (PC) is slow. When moving fast, the PC cannot follow anymore the slow fading dips so efficiently. Therefore, the fast moving mobiles might loose in PC gain. Also the Handover (HO) performance may be degraded with high speed.

What is Frame and Channel in GSM

The major basic concept concerned with the radio path transmission of the GSM system is the burst sequence (simplified as Burst). It is a string of transmission units including more than 100 modulation bits. The burst sequence has a restricted duration and seizes a restricted radio frequency spectrum. They can be described as output from the time and frequency window. This window is called Slot. In other words, within the system frequency band, the central frequency of the slot is set every 200KHz (observed from the opinion of FDMA); while the slot occurs cyclically as the time evolves, which seizes 15/26ms (i.e. approximately 0.577ms) each time (observed from the opinion of TDMA). The intervals of these slots are called Time Slots and the duration of them is called the time unit (marked as BP, indicating the Burst Period). We can use the time/frequency chart to draw the slot as a small rectangle with the length of 15/26ms and width as 200KHz, as shown in the above diagram. Similarly, we can call the 200KHz bandwidth specified in GSM as Frequency Slot, which is equivalent to the Radio Frequency Channel (i.e. RF channel) in the GSM specifications. The two terms: timeslot and burst sequence are different to a degree in actual application. For example, the burst sequence is sometimes related to the time-frequency rectangular unit and sometimes to its content. Similarly, the

timeslot has the meaning of time value or indicates that a slot in every 8 slots is used periodically. To use a specified channel means to transmit the burst sequence at the specified moment and frequency, i.e. the specified slot. Generally, the time of slots in a channel is discontinuous.

What is The Advantages of Frequency Hopping in GSM

Hopping can lower many kinds of interferences, such as co-channel interference, adjacent channel interference, inter modulation interference, etc. Hopping turns the consecutive long time interference of mobile station into discontinuous interference of single burst, and such interference can be greatly lowered through channel decoding, de-interleave and error correction technology. After hopping technology is adopted, GSM BTS and mobile station can work in harsh radio wave environment. In a word, hopping makes cell planning more flexible. The effect of interference equalization depends on the hopping mode. The best performance can be achieved if interference signal and useful signal use different hopping sequences (e.g. irrelevant sequence). The less the relativity, the better the equalization effect. If both interference signal and useful signal use the cycle hopping with the same hopping sequence, they may remain on the same frequency with consistent pace, and the interference on useful signal will be no hopping is used. This is the same as the case in that two hopping sequences are totally relative. Therefore, the interference diversity effect of random hopping will be better. In a full load system, all interference signals are transmitted at the same time, resulting in a continuous interference. Even so, random hopping sequence still can improve communication quality. However co-channel cells must use different hopping sequences. The more frequencies involved in hopping, the better the performance. In Short Advantages of Hopping:

Get an agreeable radio environment. Provide a similar communication quality for every user. Tighter reuse patterns are possible to be used for larger capacity.

Effect of DTX in RX Quality distribution

DTX has some effect on the RXQual distribution. Normally the BER is averaged over the duration of one SACCH frame lasting 0.48 seconds and consisting of 104 TDMA frames. However, four of these TDMA frames are used for measurements, so that only 100 bursts are actually transmitted and received.

When DTX is in use and there is no speech activity, only the bursts transmitting the silence descriptor frame (SID-frame) and the SACCH are transmitted. When there are periods of no speech activity, the BER is estimated over just the bursts carrying the silence descriptor frame and the SACCH. This includes only 12 bursts over which the BER is averaged (sub quality). This means that the BER gets averaged much more effectively when DTX is not used yielding to a quality distribution where the proportion of moderate quality values is enhanced. The sub quality distribution is wider than the full quality distribution, meaning that more good and bad quality samples are experienced. The differences between full and sub quality distributions are largest in frequency hopping networks utilising low frequency allocation reuse, since in that kind of networks the interference situation may be very different from burst to burst. A couple of severely interfered bursts may cause very bad quality for the sub quality sample when they happen to occur in the set of 12 bursts over which the sub quality is determined. The full quality sample of the same time period has probably only moderate quality deterioration because of the better averaging of BER over 100 bursts. The differences between full and sub quality distributions can be seen in Figure.

In a real network utilizing DTX the quality distribution is a mixture of full and sub quality samples. The proportions of full and sub samples depend on the speech activity factor also known as the DTX factor. The differences in the BER averaging processes cause significant differences in the RXQUAL distributions. These differences should be taken into account when the RXQUAL distributions of networks utilizing and not utilizing DTX are compared.