EE 499: Wireless & Mobile Communications (082)

Dr. Wajih A. Abu-Al-Saud

Lecture6:FrequencyReuseConcepts

ChannelAssignmentStrategies

Channelassignmentaffectstheperformanceofthesystem,especiallywhenitcomestohandoffs.There
areseveralchannelassignmentstrategies.Wewilldiscusstwobasictypes:

A. Fixed Channel Assignment

In this channel assignment, channels are preallocated to different cells meaning that each cell is
assignedaspecific numberofchannelsandthefrequenciesofthesechannelsareset.Suchachannel
assignmenthasthefollowingaspects:
1. Any call attempts in a cell after all channels of that cell become occupied gets BLOCKED
(meaningthatthecallergetsasignalindicatingthatallchannelsareoccupied),
2. Verysimpleandrequiresleastamountofprocessing,
3. AvariationofthismethodistheBorrowingStrategy:
a. Cellsinthisstrategyareallowedtoborrowchannelsfromadjacentcellsiftheirchannels
arefullyoccupiedwhileadjacentcellshavefreechannels,
b. MSC(MobileSwitchingCenter)monitorstheprocessandgivespermissiontoborrowing
celltoborrowchannelsputtinginmind(i)donatingcellisnotaffectedbytheborrowing
process,(ii)nointerferencewilloccurbymovingthechannelfromonecelltoanother.

B. Dynamic Channel Assignment

Inthischannelassignment,channelsareNOTpreallocatedtoanycellsmeaningthatanychannelcanbe
allocated to any desired cell during the operation of the system. Such a channel assignment has the
followingaspects:
1. MSCmonitorsallcellsandallchannels,
2. Eachtimeacallrequestismade,servingBSrequestsachannelfromtheMSC,
3. MSCrunsanalgorithmthattakesintoaccount:
a. Possibilityoffutureblockingincells
b. Frequencybeingusedforchannel
c. Thereusedistanceofthechannel
4. MSCassignsachannelonlyifitisnotusedandifitwillnotcausecochannelinterferencewith
anycellinrange,
5. Thisalgorithmprovideshighercapacity(lessblocking),
6. Itrequireshugecomputationalpower,
7. MSCcollectsrealtimedataofchanneloccupancy,trafficdistribution,andradiosignalstrengths
indicators(RSSI).

EE 499: Wireless & Mobile Communications (082)

Dr. Wajih A. Abu-Al-Saud

Lecture6:FrequencyReuseConcepts

HandoffStrategies

Handoff(H.O.)istheprocessoftransferringanactivecallfromonecelltoanotherasthemobileunit
movesfromthefirstcelltotheothercellwithoutdisconnectingthecall.Theamountofreceivedpower
by the mobile phone or the amount of received power by the tower or both are usually used to
determinewhitheraH.O.isnecessaryornot.Thefollowingpointsareputintomind:

Most systems give higher priority to H.O. over call initiation (it is more annoying to have an
activecalldisconnectedthantohaveanewcallblocked),
Handoffsmustbecompletedsuccessfullyasmuchaspossibleasinfrequently(asfewtimes)as
possibleandmustbeunnoticeabletotheuser(theusershouldnotfeeltheH.O)

Tomeettheserequirements,twopowerlevelsaredefined:

Minimumacceptablesignaltomaintainthecall PMinimum to maintain call :thisistheminimumpower

receivedbythemobilephoneortowerthatallowsthecalltocontinue.Oncethesignaldrops
below this level, it becomes impossible to maintain the active call because the signal is too
weak(noiselevelbecomeshighrelativetosignallevel).Thisisafundamentalpowerlevelthat
isusuallyintherangeof100dBmto90dBm(0.0000000001mWto0.000000001mW).

HandoffThreshold PThreshold :thispowerlimitisusuallyselectedtobefewdBs(5dBto10dB)

abovetheminimumacceptablesignaltomainthecalllevel.

Themargin = PThreshold PMinimum to maintain call shouldnotbetoolargeortoosmall.Ifitis:

o Too large, unnecessary handoffs will occur because the handoff threshold is high and
willbereachedveryoftenevenwhilethemobilephoneisstilldeepinsidetheserving
cell.Unnecessaryhandoffsputalotofstrain(alotofwork)ontheMSCandsystemand
reducenetworkcapacitybecauseoftheneedoffreechannelsinothercells,
o Toosmall,callsmaygetdroppedbeforeasuccessfulhandofftakesplacebecausenot
enoughtimeisavailableforthehandoffwherethesignalpowerwilldropveryquickly
fromthehandoffthresholdtotheminimumpowertomaintainacall.

Thefollowingtwofiguresshowtwohandoffsituations.Inthefirstcase,asuccessfulhandofftakesplace
where the mobile phone is switched from one tower to another while in the second case, the signal
power drops to the minimum value needed for maintating a call and the call is dropped without a
handoff.

EE 499: Wireless & Mobile Communications (082)

Dr. Wajih A. Abu-Al-Saud

Lecture6:FrequencyReuseConcepts

Power received
by Mobile Phone

Handoff Threshold
Minimum power to
maintain call

Handoff
Occurred Here

Successful Handoff

Power received
by Mobile Phone

Handoff Threshold
Minimum power to
maintain call

Handoff did not occur,

Call was dropped

Unsuccessful Handoff
3

EE 499: Wireless & Mobile Communications (082)

Dr. Wajih A. Abu-Al-Saud

Lecture6:FrequencyReuseConcepts
Whenstudyinghandoffs,weneedtoobservethefollowingpoints:

Duringhighdemandtimes(whenmostchannelsareoccupied),excessivedelayinhandoffmay
occur because of high computational load on the MSC, which may cause signal power of calls
needingahandofftoreachlevelofminimumpowertomaintainacall.
MSC has to ensure that any drop in signal power is not due to signal fluctuations (it has to
monitor the signal over relatively long periods of time). So, MSC monitors signal power to
determineifthemobileunitismovingaway,stationary,ormovingcloser.
Speedofmobileunitdeterminestimeneededforhandoff:
o Forslowdropinpower,slowhandoffsispossible,
o Forfastdropinsignal power,fasthandoffisrequiredtoinsure thesignalpowerdoes
notreachtheminimumpowertomaintainacall.