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Frequency Reuse on Frequency Hopping Network Since the frequency band is always limited, the frequencies have to be reused in the network. As the reuse distance becomes smaller, there are more frequencies available for each cell. Because each TRX in a cell requires a unique frequency, the capacity potential of a cell is increased, as there are more frequencies available for each cell. However, when the reuse distance becomes small enough, all the frequencies available for the cell cannot be utilised because of too severe interference in the cell border areas. For a conventional non-hopping network this is the practical frequency reuse limit. The BB hopping network has this same limit, but because of frequency hopping gain, somewhat lower reuse distances are allowed before the quality reaches the minimum acceptable limit. The advantage of RF hopping is that the frequency reuse distance can be set as low as wanted. This can be done, because a RF hopping cell can use more frequencies than there are TRXs installed. This means that the used frequencies are only fractionally loaded as presented in Section 0. For a fractionally loaded RF hopping network, two reuse figures have to be defined. These are effective reuse and frequency allocation reuse. They are presented in the following sections. Effective Reuse The effective reuse is essentially the same as the conventional frequency reuse distance. It is calculated as

Reff =

N freqsTOT N TRXave

, ( 5.1 )

where: Reff = effective reuse NfreqsTOT = total number of used frequencies NTRXave = average number of TRXs in a cell

Since the effective reuse takes the actual number of frequencies together with the number of TRXs into account, it can be also used as a capacity index, provided that the TRXs can be loaded at least to the hard blocking limit as presented in Section 0. The smaller the effective reuse, the higher the capacity in terms of the number of TCHs provided by one frequency in the network. Frequency Allocation Reuse (RF FH only) Frequency allocation reuse indicates how closely the frequencies are actually reused in a network. Thus, it indicates the severity of a worst case C/I in the cell border. It is calculated as

FAR =

N freqsTOT N freqs / MA

, ( 5.2 )

where:
FAR = frequency allocation reuse NfreqsTOT = total number of used frequencies Nfreqs/MA = average number of frequencies in MA-lists

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If the network doesnt utilise fractional loading, the frequency allocation reuse is the same as the effective reuse. Example of the reuse calculations for the fractionally loaded RF hopping network is presented in Figure 0-1.

Frequency Allocation Reuse Effective Reuse

Example:
Total # of freqs = 30
3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 2

10 frequencies / cell 4 TRXs / cell

FAR = 30/10 = 3 Eff.reuse = 30/4 =7.5

1/3

Effective Reuse = Total # of frequencies/ Number of TRXs per cell

Frequency Allocation Reuse = Total # of frequencies / # of frequencies in MAL

Figure 0-1. Example of reuse calculations.
Load on Networks Utilising Fractional Loading (RF FH only) One of the most essential parameters of the fractionally loaded RF hopping network is the load. The load on the frequencies is the most important one since it determines the probability of collisions. Collision means that the serving cell and an interfering cell are transmitting at the same frequency at the same time so that the potential interference becomes reality. Frequency Load When designing a network with low frequency allocation reuse, the interference sources are very close. Even a neighboring cell may be an interferer by sharing at least some of the frequencies. In that kind of situations the C/I is very low when the collisions occur. In order to guarantee an adequate quality, the collision probability has to be made low. The closer the interferers, the more infrequent the collisions must be in order to maintain a proper quality. The collision probability depends on the load of the hopping frequencies called a frequency load. The frequency load describes the probability that a frequency channel is used for transmission at one cell at one time. The frequency load is a product of two other loads: the average busy hour TCH occupancy, which should in most cases be equal to the hard blocking load that is presented in Section 0, and the fractional load that is presented in Section 0. The frequency load can be written as

L freq = LHW L frac ,

( 5.3 ) where: Lfreq = frequency load LHW = the busy hour average hard blocking load

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Lfrac = fractional load Each frequency allocation reuse corresponds to a different C/I at the cell border, thus requiring a different maximum allowed frequency load in order to keep the collision probability low enough. Hard Blocking Load Hard blocking means that all the available traffic channels in the cell are in use and all the new call attempts fail because of the lack of available traffic channels. If it is assumed that the call attempts occur randomly, then the number of call attempts in a time interval is Poisson distributed. If the call attempts are Poisson distributed and the length of the calls is exponentially distributed, then the hard blocking probability (that is also known as the grade of service) can be calculated by using the Erlang B formula

T N TCH N TCH ! B = N TCH n , T n! n=0

( 5.4 ) where: B = hard blocking probability T = offered traffic (Erl) NTCH = number of TCHs in the cell In order not to exceed the predefined hard blocking probability, the average busy hour TCH occupancy may not exceed the threshold defined by the offered traffic at the desired blocking probability and the number of TCHs. When determining the hard blocking load, only the non-BCCH TRXs should be considered as illustrated in Figure 0-2. Thats because the BCCH TRX is non-hopping in RF hopping cell and the calculation of the loads is only relevant in soft blocking limited network. Currently soft blocking limited BB hopping networks should not be designed because of the lack of the gatekeeper algorithm, which prohibits the initialisation of new calls if the load in the network is about to exceed the load threshold at the soft blocking limit. The hard blocking load is calculated as

LHW =

ThopTCH N hopTCH

( 5.5 ) where: LHW = hard blocking load ThopTCH = average number of used TCHs in the busy hour NhopTCH = total number of TCHs in the hopping TRXs

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75 %

25 %

Load on the BCCH TRX not considered, since the BCCH frequencies are planned separately

TRX-1 TRX-2 TRX-3 TRX-4

BCCH TCH TCH TCH

SDCCH SDCCH

TCH TCH TCH TCH

TCH TCH TCH TCH

TCH TCH TCH TCH

TCH TCH TCH TCH

TCH TCH TCH TCH

f1 f2,f3,f4 f3,f4,f2 f4,f2,f3

TCH TCH TCH

TCH TCH TCH

Active slots

Empty slots

Figure 0-2. Hard blocking load of 75% on RF hopping TRXs.

The average busy hour TCH load, as defined in Equation (5.5), can be used as the maximum TCH occupancy. In reality, there are times when the TCH occupancy is over the busy hour average LHW. However this happens randomly and since the LHW limit is an average there is about an equal time in which the load is less than the LHW. If the offered traffic is Poisson distributed, the frequency allocation can be quite safely dimensioned by using the LHW as the maximum TCH occupancy. In an environment where the offered traffic is known not to be randomly generated, a higher figure should be used.

Fractional Load Fractional loading means that the cell has been allocated more frequencies than there are TRXs as illustrated in Figure 0-3. This is only possible for RF hopping TRXs. The fractional loading is very useful when the number of TRXs is low. By utilising fractional loading, it is possible to provide enough frequencies to hop over (to get FH gain) to even a cell with just one hopping TRX. Fractional load can be calculated as

L frac =

N TRX , N freqs / cell

( 5.6 )

where:
Lfrac = fractional load NTRX = number of TRXs in a cell Nfreqs/cell = number of frequencies allocated to a cell (MA-list length)

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TRX-1 TRX-2 TRX-3 TRX-4

BCCH

f1 f2, f3, f4, f5, f6 f2, f3, f4, f5, f6 f2, f3, f4, f5, f6

Active slots

Empty slots

Frac. load = 3/5 = 0.6

Figure 0-3. Fractional load of 0.6.

In a soft blocking limited network the fractional load is used to tune the frequency load down to a desired level, which is determined by the used frequency allocation reuse. Trunking Effect and Effective Reuse For Poisson distributed call attempts, it is characteristic that the hard blocking load providing the same blocking probability increases as the number of traffic channels increases as presented in Figure 0-4. This is called trunking effect. For a hard blocking limited network this is a real gain since the network is able to serve more traffic with the same grade of service and the same effective reuse. However, for a soft blocking limited network utilising fractional loading the trunking effect doesnt provide any gain. As the hard blocking load increases, the fractional load must be decreased in order to keep the frequency load and thus the collision probability acceptable. Decreasing the fractional load is done by adding more frequencies than TRXs to the cells. This has a direct effect on the effective reuse. The effective reuse can be rewritten as

Reff =

N freqsTOT N TRX

N freqsTOT N freqs / MA FAR = . N freqs / MA N TRX L frac

( 5.7 )

Equation (5.7) shows the fixed relation between the effective and frequency allocation reuses and the fractional load. The required increase in the effective reuse in a soft blocking limited network as the trunking efficiency increases is presented in Figure 0-5. It should be noted that although the effective reuse increases, the number of frequencies required to handle a certain amount of traffic stays constant. The effective reuse doesnt take the trunking efficiency into account.

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100.0 %

90.0 %

80.0 % TCH occupancy at the hard blocking limit

70.0 %

60.0 % Hard blocking prob. 5% 50.0 % Hard blocking prob. 2% Hard blocking prob. 1% 40.0 %

30.0 %

20.0 %

10.0 %

0.0 % 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 100 12

Number of TCH's

Figure 0-4. Average busy hour TCH occupancy at the hard blocking limit.
12

11

10

effective reuse

7 FAR 1 (2% Blocking, Freq.load 7,5% (trialed)) FAR 1 (1% Blocking, Freq.load 7,5% (trialed)) FAR 3.65 (2% Blocking, Freq.load 30% (trialed)) FAR 3.65 (1% Blocking, Freq.load 30% (trialed)) FAR 3 (2% Blocking, Freq.load 30% (simulated)) FAR 3 (1% Blocking, Freq.load 30% (simulated))

5 2 3 4 5 6 7 TRX's/cell 8 9 10 11

Figure 0-5. Increase of required effective reuse on a soft blocking limited network due to the better trunking efficiency on bigger cell configurations.

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Frequency Allocation Strategies When preparing for a frequency allocation, some decisions have to be made concerning the wanted frequency allocation reuse and the corresponding frequency load. Also, it must be decided whether to use a separate frequency band for the BCCH carriers or use a common band for both the BCCH and the normal TCH TRXs. BCCH Allocation The BCCH carriers are special in a sense that the transmission to the downlink direction is constant and always active on them. There are two basic approaches in the BCCH allocation. The BCCH frequencies may be allocated from a separate dedicated frequency band or the frequencies for the BCCH TRXs and the TCH TRXs (TRXs not carrying the BCCH) may be allocated from one common band. Both approaches have been simulated for frequency hopping network in [Kro97]. In this simulation, the used frequency band was 27 frequencies corresponding to 5.4 MHz. For the dedicated band strategy 12 frequencies were dedicated to the BCCH TRXs and the remaining 15 frequencies were used as TCH frequencies, which were allocated by using a slow Adaptive Channel Allocation (ACA) algorithm presented in [Alm96]. In the common band case, the BCCH frequencies were first allocated by using a reuse of 27. The ACA algorithm was then used to select the TCH frequencies for each cell. The BCCH frequencies were not changed during this procedure. In both cases three different TRX configurations were simulated. The cells had 3, 4 or 5 TCH TRXs depending on the case. In every case, the average reuse is the same in both strategies, so the results are easily comparable. In the simulation, the signal powers were averaged over a period of 0.48 seconds. During this period, all the frequencies in the hopping sequence have been used several times. Thus, the fast fading can be assumed to have been removed by averaging. The slow fading was assumed to be constant over the averaging period. Both, the co-channel and the adjacent channel interference were considered. The simulated hopping mode was random BB hopping. Frequency diversity effect was not considered. The used interference limited network consisted of 108 cells in three sectorised configuration having a radius of 1 km. The mobiles were randomly generated and static. Power control and DTX were used in the both directions. The system performance was measured by determining the 10 percent Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) value of the C/I ratio. The load measure was defined as the number of served users per cell using the time slot one. The uplink performance as a function of served traffic is presented in Figure 0-6. It can be seen that the common band strategy performs better. The improvement is 1-2 dB. The more uniform reuse provided by the common band strategy is more effective, because the continuous transmission on the BCCH TRXs is only employed in downlink direction. The BCCH reuse of 12 forces the reuse on the TCH TRXs to be very tight. This is unnecessary in uplink direction since the load is about the same on the BCCH and TCH TRXs. The common band strategy is better when the uplink is considered. However, the uplink is not usually the limiting link in interference limited networks, since antenna diversity is normally utilised at base stations. The downlink performance on the TCH TRXs as a function of served traffic is presented in Figure 0-7. For a downlink direction the dedicated bands strategy is superior. The improvement is on the order of 1-5 dB depending on the traffic load. The degradation of the C/I ratio is quite slow as the traffic load increases in common bands case. This indicates that the BCCH transmitters are the main interference source. It was also shown in additional simulations that the performance gain from the power control and the DTX in the common band systems were smaller than in corresponding dedicated band

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systems. This happens, because the BCCH frequencies, which are the dominating interference source, cannot utilise the PC or the DTX. The downlink performance on the BCCH TRXs as a function of served traffic is presented in Figure 0-8. The downlink performance on the BCCH TRXs is important, because the call initialisation always starts on the BCCH frequency and the BCCH frequencies have to be clean enough to guarantee successful decoding of the cell identification for handover purposes. The common band strategy performs clearly better when the load is small. As the load increases on the interfering TCH TRXs, the performance degrades rapidly. The dedicated bands strategy provides a very stable behavior as the traffic load doesnt have any effect on the performance. In the dedicated band case the C/I of the BCCH frequencies in the downlink direction is exclusively determined by the used frequency reuse on the BCCH TRXs. Because of the stable and easily predictable behavior on the BCCH frequencies in the downlink direction, the dedicated bands strategy is preferable.

Figure 0-6. UL C/I at the 10 % level.

Figure 0-7. DL C/I at the 10 % level.

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Figure 0-8. DL C/I at the 10 % level on the BCCH frequency.

Still one, not common used method is to use separate but not continuous band for the BCCH frequencies. For example, every 4th frequency is allocated for BCCH. Thus, adjacent channel interference is avoided between BCCH frequencies. On the other hand, TCH band causes adjacent channel interference for the BCCH frequencies and vice versa, but the interference might not be too significant.

BCCH

TCH BCCH + TCH

Dedicated band Common band Dedicated mixed band

BCCH

TCH

Figure 0-9. Different BCCH allocation strategies.

1.1.1 Selecting the Effective Reuse (BB FH) With BB hopping, the fractional loading cannot be utilised and the number of hopping frequencies is always the same as the number of TRXs in a cell, except for TCHs on the zero time slots, which always have one hopping frequency less than the other TCHs. Thus, in a BB hopping network the frequency allocation reuse always equals the effective reuse in the network.

Since frequency and interference diversity gains significantly depend on the number of hopping frequencies, it is recommended to have at least three hopping frequencies as a minimum configuration. If the cell TRX configurations are smaller than that, BB FH is not recommended to be used. In that case, RF FH or IUO might offer a better solution to increase the capacity.

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Before making the actual frequency plan by using the frequency allocation tool like NPS/X, an estimation of the minimum effective reuse might be needed, for example in tendering phase. The following Figure 0-10 gives an estimation of an applicable reuse compared to the situation before implementing BB FH. For example, if we have in the non-hopping network reuse 15, after implementing BB FH with 4 TRX average configuration per cell, we end up to reuse 9. The bigger is the TRX configuration, the smaller reuse we can use, since the reuse is dependent on the number of hopping frequencies (=TRXs with BB FH).

MIN Effective Reuses with different TRX configurations in BB FH case 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 Original reuse

New reuse

No FH 3 TRX 4 TRX 5 TRX 6 TRX

Figure 0-10. Effective reuse after implementing BB FH.

Selecting the Frequency Allocation Reuse and the Frequency Load (RF FH) If the RF hopping is used, the frequency allocation reuse has a great impact on the required fractional load and thus, on the number of frequencies allocated to each cell. With BB hopping, the fractional loading cannot be utilised and the number of hopping frequencies is always the same as the number of TRXs in a cell, except for TCHs on the zero time slots, which always have one hopping frequency less than the other TCHs. Thus, in a BB hopping network the frequency allocation reuse always equals the effective reuse in the network. Since frequency and interference diversity gains significantly depend on the number of hopping frequencies, it is important to ensure that each cell has enough hopping frequencies. If the cell TRX configurations are small, RF hopping with fractional loading makes it possible to still provide sufficient number of hopping frequencies to the cells even with small TRX configurations. Fractional loading reduces the average channel utilisation in the network, thus reducing the probability that interference will occur, making it possible to significantly decrease the frequency reuse distance.

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The average channel utilisation is also known as frequency load as explained in Section 0. The relationship between the frequency allocation reuse distance and the corresponding maximum frequency load is illustrated in Figure 0-11.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2

1 2 3 1 2 3 1

1 2 3 1

3 1 2

4 3 1 3 2 4 2 1 3 1

2 4 2 4 3 1 3

1 2 5 4 3 7 2 3 6 1

7 2

1 5

4 7 3

FAR

Worsening C/I at the cell border

Increasing collision probability

Max. frequency load

8%

30%

40?%

70?%

Figure 0-11. Relationship between frequency allocation reuse and maximum allowed frequency load in the network. A good approach is first to determine the number of frequencies to hop over in each cell. To maximise the frequency and interference diversity gains, it is recommended to use at least four frequencies in MA-lists. This is likely to require fractional loading, especially if the TRX configurations in the cells are small. Fractional loading means that the frequencies are not continuously used, which allows the reuse of the same frequency closer. Thus, as the fractional load decreases, the frequency allocation reuse must be tightened to maintain the same effective reuse. The relation between the effective reuse, fractional load and the frequency allocation reuse is presented in Equation (5.3). However, it is beneficial to avoid big differences in the frequency loads caused by each cell. If the frequency load across the network is kept relatively constant then the interference will be distributed more evenly in the network.
In practice, the network layout and the surrounding environment have a significant effect on the highest possible frequency load. Highly irregular network layout makes it very difficult to find a good frequency allocation that minimises interference in all parts of the network. In that case, it might be necessary to restrict the maximum frequency load in order to keep interference acceptable. Generally, in dense propagation environments such as microcells, the path loss slope is steeper. This naturally reduces interference as the distant interferers are attenuated more. Thus, in these cases somewhat higher frequency load may be possible. This doesnt necessarily apply to frequency allocation reuse of 1, since in that case the worst interferers are the closest neighbors. On the cell border the interference coming from the neighboring cell attenuates just as much as the signal from the serving cell regardless of the path loss slope. Because of this, it is not possible to obtain significant gain from increased path loss slope and it might not be possible to increase the frequency load. The recommended approach is to

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start with a low frequency load and then increase it gradually until the quality threshold is reached. Important is also to ensure that the effective reuse is not too low to ensure a good quality. The following Table contains an example of choosing the right F.A. reuse scheme to give the best capacity gain. As can be seen, the best capacity is got with the F.A. reuses 2-5. The minimum effective reuse and maximum frequency load values are still under further consideration. They might be too optimistic for some environments!

Example: 21 frequencies F.A. reuse MA list length Min. Eff. reuse 1 21.0 8.5 2 10.5 7.5 3 7.0 7 4 5.3 6.5 5 4.2 7.5 6 3.5 8.5 7 3.0 10.5 8 2.6 12 9 2.3 13

Max. Freq. load 8% 20% 30% 40% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70%

Traffic (Erl) 13.4 16.8 16.8 16.8 16.8 15.4 14.4 13.7 13.1

TCHs 21 25 25 25 25 23 22 21 20

Table 1. Limits for the effective reuse and the frequency load values with different frequency allocation reuses.
1.1.2 Frequency Sharing by Using MAIO Management (RF FH only) The MAIO management makes it possible to share the same MA-list between the cells of the same RF hopping site without co- or adjacent channel collisions. This can be done by utilising the user definable MAIOoffset and MAIOstep parameters presented in Sections Error! Reference source not found. and Error! Reference source not found.. MAIOOFFSET helps to avoid the interference between the cells inside the site, whereas, MAIOSTEP avoids the interference inside the cell. The cell level MAIOoffset parameter defines the MAIOs for the first TRXs in each cell. The remaining TRXs are given MAIOs according to the Equation (3.1). In Nokia implementation the default MAIOstep is 1, but it will be adjustable after the BSC software release S7. The frequency sharing makes it possible for a cell to hop over all the frequencies allocated to that site as presented in Figure 0-12. All the cells on a site share the same MA-list. Thus, in a case of a three sectorised site, the site can be allocated three times less frequencies and still the number of frequencies to hop over in a cell remains the same. Since less frequencies are needed per site, the frequency allocation reuse distance can be bigger. The bigger reuse distance leads to less interference, so the fractional loading is not necessarily needed.

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MA-list: 3 6
3

9 9
3 1

3
3 1 2

3 3

6
2

TDMA frame n-1

TDMA frame n

TDMA frame n+1

Figure 0-12. The principle of frequency sharing.

However, there are some requirements that have to be fulfilled. First of all, the basic requirement is that the cells at one site have to be controlled by the same BCF, so that they are frame synchronised. With the current Nokia equipment this requirement limits the maximum TRX configuration to 12 TRXs per site. The number of frequencies (MA-list length) have to be at least equal (equal if fractional loading is not to be used) to the total number of TRXs in the site. If the MAIOstep parameter is more than one, even more frequencies are needed. The requirement can be formulated as follows

min N freqs / site = N TRX / site MAIOstep ,

(5.8)

where:
min Nfreqs/site = minimum number of frequencies needed for a site NTRX/site = total number of TRXs on a site MAIOstep = the value of the MAIOstep parameter In Equation (5.8) it is assumed that the MAIO separation between the cells is equal to the used MAIOstep. In that case, the MAIOoffset parameters are allocated as follows

MAIOcelln = MAIOstep N TRX / celli ,

i =1

n 1

(5.9) where: MAIOoffset n = MAIOoffset for the n th cell in a site MAIOstep = the value of the MAIOstep parameter NTRX/cell i = number of TRXs in i th cell If the number of frequencies is less than min. Nfreqs, then co- or adjacent channel interference might occur. Example of this is presented in Figure 0-14. In a normal frequency sharing arrangement, the goal is to minimise the number of frequencies needed per site, so that the frequency allocation reuse distance can be kept high. For this reason, the MAIOstep should be normally 1. This should be taken into account in the frequency planning process, because an intracell adjacent channel interference should not be allowed. Since the frequencies have to be in the increasing order in the MA-list, the list may not contain adjacent channels if the MAIOstep is 1.

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The cells at one site have to use the same HSN. Otherwise, co-channel interference between the cells will occur. However, the HSNs should be different in interfering sites in order to ensure the interference diversity. An example of a correct parameter assignment for frequency sharing is illustrated in Figure 0-13.

INDEX NO: MA_LIST1: TDMA MAI

0 1 0 1

1 4 1 5

2 8 2 1

3 10 3 1

4 15 4 2

5 20 5 3

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

6 1

7 2

8 0

9 2

10 3

11 4

12 5

13 1

14 5

15 2

16 4

SECTOR MA-LIST HSN MAIO 1 1 3 0 1 2 1 3 2 1 3 3 3 4 5

TRX 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 4

TDMA-FRAMES -> 0 1 2 bcch frequency 1... 4 20 4 8 1 8 bcch frequency 2 ... 10 4 10 bcch frequency 3 ... 15 8 15 20 10 20 1 15 1

3 4 8 10 15 20 1

4 8 10 15 20 1 4

5 10 15 20 1 4 8

6 4 8 10 15 20 1

7 8 10 15 20 1 4

8 1 4 8 10 15 20

9 8 10 15 20 1 4

10 10 15 20 1 4 8

11 15 20 1 4 8 10

12 20 1 4 8 10 15

13 4 8 10 15 20 1

14 20 1 4 8 10 15

15 8 10 15 20 1 4

16 15 20 1 4 8 10

Figure 0-13. Example of frequency sharing when MAIOstep is 1.

INDEX NO: MA_LIST1: TDMA MAI 0 1 0 1 1 4 1 1 2 8 2 1 3 10 3 1 4 15 4 2 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

5 3

6 3

7 4

8 0

9 2

10 3

11 0

12 1

13 1

14 1

15 4

16 4

SECTOR MA-LIST HSN MAIO 1 1 3 0 1 2 1 3 2 3 1 3 3 4 5

TRX 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 4

TDMA-FRAMES -> 0 1 2 bcch frequency 1... 4 4 4 8 8 8 bcch frequency 2 ... 10 10 10 bcch frequency 3 ... 15 15 15 1 1 1 4 4 4

3 4 8 10 15 1 4

4 8 10 15 1 4 8

5 10 15 1 4 8 10

6 10 15 1 4 8 10

7 15 1 4 8 10 15

8 1 4 8 10 15 1

9 8 10 15 1 4 8

10 10 15 1 4 8 10

11 1 4 8 10 15 1

12 4 8 10 15 1 4

13 4 8 10 15 1 4

14 4 8 10 15 1 4

15 15 1 4 8 10 15

16 15 1 4 8 10 15

Figure 0-14. Example of frequency sharing when the site is allocated with too few frequencies and co-channel interference between sectors exists.
Since the cells on the same site share the same frequencies, all the hopping frequencies are transmitted in every cell on the same site. This has to be taken into account when the frequency planning is done. This can be modeled in NPS/X 3.2 or older by utilising power dividers so that the site has only one cell having as many TRXs as there are non-BCCH TRXs in all the sectors of the actual site. The cell is distributed to multiple antennas forming multiple sectors by using power dividers. Special care has to be taken to compensate the losses of power divider. In frequency allocation phase one common interference probability is determined for the entire site and the site is then allocated one common set of frequencies that form the MA-list. To avoid interference, the minimum channel separation has to be at least 1. Since each cell has its own BCCH, the BCCH allocation has to be done separately without the power divider arrangement. Simulation results of the performance of a network utilising frequency sharing have been presented in [Nie98]. In this simulation, the network utilising frequency sharing at a nominal reuse of 3/9 was compared to the RF hopping network using 1/3 frequency allocation reuse at 33 % frequency load. The reuse on the BCCH carriers was 4/12 in both cases. The served traffic was also the same in both cases. The simulated network consisted of 48 3-sectorised sites. Power control was utilised in DL direction, but the DTX was not activated. Downlink FER statistics reported by each mobile every 0.48 seconds from

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the non-BCCH carriers were collected for analysis. Mobile speeds of 3 km/h and 50 km/h were simulated. The resulting cumulative density functions of DL FER have been presented in Figure 0-15 and Figure 0-16. In both mobile speeds, the performance of the two simulated arrangements is very similar until the FER gets close to 10 %. For the mobile speed of 3 km/h the percentage of FER samples indicating FER above 15 % is 2 % for the frequency sharing case and 3 % for the 1/3 reuse case. For the mobile speed of 50 km/h, the corresponding values are about 1.1 % and 1.5%. The difference in favor of frequency sharing is clear, although not dramatic. However, as higher FER percentages are studied, the difference gets bigger. The effect of the mobile speed on the FER distribution can be clearly seen. As the speed increases to 50 km/h, the share of both the low FER percentages and the high FER percentages increases. The higher mobile speed provides better performance against fast fading. This increases the proportion of low FER. The higher speed also means that the changes caused by slow fading are faster and the ability of power control to compensate the fluctuations of signal strength is reduced. This along with the relatively slow handover algorithm causes the proportion of high FER to increase at the higher mobile speeds. However, the mobile speed doesnt have significant effect on the relative performance of the network utilising frequency sharing. It may be concluded according to this simulation that the frequency sharing provides better quality compared to the 1/3 reuse case.
1 BCCH reuse 4/12, TCH reuse 1/3 BCCH reuse = 4/12, TCH reuse = 3/9 by using MAIO-management

0.1

CDF 0.01 0.001 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 FER 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Figure 0-15. CDF of DL FER for a mobile speed of 3 km/h.

1

BCCH reuse 4/12, TCH reuse 1/3 BCCH reuse = 4/12, TCH reuse = 3/9 by using MAIO-management

0.1

CDF 0.01 0.001 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 FER 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Figure 0-16. CDF of DL FER for a mobile speed of 50 km/h.

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Frequency Sharing in the Single MA-list Scheme (RF FH only) Frequency sharing can also be used to realise the usage of only one MA-list in the networks utilising sectorised base station configurations. In the single MA-list scheme all the cells use the same set of frequencies. If the cells in one site use the same MA-lists without the frequency sharing functionality, occasional co-channel collisions will happen between the cells of one site. When frequency sharing is used, it can be ensured that no unnecessary co- or adjacent channel collisions will occur provided that the cells on the same site use the same HSN.

When the single MA-list scheme is employed, a continuous frequency band is usually allocated to the cells. In order to avoid intracell adjacent channel interference, the MAIOstep should be set to at least 2. Preferably, even bigger step should be used, especially if uplink power control is not in use. Because interference between the cells of the same site is much less likely to occur than intracell interference, a smaller channel separation can be used between the cells of the same site. Consequently, the number of needed frequencies is reduced. When this possibility is taken into account, the Equation (5.8) can be rewritten in more general form as follows min N freqs / site = ( N TRX / site N cell / site ) MAIOstep + N cell / site S ,
(5.10) where: min Nfreqs/site = minimum number of frequencies needed for a site NTRX/site = total number of TRXs on a site MAIOstep = the value of the MAIOstep parameter Ncell/site = total number of cells in the site S = MAIO separation between cells A good approach is to set the MAIOstep as high as possible. However, it should be checked that the requirement presented in Equation (5.10) is still fulfilled. An example of a good MAIO plan is presented in Figure 0-17. In this example, the MAIO separation between cells is 2 and the MAIOstep is set to its maximum value, which is 3 in this case. If a MAIOstep of 4 would have been used instead, constant adjacent channel interference would have occurred between the second TRX of sector one and the fourth TRX of sector three as shown in Figure 0-18.
INDEX NO: MA_LIST1: TDMA MAI 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 2 2 3 2 6 3 4 3 2 4 5 4 2 5 6 5 11 6 7 6 4 7 8 7 0 8 9 8 8 9 10 9 9 10 11 10 3 11 12 11 12 12 13 12 8 13 14 13 8 14 15 14 10 15 16

15 6

16 8

SECTOR MA-LIST HSN MAIO 1 1 2 0 3 2 1 2 5 3 1 2 7 10 13

TRX 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 4

TDMA-FRAMES -> 0 1 2 bcch frequency 1... 1 3 7 4 6 10 bcch frequency 2 ... 6 8 12 bcch frequency 3 ... 8 10 14 11 13 2 14 1 5

3 3 6 8 10 13 1

4 3 6 8 10 13 1

5 12 15 2 4 7 10

6 5 8 10 12 15 3

7 1 4 6 8 11 14

8 9 12 14 1 4 7

9 10 13 15 2 5 8

10 4 7 9 11 14 2

11 13 1 3 5 8 11

12 9 12 14 1 4 7

13 9 12 14 1 4 7

14 11 14 1 3 6 9

15 7 10 12 14 2 5

16 9 12 14 1 4 7

Figure 0-17. Example of frequency sharing when MA-list consists of consecutive frequencies and MAIOstep is set to 3.

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INDEX NO: MA_LIST1: TDMA MAI

0 1 0 0

1 2 1 2

2 3 2 6

3 4 3 2

4 5 4 2

5 6 5 11

6 7 6 4

7 8 7 0

8 9 8 8

9 10 9 9

10 11 10 3

11 12 11 12

12 13 12 8

13 14 13 8

14 15 14 10

15

16

15 6

16 8

SECTOR MA-LIST HSN MAIO 1 1 2 0 4 2 1 2 6 3 1 2 8 12 16

TRX 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 4

TDMA-FRAMES -> 0 1 2 bcch frequency 1... 1 3 7 5 7 11 bcch frequency 2 ... 7 9 13 bcch frequency 3 ... 9 11 15 13 15 4 2 4 8

3 3 7 9 11 15 4

4 3 7 9 11 15 4

5 12 1 3 5 9 13

6 5 9 11 13 2 6

7 1 5 7 9 13 2

8 9 13 15 2 6 10

9 10 14 1 3 7 11

10 4 8 10 12 1 5

11 13 2 4 6 10 14

12 9 13 15 2 6 10

13 9 13 15 2 6 10

14 11 15 2 4 8 12

15 7 11 13 15 4 8

16 9 13 15 2 6 10

Figure 0-18. Example of too few frequencies compared to the size of the MAIOstep.
Often, it is possible to achieve higher intracell frequency separations, by using bigger MAIOstep and by not defining the MAIOoffset parameters in increasing order. If this approach is used, the Equations (7.8) (7.10) are not valid anymore. Instead, each configuration should be evaluated case by case. An example of this approach is presented in Figure 0-19. In this example, the used MAIOstep is 6 and the required MAIO separation between cells is 2. Compared to the example in Figure 0-17, a bigger MAIOstep can now be used while the number of required frequencies is still the same.
INDEX NO: MA_LIST1: TDMA MAI 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 2 2 3 2 6 3 4 3 2 4 5 4 2 5 6 5 11 6 7 6 4 7 8 7 0 8 9 8 8 9 10 9 9 10 11 10 3 11 12 11 12 12 13 12 8 13 14 13 8 14 15 14 10 15 16

15 6

16 8

SECTOR MA-LIST HSN MAIO 1 1 2 2 8 2 1 2 4 3 1 2 0 6 12

TRX 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 4

TDMA-FRAMES -> 0 1 2 bcch frequency 1... 3 5 9 9 11 15 bcch frequency 2 ... 5 7 11 bcch frequency 3 ... 1 3 7 7 9 13 13 15 4

3 5 11 7 3 9 15

4 5 11 7 3 9 15

5 14 5 1 12 3 9

6 7 13 9 5 11 2

7 3 9 5 1 7 13

8 11 2 13 9 15 6

9 12 3 14 10 1 7

10 6 12 8 4 10 1

11 15 6 2 13 4 10

12 11 2 13 9 15 6

13 11 2 13 9 15 6

14 13 4 15 11 2 8

15 9 15 11 7 13 4

16 11 2 13 9 15 6

Figure 0-19. Example of customised MAIO allocation.

Frequencies and Frequency Hopping The radio interface of GSM/DCS uses slow frequency hopping. Frequency hopping consists of changing the frequency used by a channel at regular intervals. Frequencies used in each transceiver are defined by parameter initialFrequency (1 ... 124 in GSM). When Mobile is in Idle state there are two possible ways to listen BCCH frequencies of adjacent cells. Traditional way is that Mobile listens to the same BCCH frequencies of the adjacent cells of the serving BTS as in Idle mode. An alternative solution to listen BCCH frequencies of adjacent cells is to use improved list (known as Double-BA list). This list can be described by the two following parameters: the bCCHAllocationList (1 ... 124) (where GSM up to 124 ARFN can be specified) and the idleStateBCCHAllocation (0, 1 ... 128) (where "0" means that the normal list based on the BCCH of adjacent cells is considered, and where 1128 means that one of up to 128 possible improved lists can be considered instead, with frequencies as specified with the previous parameter) when MS is in idle mode .In dedicated mode by the parameter measurementBCCHAllocation (ADJ, IDLE) it is possible to

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specify the list to be used in handover (where ADJ means that the normal BCCH list of the adj cells is considered and IDLE means that the BCCH list specified for idle mode is used instead). There are two different kinds of frequency hopping in the BTSs; Baseband Hopping and Synthesised Hopping, controlled by parameter btsIsHopping (BB, RF, N). Below both of the frequency hopping methods are described 1.1.3 Baseband Hopping (BB Hopping) BB Hopping refers to a particular implementation of frequency hopping algorithm in which the baseband digital signal streams are multiplexed between transmitters and receivers using fixed frequencies. In Baseband Hopping the Base Station is actually changing TRXs.
RTSL 0 TRX-1 B TRX-2 TRX-3 TRX-4 Time slot 0 of TRX-2,-3,-4 hop over f2,f3,f4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 f1 f2 f3 f4 B = BCCH timeslot. It does not hop. Time slots 1...7 of all TRXs hop over (f1,f2,f3,f4).

Figure 1.

BB hopping on 4 TRXs. Also the BCCH TRX is hopping except on RTSL-0.

1.1.4 Radio Frequency Hopping (RF Hopping) RF Hopping (Synthesised hopping) refers to a particular implementation of frequency hopping algorithm in which the synthesisers of BTS transmitter and receiver are tuned on every time slot to the frequency specified by the hopping algorithm. Number of frequencies to hop over is up to 63.
TRX-1 B B = BCCH timeslot. TRX does not hop. Non-BCCH TRXs are hopping over the MA-list (f1,f2,f3,...,fn) attached to the cell.

f1, f2, f3, fn TRX-2

. . . .

f1, f2, f3, fn

Figure 2.

RF hopping in 2-TRX cell.

The BCCH TRX cannot hop because the BCCH frequency must be continuously transmitted in a cell. In Synthesised Hopping, it is possible to use many frequencies in the same TRX controlled by parameter usedMobileAllocation (0 ... 128) and mobileAllocationList (1 ... 124)(MA). This means that the maximum number of hopping frequencies lists that can be specified are 128, and the maximum number of frequencies that can be specified within a list is 124 in GSM. Hopping Sequence Numbers (HSN1 (1 ... 63) for time slot 0, HSN2 (1 ... 63) for time slots 1-7) are needed in case of both hopping in order to tell hopping sequences. (Chapter 18 Background database).

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1.1.5 Freeform RF-Hopping (S6) In BSS S6 the frequency hopping for sectorized network can be planned by using MAIO offset parameter. The parameter is defined that the RF-hopping would be more flexible. If maioOffset (0 ... 62) -parameter is used, it is possible to use the same mobileAllocationList(MA) frequency list for two or more sectors of the site without collisions. The MAIO-Offset parameter defines the lowest hopping frequency for the cell and it can be bigger than zero thus synchronising the sectors. (See chapter 18 Background database). The following example will show the principle of maioOffset parameter. A three- sector site with 4 TRXs per cell needs at least nine hopping frequencies in MA (available maios 0...8). The number of available TRXs for hopping defines the minimum amount of frequencies in MA list. In this case there is 1 BCCHTRX and 3 RF Hopping TRXs per cell. All three sectors can use the same MA-list when maioOffsets are set for sectors. HSN must be equal between sectors otherwise collisions will occur regularly. The following table shows the maioOffsets and maios for TRXs. Note that there are nine RF-hopping frequencies per sector!

MAIO HSN offset BTS-1

(sector 1)

MAIO TRX-1 TRX-2 BCCH TCH TCH TCH 0 1 2 f2 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 f10 f11 f12 f1

3 TRX-3 TRX-4 TRX-5

BCCH TCH TCH TCH 3 4 5

(sector 2)

TRX-6 3 3 TRX-7 TRX-8 TRX-9

BTS-2

BCCH TCH TCH TCH 6 7 8

f3

(sector 3)

BTS-3

TRX-10 6 3 TRX-11 TRX-12

Table 1.

MAIO values for a 3-sector site, 4 TRXs per sector.

The number of frequencies allowed in a hopping group is increased to 63. This development is new for III-gen. only; IV-gen. supports 63 frequencies in a hopping group right from the beginning. The number of TRXs supporting RF hopping in a cell is no more limited by two. RF hopping can be used only with AFE. This is because wide band combiner is needed with RF hopping.
Note: 2nd generation BTS does not support RF hopping.

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FLEXIBLE MAIO MANAGEMENT (S7)

With this feature it will be possible to arrange MAIOs within a cell in a way that using successive frequency channels becomes possible without continuous in-cell adjacent channel interference. This functionality is of vital importance for success of RF hopping with tight reuse (so it becomes essential feature in Intelligent Frequency Hopping, see in IUO chapter) because commonly the operators will be forced to allocate successive channels in MA list. In order to use RF hopping with more flexibility the operator needs the management access to all the hopping parameters including MAIOs. The new parameter added for more flexibility in RF hopping parameters set is MaioStep (MS), with a range 1..62. With this parameter the MAIOs can be chosen not to be allocated successively for the cell, but for instance every second or third value. See the below table for a better understanding: A 3-sector site, 4 TRXs per sector (i.e., 3 RF hopping TRXs per sector). HSNs for each sector must be equal. MAIO offsets are set as follows: '0' for sector-1, '6' for sector-2 and '12' for sector-3. MAIO steps are set 2 for all sectors. MA frequency list must contain at least 18 frequencies (available MAIOs: 017). Sector 1 HNS MAIO-offset N 0 MAIO-step 2 TRX TRX-1 TRX-2 TRX-3 TRX-4 TRX-5 TRX-6 TRX-7 TRX-8 TRX-9 TRX-10 TRX-11 TRX-12 MAIO value for all RTSLs BCCH, not allowed to hop MAIO=0 MAIO=2 MAIO=4 BCCH, not allowed to hop MAIO=6 MAIO=8 MAIO=10 BCCH, not allowed to hop MAIO=12 MAIO=14 MAIO=16

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1.1.6 Terminology Random Hopping Frequencies change according to a pseudo-random sequence. HSN = 1...63. Cyclic Hopping Frequencies are used one after another in ascending order in the hopping sequence. HSN = 0. Slow Frequency Hopping (SFH) The frequency change rate is slower than the modulation rate. In GSM the frequency changes burst by burst (156 bits), thus GSM hopping is clearly slow hopping.

Hopping Group Set of Radio Timeslots using the same MA and HSN in a cell. Hopping Sequence Number (0...63) (HSN)

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A parameter used in randomising the hopping sequence. If HSN = 0, it means cyclic hopping, 1...63 means random hopping. Each hopping group may have an HSN of its own. Mobile Allocation (MA) List of Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Numbers, which are used in a particular hopping sequence. MA-list Mobile allocation frequency list. This is an object in the BSC's database. It defines the MA for a RF hopping cell. Mobile Allocation Index Offset (MAIO) Hopping sequence starting point for each RTSL using the same MA. MAIO synchronises the RTSLs, which use the same MA, to use different frequencies at a time. MAIO step (MS) MAIOs can be allocated every second or every third value, for example. Range from 1 (the old management) to 62.