EC 3036

Cellular Communication
 Syllabus
EC 3036 CELLULAR COMMUNICATION Cr-3
Course Outcomes: At the end of the course, students will be able to :
CO1. Analyze basic Cellular Architecture and practical mobile communication strategies.
CO2. Solve basic propagation models and understand signal degradation in wireless channels.
CO3. Apply channel equalization and diversity techniques in wireless systems.
CO4. Distinguish between the different types of multiple access schemes and GSM technology
CO5. Analyze multicarrier communication using OFDM technique
CO6. Analyze MIMO and space time communication systems.
Prerequisites: Analog Communication Techniques (EC2012), Digital Communication Techniques (EC3005)/ Communication Engineering (EC2016)

Cellular Communication Principle: Cellular Concept System Architecture, Spectrum Allocation, Frequency Reuse, Channel Assignment Strategies, Co-
channel Interference & System Capacity, Hand off, Hand off structure, Practical Hand off consideration, Prioritizing Hand off, Power Control, Near – Far
Problem, System capacity, Improvement Techniques: Cell splitting, Sectoring, Micro cell Zone concept.
RF Propagation & Multi-path Model: Free space propagation model, propagation mechanism, Large Scale fading, Diffraction & Scattering by high –
raise structures, shadowing and path loss, Small Scale Fading, Doppler and time-delay spread, coherence Bandwidth and coherence-Time, Types of
Small – Scale Fading.
Equalization and Diversity Techniques: Fundamentals of Equalization, Adaptive equalizer, Concept of diversity, Types of diversity (space, time,
frequency, polarization), Rake receiver.
Multiple Access Techniques: Multiplexing & multiple access, TDD & FDD techniques, Description of FDMA, TDMA, Spread spectrum technique &
CDMA systems, Description & special features of GSM, IS–95, WCDMA.
Multicarrier Communication: Data transmission using multiple carriers, concept of OFDM for multicarrier communication.
Multiple Antennas and Space-Time Communications: Concept of Multi Input Multi Output Antenna system, Narrow band MIMO model, MIMO channel
capacity, MIMO Diversity gain, Space time Modulation.
Text Books:
1.Wireless Communication Principle & Practice – T. S. Rappaport, 2nd edition, Pearson Education, 2012. 2. Wireless Communication – Andrea Goldsmith – Cambridge
Press, 1st Edition, 2005.
Reference Books:
1. Wireless communications – A. F. Molisch-Wiley Publication, 2nd Edition 2010 2. Wireless and Cellular Communication –W. C. Y. Lee – McGraw Hill, 3rd Edition, 2006.
3. Mobile Communication – J. Schiller – Pearson Education, 2nd Edition, 2010. 4. Communication Systems – S. Haykin – John Wiley , 4th Edition, 2001.
5. Fundamentals of Wireless Communication – D. Tse & P. Viswanath –Cambridge, 2010.
 Lesson Plan
EC 3036 Cellular Communication
6th Semester (B. Tech.) 3-0-0 3Cr
Lesson Plan
Department / Program : SoEE (ETCE)
Academic Session : Spring 2020-2021
Subject No : EC-3036 (3 Cr)
Semester : 6th Semester
Subject Name : Cellular Communication
Topic Coverage No. of Books Mapping with Course
Lectures Outcome
Cellular 1. Cellular concept, system architecture, highlights of different generations (from 1G to 7G) of 12(1-12) T1, T2, R2 CO1
Communication wireless communication, Spectrum allocation, Frequency reuse.
Principle 2. Channel assignment strategies (FCA, DCA), Co-channel interference & system capacity,
Adjacent channel interference, Channel sharing & Channel borrowing, Handoff, handoff
structure, practical handoff consideration, prioritizing handoff, Roaming.
3. Power Control, Near – Far Problem, System capacity, Improvement Techniques: Cell splitting,
Sectoring, Microcell Zone concept.
RF Propagation 1. Free space propagation mechanisms (qualitative), Large scale fading, Diffraction & Scattering by 8(13-20) T1, T2, R2 CO2
& Multi-path high – raise structures (qualitative), shadowing and path loss (log-distance path loss models for
Model indoor and outdoor propagation, Okumura model, Hata model).
2. Small scale fading, Doppler and time-delay spread, coherence bandwidth and coherence time,
ISI, Types of Small – scale fading. PDFs for Rayleigh fading, Rician Fading (no derivation). Level
crossing rate & Average duration of fade.
Equalization and 1. Fundamentals of Equalization, Linear and non-linear equalizers (qualitative), Adaptive equalizer 5(21-25) T1, R1, R2, CO3
Diversity (Zero forcing algorithm). R4
Techniques 2. Types of diversity (space, time, frequency, polarization), Selective combining, Switched
combining, Maximal ratio combining and Equal-gain combining techniques, Rake receiver.
 Lesson Plan
Multiple Access 1. Multiplexing and multiple access, FDM, TDM, Efficiency of TDM system, 8(26-33) T1, R2, R3 CO4
Techniques TDD and FDD techniques, Description of FDMA, TDMA, CDMA.
2. Spread spectrum technique, DS-SS, FH-SS, Description and special
features of GSM and IS – 95, WCDMA
Multicarrier 1. Data transmission using multiple carriers, Basics of MC-CDMA. 5(34-38) T1, T2, R2 CO5
Communication 2. Concept of OFDM for multicarrier communication, PAPR.
Multiple Antennas and 1. Concept of Multi Input Multi Output Antenna system, Narrow band MIMO 7(39-45) R3, R4, R5 CO6
Space-Time model, MIMO channel capacity, MIMO Diversity gain, Space time
Communications Modulation, Concept of Massive MIMO.

Text Books:
1. Wireless Communication Principle & Practice – T.S.Rappaport – 2nd edition 2012 - Pearson Education.
2. Wireless Communication – Andrea Goldsmith – Cambridge Press, 1st Edition, 2005.
Reference Books:
1. Wireless communications – A. F. Molisch-Wiley Publication,2nd Edition 2010
2. Wireless and Cellular Communication –W. C. Y. Lee – McGraw Hill, 3rd Edition, 2006.
3. Mobile Communication – J. Schiller – Pearson Education, 2nd Edition, 2010.
4. Communication Systems – S. Haykin – John Wiley , 4th Edition, 2001.
5. Fundamentals of Wireless Communication – D. Tse & P. Viswanath –Cambrige, 2010.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Module 1
Cellular Communication Principle
 Generations
❖ 1G: Analog 25 or 30KHz FM, voice only, mostly vehicular communication [IMTS, AMPS etc.]. Data
rate is up to 2.5 Kbps.

❖ 2G: Narrowband TDMA and CDMA, voice and low bit-rate data, portable units [GSM, D-AMPS,
TDMA, CDMA-1 etc.]. Data rate is up to 64 Kbps.

❖ 2.5G: Increased data transmission capabilities, web browsing in addition to voice [GPRS, CDMA-
2000, EDGE].

❖ 3G: Wideband TDMA and CDMA, voice and high bit-rate data, portable units [W-CDMA, UMTS etc.].
Data rate is 125Kbps to 2Mbps.

❖ 3.5G (Beyond 3G):Technologies beyond the well defined 3G wireless/mobile technologies. HSDPA
(High-speed downlink packet access) and HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access
 Generations
❖ 4G & Beyond: Broadband, High Speed data, Multimedia Services, Mobility, Freedom of Movement, No loss of
Connectivity, Anytime Anywhere Mobile Services (MANET based). Data rate is up to 1Gbps.

❖ 5G: There is no particular specifications for 5G, but in some research papers and in some projects the term 5G is
used which aims to provide service by 2020. People says 5G is REAL wireless communication with almost no
limit.

❖ Some reports say that Samsung has tested 5G network successfully with 1Gbps speed and aims to extend up to
10 Gbps. 5G technology includes camera, MP3 recording, video player, large phone memory, dialing speed,
audio player.

❖ 5G technology will provide to access any country’s mobile network using a local cellular phone. Perhaps 5G
phone will be millimeterwave phone.

❖ Beyond 4G and 5G will develop smarter and far less expensive wireless infrastructure by means of smaller,
lighter antennas with directional beamforming USING UNCROWDED MILLIMETER-WAVE SPECTRUM, where
50 to 100 times more user capacity is readily available.

❖ Sixth Generation (6G): In 6G services, satellite mobile will be used with high data rate.

❖ Seventh Generation (7G): In 7G services, satellite mobile will be used with high data rate and with international
roaming using satellite.
Mobile Cellular System
 Cellular System

❑In a cellular system, in a small geographical area

(say, of 1.5 km radius), called a cell, the
telecommunication and multimedia services are
provided by a base station (BS).

❑Each base station is allocated by a group of radio

channels in the cell for providing service to the users.

❑The radio coverage of a cell is called “footprint”.

❑Users uses mobile hand set (This is known as

mobile station or MS) or any other hand-held
devices, like, laptop etc.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Cellular Concept, Cellular System Architecture
❑Selecting or allocating a group of channels are done by a strategy, called frequency reuse.

❑In frequency reuse, same frequency is used after a certain distance based on minimum interference.

❑A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two or more connected parties or
devices that can communicate with one another in both directions.

❑In a full-duplex system, both parties can communicate with each other simultaneously. An example of a full-
duplex device is old telephone service, parties at both ends of a call can speak and be heard by the other party
simultaneously.

❑In a half-duplex or semi-duplex system, both parties can communicate with each other, but not simultaneously;
the communication is one direction at a time. An example of a half-duplex device is a walkie-talkie.

❑ Frequency Division Duplex (FDD): In FDD, two different carrier frequencies, one from each band, are assigned
to a user; one carrier frequency for transmission from the user (also known as upstream, return link, or uplink)
and one carrier frequency for reception by the user (also known as downstream, forward link, or downlink).

❑Time Division Duplex (TDD): TDD allows uplink and downlink to use the entire frequency spectrum, but in
different time slots. Time is divided up into short slots and some are designated for uplink while others are
designated for downlink. TDD enables asymmetric traffic and time-varying uplink and downlink demands. The main
drawbacks of TDD are latency (as information can only be sent when a channel becomes available)
 Cell Structure
❑Hexagonal cell shape is perfect over square or
triangular cell shapes in cellular architecture because it cover an
entire area without overlapping, that is hexagonal cells can cover
the entire geographical region without any gaps.

❑Frequency reuse and cell splitting are two main concepts

in cellular networks which can be explained very easily using Hexagonal cell
hexagonal cell structure.

❑Theory is based on Circular cell. Practical cells are neither

hexagonal nor circular.

Non-overlapping Overlapping
Circular cell Circular cell

Practical cell

11
Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni
Frequency Channels & Frequency Reuse

Frequency Reuse
 Frequency Reuse
❑Consider a cellular system has a ‘S’ duplex channels for the users and ‘k’
number of channels are allocated in each cell (k<S). Then for ‘N’ number of
cells, total available channels are S=kN.

❑The ‘N’ number of cells which use the complete set of available frequencies
is called a cluster.

❑If a cluster is replicated ‘M’ times within the system, the total number of
duplex channels (C), which may be consider as the capacity of the system is
C = MkN = MS.

❑‘N’ is called the cluster size, and 1/N is known as frequency reuse factor,
since in each cell within a cluster 1/N number of channels can be assigned.

❑Number of cells per cluster satisfy the equation N =i2 + ij + j2, (i, j are
positive integers), for Hexagonal cell structures.

❑If, i=1, j=1, then smallest value of ‘N’ is N=3.

❑If, i=1, j=2, then N=7. This is known as 7-cell frequency reuse system in a
cellular network.
Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni
 Frequency Reuse Distance

❑The minimum distance which allows the same frequency to

be reused will depend on many factors, like, number of co-
channel cells in the vicinity of the centre cell, the type of
geographic terrain contour, the antenna height and the
transmitted power of each cell.

❑The frequency reuse distance ‘D’ can be determined from

D= √(3N) R , where ‘N’ is the frequency reuse pattern and ‘R’
is the radius of each cell.

❑The co-channel reuse ratio is defined as Q= D/R = √(3N) .

 Channel Allocation/Assignment Strategies
❑Channel Allocation (Assignment) means to allocate the available
channels to the cells in a cellular system.

❑Channels, also known as radio channels, are assigned to the

active users based on some strategies.

❑Channels in a wireless communication system typically consist

of time slots, frequency bands and/or CDMA pseudo noise
sequences

❑Channel Allocation Strategies are designed in such a way that

there is efficient use of frequencies, time slots and bandwidth.

❑There are three major categories for assigning these channels to

cells (or base-stations). They are:

❖Fixed Channel Allocation/Assignment (FCA).

❖Dynamic Channel Allocation/Assignment (DCA).

❖Hybrid Channel Allocation which is a combination of the first two

methods.
Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni
 Fixed Channel Allocation/Assignment (FCA)

❑Fixed Channel Allocation (FCA): Fixed Channel

Allocation is a strategy in which fixed number of channels or
voice channels are allocated to the cells. Once the channels
are allocated to the specific cells then they cannot be
changed.

❑In FCA channels are allocated in a manner that

maximize Frequency reuse.

❑Due to short term fluctuations in the traffic, FCA scheme is

not able to maintain high quality of service and capacity as
per traffic demand.
 Dynamic Channel Allocation/Assignment (DCA)

❑Dynamic Channel Allocation (DCA): Dynamic Channel allocation is a strategy in

which channels are not permanently allocated to the cells.

❑When a User makes a call request then Base Station (BS) send that request to the
Mobile Station Center (MSC) for the allocation of channels or voice channels. This way
the likelihood of blocking calls is reduced. As traffic increases more channels are
assigned and vice-versa.

❑In Centralized DCA, only one controller under one MTSO controls the channel
allocation in different cells.

❑In Distributed DCA, number of controllers under one MTSO can control the channel
allocation in different cells.

❑Hybrid Channel Allocation (HCA): Hybrid Channel Allocation is a combination of

both Fixed Channel Allocation (FCA) and Dynamic Channel Allocation (DCA). The total
number of channels or voice channels are divided into fixed and dynamic sets.
 Comparison Between FCA and DCA

FCA DCA
❑Radio equipment covers all channels assigned to the cell ❑Radio equipment covers the temporary channel assigned
to the cell
❑ Independent channel control
❑ Fully centralized or fully distributed control dependent on
❑ Low computational effort the scheme

❑ Low call set up delay ❑ High computational effort

❑ Low implementation complexity ❑ Moderate to high call set up delay

❑ Complex, labour intensive frequency planning ❑ Moderate to high implementation complexity

❑ Low signalling load ❑ No frequency planning

❑ Centralized control ❑ Moderate to high signalling load

❑ Centralized, distributed control depending on the scheme

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Channel Sharing & Channel Borrowing

❑In Channel Borrowing schemes, cell (acceptor cell) that has used all its
nominal channels can borrow free channels from its neighboring cell (donor
cell) to accommodate new calls.

❑Borrowing can be done from an adjacent cell which has largest number of
free channels (borrowing from the richest).

❑Select the first free channel found for borrowing using a search algorithm
(borrow first available scheme)

❑In Channel Sharing scheme, from the total number of allocated

channels, two cells have agreement to use some common channels.

❑For example, suppose both the two cells have 50 channels each. Then
from those 50 channels, cells have agreement to use some specific 10
common channels from both the cells. Then each cell has 40 + 20=60
channels for use.
 Handoff (Handover) Strategies
❑Handoff Management is the process of initiating and ensuring a
seamless and lossless handoff of a mobile terminal from the region
covered by one base station to another base station

❑When a mobile user (MS) is moving from one cell to another cell
while conversation is going on then MSC handover the controlling
charge to the neighbour cell. This is known as Handoff or Handover.

❑Handoff operation involves the identifying the new base station and
allocation of new voice and control signals for the MS.

❑An optimum signal level must be specified at which handoff process

will be initiated.

❑The time over which a call may be maintained within a cell without
Handoff is called Dwell time. The Dwell time of a particular user
depends on many factors, like, propagation, interference, distance
between user and base station etc.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Handoff (Handover) Strategies

❑Figure (a) shows that the handoff is not made even the
signal level is below the threshold level which is “dropped
call” and this may happen when MSC takes excessive
time to assign a handoff (due to the unavailability of
channel in busy traffic condition) or when the threshold is
set too small for the handoff time in the system.

❑In the 1st Generation analog cellular system, the signal

strength measurements are done by the base stations
and supervised by the MSC.

❑This is done by the measurement of Radio Signal

Strength Indicators (RSSI) by locator receiver, control
by the MSC.

Handoff at Cell Boundary

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Handoff (Handover) Strategies
❑There are numerous methods of performing Handoff.

❑Three basic methods of handoff are: Network-controlled handoff, Mobile-

assisted handoff and Mobile-controlled handoff.

❑Network-controlled Handoff: In Network-controlled handoff protocal,

network takes a decision based on the measurements of the RSSI of MSs at a
number of BSs. It takes about 100-200 ms. 1st generation analog systems, like,
AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Systems), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone)
etc.

❑Mobile-assisted Handoff: In the 2nd Generation digital TDMA system, hand

off decisions are mobile assisted. In mobile assisted handoff (MAHO), every
mobile station (MS) measures the received power from the surrounding base
stations and continually reports to the serving base station and network takes
the decision of handoff.

•MAHO is initiated when received power from any of the neighbour base
station exceeds the received power from the serving base station.

❑Mobile-controlled Handoff: In Mobile-controlled handoff, MS completely

controls the handoff process by measuring signal strength from the
Handoff at Cell Boundary
surrounding BSs. When signal strength of serving BS is lower than the another
BS by a threshold, handoff decision takes place.
 Soft Handoff, Hard Handoff, Horizontal Handoff, Vertical Handoff
❑Hard Handoff: If the channel used by the MS in source cell-1 is not available in the
target cell-2, then channel is changed for that MS. This is Hard handoff and it is also
known as break-before-make.

❑Soft Handoff: If the channel used by the MS in source cell-1 is available in the target
cell-2, then channel is NOT changed for that MS. This is Hard handoff and it is also
known as make-before-break.

❑Horizontal Handoff: Horizontal handoff is the basic handoff due to the movement of
the MS over the terrain horizontally from one cell to other and in this case IP address
changes without changing access technology, network interface and QoS parameters.

❑Vertical Handoff: Vertical handover takes place when the mobile node changes
access technology and access networks along with the change of IP address. In such
cases, the main issue is to maintain the on going service even when there is a change
not only in IP address but also in network interfaces, QoS parameters.

❑Inter-cell Handoff: In Inter-cell handoff, handover is initiated when MS moves from

one cell to other.

❑Intra-cell Handoff: In Intra-cell handoff, the handoff process switches a call in

progress from one physical channel of a cell to another physical channel of the same
cell.
 Prioritized Handoff
❑Handoff failure rate can be reduced by providing Handoff priority to the user based on some strategies.

❑In a heavy traffic condition, handoff minimizing algorithms show poor performance. In this case handoff
priority can improve seamless connectivity.

❑Two basic methods for priority handoff are 1. Guard Channel 2. Queuing Method.

❑Guard Channel Method: In this case, a fraction of total available channels in a cell is reserved
exclusively for handoff requests from ongoing calls. This method has the disadvantage of reducing the total
carried traffic. But guard channel method offer efficient spectrum utilization when dynamic channel
allocation scheme is used.

❑Queuing Method: Queuing of handoff requests can decrease the probability of forced termination of a
call due to lack of available channels. Queuing is a way of delaying handoff. The MSC queues the handoff
requests instead of denying access if the candidate BS is busy.

▪Queuing is possible because there is a sufficient time interval between the time of signal level drops below
the threshold level and the time the call is terminated due to insufficient signal level. The probability of a
successful handoff can be improved by queuing handoff requests at the cost of increased new call blocking
probability.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Practical Handoff Considerations

❑In practical cellular systems, several problems arise when attempting to design for a wide range of mobile
velocities.

❑In practical scenario, problems occur because of a large range of mobile velocities (pedestrians to high
speed vehicles).

❑Load of MSC becomes heavy when high speed users are passed between very small cells.

❑ Although the cellular concept clearly provides additional capacity through the addition of cell sites, in
practice, it is difficult for cellular service providers to obtain new physical cell site locations in urban areas.

❑ Umbrella cell concept may be used for high speed and low speed traffics by dividing the total
geographical area into a large cell and into a small cell.

❑In Umbrella cell concept, multiple antennas are used at different heights to cover Large cell and Small cell
and the power is controlled to serve in these areas.
 Practical Handoff Consideration
❑Large cell for high speed traffics (fewer handoff) and Small cell for
low speed traffic.

❑The umbrella cell approach ensures that the number of handoffs is

minimized for high speed users and provides additional microcell
channels for pedestrian users.

❑Cell Dragging: Cell dragging in microcellular zone results from

pedestrian users that provide a very strong signal to the base station,
mainly, when there is a line-of-sight (LOS) radio path between the
subscriber and the base station.

▪As the user travels away from the BS at a very slow speed, the
average signal strength does not decay rapidly. Even when the user
has traveled well beyond the designed range of the cell, the received
signal at the base station may be above the handoff threshold, thus a
handoff may not be made.

▪This creates a potential interference and traffic management

problem, since the user has meanwhile traveled deep within a
neighboring cell. To solve the cell dragging problem, handoff
thresholds and radio coverage parameters must be adjusted
carefully.
 Roaming
❑Roaming is the ability for a mobile user to access cellular services while travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the
home network, by means of using a network of another operator.

❑The term ‘Roaming’ is derived from Real-time Optimally Adapting Mesh (ROAM).

❑Service providers decide roaming strategies (call transmitting charge, call receiving charge etc.)

❑Roaming can be either national roaming or international roaming. In National roaming the mobile users make use of another
network in geographical areas where there own operator does not have coverage.

❑ International roaming is used when mobile subscribers travel abroad & use the network of an operator in the foreign country.

❑Roaming services are usually included in user service packages for use outside local networking zones. Services are either free
or billed according to local area rates.

Purulia, WB Ranchi, Jharkhand

 Power Control for Reducing Interference

❑In practical cellular radio and personal communication systems the power levels
transmitted by every subscriber unit are under constant control by the serving base stations.

❑This is done to ensure that each mobile transmits the smallest power necessary to
maintain a good quality link on the reverse channel.

❑Power control increases battery life for the subscriber unit and also reduces the reverse
channel signal-to-interference ration (S/I) in the system.

❑Different types algorithms are involved in power control including optimization theory,
control theory, game theory etc.

❑Power control is especially important for CDMA spread spectrum systems that
allow every user in every cell to share the same radio channel.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Near End-to-Far End Problem//Near-Far Problem
❑The near–far problem (also known as hearability problem) is the effect
of a strong signal from a near signal source in making it hard for a receiver
to hear a weaker signal from a further source due to adjacent-channel
interference, co-channel interference, distortion, etc.

❑Near-far problem is one of the major problems that affects mobile

communications badly.

❑Suppose two MSs are simultaneously transmitting signals to one base

station, where nearer MS is at a distance d2 and remote MS at a distance
d1 from BS. Transmitted power of both the mobiles are same.

▪The stronger received signal by the nearer mobile will mask the
weaker signal of the remote mobile.

▪Near-end-to-far-end Ratio
= [Path loss due to d2 (near end)/ Path loss due to d1 (far end)]
Where desired signal is considered for mobile far from the BS and
interfering signal for nearer mobile.

❑To reduce the near-end-to-far-end interference problem, two mobile

units mast be served by two different frequencies with wide separation.
 Trunking & Grade of Service (GoS)
❑The concept of trunking allows a large number of users to share the relatively small number of channels
in a cell by providing access to each user, on demand, from a pool of available channels. In a trunked radio
system, 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 channels.

❑Definitions of Parameters Related to the Trunking Theory:

▪Set-up Time: The time required to allocate a trunked radio channel to a requesting user.

▪Blocked Call: Call which cannot be completed at time of request, due to congestion. Also referred to as a lost
call.

▪Holding Time: Average duration of a typical call. Denoted by H (in seconds).

▪Traffic Intensity: Measure of channel time utilization, which is the average channel occupancy measured in
Erlangs. This is a dimensionless quantity and may be used to measure the time utilization of single or multiple
channels. Denoted by A.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Trunking & Grade of Service (GoS)

▪Load: Traffic intensity across the entire trunked radio system, measured in Erlangs.

▪Erlang: One Erlang ( after the name of Erlang, a Danish mathematician) represents the amount of
traffic intensity carried by a channel that is completely occupied (i.e. 1 call-hour per hour or 1 call-
minute per minute). For example, a radio channel that is occupied for thirty minutes during an hour
carries 0.5 Erlangs of traffic.

▪Grade of Service (GoS): A measure of congestion which is specified as the probability of a call being
blocked (for Erlang B), or the probability of a call being delayed beyond a certain amount of time (for
Erlang C).

▪Request Rate: The average number of call requests per unit time. Denoted by λ seconds-1.
 Trunking & Grade of Service (GoS)
❑ Grade of Service (GoS): The grade of service (GOS) is a measure of the ability of a user to access a trunked
system during the busiest hour.

❑It is the wireless designer's job to estimate the maximum required capacity and to allocate the proper number
of channels in order to meet the GoS. GoS is typically given as the likelihood that a call is blocked, or the
likelihood of a call experiencing a delay greater than a certain queuing time.

❑The traffic intensity offered by each user is equal to the call request rate λ multiplied by the holding time H. That
is, each user generates a traffic intensity of Au Erlangs given by, Au = λ H

For a system containing U users and an unspecified number of channels, the total offered traffic intensity A, is
given as A = Au U

Again, in a C channel trunked system, if the traffic is equally distributed among the channels, then the traffic
intensity per channel, is given as Ac = Au U/C

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Trunking & Grade of Service (GoS)
❑ There are two types of trunked systems which are commonly used.

▪The first type offers no queuing for call requests. That is, for every user who requests service, it is assumed
there is no setup time and the user is given immediate access to a channel if one is available. If no channels are
available, the requesting user is blocked without access and is free to try again later. This type of trunking is
called blocked calls cleared and is represented by Erlang B formula. The Erlang B formula determines the
probability that a call is blocked and is a measure of the GOS for a trunked system which provides no
queuing for blocked calls.

❑Erlang B formula (also known as the blocked calls cleared formula): The Erlang B fonnula determines the
probability that a call is blocked and is a measure of the GOS for a trunked system which provides no queuing for
blocked calls. The Erlang B formula is

where C is the number of trunked channels offered by a trunked radio system and A is the total offered traffic.
 Trunking & Grade of Service (GoS)
▪The second kind of trunked system is one in which a queue 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. This
type of trunking is called Blocked Calls Delayed, and its measure of GOS is defined as the probability that a
call is blocked after waiting a specific length of time in the queue.

▪To find the GOS, it is first necessary to find the likelihood that a call is initially denied access to the system. The
likelihood of a call not having immediate access to a channel is determined by the Erlang C formula given as

❑Trunking efficiency: Trunking Efficiency is a measure of the number of users which can be offered a particular
GOS with a particular configuration of fixed channels. The way in which channels are grouped can substantially
alter the number of users handled by a trunked system. It should be clear that the allocation of channels in a
trunked radio system has a major impact on overall system capacity.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Interference & System Capacity
❑Interference is the major limiting factor in the performance of cellular radio systems. Sources of interference
include another mobile in the same cell, a call in progress in a neighboring cell, other base stations
operating in the same frequency band, or any non-cellular system which leaks energy into the cellular
frequency band.

❑Interference on voice channels causes cross talk, where the subscriber hears interference in the background due
to an undesired transmission.

❑The two major types of system-generated cellular interference are co-channel interference and adjacent
channel interference.

❑Co-channel interference is interference between same frequency bands and mainly happens from neighbour
cells.

❑Adjacent channel interference is out-of-band interference and mainly happens from the same cell.
 Co-channel Interference & System Capacity
❑Frequency reuse implies that in a given coverage area there are several cells that
use the same set of frequencies. These cells are called co-channel cells, and the
interference between signals from these cells is called co-channel interference.

❑To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cells must be physically separated

by a minimum distance to provide sufficient isolation due to propagation.

❑When thesize of each cell is approximately the same, and the base stations
transmit the same power, the co-channel interference ratio is independent of the
transmitted power and becomes a function of the radius of the cell (R) and the
distance between centers of the nearest co-channel cells (D).

❑The parameter Q [=D/R= √(3N)], called the co-channel reuse ratio, is related to
the cluster size and is a factor to reduce co-channel interference. ‘N’ is the
frequency reuse pattern.

❑A small value of Q provides larger capacity since the cluster size N is small,
whereas a large value of Q improves the transmission quality, due to a smaller
level of co-channel interference. A trade-off must be made between these two
objectives in actual cellular design.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Co-channel Interference & System Capacity
❑Number of cells per cluster satisfy the equation N =i2 + ij + j2, (i, j are positive integers), for
Hexagonal cell structures.

❑If i=I,j=l, N=3, Q= 3, If i=I,j=2, N=7, Q= 4.58, If i=2,j=2, N=12, Q= 6

❑Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells. Then, the signal-to-interference ratio (S/I
or SIR) for a mobile receiver which monitors a forward channel can be expressed as

❑Where S is the desired signal power from the desired base station and Ii is the interference
power caused by the i-th interfering co-channel cell base station.

❑The average received power Pr at a distance d from the transmitting antenna is approximated
by

or

❑where P0 is the power received at a close-in reference point in the far field region of the
antenna at a small distance d from the transmitting antenna, and n is the path loss exponent.
 Co-channel Interference & System Capacity
❑If Di is the distance of the i-th interferer from the mobile, the received power at a given mobile due to the i-th
interfering cell will be proportional to (Di)-n. In a urban cellular system, n ranges from 2 to 4.

❑When the transmit power of each base station is equal and the path loss exponent is the same throughout the
coverage area, S/I for a mobile can be approximated as

❑Considering only the first layer of interfering cells, if all the interfering base stations are equidistant from the
desired base station and if this distance is equal to the distance D between cell centers, then above equation
simplifies to

❑This equation relates S/I to the cluster size N, which in turn determines the overall capacity of the system.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Co-channel Interference & System Capacity
❑From Figure, for a 7-cell cluster, with the mobile unit is at the cell
boundary, the mobile is a distance D — R from the two nearest co-
channel interfering cells and approximately D + R/2, D and D — R/2, and
D + R from the other interfering cells in the first tier.

❑Assuming n=4, the signal-to-interference ratio for the worst case can be
closely approximated as

❑In terms of the co-channel reuse ratio Q (=D/R), above equation

becomes
 Adjacent Channel Interference
❑Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal is called adjacent
channel interference. Adjacent channel interference results from imperfect receiver filters which allow nearby
frequencies to leak into the passband.

❑The problem can be particularly serious if an adjacent channel user is transmitting in very close range to a
subscriber's receiver, while the receiver attempts to receive a base station on the desired channel. This is referred
to as the near-far effect, where a nearby transmitter (which may or may not be of the same type as that used by
the cellular system) captures the receiver of the subscriber.

❑If the frequency reuse factor is small, the separation between adjacent channels may not be sufficient to
keep the adjacent channel interference level within tolerable limits.

❑For example, if a mobile is 20 times as close to the base station as another mobile and has energy spill out of its
passband, the signal-to-interference ratio for the weak mobile (before receiver filtering) is approximately

S/I = (20)-n
If, path loss exponent n=4, then S/I = -52 dB

❑In practice, each base station receiver is preceeded by a high Q cavity filter in order to reject adjacent channel
interference.
Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni
 Improving Capacity In Cellular Systems
❑As the demand for wireless service increases, the number of channels assigned to a cell eventually becomes
insufficient to support the required number of users.

❑At this point, cellular design techniques are needed to provide more channels per unit coverage area.
Techniques such as cell splitting, sectoring, and coverage zone approaches are used in practice to expand
the capacity of cellular systems.

❑Cell splitting allows an orderly growth of the cellular system. While cell splitting increases the number of base
stations in order to increase capacity.

❑Sectoring uses directional antennas to further control the interference and frequency reuse of channels.

❑The microcell zone concept distributes the coverage of a cell and extends the cell boundary to hard-to-reach
places.

❑Sectoring and zone microcells rely on base station antenna placements to improve capacity by reducing co-
channel interference.

❑Cell splitting and zone microcell techniques do not suffer the trunking inefficiencies experienced by sectored
cells, and enable the base station to oversee all handoff chores related to the microcells, thus reducing the
computational load at the MSC.
 Cell Splitting
❑Cell splitting is the process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller
cells, each with its own base station and a corresponding reduction in
antenna height and transmitter power.

❑Cell splitting increases the capacity of a cellular system since it

increases the number of times that channels are reused.

❑By defining new cells which have a smaller radius than the original cells
and by installing these smaller cells between the existing cells, capacity
increases due to the additional number of channels per unit area.

❑In Figure, the base stations are placed at corners of the cells, and the
area served by base station A is assumed to be saturated with traffic and
by cell splitting new cells should be generated.

❑The original base station A has been surrounded by six new cell base
stations. Here, the smaller cells were added in such a way as to preserve
the frequency reuse plan of the system.

❑For example, the base station labeled G was placed half way between
two larger stations utilizing the same channel set G. This is also the case
for the other cells in the figure.
 Cell Splitting
❑ In this case, the radius of each new microcell is half that of the original cell.

❑For the new cells to be smaller in size, the transmit power of these cells must be reduced. The transmit power of
the new cells with radius half that of the original cells can be found by examining the received power at the new and
old cell boundaries and setting them equal to each other.

❑If Pt1 and Pt2 are the transmit powers of the larger and smaller cell base stations, respectively, and ii is the path
loss exponent, then received power Pr at the new and old cell boundaries become

❑If path loss factor , n=4, then

In other words, the transmit power must be reduced by 16 (12 dB) in order to fill in the original coverage area with
new smaller cells, while maintaining the S/I requirement.

❑In practice, not all cells are split at the same time. different cell sizes will exist simultaneously. In such situations,
special care needs to be taken to keep the distance between co-channel cells at the required minimum, and hence
channel assignments become more complicated.

❑This splitting process continues until all the channels in an area are used in the lower power group, at which point
cell splitting is complete within the region. Antenna downtilting, which deliberately focuses radiated energy from the
base station towards the ground, is often used to limit the radio coverage of newly formed cells.
 Sectoring of Cell
❑The technique for decreasing co-channel interference and thus
increasing system capacity by using directional antennas is called
sectoring, a cellular zone is divided into a number of smaller sectors.

❑Sectors of 1200, 900, 600, 300: Known as 3-sector, 4-sector, 6-sector

and 12-sector cells respectively. 3-sector cells are widely used.

❑ By using directional antennas, a given cell will receive interference

and transmit with only a fraction of the available co-channel cells.
Therefore, sectoring reduces interference.

❑By using sector cell, frequency utilization becomes better because

if an omnidirectional cell has F number of frequency channels, in a 3-
sector antenna using directional antennas frequency channels
becomes 3F.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Microcell Concept
❑The increased number of handoffs required when sectoring is
employed results in an increased load on the switching and
control link elements of the mobile system.

❑The solution of this problem is to divide a cellular zone into

smaller zones having each of these zone Tx/Rx systems.

❑ In this scheme (as in figure) each of the three zone sites are
connected to a single base station and share the same radio
equipment.

❑The zones are connected by coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, or

microwave link to the base station. Multiple zones and a single
base station make up a cell.

❑As a mobile travels within the cell, it is served by the zone with the
strongest signal. This approach is superior to sectoring since
antennas are placed at the outer edges of the cell, and any base
station channel may be assigned to any zone by the base station.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni

 Microcell Concept
❑ The coverage area of a Macrocell may be from 10 km to 20 km. Macrocells are found in
rural areas or along highways.

❑The coverage area of a Microcell is from 1 km to 2 km. Over a smaller cell area,
a Microcell is used in a densely populated urban area.

❑Coverage area of a Picocell is 200 meters or less, Picocells are used for areas smaller
than Microcells, such as a large office, a mall, or train station.

❑A Femtocell is of the order of 10 meters. In 3GPP terminology, a Home NodeB (HNB) is a

3G Femtocell. A Home eNodeB (HeNB) is an LTE 4G Femtocell.

Notes of Dr JS Roy, KIIT Uni