1.

1 Cellular Concept SYSTEM DESIGN

FUNDAMENTALS

By: Dr. Saylee Gharge

POINTS TO Discuss

⮚ Simplex, half Duplex and Full Duplex

⮚ FDD and TDD
⮚ Mobile Terminologies
⮚ Paging systems
⮚ Cordless Telephone systems
 New phone? What should we check?
• Here's what you should pay attention to.
 The display- If you're like most of us, going to spend hours each day staring at your smartphone
screen. .
 The battery- Read reviews or talk to people who already own the phone you're interested in buying. ...
 The storage
 The camera
 The age
 The company's reputation
 SAR value : SAR stands for Specific Absorption Rate which is the unit of measurement for the
amount of RF energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone.
 To check for the SAR value, Dial *#07# USSD code in your mobile phone.
 1.6W/Kg is the threshold value for the radiation level.
 If SAR value is less than 1.6 W/Kg, It is ok to use that phone.
 If SAR values exceeds this threshold limit, consider take necessary steps to avoid radiation affects.
The best phones you can buy today

1.Apple iPhone 13.

2.Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus.
3.Apple iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. Best phone for photography and
video in 2022. ...
4.Apple iPhone 13 Mini.
5.Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
6.Google Pixel 6.
7.Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3.
8.Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Operating Systems for Smartphones

• Many types of mobile operating systems (OS) are available for smartphones, including
Android, BlackBerry OS, webOS, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile Professional (touch
screen), Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen), and Bada. The most popular are
the Apple iPhone, and ofc Android.
• To check your Android phone's specifications, we're using an app called "Inware."
• It's a free app you can get from the Google Play Store, and it's the best and easiest way to
look at all of your phone's specifications in great detail.
• Open the Google Play Store. Search for Inware.
Examples of operating systems on Android
Terminology
 Mobile:
Any radio terminal that could be moved during operation.
(earlier Definition)
 A Radio terminal that is attached to a high speed mobile
platform.
 Portable: A radio terminal that can be handheld and used by
someone at walking speed. (e.g. walkie talkie, cordless)
 Subscriber: A user who pays subscription charges for using
Mobile communication system. (e.g. mobile user, portable user)
Terminology
 Base Station (BS):
mobile communicates to fixed BS which are connected to a commercial
power source and a fixed backbone network.
BS consists of a transceiver and channel multiplier with antennas mounted
on the tower.
BS located at the center or on the edge of a coverage area.
Mobile Station (MS) or Subscriber Unit:
MS communicates to BS which in turn communicates to a desired user at the
other end.
MS consists of transceiver, control circuitry, duplexer and an antenna.
 Terminology
Cellular Radiotelephony:
concept of breaking a coverage zone into small cells
and reusing the channel
Duopoly:
Splitting of radio channels equally between two
carriers.
Techno politics:
Fundamental driver in the evolution of new technology
and services
Radio spectrum usage is controlled by governments, not
by service providers or equipment manufacturer or
researcher.
 Classification of Mobile Radio
Transmission System:

1. Simplex:
Unidirectional, eg PAGER

2. Half Duplex:
Non-simultaneous, eg
Walkie talkie (push –talk,
release - Listen)

3. Full Duplex:
bidirectional simultaneous,
eg telephone
FDD & TDD
• Frequency Division Duplexing
(FDD):
 Provides simultaneous radio
transmission channels for subscriber
and the base station.
 At BS- two separate antennas for two
separate channels.
 At MS – a single antenna is used for
both, Duplexer is used
 5% isolation between channels
 Forward Channel : From BS to MS
 Reverse Channel : From MS to BS
Time Division Duplexing
(TDD)
 A portion of time – to transmit from
BS to MS
A portion of time – to receive from
MS to BS
 TDD possible with digital
transmission format and digital
modulation
 Used for Indoor or small area
coverage (some km)
 Paging System
 Simplex Communication
 A communication system that send brief messages to a subscriber.
 Message may be a numeric, an alphanumeric or a voice message.
 Used to notify a subscriber of the need
to call a particular telephone number OR PAGER
travel to a known location to receive further instruction.
 Can be used for news headlines, stock quotations and fax.
 A message is sent to a paging system subscriber via the Paging System Access Number
(usually a telephone number) with a telephone keypad or modem.
 The issued message - PAGE.
 Limited converge range - 2 to 5 Km.
 It may confined to within individual buildings.
 Wide Area Paging System
Wide area paging system
can provide worldwide
coverage.
Wide area Paging System
consists of a network of
telephone lines, many BS
transmitter and large radio
towers.
Simulcasting: large radio
towers simultaneously
broadcast a page from each
BS
Cordless Telephone System
• Full Duplex Communication
• It uses radio to connect a portable handset to a dedicated BS, which is
then connected to a dedicated telephone line with a specific telephone
number on PSTN.

1G cordless : few tens of meter coverage, in home use

2G cordless: combined with Paging receiver, coverage few hundred meters
 Wireless Communication Systems Definitions

Control channel: radio channels used for

transmission of call set up, call request, call
initiation and other beacons or control
purposes.
Handoff: the process of transferring a MS
from one channel or BS to another channel.
Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or Mobile
Telephone Switching Office (MTSO): MSC
coordinates the routing calls in a large service
area. MSC connects the cellular BS and the
mobiles to the PSTN.
 Wireless Communication Systems Definitions

PAGE: a brief message which is broadcasted over the entire

service area, usually in a simulcast fashion by many BS at the
same time.
Roamer: a MS which operates in a service area other than that
from which service has been subscribed.
 Transceiver: A device capable of simultaneously transmitting
and receiving radio signals.
Cellular Telephone System
Cellular Evolution Timeline
Cellular Telephone System
Standard Type Multiple Frequency Modulation Channel Country
Access Band Bandwidth
AMPS Cellular FDMA 824-894 MHz FM 30KHz North America
USDC Cellular TDMA 824-894 MHz π/4-DQPSK 30kHz North America
NAMPS Cellular FDMA 824-894 MHz FM 10KHz North America
CDPD Cellular FHI 824-894 MHz GMSK 30kHz North America
IS-95 Cellular CDMA 824-894 MHz QPSK/ BPSK 1.25 MHz North America
1.8-2.0 GHz
E·TACS Cellular FDMA 900 MHz FM 25KHz Europe
NMT-450 Cellular FDMA 450-470 MHz FM 25KHz Europe
NMT-900 Cellular FDMA 890-960 MHz FM 12.5KHz Europe
GSM Cellular TDMA 890-960 MHz GFSK 200KHz Europe
C-450 Cellular FDMA 450-465 MHz FM 20KHz/10KHz Europe

JTACS Cellular FDMA 860-925 MHz FM 25kHz Japan

PDe Cellular TDMA 810-1501 MHz π/4- DQPSK 25kHz Japan
NTT Cellular FDMA 400/800 MHz FM 25kHz Japan
NTACS Cellular FDMA 843-925 MHz FM 12.5 kHz Japan
 Cellular Concept https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khn7cA8pqiE

• Cellular concept is a major breakthrough in solving problems of

Spectral congestion

User Capacity

• Cellular concept is a system level idea to replace a single high power transmitter
with many low power transmitters.

• Concept of “Frequency reuse”

09/05/2025 22
 How does your Mobile phone works?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JZG9x_V
OwA

Go through this Video

09/05/2025 23
 How to make a call

• Communication between the base station and mobiles is defined by the standard
common air interface (CAI)
– Forward voice channel (FVC): voice transmission from base station to mobile
– Reverse voice channel (RVC): voice transmission from mobile to base station
– Forward control channels (FCC): initiating mobile call from base station to mobile
– Reverse control channel (RCC): initiating mobile call from mobile to base station

09/05/2025 24
Timing Diagram : how a call is initiated by a Landline phone
Timing Diagram : how a call is initiated by a mobile
09/05/2025 27
Cellular Architecture

❖Why cell shape is Hexagonal?

In practice the cells are not regular hexagons, but instead are distorted and
overlapping areas.
The hexagon is an ideal choice for representing macro cellular coverage
areas, because it closely approximates a circle and offers a wide range of
tessellating (a regular tiling of polygons) reuse cluster sizes.
 Frequency Reuse
• Cellular Concept: is a system level idea which calls for

replacing a single, high power transmitter (large cell) with many

low power transmitter (small Cell) each providing coverage to

only a small portion of service area.

• Objective: To increase system capacity and minimize interference .

• Frequency reuse: The design process of selecting and

allocating channel groups for all the cellular base stations

within a system is called frequency reuse or frequency planning.

• Footprint: The actual Radio coverage of a cell is known as the

footprint.
 Cellular Concept
Frequency Reuse:

N = cluster size
System Design using Frequency Reuse:
• Consider a cellular system with S= total no of duplex channels available.
• If each cell is allocated a group of ‘k’ channels (k < S) and if ‘S’ channels are divided
among ‘N’ cells into unique and disjoint channel groups which each have the same
number of channels,
• Total no of available radio channels i.e. S=kN
• Total number of duplex channels ‘C’ can be used as a measure of capacity given by

C = MkN = MS
Where M= Number of times cluster is replicated. C ∝ M
N = cluster size, typically equal to 4,7 or 12
• smallest possible value of N is desirable in order to maximize the capacity over a
given coverage area.
 Capacity of system (C)
 Capacity (C) is directly proportional to the number of times a cluster is replicated (M) in a
fixed service area.
 If cluster size N is reduced (keeping cell size constant), more clusters (M) are required to
cover a given area and hence capacity will increase. But a small cluster size indicates that
co channel cells are located much closer together.
 If cluster size is increased, less clusters (M) are required to cover a given area and hence
capacity will reduce.
 The value of N is a function of how much interferences a mobile or base station can
tolerate while maintain a sufficient quality of communication.
 So From a design point of view, the smallest possible value of N is desirable (with
minimum interference) in order to maximize the capacity over a given coverage area.
System Design Using Frequency Reuse:
►Placement of Base station:
✔ centre-excited cells

✔ Corner excited cells

✔ edge-excited cells

►Most system designs permit a base station to be positioned

up to one-fourth the cell radius away from the ideal
 System Design Using Frequency Reuse:

Some values of N are:

Method of Locating co-channel cells

1 To Find Nearest co-channel

2 neighbors of a particular
1
cell:
1. Move i cell along any
chain of hexagon
2. Turn 600 counter
clockwise and move j
cells

I =2, j = 1,N=?
Examples of co-channel cells
Example 1
Example 2
 Channel Assignment Strategies
To increase capacity and minimization of interference

1. Fixed channel Assignment strategy

Problem- blocked call
Remedy- borrowing strategy

2. Dynamic channel Assignment strategy

Advantage- increases trunking capacity, increase channel utilization
Problem- increase storage and computational load

44
Handoff /Handover

45
SOFT Handoff HARD Handoff
(break after make) ( break before make)

46
Handoff
Strategies

47
 Handoff Strategies
• Improper Handoff: Δ = Pr handoff – Pr minimum usable
 Handoff Strategies
 Once a particular signal level is specified as the minimum usable signal for acceptable
voice quality at the base station receiver (normally taken as between –90 dBm and –100
dBm), a slightly stronger signal level is used as a threshold at which a handoff is made.

 This margin, Δ = Pr handoff – Pr minimum usable, cannot be too large or too small.
 If Δ is too large, unnecessary handoffs which burden the MSC may occur,
 If Δ is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete a handoff before a call is
lost due to weak signal conditions.

 Therefore, Δ is chosen carefully to meet these conflicting requirements.

49
Handoff Strategies
 Prioritizing Handoff
 Guard Channel Concept: A fraction of the total available channels in a
cell is reserved exclusively for handoff
Disadvantage: Reduce total carrier traffic as fewer channels are allocated
to originating calls.

 Queuing Concept: Tradeoff between the decrease in probability of

forced termination and total carrier traffic.
Disadvantage: not guaranteed a zero probability of forced termination
Practical Handoff considerations
Umbrella Cell Approach

52
 Practical Handoff considerations
High Speed Vehicle VS Pedestrians
 In micro-cells for more capacity, MSC may be over-burdened in case high speed
users changing the micro-cells quickly.
 Obtaining a new Cell Site is not always practical: Zoning, Ordinances and Laws are
barrier to new cell sites.
 The UMBRELLA CELL Concept: Large and Small cells are co-located. Install small
antennas etc for low-speed users for proper radio coverage. This guarantees large
area coverage as well.
 Cell Dragging

Results from pedestrian users that provide a

very strong signal to the BS.
 Cell Dragging
• Such situations occurs mostly in urban environment when there is a LOS radio path
between the subscriber and BS.

• Even when the user has traveled well beyond the designed range of the cell, the
received signal at BS may be above the handoff threshold and thus handoff may not
be made.

• Creates a potential interference and traffic management problem since user has
meanwhile traveled deep within a neighboring cell.

• To solve this problem, handoff thresholds and radio coverage parameters must be
adjusted carefully
To solve cell dragging problem,
Handoff thresholds must be adjusted carefully in 1G and 2G

Time to make a handoff Value of ∆

First Generation analog 10 seconds 6dB to 12dB

cellular system (1G)

Digital Cellular system as 1 or 2 seconds 0 dB & 6dB

GSM

Dwell Time : The time over which a call may be maintained within
a cell, without hand-off, is called the dwell time.
56
 Interference and system Capacity
Interference –
 major limiting factor in performance of cellular radio system.
 Major bottleneck in increasing capacity
 Often responsible for dropped calls.
 More severe in urban areas due to greater RF noise floor and large no. of base stations and mobiles

Four major Sources of Interference-

 another mobile in the same cell
 a call in progress in a neighboring cell
 other base stations operating in same frequency band
 any noncellular system which leaks energy into cellular frequency band

 Interference on Voice CH : cross talk

 Interference on control CH : missed or blocked calls
Two major types of Interference
1) Co-channel interference (CCI)
2) Adjacent channel interference (ACI) 57
Co-channel interference (CCI) and system capacity

 By increasing the ratio D/R, the spatial separation

between co channel cell relative to the coverage distance
of a cell is increased and thus interference is reduced.

58
 Co- channel reuse ratio (Q)

• A small value of Q provides larger capacity since the cluster

size N is small

• 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
Co-channel Interference

First Tier
Interfering cells
Mathematical
Analysis of S/I or SIR:
Io= no. of co channel interfering cells
S = designed signal power from desired BS
Ii =Interference power caused by the ith interfering
co channel cell BS
Pr =average received power
D = distance
Po = power received at a close-in reference
point in far field region of antenna at a small
distance do
n = path loss exponent, 2 & 4 in urban area
Di = distance of ith interferer from mobile

NOTE: for clear Audible FM signal, signal power should

be at least 60 times higher that the noise/interference 61

power SIR=10 log 60=17.78dB = 18dB

Worst Case co-channel Interference

N= 7, Q= 4.6
Find S/I =? S/I=49.56=17.8dB Slightly < 18dB
So increase N to nearest largest size…if
N=12(i=j=2) spectrum utilization=1/12 and
when N=7, spectrum utilization =1/7

Trade off between N & C (system capacity) 62

Example
Solution
Channel Planning for wireless system
Control Channel Data Channel
5% of entire mobile 95% of entire mobile spectrum
Required for initiating, requesting dedicated to carry revenue generating traffic
21 cell reuse 7 cell reuse

 Channel Planning In CDMA:

Cluster size N=1

Limited frequency reuse where propagation conditions are ill behaved in a particular market. eg-

in the vicinity of bodies of water

f1/f2 cell planning – where nearest neighboring cell use different radio channels. Such freq

planning requires CDMA phones to make hard handoffs.

65
 Breathing Cell
• When a cell becomes heavily loaded, it
shrinks.
• Subscriber traffic is then redirected to a
neighboring cell that is more lightly
loaded, which is called load balancing.
• Cell breathing is a common phenomenon
of 2G and 3G wireless systems including
code-division multiple access (CDMA).
• Cell breathing is a mechanism which
allows overloaded cells to offload
subscriber traffic to neighboring cells by
changing the geographic size of their
service area.
 Breathing cell

 In CDMA, a single 1.25 MHz radio channel carries the simultaneous transmissions of
the single control channel with up to 64 simultaneous voice channels.
 In 200 kHz GSM TDMA systems, the coverage region and interference levels are well
defined when specific radio channels are in use, the CDMA system instead has a
dynamic, time varying coverage region which varies depending on the instantaneous
number of users on the CDMA radio channel.
 This effect, known as a breathing cell, requires the wireless engineer to carefully plan the
coverage and signal levels for the best and worst cases for serving cells as well as nearest
neighbor cells, from both a coverage and interference standpoint.

67
 Breathing cell

 Problem:
 The breathing cell phenomenon can lead to abrupt dropped calls resulting from abrupt
coverage changes simply due to an increase in the number of users.
Remedy:
 Thus, instead of having to make careful decisions about the channel assignment schemes
for each cellular base station, CDMA engineers must instead make difficult decisions
about the power levels and thresholds assigned to control channels, voice channels, and
how these levels and thresholds should be adjusted for changing traffic intensity

68
 Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
Results from imperfect receiver filters which allows nearby frequencies to leak into the
pass band.
 Near Far effect:
1. Case1 : The Mobile receiver is captured by the unintended, unknown transmitter, instead of
the desired base station
2. Case 2: The Base Station faces difficulty in recognizing the actual mobile user, when the
adjacent channel bleed over is too high.

69
 Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
To minimize

 Careful filtering and channel assignments

 Keeping large frequency separation

 If N is small, the separation between adjacent channel at BS may not be sufficient to

keep the adjacent channel interference level within tolerable limits.

 If a close in mobile is 10 times as close the BS as another mobile and has energy spill
out of its passband, the SIR at BS for the weak mobile is approx.

For a path loss exponent n=4, S/I = - 52 dB

09/05/2025 70
 Trunking and Grade of service (GOS)
Trunking:
 A means for providing access to users on demand from available pool of channels.
Trunking theory is about how a population can be handled by a limited number of servers.

71
Terminology:
1. Traffic intensity : average channel occupancy measured in Erlangs
• One Erlang: amount of traffic intensity in a completely occupied channel.
• 0.5 Erlang: channel occupied for 30 minutes in an hour.

2. Grade of Service (GOS): probability that a call is blocked (or delayed). OR is a

measure of ability of a user to access a trunked system during the busiest hour.

3. Set-Up Time: time required to allocate a trunked radio channel to a requested user.
4. Blocked Call: Call that cannot be completed at time of request due to congestion. Also
referred to as Lost Call.

5. Holding Time: (H) average duration of typical call.

6. Load: Traffic intensity across the entire trunked radio system.

7. Request Rate: (λ) average number of call requests per unit time. 72
 Traffic Intensity

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

H is the average duration of a call

λ is the average number of call

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

In a C channel trunked system, if the traffic is equally distributed among the channels,
then the traffic intensity per channel, Ac is given as

09/05/2025 73
Trunking Systems
• There are two types of trunked systems which are commonly used.
 Blocked calls cleared (no queuing )
 Blocked calls Delayed (queuing)
Blocked calls cleared (Erlang B):
 If no channel are available, the requesting user is blocked without access and is free to try again.
 It is assumed that there are infinite number of users as well as the followings:
a) There are memoryless arrivals of requests implying that all users, including blocked users may
request a channel at any time.
b) Probability of a user occupying a channel is exponentially distributed so that longer calls are
less likely to occur as described by exponential distribution.
c) There are a finite number of channels available in the trunking pool.
 This is known as M/M/m/m queue and leads to the derivation of the Erlang B formula.

09/05/2025 74
 Erlang B formula

C = number of trunked
channels offered by a trunked
radio system
A= total offered traffic

09/05/2025 75
GOS

A
Blocked calls Delayed (Erlang C):
• A different type of trunked system queues blocked calls–Blocked Calls Delayed. This is known
as an Erlang C model.
• Procedure:

• Determine Pr [delay> 0] = probability of a delay from the chart.

• Pr [delay > t | delay > 0 ] = probability that the delay is longer than t, given that there is a
delay

Pr [delay > t | delay > 0 ] =exp [-(C-A)t /H ]

• Conditional Probability of delay > t :

Pr [delay > t ] = Pr [delay > 0] Pr [delay > t | delay > 0 ]

• Average delay time D = Pr [delay> 0] H/ (C-A) 77

 Erlang C Formula
• The likelihood of a call not having immediate access to a channel is
determined by Erlang C formula:

C = number of trunked channels offered by a trunked radio system

A= total offered traffic
09/05/2025 78
GOS

A
Ex.1 Numerical on Trunking

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

A
09/05/2025 81
Solution
(a) Given C = 5, Au = 0.1, GOS = 0.005, From Figure 3.6, we obtain A = 1.13.
Therefore, total number of users, U = A/Au = 1.13/0.1 ≈ 11 users.
(b) Given C = 10, Au = 0.1, GOS = 0.005, From Figure 3.6, we obtain A = 3.96.
Therefore, total number of users, U = A/Au = 3.96/0.1 ≈ 39 users.
(c) Given C = 20, Au = 0.1, GOS = 0.005, From Figure 3.6, we obtain A = 11.10.
Therefore, total number of users, U = A/Au = 11.1/0.1 ≈ 110 users.
(d) Given C = 100, Au = 0.1, GOS = 0.005, From Figure 3.6, we obtain A = 80.9.
Therefore, total number of users, U = A/Au = 80.9/0.1 = 809 users
 Example 2

An urban area has a population of two million residents. Three competing

trunked mobile networks (systems A, B, and C) provide cellular service in this
area. System A has 394 cells with 19 channels each, system B has 98 cells
with 57 channels each, and system C has 49 cells, each with 100 channels.
Find the number of users that can be supported at 2% blocking if each user
averages two calls per hour at an average call duration of three minutes.
Assuming that all three trunked systems are operated at maximum capacity,
compute the percentage market penetration of each cellular provider.
Solution: System A
Given:
Probability of blocking = 2% = 0.02
Number of channels per cell used in the system, C = 19
Traffic intensity per user, Au = λH = 2 × (3/60) = 0.1 Erlangs
For GOS = 0.02 and C = 19, from the Erlang B chart, the total carried traffic, A, is obtained
as 12 Erlangs.
Therefore, the number of users that can be supported per cell is U = A/Au = 12/0.1 = 120
Since there are 394 cells, the total number of subscribers that can be supported by System
A is equal to 120 × 394 = 47280
System B
Given:
Probability of blocking = 2% = 0.02
Number of channels per cell used in the system, C = 57
Traffic intensity per user, Au = λH = 2 × (3/60) = 0.1 Erlangs
For GOS = 0.02 and C = 57, from the Erlang B chart, the total carried traffic, A, is obtained
as 45 Erlangs.
Therefore, the number of users that can be supported per cell is U = A/Au = 45/0.1 = 450
Since there are 98 cells, the total number of subscribers that can be supported by System B
is equal to 450 × 98 = 44,100
System C Given:
Probability of blocking = 2% = 0.02
Number of channels per cell used in the system, C = 100
Traffic intensity per user, Au = λH = 2 × (3/60) = 0.1 Erlangs
For GOS = 0.02 and C = 100, from the Erlang B chart, the total carried traffic, A, is
obtained as 88 Erlangs.
Therefore, the number of users that can be supported per cell is U = A/Au = 88/0.1 = 880
Since there are 49 cells, the total number of subscribers that can be supported by
System C is equal to 880 × 49 = 43,120
Therefore, total number of cellular subscribers that can be supported by these three
systems are 47,280 + 44,100 + 43,120 = 134,500 users.
Since there are two million residents in the given urban area and the
total number of cellular subscribers in System A is equal to 47280, the
percentage market penetration is equal to
47,280/2,000,000 = 2.36%
Similarly, market penetration of System B is equal to
44,100/2,000,000 = 2.205%
and the market penetration of System C is equal to
43,120/2,000,000 = 2.156%
The market penetration of the three systems combined is equal to
134,500/2,000,000 = 6.725%
Example 3
A certain city has an area of 1,300 square miles and is covered by a cellular system using
a seven-cell reuse pattern. Each cell has a radius of four miles and the city is allocated
40 MHz of spectrum with a full duplex channel bandwidth of 60 kHz. Assume a GOS of
2% for an Erlang B system is specified. If the offered traffic per user is 0.03 Erlangs,
compute (a) the number of cells in the service area, (b) the number of channels per cell,
(c) traffic intensity of each cell, (d) the maximum carried traffic, (e) the total number of
users that can be served for 2% GOS, (f) the number of mobiles per unique channel
(where it is understood that channels are reused), and (g) the theoretical maximum
number of users that could be served at one time by the system.
a) Given:
Total coverage area = 1300 miles, and cell radius = 4 miles
The area of a cell (hexagon) can be shown to be 2.5981R2 = 2.5981 × (4)2 = 41.57 sq. mi.
Hence, the total number of cells are Nc = 1300/41.57 = 31 cells.
(b) The total number of channels per cell (C)
= allocated spectrum /(channel width × frequency reuse factor)
= 40,000,000/(60,000 × 7) = 95 channels/cell
(c) Given:
C = 95, and GOS = 0.02
From the Erlang B chart, we have traffic intensity per cell A = 84 Erlangs/cell
(d) Maximum carried traffic = No. of cells × traffic intensity per cell
= 31 × 84 = 2604 Erlangs.
(e) Given traffic per user = 0.03 Erlangs,
Total number of users = Total traffic / traffic per user
= 2604 / 0.03 = 86,800 users.
(f) Number of mobiles per channel = number of users/number of channels
= 86,800 / 666 = 130 mobiles/channel.
(g) The theoretical maximum number of served mobiles is the number of
available channels in the system (all channels occupied)
= C × NC = 95 × 31 = 2945 users, which is 3.4% of the customer base.
Example 4
A hexagonal cell within a four-cell system has a radius of 1.387 km. A total of 60 channels
are used within the entire system. If the load per user is 0.029 Erlangs, and λ = 1 call/hour,
compute the following for an Erlang C system that has a 5% probability of a delayed call:
(a) How many users per square kilometer will this system support?
(b) What is the probability that a delayed call will have to wait for more than 10 s?
(c) What is the probability that a call will be delayed for more than 10 seconds?
Solution: Given: Cell radius, R = 1.387 km
Area covered per cell is 2.598 × (1.387)2 = 5 sq km
Number of cells per cluster = 4, Total number of channels = 60
Therefore, number of channels per cell = 60 / 4 = 15 channels.
(a)From Erlang C chart, for 5% probability of delay with C = 15, traffic intensity = 9.0 Erlangs
Therefore, number of users = total traffic intensity / traffic per user
= 9.0/0.029 = 310 users
= 310 users/5 sq km = 62 users/sq km
(b) Given λ = 1, holding time H = Au/λ = 0.029 hour = 104.4 seconds.
The probability that a delayed call will have to wait longer than 10 s is
Pr [delay >t |delay]= exp(–(C – A)t /H)
= exp(–(15 – 9.0)10/104.4) = 56.29%
(c) Given Pr [delay >0] = 5% = 0.05
Probability that a call is delayed more than 10 seconds,
Pr [delay >10] = Pr [delay >0]Pr [delay >t |delay]
= 0.05 x 0.5629 = 2.81%
Improving coverage & capacity in cellular system
Cellular design techniques are needed to provide more channels per
unit coverage area. Techniques to expand the capacity are:
Cell Splitting - increases number of BS to increase capacity

Cell sectoring – uses directional antennas to control interference

and frequency reuse of channels.
Coverage zone / microcell Zone concept – distribute the
coverage of a cell and extend the cell boundary to hard to reach
places.
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Improving coverage & capacity in cellular system

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Cell Splitting

 Process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells, each with its own BS and the
corresponding reduction in antenna height and transmitter power.
 Increases capacity by increasing number of times channel are reused.
 Radius of new microcell is half that of original cell.
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 Cell Splitting

 The transmit power must be reduced

by 12dB in order to fill in the original
coverage area with microcells while
maintaining S/I requirement.

 Channels must be broken into two channel groups.one for smaller cell reuse requirements and
other for larger cell reuse requirements.
 Antenna Down tilting is used to limit the radio coverage of newly formed microcells.
 It increases capacity by rescaling the system.
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 Cell Splitting
 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 P r at the new and old cell
boundaries and setting them equal to each other.
 This is necessary to ensure that the frequency reuse plan for the new
microcells behaves exactly as for the original cells.

Ptl = transmit powers of the larger cell, Pt2 = transmit powers of the smaller cell
n = path loss exponent
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 Cell Splitting
 If n = 4 and set the received powers equal to each other, then

 The transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB in order to fill in the original

coverage area with microcells, while maintaining the S/l requirement.
 In practice, not all cells are split at the same time. It is often difficult for
service providers to find real estate that is perfectly situated for cell splitting.
 Therefore, different cell sizes will exist simultaneously.

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 Cell Splitting
Advantages
 Individual base station is required for each cell so a huge
number of base stations are needed in this process.
 Handoff occurs frequently.
 Channel assignment becomes difficult.
 Cell Sectoring
 Keeping cell radius unchanged another
method is used to decrease D/R ratio.

 It increases SIR using bidirectional

antennas then capacity improvement is
achieved by reducing the number of cells
in a cluster. Thus increasing the frequency
reuse.

 In sectoring channels broken down into

sectored groups.

 If N=7, Io=6 but now it will be i0=2

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Cell Sectoring

First Tier
Interfering cells

If N=7, Io=6
Cell Sectoring

SIR = 24.2dB significant improvement over

If N=7, Io=6 but now it will be io=2 omnidirectional case (17dB)
 Cell Sectoring
Advantages:
 Better S/I ratio
 Reduces interference, Sectoring reduces interference which amounts to an
increase in capacity by a factor of 12/7 = 1.7
 Increases capacity
 Reduces cluster size
 More freedom in assigning channel
 Disadvantages:

 Increase in number of antennas per base station.

 Decrease in trunking efficiency

 Increased number of hand off

Example on Microcell
Consider Figure , Assume each base station uses 60 channels, regardless of
cell size. If each original cell has a radius of 1 km and each microcell has a
radius of 0.5 km, find the number of channels contained in a 3 km X 3 km
square centered around A under the following conditions:
(a) without the use of microcells; (b) when the lettered microcells as
shown in Figure are used; and (c) if all the original base stations are
replaced by microcells. Assume cells on the edge of the square to be
contained within the square.
Illustration of cell splitting within a 3 km by 3 km square centered
around base station A.

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 Solution
(a) without the use of microcells:
A cell radius of 1 km implies that the sides of the larger hexagons are also 1 km in
length. To cover the 3 km by 3 km square centered around base station A, we need
to cover 1.5 km (1.5 times the hexagon radius) toward the right, left, top, and
bottom of base station A. This is shown in Figure 3.9. From Figure 3.9, we see that
this area contains five base stations. Since each base station has 60 channels, the
total number of channels without cell splitting is equal to 5 × 60 = 300 channels
b) with the use of the microcells as shown in Figure 3.9:
The base station A is surrounded by six microcells. Therefore, the total number of base
stations in the square area under study is equal to 5 + 6 = 11. Since each base station
has 60 channels, the total number of channels will be equal to 11 × 60 = 660 channels.
This is a 2.2 times increase in capacity when compared to case (a).
(c) if all the base stations are replaced by microcells:
we see there are a total of 5 + 12 = 17 base stations in the square region under study.
Since each base station has 60 channels, the total number of channels will be equal to
17 × 60 = 1020 channels. This is a 3.4 times increase in capacity compared to case (a).
Theoretically, if all cells were microcells having half the radius of the original cell, the
capacity increase would approach four.
Microcell Zone Concept
The zones are connected by
coaxial cables, fiber optics cable
or microwave link to the BS.
 Cell= multiple zones and a
single BS.
 As mobile travels within the
cell, it is served by a zone with the
strongest signal.

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Microcell Zone Concept
Advantage of microzone cell concept
• Superior to sectoring because antennas are placed at the outer edges of the cell.

• As mobile travels from one zone to another within the cell it retains the same channel. Thus
handoff is not required at MSC when mobile travels between zones within the cell.

• BS simply switches the channel to a different zone site.

• In this way a given channel is active only in the particular zone in which mobile is travelling and
hence BS radiation is limited and interference is reduced.

• The channels are distributed in time and space by all 3 zones and are also reused in co channel cells
in the normal fashion. This technique is relatively useful along highways or along urban traffic
corridors

• While cell maintains a particular coverage radius, the co-channel interference in the cellular system
is reduced, it increases capacity without degradation in trunking efficiency.
Microcell Zone Concept
Advantage of microzone cell concept

 Reduced Interference (Zone radius is small and directional antennas are used).
 No loss in trunking efficiency (all channels are used by all cells).
 No extra handoffs.
 Increase in capacity (since smaller cluster size can be used).

This technique is relatively useful along highways or along urban traffic corridors

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 Extent of Capacity Increase
Suppose the desired S/I=18 dB with path loss exponent of n=4 .
For a system of N=7, D/R of 4.6 was shown to achieve this.
How much capacity increase can occur if we use Microcell Zoning of 3 zones/cell???

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 Extent of Capacity Increase
 In zone microcell system, transmission at any instant is confined to one zone.
Therefore, Dz /Rz=4.6
 Each hexagon represents a zone and 3 hexagons represent a cell Zone; radius=One
hexagon radius
 Capacity of system related to distance between co-channel cells and not zones, shown
as D.
 Value of co channel reuse is 3. D/R = 3 corresponds to N=3 Reduction in cluster size
from N=7 to N=3 Increase in capacity is 7/3=2.33 times

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 Repeaters for Range Extension
Useful for hard to reach areas

Buildings

Tunnels

Valleys

 Radio transmitters called Repeaters can be used to provide coverage in these area. Repeaters are bi-
directional.
Rx signals from BS

Amplify the signals

Reradiate the signals

Received noise and interference is also reradiated.

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 SELF Reflection
1.Compare and contrast Cell splitting and Cell Sectoring.
2.How does Microzone cell concept cover the coverage
and capacity problems?
Play this video and answer the questions..
We shall discuss in the next class..
https://youtu.be/ioj6F1v59yw

Write these answers in your own course journal.

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