Samara University

College of Engineering and Technology

Computer Science Department
Wireless Communications and Mobile
Computing(CoSc3062)

Chapter Two
The Cellular Concept
 Outline:
• Cellular system Architecture

• Cell shape

• Frequency reuse

• Cell capacity and reuse

• Channel assignment strategies

• Handoff
Cellular system Architecture
Cellular system Architecture…

High capacity is achieved by limiting the coverage of each

base stations to a small geographic region called a cell
• Single, high power transmitter (large cell) are replaced with
many low power transmitters (small cells)
• A portion of the total number of channels is allocated to
each cell or base station
• Available group of channels are assigned to a small number of
neighboring base stations called cluster
• Near by base stations are assigned d/t groups of channels to
minimize interference
• Same channels (frequencies/timeslots/codes) are reused
by spatially separated base stations
 Cellular system Architecture…
 A switching technique called handoff enables a call to
proceed from one cell to another
 As demand (or # of users) increases, the number of base
stations may be increased to provide additional capacity
 Smaller cells, e.g., Microcells, Picocell, Femtocell
 Also cell sites in trucks to replace downed cell towers after
natural
 disasters, or to create additional capacity for large gatherings
 (football games, rock concerts)
 Transmission power reduction => interference decreases
 Typical power transmitted by the radios in a cell system
 Base station: Maximum Effective Radiated Power (ERP) is
100W, or up to 500 W in rural areas
 Mobile station: Typically 0.5 W. For CDMA, transmit power
islowered when close to a BS
 Forward and Reverse Channels

 Forward Voice Channel (FVC): Used for voice transmission from

BS to MS
 Reverse Voice Channel (RVC): Used for voice transmission from
MS to BS
 Forward Control Channel (FCC): Used for initiating a call from
BS to MS
 Reverse Control Channel (RCC): Used for initiating a call from
MS to BS
 Anatomy of a Cellular Call

 A cell phone, when turned on, (though not yet engaged in a call)
scans the group of FCC to determine the one with the strongest
signal
 It monitors the channel until it drops below the usable threshold
 It then scans for another channel with the strongest signal
 Control channels are defined and standardized throughout the
service area
 Typically the control channels use up to 5% of the total number of
channels
 A Call TO a Mobile User

 The MSC dispatches the request to all the base stations

 The Mobile Identification Number (MIN) is broadcast as a paging
message over all FCC throughout the service area.
 The MS receives the paging message from the BS it is monitoring
 It responds by identifying itself over the RCC
 The BS conveys the handshake to the MSC
 The MSC instructs the BS to move to an unused voice channel
 The BS signals the MS to change over to unused FVC and RVC
 A data message (called „alert‟) is transmitted over the FVC to
instruct the mobile to ring
 All of these sequences of events occur in just few seconds, and
are not noticeable to the user
 While the call is in progress, the MSC adjusts the transmitted
power in order to maintain the call quality
 A Call FROM a Mobile User

 A call initiation request is sent to the RCC

 Along with this, the MS transmits its MIN, Electronic Serial
Number (ESN) and the phone number of the called party
 The MS also transmits the Station Class Mark (SCM) which
indicates the maximum transmitter power level for the particular
user
 The BS forwards the data to the MSC, which validates the data
and makes connection to the called party through the PSTN
 Cell Shape – Why hexagon?

 (a) is theoretical coverage area and (b) measured coverage area

where red, blue, green, and yellow indicate signal strength, in
decreasing order
 Actual shape is a random that depends on the environment
 Cell Shape – Why hexagon?

 What is the appropriate geometric shape whose non overlapping

and repetitive placement covers an entire region?

 Possible shapes
•Triangles, squares, hexagons
•Which one to choose?

Dead Zone/ Black holes

 Cell Shape – Why hexagon?...

 Hexagonal cell is conceptual, however, it is universally adopted

for most theoretical treatment because:
 Hexagons are a geometric shape that approximates a circle
(for Omni-directional radiation)
 Using a hexagon geometry, fewest number of cells can cover
the entire geographic region
 Frequency Reuse

 Assume a city of 10 Million mobile users

 Let every user is allocated a radio spectrum for analog speech of 4 kHz
bandwidth
 Thus the required bandwidth is 4 kHz * 10 Million users = 40 GHz!
 Clearly impractical!
 No other services possible using a radio transmission
 Most of the spectrum will be unused most of the time
 Cellular radio systems rely on intelligent allocation and reuse of channels
through out the coverage area
 Available group of channels are assigned to a cluster
 Same group of frequencies are reused to cover another cell separated by a
large enough distance, i.e., there is a tradeoff
Frequency Reuse…
 Frequency Reuse…

 Using these equations, to locate the co-channel cells,

 start from a reference cell and move
 i-hexagons along the U-axis and
 j-hexagons along the V-axis
 The distance, D, between co-channel cells in adjacent clusters is given by

 The number of cells in a cluster, N, is given by

where i and j are non-negative integers

 There are only certain cluster sizes and layouts possible
 Typical values of N are 1, 3, 4, 7, 12, ……
Frequency Reuse…
 Cell Capacity and Reuse

 Consider a cellular system

 Which has S duplex channels available for re-use
 Each cell allocated a group of k channels
 Let the S channels be divided among N cells (unique and disjoint) then,
S = kN
 Cluster: N cells, which collectively use the complete set of available
frequencies
 • If a cluster is replicated M times in the system, the total number of duplex
channels, C, as a measure of capacity is
C=MkN=MS
 Cell Capacity and Reuse…

 If cluster size N is reduced while cell size is kept constant

 More clusters are required to cover area of interest, i.e.,
 So capacity is directly prop. to replication factor for fixed area
 However, small cluster size means co-channel cells are located much closer
together
 Results in larger co-channel interference
 May result in lower Quality of Service (QoS)
 Conversely, large cluster size indicates that co-channel cells are far from each
other
 Less co-channel interference and frequency utilization
 The value of N is a function of how much interference a mobile or BS can
tolerate
 Cell Capacity and Reuse…
 Assume that:
 50 MHz is available for forward channels
 GSM is deployed
 Each channel is 200 kHz
 In GSM, TDMA is used so that 8 simultaneous calls can be made on each
channel
 How large is k?
 How many forward calls can be made simultaneously for the deployment
containing 28 cells with cluster size is 4 ?

Solution:
• There are 50 MHz / 0.2 MHz = 250 channels per cluster
• With N = 4, then k = 250/4 = 62.5 channels per cell
• With 62.5 channels, 8(62.5) = 500 simultaneous calls can be made in each cell
• There are 28 cells on the cell map , so the total forward
calls is 28(500) = 14 ×10^3 calls can be made simultaneously
 Cell Capacity and Reuse…
 Suppose 33 MHz BW allocated to particular FDD cellular system, where two
25 KHz simplex channel to provide fullduplex for voice/data
 Compute the number of channels per cell if a system uses
a) Four-cell reuse
b) Seven-cell reuse
c) Twelve-cell reuse

Solution: Given that

 Total BW = 33 MHz, channel BW = 25 KHz x 2 = 50 KHz/duplex channel
 S = 33,000/50 = 660 channels
a) For N = 4, k = 660 / 4 ≈ 165 channels
b) For N = 7, k = 660 / 7 ≈ 95 channels
c) For N = 12, k = 660 / 12 ≈55 channels
 Channel Assignment Strategies
 Which channels should be assigned to a cell?
 Channel assignment strategies can be classified as either fixed or dynamic
 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.
 If all channels are occupied and user make a call then the call is blocked.
 Borrowing channels from other cell solves this problem.
 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.
Channel Assignment Strategies…
Fixed Channel Allocation
S.No Key Dynamic Channel Allocations (DCA)
(FCA)
Channel Fixed number of channels Channels to be alloted are not fixed
1
Allocation or voice channels are alloted. initially.
If all channels are blocked, then Base
If all channels are occupied,
2 Blockage Station(BS) requests more channels
then user call is blocked.
from Mobile Station Center(MSC).
Frequency usage is very high
being cell channels are
Frequency reuse is not maximum
3 Frequence Usage seperated
because of random channel allocation.
using minimum reuse
distance.
A hardware can be touched
Softwares being digital can be seen
4 Tangible being
but cannot be touched.
a physical electronic device.
Algorithm to determine efficient channel
5 Algorithm No need to complex algorithm.
availability is quite complex in DCA.
DCA is costly as real time computation
6 Cost FCA is cheaper than DCA.
needed.
Once call is complete, channel Once call is complete, channel is returned
7 Cell Allocation
remains with the cell. back to Mobile Station Center.
Mobile Station Center has less Mobile Station Center has high signal load
8 MSC
burden. and has more responsibilities.
 Handoff
 The process of transferring a call, which is in progress from one channel or BS
to another is called handoff or handover
 Handoff is required when a MS moves into a different cell
 MSC facilitates the transfer
 In general, handoff involves
 Identifying the new BS
 Allocation of voice and control channels in the new BS
 Prioritize handoff requests over call initiation requests when allocating unused
channels in a cell site
 Handoff…

 Handoffs must be performed

 Successfully
 As infrequently as possible, and
 Must be imperceptible to the user
 To meet these requirements, a minimum usable signal level must
be specified for acceptable voice quality at the base station
 If the received power drops too low prior to handoff, the call will
be dropped so that users complain about dropped calls
 Handoff…

Types of Handoffs
There are two types of handoffs −
 Hard Handoff − In a hard handoff, an actual break in the connection occurs
while switching from one cell to another. The radio links from the mobile
station to the existing cell is broken before establishing a link with the next
cell. It is generally an inter-frequency handoff. It is a “break before make”
policy.
 Soft Handoff − In soft handoff, at least one of the links is kept when radio
links are added and removed to the mobile station. This ensures that during the
handoff, no break occurs. This is generally adopted in co-located sites. It is a
“make before break” policy.
Thank you