Interference Analysis of a Total Frequency Hopping GSM Cordless Telephony System

1
Jrgen Deiner, Andr Noll Barreto, Ulrich Barth*, and Gerhard Fettweis
Endowed Chair for Mobile Communications Systems
Dresden University of Technology, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
Tel. +49-351-463-4660, Fax +49-351-463-7255
e-mail: {deissner | noll | fettweis}@ifn.et.tu-dresden.de
* Alcatel Corporate Research Center, D-70499 Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: ubarth@rcs.sel.de
ABSTRACT
In this paper we present an interference analysis which reveals
capacity reserves for a hierarchical GSM radio network. In the
investigated concept a low-power Cordless Telephony System
reuses the frequencies of a cellular GSM system based on Total
Frequency Hopping (T-FH) multiple access. Based on a novel
simulation method, which considers the dynamics of a T-FH
cellular network, we present results for different cordless user
densities and numbers of T-FH frequencies which exhibit the
benefits of our CTS concept. Moreover, we show two possible
ways to further improve the CTS downlink performance in case
of difficult scenarios.
I. INTRODUCTION
Solutions for hierarchical radio networks where different layers
share the same channels were already discussed earlier, e.g. for
hot-spots. An application scenario for GSM radio networks
providing low-power cordless indoor coverage was introduced
as a home base station [1]. This culminated within ETSI into the
current standardization efforts on CTS.
A GSM Cordless Telephony System (CTS) [2,3,4] consists of a
low-cost GSM base station, the CTS Fixed Part (CTS-FP) and a
modified GSM mobile station, the CTS-MS which can work
either in the conventional cellular or in the new cordless mode.
The CTS-FP is connected to the fixed network like for example
a DECT Fixed Part, however it uses GSM frequencies.
In order to convince a GSM network operator to share his
spectrum for GSM cellular operation with GSM cordless
systems, our simulations have to reveal under which
circumstances a GSM CTS system is able to perform well
including:
a dense GSM macrocell structure and a tight reuse scheme,
different CTS user densities,
different numbers of reused frequencies or a small number of
separate frequencies for CTS use only (e.g. for an
introduction and test scenario), and
different GSM-to-CTS transmit power ratios.
II. DISCUSSION OF PREVIOUS WORK
ON TOTAL FREQUENCY HOPPING
1
In [1] a new multiple access method, called Total Frequency
Hopping (T-FH), was presented for such a CTS system. It is a
slow FH technique, which uses as much of the cellular GSM
frequencies for FH in the CTS systems as agreed with the GSM
operators and the regulator, ideally the whole GSM frequency
range (e.g. 124 frequencies in GSM900). The more frequencies
are used the more obvious is the effect of averaging the CTS-
caused interference over a lot of cellular GSM channels. In that
paper it was concluded that cellular GSM and CTS systems can
co-exist, if the GSM-to-CTS power ratio is well over or around
20 dB for 25 or 75 FH frequencies, respectively. However, the
assumed simulation environment does not represent a very dense
urban residential area, which we expect as a worst case as well
as one of the first deployment scenarios. Furthermore, the
applied Monte-Carlo simulation method with SIR values for
GSM bursts calculated for totally independent snapshots of the
system model does not allow for an analysis of the time
correlation of SIR values according to the dynamic environment.
Especially, neither the ability of a FH algorithm to avoid sequen-
ces or accumulations of hits to the same frequency can be shown
nor the ability of a GSM receiver to recover from poor SIR
values in few bursts due to the deinterleaving and decoding gain.
In [5] a FH algorithm is presented that is especially designed for
the requirements of a T-FH GSM CTS system. Together with the
GSM CTS concept proposed by Alcatel [4], which incorporates
the T-FH technique, this is the basis for our simulations.
III. SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT
Our model of the cellular GSM radio network represents a dense
urban environment with a high traffic load, because this is likely
to be also an area of high GSM cordless user penetration. Our
worst case assumptions are listed in the tables 1-6. As the result
of the discussions within ETSI these assumptions were mainly
agreed for their CTS simulation studies except for the BS-to-BS
distance (ETSI: 500m), the portion of GSM-MSs being indoor

1
This work was supported by Alcatel.
(50%), the BCCH timeslot consideration (not modelled), and the
CTS transmit power (17dBm, not varied) [6].
A. Radio network configuration
Table 1. System layout
cellular GSM CTS
regular hexagonal cells
3/9 reuse structure
BS-to-BS distance D = 750 m
cell radius R = 250 m
all GSM-BS and GSM-MS are outdoor
D
R
CTSs are generated within round buildings
with a radius of 20 m, which are uniformly
distributed over the investigation area.
The number of occupied buildings
corresponds to the CTS density.
The CTS density [1/ km
2
] is a simulation
parameter.
The position of a CTS-FP and a CTS-MS
in its building upon generation is
uniformly distributed over the building
area.
all CTS-MS and CTS-FP are indoor
Table 2. Frequency usage and traffic load
GSM CTS
3 transceivers per cell result in 27
available frequencies
2
; no frequency
hopping
BCCH modelled by the continuous
occupation of the downlink timeslot 0 at
one of the frequencies in every cell
SDCCH not considered, but handled like a
further TCH
23 available TCHs per cell
15.3 Erlang offered traffic (corresponds to
1.6% blocking probability and 65% mean
load)
New calls that encounter 23 occupied
TCHs in their best-server-cell are blocked.
exponentially distributed call interarrival
time; mean call arrival rate per cell: 0.17/s
exponentially distributed call hold time;
mean value: 90 s
Total Frequency Hopping is applied
Every CTS user is provided with a unique
T-FH sequence.
The number of frequencies that are re-
used by the CTS systems for T-FH is a
simulation parameter.
Each CTS-FP supports only 1 CTS-MS.
0.1 Erlang per CTS-MS
exponentially distributed call interarrival
time; mean call arrival rate per cell:
0.00083/s
exponentially distributed call hold time;
mean value: 120 s
Table 3. MS Movement
GSM-MS CTS-MS
MSs are generated for the duration of a call.
The initial positions at the beginning of a
call are uniformly distributed within the
investigation area.
The speeds are uniformly distributed within
[0, vmax = 20m/s). The speed remains
constant throughout the call.
The directions are uniformly distributed
within [0,2). The direction remains also
constant throughout the call. However, an
MS will be reflected at the border of the
investigation area.
Initial assignment and handover (without a
hysteresis) is carried out due to the best-
server-criterion including the
6 neighbouring cells.
The update distance for the position and
best- server-decision is 10 m.
The initial positions at the beginning of a
call are uniformly distributed within the
building of its CTS-FP.
The speeds are uniformly distributed within
[0, vmax = 1.5m/s). The speed remains
constant throughout the call.
The directions are uniformly distributed
within [0,2). When reaching the update
distance, a new direction is taken from that
distribution.
The update distance for the position and
best- server-decision is 1 m.
Table 4. CTS transmission characteristics
CTS-FP CTS-MS
The CTS Fixed Part (CTS-FP) and CTS Mobile Station (CTS-MS) transmit power [dBm
EIRP] is a simulation parameter. (Our reference scenario for comparisons uses 17 dBm.)
Both, CTS-FP and CTS-MS, have an omnidirectional antenna.
The CTS systems are modelled to be timeslot-asynchronous.
Table 5. Cellular GSM transmission characteristics
GSM-BS GSM-MS
transmit power: 33 dBm
sector antenna with a horizontal pattern
having a 3dB-beamwidth of 60
o
and a front-
to-back ratio of 40 dB
54 dBm EIRP due to 21 dB max. gain
(vertical pattern not considered)
transmit power: 33 dBm
omnidirectional antenna
Furthermore, for cellular GSM and CTS we assume:
Neither power control nor DTX is applied.
The noise floor, including thermal noise and a noise figure, is assumed with -114 dBm.
B. Propagation models
2
All propagation models are two-dimensional, statistical path loss
models and based on the assumption of a heterogeneous
environment. The shadowing S() follows a log-normal
distribution with standard deviation and is uncorrelated
between locations, but does not change as long as the position
remains the same
3
(Table 6). In particular, the shadowing value
does not change during an interleaved block of 8 consecutive
bursts in a certain channel (refer to IV.A).
Table 6. Path loss equations
GSM-BS - GSM-MS
Walfish-Ikegami [03.30] with f = 900 MHz, hBS = 25 m, hMS = 1.5 m, hroof = 15 m, w = 20 m, b =
50 m, = 90
o
L
d m S dB for d m
d m S dB for d m
GG
=
+ +
+ + >

315 20 8 21
7 7 38 8 21
. lg( / ) ( )
. lg( / ) ( )
GSM-BS - CTS-MS
L L L with L dB
GC GG indoor indoor
= + = 12
CTS-FP - GSM-MS
Walfish-Ikegami [03.30] with hBS = 4 m and Lindoor = 12 dB
L
d m S dB L for d m
d m S dB L for d m
CG
indoor
indoor
=
+ + +
+ + + >

315 20 8 23 5
7 54 49 8 23 5
. lg( / ) ( ) .
. lg( / ) ( ) .
CTS-FP - CTS-MS
linear attenuation indoor model [COST231] with attenuation coefficient = 0.9 dB/m up to the
CTS building diameter of 40 m
L
d m S dB d m for d m
d m S dB L for d m
CC
indoor
=
+ + +
+ + + >

315 20 6 0 9 40
7 54 49 8 2 40
. lg( / ) ( ) . /
. lg( / ) ( )
IV. PRINCIPLES OF SIMULATION AND
INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS
A. Novel Simulation Method
Our C++ simulation program combines the discrete event (DE)
and random sampling simulation methods. The DE simulation
provides signal-to-interference ratios (SIR) that are correlated in
time due to the dynamics of the modelled cellular network
caused by the user traffic, the movement of the users during
calls, and the applied total FH multiple access technique in the
CTS. The time basis for the DE simulation is the TDMA frame
period T
TDMA
= 4.615 ms. Through random sampling we select
sequences of SIR values in one and the same GSM radio channel

2
The allocation of these 27 frequencies within the cluster is fixed. However, the order is not
important because adjacent channel interference is not considered.
3
These and all further assumptions for the 4 propagation models comply with the definitions
for the studies within ETSI [6].
(defined by frequency and timeslot) at random instants during an
active call for post-processing in a Matlab program. We chose
the TCH interleaving depth of 8T
TDMA
as the length of such a
sequence in order to evaluate the influence of the dynamics in
the cellular radio network on the TCH performance with consi-
deration of a decoding and deinterleaving gain in the receiver.
In order to start the DE simulation in the stationary state, a
random number of active GSM-MS and CTS-MS is already
generated in the simulation setup according to the traffic values.
B. Investigation area
Three tiers of interfering clusters are taken into consideration
(Fig. 1). The GSM BS and MS in all clusters cause interference,
but only in the central cluster the GSM BS and MS interference
is evaluated.
CTSs which cause interference are generated within a radius of
1100 m, but the CTS-FP and CTS-MS interference is only
evaluated within the inner radius of 700 m.
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7 4
7
1 4
7
1
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
1 4
7
evaluated cluster
2nd tier
3rd tier
1st tier of
interfering clusters
CTS evaluation area
CTS interference area
investigation area
Fig. 1. Investigation area.
C. Interference Analysis
Only co-channel interference is evaluated. Signal and
interference power levels are mean values for the whole timeslot
duration of T
TS
= 577 s. The GSM BS and MS are timeslot-
synchronous in our model. However, asynchronous CTS are
modelled by a constant timeslot offset [ 0, T
TS
) that is randomly
chosen for each CTS-FP. Overlapping power portions from
asynchronous interferers are averaged over the whole timeslot
duration of the interfered receiver.
The interference performance at all 4 network element types,
GSM-BS, -MS, CTS-FP, -MS, can be studied in one and the
same simulation. We are always able to distinguish the
interference that is caused by the GSM cellular system from the
total interference, which includes the CTS- caused interference.
We apply the two following performance criteria to the SIR
distributions that we get for each of the 4 network element types
from our DE simulation:
the outage probability P
out
= P[ SIR < 9 dB ] as a model for
signal detection, i.e. an outage appears if the SIR of a burst is
smaller than the threshold of 9dB, and
the frame erasure rate (FER), which we define as the
probability that within a sequence of 8 bursts of consecutive
TDMA frames 4 or more encounter an outage, as a model for
the deinterleaving and decoding gain [9].
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
For comparison we defined a reference scenario with 27
frequencies for Total Frequency Hopping (T-FH) in the CTS
4
,
17 dBm CTS transmit power, and a density of 1500 CTS/km
2
.
Based on that (section V.A), we performed simulations with the
parameter variations as follows:
CTS density between 750 and 5000 CTS/km
2
in shared band
operation with 27 T-FH frequencies as well as in separate
band operation with 3 T-FH frequencies (section V.B),
number of T-FH frequencies between 13 and 124 (sect. V.C),
CTS-FP transmit power between 13 and 38 dBm (sect. V.D),
a reduced frequency list with 24 and 6 shared T-FH
frequencies (section V.E).
A. The reference scenario for comparison
Table 7 summarizes the results for our reference scenario. We
observe the strongest influence in the outage probability of the
GSM uplink: a CTS- caused increase from 0.9% to 1.8%. The
GSM uplink is the more sensitive GSM link due to the lower
transmit power of a GSM-MS in comparison with the GSM-BS.
The corresponding FER values indicate that the T-FH algorithm
distributes the CTS interference in time and in frequency across
all GSM connections in a way that the GSM receivers mostly are
able to recover from single hits within interleaved blocks
according to our rough model for the GSM receiver's
deinterleaving and decoding gain.
The CTS uplink also shows a reasonable performance, but the
CTS downlink has a poor outage probability. In spite of an
assumed average outdoor-to-indoor penetration loss of 12 dB,
the CTS-MS suffers seriously from GSM-BS-caused interference
levels, which are considerably high in comparison with the
signal level received from the CTS-FP.
This is due to our model of the GSM-BS, which always transmits
with its maximum power without power control and DTX for
interference reduction. The CTS downlink is effected so strongly

4
In the case of a cellular GSM 3/9 cluster with 3 frequencies per cell, we consider the reuse
of all those 27 GSM frequencies in the co-existing CTS as a worst case because the mutual
interference between the cellular and the cordless systems is the most.
Table 7. Performance results for 17 dBm CTS transmit power, 1500 CTS/km2,
and 27 shared T-FH frequencies
Outage probability Frame Erasure Rate (FER)
total, with CTS GSM-caused part total, with CTS GSM-caused part
GSM uplink 1.8 % 0.9 % 0.9 % 0.9 %
GSM downlink 0.9 % 0.7 % 0.7 % 0.7 %
CTS uplink 2.9 % 2.6 % 0.2 % 0.1 %
CTS downlink 25.5 % 25.3 % 22.8 % 22.7 %
because of the different power ratios of the base stations and of
the handsets of both systems; the GSM-BS-to-CTS-FP ratio is
25 dB depending on the angle to the main lobe of a GSM-BS
antenna, whereas the GSM-MS-to-CTS-MS ratio is only 16 dB.
B. Different CTS densities
Table 8 shows the dependence of the performance on the CTS
density in the case of 17 dBm CTS transmit power and shared
band operation with 27 T-FH frequencies.
The results for zero density represent the GSM-caused part of
interference. In the range of 750 to 5000 CTS/km
2
, which
already covers a very optimistic maximum CTS user penetration,
the CTS influence is not strong and only visible in the GSM
uplink. The GSM uplink outage probability only varies in the
range of 0.9% to 4.4%, the FER only in the range of 0.9% to
1.2%.
Table 8. Outage probability (Pout) and frame erasure rate (FER) without CTS
and for densities between 750 and 5000 CTS/km
2
CTS density [1/km
2
] 0 750 1500 3000 5000
GSM uplink Pout 0.9 % 1.4 % 1.8 % 2.8 % 4.4 %
GSM uplink FER 0.9 % 0.9 % 0.9 % 0.9 % 1.2 %
GSM downlink Pout 0.8 % 0.9 % 1.0 % 1.2 % 1.5 %
GSM downlink FER 0.7 % 0.8 % 0.7 % 0.7 % 0.8 %
CTS uplink Pout 2.5 % 2.6 % 2.9 % 3.2 % 3.6 %
CTS uplink FER 0.1 % 0.1 % 0.2 % 0.2 % 0.4 %
CTS downlink Pout 25.3 % 25.4 % 25.5 % 26.0 % 26.2 %
CTS downlink FER 22.7 % 23.0 % 22.8 % 23.4 % 23.7 %
The CTS results also show the poor CTS downlink performance.
However, we can still learn from the CTS uplink performance,
which shows only a CTS-caused change in the total outage
probability from 2.6% to 3.6%, that the reserves in the usage of
the GSM frequencies for CTS are not exhausted yet - also for the
reason that we only modelled two-dimensional propagation and
did not consider floor losses. For the same reasons, this principle
may also be applied to GSM picocells with the advantage of
avoiding frequency planning.
We also investigated the influence of the CTS density in the case
of 3 T-FH frequencies solely dedicated to CTS operation. The
results exhibit a linear increase of the outage probability in both,
CTS uplink and downlink, in the range of 1.3 % to 8.6 % at
750 .. 5000/km
2
. Using only 3 frequencies shows that the main
T-FH advantage of interference averaging is not gained at this
small set of frequencies. However, it can be a solution for the
CTS introduction and for medium CTS densities.
C. Different numbers of frequencies for T-FH in the CTS
Fig. 2 illustrates the relation between the GSM performance and
the number of T-FH frequencies for 17 dBm CTS transmit
power and 1500 CTS/km
2
. As expected, the results reveal the
increase in the effect of interference averaging, when
considerably more than 27 GSM frequencies are used for T-FH
in the CTS.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
0
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
No. of frequencies for TFH
O
u
t
a
g
e

P
r
o
b
a
b
ilit
y
GSM uplink, total interference
GSM uplink, GSMcaused interf.
GSM downlink, total interference
GSM downlink, GSMcaused interf.
Fig. 2. GSM outage probability for 13..124 T-FH frequencies.
D. Different CTS-FP transmit powers
In this scenario with increased CTS-FP transmit power we ex-
pect similar results like in a scenario with interference reduction
features at the GSM-BS. Fig. 3 shows an exchange of perfor-
mance between GSM-MS and CTS-MS for increasing transmit
powers, where the reduction of outage probability and FER at
the CTS-MS is considerably stronger than the increase at the
GSM-MS. This indicates that we can reach a reasonable perfor-
mance in the CTS downlink by means that reduce the GSM-BS
transmit power in relation to the CTS-FP transmit power.
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
10
2
10
1
10
0
CTS transmit power [dBm]
O
u
t
a
g
e

p
r
o
b
a
b
ilit
y

o
r

F
r
a
m
e

E
r
a
s
u
r
e

R
a
t
e
GSM downlink outage probability
GSM downlink FER
CTS downlink outage probability
CTS downlink FER
Fig. 3. GSM downlink performance for CTS-FP transmit powers of 13..38 dBm.
E. A reduced frequency list for T-FH
A further way to improve the CTS performance is to exclude the
frequencies of the strongest interferers from the list for T-FH and
thus to prevent both, the generation and the reception of
interference on these frequencies. However, the less frequencies
are available for T-FH the smaller is the interference averaging
effect.
Possible strategies for a reduced frequency list are to exclude:
all frequencies of the potential serving cell,
all BCCH frequencies of the potential serving and their
neighbor cells (expecting that the other frequencies are not
occupied with the maximum BS transmit power due to
downlink power control),
all BCCH frequencies (as before) and all further frequencies
of the potential serving cell,
all frequencies of the potential serving and their neighbor
cells,
the frequencies of the strongest interferers due to
measurements.
For the latter two cases (18 from 27 available GSM frequencies
excluded due to measurements and 21 frequencies excluded due
to the frequency plan) we already carried out simulations for the
scenario with 17 dBm CTS transmit power and 1500 CTS/km
2
.
The results presented in Table 9 indicate a considerable
performance improvement already for reduced frequency lists.
But as expected, the interference portion that is caused by other
CTS is visible now, because the CTS have to share in only 6 or 9
frequencies within a certain area.
Table 9. First results for a reduced frequency list (gray) in comparison with the
respective results for our reference scenario and for separate band operation with
3 T-FH frequencies [GSM-caused part of interference in square brackets]
Number of T-FH
frequencies
27 shared 6 shared
(ideal AFA)
9 shared
(measurements)
3 separate
CTS-FP Pout 2.9 % [2.6 %] 1.3 % [0.1 %] 0.8 % [0.3 %] 2.8 %
CTS-MS Pout 25.5 % [25.3 %] 18.5 % [17.2 %] 18.4 % [18.0 %] 2.7 %
VI. SUMMARY
Our simulator applies a novel method that allows for the evalu-
ation of the dynamics of the cellular environment and especially
of the algorithm for Total Frequency Hopping in relation to the
deinterleaving and decoding gain of a GSM receiver.
Our simulations of the CTS density (up to 5000/km
2
) indicate,
that the increase of that parameter in the shared band scenario
with 27 frequencies does not significantly deteriorate the
interference performance neither in the GSM nor in the CTS
system. The main advantage of the T-FH multiple access
method, the effect of interference averaging, could be shown in
the GSM results for the varying number of T-FH frequencies.
Facing the poor CTS downlink performance in our reference
scenario, we showed that the GSM-BS-to-CTS-FP power ratio
should be taken into consideration. As a way for improvement, a
reduced frequency list was proposed. First simulations with such
a list indicate a considerable decrease in interference.
Therefore we will further investigate the gain that can be
achieved by a reduced frequency list. Results for the
consideration of a GSM microcell layer can be found in [10].
VII. CONCLUSIONS
We presented an interference analysis of a hierarchical GSM
radio network which reveals capacity reserves in the GSM for
CTS or GSM picocells. The investigated CTS concept benefits
from the Total Frequency Hopping multiple access technique,
which allows for low-cost CTS Fixed Parts that make use of
GSM handset chipsets with only modified software and
protocols. The simulation results revealed poor CTS downlink
performance for the assumptions of our reference scenario due to
not modelled interference reduction features. However, for
improvement we proposed a separate consideration of the
transmit power ratios in uplink and downlink and a reduced
frequency list.
It is reasonable to assume that these observations are not only
GSM-specific. Therefore, a similar hierarchical concept should
early be considered in the UMTS standardization efforts.
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