◼ Cell – a geographical area covered by a BS.

◼ Frequency Reuse – the frequency channels allocation scheme.

◼ For convenience, the cells are shown with a hex pattern. A hex pattern is
the simplest pattern that can tessellate an area.
◼ In practice, cells are not hexagonal and BS are not exactly in the center of
the cell.

1
An Example of a Cellular Cluster

2
Capacity Computations
◼ Assume there are N cells, each allocated k different frequency channels.
These N cells are said to form a cluster. Total number of channels per
cluster is given by
S=kN

◼ Total capacity associated with M clusters:

C=PkN=PS
◼ A cluster may be replicated more times in a given area if the cells are made
smaller (note that power needs to be reduced accordingly).

◼ Capacity of cellular system is directly proportional to “P”, number of times a

cluster is replicated.

3
Capacity versus interference for
same size cell
◼ Decrease N for More Capacity: If Cluster Size, N is decreased
while cell size remains fixed, more clusters are required to cover the
area (M increases). Therefore, Capacity increases.

◼ Increase N for Less Interference: On the other hand, if N is

increased (large cluster size) means that co-channels are now
farther than before, and hence we will have less interference.

◼ Value of N is a function of how much interference a mobile or a base

station can tolerate.

4
Frequency Reuse
◼ Geometry of the hexagonal cells is such that to cover adjacent areas
completely, N can have only some of the values.

◼ N should satisfy the relationship,

◼ where i and j are positive integers. Typical values of N are 4,7,12

etc.
◼ To draw the cell pattern given i and j:
1. Move i cells across hexagons.
2. Turn 60º CCW and move j cells.

5
Frequency Reuse (N=7, i=2, j=1)

6
Channel Assignment
Strategies

7
 Channel Allocation Techniques

◼ To satisfy the user, a channel needs to be available on request.

◼ Reasonable probability of call blockage (GOS) is 2%.
◼ GOS fluctuate with location and time.
◼ The goal is to keep a uniform GOS across the system.
◼ Reduction of variations in GOS allow more users – an increase in
capacity.
◼ Three types of algorithms for channel allocation:
 Fixed channel allocation (FCA)
 Channel Borrowing
 Dynamic channel allocation (DCA)

8
Fixed Channel Allocation Techniques

◼ Available spectrum is W Hz and each channel is B Hz. Total number

of channels:
S = W/B

◼ For a cluster size N, the number of channels per cell:

k = S/N

◼ To minimize interference, assign adjacent channels to different cells.

9
Features of Fixed Channel Allocation
Techniques
◼ FCA is the optimum allocation strategy for uniform traffic across the
cells.
◼ A non uniform FCA strategy, when it is possible to evaluate GOS in
real time and adjust the FCA accordingly. This requires a more
complex algorithm.

10
Channel Borrowing

◼ Borrow frequencies from low traffic cells to high traffic cells.

◼ Temporary channel borrowing: channel is returned after call is
completed.
◼ If all the channels in a cell are occupied, channels are borrowed
from neighboring cells.
◼ The MSC supervises such borrowing procedures and ensures
disruption free service.

11
Dynamic Channel Allocation

◼ All channels are placed in a pool, and are assigned to new calls
according to the reuse pattern. Signal is returned to the pool, when
call is completed.

◼ Issues related to channel allocation are still under research.

12
Comparison of Channel Allocation
Techniques
◼ Fixed Channel Allocation
 Advantages:
◼ Less load on MSC
◼ Simple
 Disadvantages:
◼ Blocking may happen
◼ Dynamic Channel Allocation
 Advantages:
◼ Voice channels are not allocated permanently. That is shared on need-basis
 Disadvantages:
◼ Requires MSC for processing---burden on MSC
◼ May be very complicated

13
Hand Off Strategies

14
◼ HAND OFF:
“When a mobile moves into a different cell while a conversation is in
progress, MSC transfers the call to a new channel belonging to the new
base station”. (Hard handoff)

◼ In modern wireless systems, there may be no change in the actual

channel; only the base station changes (Soft Hand off)

◼ Mobile Switching Center needs to:

 Identify the new base station
 Allocate new Voice and Control channels associated with the new base station.

15
 Optimal Signal strength
due to BSi
Signal stren
due to BS
Handoff
Area & Pi(x) Pj(x)
Ping-pong
Effect
D
Pmin
BSi X1 X3
MS X5 Xk X4 X2
BSj

◼ Where is the optimum handoff area?

◼ Is it X5? - both signals have equal strength there
◼ Ping-pong effect in handoff
◼ Imagine MS driving “across” X5 towards BSj, then turning back and
driving “across” X5 towards BSi, then turning back and driving
“across” X5 towards BSj, then ….
◼ Solution for avoiding ping-pong effect
◼ Maintain link with BSi up to point Xk where:
◼ Pj(Xk) > Pj(Xk) + D (D - a chosen threshold)
◼ Desired Behavior:
 Prioritize Hand off to new call initiation
 Successful transfer of call
 Hand off should be as infrequent as possible
 Hand off should be imperceptible by user (very slight)

◼ Hand off Threshold Power Level:

 There is a minimum power level of the signal at BS for acceptable
voice quality. (-90 to –100 dBm).
 Hand off Threshold is defined D dBm above this level, so that the
system has time to process hand off.

17
Margin D needs to be neither too small,
nor too large
◼ D too small → too short time to perform handoff, The call may be
dropped in the meanwhile.
◼ D too large → unnecessary handoff burden. Hand off becomes more
frequent, and occurs even when Power is at the acceptable level.

◼ Call will be dropped if

1. D is too small,
2. Delay in MSC processing because of:
◼ High Traffic hours, New channel not available

18
Handoffs – the basics
When to Hand off? MSC needs to ensure:
◼ When to Hand off? MSC needs to ensure:
 that the power drop is not temporary: because of FADING.
 that MS is actually moving away from the current BS.

◼ MSC measures signal strength for some time (average received signal
power). These calculations are performed to:
 Avoid the unnecessary hand off,
 Complete the necessary hand off before call drops

◼ The time available to decide hand off depends on the subscriber’s speed.

◼ Speed of the user can be estimated from the slope of the short term
average Power. Steep curve →Quick Hand off

20
First Generation Systems:
◼ Signal Strength Measurements are made by base stations and supervised
by MSC.
◼ Each base station constantly monitors power levels of its reverse voice
channels, which tells the relative location of the user.
◼ Reverse Signal Strength Indicators: Power levels of all the calls in a cell.
◼ Locator Receiver: Power levels of Users of neighboring cells are also
measured.
◼ Both these pieces of information are passed to MSC for hand off decision.
◼ In 1G: Hand off processing takes almost 10sec: that requires
 D ~= 6-12 dB

21
Second Generation Systems: Digital
TDMA
◼ Concept of Mobile Assisted Hand Off (MAHO)
◼ Mobile station continually measures power levels of surrounding Base
Stations and reports these measurements to the serving Base Station.
◼ Hand off is initiated when power level from BS of neighboring cell exceeds
that of the current cell, for certain time, or by a certain level
◼ MAHO method ensures faster hand off since burden of MSC is shared by
Mobile Stations
◼ MAHO is particularly suited for Micro-Cellular Systems.
◼ In GSM: The time reduces to 1-2 seconds: → that needs
D ~= 0-6dB

22
Inter-System Hand Off
◼ Definition: “-----When a mobile moves from one cellular system to
another, with different MSC”.
◼ The situation occurs when

“Signal in the resident cell becomes weak, and no other cell within the
system can take the call”.

◼ Issues:
 Local Call becomes long-distance call
 Compatibility between two MSCs.

23
Prioritizing Hand off
◼ Systems differ in methods and policies of hand off:
◼ Some systems take hand off like a new call initiation: user will be more
annoyed in case of call drop than call blocking for some time.
◼ Various Methods of Prioritizing Hand off have been devised and
implemented.
Guard Channel Concept
◼ Reserve some channels exclusively for hand off--- do not use them for call
initiation.
◼ Advantage is increased probability of successful hand off. Disadvantage is
lower capacity because of less number of channels for call initiation.
◼ No disadvantage in Dynamic Channel Allocation

24
Queuing of Hand off:
Decreases the probability of forced termination of a call due to lack of
available channels.
◼ Trade off between the “probability of forced termination” and “total
carried traffic”. That is,
“Probability of forced termination” decreases at the cost of reduced Total
Carried Traffic.

◼ Queuing is possible because of the time available between the Threshold

power level and the Hand off power level.
◼ Delay Time and Queue Size are related to service area.
◼ Queuing doesn’t guarantee zero probability of call drop.

25
Practical Hand Off Strategies:

◼ 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.

◼ 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.

26
The Umbrella Cell Approach

27
Umbrella cell approach:

◼ Minimizes the number of hand offs for high speed users,

◼ Provides additional micro-cell users for pedestrians.

◼ A High speed user converting into a low speed user may be

switched to smaller micro-cell by the Base Station, without
MSC intervention.
◼ Speed Estimation can be performed by slope of short term
average calculations of the received power, or by some more
more sophisticated algorithms.

28
Interference and System
Capacity

29
 Interference
◼ It is a major limiting factor in the performance of cellular radio systems.
(In comparison with wired comm. Systems, the amount and sources of
interferences in Wireless Systems are greater.)
◼ Creates bottleneck in increasing capacity
◼ Sources of interference are:
1. Mobile Stations
2. Neighboring Cells
3. The same frequency cells
4. Non-cellular signals in the same spectrum
◼ Interference in Voice Channels: Cross-Talk
◼ Interference in Control Channels: missed/blocked calls
◼ Urban areas usually have more interference, because of:
a) Greater RF Noise Floor,
b) More Number of Mobiles

30
Types
1) Co-Channel Interference (CCI)
2) Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)
3) Other services: like a competitor cellular service in the same area

(1) Co-Channel Interference and System Capacity

◼ The cells that use the same set of frequencies are called co-channel cells.
◼ The interference between signals from these cells is called Co-Channel
Interference (CCI).
◼ Cannot be controlled by increasing RF power. Rather, this will increase
CCI.
◼ Depends on minimum distance between co-channels.

31
 ❑ The yellow cells use the same set of
frequency channels, and hence, interfere
with each other
❑ In the cellular system there are 6 first-
layer co-channels

◼ In constant cell size and RF power, CCI is a function of Distance between

the co-channel cells(D), and the size of each cell (R).
◼ Increasing ratio D/R, CCI decreases.
◼ Define Channel Reuse Ratio = Q = D/R

32
◼ For hexagonal geometry, D/R can be calculated:

◼ Smaller Q provides larger capacity, since that would mean smaller N.

(Capacity ∝ 1/N).
◼ Larger Q improves quality, owing to less CCI.
For N=3, Q=3,
N=7, Q=4.58,
N=12, Q=6,
N=13, Q=6.24

33
34
◼ Signal-to-interference ratio

◼ S is the power of the signal of interest and is the power of kth

interference.

◼ The signal strength at distance d from a source is

◼ That is, received signal power is inversely related to nth power of the
distance.

◼ where n = path loss exponent

35
◼ Then we can express the SIR in terms of distance

◼ where the denominator represents the users in neighboring clusters using

the same channel

◼ Let be the distance between cell centers. Then

◼ Note how C/I improves with the frequency reuse N.

◼ Analog systems: U.S. AMPS required C/I ~= 18dB For n = 4, the reuse
factor for AMPS is N ≥ 6.49, so N = 7.
◼ Now, let us consider the worst case for a cluster size of N= 7. The mobile is
at the edge of the cell. Express C/I as a function of actual distances.

36
Worst Case Design
Worst case carrier-to-interference ratio

37
◼ Increasing N from 7 to 12, brings C/I above the 18dB level. However, the
system capacity is decreased.

◼ Reduction of capacity by 7/12 for taking care of the worst case situation
when CIR ~= 17.4 dB is not justified because this situation will occur very
rarely.

◼ Conclusion: Co-Channel Interference controls the link performance which

then decides Frequency Reuse Plan, and System Capacity.

38
Adjacent Channel Interference
◼ Interference from channels that are adjacent in frequency,
◼ The primary reason for that is Imperfect Receive Filters which cause the
adjacent channel energy to leak into your spectrum.
◼ Problem is severer if the user of adjacent channel is in close proximity.
→Near-Far Effect
◼ Near-Far Effect: The other transmitter(who may or may not be of the
same type) captures the receiver of the subscriber.
◼ Also, when a Mobile Station close to the Base Station transmits on a
channel close to the one being used by a weaker mobile: The BS faces
difficulty in discriminating the desired mobile user from the “bleed over”
of the adjacent channel mobile.

39
Near-Far Effect: Case 1

◼ The Mobile receiver is captured by the unintended, unknown transmitter,

instead of the desired base station

40
Near-Far Effect: Case 2

◼ The Base Station faces difficulty in recognizing the actual mobile user,
when the adjacent channel bleed over is too high.

41
Minimization of ACI

(1) Careful Filtering ---- min. leakage or sharp transition

(2) Better Channel Assignment Strategy

◼ Channels in a cell need not be adjacent: For channels within a cell, Keep
frequency separation as large as possible.
◼ Sequentially assigning cells the successive frequency channels.
◼ Also, secondary level of interference can be reduced by not assigning
adjacent channels to neighboring cells.
◼ For tolerable ACI, we either need to increase the frequency separation or
reduce the passband BW.

42
Minimization of ACI

(1) Careful Filtering ---- min. leakage or sharp transition

(2) Better Channel Assignment Strategy

◼ Channels in a cell need not be adjacent: For channels within a cell, Keep
frequency separation as large as possible.
◼ Sequentially assigning cells the successive frequency channels.
◼ Also, secondary level of interference can be reduced by not assigning
adjacent channels to neighboring cells.
◼ For tolerable ACI, we either need to increase the frequency separation or
reduce the passband BW.

43