Cellular and Mobile Communications 19EC601

Open Book Examination scheme

(Answer the following Questions)2 x 15= 30 Marks

Q.No Questions (1 to 2) Marks
1 a. Pretend your company wants build a U.S. cellular system (the application cost for the license was only 9
$500!). Your license is to cover 140 square km. Assume a base station costs $500,000 and a MTSO cost is
$1,500,000. An extra $500,000 is needed to advertise and start the business. You have convinced the
bank to loan you $6 million, with the idea that in four years you will have earned $10 million in gross
billing revenues, and will have paid off the loan.
(i) How many base stations (i.e. cell sites) will you be able to install for $6 million?
(ii) Assuming the earth is flat and subscribers are uniformly distributed on the ground, what assumption
can you make about the coverage area of each of your cell sites? What is the major radius of each of your
cell, assuming a hexagonal mosaic?
(iii) Assume that the average customer will pay $50 per month over a 4 year period. Assume that on the
first day you turn system on, you have a certain number of customers which remains fixed throughout
the year. On the first day of each New Year the number of customers using your system doubles and then
remains fixed for the rest of that year. What is the minimum number of customers you must have earned
on the first day of service in order to have earned $10 million in gross billing revenues by the end of the
4th year of operation?

Sol:

i)$6 million- the application cost for the license was only $500- a MTSO cost $1,500,000 - to
advertise$500,000= $3999500

$3999500/ cost of each base station= 3999500/500000=79.9= 80( approx.)

base stations (i.e. cell sites) will you be able to install for $6 million= 80

ii) total area=140 square km

area of each cell= 140/80=1.75 square km

area of hexagon= (3√3 r2)/2; upon solving radius r= 0.82 km

iii) let no.of customers in 1st year =x
no.of customers in 2nd year=2x
no.of customers in 3rd year=4x
no.of customers in 4th year=8x
Total no.of customers for entire 4 year duration=14x
average customer will pay $50 per month and $10 million in gross billing revenues
so the minimum number of customers you must have earned on the first day = $10 million/(14*50)=
14285.7142857=14286 customers

b. What could be the possible sources of interference which may limit the performance of cellular 6
communication systems? Can the value of cluster size be increased more than 7 to minimize the effect of
co-channel interference?

• Explanation regarding to different types of interference

• Effects of larger cluster size on C/I ratio and no. of channels available per cell
2 a. In a certain TDMA system, the TDMA frame length and burst bit rate are, respectively, 20ms and 90 9
Mbps. If the total number of overhead bits per frame is 25000 bits, find the TDMA frame efficiency. Find
the number of 64-kbps PCM-encoded voice channels that the TDMA system is able to support.

Form No. AC 27.00.2018 | GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam, Andhra Pradesh. Note to the Students: This
AC 28 direct assessment tool is deployed to assess the Higher Order Thinking Skills of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
 b. Explain why operators of cellular networks in densely populated areas prefer to put their base stations 6
in the valleys, rather than on top of mountains. How does this differ from the situation in rural areas?
In the initial phases of operating a cellular network, the planners typically aim at maximum coverage.
Subscribers should be able to reach a base station anywhere.
The map of the service coverage should not contain dark spots where the service is not available.
Base stations are located such that they reach as many locations as possible, e.g. typically on hill tops.
Lateron, when the number of subscribers increase, there is a need to optimize the capacity. Cell size
should be as small as possible to accommodate as many different cell areas as possible.
The effect that hills can shield of signals and avoid propagation into other valleys can be used to
advantage. It allows that frequencies are reused in nearby other valleys, particularly if base station
are not located at the hill tops but in the valleys.

Course Coordinator/Instructor Head of the Department

Form No. AC 27.00.2018 | GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam, Andhra Pradesh. Note to the Students: This
AC 28 direct assessment tool is deployed to assess the Higher Order Thinking Skills of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy