INTRODUCTION TO CELLULAR MOBILE SYSTEM

Wireless Communications – The transmission of user information such as human

voice, digital data, e-mail messages, video and other multimedia services without
the use of wires

History of Wireless Communications

 Radio and Television Communications

 Radar Communications
 Satellite Communications
 Wireless and Mobile Communications
 Cellular Communications

Advantages of Wireless Communications

 Mobility
 Increased reliability
 Ease of installation
 Rapid disaster recovery
 Lower cost

Disadvantages of Wireless Communications

 Radio signal interference

 Security
 Health hazards

Wireless Network Generations (Generations of Mobile Communication)

 First Generation Analog Cellular Systems (1G)

 Second Generation Digital Cellular Systems (2G)
 Evolution from 2G to 3G Cellular Networks (2.5G)
 Third Generation Digital Cellular Systems (3G)
 Fourth Generation Digital Cellular Systems (4G)
 Fifth Generation Digital Cellular Systems (5G)
1G
 First 1G mobile phone – 1980 in US
 Before 1G only radio telephones in cars.
 Analog circuit switched technology was used.
 FDMA
 800-900 MHz frequency bands.
 Only voice facility
 Eg. AMPS (analog mobile phone system) in North America and TACS (total
access communication system) in Europe.
 Limitations of 1G-
1. Supports only speech
2. Low traffic capacity
3. Unreliable handover
4. Long call setup time and frequent call drops
5. Inefficient use of bandwidth and poor battery life
6. Poor voice quality and large phone size
7. Allow users to make voice calls in 1 country only

2G
 Digital Cellular systems
 Commercial use in 1990
 Supports data, speech, FAX, SMS, WAP (Wireless Access Protocol)
 890- 960 MHz
 (uplink MS to BS 890- 915 MHz) and (downlink BS to MS 935- 960 MHz)
 Standards- GSM and IS-95
 GSM uses TDMA and IS-95 uses CDMA
 Limitations of 2G
1. Provides low data rates ranging from 9.6 Kbps to 28.8 Kbps
2. Circuit switched networks- dedicated sessions causes reduction in usage
of BW and resources.
3. Too many 2G standards- GSM, CDMA, PDC, PHS etc.
2.5G
 Interim generation (between 2G and 3G)
 Web browsing and email
 In 1998, added GPRS (General Packet Radio System)
 Enhanced data rates for GPRS evolution (EDGE)

3G
 In force from 2000
 High speed internet access
 Live video communication
 Simultaneous data and voice transmission
 Multimedia facilities + 2.5G phone
 1710- 2170 MHz
 High data rates 348 Kbps in a moving vehicle and 3 Mbps in a stationary
MS
 Global roaming
 Eg. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System
 Limitations of 3G
1. High BW requirement
2. High spectrum licensing fees
3. Expensive and bulk size phones
4. Lack of 2G mobile user buy for 3G
5. Lack of network coverage
6. High price of 3G services

4G
 Concept developed in 2002, implemented in 2012-2015
 Transmission rates 2 Mbps
 Very smooth global roaming
 Lower cost
 Higher data rates 100 Mbps for a roaming mobile device to 1 Gbps to a
stationary device
 Video conferencing
  Streaming picture perfect video
 Modulation techniques used variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency
and code division multiplexing (VSF-OFCDM)
 4G-LTE Long Term Evolution
 Limitations of 4G
1. Possibility of some interference
2. Capable of being attacked (jamming frequencies)
3. Privacy risked
4. Need to buy a new device to support the 4G
5. Different network bands for different phones
6. Expensive & hard to implement

5G
 Yet to be implemented
 The 5G technology is expected to provide a new (much wider than 4G)
frequency bands along with the wider spectral bandwidth per frequency
channel.
 5G is also advanced in terms of
 High increased peak bit rate
 Larger data volume per unit area (i.e. high system spectral efficiency)
 High capacity to allow more devices connectivity concurrently and
instantaneously
 Lower battery consumption
 Better connectivity irrespective of the geographic region, in which you are
 A larger number of supporting devices
 Lower cost of infrastructural development
 Higher reliability of the communications
 Practically possible to avail the super speed i.e. 1 to 10 Gbps.
 1,000x bandwidth per unit area.
 Feasibility to connect 10 to 100 number of devices.
 Worldwide coverage.
 About 90% reduction in network energy usage.
 Battery life will be much longer.
 The whole world will be in a wi-fi zone.
Advantages of 5G Technology
 Technology to gather all networks on one platform.
 More effective and efficient.
 Technology to facilitate subscriber supervision tools for quick action.
 Most likely, it will provide huge broadcasting data (in Gigabit), which will
support more than 60,000 connections.
 Easily manageable with the previous generations.
 Technological sound to support heterogeneous services (including private
networks).
 Possible to provide uniform, uninterrupted, and consistent connectivity
across the world.

Disadvantages of 5G Technology
 Technology is still under process and research on its viability is going on.
 The speed, this technology is claiming seems difficult to achieve (in the
future, it might be) because of the incompetent technological support in most
parts of the world.
 Many of the old devices would not be competent to 5G, hence, all of them
need to be replaced with a new one — expensive deal.
 Developing infrastructure needs a high cost.
 Security and privacy issues yet to be solved.

Applications of Wireless Communications

 Office and household environments

 Industrial control
 Education sector
 Health services
 Government and military operations
 Event and travel management
 Home entertainment
 Environmental and industrial research
Wireless Communication Systems (examples/ types of mobile radio sytems)

 Paging System/ Pagers

 Cordless Phone System
 Cellular Telephone System
 Handheld Walkie Talkie
 Remote Controllers
 Door Openers
 THE CELLULAR CONCEPT
Conventional mobile communication service was structured in
a fashion similar to television broadcasting: One very powerful
transmitter located at the highest spot in an area would broadcast
in a radius of up to 50 kilometers.

Limitations:
 High power consumption
 Low capacity
 Large size of the mobile
Main limitation of a conventional mobile wireless
communication system is
 Limited availability of FREQUENCY SPECTRUM !!
So the big challenge is …
 to serve large number of mobile users
 within limited allocated frequency spectrum
 with a specified system quality
System Capacity & Spectrum Utilization
The need:
 Optimum spectrum usage
 More capacity
 High quality of service (QoS)
 Low cost
How to increase capacity & Spectrum utilization
Possible Solution – Frequency Reuse
 Reuse allocated RF spectrum or a given set of
frequencies (frequency channels) in a given large
geographical service area without increasing the
interference
 Divide the service area into a number of small areas
called cells
 Allocate a subset of frequencies to each cell
 Use low-power transmitters with lower height antennas
at the base stations
Cell
 A cell is the basic geographic unit of a cellular system.
 Its actual coverage area/pattern is called a footprint.
 A cell is the radio area covered by a cell-site that is
located at its center
  A large geographical area is divided into a number of
contiguous smaller geographical coverage areas called
cells
Cell Structure (Cell Shape)
Determined by the desired received signal level by the mobile
subscribers from its base station transmitter in its operating area

Cell Structure
Ex. 1
Hexagonal Cellular Geometry
 Offers best possible non-overlapped cell radio coverage
 Multiple hexagons can be arranged next to each other
 For a given radius (largest possible distance between the
polygon center and its edge), the hexagon has the largest
area
 Simplifies the planning and design of a cellular system
Cluster
 A group of cells that use a different set of frequencies in
each cell
 Only selected number of cells can form a cluster
 Can be repeated any number of times in a systematic
manner
 The cluster size is the number of cells within it, and
designated by N
Hexagonal Cluster Patterns
Ex. 2
 Analytical Problems
2
1. A large city with an area of 1000 km is required to be
covered by finite number of cells with a radius of 2 km
each. How many cell sites would be required, assuming
regular hexagonal shaped cells?
[Ans. 96 cell sites]

2. Calculate the number of channels per cell for a cluster size

of 7 in a cellular system which has 1001 radio channels
available for handling traffic. The serving area of the
complete system is 2100 Km2 and the area of the cell is 6
Km2.
[Ans. 50,050 channels]

3. A cellular system is allocated a total band of 33 MHz and

uses two 25-KHz simplex channels to provide full duplex
voice and control channels. Find the number of channels
available per cell for a frequency reuse factor of (i) 4 cells;
(ii) 7 cells, and (iii) 12 cells?
[Ans. (i) 165 (ii) 94 (iii) 55]
 FREQUENCY REUSE CONCEPT
 Large coverage area, efficient spectrum utilization and
enhanced system capacity are the major attributes of
cellular communication
 Frequency reuse is the core concept of cellular
communications
 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.
Co-channel and Adjacent Channel Cells
 Cells, which use the same set of frequencies, are referred
to as co-channel cells
 Co-channel cells are located sufficiently physically apart
so as not to cause cochannel interference
 The space between adjacent cochannel cells is filled with
other cells that use different frequencies to provide
frequency isolation
Frequency Reuse & Spectrum Efficiency

Suppose the system has RF spectrum for 100 voice channels

 Scenario 1: A high power base station covering entire area
– system capacity = 100 channels
  Scenario 2: Divide spectrum into 4 groups of 25 channels
each; cells (1, 7), (2, 4), (3, 5), 6 are assigned distinct
channel groups – system capacity = 175 channels
Cluster Size and Cell Capacity
 In a cellular system, the whole geographical service area
is divided into a number of clusters having finite number
of cells.
 The total number of duplex channels available in the
system is S.
 Each cell is allocated a group of K channels.
 The N (cluster size) number of cells in a cluster use the
complete set of available frequency channels K.
 Then the total number of available channels are
S=KxN
Cluster Size and System Capacity
 The cluster can be replicated many times to cover the
desired geographical area by a cellular communication
system
 Let M be the number of clusters in the system, then
overall system capacity, C is given as
C=MxS
C=MxKxN
Ex. 3
Co-Channel Cells
 Cells which use the same set of frequencies are referred
to as cochannel cells.
 The interference between cochannel cells is referred to as
cochannel interference.
 The space between adjacent cochannel cells are filled
with cells using different frequencies.
Method to Locate Co-channel Cells
 Rules for determining the nearest co-channel cell using
“Shift parameters” (i, j) to lay out a cellular system is:
Step 1: Move i cells along any side of a hexagon.
Step 2: Turn 60 degrees anticlockwise
Step 3: Move j cells.
where i and j are shift parameters and can have integer value
0,1,2,3, and so on …

Cochannel Cells for i =3, j = 2

Frequency Reuse Distance, D
 Distance between two cochannel cells,
D = √3 R
 Reusing an identical frequency channel in different cells
is limited by co-channel interference between cells.
 The co-channel interference can become a major
problem in cellular communication.
 It is desirable to find the minimum frequency reuse
distance D in order to reduce this co-channel
interference.
Factors which Influence `D’
 The number of co-channel cells in the vicinity of the
center cell
 The type of geographic terrain contour
 The antenna height
 The transmitted power at each cell site
NOTE: As long as the cell size is fixed, co-channel interference
is independent of transmitter power of each cell.
Frequency Reuse Ratio, q

q=D ∕R
where D is the frequency reuse distance and R is the radius of
the cell.
The frequency reuse ratio, q is also referred as
 the co-channel reuse ratio
 the co-channel reuse factor
 co-channel interference reduction factor
 The frequency reuse factor, q can be determined from the
cluster size N as
q = D / R = (3N)

Frequency Reuse – Pros & Cons

 Advantage: The frequency reuse system can drastically
increase the spectrum efficiency, thereby, increasing the
system capacity.
 Disadvantage: If the system is not properly designed,
co-channel interference may occur due to the
simultaneous use of the same channel.
 Co-channel Interference is the major concern in the
concept of frequency reuse.
Ex. 4
Ex. 6
 Analytical Questions
1. A new cellular service provider decides to employ a cluster
of 19 cells for frequency reuse. Determine the reuse
distance for if the radius of a cell is 2 Kms.
[Ans. 15 Km]

2. A cellular service provider is allocated RF spectrum of 30

MHz. The cellular system is configured with a cluster size
of 12. It has simplex channel bandwidth of 25 KHz and 10
channels per cell are reserved as control channels.
(a) Find the reuse distance if the radius of each cell is 5 Km
[Ans. 30 Km]
(b) How many channels per cell are available for traffic
purpose? [Ans. 40 channels]
(c) How many calls can be simultaneously processed by
each cell if 8 users can share each channel?
[Ans. 320 calls]

3. A cellular system has a total RF bandwidth of 12.5 MHz

and simplex channel spacing of 30 KHz. The system
contains 20 control channels. The system is required to
cover a total area of 3600 Km².
(a) Calculate the number of traffic channels/cell, if the
cluster size is 9. [Ans. 44 channels]
(b) Find the reuse distance for part (a), if the area of each
cell is 8 Km². [Ans. 9 Km]
(c) Determine the total number of cells needed to cover
the entire area. [Ans. 450 cell]
(d) How many calls can be simultaneously processed by
 each cell if 8 users can share each channel?
[Ans. 352 calls]

4. Prove the following for a hexagonal cellular system with

cell radius R reuse distance D and given value of the cluster
size K:
(a) D = 3R for K = 3.
(b) D = 3.46R for K = 4.
(c) D = 4.6R for K = 7.
(d) D = 6R for K = 12.
[Use the fact D/R = 3K ]
5. Determine the distance from the nearest co-channel cell for
a cell having a radius of 0.64 Km and a co-channel reuse
factor of 12. [Ans. 7.68 Km]

6. Determine the frequency reuse ratio for a cell radius of 0.8

Km separated from the nearest co-channel cell by a
distance of 6.4 Km. [Ans. 8]

*****
 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

 Bell Lab developed the cellular concept in 1960’s.

 Wireless comm. era was born in 1970’s with the development highly
miniature solid state devices.
 In 1990’s private mobile radio licenses were issued for commercial use.
 The number of mobile subscribers are increasing day by day.

Elements of Cellular Communication (Terminology of Cellular Communication)

Base Station (BS)- a fixed station in a mobile radio system used for radio
communication with mobile stations. BS are located at the centre or on the edge of
a coverage region and have radio channels, transmitting and the receiving antennas
mounted on a tower. Also known as cellsite.

Mobile Station (MS)- a station which is in motion while use. Eg. Mobile phone.

Control channel- radio channel used for transmission of call setup, call request, call
initiation and other beacon or control purposes.

Forward channel- radio channel used for transmission of information from the BS
to the MS.

Reverse channel- radio channel used for transmission of information from the MS
to the BS.

Simplex radio systems- communication is possible in one direction only. Eg.

Paging systems.

Half duplex systems- allow 2-way communication but use of same channel for
both TX and RX. Eg. Walkie-Talkie

Full duplex systems-allows simultaneous radio TX and RX between a MS and a

BS by providing two separate channels. Eg. Cell phones

Handoff/ Handover- process of transferring a MS from one channel or BS to

another.
MTSO (Mobile Telephone Switching Office)/ MSC (Mobile Switching Centre)-
Coordinates the routing of calls in a large service area.

Page- a brief message which is broadcast over the entire service area usually in a
simulcast fashion by many BS’s at the same time.

Subscriber- a MS who pays subscription charges for using a mobile

communication systems.

Roamer- a MS which operates in a service area other than from which service has
been subscribed.

Transceiver- A device capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving radio

signals.

FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing)- provides simultaneous radio transmission

channels for the subscriber and the base station, so that they both may constantly
transmit while simultaneously receiving signals from one another.
 At the BS- 2 separate antennas for TX and RX.
 At the MS- single antenna but duplexer is used.
 A pair of radio channels- forward & reverse are used.
 Full duplex & half duplex systems use transceivers for radio comm..
 Used exclusively in Analog mobile radio systems.

TDD (Time Division Duplexing)- a single radio channel and antenna is used for a
portion of the time as forward channel and remaining time as reverse channel.
 TDD is possible with Digital transmission formats and digital modulation.
 Used for small area wireless applications where the physical coverage
distance is less.

A Basic Cellular System

Consists of a number of BS, a number of MS, MTSO and channels (forward,
reverse and control).
Limitations of conventional mobile telephone systems
1. Limited service capability
2. Poor service performance
3. Inefficient frequency spectrum utilization

A Basic Cellular System

A basic cellular system consists of following parts:
1. a mobile unit,
2. a cell site
3. a mobile telephone switching office (MTSO)
4. the connections

Performance Criteria
There are three categories for specifying performance criteria.
1. Voice quality
CM5 excellent (speech perfectly understandable)

CM4 good (speech easily understandable, some noise)

CM3 fair (speech understandable with a slight effort, occasional

repetitions needed)
CM2 poor (speech understandable only with effort,
 frequent repetitions needed)
CM1 unusable (speech not understandable)

2. Service quality
Three items are required for service quality.
1 Coverage
2 Required grade of service
3 Number of dropped calls

3. Special features
such as call forwarding, call waiting, voice stored (VSR) box, automatic
roaming, or navigation services

Planning a Cellular System

Two elements are required:
1. Telecom regulations
2. the market situation

The engineer’s role

The engineers follow the market decisions by

1. Initiating a cellular mobile service in a given area by creating a plan

that uses a minimum number of cell sites to cover the whole area. It is
easy for marketing to request but hard for the engineers to fulfill. We
will address this topic later.
2. Checking the areas that marketing indicated were important revenue
areas. The number of radios (number of voice channels) required to
handle the traffic load at the busy hours should be deter- mined.
3. Studying the interference problems, such as cochannel and adjacent
channel interference, and the intermodulation products generated at the
cell sites, and finding ways to reduce them.
4. Studying the blocking probability of each call at each cell site, and
trying to minimize it.

5. Planning to absorb more new customers. The rate at which new

customers subscribe to a system can vary depending on the service
charges, system performance and seasons of the year. Engineering has to
try to develop new technologies to utilize fully the limited spectrum
assigned to the cellular system. The analysis of spectrum efficiency due
to the natural limitations may lead to a request for a larger
spectrum.