INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS

COMMUNICATION

Presented by
Dr. O. Cyril Mathew,HOD/ECE
Al- Ameen Engineering College
Erode
INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
 Wireless History

Major Mobile Radio Systems

1934 - Police Radio uses conventional AM mobile communication
system.
1935 - Edwin Armstrong demonstrate FM
1946 - First public mobile telephone service - push-to-talk
1960 - Improved Mobile Telephone Service, IMTS - full duplex
1960 - Bell Lab introduce the concept of Cellular mobile system
1968 - AT&T propose the concept of Cellular mobile system to FCC.
1976 - Bell Mobile Phone service, poor service due to call blocking
1983 - Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), FDMA, FM
1991 - Global System for Mobile (GSM), TDMA, GMSK
1991 - U.S. Digital Cellular (USDC) IS-54, TDMA, DQPSK
1993 - IS-95, CDMA, QPSK, BPSK
 Example of Mobile Radio Systems

Examples
Cordless phone
Remote controller
Hand-held walkie-talkies
Pagers
Cellular telephone
Wireless LAN
Mobile - any radio terminal that could be moves during operation
Portable - hand-held and used at walking speed
Subscriber - mobile or portable user
 CLASSIFICATION OF MOBILE RADIO
TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

– Simplex: communication in only one direction

– Half-duplex: same radio channel for both transmission and
reception (push-to-talk)
– Full-duplex: simultaneous radio transmission and reception (FDD,
TDD)
• Frequency division duplexing uses two radio channel
– Forward channel: base station to mobile user
– Reverse channel: mobile user to base station
• Time division duplexing shares a single radio channel in time.
Forward Channel

Reverse Channel
FORWARD CHANNEL & REVERSE
CHANNEL
 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATION
Important terminologies:
Cell: cell is the geographical area covered by a cellular
telephone transmitter.
Basestation(BS):Base station provides functionalities
between mobile unit and Mobile switching center(MSC). Base station
is located in each cell and it links the subscribers mobile unit with
MSC.
Cell splitting: In high cellular traffic regions, a larger cell is
divided into smaller cell to have complete radio coverage.
Handoff: Handoff refers to a process of transferring an
ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core
network to another. Process of transferring a MS from one base
station to another.
Also called as ‘Handover.
 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATION

Cell sectoring : A cell can be divided into many sectors. From 3 sectors to 6
sectors in a hexagonal cell. The directional antenna should focus on each
sector.
 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATION

Umbrella cell pattern: A single large cell(macro cell) consist ss of many

small cells(micro cells) and there will be interaction between the micro
and macro cells.
 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATION
Control Channels: They are used for necessary exchange of information
related to setting up and establishing cell station and mobile units.
Traffic channels: They are used for carrying data or voice connection
between different user.
Frequency reuse: It is a concept followed in cellular communication for
efficient spectrum utilization. The same carrier frequency is reused by
many cells in a cellular cluster and it is known as frequency reuse scheme.
Fading: Fading is an effect in mobile radio propagation. it is common in
multipath mobile signaling environment.
Mobile telecommunication switching office/Mobile switching
center(MTSO/MSC):It is the main unit that connects the base transceiver
station and the public switched telephone network(PSTN) in mobile
communication.
 CELLULAR CONCEPT

“Provide additional radio capacity with no additional increase

in radio spectrum”
 INTRODUCTION
▪Early mobile radio system was to achieve a large coverage areas by using
high powered transmitter with an antenna mounted on a tall tower
▪In this case it is impossible to reuse those same frequencies throughout
the system
▪Since any attempts to achieve frequency reuse would result in
interference
▪Cellular concept is a system level idea which calls for replacing a single ,
high power transmitter with low power small transmitters with each
providing coverage to only a small portion of service area
 INTRODUCTION

▪Each base station is allocated a portion of total no of channels available to

entire system
•Nearby base station are assigned different groups of channels so that all
the available channels are assigned to a relatively small no. of neighboring
base stations
•Nearby BS are assigned different groups of channel so that interference
bt. BS is minimized
 THE CELLULAR CONCEPT
Cluster of 7 cells

Cells

•footprint of a cell - actual radio coverage

•seven groups of channel from A to G
•omni-directional antenna v.s. directional antenna
 CELLULAR NETWORK

segmentation of the area into cells

possible radio coverage of the
cell

idealized shape of the cell

cell

use of several carrier frequencies

not the same frequency in adjoining cells
cell sizes vary from some 100 m up to 35 km depending on user
density, geography, transceiver power etc.
hexagonal shape of cells is idealized (cells overlap, shapes
depend on geography)
if a mobile user changes cells
handover of the connection to the neighbor cell
 FREQUENCY REUSE
• Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels
within a small geographic area called a cell.
• Neighboring cells are assigned different channel groups.
• By limiting the coverage area to within the boundary of the cell, the
channel groups may be reused to cover different cells.
• Keep interference levels within tolerable limits.
• Frequency reuse or frequency planning

“The design process of selecting and allocating channel groups for

all of the cellular base station within a system is

FREQUENCY REUSE/PLANNING”
 FREQUENCY REUSE

• Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels.

• Each cell is allocated a group of k channels, .
• The S channels are divided among N cells.
• The total number of available radio channels
S = kN
• The N cells which use the complete set of channels is called cluster.
• The cluster can be repeated M times within the system. The total
number of channels, C, is used as a measure of capacity
C = MkN = MS

• The capacity is directly proportional to the number of replication M.

• The cluster size, N, is typically equal to 4, 7, or 12.
• Small N is desirable to maximize capacity.
• The frequency reuse factor is given by 1/N
 FREQUENCY REUSE

• Hexagonal geometry has

– exactly six equidistance neighbors
– the lines joining the centers of any cell and each of its neighbors
are separated by multiples of 60 degrees.
• Only certain cluster sizes and cell layout are possible.
• The number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values
which satisfy

• Co-channel neighbors of a particular cell, ex, i=3 and j=2.

 CLUSTER SIZES AND CELL LAYOUT

A F

C D E

A A E B

B G C

A
C C
F D
A
E

Eg for i=1,j=1 Eg for i=1,j=1

The factor N is called the cluster size and is given N=i2+ij+j2
 CLUSTER SIZES AND CELL LAYOUT

i
A

i=1, j=2 , N=1+2+4=7

 CELL REUSE EXAMPLE (N=19)

To find the nearest co-channel

neighbor of a particular cell
1. Move ‘i’ cells along any chain of
hexagons
2. Then turn 60 degrees counter-
clockwise and
3. Move ‘j’ cells

Method of locating co-channel cells in a cellular system. In this example, N = 19

(i.e., I = 3, j = 2). (Adapted from [Oet83] © IEEE.)
 ADVANTAGES

Solves the problem of spectral congestion and user capacity.

Offer very high capacity in a limited spectrum without major
technological changes.
Reuse of radio channel in different cells.
Enable a fix number of channels to serve an arbitrarily large number of
users by reusing the channel throughout the coverage region.
 CAPACITY EXPANSION IN CELLULAR SYSTEM

Techniques to provide more channels per coverage area is by

•Cell splitting
•Cell sectoring
•Coverage zone approches
 CELL SPLITTING

▪Cell splitting increases the capacity of cellular system since it increases

the number of times the channel are reused
▪Cell splitting - defining new cells which have smaller radius than
orginal cells by installing these smaller cells called MICROCELLS
between existing cells
▪Capacity increases due to additional number of channels per unit area

Cell splitting is process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells

each with its own base station(with corresponding reduction in antenna
height and tx power)”
 CELL SPLITTING

Split congested cell into smaller cells.

– Preserve frequency reuse plan.
– Reduce transmission power Reduce R to R/2

microcell
 CELL SPLITTING

• Transmission power reduction from Pt1 to Pt 2

• Examining the receiving power at the new and old cell boundary
Pr [at old cell boundary]  Pt1R − n
Pr [at new cell boundary]  Pt 2 ( R / 2) − n
• If we take n = 4 (path loss) and set the received power equal to
each other
Pt1
Pt 2 =
16
• The transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB in order to fill in the
original coverage area.
• Problem:
if only part of the cells are splited
– Different cell sizes will exist simultaneously
• Handoff issues - high speed and low speed traffic can be
simultaneously accommodated
 CELL SPLITTING

•Splitting cells in each CELL

•Antenna downtiliting

Illustration of cell splitting within a 3 km by 3 km square

 SECTORING

• Decrease the co-channel interference and keep the cell radius R

unchanged
– Replacing single omni-directional antenna by several directional
antennas
– Radiating within a specified sector
– Capacity improvement is achieved by reducing the number of
cells in a cluster thus increasing frequency reuse
 SECTORING

A directional antenna transmits to and receives

from only a fraction of total of the co-channel cells.
 PROBLEMS WITH SECTORING

•Increases the number of antennas at each BS

•Decrease in trunking efficiency due to
sectoring(dividing the bigger pool of channels into
smaller groups)
• Increase number of handoffs(sector-to sector)
• Good news:Many modern BS support sectoring and
related
•handoff without help of MSC
 Microcell Zone Concept
•The Problems of sectoring can be addressed by Microcell
Zone Concept
• A cell is conceptually divided into microcells or zones
• Each microcell(zone) is connected to the same base
station(fiber/microwave link)
•Doing something in middle of cell splitting and sectoring by
extracting good points of both
• Each zone uses a directional antenna
• Each zone radiates power into the cell.
• MS is served by strongest zone
• As mobile travels from one zone to another, it retains the
same channel, i.e. no hand off
• The BS simply switches the channel to the next zone site
76
MICROCELL ZONE CONCEPT
 MICROCELL ZONE CONCEPT

•Reduced Interference (Zone radius is small so small and

directional antennas are used).
•Decrease in CCI improves the signal quality and capacity.
• No loss in trunking efficiency (all channels are used by all
cells).
• No extra handoffs.
• Increase in capacity (since smaller cluster size can be used).
 CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT STRATEGIES

•With the rapid increase in number of mobile users, the mobile service
providers had to follow strategies which ensure the effective utilization of
the limited radio spectrum.
•A variety of channel assignment strategies have been followed to aid these
objective
• Channel assignment strategies are classified into two types: fixed and
dynamic.
 CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT STRATEGIES-TYPES

Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA):

•In fixed channel assignment strategy each cell is allocated a fixed
number of voice channels.
•Any communication within the cell can only be made with the
designated unused channels of that particular cell.
•Suppose if all the channels are occupied, then the call is blocked and
subscriber has to wait.
Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA):
•In dynamic channel assignment strategy channels are temporarily
assigned for use in cells for the duration of the call.
•Each time a call attempt is made from a cell the corresponding BS
requests a channel from MSC.
• The MSC then allocates a channel to the requesting the BS.
 Cont…

It increased the trunking capacity of the network as all of the channels

are available to all cells.
This type of assignment strategy results in heavy load on switching
center at heavy traffic condition.
 HANDOFF TECHNIQUE

Content:
•Hand off
•Why hand off?
• Types of handoff with reference to the network
•Types of handoff with reference to link transfer.
 HANDOFF

Handoff refers to a process of transferring an ongoing call or data

session from one channel connected to the core network to another.
Process of transferring a MS from one base station to another.
Also called as ‘Handover’.
 Why there is need of HANDOFF

•Power Consideration
•Traffic Consideration
•Channel Quality Consideration
•Distance Consideration
•Administrative Consideration
POWER CONSIDERATION
TRAFFIC CONSIDERATION
CHANNEL QUALITY CONSIDERATION

Discontinues(weak)

Continues(good)
DISTANCE CONSIDERATION
ADMINISTRATIVE
 Types of HANDOFF

Basically, There are two type of Handoff (Handover).

With Reference to the Network

Intra-system handoff or Inter-BS handoff.

Intersystem handoff or Inter-MSC handoff.

With Reference to the Link Transfer

Hard Handoff
Soft Handoff
 INTRA-SYSTEM HANDOFF OR INTER-BS
HANDOFF.

The new and the old BSs are connected to the same MSC.

MSC
 INTERSYSTEM HANDOFF OR INTER-MSC
HANDOFF.
The new and the old BSs are connected to different MSC’s

MSC MSC

Old BS
New BS
 HARD HANDOFF

•Characterized by an actual break in the connection while switching

from one cell or base station to another
•The switch take place so quickly that it can hardly be noticed by the
user.
•Because only one channel is needed to serve system designed for hard
handoff, it is more affordable option
•First connection will be broken then new connection will be established.
 HARD HANDOFF

BREAK –BEFORE -MAKE

 ADVANTAGES OF HARD HANDOVER

•Only one channel is occupied at a time

•It is very short and usually is not perceptible by the user.
•In hard hand-off, the phone hardware does not need to be capable of
receiving two 0t more channels in parallel, which make it cheaper
and simpler
 SOFT HANDOFF

•The two BSs are briefly simultaneously connected to the MU while

crossing the cell boundary.
•As soon as the mobile's link with the new BS is acceptable, the initial
BS disengages from the MU.
•Simply, When the two Connections to the Cell Phone from Different
base station .This ensure that no break ensure during the handoff.
 SOFT HANDOFF

MAKE-BEFORE -BREAK
 ADVANTAGES OF SOFT HANDOFF

•There is change in frequency or timing during the mobility of user so that

there are practically no dead zone
•It possesses more reliable continuity in networking with less chance of
call termination then that of hard handoff.
 TRUNKING

Trunking is a technique used in data communications transmission

systems to provide many users with access to a network by sharing
multiple lines or frequencies. As the name implies, the system is like a
tree with one trunk and many branches.
 TRUNKING

• Cellular radio systems rely on trunking to accommodate a large

number of users in a limited radio spectrum
• Trunking allows a large no of users to share a relatively small number
of channels in a cell by providing access to each user, on demand, from a
pool of available channels

•In a trunked radio system (TRS) each user is allocated a channel on a per
call basis, upon termination of the call, the previously occupied channel is
immediately returned to the pool of available channels.
 KEY DEFINITION

Setup Time: Time required to allocate a radio channel to a requesting

user
Blocked Call: Call which cannot be completed at the time of request, due
to congestion(lost call)
Holding Time: Average duration of a typical call. Denoted by H(in
Seconds)
Request Rate: The average number of calls requests per unit time( λ)
Traffic Intensity: Measure of channel time utilization or the average
channel occupancy measured in Erlangs. Dimensionless quantity.
Denoted by A
Load: Traffic intensity across the entire TRS (Erlangs)
 ERLANG-A UNIT OF TRAFFIC

The fundamentals of trunking theory were developed by Erlang, a Danish

mathematician, the unit bears his name.
▪ An Erlang is a unit of telecommunications traffic measurement.
▪Erlang represents the continuous use of one voice path.
▪It is used to describe the total traffic volume of one hour
▪A channel kept busy for one hour is defined as having a load of one Erlang
For example, a radio channel that is occupied for thirty minutes
during an hour carries 0.5 Erlangs of traffic
For 1 channel
Min load=0 Erlang (0% time utilization)
Max load=1 Erlang (100% time utilization)
 ERLANG-A UNIT OF TRAFFIC

For example, if a group of 100 users made 30 calls in one hour, and each
call had an average call duration(holding time) of 5 minutes, then the
number of Erlangs this represents is worked out as follows:
Minutes of traffic in the hour = number of calls x duration
Minutes of traffic in the hour = 30 x 5 = 150
Hours of traffic in the hour = 150 / 60 = 2.5
Traffic Intensity= 2.5 Erlangs
 TRAFFIC CONCEPTS

•Traffic Intensity offered by each user(Au): Equals average call arrival

rate multiplied by the holding time(service time)
Au=λH(Erlangs)
•Total Offered Traffic Intensity for a system of U users (A):
A =U*Au(Erlangs)
• Traffic Intensity per channel, in a C channel trunked system
Ac=U*Au/C(Erlangs)
 TRUNKING

•In a TRS, when a particular user requests service and all the available
radio channels are already in use , the user is blocked or denied access to
the system. In some systems a queue may be used to hold the requesting
users until a channel becomes available.
•Trunking systems must be designed carefully in order to ensure that
there is a low likelihood that a user will be blocked or denied access.
 GRADE OF SERVICE

The likelihood that a call is blocked, or the likelihood that a call

experiences a delay greater than a certain queuing time is
called “Grade of Service” (GOS)’’.
 GRADE OF SERVICE

The probability of a call being blocked

Blocked calls cleared(BCC) or Lost Call Cleared(LCC) or
Erlang B systems
The probability of a call being delayed beyond a certain amount of time before being
granted access
Blocked call delayed or Lost Call Delayed(LCD) or Erlang
C systems
 BLOCKED CALL CLEARED SYSTEMS

•When a user requests service, there is a minimal call set-up time and
the user is given immediate access to a channel if one is available
• If channels are already in use and no new channels are available,
call is blocked without access to the system
•The user does not receive service, but is free to try again later
• All blocked calls are instantly returned to the user pool
 BLOCKED CALL DELAYED(BCD) SYSTEMS

•Queues are used to hold call requests that are initially blocked
• When a user attempts a call and a channel is not immediately available,
the call request may be delayed until a channel becomes available
• Mathematical modeling of such systems is done by Erlang C formula
•The Erlang C model is based on following assumptions :
•Similar to those of Erlang B
•Additionally, if offered call cannot be assigned a channel, it is placed in a
queue of infinite length
• Each call is then serviced in the order of its arrival
 TRUNKING EFFICIENCY

•Trunking efficiency is a measure of the number of users which can

be offered a particular GOS with a particcular e nofiguration of fixed
channels.
•The way in which channels are grouped can substantially alter the
number of users handled by a trunked system.
 INTERFERENCE

Goals for this section

▪Co-Channel
▪ Adjacent Channel
How to calculate signal to interference ratio
 INTERFERENCE

Interference is major limiting factor in the performance of cellular

radio. It limits the capacity and increases the no of dropped calls.
Sources of interference include
• Another mobile in same cell
• A call in progress in a neighboring cell
• Other BSs operating in the same frequency band
 EFFECTS OF INTERFERENCE

Interference in voice channels causes

•Crosstalk
•Noise in background
• Interference in control channels causes
• Error in digital signaling, which causes
• Missed calls
• Blocked calls
• Dropped calls
 INTERFERENCE

Two major types of Interferences

•Co-channel Interference (CCI)
• Adjacent channel Interference (ACI)
CCI is caused due to the cells that reuse the same frequency set. These
cells using the same frequency set are called Co channel cells
ACI is caused due to the signals that are adjacent in frequency
 CCI

Co-channel Interference
•Increase base station Tx power to improve radio signal
reception?
• will also increase interference into other co-channel cells by
the same amount
• no net improvement
• Separate co-channel cells by some minimum distance to
provide sufficient isolation from propagation of radio signals?
• if all cell sizes, transmit powers, and coverage patterns ≈ same
→ co-channel interference is independent of Tx power
 CCI

co-channel interference depends on:

• R : cell radius
•D : distance to base station of nearest co-channel cell where
D=R(√3N)
if D/R ↑ then spatial separation relative to cell coverage area ↑ improved
isolation from co-channel RF energy
Q = D / R : co-channel reuse ratio
hexagonal cells → Q = D/R = √3N
Smaller value of Q provides larger capacity, but higher CCI
Hence there is tradeoff between capacity and interference.
small Q → small cluster size → more frequency reuse → larger
system capacity
small Q → small cell separation → increased CCI
 SIGNAL TO INTERFERENCE RATIO S/I
The Signal-to-Interference (S/I) for a mobile is

S is desired signal power ,Ii : interference power from ith co-

channel cell
The average received power at distance d is
Pr=Po (d/do)-n
The RSS decays as a power law of the distance of separation between
transmitter and receiver
Where Po is received power at reference distance do and n is the path loss
exponent and ranges between 2-4
If Di is the distance of ith interferer, the received power is proportional to
 SIGNAL TO INTERFERENCE RATIO S/I

The S/I for mobile is given by

With only the first tier(layer of) equidistant interferers.

For a hexagonal cluster size, which always have 6 CC cell in
first tier
 ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE

Results from imperfect receiver filters, allowing nearby frequencies

to leak into pass-band.
• Can be minimized by careful filtering and channel assignments.
• Channels are assigned such that frequency separations between
• channels are maximized.
For example, by sequentially assigning adjacent bands to different
cells
Total 832 channels, divided into two groups with 416 channels each.
Out of 416, 395 are voice and 21 are control channels.
395 channels are divided into 21 subsets, each containing almost 19
channels, with closet channel 21 channels away
If N=7 is used, each cell uses 3 subsets, assigned in such a way
that each channel in a cell is 7 channels away.
ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE
THANK YOU