Applications of Cellular Mobile Wireless Systems

Typical Applications
„ Voice
„ Data
„ Real/Non-real time Video
Application Requirements
1. Data Rate
- symmetric or asymmetric
2. Latency – ( delay)
3. Bit Error Ratio

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 1

 Mobile Network Architecture

VLR HLR
PSTN
Um AC
MAPn Voice
MS Abis MAPn EIR

BTS A
MS ISDN

Voice/
Data
BSC MSC
HLR- Home Location Register Data
VLR - Visitor Location register
MSC - Mobile Switching Center BTS Internet
BSC - Base Station Controller
BTS - Base Transceiver Station
AC - Authentication Center
EIR - Equipment Identity Register

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 2

 Maximizing Capacity of the Mobile Systems

How can we achieve the objective?

„ Use Frequencies repeatedly
„ Use Digital Communication
Š Allows Compression
Š Allows Data applications
„ Use Intelligent Control Techniques
Š Dynamic Channel Assignment
„ Use Trunking
What is the main issue?
„ Achieving the desired Signal-to-Noise Ratio: Why
Š BER ===> f (Signal to Noise Ratio)
„ In Mobile Systems, it is Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR)
„ What is SIR?
3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 3
 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

How to design and analyze the frequency reuse?

Circles vs. squares, triangles and hexagon
Hexagon is closest to the circle and it helps tessellate
Number of cells per cluster is such that it satisfies the
following:
„ N=i2+i*j+j2 : i and j are non-negative integers
Nearest co-channel neighbor can be found by going i
cells along any chain of hexagons turning 60 degree
clockwise and then moving j cells.

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 4

 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

2 7 3

N=7 7 3 1

1 6 4

6 4 5 2
5 2 7 3

2 7 3 1

7 3 1 6 4

1 6 4 5

6 4 5 2
5 2 7 3

7 3 1

1 6 4

6 4 5

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 5

 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

System capacity is co-channel interference limited

„ Carrier-to-Interference ratio (C/I) is the parameter of interest
„ For AMPS, C/I should be 18dB
„ Isolation derives from distance between cells using the same
frequency group Sqrt. (3R)

Consider the geometry shown

Define Q=D/R D R

Q is the co-channel interference reduction factor and relates

path loss (a function of exponent ‘n’) between desired and
interfering cells
For the case of hexagon,
„ C/I=C/Sum(I)=R-n/6D-n=Qn/6
„ desired (C/I)>= Qn/6

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 6

 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

Frequency planning
„ Split total bandwidth in N sets of k channels each
„ Allocate one channel set per cell without gaps and repeat
„ Certain values of N lead to regular repeat patterns without
gaps, i.e., 3, 4, 7, 9, 12 and their integer multiples.
„ N increases, so does D and co-channel interference
decreases
„ N increases, the number of channels per cell decrease and
so does the system capacity
„ How can we improve this situation?

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 7

 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

INCREASING THE CAPACITY AFTER THE FACT

CELL SPLITTING – Subdivide the Cell into smaller cells
Reduce antenna heights and transmit power
Do not upset the channel assignment scheme
Do not upset the SIR
Generally, reduce the radius to half
Reduce the new transmit powers by 12 dB ( a factor of 16, if
path loss exponent is 4
Tilt the antenna down so that there is a propagation null at the
adjacent channel using the same frequency set
Practical implications remain
„ More handoffs,

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 8

 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

CELL SECTORING
Use directional Antennas; Propagation can be in 120
or 60 degree sectors
Sectoring improves SIR by reducing the interference
More handoffs, however, as long as Base station
handles handoff, MSC may be spared
Trunking efficiency may be reduced
Around 7 dB SIR improvement
Around 1.714 (12/7) time more capacity (Can use 7
cell cluster instead of 12 cell cluster)
CELL ZONING
3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 9
 Frequency Reuse - Cellular Concept

CELL ZONING
Addresses Trunking Inefficiency in Cell Sectoring
„ Any base station channel may be assigned to any zone
Making zones in a cell reduces the R in D/Rz and thus
increases D/R while reducing Tx. power of the Cell
Zones are connected to the radio equipment through
copper pairs, LOS link or fibre optical link

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 10

 Radio Channel Assignment

Dynamic vs. Fixed

Fixed Channel Assignment – Calls blocked when all
channels in use
Dynamic Channel Assignment does not allocate
channel for cells permanently
Dynamic channel allocation takes into account
likelihood of future blocking in the cells, the
frequency of use, the reuse distance of the channel
and other cost functions
Requires real time data on channel occupancy, traffic
distribution and radio signal strength indications

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 11

 Handoffs

ON cell boundary transfer, allocating new channels

And cell identity to the mobile is know as handoff
Main issue is the time to handoff: typically 10
seconds in conventional cellular systems
Handoff is initiated based on signal strength
measurements and the mobile speed
Must guard against small scale fading and avoid
frequent handoffs
Umbrella cells for high speed mobiles
Mobile assisted handoffs
Soft handoffs in CDMA

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 12

 Adjacent Channel Interference

Main reason is the out of band filtering

Need frequency spacing within the assigned band
within a cell instead of guard bands
Approximately six channel bandwidths separation is
desired
Causes near far problem
Solution is the Power Control in the Cell and also
channel separation in the channel set used in the
same cell
CDMA systems are severely affected by the ACI/Near
far problem

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 13

 Trunking and Grade of Service

Trunking accommodates large number of users in a

limited radio spectrum
The Grade of Service (GOS) is the ability of the users
to access a trunked systems in the busiest hour.
„ It is given in terms of the probability that a call is blocked or
experiences delay beyond a certain queuing time
The problem is as follows:
„ Given the available channels and the offered traffic intensity,
what is the probability that a user would experience blocking
or certain delay
Traffic Intensity is defined in terms of Erlangs, which
represents the amount of traffic intensity carried by a
channel (1 Erlang=1 call hour/hour)

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 14

 Trunking and Grade of Service

Erlang B formula is used to determine the probability

of blocking for C channels trunked system with total
offered traffic A.
Erlang C formula is used to determine the probability
of delay to access a channel in C channels trunked
system with total offered traffic A.
Example 2.5
While 10 trunked channel with for 0.01 GOS can
support 4.46 Erlangs of Traffic, 2 groups of 5 trunked
channels support 2.72 Erlangs of Traffic; Why?
Conclusion; It is desirable to have smaller cluster
sizes with more channels/cell to maximize capacity

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 15

 Summary of Cellular System Concepts

The issue is to MAXIMIZE SYSTEM CAPACITY

This requires frequency reuse through cellular
coverage; The main issue is to have a desired SIR
Digital Communication is used to enable voice and
data service and also enable voice compression to
increase capacity
Trunking is used to maximize the number of users
The challenge is to reduce the cell cluster size while
maintaining desired SIR to guarantee desire BER
„ Sectoring, Cell splitting and Cell zoning concepts are
attempts to optimize system capacity.

3/27/2006 CS-CMPE-5710: Mobile Wireless Networks 16