Gary J.

Mullett

Wireless Network Architecture and Operation

Chapter 4
Objectives
Discuss the cellular concept and explain

the advantages of frequency reuse. Draw a diagram of a typical cellular cluster and explain the meaning of frequency reuse number.

Chapter 4
Objectives

Discuss how the capacity of a cellular

system may be expanded. Explain the difference between cell splitting and sectoring. Discuss the use of backhaul networks for cellular systems.

Chapter 4
Objectives

Explain the concept of mobility

management and discuss the operations it supports. Discuss the concepts of power management and network security.

The Cellular Concept

Provide a method by which frequency reuse can be

maximized, therefore multiplying the number of available channels in a particular geographic location Simplex A single high power transmitter is used for coverage of a particular geographic area Used in broadcast networks Frequency reuse between far off stations were possible Duplex Allows as many simultaneous users of the spectrum, hence reuse becomes crucial Reduction in power requirement of mobiles due to smaller cells

Introduction
I mobile telephone service offered by AT&T and the

Bell Southwestern Telephone company in St.Louis, Missouri, consisted of several colocated transmitters A 250W FM transmitter paged mobiles when there was an incoming call for the mobile The frequencies used by the system could not be reused for approximately 75 mile radius around the Base station I proposed cellular system used many low power transmitters with omnidirectional antennas mounted on shorter towers, to provide a much shorter frequency reuse

Cellular Advantage
The deployment of large number of low power base

stations to create an effective cellular system is a LARGE AND expensive TASK

Acquisition of land and associated hardware

Hardware and software for RBS,BTS and switching

centres and links between them Cost of radio frequency spectrum

Mobile service providers can recover their costs and

make a profit only if they have large number of users

Clustering
Basic cellular implementation consists of dividing up

the coverage area into a number of cells that will served by their own BS Cells are grouped into clusters that make use of all available radio spectrum and maximize the number of users in that area The frequency allocation is divided up among the cells of a cluster and reused among different clusters with minimum interference
Co-channel Interference Adjacent channel interference

Example
A service provider has bought 5MHz of spectrum.Each

subscriber requires 10KHzof BW.

With only one transmitter site what are the number of

users that can be serviced? With 35 transmitter sites and a cluster size of 7, what would be the number of users that can be serviced?

Cellular Hierarchy

Picocells - <100m in diameter Within buildings Microcells 100m < d < 1000m Outdoor to indoor and pedestrian environment Marocells - >100m in d Vehicular and High antenna environment Megacells - Global coverage Satellite systems Femtocells - <10m in d PANs

Relative coverage area of different Cells

Cell Fundamentals
The use of hexagons A true circular radiation pattern is rarely obtained in practice Tangent circles leave gaps Overlapping circles lead to ambiguity It is the closest approximation to a circle Calculations are made much easier

Use of Hexagons to represent cellular coverage

Reuse number
Cellular reuse patterns Cells are arranged in clusters To determine Minimum size cluster, interference levels generated by co channel cells should be determined The frequency reuse distance can be calculated by

D R 3N

12

Where R is cell radius N is the reuse pattern and can only take on values i2+ij+j2 where i and j are integers

Various Cellular Reuse patterns

Example
For a mobile cluster size of 7, determine the

frequency reuse distance if the cell radius is 5Kms.Repeat the calculation for a cluster size of 4

Cellular interference issues

Signal-to-interference ratio
Is an indication of the quality of the received

signal Smaller cluster sizes result in a larger possible subscriber base, but has a lower SIR AMPS system with a cluster size of 7 needed an SIR value >18dB

SIR for various cluster sizes

Simple channel distribution scheme for an AMPS system

Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell3 Cell 4 Cell 5 Cell 6 Cell 7 Control Channels 1 8 15 2 9 16 3 10 17 4 11 18 Traffic Channels 22 29 . 409 416 23 30 . 410 24 31 .. 411 25 . .. 412 26 . . 413 27 . .. 414 28 .. 415 5 12 19 6 13 20 7 14 21

Capacity Expansion Techniques

In 1990s as the demand for cell phones grew, so also the

necessity to expand for the service providers Generally, the service provider will initially implement their systems with least investment The system will be expanded with additional cell sites to handle increased traffic The different ways to increase capacity are:
To obtain more spectrum- Expensive Architecturally enabled

Cell Sectoring Cell splitting Overlaid cell schemes

Different channel allocation schemes

Architectural Techniques
Cell splitting
Cell Sectoring Overlaid cells

1. Cell Splitting
If some portions of the system experience an

increasing traffic load that is pushing the system to its limit, then service provider uses cell splitting Using cell splitting ,smaller cells with approximately the area of the larger cells are inserted into the system around the Burdened cell in such a way as to be halfway between two co-channel cells The smaller cells will use the same frequency as their corr. Larger cells To preserve this frequency reuse, the transmit power of these cells must be reduced by a factor of approximately 16 or 12dB

Cell Splitting
Due to the difficulty of acquiring appropriately located

cell sites, different size cells will exist in the same area Two groups of channels should be formed in the old cell:
One group corresponds to the small cell frequency reuse

requirements Another group that corresponds to the old cell reuse requirements

Usually larger cells are reserved for highly mobile traffic

so as to have fewer handoffs As traffic increases, the number of channels in the smaller cells will increase until original cell has its power reduced and joins the smaller cluster

Increasing Capacity by Cell splitting

2. Cell Sectoring
Uses the concept of directional antennas to

effectively split a cell into three or sometimes six new cells Often uses three directional antennas with 120 degree BW to illuminate the area Channels allocated to a cell are further divided and used only in one sector of a cell

Sectoring to increase capacity

Interference reduction due to sectoring

The amount of interference experienced

from co -channel neighbors is reduced Before sectoring, for a cluster size of 7, a cell receives and gives interference to six other nearest cochannel cells in other clusters Now, with sectoring it has reduced to two This results in higher SIR

Interference reduction due to sectoring

SIR for three sector schemes

Cluster size, N 3 4 S/I ratio 16.08dB 18.58dB

7
12

23.44dB
28.12dB

Note: For AMPS service, with a three sector/cell scheme, the reuse cluster size can be reduced to 4 and still have higher system capacity With six sectors/cell scheme, cluster size can be 3

Example 4
For a system with frequency reuse number N=7, show a

possible distribution of the channels over the sectored system

Each sector has a single control channel (333-313)

Remaining 395 traffic channels are distributed over the

21 sectors before they are repeated again in other clusters

Channel assignment scheme for 7/21 frequency reuse plan

Frequen cy group

A1

B1

G1

A2

G2

A3

G3

Analog 333 Control channels Traffic 312 channels

291 . . . 18

332

327

326.. 320

319

313

311
..

.306

305

304.

299

298

17 716 715.. 694 ..

1 667 1022 1021

999

.. 998

676 991

675

1020 1019

3. Overlaid Cells NAMPS or NTACS

An operational wideband analog system can be

upgraded to increase its capacity by overlaying another narrow band analog system over it In such a split band system, channels are divided between the larger macrocell and the overlaid microcell Channels assigned to the macrocell are used to service the users in the area between the microcells Channels assigned t the microcell serve users in the microcell With correct design, both will be equal in area This system requires the use of dual mode MSs

Overlaid Cells

Overlaid Cells GSM or NA-TDMA

A cluster of cells with size 3 is overlaid on acluster of

size 4 The channels for the overlaid cluster are taken from the underlaid cluster so as the increase the capacity The area needed for overlaid cells is 75% of that needed by underlaid cells It allows the operators to migrate their system using the same BS and MS equipment

Technological Techniques
Architectural techniques were useful if the number of

users within a cell or sector and hence the traffic offered were constant But, the amount of traffic in the individual cells/sectors of a cellular system is dynamic dictated by
Time of the day Day of the week etc.

Cellular service providers bring in portable cellular

sites known as Cells on Wheels-COW to handle increased demand sometimes Channel Allocation

Channel Allocation
Cellular service providers try to keep the prob. Of call

blocking <2% , hence allowing for system expansion Goal is to attempt to stabilize the temporal fluctuations of call blockage over both short and long term throughout the entire mobile network
Fixed channel allocation schemes examine system wide

traffic patterns over time and then fine tune the system by allocating additional channels when needed Channel Borrowing Dynamic channel allocation(DCA)-All available channels are placed in a pool and dynamically allocated by virtue of the System wide SIR chs.

Other capacity expansion schemes

Lees microcell technology

Smart antenna technology

Migration to digital technology

Lees microcell technology

Uses zones instead of sectors to reduces the number of

handoffs required as mobile station moves from one zone to another within the microcell This technique employs 3 antennas that provide coverage by looking into the microcell All 3 antennas are connected to the same base station by high speed microwave or fiber links Antenna with best reception of mobile is used for both uplink and downlink Within the microcell, same channel can be used, no need for handoff As the mobile moves into another zone, BS simply switches the channel to a different zone

Smart Antenna Technology

Smart antennas use phased array technology
This allows creation of directional antenna patterns

that may be sequentially switched to other patterns at high speed (SDMA) Using smart antennas, a BS can direct a narrow beam of radio waves at a particular MS and then reuse the same channel over another narrow beam aimed at another mobile in another location
Many present systems use a form of space diversity to enhance system

operation by using 2 or more receiving antennas

Migration to digital technology

Involves migration to digital modulation based

systems 2G systems use TDMA and CDMA technologies to achieve greater capacity than analog systems TDMA systems are more immune to noise and interference and can therefore provide service with much lower SIR than analog system NA-TDMA needs SIR of 12dB( N=4),GSM -9dB(N=3) CDMA systems may use the same frequencies in adjacent cells and lower N to 1

Cellular Backhaul Networks

As cellular systems have evolved from voice only to

both voice and data services systems, the requirements for connectivity to the PSTN and PDN have changed 1G systems used:
T1/E1/J1 facilities between MSC, BSC and BS Between MSC and BS, PCM encoded voice band signals

at 64kbps A T1/J1 can handle 24 Voiceband calls and an E1 can handle 30 Mobile data services like CDPD were introduced to 1G systems, hence completing the connectivity to the PDN through separate facilities to serve small data traffic

 2G systems: Voiceband signals are transcoded at BSC and sent over T1/E1/J1 at either 8kbps or 16kbps upto 192 VCs over single T1/J1 line Between MSC and PSTN traffic was aggregated and sent over a larger T3 facility(fiber) Cellular operator has to rent these lines at high cost With CDMA and TDMA systems, the connection between MSC and BSC were maintained for voice traffic, but IWF/PDSN elements were introduced for proper protocol conversion and mapping between wireless and external packet network

CDMA Cellular system data network operation

 2.5G+ and 3G systems Cellular operators are installing their own private wideband networks to backhaul both voice and data from the BSs to the BSCs and finally to the MSCs GSM added a GPRS PLMN connection to interface to packet data networks(X.25,IP etc.) so as to provide access to web sites through public servers Voice services are provided through the traditional GSM PLMN plan

GSM Cellular system data network connection

 3G networks: Service providers are building their own packet networks to provide connectivity between the wireless network and the core voice and data networks Wireless cellular equipment manufacturers are providing network solutions like advanced digital transport technologies like ATM and SONET to service providers Digital microwave radio is an attractive option to be used in the building of these networks

Mobility Management
With the cellular subscriber base increasing exponentially,

along with physical infrastructure there is a need for a very good radio network that manages the countless operations needed to make the entire system function correctly Goal 1.Location management of the subscribers 2.Handoff management of the subscribers Wireless network functionalities for efficient system operation are achieved through the use of
Programmable information processing systems and

information databases built into the major system components (MSC and BSC) Radio signal measurement capabilities built into the air interface components

Location Management
Is the process of keeping track of the present or

last known location of a mobile station and deliver both voice and data to it as it moves around For a voice call that passes through the PSTN - a dedicated traffic channel must be set up from the BS to the MS for the call to be completed and location of the MS must be known and also its current movement must be tracked without losing the call For data transfer packets are typically addressed to an end terminal or destination device

Three basic functions performed by Location management are

Location updating
Sending paging messages The transmission of location information to

other network elements

Location Updating
Is performed by the MS

Once it is switched on, it performs an initial system

registration or attach operation to the BS of the cell where it is located This information is checked periodically for accuracy and prevention of a detachment accidentally No change in location Access point to fixed networks remains the same The MS will send an update message every time it changes its location and hence point of access to fixed network changes

 The MS will send a location updating request message

through its new ID to the fixed network and also provides information about its previous Access Point This information is entered into a VLR database and hence can help track the MS to a specific LA or BS One main drawback Updates are periodic
Ex. An MS being switched off and transported across the

country would result in several wasted paging messages until it is switched on in its new location

Generally a balance is to be achieved between the

frequency of updated messages and number of cells that must be paged to locate the mobile

Types of Updating
Two types:
Static Cellular networks geographic

layout decides when the updating is to be done Dynamic Users mobility and the cellular system layout both contribute to the initiation of the location updating algorithm

Static Updating
1. 2. 3.

4.
5. 6. 7.

A group of cells is assigned a location area ID value(LAI) Each BS in the LA broadcasts its ID number in a periodic fashion over a control channel The MSs that are attached to The Bs are required to listen to the LA ID If the LA ID changes, the MS will have to send a location update message to the new BS The BS will forward the updated info. To the VLR database If there is an incoming message, all the cells in the LA where it was listed will be paged The MS will repond to the paging message

Drawback : Ping Pong Effect If the MS is moving back and forth between the borders of two Las This also effects the hand off process

DYNAMIC LOCATION UPDATING

Not as popular as static They are typically based on the status or state of the

mobile Some measures used to determine the MSs status and hence need for updating - elapsed time, total distance travelled, call patterns, number of different LAs entered etc.

Cellular Location Updating

Paging Messages
An incoming call or message to an MS initiates the

paging of the mobile Paging is broadcasting of a message either to a single or group of cells A single MS will respond and hence begin the communication between the mobile and the PSTN or PDN If mobile location info. Is available, then paging is easy, otherwise different strategies are used

Paging Strategies
Blanket paging This type of a page will be broadcast

to all the cells in a particular LA. If successful,, the MS will respond after the first paging cycle and delays will be kept to a minimum Sequential Paging The cell where the mobile was last registered is paged first. If not successful, a group of surrounding cells are paged If still not successful, a larger group of surrounding cells are paged and so on until the page is successful or the paging cycle timer expires and MS is declared unreachable by the system

Transmission of location information between network elements

For location updating to work correctly, databases are

a must When an MS enters into a service contract, its info. (permanent data, call plan services, location information and authentication parameters )is stored in the HLR generally colocated with the MSC, maintained by the subscribers home network The VLR also colocated with MSC will temporarily store info. About ay MS that has registered itself in the LA

 Within a particular network, there are many MSCs to

support the network operation According to the topology, each MSC may contain HLR and VLR, or alternately one MSC/HLR/VLR might service a group of MSC/VLRs For smaller systems, a GMSC may house the HLR function for a group of MSC/VLRs Different scenarios that occur during the operation of a wireless network are:
1.

User turns on mobile in home area MS registers with VLR in home area-The HLR confirms the users network privileges Communication between a remote MSC/VLR and HLR occur using a signaling protocol over SS7.

1.

When user is away from home location

It registers with the VLR of another MSC The subscriber will still connect to the same service provider, but a different MSC/VLR now covers the area 2. Or a foreign network which belongs to a different service provider roaming-Now the MSC/VLR must send a message to the home HLR to verify authentication information- HLR responds through SS& network Note : Signaling is done using MTP and SCCP of SS7 in GSM without any speech communication occurring during the operation
1.

A Typical Cellular System

Handoff Management
A cellular system needs to be able to track the location

of a subscriber as that subscriber moves within a coverage area and to be able to maintain the subscribers connection to the system It should reconfigure the connection to the mobile from current BS to new BS in new cell Handoff In 1G Hard handoffs-sometimes dropped calls In2G Digital technology seamless handoffs
CDMA systems Soft handoffs No interrupted calls

For data transmissions handoffs resulted in dropped

packets

Typical Cellular Handoff Operation

Chapter 4

Chapter 4
4.6 Radio Resources and Power Management Power control Power saving schemes

Discontinuous transmission Sleep modes Energy efficient designs

Chapter 4
4.6 Radio Resources and Power Management Radio resource management

Need Schemes

Chapter 4
4.7 Wireless Network Security Wireless network security requirements Network security requirements Network security