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Chapter 2

concept of cellular coverage

2.0 CELLULAR COVERAGE [10], [5]


The major task of engineers who design and install a cellular system is the placement of the cell base stations, the choice (omni- or sectored directionality) and placement of the antennas, and assignment of the proper carrier frequencies to each cell or sector. For proper control of handover, the threshold values appropriate to each cell or sector must be set in each cell. Cellular systems are based on large number of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), scattered over the coverage area. Each one of the base stations covers a geographical zone called cell. Before discussing the cell coverage, it is important to understand the flowing term, (table 2.1).
Table (2.1) Cell coverage terms Term Description Radio coverage Cell Omni cell Sector cell Frequency reuse Grade of service Site 3-sector site Cluster A defined level of the radio signals is received by the MS within this area. The area that is covered by a base transceiver station (BTS). Omni directional cells are served by an antenna which transmit in all directions. A cell with a uni-directional BTS antenna system. The process of "reusing" the same frequency within the cellular network. The allowed percentage of unsuccessful call set-ups due to congestion. The geographical location where the radio base station (RBS) equipment is housed. A site with three sector cells Area where all frequency groups are used only once

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2.1 Traffic and Coverage Analysis [5]


The purpose of this analysis is to prove that there is need for a cellular network. The analysis should also produce information about the geographical area and the expected capacity (traffic load). The types of the data collected are: Cost Capacity Coverage Grade of service (GOS) Available frequencies Speech quality System growth capability The traffic (i.e. how many subscriber join the system and how much traffic they generate) provides the basis for all cellular network engineering. Geographical distribution of traffic demand can calculated by the use of demographic data such as: Population distribution. Land usage data. Telephone usage statistics. Income level distribution Car usage distribution. Other factor, like subscription call charge and price of MS.

2.2 Cell Structure [24]


The GSM network has given rise to four main types of cells. These are Macro Cells, Micro Cells, Selective (Pico) Cells and Umbrella Cells.

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2.2.1 Macro cells This type of cell is mainly used where there is a very low population density so the demand for channels from the network at any one time is low, but the area of coverage is large. The transmitter power may need to be high to allow for the large coverage area. 2.2.2 Micro cells For high population densities the cell structure is small which increases the number of channels available over the area. The power level of the transmitters may need to be lowered to prevent cells from interfering with each other. 2.2.3 Umbrella cells This type of cell, as the name suggests contains other cells inside of it. When a mobile station is moving on a train or a motorway for example, the cell used by the mobile may change often creating many handovers from each cell to the next. To reduce these handovers when the GSM network recognizes a mobile station moving between cells it often hand the mobile station to the Umbrella Cell, which is a high power cell within an area of other cells. By doing this, the overheads of communication required for the handovers are substantially lowered. 2.2.4 Selective cells Due to the physical nature of some areas, a cell often does not need to cover a full 360. In cases such as these the BTSs are situated so that they give the desired area of coverage. An example of where coverage may only be required in one direction is at the entrance and exits of tunnels.

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2.3 Adapting Cell Size [10] An important parameter in radio network planning is the size of the cell. A system can be adapted to cope with a higher level of user density by reducing the size of the cells. If the cell-structure cannot carry the existing traffic, cells with high traffic density is reduced in size through the process of cell-splitting and adding new base stations. The total system throughput, often expressed in number of simultaneous calls per km per MHz, can therefore be increased by reducing the cell size.

Fig. (2.1) Adapting cell size to traffic density

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Initially GSM was intended to serve cells with a diameter expressed in kilometers or tens of kilometers, but today manufacturers offer pico cell systems with cell-ranges down to 100m for use inside buildings and in crowded areas. An example of cell-adaption in a local area is shown in Figure 2.5 Frequency Reuse [5] The area where radio coverage is given by one base station is called a cell. Each cell is assigned frequencies to transmit on. Cells that together use the whole spectrum is called a cluster (figure 2.2).
Seven cell cluster

3 2 1 7 6 2 1 7 6 Repeat cell in next cluster 5 5 3 4 main reuse distance D 4

Fig (2.2) Hexagonal cell structure with frequency reuse

Since frequency spectrum is a limited resource, which makes the number of physical channels in cellular system limited, frequencies must be reused, i.e. several cells in geographically different areas use the radio channels on the same carrier frequency. Cells using the same frequencies are called cochannel cells. How often frequencies are reused is denoted by the number of cells in a cluster; e.g. reuse 3 means that 3 cells form a cluster. So the cochannel cells must be separated from one another by sufficient distance to overcome the co-channel interference signal. 2.6 Interference C/I [10]

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When frequencies are reused, several concurrent users in different cells will be assigned the same channel. Since the base station antenna is unable to focus the signal to the intended user, users in co-channel cells using the same channel will also receive the signal (figure 2.3).

Interfering signal F1 F1

F1
Comm. Tower

Ca r rier

Comm. Tower

Co-channel Cell

Fig (2.3) Two base station and mobiles using the same channel experience co-channel

For these users this signal is an interfering signal. The useful signal is called carrier. The power of the radio signal received at the mobile is usually not the same as the power emitted from the base station. How much the power has changed from the transmitter to the receiver is calculated as follow : If the BTS transmit with power Pt and if an isotropic antenna is used then the power density at distance R from the transmitter [25]:
Pt 4R 2

Pd =

(2.1)

Where R is the radius of imaginary sphere.

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But, in practical the transmitter employ directive antenna with gain Gt the gain Gt of a transmitter antenna is a measurement of the increased power radiated in the direction of the transmission. Thus Pd =
Pt Gt 4R 2

(2.2)

Gt is the transmitter antenna gain. Since each antenna has effective area Aeff which has relationship with the gain by
4 * Aeff 2

Gt =

(2.3)

where Aeff is the transmitter effective area If the receiver antenna has gain and effective area then the power received at the mobile station
Pt Gt Gr 2 Pt Gt Aeff Pr = = 4R 2 (4R )2

(2.4)

However, in radio context, it is more common to give P and G in decibel. Equation (2.4) then become: Pr = EIRP + Gr + Lf dB (2.5)

EIRP = Effective Isotropic Radiated Power = Pt Gt Lf = path losses in dB = 10 log(


2 ) = -32.44 20 log(Rkm * fMHz) 4R

Gr = gain of mobile station in dB The signal received at the mobile is always weaker than the signal emitted at the base station due to Lf, the loss (in decibel) is negative. As a measure for link quality the carrier-to-interference ratio is used. This is the ratio between the received power on the carrier (C) and the total received
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power from interfering co-channels (I). Assume base station i uses output power Pi , MSi receive signals from its own BTS and from other BTS ,The carrier-to-interference ratio for mobile i, i, then become:

i =

Ci Ii

Pr ii Pr ji
j i

(2.3)

With C and I given in watt (2.3) i= Ci Ii With C and I given in decibel equation (2.5) The interfering signal is an unwanted signal which will make it harder for the user to extract the information transmitted on the carrier. It is therefore important to keep the interfering signal low in proportion to the carrier. This is accomplished by not having a too tight reuse. A higher reuse gives a longer distance between co-channel cells, and since radio signals attenuate with distance interference will be lower. The reuse of frequencies is a trade between number of channels and interference level. With for example 36 frequencies and reuse 3 we would have 12 frequencies in each cell, while a reuse 9 would only give us 4 carrier frequencies (figure 2.4).

[dB]

(2.5)

Fig. (2.4) Cell patterns with reuse 3 (left) and reuse 9 (right). Co-channel cells (shaded) are placed as far away from each other as possible to minimize interference. The bold lines show which cells that form a cluster.
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On the other hand, the interference in the reuse 3 case is higher. The critical factor becomes which reuse has an interference level low enough to maintain quality. For example, reuse 3 has normally a too high interference level for transmitted speech. It is then necessary to select a higher reuse. This C/I ratio is dependent on the instantaneous position of the MS and effected by the irregular region and various shapes, types and numbers of local scatter. Other factors such as antenna type, directionality and height , site elevation and positions . 2.7 Rayliegh Fading [10] Because the terminal and the base-station are close to the ground, it is common that obstacles intervene on their direct path. In addition, reflections from buildings and so on cause multipath fading to the propagated wave. Beams that travel different paths will have different phases at the receiver, and can extinct or amplify each other when they are combined (figure 2.5). The combination of these two interfering factors makes the received signal varies significantly as the user moves around.

Radi o tower

Fig. (2.5) Rayliegh fading

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Ci ty Ci ty

Ci ty

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To counteract this undesired effect, diversity methods are introduced on the radio interface. However, the technical background of these methods is outside the scope of a capacity analysis. Some other technical improvements have been conceived during the original design of the GSM-system. They increase the complexity of the system, but this is balanced by the advantages of lowering the co-channel interference and therefore increasing the capacity of the system. 2.8 Propagation Model Several things in the radio environment influence the gain in signal strength between base station and mobile. such as antenna type, directionality and height ,also the power transmitted and the obstacles. 2.8.1 Distance attenuation [10], [25] The signal attenuates due to the distance between the base and the mobile stations. The attenuation GD is given by the Okumura-Hata models which gives method to predict the field intensity of the signal in the frequency range (100- 1500 MHz), distance (1- 20km), the height of the central station antenna (30- 200m) and the height of the MS (1- 10m). Okumura-Hata models are different for three regions as follow: 1. Urban region. 2. Suburban region. 3. Open region. And we will take as example the urban region L p (dB)= 69.55+ 26.16 log fc 13.82 log hb a(hm) +[44.9-6.55log hb] log r (2.6)

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where a(hm) = (1.11 log fc 0.7)hm [1.56 log f -0.8] (2.7)

The model depends on the carrier frequency (fc) , the height of the base station antenna (hb). and MS height (hm) . 2.8.2 Shadow fading Hills, buildings etc. between the mobile and base station has a shadowing effect on the radio wave. For example when the mobile moves in the center of the city and has no direct path to the base station due to the high building, but receiving the signal from the reflections. The signal intensity will increase and decrease depending on the obstacles currently between the transmitting and receiving antennas. 2.8.3 Antenna gain In the cellular model, base stations are placed in one of the corners, and three base stations are situated at the same geographical spot. This is possible using directional antennas, which concentrate power in some directions, instead of beaming equally in all directions, like the omnidirectional antenna. The antenna gain varies with the mobiles angle relative to the base stations forward direction, and is measured in terms of dB relatively to an omnidirectional antenna, dBi. The antenna pattern diagram is shown in figure (2.6).

Fig. (2.6) antenna pattern for directional antenna


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2.9 Performance Measures 2.9.1 Blocking and Dropping Rate A user that is not admitted to the system is said to be blocked. Blocking rate is defined as (number of users denied service) (total number of arrivals)

Pb =

(2.8)

Since admission control for packet data users is not used, the blocking rate for data users is always zero. Since speech users are prioritized before data users, a good approximation for the speech user blocking rate can be read from the Erlang table, given the number of channels and the offered load. It is not totally accurate because of the dropping of speech users. If many speech users are dropped, the blocking rate will fall. Dropping probability is estimated from the dropping rate Pd, defined as (number of dropped users) (total number of admitted)

Pd=

(2.9)

Speech users residing on speech only channels are not simulated and thus never dropped. Therefore the dropping rate for speech users is the fraction of the simulated speech users that are dropped. 2.9.2 Spectral Efficiency A frequently efficiency: used measure for packet data traffic is the spectral

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transmitted bits

=
simulated time number of cells spectrum

Kbps Cell .MHz

(2.10)

In a pure packet data user system this measure is straightforward. In the mixed services system the meaning of the spectral efficiency is not as natural. Since speech users can use data capable channels, and are prioritized before packet data users, the spectrum available for packet data users varies with time. 2.10 Improvements To The Spectrum Efficiency Of GSM The amount of traffic channels versus the co-channels interference is an important trade-of for the operators, especially for GPRS. This is because co-channel interference increases the amount of retransmissions and lowers the throughput, which in turn reduces the gain of having more traffic channels. However, the GSM-system applies sophisticated techniques in order to improve the spectrum efficiency, and hence reduce the co-channel interference. First of all, 2.10.1 Power Control The control of transmitted power on the radio link aims at minimizing the transmitted power from the terminals and the base stations, whilst keeping transmission quality above a given threshold. In practice this means that the transmitted power from the terminal decreases as the signal quality increases. This saves battery-time and reduces the level of interference to other established communication channels. This is accomplished using uplink power control.

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2.10.2 Discontinuous transmission (DTX) Enables a suppression of the transmission power whenever possible. This reduces the level of interference to other established connections and the battery life in the terminal. In the case of speech, a voice activity detector (VAD) halves the transmission power of the terminal when it detects nothing but background noise. 2.10.3 Handover The mobile assisted handover provides measurements on the potential call transfer between adjacent cells, enabling efficient handover decision algorithms. This is aimed at minimizing the interference generated by the call, while keeping the transmission quality above some threshold.

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