Lecture 2: The Cellular Concept System Design Fundamentals

ng L Khoa

Class 2

Outline
Cellular Concept Handoff Cochannel Interference Trunking and Grade of Service Technique to improve the capacity Call procedure

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Cellular Concept
The limited capacity of the first mobile radio-telephone services was related to the spectrum usednot much sharing and a lot of bandwidth dedicated to a single call. good coverage interference: impossible to reuse the same frequency The cellular concept addressed many of the shortcomings of the first mobile telephones Frequency reuse Wasted spectrum allocated to a single user In 1968, Bell Labs proposed the cellular telephony concept to the FCC It was approved and then the work began! FCC allocated spectrum (took away TV UHF channels 70-83) in the 825845 MHz and 870-890 MHz bands AT&T put up a developmental system in Chicago
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Cellular Network Architecture

Mobile Switching Center

Public Telephone network and Internet

Mobile Switching Center

Wired network
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Cellular Concept
developed by Bell Labs 1960s-70s areas divided into cells a system approach, no major technological changes a few hundred meters in some cities, 10s km at country side each served by base station with lower power transmitter each gets portion of total number of channels neighboring cells assigned different groups of channels, interference minimized hexagon geometry cell shape

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Frequency reuse concept

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Frequency Reuse
Adjacent cells assigned different frequencies to avoid interference or crosstalk Objective is to reuse frequency in nearby cells
10 to 50 frequencies assigned to each cell transmission power controlled to limit power at that frequency escaping to adjacent cells the issue is to determine how many cells must intervene between two cells using the same frequency

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Frequency Reuse
each cell allocated a group k channels a cluster has N cells with unique and disjoint channel groups, N typically 4, 7, 12 total number of duplex channels S = kN Cluster repeated M times in a system Total number of channels that can be used (capacity) C = MkN = MS Smaller cells higher M higher C + Channel reuse higher capacity + Lower power requirements for mobiles Additional base stations required More frequent handoffs Greater chance of hot spots
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Effect of cluster size N

channels unique in same cluster, repeated over clusters keep cell size same
large N : weaker interference, but lower capacity small N: higher capacity, more interference need to maintain certain S/I level

frequency reuse factor: 1/N

each cell within a cluster assigned 1/N of the total available channels

In most of the current networks, frequency reuse factor is 1.

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Design of cluster size

In order to connect without gaps between adjacent cells (to Tessellate) N = i2 + ij + j2 where i and j are non-negative integers Example i = 2, j = 1
N = 22 + 2(1) + 12 = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7

Next page example

move i cells along any chain or hexagon. then turn 60 degrees counterclockwise and move j cells.

Example 3.1 in page 61

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Example
N=19 (i=3, j=2)

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Channel Assignment Strategies

Fixed Channel Assignments
Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channels. If all the channels in that cell are occupied, the call is blocked, and the subscriber does not receive service. Variation includes a borrowing strategy: a cell is allowed to borrow channels from a neighboring cell if all its own channels are occupied. This is supervised by the Mobile Switch Center: Connects cells to wide area network; Manages call setup; Handles mobility

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Channel Assignment Strategies

Dynamic Channel Assignments
Voice channels are not allocated to different cells permanently. Each time a call request is made, the serving base station requests a channel from the MSC. The switch then allocates a channel to the requested call based on a decision algorithm taking into account different factors: frequency re-use of candidate channel and cost factors. Dynamic channel assignment is more complex (real time), but reduces likelihood of blocking

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Handover/handoff
Reasons for handover Moving out of range Load balancing Cell, BSC (base station controller), MSC (mobile switching center) Handover scenarios Intra-cell handover (e.g., change frequency due to narrowband interference) Inter-cell, intra-BSC handover (e.g., movement across cells) Inter-BSC, intra-MSC handover (e.g., movement across BSC) Inter MSC handover (e.g., movement across MSC)
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Four Types of Handoff

1 MS 2 MS 3 MS 4 MS

BTS

BTS BSC

BTS BSC MSC

BTS BSC MSC

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Handoffs
important task in any cellular radio system must be performed successfully, infrequently, and imperceptible to users. identify a new base station channel allocation in new base station high priority than initiation request (block new calls rather than drop existing calls)

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Handoff
=handoff threshold Minimum acceptable signal to maintain the call too small:
Insufficient time to complete handoff before call is lost More call losses

too large:
Too many handoffs Burden for MSC

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Styles of Handoff
Network Controlled Handoff (NCHO) in first generation cellular system, each base station constantly monitors signal strength from mobiles in its cell based on the measures, MSC decides if handoff necessary mobile plays passive role in process burden on MSC Mobile Assisted Handoff (MAHO) present in second generation systems mobile measures received power from surrounding base stations and report to serving base station handoff initiated when power received from a neighboring cell exceeds current value by a certain level or for a certain period of time faster since measurements made by mobiles, MSC dont need monitor signal strength Mobile Controlled Handoff
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Types of Handoff
Hard handoff (break before make)
FDMA, TDMA mobile has radio link with only one BS at anytime old BS connection is terminated before new BS connection is made.
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Types of Handoff
Soft handoff (make before break)
CDMA systems mobile has simultaneous radio link with more than one BS at any time new BS connection is made before old BS connection is broken mobile unit remains in this state until one base station clearly predominates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYdk89hMyss
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Types of Handoff
Vertical handoff

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Prioritizing handoff
Dropping a call is more annoying than line busy Guard channel concept
Reserve some channels for handoffs Waste of bandwidth But can be dynamically predicted

Queuing of handoff requests

There is a gap between time for handoff and time to drop. Better tradeoff between dropping call probability and network traffic.

Reduce the burden for handoff

Cell dragging Umbrella cell
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Umbrella Cell

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Interference and System Capacity

major limiting factor in performance of cellular radio systems sources of interference:
other mobiles in same cell a call in progress in a neighboring cell other base stations operating in the same frequency band Non-cellular system leaking energy into the cellular frequency band

effect of interference:
voice channel: cross talk control channel: missed or blocked calls

two main types:

co-channel interference adjacent channel interference
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

CoCo-Channel Interference
cells that use the same set of frequencies are called co-channel cells. Interference between the cells is called co-channel interference. Co-channel reuse ratio: Q = D/R=sqrt(3N)
R: radius of cell D: distance between nearest co-channel cells

Small Q large Q

small cluster size N

large capacity

good transmission quality

tradeoff must be made in actual cellular design

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

CoCo-channel Reuse Ratio

SINR
S = I S

Power
i0

propagation factor 2-6

d Pr = Pt d 0

2 + Ii
i =1

d Pr (dBm) = Pt (dBm) 10 log d 0

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Cochannel Interference
SINR
S = I S

+ Ii
2 i =1

i0

d Pr = Pt d 0

Power: propagation factor 2-6

Sun, nuclear bomb Approximation

d Pr (dBm) = Pt (dBm) 10 log d 0

S = I

R
( D ) i i0

( D / R) ( 3 N ) = = i0 i0

i =1 AMPS example =4, S/I=18dB, N needs to be larger than 6.49. Reuse factor 1/N small

Relations: cochannel interference, link quality, reuse factor Example 3.2

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Worst Case Interference

S/I ~ R-4 /[2(D-R)-4 + 2(D+R)-4 + 2D-4]

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Adjacent Channel Interference

Interference resulting from signals where are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal. Due to imperfect receiver filters that allow nearby frequencies to leak into pass band. Can be minimized by careful filtering and assignments, and by keeping frequency separation between channel in a given cell as large as possible, the adjacent channel interference may be reduced considerably. Example 3.3

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Channel Planning and Power Control

Cell planning
Control channel 5% Voice/data channel f1/f2 cell planning Breathing cell

Power Control
Open loop Close loop 800Hz in CDMA2000, 1500Hz in WCDMA

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Trunking
Trunking: the channel is allocated on demand and recycle after usage Tradeoff between the number of channels and blocking probability Grade of service
Likelihood of a call is blocked or the delay greater than a threshold during the busiest time.

Trunking theory
Erlang, a Danish Mathematician studied how a large population could be accommodated by a limited number of servers. Erlang capacity: the percentage of line/channel occupied over time

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Terms of Trunking Theory

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Trunking Theory
Each user generates a traffic intensity of Au Erlangs. Au=H, where H is the average duration of a call and is the average number of call requests per unit time for each user A=UAu, where U no. of users and A is the total offered traffic intensity Ac=UAu/C, where C is the number of channels Offered traffic >= the traffic carried by the trunked system First type of trunked system Blocked calls cleared: no queuing for call requests, no setup time M/M/m/m: memory-less, Poisson arrival, exponential service, finite channels. AC Erland B formula C!

Pr(blocking ) =

A k =0 K !

= GOS

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Erlang B Example

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Erlang B

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Blocked Calls Delayed

Blocking calls are delayed until channels are available, queuing Erlang C
Pr(delay > 0) =
C

AC Ak A + C!(1 ) k = 0 k!
A C C 1

Probability of delay lager than t Exponential service distributions Pr[delay>t]=Pr[delay>0]Pr[delay>t|delay>0] =Pr[delay>0]exp(-(C-A)t/H) The average delay D D=Pr[delay>0]H/(C-A)

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Erlang C

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Examples
Example 3.4 Example 3.5 Example 3.6 Example 3.7

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Approaches to Increasing Capacity

Frequency borrowing
frequencies are taken from adjacent cells by congested cells

Cell splitting
cells in areas of high usage can be split into smaller cells

Cell sectoring
cells are divided into a number of wedge-shaped sectors, each with their own set of channels

Microcells
antennas move to buildings, hills, and lamp posts

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Cell Splitting
subdivide a congested cell into smaller cells each with its own base station, reduction in antenna and transmitter power more cells more clusters higher capacity achieves capacity improvement by essentially rescaling the system. Cell Splitting from radius R to R/2 Table 3.4 example
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Cell Splitting Example

Power reduction is 16 times and 12 dB for half cell radius for propagation factor is 4. antenna downtilting Umbrella cell Example 3.8

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Sectoring
In basic form, antennas are omnidirectional Replacing a single omni-directional antenna at base station with several directional antennas, each radiating within a specified sector. achieves capacity improvement by essentially rescaling the system. less co-channel interference, number of cells in a cluster can be reduced Larger frequency reuse factor, larger capacity

EE 542/452 Spring 2008

Sectoring Examples
Only two cochannel cell S/I improvement 7.2dB Capacity 12/7 First type handoff Trunking efficiency low Urban area not good Example 3.9

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Repeater
Extend coverage range Directional antenna or distributed antenna systems

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Micro Cell Zone

Superior to sectoring, any base station channel may be assigned to any zone by the base station Same channel No handoff Only the active zone

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Micro Cell Zone Concept

Large control base station is replaced by several lower powered transmitters on the edge of the cell. The mobile retains the same channel and the base station simply switches the channel to a different zone site and the mobile moves from zone to zone. Since a given channel is active only in a particular zone in which mobile is traveling, base station radiation is localized and interference is reduced.

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Example
Dz/Rz=7, but D/R is 3. 2.33 times capacity gain

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Brief Outline of Cellular Process

Telephone call to mobile user Step 1 The incoming telephone call to Mobile X is received at the MSC. Step 2 The MSC dispatches the request to all base stations in the cellular system. Step 3 The base stations broadcast the Mobile Identification Number (MIN), telephone number of Mobile X, as a paging message over the FCC throughout the cellular system. Step 4 The mobile receives the paging message sent by the base station it monitors and responds by identifying itself over the reverse control channel. Step 5 The base station relays the acknowledgement sent by the mobile and informs the MSC of the handshake. Step 6 The MSC instructs the base station to move the call to an issued voice channel within in the cell. Step 7 The base station signals the mobile to change frequencies to an unused forward and reverse voice channel pair. At the same time, another data message (alert) is transmitted over the forward voice channel to instruct the mobile to ring.
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Telephone Call Placed by Mobile

Step 1 When a mobile originates a call, it sends the base station its telephone number (MIN), electronic serial number (ESN), and telephone number of called party. It also transmits a station class mark (SCM) which indicates what the maximum power level is for the particular user. Step 2 The cell base station receives the data and sends it to the MSC. Step 3 The MSC validates the request, makes connection to the called party through the PSTN and validates the base station and mobile user to move to an unused forward and reverse channel pair to allow the conversation to begin.

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Roaming
All cellular systems provide a service called roaming. This allows subscribers to operate in service areas other than the one from which service is subscribed. When a mobile enters a city or geographic area that is different from its home service area, it is registered as a roamer in the new service area. Registration
MSC polls for unregistered mobiles Mobiles respond with MINs MSC queries mobiles home for billing info

Calls
MSC controls call and bills mobiles home
Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications

Homework
3.1 3.5 3.7 3.9 3.10 3.15 3.27 3.28 3.29

Faculty of Electronics & Telecommunications