| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications

ent of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |

_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Introduction
Early macrocellular deployment
Introduction to Wireless Elevated base-stations communicate with a number of
moving mobiles in the surrounding area.
Communications
Principles of Cellular Networks

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Introduction Traditional Cellular Design

Most commercial radio and television systems are Many basestations to achieve continuous coverage.
designed to cover as much area as possible. Early analogue systems placed basestations on top of tall
Operate at maximum power and with highest antennas allowed. buildings and hilltops to achieve a coverage radius of up to 20 km.
Frequency used by transmitter cannot be reused until there is
enough geographical separation so that one station does not
Cellular systems are designed to operate with low-power
interfere significantly with other stations assigned to that radios spread out over the geographical service area.
frequency. Each group of radios serve mobile units located near them.
The area served by each group of radios is called a cell.
Cellular systems take the opposite approach. Each cell has an appropriate number of low-power radios for
Make efficient use of available channels by using low-power communications within the cell.
transmitters to allow frequency reuse at much smaller distances. Each basestation can support a number of simultaneous calls,
the number is a function of complexity, bandwidth and modulation.
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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
 | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Traditional Cellular Structure Continuous Coverage Frequency Reuse

Adjacent cells assigned different frequencies to avoid
interference or crosstalk

Objective is to reuse frequency in nearby cells

A set of 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

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Traditional Cellular Design Traditional Cellular Design Reuse Pattern

For a low number of expected subscribers, large cells allow rapid Adjacent cells cannot use the same frequency
coverage to be achieved easily; for fast moving users the large cells also Since it would then be possible for two users on the same
reduce problems of handover. frequency to interfere with each other (cochannel interference).
Handover = process of transferring a call from one basestation to the next. The dark cells (figure above) reuse the same frequency
allocations.
Convenience: each cell is assumed to be an ideal hexagonal area. The distance between these cochannel cells is referred to as the
reuse distance and is often denoted by the letter D.
The cell radius is assumed to be denoted by the letter R.
When using hexagons to model coverage areas, base stations
transmitters are depicted as either being in the centre of the cell (centre-
excited cells) or on three of the six vertices (corner-excited cells). The above coverage plan is said to have a reuse pattern
of three.
Normally, omni-directional antennas are used in excited-excited cells and
total bandwidth allocation is split into three equal sections.
sectored directional antennas are used in corner-excited cells.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Traditional Cellular Design Reuse Pattern Cellular Coverage Representation

Early analogue systems used reuse patterns of seven and twelve; A, B, , F: frequency groups
with digital GSM system, reuse pattern reduced to four and seven.
To achieve this reuse pattern, cell sectorisation has become common.

Reuse pattern is generally governed by a radio systems sensitivity to

cochannel interference and the direction and orientation of antennas.
The higher the systems interference tolerance, the closer to the original
basestation the same frequencies can be reused.

The first tier of interfering basestations consists of six cochannel cells.

Practical assumption: cochannel interference is mainly from first tier of
cochannel cells
Cochannel interference modelled as total contribution
from these six cells.

The lower the reuse pattern the higher the systems overall capacity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Traditional Cellular Design Capacity Traffic Engineering

Large no. of expected subscribers
capacity problems
Ideally, available channels would equal number of subscribers
Capacity = number of channels per MHz per km squared active at one time.
The Erlang is a dimensionless unit for (telecommunication) traffic. It
is the system occupancy over an interval of time. In practice, not feasible to have capacity handle all possible load.
Traffic engineering
Capacity is often quoted as Erlangs / MHz / km squared Exploit statistical behaviour of users.
One user is often assumed to represent 0.02 Erlang Trunking theory and queuing theory used to determine capacity needed
i.e. uses the phone for 2% of the time or 30 minutes per day for specific Grade of Service (GoS).

Can thus estimate the number of subscribers that can be supported For N simultaneous user capacity and L subscribers
in a given area.
L < N nonblocking system
As mobile penetration rises, larger potential capacities will be required.
L > N blocking system
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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Blocking System Performance Questions Trunking Theory

Probability that call request is blocked? Set-up time (time to allocate channel to a user)

What capacity is needed to achieve a certain upper bound on Blocked call (lost call) (call which cannot be completed due to
congestion)
probability of blocking?
Holding time (average duration of typical call)
What is the average delay?
Traffic intensity (measure of channel time utilisation)
What capacity is needed to achieve a certain average delay? Load (traffic intensity across entire trunked radio system)

Grade of Service (GoS): measure of the ability of a user to GoS (measure of congestion) (probability of call being blocked or being
access a trunked stem during the busiest hour. delayed beyond certain queuing time)

Request rate (average number of call requests per unit time)

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

The Unit of Traffic: Erlang Offered, Carried, and Lost Traffic

The offered traffic A (average number of demands per unit of time) may
be split up into

the carried traffic (in erlangs)

C = (1 B) A (average number of demands served per unit of time)

and the lost traffic (in erlangs)

(A C) = B A (average number of lost demands per unit of time).
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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Offered, Carried, and Lost Traffic Utilisation

The average number of demands that could possibly be
handled per unit of time by a group of N servers is its
capacity.

Hence, = (1 B) A / N may be called the overall

efficiency / utilisation.

For constant B it increases with increasing A.

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Utilisation as a function of the number of channels N for

blocking probabilities B = 0.01, B = 0.05, and B = 0.1. Factors that Determine the Nature of the Traffic Model

Manner in which blocked calls are handled

Lost calls delayed (LCD) blocked calls put in a queue awaiting a

free channel

Blocked calls rejected and dropped

Lost calls cleared (LCC) user waits before another attempt
Lost calls held (LCH) user repeatedly attempts calling

Number of traffic sources

Whether number of users is assumed to be finite or infinite

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Blocked Calls Cleared / Lost Calls Cleared (LCC) Erlang B Formula

No queuing for call requests
Assumptions
Calls arrive as determined by Poisson distribution
Infinite number of users
Memoryless arrival of requests
Probability of user occupying channel is exponentially
distributed, so that longer calls less likely to occur
Finite number of channels in trunking pool
M/M/m queue
Erlang B formula
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Erlang B
Erlang B Table
Chart

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Blocked Calls Delayed / Lost Calls Delayed (LCD) Erlang C

Chart
If channel not available immediately, call request
delayed until channel available.

GoS gives probability that a call is blocked after waiting

specific length of time in queue.

Erlang C formula and Pr [ delay > t ]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Blocking Probability Example Engset Formula

A
wk +1 = k + 1 wk

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Example 1 Example 2
Assuming that each user in a system generates a traffic How many users, U, can be supported for 0.5% blocking
intensity of 0.2 Erlangs, how many users can be probability for the following number of trunked channels
supported for 0.1% probability of blocking in an Erlang B in a blocked calls cleared system? (a) 5, (b) 10, (c) 20,
(Blocked Calls Cleared) system for a number of trunked (d) 100. Assume each user generates 0.1 Erlangs of
channels (C) equal to 60? traffic.

Soln: Soln:
Given: Erlang B, Au = 0.2 Erlangs, Pr[Blocking] = 0.001, C = 60 channels (a) given C = 5, Au = 0.1, GoS = 0.005
From the Erlang B chart, A 40 Erlangs From Erlang B chart, A = 1.13  U = A/Au = 1.13/0.1 11 users
Therefore, U = A/Au = 40/0.02 = 2000 Users (b) given C = 10, Au = 0.1, GoS = 0.005
From Erlang B chart, A = 3.96  U = A/Au = 3.96/0.1 39 users
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Cellular System Goals Idea!

Example 3 Low power transmitter system Partition region into smaller regions
Increase network capacity called cells.
A telephone switching board can handle 120 phones. Assuming the Frequency reuse Each cell gets at least one base
following, determine the outgoing traffic intensity and the number of Build robust scaleable system station.
channels. Architecture to deal with different Users within a cell talk to the base
user densities at different places station.
On average 5 calls/hour per phone,
Average call duration time = 4 minutes, How can we divide the region into cells? Cellular structure
60% of all calls made are external.
QoS = 0.9% Advantages Disadvantages
More capacity (frequency reuse) Fixed network needed for the base
Soln: A = U.Au = U..H Less transmission power needed stations
*U = (120 calls * 5 calls/hour) * 60% = 360 calls/hour More robust, tolerate failures Handover (changing from one cell
H = 4 mins/call  A =360 * 4 * (1 hour/60 mins) = 24 Erlangs.
Deals interference, transmission to another) necessary
Thus 24 hours of circuit talk time is required for every hour of elapsed time area locally Interference with other cells
No. of channels C from Erlang B chart = ~ 34
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Cochannel Interference Cochannel Interference

(6 in 1st tier, 12 in 2nd tier)
First tier of reuse cells are the major source of cochannel
interference.
In practice, all cochannel cells are assumed to have a fixed statistical
interference characteristic in terms of signal variation versus distance.

A mobile system is said to fail (be in outage) when the

threshold BER is exceeded for a certain period of time.

The average reuse distance can be obtained by considering

the statistics of the power versus distance curves.

From the reuse distance and cell size, the system capacity
can be accurately estimated in terms of channels/MHz/km2.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handover Handover
Figure (ii): user moving from point A to point B across three cells.
Figure (i): typical cellular arrangement
Handover ratio between wanted and unwanted powers = C/I protection ratio
Consider a user moving from point A to point Higher protection ratio needed
greater cochannel frequency separation
B across three cells.
Initially the user is served by BS1 on freq. 1

As mobile moves away from BS1, average received power falls.

At cell radius, power from BS2 is stronger than that from BS1. At this
point the user undergoes a handover from BS1 to BS2.
User eventually reaches the other side of the centre cell and is then
handed over to BS3.
Depending on the reuse distance, BS3 may reuse freq. 1 or hand over
to another frequency if the interference from BS1 is still too high.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Typical SNR and C/I Performance Typical SNR and C/I performance

In a cochannel interference limited mobile radio system,

adequate signal strength and signal to interference ratios
(SIR) are essential for successful communications.

Outage probability, defined as the probability of failing to

simultaneously achieve a given signal to noise ratio
(SNR) and a given signal to interference ratio, is an
appropriate measure for evaluating the performance of
mobile radio systems.

Result of a simulation study for a typical digital modulation scheme.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Typical SNR and C/I performance Handover

In the presence of cochannel interference and AWGN noise, for a
required BER and a required cochannel intereference ratio, the Handover (or handoff) is the process used to allow a call in progress
desired signal to noise ratio threshold can be determined. to continue as the mobile terminal moves between cells.
E.g. assuming a BER of 1% and C/I of 15 dB, the required SNR 8 dB. Based on
For C/I of 10 dB, more signal power (SNR = 13dB) needed.
Received signal strength or S/I ratio (measured either at terminal, the
Note: these results apply to non-fading channels, in a rapidly fading basestation, or both), or
channel the average SNR required would be far higher. Network resource management needs

The results show that the optimum C/I performance is achieved by Performed
optimising the S/N and C/I ratios at the cell boundaries. Locally within the basestation, or
Involving several network elements
The above parameters are generally considered fundamental factors
in mobile radio system design and are used in capacity evaluation. The handover process may also involve reregistration and
authentication of the terminal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handovers Handovers
Intracell handover
link with the serving base station is affected by excessive interference,
while another link with the same base station can provide better quality
evaluate link quality, initiate handover, allocate radio and network
resources
Intercell handover
mobile station traverses a cell boundary
acceptable link quality should be maintained without causing
unnecessary co-channel and adjacent channel interference
failure to handover a mobile station at an established cell boundary also
tends to increase blocking, because some cells will carry more traffic
than planned
Intrasystem handover
Intersystem handover
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handovers Handovers
When is a handover needed? When is a handover needed?
User suffers interference from adjacent cells
User moves from one cell to another

Overlapping area of adjacent cells

Fast travelling user

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Avoiding Handovers: Umbrella Cells Intra MSC Handover

1.Handover Required 2.Handover Request

4.Handover Command 3.Handover Req Ack

RNS - 1 MSC RNS - 2

10.Clear Command 7.Handover Detect

11.Clear Comete 9.Handover Complete

6. Handover Access

5. Handover Command

8. Handover Complete

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Inter MSC Handover Handover

2.Prepare Handover [HO request]
5.Prepare HO Ack [HO Request Ack]

MSC A 10. Process Access Signal [HO Detect] MSC B Handovers must be performed successfully and as
13.Send End Signal [HO Complete] infrequently as possible, and be imperceptible to the users.
System designers must specify optimum signal level at which to
initiate handover.
4. Handover Request Ack

12.Handover Complete
6.Handover Command
1.Handover Required

3.Handover Request
14.Clear Command
15.Clear Complete

9.Handover Detect

Once particular signal level is specified as minimum usable signal for

acceptable voice quality at base station receiver, a slightly stronger
signal level is used as threshold at which handover is made.
8. Handover Access
This margin, given by , cannot be too large or too small.
RNS - A 7. Handover Command 11. Handover Complete RNS - B

= Pr handover Pr min imum usable

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Categories of Handover Algorithms Categories of Handover Algorithms

Mobile-assisted handover algorithms
Network-controlled handover algorithms
widely used in many second generation digital cellular systems
widely used in first generation analogue cellular systems use both the serving base station (BS) and the mobile station (MS) to
measure link quality of the serving BS
link quality is monitored by the serving and surrounding BSs
link quality measurements of the alternate BSs are obtained by the MS

handover decision is made under the centralized control of a MS periodically relays link quality measurements back to serving BS
mobile telephone switching office
handover decision is made by the serving BS along with the mobile
telephone switching office
typically, only support intercell handovers, have handover
network delays of several seconds, and have relatively typically support both intracell and intercell handovers, have network
infrequent updates of the link quality estimates from the alternate delays on the order of one to two seconds, and use relatively frequent
base stations updates of the link quality measurements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Categories of Handover Algorithms Handover Types

Mobile-controlled handover algorithms Handovers can be classified as soft or hard, based on the following
definitions.
decentralized strategy that is used in some of the more recent
digital cordless telephone systems Soft handover occurs when the mobile terminal communication is
link quality with the serving BS is measured by both the serving passed to the target radio port without interrupting communications
BS and the MS with the current serving radio port.
The mobile terminal communicates with two radio ports simultaneously,
measurements of link quality for alternate BSs are done at MS with the signals from the radio ports to the terminal treated as multipath
both intracell and intercell handovers are supported signals that are coherently combined at the mobile.
link measurements at the serving BS are relayed to the MS, and
Hard handover occurs when the communication to the mobile terminal
the handover decision is made by the MS
is passed between disjointed radio systems, different frequency
typically have the lowest handover network delays (usually about assignments, or different air interface characteristics or technologies.
100 ms) A break-before-make process at the air interface.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handover Types Handover Types

Hard handovers Soft handovers
MS connects to one BS at a time. MS can connect to a number of candidate BSs during a handover
process. Eventually, the handover is completed when the MS
The target BS is already selected prior to executing the selects the best candidate BS as the target.
handover based on link measurements and the active
connection is transferred to the target BS instantly. Enhances the system performance through diversity reception.
Do not take advantage of diversity gain opportunity during The necessary link quality measurements are done by the MS,
handovers where the signals from two or more BSs arrive at where it constantly monitors the pilot signals from surrounding
comparable strengths. BSs.
A simple and inexpensive way to implement handover. Soft handover is complex and expensive to implement. Also,
forward interference increases with soft handover since several
Used in most TDMA cellular systems. BSs, instead of one, can connect to the same MS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handovers Soft Handover : Handovers

In CDMA cellular system, communication does not break even at the
Hard Handover : moment during handover, because switching frequency or time slot is not
In FDMA or TDMA cellular system, new communication required.
establishes after breaking current communication at the
moment during handover. Communication between MS and transmitting same signal from
BS breaks at the moment switching frequency or time slot. both BS A and BS B
simultaneously to the MS
switching

Cell B Cell A

Cell
Cell A
B

Hard handover : connect (new cell B) after break (old cell A)

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TESoft handoverto: Wireless
412 Introduction break (old cell A) after| Christine
Communications connectMwase (new |cell B) |
31/05/2011
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handover Types Handover Types

Whether a soft or hard handover can occur is air-
interface dependent.

The handover process consists of the following steps:

Initiation
Resource reservation
Execution
Completion
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handover Performance Metrics Handover Performance Metrics

Cell blocking probability probability of a new call Handover blocking probability probability that a handover cannot
being blocked be successfully completed

Handover probability probability that a handover occurs before

Call dropping probability probability that a call is call termination
terminated due to a handover
Rate of Handover number of handovers per unit time
Call completion probability probability that an
admitted call is not dropped before it terminates Interruption duration duration of time during a handover in which
a mobile is not connected to either base station

Probability of unsuccessful handover probability that Handover delay distance the mobile moves from the point at
a handover is executed while the reception conditions which the handover should occur to the point at which it does occur
are inadequate
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |
| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering | | University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Handover Issues Handover Strategies Used to Determine

Instant of Handover
Cellular systems with smaller cell sizes require faster and more
reliable link quality evaluation and handover algorithms. Relative signal strength
Number of cell boundary crossings is inversely proportional to cell size.
Handover rate increases with only the square-root of the call density in
macrocells, but linearly with the call density in microcells. Relative signal strength with threshold

One of the major tasks in a cellular system is to monitor the link

Relative signal strength with hysteresis
quality and determine when handover is required.
If poor signal quality not detected fast enough, or too many handovers,
capacity is diminished (excessive co-channel interference and/or an Relative signal strength with hysteresis and threshold
undue switching load.
Parameters for deciding when handover should be done include BER,
carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I), distance, traffic load, signal strength. Prediction techniques
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 | | TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |

| University of Dar es Salaam | Department of Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering |

_______________________________________________________________________________

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| TE 412 Introduction to Wireless Communications | Christine Mwase | 31/05/2011 |