Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
Proiectarea şi managementul
reţelelor radio, trafic şi
planificarea frecvenţelor
2. Capacitatea canalelor radio. Efectul
fadingului. Efectul diversităţii.
Managementul interferenţelor.
Prof. Octavian FRATU
Universitatea POLITEHNICA din Bucuresti,
Facultatea de Electronica, Telecommunicatii si Tehnologia
Informatiei
Catedra Telecomunicatii
Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
Unlicensed spectrum is very cheap to transmit on (and
correspondingly larger than licensed spectrum) but there is a
maximum power constraint over the entire spectrum as well
as interference to deal with.
The emphasis thus is less on spectral efficiency. The
engineering design can thus be very different depending on
whether the spectrum is licensed or not.
The cellular systems have been deployed nationwide and one
of the driving factors for the use of licensed spectrum for such
networks is the risk of huge capital investment if one has to
deal with malicious interference, as would be the case in
unlicensed bands.
PMRRTPF- anul I CMob - Prof. Octavian Fratu
Broadly speaking, two types of spectra are available for
commercial cellular systems:

licensed, typically nationwide and over a period of a few years, from the
spectrum regulatory agency.

unlicensed spectrum made available for experimental systems and to
aid development of new wireless technologies.
While licensing spectrum provides immunity from any kind of
interference outside of the system itself, bandwidth is very
expensive. This skews the engineering design of the wireless
system to be as spectrally efficient as possible.
There are no hard constraints on the power transmitted within
the licensed spectrum but the power is expected to decay
rapidly outside.
PMRRTPF- anul I CMob - Prof. Octavian Fratu 2
Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
A cellular network consists of a number of fixed base-stations,
one for each cell. The total coverage area is divided into cells
and a mobile communicates with the base-station(s) close to
it.
At the physical and medium access layers, there are two main
issues in cellular communication: multiple access and
interference management.
The first issue addresses how the overall resource (time,
frequency, and space) of the system is shared by the users in
the same cell (intra-cell).
The second issue addresses the interference caused by
simultaneous signal transmissions in different cells (inter-cell).
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 Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
At the network layer, an important issue is that of seamless connectivity
to the mobile as it moves from one cell to the other (and thus switching
communication from one base-station to the other, an operation known
as handover).
In addition to resource sharing between different users, there is also an
issue of how the resource is allocated between the uplink and the
downlink.
There are two natural strategies for separating resources between the
uplink and the downlink: time division duplex (TDD) and frequency
division duplex (FDD). Most commercial cellular systems are based on
FDD.
Since the powers of the transmitted and received signals typically differ
by more than 100 dB at the transmitter, the signals in each direction
occupy bands that are separated far apart (tens of MHz), and a device
called a duplexer is required to filter out any interference between the
two bands.
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Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
On the other hand, if there is substantial local scattering
around the base-station, as is the case when the base-stations
are low-lying (such as on the top of lamp posts), sectorization
is far less effective because the scattering and reflection
would transfer energy to sectors other than the one intended.
In a narrowband system, user transmissions within a cell are
restricted to separate narrowband channels.
Further, neighboring cells use different narrowband channels
for user transmissions. This requires that the total bandwidth
be split and reduces the frequency reuse in the network.
The network can now be simplified and approximated by a
collection of point-to-point non-interfering links, and the
physical-layer issues are essentially point-to-point ones. The
IS-136 and GSM standards are prime examples of this system.
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Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
A cellular network provides coverage of the entire area by
dividing it into cells. We can carry this idea further by dividing
each cell spatially. This is called sectorization and involves
dividing the cell into, say three, sectors.
Sectorization is achieved by having a directional antenna at
the base-station that focuses transmissions into the sector of
interest, and is designed to have a null in the other sectors.
The ideal end result is an effective creation of new cells
without the added burden of new base-stations and network
infrastructure.
Sectorization is most effective when the base-station is quite
tall with few obstacles surrounding it. Even in this ideal
situation, there is inter-sector interference.
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Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
Since the level of interference is kept minimal, the point-to-
point links typically have high signal-to-interference-plus-noise
ratios (SINRs).
Other two system designs propose a contrasting strategy: all
transmissions are spread to the entire bandwidth and are
hence wideband.
The key feature of these systems is universal frequency reuse:
the same spectrum is used in every cell. However,
simultaneous transmissions can now interfere with each other
and links typically operate at low SINRs.
The two system designs differ in how the users’ signals are
spread.
The code division multiple access (CDMA) system is based on
direct-sequence spread-spectrum.
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 Capacitatea canalelor radio
Spectrum usage in cellular systems
The users’ information bits are coded at a very low rate and
modulated by pseudonoise sequences.
In this system, the simultaneous transmissions, intracell and
inter-cell, cause interference. The IS-95 standard is the main
example to highlight the design features of this system.
In the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
system, on the other hand, users’ information is spread by
hopping in the time–frequency grid.
Here, the transmissions within a cell can be kept orthogonal
but adjacent cells share the same bandwidth and inter-cell
interference still exists.
This system has the advantage of the full frequency reuse of
CDMA while retaining the benefits of the narrowband system
where there is no intra-cell interference.
PMRRTPF- anul I CMob - Prof. Octavian Fratu
Capacitatea canalelor radio
Wideband systems: CDMA
Universal frequency reuse: all users, both within a cell and
across different cells, transmit and receive on the entire
bandwidth.
The signal of each user is modulated onto a pseudonoise
sequence so that it appears as white noise to others.
Interference management is crucial for allowing universal
frequency reuse:

Intra-cell interference is managed via power control. Accurate
closedloop power control is particularly important for combating the
near–far problem in the uplink.

Inter-cell interference is managed via averaging of the effects of
multiple interferers. It is more effective in the uplink than in the
downlink.
PMRRTPF- anul I CMob - Prof. Octavian Fratu
Capacitatea canalelor radio
Narrowband cellular systems
Orthogonal narrowband channels are assigned to users within
a cell.
Users in adjacent cells cannot be assigned the same channel
due to the lack of interference averaging across users. This
reduces the frequency reuse factor and leads to inefficient use
of the total bandwidth.
The network is decomposed into a set of high SINR point-to-
point links, simplifying the physical-layer design.
Frequency planning is complex, particularly when new cells
have to be added.
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Capacitatea canalelor radio
Wideband systems: CDMA
Interference averaging also allows statistical multiplexing of
bursty users, thus increasing system capacity.
Diversity of the point-to-point links is achieved by a
combination of low-rate coding, time-interleaving and Rake
combining.
Soft handoff provides a further level of macrodiversity,
allowing users to communicate with multiple base-stations
simultaneously.
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Conclusions

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