Improving Capacity and

Coverage
As the demand for service increases, system
designers are required to provide more channels
per unit coverage area.
Common techniques are Cell Splitting and
Sectoring
Cell Splitting increases the number of BS
deployed and allows an orderly growth of cellular
system.
Cell Sectoring uses directional antennas to
further control interference and frequency reuse.

Cell Splitting
Cell Splitting is a process of subdividing a
congested cell into smaller cells with

Their own BS
A corresponding reduction in antenna height
A corresponding reduction in transmitted power
Splitting the cells reduces the cell size thus more
number of cells have to be used.
More number of cells viz. more number of clusters
viz. more channels viz. higher capacity.
Cell Splitting allows a system to grow by replacing
large cells by small cells without changing the
channel allocation.

Cells are split to add channels with no

new spectrum usage
Large Cells Low Density
Small Cells High Density

Cell Splitting
The cells are split to add channels with no
new and additional spectrum usage.
Depending on traffic patterns the smaller
cells may be activated/deactivated in order to
efficiently use cell reuse resources.

A typical city cellular radio cellular system

may plan different cell sizes and clusters
in different areas of a city as per the use
and need.

Cell Splitting increases capacity

Power(Pt) of Smaller Cells

Suppose cell radius of new cells are reduced by
half.
Q: What is the required transmit power for these
new cells?
We have Pr [at old cell boundary] Pt1 R-n
Pr [at new cell boundary] Pt2 (R/2)-n
Pt2 = Pt1 /16 if n=4
Thus transmitted power output of smaller cells
should be 16 times lower than the large cells.

Capacity increase
Suppose a congested area is originally covered
by 5 Cells, each cell with 80 channels.
Capacity = 5 x 80 = 400 users
After cell splitting Rnew = R/2
Now if we have 24 cells.
New System Capacity = 24 x 80= 19200 users
Hence cell splitting provides a technique to
cater to more users without using extra
bandwidth ( extra cost for purchasing the
spectrum). Some BS HW cost would be there.

Cell Sectoring
As opposed to cell splitting, where D/R is
kept constant while decreasing R, sectoring
keeps R untouched and reduces D/R.
Capacity improvement is achieved by
reducing the number of cells per cluster, thus
increasing frequency reuse. However, it will
lead to higher interference which is taken
care-off by some means.
It is necessary to reduce the relative
interference without decreasing the
transmitter power.

Cell Sectoring
The CCI may be decreased by replacing the
single omni directional antenna by several
directional antennas, each radiating within a
specified sector.
The directional antenna transmits and
receives only a fraction of the total number of
co channel cells. Thus CCI is reduced.
A cell is normally partitioned into three 1200
sectors, four 900 sectors or six 600 sectors.
Increasing the number of sectors, CCI
reduces but increases number of handoffs.

Sectoring improves S/I

Way of Cell Sectoring

Placing directional antennas at corners where
three adjacent cells meet

Problem

Common Air Interface (CAI) Contd.

Voice Channels
Forward Voice Channels (FVC)
Used for voice transmission from base stations to
mobiles.
Reverse Voice Channels (RVC)
Used for voice transmission from mobiles to base
stations.
Control Channels
Forward Control channels (FCC)
Used for control signals from base stations to mobiles.
Reverse Control Channels (RCC)
Used for control signals from mobiles to base stations.
01/24/15

13

Common Air Interface (CAI) Contd.

Voice Channels
Forward Voice Channels (FVC)
Used for voice transmission from base stations to
mobiles.
Reverse Voice Channels (RVC)
Used for voice transmission from mobiles to base
stations.
Control Channels
Forward Control channels (FCC)
Used for control signals from base stations to mobiles.
Reverse Control Channels (RCC)
Used for control signals from mobiles to base stations.
01/24/15

14

Mobile Telephone Switching Office

(MTSO)
Also known as Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
All base stations and mobiles are connected to
Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO).
The MTSO acts as a central controller for the
network and handles following tasks allocating channels within each cell
coordinating handoffs between cells when a mobile
traverses a cell boundary
Routes calls to and from mobile users and provide
internet access.
01/24/15

15

Wireless Vision
To support wireless information exchange
between people and devices enabling Multimedia communication from any where in
the world using small handheld devices.
Smart homes containing intelligent electronic
devices that can interact with each other and
with internet to provide connectivity between
computers, phones and security monitoring
systems providing assisted living to elderly or
disabled peoples.
01/24/15

16

Wireless Vision Contd.

Wireless networks to connect handheld devices to the
network existing with in the office building, campus or
corner caf.
Video teleconferencing between buildings that are
blocks or continent apart including travelers also.
Wireless video resulting in remote class rooms and
training facilities.
Wireless sensors to monitor fire hazards, stress and
strains of a building, spread of chemicals and gasses
at a disaster site, detection of chemical and biological
attacks.
01/24/15

17

Wireless Vision Contd.

Various applications that are part of
wireless vision posses diverse
requirements as follows Voice systems
Relatively low data rate requirements (around
20Kbps)
Can tolerate a fairly high probability of bit error
(BER of around 10-3).
Total delay must be less than around 30msec.
01/24/15

18

Wireless Vision Contd.

Data systems
Requires much higher data rates (1-100
Mbps)
Very small BER (target BER is 10-8 with all bits
received in error must be retransmitted).
Dont have any fix delay requirements.

01/24/15

19

Wireless Vision Contd.

Real-Time Video Systems
Required high data rate
Same delay requirement as for voice
systems.

Short Message Services

Very low data requirements
No delay constraints.

01/24/15

20

Wireless Vision Contd.

These diverse requirement for different
applications make it difficult to build one
wireless system that can efficiently satisfy all
these requirements.
Also, at least in the near future, wireless
systems will continue to be fragmented, with
different protocols tailored to support the
requirements of different applications.
01/24/15

21

Technical Issues

Many technical challenges must be

addressed to enable the wireless
applications of the future.
breakthroughs in circuit design are required to
implement the multimode operation in small wireless
devices.
Requirement of minimal power consumption in
handheld devices which can be achieved by putting
maximum burden on fixed sites with large power
resources with the risk of single point-of-failure.

01/24/15

22

Technical Issues Contd.

Efficient use of spectrum by reusing it
over and over in the same geographical
area requiring cellular system designs
with high capacity and good
performance.
Requirement of technological
breakthrough to enable higher frequency
(above 20GHz) for wireless
communciation.
01/24/15

23

Technical Issues Contd.

Security & reliability is difficult to implement
in wireless systems because
airwaves are susceptible to snooping from
anyone with an RF antenna.
The analog cellular systems have no security,
and one can easily listen in on conversations by
scanning the analog cellular frequency band.
To support applications like electronic
commerce and credit card transactions, the
wireless network must be secure against such
listeners.
01/24/15

24

Technical Issues Contd.

Wireless networking is also a significant
challenge.
The network must be able to locate a given
user wherever it is among billions of globallydistributed mobile terminals.
It must then route a call to that user as it
moves at speeds of up to 100 Km/hr.
The finite resources of the network must be
allocated in a fair and efficient manner relative
to changing user demands and locations.
01/24/15

25

Final Comments
Wireless communication seems to have a
bright future but wireless systems with mobile
users may not be able to compete with wired
networks in terms of data rates, reliability.
From the discussion it is clear that the
wireless vision is a distant goal with many
technical challenges to overcome.

Objective of this course is to examine

these challenges.
01/24/15

26

References1. Wireless Communication Principle &

Practice, T. S. Rappaport, Pearson Edu.
2. Modern Wireless Communications, S.
Haykin and M. Moher; Prentice Hall,
2005.

01/24/15

27