Mobile Computing & Wireless Networks

Cellular Networks – Case Study GSM Network

• Cellular Network Design
• GSM Architecture
• Physical and Logical Channels
• GSM Transmission / Reception Timing
• Frequency Hopping
• GSM Protocol Stack
• GSM Security
• GSM Events
• GPRS Overview & Architecture
• Comparison of GSM & GPRS
• GPRS QoS, Security, Charging
• GPRS Limitation

Slides prepared by Dr. Aziz Qaroush

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.1
 Cellular Network Design

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.2

Cellular Network – the main Idea
• The cellular concept was a major breakthrough in solving
the problem of spectral congestion and user capacity.
• It offered very high capacity in a limited spectrum
allocation without any major technological changes.
• The cellular concept is a system level idea which calls for
replacing a single, high power transmitter (large cell) with
many low power transmitters (small cells), each providing
coverage to only a small portion of the service area.
• Each base station is allocated a portion of the total
number of channels available to the entire system, and
nearby base stations are assigned different groups of
channels so that all the available channels are assigned to
a relatively small number of neighboring base stations.
• Neighboring base stations are assigned different groups of
channels so that the interference between base stations
(and the mobile users under their control) is minimized

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.3

Cellular Network - Basic Idea
• Single hop wireless connectivity to the wired world
• Space divided into cells; A base station (BS) is responsible to
communicate with hosts or mobile stations (MS) in its cell

• A certain area which served by a BS is called a cell.

• A BS can serve one or more cells.
• Since not all calls made to the MS is from other MSs(some
are made from regular wired phones), then it is necessary to
connect the mobile network with the PSTN.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.4

Cellular - Basic Concept
• Base stations(BS): implement space division multiplexing
• Each BS covers a certain transmission area (cell)
• Each BS is allocated a portion of the total number of channels available
• Cluster: group of nearby BSs that together use all available channels
• Mobile stations communicate only via the base station, using FDMA, TDMA,
CDMA…
• Cell size:
• 100 m in cities to 35 km on the country side (GSM)
• even less for higher frequencies
• Umbrella cell: large cell that includes several smaller cells
• Avoid frequent handoffs for fast moving traffic
• Cell shape:
• Hexagonal is useful for theoretical analysis
• Practical footprint (radio coverage area) is amorphous (irregular shape). This is
because of the surrounding terrain.
• BS placement:
• Center-excited cell: BS near center of cell (omni-directional antenna)
• Edge-excited cell: BSs on three of the six cell vertices (sectored directional antennas)

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.5

Cellular Concept
• Advantages:
• higher capacity, higher number of users
• less transmission power needed
• more robust, decentralized
• base station deals with interference, transmission area etc. locally

• Problems:
• fixed network needed for the base stations
• handover necessary
• interference with co-channel, adjacent-channel

• Important Issues:
• Cell sizing; Frequency reuse planning
• Channel allocation strategies
• Handover

Bottom line: Attempt to maximize availability of channels in an area

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.6

Geometric Representation
• Cells are commonly represented by hexagons.
• Why hexagon?
• How about circle?
• How about square, or triangle?

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.7

Geometric Representation – Cell Shape
• As the traffic grows, new cells and channels are added to the
system. If an irregular cell pattern is selected, it would lead to
an inefficient use of the spectrum due to its inability to reuse
frequencies because of co-channel interference
• In addition, it would also result in an uneconomical deployment
of equipment, requiring relocation from one cell site to another.
• In reality, cell coverage is an irregularly shaped circle. The
exact coverage of the cell depends on the terrain and many
other factors. For design purposes and as a first-order
approximation, we assume that the coverage areas are regular
polygons.
• For example, for Omni-directional antennas with constant signal
power, each cell site coverage area would be circular. To
achieve full coverage without dead spots, a series of regular
polygons are required for cell sites.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.8

Geometric Representation – Cell Shape
• Any regular polygon such as an equilateral triangle, a
square, or a hexagon can be used for cell design.

• The hexagon is used for two reasons:

• a hexagonal layout requires fewer cells and,
• therefore, fewer transmitter sites, and a hexagonal cell
layout is less expensive compared to square and triangular
cells.

• In practice, after the polygons are drawn on a map of the

coverage area, it achieve full coverage without dead spots

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.9

 Geometric Representation - Cell Size
• The number of cells in a geographic area is determined by
• Number of users that will be operating in that area
• The geographic layout

• The maximum cell size in a GSM system is 70 kms in diameter. This

depends on the terrain the cell is covering and the power class of the
MS.

• In GSM system the MS can transmit power up to 8 watts, the higher

the MS power the larger the cell can be.

• Usually large cells are employed in remote area, coastal regions, area
with few subscribers or large areas that need to be covered withes
mall number of BSs

• Small cells are used where there are large numbers of users or in a low
transmission power region to reduce interference, or in urban areas.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.10

Frequency Reuse
• Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio
channels to be used within a small geographic area called
a cell.
• Base stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel
groups which contain completely different channels than
neighboring cells.
• The base station antennas are designed to achieve the
desired coverage within the particular cell.
• By limiting the coverage area to within the boundaries of
a cell, the same group of channels may be used to cover
different cells that are separated from one another by
distances large enough to keep interference levels within
tolerable limits.
• The design process of selecting and allocating channel
groups for all of the cellular base stations within a system
is called frequency reuse or frequency planning

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.11

Frequency Reuse
• Cells with the same
letter use the same set
of frequencies.
• A cell cluster is outlined
in bold and replicated
over the coverage area.
• In this example, the
cluster size, N, is equal
to seven, and the
frequency reuse factor is
1/7 since each cell
contains one-seventh of
the total number of
available channels

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.12

Frequency Reuse– System Capacity
• Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex
channels available for use.
• If each cell is allocated a group of k channels (k < S),
• and if the S channels are divided among N cells into unique
and disjoint channel groups which each have the same
number of channels,
• So, the total number of available radio channels can be
expressed as

S=k*N

• The N cells which collectively use the complete set of

available frequencies is called a cluster.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.13

Frequency Reuse – System Capacity
• If a cluster is replicated M times within the system, the
total number of duplex channels, C, can be used as a
measure of capacity and is given by:

C = M*k*N = M*S where N=Cluster Size

• The capacity of a cellular system is directly proportional to

the number of times a cluster is replicated in a fixed
service area.
• If the cluster size N is reduced while the cell size is kept
constant, more clusters are required to cover a given area
and hence more capacity is achieved (more channel in the
cell).

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.14

Frequency Reuse – System Capacity
• A large cluster size indicates that the ratio between the
cell radius and the distance between co-channel cells is
large.
• Conversely, a small cluster size indicates that co-channel
cells are located much closer together.
• The value for N is a function of how much interference a
mobile or base station can tolerate while maintaining a
sufficient quality of communications.

• From a design viewpoint, the smallest possible value of

N is desirable in order to maximize capacity over a given
coverage area (i.e.. to maximize C).

• The frequency reuse factor of a cellular system is given by

1 /N, since each cell within a cluster is only assigned 1/N
of the total available channels in the system.
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.15
System Capacity: Example
• We consider a cellular system in which total available
voice channels to handle the traffic are 960. The area
of each cell is 6 km2 and the total coverage area of
the system is 2000 km2. Calculate:
• The system capacity if the cluster size, N (reuse
factor), is 4 and the system capacity if the cluster size
is 7.
• How many times would a cluster of size 4 have to be
replicated to cover the entire cellular area?
• Does decreasing the reuse factor N increase the
system capacity? Explain.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.16

Frequency Reuse - cluster sizes and cell layouts
• There are only certain cluster sizes and cell layouts which
are possible using hexagonal geometry
• Hexagonal geometry has exactly six equidistant neighbors
and that the lines joining the centers of any cell and each of
its neighbors are separated by multiples of 60 degrees.

• In order to tessellate to connect without gaps between

adjacent cells, the geometry of hexagons is such that the
number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values which
satisfy the following equation:

N=i2+ij+j2
- where i and j are non-negative integers.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.17

Frequency Reuse – possible reuse patterns
• Locating Co-channel Cells
• Number of Cells per Cluster N = i2+ij+j2, i, j are non-negative
integers
• To find nearest co-channel neighbor of a given cell
§ Move i cells along any chain of hexagons
§ Turn 60o counter clockwise and move j cells

Wireless and Mobile Networks

Frequency Reuse – possible reuse patterns
• Locating Co-channel Cells
• Number of Cells per Cluster N = i2+ij+j2, i, j are non-negative
integers
• To find nearest co-channel neighbor of a given cell
§ Move i cells along any chain of hexagons
§ Turn 60o counter clockwise and move j cells

Wireless and Mobile Networks

Frequency Reuse – possible reuse patterns
• Locating Co-channel Cells
• Number of Cells per Cluster N = i2+ij+j2, i, j are non-negative
integers
• To find nearest co-channel neighbor of a given cell
§ Move i cells along any chain of hexagons
§ Turn 60o counter clockwise and move j cells

Wireless and Mobile Networks

Frequency Reuse – possible reuse patterns

Wireless and Mobile Networks

Frequency Reuse - cell layouts
• How to find the
nearest co-channel
neighbors of a
particular cell
• Move i cells along any
chain of hexagons and
then
• Turn 60 degrees
counter-clockwise and
move j.

Cell layout for i = 3 and I = 2

(example, N = 19).
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.22
Channel Assignment Strategies 1
• Fixed channel assignment strategy
• Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice
channels. Any call attempt within the cell can only be
served by the unused channels in that particular cell. If
all the channels in that cell are occupied, the call is
blocked and the subscriber does not receive service.
• Variations:
• Channel borrowing: a cell is allowed to borrow channels
from a neighbouring cell if all of its own channels are
already occupied.
• Hybrid – partitioning channels to
• Channels are reserved for local use
• Channels may be used on demand

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.23

Channel Assignment Strategies 2
• Dynamic channel assignment strategy
• 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
cell following an algorithm that takes into account the
likelihood of blocking within the cell, the frequency of
use of the candidate channel, the reuse distance of the
channel, and other cost functions.
• Dynamic channel assignment reduce the likelihood of
blocking, which increases the trunking capacity of the
system, since all the available channels in a market are
accessible to all of the cells

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.24

Channel Assignment Strategies 3
• Dynamic channel assignment example
• LOLIA

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.25

Channel Assignment Strategies 3
• Dynamic channel assignment example
• LOLIA

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.26

Comparison between FCA and DCA
FCA DCA
• Radio equipment covers • Radio equipment covers the
all channels assigned to the temporary channel assigned to
cell the cell
• Independent channel • Fully centralized to fully
control distributed control dependent on
• Low computational effort the scheme
• Low call set up delay • High computational effort
• Low implementation • Moderate to high call set up
complexity delay
• Complex, labor intensive • Moderate to high
frequency planning implementation complexity
• Low signaling load • No frequency planning
• Centralized control • Moderate to high signaling load
• Centralized, distributed control
depending on the scheme
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.27
Hybrid Channel Allocation (HCA)
• HCA schemes are the combination of both FCA and DCA
techniques.
• In HCA schemes, the total number of channels available
for service is divided into fixed and dynamic sets.
• The fixed set contains a number of nominal channels
that are assigned to cells as in the FCA schemes and,
in all cases, are to be preferred for use in their
respective cells.
• The dynamic set is shared by all users in the system
to increase flexibility.
Example: When a call requires service from a cell and
all of its nominal channels are busy, a channel from
the dynamic set is assigned to the call.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.28

 Hybrid Channel Allocation (HCA)
• Request for a channel from the dynamic set is
initiated only when the cell has exhausted using all
its channels from the fixed set.
• Optimal ratio: ratio of number of fixed and dynamic
channels.
• 3:1 (fixed to dynamic), provides better service than
fixed scheme for 50% traffic.
• Beyond 50% fixed scheme perform better.
• For dynamic, with traffic load of 15% to 32%,
better results are found with HCA.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.29

Flexible Channel Allocation (FCA)
• Similar to hybrid scheme with channels divided into
fixed and flexible (emergency) sets.
• Fixed sets used to handle lighter loads.
• Variations in traffic (peaks in time and space) are
needed to schedule emergency channels.
• Two types: Scheduled and Predictive
• Scheduled: Prior estimate is done about traffic
change
• Predictive: Traffic intensity and blocking probability
is monitored in each cell all the time.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.30

Interference and System Capacity
• Interference has been recognized as a major bottleneck in
increasing capacity and is often responsible for dropped
calls.
• Sources of interference
• another mobile in the same cell
• a call in progress in a neighboring cell
• other base stations operating in the same frequency band
• or any no-cellular system which inadvertently leaks energy
into the cellular frequency band.
• Even though interfering signals are often generated within
the cellular system, they are difficult to control in practice
(due to random propagation effects).
• Even more difficult to control is interference due to out-
of-band users, which arises without warning due to front
end overload of subscriber equipment or intermittent
intermodulation products.
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.31
Interference and System Capacity
• Two major types of system-generated cellular interference
• Co-channel interference
• Two cells using the same set of frequencies are called co-channel cells and the
interference between them is called co-channel interference
• Increasing the power from one user will increase the interference on other users.
• Adjacent channel interference:
• Adjacent channel interference occurs when transmissions from adjacent channels
interfere with each other.
• It results from imperfect filters.
• It can be reduced by improving the filters and maintaining a reasonable frequency
separation between channels.

• 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

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.32

Co-Channel Interference and system capacity 1

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.33

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 2
• Unlike thermal noise which can be overcome by increasing
the signal-to-noise ration (SNR), co-channel interference
cannot be combated by simply increasing the carrier
power of a transmitter
• This is because an increase in carrier transmit power
increases the interference to neighboring co-channel cells.
• To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cells must
be physically separated by a minimum distance to provide
sufficient isolation due to propagation.
• When the size of each cell is approximately the same, and
the base stations transmit the same power, the co-
channel interference ratio is independent of the
transmitted power and becomes a function of the radius
of the cell (R) and the distance between centers of the
nearest co-channel cells (D).
• By increasing the ratio of D/R, interference is reduced

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.34

Co-Channel Interference and system capacity 3

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.35

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 5
• For hexagonal geometry, channel reuse ratio is given
by:
Q=D R= 3N
• Where:
• D: the distance between centers of the nearest co-channel cells.

D = 3(i + ij + j ) R
2 2

• R: radius of the cell

• A small value of Q provides larger capacity since the

cluster size N is small, whereas a large value of Q
improves the transmission quality, due to a smaller level
of co-channel interference. A trade-off must be made
between these two objectives in actual cellular design.
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.36
Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 6
• Channel reuse ratio (q) vs. frequency reuse pattern (N) or
cluster size:

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.37

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 7

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.38

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 8

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.39

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 9

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.40

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 10

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.41

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 11
• For N = 7, the co-channel reuse ratio Q is 4.6, and the worst
case S/I is approximated as 49.56 (17 dB) whereas an exact
solution using equation yields 17.8 dB.
• Hence for a 7-cell cluster, the S/I ratio is slightly less than
18 dB for the worst case. To design the cellular system for
proper performance in the worst case , it would be necessary
to increase N to the next largest size, which is found to be
12 (corresponding to i = j = 2).
• This obviously entails a significant decrease in capacity, since
12 cell reuse offers a spectrum utilization of 1/12 within each
cell, whereas 7-cell reuse offers a spectrum utilization of 1/7.
• In practice, a capacity reduction of 7/12 would not be tolerable
to accommodate for the worst case situation which rarely
• From the above discussion it is clear that co-channel
interference determines link performance, which in turn
dictates the frequency reuse plan and the overall capacity of
cellular systems.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.42

Co-channel Interference and System Capacity 12
• Example
• If a signal to interference ratio of 15 dB is required
for satisfactory forward channel performance of a
cellular system, what is the frequency reuse factor
and cluster size that should be used for maximum
capacity if the path loss exponent is
• it = 4
• it = 3

Assume that there are 6 co-channels cells in the first tier,

and all of them are at the same distance from the mobile.
Use suitable approximations.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.43

Adjacent Channel Interference 1
• Adjacent channel interference: interference from adjacent
in frequency to the desired signal.
• Imperfect receiver filters allow nearby frequencies to leak
into the passband
• Performance degrade seriously due to near-far effect

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.44

Adjacent Channel Interference 2
• Adjacent channel interference can be minimized through
careful filtering and channel assignment.
• Instead of assigning channels which form a contiguous band
of frequencies within a particular cell, channels are allocated
such that the frequency separation between channels in a
given cell is maximized.

• If the frequency reuse factor is small, the separation

between adjacent channels may not be sufficient to keep
the adjacent channel interference level within tolerable
limits.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.45

 Traffic Engineering
• Ideally, available
channels would equal
number of subscribers
active at one time
• In practice, not feasible
to have capacity handle
all possible load

• General Questions
• Probability that call
request is blocked?
• What capacity is
needed to achieve a
certain upper bound on
probability of blocking?
• What is the average
delay?
• What capacity is
needed to achieve a
certain average delay?

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.46

Trunking Theory
• Cellular radio systems rely on trunking to accommodate a large
number of random users in a limited radio spectrum (fixed
number of channels or circuits).
• Trunking exploits the statistical behavior of users so that a fixed
number of channels or circuits may accommodate a large, random
user community.
• Tradeoff between the number of channels and blocking probability
• When a particular user requests service and all of the radio channels are
already in use, the user is blocked, or denied access to the system. In
some systems, a queue may be used to hold the requesting users until
a channel becomes available.

• The fundamentals of trunking theory were developed by Erlang.

• Erlang, a Danish Mathematician studied how a large population
could be accommodated by a limited number of servers.
• The measure of traffic intensity has the unit of Erlang. One Erlang
represents the amount of traffic intensity carried by a channel that
is completely occupied.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.47

Trunking and Grade of Service
• The grade of service (GOS) is a measure of the ability of a user
to access a trunked system during the busiest hour.

• The GOS is an important benchmark used to define the desired

performance of a particular trunked system.

• It is the wireless designer’s job to estimate the maximum

required capacity and to allocate the proper number of channels
to meet the GOS.

• GOS is typically given as the likelihood that a called is blocked,

or the likelihood of a call experiencing a delay greater than a
certain queuing time.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.48

Trunking and Grade of Service
q Trunking Systems

q Types of Trunking Systems

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.49

Trunking Theory

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.50

Trunking Theory
q Traffic Intensity

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.51

The Blocked Calls Cleared System
• The blocked calls cleared system (Erlang-B system)
• No queuing for call requests
• Arrived calls follow a Poisson distribution.
• An infinite number of users, a finite number of channels
• Arrivals of requests are memoryless
• The probability of a user occupying follows an exponential distribution

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.52

Erlang B Example

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.53

Erlang B Curves

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.54

Blocked Calls Delayed
• Blocking calls are delayed until channels are
available, queuing
• Erlang C AC
Pr(delay > 0) = C -1 k
A
AC + C!(1 - CA )å
k = 0 k!

• 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)
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.55
Erlang C

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.56

Trunking Theory – example 1
• A certain city has an area of 1,300 square miles and is
covered by a cellular system using a 7-cell reuse pattern.
Each cell has a radius of 4 miles and the city is allocated
40 MHz of spectrum with a full duplex channel bandwidth
of 60 kHz. Assume a GOS of 2% for an Erlang B system
is specified. If the offered traffic per user is 0.03 Erlangs,
compute
1. number of cells in the service area
2. number of channels per cell
3. traffic intensity of each cell
4. maximum carried traffic
5. total number of users that can be served for 2% GOS
6. number of mobiles per channel
7. theoretical maximum number of users that could be served
at one time by the system.
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.57
Trunking Theory – example 2
• A hexagonal cell within a 4-cell system has a radius of
1.387 km. A total of 60 channels are used within the
entire system. If the load per user is 0.029 Erlangs, and
λ = 1 call/hour, compute the following for an Erlang C
system that has a 5% probability of a delayed call:
1. How many users per square kilo-meter will this system
support?
2. What is the probability that a call will be delayed for more
than 10 seconds?

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.58

Approaches to Cope with Increasing Capacity
• Adding new channels
• 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
• Increase capacity by increasing the number of base stations
• Cell sectoring – cells are divided into a number of wedge-shaped
sectors, each with their own set of channels
• Improve capacity by reducing co-channel interference.
• Microcells – antennas move to buildings, hills, and lamp posts
• Other techniques:
• Frequency Hopping (FH).
• Discontinuous Transmission (DTX).
• Dynamic power control.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.59

Frequency borrowing
• Fixed Channel Allocation (FCA)
• In FCA schemes, a set of channels is permanently
allocated to each cell in the network.
• If the total number of available channels in the system
S is divided into sets, the minimum number of channel
sets N required to serve the entire coverage area is
related to the frequency reuse distance D as follows:
•

N = D2 / 3R2
• Due to short term fluctuations in the traffic, FCA
schemes are often not able to maintain high quality of
service and capacity attainable with static traffic
demands. One approach to address this problem is to
borrow free channels from neighboring cells.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.60

Simple Borrowing (CB) Schemes
• In CB schemes, cell (acceptor cell) that has used all its
nominal channels can borrow free channels from its
neighboring cell (donor cell) to accommodate new calls.
• Borrowing can be done from an adjacent cell which has
largest number of free channels (borrowing from the
richest)
• Select the first free channel found for borrowing using a
search algorithm (borrow first available scheme)
• Return the borrowed channel when channel becomes free
in the cell (basic algorithm with reassignment)
• To be available for borrowing, the channel must not
interfere with existing calls.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.61

Simple Channel Borrowing (CB) Schemes
Scheme Description

Simple Borrowing A nominal channel set is assigned to a cell, as in the FCA case.
(SB) After all nominal channels are used, an available channel from a
neighboring cell is borrowed.

Borrow from the Channels that are candidates for borrowing are available channels
Richest (SBR) nominally assigned to one of the adjacent cells of the acceptor cell.
If more than one adjacent cell has channels available for
borrowing, a channel is borrowed from the cell with the greatest
number of channels available for borrowing.
Basic Algorithm This is an improved version of the SBR strategy which takes
(BA) channel locking into account when selecting a candidate channel
for borrowing. This scheme tried to minimize the future call
blocking probability in the cell that is most affected by the channel
borrowing.
Basic Algorithm This scheme provides for the transfer of a call from a borrowed
with Reassignment channel to a nominal channel whenever a nominal channel
(BAR) becomes available.
Borrow First Instead of trying to optimize when borrowing, this algorithm
Available (BFA) selects the first candidate channel it finds.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.62

Cell Splitting 1
• Cell splitting is the process of
subdividing a congested cell into
smaller cells (microcells), each
with its own base station and a
corresponding reduction in
antenna height and transmitter
power.
• The increased number of cells
would increase the number of
clusters over the coverage region,
which in turn would increase the
number of channels, and thus
capacity, in the coverage area.
• Cell splitting will not upset the
channel allocation scheme
required to maintain the
minimum co-channel reuse ratio
Q.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.63

Cell Splitting 1
• Antenna downtilting is often used to limit the radio coverage of
newly formed microcells.

• In practice, not all cells are split at the same time. Therefore,
different cell sizes might exist simultaneously.
• special care needs to be taken to keep the distance between co-
channel cells at the required minimum, and hence channel
assignments become more complicated
• When cell splitting occurs, the designer should minimize
changes in the system. The value of the reuse factor, N, is
important with respect to the type of split. The following
splitting patterns can be used for various values of N:
• For N = 3, use 4:1 cell splitting.
• For N = 4, use 3:1 cell splitting.
• For N = 7, use 3:1 or 4:1 cell splitting.
• For N = 9, use 4:1 cell splitting.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.64

Cell Splitting 1
• For the new cells to be smaller in size, the transmit power
of these cells must be reduced.
• If the radius of each new microcell is half that of the
original cell,

• If we take n=4, and set the received powers equal to

each other, then

• Thus, with cell splitting, where the radius of the new cell
is one-half of that of the old cell, we achieve a 12 dB
reduction in the transmit power.
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.65
Cell Sectoring
• Cell splitting achieves capacity improvement by essentially
rescaling the system.
• By decreasing the cell radius R and keeping the co-channel
reuse ratio D/R unchanged, cell splitting increases the number
of' channels per unit area.

• However, another way to increase capacity is to keep the cell

radius unchanged and seek methods to decrease the D/R ratio
• capacity improvement is achieved by reducing the number of
cells in a cluster and thus increasing the frequency reuse.
• in order to do this, it is necessary to reduce the relative
interference without decreasing the transmit power.
• replacing a single Omni-directional antenna at the base
station by several directional antennas, each radiating within
a specified sector.
• In practice, the reduction in interference offered by sectoring
enable planners to reduce the cluster size N, and provides an
additional degree of freedom in assigning channels.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.66

Cell Sectoring

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.67

Cell Sectoring: Three-Sector Case
• Worst-case interference
with 120 sectorized cells.
• Using q = 4.6 for N =7, we
get S/I = 285 or 24.5 dB.

• The improvement in S/I

implies that with 120
sectoring, the minimum
required S/I of 18 dB can
be easily achieved with 7-
cell reuse, as compared to
12-cell reuse for the worst
possible situation in the
un-sectored case.
• increase in capacity by a
factor of 12/7. or 1.714.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.68

Cell Sectoring: Six-Sector Case
• Worst-case interference
with 60° sectorized cells

• For q = 4.6 (N = 7), S/I

= 789 or 29 dB.
• This indicates a further
reduction in co-channel
interference.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.69

Microcell
• Antennas are placed at the
outer edges of the cell
• Any channel may be
assigned to any zone by the
base station
• Mobile is served by the zone
with the strongest signal.
• Handoff within a cell
• No channel reassignment
• Switch the channel to a
different zone site
• Reduce interference
• Low power transmitters are
employed

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.70

Frequency Hopping
• The principle of frequency hopping is that the mobile
station transmits on one frequency during one time slot,
then switches to a different frequency to transmit during
the next time slot, etc.
• The main purpose of frequency hopping is to improve
transmission quality on the air interface.
• Frequency hopping spreads the interference more evenly
among all active connections in the network.
• With frequency hopping the speech quality perceived by the
end user will be significantly better and the number of
dropped calls will decrease.
• The performance of the frequency hopping channel will be
higher for a higher number of hopping frequencies.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.71

Discontinuous Transmission
• DTX downlink makes it possible to switch off the
transmission in the BTS to MS direction when there is a
pause in the conversation. The purpose of the function is
to reduce downlink interference in the radio network and
to decrease BTS power consumption.
• Thus, the interference caused by that transmitter to other
co-channel cells is approximately halved.
• It possible to make a tighter frequency re-use pattern

• DTX downlink should be used together with DTX uplink

and frequency hopping to achieve the highest resistance
to interference.

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.72

Power Control
• Design issues making it desirable
to include dynamic power control
in a cellular system
• Received power must be
sufficiently above the
background noise for effective
communication
• Desirable to minimize power in
the transmitted signal from the
mobile
• Reduce co-channel interference,
alleviate health concerns, save
battery power
• In SS systems using CDMA, it’s
desirable to equalize the
received power level from all
mobile units at the BS

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.73

Types of Power Control
• Open-loop power
control
• Depends solely on
mobile unit
• No feedback from BS
• Not as accurate as
closed-loop, but can
react quicker to
fluctuations in signal
strength
• Closed-loop power
control
• Adjusts signal strength
in reverse channel
based on metric of
performance
• BS makes power
adjustment decision
and communicates to
mobile on control
channel
Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.74
Other Methods
• For some occasions, where large
number of people accumulates in a
small area, the existing cells in that
area cannot provide the required
capacity, and the network becomes
very congested.
• In order to solve this problem, the
operators implement some
temporary network capacity
expansions:
• These include using Half rate traffic
on all the cells that serve the event
area, this duplicates the capacity of
the network there
• Or activating temporary stations,
usually installed on a truck, these
stations are called Cell on Wheels
(COW).

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.75

Radio Planning Tools
• Radio planning is most often performed assisted by an
automated process using a computer
• Underlying functionality
• Digital maps
• Propagation modelling
• System parameters and system performance
• Traffic assumptions and theory
• Often theoretical computer based modelling can be tuned by
real life data
• Propagation measurements
• Live network traffic data
• Example – Astrix

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.76

Handover
• To connect a call or communication session from one cell to
another (or to a different channel in the same cell)
• Is normally performed because the signal level from the
current cell is becoming to low, but can also be done for
different reasons, such as too much traffic in a cell

1. Intra cell (to another channel in 1

2 3 4
the same cell) (1)
MS MS MS MS
2. Inter cell, intra BSC (2)
3. Inter BSC, intra MSC (3)
4. Inter MSC (4)
BTS BTS BTS BTS
In addition inter system handover
can sometimes be performed, e.g.
GSM to UMTS BSC BSC BSC
Complicated, special rules apply
MSC MSC

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.77

Handover decision
Handoff Strategies Used to Determine Instant of Handoff:
• Relative signal strength
• Relative signal strength with threshold
• Relative signal strength with hysteresis
• Relative signal strength with hysteresis and threshold
• Prediction techniques

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.78

Handover procedure

MS BTSold BSCold MSC BSCnew BTSnew

measurement measurement
report result

HO decision
HO required HO request
resource allocation
ch. activation

HO command HO request ack ch. activation ack

HO command HO command
HO access
Link establishment

HO complete HO complete
clear command clear command
clear complete clear complete

Wireless and Mobile Networks 4.79