Prof.CHANDRASHEKAR.Y.L Dept. of E & C Engg, PHALANETRA.H.S RAKSHITH.

Frequency re-use technique in GSM

Abstract GSM was the worlds first cellular system to specify digital modulation and network level architectures and services, and is the worlds most popular 2G technology. Before GSM, European countries used different cellular standards throughout Europe. GSM success has exceeded the expectations of virtually everyone, and it is now the worlds most popular standard for new cellular radio and personal communications equipment throughout the world. As of 2008, there were over 400 million GSM subscribers worldwide. The setting of standards for GSM is under the aegis of the European technical standard institute (ETSI).

identification keys respectively.

II. BACKGROUND The idea of cell-based mobile radio systems appeared at Bell Laboratories in the United States in the early 1970s. However, mobile cellular systems were not introduced for commercial use until a decade later. During the early 1980s, analog cellular telephone systems experienced very rapid growth in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Today, cellular systems still represent one of the fastest growing telecommunications systems. During development, numerous problems arose as each country developed its own system, producing equipment limited to operate only within the boundaries of respective countries, thus limiting the markets in which services could be sold. First-generation cellular networks, the primary focus of the communications industry in the early 1980s, were characterized by a few compatible systems that were designed to provide purely local cellular solutions. It became increasingly apparent that there would be an escalating demand for a technology that could facilitate flexible and reliable mobile communications. By the early 1990s, the lack of capacity of these existing networks emerged as a core challenge to keeping up with market demand. The first mobile wireless phones utilized analog transmission technologies, the dominant analog standard being known as AMPS, (Advanced Mobile Phone System). Analog standards operated on bands of spectrum with a lower frequency and greater wavelength than subsequent standards, providing a significant signal range per cell along with a high propensity for interference. Nonetheless, it is worth noting the continuing persistence of analog (AMPS) technologies in North America and Latin America through the 1990s. Initial deployments of second-generation wireless networks occurred in Europe in the 1980s. These networks were based on digital, rather than analog technologies, and were circuit-switched. Circuit-switched cellular data is still the most widely used mobile wireless data service. Digital technology offered an appealing combination of performance and spectral efficiency (in terms of management of scarce frequency bands), as well as the development of features like speech security and data communications over high quality transmissions. It is also compatible with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology, which was being developed for land-based telecommunication systems throughout the world, and which would be necessary for GSM to be successful. Moreover in the digital world, it would be possible to employ very large-scale integrated

I. INTRODUCTION GSM was the worlds first cellular system to specify digital modulation and network level architectures and services, and is the worlds most popular 2G technology. As of 2008, there were over 400 million GSM subscribers worldwide. The GSM network structure essentially consist of Mobile Station(MS),Base Station Subsystem (BSS) and Network Subsystem(NSS) as shown in Fig.

Fig. 1. GSM system architecture.

The BSS includes two types of elements; the base transceiver station (BTS), which handles radio interfaces toward the MS, and the base station controller (BSC), which manages the radio resources and controls handovers. A BSC can manage several BTSs. Through the MSC, the GSM system communication with external networks such as PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network),ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), CSPDN (Circuit Switched Public Data Network) and PSPDN (Packet Switched Packet Data Network). In addition GSM specifies three data bases HLR (Home Location register), VLR (Visitor Location Locator) and AUC (Authentication Center) which maintains the subscriber roaming information, present location and

2 silicon technology to make handsets more affordable. To a certain extent, the late 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by the perception that a complete migration to digital cellular would take many years, and that digital systems would suffer from a number of technical difficulties (i.e., handset technology). However, second-generation equipment has since proven to offer many advantages over analog systems, including efficient use of radio-magnetic spectrum, enhanced security, extended battery life, and data transmission capabilities. There are four main standards for 2G networks: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA); there is also Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), which is used exclusively in Japan. In the meantime, a variety of 2.5G standards have been developed. Going digital has led to the emergence of several major 2G mobile wireless systems. With the increase of subscribers and development of digital communication technologies, defects of the second generation mobile telephone system are gradually revealed. First of all, the band is too narrow and broadband information services such as high-speed data service, slowspeed video and TV services cannot be provided. Secondly, although GSM is expected to provide global system for mobile communications, global roaming in real sense is not realized. In addition, large-scale application of GSM system is not realized in countries that have a large number of mobile subscribers, such as America and Japan. With the development of technologies and communication services, an integrated service system that can provide the existing mobile telephone system functions, as well as diversified services is needed. Therefore, the ITU calls for the commercialization of the third mobile communication system in 2000, that is, IMT-2000 system. who do not require such facility. RADIO FREQUENCY UTILIZATION: The system shall permit a high level of spectrum efficiency and state-ofthe-art subscriber facilities. The system shall b e capable of operating in the entire llocated frequency band, and co-exist with the earlier systems in the same frequency band. NETWORK: The identification and numbering plans shall b e based on relevant ITU recommendations. An international standardized signaling system shall be used for switching and mobility management. The existing fixed public networks should not be significantly modified. COST: The system parameters shall b e chosen with a view to limiting the cost of the complete system, in particular the MSs. GSM SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE The GSM system consist of mainly three parts that are 1) Mobile Station (MS). 2) Base Station Subsystem (BSS). 3) Network Subsystem (NSS). MOBILE STATION The mobile station (MS) is made up of two entities. Mobile Equipment is the handset that are produced by many different manufacturers. The ME must be approved by a standardized body and every mobile in the world will have a unique identity number called IMEI i.e. International Mobile Equipment Identity. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) is a smart card that contains International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). They allow user to make and receive calls. They have encoded information of the network. They are portable i.e. can be moved from phone to phone.

III.

GSM SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The GSM standard provides a common set of compatible services and capabilities to all mobile users across Europe and several million customers worldwide. The basic requirements of GSM have been described in five aspects. SERVICES: The system shall provide service portability, i.e., mobile stations (MSs) or mobile phones can b e used in all participating countries. The system shall offer services that exist in the wireline network as well as services specific to mobile communications. In addition to vehiclemounted stations, the system shall provide service to MSs used by pedestrians and/or onboard ships. QUALITY OF SERVICE AND SECURITY: The quality for voice telephony of GSM shall be at least as good as the previous analog systems over the practical operating range. The system shall be capable offering information encryption without significantly affecting the costs to users

BASE STATION SUBSYSTEM The BSS connects the MS and the NSS. The BSS consists of two parts: the base transceiver station (BTS) and the base station controller (BSC). The BTS contains transmitter, receiver, and signaling equipment specific to the radio interface in order to contact the MSs. An important part of the BTS is the transcoder/rate adapter unit (TRAU) that carries out GSM-specific speech encoding/decoding and rate adaptation in data transmission. The BSC is responsible for the switching functions in the BSS, and is in turn connected to an MSC in the NSS. The BSC supports radio channel allocation/release and handoff management. A BSC may connect to several BTSs and maintain cell configuration data of these BTSs. The BSC communicates with the BTSs using ISDN protocols via the A-bis interface. In GSM BSS design, a BSC may only connect to one BTS, in which case they are

3 likely to be collocated. In this scenario, the BSC and the BTS may be integrated without the A-bis interface. Capacity planning for BSC is very important. In busy hours, the processor load of a BSC is roughly distributed in call activities (around 20-25%), paging and short message service (around 10-15%), mobility management (handoff and location update around 20-25%), and hardware checking/network-triggered events (around 15-20%). A BSC is typically engineered at 80% utilization. When a BSC is overloaded, it first rejects location update, then MS originating calls, and then handoffs. NETWORK SUBSYSTEM The NSS supports the switching functions, subscriber profiles, and mobility management. The basic switching function in the NSS is performed by the MSC. This interface follows a signaling protocol used in the telephone network. The MSC also communicates with other network elements external to GSM utilizing the same signaling protocol. The current location of an MS is usually maintained by the HLR and VLR. When an MS moves from the home system to a visited system, its location is registered at the VLR of the visited system. The VLR then informs the MS's HLR of its current location. The authentication center (AuC) is used in the security data management for the authentication of subscribers. The AuC may be collocated with the HLR. IV. GSM CHANNELS In a GSM system, channels are divided into logical and physical channels. Time slots are basic physical channels; thus each carrier frequency contains 8 physical channels. Physical channels of radio sub-systems support logical channels which can be subdivided functionally into Traffic Channels (TCH) and Control Channels (CCH). is that he surveys the terrain. Then the planning part comes into picture where the required resource to provide service for the subscriber is planned. While planning there are two stages of planning. They are 1) coverage based planning. 2) capacity based planning. In coverage based planning first concern of the service provider is to cover the entire terrain by the basestaion. In this planning the main concern is to provide coverage for subscriber. In this planning the GoS i.e. grade of service will be too low that there will be high call blocking possible. After the experience of rapid use of service, capacity based planning is opted where the number of basestations will be increased in a particular area where user density is more. This provides every subscriber to have a TCH and GoS will be improved. VI.
FREQUENCY RE-USE

In GSM communication the concept of frequency reuse is extensively used throughout a coverage region. Each cellular basestation is allocated a group of frequencies or radio channel to be used within a small geographic area called cell. Basestations in adjacent cells are assigned channel groups which completely different channels than neighboring cells. The basestation antennas are designed to achieve the desired coverage within a particular cell. By limiting the coverage area to within the boundaries of a cell, the group of channels may be used to cover different cells that are separated from one another by distance large enough to keep interference levels within tolerable limits. The design process of selecting and allocating channels group for all of the cellular basestations within a system is called frequency reuse of frequency planning.

Traffic channels are the channels where voice of data is made to move from one point to other point. In here the traffic can move in two different modes that is full rate (TCH/F) and half rate (TCH/H). where in full rate the data rates will be 22.4 Kbps and in half rate is half of that in full rate. Control channels are broadly classified into three types they are 1) Broadcast Channels (BCH). 2) Common Control Channels (CCCH). 3) Dedicated Control Channels (DCCH). These control channels are mainly involved in monitoring the mobile and providing the subscriber a dedicated channel i.e. TCH whenever required. V. NETWORK COVERAGE In a newly developed area where we dont have any network coverage the first thing what a service provider does Fig. 2. 7cell structure Basic concept of Frequency Planning A) B) C) D) Frequency Reuse Cluster. Frequency Reuse Factor. Frequency Reuse Distance. C/I and C/A.

FREQUENCY REUSE CLUSTER In here all the available frequencies are transmitted in a cell and this cell is reused to provide coverage for a area. As we know the frequencies are auctioned by the telecom

4 regulatory authority. We have to use the available set of frequencies throughout the area to provide coverage. But the limitation in this concept is that there will be cochannel interference i.e. as BSs are separated by a distance and they the same frequency the channel interference will be their hence resulting in poor voice quality and data transmission. FREQUENCY REUSE FACTOR (FRF) The band of frequency allocated for cellular system use can be reused with different CLUSTERS. We mean by cluster here the configuration of cells over which the complete frequency band is divided and this configuration of cells is repeater over and over. The frequency reuse factor is defined as 1 over the number of cells in the cluster of the system. Valid clusters are those that result in 6 cells with the same frequency of a particular cell located at equal distance from it.

CO-CHANNEL INTERFERENCE AND ADJECENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE Co- channel interference (C/I) refers to the interference of another cell using the same frequency to the current cell. The ratio of carrier to interference is called C/I. GSM specification regulates that C/I >9dB. In implementing, it requires C/I>12dB. Adjacent channel interference (C/A) refers to interference of adjacent cell to the current cell. This ratio is called (C/A). The GSM specification regulates that C/A>-9dB. In frequency planning we follow five type of configuration, they are 1) 4 X 3 planning. 2) 3 X 3 planning. 3) 2 X 3 planning. 4) 1X 3 planning. 5) Multi-Frequency Reuse pattern (MFP). In 4 X 3 planning the number 4 represent that there are four cells and 3 represent the number of frequencies used in each cell. Sectored sites are being used than omni-directional site because they have high coverage capacity and the increased network efficiency . In MFP all the four frequency planning will be incorporated and the planning of network is carried out. This is the best approach for providing coverage for a large area.
D3 C1 C3 A1 D2 B2 A2 B1
B

Fig. 3. cluster reuse

A 1
A

C2 A3 D2 B3 C2 D1
D

C3 B2 D3 A2 C3

B1 B3 A1 A3 B1

D2 C1 C2 D1 D2 A1 D3 C3

FREQUENCY REUSE DISTANCE This is the distance between the two cells that are separated apart and will be using the same frequency of operation. This also means that the distance between the clusters. As the FRF number is more than 7 the interference between the co-channel decreases rapidly and also the capacity handling capability also decreases. Now if the FRF number is less than 4 then this means the cluster size will be reduced and intern the capacity of that particular cluster will be increased. There will be increase in co-channel interference, because the reuse distance will be decreased in case of this. Hence there must be a trade-off between the cluster size i.e. the frequency reuse factor and the frequency reuse distance. The following equation is used to calculate the frequency reuse distance D =((3N)^(0.5))*R Where R= radius covered by the cell. D= frequency reuse distance. N= frequency reuse factor.

C1
C

A 1

Fig. 3. 4 X 3 planning

VII. CONCLUSION By having proper knowledge of the GSM architecture and the system functionality we can plan the network and provide services to the subscriber on basis of proper planning. With the concept of frequency reuse the coverage can be give for a large area with good quality of voice and data service. Hence this planning is the first step in providing the coverage for any area and the basic building block of the GSM network.

5 ACKNOWLEDGMENT WE WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS OUR HEART FULL THANKS TO OUR PROF & HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT ELECTRONICS &COMMUNICATION PROF.CHANDRASHEKAR.Y.L, FOR HIS TIME MUCH NEEDED, VALUABLE GUIDANCE, INVALUABLE HELP AND SCHOLARLY INSIGHT SHAPED THE CONSTANT OF THIS PAPER . WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK THE TEACHING STAFF OF E&C DEPARTMENT FOR LENDING THEIR SUCCESSFUL HAND DURING THE PREPERATION OF PAPER PRESENTATION.

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