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Wireless Communications

A little history and evolution of mobile radio

Marconi - 1897, invented wireless concept

1960s &1970s Bell laboratories developed the cellular concept
1970s -- development of highly reliable, miniature solid state radio
frequency hardware

Wireless communication era was born

Cellular phone users

1984 - 25000
1994 - 16 million
1997 - 50 million
2000 - number of wireless users = number of wired users
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Examples of mobile radio systems

Used in everyday life -

Garage door openers Remote controllers for home entertainment
Cordless Telephones Hand held Walkie talkies pagers / Beepers
Cellular Telephones

Mobile Describes a radio terminal attached to a high speed mobile
platform. e.g A Cellular phone in a fast moving vehicle

Portable Describes a radio terminal that can be hand-held and used by
someone at walking speed. e.g cordless telephone

Subscriber Mobile or Portable user
Base stations link mobiles through a backbone network
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Types of Mobile Radio Transmission System

Simplex Communication is possible only in one direction, e.g. Paging
Systems

Half Duplex Two way communication, but use the same radio channel
for both transmission and reception. User can only transmit or receive
information

Full Duplex Simultaneous two way radio transmission and reception
between subscriber and base station. Two simultaneous but separate
channels (FDD) or Adjacent timeslots on a single radio channel (TDD)
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Cordless Telephone Systems




Full duplex communication systems

Few hundred meters
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Paging Systems

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Paging systems are communication systems that send brief messages to
a subscriber -
Numeric messages
Alpha- Numeric Message
Voice Message
News Headlines
Stock Quotes
Faxes

Coverage Area -
2 to 5 km
within individual buildings
world wide coverage
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Cellular Telephone Systems



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Base station -mobile network





FVC Forward Voice Channel
RVC Reverse Voice Channel
FCC Forward Control Channel
RCC Reverse Control Channel
FVC
RVC
RCC
FCC
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Functions of cellular system


Provides wireless connection to the PSTN for any user location
within the radio range of the system

High capacity is achieved by limiting the coverage of each base
station transmitter to a small geographical area called a Cell and
by the same radio channels being reused by another base station
located some distance array Frequency reuse

Switching system called handoff enables call to forced un-
interrupted when the user uses one cell to another

Typical MSC handles 100,000 cellular users and 5000
simultaneous conversion at a time


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12

Schematic of telephone call made to mobile user








MSC



Mobile
Switching
Center
PSTN
Step 2
Step 1
Incoming
Telephone
Call to
Mobile X
Base Stations
Step 6
Step 5
Step 4
Mobile X
Step 3
Step 7
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Brief outline of cellular process

Telephone call placed to a mobile user


Step 1 the incoming telephone call to Mobile X is received at the MSC

Step 2 the MSC dispatches the request to all base stations in the
cellular system

Step 3 the base stations broadcast the Mobile Identification Number
(MIN) telephone number of Mobile X, as a paging message over the
FCC throughout the cellular system

Step 4 the mobile receives the paging message sent by the base
station it monitors and responds by Identifying itself over the reverse
control channel

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Step 5 the base station relays the acknowledgement sent by the
mobile and informs the MSC of the handshake

Step 6 the MSC instructs the base station to move the cell to AM
issued voice channel within in the cell

Step 7 the base station signals the mobile to change frequencies to an
un-used forward and reverse voice channel pair. At the point another
data message (alert) is transmitted over the forward voice channel to
instruct the mobile to ring

Now the call is in progress. The MSC adjusts the transmitted power of the mobile and
changes the channel of the mobile end and base stations in order to maintain call quality.
This is called handoff.




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Telephone call placed by mobile









MSC



Mobile
Switching
Center
PSTN
Step 3
Step 2
Step 1
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Step 1 when a mobile originates a call, it sends the base station its
telephone number (MIN), electric serial number (ESN) and telephone
number of called party. It also transmits a station class mark (SCM)
which indicates what the maximum power level is for the particular user.

Step 2 the cell base station receives the data and sends it to the MSC

Step 3 the MSC validates the request, makes connection to the called
party through the PSTN and validates the base station and mobile user
to move to an un-used forward and reverse channel pair to allow the
conversation to begin.




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Roaming

All cellular systems provide a service called roaming. This allows
subscribes to operate in service areas other than the one from which
service is subscribed.

When a mobile enters a city or geographic area that is different from
its home service area, it is registered as a roamer in the new service
area.

Periodically, the MSC issues a global command over each FCC in
the system, asking for all mobiles which are previously un-registered
to report their MIN and ESN over the RCC for billing purposes.

If a particular manner has roaming authorization for billing purposes,
MSC requests the subscriber as a valid roamer.
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Frequency spectrum allocation for US cellular radio service

Channel number Center Frequency (MHZ)

1 N 799 0.03 N + 825.0
990 N 1023 0.03 (N 1023) + 825
1 N 799 0.03 N + 870.0
990 N 1023 0.03 (N 1023) +870.0

channels 800 989 are un-used





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Trends in Cellular Radio Personal Communications
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The Cellular Concept System Design Fundamentals

The cellular concept was a major breakthrough in solving the
problem of spectral congestion and user capacity

Replaces 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.

Frequency Reuse

Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels. Base
stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel groups which contain
completely different channels than neighboring cells.
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Choice of Hexagonal cell

Choices Factors
Equal Area
No overlap between Cells

















S S
S
A1
A2 A3
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For a given S


A3 > A1
A3 > A2

Here A3 provides maximum coverage area for a given value of S
Actual cellular footprint is determined by the contour of a given
transmitting antenna

By using hexagon geometry, fewest number of cells cover a given
geographic region.
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Channel capacity

Let a cellular system have total of S duplex channels for use.

If S channels are divided into N cells (in a cluster) into unique and
disjoint channel groups which each has the same number of channels,
total number of available radio channels is:

S = KN
Where K is the number of channels / cell

If a cluster is replicated M times within the system, the total number of
duplex channels, C, or the capacity is C = MKN = MS

N cluster size = 4,7 or 12
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Design of cluster size N

In order to connect without gaps between adjacent cells (to Tessellate)

N = i
2
+ ij + j
2


Where i and j are non- negative integers

Example i = 2, j = 2

N = 2
2
+2(1)+1
2
= 4+2+1 = 7


To find the nearest co- channel neighbor of particular cell

(1) move i cells along any chain of hexagons and then
(2) turn 60 degrees counterclockwise and move j cells


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Example
If a particular FDD cellular telephone system has a total bandwidth
of 33 mhz, if the phone system uses two 25 KHZ simplex channels
to provide full duplex voice and control channels, compute the
number of channels per cell if N = 4, 7, 12.

Solution
Total bandwidth = 33 MHZ
Channel bandwidth = 25 KHZ x 2 = 50 KHZ
Total available channels = 33 MHZ / 50 KHZ = 660

N = 4 channel per cell = 660 / 4 = 165 channels
N = 7 channel per cell = 660 / 7 = 95 channels
N = 4 channel per cell = 660 / 12 = 55 channels


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Channel assignment strategies

Fixed channel assignments
Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channels

If all the channels in that cell are occupied, the cell is blocked and
the subscriber does not receive service

Variation includes borrowing strategy, a cell is allowed to borrow
channels from a neighboring cell if all its own channels are already
occupied. This borrowing is supervised by the MSC

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Dynamic channel assignments
Voice channels are not allocated to different cells permanently

Each time a cell request is made, the serving base station requests a
channel from the MSC

The switch then allocate a channel to the requested cell based on a
decision algorithm taking into account different factors frequency
re-use of candidate channel, cost factors

Dynamic channel assignment is more complex (real time) but reduces
likelihood of blocking
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Handoff strategies

Handoff when a mobile moves into different cell while a conversation
is in progress, the MSC automatically transfers the cell to a new channel
belonging to the new base station

Important task in any cellular radio system

Handoffs must be performed successfully, as infrequently as
possible and not visible to users
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P
n
P
m
= - should not be too large
too large too many handoffs or too small
too small channel of cell being lost
P
n

P
m

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Dwell time

Time over which a cell may be maintained within a cell, without hand
off

Each base station constantly monitors the signal strength of all its
reverse voice channels to determine the relative location of each
mobile user with respect to the base station tower

Mobile assisted hand-off (MAHO) every mobile station measures
the received power from surrounding base stations and continuously
reports the results of these measurements to the serving base
station Faster hand-off rate

Inter-system handoff one cellular system to different cellular
system



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Interference and system capacity

Major limiting factor in performance of cellular radio systems two main
types

Co-channel interference and Adjacent channel interference

Co-channel interference

Cells that use the same set of frequencies are called co-channel cells.
Interference between the cells are called co-channel interference

Signal to interference ratio (SIR) or S / I for a mobile receiver is given by

S / I = SIR = S/

=
S
i 1
I
i


S = Derived signal power from designated base station
I
i
= Interference power caused by the ith interfacing co-channel cell
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Assumptions

For any given antenna (base station) the power at a distance d is given
by


Pr = Po (d / do )
n
n is path loss exponent

Pr
Po
d
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Hence, S / I = R
n
/

=
io
i
Di
1
) (
- n

i
o
= total number of first layer interfacing cells

If the mobile is at the center of the cell D
i
= D

S / I = R
n
/ (D)
- n
1
1

=
io
i
= (R / D)
-n
/ i
o

For a hexagonal geometry

D / R = N 3 = Q - co-channel reuse ratio

S / I = ( N 3 )
n
/ i
o

Maximum co-channel interface when mobile is at cell boundry. N = 7

S / I R
-4
/ [ 2(D-R)
-4
+2(D+R)
+4
+2D
-4
]

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Adjacent Channel Interference

Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to the
desired signal

Due to imperfect receiver filters which allow nearby frequencies to leak
into pass band

Can be minimized by careful filtering and channel assignments by
keeping the frequency separation between each channel in a green cell
as large as possible, the adjacent channel interference may be reduced
considerably

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Trunking and grade of service

Cellular radio system rely on trunking to accommodate a large
number of users in a limited radio spectrum How a large population
can be accommodated by a limited number of services

Trunking each user is allocated a channel on a per cell basis and
upon termination of the cell, the previously occupied channel is
immediately returned to the pool of available channels

First initiated by Danish mathematician called Erlang

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Grade of Service (GOS)

Measure of ability of the user to access a trunked system during the
busiest hour during a week, month or a year

4 to 6 pm on Thursday or Friday evening

Traffic intensity (A

Erlang) of each user is: A

= H

- Average number of call requests per unit time
H Average duration of a call



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Total traffic intensity


For a system entering U users, the total offered traffic intensity A is given
as

A = U A

Erlangs

If there are C channels in the system, average traffic intensity per
channel is

A
c
= U A

/ C



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Blocked calls cleared system

No queuing for call requests

If no channels are available, the requesting user is blocked without
access and is free to try again later.

Assuming a finite number of available channels C, and using queuing
theory, we obtain

GOS = Probability (call is blocked) = [A
c
/ C! ]/ [ A
c
k

=0
k
/ k!]

AMPS cellular system is designed for GOS = 0.02

This is called the Erlang B formula (Appendix A)-Table 2.6 of book.


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Blocked calls delayed system

Queue is provided to hold calls which are blocked. If a channel is not
available immediately, the call request may be delayed until a channel
becomes available

Pr [Delay > 0 ] = A
c
/ [ A
c
+ C! ( 1 A / C )] [

=
1
0
c
k
A
k
/ k ! ]
Pr [Delay > ts ] = Pr [Delay > 0 ] e
(C-A) t / H


Average Delay D for all calls in a queued system is given by:

D = Pr [Delay > 0 ] H / C-A

This is called Erlang C formula -Table 2.7 of book


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Example

A hexagonal cell with 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 /
user is 0.029 Erlangs, = 1 call per hr., compute the following for an
Erlang C system that has a 5% probability of a delayed cell.
a. How many users per square will the system support?
b.What is the Pr [Delay > 10s ]
Solution:

Cell radius = R = 1.387 km
Area covered per cell = 2.598 (1.387)
2
= 5 sq km
Number calls per cluster = 4
Total number of channels per cell = 60 / 4 = 15 channels




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a. From Erlang C chart , GOS = 0.05, C = 15,

Traffic intensity A = 9.0 E
Number of users = Total traffic intensity / Traffic per user
= 9.0 / 0.029 = 310 users
Number of user per system = 310 / 5 = 62 users per system

b.Pr [Delay > 10] = Pr [Delay > 0 ] e
(C-A)t / H

= 0.05 x e
-(15 9 ) 10 / H


H = A / = 0.029 hr
= 0.029 x 60 x 60 seconds
= 104.4 seconds

Pr [Delay > 10] = 0.05 e
(15 9) 10 / 104.4
= 0.0281
= 2.81%

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Improving capacity in cellular systems

As demand for wireless services increases, number of channels
assigned to a cell is not enough to support the required number of users

Solution is to increase channels per unit coverage area









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Cell splitting

Subdivides a congested cell into smaller cells, each with its own
base station
Increases the capacity of a cellular system

Sectoring

Achieves capacity improvement by essentially re-scaling the system
Cell radius R is unchanged but the co-channel ratio D / R is
decreased
Capacity improvement is achieved by reducing the number of cells in
a cluster and this increases frequency re-use
Replacing a single omni-directional antenna at base station with
several directional antennas, each radiating within a specified sector
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Micro Cell Zone Concept

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Large control base station is replaced by several lower powered
transmitters on the edge of the cell

The mobile retains the same channel and the base station simply
switches the channel to a different zone site and the mobile
moves from zone to zone

Since a given channel is active only in a particular zone in which
mobile is traveling, base station radiation is localized and
interference is reduced

The channels are distributed in time and space by all three
zones are re-used in co-channel calls is normal fashion

Advantage is that while the call maintains a particular coverage
radius, co-channel interference is reduced due to zone
transmitters on edge of the call.
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Practice Problems
[2.19] The US AMPS system is allocated 50 MHZ of spectrum in the
800 MHZ range and provides 832 channels. 42 of those channels
are control channels. The forward channel frequency is exactly 45
MHZ greater than the reverse channel frequency.
(a) Is the AMPS system simplex, half-duplex or duplex? What is
the bandwidth for each channel and how is it distributed between
the base station and the subscriber?
(b)Assume a base station transmits control information on channel
352 operating at 880.56 MHZ. What is the transmission frequency of
a subscriber unit transmitting on channel 352?
(c)The A side and B side cellular carries evenly split the AMPS
channels. Find the number of voice channels and number of control
channels for each carrier?
(d)For an ideal hexagonal cellular layout which has identical cell
sites, what is the distance between the enters of the two nearest co-
channel cells for 7 cell re-use? For 4 cell re-use?

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Solution
a.

AMPS system is duplex

Total bandwidth = 500 MHZ
Total number of channels = 832
Bandwidth for each channel = 50 MHZ / 832 = 60 KHZ

60 KHZ is split into two 30 KHZ channels (forward and reverse channel).
The forward channel is 45 MHZ > reverse channel.

b.
for F
fw
= 880.560 MHZ

F
rev
= F
fw
45
= 835.560 MHZ
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c.
Total number of channels = 832 = N
Total number of control channels N
con
= 42
Total number of voice channels N
uo
= 832 42 = 790

Number of voice channels for each carrier = 790 / 2 = 395 channels

Number of control channels for each carrier = 42 / 2 = 21 channels

d.
N = 7
Q = D / R = N 3 = 21 = 4.58
D = 4.58 R

N = 4
Q = 12 = 3.46
D = 3.46 R

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