LECTURE 2a

CELLULAR SYSTEM
FUNDAMENTALS

References:
•Bernhard (Chapter 2)
•Rappaport (Chapter 2)
•Garg (Chapter 13)
•http://www.ececs.uc.edu/~jcaffery/eces719
•http://wwwtvs.et.tudelft.nl/EDUCAT/COURSES/ET4-153/
CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT
•Once a cellular network has been planned to provide overall
coverage, there are a number of ways of adding additional capacity
•The simple and cost effective option is to allocate further radio
channels. This can be done by an extension band, e.g. ETACS, E-
GSM
•Other alternatives:
– Sectorization
9 increased C/I by eliminating some co-channel cell at the
expense of reducing trunking efficiency
9 cell size can be reduced
– Cell splitting
9 decreasing the cell radius R and keeping the co-channel
reuse ratio D/R unchanged
9 increases the number of channels per unit area.
– Microcellular - smaller reuse
– Smart Antenna/Intelligent cells/Multibeam/Adaptive array
– Channel Assignment
SECTORIZATION
CELL SPLITTING
•The process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells each
with its own base station
•Lowering antenna height, antenna downtilting and reducing
transmitter power
•Increasing capacity by increasing the number of times that a
channels re reused
•Normally the radius of a new cell is half that of the original cell (R/2)
while the transmit power of the new cell is given by
2
Pnew  1 
=  
Pold  γ 
CELL SPLITTING
•During splitting, the designer must minimize changes in the system
•The value of the reuse factor must be relatively prime with respect to
the value of the type of split. Hence the voice channel frequency
assignments at the old cell remain the same when new cell are
added

•Example of splitting pattern:

•N=3, use 4:1 cell splitting, N=4, use 3:1 cell splitting
•N=7, use 3:1 or 4:1 cell splitting
•N=9, use 4:1 cell splitting
• 4:1 splitting - new cell (Rnew=Rold/2, Anew=Aold/4) located on the
border between 2 existing cell area
• 3:1 splitting - new cell (Rnew=Rold/√3, Anew=Aold/3) located on the
corner between the cell area covered by 3 existing cell
 SEGMENTATION
•Additional cell at less than reuse distance without using complete
splitting may be use to fill in a coverage gap
•Segmentation:
•divides a channel group into segments of mutually exclusive
voice channel frequencies to avoid co-channel interference
•capacity of segmented cells is lower
OVERLAY-UNDERLAY
• Increases traffic capacity without adding new sites
• Radio at the cell site are divided into 2 separate server groups, one for the
larger (overlaid) cell and one for the smaller (underlaid) cell
• Radios for primary server group serve the underlaid cell, and the radio of the
secondary server group are used to serve mobile in the overlaid cell areas
• As traffic in smaller cell grows, more and more channels are removed from
the secondary group and assigned to the primary group until the secondary
group and its larger cell disappears
• Load is balanced by handing over between overlaid and underlaid cells
• Tighter frequency reuse in
overlaid cells can be supported
• Also called dualization that can
control co-channel interference
• Similar method: Stockholm ring
MICROCELLULAR

Hierarchical
cell

Microcell-
Macrocell
REPEATER and ZONE CONCEPT

Distributed Antenna System

(DAS) – repeater extension
(increase coverage and capacity
maintain)

Microcell Zone Concept

(reduce handoff)
CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT
•Reuse Partioning
9Cell plans with different reuse distances
9Chose channel based on signal strength
9Mobiles with high RSS may use poor (high interference)
channels
•DCA
9Interference based
9Traffic Adaptive
9Signal strength adaptation
ADVANCED REUSED TECHNIQUE
•With features such as frequency hopping, DTX, and power control,
technologies such as GSM and EDGE can use even tighter reuse
patterns
– 1/3 and 1/1 are possible using fractional loading
– Overlaid/Underlaid feature can be used

- Underlaid cells using

1/3 reuse pattern with
overlaid cells using 1/1
- Fractional loading
required on both
MULTIPLE REUSE PATTERN (MRP)
• A technique to vary the reuse pattern for different channels and
different levels of quality
• Combines conservative control channel reuse with aggressive
traffic channel reuse to achieve a tighter average reuse
– Frequency Hopping, Power Control and DTX are necessary
• Frequencies can be reserved for microcells
• Best used with lots of spectrum
– Performance results with 15 MHz are better than for 5 MHz
because there are more frequencies to hop across
• 24 GSM RF carriers with 12/7/5 reuse (average reuse = 8)
SMART ANTENNA
 SMART ANTENNA
Adaptive Antenna - An array of antennas which is able to change its
antenna pattern dynamically to adjust to noise, interference, and multipath.
Adaptive array antennas can adjust their pattern to track portable users.
Adaptive antennas are used to enhance received signals and may also be
used to form beams for transmission.
Switched Beam Systems - Switched beam systems use a number of fixed
beams at an antenna site. The receiver selects the beam that provides the
greatest signal enhancement and interference reduction. Switched beam
systems may not offer the degree of performance improvement offered by
adaptive systems, but they are often much less complex and are easier to
retro-fit to existing wireless technologies.

Switched Adaptive
beam antenna
OTHER METHODS
•Frequency Hopping
9 Important feature for interference averaging in high capacity
networks and frequency diversity
9 Random and cyclic sequences supported
•Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
9Stops transmitting during periods of silence (50% of the time) - Voice
Activity Detector (VAD) determines if voice is present
9Implemented in both the BTS and MS
9Silence Descriptor (SID) frames are sent periodically to generate
“Comfort Noise” in the receiver
9Reduces intermodulation at the BTS
9Conserves battery power
9Reduces interference
CELLULAR SYSTEM
CELLULAR COMPONENT
•There are three main componens consisting of:-
9The Mobile Switching Centre (MTX or MSC or MTSO)
9The Radio Base Station (RBS)
9The Mobile Station (MS)
•The MTX is an interface between the radio network and the
PSTN network. Calls to and from the mobile subscibers are
switched by the MTX and handles all the signalling function
needed to establish the calls
•A number of RBS is needed to provide coverage for the mobile
subscribers to use
•There can be more than one MTX serving one geographical
area. The area served by one MTX and the RBS’s connected to
it is called service area
•The RBS is an interface between the MS and the cellular
system. It consists of channel units containing a transceiver and
a control unit
•The MS is the subscriber terminal which converts the radio
waves into voice and vice-versa and transmits all subscriber’s
instruction such as number dialled to the system
ROAMING
•Roaming is the process of making and receiving calls while away
from your home cellular system
•Normally roaming only take place between two system operator that
employed similar system. For example GSM’s roaming feature allows
a user to make and receive calls in any GSMnetwork and to use the
same user-specific services worldwide
•A roaming agreement between the individual operators is required
•Type of roaming:
– national
– international
/global
– inter-standard
•2 parts:
– registration
– location tracking
 REGISTRATION
•MS registration is a process where MS characteristic such as
location or status are provided to the network
•Registration may be initiated by the MS or the network, or may be
implied during an MS access
•Registration is the means which an MS informs the immediate
service provider of its presence and desire to receive service. BS will
informs MSC and other network elements of the request
•MSC and other network elements perform necessary registration
function which may result local service being established and location
records (VLR or HLR) being updated
AUTHENTICATION
•Terminal or user authentication is a process to verify the authenticity
of a MS, permitting denial of service to an invalid MS and thereby
detering fraud
•User authentication normally takes place when the MS is turned on.
User must key in a private key (PIN code) on the handset in order to
activate the hardware before this automatic procedure can start
•Authentication occurs with
each incoming call
and outgoing call.
This is based on
checking that “Ki”
(secret encryption
key) stored in the
AuC matches the
“Ki” stored in SIM
card of the MS
(in GSM)
HANDOVER
•Changing physical channels, radio channels of fixed network
connections involved in a call, while maintaining the call
•Two phases:
1. MONITORING PHASE
ƒ measurement of the quality of the current and possible candidate
radio links
ƒ initiation of a handover when necessary
2. HANDOVER HANDLING PHASE
ƒ determination of a new point of attachment (PoA) – resource
reservation
ƒ setting up of new links, release of old links – execution
ƒ initiation of a possible re-routing procedure – completion
•Why handover ?
1. MS moves out of the range of a BTS
– signal level becomes too low or error rate becomes too high
2. Load balancing
– traffic in one cell is too high ⇒ shift some MSs to other cells with
a lower load
HANDOVER
•1st generation systems (analog cellular):
– RSS measurements made by the BSs and supervised by the MSC
– the BS constantly monitors RSS of all the voice channels
– locator receiver measures RSS of MSs in neighboring cells
– MSC decides if a handover is necessary or not
•2nd generation systems (digital TDMA):
– handover decisions are mobile assisted - MAHO
– every MS measures the RSS from surrounding BSs and sends
reports to its own BS
– handover is initiated when RSS received from a neighbor BS begins
to exceed RSS from the current BS (by a certain level and/or for a
certain period)
 HANDOVER
• Network Controlled HO (NCHO)
– The network makes the decision
ƒ BS monitors the signal strength and quality from the MS
ƒ Network uses multiple (current and surrounding) BSs to supervise the
quality of all current connections by making measurements of RSS
ƒ MSC makes the decision when and where to effect the handoff
ƒ Heavy network signaling traffic and limited radio resources at BSs
prevent frequent measurements of neighboring links ⇒ long HO times
– HO times : up to 10s or more
• Mobile Assisted HO (MAHO)
– the mobile provides data which the network uses to make the decision
– essentially it is a variant of NCHO
– HO times can be reduced (about 1s in GSM)
• Mobile Controlled HO (MCHO)
– MS decides for itself by monitoring signal strength and quality from the
current and candidate base stations; when it finds a “better” candidate
it initiates a handoff
– 2 common HO:
Automatic link transfer (ALT) - transfer between two base stations and
Time slot transfer (TST) - transfer between channels of a single BS
 HANDOVER
• Intra-cell handover
– narrow-band interference ⇒ change carrier frequency
– controlled by BSC
• Inter-cell, intra-BSC handover
– typical handover scenario
– BSC performs the handover, assigns new radio channel in the
new cell, releases the old one
• Inter-BSC, intra-MSC handover
– handover between cells controlled by different BSCs
– controlled by the MSC
• Inter-MSC handover
– handover between
cells belonging to
different MSCs
– controlled by both
MSCs
– inter-system HO
PROCEDURE – Call Set-up/Release

GSM - Mobile Originated Call

GSM - Mobile Terminated Call

SIGNALLING - SAT
Supervisory Audio Tone (SAT) - One of three tones (5970, 6000,
and 6030 Hz) that are transmitted by the base station and
transponded by the mobile station. Used to evaluate the complete
radio path, both Forward and Reverse Voice Channels. The SAT
received by the mobile unit is actually regenerated by the mobile
unit with the same amplitude and noise associated with the actual
received SAT
SIGNALLING - DCC
Digital Colour Code (DCC) - One of four code that are trasmit
over control channel to detect co-channel cell
SIGNALLING - Handover