Cellular Networks

Cellular Networks

 It is an infrastructure network that exploits

the frequency reuse concept, first
developed by Bell Labs in the 70s.
 Frequency reuse: use the same spectrum
to support multiple users separated by a
distance.

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Cellular Networks (contd.)
 An area is divided into a number of cells.
 Each cell has a base station which has a
low-power transmitter of 100W or less
covering a limited area. The power of the
transmitter is carefully controlled to limit
the power leaked into neighboring cells.
 Adjacent cells are assigned different
frequencies to avoid interference
(crosstalk).
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Frequency Reuse
 A number of frequencies are assigned to each
cell, depending upon the number of users in the
cell.
 Cells are grouped into clusters. Each cluster
uses the entire available radio spectrum, but
cells within a cluster use different frequencies.
 Therefore, different clusters use the same
spectrum, but adjacent cells, whether in the
same or different cluster, always use different
frequencies.

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Interference
 Cochannel interference: the interference due to
the use of the same frequencies in cells of
different clusters. In free space, signal strength
falls as the square of the distance. As long as
the transmission power is carefully controlled
and the distance is large enough, the cochannel
interference is small.
 Adjacent channel interference: the interference
from different frequency channels used within a
cluster.
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Example 1—FDMA
 Assume we have a spectrum for 36 voice
channels to cover a 100 square km area.
 Scenario 1: A single high power transmitter is
used to cover the entire area.
 Scenario 2: Divide the area into seven cells each
covering a 14.3 square km area and having 12
channels.
 Scenario 1 supports 36 users and Scenario 2,
84 channels, a 2.3 time capacity increase.

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Example 1—FDMA (contd.)
 Cells 1 and 7 are far apart and therefore can use the
same frequency. So do pair 2 and 5 and pair 6 and 4.
 Thus cells 1, 2 and 6 form a cluster, and cells 7, 5 and 4
form another. Cell 3 belongs to a third cluster.
 The smaller the cells (thus more cells in the area to be
covered) the larger the capacity of the system (the more
users it can support, as explained later), and the smaller
the power required for phones, very important feature.
 But smaller cells will increase the installation and
maintenance costs, the complexity of the system due to
too many handoffs, etc.

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Example 1—FDMA (contd.)

 If we divide the area into 15 cells, and

each group (cluster) of 3 cells can use the
entire spectrum, then the spectrum will be
used for 5 times.
 Each time the spectrum is used, 36 users
can be supported. All together 36x5=180
users will be supported. It’s a five time
increase of the capacity.

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Example 2—FDMA
 We have a total bandwidth of 25 MHz and each
user requires 30 KHz for voice communication.
 Scenario 1: one high power antenna to cover the
entire town. We can support 25MHz/30 KHz =
833 simultaneous users.
 Scenario 2: 20 low power antennas are used.
That is, to divide the area into 20 cells. We
divide the entire frequency band into 4 sub-
bands and assign one to each cell, which has a
spectrum of 25 MHz/4 = 6.25 MHz.

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Example 2—FDMA (contd.)
 The number of users supported by each cell is
6.25 MHz/30 KHz = 208.
 In this example, 4 cells form a cluster, and the
town is covered by 5 clusters (total of 20 cells).
 The number of users per cluster is 4x208 = 832.
 The total number of simultaneous users is 832x5
= 4,160.
 The capacity is now 5 times the capacity with a
single antenna.
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Capacity calculation—FDMA

 n: capacity (number of total users)

 m: number of cells to cover the area
 N: frequency reuse factor (# cells/cluster)
 B: bandwidth per user
 W: total available bandwidth (spectrum)

mW
n
N B

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Capacity calculation—FDMA (contd.)
In the previous example,
 m=20,
 W=25 MHz,
 N=4, and
 B=30 KHz.

m W 20 25000
n   4,166
N B 4 30

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Capacity calculation—TDMA

 n: capacity (number of total users)

 m: number of cells to cover the area
 N: frequency reuse factor (# cells/cluster)
 B: bandwidth per user
 W: total available bandwidth (spectrum)
 Nu: number of time slots per carrier
mW
n Nu
N B

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Capacity calculation—TDMA (contd.)
Assuming again,
 m=20,
 W=25 MHz,
 N=4,
 B=200 KHz,
 Nu=4.

mW 20 25000
n Nu  4  2,500
N B 4 200

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Cell sizes
 The sizes of cells can be different.
 Cells designed to cover suburban areas have
antennas on tall towers and cover a large area.
 In urban areas antennas are low and
transmitting powers are also low. Therefore the
coverage areas are small for two reasons.
Need smaller cells to serve more users. In other
words, since the population density is high and the
number of users per cell is limited, the cell size has
to be smaller.
Buildings block radio wave transmission. Need
more antennas.
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Capacity of CDMA
 In CDMA, which is based on DSSS, each user uses a unique code. Thus
users are separated by different codes but not by frequencies or time slots
as in TDMA and FDMA. In CDMA many users using different codes can
share the same frequency and communicate at the same time.
 A channel in TDMA or FDMA is a frequency and a time slot. There is only a
limited number of channels, which restrict the number of simultaneous
users. In CDMA a channel is a code. There is an almost unlimited number
of codes, and thus channels, but it doesn’t mean an unlimited capacity.
 Each user is a source of noise to the receivers of other users (recall the
discussion we had on DSSS) or to the receiver in the base station. This will
limit the number of users.
 The number of user per cell (the capacity) is determined by the signal to
noise ratio. If there are too many users, the noise will be high, the S/N
(signal to noise) ratio will be low and reception quality will be poor.
 This is different from TDMA/FDMA, where the capacity is determined by the
number of channels available.

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Capacity of CDMA (contd.)
n: number of users
W: total bandwidth
R: data rate
Sr: signal to noise ratio

W
n
R  Sr
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Capacity per cell (CDMA)
Assume:
W=1.25MHz=1,250,000 Hz
R=9600 bps
Sr should be larger than 3dB => 2 times

W 1250000
n   65 users
R  S r 9600  2

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Capacity comparison: TDMA
Number of users per cell for IS-136 (a TDMA
standard used in the US)
Assume: W=1.25 MHz, B=30 kHz, N=4
Number of users per carrier (number of time
slots per frequency) Nu=3

W 1,250,000
n  Nu   3  31.25
B N 30,000  4

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Capacity comparison: GSM
W=1.25 MHz, B=200 kHz, N=3
Number of users per carrier Nu=8

W 1,250,000
n  Nu   8  16.7
B N 200,000  3

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Capacity expansion techniques
 Obtain additional spectrum. Can be very
expensive.
 Cell splitting, cell sectoring using directional
antennas
 Dynamically assigning channels to cells, instead
of fixed assignment of channels. If the demand
for a cell is high, more channels are assigned.

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Cell sectoring
 Several antennas are used in one cell.
 Each antenna, which is directional, only covers a
section of the cell.
 The interference will be reduced and thus a
lower frequency reuse factor can be used.
 Using three- and six-sector cells the frequency
reuse factor can be reduced from 7 to 4 or even
3, which means a capacity increase of 1.67 and
2.3, respectively.

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How Does Cellular System Work
 When a phone is turned on, it scans and selects
the strongest (control channel) signal sent by
adjacent BSs.
 Then a handshaking process takes place
between the mobile unit and the MTSO (Mobile
Telecommunications Switching Office) to identify
the user and register its location. This procedure
is repeated periodically as long as the mobile
unit is on to monitor the location of the MS.

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How is a call established
 Mobile unit initializes calls. The MS sends the number it
wants to reach to the BS, which sends the request to the
MTSO.
 The MTSO sends a paging message to certain BSs
depending on the called number. Each BS sends the
paging signal on its own setup channel.
 The called MS responds to the BS, which sends the
response to the MTSO.
 The MTSO sets up a circuit between the calling and
called BSs.
 The MTSO selects an available channel within each BS’s
cell and notifies each BS, which in turn notifies its mobile
units. The two MS tune to their respective assigned
channels.
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Location Management
Tracking the MS in order to deliver data to it.
 Locate the MS.
 Establish a dedicated channel before the
data change starts.
 If the MS moves from one cell to another
during the data change, handoff
(disconnect the MS from the current BS
and connect it to a new BS) may be
required.
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Handoff
 Handoff: if a MS moves out of the range of one
cell and into the range of another, the MTSO
assign another channel to the MS.
 Soft handoff (for CDMA only): An MS moving
towards the edge of a cell will maintain
communication with two or more BSs for a short
while before decide which BS to select as its
point of attachment.
 Soft handoff makes the transition from one cell
to the next smooth.

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Location Management (contd.)

 Periodic location updates by the MS

 Paging the MS in a group of cells the MS
may be located in. (The location updates
are periodic but not continuous. Therefore
we may not know the exact location.)
 Location information dissemination: store
and distribute the location information.

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1-G system: Advanced Mobile Phone
Service (AMPS)

Forward Reverse Channel Region

band band spacing
(MHz) (MHz) (kHz)
AMPS 824-849 869-894 30 USA

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2G systems
GSM IS-54 (US) IS-95 (US)
TDMA/FDD TDMA/FDD CDMA/FDD
Freq (MHz) 935-960 869-894 869-894
890-915 824-849 824-849
Carrier 200 30 1,250
spacing (kHz)
Bearer 8 3 Variable
chan/carrier
Bit rate 270 48 1,228
(kbps)
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3G systems
 International standard IMT-2000 (International
Mobile Telecommunications beyond 2000)
 A spectrum of 230 MHz is assigned globally to
IMT-2000
 Combine voice and data services
 Increase the quality of the voice, capacity of the
network, and data rate (384 kbps everywhere
and 2 Mbps indoor).
 W-CDMA (GSM) and CDMA2000 (IS-95) are
competing proposals.
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Comparison of different systems

 See Fig 1.6, p20 for a comparison

 Questions:
Why does Wi-Fi have the highest data rate?

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