Yarmouk University

Hijjawi Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Communication Engineering

Assignment 1
CME 538 Mobile Communications
First Semester 2008/2009
Please adhere to the following instructions
• Turn in the assignment on time, you have one week from the day the assignment is given.
• Provide solutions to problems in the order assigned
• Do not write on the back of the sheet
• Clearly mark all final answers
• Do not fold your sheets

Q 1:
a) Rank the following systems with respect to range and power dissipation (1 for lowest and 5 for
highest)

System Power Dissipation Range

Ultra Wide Band (UWB)
3G cellular
802.11a

b) What is the Frequency band, maxim um data rate and modulation technique used in the following
systems (Search the web if you could not find the answer in the book):

Cellular System Frequency Band Maximum Data Rate

Bluetooth
WiMax
IEEE 802.11 g
GSM/GPRS
WCDMA
AMPS
D-AMPS (NADC)
IEEE 802.11 a
IEEE 802.11 b
IS-95

Q2: Solve the following problems from the text book of Rappaport chapter 3:
3.11
3.12
3.16
3.26
Also try to solve all other problems in chapter 3.

Q3: Consider 3 cases: N=3, N=4 and N=7. Sketch a few clusters for each case. Number cells corresponding
to each of the N frequency groups (e.g. for N=3, the groups are numbered 1, 2, 3). Find the following: i, j,
Q. Make sure you include the six surrounding first tier interfering cells for at least one of the groups. Use
the attached hexagonal grid paper.
 Yarmouk University
Hijjawi Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Communication Engineering

Q4: Prove that for a hexagonal geometry, the co-channel reuse ratio is given by
Q = 3 N ; where N = i 2 + ij + j 2 .
Hint: use the cosine law and the hexagonal geometry.
D 2 = D 2 + D 2 + 2 D D cos(θ )
i j i j
.
Q5: A cellular system decides to use a digital TDMA scheme which can tolerate an S/I of 15 dB in the
worst case. Assume n=3.7 and use simple approximation.
• Find the optimal value of N for:
1) Omni directional antennas
2) 120 degree sectoring
3) 60 degree sectoring
• Sketch the desired cell and first tier interfering cells for each case
• Which system should be used considering capacity (number of channels per cell
or sector)?

Q6 A cellular carrier is allocated a total of 420 full-duplex voice channels. The carrier uses a cluster size
of 7 and operates in a rural area where the path loss exponent is n=3.5. Assume “Blocked Calls Cleared”
system, an average of 3 call/hour/user, 2 minute/call and a blocking probability of 0.1%. Calculate
a. the S/I in dB using the simple approximation.
b. the number of users that can be supported by the system per cluster
c. If 60 degrees sectoring is to be used, find the S/I and the capacity loss due to sectoring
If the minimum acceptable S/I is 17 dB and the system planning is to be modified accordingly using omni
directional antennas and for the same number of users found in (b), find the blocking probability in this
case.

Q7: On a hexagonal grid, use geometry to calculate exact distances from the first tier interferers and a
mobile at the desired cell boundary and use these to calculate the precise S/I for the forward link for a
cluster size N=7 and n=3.2. As always assume the mobile is located at the corner of the cell. Compare with
simple approximation.

Q9: Cellular systems today are moving from large cells (macrocells) of radius around 1 mile to smaller
microcells and picocells, of radius from 100 to 1000 feet. The reason for this migration is that smaller cells
offer considerably more system capacity. The downside is that if cell size is smaller, more cells are needed
to cover a given city, resulting in greater expense (base station cost) and network complexity (more
handoffs and routing is more difficult). This problem demonstrates the capacity increase as cell size
decreases.
Consider a square city that is 100 square kilometers. Suppose you design a cellular system for this city with
square cells, where every cell (regardless of cell size) can support 100 users (in practice the number of
users that can be supported per cell is mostly independent of cell size as long as the propagation model and
power scale appropriately).
(a) What is the total number of active users that your system can support for a cell size of 1 square
kilometer?
(b) What cell size would you use if you require that your system support 250,000 active users?
Now we consider some financial implications based on the fact that users do not talk continuously. Assume
that Friday from 5-6 pm is the busiest hour for cell phone users. During this time, the average user places a
single call, and this call lasts two minutes. Your system should be designed such that the subscribers will
tolerate no greater than a 2% blocking probability during this peak hour.
(c) How many total subscribers can be supported in the macrocell system (1 square Km cells) and in the
microcell system (with cell size from part (b))?
(d) If a base station costs $500,000, what are the base station costs for each system?
(e) If users pay 50 dollars a month in both systems, what will be the monthly revenue in each case? How
long will it take to recoup the infrastructure (base station) cost for each system?
 Yarmouk University
Hijjawi Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Communication Engineering

Q8: The FCC has allocated a fictitious cellular carrier a total of 250 full-duplex voice channels. The carrier
will operate in a rural area where the path loss exponent is n=3.5. Assume an average of 2 minute/call and 1
call/hour/user:
a) for cluster sizes of 3, 7 and 9, calculate the S/I in dB using the simple approximation.
b) Assuming a blocking probability of 0.1% , calculate the number of users per cluster for each of the
3 different cluster sizes
c) Use your answer to explain which system is the best overall. Assume a S/I =15 dB is required for
sufficient voice quality.

Q9: A cellular system has 150 full-duplex voice channel. The path loss exponent is n=3.8. Assume an
average of 5 minute/hour, 2 call per user and only consider a cluster size N=3.
d) Calculate the number of users that the system can handle per cluster at a blocking probability of
0.5%.
e) If the area had a 50% increase of the number of users over the number obtained in (a), find the
new GOS.
 Yarmouk University
Hijjawi Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Communication Engineering