4 - Principles of Cellular Technologies PDF

WIRELESS
COMMUNICATIONS
Carlos Pupiales Y.
chpupiales@utn.edu.ec
Outline:
• Introduction
• Main Features
• Cellular Systems Fundamentals
• The Cellular Concept
• Frequency Reuse
• Channel Assignment
• Handover
• Interference
Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 3

Introduction
• The continuous change in terms of social behavior have caused that

technology have to satisfy people’s needs.
• At the same time, technology development has contributed that people´s
behavior changed as well.
• In the past the only requirement used to be to have voice service. This
service was dependent on a wired medium, so people were not able to
move from one point to another.
• The need for mobility was the first reason to develop a technology that
supports that requirement.
• Based on this requirements, wireless technologies was the first solution
which provided a kind of mobility.
• However, the real concept of mobility started with cellular networks.
Introduction
• A cellular mobile system uses a large number of wireless transmitters in order to
provide cellular service in a certain location.
• The area of coverage of one transmitter or group of transmitters is called cell and
has the shape of a hexagon (theoretical).
• The union of hexagons is arranged in such a way that seamless coverage is offered
to many users.
• As the spectrum resource is so limited, we cannot use many frequencies to operate
the system; therefore, the cellular system must be able to reuse the frequencies and
use them in a different location.
• In order to avoid call drops during a call, the system must support handover
between cells.
Introduction
• Each mobile uses a separate and temporary radio channel to talk and communicate
in the cell coverage to the base station.
• The cell offers service to many mobiles at the same time using one channel per user.
• Channels are divided into uplink and downlink channels, so two different
frequencies/codes/time are required for this purpose.
• Uplink channel is used in a scenario where the mobile is the transmitter and
downlink channel where the base station transmits.
• Cellular network not only offers its own service but it interconnects with other
networks such as PSTN.

Introduction
Source: www.iec.orh

Introduction
• Cells are used in order to use spectrum more efficiently.
• Early systems used to use high towers with high power to achieve large coverage.
This resulted in an inefficient use of spectrum and low capacity.
• The use of cells (hexagons) improves the capacity and spectrum efficiency
because of frequency reuse.
• To avoid coverage of one BS overlaps another one, power is limited and antenna
elevation is reduced.
• As the cell coverage is not perfect, a little overlapping is accepted to avoid user
lost connection to the network.
• To increase capacity, the cell must reduce in size (coverage).

Cellular Systems
• A cellular system provides a wireless connection to the PSTN to any user within
the coverage range of the cell.
• Basically a cellular system consists of mobile stations (MS), base stations (BS), and
a mobile switching center (MSC).
• Each MS communicates to the BS using a forward and backward channel.
• A BS consist of several TX and RX which simultaneously handle full duplex
communication in order to communicate the MS to MSC.
• MSC controls to all BS and connects the entire system to the PSTN for instance.
• The MSC is really who manages the entire network and allows users to get
services in the network.
Cellular Systems
• BS only allows MS the access to the MSC, so the latter is the real intelligent
element in the network.
• Power control, handoff, maintenance, and channel assignation are a couple of
activities that MSC performs.
• Communication between MS and BS is defined by a Common Air Interface (CAI)
which specifies 4 different channels.
• Forward voice channel: BS to MS
• Reverse voice channel: MS to BS
• Forward control channel: Initiate a call from BS to MS
• Backward control channel: Initiate a call from MS to BS
Cellular Systems
• Control channels are permanently monitored by MS when they don’t have call in
progress.
• Control channels are only used to set up a call, so they only transmit and receive
data messages of call initiation and service request.
• Control channels works as beacons because they continuously send information of

network status, requests, etc.

Cellular Systems
• A call is performed following these steps:
• After the phone turns on, it start to scan the strongest forward control channel to
monitor it.
• As the BS is sending continuously information of the network, the MS starts getting

that information using FCC.
• The MS selects the BS with the best features in terms of power and resources to
establish a connection.
• Once the connection was established, the MS and BS perform a handshake where the
MS is identified and registered into the network.
• When the MS is registered, it starts to wait until a paging message arrives with the
information required to start a call.
Cellular Systems
• When a call is performed by any phone to a MS, the MSC dispatches the request to all
BS in the network.
• The Mobile Identification Number (MIN), phone number, is then broadcast as a paging
message over the all FCCs by the BS in the system.
• The paging message is received by the MS, which is monitoring a FCC, and responds to
the BS identifying itself using the RCC.
• The MS responds with:
• MIN (Mobile Identifier Number)
• ESN (Electronic Serial Number)
• SCM (Station Class Mark)

Cellular Systems
• The BS communicates to the MSC that it received an acknowledge from MS
and the handshake was perform.
• The MSC orders to the BS to move the communication with the MS to a free
voice channel to start the call.
• Typically a BS have from 10 to 60 voice channels and 1 control channel.
• While the call is in process, the BS monitors and controls de communication

power in order the power of all MS arrives with the same level to the receptor.
• If a handoff is required during a call, the MSC controls this process.
• What if a MS wants to call to another MS in the same BS and in another BS?

The Cellular Concept
• The aim of early system was to achieve large coverage area using a single and high
powered transmitter with an omnidirectional antenna.
• This approach was good for coverage purpose; however, capacity was limited to a few
channels due to frequency reuse was almost impossible.
• The idea behind of cellular concept implies to replace the high powered transmitter with
many low powered transmitters which cover a shorter geographical area.
• Each of these new cells is allocated with a portion of the total channels in the system.
• To avoid interference, neighboring cells (Base Stations) have different frequencies

(channels).
• Each cells is separated from one another with a specific distance.

• With this new concept, coverage and capacity can be increased on demand.
• The idea is to serve unlimited number of subscribers distributed over an unlimited

area, using only a limited number of channels.
• This requires a very organized way of channel distribution and base stations
placing.
• As a theoretical approach, the new cells has a coverage distribution in a shape of

hexagons.
• Why hexagons and not circles or squares?
• Let’s analyze it.


Source: Wireless Communications,

Rappaport

• The use of hexagons areas to represent cells is highly idealized, but it helps in
establish basic concepts.
• It also correctly represents the situation when path loss is treated as a

function of distance only, within an uniform environment.
• The set of cells, each of which operates on a different frequency, is group

together to form a cluster.
• The cluster is then repeated as many times as necessary to cover a wide area.
• The smaller the cluster is, more efficiently the use of available channel


BTS
Max range
dmax




• When using hexagons to model coverage areas, base stations transmitters are
represented as either being in the center of the cell or on three of the six
vertices.
• Normally, omnidirectional antennas are used in center-excited cells and sectored

directional antennas are used in corner-excited cells.
• In practical implementations, base stations not always can be placed in the

center of the cell. The BS can be placed up to ¼ of the cell radius away from the
ideal position.
• If we have to change the ideal location, the coverage footprint is affected too.

Frequency Reuse
• The reuse is done in order to use more efficiently the radio spectrum available.
• Basically frequency reuse means to use the same group of frequencies more than
once in the network.
• This reuse will create an environment with high levels of interference, so frequencies
should be spatially separated.
• Even though we can achieve efficiency in terms of frequency use, we introduce
interference due to co-channel frequencies used in the network.
• A good design should be done taking into account all the co-channels interferes in
the system so that the separation distance between them avoid this effect.
Frequency Reuse
• As co-channel frequencies are affect by multi propagation, shadowing and more
problems, the design should consider the worst condition.
• The cells which are using the same frequency are called co-channel cells.
• The neighbor cell to any cell is called Adjacent cell.

Frequency Reuse

Frequency Reuse
• Consider a cellular system with a total of S radio channels (frequencies) available for
use. If each cell is assigned with a k number of channels and there are N cells in the
network, we have:
𝑺=𝒌∗𝑵
• The N cells which use a set of channels are called cluster, if this cluster is replicated
M times in the network.
𝑪=𝑴𝒌𝑵=𝑴𝑺 (capacity)
• Therefore, the capacity of a system depends on how many times a cluster is replied
in the network.
• N is a cluster and it can have a size of 1, 4, 7, or 12 cells.

Frequency Reuse
• The size of the cluster will determine the capacity of the system. Recall that
while more transmitters we have in a specific area, more simultaneous
communications we will be able to perform.
• However, while smaller is the cluster, more interference we have. Why?
• As we use hexagons as cells, it’s not possible to have any number of cells in
a cluster; therefore it will be limited by:
• i and j are non negative integer numbers which represents how many cells I
have to move in x and y axis to find the co-channel cell.

Frequency Reuse
Common reuse cluster size

Frequency Reuse
Reuse distance

Frequency Reuse

Frequency Reuse

Handover
• It means to keep the call and change from BS server while the MS is moving between 2
BS.
• All the resources delivered by the BS (voice and control channels) are changed to the
another BS as well.
• The process starts setting up a specific level of signal to maintain a call with an
acceptable quality. Typically this value is between -90 dBm to -100dBm.
• A slightly larger value of signal power is defined as the handoff threshold:

∆= 𝑃𝑟ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑓𝑓 − 𝑃𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒
• ∆ shouldn’t be too large because unnecessary handoffs may occur, and if ∆ is too small
may be insufficient time to complete the handoff before a call is lost.

Handover
• The power that receives the MS is monitored by a period of time to ensure that
the decrement in power isn’t due by fading.
• The time needed to decide if a handoff is required depends on the speed the
user is moving. Statistics are important to make the decision as well.
• Dwell time is defined as the time a BS can maintain a call without handoff. It
depends on factors such as distance, propagation scenario, and interference.
• There are 2 methods to measure the power a MS receives. BS assisted and MS

assisted.
• MS assisted is faster and requires less computational processing.

Handover
• There are different types of handovers:
• Soft handover (CDMA, WCDMA)
• Hard handover (GSM)
• Intra-cell handover
• Inter-cell handover
• Intersystem handover
• There are 2 strategies to handle handoffs:
• A fraction of the voice channels is reserved exclusively for this.
• Queuing handoffs requests.

Handover
• In first analog cellular systems, the typical time to make a handoff, once the signal is
considered to be below the handoff threshold, is about 10 seconds.
• In new digital cellular systems such as GSM, the mobile assists with the handoff procedure
by determining the best handoff candidates, the typical time to perform the handover is
about 1 or 2 seconds.
• Another feature of new digital systems is to take into account other metrics to perform the
handoff such as co-channel and adjacent interference levels.
• In spread spectrum cellular systems (CDMA) there isn´t a physical change in channels but a
different BS will handle the task by simultaneously evaluating the received signals from the
user at several neighboring BSs.

Handover (4)
• As a BS can assist to users moving slow and fast, problems with handoffs can arise
in an environment with multiple cells.
• The umbrella cell approach tries to handle this problem.
• Cell dragging in microcells environments can creates interference and traffic
management problems.
Source: Wireless Communications,

Rappaport

Channel Assignment
• Channels should be assigned in an efficient way in order to maximize the efficiency and
minimize the interference in the system.
• A good channel allocation algorithm is one that yields high spectral efficiency for a specific
GRADE OF SERVICE (including link quality, probability of new call blocking, and the
probability of forced termination) and given degree of computational complexity.
• It also keeps the planned cell boundaries intact, allocates a channel to a MS quickly,
maintains the best speech quality for a MS and any instant, and relieves undesired network
congestion.
• There are three basic types of channels assignment algorithms, fixed, flexible, and dynamic.

Channel Assignment: Fixed
• In a fixed assignment strategy, a fixed group of channels are allocated to a specific cell,
so calls can be served using unused channels only.
• It was used by 1G cellular systems where allocation was done by the estimation of traffic
loads.
• FCA provides adequate capacity performance in macrocellular systems that are

characterized by stationary and homogeneous traffic, and predictable propagation
environment.
• FCA is spectrally inefficient because channels are fixed in the cells and any new arrival
call or handoff request that finds all channels busy will be blocked even though may be
several free channels in adjacent cells.
Channel Assignment: Fixed
• One approach to have more available channels is to borrow channels from neighbor
cells in order to satisfy momentaneously the demand in one cell.
• The efficiency of this approach tends to degrade in heavy traffic scenarios and the
channel utilization is worse than in FCA.
• A possible solution could be to have a hybrid channel assignment scheme, where the
channels assigned to a cell are divided in two groups: one is fixed assigned to the cell
and the others could be borrowed.
• In microcellular systems FCA doesn’t works well due to the propagation environment is
very erratic and traffic is characterized by spatial and temporal variations. Several
handoff requests.
Channel Assignment: Dynamic
• In dynamic channel assignment, channels aren’t allocated permanently to one cell but the
BS request from MSC the amount of channels it requires. When the call ends, the channels
are released and they can be assigned to another BS.
• Dynamic assignment is done based on an algorithm which takes into account the likelihood
of future blocking within the cell, reuse distance, how often the channel is used, among
others.
• This strategy reduces the likelihood of blocking and improves the trunking
capacity/efficiency.
• Additionally, this strategy requires that MSC collects real-time information on channel
occupancy, traffic distribution, and radio signal strength indicators. This increases
computational load.
• DCA is a good solution for microcellular environments where the dynamic nature of the
strategy allows adaptation to spatial and temporal traffic variations.
• The distribution of control reduces the required computation and communication among
BS, so latency may be reduced.
• Although DCA has clear benefits, the cost can be quite high because it not only requires
computation and communication among BSs but also an increased number of radio ports
at the BSs. In an extreme case, each BS must be able to use all channels simultaneously.
• Centralized CDA requires centralized control with system-wide channel information;

however, the number of channel rearrangements required makes this approach
impractical.
• Decentralized DCA requires limited communication among local clusters of BSs. They rely
on passive monitoring of idle channels at each BS.
• With Dynamic Resource Acquisition (DRA), the channel that is acquired due to a new call
arrival or handoff request is chosen to minimize a cost function, and the channel that is
released due to a call completion or handoff is chosen to maximize a reward function.
• The cost and reward functions can be selected to maximize the spectral efficiency of the
cellular network for a specified grade of service.
• The computation of the cost and reward functions for a given cell depends on the usages
of the channels

• Simply Dynamic Channel Assignment (SDCA) performs slightly worse than DRA, but
requires communication among a smaller set of cells.
• DCA have the advantage of assigning the same channel to a MS moving from cell to
another with a tolerable co-channel interference.
• Handoffs without channel change is attractive because they can eliminate the need for
channel searching and extra computation.
• This feature is important for supporting macrodiversity in TDMA architectures.
• As a disadvantage, centralized and fully decentralized schemes have problems such as

service interruption, deadlock, and instability.

Channel Assignment: Flexible
• Algorithms combine aspects of FCA and DCA.
• Cells are assigned a fixed set of channels, but a pool of channel is reserved for flexible
assignments. The flexibility can be either schedule or predictive.
• Schedule assignments rely in know changes in traffic patterns and they are assigned to
compensate these changes.
• With predictive assignment the traffic load is continuously measured at every BS and the
flexible channels are assigned according these measurements.
• Call drops is perceived to degrade the quality of service, so handoff priority schemes are
usually used to allocate channels to handoff requests than to new calls arrivals.

Channel Assignment: Flexible
• Handoff priority reduces the probability of forced terminations.
• Practical cellular systems are designed to have a probability of new call blocking less
than 5% with a probability of call drops smaller than that.
• The use of guard channels is one method to achieve handoff priority, where the
channels are divided into two groups; one group for new calls and handoff requests,
and the other group is reserved for handoff requests only.
• Another approach is to queue the handoff requests.

Interference
• Interference is the major limiting factor in the performance of cellular radio systems.
• Interference can arise from different sources such as other mobiles operating in the
cell, other BS working with the same frequencies, a call in progress in neighbor cells,
and other device which works at the same frequency.
• On voice channels, interference cause crosstalk.
• On control channels, interference leads to missed and blocked calls.
• Interference is more severe in urban areas due to the greater RF noise floor and the
large number of BS and mobiles.

Interference
• The main cellular interference are co-channel interference and adjacent channel
interference.
• It’s hard to handle interference because of the random propagation effects.

Co-channel Interference
• Frequency reuse implies that in a given coverage area there are several cells using
the same set of frequencies.
• Unlike thermal noise which can be overcome increasing the SNR, co-channel
interference cannot be mitigated by simply increasing the power of a transmitter.
• Increasing the power implies increasing the interference to neighboring co-channel

cells. Therefore, the solution is to separate physically to the co-channel cells by a
minimum distance.
• When cell size and transmitting power is quite the same in all cells, the interference
becomes a function of the radius of the cell and the separation distance between the
centers of co-channel cells.
• By increasing the ratio D/R, the spatial separation between co-channel cells relative
to the coverage distance of a cells is increased.
• The interference is reduced from improved isolation of RF energy from the co-
channel cell.
• The parameter Q, called the co-channel reuse ratio, is related to the cluster size for a
𝐷
hexagonal geometry. 𝑄 = = 3𝑁
𝑅
• The co-channel reuse ratio measures the how big should be a cell to provide
maximum capacity and less interference.
• It can be measured as Signal/Carrier to Interference Ratio (CIR)


𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑤
𝑆𝐼𝑅 = 𝐶𝐼𝑅 = =
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑖 + 𝑃𝑛
𝐷
𝑄= = 3𝑁
𝑅
• 18 dB are needed to
maintain a call with a good
“quality”.

Interference Analysis
• The worst case for an

omnidirectional antenna system is
when the mobile is at the cell
boundary R and its distances from
two co-channel cells are D-R. The
other distances approximately are
D+R/2, D-R/2, D, and D + R. (W. Lee,
Elements of Cellular Mobile Radio Systems, 1986)

Adjacent Interference
• It’s the interference from signal which are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal.
• It results from imperfect receivers filters.
• It problems may arise when one user is transmitting and another one with a weak
signal is receiving.
• Both signal will overlap one another similar to “crosstalk”.

• The problem can be serious if an adjacent channel user is transmitting in very close
range to a subscriber’s receiver, while the receiver attempts to receive a BS on a
desired channel.
• Here we can talk about the near-far effect.
• The BS will have problems to discriminate the source of the information (Transmitter).
• To minimize this problem, channels must have good filtering, channel assignment
and enough separation.
• Power control is a technique that can be used to minimize this effect as well.


Power Control
• This is done to ensure that MS or BS emits only the power that is necessary to communicate
and to avoid interference.
• From a link perspective, power control is used to compensate channel variations and Keep a
constant SIR and thereby constant data rate.
• Regardless of the multiple access technique (FDMA, TDMA, CDMA), power control is
necessary to combat intercell and/or co-channel interference due to frequency reuse.
• In real systems the power transmitted by the BS or MS is always being controlled for uplink
and downlink.
• Additionally, power control contributes to prolong battery life in MS.
• The decision is made base on SNR level, distance, and BER.

Power Control
• It represents a key degree of freedom in the design of wireless networks. It helps with several
functionalities such as:
• Interference management: Very important in interference-limited systems such as CDMA to

compensate the nature interference that wireless communications have. PC helps to ensure
efficient spectral reuse and desirable user experience.
• Energy management: Due to limited battery power in devices, energy conservation is

important for he lifetime of nodes and portable devices. Power control minimize OpEx and
maximize user experience.
• Connectivity management: Due to uncertainty and variations in wireless channel, the

receiver must be able to maintain a minimum level of SNR or BER to keep a certain quality in
a call or data experience.
Power Control
• Fixed Scheme:
• Keep power control target values regardless traffic load.
• All signals coming from MSs within are power controlled so that the receiver maintains equal
received bit-energy for every mobile, no matter the data rate.
• This approach doesn´t balance well the nature difference between voice and data traffic.
• Adaptive Scheme:
• Power allocation and target is changed as traffic load changes
• It guarantees to meet the minimum required voice quality and reserve the highest possible
system capacity for data users.
• The system can accommodate more users with just a little bit degradation of performance.

Power Control
• Power control is mandatory in CDMA systems and optional in TDMA/FDMA systems.
• For uplink, power control is done by a closed loop where MS sends first a certain power and
then BS tells if that is enough; or if it needs to increased or decreased. Due to time variations
and noise in the channel estimation, there is a variance in the powers arriving at the BS. This
leads to a reduction in the capacity of the cdma system. Closed loop technique is used for
compensating large-scale fading and shadowing while open loop for small scale fading.
• For downlink, power control is not necessary in cdma because power arrives to the receivers
more or less at the same power level. However it could be advantageous to reduce total
power consumption.
• Power can be reduced but SNR and BER must be keeping at the same levels to avoid
problems such as call drops or retransmissions.
Improving Capacity
• Due to the continue increasing of mobile users, cellular networks should be able to
support more and more users with the same infrastructure or with small
modifications.
• Different techniques have been developed to handle this problem such as cell
splitting, sectoring, and coverage zone approaches.
• Improve capacity is one of the most challenging activities that RF engineers have.

Improving Capacity: Cell Splitting
• It implies to divide one congested cell into smaller cells.
• Each new small cell has its own BS and resources.
• The power of the cells must be planned in such a way interference is minimized.
• Capacity increases due to more resources are allocated in the same location so that
more users are able to connect to the network.
• As the number of cells increase, the size of the cluster also changes. Cluster resizing
should perform to guarantee co-channel cells are enough separate to avoid
interference.
• According the size of the new cell, we can say that we have macro cell, micro cell, and
pico cell.
• The reuse ratio D/R must be kept in order to avoid co-channel interference.
• In practice is very complicated to have cell splitting in all cells.
• Operator should take into account frequency reuse, control power, handoffs, and
infrastructure to install.
• The coverage of smalls can be from 0.1 Km to 1 Km.

Improving Capacity Cell Splitting

• Smaller cells must transmit less power to avoid interference and it’ll depend on the
new cell radius.
• This is necessary to ensure that the frequency reuse plans remain exactly as the
original one.
• If just a portion of cells are split, cells will transmit different level of power. Therefore
channel assignment will be more complicated to avoid problems.
• Channels in old cells must be broken into two groups, one corresponds to larger cells
requirements and the others for smaller cells.
• Usually, large cells are used for high speed traffic where handsoff occurs less
frequently.

Improving Capacity : Sectoring
• It implies to increase the capacity reducing the number of cells in a cluster thus
increasing the frequency reuse.
• To do this we have to decrease the co-channel interference without decrease the

transmit power. How?
• It can be done using sectorial antennas instead of omnidirectional in the BS.
• Doing this, the co-channel interference will be just a portion of the co-channel cell.
• There are three types of sectors rhomboid 120°, hexagonal 60°, and triangular 60°.
• All the assigned channels in the BS are divided equally into groups to be used only in
a specific sector.


• This approach improves capacity dividing the BS coverage into three sectors but
sharing the same radio resources.
• Even though the cell is divided, channels can be assigned to any user in any location
inside the cell. With this, handoffs are not necessary.
• The BS only commutes the channel to another location without using handoffs.
• The co-channel interference is reduced due to high power transmitter is replaced by

low powered transmitters which will cover small zones only.
• Reducing the co-channel interference contributes to increase the capacity and SNR

• The penalty for improving capacity is
an increased number of antennas and
a decrease in trunking efficiency.
• However connecting the sectors to

the same BS solves the problem of
trunking efficiency because handoffs
are not managed by the MSC but by
the BS.
• The number of co-channel interferers

reduces in the following way:
• This approach improves capacity dividing the BS coverage into three sectors but
sharing the same radio resources.
• Even though the cell is divided, the channels can be assigned to any user in any
location inside the cell. With this, handoffs are not necessary.
• The BS only commutes the channel to another location without using handoffs.
• The co-channel interference is reduced due to high power transmitter is replaced by

low powered transmitters which will cover small zones only.
• Reducing the co-channel interference contributes to increase the capacity and SNR.

Improving Capacity: Sectoring

Improving Capacity: Sectoring

Interference Analysis in Sectoring
• For a sectored cell, the interfering

cells are reduced to two at which
the distance between mobile and
interfering antenna is
approximately D+R/2.

Next Time: GoS

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WIRELESS

• Cellular Systems Fundamentals

• The Cellular Concept

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 3

• The continuous change in terms of social behavior have caused that

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 6

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 7

• To increase capacity, the cell must reduce in size (coverage).

• Control channels works as beacons because they continuously send information of

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 11

• As the BS is sending continuously information of the network, the MS starts getting

• The MS responds with:

• MIN (Mobile Identifier Number)

• ESN (Electronic Serial Number)

• SCM (Station Class Mark)

• Typically a BS have from 10 to 60 voice channels and 1 control channel.

• While the call is in process, the BS monitors and controls de communication

• If a handoff is required during a call, the MSC controls this process.

• What if a MS wants to call to another MS in the same BS and in another BS?

• To avoid interference, neighboring cells (Base Stations) have different frequencies

• Each cells is separated from one another with a specific distance.

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 15

• The idea is to serve unlimited number of subscribers distributed over an unlimited

• As a theoretical approach, the new cells has a coverage distribution in a shape of

• Why hexagons and not circles or squares?

• Let’s analyze it.

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 16

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 17

Source: Wireless Communications,

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 18

• It also correctly represents the situation when path loss is treated as a

• The set of cells, each of which operates on a different frequency, is group

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 19

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 20

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 21

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 22

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 23

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 24

• Normally, omnidirectional antennas are used in center-excited cells and sectored

• In practical implementations, base stations not always can be placed in the

Carlos Pupiales Y. - 2018 25

once in the network.

should be spatially separated.

• Even though we can achieve efficiency in terms of frequency use, we introduce

interference due to co-channel frequencies used in the network.

problems, the design should consider the worst condition.

• The neighbor cell to any cell is called Adjacent cell.

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• However, while smaller is the cluster, more interference we have. Why?

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Common reuse cluster size

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• A slightly larger value of signal power is defined as the handoff threshold:

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• There are 2 methods to measure the power a MS receives. BS assisted and MS

• MS assisted is faster and requires less computational processing.

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