Cellular Concept

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Chapter 1

History and Evolution of cellular networks

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The brief history of development of mobile communications is given below:

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell invented Telephone

1887 - Heinrich Hertz discovered “Hertzian waves” (radio waves)

1896 - Marconi started first Radio Transmission (Trans Atlantic Radio Transmission in
1901)

From the beginning of the 20th century, police in Europe & North America have been
equipped to communicate with patrol vehicles

In early 1950s Bell Telephone company in USA introduced Radio Telephones to customers

1964 - Shared Resources Concept introduced

1977 - PHS in Japan

1978 – AMPS in USA by Bell

1982 - USA has stadardised the AMPS

1982 - ETSI has setup GSM

1986 - Field test of GSM

1987 – TDMA selected for GSM

1989 - Validation of GSM

1990 - Pre-operational system (GSM)

1991 - Commercial system start up

1992 - Capital cities & airports

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1993 - Coverage of main roads

1994 - Coverage of countryside

2001- 3G Services launched in Japan

MOBILE GENERATIONS

1G - Analog (Cellular revolution)

- Only Mobile Voice Services

2G - Digital (Breaking Digital Barrier)

Mostly Voice services & Data Delivery made Possible

3G - Voice & Data (Breaking Data Barrier)

Mainly for data services where voice services will also be possible

4G –Voice & Data at still higher speed

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Chapter 2

Cellular Concepts

Traditional mobile service was structured similar to television broadcasting: One very
powerful transmitter located at the highest spot in an area would broadcast in a radius of up to
fifty kilometers. The Cellular concept structured the mobile telephone network in a different
way. Instead of using one powerful transmitter many low-powered transmitter were placed
through out a coverage area. For example, by dividing metropolitan region into one hundred
different areas (cells) with low power transmitters using twelve conversation (channels) each,
the system capacity could theoretically be increased from twelve conversations using one
hundred low power transmitters.

The cellular concept employs variable low power levels, which allows cells to be sized
according to subscriber density and demand of a given area. As the populations grows, cells
can be added to accommodate that growth. Frequencies used in one cell cluster can be reused
in other cells. Conversations can be handed over from cell to cell to maintain constant phone
service as the user moves between cells.

The cellular system design was pioneered by during’70s by Bell Laboratories in the United
States, and the initial realization was known as AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service).
The AMPS cellular service was available in United States in 1983. AMPS is essentially
generation 1 analog cellular system in contrast to generation 2 digital cellular systems of
GSM and CDMA (1S-95).

Cells :

A cell is the basic geographic unit of cellular system. The term cellular comes from the
honeycomb areas into which a coverage region is divided. Cells are base stations transmitting
over small geographic areas that are represented as hexagons. Each cell size varies depending
upon landscape. Because of constraint imposed by natural terrain and man-made structures,
the true shape of cell is not a perfect hexagon.

A group of cells is called a cluster. No frequencies are reused in a cluster.

Features of Digital Cellular Systems:

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 Small cells

 Frequency reuse

 Small, battery-powered handsets

 Performance of handovers

Cellular System Characteristics

General Cellular radio systems allow the subscriber to place and

receive telephone calls over the wire-line telephone network where ever
cellular coverage is provided. Roaming capabilities extend service to
users traveling outside their “outside” home service areas.

characteristics The distinguishing features of digital cellular systems compared

of digital to other mobile radio systems are:
 Small cells
cellular systems
A cellular system uses many base stations with relatively
small coverage radii (on the order of a 100 m to 30 km).
 Frequency reuse
The spectrum allocated for a cellular network is limited. As
a result there is a limit to the number of channels or frequencies
that can be used. For this reason each frequency is used
simultaneously by multiple base-mobile pairs. This frequency
reuse allows a much higher subscriber density per MHz of
spectrum than other systems. System capacity can be further
increased by reducing the cell size (the coverage area of a single
base station), down to radii as small as 200 m.
 Small, battery-powered handsets In addition to supporting much
higher densities than previous systems, this approach enables the
use of small, battery-powered handsets with a radio frequency that
is lower than the large mobile units used in earlier systems.
 Performance of handovers
In cellular systems, continuous coverage is achieved by executing a
“handover” (the seamless transfer of the call from one base station to
another) as the mobile unit crosses cell boundaries. This requires the
mobile to change frequencies under control of the cellular network.

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Frequency Reuse :

Why frequency The spectrum allocated for a cellular network is limited. As a

reuse result there is a limit to the number of frequencies or channels that can
be used. A cellular network can only provide service to a large number
of subscribers, if the channels allocated to it can be reused. Channel
reuse is implemented by using the same channels within cells located at
different positions in the cellular network service area.

Radio channels can be reused provided the

separation between cells containing the same
channel set is far enough apart so that co-channel
interference can be kept below acceptable levels
most of the time. Cells using the same channel set
are called co-channel cells.

Cell clustering The figure on the opposite page shows an example. Within the
service area (PLMN), specific channel sets are reused at a different
location (another cell). In the example, there are 7 channel sets: A
through G. Neighboring cells are not allowed to use the same
frequencies. For this reason all channel sets are used in a cluster of
neighboring cells. As there are 7 channel sets, the PLMN can be divided
into clusters of 7 cells each. The figure shows three clusters.

The number of channel sets is called K. K is also called the

reuse factor. In the figure, K=7. Valid values of K can be found using
equation (where i and j are integers):

K=i²+j²+I*j

Explaining this equation is beyond the scope of this course.

Some constraints to K are provided later in this chapter. Note that in the
example: Cells are shaped ideally (hexagons). The distance between
cells using the same channel set is always the same.

Other cell The figure on the opposite page shows some examples of
clusters possible clusters. The more cells in a cluster, the greater the separation
between co-channel cells when Other clusters are deployed. The idea is
to keep co-channel cell separation the same throughout the system area
for cells of the same size. Some valid cluster sizes that allow this are: 1,
3, 4, 7, 9 and 12.

Procedure for
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locating co- only the value of K is known. The following procedure is used.
channel cells
In the figure on the opposite page an example is shown with K =
19.

Signal Frequencies can be reused throughout a service area because

attenuation radio signals typically attenuate with distance to the base station (or
With distance mobile station). When the distance between cells using the same
frequencies becomes too small, co-channel

Interference might occur and lead to service interruption or

unacceptable quality of service.

Step Action

1 Use the integer values i and j from the equation, and start

With the upper left cell. Through this cell, draw the j-
axis.

2 Draw the i-axis. To find the starting point for the i-

axis, count j cells down the j-axis. In the example, one has
to count 2 cells down (j=2). The positive direction of the i-
axis is always two cell faces (120 degrees) relative to the
positive direction of the j-axis.

3 Find the first co-channel cell. It is found by counting

i cells in the positive i-axis direction. In the example, i = 3.

4 Find the other co-locating cells by repeating the

previous steps. The

Starting point is again at the upper left cell, but now choose another

Direction for the j-axis (e.g. rotate the j-axis with 60

degrees, which is one cell face). As each cell has 6 faces,
one will find 6 co-channel cells around the starting cells.
These are the nearest located co-channel cells.

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Capacity/Performance Trade-offs :

If K increases, then performance increases



If K increases, then call capacity decreases per cell



Types of cells.
Depending on the density of population different types of cells are used.

Pico Cells

For in building coverage

Micro cells.

Smaller cells, used in densely populated areas.

Macro cells.

Macro cells are large cells for remote and sparsely populated areas.

By splitting the existing areas into smaller cells, the number of channels is increased.

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Umbrella cells:

Bigger cells.

Covers several micro cells

Used for the fast moving subs, avoids frequent handovers among the different small
neighboring cells.

When the speed of the mobile is too high, then it is handed over to the Umbrella cell.

The number of sites to cover a given area with a given high traffic density, and hence
the cost of the infrastructure, is determined directly by the reuse factor and the number
of traffic channels that can be extracted from the available spectrum. These two factors
are compounded in what is called spectral efficiency of the system. Not all systems allow
the same performance in this domain: they depend in particular on the robustness of
the radio transmission scheme against interference, but also on the use of a number of
technical tricks, such as reducing transmission during the silences of a speech
communication. The spectral efficiency, together with the constraints on the cell size,
determines also the possible compromises between the capacity and the cost of the
infrastructure. All this explains the importance given to spectral efficiency.

Many technical tricks to improve spectral efficiency were conceived during the system design
and have been introduced in GSM. They increase the complexity, but this is balanced by the
economical advantages of a better efficiency. The major points are the following:

The control of the transmitted power on the radio path aims at minimizing the average power
broadcast by mobile stations as well as by base stations, whilst keeping transmission quality
above a given threshold. This reduces the level of interference caused to the other
communications;

Frequency hopping improves transmission quality at slow speeds through frequency

diversity, and improves spectral efficiency through interferer diversity;

Discontinuous transmission, where by transmission is suppressed when possible, allows a

reduction in the interference level of other communications. Depending on the type of user
information transmitted, it is possible to derive the need for effective transmission. In the case
of speech, the mechanism called VAD (Voice Activity Detection) allows transmission
requirements to be reduced by an important factor (typically, reduced by half);

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The mobile assisted handover, whereby the mobile station provides measurements
concerning neighboring cells, enables efficient handover decision algorithms aimed at
minimizing the interference generated by the cell (whilst keeping the transmission
quality above some threshold).

Frequency Spectrum

GSM system frequencies include 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz bands commonly
referred to as GSM900, DCS1800 and PCS 1900 systems respectively.

Primary band in GSM is 900 system – 124 radio carriers have been defined and
assigned in two sub bands of 25 MHz each in the 890 – 915 MHz and 935 – 960 MHz
ranges with channel widths of 200 KHz.

Each carrier is divided into frames of 8 timeslots for speech at full rate.

In practice, signalling and messaging may reduce the overall number from eight to six
or seven calls.

Frequency Spectrum

Each MS is connected to cellular networks by the radio interface when required.

Using statistics it has been found that a typical RF carrier can support upto 15 to 25
MSs. Obviously not all these MS subscribers could make call at the same time. MSs share the
same physical resources at different times.

Access Technologies:

FDMA: Frequency Division Multiple Accessing.

Analog system.

Spectrum is divided into frequencies and assigned to users.

Only one subscriber at any given point of time is assigned to a channel.

Channel can not used by others until he finishes call or it is handed off to a different channel.

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TDMA: Time Division Multiple Accessing.

Improves the spectrum capacity by splitting each frequency into time slots.

TDMA allows each user to access the entire radio frequency channel for short period of a
call.

Other users share the frequency channel at different time slots.

The base station continuously switches from user to user on the channel

CDMA: Code Division Multiple Accessing.

Based on spread spectrum technology.

Suitable for encrypted transmission

CDMA increases the spectrum capacity by allowing all users to occupy all channels at the
same time.

Transmissions are spread over the whole radio band

Each voice/data call are assigned a unique code to differentiate from other calls carried over
the same spectrum.

References:1. The GSM system for mobile communication-Michel Mouly & Marie-
Bernadette Pautet.

2. GSM system Engineering-Asha Mehrotra (Artech House Publisher).

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