Cellular Communications Semester I 2016/2017

CELLULAR CONCEPT

The early-day mobile radio communications achieve a large coverage by using a

single, high powered transmitter (Figure 1) to serve a small number of supported users
(mobiles). In these systems frequency reuse is impossible.

Figure 1 Early-day mobile radio communications

Cellular mobile systems introduced by AT&T during 1960’s. Made use of signal
attenuation after traveling a certain distance; so that the same carrier frequency can be
reused after a certain distance. Capacity is greatly increased.
The cellular concept divides the region into smaller coverage areas called cells. Each
served with a smaller powered transmitter called Base Station (BS).
Each BS is allocated a small portion of the allocated bandwidth to the entire system,
and the neighbouring BSs are allocated exclusive range of channels so that they do
not interfere with each other.
As the demand for the capacity increases, the coverage area may be decreased with a
corresponding decrease in the transmitter power to avoid interference, resulting in
additional increase in the radio capacity without additional increase in the radio
spectrum.

Let us define most of the terminologies used in cellular communications

• Cell
The area served by a radio transmitter/receiver station. The cell in considered
as a large coverage area around a single, high powered transmitter.

• Base Station
A fixed station in a mobile radio system used for radio communication with
mobile stations. It is called Access Point in WLAN and Node B in WCDMA
systems.

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• Mobile Station (MS)

A station in the cellular radio service intended for use while in motion at
unspecified locations.
• Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
Keeps track of users and routes calls to correct cell. In a cellular radio system,
the MSC connects the cellular base stations and the mobiles to the PSTN
(Public switched telephone network)
• Dual Band
Allowed to use different frequency bands, e.g., GSM900 and GSM1800
• Dual Mode
Allowed to use different air interfaces, e.g., WCDMA and GSM
• Forward Channel
Radio channel used for transmission of information from the base station to
the mobile (BS→MS). It is called downlink channel.
• Reversed Channel
Radio channel used for transmission of information from the mobile to base
station (MS→BS). It is called uplink channel.
• Control Channel
Radio channels used for transmission of call setup, call request, call initiation
and other control purposes
• Traffic Channel
Radio channels used for transmission of user voice or data
• Full Duplex
Transmission (TX) and Receiving (RX) are allowed simultaneously, e.g., GSM,
WCDMA
• Half Duplex
TX or RX is allowed at any given time, e.g., police radio
• Simplex
Only one-way transmission, e.g., paging
• Roaming
It is an operation in which a MS operates in a service area other than that from
which service has been subscribed.
• Hand-off or Hand-over
The process of transferring a mobile station from one channel or base station
to another.
It is the process that permits a mobile customer to move between radio cells
without losing their connection.
• Location update
MS updates its location information in HLR by sending an update signal to the
base station
• Location registration
MS registers its location to VLR when it is outside its home location

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• Paging
Base station sending a signal searching for the mobile station when it receives
service (SMS, voice or data)
• Subscriber
A user who pays subscription charges for using a mobile communications
system.
• Transceiver
A device capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving radio signals.
• Location Area
An LA is a group of neighbouring cells that are controlled by a single MSC.
MSC may control a number of LAs.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

A cellular system generally comprises of 3 main parts:

1. Mobile Station (MS),
2. Base Station (BS), and
3. Mobile Switching Centre (MSC).

Each MS communicates with a BS via a radio link and may be handed over to another
cell during the call session. The MS comprises of a transceiver, an antenna, and a
controller.

The BS consists of several transceivers which simultaneously handle full duplex

communications. The antenna is generally located at the height of about 30 m above
ground, and may be rooftop located or mounted on a dedicated tower.

The BS links with the MSC via a fixed line (copper or optical fiber) or via microwave
links (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Base station subsystem

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The MSC is the gateway to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
It also coordinates all activities of the BSs.
Typically, an MSC can accommodate 100,000 cellular subscribers and over
5000 simultaneous conversations, and accommodate all billing and system
maintenance.

Communications between the BS and MS is defined by a standard Common

Air Interface (CAI) that specifies 4 channels.

1. Forward Voice Channel (FVC): channels for voice transmission from BS to

MS
2. Reverse Voice Channel (RVC): channels for voice transmissions from MS to
BS.
3. Forward Control Channel (FCC):
4. Reverse Control Channel (RCC):
 Both control channels are used for initiating mobile calls.
 Transmit and receive data messages that carry call initiation and
service requests, and are monitored by MS when they are not engaged
in a call.
 FCCs also act as beacons which continually broadcast all of the traffic

GSM ARCHITECTURE

Figure 3 shows the general architecture for a GSM network. The various functional
blocks are explained in the following subsections.

Figure 3 GSM general architecture

Mobile Station (MS)

 The MS consists of the Mobile Equipment (ME; the actual device) and a smart
card called the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).
 The SIM contains a globally unique identifier, the International Mobile
Subscriber Identity (IMSI), as well as a secret key used for authentication and
other security procedures.
 A PUK (PIN Unlock Key) or (Personal Unlocking Key) code is required to
unlock SIM cards that have become locked following three successive

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incorrect PIN entries. If your SIM card becomes locked, you will need to get a
PUK code from service provider to unlock your SIM card.
 The mobile equipment is also uniquely identifiable by the International Mobile
Equipment Identity (IMEI) as shown in Figure 4. IMEI Number has 15 digits
(no symbol). You can get your handset IMEI by dialing *#06#, it will be
shown on the screen. The IMEI is used by GSM, UMTS and LTE as well as
some satellite phones.
 CDMA mobile station equipment uses a Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID)
which is a globally unique number identifying a physical piece of CDMA
mobile station equipment. The number format is defined by the 3GPP2 report
S.R0048 but in practical terms, it can be seen as an IMEI but with 14
hexadecimal digits.
 Many operators still issue ‘locked’ mobile devices where the equipment is tied
for use only on a particular operator’s network.

Figure 4 GSM IMEI

 If a cell phone is lost or stolen then that cell phones wireless provider can
block that phones IMEI/MEID number and that specific phone will no longer
be able to connect to a wireless network and will no longer have service.
 Some third party applications claim to be able to help you track your phone in
the event that it gets stolen. Using your specific device (often with its Device
Identifier) and through the use of the phones GPS feature. These applications
need to be installed on the phone before it gets stolen, and offer no guarantee
of helping you locate or recover your stolen phone.

Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

The base station subsystem (BSS) is composed of three parts,
1. Base Transceiver Station (BTS)
The BTS houses the radio transceivers (TRXs) that define a cell and handle
the radio link with the mobile station.

2. Base Station Controller (BSC)

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The BSC controls the BTSs and manages the radio resources for one or more
BTSs. It handles the radio channel setup, frequency hopping and handover
procedures when a user moves from one cell to another.
A BSC communicates with the BTS through time division multiplex (TDM)
channels over what is referred to as the Abis interface.

3. Transcoding and Rate Adaption Unit (TRAU).

Transcoding is a coding system to produce good digital voice quality to be
transmitted at lower data rates.
Although the TRAU is actually seen as being logically part of the BSS, it
usually resides close to the MSC since this has significant impact on reducing
the transmission costs. The voice data is sent in a 16 kbps channel through to
the TRAU from the mobile device via the BTS and BSC. The TRAU will
convert this speech to the standard 64 kbps for transfer over the PSTN or
ISDN network. Figure 5 shows this process.

Figure 5 Transcoding

Network Switching Subsystem (NSS)

The main element of NSS is the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) switch and a
number of databases referred to as the Visitor Location Register (VLR) and Home
Location Register (HLR).
The HLR is always in the home network for roaming subscribers. The MSC
and VLR are usually combined and are located in the visited network (Figure 6).

Mobile Switching Centre (MSC)

This acts like a normal switching node for a PSTN or ISDN network. It also takes care
of all the additional functionality required to support a mobile subscriber. When a
mobile device requests a connection to a mobile network, the MSC registers the
mobile device within its associated VLR. The VLR will update the HLR with the
location of this mobile device.
The MSC deals with registration, authentication, mobile device location
updating and routing of calls to and from a mobile user.
An MSC which provides the connectivity from the mobile network to the
fixed or mobile network, e.g. PSTN, is known as a Gateway Mobile Switching Center
(GMSC). It also takes care of roaming.

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Home Network

Visitor Network

Figure 6 Home and visitor networks

Figure 7 Mobile phone network

Home Location Register (HLR)

The HLR is a huge database located within the home network which stores
administrative information about the mobile subscriber. This information is used for
roaming.

Visitor Location Register (VLR)

The VLR is another database of users and is commonly integrated with an MSC. VLR
only holds temporary information on subscribers currently registered within its area.
When a mobile device enters a new area, the mobile device has to update the VLR via
MSC. A message is sent to the HLR informing it of the VLR which contains the
location of the mobile.

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Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

The EIR is a list of all valid mobiles on the network. If a terminal has been reported
stolen or the equipment is not type approved then it may not be allowed to operate in
the network. The terminals are identified by their unique IMEI identifier.

Authentication Centre (AuC)

The AuC is a database containing a copy of the secret key present in each of the users’
SIM cards. This is used by HLR to grant service to MS and enable authentication and
encryption over the radio link. The AuC uses a challenge–response mechanism, where
it will send a random number to the mobile station; the mobile station encrypts this
and returns it. The AuC will now decrypt the received number and if it is successfully
decrypted to the number originally sent, then the mobile station is authenticated and
admitted to the network.

FREQUENCY REUSE

Cellular radio systems rely on an intelligent allocation and reuse of channels

throughout a coverage region. The available channels are distributed throughout the
geographic region by systematic spacing of the BS and their channel groups
throughout the service. This increases Channel Reuse as long as the interference
between the Co-Cells (co-channels) is kept below a certain level.

Co-channel can be defined as the channel at which the same frequency can be used
again. The frequency reuse factor is the number of channels in each cell from the total
number of available channels.

By limiting the coverage area to within the boundaries of a cell, the same
group of channels may be used to cover different cells (co-channels) that are separated
from one another by distances large enough to keep interference levels within
tolerable limits. The design process of selecting and allocating channel groups for all
of the cellular base stations within a system is called frequency reuse or frequency
planning.

Figure 8 illustrates the concept of cellular frequency reuse, where cells labeled
with the same letter use the same group of channels.

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Figure 8 Cellular frequency reuse concept

The hexagonal cell shape shown in Figure 8 is conceptual and is a simplistic

model of the radio coverage for each base station, but it has been universally adopted
since the hexagon permits easy and manageable analysis of a cellular system. The
actual radio coverage of a cell is known as the footprint and is determined from field
measurements or propagation prediction models.

A set of hexagons can be packed in clusters such that no two similar cell are
adjacent. The number of cells per cluster, N, is called cluster size or reuse factor and
can be determined by
N = i2+ij +j2
where i and j are non-negative integers.
The possible cluster sizes are 1,3,4,7,9,12, etc. (Figure 9). Frequency can only
be reused outside and not within the same cluster.

Figure 9 Possible cluster sizes

Frequency Reuse Distance (D)

It is the distance between co-cells or co-channels (Cn in Figure 10) that are using the
same frequency. Channel reuse is based on the cell clustering (N). The reuse distance
D can be found using:

D  3R i 2  j 2  ij  3N R

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Cell radius (R) is defined as the distance from the center of a cell to a vertex of the
hexagon.

The ratio D/R = q = √(3N) is called the reuse factor.

Distance (d) between two adjacent cells can be calculated as:

d = 2R cos 30o = 3R = 1.732R

Figure 10 Channel distances

The re-used distance (D) depends on:

1. Number of co-channel cells in the vicinity of the center cell

2. Geography of the terrain
3. Antenna height
4. Transmitted power within each cell

To find the nearest co-channel neighbors of a particular cell, one must do the
following:
1. Move i cells along any chain of hexagon (perpendicular to cell side),
2. Turn 60 degrees counterclockwise, and
3. Move j cells.

The procedure is illustrated in Figure 11.

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Figure 11 Co-channel cells for i =3 and j = 2, N = 19

Example
Find the reuse distance D for the channel reuse shown in Figure 11-1 for hexagonally
shaped cells as a function of cell radius R.

Solution
For the hexagonal cells shown in Figure 11-1, the reuse pattern moves 2 cells
perpendicular to cell side and then turn 60 degrees counterclockwise along 1 cell.
Thus, i = 2, j = 1
D  3R i 2  j 2  ij
D = √3 × R × √(22 + 12 + 2) = 4.58R

Figure 11-1 Hexagonal cells

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