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Cellular Wireless Networks

1
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Cellular Communication
 Cellular technology is the foundation of mobile wireless

communication systems.

 This can accommodate a large number of users over

different areas which are not easily served by wired

networks.
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Cellular System
 The principle elements of a cellular system is as shown
below
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Terms needs to be familiarized..

 Base Station: A fixed station in a cellular system used for radio
communication with mobile station.

 Mobile Station: A station in the cellular system intended for

use while in motion at unspecified locations.

 Control Channel: Radio channel for transmission of call set

up, call request, call initiation and other control purposes.
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 Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN): it provides

connection to phones located in individual homes

 Mobile Switching Centers: Switching center which connects

the cellular base stations and to the mobiles and to the public
switched telephone network PSTN.

 Forward Channel: Radio channel for transmission of

information from the base station to mobile.

 Reverse Channel: Radio Channel for transmission of

information from mobile to base station.
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 Transceiver: Device capable of simultaneously transmitting

and receiving radio signals.

 SIM: Subscribers Identity Module

 MIN: Mobile Identification Number, which is subscribers

telephone number.

 The cell: a geographical area covered by Radio Frequency

(RF) signals.
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CELL?

 Larger area
divided into small no.
Of areas
 Shape is
hexagonal
 Each with its own
base station and set
of frequencies.
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Operation of Cellular System

 It consists of base station, mobile station and Mobile

Telecommunication Switching Office (MTSO).

 Each base station is connected to a MTSO.

 Multiple base stations can be connected to a single MTSO.

 MTSO connects calls between mobile units.

 It is also connected to Public Switched Telecommunication Networks

(PSTN).

 MTSO makes connection between a fixed land line subscriber through

the PSTN and mobile subscriber through Cellular Network.

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Operation of Cellular System

 Two types of channels are available between the mobile unit

and base station.
 Control Channels

 Traffic Channels

 Control channels are used for call setup, call request, call
initialization and other control purposes.
 Traffic channels are used for transformation of information
between users.
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Cell Structure- Options

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Why hexagonal cell ?

square

circular

hexagonal
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 A regular cell shape is needed for systematic design and

adaptation for future growth.

 The hexagon has largest area compared to a square and

equilateral triangle.

 Thus it can cover the entire region with the fewest number
of cells.

 Cluster: group of cells where no channels are reused. The

number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values which
satisfy
N  i 2  ij  j 2
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7-cell cluster
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Principles of cellular networks

 The cellular concept makes the use of replacing of single, high
power transmitter with many low power transmitters
providing coverage to a small portion of the service area.

 In cellular system an area is divided in to a number of cells,

each one is served by a base station.

 Each cellular base station is allocated a portion of the total

number of channels or frequencies available to the entire
system.
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 Adjacent channels are assigned different group of

channels(frequencies) to avoid interference between the base
stations.

 Cells which are sufficiently distant from each other can use the
same frequency band.

 Advantages
 Solves the problem of spectral congestion and user capacity.

 Reuse of radio channel in different cells.

 Offer very high capacity in a limited spectrum without

major technological changes.
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Frequency Reuse

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• Cells labeled with the same letter use the same group of channels

• seven groups of channel from A to G

• footprint of a cell - actual radio coverage

• omni-directional antenna v.s. directional antenna

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• For a hexagonal geometry co-channel reuse ratio Q

D
Q  3N
R

• A small value of Q provides large capacity since cluster size(N)

is small.
• A large value of Q improves the transmission quality - smaller
level of co-channel interference
• A tradeoff must be made between these two objectives
• The frequency reuse factor is given by 1/N
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FREQUENCY REUSE

6
Each cell is assigned a part of
5 7 the available frequency
1 spectrum.
4 2
3 6 same part of the frequency
spectrum more than once. This is
6 5
called frequency reuse.
5 7 1
1 4
4 2 3
3
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Capacity of a cellular system

C= capacity
M= number of clusters (3)
N= no of cells in a cluster (7)
S=total number of available
channels(eg. 49)
K= allotted channel to a cell (eg. 7)

 S=KN
 C = MKN = MS
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• Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels.

• Each cell is allocated a group of k channels, k  S .
• The S channels are divided among N cells.
• The total number of available radio channels
S  kN
• The N cells which use the complete set of channels is called cluster.
• The cluster can be repeated M times within the system. The total
number of channels, C, is used as a measure of capacity
C  MkN  MS

• The capacity is directly proportional to the number of replication M.

• The cluster size, N, is typically equal to 3, 7, or 12.
• Small N is desirable to maximize capacity.
• The frequency reuse factor is given by 1 / N
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Call Stages
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 Figure illustrates the steps in a typical call between two

mobile users within an area controlled by a single MTSO:

 Mobile unit initialization: mobile unit scans and selects

the strongest setup control channel used for this system (a).

 Mobile-originated call: A mobile unit originates a call by

sending the number of the called unit on the preselected
setup channel (b).

 Paging: The MTSO then attempts to complete the

connection to the called unit, sending a paging message to
certain BSs depending on the called mobile number (c).
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Common Control Channels (CCCHs):

 Paging Channel (PCH):- { forward link channel }

• Provides paging signals from the base station to all

mobiles in a cell.

• It gives notification of an incoming call to a mobile

which originates from PSTN.

• It provide ASCII text messages to all subscribers, as a

part of the SMS features of GSM.
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 Call accepted: The called mobile unit recognizes its number

on the setup channel being monitored and responds to that BS,
which sends the response to the MTSO.
 The MTSO sets up a circuit between the calling and called
BSs (d).

 Ongoing call: While connection is maintained, the mobile

units exchange voice or data signals, through respective BSs and
MTSO (e).

 Handoff: If a mobile unit moves out of range of one cell and

into the range of another during a connection, the traffic
channel has to change to one assigned to the BS in the new cell
(f).
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Handoff

 When a mobile unit moves from one station to another, the

transfer of call should be done between cells.

 This is because, the frequencies of different cells are

different.

 Handoff is the process of changing the assignment of a

mobile unit from one base station to another as the mobile

unit moves from one cell to another.
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Handoff
 Hand off process is as shown below

Other
MSC’s
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Handoff
 Base station monitors signal strength throughout the call.

 If the signal strength goes below a certain level, the base station

assumes that the mobile is on the move and initiates the procedure of
hand off.

 MSC request the base station covering the adjacent cell to monitor the

traffic.

 The information is passed back to the MSC which decides when hand

off is necessary.

 Then a retune command is given to the mobile and it sends

information to the new base station.

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Handoff
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Hand off
 The margin between “Hand off Threshold” and Minimum

acceptance signal to maintain the call is known as Δ.

  Pr ,handoff  Pr ,minimumusable
 Δ cannot be too small and cannot be too large.
– If  is too large, unnecessary handoffs burden the MSC
– If  is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete
handoff before a call is lost.
 The time over which a call may be maintained within a cell
without Handoff is known as Dwell Time.
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Handoff Types
 Soft hand off:
 The connection to the new cell is made before the connection
with the existing cell is broken.
 Mobile connects with more than one cell simultaneously.
Used in CDMA

 Hard Hand off:

 Connection with the existing cell is broken before connection
with new cell is established.
 Used in FDMA or TDMA
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Roaming

 Roaming is a service which allows subscriber to operate in

service areas which are different from the home location

where the service is registered.

 When a mobile enters a new geographical area it is

registered as a roamer in the new service area.

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 Roaming involves the following steps

 When mobile enters a new area, network will identify the home network.

If there is no agreement between the home and host network, access will
be denied.
 The host network contacts the home network and requests service

information about the roaming device.

 The host network begins to maintain a temporary subscriber record for the

device.
 Home network updates its information to indicate that the mobile is on the

host network so that any information send to that device can be correctly
routed.
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Improving capacity in Cellular System

 Coverage area is increased using the following

techniques
 Cell Splitting

 Cell Sectoring

 Repeaters for Range Extension

 Micro Cell Zone Concept

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Cell Splitting

 Cell Splitting is the process of subdividing a congested

cell into smaller cells, each with its own base station and
a corresponding reduction in antenna height and
transmitter power.

 Smaller cells are called as micro cells.

 This increases the number of times a channel is reused.

 Capacity is increased due to the additional number of

channels per unit area.
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Cell Splitting

 Cell Splitting is illustrated as shown below

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Cell Splitting

 For the new cells to be smaller in size, the transmitted

power of these cells must be reduced.

 For n = 4, and if received powers equals each other, then

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Cell Sectoring

 Sectoring is another way to increase the system

efficiency by decreasing the ratio of D/R.

 Sectoring is done by using directional antennas.

 A cell is normally split into three 120 degree sectors or

six 60 degree sectors.

 This is illustrated as shown in the figure.

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Cell Sectoring
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Cell Sectoring
 Sectoring reduces the co channel interference