Wireless Cellular Networks:

Part 2
Gaurav S. Kasbekar
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
IIT Bombay

1-1
Reference
 T.S. Rappaport, “Wireless Communications:
Principles and Practice”, Prentice Hall of
India, 2nd ed, 2002.
 “Wireless & Mobile Communications” course
lecture notes by Dr. W.A. Abu-Al-Saud

1-2
Frequency Reuse
 S equal-bandwidth channels
available
 Max. no. of simultaneous
calls without freq. reuse: S
 Frequency reuse with
cluster size N:
 The S channels divided into
N groups of k channels
each (so S = Nk)
 One group per cell
 If cluster of N cells
replicated M times in
region, max. no. of
simultaneous calls: M×S

5-3
 Hexagonal Cells
 Cells usually assumed to be hexagonal shaped
Reasons:
 BS with omnidirectional antenna at center of
cell
 radiates with equal power in all directions
 ideally, would like to use circular cells

 But not possible to tessellate plane with circles

 Hexagon approximates circle, and allows
tessellation
 Note: In practice, cell shape irregular due to
asymmetric propagation in different directions
5-4
 Cluster Size N
 N = 7 in above example
 Other cluster sizes possible

5-5
N=1

5-6
N=3

5-7
N=4

5-8
 Choosing N
 Fix cell size
 Question: What value of N should be used?
Tradeoff:
 As N decreases, M increases, so capacity
increases
 But co-channel interference increases
 Select N as small as possible subject to
required lower limit on Signal to
Interference (SIR) ratio of cell-edge user
 if SIR above limit, communication can take
place at fixed rate, else not
5-9
 Choosing N
 Only values satisfying foll. relation used:
 𝑁 = 𝑖 2 + 𝑗 2 + 𝑖𝑗, where 𝑖, 𝑗 ≥ 0 are integers
 reason later

 Examples of valid N:
 N = 1 (i=1, j=0)
 N = 7 (i=2, j=1)
 N = 12 (i=2, j=2)

 Examples of invalid N:
 2, 5, 6

5-10
 Nearest Co-Channel Cells
 When 𝑁 = 𝑖 2 + 𝑗 2 + 𝑖𝑗, each cell has exactly 6 equi-
distant nearest co-channel cells
 These cause the most interference

5-11
 Computation of SIR
 Recall: SIR of cell-edge user must be above required limit
 Need to compute SIR of cell-edge user
 First approximation: consider only interference from the 6
nearest co-channel cells (“1st tier” cells)
 To refine computation, consider additional tiers

Ref: http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1275140
5-12
Computation of SIR
 𝑅 : cell radius
 𝐷: distance between centers
of nearest co-channel cells
 𝐷 = 𝑅 3𝑁
 exercise
 SIR of cell-edge user:
𝑅 −𝑛
2(𝐷 + 𝑅)−𝑛 +2 𝐷−𝑛 + 2(𝐷 − 𝑅)−𝑛
 Note: as approximation,
assumed that interference
powers corr. to different
cells can be added
 Approximate SIR:
𝑛
1 𝐷 1 𝑛
= 3𝑁
6 𝑅 6
 SIR increases in N and in n
 Example
 Minimum SIR: 15 dB
n = 4:
N SIR (dB)
3 11.3
4 13.8
7 18.66
9 20.85

n = 3:
N SIR (dB)
4 8.41
7 12.05
9 13.69
12 15.56
13 16.08
5-14
 The Choice 𝑁 = 𝑖 2 + 𝑗 2 + 𝑖𝑗
❑ When 𝑁 = 𝑖 2 + 𝑗 2 + 𝑖𝑗, each cell has exactly 6 equi-distant
nearest co-channel cells
❑ So users at all 6 vertices of any given cell have same SIR
(equal to worst case SIR of any user)

5-15
 The Choice 𝑁 = 𝑖 2 + 𝑗 2 + 𝑖𝑗
❑ Above property not true if N not of form 𝑖 2 + 𝑗 2 + 𝑖𝑗
❑ E.g., if N=2, 4 vertices get lower SIR than other 2
❑ So improvement in worst-case SIR due to increase in N not much
❑ Also, SIR calculations are cumbersome

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Example: N=5 (Invalid)

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 Example
 Cellular operator obtains license for 40
MHz spectrum in a city
 Wants to find max. no. of subscribers that
can be supported with 𝑃𝐵 = 0.02
 Channel bandwidth: 60 kHz
 So no. of channels:
 40MHz/ 60 kHz = 666

5-18
 Example
 City area: 1300 sq. mi; Hexagonal cells with radius 𝑅 = 4 mi
 No. of cells in city:
1300
 3 3𝑅2 = 31
2

 Frequency reuse with N=7 used. No. of channels per cell:

666
 ≈ 95
7
 Max. load (in Erlang) per cell for 𝑃𝐵 = 0.02:
𝐴 = 84 by Erlang B formula
 Each subscriber offers 0.03 Erlang load
 Max. no. of subscribers per cell:
84
 = 2800
0.03
 Max. no. of subscribers in city:
 2800 × 31 = 86800 5-19