Interference

and System
Capacity
CHAPTER TWO

PROF. ABID YAHYA

 Signal Strength
Signal strength
(in dB)

Cell i Cell j
-60 -60
-70 -70
-80 -80
-90
-90 -100
-100

Select cell i on left of boundary Select cell j on right of boundary

Ideal boundary
2
 Handoff Region
Signal strength Signal strength
due to BSi due to BSj

Pi(x) Pj(x)

Pmin
BSi MS BSj
X1 X3 X5 Xth X4 X2

• By looking at the variation of signal strength from either base station it is

possible to decide on the optimum area where handoff can take place.

3
 Handoff Rate in a Rectangular
Since handoff can occur at sides R 1 and R 2 of a cell

side H = R1 ( X 1 cos + X 2 sin  ) + R2 ( X 1 sin  + X 2 cos )

side
where A=R 1 R 2 is the area and assuming it constant, differentiate
with respect to R1 (or R 2) gives
X2 

X1
X 1 sin  + X 2 cos X 1 cos + X 2 sin 
R2 = A
2
=A
2

 R
1 X 1 cos + X 2 sin  X 1 sin  + X 2 cos

Total handoff rate is

 H = 2 A( X 1 cos  + X 2 sin  )( X 1 sin  + X 2 cos  )
H is minimized when =0, giving
R1 X 1
H = 2 AX 1 X 2 and =
R2 X 2
4
Hard handoff and
soft handoff
Hard handoff: A hard handoff is a handoff
technique used with cellular networks that
requires the user's connection to be entirely
broken with an existing base station before being
switched to another base station.

Soft handoff: The handoff is referred to as soft

handoff if the new connection is established before
the old connection is released.
Interference and System
Capacity
It is a major limiting factor in the performance of cellular radio systems. (In
comparison with wired comm. Systems, the amount and sources of interferences
in Wireless Systems are greater.)

Creates bottleneck in increasing capacity

Sources of interference are:

1. Mobile Stations
2. Neighboring Cells
3. The same frequency cells
4. Non-cellular signals in the same spectrum

Interference in Voice Channels: Cross-Talk

Interference in Control Channels: missed/blocked calls

Urban areas usually have more interference, because of:

a) Greater RF Noise Floor,
b) More Number of Mobiles

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Cellular
Interference Types
◆ Two major types of system-generated
interference :

1) Co-Channel Interference (CCI)

2) Adjacent Channel Interference
(ACI)

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Co-Channel
Interference (CCI)
◆ Co-Channel Interference caused by
frequency reuse
• Many cells in given coverage area use
same set of channel frequencies to
increase system capacity (C)
• Co-channel cells → The cells that share
same set of frequencies
• The interference between signals from these
cells is called Co-Channel Interference (CCI).

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Co-Channel Interference
Possible solution :

A) Increase base station Tx power to improve radio signal reception?

NO!!
Why ??
→ increases interference from co-
channel cells by the same amount!
→ no net improvement

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Co-Channel Interference
◆ Possible solution :
B) Separate co-channel cells by some minimum
distance to provide sufficient isolation from
propagation of radio signals?
YES!!
Why ??
→ if all cell sizes  same then co-
channel interference is independent of Tx
power

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Co-Channel Interference
◆ CCI depends on :
• R : cell radius
• D : distance from BS to center of nearest co-
channel cell
◆D / R  then spatial separation relative to cell
coverage area 
• Improved isolation from co-channel RF energy
◆ Q = D / R : co-channel reuse ratio
• For hexagonal cells → Q = D / R =

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Co-Channel
Interference
◆ Tradeoff in cellular system design:

• Small Q → small cluster size → more

frequency reuse → larger system capacity →
great!!

• But also → small co-channel cell separation →

increased CCI → reduced voice quality → not
so great!

Tradeoff: Capacity vs. Voice Quality

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Co-Channel Interference
◆Signal to Interference ratio → S / I (not S / N
or SNR!!)

n
S D 1 Qn (3 N ) n / 2
=   = =
I  R  io io io

io : # of co-channel interfering cells

PROF. ABID YAHYA

 Adjacent Channel Interference
◦ Caused by imperfect Rx filters that allow energy from adjacent channels to
leak into passband of desired signal

Desired Ideal Signal BW

Filter Response

Actual Filter
Signal Energy Leaks
Response into Rx from Adjacent
f2 Channel
f1
What is adjacent channel interference?
Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to desired signal.
Why does it occur?
This results from imperfect receiver filters which allow nearby frequencies to leak into the
pass band.
PROF. ABID YAHYA
Adjacent Channel
Interference
◆ ACI can affect both forward & reverse channel links

◆ Reverse Link → mobile-to-base

• Interference @ base station Rx from nearby mobile Tx
when desired mobile Tx is far away from base station

◆ Forward Link → base-to-mobile

• Interference @ desired mobile Rx from nearby base
Tx when secondary mobile Rx is far away from base
station

◆ Near/Far Effect
• Interfering source (Tx) is near some Rx when other
source is far away

◆ ACI is primarily from mobiles in same cell

• Some cell-to-cell ACI does occur as well → secondary
source

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Adjacent Channel
Interference
Interference from channels that are adjacent in frequency,

The primary reason for that is Imperfect Receive Filters which cause
the adjacent channel energy to leak into your spectrum.

Problem is severer if the user of adjacent channel is in close

proximity. → Near-Far Effect

Near-Far Effect: The other transmitter(who may or may not be of the

same type) captures the receiver of the subscriber.

Also, when a Mobile Station close to the Base Station transmits on a

channel close to the one being used by a weaker mobile: The BS
faces difficulty in discriminating the desired mobile user from the
“bleed over” of the adjacent channel mobile.

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Near-Far Effect: Case 1

The Mobile receiver is captured by the unintended, unknown transmitter,

instead of the desired base station

PROF. ABID YAHYA

Near-Far Effect: Case 2

The Base Station faces difficulty in recognizing the actual mobile user, when the
adjacent channel bleed over is too high.

PROF. ABID YAHYA

How can adjacent channel interference be
reduced?

(1) Careful Filtering ---- min. leakage or sharp transition

(2) Better Channel Assignment Strategy

Channels in a cell need not be adjacent: For channels within a cell, Keep
frequency separation as large as possible.
Sequentially assigning cells the successive frequency channels.
Also, secondary level of interference can be reduced by not assigning
adjacent channels to neighboring cells.
For tolerable ACI, we either need to increase the frequency separation
or reduce the passband BW.

PROF. ABID YAHYA

 How is co-
channel In the problem, co-channel interference is modeled as
a complex Gaussian noise process with a power
interference spectral density of -70 dBm/Hz.

modeled in
the given
system?

PROF. ABID YAHYA

What is the significance of
the receiver noise figure?
The receiver noise figure is a measure of how
much noise is added by the receiver itself. In
this case, it's 9 dB, and it's used to calculate
the total noise power at the receiver input.

PROF. ABID YAHYA

What is the
signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR), and
how is it
calculated in the
problem?
SNR is the ratio of the power of
the signal to the power of the
noise. In the given problem, it is
calculated considering the
transmit power, receiver noise
figure, and co-channel
interference, resulting in an SNR
of approximately 59.96 dB.

PROF. ABID YAHYA

How does the system
calculate capacity, and
what are its units?
The system capacity is calculated using the
SNR and the coherence bandwidth,
considering the log2 function of 1 plus the
SNR (in linear scale). The total system
capacity is found to be approximately 1.199
Tbps (terabits per second).

PROF. ABID YAHYA

What role does the coherence
bandwidth play in calculating
system capacity?
The coherence bandwidth, given as 100 kHz,
indicates the bandwidth over which the
channel response is considered flat. It is used
to determine the number of independent
channels (n) in the system, which in turn
helps in calculating the total system capacity.

PROF. ABID YAHYA