Chapter 1, Basic Concepts

Chapter 1

Basic Concepts of Cellular Communications

1.1 Introduction
In this chapter some of the basic concepts and terms used in cellular
communications are presented. Many of technical terms are defined in order
to follow the subject of mobile communications, also called cellular
communications.

1.2 Basic Elements of a Cellular System

A basic cellular system shown in Figure 1.1 consists of three subsystems:
(a) Mobile telephone switching office (MTX).
(b) Base stations (BS) or cell sites.
(c) Mobile stations (MS).
(d) The necessary links between them.

(a) Mobile telephone switching office (MTX)

- It is the central coordinator of the system.
- It contains the cellular processor and cellular switch.
- It interfaces with telephone company zone offices.
- It processes communication between mobile to mobile, mobile to land,
land to mobile and MTX to PSTN network.
- It keeps detailed records of each call for billing.
- It provides a home location register (HLR) and visitor location register
(VLR).

Base
Station

E1
E1 Mobile
PSTN MTX Station

E1

Figure 1.1 A cellular telephone system

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 Chapter 1, Basic Concepts

Connections between MTX & PSTN and base stations are microwave links
or trunks (E1 links).

b) Base Stations (BS)

- They provide interface between the MTX and the mobile units.
- A BS control unit, radio cabinets, antennas, power plants and data terminals.
- They are located at different convenient locations (called cell sites) within
the service area.
- The coverage of a base station varies from less than a kilometer to tens of
kilometers depending on the propagation environment and traffic density.

Example:
- For urban areas, cell radius 200m < R < 5km
- For rural area R → 20-30 km.

c) Mobile Stations (MS)

- A MS contains a control unit, a transceiver and an antenna system.
- Each mobile unit has a 10 digit telephone number, represented by 34 bits
Mobile Identification Number (MIN) composed of two components:
MIN1 is 7 digit number → 24 bits
MIN2 is 3 digit number → 10 bits
MIN2 represents the operator
Each mobile is also permanently programmed at the factory with a 32-bit
electronic serial number which guards against tampering.

Example:
- Mobinil MIN2 012 and others
- Vodafone MIN2 010 and others
- Etisalat MIN2 016 and others

d) Connections:
- They are made up of radio and high-speed data links.
- Each mobile unit can only use one channel at a time for its communication
link. The channel is not fixed, it can be any one in the entire band assigned for
the serving area, with each site having multichannel capabilities that can
connect simultaneously to many mobile units.

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1.3 The Cell

- It is defined as the geographical area covered by RF signals transmitted from a
BS.
- The shape and size of the cell depends on several parameters (such as
propagation environments, population density, traffic, BS transmitter power, …)
- A cell may be an omnicell having an omni-directional BS antenna.
- A cell may be a sector cell where a uni-directional antenna is used in the base
station.
- The base station geographical location is called a site. When a site is equipped
with equipment for three sector cells it is called 3-sector site.

* The hexagon cell shape

The border of an omni cell has equal received power level allover.When two
BS’s with omni antennas are adjacent the points on the intersection line AB
have equal received power levels from both BS’s as shown in Figure(1.2).
- For 7 cells with omni antennas the intersection lines make a hexagon which
has all points on its borders receiving the same signal power level.
- This hexagon cell is used as an analytical cell used for planning of a mobile
system, however a real cell shape is not actually like that.

•
A • •

• • • •
• •

B •

Figure 1.2 Borders between omnicells

1.4 The Cell Cluster

A cell cluster is a group of adjacent identical cells. The available number of
channels is evenly distributed among the cells of the cluster. The number of the
cells in a cluster is called the modulus N. N can be 1, 3,4,7,9,12 but the most used
one is N = 7. The values of N can take one of the values calculated from the
following equation

ܰ = ݅ ଶ + ݆݅ + ݆ ଶ (1.1)
where i, j are integers 0,1,2,…..

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The cluster repeats itself in each direction. Around N = 7 six clusters can be built
as shown in Figure (1.3). Doing so, the frequency plan is reused each time a
cluster is added.

6 3
(a) (b) 6 3 4 1 5
4 1 5 2 7 6 3
6 3 2 4 1 5
7 6 3
6 3 4 1 5 2 7
4 1 5
4 1 5 2 7 6 3
2 7 6 3 4 1 5
2 7
4 1 5 2 7
2 7

Figure 1.3 (a) A seven-cell cluster, (b) A seven-cell reuse plan

1.5 Frequency Reuse Plan

The reuse of the channels must be carefully planned. In a hexagonal geometry this
reuse plan is given by the ratio [1]:

D
= 3N (1.2)
R

D is the reuse distance (the minimum distance between two cells having identical
channels) and R is the cell radius.

It is to be noticed that the multiple use of frequencies results in co-channel

interference.
When the cell site antenna is omni, radiating in all directions, we can represent the
co-channel carrier-to-interference ratio by,

1 γ
C / I Coch = 10 log (D / R )  dB (1.3)
n 

γ = propagation constant (depending on the environment)

n = number of interferers.

The mobile station in a cell (which is called serving cell) receives interfering
powers from all nearby cells having the same channels. This interfering power is
inversely proportional to ‫ ܦ‬ఊ .

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Example: .
For γ = 4, N = 7 calculate the worst case C/I
Solution: The worst case occurs when all the adjacent 6 cells have the same
channels working

D
= 3N = 4.58
R

∴ C/I = 18.5 dB

This figure is acceptable by cellular network designers.

1.6 Cell Sectorization

For more efficient use of available spectrum and hence increasing the system
capacity, each cell is divided into three sectors of 120 degrees each as shown in
Figure (1.4). In each sector a directional antenna is used whose narrow beams
allow reusing the channels more often. The same method can be used by
sectorizing the cell into six 60° sectors, each having a directional antenna [2].

Sectorization is suitable for use in dense urban areas because of using a directional
antenna. The directivity of the antennas of sectors leads to amelioration of the co-
channel carrier-to-interference ratio, which in this case it is calculated by

C 1 D
γ

= 10 log  K a    dB (1.4)
I  n R 

where K a is the antenna directivity factor.

(a) (b)
Sector
Sector Sector Sector 1 Sector
1 2 6 2
Sector Sector
Sector 5 Sector 3
3 4

Figure 1.4 Sectorization (a) Three-sector configuration, (b) Six-sector configuration

1.7 Service Quality

There are many terms to describe the service quality in mobile communications.
The most important terms are the following three items:

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a) Coverage: It is required that the system can serve an area as large as possible
with good to excellent voice quality.
b) Required grade of service: Normally at the start up of a system a blocking
probability of 2% for initiating calls at the busy hour is specified. To decrease
the blocking probability a good system plan and a sufficient number of radio
channels are required.
c) Number of dropped calls: During Q calls in an hour if a call is dropped and
(Q-1) calls are completed, the call drop rate is 1/Q. This rate must be kept low.
High drop rate may be caused by either coverage problems or handoff problems
related to inadequate channel availability.

1.8 Basic Features of Cellular Communication

There are some features specific to the cellular communications which are :
a) Mobility: A call originated at any place must be maintained without
interruption while the MS is in motion within the service area going from one
cell to another. This is achieved by hand-off process controlled by the MTX
through measuring the MS received signal level and comparing it to a threshold
below which the MS is directed to an adjacent cell having a stronger free
channel.

b) Roaming: Generally there are more than one operator of cellular

communication, but the subscriber is registered to one operator only. However,
a mobile moving from its territory can establish a call in a foreign territory
through the roaming process agreed upon between different operators.

1.9 System Capacity

Channel capacity of a cell is the Erlangs equivalent of the number of channels in
that cell for a given GOS. Let this number be Tcell.
- Cluster capacity is the total traffic served by the cluster of modulus N.
Tcl = N. Tcell (1.5)

- The number of system subscribers S can now be calculated as

S = 30 x Tcl = 30 N Tcell (1.6)

where 30 subscribers/Erlang is typically assumed.

Example
An operator is assigned 300 channels and is using N = 7 cell cluster in its system
design, calculate the allowed number of subscribers for this system for a GOS =
3%.

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Answer
300
Number of channels/cell = = 42.86 ≈ 42 channels/cell
7
which corresponds to Tch = 34.305 Erlangs/cell from Erlang- B table
Tcl = 7 x 34.305 = 240.135 Erlang/cluster

and S = 30 x 240.135 = 7403.12 subscriber/cluster

References:

[1] W.C.Y. Lee, "Mobile Cellular Telecommunications, Analog and Digital

Systems", McGraw Hill, 1995.

[2] Saleh FARUQUE, "Cellular Mobile Systems Engineering", Artech House

Publishers, 1996.

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Problems

1) Consider a hexagonal geometry used in mobile

communications call planning:
a) Calculate the reuse ratio if the cell cluster is composed
of 7 cells.
b) Calculate the reuse distance if the cell radius is 100m.
c) Repeat (a) and (b) for cluster modulus 9, 12, 3, 4.

2) A cellular mobile cell based on hexagonal geometry of

modulus 7.
a) Calculate the carrier to interference ratio in dBs,
knowing that the propagation constant in the service
area is equal to 3.2.
b) Calculate the interference power level when the carrier
power is 5 watts.

3) Repeat problem (2) for N=9, 12, 3, 4.

4) In cellular plan, it is required that the C/I ratio be more than

18dB. What would you suggest as a cluster for constructing
the cell plan, if the service area’s propagation constant is 4.

5) Repeat problem (4) for the case when the service area’s
propagation constant is 3.

6) a) Sketch a cluster of 7 Omni hexagonal cells, and its growth

plan. Define on the sketch the cell radius, and the reuse
distance. Calculate the values of the co-channel interference
and adjacent channel interference when the service area
propagation constant is equal to 4.
b) Show how the trapezoidal clustering plan is used to
combat the adjacent channel interference. What are the
limitations of this clustering method?
7) a)Calculate the C/I ratio encountered in a cellular phone
system using a frequency reuse plan with clusters of modulus
N=7. The propagation constant is γ = 3.
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b) Calculate the interference power level when the carrier

power is 2 watts.
8) A mobile phone service provider plans to use a frequency
plan of modulus N=7. The cell radius is calculated to be 2km.
a) Calculate the reuse distance D.
b) Calculate the c/I ratio knowing that the propagation
constant in the area is γ = 3.
c) Calculate the interference power level in dBm knowing
that the carrier power is 2 watts).