Improving coverage &

capacity
• Aim is to provide more no. of channels per unit coverage area
• Techniques for this purpose are
• Cell splitting
• Sectoring
Cell Splitting
• Process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cell, each with its
own base station and a corresponding reduction in antenna height
and transmitter power
• Channel capacity increases because no. of times the channels are
reused also increases
• Allows a system to grow by replacing large cells with smaller cells
• Increased no. of cells would increase the number of clusters
• Smaller cells are known as microcells
• For the new cells to be smaller in size, transmit power of these cells is
reduced
• Special attention to be made
• To maintain minimum distance between co-channel cells
• Channel assignment becomes complicated
• Handoffs become frequent
• Channels in old cells must be broken down into two channel groups
• One for smaller cell reuse requirement
• Other for larger cell reuse requirement
• Antenna downtilting
• Focusing of radiated energy from BS towards the ground (rather than horizon)
• This limits the radio coverage of newly formed microcells
Cell Sectoring
• Use of highly directional
antenna
• Replacing a single
omnidirectional antenna by
several directional antennas
• Each directional antenna
radiating within a specified
sector