Electronic Engineering

Fundamentals of Cellular
Mobile Communications
ELE 42ACS
Advanced Communication Systems

Lecture 10
Michael Feramez
Lecture Topics
Introduction
The Concept of Trunking
Determining Cellular Size
Frequency Reuse Concept
Cell Cluster Geometry
Co-channel interference
Design principles
Handoff
Cell splitting

2
Introduction
The first attempt of mobile telecommunication was a
simple interconnection of two-way mobile radio and
PSTN lines (cordless telephony).
This was very simple and limited in coverage and
functions.
Today’s mobile cellular was made possible by the
advances in electronics and DSP.
The concept of “Frequency Reuse” is the heart of mobile
cellular telecommunications.

3
Isolated Mobile Systems

4
Connected Mobile Systems

Switch

5
Basic Cellular System

PSTN/ISDN
PSTN/ISDN Switch

6
The Concept of Trunking
Trunking is the second concept that made mobile
cellular telecommunication possible.
Not all mobiles are active in the same time.
Conventional mobile radio systems are based on
permanent allocation of channels.
Trunked mobile radio systems are based on demand
assignment of channels.
Trunking makes efficient use of the frequency spectrum.

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Example of Trunking

4 circuit being shared

only 4 conversations at any one time

8
Radio Coverage (non-cellular)
Operators of conventional (2-way) mobile radio, radio
and TV broadcast, and paging service aim to maximise
area coverage.
Radio signal coverage is proportional to:
 Height of the transmitting antenna
 Transmitter power output

 Receiver sensitivity and signal to noise ratio

Antenna height gain is the most important

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Radio Coverage (cellular)
Totally the opposite philosophy to that on non-cellular
systems
Lower the antenna as much as possible to just cover the
cell area (frequency reuse)
Lower the transmit power to the level that just gives an
acceptable signal
Receiver sensitivity is a considered when specifying the
cell size

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Radio Cell Size
Field strength contours
S5
S4 If the threshold of
S3 Rx is S5, and Rx is
S2
the standard receiver
S1
for the system then
Tx R the radius R defines
Rx
the cell size.

Cell size is then controlled

by Tx power, Tx antenna
height, and Rx threshold.
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Frequency Reuse Schemes
Time Domain
Space Domain:
 Same frequency used in two different areas
simultaneously such as Broadcast Radio.
 Same frequency repeatedly used in the same general
area (Cellular Mobile Systems)

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Frequency Reuse
In mobile systems, a radio channel consists of a pair of
frequencies (full-duplex)
Frequency Reuse is the core of cellular mobile radio
systems.
A radio channel using a Frequency f1 in a Cell with a
Radius R can be reused at Distance D.
Users in both cells can use the same frequency
simultaneously.
Improper system planning & design can cause
unacceptable level of Co-channel Interference.

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Frequency Reuse Concept

f1 undesired signal f1
co-channel interference desired
signal
D
R R

with the concept of “Frequency Reuse” comes the term

“Co-channel Interference”

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Ideal Cells Formation

Base Station

15
Fictitious Cells Formation

Base Station

16
Real Cell Formation

Base Station

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 Frequency Reuse Pattern
N=3

2
1
3

Note: some textbooks use K instead of N

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Frequency Reuse Pattern
N=4

2
1 3
4

19
Frequency Reuse Pattern
N=7

3
6 1
4
7 2
5

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Frequency Reuse Pattern
N=7

2
1 5 2
4 1 5
3 7 4
6 3 7
6

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Antenna Positioning
Base Station

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Typical Antenna Arrangement
Rx
Tx

Rx

two Rx antennas
for diversity

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Antenna Positioning (Country)
Base Station

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Cell Geometry

R
D R

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Distance

D
R

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Co-ordinate System
v
C2
u2 v 2

u1 v1

C1
30o

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  v
2

D   u2  u1  cos 30 0 2
   v 2  v1    u 2  u1  sin 30 
0 2
1
2

C2
 v2  v1 
u2 v2

 u2  u1  sin 300
u
D

v2
C 1
o
u1 v1 30

v1

o
30
x
u 1 u 2

 u2  u1  cos 300
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Reuse Ratio
Assuming hexagonal shape cells of equal size

D
 q  3N
R
where:
D: Distance between the centres of cells
R: Radius of the cell
q: Reuse ratio
N: Cluster size

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Exercise
As an exercise, using the cell geometry and co-ordinate
system on the previous slides, derive the equation for the
frequency reuse ratio.

D
 q  3N
R

The answer to be submitted next lecture

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 R

2 4
3 1
4 2 4
1 3 1
2 4 2
3 1
4 2

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Example

For N = 4 and R 5 km

D  3N R
D  3 4  5
D  3.464  5  17.32
The minimum distance at which the same frequency can
be reused is approximately 3.5 times R, which is in this
case 17.32 km
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 R

3 D
3 6 1
6 1 4
4 7 2
7 2 5 3
5 3 6 1
3 6 1 4
6 1 4 7 2
4 7 2 5
7 2 5
5

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Example

For N = 7 and R 5 km

D  3N R
D  3 7  5
D  4.583  5  22.91
The minimum distance at which the same frequency can
be reused is approximately 4.6 times R, which is in this
case 22.91 km
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Handoff Mechanism
D

F1
F2
F3
F4
F1
F2

F1 F2
F2 F3
F3 F4
F4 F1
F1 F2
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Design Objectives
Signal Coverage
 Cover the whole area with a minimum number of cell
sites.
 100% coverage of the whole area is impossible.

Traffic Coverage
 Catering for the busy-hour traffic with an acceptable
level of Grade of Service (GoS).
 Number of channels per cell and traffic load.

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Mobile Radio Transmission Model
30 - 100 m

Direct Path

Reflected Path

1 3m
2

2 km or more

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A better Situation

Direct Path
30 - 100 m

3m
1
Reflected Path

2

2 km or more

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Propagation Path Loss
In the mobile radio environment, the received power at the
radio receiver (theoretically) is given by:
Where:
C = received carrier
CR 4
 R 4

R = distance from Tx to Rx
 = constant

The loss slope is then 40 dB per decade, i.e. a mobile moving

from 1 to 10 km will experience 40 dB loss of signal.

Note that in Free Space (like in microwave links) this relationship is:

C  R 2  R 2
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The difference in power reception at two different distances
R1 and R2 will result in:
4
C2  R2 
  
C1  R1 

In real mobile radio environment, the propagation path-loss

slope varies as:
 
CR  R
The variable  varies between 2 and 5 depending on the actual
conditions but cannot be less than 2 (free space).

C  10 log   10 log R dB

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The Ratio D/R

C1 C1
C/I =  C/I = 

f1 f1
D
P0 P0

R R

q = D/R

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Frequency Reuse Distance
Number of co-channel cells in the vicinity of the central
cell,
Type of geographic terrain contour,
Antenna height, and
Transmitted power at each cell site.

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The frequency reuse distance can be determined from:

D  3N R
Where N is the frequency reuse pattern as shown in
the next slide.

N = 4, 7, 12, and 19 are used.

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N-D Relationship
Assuming that all cell sites transmit the same power.
Distance D in terms of R for a given K:
 N=4 D = 3.46R
 N = 7 D = 4.6R
 N = 12 D = 6R
 N = 19 D = 7.55R
Increase in K corresponds to increase in D

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The Challenge
Reducing Co-channel Interference to an acceptable
level.
The larger the N the longer the Distance.
Increase in distance results in reduction in Co-channel
Interference.
A system with a large N results in Trunking inefficiency
(why ?).
The challenge is to obtain the smallest N which meets
the required performance.

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Co-channel Interference
Frequency reuse is limited by co-channel interference.
The cell size is determined by the signal strength.
The receiver threshold level is adjusted to the cell size.
For a fixed cell size co-channel interference is a function
of the parameter q = D/R.

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Co-channel Interference Reduction
Factor

The co-channel interference is a function of q, which is called

the co-channel interference reduction factor.
D
q
R
The separation distance D is a function of KI and C/I

D  f (K I , C / I )
KI is the number of co-channel interfering cells in the first tier
C/I is the carrier-to-interference ratio at the desired mobile
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 1 1
R
Second tier
Interfering Cell
1
First tier

D
1 1

1 1 1

1 1

1 1
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C/I is calculated as:
C C
 KI
I
 Ik
k 1

The maximum number of K in the first tier is 6 and knowing that

 
CR  R Wanted signal
Interfering signal
I  D   D 

The above equation becomes: C R
 KI
I
 kD
k 1


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Rearranging:

C 1 1
 
 KI
I KI
 Dk 
 q 

  k
k 1  R  k 1

and
Dk
qk 
R
The qk is the co-channel interference reduction factor with kth
co-channel interfering cell.

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Example

N=4 D = 3.46R q = 3.46

N=7 D = 4.6R q = 4.6
N = 12 D = 6R q=6
N = 19 D = 7.55R q = 7.55

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Designing for Traffic
Estimation of traffic load
Identification of Busy hour
What is an acceptable GoS ?
Number of channels per cell
Coping with increase traffic demand
Application of Erlang formulas
Cell Splitting techniques

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Cell Splitting

Old cell radius

New cell radius =
2

Old cell area

New cell area =
2

New traffic load Traffic load

= 4x
Unit area Unit area

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Cell Splitting - Method A

Original Cell

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Cell Splitting - Method B

Original Cell

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References
Garg, Vijay K and Wilkes Joseph E, “Wireless and
Personal Communication Systems”. Prentice Hall PTR
Parsons J D and Gardiner J G, Mobile Communication
Systems, Blackie USA Halsted Press
Lee, William C. Y., Mobile Communications Engineering,
McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Lee, William C. Y., Mobile Cellular Telecommunications
Systems, McGraw-Hill, Inc.

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