Cellular System

Cellular Concept
• The path loss allows for spatial isolation of
different transmitters operating on the same
frequency at the same time.
• As a result, path loss and short range
transmissions in fact increase the overall capacity
of the system by allowing more simultaneous
transmissions to occur.
• The straightforward observation is the theoretical
basis for modern cellular communication systems.
•In Cellular systems, the service area is
subdivided into smaller geographic areas called
cells that are each served by their own base
station.

• In order to minimize interference between cells,

the transmit power level of each base station is
regulated to be just enough to provide the
required signal strength at each cell boundaries.
•The propagation path loss allows for spatial
isolation of different cells operating on the
same frequency channels at the same time.

•Therefore, the same frequency channels

can be reassigned to different cells, as
long as those cells are spatially isolated.
• Although perfect isolation of different cells cannot be
achieved practically, the rate at which frequencies can
be reused be determined such that the interference
between base stations is kept to an acceptable level.
• In this context, frequency planning is required to
determine a proper frequency reuse factor and a
geographic reuse pattern.
• The frequency reuse factor f is defined as f<=1, where

f=1 means all cells reuse all frequencies.

Accordingly f=1/3 implies that a given frequency
band is used by only 1 out of every 3 cells.
•The reuse of the same frequency channels should
be intelligently planned in order to maximize the
geographical distance between the co-channel base
stations.
•Figure shows an example of hexagonal cellular
system model with frequency reuse factor f=1/7,
where cells labeled with the same letter use the
same frequency channels.
•Cellular systems allow the overall system capacity
to increase by simply making the cells smaller and
turning down the power. More capacity can be
supplied by installing more base stations.
Standard Figure of a hexagonal Cellular System with
f=1/7
• Since cellular systems support user mobility,
call transfer from one cell to another should
be provided.
• The handoff process provides a means of the
seamless transfer of a connection from one
base station to another. Achieving smooth
handoffs is a challenging aspect of cellular
system design.
 Analysis of Cellular Systems
• The performance of wireless cellular systems is
significantly limited by co-channel interference (CCI),
which comes from other users in the same cell or
from other cells.
• In cellular systems, other cell interference (OCI) is a
decreasing function of radius of the cell (R) and the
distance to the centre of the neighboring co- channel
cell and an increasing function of transmit power.
However SIR (Signal to Interference ratio)
determines the performance.
 Co-channel cells
• Two cells having the same number in the
adjacent cluster, use the same set of RF
channels . 
• The distance between the cells using the same
frequency should be sufficient to keep the co-
channel (co-chl) interference to an acceptable
level.