• How many cells must intervene between

two cells using the same frequency?

D: Minimum distance between centers of cells that use the
same band (co-channels)
R: Radius of a cell
d: distance between adjacent cells (d=3 R)
N: Number of cells in a repetitious pattern (reuse factor)

D/R = √(3N)
or D/d = √N
• Frequency Reuse is the core concept of
cellular mobile radio
• Users in different geographical areas (in
different cells) may simultaneously use the
same frequency
• Frequency reuse drastically increases user
capacity and spectrum efficiency
• Frequence reuse causes mutual
interference (trade off link quality versus
subscriber capacity)
• The total number of channels are divided
into K groups.
– K is called reuse factor or cluster size.
• Each cell is assigned one of the groups.
• The same group can be reused by two
different cells provided that they are
sufficiently far apart.
Example:
K=7
 F7 F2

F7 F2 F6 F1
F1 F3

F6 F1
F1 F3 F5 F4 F7 F2

F5 F4 F7 F2 F6 F1
F1 F3

F6 F1
F1 F3 F5 F4
Re
u
se

F5 F4
d ist

Fx: Set of frequency

a nc
e
D

7 cell reuse cluster

7
 R Cluster
• For hexagonal cells, the reuse distance
is given by
F7 F2
D  3N R
F6 F1
F1 F3
where R is cell radius and N is the
reuse pattern (the cluster size or the
F5 F4 F7 F2 number of cells per cluster).
• Reuse factor is
F6 F1
F1 F3
D
Re

q   3N
us
ed

F5 F4
R
ist
an
c eD

8
 The cluster size or the number of cells per cluster is given by
j
N  i  ij  j
2 2

where i and j are integers. 60o

 N = 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 19, 21, 28, …, etc.

The popular value of N being 4 and 7.