Mobile and Cellular

Communication
Unit I Review


Definition of Mobile and Portable


Mobile - Any Radio Terminal that could be moved during
operation

Portable - A Radio Terminal that can be hand-held and
used by someone at walking speed.
Eg: Cordless Telephone at home, or walkie-talkie,
Cell Phone
Subscriber - Mobile or portable user. Each users
communication device is called Subscriber unit.

Base stations - Links mobiles to a backbone network .






2
Cellular Implementations
First-generation: Analog cellular systems (450-900 MHz)
Frequency shift keying for signaling
FDMA for spectrum sharing

Second-generation: Digital cellular systems (900, 1800 MHz)
TDMA/CDMA for spectrum sharing
Circuit switching

2.5G: Packet switching extensions
Digital: GSM to GPRS
Analog: AMPS to CDPD

3G and towards 4G:
High speed, data and Internet services
UMTS, HSPA+
Introduction OFDM and MIMO for LTE and Wi-Max
Mobile Standards in Europe
4
Mobile Standards in Japan
5
Wide area Paging system
6
Cordless handsets
7
Cellular system Concept
8
Elements of Cellular
Communication System
Reverse Channel
RVC and RCC
Forward Channel
FVC and FCC
Base Station: A fixed station
connects mobile station to
backbone network
MSC: Mobile switching Center
coordinates the routing of calls
in a large service area.
13
Timing Diagram when a call is made by a Landline User to a
Mobile

14
Timing Diagram when a call is made by a Mobile user to
a Landline User
The Cellular Concept
Mobile & Cellular Communication

Basic Concept
Cellular system developed to provide mobile telephony: i.e., telephone
access at anytime and anywhere.

A base station provides coverage (communication capabilities) to users
on mobile phones within its coverage area.

Users outside the coverage area receive/transmit signals with too low
amplitude for reliable communications.

Users within the coverage area transmit and receive signals from the
base station.

The base station itself is connected to the wired telephone network.
First Mobile Telephone System
One and only one
high power base
station with which all
users communicate.
Entire Coverage
Area
Wired
Telephone
System
Wired connection
Problem with Original Design
Original mobile telephone system could only support a handful of
users at a time, ver an entire city

With only one high power base station, Mobile stations also needed
to be able to transmit at high powers (to reliably transmit signals to
the distant base station)

Vehicle phones were therefore much more feasible than handheld
phones.

Number of usable channels are limited because limited BW
The Core Idea: Cellular Concept
The core idea that led to todays system was the cellular concept.
The cellular concept: multiple lower-power base stations that
service mobile users within their coverage area and a handoff will
happen if users move to neighboring base stations coverage area.
Together base stations tessellate the system coverage area.

Single hop wireless connectivity to the wired world
Space divided into cells
A base station is responsible to communicate with hosts in its cell
Mobile hosts can change cells while communicating
Hand-off occurs when a mobile host starts communicating via a
new base station







Factors for determining cell size
No. of users to be support
Cellular Concept
Limited number of frequencies => limited channels
Single high power antenna => limited number of users
Smaller cells => frequency reuse possible => more number of users
Base stations (BS): Implement space division multiplex
Each BS covers a certain transmission area (cell)
Each BS is allocated a portion of the total number of channels available
Cluster: A group of nearby BSs that together use all available channels
Mobile stations communicate only via the base station
FDMA, TDMA, CDMA may be used within a cell
As demand increases (more channels are needed)
Number of base stations to be increased => no. of cells to be increased
Transmitter power is decreased correspondingly to avoid interference
Tessellation
A Tessellation (or Tiling) is when you cover a surface
with a pattern of flat shapes so that there are no
overlaps or gaps.
Gaps
Overlapping
Tessellation (Contd)
Three regular polygons that always tessellate:
Equilateral triangle
Square
Regular Hexagon

Triangles
Squares
Hexagons
Circular Coverage Areas
Original cellular system was developed assuming base station antennas are
Omni-directional, i.e., they transmit in all directions equally.
But, Circles do not tessellate.

The most circular of the regular polygons that tessellate is the
hexagon.
Thus, early researchers started using hexagons to represent
the coverage area of a base station, i.e., a cell.








Base
Station
Cellular Concept
Cell size
100 m in cities to 35 km on the country side (GSM)
even less for higher frequencies

Cell shape
Hexagonal is useful for theoretical analysis
Practical footprint (radio coverage area) is amorphous

BS placement
Center-excited cell: BS near center of cell
Omni-directional antenna
Edge-excited cell: BSs on three of the six cell vertices
Sectored directional antennas
Cellular Concept
Advantages:
higher capacity, higher number of users
less transmission power needed
more robust, decentralized
base station deals with interference, transmission area etc. locally

Problems:
handover (changing from one cell to another) necessary
interference with other cells: co-channel, adjacent-channel

Important Issues:
Cell sizing, Reducing co-channel and adjacent channel interference
Frequency reuse planning
Channel allocation strategies

Frequency Reuse
Extensive frequency reuse allows for many users to be supported at the
same time.
Total spectrum allocated to the service provider is broken up into
smaller bands.
A cell is assigned one of these bands. This means all communications
(transmissions to and from users) in this cell occur over these
frequencies only.
Neighboring cells are assigned a different frequency band. This ensures
that nearby transmissions do not interfere with each other.

The same frequency band is reused in another cell that is far away. These
are called co-channels. This large distance limits the interference caused
by this co-channel cell, which is called as co-channel Interference.

Example of Frequency Reuse
Cells using the same frequencies are in same color
Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels.
Each cell is allocated a group of k channels, .
The S channels are divided among N cells.
The total number of available radio channels


The N cells which use the complete set of channels is called cluster.
The cluster can be repeated M times within the system. The total
number of channels, C, is used as a measure of capacity


The capacity is directly proportional to the number of replication M.
The cluster size, N, is typically equal to 4, 7, or 12.
Small N is desirable to maximize capacity.
The frequency reuse factor is given by

S k <
kN S =
MS MkN C = =
N / 1
Locating co-channel neighbors
Hexagonal geometry has
exactly six equidistance neighbors
the lines joining the centers of any cell and each of its neighbors are
separated by multiples of 60 degrees.
Only certain cluster sizes and cell layout are possible.
The number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values
which satisfy

To find out the nearest co-channel neighbors of a particular
cell, do the following
Move i cells along any chain of hexagon
Then turn 60 degree counter clockwise and move j cells
31
2 2
j ij i N + + =
Frequency Reuse Plan for i=2, j=1 => N=7








Co-channel neighbors of a particular cell, ex, i=3 and j=2.

Channel Assignment Strategies
Frequency reuse scheme
increases capacity
minimize interference
Channel assignment strategy
fixed channel assignment
dynamic channel assignment
Fixed channel assignment
each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channel
any new call attempt can only be served by the unused channels
the call will be blocked if all channels in that cell are occupied
Dynamic channel assignment
channels are not allocated to cells permanently.
allocate channels based on request.
reduce the likelihood of blocking, increase system complexity.
A Handoff
A user is transmitting and receiving signals from a given base station, say
B
1
.
Assume the user moves from the coverage area of one base station into
the coverage area of a second base station, B
2
.
B
1
notices that the signal from this user is degrading and B
2
notices that
the signal from this user is improving.
At some point, the users signal is weak enough at B
1
and strong enough
at B
2
for a handoff to occur.
Specifically, messages are exchanged between the user, B
1
, and B
2
so that
communication to/from the user is transferred from B
1
to B
2
.

Hand-off necessary when mobile moves from area of one BS into
another
BS initiated:
A locator receiver at the BS monitors the RSSI of the mobile user
in neighboring cells
If signal level improving at the locator receiver, the corresponding
BS communicate with the MSC to initiate Hand-off
Increases load on BS
Monitor signal level of each mobile
Determine target BS for handoff
Mobile assisted:
Each BS periodically transmits beacon
Mobile, on hearing stronger beacon from a new BS, sends it a
greeting
changes routing tables to make new BS its default gateway
sends new BS identity of the old BS
New BS acknowledges the greeting and begins to route mobiles call
Handoff Strategies
When a mobile moves into a different cell while a conversation is in
progress, the MSC automatically transfers the call to a new channel
belonging to the new base station.
Handoff operation
Identifying a new base station
Re-allocating the voice and control channels with the new base station.
Handoff Threshold
Minimum usable signal for acceptable voice quality (-90dBm to -100dBm)
Handoff margin cannot be too large or
too small.
If is too large, unnecessary handoffs burden the MSC
If is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete handoff
before a call is lost.
usable minimum , , r handoff r
P P = A
A
A
Handoff must ensure that the drop in the measured signal is not due
to momentary fading and that the mobile is actually moving away from
the serving base station.
Running average measurement of signal strength should be optimized
so that unnecessary handoffs are avoided.
Depends on the speed at which the vehicle is moving.
Steep short term average the hand off should be made quickly
The speed can be estimated from the statistics of the received short-
term fading signal at the base station
Dwell time: the time over which a call may be maintained within a cell
without handoff.
Dwell time depends on
propagation
interference
distance
speed

Practical Handoff Consideration
Different type of users
High speed users need frequent handoff during a call.
Low speed users may never need a handoff during a call.
Microcells to provide capacity, the MSC can become
burdened if high speed users are constantly being passed
between very small cells.
Large and small cells can be located at a single location
(umbrella cell)
different antenna height
different power level
Prioritizing the Hand-off
Guard channel
Inter System Hand-off
Handoff for first generation analog cellular systems
10 sec handoff time
is in the order of 6 dB to 12 dB
Handoff for second generation cellular systems, e.g., GSM
1 to 2 seconds handoff time
mobile assists handoff
Handoff decisions based on signal strength, co-channel
interference, and adjacent channel interference.
A physical change of channel during handoff, called as Hard Hand-
0ff
IS-95 CDMA spread spectrum cellular system
Mobiles share the channel in every cell.
No physical change of channel during handoff, which is called Soft
Hand-off
MSC decides the base station with the best receiving signal as the
service station
A
Interference and System Capacity
Sources of interference
Another mobile in the same cell
A call in progress in the neighboring cell
0ther base stations operating in the same frequency band
Non-cellular system leaks energy into the cellular
frequency band
Two major cellular interference
Co-channel interference
Adjacent channel interference
Co-channel Interference and System Capacity
Frequency reuse - there are several cells that use the
same set of frequencies, This leads to existence of co-
channel interference
To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cell must
be separated by a minimum distance.
When the size of the each cell is approximately the same
co-channel interference is independent of the transmitted power
co-channel interference is a function of
R: Radius of the cell
D: distance to the center of the nearest co-channel cell
Increasing the ratio Q=D/R, the interference is reduced.
Q is called the co-channel reuse ratio
For a hexagonal geometry



A small value of Q provides large capacity
A large value of Q improves the transmission quality - smaller level of
co-channel interference
A tradeoff must be made between these two objectives

N
R
D
Q 3 = =
Let be the number of co-channel interfering cells. The signal-to-
interference ratio (SIR) for a mobile receiver can be expressed as




S: the desired signal power
: interference power caused by the ith interfering co-channel cell
base station
The average received power at a distance d from the transmitting
antenna is approximated by


n is the path loss exponent which ranges between 2 and 4.
0
i

=
=
0
1
i
i
i
I
S
I
S
i
I
n
r
d P

When the transmission power of each base station is equal, SIR for a
mobile can be approximated as




Consider only the first layer of interferers
( )

=
0
1
i
i
n
i
n
D
R
I
S
( )
0 0
3 ) / (
i
N
i
R D
I
S
n
n
= =
6
0
= i
For hexagonal geometry with 7-cell cluster, with the mobile unit being
at the cell boundary, the signal-to-interference ratio for the worst case
can be approximated as
4 4 4 4 4
4
) ( ) 2 / ( ) 2 / ( ) ( 2

+ + + + + +
=
D R D R D R D R D
R
I
S
2.5.2 Adjacent Channel Interference
Adjacent channel interference: Interference from adjacent in frequency
to the desired signal.
Imperfect receiver filters allow nearby frequencies to leak into the pass
band
Performance degrade seriously due to near-far effect.
desired signal
receiving filter
response
desired signal
interference
interference
signal on adjacent channel
signal on adjacent channel
FILTER
Adjacent channel interference can be minimized through
careful filtering and channel assignment.

Keep the frequency separation between each channel in a
given cell as large as possible

A channel separation greater than six is needed to bring
the adjacent channel interference to an acceptable level.

If adjacent channels are assigned to different cells, and no
cell is assigned contiguous set of channels adjacent channel
interference can be reduced significantly.
Power Control for Reducing Interference
Ensure each mobile transmits the smallest power
necessary to maintain a good quality link on the
reverse channel
long battery life
increase SIR
solve the near-far problem
The transmitted power should varied according to the
signal and interference strengths so that the mobile is
transmitting only necessary power to maintain the quality
of service
Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems
Methods for improving capacity in cellular systems

Cell Splitting: Subdividing a congested cell into smaller
cells.
Sectoring: Directional antennas to control the interference
and frequency reuse.
Microcell zone : Distributing the coverage of a cell and
extends the cell boundary to hard-to-reach place.
Cell Splitting
Split congested cell into smaller cells.
Preserve frequency reuse plan.
Reduce transmission power.

microcell
Reduce R to R/2
Transmission power reduction from to
Examining the receiving power at the new and old cell boundary



If we take n = 4 and set the received power equal to each other


The transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB in order to fill in the
original coverage area.
Problem: if only part of the cells are splitted
Different cell sizes will exist simultaneously
Handoff issues - high speed and low speed traffic can be
simultaneously accommodated

1 t
P
2 t
P
n
t r
R P P

1
] boundary cell old at [
n
t r
R P P

) 2 / ( ] boundary cell new at [
2
16
1
2
t
t
P
P =
Sectoring
Decrease the co-channel interference and keep the cell radius R
unchanged
Replacing single Omni-directional antenna by several directional antennas
Radiating within a specified sector

Interference Reduction

position of the mobile
interference cells
Microcell Zone Concept
Antennas are placed at the outer edges of the cell
Any channel may be assigned to any zone by the base station
Mobile is served by the zone with the strongest signal.

Handoff within a cell
No channel reassignment
Switch the channel to a
different zone site

Reduce interference
Low power transmitters
are employed

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