P. R.

Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati

Department of CSE and AI&DS

6ETC04: Open Elective II

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

Unit II:
Basic Cellular Concept:

Q.1: Explain in brief frequency reuse concept in wireless communication.

1. Frequency Reuse is the scheme in which allocation and reuse of channels throughout a
coverage region is done.
2. Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels or Frequency sub-bands
to be used within a small geographic area known as a cell.
3. The process of selecting and allocating the frequency sub-bands for all of the cellular
base station within a system is called Frequency reuse or Frequency Planning. The
same set of frequency is reused after a specific distance to ensure increase in capacity
and coverage.

Figure 1: Frequency Reuse and cluster formation

4. In Figure 1, all cells marked as ‘A’ will be allotted the same group of channels. i.e. cells
which have been given the same letter in the diagram have the same group of
channels.
5. Cells which have been allotted the same group of frequency channels are called Co-
channel cells. Cell A-Cell G have unique channels and there are no repetitions. Group
of cells in which every channel is unique is called as a Cluster.
6. To find the total number of channel allocated to a cell:
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Department of CSE and AI&DS

S = Total number of duplex channels available to use, k = Channels allocated to each cell
(k<S), N = Total number of cells or Cluster Size. Then Total number of channels (S) will
be,
S = kN
7. The number of cells after which a frequency channel can be reused is called as
the Frequency reuse factor (R.F.), and it is given as Frequency Reuse Factor = 1/N.
In the above diagram cluster size is 7 (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) thus frequency reuse factor is 1/7.
8. If a Cluster is replicated or repeated M times within the cellular system, then Capacity,
C will be,

C = MkN = MS

9. Since co-channel cells use the same set of channels, there is always possibility of
interference in these cells. Interference between the co-channel cells is called as Co-
channel interference.
10. There should be a minimum Distance after which the same channel can be reused with
minimum interference. This distance is called as Minimum safe distance and is given by,

If D is the minimum safe distance and R is the radius of each cell, then the ratio of D/R is termed
as Reuse factor Q
The Reuse Factor Q has a very important significance in deciding the capacity improvement
techniques.

Q.2: Define handoff. Explain basic process of handoff with neat diagram.
1. 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. This
process of transferring Mobile Station’s call from one frequency channel or Base Station
to another is called as Handoff/Handover.
2. Handoff parameters
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Department of CSE and AI&DS

The following basic parameters are needed to determine whether a handoff is required or not.
1. Signal strength of the BS with which communication is being made.
2. Signal strengths of the surrounding BSs.

3. Availability of channels.
The handoff parameters are measured in the following way:
1. Signal strengths of BSs are measured by the mobile devices.
2. Channel availability status is known at the cellular network.
3. Cellular network makes the decision about when the hand over is to take place in
which channel of which cell.

Figure 2: Scenarios of proper and improper handoff

3. When a mobile user moves in a different cell while a conversation is in progress, the
received signal strength from Base Station becomes weak. BS is not able to detect the
signal transmitted by the MS and vice versa. Thus, the call may be dropped
(discontinued). Therefore, to maintain the continuity of a call, it is necessary to allocate
new frequency channel from the cell where the MS is currently located. In cellular
system it is performed by the process of Hand off/ Handover.
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Department of CSE and AI&DS

4. Handoff should be performed successfully and as infrequently as possible to minimize

load on the system and must be unknown to the user. Hence, system designers have to
decide on optimum power levels at which Hand-off should be initiated. Also, Hand-off
must be complete at the right time in order to minimize call drops. To achieve all this, a
complete information of the minimum detectable signal level, handoff threshold is
required.
5. Figure 2(a) shows a handoff is not made and the signal drops below the minimum
acceptable level required to keep the channel active. This dropped call event can happen
when there is a large delay by the MSC in assigning a handoff or when the threshold is
set too small for the handoff time in the system. Excessive delays may occur during high
traffic conditions due to computational loading at the MSC or due to the fact that no
channels are available on any of the nearby Base Stations (thus forcing the MSC to wait
until a channel in a nearby cell becomes free).
6. Figure 2(b) shows a proper hand off scenario in which the handoff threshold was
correctly defined and the signal did not fall beyond the threshold. This handoff threshold
level should not be very high to avoid unnecessary handoff scenarios. It should also not
be very low as there will be insufficient time given to complete the process handoff
which may cause call drops.
7. Hence the delta value i.e. difference between the minimum detectable signal level and
Handoff threshold is usually kept in the range of 0-6 dBs in modern cellular
communication systems. Practical value taken by most of the service providers is 2 dBs.
8. The minimum usable signal level for acceptable voice quality is usually seen to be -90
dBm to -100 dBm. If the received signal falls below this level, it cannot be detected by
the receiver. A slightly stronger signal level is used as threshold at which the Hand-off is
initiated.

3. Explain the type (scenarios) of Handoff/Handover. OR

Explain in brief classification of Handoff process.
1. 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. This
procedure is called handoff.
2. Depending on different purpose the handoff is classified are as below
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Department of CSE and AI&DS

A. Depending on nature of handoffs the classification is as

a. Hard Handoff
b. Soft Handoff

a. Hard Handoff:

 It is also known as “Break before make” connection.

 In this type of handoff the link to the old base station is terminated before the mobile
station establishes a link with the new base station.

 It is used in FDMA and TDMA based mobile system.

 Figure shows the mechanism of hard handoff.

b. Soft Handoff:

 It is also called as Mobile Directed handoff or make before Break Connection.

 In these types of handoff the link to the old base station is not terminated before the
mobile station established a link with the new base station.

 Once the link is established the connection to old BS is terminated.

 It is used in UMTS to improve the signal quality

 It is more seamless handover.

 Figure shows the mechanisms of soft handoff.

 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

B. Depending on purpose of Handoff classification are as

a. Intra cell handoff
b. Inter cell handoff
c. Inter System Handoff

a. Intra-cell handover
 Such a kind of handover is performed to optimize the traffic load in the cell or to improve
quality of a connection by changing carrier frequency.

b. Inter-cell handover
 It is also known as Intra-BSC handover.
 Here the mobile moves from one cell to another but remains within the same BSC
(Base station controller).
 Here the BSC handles the handover process

c. Inter System Handoff

i) Inter-BSC handover
 It is also called as Intra-MSC handover.
 As BSC can control only a limited number of cells, we might usually need to
transfer a mobile from one BSC to another BSC.
 Here the MSC handles the handover process.
 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

ii) Inter-MSC handover

 It occurs when a mobile moves from one MSC region to another MSC.
 MSC cover a large area. It can be imagined as a handover from Maharashtra MSC
to Gujarat MSC while travelling.

C. Handoff schemes based on algorithms of handoff (handoff protocols)

The mobile unit and the BS are connected via radio links which carry data as well as
signalling information. There are three different handoff strategies based on algorithms
ofhandoff, which have been proposed for transferring the connection to a new BS.
 MCHO (mobile-controlled handoff)
 NCHO (network-controlled handoff)
 MAHO (mobile-assisted handoff)

Since the number of handoffs increases with decreasing cell size, it will be an almost impossible
task to make a handoff decision for every mobile by one central switch (centralized). Moreover,
in microcells the connection between MS and BS can deteriorate very quickly. Fast handoff
decisions required in such situations can be achieved more readily by decentralizing the handoff
decision process.
 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

Network-controlled handoff (NCHO)

1. NCHO is a centralized handoff protocol. In this type of handoff the network (surrounding
BS, the MSC or both) makes a handoff decision based on measurements of the RSS
(received signal strength) of mobile and the interferences from different BS.
2. The signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is measured by means of a supervisory audio tone
(SAT).
3. If the mobile is measured to have a weaker signal in its old cell, while a stronger signal in
a neighboring cell, then a handoff decision could be made by the network to switch BS
from the old cell to the new cell. Such a type of handoff in general takes 100–200 ms and
produces a noticeable “interruption” in the conversation.
4. However, overall delay of such a type of handoff is in general in the range of 5–10 s.
Thus, this type of handoff is not suitable to a rapidly changing environment and to a high
density of users due to the associated delay.
5. The NCHO is widely used in the first-generation cellular systems, such as AMPS, Total
Accesses Communications System (TACS) and Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT). In
NCHO, the MSC is solely in charge of the handoff process and the MSs are completely
passive.

Mobile-assisted handoff (MAHO)

1. MAHO is a variant of NCHO strategy. To improve the handoff reaction time and to
reduce the handoff administration load of the MSC, the handoff decisions should be
distributed towards the mobile phones.
2. One way to achieve this could be to let the mobile phones make the measurements and
the MSC make the decisions.
3. In the MAHO strategy, the network (BS and/or MSC) directs the mobile to measure the
signal strengths from the surrounding BSs and to report those measurements back to the
network.
4. The network then uses these measurements to determine where a handoff is required with
which channel.
5. The delay in this protocol starting from the handoff initiation till the handoff execution is
around 1 s. This time may still be too long to avoid dropping a call due to street corner
effect.
6. Some examples of present cellular networks which implement MAHO are the GSM
system and the IS-95 system.

Mobile-controlled handoff (MCHO)

1. In this case, the mobile phone is the only entity which measures the handoff criteria and
makes a decision based on them.
 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

2. The MSC is not involved in the handoff process resulting in reduced burden on the MSC.
The mobile has to choose the optimum BS based on the measurements.
3. Since the handoff process is implemented in the mobile itself, the delay is usually smaller
with a typical value of 0.1 s and is suitable for microcellular systems.
4. In this strategy, the mobile continuously monitors the radio signal strengths and quality of
surrounding BSs.
5. A handoff can be initiated if the signal strength of the serving BS is lower than that of
another BS by a certain threshold. Then the mobile requests the target BS for a channel
with the lowest interference and handoff mechanism will take place.
6. In such a case, the MS does not have any information about the signal quality of other
users, but handoff must not cause interference to other users.
7. MCHO is the highest degree of handoff decentralization. Some of the advantages of
handoff decentralization are as follows:

1. Handoff decisions can be made fast.

2. MSC does not have to make handoff decisions for every mobile, which is a very
difficult task for the MSC of high-capacity microcellular systems (radius < 1 km).

An example of a MCHO-based handoff control network is the standard for cordless

phones in Europe - digital European cordless telephone (DECT).

4. Differentiate between soft hand off and hard hand off.

 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

5. Explain the important techniques to enhance the cellular coverage capacity. OR

Write a Short note on Cell Splitting, cell sectoring, repeaters for extending range and Microcell
zone concept.

There is a performance criterion of cellular mobile systems like:

a) Voice quality.

b) Service Quality like coverage and quality of service.

c) Number of Dropped calls.

d) Special features like call forwarding, call diverting, call barring.

As the demand for wireless service increases, the number of channels assigned to cell becomes
insufficient to support required number of users.

At this point, cellular design techniques are needed to provide more channels per unit coverage
area.

Following techniques used to improve cell capacity in cellular system,

 Cell Splitting.
 Sectoring.
 Coverage Zone Approach.
 Repeaters

A) CELL SPLITTING:

 It is process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells, each with its own base
station and a corresponding reduction in antenna height and transmitter power.
 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

 Cell splitting increases capacity of cellular system since it increases number of times that
channels are reused, it preserves frequency reuse plan.
 It defines new cells which have smaller radius than original cells and by installing these
smaller cells called microcells between existing cells, that is radius will be half of the
original cell.
 Thus capacity increases due to additional number of channels per unit area, but does not
disturb the channel allocation scheme required to maintain the minimum co-channel
reuse ratio Q between co-channel cells.

B) SECTORING:

 This is another method to increase cellular capacity and coverage by keeping cell radius
unchanged and decreasing D/R ratio.
 In this approach, capacity improvement is achieved by reducing the number of cells in a
cluster and thus increasing the frequency reuse.
 The co-channel interference in a cellular system may be decreased by replacing a single
Omni-directional antenna at the base station by several directional antennas, each
radiating within a specified sector.
 The factor by which the co-channel interference is reduced depends on the amount of
sectoring used.
a) 1200 sectoring b) 600 sectoring

1) 3 Sectors 1200each

2) 6 Sectors 600 each

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Department of CSE and AI&DS

Advantages:

 Improvement in Signal capacity.

 Improvement in signal to interference ratio.
 Increases frequency reuse.

Disadvantages:

 Increase in number of handoffs.

 Increase in number of antenna at each base station.

C) COVERAGE ZONE/ MICROCELL ZONE CONCEPT

This approach was presented by Lee to solve the problem of an increased load on the switching
and control link elements of the mobile system due to sectoring.

 It is based on a microcell concept for 7 cell reuse.

 In this scheme, each of the three zone sites are connected to a single base station and
share the same radio equipment.
 Multiple zones and a single base station make up a cell. As a mobile travels within the
cell, it is served by the zone with the strongest signal.
 This approach is superior to sectoring since antennas are placed at the outer edges of the
cell, and any base station channel may be assigned to any zone by the base station.

D) Repeaters
1. The users of wireless networks require dedicated coverage for coverage in areas like
mountains, valleys, buildings, etc. To provide such range capabilities radio re-
transmitters called as "repeaters" are used.
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Department of CSE and AI&DS

2. Repeaters are bidirectional. They simultaneously transmit and receive signals from the
serving base station. They operate using over-the-air signals so that they can be installed
anywhere.
3. Repeaters are capable of repeating an entire cellular band.
4. When the signals from base station are received, the repeater amplifies and reradiates the
base station signals to that particular coverage region.
5. The noise that is received and interference are reradiated by the repeater on the forward
and the reverse link. So, repeaters must be carefully installed to adjust the forward and
reverse link amplifier levels and antenna patterns.
6. Directional antennas are connected to the inputs or outputs of repeaters for localized spot
coverage in tunnels or buildings.
7. If the coverage of a cell that is in use is modified then the user can allocate some base
stations traffic to areas covered by the repeater.
8. The repeater does not add capacity to the system. They are used to provide coverage into
and around buildings where the coverage is weak. Repeaters with DAS (Distributed
Antenna Systems) network are installed within the buildings to provide coverage into
targeted areas.
9. Knowledge of correct location for repeaters and distributed antenna systems within the
building needs planning, because into the building the interference levels are reradiated
into the building from the base station and from the interior of the building to the base
station.
6. what is frequency planning in cellular system? Draw frequency reuse pattern for N = 4 and N
= 7. Same as first question !

i. The design process of selecting and allocating channel groups for all cellular base stations
within a system is called as frequency reuse or frequency planning.

ii. Cellular radio systems rely on an intelligent allocation and reuse of channels throughout a
coverage region. Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels to be used with
small geographic area called a cell. Base stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel group
which contains completely different channels than neighboring cells.

iii. By limiting the coverage area to boundaries of a cell, same group of channels may be used to
cover different cells that are separated from each other by distances large enough to keep
interference levels within tolerance limits.
 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

iv. If each cell is allotted K sets of channels and if S channels are divided among N cells in
unique and disjoint groups which have same number of channels, then total number of available
channels can be S=KN.

Thus, a small value of Q means larger capacity as cluster size N is small whereas large value of
Q improves transmission quality. To improve capacity N is usually 4, 7 or 12.

vii. To improve capacity and efficiency of frequency reuse plan, cell sectoring is employed with
Omni directional antenna.

frequency reuse pattern for N = 4 and N = 7

 Each cellular base station is allocated group of radio channels to be used within a small
geographic area called “cell”. Base stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel group
which contains completely different channels than neighboring cell.

 By limiting coverage area to within the boundaries of cell, the same group of channels
may be used to cover different cells that are separated from one another by distance large
enough to keep interference level within tolerable limits.

 The design process of selecting and allocating channel groups for all the cellular base
station within a system is called frequency reuse or frequency planning. Frequency reuse
is important as the spectrum allocated for cellular transmission is limited and demand is
increasing rapidly.

For cluster size N = 7 For cluster size N = 4

P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS
 P. R. Pote College of Engineering & Management, Amravati
Department of CSE and AI&DS

Q.8 Show that the co-channel reuse ratio is given by Q = √3𝑁, where N is the size of cluster and
cells have hexagonal geometry.
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Department of CSE and AI&DS

Problems:
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Department of CSE and AI&DS