CHAPTER 7

FREQUENCY HOPPING & FREQUENCY PLANNING

Section Objectives Upon completion of this section, the student will be able to understand the following:

The principles and appreciate the advantages of frequency hopping. The two types of implementation of frequency hopping . The Hardware Requirements for frequency hopping. The comparison between BBH and SFH Economical advantages of Hopping Frequency Planning for Non Hopping and Hopping Scenarios

FREQUENCY HOPPING TECHNIQUE Frequency hopping is an old technique introduced firstly in military transmission systems to ensure the secrecy of the communications and combat jamming. The philosophy is as simple as changing the frequency used in transmission at regular intervals. It has been included in GSM specifications mainly in order to deal with two specific problems which affect transmission quality: * Multipath Fading: The immunity to fading increases by exploiting its frequency selectivity, because using different frequencies the probability of being continuously affected by fading is reduced, so the transmission link quality is improved. This characteristic is normally referred as Frequency Diversity. This improvement is much more noticeable for slow moving mobiles. * Interference: The situation of permanent interference coming from neighbour cells transmitting the same or adjacent frequencies is avoided using Frequency Hopping because the calls will spend the time moving through different frequencies not equally affected by interfering signals. This effect is called Interference Averaging. As used in GSM, the frequency is changed on a per burst basis, which means that all the bits in a burst are transmitted in the same frequency (known as slow frequency hopping). FREQUENCY DIVERSITY It is well known that considering a cellular urban environment in most cases multipath propagation will be present and, as a consequence of that, important short term variations in the received level are frequent . This is called Rayleigh fading which results in quality degradation because some of the information will be corrupted. For a fast moving mobile, the fading situation can be avoided from one burst to another because it also depends on the position of the mobile so the problem is not so serious, but for a stationary (or quasi-stationary) one the reception may be permanently affected resulting in a very bad quality, even a drop call. Once the information is received by the mobile or the base station, the only weapon to cope with the disturbance produced by the fading (errors in the information bits) are the decoding and deinterleaving processes, with an effectiveness limited by the number of errors they have to deal with. Frequency hopping is able to take advantage of the frequency selective nature of the fading to decrease the number of errors at the same time that they are temporally spread. If a mobile is stationary (or quasi stationary) at a point where a deep fade exists on the frequency in question and the system uses frequency hopping, the call will spend time on frequencies which are not faded at that point. As a result, the decoding and deinterleaving processes can more effectively remove the bit errors caused by bursts received whilst on the faded frequencies (errors will be randomly distributed instead of having long bursts of errors). This increase in effectiveness leads to a transmission quality improvement of the same proportion.

INTERFERENCE AVERAGING The second effect of frequency hopping is referred as averaging the interference experienced by the calls. Considering a non hopping system, the set of calls on the interferer cells which can interfere with the wanted call is fixed for the duration of those calls and some calls will be found with very good quality (no interference problems) whereas some others with very bad quality (permanent interference problems). With hopping, that set of interfering calls will be continually changing and the effect is that calls tend to experience an average quality rather than extreme situations of either good or bad quality (all the calls will suffer from a controlled interference but only for short and distant periods of time, not for all the duration of the call). This interference averaging means again spreading the raw bit errors (BER caused by the interference) in order to have a random distribution of them instead of bursts of errors, and therefore enhance the effectiveness of decoding and deinterleaving processes to cope with the BER and lead to a better value of FER.

NON HOPPING SYSTEM

f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 Wanted Call (f1 fixed)

f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1

f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 f1 Interfering Call (f1 fixed)

Corrupted Bursts because of Interference

Figure 3: Cochannel Interference for a Conventional Fixed System

HOPPING SYSTEM

f1 f3 f1 f2 f3 f1 f2 f1 f3 f1 f2 f3 f2 f1 f2 f1 f3 f2 f3 f1 f2 f1 f3 f1 f3 f2 f1 Wanted Call (Pseudorandom Hopping over f1, f2, f3)

f3 f2 f1 f3 f1 f3 f2 f3 f1 f2 f1 f3 f1 f2 f3 f1 f2 f1 f3 f2 f1 f3 f1 f2 f1 f2 f3 Interfering Call (Pseudorandom Hopping over f1, f2, f3)

Corrupted Bursts because of Interference

Figure 4: Cochannel Interference for Hopping System

It is easy to see from figures 3 and 4 how this procedure works to improve the quality of the system. Frequency Hopping can be used to improve quality but also, advantages of FH allow to add more carriers while keeping the same level of quality so, there is a trade-off Quality vs. Capacity whit Frequency Hopping. Considering a fixed system with a certain quality and capacity as a reference, just only enabling the frequency hopping feature, a system with better quality and the same capacity will have been achieved. Provided that the reference quality was good enough, more new carriers (meaning an increase of capacity) could be added to the hopping system until the system quality goes back to the previous value in the fixed system. The result will be a hopping system with the same quality as the non hopping one but with much more capacity. (See Figure 5).

Q U Q U A C A P A C A P
HOPPING SYSTEM

C A

OR

Q U A

OR

Q U A

C A P

NON HOPPING SYSTEM

HOPPING SYSTEM

HOPPING SYSTEM

Figure 5: Quality - Capacity Trade-off

The main idea is very simple: For the same capacity FH improves the quality, and for a given average quality FH makes possible increase the capacity.

FREQUENCY HOPPING OPERATION So far, only the aspects associated with the effect of using different frequencies have been treated and nothing about the way in which the system hops over the set of frequencies has been commented. From the infrastructure point of view, there are two ways of implementing Frequency Hopping in a Base Station System (BSS), one referred as Base Band FH and another as Synthesiser FH. Their operation philosophies only differ in the way they establish the Base to Mobile Station link (downlink) in the Base Station part (considered from the Mobile Station, there is no difference at all between both types of frequency hopping) but it is worth to discuss the impacts in the operability.

BASE BAND FREQUENCY HOPPING (BBH) Its main characteristic is that the transmitting units (DRCUs) are always transmitting a fixed frequency and frequency hopping is performed by moving the information for every call among the available DRCUs on a per burst basis. A call will start in a particular timeslot of one DRCU and will move to the same timeslot of the other DRCUs spending the time associated to a burst (about 577 microsec.) in each DRCU (and hence in each different frequency). Changing the frequency implies changing the DRCU (the call hops between DRCUs). It must be noticed that although data are transmitted by different DRCUs, all the processing (coding, interleaving, etc.) is done by the digital part associated to the DRCU the call was initially assigned to, and only after that, the information is routed to the corresponding transmitting unit. Looking at the uplink, MS to BS direction, the call is always received by the DRCU the call was initially assigned to. The following table in Figure 6 will explain the performance: Assuming a cell with 4 DRCUs and 4 frequencies (f1 to f4), Base Band Hopping in a cyclic way and a call assigned to DRCU 3 timeslot 5 the call process will be described.

T C H D R C U 4

T C H D R C U 3

T C H D R C U 2

B C C H D R C U 1

f4

f3

f2

f1

TRANSMISSION BURST # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... Timeslot 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 ... Frequency f3 f4 f1 f2 f3 f4 f1 ... DRCU # 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 ... Timeslot 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 ...

RECEPTION Frequency f3 f4 f1 f2 f3 f4 f1 ... DRCU 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 ...

Figure 6: Call Progress on a Base Band Hopping System

The first consequence is that as many DRCUs as frequencies in the hopping sequence need to be physically equipped in the cell, which means that the restriction in the number of frequencies to hop over will come from the traffic requirements in the cell (number of DRCUs equipped in the cell). At the same time, because the DRCUs do not need to retune each burst, this type of FH can be used in cells where the combination of

transmission signals to the antenna is done through Remote Tune Combiners (high capacity cells usually equip that kind of combiners). As required by the GSM system, the BCCH frequency must be always on the air transmitting the maximum power (Power control do not apply for BCCH carriers), and particularly its timeslot 0 can not hop (if additional Common Control Channels -CCCHare allocated in other timeslots -1 to 7-, they will not be allowed to hop as well). From the working philosophy described for BBH there is no problem at all for timeslots 1 to 7 of the BCCH carrier to hop (provided that they are not used to allocate CCCHs) since the permanent presence of this frequency on the air is guaranteed, but the busts using this frequency will be transmitted at maximum power. This is another important point in BBH: The BCCH frequency can be included in the hopping sequence and also the BCCH carrier can carry hopping calls in timeslots 1 through 7. If Downlink Power Control is enabled in the Base Station it will only take effect for the bursts transmitted in the nonBCCH frequency. SYNTHESISER FREQUENCY HOPPING (SFH) In this type of hopping the DRCU changes the transmitting frequency each burst and the call always stays in the same DRCU where it started. The DRCU is able to retune to a different frequency for transmission every 577 microsecs., and because such fast frequency changes, Remote Tune Combiners (RTC) must not be equipped if synthesiser FH is to be used. So, Synthesiser Frequency Hopping requires the use of wideband combiner devices such as hybrid combiners. The main advantage of SFH is that there is no restriction on the number of carriers equipped in the cell. The number of DRCUs will be determined by the traffic needed to be handled, but they can hop up to over 64 different frequencies (limitation coming from GSM specifications) if they are available according to the planning. Since with SFH the number of frequencies can be greater than the number of carriers, if the BCCH frequency is included in the hopping sequence, its presence on the air would not be guaranteed unless the BCCH carrier transmits it when no other carrier does. This has two implications:

* The BCCH frequency can be included in the hopping sequence (SFH through BCCH) but timeslots 1 to 7 from BCCH carrier can not be used to carry traffic because they must be reserved to put the BCCH frequency on the air when necessary (dummy Bursts -DB-). At the same time, for the bursts transmitted in the BCCH frequency the DRCUs will do it at the same power used by the BCCH carrier (BCCH power). * The BCCH carrier will never hop. It will either carry traffic in timeslots 1 to 7 on the BCCH frequency (if not included in the hopping sequence) or transmit dummy bursts.

Because of this, BCCH frequency is not included in the hopping sequence, so BCCH timeslots do not hop and non-BCCH timeslots do. Following is a more detailed explanation of this, considering an example. Assuming a cell with 2 DRCUs and 5 frequencies (fb for the BCCH and f1, f2, f3 and f4 for hopping -fb being the lowest one-), doing Synthesiser Hopping in a cyclic way on DRCU 2 and a call assigned to DRCU 2 timeslot 5 the call process is described next in the table of Figure 7.

T C H D R C U 2

B C C H D R C U 1 BCCH Frequency: fb Hopping Frequencies: f1, f2, f3, f4

Transmission and reception are always routed through the same timeslot in the same carrier (it does not happen for transmission in Base Band Hopping). In this case, for timeslot 5, depending on the inclusion of BCCH frequency in the hopping sequence or not, the evolution of the call will be different (see table of Figure 7):

SFH through BCCH

SFH (BCCH frequency not included in the hopping sequence)

BURST #

BCCH DRCU Frequency

TCH DRCU Frequency fb(BCCH Pow) f1 f2 f3 f4 fb(BCCH Pow) f1 ...

BCCH DRCU Frequency fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ...

TCH DRCU Frequency f1 f2 f3 f4 f1 f2 f3 ...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ...

fb (DB) fb (DB) fb (DB) fb (DB) fb (DB) ...

Figure 7: Call Progress on a Synthesiser Frequency Hopping System: Effect of Inclusion of BCCH Frequency in the Hopping Sequence.

For frequency hopping operability, GSM defines the following set of parameters: * Mobile Allocation (MA): Set of frequencies the mobile is allowed to hop over. MA is a subset of all the frequencies allocated by the system operator to the cell (cell allocation) although it can be the same. * Hopping Sequence Number (HSN): Determines the hopping order used in the cell. 64 different HSNs can be assigned, where HSN = 0 provides a cyclic hopping sequence and HSN = 1 to 63 provide various pseudorandom hopping sequences. * Mobile Allocation Index Offset (MAIO): Determines inside the hopping sequence which frequency the mobile starts to transmit on. * Frequency Hopping Indicator (FHI): Defines a hopping system made up by an associated set of frequencies (MA) to hop over and a hopping sequence (HSN). Motorola equipment allows the system operator to define the hopping system on a per timeslot basis. So, allowing different hopping configurations for different timeslots.

This is very useful for the purpose of interference averaging and to randomise the distribution of the errors.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR FREQUENCY HOPPING As it was previously mentioned, Frequency hopping has been a feature included in Motorola equipment since the first stages of GSM deployment. As a consequence of that, all the equipment, even the oldest ones, has the possibility of working with frequency hopping without any modification at all in the hardware. The only thing that must be considered is the combining issue: Cavity combiners oblige to use Base Band Hopping, so if Synthesiser Frequency Hopping is to be equipped, hybrids will be required for combining purposes. The main consequence of using hybrids for combination is that it must be done in an intelligent way in order not to be affected by the initial limitations of hybrids compared with cavity combiners. The situation can be summarised as follows: Up to six carriers can be combined through a Cavity Combine Block (CCB) giving the maximum specified transmit power at the top of the rack (20 W), whereas only two carriers will be possible through hybrid combiners if those 20 W of Power are required. This does not mean any limitation at all, since the same situation obtained using cavity combiners can be achieved with hybrids by using the different antennae that system operators install for spatial diversity purposes. Considering a cell where six carriers are going to be equipped, and three antennae available (typically one transmitting and two receiving with diversity), the two possibilities are: Cavity Combining Blocks: The six carriers are combined and transmitted by the same antenna all together (Figure 8). The maximum power can be achieved at the output of the cabinet (20W). RX1 TX RX2

Max. Power (20W)

CAVITY COMBINER

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

Figure 8: Cavity Combination of Carriers used with BBH

* Air Combining: The six carriers are combined by pairs through hybrid combiners, and the three outputs fed each one to the three antennae (one transmitting and two receiving, for diversity) through a duplexer (only necessary in the two antennae used simultaneously for transmission and reception). The DRCUs are calibrated to transmit maximum Power (20W) at the output of the duplexer (top of the rack). The six carriers are combined on the air, after being radiated by the antennae, and the duplexers permit to use the same antennae for both, transmission and reception (Figure 9). With this configuration, two antennae transmit and receive, and the other one only transmits. So, for both configurations, cavity combining blocks and air combining, the maximum power at the top of the rack (20 W) can be transmitted.

TX1/RX 1
DUPLEXER

TX3

TX2/`
Max. Power (20W) DUPLEXER

HYBRID HYBRID HYBRID

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

D R C U

Figure 9: Air Combination used with SFH

An additional advantage of this configuration is that fewer frequencies are combined in the same antenna (2 in each antenna, compared to 6 in one antenna with cavity combiners) so, less intermodulation products are generated. Even more than 6 carriers can be air combined maintaining the maximum power at the output without increasing the number of antennae, by using dual polarisation antennae. In fact, one of these antennae can be considered as being equivalent to two conventional antennae, so up to four carriers can be combined in one antenna using hybrids and transmitting the maximum power.

GENERAL COMPARISON OF BBH AND SFH The main interest of this chapter is to compare BBH with SFH and point out their advantages. The most important aspects will be considered for comparison purposes. * Quality: The improvement in quality is the consequence of the frequency diversity, so both BBH and SFH offer the same possibilities to enhance the quality of a network, provided that the same conditions are considered. In that way, for low traffic cells, (few carriers) SFH allows higher improvement because of the higher number of frequencies that can be used. * Capacity: The increase in capacity that can be achieved with frequency hopping is related to the reuse of the frequencies. The tighter this reuse, the higher the capacity increase. As it has been described, the commonly used patterns for BBH and SFH lead to tighter reuse patterns in the last case (SFH) and thus the capacity can be increased more if Synthesiser Frequency Hopping is implemented. * Frequency Planning: Frequency Hopping leads to a simplification in planning issue, and a reduction of time and work. Base Band Hopping implementation still requires a frequency plan, because frequencies continue being associated to dedicated DRCUs (each DRCU transmits continuously the same frequency). Synthesiser Frequency Hopping, on the contrary, needs only the planning of BCCHs (non hopping) with no planning at all required for the hopping carriers. The frequencies are regularly distributed in the cells of a site, and reused in that way for all the sites (1x3 reuse pattern). SFH reduces the planning issue only to BCCH planning, always using a number of frequencies high enough to achieve a good BCCH layer, and hence being easy to plan. The best solution to save time and money in planning is to select SFH implementing a 1x3 reuse scheme. * Optimisation: Simplicity in optimisation tasks is achieved using Frequency hopping. Base Band Hopping reduces the optimisation periods, since it is done on a per cell basis, instead of doing it on a per carrier basis. According to Synthesiser Hopping, it is done in a different way, because of the different philosophy of working, where the correspondence between cells and frequencies is not so direct. Dealing with a controlled interference environment, the optimisation must be approached by modifying the hopping sequences looking for orthogonality between them in order to reduce the probabilities of cochannel interference. This issue is quite easy and fast, pointing at SFH as the most advisable type of hopping in order to take advantage of the reduction in optimisation. * Hardware impacts: Both types of hopping can be implemented in all Motorola equipment without any change, so there is no hardware impact at all. The only restriction Synthesiser Hopping introduces is that Cavity Combiners can not be used together with SFH. Air Combining, as described in previous chapters, allows maximum power of transmission even if high number of carriers are equipped in the cells so there is no limitation at all to use hybrid combiners, having the possibility of implementing both, BBH or SFH. * Hopping on the BCCH: Implementing Base Band Hopping, all the channels dedicated to carry traffic (TCH carriers and non signalling timeslots on the BCCH

carrier) can take advantage of it, since the BCCH is allowed to hop as well on non signalling timeslots. On the contrary, using Synthesiser Hopping, it is no worth to configure the hopping through the BCCH, since its non signalling timeslots would not be available for carrying traffic, losing capacity in the cell. * Flexibility: The main advantage of Synthesiser Hopping appears at the time of integrating a new site, because of the simplicity of this task: Only a clean frequency is needed for BCCH purposes, and the same frequencies used in all the sites will be reused in the new one, following the conventional 1x3 pattern. The grown of the network is easier and faster if SFH is implemented on it. There is another point to be considered and it is the interdependence between all the carriers in a cell existing in a Base Band Hopping system: As all the calls move around all the carriers, a faulty DRCU will affect all the calls. On the other hand, using SFH, all the timeslots work independently from the point of view of hopping, so there is no influence at all from problems appearing in any of them. * Economic advantages: From the economic point of view, Synthesiser Hopping gives more advantages, because the planning and optimisation tasks are almost inexistent, so the period of time necessary to deploy a network is much shorter. At the same time, as more capacity per site can be achieved, additional savings can be obtained because fewer sites will be required for the same capacity goal. The table in Figure 10 summarises all the previous results. ASPECTS OF COMPARISON QUALITY IMPROVEMENT CAPACITY INCREASE SIMPLICITY IN FREQUENCY PLANNING SIMPLICITY IN OPTIMISATION HARDWARE IMPACTS HOPPING ON THE BCCH FLEXIBILITY ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES BETTER OPTION TO IMPLEMENT BBH & SFH SFH SFH SFH BBH & SFH BBH SFH SFH

Figure 10: Comparative Analysis BBH vs. SFH

ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES OF FREQUENCY HOPPING

There are some points involved in the deployment of a system where Frequency Hopping gives the possibility of saving a significant amount of money. A system operator that has decided to implement FH in his system can save money taking advantage of: * Reduction in the number of sites needed for the same capacity and quality, respect to the fixed system case. * Reduction in time required for planning and optimisation tasks, respect to the fixed system case. The first aspect, fewer sites required, can be understood with the following example: A new system operator has to deploy a system from scratch to give service to 200000 subscribers. The spectrum assigned to this operator is 9.6 MHz, meaning 48 frequencies are available. Three possibilities can be considered: * Conventional Fixed Frequency System * Base Band Hopping System * Synthesiser Frequency Hopping System Considering standard values used for planning issues: * 2% Blocking * 25 mErlangs by subscriber * Traffic offered given by the table in Figure 14. The differences can be summarised in the next table (Figure 11):

COMPARATIVE ASPECTS BCCH Reuse Pattern: Frequencies Required for BCCHs: TCH Reuse Pattern: Frequencies Assigned for TCHs: Carriers per Cell: Site Configuration: Sites Required (3 cells/Sector): Relative Investment:

FIXED SYSTEM 4x3 12 4x3 36 4 4/4/4 77 100

BBH SYSTEM 4x3 12 3x3 36 5 5/5/5 57 75

SFH SYSTEM 4x3 12 1x3 (n/2n) 36 7 7/7/7 (*) 39 50

(*) Air Combining will be used. Figure 11: Comparison between BBH, SFH and Fixed systems

The main conclusions are (See Figures 11 and 12): * The same system capacity can be achieved and only 75% of the investment necessary to implement a Fixed System is required in a Base Band Hopping System. * The same system capacity can be achieved and only 50% of the investment necessary to implement a Fixed System is required in a Synthesiser Frequency Hopping System.

INVESTMENT REQUIRED 100

25% Saving 50% Saving

75 50

FIXED SYSTEM

BBH SYSTEM

SFH SYSTEM

Figure 12: Reduction in Costs Achieved with Base Band/Synthesiser Frequency Hopping

The second point in which costs can be reduced is the frequency planning and optimisation activities: * In a BBH system, all the calls move around all the frequencies (carriers) and because of that, the resultant performance observed is, in a certain way, an average of the behaviour experienced by all the frequencies separately. The main result is that planning and optimisation on a per carrier basis (each frequency separately) is not necessary and it is enough by doing it on a per cell basis (group of frequencies). * In an SFH system, as it was discussed, the reuse patterns are much more tighter than the ones used in a fixed system, so the planning is more simple. For the commonly implemented 1x3 pattern, all the frequencies are reused in a regular way in all the sites. The available frequencies are splitted into three groups and assigned regularly as the hopping sequence to each sector in all the sites. In this way, the planning work is reduced to plan the BCCHs (so, no TCH planning required), which will work without hopping, and built up the hopping sequences. The optimisation task is reduced to take care of the specific areas where collisions could appear because of irregularities in the sectorisation of the network. The optimisation is as simple as removing common frequencies from the sequences in

the cells where this interference can be present, which is referred as look for orthogonality in the hopping sequences. Although this approach has been done from the point of view of developing a new system, it must be considered as well that moving a system from fixed frequency operation to Base Band Hopping does not imply any additional cost at all. The increase in number of subscribers can be achieved without adding new sites, but more carriers need to be equipped in the existing sites. Similarly, for Synthesiser Frequency Hopping, the only requirement is that hybrids be used for combining the carriers into the antennae. As seen above, the technical advantages of frequency hopping described, result in significant savings for system operators, not only because of the capacity increase but also for less time/resources required for frequency planning and network optimisation.

SUMMARY Frequency Hopping operation can be summarised as follows: * Two effects: - Frequency Diversity: Protection against frequency selective deep fading, affecting stationary or quasi-stationary mobiles. - Interference Diversity: Randomise the interference situation and spread the errors to enhance decoding and deinterleaving effectiveness. * Two ways of working: - Base Band Hopping (BBH): The calls hop between DRCUs. Diversity gain depends on the traffic in the cell (number of carriers). - Synthesiser Frequency Hopping (SFH): The DRCUs hop (change their transmitting frequency). Diversity gain depends on the spectrum allocation (number of frequencies to hop over). * Possibilities offered: - Improve the system quality. - Enhance spectral efficiency leading to significant capacity increases. Reduce the number of sites, planning and optimisation required to deploy the network, saving money to the system operator.

FREQUENCY PLANNING & REUSE PATTERNS

Frequency Planning Aspects: The primary objective of frequency planning is to ensure that, given the limited RF spectrum, we achieve the required capacity (traffic channels), keeping the interference within specified limits. There are 2 types of Frequency Planning: Frequency Plans based on Reuse patterns ( manual ) Frequency Plans based on heuristic algorithms ( automatic).

Manual planning is done by dividing the available frequencies in to a number of frequency groups ( as per a selected reuse pattern ) and assigning frequencies to various sectors/cells. Suppose we have n frequencies. For a 3 cell repeat pattern with 3 sectors, we have 9 frequency groups, each group having n/9 frequencies. The sectors are labelled A1,A2,A3, B1,B2 and so on. Assuming that an operator has 32 frequencies, for example, from ARFCN 63 to 94, the frequencies could be grouped as shown in the table below.

A1 63 72 81 90 OR, A1 63 72 81 90

A2 64 73 82 91

A3 65 74 83 92

B1 66 75 84 93

B2 67 76 85 94

B3 68 77 86

C1 69 78 87

C2 70 79 88

C3 71 80 89

B1 64 73 82 91

C1 65 74 83 92

A2 66 75 84 93

B2 67 76 85 94

C2 68 77 86

A3 69 78 87

B3 70 79 88

C3 71 80 89

A1 A3 A2 C3 B1 B3 B2 A3 A2 A1 C2 C3 C1 C1

A1 B1 C2 A3 B2 B3 C1 B1 A1 A2

m X n reuse
The basic principle, cellular systems are based on, is the reuse of the frequencies in order to obtain the highest capacity with the minimum spectrum. The more the frequencies are used inside a certain coverage area, the more amount of traffic (capacity) can be carried. The possibilities of reusing the frequencies are limited by interference problems arising when the same frequency is used in two cells which are too close each other (cochannel interference). It can be considered that a cellular network is made up by a basic unit, in which all the frequencies are used, repeated all along the area which is intended to be covered. This basic unit (set of cells) is usually known as cluster, and it is the pattern used to deploy the network. The size of the cluster is directly related to the capacity that can be achieved: The smaller the size, the more times will be needed to be reused in the coverage area, so the higher the reuse ratio and hence, the capacity.

Figure 13: Frequency Reuse Pattern: Cluster

The usual way to refer to a reuse pattern is by giving the number of cells included in the cluster as well as its configuration. In that way, a cluster made up by m

sites with n cells per site, giving a total of p = m*n cells, will be referred as mxn reuse pattern. Any frequency will be used once and only once inside the cluster. As an example, a 12 cell cluster made up by 4 three-cell sites, known as 4x3 reuse pattern, is represented in Figure 13, meaning that one frequency will be reused once each 12 cells or, equivalently, that 12 frequencies (one per carrier) will be needed to configure this cluster (a 4x3 reuse pattern with, for instance, 3 carriers per cell would require up to 36 different frequencies).

Figure 14: 4x3 Frequency Reuse Pattern Considering a conventional fixed frequency system in GSM, it has been agreed that a 4x3 reuse pattern is the best compromise solution taking into account the cochannel interference and the reachable capacity. Higher capacity goals, without allocating more spectrum, lead to different techniques able to control the interference and allow the system operator to use smaller clusters (tighter frequency reuse patterns). Frequency hopping is the most efficient one, considering the very small cluster size that can be achieved. As it will be described later in the document, a 3x3 reuse pattern (see figure 15) can be successfully implemented in a system working with Base Band Hopping.

Figure 15: 3x3 Frequency Reuse Pattern implemented with BBH More aggressive reuse patterns such as 1x3 (all the sites reuse the same set of frequencies) are possible in a system working with Synthesiser Frequency Hopping (Figure 16), although it must be noticed that with SFH more than one frequency can be assigned to each carrier. This reduction in the size of the cluster, respect to the 4x3 one, can be used to increase capacity. The results achieved in the systems already implemented using that configuration prove its effectiveness to allow a very high capacity increase.

Figure 16: 1x3 Frequency Reuse Pattern implemented with SFH It is important to notice that, either for a fixed system or a Base Band Hopping system, the ratio Number of Frequencies/Number of carriers is always 1, whereas for a

Synthesiser Frequency Hopping system, it can be higher than one. In fact, as it will be shown later in this document, for these systems it is recommended to have at least double number of frequencies than carriers. SFH Most of the SFH networks employ 2 different re-use plan for the BCCH and TCH layers. Since the BCCH will not be hopping, conventional fixed frequency re-use plans such as 4X3 or 5X3 will be used. It is always a design goal to have a best BCCH layer, within the resource of the network. As for the TCH layer, the common methodology would be 1X3 (1 site 3-sector) re-use pattern. This is a much more efficient spectrum utilization, which is not possible in a fixed frequency system as the resultant C/I would be degraded badly beyond of the cell radius. An even more aggressive re-use plan 1X1 (1 site 1 sector) is feasible in networks where the operating environment permits it. 1X1 is by far the most efficient and yet practical aggressive re-use plan tested and proposed by Motorola. Nevertheless, careful planning has to be practiced to achieve good results. The guide lines are outlined in the next section.

Loading Factor (or sometimes termed as Fractional load factor) is an important parameter in SFH systems. It is calculated as: loading factor = (highest non BCCH transceiver count in a cell) (Number of hopping channels) Since the number of frequency channels is always higher than the transceiver count in a cell, some channels will be idle at one time. Thus, loading factor is equivalent to the maximum channel-occupancy to total-channel ratio in a cell at any given instant. The lower the value the lower is the channel loading, which indicates fewer collisions of frequencies and hence better quality. A theoretical maximum of 50% is permitted in 1X3 SFH. Any value higher than 50% practically results unacceptable quality. Some commonly used loading factor are 40%, 33%, 25% etc. In 1X1 SFH, a practical tested loading factor is 1/6 or 16.7%. For a rough comparison, this is about equivalent to a 33% loading in 1X3 SFH or a well-planned 4X3Xn fixed re-use network, as far as average quality is concerned. In terms of spectrum utilization or capacity, 1X1 at 16.6% loading is equivalent to 1X3 at 50% loading.

BBH Different re-use patterns are employed in BBH systems. Since the number of hopping frequencies must equal or less than the number of transceivers in the cell, the quality gain of BBH is higher in the cells with higher transceiver count. As a result, a progressive reuse pattern is usually used. This is analogy to a layered cake with a loose BCCH plan at the base and progressively tighter plan for each subsequent transceiver added to the cell.

For example: BCCH 4X3 plan 1st TCH 3X3 plan 2nd TCH 2X3 plan and so on Alternatively, a homogeneous re-use plan that is tighter than conventional 4X3 can be used. The widely used pattern would be homogeneous 3X3 re-use plan, which yields comparative results as in progressive re-use mentioned above.
2nd TCH (2X3) 1st TCH (3X3) BCCH (4X3) Progressive re-use 2nd TCH (3X3) 1st TCH (3X3) BCCH (3X3) Homogeneous re-use

Planning Guide The ultimate goal of frequency planning in a GSM network is attaining and maintaining a highest possible C/I ratio every where within the network coverage area. A general requirement is at least 12dB C/I, allowing tolerance in signal fading above the 9dB specification of GSM. The actual plan of a real network is a function of its operating environment (geography, RF etc) and there is no universal textbook plan that suits every network. Nevertheless, some practical guide lines gathered from experience can help to reduce the planning cycle time. Rules for SFH As the BCCH carrier is not hopping, it is strongly recommended to separate bands for BCCH and TCH. This has the benefits of: Making planning simpler, Better control of interference.

n channels BCCH

m channels TCH

Guard band

If micro cells are included in the frequency plan, the below band usage is suggested.
Macro BCCH Micro TCH Micro BCCH Macro TCH (SFH)

Practical rules for 1X3 BCCH re-use plan: 4X3 or 5X3, depending on the bandwidth available and operating environment. Divide the dedicated band for TCH into 3 groups with equal number of frequencies (N). These frequencies will be the ARFCN equipped in the MA list of a Hopping system (FHI). Use equal number of frequencies in all cells within the hopping area. The allocation of frequencies to each sector is recommended to be in a regular or continuous sequence. (see planning example) Number of frequencies (N) in each group is determined by the design loading factor (or carrier-to-frequency ratio). A theoretical maximum of 50% is permitted in 1X3 SFH. Any value higher than 50% would practically result unacceptable quality. Loading factor (sometimes termed as fractional load factor) represents the Some commonly used loading factor are 40%, 33%, 25% etc. As a general guide-line, N = (highest non BCCH transceiver count in a cell) (loading factor) For example: mixture of 4-4-4 and 5-5-5 site configurations and loading factor of 33%. Then N = 5/(0.33) = 15 frequencies in the MA list. As loading factor has direct effect on the overall network quality and its setting is highly dependent on the RF environment, a smaller scale trial is recommended to obtain the necessary data and experience before larger scale deployment. As a general rule, SFH with 33% loading is equivalent to a well-planned 4X3 fixed frequency system. Use same HSN for sectors within the same site. Use different HSN for different sites. This will help to randomize the co channel interference level between the sites. Use different MAIO to control adjacent channel interference between the sectors within a site.

The following example illustrates the above planning guide. Bandwidth : 10 Mhz Site configuration : mixture of 2-2-2, 3-3-3 & 4-4-4. Loading factor : 33% Multi layer environment (micro & macro co-exist)

The spectrum is split as shown:

8 channels

Macro BCCH Micro TCH

Micro BCCH

Macro TCH (SFH)

12 channels

27 channels

A total of 49 channels are available and the 1st and last one are reserved as guard band. Thus, there are 47 usable channels. 12 channels are used in the BCCH layer with 4X3 reuse pattern. Based on 33% loading and 4-4-4 configuration, N is calculated as N = 3 / 0.33 = 9 hopping frequencies per cell. Thus, a total of 27 channels are required for the hopping TCH layer. The remaining 8 channels are used in the micro layer as BCCH. One of the possible frequency plan and parameter settings are outlined in the below table: ARFCN 21,24,27,30,33,36,39,42,45 22,25,28,31,34,37,40,43,46 23,26,29,32,35,38,41,44,47 HSN Any from {1,2,63} Same as above Same as above MAIO 0, 2, 4 1, 3, 5 0, 2, 4

Sector A Sector B Sector C

The above MAIO setting will avoid all possible adjacent channel interference among sectors within the same site. The interference (co or adjacent channel) between sites will still exist but they are reduced by the randomization effect of the different HSN. Practical rules for 1X1 1X1 is usually practical in rural area of low traffic density, where the average occupancy of the hopping frequencies is low. With careful planning, it can be used in high traffic area as well. BCCH re-use plan: 4X3 or 5X3, depending on the bandwidth available and operating environment. The allocation of TCH frequencies to each sector is recommended to be in a regular or continuos sequence. Use different HSN to reduce interference (co and adjacent channel) between the sites. Use same HSN for all carriers within a site and use MAIO to avoid adjacent and cochannel interference between the carriers. Repeated or adjacent MAIO are not to be used within the same site to avoid co-channel and adjacent channel interference respectively.

Maximum loading factor of 1/6 or 16.7% is inherent in a continuous sequence of frequency allocation. Since adjacent MAIO is restricted, the maximum number of MAIO permitted would be: Max MAIO = x (Total allocated channel)

In a 3-cell site configuration, the logical maximum loading factor would be 1/6 or 16.7%.

Different MAIO to avoid co-channel HSN = 1

HSN = 1

HSN = 1

Non adjacent MAIO to avoid adjacent-channel

Rules for BBH All the rules outlined for SFH are generally applicable in BBH. As the BCCH is in the hopping frequency list, a dedicated band separated from TCH may not be essential. An example of spectrum allocation is shown below:
Micro BCCH

BBH channels & micro TCH