Frequency reuse[edit]

The key characteristic of a cellular network is the ability to re-use frequencies to increase both coverage and capacity. As described above, adjacent cells must use different frequencies, however there is no problem with two cells sufficiently far apart operating on the same frequency. The elements that determine frequency reuse are the reuse distance and the reuse factor. The reuse distance, D is calculated as

where R is the cell radius and N is the number of cells per cluster. Cells may vary in radius in the ranges (1 km to 30 km). The boundaries of the cells can also overlap between adjacent cells and large cells can be divided into smaller cells.[4] The frequency reuse factor is the rate at which the same frequency can be used in the network. It is 1/K (or K according to some books) where K is the number of cells which cannot use the same frequencies for transmission. Common values for the frequency reuse factor are 1/3, 1/4, 1/7, 1/9 and 1/12 (or 3, 4, 7, 9 and 12 depending on notation).[5] In case of N sector antennas on the same base station site, each with different direction, the base station site can serve N different sectors. N is typically 3. A reuse pattern of N/K denotes a further division in frequency among N sector antennas per site. Some current and historical reuse patterns are 3/7 (North American AMPS), 6/4 (Motorola NAMPS), and 3/4 (GSM). If the total available bandwidth is B, each cell can only use a number of frequency channels corresponding to a bandwidth of B/K, and each sector can use a bandwidth of B/NK. Code division multiple access-based systems use a wider frequency band to achieve the same rate of transmission as FDMA, but this is compensated for by the ability to use a frequency reuse factor of 1, for example using a reuse pattern of 1/1. In other words, adjacent base station sites use the same frequencies, and the different base stations and users are separated by codes rather than frequencies. While N is shown as 1 in this example, that does not mean the CDMA cell has only one sector, but rather that the entire cell bandwidth is also available to each sector individually. Depending on the size of the city, a taxi system may not have any frequency-reuse in its own city, but certainly in other nearby cities, the same frequency can be used. In a large city, on the other hand, frequency-reuse could certainly be in use. Recently also orthogonal frequency-division multiple access based systems such as LTE are being deployed with a frequency reuse of 1. Since such systems do not spread the signal across the frequency band, inter-cell radio resource management is important to coordinate resource allocation between different cell sites and to limit the inter-cell interference. There are various means of Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) already defined in the standard.[6]Coordinated scheduling, multi-site MIMO or multi-site beam forming are other examples for inter-cell radio resource management that might be standardized in the future.

Cellular Concepts

The many frequency blocks detailed earlier are used for a variety of communications services. Higher frequencies (say above 6 GHz) are mostly used for point-to-point services such as dedicated private lines. Lower frequencies are better suited for broader coverage, and are split into geographical cells. 2.1.1 Frequency Reuse Covering a large geographic area with limited amount of spectrum leads to the reuse of the same frequency in multiple locations; this leads to co-channel interference considerations, meaning interference from different areas (or cells) that use the same frequency channel.1 Co-channel interference considerations are usually approached by considering the following parameters:

St: total number of RF channels available (given the amount of spectrum and channel width dictated by technology standard), S0: number of channels per cell, which reflects system capacity at a given location, K: the reuse factor, is number of cells in a cluster, which is repeated to provide coverage over a large area.

The three quantities are linked by the straightforward relation:

The reuse factor K is therefore an import parameter for capacity. Of course the lowest reuse factor (K = 1) maximizes capacity; but this has to be balanced with interference considerations: indeed a higher reuse factor (K = 3, 4, 7, or even 19) provides more distance between cells using the same channel, which lowers interferences. 2.1.2 Interference Considerations in Reuse To quantify interference due to reuse we have to consider how a signal propagates from one cell to another. We will study propagation models later in chapter 3, but we need a few simple notions here. Assume a propagation model using a power path loss exponent n, that is a model where power decays in 1Rn (R being the distance separating transmit station from receiver). This means that the ratio of received power to transmit power may be expressed as PrPt = ARn, where A is some constant.

Frequency reuse patterns K =3, 4, and 7, on hexagonal cells. Bold contour shows the pattern of cells repeated to provide wide area coverage.Di shows the shortest distance between Figure 2.1: cells reusing the same frequency.

With this model, signal to interference ratios are estimated as

where i0 is the number of co-channel cells nearest to the cell (called first tier or tier one); that number increases with K. And Di is the distance to the tier-one cells reusing the same frequency (as shown in figure 2.1). In the case of hexagonal cell approximation the expression simplifies to [1]:

Well see more details on n further, its values vary typically between 2 and 4 with the types of terrain. Well also see that specific wireless technologies require a certain signal to noise and interference ratio (mostly based on data rates); so equation (2.3) leads to a minimal acceptable K. The tradeoff between capacity required and interference level required lead to the choice of K. In some areas however, that value may need to change, and several techniques are used to improve on it. 2.1.3 Capacity and Coverage Cellular system need to provide both coverage and capacity. There are many techniques for that, some are very costly, others cheaper , depending on the situations; they include:

Reducing reuse factor K in congested areas. Adjusting parameters: equipment manufacturers offer many features and functionalities which parameters may be optimized for specific needs. Changing antennas according to needs: diversity, gain, beam width, down-tilt, etc. Improving RF components: duplexers, combiners, jumpers, cables, connectors. Base stations may be upgraded to better sensitivity or higher transmit power. Deploying new Technologies such as bi-directional amplifiers and repeaters, tower-top devices filters and amplifiers, smart antennas, in-building solutions (distributed antennas), etc. Trunking: increase blocking probability to gain capacity Cell splitting: microcells, picocells, femtocells. Sectoring: often 3 to 6 sectors Range extension: use repeaters or low-noise amplifiers

Careful network optimization is required to determine where these technique may be most effective. Of course, increasingly efficient standards are also very important, which will be detailed in further sections.

2.1.4 Multiple Access A major requirement of cellular networks is to provide an efficient technique for multiple devices to access the wireless system. These techniques include: FDMA: frequency division multiple access, perhaps the most straightforward, in which every user device uses its own frequency channel. This method was used in the first generation analog systems. TDMA: time division multiple access, in which a radio channel is divided in time slots, and use devices use their allocated time slots. In fact TDMA systems are often hybrid FDMA as well as multiple channels are used, most 2G systems were TDMA. CDMA: code division multiple access, in which orthogonal (or pseudo orthogonal) codes are used to differentiate user devices. CDMA is very spectrum efficient, and was used by 3G standards. There are several approaches to achieve CDMA, such as frequency hooping (FH-CDMA)or direct spreading (DS-CDMA). These are the main multiple access techniques, but subtle extensions and combinations can be devised to obtain more efficient schemes, which we will examine in later chapters (including orthogonal frequency division multiplexing - OFDMA).
2.2 System Capacity

Wireless communications deal with at least two main concerns: coverage and capacity. We will look at coverage prediction in the next chapters, and start here with a few words on capacity. 2.2.1 Channel Capacity One fundamental concept of information theory is one of channel capacity, or how much information can be transmitted in a communication channel. In the 1940s Claude Shannon invented formal characterization of information theory and derived

the well-known Shanons capacity theorem (Theorem 17, [11], p.628. That theorem applies to wireless communications. A great presentation of this equation can be found in [8] p.82; it presents a concise derivation of the equation, and includes a good introduction to important information theory concepts such as information and entropy. The Shannon capacity equation gives an upper bound for the capacity in a nonfaded channel with added white Gaussian noise:

where C= capacity (bits/s), W=bandwidth (Hz), SN= signal to noise (and interference) ratio. That capacity equation assumes one transmitter and one receiver, though multiple antennas can be used in diversity scheme on the receiving side. The formula will be revisited for multi antenna systems in 10.1.3. The equation singles out two fundamentally important aspects: bandwidth and SNR. Bandwidth reflects how much spectrum a wireless system uses, and explains why the spectrum considerations seen in 1.2 are so important: they have a direct impact on system capacity. SNR of course reflects the quality of the propagation channel, and will be dealt with in numerous ways: modulation, coding, error correction, and important design choices such as cell sizes and reuse patterns. 2.2.2 Cellular Capacity Practical capacity of many wireless systems are far from the shannons limit (although recent standards are coming incredibly close to it); and measuring the practical capacity requires different considerations, that are heavily dependent on implementation and standard choices. All the widely used digital standards (GSM, ANSI-136, cdmaOne) deal in their own way with how to deploy and optimize capacity. For TDMA, the number of time slots and voice coding characteristics give a capacity limit, and interference considerations are important as modulations link budget set the limit for coverage. CDMA systems, however, have no such hard limit: tradeoffs are possible between capacity, coverage, and other considerations linked to performance (such as likelihood of call setup failure, and dropped calls). The possibility of soft handoff introduces even more parameters. 2 Cellular analog capacity:

Fairly straight forward, every voice channel uses a 30 kHz frequency channel, these frequencies may be reused according to a reuse pattern, the system is FDMA. The overall capacity simply comes from the total amount of spectrum, the channel width and the reuse pattern. TDMA/FDMA capacity: In digital systems, capacity improvements mainly come from the voice coding and elaborate schemes (such as frequency hopping) to decrease reuse factor.(The frequency reuse factor hides a lot of complexity and will be examined in further details ([1] ch. 3.2, and 9.7); its value depends greatly on the signal to interference levels acceptable to a given cellular system). CDMA capacity: a usual capacity equation for CDMA systems may be fairly easily derived as follows (for the reverse link): first examine a base station with N mobiles, its noise and interference power spectral density dues to all mobiles in that same cell is ISC = (N - 1)S, where S is the received power density for each mobile, and is the voice activity factor. Other cell interferences IOC are estimated by a reuse fraction of the same cell interference level, such that IOC = ISC; (usual values of are around 12). The total noise and interference at the base is therefore Nt = ISC(1 + ). Next assume the mobile signal power density received at the base station is S = REbW. Eliminating ISC, we derive:

where

W is the channel bandwidth (in Hz), R is the user data bit rate (symbol rate in symbol per second), EbNt is the ratio of energy per bit by total noise (usually given in dB EbNt 7dB), is the voice activity factor (for the reverse link), typically 0.5, and is the interference reuse fraction, typically around 0.5, and represents the ratio of interference level from the cell in consideration

by interferences due to other cells. (The number 1 + is sometimes called reuse factor, and 1(1 + ) reuse efficiency) This simple equation (2.5) gives us a number of voice channels in a CDMA frequency channel3, the relation to the former capacity measure is simply m = NW. We can already see some hints of CDMA optimization and investigate certain possible improvement for a 3G system. In particular: improving can be achieved with dim and burst capabilities, with interference mitigation and antenna downtilt considerations, R with vocoder rate, W with wider band CDMA,EbNt with better coding and interference mitigation techniques. Some aspects however are omitted in this equation and are required to quantify other capacity improvements mainly those due to power control, and softer/soft handoff algorithms. Of course other limitations come into play for wireless systems, such as base station (and mobile) sensitivity, which may be incorporated into similar formulas; and further considerations come into play such as: forward power limitations, channel element blocking, backhaul capacity, mobility, and handoff. A final note on capacity: voice capacity is often given in Erlang, and refers to trunking efficiency given a certain blocking probability. ([2] p. 350, or [1] 3.6.)