UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

PAPER NO

EXAMINATION

DATE

Second Semester 2002/2003

BEECE/02S/13

BEng (Hons) Electronic and

Communication Engineering
Level 4

Monday 12 May 2003

SERIES

PAPER

TIME

May 2003

Mobile Communications
(ELEC 4230/ELEC 4230 A)

09.30 11.30

This paper contains FIVE (5) Questions. Each Question carries 25

marks. Candidates are requested to answer ANY FOUR (4 ) Questions.
A list of formulae is given at the end of the Question Paper.

Question 1

(a)

(i)

What is meant by a cluster of cells in a cellular system?

[2 marks]

(b)

(c)

(ii)

Draw a cellular structure with a cluster size of 12. Clearly

outline in bold one particular cluster. On your diagram, choose
any cell (label A) in the cluster you have outlined in bold and
identify two of its nearest co-channel cells (label B and C).
[4 marks]

(i)

For hexagonal geometry, derive the equation relating the cell

radius R, the re-use distance D, and the cluster size N.
[3 marks]

(ii)

Hence, or otherwise, show that the signal-to-interference ratio

S/IT may be written as
S
( 3N ) 4
?
[6 marks]
IT
6

(iii)

A cellular service provider says that his system can tolerate a

signal-to-interference ratio of 20 dB in the worst case. What is
the optimal value of the cluster size?
What assumptions do you make in evaluating the cluster size?
[3 marks]

A total of 33 MHz of bandwidth is allocated to a particular Frequency

Division Duplex (FDD) cellular system. The system uses two 25 kHz
simplex channels to provide full duplex voice and control channels.
(i)

What is the total number of channels available in each cell if the

system uses a 12-cell cluster?
[2 marks]

(ii)

1 MHz of the allocated spectrum is dedicated to control

channels.
Determine an equitable distribution of control and voice
channels in each cell.
Cellular systems usually use only one control channel per cell.
Suggest how one control channel may be enough for one cell.
[5 marks]

Page 1 of 6

Question 2
(a)

(b)

(i)

What is meant by Large Scale Path Loss?

(ii)

In what circumstances large scale path loss models are used to

describe radio wave propagation loss in a cellular system?
[3 marks]

[2 marks]

A mobile is located at a distance R=5 km from a base station and uses

an antenna with a gain of 2.55 dB. The amplitude E0 of the E-field at a
reference distance d 0=1 km from the transmitter is measured as 10 -3
V/m. The system uses a 900 MHz carrier frequency.
Find the received power at the mobile using the 2-ray ground reflection
model with the following parameters:
Height of transmitting antenna, h 1:

60 m

Height of receiving antenna, h 2:

(Assume air impedance ? = 377 ? )

1.5 m

Discuss quantitatively the validity of your answer for the system

parameters given.
[7 marks]
(c)

(i)

What are Fresnel zones in relation to diffraction of radio

waves?
[2 marks]

(ii)

For a knife-edge geometry, show that the excess phase ? ? is

given by
2? ?h 2 ? d 1 ? d 2 ??
??
?? ?
? ?
? ? 2 ?? d 1 d 2 ???
where
h is the height of the obstacle between transmitter and receiver;
d 1 is the distance from transmitter to obstacle;
d 2 is the distance from receiver to obstacle;
and ? is the wavelength of the radio wave.
[5 marks]

(iii)

Calculate the diffraction loss if h=35 m, d 1= 0.75 km, d 2=1.25 km,

and ?=1/3 m. Also identify the Fresnel zone within which the
tip of the obstacle lies.
[6 marks]

Page 2 of 6

Question 3
Mobile communication has been given a new boost with the arrival into scene
of Mobile Satellite Systems (MSS). While some of these systems have been
deployed and are at present operational, other deployed systems are in the
process of closing down.
(a)

(i)

MSS can be LEO systems, MEO systems, or GEO systems.

State the typical orbital radii (or satellite altitudes) of each of
these systems.
[3 marks]

(ii)

Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of having

satellites in these orbits for the provision of mobile
communication.
[6 marks]

(iii)

Satellites must be placed at altitudes either below 1500 km or

above 10000 km. Suggest a reason for this.
[2 marks]

(iv)

What are the predicted life spans of LEO satellites?

[1 mark]

(b)

(i)

Describe briefly the general structure of a MSS.

(ii)

With reference to the structure described in (b)(i), identify the

system components involved in

[5 marks]

(1) the path taken by a call when a satellite phone calls another
satellite phone,
(2) the path taken by a call when a satellite phone calls a land
mobile cellular phone.
[3 marks]
(iii)

(c)

Discuss the handover problem that is characteristic of MSS (as

opposed to land mobile cellular) and state how this problem is
dealt with.
[2 marks]

What are the difficulties causing some of the MSS operators to close
down business?
[3 marks]

Page 3 of 6

Question 4
(a)

Describe the role of the following system components in the GSM

system:
(i)

BSC

(ii)

MSC

(iii)

AUC

(iv)

HLR

(v)

VLR

[10 marks]

(b)

Briefly explain how a roamer is handled in the GSM system.

(c)

Speech and data traffic channels can be either full rate or half rate.

(d)

[3 marks]

(i)

What is the data rate for each of full rate traffic and half rate
traffic?
[2 marks]

(ii)

How does the physical channel transfer half rate and full rate
channels in its time slots?
[3 marks]

Link control procedures are employed in the GSM system to avoid or

minimise radio link failure.
(i)

What are the reasons for link failure?

[2 marks]

(ii)

Link control procedures rely on measurements of the received

signal strength (RXLEN), the received signal quality (RXQUAL),
and the absolute distance between base and mobile stations
(DISTANCE).
Explain briefly how each measurement is made.
[5 marks]

Page 4 of 6

Question 5
(a)

What is meant by
(i)

Rayleigh Fading,

(ii)

Doppler shift,

in a mobile radio transmission system?

(b)

[2 marks]

(i)

Compute the maximum Doppler shift for a vehicle moving at 80

km/hr and receiving a carrier of frequency 2 GHz?
[2 marks]

(ii)

Show that the Rayleigh faded received signal power P i(R1) can be
written as
E2 A
2
Pi (R1 ) ? 0 e g (t )
2 ?
where:
R1 is the transmitter-receiver separation
E0 is the amplitude of the E -field of the carrier
Ae is the antenna effective area
? is the air impedance
g(t) is the received complex signal envelope.
Give the expression corresponding to g(t).

(iii)
(c)

[5 marks]

Show that the signal envelope g (t ) ? R has a Rayleigh pdf.

[10 marks]

Explain the following:

(i) A narrow band system mainly suffers from burst errors (due to
fading).
[3 marks]
(ii) A wide band system mainly suffers from ISI.

END OF QUESTION PAPER

GR/sa

Page 5 of 6

[3 marks]

LIST OF FORMULAE
Gd ( dB) ? 0

for v ? -1

Gd ( dB) ? 20 log 10 (0 .5 ? 0.62 v)

for - 1 ? v ? 0

Gd ( dB) ? 20 log 10 (0 .5 exp( ? 0.95 v))

for 0 ? v ? 1

Gd ( dB) ? 20 log 10 0.4 ? 0.1184 ? (0.38 ? 0 .1v) 2

? 0 .225 ?
Gd ( dB) ? 20 log 10 ?
?
? v ?

for 1 ? v ? 2.4
for v ? 2.4

Page 6 of 6