Chapter Three The Cellular Concept: System Design Fundamentals

BY : Amare Kassaw

Goal of the Chapter

In cellular system, the available radio spectrum is limited E.g., because of regulatory issues Hence, the number of simultaneous call supported is limited How to achieve high capacity (or support simultaneous calls) at the same time covering very large areas? Frequency reuse by using cells Overview system design fundamentals on cellular communication Cell formation and the associated frequency reuse, handoff, and power control
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Lecture Outlines Introduction Cellular Concept & Frequency Reuse Channel Assignment Strategies Handoff Strategies Interference and System Capacity Trunking and Grade of Services Summary

Used Acronyms BS: Base station MS: Mobile station MSC: Mobile switching center GOS: Grade of services CCI : Co-channel interference ACI: Adjacent channel interference

Introduction Conventional Mobile Radio System and its Limitations Single high power transmitter and large antenna towers/masts Large coverage area/larger size radios with large batteries Limited number of channels Poor quality of service Still in use for some public/private organizations

 The coverage area called tower footprint of these towers was theoretically circular in shape with radius around 50 km.

As long as cities being covered were far away from each other, no interference occurred between the transmissions in different cities.
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 The assigned spectrum (40 MHz or more) was used in every city being covered. The bandwidth for full duplex transmission would give a total of 60 kHz per user Thus total number of users who can call or receive calls at the same time in any city was around 660 users only. For a large city(with 10,000,000 residents for example) this is extremely low and the system would get congested so easily.

 Due to the large distance between the MS and the BS (up to 50 km or more), mobile phones had to transmit high powers. This results in the need for large batteries and therefore phones were large in size and inconvenient.

So, cellular system with frequency reuse is the solution to avoid the problem of spectral congestion , capacity and power budget.
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The Cellular System

High capacity is achieved by limiting the coverage area of each BS to a small geographic region called a cell Single, high power transmitter (large cell) are replaced with many low power transmitters (small cells) A portion of the total number of channels is allocated to each cell or BS Available group of channels are assigned to a small number of neighbouring BS called cluster Near by BS are assigned d/t groups of channels to minimize interference
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Cellular System- Architecture

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 Same channels (frequencies/timeslots/codes) are reused by spatially separated base stations Reuse distance and frequency reuse planning. A switching technique called handoff enables a call to proceed from one cell to another As demand (# of users) increases, the number of BS may be increased to provide additional capacity Smaller cells, e.g., Microcells, Picocell, Femtocell Also cell sites in trucks to replace downed cell towers after natural disasters, or to create additional capacity for large gatherings(football games, rock concerts)
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 Transmission power reduction => interference decreases Typical power transmitted by the radios in a cell system Base Station: Maximum Effective Radiated Power (ERP) is100W, or up to 500 W in rural areas Mobile Station: Typically 0.5 W , for CDMA transmit power is lowered when close to a BS

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The Cellular Concept

The Cellular Idea Divide the service area into several smaller Cells Put at least as many towers as the # of cells and reduce the transmitter power of each BS Reuse the allocated frequency spectrum (channels) as many times as possible avoiding interference Gains but with Pains Greater system capacity at the cost of large infrastructure Optimal frequency spectrum utilization attained by making system more complicated User equipment design made smarter at the cost of circuit complexity and processing power
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 Frequency Reuse Example

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The Cell Shape Actual radio coverage area of cell is amorphous (irregular shaped) Obtained by field measurements or by using prediction models through computer simulation This is known as footprints

(a) is theoretical coverage area and (b) measured coverage area where red, blue, green, and yellow indicate signal strength in decreasing order
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 All cells should have same shape and equal area Circular (theoretical): If path loss was a decreasing function of distance(say 1/dn) where d is the distance b/n BS & MS

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 When using hexagon to model coverage areas Center-excited cell: BS depicted as being in the center of the cell Omni-directional antenna is used Edge-excited cell: on three of the six cell vertices Sectored direction antenna is used

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Geometry of Hexagons

Axes U and V intersect at 600 Assume unit distance is the distance between cell centers If cell radius to point of hexagon is R, then 2Rcos 30o = 1 or R = 1/3 (Normalized radius of a cell) To find the distance of a point P(u,v) from the origin, use XY to U-V coordinate transformation as
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 Using this equation, to locate the co-channel cells, start from a reference cell and move i-hexagons along the U-axis and j-hexagons along the V-axis The distance, D, between co-channel cells in adjacent clusters is given by

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 The number of cells in a cluster is given by

where i and j are non-negative integers In real system , there are only certain cluster sizes and layouts possible. Typical values of N are 1, 3, 7, 12,

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Locating Co-channel Cells Observation: The Geometry of the Hexagons is such that the number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values such that

Hence to find out the nearest co-channel neighbours of a particular cell, do the following Move i cells in the U direction Then turn 60 degree counter clockwise and move j cells in the V direction

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 Example : N=7, i=2,j=1

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 Example : N=28, i=4, j=2

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Frequency Reuse Principles Let us assume a city of 10 Million mobile users Let every user is allocated a radio spectrum for analog speech of 4kHz bandwidth Thus the required bandwidth is 4 kHz * 10 Million users = 40 GHz! Clearly impractical! No other services possible using a radio transmission Most of the spectrum will be unused most of the time

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 Cellular radio systems rely on intelligent allocation and reuse of channels through out the coverage area Available group of channels are assigned to a cluster Same group of frequencies are reused to cover another cell separated by a large enough distance, Hence a trade-off in the design is required

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 To understand the frequency reuse concept, consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels available for use If each cell is allocated a group of k channels (k<S), and if the S channels are divided among N cells into unique and disjoint channel groups each have the same number of channels The total number of available radio channels can be expressed as S = kN The N cells that collectively use the complete set of available frequencies is called a cluster

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 If a cluster is replicated M times within the system, the total number of duplex channels can be used as a measure of capacity and is given C =MS= MkN The factor N is called the cluster size and is typically values are 1,3 , 7, 12,...

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 The value N is a function of how much interference a mobile or BS can tolerate while maintaining a sufficient quality of communications. Smallest possible value of N is desirable in order to maximize capacity over a given coverage area The frequency reuse factor of a cellular system is given by 1/N

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Effect of Cell Size Trade offs Advantages of smaller cell size: Higher M (more replications of cell cluster) Higher system capacity Lower power requirements for mobiles Disadvantage of smaller cell size: Additional base stations required More frequent handoffs Extra possibilities for interference
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Effect of Cluster Size Trade offs Each clusters have unique group of channels which are repeated over clusters Keeping cell size the same Large N: weak interference but lower capacity Small N: higher capacity, more interference, need to maintain certain S/I level More clusters are required to cover area of interest, So capacity is directly prop. to replication factor for fixed area Results in larger co-channel interference May result in lower Quality of Service (QoS)
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System Design Examples

A total of 33 MHz bandwidth is allocated to a particular FDD Cellular Phone System. If the Simplex Voice/Control Channel bandwidth is 25 KHz, Find the total # of Channels available per Cell if the System uses (a) 4-Cell Frequency Reuse (b) 7-Cell Frequency-Reuse Plan. If 1 MHz out of the total allocated bandwidth is used for Control Channels, determine an equitable distribution of the Control and Voice Channels in each Cell in case of each Frequency-Reuse Plan.

Solution:
Total allocated bandwidth = 33 MHz, Duplex channel bandwidth = 25x2=50 KHz Total # of Available(Voice/Control) Channels = 33,000/50 = 660 Channels. (a) N= 4, so total # of Channels/Cell = 660/4 = 165 Channels (b) N=7, so total # of Channels/Cell = 660/7 = 95 Channels In Case of 1 MHz bandwidth allocated for Control Channels, total # of Control Channels = 1000/50=20 Channels per Systems. Out of 660 Channels, 20 are used as Control and remaining 640 as Voice Channels. (a) N=4, Each Cell can have 20/4=5 Control Channels and 640/4=160 Voice Channels. But, each Cell needs only one Control Channel, so, each cell will be assigned one Control Channel and 160 Voice Channel. (b) N = 7, Each Cell can have 20/7 = 3 Control Channels and 640/7=91 Voice Channels[Plus 3 Extra], but it needs only 1 Control Channel, so, we can assign 4 Cells with 91 Voice Channels and one Control Channels, and 3 Cells with 92 Voice Channels and one Control Channels.
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The Channel Assignment Strategies Objective: maximize the system capacity while minimizing the
interference A constrained optimization problem Classification: Fixed Channel Allocation Dynamic Channel Allocation Hybrid Channel Allocation Borrowed Channel Allocation Choice has impact on system performance Handoff Call Initialization MSC Processing Load

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Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA) Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channels. Any call attempt within the cell can only be served by the unused channels in that particular cell. Any request for a handoff , if all channels of this candidate cell are in use, will not be treated. MS may have to wait, call can drop even Probability of blocking is high.

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 Simple, but a busy cell will run out of channels before a neighbouring cell Service variations of fixed assignment strategy exit System performance will be limited by the most crowded cell

Several solution to solve the problem: Borrowing Strategy Reserve Some Channels for Handoff

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Borrowing channel assignment strategies Modified from fixed channel assignment strategies. A cell is allowed to borrow channels from a neighbouring cell if all of its own channels are already occupied. The MSC supervises such borrowing procedures and ensures that the borrowing of a channel does not disrupt or interfere with any of the calls in progress in the donor cell.

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Dynamic Channel Assignment Channels are not allocated to different cells permanently. Each time a call request is made, the serving base station requests a channel from the MSC. To ensure a required QoS, the MSC allocates a given frequency if that frequency is not currently in use in The cell, or In any other cell which falls within the limiting reuse distance, i.e., channels in neighbouring cells must still be different

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 The MSC allocates a channel to the requested cell following an algorithm that takes into account : The likelihood of future blocking within the cell, The frequency of use of the candidate channel, The reuse distance of the channel, and Other cost functions. DCA requires the MSC to collect real-time data on channel occupancy, traffic distribution, and radio signal strength indications (RSSI) of all channels on a continuous basis.

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 Hence DCA Reduces the call blocking probability and call drop probability during hand off Improves system Trunking capacity (traffic intensity/channel): all channels are accessible by all cells But adds the costs of storage and computational load on MSC because MSC must collect real-time channel occupancy data Traffic distribution information Radio signal strength indications (RSSI) of all the channels
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The Handoff Strategies In a cellular network, the process to transfer the ownership of a MS from a BS to another BS is termed as Handoff or Handover. MSC facilitates the transfer In general, handoff involves Identifying the new BS Allocation of voice and control signals to channels with the new BS Usually, priority of handoff requests is higher than call initiation requests when allocating unused channels.
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 Handoffs must be performed Successfully As infrequently as possible, and Must be imperceptible to the user To meet these requirements, we must specify a minimum usable signal level for acceptable voice quality at the base station If the received power drops too low prior to handoff, the call will be dropped so that users complain about dropped calls

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 Handover Indicator: The parameters to monitor to determine HO occasion RSSI: in ensemble average sense. Bit Error Rate (BER)/Packet Error Rate (PER), more accurate. By looking at the variation of signal strength from either base station, it is possible to decide on the optimum area where handoff can take place.

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 Once a particular signal level is specified as the minimum usable signal for acceptable voice quality at BS receiver (normally b/n - 90 dBm and -100 dBm), a slightly stronger signal level is used as a threshold at which a handoff is made.

If is too large: unnecessary handoffs may occur, burden on MSC If is too small: there may be insufficient time to complete a handoff, calls may be loss or dropped.

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 Example 1: Improper Handoff Situations

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Example 2: proper Handoff Situations

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How to Prioritize Handoffs Guard Channel Method A fraction of the total available channels is reserved for handoffs In case of fixed channel assignment, it affects system capacity. But good in case of dynamic channel assignment Queuing Handoff Request Method Any handoff request, if can not be tackled immediately, it will be placed in a queue for sometime before the signal levels goes below the minimum acceptable and it has to be dropped. Does not guarantee 100% success for all handoff requests
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Handoff Styles 1. Network Controlled Handoff (NCHO) Used in the 1st generation analog cellular systems Here each BS constantly monitors signal strength from MS in its cell. Based on the measures, MSC decides if handoff is necessary or not. MS plays a passive role in process Creates heavy burden on MSC

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2. Mobile Assisted Handoff (MAHO) Used in 2nd and above generation systems MS measures received power from surrounding BS and report to serving BS Handoff is initiated when power received from a neighboring cell exceeds current value by a certain level or for a certain period of time Faster since measurements made by MS MSC doesnt need to monitor the signal strength Simple burden on MSC
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3. Hard Handoff: break before make FDMA, TDMA (1G and 2G Systems) The mobile has a radio link with only one BS at anytime. Old BS connection is terminated before new BS connection is made 4. Soft Handoff: Make before break The CDMA system mobile has simultaneous radio link with more than one BS at any time. New BS connection is made before old BS connection is broken. Mobile unit remains in this state until one base station clearly predominates.
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5. Intersystem Handoff: Used for MS at the border of the system(home service providers service area) MSC of the serving cell talks to the MSC of the neighboring system or vice versa to transfer the call. Several issues should be resolved before handoff can take place Call type Roaming is allowed or not Compatibility issues or standards User authenticity and call charges issues

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Practical Handoff Problems Problem 1: Simultaneous traffic of high speed and low speed mobiles. Small cell high speed mobile frequent handoff large cell Reduce capacity Solution: Umbrella Cell - cell split or hierarchical cell structure By using different antenna heights and different power levels, it is possible to provide large and small cells which are colocated at a single location. Small cell for low speed mobile Large cell for high speed mobile Need strong detection and handoff control.
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 This concept minimizes the number of handoffs for high speed users and provides additional micro cell channels for pedestrian users

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Problem 2: Cell Dragging Caused by pedestrian users that provide a very strong signal to the BS. Often occurs in an urban environment when there is a line-ofsight (LOS) radio path between the subscriber and the base station. As the user travels away from the BS at a very low speed, the average signal strength does not decay rapidly and the received signal at the BS may be above the handoff threshold, thus a handoff may not be made. Creates a potential interference and traffic management problem.
Solution: Careful arrangement of handoff threshold and radio coverage parameters.
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Interference and System Capacity

What is Interference: unwanted signal which affects the speech quality and system capacity Sources of Interference includes: Another mobile in the same cell A call in progress in the neighboring cell Other BS operating in vicinity using the same frequency band, Some non cellular device/system leaking energy in the cellular frequency band. Two major types of interference are: Co-Channel Interference (CCI) Adjacent-Channel Interference(ACI)
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 It is a major Bottle Neck in system capacity: a trade off has to be made between system capacity and information quality. Interference in the voice channels causes crosstalk A subscriber hears interference in the background due to an undesired transmission Interference in the control channels causes error in digital signalling which causes Missed calls Blocked calls Dropped calls
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Co-Channel Interference and System Capacity Frequency reuse implies that in a given coverage area there are several cells that use the same set of frequencies These cells are called Co-channel cells, and the interference between signals from these cells is called co-channel interference Note that thermal noise caused by electronic components can be overcome by increasing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) But co-channel interference cannot be reduced by simply increasing the carrier power of a transmitter. Because an increase in carrier transmit power increases the interference to neighbouring co-channel cells.
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 To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cells must be physically separated by a minimum distance to provide sufficient isolation due to propagation . So, when the size of each cell is approximately the same, and the BS transmit the same power, the co-channel interference ratio is independent of the transmitted power and becomes a function of the radius of the cell (R) and the distance between centres of the nearest co-channel cells (D) By increasing the ratio of D/R, the spatial separation between cochannel cells relative to the coverage distance of a cell is increased.
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 Thus interference is reduced from improved isolation of RF energy from the co-channel cell Co-channel Reuse Ratio (Q): The spatial separation between cochannel cells relative to the coverage distance of a cell. For a hexagonal geometry, it is related to the cluster size N

A small value of Q provides larger capacity since the cluster size N is small, whereas a large value of Q improves the transmission quality, due to a smaller level of co-channel interference
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 Co-channel reuse ratio for some values of N

Hence there is capacity versus interference trade off

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Co-Channel Signal to Interference Ratio Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells, then the signal-to- interference ratio (S/I or SIR) for a mobile receiver which monitors a forward channel can be expressed as

Where S is the desired signal power from the desired BS Ii is the interference power caused by the i th interfering co-channel cell BS

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 Propagation measurements in a mobile radio channel show that the average received signal strength at any point decays as a power law of the distance between a transmitter and receiver The average received power Pr at a distance d from the transmitting antenna is then

Where Po is the received power at a close-in reference distance in the far-field and n is the path-loss exponent (mostly between 2 to 5)

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 Now consider the forward link where the desired signal is the serving BS and the interference is due to co-channel BS. If Di is the distance of the ith interferer from the mobile, the received power at a given mobile due to the ith interfering cell will be proportional to (Di)-n. When the transmit power of each BS is equal and n is the same throughout the coverage area, S/I for a mobile can be approximated as

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 For simplicity, assume all interferers have equidistance, that is for only the first layer of equidistant interferers

This relates S/I to the cluster size, and in turn determines the overall capacity of the system Puts a limit on how low we may set N

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 For a hexagonal cluster of cells with the MS situated at the edge of the cell

Hence, as long as all cells are of the same size, S/I is independent of the cell radius, R

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Example If a signal to interference ratio of 15 dB is required for satisfactory forward channel performance of a cellular system, what is the frequency reuse factor and the appropriate cluster size that should be used for maximum capacity if the path loss exponent is (a) n = 4 , (b) n = 3? Assume that there are 6 co-channels cells in the first tier, and all of them are at the same distance from the mobile. (Hint: First consider 7 cell reuse pattern and decide the practical cluster size.

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Adjacent Channel Interference Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to the desired signal is called adjacent channel interference. An interference arising from energy spill-over between two adjacent channels. Adjacent channel interference results from imperfect receiver filters which allow nearby frequencies to leak into the pass band. The problem can be particularly serious if an adjacent channel user is transmitting in very close range to a subscriber's receiver.

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 This is referred to as the near-far effect, where a nearby transmitter (which may or may not be of the same type as that used by the cellular system) captures the receiver of the subscriber. Alternatively, the near-far effect occurs when a mobile close to a BS transmits on a channel close to one being used by a weak mobile. The BS may have difficulty in discriminating the desired mobile user from the close adjacent channel mobile.

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 Near-far effect: The adjacent channel interference is particularly serious. This occurs when an interferer close to the BS radiates in the adjacent channel, while the subscriber is far away from the BS The BS may not discriminate the desired mobile user from the bleed over caused by the close adjacent channel mobile Or, an interferer which is in close range to the subscribers receiver is transmitting while the receiver receives from the BS.

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 In practice, power levels transmitted by every subscriber are under constant control by the serving BS Each MS transmits with the smallest power necessary In power control Reduces the transmit power level of MSs close to the BS since a high TX power is not necessary in this case MSs located far away must transmit with larger power than those nearby Power control reduces out-of-band interference, prolongs battery life, and generally reduces even co-channel interference on the reverse channel
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 However, power control requires well Controlling a mobile means communication from the BS to the mobile to inform it whether to increase or decrease its power, which then requires data overhead In CDMA systems, every user in every cell share the same radio channel means a tight power control is required The near-far problem is even more of a problem in CDMA Need to reduce the co-channel interference Reduced interference leads to higher capacity

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 ACI can be minimized through careful filtering and channel assignments. By keeping the frequency separation between each channel in a given cell as large as possible, the adjacent channel interference may be reduced considerably

Channels are allocated such that the frequency separation between channels in a given cell is maximized.

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 If a subscriber is at a distance d1 and the interferer is d2 from the base station, then SIR (prior to filtering) is

Example: Suppose a subscriber is at d1 = 1000m from the BS and an adjacent channel interferer is at d2 = 100m from the BS Assume: Path loss exponent is n = 3 The signal-to-interference ratio prior to filtering is then

Hence we should use a careful filtering to avoid this .

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Trunking and Grade of Services Trunking System: A mechanism to allow many user to share fewer number of channels. Not every user calls at the same time. Penalty: Blocking Effect. If traffic is too heavy, call is blocked!! Small blocking probability is desired. There is a trade-off between the number of available circuits and blocking probability.

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 Trunking refers to sharing a fixed and small number of channels among a large and random user community Accommodating a large number of users in a limited radio spectrum Trunking exploits the statistical behaviour of users Let U be number of users and C be number of channels Each user requires a channel infrequently So a dedicated channel for each user is not required However, request for a channel happens at random times So for any C < U, possibility of more requests than channels
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 Trunking accommodates large & random users: By providing access to each user on demand from a pool of available channels When a user requests service and if all channels are already in use, the user is blocked or denied access to the system In some systems, a queue may be used to hold the requesting users until a channel becomes available Upon termination of the call, the previously occupied channel is immediately returned to the pool Designing a trunked system, that can handle a given capacity at a specific grade of service, requires Trunking and queuing theories.
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Terms Used in Trunking Theory

Setup time: The time required to allocate a radio channel to a requesting user. Users request may be blocked or have to wait Blocked Call: A call that cannot be completed at the time of request due to congestion Also called lost call => lost revenue, e.g., pick hours, holidays, Holding Time(H): Average call duration in seconds Depends on users and operator's tariff Request (or call) Rate (): Average number of calls per unit time Typically taken to be at the busiest time of day Depends on type of users community: Office, residential, call center
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 Erlang: The amount of traffic intensity carried by a channel that is completely occupied. For example, a radio channel that is occupied for 30 minutes during an hour carries 0.5 Erlangs of traffic. Grade of Service (GOS): is a measure of the ability of a user to access a trunked system during the busiest hour. GOS is typically given as the likelihood that a call is blocked, or the likelihood of a call experiencing a delay greater than a certain queuing time.

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 Traffic Intensity(A): Measure of channel time utilization, which is the average channel occupancy measured in Erlangs. This is a dimensionless quantity and may be used to measure the time utilization of single or multiple channels. Load: Traffic intensity across the entire trunked radio system, measured in Erlangs. Grade of Service (GOS): A measure of congestion which is specified as the probability of a call being blocked (Erlang B), or the probability of a call being delayed beyond a certain amount of time (Erlang C).
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 Trunking Efficiency: is a measure of the number of users which can be offered a particular GOS with a particular configuration of fixed channels. The way in which channels are grouped can substantially alter the number of users handled by a trunked system. From Table 3.4, for GOS=0.01 10 trunked channels can support 4.46 Erlangs. Two 5 trunked channels can support 2x1.36=2.72 Erlang. 10 trunked channels support 64% more traffic than two 5 channel trunks do.
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Computation of GOS

Analysis

Average arrival rate(): Average number of MSs requesting service (call request/time)
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 Average hold time(H): Average duration of a call (or time for which MS requires service) An average traffic intensity offered (generated) by each user

Example 1: If a user makes on average two calls per hour, and that a call lasts an average of 3 minutes

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 Then the total offered traffic intensity for U users are

In a C channel trunked system, if traffic is distributed equally among channels, then traffic intensity per channel

In Example 1, assume that there are 100 users and 20 channels Then A = 100(0.1)= 10 and Ac = 10/20 = 0.5 Note: Ac is a measure of the efficiency of channels utilization Offered traffic is not necessarily the traffic carried by the trunked system, only that is offered to the system The maximum possible carried traffic is the total number of channels, C, in Erlangs
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 Example, AMPS system is designed for a GOS of 2% blocking Channel allocations for cells are designed so that 2 out of 100 calls will be blocked due to channel occupancy during the busiest hour What do we do when a call is offered (requested) but all channels are full?
Blocked calls cleared; Offers no queuing for call requests, Erlang B Blocked calls delayed, Erlang C

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Types of trunked systems: 1. Blocked Calls Cleared No queuing for call requests: For every user who requests service, it is assumed there is no setup time and the user is given immediate access to a channel if channel is available. If no channels are available, the requesting user is blocked without access and is free to try again later. GOS: Erlang B formula determines the probability that a call is blocked.
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 Erlang B is a measure of the GOS for a trunked system which provides no queuing for blocked calls Setting the desired GOS, one can derive Number of channels needed The maximum number of users we can support as A = UAU or The maximum AU we can support (and set the number of minutes on our calling plans accordingly) Since C is very high, it is easier to use table or graph form

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 Blocking Probability: Erlang B Formula:

Where C number of trunked channels and A total offered traffic Assumption to the model There are infinite number of users. Call requests are memory less; both new and blocked users may request a channel at any time. Service time of a user is exponentially distributed Traffic requests are described by Poisson model. Inter-arrival times of call requests are independent and exponentially distributed.
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 The Erlang B chart showing the probability of a call being blocked as a function of the number of channels and traffic intensities in Erlangs
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2. Blocked Calls Delayed A queue is provided to hold calls which are blocked. Instead of clearing a call, put it in a queue and have it wait until a channel is available First-in, first-out line; Calls will be processed in the order received If a channel is not available immediately, the call request may be delayed until a channel becomes available. GOS: Erlang C formula gives the likelihood that a call is initially denied access to the system
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 There are two things to determine here The probability a call will be delayed (enter the queue), and The probability that the delay will be longer than t seconds The first time is no longer the same as Erlang B It goes up, because blocked calls arent cleared, they stick around and wait for the first open channel Meaning of GOS The probability that a call will be forced into the queue AND it will wait longer than t seconds before being served (for some given t)
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 Additional assumptions: The queue is infinitely long: Translates to infinite memory No one who is queued gives up / hangs up (rather than wait) The probability of an arriving call not having an immediate access to a channel (or being delayed) is given by Erlang C formula

It is typically easiest to find a result from a chart

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 Once it enters the queue, the probability that the delay is greater than t (for t > 0) is given as

The marginal (overall) probability that a call will be delayed AND experience a delay greater than t is then

The average delay for all calls in a queued system

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 The Erlang C chart showing the probability of a call being delayed as a function of the number of channels and traffic intensities in Erlangs

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 Examples Consider a system with 100 cells Each cell has C = 20 channels Generates on average = 2 calls/hour The average duration of each call (H) = 3 Minutes How many number of users can be supported if the allowed probability of blocking is

a . 2%

b. 0.2%

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 Solution:

a.
From Erlang B Chart, total carried traffic = 13 Erlangs Traffic intensity per user AU = H = 0.1 Erlangs The total number of users that can be supported by a cell = 13/0.1 = 130 Users/cell Therefore, the total number of users in the system is 13,000

b.
Again from Erlang B Chart, total carried traffic = 10 Erlangs Traffic intensity per user AU = H = 0.1 Erlangs The total number of users that can be supported by a cell = 10/0.1 = 100 Users/cell Therefore, the total number of users in the system is 10,000 We support less number of users here
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Summary Concepts such as handoff, frequency reuse, Trunking efficiency, and frequency planning are covered Capacity of cellular system is a function of many things, E.g., S/I that limits frequency reuse, which intern limits the number of channels within the coverage area Trunking efficiency limits the number of users that can access a trunked radio system. We may have a block call cleared or block call delayed trunked system
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