SOE CCE

Chapter 4
Extra Remarks
Dr. Samir Omar

10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Extra Remarks (1)

SOE CCE

Because of constraints imposed by

Natural irregular terrain
Man-made structures
Non-uniform population densities

The actual shape of the cell may not be

either a circle or a regular geometrical
shape but may be a little distorted.
Cells of the same shape form a tessellation
so that there are no ambiguous areas that
belong to multiple cells or to no cell.
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Extra Remarks (2)

SOE CCE

The propagation considerations recommend

the circle as a cell shape for defining the
area covered by a particular base station.
This is impracticable for design purpose,
since there could be areas which are
contained either in no cell or in multiple
cells.
In
most
modeling,
simulation,
measurements, and analysis of interference
in cellular systems, hexagons are used to
represent the cell structure.
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Example 4.1 (Significance of

Cellular Topology)

SOE CCE

Consider a single high-power transmitter that

can support 40 voice channels over an area
of 140 km2 with the available spectrum. If this
area is equally divided into seven smaller
areas (cells), each supported by lower power
transmitters so that each cell supports 30%
of the channels, then determine
(a) coverage area ofeach cell
(b) total number of voice channels available
in cellular system Comment on the results
obtained.
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

SOE CCE

Solution

Coverage area of a cell = Total service area / Number of cells.

Hence, coverage area of a cell = 140 km 2 / 7 = 20 km2
To determine total number of voice channels available in the cellular system:
Number of voice channels per cell = 30% of original channels (given)
Number of voice channels per cell = 0.3 x 40 = 12 channels/cell
Total number of voice channels available in cellular system is given by the
number of channels per cell multiplied by the number of cells in the service area.
Hence, total number of voice channels = 12 x 7 = 84 channels
Comment on the results
Thus, there is a significant increase in the number of available channels (84
channels as calculated above) in a given cellular system as compared to a noncellular system (40 channels as given).
This means the system capacity is increased.
However, care has to be taken in allocation of channels to various cells in such a
way so as to prevent interference between the channels of one cell and that of
another cell.
Adjacent cells should not be allocated the same channels, whereas cells located far
apart can be allocated the same channels using frequency reuse scheme.

10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Extra Remarks (3)

SOE CCE

Typical size of a cell may vary from a few

100 meters in cities (or even less at higher
frequencies) to several kilometers on the
countryside.
Smaller cells are used when there is a
requirement to
Support a large number of mobile users in a small
geographic region
When a low transmission power may be required
to reduce the effects of interference.

Typical uses of small cells are in urban areas.

10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Example 4.3 (Cell Size and

System Capacity)

SOE CCE

(a) Assume a cellular system of 32 cells with a cell

radius of 1.6 km, a total spectrum allocation that
supports 336 traffic channels, and a reuse pattern
of 7. Calculate the total service area covered with
this configuration, the number of channels per cell,
and a total system capacity. Assume regular
hexagonal cellular topology.
(b) Let the cell size be reduced to the extent that
the same area as covered in Part (a) with 128
cells. Find the radius of the new cell, and new
system capacity.
Comment on the results obtained.
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Solution (1)

SOE CCE

Area of a regular hexagonal cell, Acell = 3sqrt(3)/2 X R2

Therefore, Acell = 3sqrt(3)/12 x (1.6 km)2 = 6.65 km2
Total service area covered = no. of cells in total area x
Area of a cell
Hence, total service area covered = 32 x 6.65 = 213
km2
Total number of available traffic channels = 336 (given)
Frequency reuse pattern (cluster size) 7 (given)
Hence, number of channels per cell = 336/7 = 48
Total system capacity = number of channels per cell x
number of cells
Hence, total system capacity 48 x 32 = 1536 channels
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Solution (2)

SOE CCE

(b) Total number of available cells = 128 (given)

Total service area = 213 km 2 (as calculated in
Step 2).
Area of a regular hexagonal cell total service
area/number of cells = 213 km 2 / 128 = 1.66 km2
Area of a regular hexagonal cell = 3sqrt(3)/2 x R2
Hence, R=0.8km
New system capacity = number of channels per
cell x number of cells
New system capacity = 48 x 128
Hence, new system capacity = 6144 channels
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

Comments on The Solution

SOE CCE

As the number of cells are increased from 32 to

128 to cover the same service area (213
km2),the size of the cell (in terms of radius R) is
decreased from 1.6 km to 0.8 km.
Keeping the identical number of channels (48)
per cell, total system capacity is significantly
increased from 1536 channels to 6144 channels.
Hence, cell size is one of the major factors to
determine the system capacity for a given
number of frequency channels allocated to serve
the designated area.
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CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

10

Extra Remarks (4)

SOE CCE

The
carrier-to-interference
ratio
(C/I)
requirements are considerably lower for digital
systems as compared to analog systems.
The spectrum efficiency increases if the C/I value
is lowered. This is due to the fact that lowering
the acceptable value of C/I reduces the frequency
reuse distance and the reuse pattern.
The co-channel interference can be controlled by
geographical separation whereas adjacentchannel interference depends on the receiver
filter
characteristics
and
out-of-band
transmission.
10/18/16

CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

11

Extra Remarks (5)

SOE CCE

The minimum value of cluster size provides

optimum spectrum occupancy (ideally cluster size
should be one e.g. in CDMA system).
Once a mobile moves out of the radio coverage of a
cell, the channel pair it occupied for duplex
communication link is now available for another
communication link in that cell.
By making cells smaller, frequencies can be reused
at shorter distances.
Typically, once the radius drops below about 0.5
km, the hand-offs occur so frequently that it is
difficult to cope with a mobile moving at high speed.
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CENG630 - Wireless Communications and

Pervasive

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