EE5401 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

I2R - NUS

Tutorial 3
Cellular design and Traffic Engineering

1.

(a) Prove that for a hexagonal geometry, the co-channel reuse ratio is
given by Q = 3N , where N = i 2 + ij + j 2
(b) Show that the frequency reuse factor for a cellular system is given by
k S , where k is the average number of channels per cell and S is the
total number of channels available to the cellular service provider.
(c) For i=3, j=2, draw the layout of the cellular structure.

2.

[Textbook] (a) A cellular service provider decides to use a digital TDMA

scheme which can tolerate a signal-to-interference ratio of 15dB in the
worst case. Find the optimal value of N for (i) omni-directional antennas,
(ii) 120 sectoring, and (iii) 60 sectoring. Should sectoring be used? If
so, which case should be used? Assume a path loss exponent of n=4.
(Please thought over the significant of the results)
(b)
If n=3, is there any change in your design decision?
[Ans: (a)(i) N=7 (ii) N=3 (iii) N=3, 120 sectoring should be used. (b)(i) N=12 (ii) N=7 (iii)
N=4, 60 sectoring should be used]

3.

[Textbook] For a N=7 system with a P(block)=1% and average call length
of 2 minutes, find the traffic capacity loss due to trunking for 57 channels
when going from omni-directional antennas to 60 sectored antennas.
Assume that blocked calls are cleared and the average per user call rate
is = 1 per hour. [Ans : from 1326 users to 738 users, a drop of 44%]

4.

[Textbook] Assume that a cell named Radio Knob has 57 channels, each
with an effective radiated power of 32W and a cell radius of 10 km. The
GOS is established to be a probability of blocking of 5% (assuming
blocked calls are cleared). Assume the average call holding time is 2
minutes, and each user averages 2 calls per hour. Further, assume the
cell has just reached its maximum capacity and must be split into 4 new
microcells to provide 4 times the capacity in the same area.
(a)
What is the current capacity of the Radio Knob cell?
(b)
What is the radius and transmit power of the new cells?
(c)
If traffic is uniformly distributed, what is the new traffic carried by
each cell? Will the probability of blocking in these new cells be
below 0.1% after the split?
[Ans : (a) 772 users (b) 2 W (c) 12.75 Erlangs, so blocking probability below 0.1%]
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5.

[Textbook] A receiver in an urban cellular radio system detects a 1 mW

signal at d = d 0 = 1 m from the transmitter. In order to mitigate cochannel interference effects, it is required that the signal received at any
base station receiver from another base station transmitter which
operates with the same channel must be below 100dBm.
A
measurement team has determined that the average path loss exponent
in the system is n = 3 . (a) Determine the major radius of each cell if a 7cell reuse pattern is used. (b) What is the major radius if a 4-cell reuse
pattern is used? [Ans: (a) >470.1 m (b) >621.9 m]

6.

[96/97 Exam] Assume a 4-cell reuse pattern. A total of 96 channels are

available for each cluster. In a specific cluster the traffic load is not
uniformly distributed over the cells.
To cater for the different
requirements, the available channels are allocated as follows: {42, 30, 18,
6} for the cells in the cluster.
(a)
Given a blocking probability of 2%, what traffic loads can each cell
accommodate?
(b)
Due to interference problems, 120 degrees sectorisation is
introduced into the system. What traffic loads can each cell now
accommodate? Explain possible differences.
(c)
Assume that we can categorize the traffic patterns into 3 classes.
Short message of duration 20sec/call, normal calls of duration 4
min/call and teenage gossiping of duration 1.5 hours/call. Let
there be 5 normal calls and 10 short message for each teenager
calling. How many calls per hour can be accommodated on
average in the cluster when sectorisation is not used?
[Ans: (a) 32.8, 21.9, 11.5, 2.28 Erlang (b) 24.6, 15.24, 6.84, 0.67 Erlang (c) 580 calls/hr]

7.

[96/97 Exam] Shadowing is experienced in each cell. The shadowing

follows a log-normal distribution with a shadowing spread of 5 dB. The
transmitted power is Pt =10W, the cell radius of R=3km, the reference
distance is d 0 =1km, and the carrier frequency is 900MHz.
The
environment is described by a path loss exponent of = 3.5 .
(a)
Assuming shadowing losses only, what is the probability that the
received signal level is 3 times smaller than the average level?
(b)
Assuming that satisfactory performance is possible for a signal
level above the threshold level = 63.46 dBm, what is the
coverage percentage at the boundary of the cell given shadowing?
(c)
If the transmit power is increased by a factor of 3, what cell size

EE5401 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

I2R - NUS

should be used to maintain the same coverage at the boundary?

[Hint : If no knowledge is given for d<d0, then free space model is assumed]
[Ans: (a) 0.829 (b) 0.171 (c) R=4.1km]

8.

[Textbook] Consider 7-cell frequency reuse. Cell B1 is the desired cell

and B2 is a co-channel cell as shown in figure. For a mobile located in
cell B1, find the minimum cell radius R to give a forward link C/I ratio of
at least 18 dB at least 99% of the time. Assume the following:
Co-channel interference is due to base B2 only.
Carrier frequency = 890 MHz
Reference distance d0=1km
Omni-directional antennas for both transmitter and receiver
Gbase =6dB, G mobile =3dB
Transmitter power = 10W and equal power for all base stations.
PL (dB) between the mobile and base B1 is given as
d
PL(dB) = PL(d 0 ) + 10(2.5) log 1 X ( = 0dB )
d0

PL (dB) between the mobile and base B2 is given as

d
PL(dB ) = PL(d 0 ) + 10(4.0) log 2 X ( = 7 dB )
d0

[Ans: R>6.34 km]

9.

[Textbook] A PCS licenssee plans to build out a 30 MHz license in the

new US PCS band of 1850MHz to 1880MHz (reverse line) and 1930MHz
to 1960 MHz (forward lind). They intend to use DCS1900 radio
equipment. DCS1900 provides a GSM-like service and supports 8 users
per 200kHz radio channel using TDMA. Because of GSMs digital
techniques, GSM vendors have convinced the licensee that when the path
loss exponent is equal to 4, GSM can be deployed using 4-cell reuse.
(a)
How many GSM radio channels can be used by the licensee?
(b)
If each DCS1900 base station can support a maximum of 64 radio
channels. How many users can be supported by the base station
during fully loaded operation?
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EE5401 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

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If the licensee wishes to cover a city having a circular shaped area

of 2500 sq km, and the base stations use 20W transmitter powers
and 10dB gain omni-directional antennas, determine the number
of cells required to provide forward link coverage to all parts of the
city. Assume 4-cell reuse, and let n=4 and the standard deviation
of 8dB hold as the path loss model for each cell in the city. Also
assume that a required signal level of 90dBm must be provided
for 93% of the coverage area in each cell, and that each mobile uses
a 0dB gain antenna. Assume d 0 =1km.
For your answer in (c), define in exact detail a suitable channel
reuse scheme for each cell in the city, and define the channels used
by each cell. Your scheme should include details such as how
many channels each base station should use, what the nearest
reuse distance should be, and other issues which clearly define
how to assign channels geographically throughout the city? You
may assume that users are distributed uniformly throughout the
city, that each cell is equal distance from its neighbors, and you
may ignore the effect of control channels (that is, assume all radio
channels carry only voice users).
How many (I) cells (base stations) (ii) total radio channels (iii)
total user channels (there are 8 user channels per radio channel)
are available throughout the entire city, based on your answer in
(d)? The total number of user channels is equal to the maximum
capacity of the system and is a hard limit on the number of users
that can be simultaneously served at full capacity.
If each base station costs $500,000, and each radio channel within
the base station costs $50,000, what is the cost of the system in (e)?
This is the initial cost of the system.
If the system in (d) is designed for 5% blocking probability at startup, what is the maximum number of subscribers that can be
supported at start-up? This is the number of phones that may be
initially subscribed at start-up. Assume that each user channel is
trunked along with the other user channels on other radio
channels within the base station.
Using your answer in (g), what is the average cost per user needed
to recoup 10% of the initial system buildout cost after one year if
the number of subscribers is static during year 1?

[Ans : (a) 150 (b) 512 (c) 10 (d) Cluster size = 4, 38, 38, 37, 37 (e) 10, 375, 3000 (f)
$23.75x10**6 (g) 3x10**4 (h) $79.17]
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EE5401 CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

10.

I2R - NUS

[Textbook, Jon Mark] .Consider a cellular system in which there are a

total of 1001 radio channels available for handling traffic. Suppose the
area of a cell is 6 km2 and the area of the entire system is 2100 km2.
(a) Calculate the system capacity if the cluster size is 7
(b) How many times would the cluster of size 4 have to be replicated in
order to approximately cover the entire cellular area?
(c) Calculate the system capacity if the cluster size is 4.
(d) Does decreasing the cluster size increase the system capacity?
Explain.
Consider the case when cell cluster of size 7. Given that the traffic load
per user is 0.03 Erlangs and the average number of calls per hour per
user is 1.5, for an Erlang-C system with a probability of delaying a call
being 5%, determine
(e) The traffic load per cell
(f) The number of users per km2 that can be supported by this system
(g) The mean duration of a call
(h) The probability that a delayed call will have to wait for more than
10s, and
(i) The probability that a call will be delayed for more than 10s.
[Ans : (a) 50,050 (b) 87 (c) 87,000 (d) yes (e) 122.98 Erlangs (f) 683 (g) 72s (h) 0.062
(i) 0.0031]