Capacity in Cellular Networks
Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems
• Capacity of cellular system is limited by interference and available spectrum.
• Capacity improvement means increasing the number of users that can be served by the system.
• Methods to improve capacity:
– Cell Splitting
– Sectoring
– Microcell Zone Concept
– Trunking
– Channel Assignment Strategies
Cell Splitting
• Cell splitting is the process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells.
• New cells are called microcells.
• Each microcell has its own base station with reduced antenna height and transmit power.
• Increases capacity by reusing frequencies more often.
• Provides additional channels and serves more users.
Sectoring
• Sectoring uses directional antennas to divide a cell into sectors (typically 60° or 120°).
• Each sector has its own set of channels.
• Reduces co-channel interference.
• Improves system capacity without requiring more spectrum.
• Increases frequency reuse and quality of service.
Microcell Zone Concept
• A cell is divided into zones, each served by a zone transmitter.
• All zones are connected to a single base station.
• When a user moves from one zone to another, the base station switches the channel to the new
zone.
• Reduces handoff load at MSC.
• Improves capacity by minimizing interference and efficient frequency use.
Trunking
• Trunking is a method where a common pool of channels is shared by many users.
• Not all users need channels at the same time, so resources are efficiently used.
• Improves system capacity by reducing idle channels.
• Two cases:
– Blocked Calls Cleared: Calls blocked if no channel available.
– Blocked Calls Delayed: Calls wait in a queue until a channel becomes free.
Grade of Service (GOS)
• Probability of call blocking is called Grade of Service.
• GOS is an important measure of quality in trunked systems.
• Defines user satisfaction in terms of probability of successful access to a channel.
Channel Assignment Strategies
• Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA): Each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channels.
• Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA): Voice channels are allocated to cells on demand.
• DCA reduces probability of blocked calls and increases capacity.
• Improves spectrum efficiency by adapting to traffic conditions.
