This lecture is being recorded
18-452/18-750
Wireless Networks and Applications
Lecture 14: Cellular Introduction
Peter Steenkiste
Spring Semester 2022
[Link]
Peter A. Steenkiste 1
Announcements
• Please sign up for a P2 meeting
• P1 wrap up
» Help session with Anh after class for those who need it
» For Windows users who still have issues, a linux laptop
or USB sticks with Linux are available
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Overview
• Cellular principles – “classic” view
» A bit of history
» Cellular design
» How does a mobile phone call take place?
» Handoff
» Frequency Allocation, Traffic Engineering
• Early cellular generations: 1G, 2G, 3G
• Today’s cellular: 4G – LTE
• Emerging: 5G widely advertised
Some slides based on material from
“Wireless Communication Networks and Systems”
© 2016 Pearson Higher Education, Inc. 3
Peter A. Steenkiste
Cellular versus WiFi
Cellular WiFi
Spectrum Licensed Unlicensed
Provisioned Unprovisioned
Service model
“for pay” “free”
MAC services Fixed bandwidth Best effort
SLAs no SLAs
• Implications for Service Level Agreements
(SLAs), cost, nature of protocols, …
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The Cellular Idea
• In December 1947 Donald H. Ring outlined the
idea in a Bell labs memo
• Split an area into cells, each with their own
low power towers
• Each cell would use its own frequency
• Did not take off due to “extreme-at-the-time”
processing needs
» Handoff for thousands of users
» Rapid switching infeasible – maintain call while changing
frequency
» Technology not ready
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The MTS network
[Link]
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The Early Mobile Phones
• First mobile phones bulky, expensive and
hardly portable, let alone mobile
» Phones weighed ~40 Kg
» Some early prototypes were much bulkier than shown in
the pictures (think: large backpack)
• Operator assisted with maximum 250 users
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… the Remaining Components
• In December 1947 the transistor was invented
by William Shockley, John Bardeen, and
Walter Brattain
• Why no portable phones at that time?
• A mobile phone needs to send a signal – not
just receive and amplify
• The energy required for a mobile phone
transmission still too high for the high
power/high tower approach – could only be
done with a car battery
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… and the Regulatory Bodies
The FCC commissioner Robert E. Lee said
that mobile phones were a status symbol and
worried that every family might someday
believe that its car had to have one.
Lee called this a case of people “frivolously
using spectrum” simply because they could
afford to.
From The Cell-Phone Revolution,
[Link]
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DynaTAC8000X:
the First Cell Phone
• The “brick”:
» Weighed 2 pounds
» Offered 30 mins of talk time
» Sold for $3,995!
• It took 10 years to develop
(1973-1983) at a cost of
$100 million!
» Size determined by size of
batteries, antennas, keypad, etc.
» Today size determined by the UI!
• First commercial service in
early 80s
» FCC allocated spectrum in 70s Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola, made the first US
analogue mobile phone call on a larger prototype model in
1973
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Cellular Generations
• Roughly one
generation every 10
years
• Spectrum allocation
for mobile
broadband has
increased
significantly
» Shift to higher
frequencies
[Link]
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Technologies Used
• We have already seen many of these
technologies!
• Terminology for 5G is a bit different – How?
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Standardization Process
• Standardization takes as much as 10 years
» Setting goals, identifying technologies
» Standardization: many releases
» Product development and trials
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Overview
• Cellular principles – “classic” view
» A bit of history
» Cellular design
» How does a mobile phone call take place?
» Handoff
» Frequency Allocation, Traffic Engineering
• Early cellular generations: 1G, 2G, 3G
• Today’s cellular: 4G – LTE
• Emerging: 5G widely advertised
Some slides based on material from
“Wireless Communication Networks and Systems”
© 2016 Pearson Higher Education, Inc. 14
Peter A. Steenkiste
How To Design
a Cellular Network?
• Need to get good coverage everywhere
• Must be able to plan network based on demand
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The Hexagonal Pattern
• Network consists of cells d
each served by a cell tower
» Transmit range few kilometers
• Each cell is modeled as a R
hexagon
» d = √3R
» Hexagons fit to cover a region
» Convenient for capacity planning
• In practice, variations from
ideal due to topological
constraints
» Signal propagation
» Tower placement, …
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Frequency reuse
• Each cell features one cell tower
• Through power control the tower covers the
cell area while limiting the power leaking to
other co-frequency cells
• The number of frequency bands assigned to a
cell dependent on its traffic
» 10 to 50 frequencies assigned to each cell (early systems)
• How do we determine how many cells must
separate two cells using the same frequency?
» Need to control the “power to noise and interference”
ratio
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Minimum separation?
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Approaches to Cope with
Increasing Capacity
• Adding new channels
• Frequency borrowing – frequencies are taken from
adjacent cells by congested cells
• Cell splitting – cells in areas of high usage can be
split into smaller cells
• Cell sectoring – cells are divided into wedge-shaped
sectors, each with their own set of channels
• Network densification – more cells and frequency
reuse
» Microcells – antennas move to buildings, hills, and lamp posts
» Femtocells – antennas to create small cells in buildings
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Cell splitting
• Cell size ~ 6.5-13Km, Minimum ~ 1.5Km
» Again, for early systems
• Requires careful power control and possibly more
frequent handoffs for mobile stations
• A radius reduction by F reduces the coverage area
and increases the number of base stations by F 2
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Cell splitting
Radius of small cell half that of the original
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Cell sectoring
• Cell divided into wedge shaped sectors
• 3-6 sectors per cell, each with own channel set
• Subset of cell’s channel, use of directional
antennas
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