THE

CELLULAR RADIO

HANDBOOK A Reference for

Cellular System Operation

Third Edition

Neil J. Boucher

Q U A N T U M P U B L I S H I N G

CONTENTS

About the Author xv

Preface xvii

Chapter 1 What Is Cellular Radio? 1 Early Cellular Systems • Mobile and Trunked Radio • Cellular Systems

Chapter 2 World System Standards 9 Technical Comparisons • Pre-Cellular Systems • NETZ B & C West Germany • Japan • NMT450 • NMT900 • Italy • ACS (Advanced Cellular System) • Where the US Systems CannotBeUsed • Call Channel Capacity • Frequency Bands • GSM • DAMPS • AMPS Frequencies • TACS Frequencies • Digital Systems

Chapter 3 Basic Radio 23 Basic Elements • Dynamic Channel Allocation • Noise and Signal-to-Noise Performance • dBs • Propagation • Antennas • Mobile Transmit Power and Health

Chapter 4 Planning—An Essential Network Function 33 Flexibility • Radio Surveys • Site Acquisitions • Frequency Planning • Trunk Network Plan­ning • Room to Grow • Digital Implementation • Other Facilities

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Chapter 5 Cell Site Selection and System Design 41 Design Objectives • Assumptions and Limitations • Suitable Sites • Joint User Sites • Getting a Starting Point for the Design • Special Considerations • How Big? • Map Studies • Compu-terized Techniques • Handhelds • A Program for Calculating Range or Path Loss • Getting to Know the Terrain • Manual Propagation Prediction • The Carey Report • Estimating Base-Station Range • Terrain Dependence and Standard Deviation • Estimating the Effect of Base-Station Height • Multi-Cell Systems • Survey Plots • Filing Surveys • Maps and Map Tables • Designing for Customer Demand • Determining Channel Capacity • Base Capacity • Cus-tomer Density • Determining Base Stations in the CBD • Omni Cells • Antennas • System Balance • Sectored Antennas and System Balance • 500-Watt ERP Rural Systems • Designing PCS Networks • Modeling Cellular Systems

Chapter 6 Radio Survey 73 Standing Wave Patterns • Measuring Field Strength • Sampling Speed • Modern Survey Tech­niques • Sampling Interval • Reverse Path Sampling • Using Wide-Band Measuring Receivers • Multiple Receiver Antennas • Survey Transmitters • Mounting Survey Antennas • Automatic Position-Locating Systems • Preparation of Results • Spectrum Check • Confirming Coverage • Surveying as a Maintenance Tool • Some Necessary Precautions for Radio Survey

Chapter 7 Cellular Radio Interference 95 Frequency Reuse Interference • Co-Channel Interference • Adjacent-Channel Interference • Interference from Other Systems • Intermittent and Mobile Interference • Interference from Non-Cellular Systems • Intermodulation • Interference Between AMPS and TACS Band Systems • Interference into Non-Cellular Systems • Improving Frequency Reuse • Blocking • Use of Ter­rain and Clutter • Use of Sector Antenna • 7-Cell Patterns • 4-Cell Patterns • Channel Borrow-ing • Power Reduction • Antenna Height • Coping with Interference • Antenna Types Used in Cellular Radio • Handheld Benefits • Leaky Cables • System Parameters • Effective Use of Downtilt • Downtilt and How It Works • Example • Downtilt in Practice

Chapter 8 Cell Plans 115 Basic Considerations • The 7-Cell Pattern • SAT Codes • Digital Color Codes • 4-Cell Pattern • 12-Cell Pattern • The Stockholm Ring Model • Non-Reuse Plans • Mixed Plans

Chapter 9 Units and Concepts of Field Strength 125 Relationship Between Units of Field Strength at the Antenna Terminals • Conversion Tables • Statistical Measurements of Field Strength • Conclusion

CONTENTS vii

Chapter 10 Radio Base Stations 133 Radio Controller • Modem Access • Bits/See Versus Baud Rate • The 300/1200/2400 Stan­dards • Asynchronous Modems • Radio Transmitters/Receivers • AMPS Base Station Specifi-cation • Antenna Combiners and Splitters • The Motorola SC9600 • The AT&T Autoplex Sys­tem 1000 • Cavities • Harmonie Filters • Antenna Cable Feeders • Diversity • Microcells

Chapter 11 Cellular Repeaters 151 Cell-Extender Repeaters • Enhanced Cell Extenders • Traffic Capacity of the Simple Repeaters • Cell-Replacement Repeaters • Traffic Capacity of Cell-Replacement Repeaters • Tunnels

Chapter 12 Anten nas 161 Omnidirectional Antennas • Sector Antennas • Other Types of Omni-Antenna • Panel Arrays • Polar Diagrams • Voltage and Power Limitations • Antenna Impedances • Antennas with Downtilt • Polarization • LeakyCables • Tunnels • Use of Yagi Antennas • Antenna Materi­als • Mounting • Drainage • Intermodulation • Measuring VSWR

Chapter 13 Cellular Links 183 Microwave • Margins • Fresnel Zone • Fading Depth • Losses in Antenna Coupling • Calcu-lation of Outage Time • System Gains • Gain Measurements • Feeder Losses • Interference • Margins • System Capacities • Advantages of Digital Systems • Rack Space • Microwave Links in Cellular Systems • US and Japan • Rest of the World • Drop and Insert • Factors in Choosing Microwave • Survey • Wireline • Echo Suppression • Minilinks • Satellite Links • Fiber Optics • Trunking • Standby • Split Routes

Chapter 14 Base Station Maintenance 205 Maintaining Quality of Coverage • Locating a Cable Fault • Air-Conditioning • Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) • Transceivers • Using Statistics • Customer Complaints • Line-Up Levels • Test Mobile • Site Audio Test Loops • Interaction with the Switch • Site-Log Books • Call-Out Procedures • Equipment • Quality and Calibration of Test Equipment • Test Sets • Quantifying Coverage Problems • Off-Air Monitoring • Sleeping Base-Station Sickness • Rogue Mobiles • Co-Channel and Adjacent-Channel Interference • Third-Party Interference • Spare Parts • Systems in Chaos • Monthly Routine Base Station Maintenance • Six Monthly Routine Maintenance

Chapter 15 Base Station Control and Signaling 227 Call to Mobile Station • Mobile-Originated Call • Call Supervision • Setting Up a Call Between Two Cars • Handoffs • AMPS Signaling Format • Signal Strength Parameters

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Chapter 16 Power and Distribution 241 Air-Conditioners • Calculation of Heat Loads and Losses • Heat Loads • Derating of Heat Loads • Solar Heat • Simplified Calculations for Offices and Other Buildings • Units of Heat • Power Conditioning • Ferro-Resonant UPS • Uninterruptable Battery Supplies (UBS) • Power Standby Units • Power Conditioners • The DC Distribution Panel • DC-DC Converter • Rectifiers and Batteries • Power Rating • Batteries • Battery Life • Emergency Plant • Load Testing • Cables • Solar-Powered Base Stations • Three-Phase Power

Chapter 17 Protection and Grounding 257 Lightning Protection • Grounding • Internal Grounding • High-Resistivity Areas • Ground Loop Currents • Transient and Surge Protection

Chapter 18 Trunking 267 Maintenance Considerations • Route Diversity • Circuit Spreading • Route Capacity • Redun­dancy • Using the Redundant Equipment • Effective Use of the Switch-Port Capacity • Time-dependent Routing • Multiple Switch Operation • Using Base Stations as Nodes • A Typical Trunking Optimization • Increasing Route Capacity • Increasing Trunking Efficiency • The 2 Mbit/s CCITT Digital Standard • Framing • The Multiframe Format • Redundancy • Faults in the 2 Mbit/s Stream • The X.25 Protocol

Chapter 19 Switching 277 Switch Concentrators • The Telephone • Step-by-Step Switches • Crossbar Switches • DTMF Dialing (Tone Dialing) • Space Switches • Time Switches • SPC Switches • Limited-Availability (Blocking) Switches • Full-Availability (Non-Blocking) Switches • A PSTN Switch • Wireline Telephone Switches • Cellular Switching • The Alcatel S12 • Roaming • Switch Peripherals • Calls to/from Mobiles to PSTN • Handoffs • Call Success Rates • Inter-switch Operations • IS-41 • Disconnection • Uncharged Local Calls • Switch Configurations • Switch Hierarchy • Switch Location • Non-Wireline Switch Locations • Switch to Base Sta­tion Links • Signaling • Interfacing Switches • Synchronization • Intelligent Networks

Chapter 20 Traftic Engineering Concepts 315 Time-Consistent Busy-Hour Traffic (TCBH) • Measurement of Congested Circuits • Disper­sion • Traffic Forecasting • Grade of Service (GOS) • Dimensioning Base-Station and Switch Circuits • Traffic Capacity of a Base Station • Erlang B Table • Overloaded Circuits • Estimat-ing Carried Traffic • Dual Mode Base Station Channel Dimensioning • Circuit Efficiency • Alternate Routing • Optimizing Circuits • Effect of Alternate Routing on GOS

CONTENTS ix

Chapter 21 Numbering Scheines 337 Cellular Access Number Versus PSTN Access Local Number • Number Codes in Use • Mobile Numbers

Chapter 22 Mobile Installation 345 Building and Equipment • Example Centers • Customer Education and Training • Cleanliness • Maintenance Policy • Statistics • Customer Database • Inventory Control • Liability • Staffing • Batteries and Talk Time • Alkaline Cartridges • Battery Chargers • Disposal of Bat­teries • The Hands-Free Option • Cellular Test and Measurement Set • Sensitivity and Perfor­mance • A-B Band Area • Mobile Antenna Installation • Antenna Mounting • Noisy Anten-nas • Antenna Gain • Decibel's Mobilcell • Passive Repeaters • Number Assignment Module (NAM)

Chapter 23 Towers and Masts 369 Monopoles • Guyed Masts • Towers • Soil Tests • Other Users • Antenna Platforms • Tower Design • Security • How Structures Fail • Tower, Mast, and Monopole Maintenance • Inspection • Stiffness • Repair • Tower Inspection Checklist

Chapter 24 Installations 387 Training • The Operator's Responsibility • Acceptance Testing • Commissioning • Moving Away from Turnkey Installation • Acceptance-Test Sheets • Power Rectifiers • Batteries • External Plant • Internal Plant • Items to Be Checked

Chapter 25 Equipment Shelters 399 Basic Considerations • Switch Building Description • Internal Finishes • External Finishes • External Supply • Electrical Power Outlets • External Emergency Plant • Essential Power • Air-Conditioning • Typical Switch Room • Base-Station Housing • Grounds and Paths

Chapter 26 Budgets 417 Equipment Requirements • Typical Work-Hour Requirements • Costs • Digital Radio Systems (DRS Single Hops) • Billing System (Including Computer and Software) • Costs of a "Typical" Analog Cellular System • An Exercise • Revenues • Air Time Charges

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Chapter 27 Billing Systems 427 Cellular Billing • Upward Compatibility • The Dangers of Contracting fora Billing System • Resellers and Third Party Vendors • Flexibility of Tariffs • Account Settlement • Metered Bill­ing • Billing Cycles • Itemized Accounts • Remote Billing • Multiple Switches • Follow-Up and Account Management • Bill Preparation and Letter Stuffing • Validation • Tracking Sales and Inventory • On-Line Enquiries • GSM Roaming Services • Billing Houses • Do-it-Your-self Billing • Billing Service • Management Information Systems (MIS) • Why the Processors Need to Be so Big

Chapter 28 Marketing 439 Customer Disillusionment • What Customers Want • A Customer Profile • A Mobile Profile • Customer Churn • Initial Marketing Surveys • Mobile Terminal Policy • Mobile Insurance • Safety • Distribution of Mobile Units • Competitive Networks • How Big? • Efficiency and Operation of Two or More Networks • Other Services Offered • Customer Relations • Service Policy • Consumer Awareness • Advertising • Special Access Codes • Quality of Service of the Cellular System • Promotions • Outdoor (Billboard) Advertising • Information Sources • Mobile Installation Center • Mobile Telephone Renting, Leasing, and Buying • Mobile Prices • Sales Promotions • Emergency Users • Charges • UK Marketing (Analog) • UK Charges • Digital Cellular

Chapter 29 Roaming 463 Roaming • Roaming Methods • Account Settlement • Roaming in the A or B Band • Semi-Automatic Roaming • Growing Acceptance • International Roaming • Protectionism • Valida­tion • Charging • Numbering • Roaming and GSM

Chapter 30 Fraud 475 Categories of Fraud • Roaming Fraud • Special Precautions in the US • Reducing Fraud • Fraudbuster • Shared Secret Data • RF Fingerprinting • Fraud in the UK • Fraud in Other Countries • Fighting Back Against Fraud

Chapter 31 Data over Cellular 483 Limited Acceptance • Interstitial Data Networks • Packet Switching • Data Limitations • SCADA Systems

Chapter 32 Privacy 489 Digital Cellular Encryption • Analog Privacy by Frequency Inversion • Digital Encryption (of Analog Signals)

CONTENTS xi

Chapter 33 Rural and Offshore Applications of Cellular Radio 495 Environmental Limitations • Rural Service Areas • Small Switches and Repeaters in Rural Areas • A Fully Portable Cellular System • Cellular Mobiles as "Fixed" Telephones • Costs • Cellular Pay Phones • Rigidly Mounted Versus Mobile Rural Units • Networks Without Exter-nal Terminal Equipment Antennas (Type I) • Networks with External Terminal Equipment Anten­nas (Type II) • Calling Rates and Customer Density • Hybrid Systems • A Dedicated Rural System • Offshore Coverage

Chapter 34 Interconnection 515 Keeping it Simple • Cost per Minute of Traffic Flows • Determining Fair Cost for Inter-Carrier Tolls • Nationwide or Wide-Area Cellular Operators • User Pays Principle • The GSM Charg-ing Principles and Their Applications to Other Networks

Chapter 35 Preparing Invitations to Tender 523 Technical Preparation • Sample Tender Offer

Chapter 36 Analog Modulation/Demodulation Methods 537 Receiver Processing Gain • Threshold Effect in FM Systems • Bandwidth • Pre-Emphasis and De-Emphasis • Signal-to-Noise Improvements with a Phase-Locked Loop • Companding • Spread Spectrum • Modulation

Chapter 37 Noise and Noise Performance 547 Galactic and Extra-Galactic Background Noise • Thermal Noise • Atmospheric Noise • Man-made Noise • Static Noise • Shot Noise • Partition Noise • Cross-Talk • Subjective Evalua­tion of Noise • Noise Factor • The Amplifier's Contribution to Noise (Referred to the Input Level) • Cascaded Amplifiers • Noise Figure of an Attenuator • Processing Gain and Noise • S/N Performance in Practice • Absolute Quantum Noise Limits

Chapter 38 Digital Cellular 561 Naming Systems • Digital Caveat Emptor • No Duplex Filter • Battery Talk Time • What Can Be Expected of First-Generation Digital? • Voice Quality • Digital Systems Compared • The Future of Analog Cellular in a Digital World • Future Trends • Handheld Telephones • Digital Advantages • Digital Cellular Operations • Interference in TDMA Systems • Universal Mobile Radio

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Chapter 39 GSM Pan-European Cellular 575 Support for GSM • What GSM Offers • Implementation • Encryption • Problems with Phase 1 GSM • The Radio Frequency Interface • Frequency Usage • Modulation • GSM Frame Structure • Data Transmission • Link Integrity • Physical and Logical Channels • Syn-chronization • Handling Multipath • System Considerations • GSM Terminology • Signaling and Interfacing • Basic Support Services • The Operations Support System (OSS) • Base Sta­tion Subsystem (BSS) • Transcoder • Base Station Controller (BSC) • Base Transceiver Station (BTS) • Overlay/Underlay Cells • Network Configuration • Frequency Hopping • Chip Customization • The Location Registration • Digital Bearer Services • Teleservices • Short-Message Feature • Other Features Supported • Phase 2 and Beyond • GSM Mobile Units • Access Control • Smart Cards • Security • Incoming PSTN Calls • Complexity • Two Site Frequency Reuse • Intellectual Property Rights • Supplementary Services • GSM Glossary

Chapter 40 US Digital TDMA (DAMPS) 615 US Digital Network Structure • Base Station Controller • Base Transceiver Station • Digital Time Division Multiple Access • Problems with DAMPS • TDMA Versus FDMA • The DAMPS TDMA Frame Structure • Voice Channel Processing • Signaling • The RF Environ­ment • Modulation • RF Amplifier • The Receiver • Authentication • Dual-Mode Mobiles • The CODEC • Mobile-Assisted Handoff • DAMPS Terms

Chapter 41 NAMPS 631 Standards • New Services • Network Configuration • How Does it Perform? • Mobiles • The Hardware

Chapter 42 E-TDMA 635 Soft Capacity • Capacity Gains • Channels to Spare • Future Enhancements • Fixed Wireless Applications

Chapter 43 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 641 Transmission • CDMA Coverage • Channel Bandwidth • Soft Handoff • The Softer Handoff • CDMA Multipath Enhancement • Rake Receivers • Enhanced Services • Diversity • CDMA Overlay • Capacity Considerations • Soft Capacity • Power Control • Open and Closed Loop Power Control • Pilot Carrier • Channel Structure • Registration • Service Options • Authentication • Variable Rate Vocoder • Simple Construction • Cell Site Equip-ment • Frequency Planning • Switching • Capacity • CDMA Testing • CDMA Terms

CONTENTS XIII

Chapter 44 Japanese Digital 657 Personal Digital Cellular • Technical • Timing and Operations • Use of Japanese Digital Out-side Japan?

Chapter 45 Satellite Mobile Systems 661 Motorola's IRIDIUM Satellite Concept • The Launching • Globalstar • Medium Earth Orbit Satellites • Pre LEO Systems • Little LEOs (Paging Services) • Mobile Satellite Antennas

Chapter 46 Cordless Telephone Technologies 669 CTl • CT2 • Rabbit • CT3 • Cost • Handsets • Personal Communications Network • Mer-cury One-2-One • Second-Generation Digital PCN and DECT and Beyond • Personal Commu­nications Systems (PCS)—The US • ITU • Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) • The Potential of Millimeter Wave Cellular • The Technology • GHz Base-Station Antennas • Inte-grated PCN-System—The Future • Mobile Units

Chapter 47 Coding, Formats, and Error Correction 687 Digital Signaling • Words • Block Codes • Convolutional Codes • Hamming Codes • Mod-ulo-2 Arithmetic • Cyclic Block Codes • BCH Codes • Polynomial Codes • Golay Code • Pocsag • Interleaving

Chapter 48 Digital Modulation 693 Digital Encoding • Modulation Systems • Spectrally Efficient Encoding • Demodulation • GSM • IT/4QPSK • Spread Spectrum or CDMA • CDMA • Modulation • Demodulation • Frequency-Hopping • Chirp Spread Spectrum • Testing • MultiPath Immunity • Processing Gains • CODECs • Digital System Performance

Chapter 49 Other Mobile Products 709 Public Mobile Radio • Paging • Voice Messaging/Vöice Mail • Packet Radio

Chapter 50 Safety Issues 719 Not Intrinsically Safe • Use of Mobile Phones While Driving • Mobile Use in Aircraft

Chapter 51 Buying Used Hardware 723 Base Station Hardware • Used Switches • Microwave Equipment • Rectifiers • Batteries • Towers • Cables and Antennas • Equipment Updating

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Appendix A RF Propagation Routine

Appendix B ISO Model

Appendix C Amplifier C l a s s e s

Appendix D Erlang C Table

Glossary

Index