JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 16, ISSUE 1, SEPTEMBER 2012 12

An Educational Model Cellular Shape Convertor (EMCSC): A Tool That Demonstrates and Calculates the Size and Shapes of Cells in Cellular Networks
Jameson Mbale
Abstract: This paper introduces the Educational Model Cellular Shape Convertor (EMCSC) a tool which demonstrates and calculates the sizes and shapes of various models of cellular network cells. The size and shape of the cell is the most critical factor in a cellular system design. The tool computes the area covered, distance around, ratio of boundary length and unit area, ratio of unit area with N channels with cells, channel increased by a factor K and cell reduced by a factor M. The computed data can be used to determine the ideal shape and use the information to guide the setting up and operation of the wireless cellular network. The EMCSC tool has four major components: the Heterogeneous Shape Cell Model (HSCM), which holds the various shape models; the Automated Equation Formula Calculator (AEFC), the automated part which evaluates the formulas; the Mathematical Sorter (MS), which sorts the calculated data and User Repository (UR) which stores the data for later use by the user. Index Terms: Cells, mathematical formulas, increased factors and reduced factors.

1 INTRODUCTION

ireless technology has emerged as one of the most convenient for establishing networks, especially in areas where it is difficult to install physical equipment. Wireless equipment can easily be deployed in inaccessible areas or terrain, such as base stations, Access Points (AP), backup power for access points, repeaters, laptops, solar panels, inventers and batteries. The sizes and shapes of the cells are the most important factors in designing a cellular network. It is with this in mind that the Educational Model Cellular Shape Convertor (EMCSC) tool has been developed to calculate the sizes of the various cell shapes. The computed data can be used to assess and determine the locations and sizes of the cells that comprise the network. The tool assists the telecommunications engineers to determine the areas to be covered, with minimum overlap of area coverage within cells. Various cell shapes are envisaged including polygons, squares, triangles, and circles. Appropriate models of cells would be designed before a cellular system is established. Cell boundaries need to be carefully considered because some shapes may leave larger areas uncovered. Similarly, a larger coverage that extended well outside the cell would be a waste of resources. Therefore, the need to adopt the cellular model shape which would cover ninety

percent of the site leaving only a small portion not covered, which would be covered by the neighbouring cells. This implies that a particular cellular shape would be determined by the geographical terrain.

1.1 EMCSC Overview The tool has a number of model shapes whose measurements are calculated taking radius R meters for circular shapes and side R meters for equilateral triangles, squares and polygons. The EMCSC tool has an automated component which calculates the area covered, circumference, ratio of boundary length and unit area, ratio of unit area with N channels with cells, channel increased by a factor K and cell reduced by a factor M. The tool performs calculations on the various shape models. Based on the geography of the area, the engineer can assess from the computed figures the right shape model to use. Table 1 shows the various formulas used for each model within the EMCSC tool. 1.2 Study Outline This study is organised as follows. Section 2 gives highlights of other research that has focused on cellular innfrastructure. The EMCSC system architecture is presented in Section 3. Section 4 discusses the implementation of the EMCSC and includes two illustrative case studies. Section 5 draws some conclusions.

J. Mbale is with the University of Namibia, Centre of Excelence in Telecommunications and Information Technology, Department of Computer Science, P/B, 13301, Windhoek, Namibia.

2012 JOT www.journaloftelecommunications.co.uk

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2 RELATED WORK
The desire to develop communication infrastructure in an inaccessible areas is one of the factors that has driven the emergence of cellular technologies. Recently much research has focused on the development of cellular infrastructure in inaccessible areas. In [1] they illustrated that in a cellular system the most important factor is the size and shape of the cell. They define a cell as the radio area covered by a transmission station or a base station. All users in the cell are served by the base station. The authors point out that in ideal radio environments, the shape of the cell will be circular centred at the microwave transmitting tower and with radius equal to the reachable range of the transmitted signal. The cell area and periphery are determined by the signal strength within the region, which in turn depend on many factors, such as the contour of the terrain, height of the transmitting antenna, presence of hills, valleys, and tall buildings and atmospheric conditions. The authors emphasized that the actual shape of the cell would normally be irregular with a zigzag boundary. However, for practical purposes, the cell could be approximated by a regular hexagon, which is itself a good approximation of a circular region. Using regular hexagonal shapes allows a larger region to be divided into nonoverlapping hexagonal sub-regions of equal size, with each one representing a cell area. The authors also gave some further examples, including the square and the equilateral triangle, as alternative shapes that can be used to represent a cell area. Octagons and decagons are shapes that better approximate a circular area. Figure 1 is taken from [1] and illustrates a cell with a base station and mobile stations (MS). The Figure shows the circular, hexagonal and square cell models.

Ide (2 al c - 1 ell 0) a km rea rad ius

Altern ative shape of a ce ll

Base Station

Cell
MS

MS

Figure 1. Illustration of a Cell with a Base Station and Mobile Stations

Although in [1], many cellular systems technologies are discussed, less attention is given to the determination of the size of cells. The EMCSC operates as a tool to compute the cell size, the unit area when number of channels

is increased by a factor, and unit area when size of cell is reduced by a factor. Such statistical data will aid telecommunications and mobile engineers to determine which cell model to use. In [2], the cell is defined as the geographic area where a mobile station is preferentially served by its base station. It is pointed out that the cell shape can be defined as a circle and its radius was determined so as to have a circular area within which base station and mobile stations receive a signal power exceeding a given threshold. It is emphasized that a mobile station moving out of its serving cell and into a neighbouring cell must be provided with sufficient resources from these cells so that the already established communication will not be discontinued. However, it is argued that circles, on the other hand, cannot fill a plane without leaving gaps (holes) or exhibiting overlapping areas. It was acknowledged that the use of circular geometry may impose difficulties in the design of a cellular network, whereas regular polygons, such as equilateral triangles, squares, and regular hexagons would not exhibit these constraints. The authors also clarified that the choice for one or another cellular format depends on the application, and noted that in practice, the coverage area differs substantially from the idealized geometric figures and that amoeboid cellular shapes are more likely to occur. The EMCSC presented in the present paper is an automated system which calculates the areas covered by the cell shape and enables the engineer to make assessments from the computed data. In [3] the concept cells are defined as normally roughly circular, but they are easier to model as hexagons. The cells are all of the same size and grouped in units of seven cells. At the centre of each cell is a base station to which all the telephones in the cell transmit. It is further discussed that the base station consists of a computer and transmitter/receiver connected to an antenna. At any instant, each mobile telephone is logically in one specific cell and under the control of that cells base station. When a mobile telephone physically leaves a cell, its base station notices the telephones signal fading away and asks all the surrounding base stations how much power they are receiving from it. The base station then transfers ownership to the cell getting the strongest signal, that is, the cell where the telephone is then located. The telephone is then informed of its new boss, and if a call is in progress, it will be asked to switch to a new channel. It is emphasised that base stations are really just radio relays. In [4], it is pointed out that a synonym for cell site is cell tower, although many cell site antennas are mounted on buildings rather than on towers. However in GSM networks, the technically correct term is a base transceiver station (BTS), and colloquial British English synonym are mobile phone mast or base station. It was also ex-

ed us els rea od ll a t m Ce m o s in

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plained that a cell site was a term used primarily in North America for a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment were placed to create a cell in a network. It was further pointed out that each cell requires a tower or other elevated structure for mounting antennas, and one or more sets of transmitter/receivers, transceivers, digital signal processors, control electronics, a GPS receiver for timing (for CDMA2000 or IS-95 systems), regular and backup electrical power sources, and sheltering. The authors of [4] regard a cellular network as a radio

network made up of number of radio cells (or just cells) each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. These cells cover different land areas to provide radio coverage over a wider area than the area of one cell, so that a variable number of portable transceivers can be used in any one cell and moved through more than one cell during transmission. The authors point out that cellular networks offer a number of advantages over alternative solutions such as: increased capacity, reduced power usage, larger coverage area, and reduced interference from other signals.

3 EMCSC SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE

The EMCSC demonstrated in Figure 1 has four major components: the Heterogeneous Shape Cell Model (HSCM), Automated Equation Formula Calculator (AEFC), Mathematical Sorter (MS) and User Repository (UR). These are discussed in the following sections. various cell shape models: the circle, the hexagon, the square and the triangle. The size of a circle is specified as the radius in kilometers, while the size of a hexagon, square and triangle are specified as the length of a side in kilometers. The user may choose one model at a time or choose all to compute the cell size or sizes. The cell shape information is forwarded to the EFC, where it is added to other input data to commence the calculations.

3.1 The Heterogeneous Shape Cell Model The Heterogeneous Shape Cell Model is composed of

User Respository Area Covered Distance Around Distance Length Unit Area Unit Area / Cells Increased Factor by K Reduced Factor by M

Mathematical Sorter

Channel N, Increased Factor K Reduced Factor M

Automated Equation Formula Calculator (AEFC)

. . .
R R R

Other Shapes

Heterogeneous Shape Cell Model

Figure 2. Educational Model Cellular Shape Convertor Systems architecture

3.2 The Automated Equation Formula Calculator (AEFC) For The Automated Equation Formula Calculator (AEFC) is an automated component of the tool that is programmed to evaluate the formulas shown in Table 1. The AEFC receives the channel and factor data that is combined with that from the Heterogeneous Cell Shape Mod-

el. This tool component calculates the area covered, circumference, distant length per unit area, channels per unit area with N channels/cells, channels per unit area when number of channels increased by a factor K and channels per unit area when size of cell is reduced by a factor M for all the cell shape models. The user may calculate one shape model at a time or all at once. When the

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calculations are complete, the computed data is forward-

ed to the Mathematical Sorter.

TABLE 1. EDUCATIONAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL CELLULAR FORMULA USED IN EMCSC

Cell Shape (side = R) Circular Cell Hexagonal Cell Square Cell Triangular Cell

AreaCovered

DistantAround

Dist Length /Unit Area

2 R

Unit Area/ Cells

N R2

Channels by Fact. K
KN R2

Reduced Fact. M

R2
3 3 2 R 2

2 R
6R 4R 3R

M 2N R2
M 2N 1 .5 3 R 2

4 3R 4 R

N 1 .5 3 R 2 N R2

KN 1 .5 3 R 2 KN R2

R2
3 4 R2

M 2N R2

4 3 R

4 3N 3R 2

4 3K N 3R 2

4 3 M 2N 3R 2

3.3 Mathematical Sorter (MS) The Mathematical Sorter (MS) receives the computed data from the AEFC, sorts the data according to its category and forwards them to the User Repository. 3.4 Using Repository The User Repository (UR) receives the sorted data from the MS. In the UR, the sorted data is stored according to its category as shown in Figure 2. This is where the user can use the calculated data to assess which Cell Shape model is suitable for the site.

4 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL MODEL CELLULAR SHAPE CONVERTOR (EMCSC)

The tool is designed to calculate circular, hexagonal, square and triangular cell shape models. The user may choose either to calculate individual cell shape models or all of them at once.

4.1 Case Study 1: Calcualte Hexagonal Cell Shape In the tool, the user selects the hexagonal cell radio button as illustrated in Figure 3a. The tool displays the hexagonal cell row with its six formulas under the respective fields.

Figure 3a. Calculation of Hexagonal Cell Shape

Then the user enters the input data, for example:

number of channels (N) = 3, channel increased by a factor

K = 2, the length side of a hexagon (R) = 10, reduced factor M = 4. Once the input has been entered correctly, the user presses the calculate button to have the tool compute the output. The calculated values are displayed as shown in Figure 3b as: area covered is = 259.80m2; distant around is = 60.00m; distant length per unit area is = 0.23; unit area

with N channels per cells is = 0.011 m; unit area channels increased by factor K is =0.023m; and unit area-size of cell reduced by factor M is = 0.185m. The displayed results may be cleared by pressing the clear button. To quit from the whole system, an exit button may be used.

Figure 3b. Calculation of Hexagonal Cell Shape Showing Results

For clarity, the Hexagonal cell row would have its value be presented column by column as follows:

Unit M=

Area-Size

of

Cell

Reduced

by

Factor (6)

M N 1 .5 3 R 2

3 3 2 R Area-Covered = 2
Distant-Around = 6R Dist. Length/Unit Area =

= 0.185m

= =

259.81m2 60m

(1) (2) (3)

4 3R

= 0.23m

Unit-Area N Channels/Cells =

N 1 .5 3 R 2

The other options: Circular, Square and Triangular cells may be calculated as for the Hexagonal cell. Thereafter the computed values would be compared to assess the cell model which would best suit the particular site.

= 0.011m (4)

Unit Area-Channels Increased by a Factor K=

KN 1 .5 3 R 2

= 0.023m

(5)

4.2 Case Study 2: Calcualte for All the Cell Shapes For In the tool there is also an option to calculate at once for all the cell shapes Circular, Hexagonal, Square and Triangular as shown in Figure 4. In this case the user presses the Compare button, which will prompt for the various inputs: number of channels (N) = 3, channel increased by a factor K = 2, the length side of a hexagon (R) = 10, reduced factor M = 4.

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Figure 4a. Calculation of All Cell Shape

Once all the prompted input is completed, the results

are displayed as indicated in Figure 4b.

Figure 4b. Calculation of All Cell Shape Showing Results

From Figure 4b, the user can make comparisons. For the same input data, the circular cell had the greatest area covered and distant around, followed by Hexagonal cell, third is Square cell and last is the Triangular cell. The Circular cell covered more areas and distant around. However, it is less successful when it comes to distant length per unit area, channels per unit area per

cell and cell size reduced by factor M, for which attributes the other model shapes do better, in order of hexagonal, square and triangular. With this mathematical comparison, the circular shape and hexagonal shapes are preferred as the most appropriate models. Though the circular shape tends to have more space than the hexagonal, the latter has more added ad-

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vantages. Though the shapes with higher area and distant around, they have the least cell size reduced by factor M, channels per unit area per cell and distant length per unit area. One of the greatest disadvantages of the circular shape is when there are multiple cells to be covered, as

circles leave larger gaps between the boundaries as indicated in Figure 5a. By contrast, the hexagonal in Figure 5b leaves no gaps at all. For this reason, the hexagonal shape is more preferred than the circular one in the design of cellular wireless networks.

Gaps between circular cells

Figure 5a. Circular Cells

No gaps between hexagonal cells

Figure 5b. Hexagonal Cells

5 CONCLUSION
The size and shape of a cell is the most important factor in a cellular network. In fact the cell area and the distant around are the most critical parameters that affect the handoff from a cell to an adjacent cell. Therefore, this paper introduces the EMCSC tool that calculates the size and shape of the various cell models. The study has envisaged that the size and capacity of the cell per unit area and the impact of the shape of a cell on service characteristics is the cornerstone to develop a cellular system. It is obvious from the calculations that when the cell area is increased, the number of channels per unit area is reduced for the same number of channels. Therefore it is ideal for less populated areas with fewer cell phone subscribers. Note that if the number of cell phone users is increased, then the obviously the number of channels may be increased. The other alternative is to reduce the cell size so that the number of channels per unit area is kept comparable to the density of subscribers. The calculations done also showed that the hexagonal model shape was the most ideal for the cellular system. Apart from the calculated data, Figure 4b demonstrated that the hexagonal shape could fit tightly just likes tiles on the floor.

REFERENCES
[1] D. P. Agrawal and Q. Zeng, Introduction to Wireless and mobile Systems, Thomson, Canada, 2006. [2] M. D. Yacoub, Wireless Technology, Protocols, Standards, and Techniques, CRC Press LLC, United State of America, 2002. [3] A. S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall PTR, New Jersey, United State of America: 2003. [4] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Jameson Mbale received his PhD Degree in Computer Science from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2003. He obtained M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science from Shanghai University in 1996 and B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science at University of Zambia in 1993 in Zambia. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Namibia. He is the founder and coordinator of Centre of Excellence in Telecommunications and Information Technology. His research interest in network security, wireless networking, telecommunications and e-Learning and he has published papers in these areas.