General concept

of
Frequency hopping

1
 Background
During a call, a number of physical effects influence the
perceived radio environment between a mobile station and a
base station. One such effect is multipath fading, which
means that transmitted signals reach the receiver via multiple
paths. Depending on the difference in path length.
Another effect is various types of interference. The
dominating type is normally co-channel interference, but
other types, such as adjacent channel interference,
intermodulation products, military sources etc. must be
considered as well.
Slide : 2
 Multipath fading
The destructive interference produced by multipath
fading is called “fading-dips”. Fading dips may cause speech
quality degradation.
For different frequencies, the fading dips will occur at
slightly different positions in space.

Slide : 3
 Co-channel interference
The interference situation for a mobile is strongly dependent
on which frequency and time-slot that the mobile happens to
use.
Normally co-channel interference is caused by frequency re-
use

Slide : 4
 What can be achived
 Frequency diversity
 Interference averaging

Slide : 5
 Frequency diversity
Frequency hopping can reduce the
influence of signal strength variations caused
by multipath fading.
Multipath fading is frequency
dependent. This implies that the fading dips
appear at different locations for different
frequencies.

Slide : 6
 Interference averaging
Frequency hopping can also break up persistent
interference into periodic occasions of single burst
interference.
Changing frequency at each burst offers a way to
improve the interference situation described above. The co-
channel interference will change at every burst.
The more frequencies that are used in the hopping, the
more rare such frequency collisions will be.

Slide : 7
 Short technical description
 Baseband frequency hopping
 Synthesizer frequency hopping

Slide : 8
 Baseband frequency hopping
 At baseband hopping each transmitter operates
on a fixed frequency.
 The advantage with this mode is that narrow-band
tuneable filter combiners can be used.
 The disadvantage is that it is not possible to use a
larger number of frequencies than there are
transmitters.

Slide : 9
Baseband frequency hopping

Controller Transmitter
X
TRX1 f1
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX2 f2
Combiner
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX3 f3
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX4 f4

Bus for routing of burst

Slide : 10
 Synthesizer frequency
hopping
 The transmitter tunes to correct frequency at
transmission of each burst.
The advantage is that the number of frequencies
that can be used for hopping is not dependent on the
number of transmitters .
 The disadvantage is that wide-band hybrid
combiners have to be used .

Slide : 11
 Synthesizer frequency
hopping
Controller Transmitter
TRX1 f1,f2,…,fn
Controller Transmitter
TRX2 f1,f2,…,fn Hybrid
Controller Transmitter Combiner
TRX3 f1,f2,…,fn
Controller Transmitter
TRX4 f1,f2,…,fn

Slide : 12
 Algorithm
Hopping sequence
 Cyclic hopping
 Random hopping

Interference avoid
 Orthogonal hopping
 Independence hopping

Slide : 13
 Cyclic hopping
 In cyclic hopping the frequencies are used in a
consecutive order. For instance,the sequence of
frequencies for cyclic hopping between four
frequencies may appear as follows:

... , f 4 , f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , f 4 , f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , f 4 , f 1 , f 2 , ...

 A cyclic sequence is specified by setting the

parameter HSN (hopping sequence number) to zero.
Slide : 14
 Random hopping
 A random hopping sequence is actually implemented as a
pseudo-random sequence.
 63 independent sequences are defined.
 When random hopping is used, the frequencies will be
used (pseudo-) randomly, and a hopping sequence for four
frequencies may appear as follows:

... , f 1 , f 4 , f 4 , f 3 , f 1 , f 2 , f 4 , f 1 , f 3 , f 3 , f 2 , ...

 The period for a random sequence is 6 minutes.

Slide : 15
 Orthogonal sequences
 In the baseband hopping, four channels utilize the
same time slot. They will be given the different
HSN.
In order not to interfere with each other, they may
not use the same frequency simultaneously.
 A frequency offset is automatically assigned
to each channel at configuration.
 Each traffic channel uses the same sequence, but
with different frequencies at each instance in time.

Slide : 16
 Orthogonal sequences with
Baseband hopping
 The random sequence of baseband hopping will appear as
follows for four frequencies:

... , f 1 , f 4 , f 4 , f 3 , f 1 , f 2 , ...
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX1 f1
... , f 2 , f 1 , f 1 , f 4 , f 2 , f 3, ...
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX2 f2
... , f 3 , f 2 , f 2 , f 1 , f 3 , f 4 , ... Combiner
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX3 f3
... , f 4 , f 3 , f 3 , f 2 , f 4 , f 1, ...
Controller Transmitter
X
TRX4 f4

Bus for routing of burst

Slide : 17
 Orthogonal sequences with SFH
 Control orthogonal sequence by MAIO and HSN
1. MAIO (Mobile Allocation Index Offset)
Define the first frequency of sequence for the first burst.
2. HSN (Hopping Sequence Number)
Define the sequence of frequency for the next burst.
HSN = 0 : Cyclic hopping
HSN = 1-63 : Pseudo-random hopping

Slide : 18
 Orthogonal sequences with SFH
 The random sequence of synthesizer hopping will appear
as follows for eight frequencies: (HSN = 0)
Index : 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Controller Transmitter f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 0)
TRX1 f1, f2, .., f8
Controller Transmitter f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 2)
TRX2 f1, f2, .., f8
f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 4) Combiner
Controller Transmitter
TRX3 f1, f2, .., f8
Controller Transmitter f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 6)
TRX4 f1, f2, .., f8

fn : frequency of the first burst

fn : frequency of the second burst

Slide : 19
 Independence sequences
 For the interference averaging mechanism to work well,
the sequence of frequencies in co-channel cells must be
different.
 Connections in these cells will then use the same
frequencies, but not always at the same time.
 The number of collisions per second will depend on the
number of frequencies in the channel group.

Slide : 20
 Independence sequences
 The frequency collisions, i.e. the instances of co-channel
disturbance, are indicated with bold type:

Cell 1: ... , f 1 , f 4 , f 4 , f 3 , f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , f 1 , f 3 , f 4 , f 2 , ...

Cell 2: ... , f 3 , f 1 , f 1 , f 1 , f 4 , f 3 , f 2 , f 1 , f 2 , f 1 , f 4 , ...
Cell 3: ... , f 3 , f 4 , f 3 , f 3 , f 2 , f 1 , f 4 , f 1 , f 3 , f 2 , f 1 , ...

 Since there is only one cyclic sequence, cyclic sequences

can be orthogonal (if they have different MAIO), but never
independent.

Slide : 21
 Implementation with SFH
 Constrain
 Separate frequency band for BCCH
 Re-use pattern
 MAIO
 HSN
 Fraction load

Slide : 22
 Constrain
 HW & SW constrain
 Coverage overlapping constrain
 Frequency constrain

Slide : 23
 HW & SW Constrain
 HW required for SFH
TPU2, HPA, MPA, HYCOM, DUCOM, DUAMCO
 SW required for SFH
BS-20/21 and BS 60/61 BR3.7 and higher
BS 11 Release Version S2 and
higher
BS240 BR5.0 and higher

Slide : 24
 Coverage overlapping
constrain
 Due to SFH with 1x1 or 1x3 are tight re-use
patterns then coverage control is major
constrain.
 Homogeneous network is recommended.

Slide : 25
 Frequency constrain
 Performance of SFH depends on one factor
which called “Fractional load”
 Maximum fractional load is 50% means
number of frequency required is at least 2
time number of TCH Trxs used.

Slide : 26
 Separate frequency band for
BCCH
BCCH cannot cope with high interference as
TCH due to :
 BCCH is not hop with SFH.
 Power control and DTX are not support on BCCH.

Siemens recommends number of frequencies for

BCCH band is 20 frequencies.

Slide : 27
 Re-use pattern for SFH
 Standard re-use pattern
1. Re-use 1x1
2. Re-use 1x3

 Other re-use pattern

1. Re-use 2x2 (or re-use 2x1)
2. Multi re-use pattern for SFH
Slide : 28
 Re-use 1x1
 Define every frequencies to every BTS.
 Avoid co-channel by MAIO and HSN
 Consider all frequencies assigned as frequency group A re-
use pattern will be as follow:
GroupA GroupA

GroupA GroupA GroupA GroupA

GroupA

GroupA GroupA

Slide : 29
 Re-use 1x3
 Separate all frequencies into 3 groups.
 Define 3 frequency groups to every sites.
 Avoid co-channel by MAIO and HSN
 Consider all frequencies assigned as frequency group A,B and C re-
use pattern will be as follow:
GroupA GroupA

GroupB GroupC GroupB GroupC

GroupA

GroupB GroupC

Slide : 30
 Mobile allocation index offset
 Define the first frequency of group for the first
burst.

Index 0 1 2 3 4 … N-1
Frequency group f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 .. fn

Slide : 31
 Example of MAIO setting
 The random sequence of synthesizer hopping will appear
as follows for eight frequencies: (HSN = 0)
Index : 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Controller Transmitter f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 0)
TRX1 f1, f2, .., f8
Controller Transmitter f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 2)
TRX2 f1, f2, .., f8
f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 4) Combiner
Controller Transmitter
TRX3 f1, f2, .., f8
Controller Transmitter f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 (MAIO = 6)
TRX4 f1, f2, .., f8

fn : frequency of the first burst

fn : frequency of the second burst

Slide : 32
 Fraction load
 Ratio to determine how tight of frequency re-use
for SFH.
 Define by :
Number of frequencies used at a time (per re-use cluster) * 100
Number of frequencies per group
 Siemens recommends fraction load = 35-40%
 GSM defines maximum fraction load = 50%

Slide : 33
 Example of fraction load
calculation
 1x3
Number of frequencies : 46
Number of frequencies for BCCH and GB : 16
Number of TCH frequencies per group : 10
Site configuration : 6+6+6 (Tch : 5+5+5)

Fractional load = 5/10 = 50%

Slide : 34
 Example of fraction load
calculation
 1x1
Number of frequencies : 46
Number of frequencies for BCCH and GB : 16
Number of TCH frequencies per group : 30
Site configuration : 6+6+6 (Tch : 5+5+5)

Fractional load = 15/30 = 50%

Slide : 35