ACCEPTED FROM OPEN CALL
HIERARCHICAL ARCHITECTURES IN THE
THIRD-GENERATION CELLULAR NETWORK
XIAOXIN WU, PURDUE UNIVERSITY
BISWANATH MUKHERJEE AND DIPAK GHOSAL, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ABSTRACT
Third-generation wireless communication
faces the challenge of rapidly increasing mobile
user demand against limited radio bandwidth.
Splitting cells into smaller cells can reduce the
frequency reuse distance to improve network
capacity within a certain area. Other than
increasing the cost of the fixed infrastructure,
cell splitting also causes the problem of increas-
Microcell M
ing handoff rate and even the handoff failure
rate when high-speed users roam in the network.
To solve this problem, larger cells are overlaid
The third-generation on these smaller cells, and different classes of
users (usually classified by speed) are initially
wireless communica- assigned to the proper types of cells (i.e., proper
tiers). We call this kind of cellular network a
tion faces the hierarchical cellular network. In this study, we
review the different design techniques in the
challenge of rapidly hierarchical architecture and some analytical
tools to study the performance of these designs.
increasing mobile
user demand against COMPONENTS OF A WIRELESS NETWORK
Today, most wireless communication is accom-
the limited radio plished by a cellular network. A cellular network
covering an area is divided into a number of
bandwidth. Splitting cells with a base station in each cell; a wired net-
work (the fixed infrastructure) connects all these
cells into smaller base stations. A mobile user will use a radio
channel to connect to its closest base station.
cells can reduce the Through the mobile switching center (MSC) of
the cellular network, this mobile user can get
frequency reuse connected to a wired user or another mobile
user. According to the cell size and service cov-
distance to improve erage area, four kinds of cells are used in cellu-
lar networks: picocell, microcell, macrocell, and
the network capacity satellite beam.
Picocellular networks are especially suited for
within a certain indoor wireless communications (IWC). A pico-
cell typically covers a 10–200 m radius with
area. antennas placed on the top of bookshelves and
radiating power on the order of a few milliwatts.
Interest in IWC has grown rapidly in recent
years because of its advantages over cable net-
works, such as mobility of users, elimination of
casting, flexibility, and creation of new communi-
cations services. IWC offers a highly attractive
62 1536-1284/04/$20.00 © 2004 IEEE
means of combining voice and data transmission
in a business environment. Different from the
outdoor wireless channel, the indoor channel
depends heavily on the type of building. The
effect of time dispersion and amplitude fading is
more obvious, and the maximum channel symbol
rate is limited. The radio signal is also sensitive
to small changes in the environment (i.e., a per-
son passing by). Special precautions must be
taken to guarantee the quality of the received
signal.
Both microcells and macrocells are used to
cover outdoor areas. Microcells are used in
areas with high traffic density, such as urban
areas. The cells have radii on the order of 200 m
to 2 km; the antennas are at street lamp eleva-
tion and radiate power less than 20 mW. The
traffic in each microcell is normally hard to pre-
dict, so frequency planning is difficult. Macro-
cells are used to cover larger areas with lower
traffic densities. These cells have radii from 1–10
km, and the antennas are located in places where
there will be the least signal blocking. In a statis-
tical manner, the traffic in a macrocell is easier
to predict; thus, fixed frequency planning is
more important in macrocellular networks. Most
cellular networks today are macrocellular or
microcellular, such as the advanced mobile
phone system (AMPS), an analog modulation
system, and digital systems such as the Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and
IS-136. All these systems provide voice service as
well as low-speed data service.
A satellite network covers a much larger area.
It is well known that a system with three satel-
lites in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) can
send or receive radio signals over almost all
inhabited portions of the globe. Thus, seamless
global mobile communications can be achieved
with few handoffs. However, the long transmis-
sion delay makes it unsuitable for time-critical
services such as voice. A satellite system employ-
ing low Earth orbit (LEO) reduces the transmis-
sion delay. In a LEO system, since the speed of
a satellite is much higher than that of any mobile
users on the ground, mobile users are relatively
motionless. Each satellite passes a given user in
a few minutes, so a handoff for a ground user
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
from one satellite to another is required. On the
known fixed orbit of satellites, handoff is easy to
control. A satellite system is suitable for users
with varying mobile speed, and can provide high-
speed data service.
WHY A HIERARCHICAL CELLULAR SYSTEM?
Demand from wireless users is growing rapidly.
Besides voice service, the third-generation (3G)
wireless network standard is expected to also
support data service. Since the existing band-
width reserved for wireless networks is limited,
methods to improve radio spectrum efficiency
are needed so that higher network capacity can
be achieved.
Cell splitting can improve cellular network
capacity because, by using smaller cells instead
of larger ones, the frequency reuse distance is
reduced. The same channel can be reused more
times in a cellular network, and virtually more
wireless channels can be provided by the net-
work simultaneously; thus, system capacity
increases. A cell of smaller size can also provide
relatively wider coherence channel bandwidth
because of its shorter channel delay spread [1],
so a small cell is more suitable to support high-
speed services in a 3G wireless network.
However, a smaller cell size may cause a
mobile user to cross more cells more often dur-
ing its lifetime. There are more handoff opera-
tions for each user, and the system load
increases. When a mobile user is too fast relative
to the cell size, it may get into a new cell before
its previous handoff processing finishes. Then
the call has to be dropped, and the service can-
not be completed.
To avoid the shortcomings of smaller sized
cells mentioned above, a hierarchical cellular
architecture is proposed. A typical hierarchical
cellular network is shown in Fig. 1. The cellular
network consists of different tiers. Each tier has
different sizes of cells, and large cells are over-
laid on small cells. Low-speed users are nor-
mally assigned to smaller cells, while high-speed
users are originally assigned to larger cells. Sys-
tem capacity increases while handoff load is
limited.
Hierarchical networks can also help broad-
band cellular networks (e.g., code-division multi-
ple access, CDMA) to achieve load balancing. In
a CDMA cellular network, the entire available
bandwidth is devoted to every cell, and there is
no frequency reuse. In case of nonuniform traf-
fic, the channel assignment techniques applied in
narrowband cellular networks such as time-divi-
sion multiple access (TDMA) and frequency-
division multiple access (FDMA) cannot be
applied in a CDMA cellular network. In [2], it is
shown that in a hierarchical CDMA cellular net-
work, load balancing can be achieved by assign-
ing a proper load to each tier.
In this survey, we review previous work relat-
ed to the following key questions in a hierarchi-
cal network:
• To which tier should we assign a user?
• How do we accurately estimate mobile speed?
• How do we partition the spectrum among the
different tiers?
• How does a blocked call operate?
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
Satellite layer
Macrocell layer
Microcell layer
Picocell layer
■ Figure 1. A typical hierarchical cellular network.
• How can one build a hierarchical system with
the proper number of cell tiers and number of
cells in each tier?
We review the literature on the design issues
and introduce some useful analytical methods
used in hierarchical network analysis.
DESIGN ISSUES IN
HIERARCHICAL CELLULAR NETWORKS
NETWORK ARCHITECTURE:
FREQUENCY PLANNING AND OVERFLOW CONTROL
In a hierarchical cellular network, mobile
users with different mobility or service require-
ments are initially assigned to different tiers.
Radio resources are assigned to different tiers.
To reduce complexity of operation, such as the
complexity of dynamic frequency reuse control
in a tiered network, the radio resource is nor-
mally assigned to the different tiers in a fixed
manner. Because of varying traffic, it may be
that when a user gets into a cell, there is no free
channel in this cell, but there may be free chan-
nels in the cells of its upper or lower tiers. To
optimize network spectrum efficiency, in a hier-
archical network a user may go up or down to
use free channels in other tiers. Generally, this
procedure is called overflow. Since better traffic
balance is achieved among tiers if mobile users
stay in their original tier (i.e., the preferable
tier), a mobile user who has overflowed to an
“alien” tier should go back to its original tier if a
channel is released in its original tire. This pro-
cedure is called take-back. In this section we go
over the techniques of frequency planning and
overflow control in a hierarchical cellular net-
work.
Frequency Planning Dependent on Overflow Control —
In [3], a macrocell/microcell network’s perfor-
mance is examined. Low-speed users are origi-
nally assigned to microcells and high-speed
users to macrocells. Overflow and take-back are
used to improve spectrum efficiency. For exam-
ple, when a low-speed user in the microcell tier
experiences a handoff and there is no free chan-
nel in its target microcell, it will use the free
channel in the overlying macrocell. If there is no
63
In a one-direction X : The position where a call starts or finishes
overflow hierarchical Handoff between macrocells
network, users
belonging to the
lower tier take the
advantage that they Macrocell
can use radio Overflow
resource in both the Handoff between microcells
original tier and the Microcell
X
higher tier, so they Microcell
Microcell
normally have better Microcell
blocking probability Microcell
than users belonging ■ Figure 2. The possible operations for a microcell user.
to the higher tier.
free channel in both tiers, this handoff call is
dropped. If this low-speed user connects to the
macrocell successfully, it will keep on monitor-
ing its crossing microcells, and when there is a
free channel in an underlying microcell, it will
use that channel and return to the microcell
tier. High-speed users operate in a similar way.
Figure 2 shows the possible operations for a
low-speed mobile user. The shaded microcell in
Fig. 2 is heavily loaded, and no channel is avail-
able. Compared to a tiered network without any
overflow or with overflow but without take-
bake, analytical results show that the tiered net-
work with both overflow and take-back has the
best performance. In [4] a scheme similar to
that in [3] is analyzed, in which a case with no
microcells under a macrocell is specified. In
addition, finite queues are used for new and
handoff calls, and the effect of both reneging
(call give-up) of waiting new calls because of
caller impatience and dropping of queued hand-
off calls as callers move out of the handoff area
are considered. Guard channels are used for
handoff calls. The authors further investigate
how the design parameters of buffer sizes and
guard channel numbers in macrocell and micro-
cells affect the performance of hierarchical cel-
lular networks. A simulation model is built in
[5] that confirms the results in [4].
Lots of work only considers a one-directional
overflow: the overflow from a lower tier (small
cells) to a higher tier (large cells). Other than
that there may be no microcells, one reason
could be the complexity and heavy load associat-
ed with signaling in the take-back operation.
Also, high-speed users originally assigned to
large cells may cause high handoff rates and
handoff blocking probabilities when they get into
small cells. In a one-direction overflow hierarchi-
cal network, users belonging to the lower tier
take advantage of radio resources in both the
original and higher tiers, so they normally have
64
Macrocell
Take-back
Microcell
Handoff between microcells
Microcell X
Microcell
Microcell
better blocking probability than users belonging
to the higher tier.
The frequency partitioning between tiers in a
one-direction overflow hierarchical network is
not exactly the same as that in the network with
double-direction overflow and take-back. In a
double-direction overflow network, since for
long periods of time most users stay in their
original tiers, the radio resource can simply be
assigned to different tiers according to the sta-
tistical load in these tiers. In a one-direction
overflow network, spectrum partitioning is more
complex. For example, in a macrocell/microcell
cellular network with overflow from microcells
to macrocells only, a call will be blocked or
dropped in macrocells. Assigning more spec-
trum to the macrocell tier can reduce the block-
ing or dropping probability under a certain
incoming load to this tier. On the other hand,
more spectrum in the macrocell tier causes less
spectrum to be assigned to the microcell tier;
hence, there is more overflow to the macrocell
tier, which may increase the blocking or drop-
ping probability. In addition, frequency reuse in
the microcell tier is higher than in the macrocell
tier, so reducing the spectrum in the microcell
tiers may lead to decreased overall network
capacity.
The method to find the optimum spectrum
partitioning between tiers in a one-direction
overflow hierarchical network is explored in [6].
Under a certain quality of service (QoS) con-
straint (i.e., the blocking or dropping probabili-
ties in the upper tier), an exhaustive test is used
to find the optimum partitioning and largest
system capacity. Assuming that the frequency
reuse rates are the same in the macrocell and
microcell tiers (adding or reducing one channel
in one tier leads to reducing or adding one
channel in the other tier), with a number of
channels to be used for both tiers, the system
load on different spectrum partitions is tested.
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
The same method is used in [7], in which the
authors find that although normally assigning
more channels to the microcell tier helps
achieve higher network capacity, there exists an
optimal spectrum partitioning in the tiered net-
work considering the QoS of the users assigned
to the macrocell tier.
Design on Cost — When evolving from a flat cellu-
lar network to a hierarchical one, the system
capacity is improved. In the meantime, the sys-
tem’s overall deployment cost also increases
because of the larger number of base stations
and more complicated operating systems. The
problem related to the cost of a hierarchical
network is described in [8]: Given a total num-
ber of channels, the area to be covered, the
average speed of mobiles in a tier, and a con-
straint on the QoS (i.e., blocking and dropping
probabilities), design a multitier cellular net-
work in terms of the number of cells in each tier
and number of channels allocated to each tier
so that the total cost is minimized. The network
cost includes the cost of the base stations and
interconnection of the base stations to the MSC.
In [8] the optimization problem is solved by
using some optimal design algorithms. The cell
size, total number of channels in a tier, and
total network cost are calculated. It is also
shown that given the range of parameters in the
study in [8], two-tier networks outperform one-
tier networks. In [9], given a predescribed sub-
scriber number and the radius of the service
area, a method to design the radius of a cell and
the number of channels in a cell to minimize the
system cost is proposed. Two types of traffic
shape in the service are assumed: uniform and
exponential tailed traffic. It is shown in [9] that
the optimum values are independent of traffic
shape, and the optimal radius of macrocells and
microcells can be calculated according to the
traffic (high-speed and low-speed users)
assigned to these cells.
Single-Tier Resource Assignment Technology Used in a
Multitier Network — To improve spectrum effi-
ciency and system QoS in a single-tier cellular
network, a lot of resource assignment techniques
have been studied and deployed in real cellular
networks, such as dynamic channel allocation
(DCA) and channel rearrangement in the over-
lapping zone between cells. These techniques
can also be applied in hierarchical networks. In
[10] a macrocell/microcell cellular network with
fixed channel allocation (FCA) in the macrocell
tier and DCA in the microcell tier is studied.
Simulation shows that the proposed system can
minimize blocking probability under any traffic
conditions including the spatial non-uniform
traffic condition. In [11] channel rearrangement
is used in the microcell tier. A mobile user in the
overlapping area between microcells will select
one of the cells based on signal power and cell
load. Besides improving the call blocking and
dropping probabilities, the technique also helps
to keep users in the correct tiers.
Frequency sectoring is used in a flat cellular
network to increase frequency reuse, and hence
improve network capacity. Special antennas are
set in the base station, and each antenna can
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
only transmit or receive signals within a certain
angle. Cells are divided into several sectors
A mobile user in the
based on the coverage of these antennas, and
each sector is assigned a unique frequency. The
overlapping area
frequency used in one sector can be reused in
the sector with a different direction in a neigh-
between microcells
boring cell.
To avoid co-channel interference (CI)
will select one of the
between different tiers in a hierarchical cellular cells based on signal
network, spectrum assignment to different tiers
is normally a hard partitioning or orthogonal
sharing problem: different tiers cannot use the
power and cell load.
same frequency (a CDMA system may not obey
this rule, as discussed later). However, with fre-
Besides improving
quency sectoring in different tiers, the same fre-
quency can be shared by users in different tiers
the call blocking
if these users belong to different sectors. In [12]
a hierarchical macrocell/microcell architecture
and dropping
with frequency sectoring is presented. By apply-
ing the concept of cluster planning, the sectoring
probabilities, the
arrangement proposed in [12] can provide good
shielding between microcells and macrocells. As
technique also helps
a result, underlaid microcells can reuse the same
frequencies as overlaid macrocells without
to keep the users in
decreasing macrocell system capacity. Besides
improving network capacity, frequency sectoring
the correct tiers.
also shows flexibility for gradual deployment,
through which the existing macrocellular net-
work is able to evolve smoothly into a hierarchi-
cal macrocell/microcell architecture. A tiered
architecture with frequency sectoring is also
examined in [13]. Macrocells are divided into
three sectors. The microcells under a macrocell
sector can reuse the channels assigned to the
other two macrocell sectors with very little CI,
and system capacity is improved.
Special Structure to Improve the Network Performance
— In [14], a special structure named a nonstrictly
hierarchical cellular network is proposed. In a
microcell/macrocell cellular network, the macro-
cell tier has more than one subtier. Calls blocked
in the microcell tier can overflow to a macrocell
subtier according to the user’s speed. To reduce
the complexity of managing handoffs and the
ping-pong effect between different subtiers, no
overflow is allowed between these subtiers.
Results show that this architecture experiences
fewer handoffs than a strictly hierarchical archi-
tecture. The authors also discuss how to deter-
mine the cell size in a tier by the maximum user
speed in that tier.
Different from fixed tier deployment, dynam-
ic microcell deployment under an overlaid
macrocell is proposed in [15]. The positions of
microcell base stations and the channels they
are allocated are measurement-based. A base
station of a macrocell collects data from mobile
users and estimates hot spots’ positions, sizes,
and traffic conditions. A microcell base station
with a number of channels is deployed in a hot
spot. When traffic under the macrocell coverage
changes, the deployment of microcells changes
as well. For nonuniform traffic with large vari-
ance, portable base stations may be used for the
above purpose (Fig. 3). In [16] another struc-
ture for tiered cellular networks is described.
Transmitters (relays) are deployed instead of
smaller cells. These transmitters can only for-
ward the signal without any operation. Since the
65

Microcell
Microcell Macrocell
■ Figure 3. A macrocell and portable microcells.
power of a mobile subscriber (MS) can be
reduced, frequency reuse increases. A directed
retry scheme is used in [16] to improve spectrum
efficiency.
A HIERARCHICAL CELLULAR NETWORK WITH
DIFFERENT ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES
In a TDMA macrocell/microcell network, to
avoid CI the spectrum sharing between different
tiers is orthogonal: microcells and their overlaid
macrocell must use different spectrum. Under
cellular network coverage, frequency reuse rate
in lower tiers is larger than that in higher tiers;
thus, assigning more spectrum to lower tiers
leads to higher system capacity. However, to
avoid a high rate of handoff (too many high-
speed users assigned to the microcell tier) and
handoff failure caused by a high-speed user in
the microcell tier, enough spectrum should also
be assigned to the upper tier to accommodate
users with speeds higher than a threshold value.
As mentioned earlier, a TDMA hierarchical
cellular network normally follows orthogonal fre-
quency partitioning (i.e., the frequency assigned
to one tier cannot be used by its overlaid or
underlying tiers). In a network composed of
multiple tiers, the frequency assigned to each
tier is limited. To improve the frequency plan-
ning in a macro-/micro-/picocell hierarchical
GSM network, the authors of [17] propose a
method to increase the capacity of the network
by applying total frequency hopping (T-FH) and
adaptive frequency allocation (AFA) to reuse
macrocell and microcell resources without fre-
quency planning in indoor picocells. Their results
show that a 50 percent improvement of the sys-
tem capacity can be achieved.
A CDMA system can provide larger capacity
than other systems. In a hierarchical CDMA net-
work, if all the tiers share the same frequency,
the advantage of CDMA is reduced. The larger
power needed by microcell users to overcome CI
from an overlaid macrocell causes a kind of ser-
vice hole in the macrocell tier in which a macro-
cell user cannot be served. However, by using a
hierarchical architecture, overall CDMA system
capacity can still be improved. In [18] thorough
research on CDMA overlaid macrocell/microcell
is presented. CI, capacity, blocking probability,
service hole, and power control schemes in such
a network are discussed. The work in [18] shows
66
that the capacity of the macrocell is limited by
microcell interference from the uplink, but the
total capacity significantly increases by means of
uplink CI power control for both the macrocell
and microcell, and a downlink power control for
the microcell. In [19] the author describes a way
to find the upper bound of the extended system
capacity of an overlaid CDMA hierarchical net-
work.
Some techniques are used to improve the
performance of CDMA hierarchical cellular
networks. In [20] a dual-rate direct sequence
CDMA system with a decision feedback equal-
izer (DS-CDMA-DFE) in an overlaid cellular
system is proposed. Services of different data
rates are partitioned between different tiers,
and the arrangement of service partitioning is
optimized to minimize the number of handoffs.
It is shown in [20] that with DS-CDMA-DFE,
the system capacity in a two-tier frame is much
higher than that of an I-95 system. In [21] a fre-
quency-division CDMA (FD-CDMA) system is
applied to reduce intertier interference. In FD-
CDMA, a frequency band is divided into sever-
al subbands, and each tier reuses the subbands
simultaneously. It is shown that a hierarchical
FD-CDMA network has flexibility in capacity
and better system performance. Another
method to reduce CI between tiers is intro-
duced in [22]. A hierarchical maximal-ratio-
combining (HMRC) scheme improves system
performance by decoding a mobile user in both
macrocell and microcell.
Another major trend in hierarchical cellular
network deployment is to mix the different ran-
dom access systems. In [23], two macrocell/
microcell cellular networks are explored:
• A network with TDMA in microcells and
CDMA in macrocells
• A network with CDMA in microcells and
TDMA in macrocells
It is found that the second network has greater
system capacity than the first. However, com-
pared to a system using orthogonal frequency
partitioning, the capacity trade-offs are poor for
both networks because of the large amount of
intertier interference. In [24] mixing access
methods in a single tier is used to improve sys-
tem performance. A frequency-division duplex
(FDD)-CDMA cellular system is overlaid by
small time-division duplex (TDD)-CDMA cells
covering hot spots, since TDD-CDMA base sta-
tions have lower complexity than FDD-CDMA
base stations and are able to support asymmetric
traffic at high bit rates. It is concluded by the
authors that a hybrid FDD/TDD-CDMA system
leads to an efficient network.
ADMISSION CONTROL
When a new user comes to a hierarchical cellu-
lar network, it will be assigned to a certain tier.
This process is called tier selection or cell selec-
tion. Cell selection depends on a lot of factors,
the most important of which is mobile speed. In
a real network, cell selection with this criterion
can be done with the knowledge of either an
accurate speed estimate or the dwelling time
within a cell. A mobile user may change its cell
later if its first selection is not correct, and this is
called cell reselection.
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
Cell Selection by User Speed — Knowing the speed
of mobile users, to select a cell properly, a tiered
network must have certain speed thresholds to
use as selection criteria. A mobile user with
speed higher than a threshold value is assigned
to a larger cell; otherwise, it is assigned to a
smaller cell. In a tiered network, this speed
threshold value is determined by the users’
mobility pattern, system QoS, system capacity,
traffic balancing between tiers, handoff rate con-
straint, and so on. A large threshold value keeps
more users in the microcell tier and larger sys-
tem capacity is achieved, while a small threshold
value helps to satisfy a low handoff rate by avoid-
ing high-speed users being assigned to microcells.
In [25] an optimal threshold value is investi-
gated in a two-tier cellular network. It is assumed
that the users’ velocity distribution is a triangle
distribution, and a user’s velocity within a cell
remains constant. It is also assumed that there is
no overflow between tiers. Based on these
assumptions, an analytical model is built. By col-
lecting a mobile user’s past microcell sojourn
times, the scheme in [25] provides much lower
probabilities of erroneous assignments of mobile
users to microcells and macrocells under a speed
threshold value, which is calculated according to
the QoS constraint. Furthermore, to achieve
maximum system capacity, different speed
threshold values and frequency partitioning are
also investigated. For a single macrocell and its
underlying microcells, the authors describe a sys-
tematic procedure to jointly solve the optimal
velocity threshold and frequency partition
between macrocells and microcells, to maximize
the carried load while meeting handoff process-
ing constraints.
In [26] the speed threshold value is investigat-
ed for load balancing among tiers (e.g., keep the
same blocking probability in different tiers).
User speed is assumed to be arbitrarily distribut-
ed. A network with overflow between tiers is
also briefly discussed in [6]. An analytical model
is built for optimum speed threshold selection
for maximum system capacity with one-direction
overflow in a macrocell/microcell cellular net-
work. In this study mobile speed follows a trian-
gular distribution (Fig. 4). Frequency
partitioning is also a factor involved in maximum
capacity achievement.
Cell Selection by Dwelling Time — To avoid inaccu-
rate estimation of mobile speed, the dwelling
time of a mobile user in its original cell (i.e., the
time between its origination and its first hand-
off) is often used to decide if the mobile user
should be assigned to a smaller or larger cell. In
[27] a simple strategy is proposed in a macrocell/
microcell network. A new mobile user is assigned
to the microcell. After a certain time threshold,
if the dwelling time of this mobile user in its first
cell is longer than the threshold, the user is
declared a slow user and will stay in the micro-
cell tier; otherwise, it is considered a fast user
and will be handed off to the overlaid macrocell.
Similar to the strategy in [27], in [28] a hand-
off time threshold value is set. A mobile user is
assigned to a cell by comparing the handoff time
it uses with the threshold value. This strategy
avoids the misassignment caused by the random
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
For a single
p
macrocell and its
underlying microcells,
the authors describe
a systematic
procedure to jointly
0 v
0.5vmax vmax solve for the optimal
■ Figure 4. The triangle distributed speed (Vmax: velocity threshold
the maximum speed for mobile users).
and the frequency
initial origination point inside the cell for a new
partition between
mobile user. The method is expanded in [28] by
reducing the handoff overlapping area so as to
macrocells and
reduce system capacity loss.
In [29] four cell selection strategies are pro-
microcells, to
posed. Strategy 1 is same as that in [27]. Strategy
2 adds one more threshold value to strategy 1 to
maximize the carried
support possible “hand down” (a mobile user
goes from a larger cell to a smaller cell). Strate-
load while meeting
gies 3 and 4 improve strategy 2 by storing all the
cell dwelling time of a mobile user during the
handoff processing
entire life span of this mobile user, which can
also be used for cell reselection. It is shown that
constraints.
hand down can reduce the number of handoffs
in a hierarchical network, and strategies 3 and 4
have fewer handoffs than strategy 2, especially
when the call arrival rate is low.
Cell Selection by Other Factors — The future cellular
network will provide integrated voice, data, and
video service. Different types of services may
have different QoS requirements. Less handoff-
sensitive, a data user can be assigned to a lower
tier although it may have relatively high speed,
while a voice user with the same speed has to be
assigned to a higher tier. In the lower tier, the
priority of voice service over data service can
improve system performance [30].
Since the smaller cells in the lower tier are
more suitable for high-rate services, for data ser-
vices high-bit-rate data users can be assigned to
a lower tier and low-bit-rate data users to a
higher tier [31, 32]. In [31] the microcell tier
provides all kinds of services such as voice, data,
and video with operational bit rates up to 2
Mb/s, and the macrocell tier provides voice ser-
vice and reduced quality video service with oper-
ational rates up to 385 kb/s. It is concluded in
the work that such a hierarchical network can
provide improved QoS and higher capacity than
a traditional single-tier network under the same
resource constraints. In [32] high-data-rate users
are assigned to macrocells and low-data-rate
users to microcells. Using CDMA, it is found
that different bit rate signals can coexist at the
same carrier frequency without any significant
impact on a cell’s capacity, and this leads to
higher system capacity.
To use the spectrum in different tiers more
efficiently, in [33, 34] a fuzzy cell selection
method is discussed. The cell is selected by the
67

Microcell Macrocell Cell dwell time
Occupancy Occupancy Short Medium Long Huge
Low Low Macrocell Macrocell Macrocell Microcell
Low High Macrocell Microcell Microcell Microcell
High Low Macrocell Macrocell Macrocell Microcell
High High Macrocell Macrocell Microcell Microcell
■ Table 1. The fuzzy rules.
user’s speed along with occupancy in the target
cells (the lower tier and higher tier target cells).
Dividing the speed and occupancy into different
classes, tabulated fuzzy rules are built. A user’s
speed can also be estimated by the cell dwelling
time. Cell selection by these fuzzy rules enables
the system to achieve a low call blocking proba-
bility while keeping a low handoff rate. Table 1
shows the fuzzy rules used in [33]. For example,
when a user with short dwelling time comes to
the low-occupancy macrocell and microcell, it
will be assigned to the macrocell.
In [35] a cell is selected by both the mobile
speed and type of services. Different types of
users (voice or data) with different mobile speeds
are assigned to different tiers by different poli-
cies, while the policies are determined by differ-
ent QoS demands. In this work, as one of the
policies low-speed voice users, high-speed voice
users, and low-speed data users are assigned to
microcells, while high-speed data users are
assigned to macrocells in order to reduce the
blocking probability and guarantee the QoS of
high-speed data users.
HANDOFF CONTROL
Methods are used in a single-tiered cellular
network to improve handoff performance. One
method is to reserve some channels exclusively
for handoff calls in each cell, or give handoff
calls higher priority to use these channels.
Another strategy is to queue a handoff call if
it cannot access a channel in the target cell
while maintaining the link between this call
and its old cell’s base station. Both methods
improve the handoff blocking probability by
trading off with the blocking probability of
new calls [36, 37].
The methods above can also be applied to
hierarchical cellular networks. In [5] guard chan-
nels are reserved for handoff calls. Besides,
although queues are used by both new calls and
handoff calls, buffered handoff calls are given
higher service priority than buffered new calls.
Because of the complexity of the structure of the
hierarchical architecture, there are more choices
in how to use these methods. In [7], assuming
that high-speed users are assigned to the macro-
cell tier and low-speed users to the microcell tier
with open-directional overflow, five different
strategies of applying handoff queues in a macro-
cell/microcell cellular network are examined:
• First in first out (FIFO) queue in the micro-
cell tier only
• FIFO queue in the macrocell tier only
• Priority queue in the macrocell tier in which
high-speed handoff users have higher priority
68
• FIFO queue in both tiers
• FIFO queue in the microcell tier and priority
queue in the macrocell tier
It is found that using a priority queue that gives
high-speed users in the macrocell higher priority
can achieve better handoff performance, and
with queues in both tiers, the handoff blocking
probabilities for both high-speed and low-speed
users are smallest.
EXTENDED INFORMATION
We have discussed the cell selection issue in
hierarchical cellular networks. Mobile speed is
the most important criteria for cell selection. To
find the speed of a mobile user, one should first
find its position. On the uplink signal, the sig-
nal’s strength is used to estimate distance, and a
diversity antenna is used to estimate change of
angle within a period of time. Knowing the
change of position in a certain time, the mobile
speed can be estimated. A mobile user may carry
this profiling information for any future opera-
tions.
Different speed estimation algorithms are
used in cellular networks. In [38] the diversity
switching number is used to estimate mobile
speed. Since the velocity of a mobile user in a
Rayleigh fading channel is proportional to the
Doppler frequency, and the Doppler frequency
is proportional to the switching rate of diversity
branches, the method in [38] is very simple and
can easily be implemented in mobile terminals.
In [39], based on deviation of the signal
strength, two methods are proposed to estimate
mobile speed. The result shows they are suit-
able for both frequency-hopping (FH) and non-
FH cases in a TDMA system. In [40] a
resembling multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) is
used to estimate the position and velocity of
mobile users from signal strength measure-
ments of a downlink to reachable base stations.
The method can achieve an average deviation
of 60 m in location and a maximum deviation
of 10 m/s in velocity, so the method is applica-
ble as decision support for the assignment of
channels in hierarchical networks with macro-
cells and microcells.
In [41] a more sophisticated speed-estimation
algorithm is proposed based on the autocorrela-
tion function of received signals. The major
steps of the algorithm are:
1. The instantaneous power of the received base-
band signal is calculated to remove the fre-
quency offset and data/speech information
bearing signals, while keeping the Doppler
frequency.
2. The calculated power signal is filtered using
low-pass linear phase finite impulse response
(FIR) to suppress interference and noise.
3. The filtered power signal is decimated to ease
the computational burden, and the decimation
factor is properly chosen to avoid frequency
aliasing.
4. Autocorrelation values of the decimated fil-
tered power signals are calculated on a shift-
ing slot to suppress slot burst frequency
interference.
5. The calculated autocorrelation values are nor-
malized to suppress the power fluctuation of
received signals.
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
6. The normalized autocorrelation values are
compared with threshold values to estimate
mobile speed.
The simulation results show the algorithm
works well for both nondispersive (single-path)
channels and dispersive (multipath) channels.
TOOLS FOR PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS IN
HIERARCHICAL NETWORKS
There are two key issues in hierarchical cellular
network analysis:
• Modeling handoff between adjacent cells
• Modeling overflow between different tiers
In this section we introduce some useful analyti-
cal models.
ANALYSIS OF HANDOFF
Different mathematical models are used to
approximate a mobile user’s movements. Howev-
er, it is difficult to accurately describe a mobile
user’s movement in a cellular network by a sim-
ple mathematical model. Mobile users can be
slow (pedestrian users), and change speed or
direction at any time; mobile users can also be
fast (car users), who may travel in a constant
direction with variable speed depending on traf-
fic. The initial position at which a mobile user
enters a cell will also determine when it will
leave this cell and hand over to a neighboring
cell. In [42], based on the assumption that both
speed and direction are uniformly distributed,
two mathematical models are provided to find
the distribution function of a mobile user’s cell
dwelling time. One model is used to describe the
dwelling time of the users originally generated in
the cell, and another is used for a user passing
through the cell. Through simulation, an expo-
nential distribution function can be found to
hold for the dwelling time distribution, so the
handoff process can be approximated since the
handoff rate is inversely proportional to the
user’s dwelling time (i.e., shorter dwelling time
causes higher handoff rate).
In some analyses, the handoff flow to a cell is
approximated to be a Poisson process. The key
problem then is to find the average arrival rate.
The arrival rate can be calculated recursively by
knowing the average dwelling time of a mobile
user in a cell. In [37] the authors assume the
exponential distribution of the dwelling time for
mobile users in a cell. The number of handoffs
for a mobile user during its alive time is calculat-
ed in terms of call dropping probability. A
Laplace transform for the probability density
function (pdf) is used to simplify the analysis.
In a cellular network, it will be too complicat-
ed to build a real system-level analysis model
based on traffic flows because there are too
many variables. However, assuming the network
to be a homogeneous system, we can approxi-
mate the behavior of all cells being the same,
and network performance can be found by anal-
ysis of a single cell. In a statistical equilibrium
system, the average handoff arrival rate to a cell
should be equal to the corresponding departure
rate. This equality is used to find the handoff
rate recursively in [36, 37]. In [43] it is shown
how to find the average handoff rates in a cell
IEEE Wireless Communications • June 2004
with two types of users, high-speed and low-
speed. Assigning an initial value for the average
Through simulation,
handoff rate to a cell, the state transition dia-
gram can be built. The actual handoff rate can
an exponential-
be calculated recursively. Results show that the
recursive method converges very fast.
distribution function
ANALYSIS OF OVERFLOW can be found to hold
Overflow happens when a new call or a handoff for the dwelling-time
call comes to a cell with no free channels so the
user has to subscribe to a cell in the higher or
lower tier.
distribution so the
If the call arrival to this cell obeys a Poisson
process, one can also approximate the overflow
handoff process can
obeying a Poisson process, and the average rate
of the overflow can be calculated by the product
be approximated
of the original arrival rate to a cell and the
blocking probability in this cell. A Poisson over-
since the handoff
flow model is used in [3, 44]. The Poisson over-
flow model makes the analysis simpler and can
rate is inversely
show the major trends of the performance, but
simulations show that it is not accurate enough.
proportional to the
A more accurate but more complex analysis
model for overflow is the interrupted Poisson
user’s dwelling time.
process (IPP) [45]. In [43] IPP is described as a
two-state Markov-modulated Poisson process
(MMPP) in which a Poisson process is modeled
by a random switch that is alternately turned on
for an exponentially distributed time and turned
off for another (independent) exponentially dis-
tributed time. Figure 5 shows a simple IPP over-
flow model in a single cell.
In [43] a two-type user state transition dia-
gram is built for a multitier hierarchical cellular
system with the IPP model, and probabilities of
states can be solved. Based on probabilities of
states, the blocking probabilities for different
types of mobile users can be calculated. Using
the analytical model from [43], a spectrum opti-
mum partitioning between a two-tier cellular sys-
tem is found in [6]. In [36], the analytical
framework of MMPP is built by a matrix and the
system performance (i.e., blocking probabilities)
is examined by matrix calculation.
FUTURE RESEARCH
We propose the following future topics:
User profiling application: To assign a mobile
user to a correct tier in a hierarchical network,
mobile speed has to be estimated. Normally a
mobile user is assigned to one tier before the
speed is calculated. After the calculation, if a
base station finds that the mobile user is assigned
to the wrong tier, it has to reassign the mobile
user. In addition, since there are so many fac-
tors, such as the radio channel, the initial point
of a mobile unit entering a cell, and the direc-
tion of its movement, that may affect the accura-
cy of speed estimation, there is a rather high
probability that a mobile user is assigned to the
wrong tier even after speed estimation. User
profiling can help avoid this problem. A lot of
users have fixed routine movements. If we know
in advance how a user will move whenever this
user accesses the system, we can assign the user
to the right tier without complex calculation and
less error. How and what kind of profiling can
improve system QoS without occupying too
much bandwidth is a big research issue.
69
 : When IPP switch is ON
λ λ λ λ
0 1 2 n-1
µ 2µ
ϖ γ ϖ γ ϖ γ
λ + λof λ + λof λ + λof
0 1 2 n-1
µ 2µ
■ Figure 5. An IPP state transition diagram. λ is the rate for the local traffic and λof is the rate for the overflowed traffic. ω and γ are the
overflow switching rates from off to on and on to off. µ is the user departure rate.
Paging and location update: Paging and loca-
tion update has been discussed thoroughly for a
single-tier network. The key issue is to reduce
overall cost while maintaining network QoS
requirements (e.g., paging delay). Since the base
station of a large cell covers a larger area, pag-
ing through the paging channels of larger cells
may reduce the number of location areas (LAs),
and thus reduce the location update cost. But
this may bring heavy paging traffic in large cells:
one large cell covers a number of small cells, so
the number of overall users in such an area is
very large. Under heavy paging load, the paging
should be shared by large cells and small cells to
guarantee maximum paging delay. How to find a
proper paging and location update procedure in
a hierarchical network can be a research prob-
lem. Besides, frequent operating between tiers
may increase operation complexity, which is also
a factor to be considered.
Multimedia service and QoS: In a single-tier
network, different types of services require dif-
ferent types of QoS. There are two major types
of services: time-critical, such as voice and
video, and non-time-critical, such as data. Small
cells are suitable for high-data-rate transmission
because of their shorter channel delay spread.
In hierarchical networks, high-speed users are
normally assigned to larger cells. However,
high-speed data users can still be assigned to
small cells without significant service degrada-
tion because data users may temporarily buffer
their data until a free channel (channels) is
released. Data users with very high speed should
still be assigned to large cells to avoid handoff
failure (i.e., the time for a high-speed data user
to stay in a cell is too short to process a success-
ful handoff). The speed threshold values to sep-
arate data users into different groups should be
different from those of voice service. Video ser-
vice should not be assigned to larger cells
because they may last a long time and occupy
the relatively precious bandwidth in the larger
cell for too long. With buffering techniques in
video, high-speed video users may also be
assigned to small cells. Thus, the speed thresh-
70
: When IPP switch is OFF
n
(n – 1) µ nµ
ϖ γ ϖ γ
λ + λof
n
(n – 1) µ nµ
old values for different types of users and initial
cell assignment techniques in a hierarchical sys-
tem with mixed types of users are good research
topics.
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BIOGRAPHIES
XIAOXIN WU (wu@cs.purdue.edu) received his B. E. degree
from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in
1990 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California,
Davis in 2001. After that he joined Arraycomm Inc. as a
protocol research engineer. Since 2002 he has been work-
ing as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of
Computer Science, Purdue University. His major research
interests include routing, security, QoS, and resource allo-
cation in ad hoc, cellular, and integrated wireless net-
works. He served as a technical program committee
member for VTC 2003 and the Symposium on Integrated
Heterogeneous Wireless Networks.
BISWANATH MUKHERJEE [S’82, M’87] (mukherje@cs.ucdavis.
edu) received a B.Tech. (Hons) degree the from Indian Insti-
tute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1980, and a Ph.D. degree
from the University of Washington, Seattle, in June 1987. In
July 1987 he joined the University of California, Davis, where
he has been a professor of computer science since July 1995,
and served as chairman of the Computer Science Department
from September 1997 to June 2000. He is co-winner of
paper awards presented at the 1991 and 1994 National
Computer Security Conferences. He serves or has served on
the editorial boards of the IEEE/
ACM Transactions on Networking, IEEE Network, ACM/
Baltzer Wireless Information Networks, Journal of High-Speed
Networks, Photonic Network Communications, and Optical
Network Magazine. He also served as Editor-at-Large for opti-
cal networking and communications for the IEEE Communi-
cations Society. He served as Technical Program Chair of IEEE
INFOCOM ’96. His research interests include lightwave net-
works, network security, and wireless networks.
D IPAK G HOSAL [M] (ghosal@cs.ucdavis.edu) received his
Ph.D. degree from the University of Louisiana in 1988. His
primary research interests are in the areas of high-speed
and wireless networks with particular emphasis on the
impact of new technologies on the network, and higher-
layer protocols and applications. He is also interested in
the application of parallel architectures for protocol pro-
cessing in high-speed networks and the application of dis-
tributed computing principles in the design of
next-generation network architectures and server technolo-
gies.
71