Cellular control-channel capacity

This paper presents a theoretical performance analysis of the cellular control channel with an estimation of its effective capacity. Both forward and reverse control channels (FOCC and RECC) are examined in the presence of interference and Rayleigh fading, and prediction equations are developed. It is shown that the control-channel capacity is a function of the carrier-to-interference relationship (C/I) and Rayleigh fading. The RECC capacity varies between 11880 calls per hour (3.3 per second) and a maximum of 23256 calls per hour (6.46 per second). The number of page originations over FOCC varies between 52920 per hour (14.7 per second) and 69264 per hour (19.24 per second). The analysis concludes that, as the system traffic grows with the advent of time-division multiple-access (TDMA) technique, a single control channel per OMNI cell will be overloaded, affecting services to many cellular subscribers. A separate control channel would be needed to mitigate this problem.