Multiple reuse patterns for frequency planning in GSM networks

Providing high capacity in GSM networks at low costs using existing macrocells is of increasing importance in the near future due to the competition between operators. This paper shows that by applying frequency hopping in combination with an advanced frequency planning method, multiple reuse patterns, very high traffic levels in the existing macrocells can be supported. Field experience from live networks shows that an average frequency reuse factor as low as 7.5 is possible without negatively affecting the network quality. Thus, the network capacity can be doubled compared to a non hopping network with reuse 4/12 using 10 MHz frequency spectrum. In a macrocell, it is possible to carry as much as 43 Erlang at 2% blocking