Capacity losses in sector and microcell cellular systems

Cellular system capacity calculations are based on the assumption that traffic is uniformly distributed. A simple analysis of hourly cellular cell site usage statistics is performed to assess the validity of this assertion. The data shows that call traffic is not uniform across geography or time of day. For the particular data set used there is a 9% capacity penalty incurred by reducing the geographic size of the service areas by a factor of three. Smaller service areas show a greater variability in demand and a greater ratio of peak to average demand.