Cellular spectrum efficiency via reuse planning

The design of cellular systems impacts spectrum efficiency and service quality via several design choices and techniques. The reuse pattern "N" and sector plan are choices that trade off spectrum efficiency and voice quality. Overlaid cells, channel borrowing and reuse partitioning are techniques to improve that tradeoff. These effects can be quantified in generak by fairly simple rules. However, specific system growth planning depends critically on the traffic distribution in a particular city and becomes very complex in large systems. We have developed computer aids to automate growth planning and this paper reports a set of empirical studies using these aids. One of the most surprising results is how sensitive capacity is to traffic distribution.