Cell and Sector Terminology

With cellular radio we use a simple hexagon to represent a complex object: the geographical area covered by cellular radio antennas. These areas are called cells. Using this shape let us picture the cellular idea, because on a map it only approximates the covered area. Why a hexagon and not a circle to represent cells?

When showing a cellular system we want to depict an area totally covered by radio, without any gaps. Any cellular system will have gaps in coverage, but the hexagonal shape lets us more neatly visualize, in theory, how the system is laid out. Notice how the circles below would leave gaps in our layout. Still, why hexagons and not triangles or rhomboids? Read the text below and we'll come to that discussion in just a bit.

Notice the illustration below. The middle circles represent cell sites. This is where the base station radio equipment and their antennas are located. A cell site gives radio coverage to a cell. Do you understand the difference between these two terms? The cell site is a location or a point, the cell is a wide geographical area. Okay?Most cells have been split into sectors or individual areas to make them more efficient and to let them to carry more calls. Antennas transmit inward to each cell. That's very important to remember. They cover a portion or a sector of each cell, not the whole thing. Antennas from other cell sites cover the other portions. The covered area, if you look closely, resembles a sort of rhomboid, as you'll see in the diagram after this one. The cell site equipment provides each sector with its own set of channels. In this example, just below , the cell site transmits and receives on three different sets of channels, one for each part or sector of the three cells it covers.

Is this discussion clear or still muddy? if you understand cells and sectors or come back if you get hung up on the terms at some later point. For most of us, let's go through this again, this time from another point of view. Mark provides the diagram and makes some key points here:
"Most people see the cell as the blue hexagon, being defined by the tower in the center, with the antennae pointing in the directions indicated by the arrows. In reality, the cell is the red hexagon, with the towers at the corners, as you depict it above and I illustrate it below. The confusion comes from not realizing that a cell is a geographic area, not a point. We use the terms 'cell' (the coverage area) and 'cell site' (the base station location) interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.

Mark goes on to talk about cells and sectors and the kind of antennas needed: "These days most cells are divided into sectors. Typically three but you might see just two or rarely six. Six sectored sites have been touted as a Great Thing by manufacturers such as Hughes and Motorola who want to sell you more equipment. In practice six sectors sites have been more trouble than they're worth. So, typically, you have three antenna per sector or 'face'. You'll have one antenna for the voice transmit channel, one antenna for the set up or control channel, and two antennas to receive. Or you may duplex one of the transmits onto a receive. By sectorising you gain better control of interference issues. That is, you're transmitting in one direction instead of broadcasting all around, like with an omnidirectional antenna, so you can tighten up your frequency re-use"

"This is a large point of confusion with, I think, most RF or radio frequency engineers, so you'll see it written about incorrectly. While at AirTouch, I had the good fortune to work for a few months with a consultant who was retired from Bell Labs. He was one of the engineers who worked on cellular in the 60s and 70s. We had a few discussions on this at AirTouch, and many of the engineers still didn't get it. And, of course, I had access to Dr. Lee frequently during my years there. It doesn't get much more authoritative than the guys who developed the stuff!"
Jim Harless, a regular contributor, recently checked in regarding six sector cells. He agrees with Mark about the early days, that six sector cells in AMPS did not work out. He notes that "At Metawave (link now dead) I've been actively involved in converting some busy CDMA cells to 6-sector using our smart antenna platform. Although our technology is vendor specific, you can't use it with all equipment, it actually works quite well, regardless of the added number of pilots and increase in soft handoffs. In short, six sector simply allows carriers to populate the cell with more channel elements. Also, they are looking for improved cell performance, which we have been able to provide. By the way, I think the reason early CDMA papers had inflated capacity numbers were because they had six sector cells in mind."
Mark says "I don't recall any discussion of anything like that. But Qualcomm knew next to nothing about a commercial mobile radio environment. They had been strictly military contractors. So they had a lot to learn, and I think they made some bad assumptions early on. I think they just underestimated the noise levels that would exist in the real world. I do know for sure that the 'other carrier jammer' problem caught them completely by surprise. That's what we encountered when mobiles would drive next to a competitors site and get knocked off the air. They had to re-design the phone.
Now, what about those hexagon shaped cell sites?Mark van der Hoek says the answer has to do with frequency planning and vehicle traffic. "After much experimenting and calculating, the Bell team came up with the solution that the honeybee has known about all along -- the hex system. Using 3 sectored sites, major roads could be served by one dominant sector, and a frequency re-use pattern of 7 could be applied that would allow the most efficient re-use of the available channels."