Benefits and feasibility of the partial loading approach in cellular mobile radio systems

This paper analyzes the feasibility and potential benefits of following a n ovel design strategy for cellular systems known as partial loading. This st rategy seeks low channel occupancy per cell at the capacity limit, as oppos ed to the high channel occupancy per cell of more conventional design strat egies. By doing so, a considerable flexibility for the radio resource manag ement is obtained, which can be exploited both to increase system capacity and to ease the accommodation of highly fluctuating traffic. A comprehensiv e system capacity analysis has been performed, based on an analytical model , and it is shown that the introduction of flexibility through partial load ing has a capacity cost associated with it. However, it is shown that when that flexibility is properly exploited by adaptive radio link control techn iques, such as link adaptation, frequency hopping, or call admission contro l policies, that cost is more than compensated for, making the partial load ing approach a very attractive strategy for the evolution of current TDMA s ystems and the design of future ones.