Wireless Fractal Cellular Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complex, fractal-like shapes of wireless cellular coverage boundaries using real data, revealing their irregular geometrical nature and potential applications in improving handoff schemes.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of fractal geometry to characterize wireless coverage boundaries and validates this with empirical data from Shanghai, China.

Findings

Coverage boundaries exhibit fractal characteristics.

Hurst parameter estimates confirm fractal nature.

Fractal analysis can improve handoff scheme design.

Abstract

With the seamless coverage of wireless cellular networks in modern society, it is interesting to consider the shape of wireless cellular coverage. Is the shape a regular hexagon, an irregular polygon, or another complex geometrical shape? Based on fractal theory, the statistical characteristic of the wireless cellular coverage boundary is determined by the measured wireless cellular data collected from Shanghai, China. The measured results indicate that the wireless cellular coverage boundary presents an extremely irregular geometrical shape, which is also called a statistical fractal shape. Moreover, the statistical fractal characteristics of the wireless cellular coverage boundary have been validated by values of the Hurst parameter estimated in angular scales. The statistical fractal characteristics of the wireless cellular coverage boundary can be used to evaluate and design the handoff scheme of mobile user terminals in wireless cellular networks.