Abstract
We consider the average area spectral efficiency (ASE) of variable-rate transmission cellular mobile systems. This efficiency is defined as the sum of the maximum average data rates/Hz/unit area supported by a cell's base station. We study this efficiency as a function of the reuse distance for the uplink of FDMA and TDMA systems under different interference configurations. Results indicate that, based on the worst-case interference configuration, the optimal reuse distance is approximately four. However, this optimal reuse distance is two for the best-case and the average interference configurations (i.e. frequencies should be reused every cell). In addition, the ASE decreases as an exponential of a 4th order polynomial relative to the cell size. This result quantities exactly how much cellular system capacity increases with decreased cell size. We also quantify the increase in ASE due to antenna sectorization. We conclude by analyzing the effect of traffic loading on the ASE when a fixed channel assignment is employed.