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Timing Advance With Calculation

The document discusses the calculation and use of timing advance (TA) in GSM networks. TA is used to compensate for propagation delay between a mobile station and base station. It is determined based on how far the base station perceives the mobile station to be, with each TA value representing a range of approximately 553 meters. A TA of 0 represents a distance of less than 553 meters, while increasing TA values indicate greater distances up to a maximum cell size of 35 kilometers set by the number of allowed TAs. Precise timing is important for channel access and avoiding interference between time slots.

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Ankush Waskar
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931 views8 pages

Timing Advance With Calculation

The document discusses the calculation and use of timing advance (TA) in GSM networks. TA is used to compensate for propagation delay between a mobile station and base station. It is determined based on how far the base station perceives the mobile station to be, with each TA value representing a range of approximately 553 meters. A TA of 0 represents a distance of less than 553 meters, while increasing TA values indicate greater distances up to a maximum cell size of 35 kilometers set by the number of allowed TAs. Precise timing is important for channel access and avoiding interference between time slots.

Uploaded by

Ankush Waskar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Timing Advance With Calculation

A Timing Advance (TA) is used to compensate for the propagation delay as the signal
travels between the Mobile Station (MS) and Base Transceiver Station (BTS). The Base
Station System (BSS) assigns the TA to the MS based on how far away it perceives the
MS to be. Determination of the TA is a normally a function of the Base Station
Controller (BSC), bit this function can be handled anywhere in the BSS, depending on
the manufacturer.
 

 
 

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) requires precise timing of both the MS
and BTS systems. When a MS wants to gain access to the network, it sends an
access burst on the RACH. The further away the MS is from the BTS, the
longer it will take the access burst to arrive at the BTS, due to propagation
delay. Eventually there comes a certain point where the access burst would
arrive so late that it would occur outside its designated timeslot and would
interfere with the next time slot.
 

Access Burst
As you recall from the TDMA Tutorial, an access burst has 68.25 guard bits at
the end of it.
 

 
 
This guard time is to compensate for propagation delay due to the unknown distance of
the MS from the BTS. It allows an access burst to arrive up to 68.25 bits later than it is
supposed to without interfering with the next time slot.
68.25 bits doesnt mean much to us in the sense of time, so we must convert 68.25 bits
into a frame of time. To do this, it is necessary to calculate the duration of a single bit,
the duration is the amount of time it would take to transmit a single bit.

Duration of a Single Bit


As you recall, GSM uses Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) as its modulation
method, which has a data throughput of 270.833 kilobits/second (kb/s).

Calculate duration of a bit.

 
So now we know that it takes 3.69µs to transmit a single bit.
 
 

Propagation Delay
Now, if an access burst has a guard period of 68.25 bits this results in a maximum delay
time of approximately 252µs (3.69µs × 68.25 bits). This means that a signal from the
MS could arrive up to 252µs after it is expected and it would not interfere with the next
time slot.
 

The next step is to calculate how far away a mobile station would have to be
for a radio wave to take 252µs to arrive at the BTS, this would be the
theoretical maximum distance that a MS could transmit and still arrive within
the correct time slot. 

 
 
Using the speed of light, we can calculate the distance that a radio wave would
travel in a given time frame. The speed of light (c) is 300,000 km/s.

 
So, we can determine that a MS could theoretically be up to 75.6km away from
a BTS when it transmits its access burst and still not interfere with the next
time slot.

 
However, we must take into account that the MS synchronizes with
the signal it receives from the BTS. We must account for the time it
takes for the synchronization signal to travel from the BTS to the
MS. When the MS receives the synchronization signal from the
BTS, it has no way of determining how far away it is from the BTS.
So, when the MS receives the syncronization signal on the SCH, it
synchronizes its time with the timing of the system. However, by
the time the signal arrives at the MS, the timing of the BTS has
already progressed some. Therefore, the timing of the MS will now
be behind the timing of the BTS for an amount of time equal to the
travel time from the BTS to the MS.

 
For example, if a MS were exactly 75.6km away from the BTS, then
it would take 252µs for the signal to travel from the BTS to the MS. 

 
 

The MS would then synchronize with this timing and send its access burst
on the RACH. It would take 252µs for this signal to return to the BTS. The
total round trip time would be 504µs. So, by the time the signal from the
MS arrives at the BTS, it will be 504µs behind the timing of the BTS. 504µs
equals about 136.5 bits. 
The 68.25 bits of guard time would absorb some of the delay of 136.5 bits,
but the access burst would still cut into the next time slot a whopping
68.25bits. 

Maximum Size of a Cell


In order to compensate for the two-way trip of the radio link, we must
divide the maximum delay distance in half. So, dividing 75.6km in half, we
get approximately 37.8 km. If a MS is further out than 37.8km and
transmits an access burst it will most likely interfere with the following
time slot. Any distance less than 37.8km and the access burst should arrive
within the guard time allowed for an access burst and it will not interfere
with the next time slot.
In GSM, the maximum distance of a cell is standardized at 35km. This is due
mainly to the number of timing advances allowed in GSM, which is
explained below.

How a BSS Determines a Timing Advance

For each 3.69µs of propagation delay, the TA will be incremented by 1. If the


delay is less than 3.69µs, no adjustment is used and this is known as TA0.
For every TA, the MS will start its transmission 3.69µs (or one bit) early.
Each TA really corresponds to a range of propagation delay. Each TA is
essentially equal to a 1-bit delay detected in the synchronization sequence.

In order to determine the propagation delay between the MS and the BSS,
the BSS uses the synchronization sequence within an access burst. The BSS
examines the synchronization sequence and sees how long it arrived after
the time that it expected it to arrive. As we learned from above, the duration
of a single bit is approximately 3.69µs. So, if the BSS sees that the
synchronization is late by a single bit, then it knows that the propagation
delay is 3.69µs. This is how the BSS knows which TA to send to the MS.
 

The Distance of a Timing Advance


When calculating the distances involved for each TA, we must remember
that the total propagation delay accounts for a two-way trip of the radio
wave. The first leg is the synchronization signal traveling from the BTS to
the MS, and the second leg is the access burst traveling from the MS to the
BTS. If we want to know the true distance of the MS from the BTS, we must
divide the total propagation delay in half. 

For example, if the BSS determines the total propagation delay to be 3.69µs,
we can determine the distance of the MS from the BTS. 
 

 
 
We determined earlier that for each propagation delay of 3.69µs the TA is
inceremented by one. We just learned that a propagation delay of 3.69µs
equals a one-way distance of 553.5 meters. So, we see that each TA is equal
to a distance of 553.5 meters from the tower. Starting from the BTS (0
meters) a new TA will start every 553.5m.

The TA becomes very important when the MS switches over to using a


normal burst in order to transmit data. The normal burst does not have the
68.25 bits of guard time. The normal burst only has 8.25 bits of guard time,
so the MS must transmit with more precise timing. With a guard time of
8.25 bits, the normal burst can only be received up to 30.44µs late and not
interfere with the next time slot. Because of the two-way trip of the radio
signal, if the MS transmits more than 15.22µs after it is supposed to then it
will interfere with the next time slot.
 
 
"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown
at him."
 
Thanks and Regards
Qasim Mubarak Pawaskar
RNPO Team MUMBAI
Metro Telworks India Pvt Ltd.
+91-8898078831

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