Telecommunication Network Lecture Notes
Telecommunication Network Lecture Notes
SAMARA UNIVERSITY
COURSE MATERIAL
SEMESTER: II
What Is Telecommunications?
• A technology concerned with communicating from a distance
• we can categorize it in various ways.
Significance of Telecommunications
• Many different telecommunications networks have been interconnected into a
continuously changing and extremely complicated global system
• Telecommunications networks make up the most complicated equipment in the world.
• Let us think only of the telephone network, which includes more than 2 billion fixed and
cellular telephones with universal access.
• When any of these telephones requests a call, the telephone network is able to establish a
connection to any other telephone in the world. In addition, many other networks are
interconnected with the telephone network.
• This gives us a view of the complexity of the global telecommunications network—no other
system in the world exceeds the complexity of telecommunications networks
• Other than this….
❖ Telecommunications services have an essential impact on the development of a
community
• In the developing countries: -Tele density, is fewer than 10 telephones per 1,000
inhabitants
in developed countries: - Tele density 500 to 600 fixed telephones per 1,000 inhabitants
Historical Perspective
Standardization
❖ Standards enable competition
❖ Standards lead to economies of scale in manufacturing and engineering
❖ Political interests often lead to different standards in Europe, Japan, and the United States.
• International standards are threats to the local industries of large countries but
opportunities to the industries of small countries
• Standards make the interconnection of systems from different vendors possible
• Standards make users and network operators vendor independent and improve availability
of the systems
• Many organizations are involved in standardization work. We look at them from two points
of view: (1) the players in the telecommunications business involved in standardization and
(2) the authorities that approve official standards.
Interested Parties
❑ Network operators support standardization for these reasons:
✓ To improve the compatibility of telecommunications systems;
✓ To be able to provide wide-area or even international services;
✓ To be able to purchase equipment from multiple vendors.
❑ Equipment manufacturers participate in standardization for these reasons:
✓ To get information about future standards for their development activities as early as
possible;
✓ To support standards that are based on their own technologies;
✓ To prevent standardization if it opens their own markets.
❑ Service users participate in standardization for these reasons:
✓ To support the development of standardized international services;
✓ To have access to alternative system vendors (multivendor networks);
✓ To improve the compatibility of their future network systems.
Switching
Signaling
• Signaling is the mechanism that allows network entities (customer premises or
network switches) to establish, maintain, and terminate sessions in a network
• Some examples of signaling examples on subscriber lines are
▪ Off-hook condition: The exchange notices that the subscriber has raised the
telephone hook (dc loop is connected) and gives a dial tone to the subscriber.
▪ Dial: The subscriber dials digits and they are received by the exchange.
▪ On-hook condition: The exchange notices that the subscriber has finished the call
(subscriber loop is disconnected), clears the connection,
and stops billing.
Telephone Numbering
Telephone Exchange
• The main task of the telephone or ISDN exchange is to build up a physical
connection between subscriber A, the one who initiates the call, and subscriber B
according to signaling information dialed by subscriber A.
• The speech channel is connected from the time when the circuit was established to
the time when the call is cleared. This principle is called the circuit switching concept
and is different from packet switching, which has been used in data networks.
• This kind of exchange is called a stored program control (SPC) exchange
• The control unit of the local exchange receives the subscriber signaling, such as
dialed digits, from the subscriber line and makes consequent actions according to its
program. Usually the call is routed via many exchanges and the signaling information
needs to be transmitted from one exchange to another. This can be done via channel
associated signaling (CAS) or common channel signaling (CCS) methods
Local Exchange: -Local or subscriber loops connect subscribers to local exchanges, which are the
lowest-level exchanges in the switching hierarchy
• The main tasks of the digital local exchange are
✓ Detect off-hook condition, analyze the dialed number, and determine
if a route is available.
✓ Connect the subscriber to a trunk exchange for longer distance calls.
✓ Connect the subscriber to another in the same local area
✓ Determine if the called subscriber is free and connect ringing signal
to him/her.
✓ Provide metering and collect charging data for its own subscribers.
International Network
Transmission
• In radio transmission we have to transfer the spectrum of the message into the radio-
frequency band for transmission.
• For this we use continuous or carrier wave (CW) modulation.
The primary purpose of CW modulation in a communication system is to generate a modulated
signal suited to the characteristics of a transmission channel
CHAPTER 3: -MULTIPLEXING
Multiplexing in 4 dimensions
◼ space (s)
◼ time (t)
◼ frequency (f)
◼ code (c)
Frequency Multiplex
Separation of the whole spectrum into smaller frequency bands A
channel gets a certain band of the spectrum for the whole time
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
➢ bandwidth efficient
➢ no coordination and synchronization necessary
➢ good protection against interference and tapping
Disadvantages:
➢ Medium access control comprises all mechanisms that regulate user access to a medium
using SDM, TDM, FDM or CDM
➢ MAC is a sort of traffic regulation (as traffic lights in road traffic)
➢ MAC belongs to layer 2 (OSI Model): data link control layer
➢ The most important methods are TDM
➢ TDM is convenient because the systems stay tuned on a given frequency and the us the
frequency only for a certain amount of time (GSM)
Access methods SDMA/FDMA/TDMA
SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access)
➢ segment space into sectors, use directed antennas
➢ cell structure
FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
➢ assign a certain frequency to a transmission channel between a sender and a receiver
permanent (e.g., radio broadcast), slow hopping (e.g., GSM), fast hopping (FHSS,
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
➢ The spatial frequency reuse concept led to the development of the cellular principle, which
allowed a significant improvement in the economic use of frequencies. The essential
characteristics of the cellular network principle are as follows: The area to be covered is
subdivided into cells (radio zones). These cells are often modelled in a simplified way as
hexagons (Figure 4.1) with a base station located at the center of each cell. Assume that the
operator has a license on a set of channels, called, for example, set S.
➢ To each cell i a subset of the frequencies Si is assigned from the total set (bundle), which is
assigned to the respective mobile radio network. In the GSM system, the set of frequencies
assigned to a cell is called the Cell Allocation (CA). Under normal circumstances the
number of channels in a subset Si is driven by traffic capacity requirements.
➢ Neighboring cells do not normally use the same frequencies since this would lead to severe
co-channel interference from the adjacent cells.
Figure 4.1 Model of a cellular network with frequency reuse. Shadowed hexagons
represent cells with the same set of allocated frequencies.
❖ Only at distance D (the frequency reuse distance) can a frequency from the set Si be reused
(Figure 4.1); that is, cells with distance D to cell i can be assigned one or all of the
frequencies from the set belonging to cell i. When designing a mobile radio network, D
must be chosen to be sufficiently large, such that the co-channel interference remains small
enough not to affect speech quality.
❖ When a mobile station moves from one cell to another during an ongoing conversation, an
automatic channel/frequency change may occur (handover), which maintains an active
speech connection over cell boundaries. The spatial repetition of frequencies is done in a
regular systematic way; that is, each cell with the cell allocation sees its neighbors with the
same frequencies again at a distance D (Figures 4.1 and 4.2). Therefore, exactly six such
neighbor cells exist. The first ring in the frequency set always contains six co-channel cells
in frequency reuse system independent of the form and size of cells, not just in the hexagon
model.
Carrier-to-Interference Ratio
The signal quality of a connection is measured as a function of received useful signal power
and interference power received from co-channel cells and is given by the Carrier-to-
Interference Ratio (CIR or C/I):
base station, see Figure 4.1. A worst-case estimate for the CIR of a mobile station at the border
of the covered area at distance d = R from the base station can be obtained by assuming that all
six neighboring interfering transmitters operate at the same power and are approximately
equally far apart (a distance D that is large compared with the cell radius R).
Formation of Clusters
The regular spatial repetition of frequencies results in a clustering of cells. The cells within a
cluster must each be assigned different sets of channels, while cells belonging to neighboring
clusters can reuse the channels in the same spatial pattern. The size of a cluster is characterized
by the number of cells per cluster k, which determines the frequency reuse distance D when
the cell radius R is given. Figure 4.2 shows some examples of clusters. The numbers designate
the respective frequency sets Si used within the single cells. For each cluster, the following
holds:
❖ A cluster can contain all of the frequencies of the mobile radio system.
❖ Within a cluster, no frequency can be reused. The frequencies of a set Si may be
reused at the earliest in the neighboring cluster.
❖ The larger the cluster is, the larger the frequency reuse distance and the larger the CIR.
However, the larger the values of k, the smaller the number of channels and the
number of supportable active subscribers per cell.
The geometry of hexagons sets the relationship between the cluster size and the reuse
distance as: D = R √3k
The CIR is then given by CIR = 1/ 6 (R/ D) −𝛾 = 1 /6 (3k) −𝛾∕2
assuming the propagation attenuation exponent 𝛾 = 4, CIR = 3∕2k2. For example, if the
system can achieve acceptable quality provided the C/I is at least 18 dB, then the
required cluster size is 6.5. Hence, a cluster size of k = 7 would fit. Not all cluster sizes
are possible due to the restrictions of the hexagonal geometry. The hexagon geometry
results in following equation for cluster size k = i 2 + ij + j 2,
where i, j are integers. Possible values of k include 3, 4, 7, 12, 13, 19 and 27. The
smaller the value of C/I, the smaller the allowed cluster size. Hence the available
channels can be reused on a denser basis, serving more users and producing an
increased capacity. In the example here, had the path loss dependence on radius been
slower (i.e. the propagation exponent was less than 4), the required cluster size would
have been greater than 7, so the path loss
characteristics have a direct impact on the system capacity. Another constraint on the
value of cluster size is that each base-station site often serves a cloverleaf of three cells.
(This can be designated, for example, by specifying 21 cells as a 3 × 7 cluster.)
Commonly used cluster sizes are multiples of three.
Sectorization
One way to reduce cluster size, and hence increase capacity, is to use sectorization. The
group of channels available at each cell is split into three cells (sectors), each of which is
confined in coverage to one-third of the cell area by the use of directional antennas, as
shown in Figure 3.4. Interference now comes from just two rather than six of the first-
tier interfering sites, reducing interference by a factor of three and allowing cluster size
to be increased by a factor of √ =1.72 in theory.
Sectorization has some disadvantages:
➢ Mobiles have to change channels more often, resulting in an increased signaling
load on the system.
➢ The available pool of channels has to be reduced by a factor of 3 (in a three-
sector site) for a mobile at any particular location; this reduces the trunking
efficiency given same cell size. Despite these issues, sectorization is used very
widely in modern cellular systems, particularly in areas requiring high traffic
density. More than three sectors can be used to further improve the
interference reduction. The effective radiated power and, consequently, CIR
can be increased with directional antennas. In a three-sector site the radiation
pattern of sector antenna spans 120∘ in the horizontal plane, as shown in Figure
3.4. In fact, the horizontal lobe of the sector antenna extends over 120∘ creating
overlapping regions between site sectors where a mobile can receive a signal
from both sectors. These regions facilitate an intra-sector handover; that is, they
enable an MS travelling between sectors to be switched from one sector to
another. While sectorization does significantly increase the CIR, it often
decreases the carried traffic in time-division multiple access (TDMA) and
frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems. For example, an
Figure 4.4 Antenna patterns for a cell site with three 120∘ sectors.
Frequency Allocation
The reuse of frequencies in TDMA/FDMA systems may result in increasing co-channel and
adjacent channel interference, especially with tight frequency reuse. If a large reuse distance is
applied, the interference levels will be decreased, but the capacity is too. A short reuse distance is
beneficial for the system capacity, but the interference will increase. The trade-off between capacity
and quality is resolved in frequency planning. A better frequency plan will offer a higher capacity at
maintained quality. One base-station site is often used to serve three cells by means of sector
antennas. For instance, a cluster of 7 × 3 cells implies seven sites each serving three cells (see
Figure 4.5). The respective channel allocation is given in Table 4.1. The shaded area inside the
thick border in the figure comprises a cluster of cells. The cluster contains seven base-station sites,
A–G, with each site having three groups of channels numbered 1–3. If, for example, 10 channels
per cell are needed to handle the traffic, each base-station site must be allocated 30 channels.
Adjacent clusters can use the same radio channels, as the reuse distance between nearby co-
channel cells is such that co-channel interference causes only negligible degradation of the
transmission quality. This is known as geographical reuse of frequencies or channels. Thus, the
system needs a total allocation of 30 × 7=210 channels irrespective of how many times the cluster
pattern is repeated.
Trunking Effect
In a traditional public switched telephone network, each subscriber has a dedicated wire
connection to the local switch, but the number of lines continuing from the local switch towards
the next bigger switch is typically much smaller than the sum of subscribers served in that area.
The same applies to cellular networks as well, although the traditional subscriber line has been
replaced with wireless access to the base station. This phenomenon is known as the trunking effect.
In fact, the trunking effect reduces the number of lines at every network element concentrating
traffic (merging several lines) if the number of incoming lines is big enough. One can assume that
calls take place during the busy hour and that the duration of each call is constant. Subscribers
initiate calls randomly during the observation time. On one occasion, the traffic is increased by the
number of one new call (top row in the Figure 4.6). Apparently, with a sufficient number of
available lines (channels) there might be communication gaps available for placement of new calls
as illustrated in Figure 4.6. In example shown in Figure 4.6, allocation of new traffic was possible
with the minimum of seven channels available. This became feasible because randomly arriving
calls of a fixed duration create a randomly distributed ‘silent’ gaps of random duration; that is,
random intervals when the channel is not occupied. During those gaps, the available channel can
be assigned to carry a newly arrived call. While the number of simultaneous calls cannot exceed
the number of channels, the number of users using the same pool of the channels over a period of
time may exceed the number of lines due to the fixed duration of each call and random
distribution of time of arrival. This is what is called a trunked effect, meaning that, given the
random nature of call duration and time of arrival, the number of users may exceed the number of
available lines. The trunking effect takes place in all traffic concentrating points when the pool of
resources (number of channels or lines) is rather large. In a cellular system, the first such
concentration point is the air interface. A fixed but sufficiently large number of traffic channels
available in a transceiver can support large number of users camping on the cell; this number is
much greater than the number of traffic channels available in the cell
Erlang Formulas
The trunking effect need to be estimated quantitatively in order to calculate the number of
resources (channels, lines) to meet traffic demand from users of a communications system. The
estimate of channel resources depends on many statistical factors related to traffic, such as call
duration, time distributions of call arrivals and other statistical parameters. The unit of traffic is the
Erlang (named after Agner Krarup Erlang (1878–1929) who invented it). One Erlang equals the
maximum traffic available on one line. The traffic is calculated using a simple formula:
It means that one call of a duration of 3600 seconds (i.e. 1 hour) produces 1 Erlang of traffic.
Erlang derived two formulas for different systems:
▪ If all resources are used, additional calls are lost (Erlang B case). This is the case for voice
calls in mobile cellular systems.
▪ If calls are put into a queue for certain time and will be served sequentially as resources
become free again, the traffic capacity is described by Erlang C formulas. This is applicable
to many trunked radio systems.
Erlang B Formula
The Erlang B formula determines the probability that a call is blocked. This probability
defines a measure for the Grade of Service (GOS) for a trunked system that provides no
queuing for blocked calls (i.e. blocked calls are instantly lost). The Erlang B formula uses the
following assumptions:
Call requests are memoryless. That is, all users, including blocked users, may request
a channel at any time all free channels are fully available for calls until all channels are
occupied.
Probability of channel holding (i.e. usage) times is exponentially distributed. That is,
longer calls are less likely to happen than short calls.
A finite number of channels available in the resources pool time between channel
requests follow a Poisson distribution (inter-arrival times). • Inter-arrival times of call
requests are independent of each other.
The number of busy channels is equal to the number of busy users. Offered traffic (in
Erlangs) A is related to the call arrival rate, 𝜆, and the average call-holding time, h, by
A = 𝜆h
Let us define 𝜆 as a call arrival rate, h, mean holding time (duration of the call), then
𝜆hT is a mean operating time of a single user during period T, also called the time of
occupancy of the channel.
Relative operation time 𝜆hT∕T = 𝜆h = 𝛼 is a traffic load from a single user measured in
Erlangs, 0 ≤ 𝛼 ≤ 1. The traffic load from N users is then A = N𝛼, also called offered traffic: we
have assumed that statistical characteristics of all calls by any user are the same. Under all the
assumptions here, the probability that in a system with n channels, k channels are occupied is
given by the Erlang formula: Pk = Ak ∕k! /∑n m=1 Am ∕m!
The probability that all n channels are busy and, therefore, a new call is blocked is called the
blocking probability and is given by the Erlang blocking formula (Erlang B):
The Erlang B formula shows relations between offered load A and blocking probability with a
total number n of available channels. Given a fixed amount of resources, the higher the
acceptable blocking probability, the more traffic could be offered. Figure 4.7 illustrates, using a
dashed line, the occurrence of blocking when at one instance all channels n = 6 are occupied.
Note that call arrival rate is often called BCHA (busy call hour attempt). Erlang values for a
given set of resources are often tabulated in telecommunication engineering handbooks. The
target blocking probability in a system is called Grade of Service, GOS, and is a percentage
measure of service performance in mobile communication systems. For instance, GOS=1%
corresponds to an Erlang blocking probability of 0.01. A sample of an Erlang B table is
presented in Table 4.2.
Wireless Communications
Radio waves:
EM wave frequencies ranging from 3KHz to 1GHz
use omnidirectional antennas.
The radio wave band is under government regulation.
used for multicast communications, such as radio & television, & paging systems
They can penetrate through walls.
Micro Waves:
Infrared Waves: IR
◼ Infrared Waves => 300 GHz to 400 THz
◼ for short-range communications such as b/n a PC & a peripheral device.
◼ Small distance, typically no more than 10m.
◼ Line of sight (or reflection) propagation, blocked by walls e.g. TV remote
control, IRD port