@Ocuarptrer 1 Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems T.. ability to communicate with people on the move has evolved remarkably since Guglielmo Marconi first demonstrated radio's ability to provide continuous contact with ships sailing the English chan- nel. That was in 1897, and since then new wireless communications methods and services have been enthusiastically adopted by people throughout the world. Particularly during the past ten years, the mobile radio communications indus- try has grown by orders of magnitude, fueled by digital and RF circuit fabrica- tion improvements, new large-scale circuit integration, and other miniaturization technologies which make portable radio equipment smaller, cheaper, and more reliable. Digital switching techniques have facilitated the large scale deployment of affordable, easy-to-use radio communication networks. ‘These trends will continue at an even greater pace during the next decade. 1.1. Evolution of Mobile Radio Communications A brief history of the evolution of mobile communications throughout the world is useful in order to appreciate the enormous impact that cellular radio and personal communication services (PCS) will have on all of us over the next several decades. It is also useful for a newcomer to the cellular radio field to understand the tremendous impact that government regulatory agencies and service competitors wield in the evolution of new wireless systems, services, and technologies. While it is not the intent of this text to deal with the techno-politi- cal aspects of cellular radio and personal communications, techno-politics are a fundamental driver in the evolution of new technology and services, since radio spectrum usage is controlled by governments, not by service providers, equip- ment manufacturers, entrepreneurs, or researchers. Progressive involvement in wowvsofts.net oldroad2 Ch. 1 «Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems technology development is vital for a government if it hopes to keep its own coun- try competitive in the rapidly changing field of wireless personal communica- tions. Wireless communications is enjoying its fastest. growth period in history, due to enabling technologies which permit wide spread deployment. Historically, growth in the mobile communications field has come slowly, and has been cou- pled closely to technological improvements. The ability to provide wireless com- munications to an entire population was not even conceived until Bell Laboratories developed the cellular concept in the 1960s and 1970s {Nobé62], (Mac79], [You79]. With the development of highly reliable, miniature, solid-state radio frequency hardware in the 1970s, the wireless communications era was born. The recent exponential growth in cellular radio and personal communica- tion systems throughout the world is directly attributable to new technologies of the 1970s, which are mature today. The future growth of consumer-based mobile and portable communication systems will be tied more closely to radio spectrum allocations and regulatory decisions which affect or support new or extended ser- viees, as well as to consumer needs and technology advances in the signal pro- cessing, access, and network areas. ‘The following market penetration data show how wireless communications in the consumer sector has grown in popularity. Figure 1.1 illustrates how mobile telephony has penetrated our daily lives compared with other popular inventions of the 20th century. Figure 1.1 is a bit misleading since the curve labeled “mobile telephone” does not include nontelephone mobile radio applica- tions, such as paging, amateur radio, dispatch, citizens band (CB), public service, cordless phones, or terrestrial microwave radio systems, In fact, in late 1990, licensed noncellular radio systems in the U.S. had over 12 million users, more than twice the US, cellular user population at that time [FCC91]. Figure 1.1 shows that the first 35 years of mobile telephone saw little market penetration due to high cost and the technologicel chellenges involved, but how, in the past decade, cellular telephone has been accepted by consumers at rates comparable to the television, and the video cassette recorder. In 1934, 194 municipal police radio systems and 58 state police stations had adopted amplitude modulation (AM) mobile communication systems for public safety in the U.S. It was estimated that 5000 radios were installed in mobiles in the mid 1930s, and vehicle ignition noise was a major problem for these early mobile users [Nob62]. In 1935, Edwin Armstrong demonstrated frequency modu- lation (FM) for the first time, and since the late 1930s, FM has been the primary modulation technique used for mobile communication systems throughout the world, World War II accelerated the improvements of the world’s manufacturing and miniaturization capabilities, and these capabilities were put to use in large one-way and two-way consumer radio and television systems following the war. The number of U.S. mobile users climbed from several thousand in 1940 to wowvsofts.net oldroadEvolution of Mooile Radio Communications | b- Video c: wars J ideo Casseny Recorder Year ot inguction= 1979 Catto -tetevision f ‘Year of Introduction = 1948 a | Televisioh 4 a | ‘Year of Introduction’ 1946 gy Pe gti / / g | { fo a t _/ Automobfle ; BL fa / atone | 2 | | / Year of/ntroduction = 1900 1 z Lf 2 T | s |f gil) ety el] VW o /* Yeaot tntedueon = 1946 oO ow ww Number of years after the first commercial deployment Figure 1.1 Figure illustrating the growth of mobile telephony as compared to cther popular inventions ofthis cen tury. 86,000 by 1948, 695,000 by 1958, and about 1.4 million users in 1962 [Nob62]. ‘The vast majority of mobile users in the 1960s were not connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and thus were not able to directly dial tele- phone numbers from their vehicles. With the boom in CB radio and cordless appliances such as garage door openers and telephones, the number of users of mobile and portable radio in 1995 was about 100 million, or 37% of the US. pop- ulation. Research in 1991 estimated between 25 and 40 million cordless tele- phones were in use in the U.S,, and by the turn of the century this is certain to double (Rap91c]. The number of cellular telephone users grew from 25,000 in 1984 to about 16 million in 1994, and since then, wireless services have been experiencing customer growth rates well in excess of 50% per year. By the end of 1997, there will be nearly 50 million U.S. cellular users. In the first couple of decades of the 21st century, there will be an equal number of wireless and con- ventional wireline customers throughout the world! wowvsofts.net oldroad4 Ch. 4 + Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems 1.2 Mobile Radiotelephone in the U.S. In 1946, the first public mobile telephone service was introduced in twenty- five major American cities. Each system used a single, high-powered transmitter and large tower in order to cover distances of over 50 km in a particular market. ‘The early FM push-to-talk telephone systems of the late 1940s used 120 kHz of RF bandwidth in a half-duplex mode (only one person on the telephone call could talk at a time), even though the actual telephone-grade speech occupies only 3 kHz of baseband spectrum. The large RF bandwidth was used becausé of the dif ficulty in mass-producing tight RF filters and low-noise, front-end receiver amplifiers. In 1950, the FCC doubled the number of mobile telephone channels, per market, but with no new spectrum allocation. Improved technology enabled the channel bandwidth to be cut in half to 60 kHz. By the mid 1960s, the FM bandwidth of voice transmissions was cut to 30 kHz. Thus, there was only a fac- tor of 4 increase in spectrum efficiency due to technology advances from WW II to the mid 1960s. Also in the 1950s and 1960s, automatic channel trunking was introduced and implemented under the label IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service). With IMTS, telephone companies began offering full duplex, auto-dial, auto-trunking phone systems [Cal88), However, IMTS quickly became saturated in major markets. By 1976, the Bell Mobile Phone service for the New York City market (a market of about 10,000,000 people) had only twelve channels and could serve only 543 paying customers. There was a waiting list of over 3,700 people [Cal83}, and service was poor due to call blocking and usage over the few channels. IMTS is still in use in the US., but is very spectrally inefficient when compared to today’s US. cellular system. During the 1950s and 1960s, AT&T Bell Laboratories and other telecom- munications companies throughout the world developed the theory and tech- niques of cellular radiotelephony — the concept of breaking a coverage zoné (market) into small cells, each of which reuse portions of the spectrum to increase spectrum usage at the expense of greater system infrastructure (Mac79]. The basic idea of cellular radio spectrum allocation is similar to that used by the FCC when it allocates television stations or radio stations with dif- ferent channels in a region of the country, and then reallocates those same chan- nels to different stations in a completely different part of the country. Channels are only reused when there is sufficient distance between the transmitters to prevent interference. However, cellular relies on reusing the same channels within the same market or service area. AT&T proposed the concept of a cellular mobile system to the FCC in 1968, although technology was not available to implement cellular telephony until the late 1970s. In 1983, the FCC finally allo- cated 666 duplex channels (40 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band, each channel having a one-way bandwidth of 30 kHz for a total spectrum occupancy of 60 kHz for each duplex channel) for the U.S. Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) [You79]. According to FCC rules, each city (called a market) was only wowvsofts.net oldroad‘Mobile Fiadiotelephone in the U.S. 5 allowed to have two cellular radio system providers, thus providing a duopoly within each market which would assure some level of competition. As described in Chapters 2 and 10, the radio channels were split equally between the two car- riers. AMPS was the first US. cellular telephone system, and was deployed in late 1983 by Ameritech in Chicago, IL (Bou91]. In 1989, the FCC granted an additional 166 channels (10 MHz) to U.S. cellular service providers to accommo- date the rapid growth and demand. Figure 1.2 illustrates the spectrum currently allocated for USS, cellular telephone use. Cellular radio systems operate in an interference-limited environment and rely on judicious frequency reuse plans (which are a function of the market-specific propagation characteristics) and fre- quency division multiple access (FDMA) to maximize capacity. These concepts will be covered in detail in subsequent chapters of this text. Reverse Channel Forward Channel ra +++}1023] 12] +++ |-799) [o90f9ai} «+ 824-849 MHz 869-894 MHz 1023} 1 | 2] «++ | 799] ‘Channel Number Center Frequency (MHz) Reverse Channel 1<.N'$ 799 0.030N + 825.0 990s N < 1023 0.030(N - 1023) + 825.0 Forward Channel _1S.N'S799 0.030N + 870.0 990s N's 1023, (0.030(N ~ 1023) + 870.0 (Channels 800 - 989 are unused) Figure 1.2 Frequency spectrum allocation for the U.S. cellular radio service. Identically labeled channels in the two bands form a forward and reverse channel pair used for daplex communication between the base station and mobile. Note that the forward and reverse channels in each pair are separated by 45 MHz, In late 1991, the first U.S. Digital Cellular (USDC) system hardware wes installed in major U.S. cities. The USDC standard (Electroni¢ Industry Associa- tion Interim Standard IS-54) allows cellular operators to replace gracefully some single-user analog channels with digital channels which support three users in the same 30 kHz bandwidth [EIA90]. In this way, US. carriers can gradually phase out AMPS as more users accept digital phones. As discussed in Chapters 8 and 10, the capacity improvement offered by USDC is three times that of AMPS, because digital modulation (1/4 differential quadrature phase shift keying), speech coding, and time division multiple access (TDMA) are used in place of analog FM and FDMA. Given the rate of digital signal processing advancements, wowvsofts.net oldroadintroduction to Wireless Communication Systems 6 cht. speech coding technology will increase the capacity to six users per channel in the same 30 kHz bandwidth within a few years. A cellular system based on code division multiple access (CDMA) has been developed by Qualcomm, Inc. and standardized by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) as an Interim Standard (IS-95). This system supports a variable number of users in 1.25 MHz wide channels using direct sequence spread spectrum. While the analog AMPS system requires that the signal be at least 18 dB above the co-channel interference to provide acceptable call quality, CDMA systems can operate at much larger interference levels because of their inherent interference resistance properties. The ability of CDMA to operate with a much smaller signal-to-noise ratio than conventional narrowband FM tech- niques allows CDMA systems to use the same set of frequencies in every cell, which provides a large improvement in capacity (Gil91]. Unlike other digital cel- lular systems, the Qualcomm system uses a variable rate vocoder with voice activity detection which considerably reduces the required data rate and also the batiery drain by the mobile transmitter. In the early 1990s, a new specialized mobile radio service (SMR) was devel- oped to compete with U.S. cellular radio carriers. By purchasing small groups of radio system licenses from a large number of independent private radio service providers throughout the country, Nextel and Motorola have formed an extended SMR (E-SMR) network in the 800 MHz band that could provide capacity and ser- vices similar to cellular. Using Motorola's integrated radio system (MIRS), SMR integrates voice dispatch, cellular phone service, messaging, and data transmis- sion capabilities on the same network (F196). ‘New Personal Communication Service (PCS) licenses in the 1800/1900 MHz band were auctioned by the U.S, Government to wireless providers in early 1995, and these promise to spawn new wireless services that will complement, as well as compete with, cellular and SMR. One of the stipulations of the PCS license is that a majority of the coverage area be operational before the year 2000. Thus, there is pressure on PCS licensees to “build-out” each market. As many as five PCS licenses are allocated for each major U.S. city (see Chapter 10). 1.3 Mobile Radio Systems Around the World Many mobile radio standards have been developed for wireless systems throughout the world, and more standards are likely to emerge. Table 1.1 through Table 1.3 lists the most. common paging, cordless, cellular, and personal communications standards used in North America, Europe, and Japan. The dif- ferences between the basic types of wireless systems are described in Section 1.5, and are covered in detail in Chapter 10. The world’s most common paging standard is the Post Office Code Standard Advisory Group (POCSAG) (CCI86],{San82]. POCSAG was developed by British Post Office in the late 1970s and supports binary frequency shift keying (FSK) wowvsofts.net oldroadMobile Radio Systems Around the World Table 1.1 Major Mobile Fladio Standards in North America Standard | Type Year ot | Multiple | Frequency {Modula- | Channel introduction | Access Band tion _ | Bandwidth AMPS [Cellular | 1983 FDMA | 824-894 MHz | FM 30 kHz NAMPS | Cellular | 1992 FDMA | 824-894 MHz | FM 10 kHz uspc | Cellular | 1991 TDMA | 824-894 MHz | w/4- 30 kHz DQPSK CDPD =| Cellular _ | 1993 FH 824-894 MHz |GMSK | 30 kHz Packet 18-95 Cellular’ | 1993 CDMA | 824-894 MHz | QPSK/ | 1.25 MHz PCS 1.8-2.0GHz | BPSK sc Paging | 19708 Simplex | Several FSK | 12.5 kHz | " POCSAG | Paging | 1970's Simplex | Several FSK | 12.5 kHz FLEX =| Paging | 1993 Simplex | Several 4-FSK | 15kHz Des. PCS 1994 ‘TDMA | 1.85-1.99 GMSK | 200 kHz 1900 GHz (GSM) PACS — | Cordless/_| 1994 TDMA/ | 1.85-1.99 wide 300 kHz PCS FDMA | GHz DQPSK MIRS =| SMR/PCS | 1994 TDMA | Several 16- 25 kHz QAM signaling at 512 bps, 1200 bps, and 2400 bps. New paging systems, such as FLEX and ERMES, provide up to 6400 bps transmissions by using 4-level modu- lation and are currently being deployed throughout the world. The CT2 and Digital European Cordless Telephone (DECT) standards developed in Europe are the two most popular cordless telephone standards throughout Europe and Asia. The CT2 system makes use of microcells which cover small distances, usually less than 100 m, using base stations with anten- nas mounted on street lights or on sides of buildings. The CT2 system uses bat- tery efficient frequency shift keying along with a 32 kbps adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) speech coder for high quality voice transmis- sion, Handoffs between base stations are not supported in CT2, as it is intended to provide short range access to the PSTN. The DECT system accommodates wowvsofts.net oldroad8 Ch, 1 + Introduction to Wireless Communication Sysiems Table 1.2 Major Mobile Radio Standards in Europe Standard | Type [Year otintro- | Multiple | Frequency Modula: | Channel | duction _| Access Band __|_ ton _} Bandwidth [Cellular | 900 MHz [EM 25 kHz [Celtular 450-470MHz [FM | 25 kHz | {Cetlutar_| 12.5kHz_ | Cellular 200 kHz pcs | [oo c-450 |Cellular | 1985 20kHa | _ —— — [0 kHe | ERMES {Paging 1993 25 kHz cre Cordiess | 1989 |FDMA _|864-868MHz |GFSK_| 100 kHz pect — Cordless | 1993 froma — [1880-1990 /GrsK [1.728 MH | MHz 4 Dcs- Cordless | 1993 [TDMA 1710-1880 |GMSK | 200kHz 1800 pcs MHz ‘Table 1.3 Major Mobile Radio Standards In Japan [standard | Type | Yearor [Multiple | Frequency [Modula Introduction _| Access Band __|tion | JTACS [Cellular | 1988 | FDMA | 860-925 MHz_|FM | PDC Cellular | 1993 | TDMA | 810-1501 MHz |n/4- | { DQPSK | Nit [Cellular | 1979 | FDMA | 400/800 MHz_|FM 25 KH, NTACS [Cellular | 1993 | FDMA_| 843-925 MHz_|FM 125 kHz | NTT [Paging 1979 _| FpMa_| 280 MHz FSK 12.5 kHz NEC [Paging 1979 | FDMA__| Several FSK 10 kHz PHS — [Cordless | 1998 | TDMA | 1895-1907 (wa. | 300 kHz MHz DQPsk data and voice transmissions for office and business users. In the US., the PACS. standard, developed by Bellcore and Motorola, is likely to he used inside office buildings as a wireless voice and data telephone system or radio focal loop. The Personal Handyphone System (PHS) standard supports indoor and local loop applications in Japan. Local loop concepts are explained in Chapter 9 ‘The world's first cellular system was implemented by the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph company (NTT) in Japan. The system, deployed in 1979, uses 600 FM duplex channels (25 kHz for each one-way link) in the 800 MHz band. In Europe, the Nordic Mobile Telephone system (NMT 450) was developed in 1981 for the 450 MHz band and uses 25 kHz channels. The European Total Access Cellular System (ETACS) was deployed in 1985 and is virtually identical wowvsofts.net oldroadExamples of Mobile Radio Systems 9 to the US. AMPS system, except that the smaller bandwidth channels result in a slight degradation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and coverage range. In Ger- many, a cellular standard called C-450 was introduced in 1985. The first genera- tion European cellular systems are generally incompatible with one another because of the different frequencies and communication protocols used. These systems are now being replaced by the Pan European digital cellular standard GSM (Global System for Mobile) which was first deployed in 1990 in a new 900 MHz band which all of Europe dedicated for cellular telephone service (Mal89] As discussed in Chapter 10, the GSM standard is gaining worldwide acceptance as the first universal digital cellular system with modern network features extended to each mobile user, and is a strong contender for PCS services above 1800 MHz throughout the world. In Japan, the Pacific Digital Cellular (PDC) standard provides digital cellular coverage using a system similar to North America’s USDC. 1.4 Examples of Mobile Radio Systems Most people are familiar with a number of mobile radio communication sys- tems used in everyday life. Garage door openers, remote controllers for home entertainment equipment, cordless telephones, hand-held walkie-talkies, pagers (also called paging receivers or “beepers”), and cellular telephones are all exam- ples of mobile radio communication systems, However, the cost, complexity, per- formance, and types of services offered by each of these mobile systems are vastly different. The term mobile has historically been used to classify any radio terminal that could be moved during operation. More recently, the term mobile is used to describe a radio terminal that is attached to a high speed mobile platform (e.g. a cellular telephone in a fast moving vehicle) whereas the term portable describes a radio terminal that can be hand-held and used by someone at walking speed (e.g. a walkie-talkie or cordless telephone inside a home). The term subscriber is often used to describe a mobile.or portable user because in most mobile commu- nication systems, each user pays a subscription fee to use the system, and each user’s communication device is called a subscriber unit. In general, the collective group of users in a wireless system are called users or mobiles, even though many of the users may actually use portable terminals. The mobiles communi- cate to fixed base stations which are connected to a commercial power source and a fixed backbone network. Table 1.4 lists definitions of terms used to describe ele- ments of wireless communication systems. Mobile radio transmission systems may be classified as simpler, half- duplex or full-duplex. In simplex systems, communication is possible in only one direction. Paging systems, in which messages are received but not acknowledged, are simplex systems. Half-duplex radio systems allow two-way communication, but use the same radio channel for both transmission and reception. This wowvsofts.net oldroad10 Ch. 1 «Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems Table 1.4 Wireless Communications System Definitions Base Station _A fixed station in a mobile radio system used for radio communica- tion with mobile stations. Base stations are located at the center or on the edge of « coverage region and consist of radio channels and transmitter and receiver antennas mounted on a tower. Control Channel Radio channels used for transmission of call setup, call request, call initiation, and other beacon or control purposes. Forward Channel Radio channel used for transmission of information from the base station to the mobile. Full Duplex Communication systems which allow simultaneous two-way commu- Systems _ nication, Transmission and reception is typically on two different channels (FDD) although new cordless/PCS systems are using TDD. Half Duplex Communication systems which allow two-way communication by Systems _using the same radio channel for both transmission and reception. At any given time, the user can only either transmit or receive infor- mation, The process of transferring a mobile station from one channel or base station to another. A station in the cellular radio service intended for use while in motion at unspecified locations. Mobile stations may be hand-held personal units (portables) or installed in vehicles (mobiles). Mobile Switching Switching center which coordinates the routing of calls in a large Center service area. In a cellular radio system, the MSC connects the cellu- Jar base stations and the mobiles to the PSTN. An MSC is also called ‘a mobile telephone switching office (MTSO). Page A brief message which is broadcast over the entire service area, ust- ally in a simulcast fashion by many base stations at the same time. Reverse Channel Radio channel used for transmission of information from the mobile to base station. Roamer _A mobile station which operates in a service area (market) other than that from which service has been subscribed, Simplex Systems Communication systems which provide only one-way communica- tion, Subscriber A user who pays subscription charges for using a mobile commufica- tions system. ‘Transceiver _A device capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving radio signals. means that at any given time, a user can only transmit or receive information. Constraints like “push-to-talk” and “release-to-listen’ are fundamental features of half-duplex systems. Full duplex systems, on the other hand, allow simulta- neous radio transmission and reception between a subscriber and a base station, by providing two simultaneous but separate channels (frequency division duplex, wowvsofts.net oldroadExamples of Mobile Radio Systems " or FDD) or adjacent time slots on a single radio channel (time division duplex, or TDD) for communication to and from the user. Frequency division duplexing (FDD) provides simultaneous radio transmis- sion channels for the subscriber and the base station, so that they both may con- stantly transmit while simultaneously receiving signals from one another. At the base station, separate transmit and receive antennas are used to accommodate the two separate channels. At the subscriber unit, however, a single antenna is used for both transmission to and reception from the base station, and a device called a duplezer is used inside the subscriber unit to enable the same antenna to be used for simultaneous transmission and reception. To facilitate FDD, it is necessary to seperate the transmit and receive frequencies by about 5% of the nominal RF frequency, so that the duplexer can provide sufficient isolation while being inexpensively manufactured. In FDD, a pair of simplex channels with a fixed and known frequency sepa- ration is used to define a specific radio channel in the system. The channel used to convey traffic to the mobile user from a base station is called the forward channel, while the channel used to carry traffic from. the mobile user to a base station is called the reverse channel. In the U.S. AMPS standard, the reverse channel has a frequency which is exactly 45 MHz lower than that of the forward channel. Full duplex mobile radio systems provide many of the capabilities of the standard telephone, with the added convenience of mobility, Full duplex and half-duplex systems use transceivers for radio communication. FDD is used exclusively in analog mobile radio systems and is described in more detail in Chapter 8. Time division duplexing (TDD) uses the fact that it is possible to share a single radio channel in time, so that a portion of the time is used to transmit from the base station to the mobile, and the remaining time is used to transmit from the mobile to the base station. If the data transmission rate in the channel is much greater than the end-user’s data rate, it is possible to store information bursts and provide the appearance of full duplex operation to a user, even though there are not two simultaneous radio transmissions at any instant of time. TDD. is only possible with digital transmission formats and digital modulation, and is very sensitive to timing. It is for this reason that TDD has only recently been used, and only for indoor or small area wireless applications where the physical coverage distances (and thus the radio propagation time delay) are much smaller than the many kilometers used in conventional cellular telephone systems. 1.4.1 Paging Systems Paging systems are communication systems that send brief messages to a subscriber. Depending on the type of service, the message may be either a numeric message, an alphanumeric message, or a voice message. Paging systems are typically used to notify a subscriber of the need to call a particular telephone wowvsofts.net oldroad2 (Ch. 1 + Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems number or travel to a known location to receive further instructions. In modern paging systems, news headlines, stock quotations, and faxes may be sent. A mes sage is sent to a paging subscriber via the paging system access number (usually a toll-free telephone number) with a telephone keypad or modem. The issued message is called a page. The paging system then transmits the page throughout the service area using base stations which broadcast the page on a radio carrier. Paging systems vary widely in their complexity and coverage area. While simple paging systems may cover a limited range of 2 km to 5 km, or may even be confined to within individual buildings, wide area paging systems can provide worldwide coverage. Though paging receivers are simple and inexpensive, the transmission system required is quite sophisticated. Wide area paging systems consist of a network of telephone lines, many base station transmitters, and large radio towers that simultaneously broadcast a page from each base station (this is called simulcasting). Simulcast transmitters may be located within the same service area or in different cities or countries. Paging systems are designed to provide reliable communication to subscribers wherever they are; whether inside a building, driving on a highway, or flying in an airplane. This necessi- tates large transmitter powers (on the order of kilowatts) and low data rates (a couple of thousand bits per second) for maximum coverage from each base sta- tion. Figure 1.3 shows a diagram of a wide area paging system. city ® Landline link Paging Terminal PSTN City 2 Pauing Landline link an Conte Termin Center iw “NY city Satellite tink Figure 1.3 Diagram of a wide area paging system. The paging control center dispatches pages received from the PSTN throughout several cities at the same time wowvsofts.net oldroadExamples of Mobile Radio Systems 13 Example 1.1 Paging systems are designed to provide ultra-reliable coverage, even inside buildings. Buildings can attenuate radio signals by 20 or 30 dB, making the choice of base station locations difficult for the paging companies. For this rea- ‘son, paging transmitters are usually located on tall buildings in the center of a city, and simuleasting is used in conjunction with additional base stations located on the perimeter of the city to flood the entire area. Small RF band- widths are used to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio at each paging receiver, 50 low data rates (6400 bps or less) are used. 1.4.2 Cordless Telephone Systems Cordless telephone systems are full duplex communication systems that use radio to connect a portable handset to a dedicated base station, which is then connected to a dedicated telephone line with a specific telephone number on the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In first generation cordless tele- phone systems (manufactured in the 1980s), the portable unit communicates only to the dedicated base unit and only over distances of a few tens of meters. Early cordless telephones operate solely as extension telephones to a transceiver connected toa subscriber line on the PSTN and are primarily for in-home use. Second generation cordless telephones have recently been introduced which allow subscribers to use their handsets at many outdoor locations within urban centers such as London or Hong Kong. Modern cordless telephones are some- times combined with paging receivers so that a subscriber may first be paged and then respond to the page using the cordless telephone. Cordless telephone systems provide the user with limited range and mobility, as it is usually not possible to maintain a call if the user travels outside the range of the base sta- tion. Typical second generation base stations provide coverage ranges up to a few hundred meters. Figure 1.4 illustrates a cordless telephone system. Pune wireless Fin i ‘Switched mel link Telephone ort Network (Base ‘ern Station) Figure 1.4 Cordless Handset Diagram of a cordless telephone system. wowvsofts.net oldroad14 Ch. 1 «Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems 1.4.3 Cellular Telephone Systems A cellular telephone system provides a wireless connection to the PSTN for any user location within the radio range of the system. Cellular systems accom- modate a large number of users over a large geographic area, within a limited frequency spectrum. Cellular radio systems provide high quality service that is often comparable to that of the landline telephone systems. High capacity is achieved by limiting the coverage of each base station transmitter to a small geo- graphic area called a cell so that the same radio channels may be reused by another base station located some distance away. A sophisticated switching tech- nique called a handoff enables a call to proceed uninterrupted when the user ‘moves from one cell to another. Figure 1.5 shows a basic cellular system which consists of mobile stations, base stations and a mobile switching center (MSC). The Mobile Switching Center is sometimes called a mobile telephone switching office (MTSO), since it is responsible for connecting all mobiles to the PSTN in a cellular system. Each mobile communicates via radio with one of the base stations and may be handed- off to any number of base stations throughout the duration ofa call. The mobile station contains a transceiver, an antenna, and control circuitry, and may be mounted in a vehicle or used as a portable hand-held unit. The base stations con- sist of several transmitters and receivers which simultaneously handle full duplex communications and generally have towers which support several trans- mitting and receiving antennas. The base station serves as a bridge between all mobile users in the cell and connects the simultaneous mobile calls via telephone lines or microwave links to the MSC. The MSC coordinates the activities of all of the base stations and connects the entire cellular system to the PSTN. A typical MSC handles 100,000 cellular subscribers and 5,000 simultaneous conversations at a time, and accommodates all billing and system maintenance functions, as well. In large cities, several MSCs are used by a single carrier, Communication between the base station and the mobiles is defined by a standard common air interface (CAI) that specifies four different channels. The channels used for voice transmission from the base station to mobiles are called forward voice channels (FVC) and the channels used for voice transmission from mobiles to the base station are called reverse voice channels (RVC). The two channels responsible for initiating mobile calls are the forward control channels (FCC) and reverse control channels (RCC). Control channels are often called setup channels because they are only involved in setting up a call and moving it to an unused voice channel. Control channels transmit and receive data mes- sages that carry call initiation and service requests, and are monitored by mobiles when they do not have a call in progress. Forward contro! channels also serve as beacons which continuaily broadcast ell of the traffic requests for all mobiles in the system. As described in Chapter 10, supervisory and data mes- wowvsofts.net oldroadExamples of Mobile Radio Systems 15 [ Msc ==) pstn Figure 1.5 An illustration of a cellular system. The towers represent base stations which provide radio access between mobile users and the Mobile Switching Center (MSC). sages are sent in a number of ways to facilitate automatic channel changes and handoff instructions for the mobiles before and during a call Example 1.2 Cellular systems rely on the frequency reuse concept, which requires that the forward control channels (FCCs) in neighboring cells be different. By defining a relatively small number of FCCs as part of the common air interface, cellular phones can be manufactured by many companies which can rapidly scan all of the possitle FCCs to determine the strongest channel at any time. Once find- ing the strongest signal the cellular phone receiver stays “amped” to the par- ticular FCC. By broadcasting the same setup data on all FCCs at the same time, the MSC is able to signal all subscribers within the cellular system and can be certain that any mobile will be signaled when it receives a call via the PSTN. 1.4.3.1 How a Cellular Telephone Call is Made When a cellular phone is turned on, but is not yet engaged in a call, it first scans the group of forward control channels to determine the one with the stron- gest signal, and then monitors that control channel until the signal drops below a usable level. At this point it again seans the control channels in search of the strongest base station signal. For each cellular system described in Table 1.1 through Table 1.3, the control channels are defined and standardized over the entire geographic area covered and typically make up about 5% of the total num- wowvsofts.net oldroad16 Ch. 1 + Inteoduction to Wireless Communication Systems ber of channels available in the system (the other 95% are dedicated to voice and data traffic for the end-users). Since the control channels are standardized and are identical throughout different markets within the country or continent, every phone seans the same channels while idle. When a telephone call is placed toa mobile user, the MSC dispatches the request to all base stations in the cellu- lar system. The mobile identification number (MIN), which is the subscriber's telephone number, is then broadcast as a paging message over all of the forward control channels throughout the cellular system. The mobile receives the paging message sent by the base station which it monitors, and responds by identifying itself over the reverse control channel. The base station relays the acknowledg- ment sent by the mobile and informs the MSC of the handshake. Then, the MSC instructs the base station to move the call to an unused voice channel within the cell (typically, between ten to sixty voice channels and just one control channel are used in each cell’s base station). At this point the base station signals the mobile to change frequencies to an unused forward and reverse voice channel pair, at which point another data message (called an alert) is transmitted over the forward voice channel to instruct the mobile telephone to ring, thereby instructing the mobile user to answer the phone. Figure 1.6 shows the sequence of events involved with connecting a call to a mobile user in a cellular telephone system. Alll of these events occur within a few seconds and are not noticeable by the user. Once a call is in progress, the MSC adjusts the transmitted power of the mobile and changes the channel of the mobile unit and base stations in order to maintain call quality as the subscriber moves in and out of range of each base station. This is called a handoff. Special control signaling is applied to the voice channels so that the mobile unit may be controlled by the base station and the MSC while a call is in progress. When a mobile originates a call, a call initiation request is sent on the reverse control channel. With this request the mobile unit transmits its tele- phone number (MIN), electronic serial number (ESN), and the telephone number of the called party. The mobile also transmits a station class mark (SCM) which indicates what the maximum transmitter power level is for the particular user. The cell base station receives this data and sends it to the MSC. The MSC vali- dates the request, makes connection to the called party through the PSTN, and instructs the base station and mobile user to move to an unused forward and reverse voice channel pair to allow the conversation to begin. Figure 1.7 shows the sequence of events involved with connecting a call which is initiated by a mobile user in a cellular system. All cellular systems provide a service called roaming. This allows subscrib- ers to operate in service areas other than the one from which service is sub- scribed. When a mobile enters a city or geographic area that is different from its home service area, it is registered as a roamer in the new service area. This is wowvsofts.net oldroadExamples of Mobile Radio Systems 7 accomplished over the FCC, since each roamer is camped on to a FCC at all times. Every several minutes, the MSC issues a global command over each FCC in the system, asking for all mobiles which are previously unregistered to report, their MIN and ESN over the RCC. New unregistered mobiles in the system peri- odically report back their subscriber information upon receiving the registration request, and the MSC then uses the MIN/ESN data to request billing status from the home location register (HLR) for each roaming mobile. If a particular roamer has roaming authorization for billing purposes, the MSC registers the subscriber as a valid roamer. Once registered, roaming mobiles are allowed to receive and place calls from that area, and billing is routed automatically to the subscriber's home service provider. The networking concepts used to implement roaming are covered in Chapter 9. 1.4.4 Comparison of Common Mobile Radio Systems Table 1.5 and Table 1.6 illustrate the types of service, level of infrastruc- ture, cost, and complexity required for the subscriber segment and base station segment of each of the five mobile or portable radio systems discussed earlier in this chapter. For comparison purposes, common household wireless remote devices are shown in the table. Itis important to note that each of the five mobile radio systems given in Table 1.5 and Table 1.6 use a fixed base station, and for good reason. Virtually all mobile radio communication systems strive to connect moving terminal to a fixed distribution system of some sort and attempt to look invisible to the distribution system. For example, the receiver in the garage door opener converts the received signal into a simple binary signal which is sent to the switching center of the garage motor. Cordless telephones use fixed base sta- tions so they may be plugged into the telephone line supplied by the phone com- pany ~ the radio link between the cordless phone base station and the portable handset-is designed to behave identically to the coiled cord connecting a tradi- tional wired telephone handset to the telephone carriage. Notice that the expectations vary widely among the services, and the infra- structure costs are dependent upon the required coverage area. For the case of low power, hand-held cellular phones, a large number of base stations are required to insure that any phone is in close range to a base station within a city. If base stations were not within close range, a great deal of transmitter power would be required of the phone, thus limiting the battery life and rendering the service useless for hand-held users. Because of the extensive telecommunications infrastructure of copper wires, microwave line-of-sight links, and fiber optic cables — all of which are fixed — it is highly likely that future land-based mobile communication systems will continue to rely on fixed base stations which are connected to some type of fixed distribution system. However, emerging mobile satellite networks will require orbiting base stations. wowvsofts.net oldroadoldroad‘ouergeas2 fr q.gour 8 4q paren wo v Moy Bunesyaniy) weuderp Sura, —_—_-o Zh omnis oldroadCh. 1 + Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems 2 ‘Table 1.5 Comparison of Mobile Communication Systems — Mobile Station Service [Coverage [Required [Complexity [Hardware | Carer | Functionality Range |intra- Cost | Frequency structure tv Low | Low Low Low Infra-red | ‘Transmitter Remote Control (Garage | Low | Low Low Low |< 100 MHz | Transmitter Door [Opener Paging | High | High Low Low [<1GHe Receiver [System [Cordless | Low | Low [Moderate | Low |< 100MHz | Transceiver Phone Celtular | High | High | High [Moderate |<1GHz — | Transceiver Phone ‘Table 1.6 Comparison of Mobile Communication Systems — Base Station Service [Coverage [Required [Complexity [Hardware | Carrier | Functionality Range | infra Cost | Frequency structure Tv Low | Low Low Low Infra-red | Receiver Remote Control Garage | Low | Low Low Low |< 100MHz | Receiver Door Opener Paging | High | High | High High |<1GH2 | Transmitter System Cordless | Low | Low Low [Moderate |< 100 MHz | ‘Transceiver Phone Cettular | High | High | High High |<1GHz | Transceiver Phone 1.5 Trends in Cell cc! wowvsofts.net r Radio and Personal Communications Since 1989, there has been enormous activity throughout the world to develop personal wireless systems that combine the network intelligence of today's PSTN with modern digital signal processing and RF technology. The con- cept, called Personal Communication Services (PCS), originated in the United Kingdom when three companies were given spectrum in the 1800 MHz to develop Personal Communication Networks (PCN) throughout Great Britain {Rap91c}. PCN was seen by the U.K. as a means of improving its international npetitiveness in the wireless field while developing new wireless systems and oldroad“Trends in Cellular Radio and Personal Communications 2 services for citizens. Presently, field trials are being conducted throughout the world to determine the suitability of various modulation; multiple-access, and networking techniques for future PCN and PCS systems. ‘The terms PCN and PCS are often used interchangeably. PCN refers to a wireless networking concept where any user can make or receive calls, no matter where they are, using a light-weight, personalized communicator. PCS refers to new wireless systems that incorporate more network features and are more per- sonalized than existing cellular radio systems, but which do not embody all of the concepts of an ideal PCN. Indoor wireless networking products are steadily emerging and promise to become a major part of the telecommunications infrastructure within the next decade. An international standards body, IEEE 802.11, is developing standards for wireless access between computers inside buildings. The European Telecom- munications Standard Institute (ETSI) is also developing the 20 Mbps HIPER- LAN standard for indoor wireless networks. Recent products such as Motorola's 18 GHz Altair WIN (wireless information network) modem and AT&T's (for- merly NCR) waveLAN computer modem have been available as wireless ether- net connections since 1990 and are beginning to penetrate the business world (Tuc93}. Before the end of the 20th century, products will allow users to link their phone with their computer within an office environment, as well as in a public setting, such as an airport or train station, A worldwide standard, the Future Public Land Mobile Telephone System (FPLMTS) ~ renamed International Mobile Telecommunication 2000 (IMT-2000) in mid-1995 ~ is being formulated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which is the standards body for the United Nations, with headquar- ters in Geneva, Switzerland. The technical group TG 8/1 standards task group is within the ITU's Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R). ITU-R was formerly known as the Consultative Committee for International Radiocommunications (CCIR). TG 8/1 is considering how future PCNs should evolve and how world- wide frequency coordination might be implemented to allow subscriber units to work anywhere in the world. FPLMTS (now IMT-2000) is a third generation uni- versal, multi-function, globally compatible digital mobile radio system that would integrate paging, cordless, and cellular systems, as well as low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, into one universal mobile system. A total of 230 MHz in fre- quency bands 1885 MHz to 2025 MHz and 2110 MHz to 2200 MHz has been tar- geted by the ITU's 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC). The types of modulation, speech coding, and multiple access schemes to be used in IMT-2000 are yet ta be decided. Worldwide standards are also required for emerging LEO satellite commu- nication systems that are in the design and prototyping stage. Due to the very large areas on earth which are illuminated by satellite transmitters, satellite- based cellular systems will never approach the capacities provided by land-based wowvsofts.net oldroad22 Ch. 1 Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems microcellular systems. However, satellite mobile systems offer tremendous prom- ise for paging, data collection, and emergency communications. as well as for glo- bal roaming before [MT-2000 is deployed. In early 1990, the aerospace industry demonstrated the first successful launch of a small satellite on a rocket from a jet aircraft. This launch technique is more than an order of magnitude less expen- sive than conventional ground-based launches and can be deployed quickly. sug- gesting that a network of LEOs could be rapidly deployed for wireless ‘communications around the globe. Already, several companies have proposed systems and service concepts for worldwide paging, cellular telephone, and emer- gency navigation and notification (IEE91). In emerging nations, where existing telephone service is almost nonexis ent, fixed cellular telephone systems are being installed at a rapid rate. This is due to the fact that developing nations are finding it is quicker and more afford. able to install cellular telephone systems for fixed home use, rather than install wires in neighborhoods which have not yet received telephone connections to the PSTN. The world is now in the early stages of a major telecommunications revolu- tion that will provide ubiquitous communication access to citizens, wherever they are {Kuc91], |Goo91|, {ITU94]. This new field requires engineers who can design and develop new wireless systems, make meaningful comparisons of com- peting systems, and understand the engineering trade-offs that must. be made in any system. Such understanding can only be achieved by mastering the funda- mental technical concepts of wireless personal communications. These concepts are the subject of the remaining chapters of this text. 1.6 Problems 1.1 Why do paging systems need to provide low data rates? How does a low data rate lead to better coverage? 12 Qualitatively describe how the power supply requirements differ between mobile and portable cellular phones, as well as the difference between pocket, pagers and cordless phones. How does coverage range impact battery life in a mobile radio system? 1.8. In simuleasting paging systems, there usually is one dominant signal arriving at the paging receiver. In most, but not all cases, the dominant signal arrives, from the transmitter closest to the paging receiver. Explain how the FM cap- ture effect could help reception of the paging receiver. Could the FM capture effect help cellular radio systems? Explain how. 1.4 Where would walkie-talkies fit in Tables 1.5 and 1.6? Carefully describe the similarities and differences between walkie-talkies and cordless telephones. Why would consumers expect a much higher grade of service for a cordless telephone system? 1.5 Assume a 1 Amp-hour battery is used on a cellular telephone (often called @ cellular subscriber unit). Also assume that the cellular telephone draws 35 mA in idle mode and 250 mA during a call. How long would the phone work (i.e. what is the battery life) if the user leaves the phone on continually and has wowvsofts.net oldroadProblems 23 one 3-minute call every day? every 6 hours? every hour? What is the maximum talk time available on the cellular phone in this example? 16 Assume a CT2 subscriber unit has the same size battery as the phone in Prob- lem 1.5, but the paging receiver draws 5 mA in idle mode and the transceiver draws 80 mA during a call. Recompute the CT2 battery life for the call rates given in Problem 1.5. Recompute the maximum talk time for the CT2 handset. 1.7. Why would one expect the CT2 handset in Problem 1.6 to have a smaller bat- tery drain during transmission than a cellular telephone? 1.8. Why is FM, rather than AM, used in most mobile radio systems today? List as many reasons as you can think of, and justify your responses. Consider issues such as fidelity, power consumption, and noise. 1.9. List the factors that led to the development of (a) the GSM system for Europe, and (b) the ULS. digital cellular system. Compare and contrast the importance for both efforts to (i) maintain compatibility with existing cellular phones. (ii) obtain spectral efficiency. (iii) obtain new radio spectrum. 1.10 Assume that a GSM, an IS-95, and a US. digital cellular base station transmit the same power over the same distance. Which system will provide the best SNR at a mobile receiver? What is the SNR improvement over the other two systems? Assume a perfect receiver with only thermal noise present in each of the three systems. 1.11 Discuss the similarities and differences between a conventional cellular radio system and a space-based (satellite) cellular radio system. What are the advan- tages and disadvantages of each system? Which system could support a larger number of users for a given frequency allocation? Why? How would this impact the cost of service for each subscriber? 1.12 Assume that wireless communication standards can be classified as belonging tw one of the fallowing four groups: High power, wide area systems (cellular) Low power, local area systems (cordless telephone and PCS) Low data rate, wide area systems (mobile data) High data rate, local area systems (wireless LANs) Classify each of the wireless standards described in Tables 1.1 - 1.3 using these four groups. Justify your answers. Note that some standards may fit into more than one group. 1.13 Discuss the importance of regional and international standards organizations such as ITU-R, ETSI, and WARC. What competitive advantages are there in using different wireless standards in different parts of the world? What disad- vantages arise when different standards and different frequencies are used in different parts of the world? 1.14 Based on the proliferation of wireless standards throughout the world, discuss how likely it is for IMT:2000 to be adopted. Provide a detailed explanation, along with probable scenarios of services, spectrum allocations, and cost. wowvsofts.net oldroad