Wireless and Mobile Communication

(ECEg5307)
Chapter 5 : Multiple Access Techniques

AASTU
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering

1/2/2024 1
Outline
• Chapter 1 : Multiple Access Techniques
• Introduction
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
• Code Division Multiple Access(CDMA)
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
• Spread Spectrum Techniques : Frequency Hopping

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Introduction

• Multiple users sharing the same medium

• Single shared broadcast channel

• Two or more “simultaneous” transmissions possible?

How to multiplexing users?
• What are the degrees of freedom to choose from?

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Introduction

• For multiple signals to share one medium, the medium must

somehow be divided, giving each signal a portion of the total
bandwidth.
• Multiplexing = Sharing a single transmission medium
• Multiplexing: Allowing many (mobile) users to share a given
resources
• For high quality communications, this must be done without severe
degradation in the performance of the system
• Focus is for Wireless Communication

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Introduction

• Multiplexing in 4 dimensions
• Space (si)
• Time (t)
• Frequency (f)
• Code (c)

• Goal: multiple use of a shared

medium
• Important: Guard spaces needed!
• In all dimensions

• Types
• Static vs. dynamic multiplexing

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Introduction
Multiplexing – Time, Frequency, and Code

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Introduction

• Multiplexing – Wireless Systems

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

• A channel gets the whole spectrum for a

certain amount of time (Time slot)
• Advantages: Only one carrier in the
medium at any time
• Throughput high at high utilization

• Disadvantages: Precise synchronization

necessary
• Long delays at low utilization

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

• A single carrier frequency is shared with several users

• Each user makes use of non-overlapping timeslots
• In each time slot, only one user is allowed to either transmit or
receive
• I.e., transmission for any user is non-continuous
• Synchronous TDM
• Each user occupies a cyclically repeating time slots and static allocation
• Asynchronous TDM
• Allow different number of time slots for separate user and statistical
multiplexing

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing

• The original time division multiplexing.
• The multiplexor accepts input from attached devices in a round-
robin fashion and transmit the data in a never ending pattern.
• T-1 and ISDN telephone lines are common examples of
synchronous time division multiplexing.
• If one device generates data at a faster rate than other devices,
then the multiplexor must sample the incoming data stream
from that device at a faster rate.

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing

• If a device has nothing to transmit, the multiplexor must still
insert a piece of data from that device into the multiplexed
stream.

Fig. : Illustration of a synchronous TDMA system with four senders

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing

Fig.: A synchronous TDMA system which samples device A twice as fast

as other devices 12
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Statistical Time Division Multiplexing

• A statistical multiplexor transmits only the data from active workstations
(or why it works when it doesn't has to).
• If a workstation is not active, no space is wasted on the multiplexed stream.
• A statistical multiplexor accepts the incoming data streams and creates a frame
containing only the data to be transmitted.
• The technique is straightforward:

 select items for transmission in a round-robin fashion

 skip any source that does not have data ready

• By eliminating unused slots statistical TDMA takes less time to send the same
amount of data

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Statistical Time Division Multiplexing

Fig.12: Illustration of statistical TDMA

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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

• Preamble: Address and synchronization information In cellular

system, for base station and subscriber identification
• Guard times: Synchronization of receivers between different
slots and frames

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Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Separation of the whole spectrum

into smaller frequency bands
• A user gets a certain band of the
spectrum for the whole time
• Advantages: No dynamic
coordination necessary
• Works also for analog signals

• Disadvantages: Waste of
bandwidth if traffic is unevenly
distributed
• Inflexible
• Guard spaces

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Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Frequency spectrum is divided into unique frequency bands or

channels
• These channels are assigned to users on demand
• Multiple users cannot share a channel
• Users are assigned a channel as a pair of frequencies
• Forward and reverse channels for Duplexing
• FDMA requires tight RF filtering to reduce adjacent channel
interference
• During the period of a call, no other user can share the same
frequency band
• If the FDM channel is not in use, then it sits idle and cannot be
used by other users to increase capacity

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Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Analog signaling is used to transmits the signals.

• Broadcast radio and television, cable television, and the AMPS
cellular phone systems use frequency division multiplexing.
• This technique is the oldest multiplexing technique.
• Since it involves analog signaling, it is more susceptible to noise.

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Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Co- and adjacent channel interference!

• FDMA avoids co-channel interference – direct interference from
another transmitter using the same band
• What about adjacent-channel interference? Interference from
transmitters using a neighboring channel
• FDMA requires filter at receiver to “strip off” received power in
frequencies outside the assigned channel Unfortunately, filters are
not perfect
• Power from channels “close by” can leak in
• ! Needs big guard spaces or ability to deal with errors

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Code Division Multiple Access(CDMA)

• Each channel has a unique code

• All channels use the same spectrum at
the same time
• Advantages:
• Bandwidth efficient
• Little coordination and synchronization
necessary (expect code, power)
• Good protection against interference and
tapping
• Disadvantages:
• Lower user data rates
• More complex signal regeneration
• Implemented using spread spectrum
technology
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Code Division Multiple Access(CDMA)

How does CDMA work?

• How can a receiver sort out different transmissions, despite
overlapping in time and frequency?
• Transmissions need to differ in “code space”
• Different transmissions need to use different keys/chipping sequences
with certain properties
• Following example
• Senders A and B close to receiver
• Signals send in same frequency band, at same time
• A and B use different keys
• Key idea: Receiver uses key of desired transmitter to compute
scalar products
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Code Division Multiple Access(CDMA)

How does CDMA work?

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a digital

multi-carrier modulation scheme

• that extends the concept of single subcarrier modulation by

using multiple subcarriers within the same single channel.

• Rather than transmit a high-rate stream of data with a single

subcarrier, OFDM makes use of a large number of closely
spaced orthogonal subcarriers that are transmitted in parallel.

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

Difference between OFDM and FDMA:

 OFDM has a strict relation between carriers.

 FDMA has no special relationship between the carrier frequencies.

 In OFDM, carriers are orthogonal to each other and can be packed

tight and no guard bands have to be inserted.

 In FDMA, guard bands have to be inserted to avoid adjacent

channel interference.

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

Fig. Difference between FDMA and OFDM

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

Fig. OFDM Transmitter and Receiver circuit diagram

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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

Advantages and Disadvantages of OFDM:

Advantages:
• Makes efficient use of the spectrum by allowing overlap.
• It is more resistant to frequency selective fading.
• Eliminates ISI and IFI through use of a cyclic prefix.
• Using adequate channel coding and interleaving one can recover symbols lost due to the
frequency selectivity of the channel.
• Channel equalization becomes simpler than by using adaptive equalization techniques
with single carrier systems.
• It is possible to use maximum likelihood decoding with reasonable complexity.
• Provides good protection against co-channel interference and impulsive parasitic noise.
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Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

Advantages and Disadvantages of OFDM:

Disdvantages:

• Large peak-to-mean power ratio due to the superposition of all subcarrier

signals, this can become a distortion problem.

• It is more sensitive to carrier frequency offset and drift than single carrier
systems are due to leakage of the DFT.

• Tight spacing of subcarriers may lead to loss of Orthogonality due to

frequency errors.

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Spread Spectrum Techniques

• Idea: “Spread” signal to a wider bandwidth than is actually necessary to

avoid short, frequency-selective distortions
• One form of frequency diversity exploitation
• Can be channel fading, but also narrowband interference

• Main implementation options

• Frequency Hopping
• Direct Sequence (is the basis for CDMA)

• Common drawbacks: Strict time synchronization & power control needed

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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

• Discrete changes of carrier frequency Sequence of frequency

changes determined via pseudo random number sequence
• Additional “hopping” increases the required bandwidth
• Two versions
• Fast Hopping: several frequency hops per user bit
• Slow Hopping: several user bits per hop
• Advantages
• Fading and interference limited to short period
• Simple implementation
• Uses only small portion of spectrum at any time
• Disadvantages
• Not as robust as Direct Sequence

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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

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Last Slide

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