252 Wireless Communications

8.2 FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) refers to sharing the available radio spectrum by assigning
specific frequency channels to subscribers either on a permanent basis or on a temporary basis. The differen-
tiation between the carrier frequencies of the forward channels (also called downlink-communication between
the cell-site and mobile subscribers) and reverse channels (also called uplink-communication between the
mobile subscribers and the cell-site) is an important design parameter related to FDMA technique.
If the forward channels and reverse channels use different
re en nnels carrier frequencies that are sufficiently spaced, the duplexing
scheme is referred to as FDD. The FDD technique is mostly used
nnel N s ri er N in macrocellular communication systems designed for radio cov-
.. .. erage of several kilometres. The base station dynamically assigns
.. .. a different carrier frequency to each active mobile subscriber. In
nnel 2 s ri er 2 order to adjust and maintain the transmission and reception fre-
s ri er 1
quencies, a frequency synthesiser is used at the base station and
nnel 1
ime the mobile station. The concept of FDMA is shown in Fig. 8.1.
Fig. 8.1 The concept of FDMA In FDMA, the available radio spectrum is divided into a set of con-
tinuous frequency channels labeled 1 through N, and the frequency
channels are assigned to individual mobile subscribers
1 2 3 4 . . .
re en on a continuous-time basis for the duration of a call.
FDMA bandwidth structure is illustrated in Fig. 8.2.
l ll ed re en nd
Fig. 8.3 shows the basic structure of a FDMA
Fig. 8.2 FDMA bandwidth structure system, consisting of a cell-site (CS) and many
mobile subscribers. There is a pair of simplex
channels for the communication wireless link between
ireless medi m the CS and the mobile subscribers. The paired chan-
nel is called forward channel (downlink) and reverse
M 1 ′ 1 channel (uplink). A forward channel is used to transfer
1
data from the cell-site to the mobile subscriber and a
′2 2
reverse channel is used to transfer data from the mobile
M 2
.. .
..
subscriber to the cell-site. Different frequency channels
..
. .. . are assigned to different mobile subscribers. Each
′N
N pair of communicating mobile subscribers is assigned
M 3 different frequency channels to enable full duplex
communication.
FDMA has been widely adopted in all first-generation
everse nnels r rd nnels
analog cellular systems for handheld and vehicle-installed
lin nlin
mobile subscribers. A duplex spacing is used between the
Fig. 8.3 The basic structure of an FDMA system forward and reverse channels. The structure of forward
and reverse channels in FDMA is shown in Fig. 8.4.
The frequency bandwidth allocated to each mobile subscriber is called the subband Bc. If there are N
channels in a FDMA system, the total bandwidth Bt is equal to N × Bc. A guard band Wg is used to minimise
adjacent channel interference between two adjacent channels, as shown in Fig. 8.5.
To ensure acceptable signal quality performance, it is important that each frequency channel signal be kept
confined to the assigned channel bandwidth. Otherwise, there may be adjacent channel interference which
can degrade signal quality. In both forward and reverse channels, the signal transmitted must be kept confined
within its assigned channel bandwidth, and the out-of-band signal energy causes negligible interference to the
 Multiple Access Techniques 253

′1 ′2 ′ 1 2

. .. .. .
re en
everse nnels r rd nnels
lex
s in

Fig. 8.4 The structure of forward and reverse channels in FDMA

rd nd nd
BC

1 2 3 4 . . .
re en

l nd id B x BC

Fig. 8.5 Guard band in FDMA channels

subscribers using adjacent channels. In order to minimise adjacent channel interference, two design measures
are usually considered:
– The power spectral density of the modulated signal is controlled so that the power radiated into the
adjacent band is at least 60 to 80 dB below that in the desired band. This requirement can be achieved
with the use of highly selective filters in the system design.
– Usually, it is extremely difficult to achieve the desired filter characteristic so as not to cause adjacent
channel interference. Guard bands are inserted as buffer frequency zones in adjacent channels.
If a large number of mobile subscribers can operate satisfactorily within the allocated radio spectrum
then the multiple-access system is said to be highly spectrally efficient. In general, the spectral efficiency in
FDMA systems depends on how closely the individual channels (frequency subbands) can be assigned. There
are several factors that limit the adjacent channel spacing, the most important of which is adjacent channel
interference (ACI). The impact of ACI is illustrated in Example 8.1.

EXAMPLE 8.1 Impact of ACI in FDMA system

(a) What is the difference between the received signal strength of two mobile subscribers located at 10 m and 1 km
away from a cell-site in an open area?
(b) Explain the effects of shadow fading on the difference in the received signal strength of two mobile subscribers
obtained in part a).
(c) What would be the impact if the two mobile subscribers were operating in two adjacent channels? Assume
out-of-band radiation that is 40 dB below the main lobe.
(d) Suggest the measure taken to overcome this problem in FDMA cellular systems.
Solution
(a) To determine difference in received signal strengths of mobile subscribers
Distance of MS1 from the cell-site, r1 = 10 m (given)
Distance of MS2 from the cell-site, r2 = 1 km or 1000 m (given)
Operating environment = Open area
254 Wireless Communications

Step 1. In an open area environment, free-space propagation conditions exist

The value of propagation path-loss exponent, γ = 2
Step 2. In free-space propagation, the received signal strength decays at the rate of 20 dB per decade of distance.
Step 3. The difference between the received signal strength of two mobile subscribers located at r1 and r2,
Δ Pr = 20 log (r2 / r1)2
Therefore, ΔPr = 20 log (1000/10)2
Hence, ΔPr = 80 dB
(b) The effects of shadow fading
In addition to the decrease in the received signal strength value with distance, the multi-path and shadow
fading due to the near–far problem because of large difference in the distances of two mobile subscribers,
in radio channels cause received signal fluctuations of the order of typically 20 dB.
Therefore, the difference in the received signal levels from these two mobile subscribers may exceed even
100 dB.
(c) Impact of operation in adjacent channels
Out-of-band radiation below the main lobe= 40 dB (given)
It implies that out-of-band radiations may exceed the signal strength of the desired signal by almost (100 dB –
40 dB =) 60 dB
(d) The measure taken to overcome the problem in FDMA cellular systems
To handle the near–far problem in FDMA cellular systems, the following different measures may be adopted
in the system.
– Channel assignment should be done in such a way so that the frequencies in each cell are grouped as
far apart as possible from each other.
– Guard bands should be included in the frequency channel to further reduce adjacent channel interference.
This, however, has the effect of reducing the overall spectrum efficiency.
– The transmitter power of the mobile subscribers should be controlled so as not to cause interference to
other transmissions in the cell.

In an FDMA system, many channels share the same transmitting antenna at the base station. The transmit-
ter RF power amplifiers or the transmitter multichannel power combiners are nonlinear devices when operated
at or near saturation signal levels for maximum power efficiency. The nonlinearities cause spreading of the
signal in the frequency domain and generate intermodulation frequencies which are undesirable harmonics.
Harmonic frequencies generated within the operating frequency band cause interference to other subscrib-
ers active in the same wireless system at that time. Harmonic frequencies generated outside the operational
frequency band cause interference to other wireless services operating in those adjacent bands.
The first-generation analog cellular communication systems use FDMA/FDD technique, with speech
signals being transmitted over the forward or reverse channels using frequency modulation scheme. The
data control functions are performed digitally by means of frequency-shift keying modulation scheme for
data transmission. A useful feature of FDMA systems is that the radio transmission takes place over a narrow
channel of bandwidth (B/N ) Hz for each mobile subscriber. Due to narrowband transmissions, flat fading
may be experienced by the signal.

EXAMPLE 8.2 FDMA/FDD in AMPS

Illustrate the concept of FDMA/FDD system commonly used in First Generation (1G) analog cellular communication
systems such as AMPS.
 Multiple Access Techniques 255

Solution In FDMA/FDD systems, forward and reverse channels use different carrier frequencies, and a
fixed subchannel pair is assigned to a subscriber during the communication session.
Fig. 8.6 shows the FDMA/FDD system

i n l evel
ime
commonly used in first generation analog lin nlin
cellular systems. At the receiving end, the mobile
unit filters the designated channel out of the
composite signal received.
The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) ′1 ′2 ′3 ′4 re en
1 2 3 4
is based on FDMA/FDD. As shown in Fig. 8.7,
the AMPS system allocates 30 kHz of channel Fig. 8.6 FDMA/FDD concept
bandwidth for each uplink (824 MHz–849 MHz) P IN
and downlink (869 MHz–894 MHz) frequency 24 M 4 M
re en
band. . . .
s e r m
Some of the salient features of the FDMA/
nnel
FDD system concept are given here. nd id 30

– During the call, a mobile subscriber occupies N IN

two simplex channels, one each on the uplink M 4M
re en
and downlink, for full-duplex communi- . . .
s e r m
cation.
nnel
– The two simplex channels are spaced by nd id 30
fixed duplex spacing. For example, duplex
Fig. 8.7 FDMA/FDD in AMPS
spacing in AMPS is (869 MHz–824 MHz =
45 MHz).
– When a call is terminated, or when hand-off occurs, the occupied channels are released which can be
used by other mobile subscribers in the system.
– Multiple or simultaneous mobile subscribers are accommodated in AMPS by allocating each calling or
called mobile subscriber a dedicated channel.
– Voice signals are sent on the forward channel from the base station to the mobile user, and on the
reverse channel from the mobile user to the base station.
– In AMPS, analog narrowband frequency modulation technique is used to modulate the carrier.

The number of channels, N that can be simultaneously supported in an FDMA system is given by
N = (Bt 2 Bg) / Bc (8.1)
where Bt is the total spectrum allocation, Bg is the guard band allocated at the edge of the allocated spectrum
band, and Bc is the channel bandwidth.
Bt and Bc may be specified in terms of simplex bandwidths where it is understood that there are symmetric
frequency allocations for the forward band and reverse band.

EXAMPLE 8.3 Number of channels in AMPS

A US AMPS analog cellular system is allocated 12.5 MHz for each simplex band. If the guard band at either end of the allocated
spectrum is 10 kHz, and the channel bandwidth is 30 kHz, find the number of channels available in an FDMA system.
Solution
Allocated spectrum, Bt = 12.5 MHz (given)
Allocated guard band, Bg = 10 kHz (given)
Channel bandwidth, Bc = 30 kHz (given)
256 Wireless Communications

The number of channels available in the FDMA system is given as

N = (Bt − 2 Bg) / Bc
Or, N = (12.5 × 106 − 2 (10 × 103) / (30 × 103)
Or, N = 416
Hence the number of channels available in an FDMA system is 416 channels

EXAMPLE 8.4 Number of simultaneous links in an FDMA system

A cellular system operator is allocated a total spectrum of 5 MHz for deployment of an analog cellular system based on
the FDMA technique, with each simplex channel occupying 25 kHz bandwidth. Compute the number of simultaneous
calls possible in the system.
Solution
Total spectrum allocated = 5 MHz (given)
Channel bandwidth = 25 kHz (given)
Step 1. To determine number of simplex channels
Number of simplex channels = Total spectrum allocated / Channel bandwidth
Number of simplex channels = 5 MHz / 25 kHz = 200
Step 2. To determine number of duplex channels
Number of simplex channels in a duplex channel = 2
Therefore, number of duplex channels = 200 / 2 = 100
Step 3. To compute the number of simultaneous calls
Hence, in a given analog cellular FDMA system, 100 full-duplex communication links can be established
simultaneously as each link requires two simplex channels (one for uplink and another for downlink) or one
duplex channel.
Therefore, the number of simultaneous calls = 100 calls

The FDMA channel carries only one dedicated communication link at a time. After the assignment of a
voice channel, the base station and the mobile subscriber transmit simultaneously and continuously. If the assigned
channel is not in use then it remains idle and cannot be used by other mobile subscribers. This is clearly wastage
of spectrum resource. The utilisation of a channel during free time is essential to increase system capacity.
FDMA is usually implemented in narrowband systems. The bandwidths of FDMA channels are relatively
narrow (for example, 30 kHz in AMPS) as each channel supports only one communication link per carrier.
The symbol time of a narrowband signal is large as compared to the average delay spread. This implies that the
amount of intersymbol interference is also low. So there may not be any requirement to implement equalisation
in FDMA narrowband systems which is certainly an advantage.
The complexity of FDMA wireless commu-
Facts to Know ! nication systems is lower as compared to that of
Cable television is transmitted using FDMA TDMA systems. Due to continuous transmission
over coaxial cable. Each analog television in FDMA systems, fewer bits for synchronisa-
signal utilises 6 MHz of the 500 MHz band- tion and framing are needed for overhead pur-
width of the cable. poses as compared to TDMA. FDMA requires
tight RF filtering to minimise adjacent channel
interference. Therefore, there is a need to use costly bandpass filters to eliminate spurious radiations at the
base stations. The FDMA mobile subscriber equipment uses RF duplexers since both the transmitter and
receiver operate at the same time using a common antenna. This results in an increase in the cost of FDMA
 Multiple Access Techniques 257

subscriber units and base stations. Because of the single channel per carrier design, FDMA systems have
higher cell site system costs.

8.3 TIME-DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS

Time-division multiple access (TDMA) technique refers to allowing a number of subscribers to access a
specified channel bandwidth on a time-shared basis. TDMA systems divide the carrier channel bandwidth
into time slots, and in each time slot only one subscriber is allowed to either transmit or receive. TDMA
utilises the digital technology with more efficient and complex strategies of sharing the available spectrum
among a number of subscribers simultaneously. In TDMA systems, number of subscribers share the same
frequency band by taking their assigned turns in time for transmission or reception.
The major advantage of the TDMA is the
flexibility of its digital format which can be buff- Facts to Know !
ered and multiplexed efficiently, and assignments If a user has no data to transmit during the
of time-slots among multiple subscribers which are assigned time slot, the frequency channel
readily adaptable to provide different access rates. remains idle in TDMA.
With TDMA, a base-station controller assigns time
slots to subscribers for the requested service, and an
assigned time slot is held by a subscriber until it releases it. The receiver synchronises to the incoming TDMA
signal frame, and extracts the time slot designated for that subscriber. Therefore, the most critical feature of
TDMA operation is time synchronisation.
In TDMA, one carrier channel is used by several subscribers,
re en
and each subscriber is served in a round-robin method. The cell-site
assigns different time slots to different subscribers. Let there be N
number of time slots in a TDMA frame. Each subscriber occupies

N
1
a cyclically repeating time slot which reoccurs in every frame peri- 2
ri er
ri er

ri er
odically. The transmission in a TDMA system for any subscriber is .. .
noncontinuous and data is transmitted in a buffer-and-burst method.
The splitting of a single carrier channel into several time slots and
distribution of time slots among multiple subscribers is shown in ime sl
Fig. 8.8. 1 2 ... N
A TDMA system may operate in either of two modes: Fig. 8.8 The concept of TDMA

– TDMA/ DD mode The forward and reverse

channel frequencies differ. r me r me r me
– TDMA/TDD mode The forward and reverse
channel frequencies are same.
N

N
1
2

1
2

1
2

In TDMA/FDD systems, the carrier frequencies ime

r rd nnel sl s
are different but frame structures are same for the
forward and reverse channels. In general, TDMA/ ′
FDD systems intentionally induce delay of several r me r me r me
time slots between the forward and reverse time
slots for a particular subscriber. This avoids the need
N

N
1
2

1
2

1
2

of duplexers in the subscriber unit. The illustration ime

everse nnel sl s
of forward and reverse channels in a TDMA/FDD
system employing the similar frame and time slot Fig. 8.9 Structure of forward and reverse channels
structure is given in Fig. 8.9. in a TDMA/FDD system
258 Wireless Communications

In TDMA, a carrier channel is divided into N number of time slots. These time slots are allocated for each
subscriber to transmit and receive information. The number of distinct consecutive time slots is called a frame
before these time slots are repeated. Each frame of the TDMA structure contains N number of time slots of
equal duration. Information data is transferred and received in the form of TDMA frames. The transmission
rate for a digital TDMA channel is typically N times higher than that required for a single channel. The bit-
wise structure of each time slot is different in different types of TDMA systems. Typically, the bits contained
in each time slot of a TDMA frame are divided into two major functional groups:
Signalling and Control Data Bits These bits perform the functions which assist the receiver in performing
some auxiliary functions such as synchronisation and frame error rate. Specifically, the synchronisation bits
in a time slot enable the receiver to recover sinusoidal carrier essential for coherent detection. The frame
error bits are used to estimate the unknown impulse
re en r
response of the wireless channel, which is needed
M r me M r me M r me
for decoding the received signal.
N

N
1
2

1
2

1
2

Traffic Data Bits These bits represent digitised

ime
speech bits or any other forms of information-
sl s
bearing data bits.
Fig. 8.10 shows a typical frame structure of
nr l ser d TDMA. The guard time between the time slots
rd ime helps in minimising the interference due to propa-
Fig. 8.10 Typical frame structure of TDMA gation delays along different radio paths in the wire-
less channel.
Digital data encoding and digital-modulation schemes are used with TDMA. The transmission from various
subscribers is interlaced into a uniformly repeating TDMA frame structure. As shown in Fig. 8.11, a TDMA
frame consists of a preamble, an information data field, and tail bits. The information data field of a frame
consists of a number of time slots.
In a TDMA frame, the preamble contains the address and synchronisation data that is used by both the
base station and the subscribers to identify each other. Tail bits and guard bits allow synchronisation of the
receivers between different time slots and frames. Various TDMA-based cellular standards such as USDC,
GSM have different TDMA frame structures.
In a TDMA system, the communication channels essentially consist of many time slots, which makes it
possible for one frequency carrier channel to be efficiently utilised by many mobile subscribers. Each mobile
subscriber utilises a different time slot. The basic structure of a TDMA system is shown in Fig. 8.12. The
number of mobile subscribers can communicate with the base station simultaneously on designated time slots

Pre m le n rm i n d il i s

#1 #2 #3 #N

il i s n is ser d is rd i s

Fig. 8.11 A TDMA frame and time slot (TS) structure

 Multiple Access Techniques 259

re en ime l re en

1
M 1

2
M 2
..
N .

N
M

r me r me r me r me
r rd nnels everse nnels
nlin lin

Fig. 8.12 The basic structure of a TDMA system

of TDMA frame on the forward and reverse channels. However, the system capacity is limited by the number
of time slots per carrier channel and the number of carrier channels allocated to the system.
The features that distinguish TDMA systems from FDMA systems can be broadly classified in two
categories:
– In TDMA each subscriber has access to the total bandwidth Bt of the carrier channel, whereas in
FDMA each subscriber is assigned only a fraction of the channel bandwidth, that is, Bc = Bt /N.
– In TDMA, each subscriber accesses the channel for only a fraction of the time that it is in use and
on a periodic regular and orderly basis, with the overall channel transmission data rate being N times
the subscriber’s required data rate. Whereas in FDMA, each subscriber accesses the channel on a
continuous-time basis.
The total number of TDMA time slots that can be provided in a TDMA system is determined by multiplying
the number of time slots per carrier channel by the number of channels available and is given by
= × t−2 (8.2)
where N is the total number of TDMA time slots in a TDMA system
m is the number of time slots per carrier channel or the maximum number of TDMA subscribers supported
on each carrier channel
Bt is the total allocated spectrum bandwidth in Hz
Bc is the carrier channel bandwidth in Hz
Bg is the guard bandwidth in Hz
Two guard bands, one at the lower end and another at the higher end of the allocated frequency band, are
required to ensure that subscribers operating at the edges of the allocated frequency band do not interfere with
other wireless communication service operating in an adjacent frequency band.

EXAMPLE 8.5 Number of simultaneous subscribers in GSM

Consider Global System for Mobile, which is a TDMA/FDD system that uses 25 MHz band for the forward link, which is
divided into radio channels of 200 kHz each. If 8 speech channels (time slots) are supported on a single radio channel, find
the number of simultaneous subscribers that can be accommodated in GSM, assuming no guard band.
Solution
The allocated spectrum, Bt = 25 MHz = 25 × 106 Hz (given)
The channel bandwidth, Bc = 200 kHz = 200 × 103 Hz (given)
260 Wireless Communications

Number of speech channels, m = 8 per radio channel

The guard bandwidth, Bg = 0
The number of simultaneous subscribers that can be accommodated in the GSM system is given as
N = m × (Bt − 2Bg) / Bc
Or, N = 8 × (25 × 106 2 × 0 / (200 × 103)
Or, N = 8 × (25 × 106 ) / (200 × 103) = 1000 subscribers
Hence the GSM system can accommodate 1000 simultaneous subscribers.

If both forward and reverse channels use the same frequency band but they use alternating time slots in the
same frame for full duplex communication, the system is referred to as TDMA/TDD system. In this system,
50% of the time slots in the frame are used for the forward channels and the other 50% of the time slots in
the frame are used for reverse channels. Most of the RF components can be shared between the forward and
the reverse channels because only one frequency carrier is needed for full duplex operation. The reciprocity
of the forward and reverse channels also allows for simultaneous synchronisation as well as exact open-loop
power control. TDD techniques are used in systems where minimum interference, low system complexity and
low-power consumption are of utmost importance. Thus TDD based systems are quite often used in local area
micro- or pico- cellular systems. The structure of forward and reverse channels in a TDMA/TDD system is
shown in Fig. 8.13.
In TDMA/TDD based communication system, a simple RF switch is used in the subscriber equipment for
use of a single antenna for transmitting and receiving. The common antenna can be connected to the transmit-
ter when a data burst is required to be transmitted (thus disconnecting the receiver from the antenna) and to
the receiver for the received signal at another time. An RF switch is different from duplexer which is used in
TDMA/FDD based communication system. An RF duplexer is a device with the same functionality as that of
an RF switch but is based on RF filter technique.

8.3.1 Salient Features of TDMA Technique

(a) Several subscribers share a single carrier frequency by using non-overlapping time slots. The number of
time slots per frame depends upon several factors such as available bandwidth and digital-modulation
scheme used. The transmission data rate is quite high as compared to that of in FDMA.
(b) The available bandwidth can be utilised on demand by different subscribers as more than one time
slot per frame can be allocated to them. Thus, bandwidth can be supplied to different subscribers on
demand by concatenating or reassigning time slots as per assigned priority.
(c) Data transmission is bursty and hence not continuous in time domain. This implies that a subscriber
transmitter can be turned off when not in use, thereby saving battery power.
(d) A significant part of the voice call consists of quiet time, when neither the calling nor the called
subscriber is speaking. Special signal-processing techniques can be employed to fill the quiet times
with data or other voice calls. This leads to considerable improvement in the channel efficiency.

re en ′
M r me M r me
#1
#2

#1
#2

#1
#2

#1
#2
#

ime sl s
r rd everse r rd everse
nnel nnel nnel nnel
Fig. 8.13 Structure of forward and reverse channels in a TDMA/TDD system
 Multiple Access Techniques 261

(e) The hand-off process is much simpler for a mobile subscriber in a TDMA system due to discontinuous
transmissions. During idle time slots, the mobile subscriber can monitor the signal levels from neigh-
bouring base stations and inform the serving base station to assist in hand-off decisions.
(f ) Duplexers are not required in the subscriber equipment since the system uses different time slots for
transmission and reception. A fast RF switch is sufficient to switch between transmitter and receiver to
use the common antenna.
(g) Synchronisation is essential and the guard time or time for synchronisation should be minimum.
However, if the transmitted signal at the edges of a time slot is suppressed sharply in order to shorten
the guard time, the resulting expanded spectrum will cause interference to adjacent channels.
(h) Large overheads (framing bits) are required because of discontinuous or bursty transmission.
A substantial amount of signal processing is needed for matched filtering and correlation detection for
synchronising with a time slot.
(i) The effects of the nonlinearity are much
Facts to Know !
reduced since only one RF carrier is present
at any time in the channel. In TDMA, each user has access to the entire
(j) The cell-site hardware can be significantly allocated RF bandwidth for a short duration
simplified because the same transmitter/ of time (time slot) to transmit a preamble and
traffic data burst. During the allocated burst
receiver pair is shared between multiple
time slot, the system transmits the data at much faster rate
sessions. than the user information data rate. All users share the allo-
(k) The TDMA system can accommodate the cated frequency spectrum with all other users who have
transmission of source-channel encoded time-slot-burst allocations at other pre-assigned time slots.
digital data alongside digitised speech.
(l) TDMA systems use power control to handle the near–far interference problem. Due to the near–far
interference problem, the received signal on the reverse channel from a subscriber occupying a time slot
can be much larger than the received power from the subscriber using the adjacent time slot.
(m) Adaptive equalisation is usually necessary because the transmission data rates are usually very high.
(n) High synchronisation overhead is required because the receivers need to be synchronised for each data burst.
In addition, guard time slots are necessary to separate subscribers, and this result in larger overheads.

EXAMPLE 8.6 Advantages of TDMA cellular over FDMA cellular systems

List the advantages of digital TDMA cellular systems over analog FDMA cellular systems.
Solution
The various advantages are listed below:
(a) TDMA systems transmit each signal with sufficient guard time between time slots. This enables to
accommodate the transmission time delay because of propagation distance, predetermined delay
spread, source time inaccuracies due to clock instability, and the tails of signal pulses due to transient
responses.
(b) There is a threefold to sixfold increase in the number of mobile subscribers using a single carrier channel
because of interleaving transmissions in the time domain. Digital compression techniques are used to
realise timesharing. It produces bit rates which may be approximately one-tenth of the initial raw sample
rate and about one-fifth of the initial sample rate after inclusion of error detection/correction bits.
(c) With the use of more advanced digital-modulation schemes and signal-processing techniques, digital
signals are much easier to process than analog signals.
(d) Digital signals can be easily encrypted at the transmitting end and decrypted at the receiver end, leading
to safeguarding against eavesdropping.
262 Wireless Communications

(e) It is possible to monitor the signal strength and bit error rates frame-by-frame which enable either
subscribers or base stations to initiate and implement hand-offs.
(f ) A flexible bit rate, not only for multiples of basic single channel data rate but also submultiples is
allowed for low-bit-rate broadcast-type traffic application.
(g) The TDMA based cellular communication systems are interoperable and compatible with other digital
formats such as those used in computer networks.
(h) Digital systems inherently provide a quieter environment and offer better signal quality in a mobile
radio environment.

Facts to Know ! 8.3.2 A Basic TDMA Communication Link

If a part of the available frequency spectrum It is required to use complicated signal-processing
is allocated to a particular group of users, this techniques to implement various functional needs
access method is referred to as narrowband of TDMA systems efficiently. Some of these func-
TDMA, e.g, GSM and IS-136. If the complete tions include source-coding and channel-coding
available spectrum is allocated to each user during the techniques, sophisticated timing and fast acquisition
user time slot or duration of the data burst, the system is operations for synchronising, and for the efficient
referred to as wideband TDMA. Each user has to transmit and reliable transmission of data over the wireless
data at a very high data rate, as the time slots have very
channel. The fading is frequency selective which
short durations since many users access the same RF
spectrum.
introduces intersymbol interference (ISI) because of
wider channel bandwidths along with an increased
data transmission rate. To mitigate the ISI problem,
channel equalisation has to be provided. Passband modulation techniques are required to be used for the transmis-
sion of digitised speech and data over a wireless channel. This necessitates the use of synchronisation for the locally
generated carrier frequency, carrier phase, and symbol timing at the receiver. Fig. 8.14 shows the block diagram of
a basic TDMA link.
The speech signal input is first sampled to convert analog signal into equivalent digitised speech signal.
In order to remove redundant information, the digitised speech signal is encoded without compromising
the ability of the receiver to provide a high-quality reproduction of the original signal. The channel encoder
introduces controlled redundancy bits into the speech-encoded signal to provide protection against channel
noise. A wireless channel produces errors in the form of data bursts, mainly due to deep signal fades. To
mitigate this particular channel impairment, an interleaver is used for the purpose of pseudo-randomising the
order of the binary symbols in the channel-encoded signal in a deterministic manner.
The function of a packetiser is to convert the encoded and interleaved sequence of digitised speech data
into successive packets. Each packet occupies a significant part of a basic TDMA frame. Each frame also
includes synchronisation bits in order to synchronise the timing operations in the receiver with the corre-
sponding ones in the transmitter. Knowing the estimate of the channel impulse response, channel equalisation
at the receiving end of the TDMA communication link is made possible. The packetised speech data is then
modulated onto a sinusoidal carrier for transmission over the channel.
The receiver side consists of a cascade of several functional blocks in order to reverse the corresponding
operations performed by the transmitter and the wireless channel. The digital demodulator converts the
modulated received RF signal into its baseband form without any loss of information. The baseband
processor operates on the resulting complex baseband signal to estimate the unknown channel impulse
response, and channel equalisation. The resulting output is then deinterleaved, channel decoded, source
decoded, and, low-pass filtered for final delivery of an estimate of the original speech signal to the
receiver output.
 Multiple Access Techniques 263

ee m lin ee nnel
si n l n erle vin
n isin en din en din
in

i i l
m d l i n P e isin n r nis i n
d in

ireless
nnel

i i l nnel nnel
ein erle vin
dem d l i n e lis i n de din

s im e
e ns r i n ee
s ee
l ss il erin de din
si n l

Fig. 8.14 Block diagram of a basic TDMA link

8.3.3 Frame Efficiency in a TDMA System

The frame efficiency of a TDMA system is defined as the number of bits representing digitised speech,
expressed as a percentage of the total number of bits including the control overhead bits that are transmitted
in a frame. For example, in a TDMA cellular system based on IS-136 standards, the forward channel contains
260 traffic data bits out of a total of 322 bits in a TDMA frame (ignoring 2 bits used as reserved bits). The
frame efficiency in this case is (260 / 322 × 100 =) 80.7%.

EXAMPLE 8.7 Frame efficiency of TDMA-based GSM system

The basic TDMA frame structure of a GSM cellular system comprises of 156.25 bits in a time slot, of which 40.25 bits are
overhead (ignoring the 2 flag bits). Compute the frame efficiency.
Solution
Total bits in a TDMA frame = 156.25 bits (given)
Number of overhead bits = 40.25 bits (given)
 Multiple Access Techniques 273

8.5 SPACE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS

The three multiple access techniques, namely, FDMA, TDMA, and SSMA have increased spectral efficiency
by increasing reuse in frequency, time, and codes. The cell-site antennas are assumed to be omnidirectional
(or directional in sectorised cells). If the transmit and receive antenna could be focused directly at the other
end of the link, then this would provide a number of improvements such as
• Reduction in the total transmitted power as all power would be transmitted in the desired direction only
• Reduction in the amount of interference generated by each transmitter because total transmit power is
reduced and localised
• Receiving a stronger signal by the receiver due to directional antenna gain and less interference
All these features are part of the Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) technique. Thus, SDMA techniques
control the radiated energy for each subscriber in space by using directional or spot beam antennas at the cell-site.
The wireless communication space is omni-directional by nature. It
can be divided into spatially separable sectors. These different areas
n enn
in space covered by the respective antenna beam at the cell-site may
e m
be served by the different frequencies in an FDMA system or same
frequency in a TDMA and SSMA system. This is possible by having
a base station to use smart antennas, allowing many subscribers to
use the same frequency channel simultaneously. The communica-
ireless ell si e
tion characterised by either carrier frequency, time slot, or spreading s e
codes can be used as shown in Fig. 8.23. n enn
e m3
The deployment of high-gain directional antenna at the cell-
site in a particular direction results in extension of communication n enn
range. The use of a smart antenna at the cell-site maximises the e m2
antenna gain in the desired direction. It reduces the number of cells n enn
n enn
required to cover a given geographical area. Moreover, such focused e m
e m1
transmission reduces the interference from undesired directions.
A simplified version of transmission using SDMA is illustrated Fig. 8.23 The concept of SDMA
in Fig. 8.24. The cell-site (CS) forms different antenna beams for
each spatially separable subscriber on the forward and reverse channels, The noise and interference for
each subscriber and the cell-site is minimised. This not only enhances the quality of the communication
link significantly but also increases the overall system capacity. Currently, SDMA technology is still being
explored and its future looks quite promising.
In cellular systems, a few channels are broadcast by the cell-site on the downlink to transmit system
information, and a few channels are shared by all mobile subscribers on the uplink. Almost all the traffic
channels are point-to-point communication links between a cell-site and a specific mobile subscriber. This
simply can be considered as the active communication link being highly directional in nature when in opera-
tion. As an example, a 7-cell frequency reuse pattern cellular system is presented in Fig. 8.25, which uses
3-sector directional antennas in each cell. This means that each directional antenna at the cell-site covers one
sector which is 120 of the cell. In the illustration, each cell-site requires three non-overlapping directional
antennas, each with a beamwidth of 120 .
Let there be N active mobile subscribers per cell at any time, Pt is the average power radiated per mobile
subscriber by the cell-site, and Gt is the transmitting antenna gain. In the downlink,
The power radiated on one of the sector antennas = (N/3) (Pt × Gt) (8.3)
It is implied that (Pt × Gt) must be the same whether the antenna is omnidirectional or directional.
Consequently, the total power radiated with a sector antenna is one-third of that radiated by an omnidirectional
274 Wireless Communications

e m
n enn s

e m
4
e m
e m e m
3
1 2
M 3
M 4
M 1
M 2

Fig. 8.24 The basic structure of an SDMA system

nlin
in er erin
se rs 120°

M ile
s s ri er

Fig. 8.25 Cellular system with 120° sector antennas

antenna. In other words, a mobile subscriber receives only one-third of the interference that would be produced
by omnidirectional cell-site antennas with the same number of subscribers.
All mobile subscriber equipments use omnidirectional antennas in the uplink. Assuming uniform distribution
of mobile subscribers in the cell at any time, only one-third of them are in any one sector. So the interference
is reduced by two-thirds in the uplink direction as well. Hence it can be stated that with 120 sector antennas at
the cell-site, the number of subscribers can be increased three times relative to the omnidirectional antenna case
while maintaining the same interference levels.
 Multiple Access Techniques 275

8.5.1 Advantages of SDMA approach

(a) It can be applied with FDMA, TDMA, or CDMA.
(b) It allows many subscribers to operate on the same frequency and/or time slot in the same cell.
(c) It leads to more number of subscribers within the same allocated frequency spectrum with enhanced
user capacity.
(d) This technology can be applied at the cell-site without affecting the mobile subscriber.
When subscriber density grows beyond the capacity of a single cell in conventional cell-sites using
omnidirectional antennas, the growth is accommodated by dividing the initial larger cell into a number
of smaller cells in a process known as cell splitting. Power control is used to reduce the interference among
these smaller cells. Although sector antennas are more expensive than omnidirectional antennas, it is still
more economical to add sector antennas than adding new cell-sites.
The reverse link (uplink) in a cellular communication system presents the various challenges for several
reasons. First, the base station has complete control over the power of all the transmitted signals on the for-
ward link. However, the transmitted power from each mobile unit must be dynamically controlled to prevent
any single subscriber from increasing the interference level for all other subscribers because of different radio
propagation paths between the base station and each mobile subscriber. Second, transmit power at the mobile
unit is limited by battery consumption, which poses limits on the extent to which power may be controlled on
the reverse link. The reverse link for each subscriber can be improved with lesser power requirement if the
base station antenna is made to spatially filter each desired mobile subscriber so that more energy is detected
from each mobile subscriber as in the SDMA system.
Some of the problems on the reverse link can be resolved by using adaptive antennas at the base station
and eventually at the subscriber units. Adaptive antennas implement optimal SDMA in the limiting case
of infinitesimal beamwidth and infinitely fast tracking ability, thereby providing a unique channel that is
free from the interference of all other subscrib-
ers in the cell. This enables all the subscribers Facts to Know !
within the system to communicate using the same Patch antennas emit an RF energy beam
channel at the same time. In addition, a perfect which is horizontally more wide but verti-
adaptive antenna system would be able to track cally taller than that of a directional yagi
individual multipath components for each sub- antenna. Adaptive or phased array anten-
scriber and combine them in an efficient manner nas are similar to patch antennas but they are divided
into a matrix radiating elements, instead of being just a
to gather all the available signal energy from each
single piece of metal.
subscriber.

8.5.2 SDMA and Smart Antennas

SDMA technique basically takes advantage of the directional nature of wireless communications and relies
on the deployment of smart antennas at the cell-site. Some examples of smart antennas are given below:
– The simplest example of a smart antenna is the use of sector antennas at the cell-site. The sectored
antenna arrangement provides significant capacity gains simply by dividing the service area of each
cell-site into three (or more) angular sections.
– Switched-beam antennas are the next evolution of smart antennas. These antennas have a number of
fixed beams that cover 360°. Switched-beam antennas are typically narrower than sector antennas. The
mobile receiver selects the beam that provides the best signal level and interference reduction.
– Adaptive antennas are the most advanced example of smart antennas. Adaptive antennas provide a dedicated
beam for each subscriber. These antenna dynamically adjusts its sequence to minimise the effects of noise,
interference, and multipath.
276 Wireless Communications

Facts to Know ! The development of such smart antennas

could allow even greater reuse of the radio
Smart antennas are used mostly in cellular
mobile applications and can track a mobile
spectrum. The subscribers which are spatially
user by sending a narrower, more efficient separated by virtue of their angular directions in
beam of RF energy directed at the user, which the cell forms the basis of SDMA. This results
also prevents interference with other transmitter antennas. into significant improvements in spectral effi-
ciency. Different subscribers are able to reuse the
same radio spectrum as long as they are separated in angle. In particular, multibeam antennas are used
to separate radio signals by pointing them along different directions of the subscribers.
There are many advantages to smart antennas for cellular mobile applications:
(a) Greater Range Since the antennas are directional, they have larger gains and can therefore provide stronger
received signal strength for the same transmit power.
(b) Fewer Cell Sites Fewer cell-sites are required in those geographical areas with a low subscriber density
because the existing cell-site has a greater range. In areas with a high subscriber density, there is less interfer-
ence. Moreover smart antennas provide greater subscriber isolation. Hence, a single cell-site can serve more
number of subscribers.
(c) Better Signal Penetration Due to the greater signal strength and increased transmitter gain, signal penetration
through building structure is better.
(d) Less Sensitivity to Power Control Errors Due to better isolation among different subscriber signals, probability
of power control errors reduces considerably.
Facts to Know ! (e) Responsive to Hot Spots Traffic Conditions In
SDMA improves system capacity by virtue strategic application areas such as airports, hotels
of efficient spectrum reuse, minimisation of and conference centres, subscriber densities can
the effects of interference, and increasing become quite high at times, and directional antennas
signal strength for both the subscriber unit allow one or a small number of cell-sites to service
and the cell-site. these areas effectively.

8.6 HYBRID MULTIPLE ACCESS TECHNIQUES

Practical cellular communication systems deploy usually a combination of two or more of the basic multiple-
access techniques: FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, and SDMA. The main objective of hybrid multiple access approach
is to provide a reasonable subscriber growth strategy, thereby reducing the network complexity as the hybrid
technique remains backward compatible with the existing system. Although one approach may have a significant
technical advantage over another, there may be other factors such as economic considerations that prevent the use
of the basic multiple access technique in isolation.
Various hybrid multiple access techniques which are in use in different wireless systems are the following:

8.6.1 Hybrid TDMA/FDMA

In practical wireless communication systems, TDMA is generally implemented in an overlaid fashion on
FDMA technique. Every wireless communication system has an FDMA technique as baseline, and mul-
tiple-access schemes such as TDMA are overlaid on this baseline. The North American IS-54 digital cellular
system is an example of such a system, which is also called Narrowband TDMA system. The number of
frequency channels is typically large but the number of subscribers time-sharing a single channel is relatively
304 Wireless Communications

ell si es

M ile

lin s lin s
nd r n nd r n
ir i s ir i s
M

r n
ire ir i ire
l P P l

ndline ndline
s s ri er s s ri er

Fig. 9.1 A basic cellular system connected to PSTN

in a number of ways to facilitate handoff instructions and automatic channel changes for the mobile subscrib-
ers before and during a call.
Each cell-site has several radio transceivers (one per channel) called Base Transceiver System (BTS) or
simple base station. The base stations are distributed over the geographical area of the desired system cover-
age. BTS includes a wideband RF power amplifier to provide the transmit power for all channels in a site
or sector. Cell-site antennas installed on a high tower are part of the BTS. The cell-site’s radio equipment is
controlled by an on-site cell-site controller called Base Station Controller (BSC). It handles the air interface
between cell-site radio equipment and mobile subscribers including allocation of traffic channels, monitoring
and control of power levels, signaling tones/data, and so on.
Base stations also communicate directly with the MTSO over dedicated data control links. The MTSOs,
also called Mobile Switching Centres (MSCs), route calls using coaxial cables, fiber optic links, or micro-
wave links. Sometimes the BSC and MTSO are combined units. The MTSO contains various databases for
storing the locations of local and roaming mobile subscribers, authorising calls, initiating hand-offs, and
billing. Trunk circuits interconnect MTSOs with landline telephone exchange offices within the PSTN. This
interconnection allows calls to be made between landline telephone subscribers and cellular mobile subscrib-
ers, as well as among mobile subscribers of different cellular service providers in the same operating area.

9.2.2 Main Parts of a Basic Cellular System

A basic cellular system consists of mainly three parts: Cell-Site Equipment (CSE), Mobile Telephone
Switching Office (MTSO), and Mobile Subscriber Unit (MSU) as shown in Fig. 9.2.
There is an air interface between the MSU and CSE. The interconnectivity between the CSE and MTSO,
MTSOs, and the MTSO and PSTN is through wirelines or dedicated point-to-point microwave links.
Cell-Site Equipment (CSE) A cell-site is a fixed base station used for wireless communication with a mobile
subscriber on one side as well as signaling/data communication with the MTSO on the other side. It is usu-
ally located at the centre or the edge of the coverage region of a cell. A cell-site consists of a number of
transreceivers, Tx/Rx antennas mounted on a tall tower, data links, and power plant. The radio transmitting
 A Basic Cellular System 305

M 1

M
P
M s

M 2

M
P
M

M 3

M
P
M s

Fig. 9.2 Parts of a basic cellular system

equipment operates at considerably higher RF power than do the mobile equipments. Tx power is shared
among all the channels that are used at the cell-site. Similarly, there are as many receivers for each control
and voice channel in use at the cell-site, as well as additional receivers for monitoring the signal strength of
mobile subscribers in adjacent cells.
Cell-site equipment basically comprises of two main parts––cell-site transceiver and cell-site controller.
There may be adequate number of transceiver modules at the cell-site equipment in order to meet the sub-
scriber capacity requirement within a cell. Data links are used to carry multiple-channel data from the cell-site
to the MTSO. The transmission data rate on data links vary from 10 kbps to several Mbps. Many data-link
channels can be multiplexed and passed through a wideband T-carrier (or E-carrier) wireline or a point-to-point
microwave radio link operating at 850 MHz or higher frequency.
Radio transceivers are part of the cell-site equipment. The radio transceivers meant for voice channels
can be either narrowband FM for analog systems or QAM/PSK modulation for digital systems with an
effective audio-frequency band (approximately 300 Hz to 3000 Hz) comparable to a standard telephone
circuit. The control channels use either FSK or PSK modulation scheme. The cell-site controller operates
under the control of the central switching centre MSC or MTSO. The cell-site controller manages each
of the radio channels at each cell-site, turns the radio transmitter and receiver on and off, transfers data
306 Wireless Communications

onto the control and voice channels, monitors calls, and performs built-in diagnostic tests on the cell-site
equipment.
The issues affecting the cellular system design in selection of cell-site antennas include antenna pat-
tern, antenna gain, antenna tilting, and antenna height. The antenna radiation pattern can be omnidirectional,
directional, or any other shape in both the horizontal and vertical planes. The antenna-radiation patterns are
different as viewed in the cellular mobile oper-
Facts to Know ! ating environment from the antenna-radiation
The cell-site equipment is much more com- patterns as viewed in free space. Antenna gain
plex, bulky, and expensive than the individ- compensates for the transmitted power. Antenna
ual mobile subscriber phones. Transmit and tilting can reduce the interference to the neigh-
receive antennas may be separate antennas or bouring cells and enhance the weak signal spots
combined ones at the cell-site. Generally, one Tx antenna in the radio coverage of the cells. The height
and two Rx antennas are used at each cell-site or each of the cell-site antenna can affect the area and
sector. Two Rx antennas provide space diversity to counter- shape of the coverage pattern in the cellular
act the effects of fading.
system.

Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) It is the central coordinating element for all the cell-sites con-
nected to it. It comprises of the switch and the processor. It also interfaces with the Public Switch Telephone
Network (PSTN), controls call processing and handles billing activities. It uses voice trunks as well as data
links between the cell-sites and the central processor. Microwave radio links or T-carriers (wirelines) carry
both voice and data between the cell-site and the MTSO because the high-speed data link cannot be transmit-
ted over the standard telephone trunks. The capacity of switching equipment in cellular systems is not based
on the number of switch ports but on the capacity of the processor associated with the switches. The processor
should be as large as possible. Also, it is important to consider when the switching equipment would reach
the maximum capacity. It determines the service life of the switching equipment. More control modules can
be added to increase the system capacity. Switching equipment can be linked to other switching equipments
for better utilisation of hand-off.
The electronic switching centre located in the MTSO or MSC is a sort of digital telephone exchange that
becomes the heart of a cellular telephone system. Electronic switches communicate with cell-site controllers
using a data-link protocol, such as X.25, at a transmission rate of 9.6 kbps or higher. The electronic switching
centre performs two essential functions:
– It controls switching between the public landline telephone network and the cell-site base stations for
landline-to-mobile, mobile-to-landline, and mobile-to-mobile calls.
– It processes data received from the cell-site controllers concerning mobile subscriber status, diagnostic
data, and bill-compiling information.

Mobile Subscriber Unit (MSU) Basically, a mobile subscriber unit comprises of a single antenna, transre-
ceiver, and microprocessor-based control circuit. Because the cellular system is full duplex, the transmitter
and receiver must operate simultaneously with a single antenna. A duplexer is used to separate the transmit
and receive signals. The 45-MHz band separation between transmit and receive frequencies makes the opera-
tion relatively easy, and simplifies frequency synthesiser design.
For example, GSM mobile subscriber comprises of two parts––the mobile equipment (ME) and an
electronic smart card called a subscriber identity module (SIM). The ME is the hardware used by the
subscriber to access the cellular network. The SIM is a card, which plugs into the ME. This card identifies
the MS subscriber and also provides other information regarding the service that the subscriber should
receive.
 A Basic Cellular System 307

Each mobile subscriber consists of a mobile Facts to Know !

antenna, a multiple-frequency radio transceiver, and
Vehicle-installed mobile and portable/
a control/logic unit. The transceiver uses a frequency
handheld mobile phone equipments are
synthesiser to tune into any designated cellular essentially identical except that portable/
system channel. The control unit houses all the user handheld mobile subscribers have a lower
interfaces, including a built-in handset or earphone or output power, have a less efficient antenna, and operate
external microphone/speaker arrangement. The logic exclusively on batteries. Vehicle-installed mobile phone
unit interrupts subscriber actions and system com- equipment have relatively large output power, have
mands while managing the operation of the trans- omnidirectional gain antenna mounted on the rooftop
ceiver including transmit power. of the vehicle, and can operate from vehicle batteries.

9.3 OPERATION OF A CELLULAR SYSTEM

Voice calls over cellular communication networks require two full-duplex radio-frequency channels simultane-
ously. Two types of channels are available between the mobile subscriber and the base station: control channels
and traffic channels. Control channels are used to exchange information concerning initiating and maintain-
ing calls and with establishing of a relationship between a mobile subscriber and the nearest base station. The
control channel is also used for transferring control and diagnostic information between mobile subscribers
and a central cellular switch through a cell-site. Traffic channels carry a voice or data connection between sub-
scribers. The traffic channel is the actual voice channel where calling mobile subscribers communicate directly
with other called mobile subscribers and landline telephone subscribers through the cell-site and MTSO. Base
stations transmit on the forward control channel and forward voice channel and receive on the reverse control
channel and reverse voice channel. Similarly, mobile subscribers transmit on the reverse control channel and
reverse voice channel and receive on the forward control channel and forward voice channel.
Establishment of a voice call within a cellular communication system is similar to completing a telephone
voice call using the landline PSTN. The use of a cellular system is fully automated and requires no action
on the part of the mobile subscriber other than placing or answering a call. When a mobile subscriber is first
turned on, it performs a series of start-up procedures and then samples the received signal strength on all
control channels. The mobile subscriber automatically gets tuned to the control channel with the strongest
received signal strength level and synchronises to the control data transmitted by the cell-site controller. The
mobile subscriber interprets the data and continues monitoring the control channel(s). The mobile subscriber
automatically rescans the control channels periodically to ensure that it is using the best control channel.
From a subscriber’s point of view, the operation can be divided into four parts and a hand-off procedure.
– Mobile-unit initialisation or registration
– Mobile-originated calls
– Network-originated calls
– Call termination
– Hand-off procedure
9.3.1 Mobile-Unit Initialisation or Registration
Immediately after the mobile subscriber is switched on, it first scans the group of forward control channels and
selects the strongest one, which usually belongs to the nearest cell-site. It then continuously monitors that control
channel until its received signal level drops below the pre-defined threshold received level. In case the signal
strength of the control channel becomes weak, the mobile subscriber again begins scanning of the forward control
channels in search of the strongest signal. This self-location scheme is subscriber-independent. After pre-determined
time, this procedure is repeated to update the availability status of the forward control channel. Cells assigned
308 Wireless Communications

with different frequency bands broadcast on different forward control channels repetitively. The mobile
subscriber gets registered itself with the cell-site as being active and this process is repeated periodically. The
MTSO can then track the location of the desired mobile subscriber by paging it on the forward control channel.
For any cellular system, the total number of allocated channels is divided into control channels and voice
traffic channels. About 5% of the total number of channels available in the system are defined as control
channels and standardised over the entire geographic area covered. The remaining 95% of the total number
of channels are dedicated to voice and data traffic for the mobile subscribers. Since the control channels are
standardised and are identical throughout different service areas within a large geographic service area for a
particular cellular operator, every mobile subscriber phone scans the same set of control channels.
A very important aspect for successful operation of
Facts to Know ! numerous system functions in the cellular system is that
When a cellphone user moves each and every mobile subscriber units must be registered at
around within the same cell, the one of the MTSOs or MSCs. This is maintained for authen-
base station for that cell handles tication and identity verification, access privileges, and also
all the transmission. for billing purposes. Moreover, the cellular system needs to
know whether the MSU is currently located in its own home
service area or is visiting some other service area. This enables incoming calls meant for roaming mobile
subscribers to be routed to an appropriate cell location and assures desirable support for outgoing calls.
CSEs periodically broadcast control signals to determine and test nearby MSUs. This is done by exchanging
signals known as handshake signals between the CSE and the MSU. Each MSU listens for broadcast control
signals transmitted by CSEs. Some of the information contained in the broadcast forward control signals
includes cellular network identifier, timestamp, ID (identification) of the paging area, gateway MSC address,
and other system parameters of the CSE. If the MSU listens to a broadcast forward control signal from the
new CSE, it updates its information database. The MSU uses this information to locate the nearest CSE and
establish an appropriate communication link with the cellular system through the nearest operational CSE as
a gateway.

9.3.2 Mobile-Originated Calls

When a mobile subscriber originates a call, a call initiation request is sent on the reverse control channel. The
mobile subscriber enters the called subscriber number on its mobile equipment and presses the send button.
A request for service is sent on an available reverse control channel. With this request, the mobile subscriber
transmits its own telephone number, electronic serial number of the mobile equipment, station class mark
which indicates what the maximum transmitter power level is for the calling subscriber, and the called sub-
scriber number (of another mobile subscriber or landline telephone subscriber). The nearest cell-site receives
this complete data on the reverse control channel and sends a request to the MTSO for allocation of required
resources to establish the voice communication link between the calling mobile subscriber and the desired
called subscriber. The MTSO validates this call request. After authentication, the MTSO directs a cell-site to
assign an available forward voice channel for the call. The MTSO also connects the called mobile subscriber
or makes a connection to the called landline subscriber through the PSTN. The MTSO also instructs the cell-
site and the calling mobile subscriber to shift to an unused forward and reverse voice channel pair to allow the
conversation to begin. Figure 9.3 depicts the call processing using various parts of a cellular system.
Within a cellular communication system, the following types of mobile-originated calls can take place
involving mobile cellular subscribers originating calls:
– Mobile (cellular)-to-landline (PSTN) call
– Mobile (cellular)-to-mobile (cellular) within the same cell
– Mobile (cellular)-to-mobile (cellular) operating in different cells
 A Basic Cellular System 309

M
P

Fig. 9.3 Call processing in a cellular system

A general description for the sequence of events involved with connecting a call initiated by a mobile
subscriber in a cellular system is briefly described here.
Mobile (Cellular)-to-Landline (PSTN) Call Procedures
Step 1. Calls from mobile subscribers to landline telephone subscribers can be initiated by entering the land-
line telephone number into the mobile unit’s keypad. The mobile subscriber then presses a send key, which
transmits the called landline telephone number as well as the mobile unit’s identification number (MIN), ESN
and Station Class Mark over a reverse control channel to the base station.
Step 2. The base station receives a call-initiation request along with the MIN, ESN, and Station Class Mark.
If the calling mobile unit’s ID number is valid, the cell-site controller routes the called landline telephone
number over a wireline trunk circuit to the MTSO.
Step 3. The MTSO uses either standard call progress signals or the SS7 signaling protocol network to locate a
switching path through the PSTN to the called landline telephone subscriber.
Step 4. Using the cell-site controller, the MTSO assigns the calling mobile subscriber an available traffic or
voice channel and instructs the mobile subscriber to get tuned to that channel.
Step 5. After the cell-site controller receives verification that the mobile subscriber has tuned to the selected
voice channel and it has been determined that the called landline telephone number is not busy, the mobile
subscriber receives an audible call progress tone (ring-back) while the landline telephone caller receives a
standard ringing tone.
Step 6. If a suitable switching path is available to the landline telephone number, the call is completed when
the landline party answers the incoming call on its telephone.
Mobile (Cellular)-to-Mobile (Cellular) Call Procedures
Step 1. The originating mobile subscriber initiates the call in the same manner as it would do for a mobile-to-
landline call.
Step 2. The cell-site controller receives the caller’s identification number and the destination telephone
number through a reverse control channel, which are then forwarded to the MTSO.
Step 3. The MTSO sends a page command to all cell-site controllers to locate the called mobile subscriber
(which may be anywhere within or out of the service area).
Step 4. Once the called mobile subscriber is located, the destination cell-site controller sends a page request
through a forward control channel to the called mobile subscriber to determine if it is on and not busy.
Step 5. After receiving a positive response to the page, the available free traffic channels are assigned to both
the calling and called mobile subscribers.
310 Wireless Communications

Step 6. Call-progress tones are given to both the calling and called mobile subscribers (ring-back and
ringtones respectively).
Step 7. When the MTSO receives a response that the called mobile subscriber has answered the incoming
call, the call-progress tones are terminated, and the conversation begins.
Step 8. If a mobile subscriber wishes to initiate a call and all traffic channels are busy, the MTSO sends a directed
retry command, instructing the calling mobile subscriber’s unit to reattempt the call through a neighbouring cell.
Step 9. If the MTSO cannot allocate traffic channels through a neighbouring cell, it sends an intercept
message to the calling mobile subscriber over the forward control channel. During the mobile-initiated call
stage, if all the traffic channels assigned to the nearest cell-site are busy, then the mobile subscriber makes a
preconfigured number of repeated attempts. After a certain number of failed attempts, a busy tone is returned
to the calling mobile subscriber. This situation is termed as call blocking.
Step 10. If the called mobile subscriber is busy, the calling mobile subscriber receives a busy signal.
Step 11. If the called mobile number is invalid, the calling mobile subscriber receives a recorded message
announcing that the call cannot be processed by the network.
9.3.3 Network-Originated Calls
When a telephone call is placed by a landline telephone subscriber to a mobile subscriber, the MTSO dispatches
the request to all cell-sites in the cellular system, or it sends a paging message to certain cell-sites based on the
called mobile subscriber number and search algorithm. Each cell-site transmits the page on its forward control
channel. The called subscriber’s mobile phone 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. It also locks
on to the assigned voice channel and initiates a subscriber alert tone.
The cell-site relays back the acknowledgment signal sent by the called mobile subscriber and informs the
MTSO of the successful handshake. At this point, an alert message is transmitted to instruct the called mobile sub-
scriber to ring, thereby instructing the mobile subscriber to answer the incoming call. Then, the MTSO instructs
the cell-site to move the call to the available free forward and reverse voice channel pair. The step-by-step proce-
dure given below shows the sequence of events involved for landline (PSTN)-to-mobile (cellular) call in a cellular
telephone system. All of these events occur within a few seconds and are not noticeable by the subscriber.
Step 1. The landline telephone goes off hook to complete the wireline loop, receives a dial tone from PSTN,
and then inputs the mobile subscriber’s phone number.
Step 2.The mobile phone number is transferred from the PSTN switch to the cellular network switch
(MTSO) that services the called mobile subscriber.
Step 3. The cellular network MTSO translates the received digits, and locates the cell-sites nearest the called
mobile subscriber, which determines if the mobile subscriber is on and ready to receive the incoming call. It
sends the requested mobile phone number to the cell-sites.
Step 4. The base station transmits the page containing mobile subscriber phone number on forward control
channel.
Step 5. The called mobile subscriber receives the page signal and matches the received mobile subscriber
phone number with its own mobile phone number, assuming that the called mobile subscriber is available.
Step 6. The called mobile subscriber acknowledges back the receipt of the mobile subscriber phone number
and sends a positive page response including its ESN and Station Class Mark on the reverse control channel
to the cell-site for forwarding it to the MTSO.
 A Basic Cellular System 311

Step 7. The cell-site receives the mobile subscriber phone number, ESN, and Station Class Mark and passes
the information to the MTSO.
Step 8. The MTSO verifies that the called mobile has a valid mobile subscriber phone number and ESN
pair.
Step 9. The MTSO requests the cell-site controller to move the called mobile to the available pair of forward
and reverse voice channels.
Step 10. The cell-site controller assigns an idle voice channel for the called mobile subscriber and the cell-site
transmits the data message on the forward control channel for the called mobile subscriber to move to the speci-
fied voice channel.
Step 11. The called mobile subscriber receives the data messages on forward control channel to move to the
specified voice channel and sends verification of designated voice channel to the cell-site.
Step 12. The cell-site controller sends an audible call progress tone to the called mobile subscriber, causing
it to ring. The MTSO connects the called mobile subscriber with the calling landline phone on the PSTN. At
the same time, a ring-back signal is sent back to the landline-calling telephone subscriber by PSTN.
Step 13. The called mobile subscriber answers back, the MTSO terminates the call-progress tones, and the
two-way voice conversation begins on the forward voice channel and reverse voice channel between the call-
ing telephone subscriber and the called mobile subscriber.
Once a call is in progress, the MTSO adjusts the transmitted power of the mobile subscriber and changes
the channel of the mobile subscriber and cell-site in order to maintain call quality as the subscriber moves
in and out of range of each cell-site. This is called hand-off procedure. Special control signaling is applied
to the voice channels so that the cell-site may control the mobile subscriber while a call is in progress.

9.3.4 Call Termination

When either the calling subscriber (cellular mobile or landline) or the called subscriber (cellular mobile or
landline) engaged in conversation terminates the call, the MTSO is informed and the traffic channels at the cell-
site(s) are released. When the mobile subscriber terminates the call, a particular message signal is transmitted to
the cell-site. The voice channel is released. The mobile subscriber resumes monitoring page messages through
the strongest forward control channel. During a connection, if the base station cannot maintain the minimum
required signal strength for a certain period of time because of interference or weak signal spots in certain areas,
the voice channel assigned to the mobile subscriber is dropped and the MTSO is informed. This situation is
termed as call drop, not call termination.

9.3.5 Hand-off Procedure

When the mobile subscriber moves out of the coverage area of its Facts to Know !
cell-site during the call, the received signal level becomes weak. Hand-off basically involves
The present cell-site requests a hand-off to MTSO. The MTSO change of radio resources
switches the ongoing call to a new voice channel in a new cell- from one cell to radio
site without either interrupting the call or alerting the engaged resources in another adja-
mobile subscriber. The call continues as long as the conversation cent cell. From a hand-off perspective, it
is on. The mobile subscriber does not notice the hand-off occur- is important that a free voice channel is
rences. Hand-off occurrence depends on the size of the cell, radio available in a new cell whenever hand-off
coverage boundary, received signal strength, fading, reflection takes place, so that uninterrupted commu-
nication service is available at all times.
and refraction of signals, and man-made noise. Assuming that the
312 Wireless Communications

MSUs are uniformly distributed in each cell, the probability of a voice channel being available in a new cell
depends on the number of channels per unit area. The number of channels per unit area increases if the number
of channels allocated per cell is increased or if the area of each cell is decreased. But the radio resources and the
number of assigned channels are limited.
The radio coverage area of the cell could be decreased for a given number of channels per cell. This leads
to a smaller cell size and may be good for the availability of free channel perspectives. However, this would
cause more frequent hand-offs, especially for MSUs with high mobility and vehicle speed. Hand-off can be
initiated by the cell-site on its own or assisted by the mobile subscriber.
Cellular systems provide a service called roaming. This allows mobile subscribers to operate in service
areas other than the one from which the service is subscribed. When a mobile subscriber enters another geo-
graphic area that is different from its home service area, it is registered as a roamer in the new service area.
This is accomplished over the forward control channel, since each roaming mobile subscriber is stationed on
a forward control channel at all times.
After a pre-defined time interval, the MTSO issues a broadcast command over each forward control chan-
nel in the cellular system, requesting all mobile subscribers, which are previously unregistered to report their
identities such as mobile phone number and ESN over the reverse control channel. New unregistered mobile
subscribers in the system periodically report back their subscriber information upon receiving the registration
request. The MTSO uses the received data to request billing status from the home location register for each
roaming mobile subscriber.
If a particular roaming mobile subscriber has roaming authorisation for billing purposes, the MTSO registers
the mobile subscriber as a valid roamer. Once registered, roaming mobile subscribers are allowed to receive and
place calls from that service area, and billing is routed automatically to the subscriber’s home service provider.

EXAMPLE 9.1 Operation of a basic cellular system

Suppose there are two mobile subscribers in the nearby location. Draw a functional diagram showing the route signals if
the cellphones are
(a) operating on the same MTSO
(b) operating on different MTSOs (one each on system A and system B), served by different service providers
Solution
M
(a) Each mobile subscriber communicates with the
other mobile subscriber through the same serving
M cell-site, cell-site controller, and MTSO.
M 2
Figure 9.4 depicts a functional diagram showing the
M 1
communication path between MSU1 and MSU2, both
mm ni i n P being served by the same MTSO.
Fig. 9.4 MSUs operating on the same MTSO The call initiated by MSU1 is routed to MSU2 via
a communication link such as
MSU1→CSE→BSC→MSC→BSC→CSE→MSU2.
After the establishment of the link, two-way conversation between MSU1 and MSU2 takes place using
this communication path.
(b) Each mobile subscriber communicates through its serving cell-site, cell-site controller, and MTSO
respectively. Two MTSOs are interconnected through PSTN.
The call initiated by MSU1 is routed to MSU2 via a communication link such as
MSU1→CSE1→MTSO-A→PSTN→ MTSO-B→CSE2→MSU2.
Figure 9.5 depicts a functional diagram showing the communication path.