nietundamental physical resource in wire-

iess communications is the available radio

spectrum. The advancements in wireless
communications means finding more effi-
cient ways of utilising the radio spectrum.
The multiple access techniques describe
the general approach to sharing the physi-
Multiple Access
CJI resources of a wireless medium by a
large number of mobile subscribers at
the same time in different locations. This
Techniques
chapter describes various multiple access
techniques such as FDMA, TOMA, SSMA,
S:>MA. and hybrid multiple access that
are used in analog and digital wireless
a,mmunications systems. Their relative
I ~Jtlf~g]µg,QN -: :w; ~
.s~1...~
advantages and disadvantages have been For any wireless service, only a fixed limited finite amount
outlined here. An overview of packet radio of radio spectrum (or number of channels) is available to pro-
multiple access technique including CSMA , vide simultaneous communication links to many subscnb ers
15 i>resented in the end.
in a given service area. Multiple access techniques are used to
achieve high subscriber capacity by sharing the available lim-
ited spectrum among many subscribers simultaneously. while
maintain ing the desired quality of cormm:nications·. There
are four basic forms of multiple access techniques applied
to wireless communications, depending on which particul:.11'
resource is exploited: Frequency-Division Multiple Access
(FDMA ), Time-Division Multiple Access (TOMA ), SpreaJ-
Spectrum Multiple Access (SSMA), and Spal'e-Divisi,)n
Multiple Access (SOMA). The obj~ctive of all these multiple
access strategics is to maximise the spel'trum utilisation.
The choice of an access mdhoJ will have a great imixh.'t
on the capacity and quality of servil:~ provided by a wirdess
network . In practice, most wirdcss conumm kation syskms
are a comhination of one or more of th"·sc multipk a1.·1.·ess
strategies. There arc many instann:s in multiple a1.·cess l'om-
muni1,;ations, in whid1 a mohik suhsnibl ·r is rl'quired to send
a pa1,;kct of information_ to the '-·di-site at a r~mJom instant in
time, leading to co11tc11t1on-bascd pa~kd rnd10 protocols such
as ALOI IA and CSMA. The m~1lt1plc-acl'css packet radio
rotocols, also known as the medium access control sublayer
:rotocol s, are primarily a set of rules that commun icating
mobile subscribers need to follow.
 m W/rMS Communications
• Multiple Access Techniqua

I
rrm ... rn
'ill,2 FIIEQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS f ' 1 f '2 f 'N f1 f2 l

Frequency Division Multiple Access_ (fDMA) refers to sharing the_ available radio spectrum by assignin
specific frequency channels to subscnbers either on a permanent basis or on a temporary basi_s. The differen:
ctm. .cb
,_ _ _ _ _:.;: • rrequency
Reverse channels .____, Forward channels
tiation between the earner frequ~nc1es of the forward channels (also called d~wnlmk-commumcation between Duplex
the cell-site and mobile subscnb_ers)_ and ~everse chann_els (also cal led uplmk-commurucatw_n between the spacing
mobile subscribers and the cell-site) 1s an important design parameter related to fDMA technique. Fig. 8.4 I The structure of forward and reverse channels in FDMA
If the forward channels and re_verse channels use different
Frequency channels carrier frequencie s that are sufficiently spaced, the duplexing
Guard Band Subband
scheme 1s referred to as f~D: The FDD technique is mostly used Wg Be
in macrocellular communication systems designed for radio cov-
Channel# N Subscriber # N
erage of severa~ kilometres. The base sta_tion dynamically assigns
a different earner frequency to each active m o bile s ubscriber. In
order to adjust and maintain the transm ission and reception fre-
Channel# 2 Subscriber #
Subscriber # quencies, a frequency synthesiser is used at the base station and
Channel# 1 11,--,,,~=--=- Time the mobile station . The concept of FDMA is shown in Fig. 8. 1. Total bandwidth B1= Nx Be
Flg.8.1 I
TheconceptofFDMA In FDMA, the avail able radio spectrum is divided into a set of con- Fig. 8.5 I Guard band in FDMA channels
tinuous frequency channels labeled I through N, and the freq uency
channels are ass igned to indi vid ual mo bile su bscribers subscri bers usi ng adjacent channels. In order to minimise adjacent channel interference, two design m~asures
/ Ch 1 I Ch 2 1 Ch 3 1 Ch 4 I · · · @ilBJ Frequency on a continuous-time basis for the du ration of a call. are usua lly considered:
FDMA bandwidth structure is ill ustrated in Fig. 8 2.
Total allocated frequency band fig . 8.3 shows th e basic structure o f a FDMA - The power spectral density of the modulated signal is controlled so that the power radiated into the
Fig. 8.2 I
FDMA bandwidth structure system, consisting of a cell -site (CS) and many adj acent band is at least 60 to 80 dB below that in the desired band. This requirement can be achieved
mobile subscri bers . There is a pair of simplex wit h the use of highly selective filters in the system design.
- Us ually, it is extremely difficult to achieve the desired filter characteristic so as not to cause adjacent
channels for the commu nication wi re less hnk be tween

~MS le the CS and the mobile su bscri bers. The paired chan- channel interference. Guard bands are inserted as buffer frequency zones in adjacent channels.

~ireless medi~ m nel is called forward channel (downli nk) and reverse If a large number of mobile subscribers can operate satisfactorily within the allocated radio spectrum
1 channel (uplink). A forwa rd cha nnel is used to transfer then the m ultiple-access system is said to be highly spectrally efficient. ln general. the spectral efficiency in
data from the cell-site to the mob ile s ubscriber and a FDMA systems depends on how closely the individual channels (frequency subbands) can be assigned. There

~MS2 : ,; '2
reverse channel is used to tran sfer data fro m th e mo bile
subscriber to the cell-site. Different freq uency chann els
are assigned to different mobile subscribers . Each
are several factors that limit the adjacent channel spacing, the most important of which is adjacent channel
interference (AC I). The impact of ACI is illustrated in Example 8. 1.

pair of communicating mobile subscribers is assigned

~MS3 ; t'N fN
different . frequency channels to enabl e full duplex EXAMPLE8.1 Impact of ACI in FDMA system
commumcat1on .
t
Reverse channels
t
Forward channels
FDMA has been widely adopted in all first-generation
(a) What is the difference between the received signal strength of two mobile subscribers located at 10 m and 1km
away from a cell-site in an open area? . .
ana l~g eel lular systems for handheld and vehicle-installed (b) Explain the effects of shadow fading on the difference in the received signal strength of two mobile subscribers
(Uplink) (Downlink)
mobile subscnbers. A duplex spacing is used between the .
obtained in part a). . .
Fig. 8.3 I The basic structure of an FDMA system forward and reverse ~hannels. The structure of forward
7
(c) Wha t would be the impact if the two mobile subscribers were operating m two ad1acent channels. Assume
and revers~ cha1:"els m FDMA is shown in fig. 8 .4. out-of-band radiation that is 40 dB below the main lobe.
The frequency bandwidth allocated to ea~h mobile subscnber 1s called the subband B,.. If there are N (d} Suggest the measure taken to overcome this problem in FDMA cellular systems.
channels in a FDMA system, the total bandw1_dth B, 1s equal to N x Be. A guard band Wg is used to minimise
Solution
adjacent channel interference between two adJacent channels, as shown m Fig. 8.5.
To ensure acceptable signal quality performance, it is important that each frequency channels· (a) To determine difference in received signal strengths of mobile subscribers
1
confined to the assigned channel bandwidth. Otherwise, there may be adjacent channel interr:;"a be kept Distance of MS I from the cell-site, r 1 = IO m (given)
can degrade signal quality. In both forward and reverse channels. the signal transmitted must be ke;~ce which Distance of MS2 from the cell-site, r 2 = I km or I 000 m (given)
Operating environment = Open area
.
w1thm its assigned channel bandwidth and the out-of-band signal energy causes negligible interfere confmed ~~~
 •
254 Wireless Communicotions

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

d'
Muhlple Accm Technique

.
I 2H

solution ln FDMA/FDD systems, forward and reverse channels

The value of propagation path-loss exponent, 1 = 2 fixed subchannel pair is assigned to a subscriber during the co use ~fferent ~amer frequencies, and a
Fig. 8.6 shows the FDMNFDD system mmumcatton session.
Step 1. In free-space propagation, the received signal strength decays at the rate of io dB per decode of distance.
Step3. The difference between the received signal strength of two mobile subscribers located at ,, and r~
commonly used in first generation analog
cellular systems. At the receiving end, the mobile
! Time

~ P, = 20 log (r1 / r,f

Therefore, 1:!l.P, = 20 log (1000/ l0) 2
unit filters the designated channel out of the 1
composite signal received. cii
Hence, 6P, = 80 dB
The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS)
(b} The effects of shadow fading is based on FDMNFDD. As shown in Fig. 8.7, Frequency
In addition to the decrease in the received signal strength value with distance, the multi-path and shadow the AMPS system allocates 30 kHz of channel FDMMDDconcept
fading due to the near-far problem because of large difference in the distances of two mobile subscribers bandwidth for each uplink (824 MHz- 849 MHz)
in radio channels cause received signal fluctuations of the order of typically 20 dB. ' and downlink (869 MHz- 894 MHz) frequency UPLINK
824
Therefore, the difference in the received signal levels from these two mobile subscribers may exceed even band. R rM-~.--.-----.-~~~M=9~M~Hz
~LIi·· Ill
JOO dB.
(c} Impact of operation in adjacent channels
Some of the salient features of the FDMN
FDD system concept are given here. Channel
bandwidth
,.z s
I 30 K~
Out-of-band radiation below the main lobe= 40 dB (given) - During the call, a mobile subscnber occupies
It implies that out-of-band radiations may exceed the signal strength of the desired signal by almost (100 dB - MHz DOWNLINK
two simplex channels, one each on the uplink 869 894MHz
40d8=)60d8
(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
and downlink, for full-duplex communi-
cation.
- The two simplex channels are spaced by Channet
=21--
I
bandwidth
S: 30 KHz
I \ I
in the system. fixed duplex spacing. For example, duplex
spacing in AMPS is (869 MHz-824 MHz = Fig. 8..7 I
FDMA/FOO in AMPS
- Channel assignment should be done in such a way so that the frequencies in each cell are grouped as 45MHz).
far apart as possible from each other. - When a call is terminated, or when hand-off occurs, the occupied channels are released which can be
- Guard bands should be included in the frequency channel to further reduce adjacent channel interference. used by other mobile subscribers in the system.
This, however, has the effect of reducing the overall spectrum efficiency. - Multiple or simultaneous mobile subscribers are accommodated in A.MPS by allocating each calling or
- The transmitter power of the mobile subscribers should be controlled so as not to cause interference to called mobile subscriber a dedicated channel.
other transmissions in the cell. - 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 an FDMA system, many channels share the same transmitting antenna at the base station. The transmit- - In AMPS, analog narrowband frequency modulation tl!\:hnique is used to modulate the carrier.
ter RF power amplifiers or the transmitter multichannel power combiners are nonlinear devices when operated
at or near saturation signal levels for maxi mum power efficiency. The nonlinearities cause spreading of the The number of channels, N that can be simultaneously supported in an FDMA system is given by
signal in the frequency domain and generate intermodulation frequencies which are undesirable harmonics.
N= (8,-Z B.) 1 8, (8.l)
Harmonic frequencies generated within the operaiing frequ~ncy band cause interference to other subscrib-
ers active in the same wireless system at that time. Harmonic frequencies generated outside the operational where B, is the total spectrum allocation. Bg is the guard band allocated at the edge of the allocated spectrum
frequency band cause interference to other wireless services operating in those adjacent bands. band, and B,. is the channel bandwidth. .
The first-generation analog cellular communication systems use FDMA/FDD technique, with speech B, and Be may be spec ified in terms of simp\e:'I. bandwidths where it is understood that there are symmetnc
signals being transmitted over the forward or reverse channels using frequency modulation scheme. The frequency allocations for the forward band and rewrse band.
data control functions are performed digitally by means of frequency -shift keying modulation scheme fo r
data transmission. A useful feature of FDMA systems is that the radio transmi ssion takes place over a narrow
channel of bandwidth (BIN) Hz for each mobile subscriber. Due to narrowband transmissions, flat fading
EXAMPLE a.s I Number of ctullnnels 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
may be experienced by the signal.
spectrum is 1okHz. and the channel bandwidth is 30 kHz, find the number of channels available in an FDMA system.

EXAMPLE 1.2 I FDMA/FDD In AMPS Solution

Illustrate the concept of FDMA/FDD system commonly used in First Generation ( 1G) analog cellular communication
Allocutcd spcctrum, B, = l :?.5 MHz (given)
systems such as AMPS.
=
Allocutcd guu rd band, B.~ 10 kHz (given)
Chunnel b11ndw1llth, B., = 30 kHz (given)
 2N Wireless Communications
Multiple Access T«hniqua
The number of channels available in the FDMA system is given as .ber units and base stations. Because of the single channel p . .
N = (B, - 2 B8) I B C su
bscrl t
II site system cos s. er earner design, FDMA systems have
Or, N = [(l2.5 x J06 - 2(10 x J0 3)] / (30 x 10 3) bigber ce
Or, N = 416
Hence, the number of channels available in an FDMA system is 416 channels
. _
83
I TIME-01v1s10N MULTIPLE ACCESS
1
TiJne-division multiple access (TD:"1A) tec hnique_refers to allowing a number
of subscribers to access a
IXAMPLE IA I Number of simultaneous links In an FDMA system
:10
ecified channel bandwidth ?n a llme-shared basis. TOMA systems divide the carrier
time slots, and in each ttm~ slot only on~ subscriber is allowed to either transmit
channel bandwidth
A cellular system operator is allocated a total spectrum of 5 MHz for deployment or receive. IDMA
of an analog cellular system based on utilises the digital technolo!D' w1~ more efficient and complex strategies of sharing
the FDMA technique, with each simplex channel occupying 25 kHz bandwidth.
Compute the number of simultaneous
the available spectrum
calls possible in the system. among a number of s~bscnb~rs s1_multaneously. In TOMA system_s, number of
· subscribers share the same
frequency band by tak.mg therr assigned tu~s m tune for transmission or reception.
Solution The major advantage of the . TDMA 1s the
Total spectrum allocated = 5 MHz (given) flexibility of its digital f~~at which can_be buff-
Channel bandwidth = 25 k.Hz (given) d and multiplexed efftc1ently, and assignments
If a user has no data to transmit during the
St•p 1. To determine number of simplex channels :;time-slots among multiple subscribers which are
assigned time slot. the frequency channel
Number of simplex channels = Total spectrum allocated / Channel bandwidth readily adaptable to provide different access rates. remains idle in TOMA.
Number of simplex channels = 5 MHz / 25 kHz = 200 With TOMA, a base-station controller assigns time
St•p 2. To determine number of duplex channels
slots to subscribers for the requested service, and an
assigned time slot is held by a subscriber until it releases it. The receiver synchronises
Number of simplex channels in a duplex channel = 2 to the incoming IDMA
signal frame, and extracts the time slot designated for that subscriber. Therefore,
Therefore, number of duplex channels = 200 / 2 = I 00 the most critical feature of
TOMA operation is time synchronisation.
St•p 3. To compute the number of simultaneous calls In TOMA, one carrier channel is used by several subscribers,
Hence, in a given analog cellular FDMA system, 100 full -dup lex communicati and each subscriber is served in a round-robin method. The cell-site
on links can be established Frequency
simultaneously as each link requires two simplex channels (one for uplink and assigns different time slots to different subscribers. Let there be N
another for downlink) or one
duplex channel. number of time slots in a TDMA frame . Each subscriber occupies
Therefore, the number of simultaneous calls = l 00 calls a cyclically repeating time slot which reoccurs in every frame peri-
odically. The transmission in a TOMA system for any subscriber is ; ii !
The FDMA channel carries onJy one dedicated communication link at a time.
voice channel, the base station and the mobile subscriber transmit simultaneously
After the assignment of a
and continuously. If the assigned
noncontinuou s and data is transmitted in a buffer-and-burst method.
The splitting of a single carrier channel into several time slots and
\t~ ~
channel is not in use then it remains idle and cannot be used by other mobile subscribers.
This is clearly wastage distribution of time slots among multiple subscribers is shown m lb~diel=~.!1----'""~--- Time slot
of spectrum resource. The utilisation of a channel during free time is essential 1 2 N
to increase system capacity. Fig. 8.8.
FDMA is usually implemented in narrowband systems. The bandwidths of FDMA
channels are relatively A TDMA system may operate in either of two modes: Fig. 8.8 I The concept of TOMA
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 - TDMA/ FDD mode The forward and reverse
spread. This implies that the
amount of intersymbol interference is also low. So there may not be any requirement channel frequencies differ.
to implement equalisation
in FDMA narrowband systems which is certainly an advantage. - TD MA/ TDD mode The forward and reverse
The complexity of FDMA wireless commu- channel frequencies are same.
Time
LLL.L..L~ ...L-1....-1 -~~__,___ ._slom
nication systems is lower as compared to that of In TDMA/FDD systems, the carrier frequencies
(a) Forward channel

~
Cable television is transmitted using FDMA TDMA systems. Due to continuous transmission are different but frame structures are same for the
over coaxial cable. Each analog television in FDMA systems, fewer bits for synchrorusa- forward and reverse channels. In general. TDMN
signal utilises 6 MHz of the 500 MHz band- tion and framing are needed for overhead pur- FDD systems intentionally induce delay of sev~ral
width of the cable.
poses as compared to TOMA. FDMA requires time slots between the forward and reverse ume
tight RF filtering to minimise adjacent channel slots fo r a particular subscriber. This avoids the need
interference . Therefore, there is a need to use costly bandpass filters to eliminate
spurious radiations at the of duplcxers in the subscriber unit . The illustrauon (b) Reverse channel
base stations. The FDMA mobile subscriber equipment uses RF duplexers
since both the transmitter and of forward and reverse channels in a TDMNFDD
receiver operate at the same time using a common antenna. This results in an inc rease Structure of forward and reverse channels
in the cost of FDMA system employing the similar frame and time slot
structure is giwn in Fig. 8.9.
Fig.8.9
I in a TDMA/FDD system
 JSI Wireless Communications

In TOMA, a carri_er channel_is divided i~to N number of tim~ slots. These ti~e slots are allocated for each
subscriber to transrrut and receive information. The number of d1 stmct consecuttve time slots is called a fr
Frequency, f
nme s101
Multiple Access Techniqua

Frequency, ,.
I.
before these time slots are repeated. Each frame of the TOMA structure conta ins N number of time slotme
equal duration. Information data is transferred and received in the form of TOMA fram es. The transmis: • of
ra~e for a digital TOM~ channe! is _typicall~ N _times higher than that required for a _s ingle channel. The ~~2 ~MSt
wise structure of each time slot 1s different m different types of TOMA systems. Typically, the bits contain d
in each time slot of a TOMA frame are divided into two major functional groups: e
~MS2
Signalling and Control Data Bits These bits perform the functions which assist the receiver in performin
some auxiliary functions such as synchronisation and frame error rate. Specifically, the synchronisation bi!
in a time slot enable the receiver to recover sinusoidal carri er essential for coherent detection. The frame ~MSN
Frame : Frame
Frequency, f orf' error bits are used to estimate the unknown impulse Forward channels
Reverse channels
TOMA frame , TOMA frame , TOMA frame , response of the wireless channel, which is needed (Downlink)
(Uplink)
fo r decoding the received signal.
Fig. 8.12 I The basic structure of a TOMA system
1--_,__.+,--'---'-----'-.__-'--_,_....,__.__.____._ Time
Traffic Data Bits These bits represent digitised
speech bits or any other forms of info rmation-
slots ofTDMA frame on the forward and reverse channels. However. the system capacity is limited by the number
bearing data bits. of time slots per carrier channel and the number of carrier channels allocated to the system.
Fig. 8. 10 shows a typical frame structure of The features that distinguish TDMA systems from FDMA systems can be broadly classified in two
TDMA. The guard time between the time slots categories:
helps in minim isi ng the interference due to propa-
- In TDMA each subscriber has access to the total bandwidth B, of the carrier channel, whereas in
Fig. 8.10 I Typicalframe structure of TOMA gation delays along different radio paths in the wire-
FDMA each subscriber is assigned only a fraction of the channel bandwidth, that is, Be= B, IN.
less channel.
Digital data encoding and digi tal-modulati on schemes are used with TDMA. The transmission from various - Io TDMA, each subsc riber accesses the channel for only a fraction of the time that it is in use and
subscribers is interlaced into a uni formly repeating TDMA frame structure. As shown in Fig. 8. 11, a TDMA 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
frame consists of a preamble, al'! information data fi eld, and tai l bi ts. The information data fie ld of a frame
continuous-time basis.
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 The total number ofTDMA time slots that can be provided in a TOMA system is determined by multiplying
base station and the subscribers to identi fy each other. Tail bits and guard bits allow synchronisation of the the number of time slots per carrier channel by the number of channels available and is given by
receivers between different time slots and frames. Various TDMA-based cellular standards such as USDC,
GSM have different TDMA frame structures.
=
N fm X (Bl - ZBg)J I Bt: (8.2)

In a TOMA system, the communication channels essentially consist of many time slots, which makes_it where N is the total number ofTDMA time slots in a TDMA system
m is the number of time slots per carrier channel or the ma"\imum number ofTDMA subscribers supported
possible for one frequency carrier channel to be effi ciently utilised by many mobil~ subscribers. _Each mobile
subscriber utilises a different time slot. The basic structure of a TDMA system 1s shown m Fig. 8.12. The on each carrier channel
number of mobile subscribers can communicate with the base station simultaneously on designated time slots B, is the total allocated spectrum bandw idth in Hz
Be is the carrier channel bandwidth in Hz
Bg is the guard bandwi dth in Hz d fr b d, are
Two guard bands one at the lower end and another at the higher end of the allocate eque~cyrfian .th
required to ensure that subscri bers operat ing at the edges of the allocated frequency band do not mte ere wt
other wireless communication service operating in an adjacent frequency ba nd ·

EXAMPLE 8.5 I Number of slmuluMOUS subscrlllen Ill GSM . .

. h uses 25 MHz band for the forward link, wh,ch is
Consider Global System for Mobile, which is a TOMA/ FOO syS tem t _at pported on a single radio channel, find
divided into radio channels of 200 kHz each. If 8 speech channels (times 10;~1are su . no guard band.
the number of simultaneous subscribers that can be accommodated in G , assuming

Solution • .
The al101.:ated s~trum. 8, = 25 MHz = 25 x 10 ~z (given)
Fig. 8.11 I A TOMA frame and time slot (TS) structure The channel bllndwidth, B,. = 200 kHz = 200 x 10 Hz (given)
J10 Wirrlfls Communications
Multlpk Accns Techniques I :11,

Number of speech channels, m = 8 per radio channel (e) The h~d-:°ffproce_ss i~ muc_h simpler for a mobile subscriber in a TOMA . .
The guard bandwidth, Bg = 0 transm1ss1ons. Dunng idle time slots, the mobile subsc .ber . syst~ due to discontinuous
The number of simultaneous subscribers that can be accommodated in the GSM system is given as bouring base stations and inform the serving base stati~ t c~ m~rutor the signal levels from neigb-
0 st 10
N = [m x (B, - 2B )] I Be f) Duplexers are not required in the subscriber equipmeni° . assthi hand-off decisions.
1 3 ( . . d . . smce e system uses differ t tim 1 "
Or, N = [8 x (25 x 10 - 2 x 0] I (200 x 10 ) transmission an recept10n. A fast RF switch is sufficient to switch be . en e s ~ts ,or
6 3
Or, N = [8 x (25 x 10 )] I (200 x 10 ) = 1000 subscribers use the common antenna. tween transrrutter and receiver to
Hence, the GSM system can accommodate 1000 simultaneous subscribers. (g) synchroni_sation is ess~ntial . and the guard time or time for synchronisation should . .
However, 1fthe transm1tt~d signal at the edges ofa time slot is suppressed sh 1 . be mmunum.
10 0rd
If both forward and reverse channels use the same frequency band but they use alternating time slots in the the guard time, the resultmg expanded spectrum will cause inte..,._ d~ Y er to shorten
. . uerence to a ~acent channels
same frame for full duplex communication, the system is referred to as TDMA!fDD system. In this system (h) Large ove~heads (fram1~g bits) are _req~ired because of discontinuous or bursty tran~rnission
50% of the time slots in the frame are used for the forward channels and the other 50% of the time slots U: A substantial amount of signal processmg 1s needed for matched filte · d • . ·
the frame are used for reverse channels. Most of the RF components can be shared between the forward and synchronising with a time slot. nng an corre1allon detectJon for
the reverse channels because only one frequency carrier is needed for full duplex operation. The reciprocity (i) The effects of the nonlinearity are much
of the forward and reverse channels also allows for simultaneous synchronisation as well as exact open-loop reduced since only one RF carrier is present
power control. TDD techniques are used in systems where minimum interference, low system complexity and at any time in the charmel. In TOMA. each user has access to the entire
low-power consumption are of utmost importance. Thus TDD based systems are quite often used in local area (j) The cell-site hardware can be significantly allocated RF bandwidth for a short duration
micro- or pico- cellular systems. The structure of forward and reverse channels in a TDMAffDD system is simplified because the same transmitter/ of time (time slot) to transmit a preamble and
shown in Fig. 8.13 . receiver pair is shared between multiple traffic data burst. During the allocated burst
In TOMA/TDD based communication system, a simple RF switch is used in the subscriber equipment for time slot, the system transmits the data at much faster rate
sessions.
use of a single antenna for transmitting and receiving. The common antenna can be connected to the transmit- than the user information data rate. All users share the allo-
(k) The TOMA system can accommodate the cated frequency spectrum with all other users who have
ter when a data burst is required to be transmitted (thus disconnecting the receiver from the antenna) and to transmission of source-charmel encoded ti~lot-burst allocations at other pre-assigned time slots.
the receiver for the received signal at another time. An RF switch is different from duplexer which is used in di gital data alongside digitised speech.
TOMA/FOO based communication system. An RF duplexer is a device with the same functionality as that of
()) TDMA systems use power control to handle the near- far interference problem. Due to the near-far
an RF switch but is based on RF filter technique.
interference problem, the received signal on the reverse channel from a subscriber occupying a time slot
8.3.1 Salient Features ofTDMA Technique 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.
(a) Several subscribers share a single carrier frequency by using non-overlapping time slots. The number of (n) High synchronisation overhead is required because the receivers need to be synchronised for each data burst.
time slots per frame depends upon several factors such as available bandwidth and digital-modulation In addition, guard time slots are necessary to separate subscribers. and this result in larger overheads.
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 lXAMPLE8.6 Advantages of TDMA cellular ONr FDMA callular systellil
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. List th e advantages of digital TOMA cellular systems over analog FOMA cellular systems.
(c) Data transmission is bursty and hence not continuous in time domain. This implies that a subscriber Solution
transmitter can be turned off when not in use, thereby saving battery power. The various advantages are listed below:
(d) A significant part of the voice call consists of quiet time, when neither the calling nor the called
(a) TDMA sy stems transmit each signal with sufficient guard time between time slots. This enables to
subscriber is speaking. Special signal-processing techniques can be employed to fill the quiet times
accommodate the transmission time delay because of propagation distance, predetermined delay
with data or other voice calls. This leads to considerable improvement in the channel efficiency.
spread, source time inaccuracies due to clock instability, and the tails of signal pulses due to transient
responses.
Frequency f, f' (b) There is a threefold to sixfold increase in the number of mobile subscribers using a single carrier channel
TOMA frame 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 a Iler inclusion of error detection/correcti~n bits. . .
Time slots (c) With the use of more advanced digital-modulation schemes and signal-processing techmques, d1g1tal
Forward ' Reverse Forward , Reverse ' signals are much easier to process than analog signals. . .
channel channel channel channel (d ) Digital signals can~ easily encrypted at the transmitting end and decrypted at the receiver end, leading
Fig. 8.13 I Structure of forward and reverse channels in o TOMA/TDD system to safeguarding against eavesdropping.
 :- - -- - - -- - - - - --- - ---
TRANSMITTE-R
Multiple Access Ttehnique,

SIDE _____ -- -- --- --- -- -- -----

I ..
(e) It is possible to monitor the ~ign_al stren~h and bit error rates frame-by-frame Which enable either
subscribers or base stattons to 1mtiate and implement hand-offs. '
(f) A flexible bit rate, not only for multiples of basic single channel data rate but also submultiples is Speech __:__ Sampling, Speech
allowed for low-bit-rate broadcast-type traffic apphcat1on. signal : quantising encoding
Interleaving
(g) The TOMA based cellular communication systems are interoperable and compatible with other digital in I

formats such as those used m computer networks. I

(h) Digital systems inherently provide a quieter environment and offer better signal quality in a mobile
radio environment.
Digital Data
I
modulation Packetising
Synchronisation
8.3.2 A Basic TOMA Communication Link data in
Facts to Know!
It is required t~ use complic~ted signal-processing

~
If a part of the available frequency spectrum
is allocated to a particular group of users, thistechniques to Implement vanous functional needs
access method is referred to as narrowband of TOMA systems efficiently. Some of these func-
- TOMA. 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
introduces intersymbol interference (!SI) because of
spectrum. Deinterleaving
Channel
wider channel bandwidths along with an increased decoding
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
Estimate Speech
generated carrier frequency, carrier phase, and symbol timing at the receiver. Fig. 8.14 shows the block diagram of of speech .....,,___ __ ___. Reconstruction
low-pass littering decoding
a basic TOMA link. signal out
The speech signal input is first sampled to convert analog signal into equivalent digiti sed speech signal.
In order to remove redundant information, the digitised speech signal is encoded without compromising RECEIVER SIDE
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 Fig. 8.14 I Block diagram ofo basic TOMA link
noise. A wireless channel produces errors in the form of data bursts, ma inly due to deep signal fades. To
mitigate this particular channel impairment, an interleaver is used for the purpose of pseudo-randomising the 8.3.3 Frame Efficiency in a TOMA System
order of the binary symbols in the channel-encoded signal in a deterministic manner. The frame efficiency of a T OMA system is defined as the number of bits representing digitised spe_ech,
The function of a packetiser is to convert the encoded and interleaved sequence of digitised speech data expressed as a percentage of the total number of bits including the control overhead bits that are transmitted
into successive packets. Each packet occupies a significant part of a basic TDMA frame. Each frame also in a frame. For example, in a TOMA cellular system based on IS- I 3ti standards: the forward channel contams
includes synchronisation bits in order to synchronise the timing operations in the receiver with the corre- 260 traffic data bi ts o ut of a total of 322 bits in a T DMA frame (ignonng 2 bus used as reserved bits). The
sponding ones in the transmitter. Knowing the estimate of the channel impulse response, channel equa lisation frame efficiency in this case is (2 60 / 3~2 x 100 = ) 80.7%.
at the receiving end of the TDMA communication link is made possible. The packetised speech data is then
modulated onto a sinusoidal carrier for trnnsmission over the channel.
The receiver side consists of a cascade of several functional blocks in order to reverse the corresponding
EXAMPLE 8.7 I Frame efficiency ofTDMA-itaMd CiSM 1,-..
40.25 bits are
operations performed by the transmitter and the wireless channel. The digital demodulator co nverts the The basic TOMA frame srrucrure of a GSM cellular sysrem comprises of I 56.25 bits in a rime slot, of which
modulated received RF signal into its baseband form without any loss of information. The baseband overhead (Ignoring rhe 1 flog bits). Compute rhe frame efficiency.
processor operates on the resulting complex baseband signal to estimate the unknown channel impulse Solution
response, and channel equalisation. The resulting output is then deinterleaved, channel deco'-kcl source Total bits in a TDM,\ frame == 156.25 bits (given)
decoded, and, low-pass filtered for final delivery of an estimate of the original speech signal to the Number of overhead bits = 40.25 bits (given)
receiver output.
 I Wnlns Communications
. . ,
on bandwid
Multi,- Acces T«hniqua
.
I•
The frame efficien cy= [I - (overhead bits / total
bits)] x JOO much larger bandw1~th than the signal s baseband informati
th. To qualify the modulated signal 11
The frame efficiency = [I - (40.25 I 156.25)] x JOO a spread spectrum signal, there are two mam criteria:
h
Hence, the frame efficiency = 74.2 % _ The bandwid th of the transmitted spread signal is
data signal. muc greater than the bandwidth of the information
ti .
_ Orthogonal PN code sequence other than the inform
a on data bemg transmitted, determines the actual
u I SPREAD-SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS ,I transmitted bandwid th on-the-air.
radio spectrum over a large area as many times as Usually, spread spectrum systems transmit an Rf
signal h . .
The objective of a cellular system is to reuse the allocated nd
sp ~vmg ba width as wide as IO to JOO times
Within a cell, either FOMA or TOMA techniqu e can be used for sharing the wireless medium . Distinct the bandwid th of the informat ion data being sent Some
possible. st
wi~h the channel frequencies being reu_sed in sufficient
ly bandw;;~_-spectrum sy ems have even employed RF
sets of channel frequencies are assigned to each cell, bandwidths I 000 to 1 million times the informati~n
cells. A drawbac k of usmg FOMA and TOMA m cellular systems 1s that the reuse distance is typically
separated have
spectrum multiple access (SSMA) uses signals which s.4.2 Direct Sequence Multiple Access
limited by worst-case cochannel interference. Spread
greater than the minimum required RF bandwidth. on the direct sequence spread ctrurn DS _
a transmis sion bandwid th that is several times The_direct sequenc e multiple access tec~iqu e is_based
ion-bear ing data signal over a large bandwidth. As
a
ulatton scheme. In a DSSS method, hthe mformal! on digital signal is m If r d b pseudoranspe ( SS) mod
The spread-s pectrum technique spreads the informat u ip ie y a dom sequence
to be used simultan eously by many subscrib ers in adjacent cells. SSMA b d .dth . h h
information signal itself. In fact, DSSS is a modulation
result, it allows the same spectrum very whos~ an w1 . 1s muc greater t an t at of the
robust capability for multiple access. SSMA is not modulate s a data-modulated carrier. It results
also provides immunit y to multipath interference and h technique where u~ a pseu~ora ndom sequence directly phase
th efficient when used by a single subscrib er. However, spread spectrum systems become bandwidt able mc_ r ease m the band:,v1d th of the transmiss ion and lowering the spectral power density. The
bandwid into c?ns1der
many subscrib ers can share the same spread spectrum all except t_he intended ss receiver. The received signal
efficient in a multiple subscrib er environm ent since ~esultmg spread mg signal ~as a_ no1selike spectrum to
signal identical to and in synchronisation with the
bandwidth without interfering with one another. 1s des~read by correlatm g 11 with a local pseudorandom end.
code signal used to spread the data at the transmitting
for spreading the information data signal and
8.4.1 How Spread Spectrum Technique Works Fig. 8.15 illustrates the basic concept of DSSS technique
transmitted data occupy a larger bandwidth than required. despread ing the OSSS signal.
Spread spectrum is a transmis sion technique wherein because a high-speed PN code sequence is employed
use of a code that is independent of the subscri ber
data. Dire~t sequence spread spectrum systems are so called
Spreading of bandwid th is accompl ished through the to modulate their RF carrier. The high-speed PN code
data at the receiving end. Spread-spectrum systems
employ along with the slow-spe ed information data being sent,
The same code is used to demodu late the received directly determining the transmitted bandwidth.
with bandwidth R6 , is spread to occupy a much larger sequence is used di rectly to modulate the carrier, thereby
modulation techniqu es in which the information signal as [i89 - 1] bits at code rates ranging from less than a bps
Binary code sequenc es as short as 11 bits or as long
transmission bandwid th Rc. to several hundred M bps are employed for various applicatio
ns.
To compare a spread-spectrum system with an
spread code sequence is to produce a signal centered
FOMA system, consider a communication service The result of modulating an RF carrier with such a .
spread spectrum with a [(sin x) / x]2 frequency spectrum
for which the available bandwidth is B, = Re. An at the carrier frequenc y, direct sequence modulated

i\
,._lj/}
~a~~~i; ~~o~~;n :: ::~=~~~;~:~s:~~k=
signal before transmission.
FOMA would divide this bandwidth into N channels
of bandwidth B = B IN, and each subscriber would
The main lobe of this spectrum has a bandwid th
null. The sidelobe s have a null-to-null bandwidth equal
dependin g upon the
twice

actual
the clock rate of the modulating code, from null to
to the codc:'s clock. rate. Direct sequence spectra vary
carrier and digital-modulation scheme used. The most
be allotted a chann:l of bandwidth Bc. Ordinarily, somewha t in spectral shape
- ions employin g direct-se quence spread-sp ectrum techniques use digital modulation
Bc would closely match the minimum bandwidth practical system applicat
formats such as BPSK and QPSK.
es, the spectrum is not divided. Rather, more than one
required by the subscriber. With spread-spectrum techniqu .
spectrum when transmitting simultaneously.
subscriber is permitted to occupy all or any part of the , Transmitter end
Receiver end
for noise and interfere nce because of use of wideband ,- - - - - - - - . - - I
Spread-s pectrum techniqu es have greater tolerance

_;tr~: Lmi-:ul,
nd : Despreading :
to demodul ate, detect, intercep t or jam than n~rrowbath : Spreading :
noise-like signals. The spread signals are difficult of e
occupy much wider bandwid th than the bandwidth
signals. Spread signals are intentionally made to signals
noise-like. Spread-s pectrum signals use fast code
informat ion signals they carry, to behave as more
information signal. These spreadin g codes are referred
to I I\ .
having a data rate many times the data rate of the
as pseudor andom or pseudon oise (not real Gaussian
noise) codes.
.
power levels as that of any narrowb and transmitters.
UL ,.
Information •I ,'
f : :
Spread-s pectrum transmit ters use similar transmit ! . ! ' '
at a much lower spectral power density than narrow· signal d DSSS signal : Code signal : Decoded signal
Because of wide spread-s pectrum signals, they transmit 1~1h• : Code signal ,
well as narrowb and signals to occupy the _same bandW :
m : c d
band transmit ters. This enables spread signals as ed as a class of digital modulation !_ ____ c -- -- i '----------·
can be consider
with little or no interference. In fact, spread spectrum a I
spectra. The modulat ed output spreaded signals occupy Fig. 8.15 Basic Concept of DSSS technique
techniqu es, characte rised by its wide frequency
 Wireless Communications
266 Multiple Access Techniques 267

Fig. 8.16(a) shows the received spectra ofth_e d~sired spread spec!rum signal and the interference at the _ .4 Frequency Hopped Multiple Access
84
output of the receiver wideband filter. Mult1phcat1on by the spreading waveform produces the spectra of The frequency hopped mu_ltiple access technique is based on the frequen h .
Fig. 8.16(b) at the demodulator input. . . .
The signal bandwidth is reduced to B,, wh1le _the _mterfe~ence energy 1s spread over an Rf bandwidth
odulation scheme. The wideband frequency spectrum is generated . <iii
oppmg sp~ spectrum (FHSS)
:cbnique. Frequency hopping involves a periodic change oftransmi:~on ;;:tmannerma~uencyhopping
exceeding B,,, as depicted in the Figure . The_fllterm_g action of the demodulator removes most of the of hopping from one ~eq~ency to a?other is a function of the information rate =:::ta ~de band. 1'.'te :nic
interference spectrum that does not overlap with the signal spectrum . Thus, most of the original interfer- frequencies are occupied 1s a function of a code sequence. Tbe transmitted ' specific order m ~ch
ence energy is eliminated by spreading and minimaHy affects the desired recei~er ~ignal. An approximate signal is quite different from that of a direct sequence system. Instead 0 f ~ctrum ~fa frequency-bopping
measure of the interference rejection capability is given by the ratio B,/B,, which 1s equal to the process- frequency hopper's output is flat over the band of frequencies used. a [(sm x)/x) -shaped envelope, the
ing gain, termed GP. The greater the processing gain of the system, the greater will be its ability to sup- A frequency-hopping signal_may be regarded '.15 a sequence of modulated data bursts with time-varying,
press in-band interference . pseudorandom earner frequ~nc1es. The set of possible carrier frequencies is called the hopset. Hopping occurs
over a frequency b3?d that tncludes a number_of channels. Each channel is defmed as a spectral region with
8.4.3 Features of DSSS Technique
a central_frequency m the hopset an~ a bandwidth large enough to include most of the power in a narrowband
Some of the distinct features of direct sequence spread-spectrum are described below. modulation bu_rst (usually FSK) hav~g the corresponding carrier frequency.
(a} Increased Tolerance to Interference Direct-sequence spread-spectrum modulators process a narrowband Toe bandwidth of a channel used m the hopset is called the instantaneous bandwidth. The bandwidth of the
information signal to spread it over a much wider bandwidth. With this approach, each subscriber is assigned spectrum over ~hich the h~pping occurs is called the total lwpping bandwidth. Data is sent by hopping the
a unique spreading code that makes each subscriber's transmissions approximately orthogonal to those of transnutter earner frequencies to seemingly random channels, which are known only to the desired receiver.
other subscribers. Spreading the information signal de-sensitises the original narrowband signal to some On each cbarmel, small bursts of data are sent using conventional narrowband modulation before the transmit-
potential interferen~e to the channel. ter bops again. The bandwidth of a frequency-hopping signal is simply ' w' times the number of frequency slots
available, where 'w' is the bandwidth of each bop channel.
(b} Low Probability of Interception The transmitted energy remains the same, but the signal spectrum is often
If only a single carrier frequency (single channel) is used on each bop, digital data modulation is called
below the noise floor of receivers due to the much larger transmitted bandwidth. The signal looks like noise
single-channel modulation. The time duration between bops is called the hop duration or the hopping period
to any receiver that does not know the signal's code sequence. and is denoted by Th. The total hopping bandwidth and the instantaneous bandwidth are denoted by B,. and
(c} Increased Tolerance to MultipathSince multipath is viewed as a form of interference, increased tolerance B,, respectively. The processing gain, GP= BJ B, for FH systems. is same as in case ofDS systems.
to interference also means increased tol erance to multipath. In fact, multipath energy may be used to the In an FH method, a pseudorandom frequency hopping sequence is used to change the radio signal frequency
advantage to improve the system performance. across a broad frequency band in a random manner. as shown in Fig. 8.17.
A spread-spectrum modulation technique implies that the radio transmitter frequency hops from channel to
(d} Increased Ranging Capability The increased ranging capability is due to the fact that timing error, say 6.t
channel in a predetermined but pseudorandom sequence. 1be RF signal is despread at the receiver end using
is inversely proportional to the signal bandwidth, Re and b.t is directly proportional to the range error, l:::,.d.
a frequency synthesiser controlled by a pseudorandom sequence generator synchronised to the transmitter's
This property permits some spread-spectrum techniques to measure distance or equipment location, through
pseudorandom sequence generator. Frequency hopping may be classified as fast frequency hopping or slow
a method known as triangulation.
frequency hopping. Fast frequency hopping occurs if there is more than one frequency hop during each trans-
mitted symbol. It implies that the hopping rate equals or exceeds the information symbol rate. Slaw frequency
hopping occurs if one or more symbols are transmitted in the time interval between frequency hops. A frequency
Spectral Spectral hopper may be fast hopped where there are multiple hops per data bit. It may be slow hopped where there are
density Interference density
SS signal, 8 5 multiple data bits per hop.
---- T Transmitter end Receiver end
Interference, ., Processing
8 ss s.
gain, s•.;

--\ i ;o.:-.tr-\
SS signal d
~i--+--+-~ J - r (\ :--~rr='"
Frequency Frequency
UL:-
lnfonnation
signal ,
1
!
:
: ~:
:
:
FHSS
signal, m(t)
f :
: .
:
:
:
liL
Decoded
Information
: Hopping : signal, d
d : Hopping
(a) correlator input before despreading

Fig. 8.16 I
(b) correlator input after despreading

Spectra of desired received signal with Interference

- - --- - ---!
'--sequenc.
:
.:__________ ..
sequence :

Fig. 8.17 I Basic concept of FHSS technique

 I Wir~~ss Communications

Multiple simultaneous transmissions fro

. .
fM or FSK modulatwn scheme 1s used. The difference between an F
Multiple Access Ttchnique I•
~
In slow-frequency hopping spread spectrum several subscribers is possible using frequen rn fr quency-hopped s ignal changes channels at relative! .d . HMA and an FDMA system is that the

~••
system, the hop rate is less than the base-
band information bit rate. Thus two or more
hopping, as long as each subscriber uses
feren_t. frequency hopping sequences with the
;rr: eergy-efficient constant envelope modulation scheme Y~pi_ intervals. ~HMA systems often employ
enwer of multiple subscribers at the receiver does not d. isdtmphes that lmearity is not a problem and the
111
po egra e the perf; '
(morethanlOOOinseveralimplementations) condttJOn that no more than one subscrib . m may be thought of as an FDMA system which fr onnance. A fast frequency-hopping
-
baseband information bits are transmitted at the same uses the same frequency subband at an er _un,t sy Ste ' emp Ioys equency ct· ·
When a large number of channels are used, a frequency-h d ive~ity.
frequency before hopping to the next RF frequency. time. A pseudorandom bopping sequ y hgive_n intercepting receiver that does not know the pseudorand oppe syStem provides a level of security, since
ence t at 18 an . . . . om sequence of frequency h ust 'di
known by the receiver is used by the trans · to search for the signal 1t wishes to mtercept. Error control cod' and . . op~ m retune rap, y
ter. Frequency-hopped modulators at the transmitting end process the narrowband signal and h IIIJt- • . mg mterleavmg techniques can be used to
protect the frequency- h opped s1gna1 agamst deep fades which ma . .
carrier frequency every few symbols. To an undesired receiver the signal appears to be transc ~ -ge the bopping sequence. ' y occas1ona11y occur dunng the frequency
randomly selected frequencies , although the hop time on each f;equency is usually constant ant~ mg on
Multiple frequency-hopped transmitters share the same frequency band by using different frequency h~~- s.4.S Spread Spectrum and CDMA
sequences. If the transmitters are synchronised, then the hopping sequences can be selected so that there is nipm~
Spread spec~ is a modulation technique that is quite tolerant of interference, and it fonns the basis for
sibility that both _transmitters may communicate ~n the same freq_uency and at the same time. If the transmi::
the access technique known as spread-spectrum multiple access or code-division multiple access (CDMA).
are not synchrorused then Forward-Error Correction (FEC) techniques are used to mini mise errors.
CDMA refers to a multiple access technique in which the individual mobile subscribers occupy the complete
The frequency hop rate of a frequency hopped spectrum whenever they transmit. Many mobile subscribers can occupy the same spectrum at the same time.
Facts to Know I
system is determined by the type of information The integration of different types of traffic such as voice, data, and video can be readily accomplished in a

~
In a fast-frequency-hopping spread spectrum being transmitted, the amount of redundancy used CDMA environment, as subscribers do not require any specific coordination.
system, the hopping rate is greater than the in FEC code, frequ e ncy agility of receiver syn- In principle, CDMA can accommodate various subscriben; with different bandwidth requirements,
baseband data rate. Thus, one information thesisers, and the d istance to the nearest potential switching method s and technical characteristics. However, implementations of precise power control /
- bit is transmitted by two or more frequency- interferer. Frequency-hopped systems that trans- techniques are essentia l in the efficient operation of a CDMA system because each subscriber signal
hopped RF signals.
mit multiple symbols during each hop period are contributes to the in terference received by other subscribers.
referred to as slow freq uency-hopped systems. The CDMA is a form of spread spectrum modulation in which subscribers are allowed to use the available spec-
same symbol is generally transmitted on multiple hops in fast frequency-hopping systems. Due to phase trum, but their signal must be spread with a specific PN code to distinguish it from other signals. ln CDMA, all
continuity limitations in the switching of the frequency synthesiser, frequency-hopped systems typically use subscribers transmit information simultaneously by using the same carrier frequency. Each subscriber has its
a noncoherent form of modulation, such as FSK, rather than BPSK or QPSK. When BPSK is used, the pair of own code word, which is orthogonal to code words of other subscribers. To detect the information, the receiver
possible instantaneous frequencies changes with each hop. The frequency channel occupied by a transm itted should know the exact code word used by the transmitter and perform a time correlation operation. All other
symbol is called the transmission channel, and that occupied by the alternative transmitted symbol is called code words appears as noise due to de-correlation and power should be high to minimise this noise power at
the complementary channel. the receiver end.
Most frequency-hopping systems use uniform frequency bopping over a band of frequencies . A digitally In CDMA technique, one unique code is assigned to each subscriber and distinct codes~ used for_ different
controlled frequency synthesiser radio can be converted to a frequency hopping radio with the addition of a subscribers. This code is employed by a subscriber to mi., with each informallon bit before 11 ts transnutted. The
pseudonoise (PN) code generator to select the frequencies for transmission or reception . A frequency-hopped

. . 'fr~· :tf
system can use an analog or digital carrier modulation scheme and can be designed using conventional nar- Frequency

~
rowband techniques. Frequency de-hopping in the receiver is done by a synchronised PN code generator that
drives the local oscillator frequency synthesiser of the receiver.
The frequency-hopped multiple access (FHMA) is a digital multiple access system in which the carrier

::: ~:.:-~v
frequencies of the individual subscribers are varied in a pseudorandom sequence within a wideband channel.
FHMA allows multiple subscribers to simultaneously occupy the same spectrum at the same time. Based on
the particular PN code of the subscriber, each subscriber dwells at a ~pecif_ic narrowband channel at a particu-
1---+-+-+-- Time
lar instance of time. The digital information data of each subscnber 1s d1v1ded mto uniform sized data bursts,
which are transmitted on different channels within the allocated spectrum ban_d. The instantaneous bandw idth
of any one transmission burst is much smaller than the total spreaded bandwidth.
In the frequency-hopped receiver, a locally generated PN code is used to synchronise the receiver's t
Reverse channels
t
Forwald ch8m8ls
instantaneous frequency with that of the transmitter. Th~ pseudorandom change of the channel frequencies
(Uplink) (Downlink)
of the subscriber randomises the occupancy of a spec1f1c channel at any ~1ven lime. A_fre4u1:ncy- hoppo:d Code words
signal only occupies a single, relatively narrow channel at any given point of lime smce a narrowband Fig.1,11 I TheconceprofCDMA
Fig. a. 19 I srructure ofa CDMA sys~m
 Multiple Access Trchn#jues
same code is used to decode these encoded bits, and any mismatch in code · t m
15
noise. m erprets the received information
The CDMA technique utilises a wider frequency band for each subscriber. In a CDMA system, differ
spn:ad~spectrum codes are generated by the PN ~od~ generator and assigned to each subscriber, and mu] _ent
subscnbers share the same frequency, as shown m Fig. 8.18. hple
A basic structure of a CDMA system is shown in Fig. 8.19.

IXAMPLI I.I I lllustnttlon of COMA/FDD and CDMA/TDD concept

Illustrate the concept of CDMA, CDMA/FOO and CDMMDD techniques.

Solution
Timeslots
Consider that the available bandwidth and time as resources needed to be shared among multiple mobil
subscribers. In a CDMA environment, multiple subscribers use the same frequency band at the same timee
and the subscriber is distinguished by a unique code that acts as the key to identify that subscriber. Figure 8.20 Frequency
depicts a simple CDMA concept.
These unique codes are selected so that when they are used at the same time in the same frequency band,
Fig. 8.22 I CDMA / TDD concept

a receiver can detect that subscriber among all the received signals with the help of the known code of that under the noise caused by man~ other mobile subscribers. The main concern in a CDMA system is how many
subscriber. active mobile subscnbcrs can simultaneously use it before the system collapses!
Figure. 8.21 illustrates the basic concept of CDMA/FOO that is used in second-generation IS-95 and A CDMA system is based on spectrum-spread technology by spreading the bandwidth of modulated signal
third-generation IMT-2000 digital cellular systems in which the forward and reverse channels use different substantially, which makes it less susceptible to the noise and interference. Resistance to fading can be achieved
carrier frequencies. by the use of RAKE receiver concept because of its broadband characteristics. It is quite apparent that using a
_. The concept of CDMA/fDD system in its simplest form is shown in Fig. 8.22. wider bandwidth for a single communication channel may be regarded as disadvantageous in terms of effective
In a CDMA/fDD system, the same carrier frequency is used for uplink and downlink transmissions. utilisation of available spectrum. The received signals at the cell-site from a faraway mobile subscriber could be
masked by signals from a close-by mobile subscriber in the reverse channel due to the near-far problem. However,
Code words by using automatic power control that enables to adjust the mobile transmitting power enables the system to
overcome the near- far problem, and achieve high efficiency of frequency utilisation in a CDMA system.
CDM/FD D
A CDMA system is usually quantified by the chip rate of the orthogonal PN codes, which is defined as
Code words Downlink the number of bits changed per second. The orthogonality of the codes enables simultaneous data transmis-
sion from many mobile subscribers using the com-
plete frequency band assigned for a cell-site. Each
Subscriber # 1 , code # 1 Subscriber # 1, code # 1 mobile receiver is provided the corresponding PN Theoretically, the number of mobile sub-
Subscriber # 2, code # 2 code so that it can decode the data it is expected scribers being serviced simultaneously
Subscriber # 2, code # 2
to receive. The encoding in the transmitter and the is determined by the number of possible
Subscriber # 3, code # 3
Subscriber # 3, code # 3
corresponding decoding at the receiver make the orthogonal codes that could be generated.
Subscriber # 4, code # 4
system design robust but quite complex.
Subecrlber # 6, code t 5
8.4.6 Salient Features of CDMA Systems
h
Time Some second-generation digital cellular systems such as IS-95 and moSt of the third-generat!:1 ~~ular
syg tems use CDMA technique. Many subscribers share the same frequency in conjunction w,ft . or
TDD • · · · d Thi
. The number of active subscnbers 1s not limue · s means that a.CDMA .
system bas a so capacity.
Frequency I . . . . . , th . floor m a lmear manner. Thus, there is
·
no
ncreasmg the number of active subscribers s.imply reuses e noise gradual) degrades for
fig. 8.20 I Simple illustration of CDMA concept Fig.8.21 I CDMA/FDDconcept
absolute limit on the number of active subscribers. In fact, the syStem pe~onnance th ~ of active

i"
all active subscribers as the number of active subscribers is increased, and improves as en r
In CDMA, each active mobile subscriber is a so~c_e of noise to the receive~ of other active mobile sub-
.be If the number of active mobile subscribers is mcrea~ed beyond ~ ~ertam number_in the system, the
sen rs. II because the signal received m each spec1f1c mobile receiver will be buried
subscribers is decreased. . .
Multipath lading is substantially reduced because the signal IS spread over a_l~e
spectrum bandwidth is greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel, which IDIP ies
sr
trum. The spread
that the inbermt
whole CDMA system co apses
f>eq 0 ""'Y mi,ig,<e ,._ efl«m of,m•ll~k fiKliog.
m Whfns (ammunJcotlonS

The channel data rates are very high. Consequently, the duration of the symbol or chip is extremely short 1.5 I SPACE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS
Mu~ Amss Tfdlnlqun
I :an

and usually much less than the c_hannel delay sp~ead. Smee PN seq_u ences have low autocorrelation, multi ath
delayed by more than a chip will appear as noise. A RAKE receiver concept at the receiver can be ~ fbe three multiple access techniques, namely, FDMA, TOMA, and S _
use to by jncreasmg reuse m frequency, time, and codes. The 11 . SMA have increased spectral efficiency
improve reception by collecting time-delayed versions of the required signals.
(or directional in sectorised cells). If the transmit and ce .-site antennas are assumed to be omnidirectional
CDMA uses cochannel cells in adjacent cells, so it can use macroscopic spatial diversity sche
end of the link. then this would provide a number of i~eceive antenna could be focused directly at the other
provide soft hand-off MSC can simultaneously monitor the signal strength of a particular subscriber~e to provements such as
two or m_o re base statio_ns which_ enables it to per~orm s_oft hand-off if needed . The MSC may chooser~~ , Reduc~on ~ the total transm_itted power as all power would be tran . . _ _ _
best version of the received mobile signal at any time without the need of switching frequencies . • Reducnon m the amount of interference generated b h snutted m the desired direct10n only
reduced and localised y eac transmitter because total transmit power is
The self-jamming problem arises if spreading sequences of different subscribers are not exactly orth
nal. Also, the near- far problem occurs if the received signal power of a desired subscriber at the cell-si~;: • Receiving a stronger signal by the receiver due to directional antenna gain and less interference
less than that of the undesired subscnbers. Each subscnber operates independently with no knowled 0 f .
ge All these features are part of the Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) techni
other subscribers. control the radiated energy for each subscriber in space by using dire t" ;:e. Thus, SDt,,.tA techniques
1
The wireless communica tion space is omni-directional by nature. ltc iona or spot am antennas at the cell-site.
IXAMPLEl,t Multiple•«••• techniques In cellular 1y1tem1 __ - - - , - - __
can be divided into spatially separable sectors. These different areas
Tabulate the various multiplexing as well as multiple access techniques used in different cellular communication in space covered by ~e res~ective antenna beam at the cell-site may ,,,,: Antenna:

\i: \
systems. Comment on the significant of multiplexing techniques. be served by the d1flerent freque ncies in an FDMA system or same 11
,' \ Beam; '
Solution frequency 1n a TOMA and SSMA system. This is possible by having ,' ',, :

a base station to use i,mart antennas, allowing many subscribers to ,' \ : '
Table 8. I_ shows the different multiple access techniques being used in various analog and dig.ita l cellular
use the same frc4uency channel simultaneously. The communica- ' -
communications systems.
tion charactemcd by either carrier frequency, time slot, or spreading Wireless , '' -:• '~ - c:;11-site ':
Multiple access techniques in cellular systems codes can be w,cd a;. shown in Fig. 8.23. space - - - ~;: ;:_- - - - -Arrt;~~ ~
Tablel.1 3
=- The dcplu} m.:nt of hi~-ga in directional antenna at the cell- ---,,:' : \,••---~ ,/
S.No. Tj>pe of cel/11lar system Standard Multiplexing /echniq11e Jliilt :pt. "'"'" ·
site in a par111.:ular direction results in extension of communication ,' :, .. , Antenna... _~·
1«l1111q11<
range. The u,e of a smart antenna at the cell-site maximises the ,' , , Beam 2,
AMPS FDD l'D~I A antenna g,un m the desired direction. It reduces the number of cells , _ /Antenna: Antenn:i\ /
I. IG Analog Cellular
2. US Digital Cellular USDC FDD TOMA required to W'er a g iven geographical area. Moreover, such focused '-•- -~ _am 1Y n_:_~i_n-
GSM FDD TDMA transm1ss1on reduces the interference from undesired directions.
3. 2G Digital Cellular
FDD TOMA A simplified version of tra nsmi ssion using SOMA is illustrated Fig. 8.23 I
The concept of SOMA
4. Pacific Digital Cellular PDC
CDMA in Fig. 8.24. The cell-site (CS) form s different antenna beams for
5. US Narrowband Spread IS-95 FDD
each spatially separable subscriber on the forward and reverse channels, The noise and interference for
Spectrum Digital Cellular
each subscriber and the cell-site is minimised. This not only enhances the quality of the communication
6. 3G Digital Cellular W-CDMA FDDrfDD CDMA
link significantly but also increases the overall system capacity. Currently, SOMA technology is still being
7 3G Digital Cellular Cdma2000 FDDrfDD CD.MA
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
The frequency division duplexing (FDD) technique utilises two distinct frequency bands for every com-
information, and a few channels are shared by all mobile subscribers on the uplink. Almost all the traffic
munication link between the mobile subscriber and the cell-site - the forward channel provides traffic from the channels are point-to-point communication links between a cell-site and a specific mobile subscriber. This
base station to the mobile subscriber, and the reverse channel provides traffic from the mobile subscriber to sunp!y can be considered as the active communication link being highly directional in nature when m opera-
the base station. FDD allows simultaneous bidirectional full-duplex radio transmission and reception for both tion. As an example, a 7-cell frequency reuse pattern cellular system is presented in Fig. 8.25, which uses
the mobile subscriber and the base station on the duplex channel pair. Regardless of the panicular channel pair 3-sector directional antennas in each cell. This means that each directional antenna at the cell-site covers one
being used the duplex spacing between each forward and reverse channel is constant throughout the system. sector which is 120° of the cell. In the illustration, each cell-site requires three non-overlapping directional
Time division duplexing (TDD) uses time instead of frequency to provide both a forward and reverse link .
antennas. each with a beamwidth of 120° .
simultaneously. Multiple mobile subscribers share a single radio channel by taking their respective rums Let there be N active mobile subscribers per cell at any time, P, is the average power radiated per mobile
for data transmission in the time domain. Individual mobile subscribers are allowed to access the channel in subscriber by the cell-site, and G, is the transmitting antenna gain. In the downlink, 18 3
assigned time slots, and each duplex channel has both a forward time slot and a reverse time slot to facilitate The power n1diated on one of the sector antennas= (N/3) (P, x G,) __ _ . _ - 1
b1dirc:c1ional communication full duplex. The time separation between the forward and reverse time slot is It is implied thal (P, x G,) must be the same whether the antenna is ommdirectional <11 directional·
u.~ually \'Cry small. and the transmission and reception of voice/data appears continuous to the subscribeJ'S· Consequently. the total wer radiated wi th a sector antenna is one-third of that radiated by an omnidirectional
 274 Wire~s Communications

Muh/pk Acces5 Tttllniqua

J7S
8.5.1 Advantages of SOMA approach
(a ) It can be appli ed wi th FDMA, TOMA, or CDMA

~ '~ (b) II allows many ~ubscri bers to OJ)CTate on the same.fre

(c) It leads to more number of sub5eri ber 5 . h.
user capacity.
.
(dJ TlllS technology can be applied at the 11 .
When subscriber density grows beyond the
.
quency and/or time slot in the
wu '" the same allocated r.....

ce ·SIie wrthout affecting the mobile

. .
.
subscnber.
same_cell.
··~'luency spectrum wnh enhanced

omnidirecti onal antennas, the growth is acc~aodpacity of a_smgle cell in conventional cell-sites •
e;m earn
3 f II JI . ated by dividing the .. ·a1 I
o sma er ce s m a process known as cell splitting. Power control . IDIII
using
arger cell into I number
MS3 these smaller _cell s. Although sector antennas are more expensive rs used to _reduce the interference among
more economical to add sector antennas than add. . than omrudirecuonaJ antennas it is still
The reverse link (uplink} in a cellular comm mg new cell-sites. •
MS2 . unrcat1on svstem pr the .
reasons. First, the base station has complete contr I be esents vanous challenges for several
ward link. However, the transmitted power from : hO\lerbt_ power of all the transmitted signals on the for-
. I b . . c mo I 1e wut must be dvnamically II
any smg e su scnber from mcreasing the interference 1 . 11. all · contro ed to prevent
. th b e,,e or olher sub5cnben because ofd"fti .
I
Fig. 8.24 The basic structure of an SOMA system
unit is limited by battery consumption which poses t
propagatton pa s etween the base station and each 0 b., ·ubscri' I erent radio
i,e , the oer. Second. transmit power at the mobile
the reverse link. The reverse link for ~ach subscn·berinuts oben . extent to_which !)CM-er may be controlled on
. can unprc,,.·ed Wllh lesser !)CM . "f
base station anterma is made to spatially filter each desired mobile subscriber so -er requrre~ent I the

Downlink
-+---+--- - - -~ interfering
sectors(120°)
from each mobile subscriber as in the SDMA system. that more
Some of the problems on _the reverse link can be resoh·ed by using ~ antennas at the base sta .
an~ e~entu~lly at the s~bscnber _unit~. Adaptive antennas implemem opcimal SOMA in the limitin
of inf!Illtesrmal beamw1dth and mfm1 tely fast trackino abilirv th "'-
free from the interference of all other subscrib- o ••
·din ·
energy

ere ; pron g a uruque charmel that is

1s

g
=
detected

ers in the cell. This enables all the subscribers

within the system to communicate using the same Patch antenNs emit an RF energy bNm
charmel at the same time. In addition. a perfect which is horizontaly more wide but verti-
adaptive antenna system would be able to track cally tallef than that ol ii directional yagi
Mobile individual multi path components for each sub- antenna. Adaptn,e 01 phased array ilnten-
subscriber scriber and combine them in an efficient manner nas are similar to patch antennas but they are divided
to gather all the available signal energy from each into a INtrix radiating elements. instead ol being Just ii
subscriber. single piece of metal.

8.5.2 SOMA and Smart Antennas

SDMA technique basically takes advantage of the ilire.:tional narure of "' in:kss communications and relies
on the deployment of smart antennas at the cell-site. Some e:\amples of smart antennas are given below:
Fig. 8.25 I Cellular system with 120° sector antennas
- The simplest example of a smart antenna is the us,: of st',·wr ,mtt'nnus at the cell-site. The sectored
nntenna arrangement pmvi<les signifo:ant capacity gains simply by dividing the service area of each
antenna. In other words, a mobile subscriber receives only one-third of the inte rference that would be produced cell-site into three tor lllllrd mn:ubr sc'\:tillns.
by omnidirectional cell-site antennas with the same number of subscribers. - Sw itched-fieam <m1t·1111us are th~ next evolution of sman antennas. These anteMas have a number of
All mobile subscriber equipments use omnidiret:tional antennas in the uplink . Assuming uniform distribution fixed beam~ that l'over Jt>O". s" itl·he<l-beam antennas are typically narrower than sector antennas. The
of mobile subscribers in the cell at any time, only one-third of them are in any one sector. So the interfo rence mobile;: rereiver Sl'kl·ts the beam that prvv iJes the best signal level and interference reduction.
is reduced by two-thirds in the uplink direction as well. Hence it can be stated that with 120° sector nnlennas at - A,l,,ptil't'<llll<'1111•L1' are the most ;14.1\ ance<l e'.'l.ampleofsmananrennas.Adaptiveantennasprovideadedicated
the cell-site, the number of subscribers can be increased three times relative to the omnidirtX:tional anl i:nnu case bean~ for ea,·h sut-isniber. These ,u1i.:1ma Jvn:unirall,· adjusts its sequence to minimise the effects of noise,
int.:rlt'n:m:t', and 11111hip,ith. · •
while maintaining the same interference levels.
 Wire~ss Communicarions
Mulriple Access Techniques
277
F.cts to Know! The development of such smart antennas very small. The bandwidth of a channel in narrowband _TOMA is relatively small, of the order of 30 kHz or
could allow even greater reuse of the radio

~~ ....,.,,"....,,,"=""' ~ ...
Smart antennas are used mostly 1n cellular Jess. GSM digital cellular syste~ com~mes TOMA with FOMA as well as frequency hopping (optional).
mobile applications and can track a mobile spectrum. The subscribers which are spatially Accordingly, a physical channel is part11Joned m_both .frequency and time. The carrier channel is divided in
~•• user by sending a narrower, more efficient separated by virtue of their angular directions in
8 time slots ~d each earner channel supports eight s1multaneo~s physical channels mapped onto the eight
"~,.wh,d; the cell forms the basis of SOMA. This results tirne slots. A time slot assigned to a particular _physical channel 1s naturally used in every TOMA frame till
also prevents interference with other transmitter antennas. into significant improvements in spectral effi-
the channel is engaged ~y a subscnber. Con:ibmed _wtth a frequency-hopping algorithm, partitioning of the
ciency. Different subscribers are able to reuse the
channel in frequency anses because the earner assigned to such a time slot changes its frequency from one
same radio spectrum as Jong as they are separated in ang_le. I~ particular, mult_ibeam antennas are used frame to the next. .
to separate radio signals by pointing them along different d1rect1ons of the subscribers.
There are many advantages to smart antennas for cellular mobile applications: In hybrid TDMA/FDMA technique, t~e allocated RF spectrum is divided into a number of frequency
channels, each of defined channel bandw1dt_h, thereby_enabling FOMA operation, followed by dividing each
(o)Gnat•rRong• Since the antennas are directional, they have larger gains and can therefore provide stronger carrier channel into a number of defmed time slots m time domain, leading to TOMNFOMA operation.
received signal strength for the same transmit power. Figure 8.26 shows a generalised view of FDMAITDMA technique used in 2G digital cellular communica-
(b) Fnt•r C•II Sit•s Fewer cell-sites are required in those geographical are_ a s wi th a_low sub~criber_density tion systems. Forward and reverse channels are separated m the frequency domain to enable FOO operation.
because the existing cell-site has a greater range. In areas with a hi gh subscriber density, there 1s less interfer-
ence. Moreover smart antennas provide greater subscriber isolation. Hence, a smg le cell-site can serve more Time slots
number of subscribers.

(cJB«t•rSlgnalP.n•tration Due to the greater signal strength and increased transmi tter ga in, signal penetration
through building structure is better.

(dJL•ssS•nsitivltytoPowerControlErrors Due to better isolation among di fferent su bscri ber signa ls. probabi lity
of power control errors reduces considerably. ,,, Frequency channels
Facts to Know I
(e) Responsive to Hot Spots Traffic Conditions In
SOMA improves system capaClty by virtue strategic application areas such as a1rpons, hotels
Fig. 8.26 I Hybrid TDMA/FDMA

of efficient spectrum reuse, minimisation of

the effects of interference, and increasing
and conference centres, subscriber dens11ies can
become qu ite high at times, and directional antennas
EXAMPLE 8.10 I Hybrid TDMA/FDMA in 15-136 and GSM
signal strength for both the subscriber unit
all ow one or a small number of cell-sites to service Illustrate the concept of hybrid TDMA/FDMA technique commonly used in ZG digital cellular systems such as IS- I36 and
and the cell-site. GSM cellular sys tem s.
these areas effectively.
Solution

8.6 I HYBRID MULTIPLE ACCESS TECHNIQUES

Hybrid T DM A/FDM A in IS-136 cellular system
Figure 8.27 shows the format and time-slot structure for the hybrid TDMAIFDMA technique with six time
Practical cellular communication systems deploy usually a combination of two or more of the basic multiple- slots per carrier channel used in JS-136 US digital cellular system, both for the forward (base station to
access techniques: FDMA, TOMA, CDMA, and SOMA. The ma in objective of hybrid multiple access approach mobile subscriber) and reverse (mobile subscriber to base station) channels. Forward and reverse channels
is to provide a reasonable subscriber growth strategy, thereby reduc ing the network complexity as the hybrid use separate carrier frequencies (FOD), the duplex separation being 45 MHz.
technique remains backward compatible with the existing system. Although one approach may have a significant In the IS- 136 cellular standard, each 30 kHz carrier channel has a gross transmission data rate of 48.6 kbps.
technical advantage over another, there may be other factors such as economic considerations that prevent the use The 48.6 kbps data stream is divided into six TOMA channels (time slots) of 8.1 kbps each. Each time slot
of the basic multiple access technique in isolation.
Various hybrid multiple access techniques which are in use in different wireless systems are the foll owing: Reverse Channel • 25 MHz Forward Channel - 25 MHz
Duplex
8.6.1 Hybrid TDMA/FDMA spacing ,

In practical wireless communication systems, TOMA is generally implemented in an overlaid fa shion on

_.,..
Ch1
L-+
I..,_
Ch2 Ch3 • • • • • • •
45
MHz j C111 I, 012 j:_013 I
- - + - ~- --'--......._- ~>,). . ~---'----+-~---''------
·· ·· ·· ·R
FDMA technique. Every wireless communication system has an FDMA technique as baseline, and mul-
tiple-access schemes such as TOMA are overlaid on this baseline. The North American IS-54 digital cellular 30kHz
guard 30kHz
system is an example of such a system, which is also called Narrowband TOMA system. The number of band -.--.--.--,.--,~ Six time slots Channel bandwidth
frequency channels is typically large but the number of subscribers time-sharing a single channel is relatively UIIU· per carrier
Flg.8.27 Hybrid TDMA/FDMA in IS-I 36 standard
 I
271 Wireless Communications

Multiple Access Tech .

. . . n,quPS Z,,
contains 324 bits, comprising of 260 bits of subscriber data, and other bits of system
The duration of a TOMA frame is 40 ms, and that of a time slot is 6.6 7 ms time slots. control information. pseudorandom hoppmg sequence. Each successive TOMA fra . .
carrier freque_ncy. Usually, the hopping sequence is predefine::n: ~given channel is carried on a different
Hybrid TDMA/FDMA in GSM cellular system only on certam assigned frequencies to a cell. The hybrid TOMAJF t e mobtle ~ubscriber is allowed to hop
Figure 8.28 shows a particular example of the 8-time-slots TOMA scheme used in the GSM d .. in the G~M cellular system that supports a frequency-hoppin att HMA technique is employed optionally
into an increase m the system capacity by several tim . gdp . ~m f 21 7.6 hops per second This resu1ts
0
cellular standard. Forward and reverse channels use separate carrier frequencies (FOO). ig1tal
es m a dition to · ·
performance .. ~ the case of slowly moving mobile subscribers such improvement in the signal quality
Reverse Chanr.el - 25 MHz Forward Channel . 25 MHz algorithm built mto the design of TOMA-based GSM s st as pedestnans, the frequency-hoppin
Duplex
spacing hybrid TDMNFHMA technique is also used in piconets~v:;: %~ces s~bSlanttal gains against fades. Th!
45 MHz of J600 bops per second in Bluetooth technology. Hz wideband radio channel at a hop rate
...-1----'-+---l.~-----'--...l......J_-((~--'-EYJ __h 1:.::..2i...:J
.....c_h1---L..+[§l_ch_2-\-,-· _ _.J.:.§?3
8.6.4 Hybrid DSMA/FHMA
_.., -+-1

There are two basic types of s~read-spectrum implementation methodolo ies· di

200 kHz quency hoppmg (FH). A hybnd direct sequence/frequency ho d g · rect sequence (OS) and fre-
Channel I
Eight time slots combines the advantages of both techniques With direct seque ppe mu;•pie access (DS/FHMA) technique
bandwidth th
per carrier by a known code signal sequence of much l~rger bandwi-dth Thncedsprea mg. e original signal is multiplied
. . · e 1rect sequence techniq · ·d d
most feasible generic method in wireless communication syst h h . ue is cons, ere the
Fig.8.28 FDMA/TDMA/FDD in GSM
dynamically to each mobile subscriber. With frequency-hoppede~ w/n t; code is selected and assigned
mitted signal is varied in a pseudorandorn sequence Practically p;~a dimi. ule centre frequency of the trans-
A total of 124 frequency carriers (FOMA) are available in the 25 MHz allocated band in forward and unless a super-fast frequency synthesiser is used. . ' I is ic t to use the frequency hopping
reverse channels (FOO). A guard band of JOO kHz is allocated at each edge of the overall a llocated band
. In the hybri~ DSMA/FHMA _technique, the signals are spread using spreading codes (direct sequence
Each c~rrier channel of200-k.Hz bandwidth can support up to eight simultaneous transm issions (TOMA):
signals are obtatned), but thes~ signals are not transmitted over a constant carrier frequency; they are trans-
each usmg a 13-kbps encoded d1g1ta l speech.
mitted. over a frequency~hoppmg _carrier frequency. The centre frequency of a direct sequence modulated
signal 1s '.11ade to hop penod1cally ma pseudorandom manner. In this technique, there is always possibility of
transm1tttng the same data burst in more than one
8.6.2 Hybrid TDMA/DSMA
freq~ency-hopped channels, thereby improving
ln a hybrid time division direct sequence multiple access (TDMA/DSMA) technique, each cell is using a the signal quality performance in a hostile mobile
different spreading code (DSMA employed between cells) that is conveyed to the mobile subscribers operat- environment. The near- far effect can be avoided The pe,formance of a hybrid DSMA/FHMA
ing in its coverage area. Inside each cell (inside a OSMA channel), TDMA is employed to m ultip lex multiple but it is diffic ult to achieve soft hand-off because system is usually better thar, that can be
mobile subscribers. A particular time slot in a TOMA frame is allocated to one mobile subscriber per cell. This the FH base station receivers are required to be obtained with an individual spread-spectrum
implies that only one mobile subscriber transmits in each cell at any time. This results in significant reduc- synchronised to the multiple hopped signals. technique.
tion of near- far effect. During the hand-off process from one cell to another cell or from one sector to another
sector of the same cell, it is the spreading code of the mobile subscriber which changes while retaining the B.6.5 Hybrid FDMA/DSMA
same allocated time slot ofTDMA frame for maintaining the communication link. In the hybrid FDMA/DSMA technique, the avai lable wideband frequency spectrum is divided into a number
of narrow band radio channels. Each one of these narrowband channel DSMA system has processing gain
Facts to Know! 8.6.3 Hybrid TDMA/FHMA which is much lower than the original wideband DSMA system. Depending on the requirements of various
ln TOMA-based wireless communication systems, if mobile subscribers, different narrowband channels can be assigned to each one of these. The overall system
TOMA techniques combined with slow FH-SS capacity of the hybrid FDMA/DSMA technique remains the same as that of the original OSMA system.
and DS-SS based multiple access techniques the cochannel interference is excessive or the occu-
are proving to be more promising for future pied channel coincides with a deep frequency selec-
generations of mobile communications tive fading, the received voice signal is distorted. B.6.6 Hybrid SOMA with FDMA/TDMA/CDMA
systems. One of the practical methods to minimise the exces- SO_MA is genera lly used in conjunction with other multiple access schemes as there can be more than one sub-
sive cochannel interference or reduce the duration of scriber in one antenna beam in any one dir~·tion. When SOMA is used with FOMA as well as TDMA (SDMA/
the frequency selective fades is to provide for a slow frequency-hopping sequence that imposes a restriction on FDMAfTDMA). the higher carrier-to-interforence value can be exploited for better frequency channel reuse.
the cochannel interference effects or duration of the frequency selective fading. This is termed the TDM A/FHMA When SOMA is used with TOMA as well as OSMA (SDMA/TOMA/DSMA), different service areas can be
technique. This is widely employed in severe cochannel interference and multi-path environments. covered by the individual antenna beam. thereby providing a similar effect as obtained_by frequency reuse.
In the hybrid TDMA/FHMA technique, the mobile subscriber can hop to a new frequency at the beginning However, this requires more network resources for proper management because there wdl be more mtra-cell
of every TDMA frame. At each time slot, the mobile subscriber is hopped to a new frequency according to a hand-offs needed in SOMA approach as compared to TDMA or DSMA systems alone.
 cies, sending some of
Multicarrier multipl e access scheme s use multiple carrier signals at different frequen
in advance d wireless
the bits on each channel . There are a number of such scheme s which find applicat ion
communication systems .

8.10.1 OFDMA
of the Orthogonal
Orthogonal Frequen cy-Divi sion Multipl e Access (OFDM A) is a multi-u ser version
to FDM in concept.
Frequency-Division Multipl exing (OFDM ) digital- modula tion scheme. This is similar
source. The OFD~I
However, in the case of OFDM , all of the sub-cha nnels are dedicate d to a single data
carriers at pre-
scheme uses advance d digital signal-p rocessin g techniq ues to d_istribute the data over multiple
nality. This means
cise frequencies. The precise relation ship among the subcarr iers is referred to as orthogo
the power of other
that the peaks of the power spectral density of each subcarr ier occur at a point at which
there is minimal
subcarriers is zero. With OFDM, the subcarr iers can be packed tightly together because
interference between adjacen t subcarr iers.
Fig. 8.32 illustrates the concept of OFDM .
Let there be a data stream operatin g at R bps and an available bandwid th of (N x F,.). whert"
N is an integer
bandwidth could
related to the number of subcarr iers, and F1, is the base frequency, centered at F0 • The \.'ntirc
split the
be used to send the data stream, in which case each bit duration would be 1/ R. The- altcrn~atiw is to
of R!Nbps
data stream into N substrea ms, using a serial -to-parallel converter. Each substrcam has a <.bta rnte
 292 Wireless Communications
Multiple Access Techniques 293
Modulator Multiple access in O_FDMA _is achieved by assign-
b ts of subcarners to md1v1dual users, thus
Fo+ (N- 1)Ft/2 il18 s~ se simultaneous low-data-rate transmission ~ OFDMA is considered as highly suitable
aJloWtngeral users as well as to support differentiated ~~_.. for broadband wireless networks, due
rrom_sev f Service (QoS), that is, to control the data to advantages including scalability and
QUahty o . . . d. ·d II ti h ._,,__ MIMCHriendliness. and ability to take
Modulator and error probabthty tn IVJ ua Y or eac user. advantageofchannelfrequencyselectivity.lnspectrum
~ 0 n feedback informationbeabout
rateed . the .channel sensing cognitive radio, OFDMA is a possible approach
ditions, adaptive user-to-~u amer assignment to filling free radio frequency bands adaptively.O~DMA
Fo+ 3Fb/2
QPSK con be achieved. By employing a sufficiently fast rsusedinthemobilitymodeofthe1EEE80~.16Wireless
Modulator Modulator, can_signment, a s1·gm·ficant improvement in robustness MAN standard, commonly referred to as W1MAX.
Serial-to- Multi- as fast fading and narrow-band cochannel interfer- . .
Data in
Rbps
Parallel
Converter
(1 :N)
channel
combiner
and
!ce can be obtained. This makes OFDMA scheme achieve even better system spectral efficiency.

Amplifier
a.10.2 SC-FDMA . .
. · FDMA (SC-FDMA) is a frequency-division muhiple access scheme. SC-FD MA 1s a new multiple
Smgle-car;;: e which utilises single-carrier modulation. OFT-spread orthogonal frequency multiplexing, and
R/Nbps access tee d qu .' equalisation. It has similar structure and performance to OFDMA. SC-FOMA is currently
frequency omam
uplink multiple access scheme m. 3\'PP. and a vanam. ot- SC -FD\tA
. USIIlg· code spreadrng 1s used
adopted as the
in 3GPP2 uplink. IEEE 802.16 is also cons1denng n for uplink. al be . ed as a
SC-FDMA can be viewed as a linearly precoded OFDMA scheme (1!-0FD!',tA). It can so VtewDo . -
· · ul · version ol the Single-Carner Frequency- mam
single-carrier multiple access sc~eme. In fact,~~ tSgla ~ n~~~L-\ (SC-FD!'.tAl is an extension of SC-FOE to
R/Nbps
Modulator Equalisation (SC-FDE) modulanon scheme. ~ e a m ~ OFT recoded or OFT-spread OFOMA. The
accommodate multiple-user access. SC-FD MA tS also reg . as -p tional OFDM and OFDMA signals
F0 - (N- 1)Fb/2 . d SC FDMA/LP-OFDMA sismals c,,cr conven
mam advantage of SC-FDE an - . t\PR) because of its inherent single carrier structure.
Fig. 8.32 I Concept of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is that they have lower peak-to-average power rano (P_ . . uod ed betwe-cn blocks of symbols in view

to efficiently eliminate time spreadmg (caused b~;;. :t~

In SC-FDMA, guard i~tervals with cyclic rep,:nuo: ~ ~ tairntion) among the blocks, similar to
::O~miner side. and Fast Fourier Transform
that available in OFDM. In_OFD_M, mverse Ff'~ (l ._ ) bots In SC-FDE , both FFT and lFFT are apphed_on
and is transmitted on a separate subcarrier, with a spacing between adjacent subcarriers of Fb. Now the bit (FFT)isappliedontherecetverstdeoneachbl~ko:~:: as ~ SC-F0\1.-\, both FFT and IFFT are apphed
duration is NIR. The base frequency, Fh is the lowest-frequency subcarrier. All of the other subcarriers are the receiver side, but not on the transmitter side, .
integer multiples of the base frequency, namely 2 Fh, 3 Fb, and so on. on the transmitter side as well as on the recei\:er side'. _ . ·· knt Fourier-coefficients on the transmitter
For transmission, the set ofOFDM subcarriers is further modulated to a higher frequency band. A digital In SC-FDMA multiple access is made possible by IIlS<!rtlr;!;1 the lFFT Different users are assigned to
modulation scheme used with OFOM is Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). In this case, each transmit- side before the IFFT.and removing them on the recei\·er su.ie ore ·
ted symbol represents two bits. To minimise ISi , data are transmitted in bursts, with each burst consisting of different Fourier-coefficients (sub-carriers). _ . , r side atkr the FFT calculation, by multiplying each
a cyclic prefix followed by data symbols. The cyclic prefix is used to absorb transients from previous bursts In SC-FDMA, equalisation is achieved on_the re,;e1\e ·- ·dentical to that ofin OFDM as well as SC-FDE.
1
caused by multipath. The resulting waveform created by the combined multipath signals is not a function of Fourier coefficient by a complex. nwnber. This op,:r.1uon ,_s_ i·ad·ing and phase distortion. One of th e mam
any samp le from the previous burst. Thus, it is more capable of combatmg ·
"_~'tu.: 1:_ d FFT .:quires less computation power than conv ent1onal
fr,..., n ·y-sele.:11\e
OFOM has several advantages. First, frequency-selective fading affects some subchannels only and not the advantages is that frequency domain l!\luah:-att,)n an r
,;__ .. • • · SC FDMA OFDMA, and
complete signa l. [f the data stream is protected by a forward error-correcting code, the impact offt'equeDCY· -•-omam equa11sat1on. . . f the relationship among - '
selective fading can be minimised. Moreover, OFOM overcomes intenymbol interf....,. in a multipath Fi&, 8.33 depicts the pictonal representallon ° . onal
environment. ISi has a greater impact at higher data rates because the time duralkle ....... tymllol• la DS-cDMA.'Fl>E. . rv similar to the OS-CDMA system using ortho;after
smaller. With OFOM , the data rate is reduced by a factor of N, which incretllN die • fKtOI' In terms of bandwidth expansion, SC -FOMA is v~ j, -h: d Time symbols are compres~ed into chip
of N. Thus, if the symbol period is T for the data source stream, the period for
This reduces the effect of ISL Usually, N is chosen so that N x Tis much .. .,......,. . .. ....._ion,
~codes.Both spread narrowband data mto br,),ll ~_r m . C-FOE or SC-FD MA delivers performance
and spreading gain lprocessing gain) is achieved. S n for long channel delay. It has advantage
delay spread of the wireless fading channel. As a result of these detlip c 111
sary to include equa lisers with the use of OFOM. -Ofl)M
- - ID OFl>M with ~ntially the same O\·er.1ll c~mplex.\7';; less sensitivity to_ carrier frequency offset.
ia l«alS of klW PAPR. robustness to ~~ n_u r bit and power loading 1s not possible.
to OFDM ill tha1 chaMc:1-adapuve subl:ame
 JM Wlr~l~ss Communications

Multiple Acces5 Techniques

using Frequency-Domain Equalisation (FOE), since the frequency diversity · • b .

D Subcarrier Mapping band, co~ventionai MC-OS-CDMA cannot obtain the frequency diversity gaf:•~::evlamcd. On the other
can obtam the frequency diversity gain by applying a Frequency D . E . . er, MC-OS-CDMA
■ -Time-domain detection number of OFDM symbols. omam quahser (FDE) to a bioclr. of a
. Time compressed chip symbols For broadband multi-path channels, conventional time domain equal' .
- SC transmission: Low PAPA
plexity, very long channel impulse response in the tinle domain ~sers ~e. unpractical beca~ of com-
■ OFT-based FOE time-domain filter. On the other hand, using Discrete Fourier Tran~f:m ~~~•hvely _large lap size for ~
the frequency domain. Because the OFT size does not grow linear! 'th th ), equahsation can be done m
the complexity of FOE is lower than that of the equivalent time d Y wi_ e 1e_ngth of the channel response,
Fig. 8.33 I Relationship among SC-FDMA, OFDMA, and OS-CDMA/FOE • d . . . . · omam equa11ser for a broadband channel
Most of the tJrne- omam equalisation techniques such as MMSE equal· DFE d . ·
implemented in the frequency domain. •ser, ' an turbo equahser can be
8.10.3 MC-CDMA
The Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-C DMA) scheme is a combination of OFDM and
OS-CDMA. MC-CDMA shows hi gh envelope power flu ctuation as in OFDM. For an N-subcarrier system,
the peak power becomes N times the average power in the worst case and the s ignal is distorted in the RF
KeyTerms
power amplifiers, yielding spurious power emi ssion . To reduce the distortion, the operati ng point in the
amplifiers can be backed off, but this may lead to inefficient power usage. • ALOHA • FHSS • Signal-to-noise ratio
MC-CDMA maintains the original signaling interval while it spreads the signa l over wide band wi dth like • Bands • Frame efficiency • Slow FHSS
OS-CDMA . To transmit I Mbps data with the processing gain of20 dB, the chip rate required in DS-CDMA • Bandwidth • Frequency Division Duplexing • Smart antennas
is I 00 Mcps, which necessitates four times faster internal digital front-end processor or at least a I 00-M Hz analogue • Binary exponential backoff (FDD)
matched filter. This requirement ca n be eas ily achieved by using multi-code assignment for high-speed data • Spread spectrum
• Collision • Frequency Division Multiple
rate but at the cos t of reduced user capacity. • Spreading code
• CSMA Access (FDMA) • Tinle Division Duplexing
Small delay spread and small Doppler spread • CSMNCA • Frequency hopping
Facts to Know I (TDD)
enable the MC-CDMA scheme to work effi- • CSMNCD • MACA • Time Division Multiple Access

~
MC-CDMA requires the conventional ciently. Small delay spread reduces the guard inter- • Direct Sequence Spread • Packet Radio access (TOMA)
cell planning in cellular environment by va l in MC-CDMA and makes it power efficient. Spectr um (DSSS) • PRMA
using a PN code. Thus, it loses one of the •Timeslots
MC-CDMA is sensitive to frequency offset and • Downlink • Random access • Uplink
greatest benefits of DS-CDMA, which is small Doppler spread is preferred. The difference in • FastfHSS
the universal frequency reuse. • RTS/CTS
the arrival ti mes of multipath signals in indoor wire-
less environment is typically much less than I µs.
The multipath resolvability is proportional to the user chip rate. To make the rake receivers work properly, the
chip rate should be much faster than I Mcps even when there is no need for high data rate service. ln such a
situation, the MC-CDMA scheme is a viable alternative. Summary In this chapter, various multiple are many multiple access techniques that can be
When there is a deep frequency-selective fading, OFDM loses the correspond ing data on corrupted sub- access techniques that are used used effectively. Their relative advantages and disad-
carriers. As MC-CDMA spreads an information bit over many subcarriers, it can make use of informatJon in analog and digital cellular vantages have been outlined here and problems and
contained in some subcarriers to recover the original symbol. MC-CDMA gathers nearly all the scattered mobile standards are discussed limitations of using such resources have been widely
powers effectively using the cyclic prefix inserti on technique. As the received signals are sampled at the in detai l. The efficient ways to discussed. A number of subscribers need to access the
original symbol rate in MC-CDMA, the san1pling points may not be optimum. In general, the performance ?f access the limited radio spectrum control channel on shared basis at random times and
by number of potenti al subscribers simultaneously for random periods. Controlling access to a shared
MC-CDMA is equivalent to them-finger rake receiver in OS-CDMA, where m is the number of symbol~ in
cyclic prefix of MC-CDMA. Various types of frequency domain equalisers are used for MC-CD MA which
in a wireless-environment span through division of medium is important from the point of view that, at
space, freq uency, time and code are discussed. For any given time, only one subscriber is allowed to ~llr.
perform better than rake receivers used for OS-CDMA.
an efficient use of resources by multiple number while the rest of the subscribers listen. An overview
1.10.4 MC-DS-CDMA of subscribers sim ultaneous ly. multiple access tech- of packet radio multiple access tech_nique is ~so pre•
niques such as FDMA. TDMA. or CDMA are used sented here. A functional schematic of basic cellu-
The Multi-Carrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (MC- OS-CDMA) scheme is a com-
in a wireless ct"il uiar system. Thus communication lar system along with its operation and performance
bmauon of time-domain spreading and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexi ng (OFDM), while
channels arc used by system subscribers and there criteria is the main attention in the next chapter.
Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) is a combination of frequency-domain
)preading and OFDM . In MC-CDMA, a good Bit Error Rate (BER) performance can be achieved by
 9
AlasicuMra,,s,._,

t~ I ~ OF ~OFAQlt••-·- ~ :a it &
A basic cellular system compnses o many low-power transmitters, each specifically desi ed to
a small area called a cell. Cellular systems rely on the frequency reuse c t hi hgn . serve only
· · hb · II h Id be d'fli oncep , w c requues that the
frequency rn neig ourmg ce s s ou i . erent._The same frequency could be reused in different cells
separated from each other so _as to cause negligible mterference effects among active subscribers usin the
A cellular system is designed to establish
same channel. Each geographic area or cell can ge~erally service many different frequency channels siin~lta-
calls among mobile subscribers and con-
nectivity with landline subscribers. This neously. The number ~f user channels (frequency, lime slots or codes) in a cell depends on the corresponding
chapter begins with the limitation of con- multiple access t~chnique used. For example, within a cell, each radio-frequency channel can support u to
20 mobile subscribers at any time. P
ventional mobile telephone systems and
how these limitations are overcome in a
cellular system. The basic functional b_lock
A Basic Cellular t?
The assigriment of ~hannels mobile subscribers may be static or dynamic. Statically assigned channels
are allocated to a mobile subscriber for the duration of a call. Dynamically assigned channels are allocated
diagram and operations are _described
here. Various performance metrics are dis-
cussed in detail, and finally an overview of
System to a mobile subscriber only when it is being used. With both static and dynamic channel assignments, mobile
subscribers can be allocated any available radio channel at that time.
By setting a relatively small number of forward control channels as part of the common air interface,
the main aspects of cellular-system plan-
cellular mobile subscribers can rapidly scan all the possible forward control channels to determine the
ning leading to optimum utilisation of
strongest (maximum received signal strength) control channel at any tune. After determining the strongest
network resources is given.

9.1 I LIMITATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL

MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM t,
received signal, the cellular phone receiver remains tuned to the particular forward control channel. The cell-
site broadcasts the same signaling and control data on all forward control channels at the same time. In this
way, the cell-site is able to signal all mobile subscribers within the cellular system and can be sure that any
incoming call from a landline network will be routed to the called mobile subscnber.
The primary motivation for development of cellular mobile
telephone communication system s 1s to o~ercome some of
' ·--9.2.1 A Basic Cellular System Connected to PSTN L---
the major operational limitations of con:entional mobile tele- A basic cellular radio network covers a number of geographical areas (cells) connected with landline or wire-
phone systems. The conventional mobile systems deploy a less telephone communication network deploying Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Within the
high-transmitter-power base s~tion _in _a large_ autonomous cell, cellular mobile subscribers can communicate with one another using the cellular network. The cellular
geographical service area providing l1ITUted service capab~ty. network is defined by a set of transceivers located at the centres of each of the cells. and the locations of these
The inefficient frequency spectrum utilisation, !owsubscnber radio-frequency transceivers are called base stations. A base station serves as an air interface as well as local
capacity, poor service performance, high blocking probability central control for all mob ile subscribers within that cell. Mobile phone equipment. either installed in vehicles
during busy hours, and no continuati?n of call between di_ffere~~ or portables carried by users or handheld by subscribers, communicate directly with the nearest base stations.
service areas are the major concerns rn conventional mobile sy The base statio ns, in turn, communicate directly with a Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO). The
terns The cellular concept is a major breakthrough in resolvmg MTSO controls channel assignment, call set-up. call processing. and call termination. The complete process
·
the issues . and sub sen'be~ cap acity, .besides
of spectral congestion lt includes allocating radio- frequency channels, signaling. switching, and supervision. Basically, the MTSO
offering many utility services to highly n_iobll~ s~bscnbe~ provides a centralised administration and maintenance point for the entire cellular network including inter-
can provide very high subscriber capacity rn a hrruted spec faces with the public tele phone network over voice trunks and data links. Figure 9.1 shows a basic cellular
allocation without any maj or technological changes. But ce 11_u- system connected to a landline network PSTN.
lar communication systems are much more complex and require A standard common air interface is defined to establish full duplex. communication between the mobile _sub-
sophisticated computing power in the mobile phone. ~cribers and the base station in a cellular system. For this purpose, two distinct types of c~_ls are speca~ed
m each direction (uplink and downlink). Control channels carry data messages for call IDltl~tion_and service
t
Facts to Know I requeS s, and are cont inuously monitored by mobile subscrib.!rs when they are n~t engag~ 10 voice call. The
signaling and control information is transferred from the base station to the mobile subscnbers on a forward

~ t~~
Using a cellular telephone today is as simple as control channel. Forward control channels are also used to continuously broadcast all of the ~ c requ~bersfor
using a traditional wired telephone. In _fact, all th e mo b'I le su bscnbers
· in the sysh:m. The signaling and contro1m
· 1·onna1·ion from the mobile
. subscri to
lved in initial
cellular telephone is replacing the ex1st1ng Ian .
line telephone lines in many cases. Moreover, in
the base station is transferred on a reverse control channel. The control channels are oft~
11
~ the base
m~rts of the world, especially where telephone cable setting up of _call and !hen moving it 10 an available voice channel. The voic~ transnu~io~ from mobile
infrastructure does not exist, cellular phone services are being sta11on to mobile subscribers take rlace on forward voice channels. and the voice transnuss1on from
made available to users. subscribers to the base station use reverse voice channels. Supervisory and monitoring data messages are sent
 J04
Wireless Communications
i------Mrso,1------,
I I
-
ABasicCellularS,S,.,,,

--~
I
~
I I
I

MSUs
Mobil

--~ MSU

r."I Two-wire PSTN

Trunk
circuit PSTN
Two-wire
loop r, l
~~ -=l=oop=/ ~<===>/ ~ = == _, ~
Landtine
subscriber
Fig. 9.1 I A basic cellular system connected to PSTN
Landline
subscriber
I
I
PSTN
/
"" CSE
MSUs

in a number of ways to facilitate handoff instructions and automatic channel changes for the mobi le subscrib-

~
ers before and during a call.
Each cell-site has several radio transceivers (one per channe l) called Base Transceiver System (BTS) or
simple base station. The base stations are distributed over the geographical area of the desired system cover-
MSU
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 CSE
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
Fig. 9 .2 I Parts of a basic cellular system

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- equipment operates at considerably higher RF power than do the mobile equipments. Tx power is shared
wave links. Sometimes the BSC and MTSO are combined units. The MTSO contains various databases for among_ all the channels that are used at the cell-site. Similarly. there are as many receivers for each control
storing the locations of local and roaming mobile subscribers, authorising calls, initiating hand-offs, and and voice channel in use at the cell-site, as we ll as additional receivers for monitoring the signal strength of
mobtle su bscribers in adj acent cells.
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- Th Cell-site eq uipment basically comprises of two main pans-cell-site transceiver and cell-site controlJer.
ers, as well as among mobile subscribers of different cellular service providers in the same operating area. ~re may be adequate number of transceiver modules ar the cell-site equipment in order to meet the sub-
scri ber capacity requirement within a cell. Data links are used to carry multiple-channel data from the cell-site
~.2.2 Main Parts of a Basic Cellular System
A basic cellular system consists of mainly three parts: Cell-Site Equipment (CSE), Mobile Telephone
~~te MTSO. The t~ansmission data rare on data l!nks vary from 10 kbps to _seve~I ~ps. Many data-link
. nnels can be mu ltiplexed and passed through a wideband T-camer (or E-camer) wtrelme or a point-to-point
Switching Office (MTSO), and Mobile Subscriber Unit (MSU) as shown in Fig. 9.2. Illtcrow_ave radio li nk operating at 850 MHz or higher l~uency.
There is an air interface between the MSU and CSE. The interconnectivity between the CSE and MTSO, Radio tra nsceivers are part of the cell-site equipment. The radio transceivers meant for voice channels
MTSOs, and the MTSO and PSTN is through wirelines or dedicated point-to-point microwave links. ~~~ be either_ na~rowband FM for analog systems or QAM/PSK modulation for digital systems with an
. cc~ ive aud10-lrequency band (,1pproximatdy ]00 Hz to 3000 Hz) comparable to a standard telephone
Cell-Site Equipment (CSE) A cell-site is a fixed base station used for wireless communication with a mobile Ctrcuu . T he control channels use either FSK or PSK moJularion scheme. The cell-site controller operates
subscriber on one side as well as signaling/data communication with the MTSO on the other side. It is usu· Under the control of the central switching centre MSC or MTSO. The cell-site controller manages each
ally located at the centre or the edge of the coverage region of a cell . A cell-site consists of a number of of the radio ch11nnels 111 each cell-site, turns the radio transmitter and receiver on and off, transfers data
transreceivers, Tx/Rx antennas mounted on a tall tower, data links, and power plant. The radio tran11mitting
- .
equipment.
Wirt/rss Communications

onto the control and voice channels, monitors calls, and pei:forms built-in diagnostic te st8
on the cell-site

The issues affecting the cellular system design in selection of cell-site antennas include antenna at
Each mobile subscriber consists of a mobile
antenna, a multiple-frequency radio transceiver, and
ABasic Cellular Syilffll

a control/logic unit. The transceiver uses a frequency ~ Vehicle-installed .

tern, antenna gain, antenna tilt~g, and antenna height. The an~enna rad1at1 on pattern can be ornnidirectio~al- synthesiser to tune mto any designated cellular ~ handheld 0 b' mobile and J>Ort1b1et
~~. essentially : ~ phone equipments are
1
directional, or any other shape m both the honzontal and vertical planes. The antenna-radiation patterns ar~ system channel. The control unit houses all the user
d1:ferent as viewed in the cellular mobile oper- . 1 din b ·1 . h entical except that ble/
interfaces, me u g a w t-m andset or earphone or -..:::.- handheld mobile bsc 'bers Porta
Facts to Know I atmg environment from the antenna-radiation external microphone/speaker arrangement. The 100;c output PoWer, have a less effic~~t a~ have a lower
patterns as viewed m free space. Antenna gain • • b 'b • -,,. exclusively on batte . enna,and operai.

~
The cell-site equipment is much more com- urut rnterrupts su sen er act10ns and system com- . nes. Vehicle-installed mobile phone
plex. bulky, and expensive than the individ- w mpensates for the transmitted power. Antenna mands while managing the operation of the trans- :~7ent_have relatively large output power, have
ual mobile subscriber phones. Transmit and ultm~ can reduce the interference to the neigh- ceiver including transmit power. of th: :e:;xial gain antenna mounted on the r ~
- receive antennas may be separate antennas or bounng ceUs and enhance the weak signal spots ', / c e, and can operate from vehicle batteries.
combined ones at the cell-site. Generally, one Tx antenna
and two Rx antennas are used at each cell-site or each
m the radio coverage of the cells. The height
of the cell-site antenna can affect the area and
""'f9.3 I OPERATION OF A CELLULAR SYSTEM V ...
sector.Two Rx antennas provide space diversity to counter- shape of the coverage pattern in the cellular Voice calls over cellular communication networks require two full-du .
rad
act the effects of fading. system. ously. T~o types of channels are available between the mobile subscriplex io-frequency channels simultane-
~ and traffic channels. Control channels are used to excb .nfi th
~rand e base stat10n: control channels
ange 1 onnal!on cone · · · · ·
Mobil• Telephone Switching Office (MTSO} It is the central coordinating element for all the cell-sites con- ing calls and with establishing of a relationship between a mobile sub . enung imtiatmg and ~aintain-
control channel is also used for transferring control and dia . . scnber and the nearest base station. The
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-carri ers (wirel ines) carry
I
f scribers. The traffic channel is the actual voice ~hannel where :~arry
and a central cellular switch through a cell-site Traffic cbann 8;1°Sllc information between mobile subscribers
a voice or data connection ~twee~ sub-
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 assoc iated with the switches. The processor
should be as large as possible. Also, it is important to consider when the switching equipment would reach
wit~ other calle_d mobile subscribers and landline telephone subscri~o~:~:~::7i.:~t=~~;;~r;ctly
stations transm it on the_ forward control channel and forward voice channel and receive on the reverse c~n ase
channel a~d reverse voice channel. Similarly, mobile subscribers transmit on the reverse control channel
reverse voice channel an~ receive on the forward control channel and forward voice channel.
=~
the maximum capacity. lt determines the service life of the swi tching equipment. More control modules can v _E stablis~ent of a voice call within a cellular communication system is similar to completing a telephone
be added to increase the system capacity. Switching equipment can be linked to other switching equipments oice call usmg the la_ndlme P~TN. The use of a cellular system is fully automated and requires no action
for better utilisation of hand-off. ~he part of the mobile su~scn ber other than placing or answering a call. When a mobile subscriber is first
The electronic switching centre located in the MTSO or MSC is a sort of di gital telephone exchange that C ed on, It performs a senes of start-up procedures and then samples the received signal strength on all
becomes the heart of a cellular telephone system. Electronic switches communicate with cell-site controllers r ontrol ch_annels. The mobile subscnber automatically gets tuned to the control channel with the strongest
using a data-link protocol , such as X.25 , at a transmission rate of 9.6 kbps or higher. The electronic switching ecei_ved signal strength level and synchromses to the control data transmitted by the cell-site controller. The
centre performs two essential functions: mobile ~ubscriber 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.
- It controls switching between the public land line telephone network and the cell-site base stations for From a subscriber's point of view, the operation can be divided into four parts and a hand-off procedure.
landline-to-mobile, mobile-to-landline, and mobile-to-mobile calls.
It processes data received from the cell-si te controllers concerning mobile subscriber status, diagnostic Mobile-unit initial isation or registration
data, and bill-compiling information. - Mobi le-originated calls
- Network-originated calls
Mobile Subscriber Unit (MSUJ Basically, a mobile subscriber unit comprises o f a single antenna, transre- - Call terminat ion
ceiver, and microprocessor-based control circuit. Because the cellular system is full duplex, the transmitt~r - Hand-off procedu re
and receiver must operate simultaneously with a single antenna. A duplexer is used to separate the transmit 9,3.1 Mobile-Unit Initialisation or Registration
and receive signals. The 45-MHz band separation between transmit and receive frequencies makes the opera·
tion relatively easy, and simplifies frequency synthesiser design. Immediately after the mobile subscriber is switched on. it first scans the group of forward control channels and
For example, GSM mobile subscriber comprises of two parts- the mobile eq uipment (ME) and an selects the strongest one, which usually belongs to the nearest cell-site. It then continuously monitors that control
electronic smart card called a subscriber identity module (SIM) . The ME is the hardware used by e
th channel unti l its received sign.ii level drops below the pre-defined threshold received level. In case the signal
subscriber to access the cellular network. The SIM is a card, which plugs into the ME. This card identifies strength of the control ch.innel becomes weak. the mobile subscriber again begins scanning of the forward control
channels in St'un·h of the srmng~r signal. This sdl~location scheme is subscriber-independent. After pre-determined
the MS subscriber and also provides other information regarding the service that the subscriber should
time, this pnx,-c:dun: is re~at«I to update the availabiluy status of the forward control channel. Cells assigned
receive .
-I w-s, Communications

with different fre~uency _bands ~roadcast on different fo~ard con~ol channe_ls repetitively. The mobile
subl!Criber gt."b registered itself with the ceU-s1te as bemg active and this process 1s repealed period. 11 Th
ABasicC~lular~

-
MTSO can then track the location of the desired mobile subscriber by paging it on the forward conn-o:::~el e ~~(cc )))
For any cellular system, the total number of allocated channels 1s d1v1ded into control channels and voi~e
traffic channels. About 5 % of the total number of _channels available m the _system are defined as control
channels and standardised over the entire geographic area cov~red. The _remam'. ng 95% of the total number M1/ =1 ~ tf't.
of channels are dedicated to voice and data traffic for t~e mobile s~bscnbers. Smee the control channels are
standardised and are identical throughout different service areas w1thm a large geographic service area for a \
/Ii ~
/
PSTN
'\

'- ~
particular cellular operator, every mobile subscriber phone scans the same set of control channels. '..; MTSO
A very important aspect for successful operation of MSU
numerous system fun ctions in the cell ular system is that CSE

When a cellphone user moves each and every mobile subscriber units must be registered at
I
~
Fig. 9 ·3 Ca// processing in a cellular system
around within the same cell, the one of the MTSOs or MS Cs. This is maintained for authen-
base station for that cell handles tication and identity verification, access privileges, and also A ~ener_al description for the se_quence of events involved with connectin a U · · • .
__,.. all the transmission. for billing purposes. Moreover, the cellular system needs to subscriber ma cellular system 1s bnefly described here. g ca mitJated by a mobile
know whether the MSU is currently located in its own home Mobile (Cellular)-to-Landline (PSTNJ Call Procedures
service area or is visiting some other service area. This enables incoming calls meant for roami ng mobile
subscribers to be routed to an appropriate cell location and assures desirable support for outgoing call s. Step 1. Calls from mobile subscribers to landline telephone subscribers can be initiated by entering the land-
CSEs periodically broadcast control signals to determine and test nearby MS Us. This is done by exchanging lme tel~phone number 1~to the mobile unit's keypad. The mobile subscriber then presses a send key, which
signals known as handshake signals between the CSE and the MSU. Each MSU listens for broadcast control transmit~ the called landlme 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.
signals transmitted by CSEs. Some of the information contained in the broadcast forward control signals
includes cellular network identifier, timestamp, ID (identification) of the pagi ng area, gateway MSC address, Step 2. 1:he base ~tatio~ receives a call-initiation request along with the MTN, ESN, and Station Class Mark.
and other system parameters of the CS E. If the MS U listens to a broadcast forward control signal from the If the calling mobile unit's ID number is valid, the cell-site controller routes the called landline telephone
new CSE, it updates its information database. The MSU uses this information to locate the nearest CSE and number over a wireline trunk circuit to the MTSO.
establish an appropriate communication link with the cellular system through the nearest operational CSE as Step 3.The MTSO uses either standard call progress signals or the SS7 signaling protocol network to locate a
a gateway. sw1tchmg path through the PSTN to the called landline telephone subscriber.
9.3.2 Mobile-Originated Calls 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.
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. Step S. After the eel I-site controller receives verification that the mobile subscriber has tuned to the selected
A request for service is sent on an avai lable reverse control channel. With this request, the mobile subscriber voice charmel and it has been determined that the called landline telephone number is not busy, the mobile
transmits its own telephone number, electronic serial number of the mobile equipment, station class mark subscriber receives an audible call progress tone (ring-back) while the landline telephone caller receives a
which indicates what the maximum transmitter power level is for the calling subscriber, and the called sub- standard ringing tone.
scriber number (of another mobile subscriber or landline telephone subscriber). The nearest cell-site receives Step 6. If a suitable switching path is available to the landline telephone number, the call is completed when
this complete data on the reverse control channel and sends a request to the MTSO for allocation ofrequired the landline party answers the incoming call on its telephone.
resources to establish the voice communication link between the calling mobile subscriber and the desired Mobile (Cellular)-to-Mobile (Cellular} Call Proceduns
called subscriber. The MTSO validates this call request. After authentication, the MTSO directs a cell-site to
Step 1. The originating mobile subscriber initiates the call in the same manner as it would do for a mobile-to-
assign an available forward voice cha1mel for the call . The MTSO also connects the called mobile subscriber
landline call.
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 Step 2. The cell-site controller receives the caller's identification number and the destination telephone
conversation to begin. Figure 9.3 depicts the call processing using various parts of a cellular system. number through a reverse control channel. which are then forwarded to the MTSO.
Within a cellular communication system, the fo llowing types of mobile-originated calls can take place Step J . The MTSO sends a page command to all cell-site controllers to locate the called mobile subscriber
involving mobile cellular subscribers originating calls: (which may be anywhere within or out of the service area).
- Mobile (cellular)-to-landline (PSTN) call Step 4. Once the called mobile subscriber is located the destination cell-sit~ c~n~o_ller sends a page request
- Mobile (celluJar)-to-mobile (cellular) within the same cell through a forward control channel to the called mobile subscriber to detennme if II 1s on and not busy.
- Mobile (cellular)-to-mobile (cellular) operating in different cells Steps. After receiving a positive response to the page, the available free traffic channels are assigned to bolb
the calling and called mobile subscribers.
Sit Wireless Communications
A BasicC~lular~ 111

St•p •· Call-progress tones are given to both the calling and called mobile subscribers (ring-back and Step 1• The_cell-site receives the mobile subscriber phone number, ESN, and Station Class Mark and...,._
ringtones respectively). the rnformation to the MTSO. ,,_.
St•p 7• When the MTSO receives a response that the called_mobile subscriber has answered the incoming Step 8. The MTSO verifies that the called mobile has a valid mobile subscriber phone nwnber and ESN
call, the call-progress tones are terminated, and the conversat10n begins. pair.
Ste 8. If a mobile subscriber wishes to initiate a call and all traffic channels are busy, the MTSO sends a directed Step 9. The MTSO requests the cell-site controller to move the called mobile to the available pair of forward
re; command, instructing the calling mobile subscriber's unit to reattempt the call through a neighbouring cell. and reverse voice channels.
Step,. If the MTSO cannot allocate traffic channels through a nei ghbourin~ cell, it sends an intercept Step 10_. The cell-site controller assigns an idle voice channel for the called mobile subscriber and the cell-site
message to the calling mobile subscriber over the forwa rd control channel. Dun ng the mobile-initiated call transn11ts the data message on the forward control channel for the called mobile subscriber to move to the speci-
stage, if all the traffic channels assigned to the nearest cell-site are busy, then the mobile subscriber makes a fi ed voice channel.
preconfigured number of repeated attempts. After a certain number of fail ed attempts, a busy tone is returned
to the calling mobile subscriber. This situation is termed as call blocking . Step _1 ~-The called mobile subscriber receives the data messages on forward control channel to move to the
spec1f1ed voice channel and sends venf1catton of designated voice channel to the cell-site.
Step 10. Jfthe called mobile subscriber is busy, the calling mobile subscriber receives a busy signal.
Step 1_2. The cell-site controller sends an audible call progress tone to the called mobile subscriber, causing
Step r ,. If the called mobile number is inva lid, the calling mobile subscriber receives a recorded message
it to nng. The MTSO connects the called mobile subscriber with the calling landline phone on the PSTN. At
announcing that the call cannot be processed by the network.
the same time, a ri ng-back signal is sent back to the landline-calJing telephone subscriber by PSTN.
9.3.3 Network-Originated Calls Step 13. The called mobile subscriber answers back, the MTSO terminates the call-progress tones, and the
When a telephone call is placed by a landline telephone subscriber to a mobile subscriber, the MTSO dispatche~ two-way voice conversation begins on the forward voice channel and reverse voice channel between the call-
the request to all cell-sites in the cellular system, or it sends a paging message to certain cell-sites based on the ing telephone subscri ber and the called mobile subscriber.
called mobile subscriber number and search algorithm. Each cell-site transmits the page on its fornard control Once a call is in progress, the MTSO adjusts the transmitted power of the mobile subscriber and changes
channel. The called subscriber's mobile phone number is then broadcast as a paging message over all of the the channel of the mobile subscriber and cell-site in order to ma intain call quality as the subscriber moves
forward control channels throughout the cellular system . The mobile receives the paging message sent by the in and out of range of each cell-site. This is called hand-off procedure. Special control signaling is applied
base station which it monitors, and responds by identifying itself over the reverse control channel. It also locks to the voice channe ls so that the cel l-si te may control the mobile subscriber while a call is in progress.
on to the assigned voice channel and initiates a subscri ber alert tone.
The cell-site relays back the acknowledgment signal sent by the called mobile subscriber and informs the 9.3.4 Call Termination
MTSO of the successful handshake. At this point, an alert message is transmi tted to instruct the called mobile sub- When either the calling subscriber (cellular mobile or landline) or the called subscriber (cellular mobile or
scriber to ring, thereby instructing the mobile subscriber to answer the incoming call. Then, the MTSO instruets landline) engaged in conversation terminates the call, the MTSO is informed and the traffic channels at the cell-
the cell-site to move the call to the ava ilable free forward and reverse voice channel pair. The step-by-step proce- site(s) are released. When the mobile subscriber terminates the call. a particular message signal is transmitted to
dure given below shows the sequence of events involved for land line (PSTN)-to-mobile (cellular) call in a cellular the cell-site. The voice channel is released. The mobile subscriber resumes monitoring page messages through
telephone system. All of these events occur within a few seconds and are not noticeable by the subscnber. I
,~ the strongest forward control channel. During a connection. if !he base station cannot maintain the minimum
required signal strength for a certain period of time because of interference or weak s!gnal spots in _c ertain~•
St•P ,. The landline telephone goes off hook to complete the wireline loop, receives a dial tone from PSTN,
the voice channel assigned to the mobile subscriber 1s dropped and the MTSO 1s mforrned. This s1tuat1on 1s
and then inputs the mobile subscriber's phone number. ·
termed as call drop, not call termination.
Step 1. The mobile phone number is transferred from the PSTN switch to the cellular network switch
(MTSO) that services the called mobile subscriber. 9.3.S Hand-off Procedure
Step 3. The cellu!ar network MTSO translates the received digits, and locates the cell-sites nearest_ the called When the mobile subscriber moves out of the coverage area of its Facts to Know !
mobile subscriber, which determines if the mobile subscriber is on and ready to receive the mcorrung call. It cell-site during the call, the received sig~al level becomes weak. Hand-off basically Involves
sends the requested mobile phone number to the cell-sites. The present cell-site requests a hand-otl to MTSO. The MTSO change of radio resources
switch h in call 10 3 new voice channel m a new cell- from one cell to radio
St•P"- The base station transmits the page containing mobile subscriber phone number on fo rward control . es t e ongo _g pring the call or alerting the engaged - - - resources in another adja-
channel. site without ei ther mrerru . . as long as the conversation cent cell. From a hand-off perspective, it
rnob·1 b .be The call conunues
Step S. The called mobile subscriber receives the page signal and matches the received _mob_ile subscriber . 1e su sen r. . Joe . not notice the hand-off occur- is important that a free voice channel is
15 on. The mobile sutis,:n~r(k.:nJs on the size of the cell, radio available in a new cell whenever hand-off
phone number with its own mobile phone number, assuming that the caJled mobile subsc~ber is avai lable. renc H d ff occ~°'e r-
es. an -o . . takes place.so that uninterrupted commu-
· fthe mobile subscnber phone number received signal strength, fading, reflectton
St-,._ The called mobile subscriber acknowledges back the receipt O k the reverse cont I h nel nication service is available at all times.
coverage boun~• d man-made noise. Assuming that the
and sends a positive page response including its ESN and Station Class Mar on ro c an and refraction of signals. an
to the cell-site for forwarding it to the MTSO.
 Wirt/en communications
JIJ A Basic Cellular System J11
Us are unifonnly distributed in each cell. the probability of a voice channel_being _available in a new cell
MS be f h Is per unit area. The number of channels per 1m1t area increases if the nu b
depends on the nwn r o c anne . . Ill er
of channels allocated per cell is increased or if the area of each cell is decreased. But the radio resources and the i----MTSO-A----.'. - - - - ~
nwnber of assigned channels are limited. .
The radio coverage area of the cell could be decreased for a given number of ch~nnels per cell. This leads i MSU1
to 8 smaller cell size and may be good for the ava1lab1hty of free ch~nnel perspectives. However, this would
cause more frequent hand-offs. especially for MS Us with_high mob1hty and vehicle speed. Hand-off can be
initiated by the cell-site on its own or assisted by the mobile subscnber. . .
Cellular systems provide a service called roaming . Tlus allows mobile _subscnbe_rs to operate in service
areas other than the one from which the service is subscnbed. When a mobile subscnber enters another geo-
graphic area that is different from its home service area,_it is registered .as a roamer in th~ ne~ service area.
This is accomplished over the forward control channel, smce each roammg mobile subscnber 1s stationed on
a forward control channel at all times.
After a pre-defmed time interval, the MTSO issues a broadcast command over each forward control chan-
\- - ---...Jill~
nel in the cellular system. requesting all mobile subscribers, which are previously ~ egistered to report their
I
I B
I
I
ltll
MSU2
identities such as mobile phone number and ESN over the reverse control channel. New unregistered mobile TI
subscribers in the system periodically repon back their subscriber information upon receiving the registration ~----~~~- - -- J CSE2
request. The MTSO uses the received data to request billing status from the home location register for each Fig. 9.5 I MSUs operating on diff!?rent MTSOs
roaming mobile subscriber.
If a particular roaming mobile subscriber has roaming authorisation for billing purposes, the MTSO registers
[""9 .4 I PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
:l
the mobile subscriber as a valid roamer. Once registered, roaming mobile subscribers are allowed to receive and There are mainly five categories for specifying performance criteria in a cellular system:
place calls from that service area, and billing is routed automatically to the subscriber's home service provider. - Voice quality
- Trunking and Grade of service ·
EXAMPLEt.1
Operalion - · buic mllular system - Spectral efficiency
Suppose there are two mobile subscribers in the nearby location. Dra w a functional diagram showing the route signals if - Radio capacity
the cellphones are - Service quality and special fe atures
(a) operating on the same MTSO
(b) operating on different MTSOs (one each on system A and system BJ, served by different service providers 9.4.1 Voice Quality
Solution For any wireless communication sy stem. the voice quality is

~~
(a) Each mobile subscriber communicates with the based upon the criterion that some per cent of subscribers rate
other mobile subscriber through the same serving the system voice quali ty as good or excellent on the perceived Toi-grade voice quality N!fels
~---.Ii ~ MSU2 cell-site, cell-site controller, and MTSO. qual ity scale. The average of the circuit merit level scores IO the quaity of the intefn..
obtained from all the active subscribers in the svstem is called lional wired telephone system.
Figure 9.4 depicts a functional di agram showing the
CSE MSU1
communication path between MSU I and MS U2, both Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Table 9. 1 depicts ilie meaning of
- - - - Communication Path - - - - being served by the same MTSO. different circuit merit levels and MOS.
Fig. 9.4 MSUs operating on the same MTSO The call initiated by MS U I is routed to MSU2 via
a communication link such as Table 9.1 I Circuit m erit level and MOS
MSU I--.CSE-+BSC-+MSC -+ BSC --.CSE-+MSU2 .
Circuit merit level Mmn (Jr>inion s._..,_ ( .\l()S) (>uuliN scule Physical significance
After the establishment of the link, two-way conversation between MSU J and MSU2 takes place using
this communication path. CMS Excd knt Speech perfectly undmtandable
(b) Each mobile subscriber communicates through its serving cell-site cell-site contro ller and MTSO C M4 4 Good Speech easily underslandable
respectively. Two MTSO, are interconnected through PSTN. ' ' C M3 .l Fair Speech understandable widl slipt eftbn
The call initiated by MSUI is routed to MSU2 via a communication link such as CM2 2 Poor Speech understandable with CClllliclenWe
MSUl--+CSEl -+MTSO-A--.PSTN -. MTSO-B --.CSE2 -+ MSU2 . effon. frequent repetiti0111 .-W
Figure 9.5 depicts a functional diagram showing the communication path. CMI Unsatisfacrory Speech not unclemmdable