Cellular Network Basics

• There are many types of cellular services; before delving into details, focus on basics (helps
navigate the “acronym soup”)
• Cellular network/telephony is a radio-based technology; radio waves are electromagnetic
waves that antennas propagate
• Most signals are in the 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz frequency bands

Cell phones operate in this frequency

range (note the logarithmic scale)
Cellular Network
• Base stations transmit to and receive from mobiles at the
assigned spectrum
• Multiple base stations use the same spectrum (spectral reuse)
• The service area of each base station is called a cell
• Each mobile terminal is typically served by the ‘closest’ base
stations
• Handoff when terminals move
Cellular Network Generations
• It is useful to think of cellular Network/telephony in terms of
generations in terms of service and speed variations:
• 0G: Briefcase-size mobile radio telephones
• 1G: Analog cellular telephony
• 2G: Digital cellular telephony
• 3G: High-speed digital cellular telephony (including video telephony)
• 4G: IP-based “anytime, anywhere” voice, data, and multimedia telephony at
faster data rates than 3G
(to be deployed in 2012–2015)
Evolution of Cellular Networks

1G 2G 2.5G 3G 4G
0G
• Pre-cellular mobile telephone technology in 1970s.
• Mobile telephones were usually mounted in cars or trucks.
• Technologies: PTT (Push to Talk), MTS (Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved
Mobile Telephone Service), AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephony System) etc.
• Analog system with half duplex communications (like “Walkie-Talkies”)
• Mobile telephone has 2 parts: 1. Transceiver 2. Head.
• Telephone would connect to local telephone network if range is 20 Kms. Each city
had a central antenna tower with 25 channels.
• Few people were able to use
• No roaming facility, no hand-off.
• Voice only
0G
IMTS: (1962, by Bell Lab)
• Simultaneously call,
• reduced mobile size and weight,
• eliminate setup by operator,
• 32 channels across 3 bands
• Frequency range 450-470 MHz
• Analog voice communication
0.5 G
• 0.5 G had introduced ARP (Auto Radio Puhelin)
• Launched in 1971 at Finland.
• 8 channels with a frequency of 150 MHz (147.9-154.87 MHz band)
• Transmission power was in a range of 1-5 watts.
• Half duplex system for voice with manual switch.
• Cell size 30 km. no handover
1G
• In 1980, mobile cellular era had started. Data speed 9.6-28 kbps. Country wise voice calls.
• In 1979, first cellular system introduced by NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph) in Japan.
• In 1982, US launched AMPS with 40 MHz bandwidth (800-900 MHz range) assigned by FCC.
• Service are was 2100 square miles.
• 832 channels with 10 kbps data rate.
• Omnidirectional antenna first used later directional antenna had came.
• Smallest reuse factor, 7 was found with 120 degree directional antenna fulfilling 18 db
signal-to-interference ratio.
• 7 cell pattern.
• Transmissions from base stations with forward channel using 869-894 MHz and reverse
channel using 824-849 MHz.
• FM technology with FDMA systems
• Circuit Switching
1G

Drawbacks:
1. Poor voice quality
2. Poor battery life
3. Large phone size
4. No security
5. Limited capacity Martin Cooper

6. Poor hand-off reliability

The Multiple Access Problem
• The base stations need to serve many mobile terminals at the same
time (both downlink and uplink)
• All mobiles in the cell need to transmit to the base station
• Interference among different senders and receivers
• So we need multiple access scheme
Multiple Access Schemes

3 orthogonal Schemes:
• Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
Frequency Division Multiple Access

frequency

• Each mobile is assigned a separate frequency channel for the duration of

the call
• Sufficient guard band is required to prevent adjacent channel interference
• Usually, mobile terminals will have one downlink frequency band and one
uplink frequency band
• Different cellular network protocols use different frequencies
• Frequency is a precious and scare resource. We are running out of it
• Cognitive radio
Time Division Multiple Access

Guard time – signal transmitted by mobile

terminals at different locations do no arrive
at the base station at the same time

• Time is divided into slots and only one mobile terminal transmits
during each slot
• Like during the lecture, only one can talk, but others may take the floor in turn
• Each user is given a specific slot. No competition in cellular network
• Unlike Carrier Sensing Multiple Access (CSMA) in WiFi
Code Division Multiple Access
• Use of orthogonal codes to separate different transmissions
• Each symbol of bit is transmitted as a larger number of bits using the user specific
code – Spreading
• Bandwidth occupied by the signal is much larger than the information transmission rate
• But all users use the same frequency band together

Orthogonal among users

2G(GSM)
GSM
• Abbreviation for Global System for Mobile Communications
• Concurrent development in USA and Europe in the 1980’s
• The European system was called GSM and deployed in the early
1990’s
GSM Services
• Voice, 3.1 kHz, upto 100 kbps data rate with circuit switching
• Short Message Service (SMS)
• 1985 GSM standard that allows messages of at most 160 chars. (incl. spaces) to be sent
between handsets and other stations
• Over 2.4 billion people use it; multi-billion $ industry
• General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
• GSM upgrade that provides IP-based packet data transmission up to 114 kbps
• Users can “simultaneously” make calls and send data
• GPRS provides “always on” Internet access and the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
whereby users can send rich text, audio, video messages to each other
• Performance degrades as number of users increase
• GPRS is an example of 2.5G telephony – 2G service similar to 3G
GSM Channels
Downlink
Channels
Uplink

• Physical Channel: Each timeslot on a carrier is referred to as a

physical channel
• Logical Channel: Variety of information is transmitted between
the MS and BTS. Different types of logical channels:
• Traffic channel
• Control Channel
GSM Frequencies
• Originally designed on 900MHz range, now also available on 800MHz,
1800MHz and 1900 MHz ranges.
• Separate Uplink and Downlink frequencies
• One example channel on the 1800 MHz frequency band, where RF carriers
are space every 200 MHz

UPLINK FREQUENCIES DOWNLINK FREQUENCIES

1710 MHz 1785 MHz 1805 MHz 1880 MHz

UPLINK AND DOWNLINK FREQUENCY SEPARATED BY 95MHZ

GSM Architecture
2.5 G
• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
• Packet switching rather than circuit switching.
• Data rate 56-115 kbps.
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) access MMS.
• Phone calls, e-mail, web browsing, camera phone.

2.75 G
• EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution)
• Packet switching wih circuit switching.
• 8PSK encoding.
• EDGE, EGPRS (Enhance GPRS), IMT Single carrier technologies.
 Evolution from 2G
2G IS-95 GSM- IS-136 & PDC

GPRS
IS-95B
2.5G
HSCSD EDGE

Cdma2000-1xRTT W-CDMA
3G Cdma2000-1xEV,DV,DO EDGE
TD-SCDMA
Cdma2000-3xRTT
3GPP2 3GPP
Service Roadmap
Improved performance, decreasing cost of delivery

Broadband
3G-specific
3G-specific services
services take
take in wide area
advantage
advantage of
of higher
higher bandwidth
bandwidth
and/or Video sharing
and/or real-time
real-time QoS
QoS Video telephony
AAnumber
number ofof mobile
mobile Real-time IP
services Multitasking multimedia and games
services are
are bearer
bearer
independent WEB browsing Multicasting
independent in in nature
nature
Corporate data access
Streaming audio/video
MMS picture / video
xHTML browsing
Application downloading
E-mail
Voice & SMS Presence/location
Push-to-talk
Typical
average bit GSM GPRS EGPRS WCDMA HSDPA
rates 9.6 171 473 2 1-10
(peak rates
higher) kbps kbps 2000 1x
CDMA
kbps Mbps Mbps

CDMA

CDMA
EVDO

EVDV
2000-

2000-
GSM Evolution to 3G
High Speed Circuit Switched Data
Dedicate up to 4 timeslots for data connection ~ 50 kbps
Good for real-time applications c.w. GPRS
Inefficient -> ties up resources, even when nothing sent
Not as popular as GPRS (many skipping HSCSD)

Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution

GSM Uses 8PSK modulation
HSCSD
9.6kbps (one timeslot) 3x improvement in data rate on short distances
GSM Data Can fall back to GMSK for greater distances
Also called CSD Combine with GPRS (EGPRS) ~ 384 kbps
Can also be combined with HSCSD
GSM GPRS
WCDMA
General Packet Radio Services
Data rates up to ~ 115 kbps EDGE
Max: 8 timeslots used as any one time
Packet switched; resources not tied up all the time
Contention based. Efficient, but variable delays
GSM / GPRS core network re-used by WCDMA (3G)
3G Overview
• 3G is created by ITU-T and is called IMT-2000
UMTS
• Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)
• UMTS is an upgrade from GSM via GPRS or EDGE
• The standardization work for UMTS is carried out by Third
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
• Data rates of UMTS are:
• 144 kbps for rural
• 384 kbps for urban outdoor
• 2048 kbps for indoor and low range outdoor
• Virtual Home Environment (VHE)
UMTS Frequency Spectrum
• UMTS Band
• 1900-2025 MHz and 2110-2200 MHz for 3G transmission
•  In the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–2155 MHz will be used instead, as the
1900 MHz band was already used.
UTRAN
• Wide band CDMA technology is selected for UTRAN air
interface
• WCDMA
• TD-SCDMA
• Base stations are referred to as Node-B and control
equipment for Node-B is called as Radio Network Controller
(RNC).
• Functions of Node-B are
• Air Interface Tx/Rx
• Modulation/Demodulation
• Functions of RNC are:
• Radio Resource Control
• Channel Allocation
• Power Control Settings
• Handover Control
• Ciphering
• Segmentation and reassembly
3.5G (HSPA)
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two
mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that
extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA
protocols
3.5G introduces many new features that will enhance the UMTS
technology in future. 1xEV-DV already supports most of the
features that will be provided in 3.5G. These include:
- Adaptive Modulation and Coding
- Fast Scheduling
- Backward compatibility with 3G
- Enhanced Air Interface
4G (LTE)
• LTE stands for Long Term Evolution
• Next Generation mobile broadband technology
• Promises data transfer rates of 100 Mbps
• Based on UMTS 3G technology
• Optimized for All-IP traffic
Advantages of LTE
Comparison of LTE Speed
Major LTE Radio Technogies
• Uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for
downlink
• Uses Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) for
uplink
• Uses Multi-input Multi-output(MIMO) for enhanced throughput
• Reduced power consumption
• Higher RF power amplifier efficiency (less battery power used by
handsets)