Addis Ababa Science and Technology

University

College of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

November 2023
Introduction to Mobile Technologies

Habib Mohammed (PhD)

 Contents

 History
 Basics
 Evolution
 Standardization
 Market share
Important events in radio communications
• 1855-1870: James Clerk Maxwell
– Developed Maxwell’s equations relating electric and
– magnetic fi elds
– Formulates the mathematical model of
electromagnetism in his classical book ‘A Treatise on
Electricity and Magnetism’, 1873.
– He showed that light is an electromagnetic (EM) wave,
and that all EM waves propagate through space with
• 1876: Alexander
the same Graham
speed. Bell
– Files the first patent on telephone
in the US
– Elisha Gray files his patent for the
telephone just a few hours later
than Bell
– Later, Gray challenge Bell’s patent
in
court
Important events in radio communications
 1888: Heinrich Hertz (convinced us radio wave exists)
– Demonstrate the practical existence of radio communications,
– Demonstrates the first wireless EM wave system: a 𝜆/2-dipole
by generating and detecting a radio wave
is excited with a spark; it radiates predominantly at 𝜆=8𝑚; a
spark appears in the gap of a receiving loop some 20 m away.

Fathers of radio wave

communication 1.
maxwell 2, Marconi
and Hertz

 "we just have these mysterious

electromagnetic waves that we cannot see
with the naked eye. But they are there“
 Asked about the ramifi cations of his
discoveries, Hertz replied,
– "Nothing, I guess."
– “It's of no use whatsoever […] this is just
an experiment that proves Maestro
Maxwell was right”
 Important events in radio communications
 Guglielmo Marconi
– March, 1897: Transmitted Morse
code
signals over a distance of about 6
km
– 13th May, 1897: Sent the first ever
wireless communication over
open sea
– 17th December, 1902: A
transmission from the Marconi
station in Glace Bay, Nova
Scotia, Canada, became the first
radio message to cross the
Atlantic

 Marconi was also an effective

business person. The last
lawsuit regarding Marconi's
Important events in radio communications

 1900s: Reginald Fessendon demonstrates first

wireless voice communication
 1907: Commercial transatlantic connections
 1915: Wireless voice transmission NYC – SFO
 1920: Westinghouse company starts the first
 commercial radio broadcast station
 1936: First commercial television broadcast
Important events in radio communications

War of microwave
generators
• WW2 marks a new era in
Cavity
Magnetro
wireless communications
n • The invention of new
microwave generators
(magnetron and klystron)
leads to the advancement of
radar and long distance
Cavity
• microwave links
Cavity Magnetron is labeled
Klystro as the
n
most
andimportant
part of the mostinvention
valuable Cargo to of reach the
WW2
US shores(1940
– Tizard Mission).
7
Important events in radio communications
 1947: The transistor is invented by J. Bardeen, W.
Brattain, and W. Shockley (AT&T Bell Labs)
 1948: Shannon presents the famous channel
capacity expression
 1948: Radio relay system between New York
and
Boston, 4 GHz, 350 km, 7 hops
 1957: Russians launched the first satellite,
Sputnik

 1981: 1G cellular: NMT 450 in Scandinavia

 1982: Start of GSM-specification. Aim:
Create “pan- European digital mobile
phone system with roaming”
 1983: Start of the American AMPS (Advanced
Mobile Phone System, analog)
 1983: AT&T introduces analog AMPS in
Chicago and
Washington D.C. (early cellular system)
Important events in radio communications
 1991: 2G cellular: GSM, digital cellular phone
 1993: DECT, digital cordless phone
 1995: First CDMA (code-division multiple-access)
based wireless system available in Hong Kong
 1997: Wireless LAN – IEEE 802.11
 1998: Specification of 3GPP UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System)

 1998: Iridium: portable satellite telephony (Low

Earth Orbit satellite constellation)
 1999: WLAN standard IEEE 802.11a/b (WiFi).
RF
band: 2.4 GHz (ISM). Rate: 11 Mbps
 1999: Bluetooth standard version 1.0 (WPAN). RF
band: 2.4 GHz (ISM). Rate: 1 Mbps
 1999: GSM network deployed and operational in
Addis Ababa in 1999 with a capacity of 36,000
subscribers
 Important events in radio communications
 2001: 3G cellular: First WCDMA
system available in Japan
 2002: 1 billion mobile subscribers
 2003: IEEE 802.11g
 2005: 3.5G cellular:
HSDPA specifications
 2007: 3 billion mobile subscribers
 2008: LTE Release 8 specifications
 2009: IEEE 802.11n
 2009: 4G cellular: First LTE networks
deployed
 2010: 5 billion mobile subscribers
 2010: LTE-Advanced Release 10
specifications completed
Important events in radio communications
 2012: 6 billion mobile subscribers
 2014: 7 billion mobile subscribers
 2015: 3GPP Release 12 frozen
 2016: LTE-Advanced Pro Release 13 frozen
 2018: 8 billion mobile subscribers
 2019: 5G Phase 1 Release 15 frozen
 August 2019: ECA established by
proclamation number: 1148/2019
 July 2020: 5G release 16 frozen
 March 2021: 153 operators in 64 countries
launched 5G
 2021: SpaceX Starlink
 May 22, 2021: Ministry of Council,
Ethiopia passes legislation to de-
monopolize the telecom market in
Ethiopia.
 Contents

 History
 Basics
 Evolution
 Standardization
 Market share
Mobile services
 2G: Voice-Analog to digital
– New radio
 3G: Voice + Broadband
data
– New radio
 4G: Broadband data
– New radio
 5G: Diverse data
services
– New radio
Source: Ericsson

13
General mobile system architecture
CN-External
Radio interface RAN-CN interface Network interface

RAN CN
Handles all radio Switching, routing,
related security and mobility
User functions. May related functions. External
Termina also handle Includes switches, networks
l some mobility gateways, registers,
issues. and other controlling
Include at least elements
base stations

RAN = Radio Access Network; CN = Core Network

 Mobility
 User mobility is one of the basic characteristics of a mobile network
– To ensure a smooth switch of a user connection between neighboring base stations,
a handover operation is needed
– Handover operation is also called hand-off
 Handover protocol details are system specific

Three phases for mobile

assisted handover:
1) Signal quality
measurements (@ MS),
2) Handover decision (@
BS/NTW)
3) Exchange of control
information (@ NTW)

MS = Mobile Station, BS = Base Station, NTW = Network

 Radio spectrum
 Conventionally two types of radio frequency bands have been available for commercial
radio systems:
– Licensed and unlicensed frequency bands
 License for certain frequency band can be granted by national regulator, which administrates
the usage of radio frequencies
– E.g., ECA in Ethiopia, Ofcom in UK, FCC in US
 There are also global agreements and guidelines, regarding to the use of the applied
frequencies
– National regulators usually follow these guidelines quite well, to make radio devices
compatible in different countries
 For mobile communication systems, license is usually granted for a certain operator
– Operator then owns the right for exclusive use of the freq. band
Radio Resource Management (RRM)
 The radio resource management (RRM) functions
are responsible for efficient usage of the radio
(physical layer) resources
 In general, RRM is needed to:
– Guarantee QoS for users,
– Maintain the coverage according to network
plan, and
– Provide as high system efficiency as possible
 The RRM concept covers usually the following
functions:
– Handover control
– Power control
– Admission control, load control, and
congestion control
– Packet scheduling
– Link adaptation
– Transmission mode selection
 Network planning & optimization
Dimensioning Note: We omit core network
150

140

+
130
EIRP 58dB

Path Loss [dB]

Margins 23dB
1000 x
120

Sensitivity -100dB 5000 x

Allowed PL 135 dB
110

100

90
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Distance from BS [km]

Area and propagation information Link budget # Network elements

Detailed planning
TX power 43dBi
Antennas 2
Input from Antenna tilt 5o
Parameter x, y, z
dimensioning

Network planning tools BS Configurations and

System simulations topology plan

Optimization

+
Operating network Optimized system
 Contents
 History
 Basics
 Evolution
 Standardization
 Market share
1st generation (1G)
 AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), in the
Americas
 NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone), in the Nordic countries
• variants for 450 MHz and 900 Mhz bands
 TACS (Total Access Communication System), in Europe

 Analog modulation & voice processing

 Almost voice only application
 Systems are incompatible each other
 Roaming inexistent
 Handset were so expensive (more than $1000)
 Low penetration
Why Digital Cellular?
 Digitalization:
 Digital source code
 Digital air interface
 Digital source coding allows compression
 Narrowing the bandwidth by removing redundancy of speech
 Nyqvist sampled, almost distortion free: ISDN 64 kbps Î GSM voice 13 kbps
 Spectrum efficiency: less resources used per call
 Digital air interface allows
 Error detection and error correction
 Robustness against noise and interference
 QoS can be guaranteed independently of location
 TDMA & CDMA possible
 More flexibility in resource usage, multiplexing of different kinds of data
 Half duplex implementation possible (no duplex filter)
 Adaptation to radio conditions
 Security (digital encryption)
 Drawbacks of digital:
 Processing & delays
 Application specific (voice) codecs
2nd generation (2G)
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications / Groupe Special
Mobile), almost worldwide
 Variants for 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz bands
 PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), in Japan
 a.k.a. JDC (Japanese Digital Cellular)
 DAMPS (Digital AMPS), in Americas
 a.k.a. IS-54 (Interim Standard 54), IS-136
 a.k.a. TDMA in the US
IS-95 (Interim Standard 95), in Americas, South Korea, India, China
 a.k.a. cdmaOne

 Digital modulation and voice processing

 Voice and some data
 SMS was a phenomenal success
2G evolution (2.5G)
 Higher data rates, packet switched data
 GSM evolution
 HSCSD (High Speed Circuit-Switched Data), extension of
GSM
 GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), extension
of GSM
 EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM
Evolution), extension of GSM
 IS-95 evolution
 cdma2000 1x uses one 1.25 MHz band, in
Americas
Why 3G?
 The success of 2G digital cellular (GSM) lead to capacity
exhaustion → need for systems with higher spectral efficiency
 2G radio interfaces optimized for voice
 only low-rate data services
 Need system supporting high-speed multirate data services
with asymmetric radio links
 The majority of users are pedestrians or indoor nomadic users
with handheld terminals
 3G cellular standard to merge most mobile communications into
a
single system
 Cellular, cordless, paging, satellite, private mobile radio
 ITU IMT-2000 recommendations define a common,
worldwide framework for future mobile commun. at 2 GHz
 ITU approved IMT-2000 radio interfaces in 1999 and 2007
3rd generation (3G)
 CDMA2000 family
 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized), in
Americas, Japan, South Korea
 WCDMA release 99
 UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunication System), almost worldwide
 TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous CDMA), in
China

 Circuit switched voice and packet switched data

 Increased data rate and network capacity
3G evolution (3.5G/3.75G)
 HSDPA = High Speed Downlink Packet Access. Release 5 was the
first HSDPA release (2005)
 HSUPA = High Speed Uplink Packet Access. Release 6 was the first
HSUPA release (2007)
 HSPA = High Speed Packet Access = HSDPA + HSUPA
 HSPA Evolution (HSPA+)=Since Release 7
Driving forces for 4G
 Wireline capability evolution
 Need for additional wireless capacity
 Need for lower cost wireless data delivery
 Competition of other wireless technologies
(WiMax)
4th generation
 Long term evolution (LTE), first version in Release 8, enhancement
in Release 9
 Approaching 4G
 Packet switched only
 Increased network capacity, data rate
 Decreased latency
 Different access principle for DL and UL
 LTE-Advanced, first version in Release 10
 Real 4G
 Backward compatible with LTE Release 8
 Efficient utilization of spectrum
 Homogeneous distribution of capacity provisioning and
user experience
 LTE-Advanced pro, further enhancement since Release 12
 D2D, M2M, …
5th generation
Key drivers:
1. Massive growth in traffic 5G phase 1 and
volume phase 2 are ready!
2. Massive growth in
connected devices/things
3. Wide range of  2G: Voice: Analog to digital
requirements and – New radio
 3G: Voice + Broadband data
characteristics
– New radio
 4G: Broadband data
– New radio
 5G: All data – lots of it
– 3G+4G+new technology components
– New radio
Future of mobile communication
 Contents
 History
 Basics
 Evolution
 Standardization
 Market share
3GPP: leading standardization body partnership
3GPP ecosystem
 Standardization: 3GPP

 3GPP is a global standardization body

established in 1998 by regional bodies (ARIB,
ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC)
 3GPP has three Technical Specification Groups
(TSG)
 Each TSG has a set of Working Groups (WG)
which
– Meet regularly few times a year, and
– Are responsible for development of Reports and
Specifications that belong to their area of
competence
– To be discussed and approved in their quarterly
TSG meeting
 3GPP Standardization process
 The 3GPP process is such that more topics are started than eventually end up in the
specifications.
 Within the study, only a small set of features is usually entering to specification.
 Sometimes a study is closed after it is found that there is not enough gain to justify the
added complexity. A change requested in the work item phase could also be rejected for this
same reason.

https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/
3GPP family of technologies
3GPP works on a number of Releases in parallel, starting future work
well in advance of the completion of the current Release

012
2000 2004 2008 2

Time schedule of 3GPP standards

 Contents

 History
 Basics
 Evolution
 Standardization
 Market share
ITU: population Coverage by type of mobile network
Mobile
market
accordin
g GSMA

Source: The Mobile Economy 2021

Percentage of connections by technology

Source: GSMA-The Mobile Economy 2021

Mobile subscriptions by technology

Source: Ericsson mobility report, June 2021

Mobile subscriptions by region and technology

Source: Ericsson mobility report, June 2021

 Mobile data traffic

In 2026, 5G will account for an estimated 53% of total mobile data.

Source: Ericsson mobility report, Nov 2020
 LTE-A deployments, End of
September, 2021 336
commercially launched LTE-
A networks in 150
countries

5G deployment status, April 2021

 466 operators in 139
countries investing
 180 operators in 72
countries
launched 5G services

Source: GSA Evolution