Time Division Multiple

Access Methods for Wireless

Personal Communications
Carrillo Gómez César Rolando
TDMA as a Multiple Access Technique
• What do we look in a
radio system?
• Efficient use of the bandwidth
• Efficient use of the
infrastructure with minimum
cost and maximum
performance
• Solutions
• TDMA
• CDMA
• FDMA
TDMA as a Multiple Access Technique

• Where is TDMA used?

Second generation of digital
cellular systems
• Europe (GSM)
• North America (IS-54)
• Japan (PDC)
Wireless personal
communication systems
• Europe (DECT)
• Japan (PHS)
How does TDMA Works?
How does TDMA Works?
Downstream
 Upstream

Inter-user interference
is prevented by strict
adherence to timeslot
scheduales!!
 How do we separate Upstream and Downstream?

• There are two ways to

separate the upstream
and downstream channels
• Using two carriers
• By alternating in time
 Why FDD or TDD?

FDD
• Less transmission bandwidth per
radio
• Less precise synchronization of
upstream and downstream to
minimize interference
TDD
• Simpler duplex radio equipment
• Flexible bandwidth allocation
between downstream and
upstream traffic
 Looking into the frame

• Each timeslot in a frame

generally contains data
and bits for syncronization,
adaptation, control, guard
time, etc.

• GSM, PHS, DECT -> 30%

• IS-54, PDC -> 20%
 TDMA against other techniques

• If we compare CDMA and FDMA to TDMA we have

• In a common radio and modem equipment, at a given
carrier frequency, can be shared among N users at a base
station.
• In TDMA bit rates can be varied according to the number
of users
• TDMA has less stringent power control requirements since
inter-user interference is controlled by timeslot and not
by processing.
• TDMA has time to make measurements
 TDMA against other techniques

• If we compare CDMA and FDMA to TDMA we have

• Less power from the envelop in TDMA
• If the bit rate is high it might need equalization
 Capacity enhancement and evolutionary scenarios

We use macro cells and

small cells at the same
time to achieve a high
capacity and to get
coverage in certain places

We use HCS (Hierarchical

cell structures) which
means that different cell
types exists simultaneously
in different cell layers.
 Capacity enhancement and evolutionary scenarios

We can increase the cell

capacity by two ways:

• Adaptive Channel
Allocation (ACA)

• Frequency Hopping (FH)

 ACA and FH

• ACA

• It tries to avoid interference by

allocating channels based on the
instantaneous signal-to-interference
situation. This means that there is no
fixed reuse distance.
• When the traffic conditions are
varying, channels can be “moved” to
the peak traffic cells.
 ACA and FH

• FH

• Using random Frequency Hooping can

help to increase the cell capacity, it can
be fast or slow.
• Slow FH is part of the GSM standard.
• The users inside a cell have the same
hopping sequence but offset from one
another such that they don’t interfere.