♦ Technology Evolution for Mobile and

Personal Communications
George I. Zysman, Joseph A. Tarallo, Richard E. Howard,
John Freidenfelds, Reinaldo A. Valenzuela,
and Paul M. Mankiewich

Today we are witnessing a true revolution in wireless communications. The history

and technology behind mobile communications is fascinating, and Bell Labs has had
a major role in launching this multi-billion dollar industry. In this paper, we take a
brief look at the history of mobile communications—including many Bell Labs mile-
stones and contributions to wireless technology—and provide a glimpse into the
future. We also summarize the development of the industry and the path leading to
today’s imminent launch of third-generation (3G) systems. Finally, we identify and
present in detail several selected enabling technologies, along with breakthrough
Bell Labs research in these areas.

Introduction
These are exciting times for the wireless indus-
try. With the anticipated rollout of third-generation
(3G) systems and the unprecedented subscriber
growth worldwide, we are witnessing a true com-
munications revolution. Within the next two years,
the number of worldwide mobile and personal com-
munications subscribers is expected to exceed half a
billion. Sometime within the next five years, the
number of wireless subscribers is expected to surpass
the number of worldwide wireline subscribers. The
upcoming 3G systems will harness ever-improving
technology to boost performance, accommodate
more traffic, reduce the cost of service, and enable
the creation of exciting new data and multimedia
services.
Bell Labs has had a major role in launching the
multi-billion dollar wireless communications industry.
Many of the fundamental discoveries in communica-
tions theory and the key enabling technologies—such
as the vocoder, steerable antennas, and the cellular
concept—have come from Bell Labs research.
This paper is devoted to a description of selected
major enabling technologies relating to the physical
radio air interface and some of the breakthrough
Bell Labs research in these areas. So many technolo-
gies contribute to wireless capabilities that we can
only touch on a small fraction of them here. A com-
panion paper in this issue1 describes the wireless net-
work evolution, network and software technologies,
and the future of wireless applications.
A Brief History of Mobile and Personal
Communications
Our brief history of mobile and personal commu-
nications includes a look at their early history, a
description of the ascendancy of digital communica-
tions, and their continuation into second-generation
(2G) and 3G technologies.
Early History
Wireless communications has a rich history, dat-
ing back to the fundamental experiments performed
by Heinrich Hertz in the 1880s and by Guglielmo
Marconi towards the end of the nineteenth century.
It was Marconi who initially demonstrated the prac-
ticality of communications with ships at sea—the
first instance of mobile communications.

Copyright 2000. Lucent Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 107
 Panel 1. Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms
2G—second generation
3G—third generation
1X—single-carrier (1.25-MHz) version of
cdma2000*, a 3G system
3X—multi-carrier (5-MHz) version of cdma2000,
a 3G system
A/D—analog to digital
ACELP—algebraic code excited linear prediction
AGPS—assisted GPS
AMPS—Advanced Mobile Phone Service
ASIC—application-specific integrated circuit
BER—bit error rate
BLAST—Bell Labs layered space time
cdma2000—3G CDMA standard, part of the ITU
IMT-2000 radio interference recommendation
CDMA—code division multiple access
CELP—code excited linear prediction
codec—coder/decoder
CTIA—Cellular Telecommunications Industry
Association
D/A—digital to analog
D-BLAST—diagonal BLAST
DECT—digital European cordless telephone
DSP—digital signal processing or processor
EVRC—enhanced variable rate codec
FCC—Federal Communications Commission
FDD—frequency division duplexing
FDMA—frequency division multiple access
FM—frequency modulation
FPLMTS—Future Public Land Mobile
Telecommunications System
GPS—Global Positioning System
GSM—Global System for Mobile Communications
IF—intermediate frequency
IMT-2000—International Mobile
Telecommunications 2000
IP—Internet protocol
IS—Interim Standard
ITU—International Telecommunication Union
LPC—linear predictive coding
MA-SIC—multiple antenna successive interference
canceler
Radio research started in the Bell System in 1914,
and by 1919 G. A. Campbell2 had filed a patent appli-
cation that discussed the use of antenna arrays to pro-
vide directive transmission. In 1916, Bell System
engineers conducted the first test of two-way radio
108 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
MMSE—minimum mean square error
MOS—mean opinion score
MRC—maximum, or maximal, ratio combining
MSC—mobile switching center
Ocelot—cellular optimization tool, Lucent
Technologies
PCM—pulse code modulation
PCS—personal communications services
PDC—personal digital cellular
RAKE receiver—an optimum receiver structure
consisting of several parallel receivers, one per
time-delayed version, with the output of all
branches added in a combiner to decode the
transmitted symbol. It receives a signal, along
with time-delayed versions of that signal. The
parallel branches look like the teeth of a rake.
RCELP—code excited linear prediction with a
relaxation of the strict waveform-matching
criterion
RF—radio frequency
RFID—radio-frequency identification
RTT—radio transmission technology
SCDMA—synchronous CDMA
SIC—successive interference canceler
SIR—signal-to-interference ratio
SNR—signal-to-noise ratio
SPAT—System Performance Analysis Tool
STS—space-time spreading
SYNC sequence—synchronization sequence
TDD—time division duplexing
TDMA—time division multiple access
TD—time division
TIA—Telecommunications Industry Association
TTAA—Tower Top Active Array
UMTS—Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System
UTRA—UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
UWC—universal wireless communications
V-BLAST—vertical BLAST
VLSI—very large scale integration
vocoder—voice coder
WARC—World Administrative Radio Conference
telephony with Naval ships.3 The development of
mobile communications was stimulated by the needs
of governmental agencies, and in 1921 the Detroit
police department deployed the first mobile radio dis-
patch system.
 The need for secure communications during World
War II provided the impetus for Bell Labs to develop a
system for secret telephony. Given the code name
“Sigsaly” by the United States Signal Corps, the system
used digitized and encoded speech that was spread and
scrambled with pseudo-random keys. It was the first
application of vocoding (invented earlier at Bell Labs)
combined with pulse code modulation (PCM). Due to
the secrecy of the project, the patents were not issued
until 1976.4 During the war, Roosevelt and Churchill
used the system for secret discussions.
The experimental work at Bell Labs directed
towards mobile systems led to the first commercial
mobile telephone system in 1946, a push-to-talk sys-
tem that required operator intervention.5 The increas-
ing popularity of mobile service rapidly exhausted the
capacity of the few available channels. With this in
mind, in a 1947 internal Bell Labs memorandum
D. H. Ring proposed the cellular concept, illustrated in
Figure 1. Instead of using a single high-power trans-
mitter to reach users within a radius of 40 km, Ring
proposed using “cells” as small as 1 km, with lower-
power transmitters within each cell and an assignment
of channels to each cell. This technique allowed fre-
quencies to be reused more often, thus increasing
capacity significantly. The small coverage area of each
cell imposed a requirement that each call be “handed
off” from one cell to another without a perceptible
interruption as the user moved. The implementation
of the concept had to await the advent of the micro-
processor and miniaturized remotely controlled radio-
frequency (RF) synthesizers, as well as sophisticated
software controlled switching systems.
Meanwhile, mobile radio systems evolved to take
advantage of semiconductor technology, but capacity
remained low. In 1964, the Bell System introduced a
system that provided for automatic idle channel search
and direct dialing, leading to even more service
demand.6 The Bell System made a series of requests to
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for
significant frequency allocations to allow high-capacity
services. This led Bell Labs to make a formal proposal
of the cellular concept—then becoming technically
feasible—to the FCC in 1971.7 In 1972, Amos Joel was
granted a patent8 on central control and switching for
cellular systems. Following a small-cell system trial
during 1973 and 1974 in Newark, New Jersey,9 a ser-
vice trial of a fully operational cellular system was
launched in the Chicago, Illinois, area in 1978.10 In
1981, the FCC gave approval to offer service, and the
first commercial systems in the United States were in
operation in 1982 and 1983. During this same time
period, analog cellular systems similar to the Advanced
Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) were introduced in
Europe, Japan, and other parts of the world.
The Ascendancy of Digital Technology
The important science and technology in the early
history of wireless dealt with electromagnetic propaga-
tion, detection, heterodyning, (analog) modulation,
and demodulation. Around the time AMPS was intro-
duced, however, the information world was well on its
way to a digital revolution. Although the transistor
was invented in 1947—the same year cellular tele-
phony was first proposed—its force, in the form of
integrated circuits driving digital communications, was
only beginning to be felt when AMPS first went into
large-scale commercial deployment.
Instead of making electronic components one at a
time and then assembling them, it became possible to
“print” a complete system on one chip, including all
the active devices and their interconnections, at very
low cost and in very high volumes. The learning curve
associated with this high-volume manufacturing
process has allowed the complexity of integrated cir-
cuits to be doubled about every 18 months with
astounding regularity. As a result, today it is possible to
buy nearly 10 million transistors (with all their inter-
connections) on a single chip for about what a single
transistor cost less than 30 years ago.
Figure 2 shows the impact of shrinking cell
phone terminals from the early trials (where they
barely fit into a full-size car) to today’s modern termi-
nals, which easily fit in a shirt pocket. This is espe-
cially impressive when we consider that the early
phones were little more than radios, while the mod-
ern ones are essentially sophisticated computers capa-
ble of hundreds of millions of calculations per second.
This dramatic progress is the fundamental reason that
cellular telephony can be made widely available at
reasonable costs.
Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 109
 E-1932 (7-47)

Bell Telephone Laboratories

incorporated

Cover Sheet for Technical Memoranda

Mobile Telephony - Wide Ar ea Coverage - Case 20564 _

subject

copies to:
1 —R . B r o w n - D e p t . 1 0 0 0 F i l e s mm– 4 7 - 1 6 0 - 3 7
2 —C a s e F i l e s date 1 1 D e c e m b e r 1 9 4 7
3 — H . T. F r i i s - H o l m d e l F i l e author D . H . R i n g
4 —P a t e n t D e p t .
5 — B . W. K e n d a l l
6 —H . A . A f f e l
7 — G . W. G i l m a n
8-R.K.Potter
9-J.R.Wilson
1 0 - J . W. M c R a e
11-E.L.Nelson XXXXXXXX
abstract
12-C.B.Feldman
13-A.C.Dickieson
14-D.Mitchell
1 5 - F. B . L l e w e l l y n
16-G.C.Southworth
17-J.C.Schelleng
1 8 - W. R . Y o u n g
19-K.Bullington
20-D.H.Ring

ABSTRACT

In this memorandum it is postulated that an adequate

mobile radio system should provide service to any equipped
vehicle at any point in the whole country. Some of the features
resulting from this conception of the problem are discussed with
reference to a rather obvious plan for providing such service.
The plan which is outlined briefly is not proposed as the best
solution resulting from an exhaustive study, but rather is
presented as a point of departure for discussion and comparison
of alternative suggestions which may be made.

The discussion in this memorandum is limited to some

pr oblems concer ned with the efficient utilization of a given
frequency allocation for wide area coverage. Only a portion
of the total allocation is available at any one point in the
plan discussed. It is hoped that a future memorandum can be
pr epar ed dealing with the most efficient utilization of the
frequency band assigned to a particular small area, i.e.,
methods of modulation, multiplexing, etc.

(a) Cover sheet from D. H. Ring’s memo.

(b) Drawing from D. H. Ring’s memo, showing the proposed “cell sites.”

Figure 1.
D. H. Ring’s 1947 memo proposing the first “cellular concept.”

110 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000

 Radio
tranceiver

Chicago trial equipment

Discretes: 300 ICs: 130

Control
2,000 unit

Early AMPS service

Discretes: 225 ICs: 90
Outboard
logic unit
500 Commercial service
trunk-mounted unit
Discretes: 150 ICs: 75
Volume (cubic inches)

Transportable terminal
200
Integrated logic Discretes: 100 ICs: 60
unit/transceiver
with control unit Portable
100 Discretes: 100 ICs: 30
Portable
32 Discretes: 50 ICs: 25
Pocket phone
16 Discretes: 45 ICs: 20
14
PCMCIA (estimate)
2 Discretes: 30 ICs: 15
Soft radio
Discretes: 5 ICs: 2
1

1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002

Year
AMPS – Advanced Mobile Phone Service
IC – Integrated circuit
PCMCIA – Personal Computer Memory Card
International Association

Figure 2.
Increasing popularity of mobile phones with their decreasing size.

Digital technology has become the driving force
for the entire wireless system. It is applicable to sys-
tem components—that is, networking elements and
base stations—as well as to terminals. The processing
power that can be put into phones enables wireless
systems to provide reliable service using the mini-
mum amount of spectrum in the presence of complex
interference from multiple users. Digital technology
can also be used to reduce power consumption—
because batteries are not improving at a significant
rate—and add complex features like voice recogni-
tion. It can make complex wireless data services prac-
tical, and it can lower cost.
In the future, continued progress in digital tech-
nology will enable the complex, multi-antenna pro-
cessing that can improve spectral efficiency by orders
of magnitude, as we describe later in the section
“Bell Labs Layered Space Time.”
The Second Generation: Digital Cellular and PCS
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, even as
analog cellular systems were first going into service,

Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 111

research and development of digital cellular systems
were in progress. The promise of digital technology
included systems with higher capacity, more robust
voice quality, and the capability to provide data ser-
vices. In 1981 Bell Labs demonstrated a digital mobile
system supporting digital speech, data transmission,
adaptive modulation, and encryption. By 1984 devel-
opment of newer digital cellular prototypes was in
progress, and in 1988 Bell Labs conducted the
world’s first trial of digital cellular capability in a live
operational cellular system in Chicago.11 The system
proved the feasibility of dual mode (analog or digital)
operation, as well as handoffs between the two
modes. This development was important for system
use in the United States, since it was expected that
any new digital systems would be sharing spectrum
with analog service.
In the meantime, worldwide interest in specifying
digital cellular standards for commercial use was rising.
In Europe, where new 900-MHz spectrum had been
made available virtually continent wide, a new stan-
dardization body—the “Groupe Spéciale Mobile”
(GSM)—was formed in 1982 to study and specify a
common, Pan-European standard. In 1986 compara-
tive tests were made of several digital radio transmis-
sion prototypes. The phase 1 GSM (now known as the
Global System for Mobile Communications) recom-
mendations were completed in 1990, with first com-
mercial service in 1992.12
In North America, several digital systems were
proposed by a number of major wireless equipment
manufacturers and researchers. These proposals were
discussed within the Cellular Telecommunications
Industry Association (CTIA) and the Telecom-
munications Industry Association (TIA) during the
mid-1980s. In early 1989, a technology selection was
made, using digital time division multiple access
(TDMA) as an access method, and standardization
within the TIA followed. Bell Labs was heavily
involved in the process, and much of the technology
in this standard was developed at Bell Labs. In
mid-1990, Revision 0 of the IS-54 standard was com-
plete, and Bell Labs demonstrated the first IS-54 call in
January 1991. Commercial service using IS-54 (later
enhanced to become IS-136) was put in place in 1993.
112 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
In Japan a similar system, the personal digital cellular
(PDC) system, was standardized in 1991.
Also in the United States, another system, based
on code division multiple access (CDMA), was pro-
posed. A number of carriers expressed interest in the
idea, which was standardized as IS-95 in 1993. Again,
Bell Labs was a key player in this standardization, and
Lucent Technologies has become the industry leader
in CDMA commercial deployment, having launched
its first commercial system in 1995.
Between 1995 and 1997, the FCC auctioned
140 MHz of spectrum (1850 to 1990 MHz), known as
the personal communications services (PCS) band,
enabling additional carriers to enter the market. By the
late 1990s, 2G digital networks based on the three
major standards were deployed extensively world-
wide. Subscriber growth outpaced even the most opti-
mistic estimates.
The Third Generation: IMT-2000
Even while 2G systems were being standardized
and deployed, discussions of 3G international systems
were beginning. The Future Public Land Mobile
Telecommunications System (FPLMTS) was started as
an ITU project in 1985, and later became IMT-2000, or
International Mobile Telecommunications 2000. At
the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC)
in 1992, spectrum was defined for these next-
generation systems. The vision of IMT-2000 was a
single, worldwide standard offering high-speed multi-
media service with data rates as high as 2 Mb/s and
global roaming capabilities.
By June 1998 the ITU received a number of radio
transmission technology (RTT) proposals from around
the world. Bell Labs was involved in several of these
proposals. In November 1998 the ITU determined that
all proposals met the minimum performance capability
requirements. The goal of a single air interface for
IMT-2000 became instead a small set of terrestrial air
interfaces, in recognition of the need for each region to
evolve from current 2G systems.
Harmonization and consensus building activities
have been proceeding since 1997 in different fora.13,14
Based on these activities, the wireless industry and the
ITU have agreed upon a single IMT-2000 terrestrial
standard with five ITU-recommended radio interfaces
(Draft ITU-R Recommendation M), identified as:
• IMT-2000 CDMA direct spread (for UTRA
FDD);
• IMT-2000 CDMA multi-carrier (for cdma2000*,
including 1X and 3X);
• IMT-2000 CDMA TDD (for harmonized UTRA
TDD and TD-SCDMA from China);
• IMT-2000 TDMA single carrier (for UWC-136);
and
• IMT-2000 FDMA/TDMA (for DECT).
Going Forward
For most of the history of telecommunications,
wireless has played a significant, but decidedly sec-
ondary, role relative to wireline. Now, however, a
major shift is under way. The shift began with the dra-
matic capacity increase that the cellular concept made
possible. Today digital technology is bringing the cost of
wireless down toward parity with the wired network.
The day is not far off when most of what we think of
today as “telephone service”—namely, voice phone
calls—will be carried by wireless networks. The conve-
nience of tetherless phones is definitely compelling,
and it will overcome whatever cost differences remain.
Wired access will then evolve towards very low-cost,
very high-speed links for applications that need the
bandwidth but do not need the mobility—that is, wire-
less will serve the “traditional” applications and wired
access will be reserved for “specialized” applications.
Fiber and packet backbone networks of enormous
capacity and flexibility will carry all of the bits, regard-
less of whether their origin is wired or wireless.
And it does not stop there. The digital revolution is
now bringing 3G wireless to cellular and PCS. This will
begin to remove the data performance barrier for
wireless, and it will further drive down the cost of
wireless voice, as well as data. The companion paper
on networking and wireless applications1 tells one
very important part of the rest of the story: The future
of wireless is not just voice; the network and applica-
tions will play increasingly important roles. The trans-
formation of the wired network to Internet, IP, and
broadband services will find its reflection in wireless.
Touched on only briefly in these papers are other
technologies that promise to extend the reach of wire-
less communications to all manner of devices via low-
cost, short-range systems and so make wireless com-
munications ever more compelling. A great deal of
creative energy is going into developing and commer-
cializing systems that will work at various through-
puts, distances, and error rates. In this arena Bell Labs
has contributed, for example, to smart cards that com-
municate over centimeters and to radio-frequency
identification (RFID) tags15 that communicate over
tens of meters. Using such technologies, a wireless
device will soon be able to communicate through a cell
phone, using the Internet, to advise the owner of his
or her location and that of the nearest fast-food pur-
veyor, and then automatically pay for the food.
Not discussed in these papers are more specialized
wireless communications systems such as mobile satel-
lite and fixed wireless. These will have important roles
to play, and technology will be shared across the vari-
ous arenas.
Technology in research labs today will continue to
push the boundaries of performance, cost, and capac-
ity in wireless communications, which will bring about
many of these changes. The remainder of this paper
describes some of those technologies and discusses
what is in store for the future.
Enabling Technologies
Many enabling technologies have driven and will
continue to drive wireless capabilities into the future.
Numerous research activities at Bell Labs are focused
on improving the performance, capacity, and capabili-
ties of wireless systems. In this section, we describe
several technologies that especially affect the radio air
interface. The companion paper1 in this issue describes
network and software technologies.
Speech Coding
The first voice coder, or vocoder, was invented in
the 1930s by H. W. Dudley16 of Bell Labs to compress
speech signals into a smaller bandwidth. Vocoders
were improved through linear predictive coding
(LPC), developed by Bell Labs in the early 1970s,17
and then through code excited linear prediction
(CELP) in the early 1980s. 18 Speech coding is
required for all digital voice communications. In the
wired world, speech coding using PCM at 64 kb/s is
widely deployed. With the advent of fiber optics,
Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 113
bandwidth has become much less of an issue in the
wired network. For wireless, however, with spectrum
scarce and expensive, compression at low bit rates has
been an essential enabling technology.
Today’s digital wireless networks employ a num-
ber of speech compression algorithms, operating at bit
rates ranging from about 5 kb/s to about 13 kb/s. All
are evolutionary outgrowths of CELP. Significant new
development has been required to accommodate the
acoustically noisy environments and difficult radio
propagation conditions in which mobile telephones
are typically used. Background noise can cause arti-
facts in the reproduced speech, and—unlike the
10-6 error rates typical of wired networks—wireless
speech coders have to operate with bit error and
packet loss probabilities in the 10-2 range.
CELP and its various descendants model speech as
the output of two cascaded all-pole filters, excited by a
noise-like sequence. Likely sets of parameter values
describing the filter coefficients, gains, and shapes of
the excitation sequence are stored in tables, or code-
books, by the CELP encoder and decoder. The input
speech is divided into processing intervals, or frames,
and each frame is analyzed by the encoder to deter-
mine the set of parameters that best enables it to be
re-synthesized at the decoder. Rather than transmit-
ting the values of the parameters, the encoder trans-
mits only the codebook indices. Consequently, the bit
rate is determined by the size of the codebooks, not by
the precision of the actual parameter values. The chal-
lenge is to make the aggregate number of bits required
to represent all the codebook indices small while still
being able to represent sufficient states to reproduce
high-quality speech, particularly in the high-error
wireless environment.
Two approaches have been taken to deal with the
background noise problem. One has been to relax the
extremely speech-specific model in order to render
more natural background noise. This approach has
been made possible largely by the advances in digital
signal processing (DSP) device technology, which
made it cost effective to implement more complex
algorithms. The 13-kb/s CDMA-13k19 vocoder used in
IS-95 CDMA systems contains a larger excitation code-
book that enables it to render signals other than
114 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
speech at the expense of higher complexity and bit
rate. In IS-136 TDMA, the algebraic code excited linear
prediction (ACELP)20 algorithm uses sophisticated
codebook structures and search methodologies to keep
the bit rate at 7.25 kb/s, while achieving improved
robustness to noise—again at the expense of complex-
ity. The most dramatic approach to solving the back-
ground noise problem was employed in the enhanced
variable rate codec (EVRC),21 the current generation
IS-95x CDMA speech coder.
Developed by a Lucent-led industry collaboration
using the Bell Labs RCELP algorithm, the EVRC
applies an adaptive noise cancellation filter prior to
encoding to prevent the noise from getting into the
system. Since the noise never reaches the encoder, the
encoder is tightly optimized for speech, giving high
speech quality at an average bit rate of about 4 kb/s for
conversation. The speech quality, measured by mean
opinion score (MOS) in controlled listening tests,
improved by about one point on a five-point scale, giv-
ing it the same quality as the 13-kb/s coder it replaces.
A number of approaches have been taken to
make the current generation of wireless speech coders
more robust to radio channel impairments. The EVRC
was designed to minimize the recovery interval for
state information when frames are lost because of
transmission errors. It does this by limiting interframe
dependencies and by incorporating specific state
recovery information into the transmitted parameters.
The GSM adaptive multi-rate coder modifies the
speech and channel coding rates according to mea-
sured channel conditions. In good channels, a high-
bit-rate speech coder is used with very little
protection. In poor channels, a lower-bit-rate speech
coder is used, but the bits are given much more pro-
tection. This evens out performance over a wider
range of radio conditions. Figure 3 compares the per-
formance of a number of different speech coding stan-
dards in degraded radio conditions.
As mobile telephony moves to 3G systems and a
more unified packet data/voice architecture for the
wireless network, speech coding will continue to be a
central technology. Higher quality at lower bit rates
will still be an important concern, but we will also see
a shift from a speech-only orientation to a wider
 GSM and IS-136 TDMA IS-95x CDMA frame
bit error channel model erasure channel model

4.00 4.75- to 12.2-kb/s 4.00

GSM AMR 13-kb/s
CDMA-13k
3.66 3.66
12.2-kb/s GSM
enhanced full rate
Mean opinion score

Mean opinion score

8.5-kb/s
3.33 7.25-kb/s 3.33
EVRC
TDMA ACELP

3.00 3.00

Operating
2.66 region Operating 2.66 Operating
for IS-136 region region
8.5-kb/s
TDMA for GSM for CDMA
CDMA-8k
2.33 2.33

0 1 3 5 7 0 1 2 3 4

Residual bit error rate (%) after channel coding Average frame erasure rate (%)

ACELP – Algebraic code excited linear prediction EVRC – Enhanced variable rate codec
AMR – Adaptive multi-rate GSM – Global System for Mobile Communication
CDMA – Code division multiple access TDMA – Time division multiple access
codec – Coder/decoder

Figure 3.
Comparison of performance of speech coders in impaired channels.

variety of multimedia services, including wideband
speech, audio, and video.
Network RF Optimization—Toward The Plug-N-Play Base
Station
During a typical wireless system design, the ser-
vice provider and Lucent contractually agree to system
performance goals. Once the system is built, the task is
to optimize the system performance by adjusting the
RF emission characteristics of each cell site sector so
that collective cells achieve maximum capacity over
the entire network. The optimization process consists
of two tasks:
• Tuning the network to achieve a predeter-
mined performance goal, and
• Acquiring the set of measurements to docu-
ment the achieved performance level.
Both tasks require extensive drive testing throughout
the network. Commonly recorded performance mea-
surements are call completion rates, blocked call rates,
and call drop rates. These measurements are taken at a
specified level of network loading and averaged over
the drive route.
Although differences exist in the specific proce-
dures used to optimize CDMA, TDMA, and FDMA
networks, similarities are apparent in their general
procedures, which focus on maximizing coverage,
minimizing intercell interference, and assuring reliable
intercell handoffs. Typically, the entire network can be

Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 115

optimized by adjusting a set of primary cell parame-
ters, including the forward transmit power, antenna
orientation and downtilt, neighbor lists, and frequency
plan. In a much smaller section of the network, spe-
cific performance anomalies may be improved by
adjusting such translations as handoff thresholds and
pilot search windows.
For any air interface, optimization drive testing
requires significant labor and time. With the ubiqui-
tous deployment of newer generation, less expensive
base stations, existing system optimization represents
an ever-increasing percentage of cell acquisition cost.
However, recent Bell Labs research is reformulating
the entire optimization process by using software tools
and hardware that will initially eliminate the need for
mandatory drive testing and ultimately enable auto-
matic and adaptive optimization of the network. This
process can be separated into three distinct phases:
• Deployment optimization phase. During installa-
tion, predictive algorithms calculate optimum
cell parameters. These calculations eliminate
drive testing and enable network startup in a
nearly optimized state immediately following
mobile switching center (MSC) integration.
• In-service optimization phase. Following network
startup, optimization algorithms and in-service
measurement data rapidly refine the optimiza-
tion by determining the best new cell parame-
ter settings.
• Dynamic optimization phase. Optimization tech-
niques enable the network to adapt to chang-
ing operational conditions (such as loading,
outages, and growth).
Deployment optimization is achieved by:
• Using predictive RF design tools (such as the
Lucent AirPro), which base their calculations
on factors like deterministic propagation mod-
els, network topology descriptions, geography,
and traffic density; and
• Augmenting these tools with mathematical
optimization algorithms that calculate the best
initial values for the principal cell parameters.
To optimize cell parameters, Bell Labs has devel-
oped several software optimization tools, collectively
referred to as Ocelot, the Lucent Cellular Optimization
116 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
Tool. Ocelot optimizes network coverage and capacity
with respect to selected cell tuning parameters using
RF propagation and RF link performance models.
The result of the Ocelot calculations is a tradeoff
curve, which describes the set of optimum network
solutions as a function of the relative importance
placed on capacity and coverage. Associated with each
point on the tradeoff curve is a geographical plot that
displays the corresponding network performance.
Results of a trial market analysis are shown in
Figure 4. Figure 4a shows the market coverage plot
for the network operating with default parameter set-
tings for antenna tilt and power. Figure 4b shows the
coverage with optimized settings. The red zones
denote coverage holes, which are due to inadequate
signal or excessive interference. Results from this
analysis are accurate enough to permit initial launch of
the network and allow the collection of live, traffic-
based performance measurements.
“In-service” optimization is a network refinement
resulting from the analysis of live, traffic-based perfor-
mance measurements. Using tools such as the Lucent-
developed System Performance Analysis Tool (SPAT),
field personnel can visualize and interpret measure-
ment results and implement solutions. In-service mea-
surements will also be employed to refine and update
the input data sent to deployment optimization tools—
such as Ocelot—which use this data to dynamically
optimize network operation.
Dynamic optimization is the real-time adjustment of
network parameters to improve performance. As an
example, Bell Labs is experimenting with antennas
that can be automatically down-tilted. Prototypes of
the Tower Top Active Array (TTAA), developed in
1999 by Bell Labs, demonstrate the feasibility of such
an approach.
The Widening Role of Wireless Telephony: Geolocation
Technology
Until now, the wireless revolution has been driven
primarily by voice communications. As wireless tele-
phony becomes the normal mode of communication,
especially as it is augmented with the capabilities of
3G, demand for wireless services beyond voice will
multiply.1 The wireless technology of the future will
be shaped increasingly by the requirements of these
 Gray – Covered region
Red – Coverage hole

1.0 1.0

0.9 0.9
Capacity

Capacity
0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1.00 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1.00
Coverage Coverage

(a) Market coverage plot (top) for network
operating with default (sub-optimal)
parameter settings corresponding to
coverage and capacity point indicated in
the tradeoff curve (bottom). Coverage
holes account for 4.5% of desired
coverage region.
(b) Market coverage plot (top) for network
operating with optimized parameter
settings corresponding to coverage and
capacity point indicated in the tradeoff
curve (bottom). Coverage holes were
reduced by more than 65% using
optimized settings.

Figure 4.
Results of an Ocelot trial market analysis.

additional services. We have already mentioned the
use of ultra-low-cost radio technologies that will allow
ordinary devices to communicate at short range. In this
section we describe another example of application-
enabling wireless technology: determining the geo-
graphical location, or geolocation, of mobile devices.
Geolocation is the key to a wide range of wireless
applications. Public safety will be enhanced when the
locations of wireless callers can be determined auto-
matically (a requirement for mobile service operators
in the United States22). Direction-finding services,
already in wide use in high-end automobiles, will
become ubiquitous. Tracking of freight-hauling vehi-
cles, done by expensive satellite services, will be
extended to widespread “mobile inventory” applica-
tions. Geolocation, which can pinpoint such things as

Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 117

the nearest filling station or restaurant, will greatly
enhance commercial information for mobile individu-
als and the transactions associated with it.
Personal geolocation capability is already available
today in the form of stand-alone handheld devices that
take advantage of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Today’s GPS units cost about as much as a cell phone,
use about as much battery power, and provide consid-
erably less coverage (for example, indoor GPS use is
generally not possible). The technology described here
adds GPS capability to wireless phones and provides
geolocation assistance from the network. The result is
substantially improved performance, in every one of
the above dimensions, over stand-alone GPS. Lucent’s
vision is that ordinary wireless phones will come
equipped with geolocation capability—certainly by the
time 3G systems are being widely deployed—and that
geolocation will be a standard feature available to wire-
less non-voice applications.
Approaches for geolocation of wireless phones are
generally categorized as network-based or handset-
based. In network-based solutions, modifications to
the air interface—from phone to base station and to
the phone itself—are not allowed, or they are kept to a
bare minimum. Network software and/or hardware
enhancements that use wireless network signals
enable geolocation. All of these approaches have
shortcomings in accuracy, cost, or operational
impact.22
Because deriving geolocation purely from the net-
work is difficult, there has been growing interest in
handset-based solutions, particularly in incorporating
GPS capability. A new technology, known as assisted
GPS (AGPS), makes it feasible not only to add GPS to
the phone, but also—with assistance from the net-
work—to make it work considerably better than
stand-alone GPS. It uses a partial GPS function in the
phone and then takes advantage of the fact that the
phone is connected to a network with very substantial
resources that can be shared among many phones.
Whenever a phone’s location is desired, the network
passes along an “assisting” message, based on continu-
ous observation of all the visible satellites. With this
assistance, the phone’s partial GPS need not conduct a
wide search, which dramatically shortens the time to
118 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
first fix. Of course, this assistance also eliminates the
battery drain associated with continuous tracking to
avoid the cold-start problem. Moreover, the assisting
message improves the GPS sensitivity so that in most
cases satellites can be seen indoors as well as outdoors,
although less accurately. Figure 5 shows an AGPS
network architecture.
Lucent has been active in developing and testing
the AGPS technology and in getting it adopted for all
digital wireless standards. Within the standards,
Lucent is also pursuing technology improvements that
rely more on network resources as a way of keeping
phone costs to a minimum. (For example, Lucent’s
modulation wipe-off method is the “sensitivity assis-
tance” embodied in the CDMA geolocation standard.23
This method enables the mobile unit to use longer
integration times by adjusting for the low-bit-rate data
encoding of the GPS signal.) In addition, Lucent’s
approach is actually a hybrid of handset and network
approaches, in which geolocation calculations take
advantage of information from the wireless network
and GPS satellites to achieve maximum performance.
Digital and Software Radio
The major function of a wireless base station is to
transmit and receive RF signals to and from multiple
subscriber terminals, process these signals, and transfer
the voice or data information to or from the network.
A typical base station contains a combination of both
low-power and high-power RF and analog compo-
nents and processing, as well as digital processing. In
general, the RF transceivers, along with the associated
digital processing, are known as radios. Advances in
DSP and very large scale integration (VLSI) have taken
radios from the pure analog frequency modulation
(FM) processing of early cellular systems to the mod-
ern radio, which has a high digital content. This trend
will continue and one day will result in a single “pro-
grammable” base station that can accommodate
multiple air interface standards.
Rapid improvements in the performance and
price of fixed-point DSP technology—both in the
form of programmable DSP chips and application-
specific integrated circuits (ASICs)—and improve-
ments in the price/performance characteristics (that
is, higher speed and higher dynamic range) of analog-
 GPS satellites
GPS
signal
• Select PDE
• Process request
Assisting information
about GPS signal
(for example,
IS-801 for CDMA)
Mobile with
partial GPS Base
stations
CDMA – Code division multiple access
GPS – Global Positioning System
MPC – Mobile positioning center
PDE – Position determining equipment
Figure 5.
AGPS architecture.
to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters
have resulted in moving many of the functions tradi-
tionally performed in analog circuitry to the digital
domain. The improvements in digital technology—
coupled with improvements in wideband linear power
amplification technology and the increased availability
of low-cost, high dynamic range, wideband RF com-
ponents—have resulted in the following overall trends:
• Increased digital content, with digital process-
ing moving closer to the antenna, as indicated
in Figure 6;
• A transition to wider-band radios, which allow
processing of multiple RF carriers simultane-
ously, without the need for multiple discrete
radios; and
• An increase in the percentage of radio func-
tions performed in software or firmware.
To understand the transition to wider-band radios,
consider the following. In conventional base station
architectures, multiple radios are used to support mul-
GPS
signal
MPC
Reference
GPS receiver
Mobile
switching PDE
center
tiple RF carriers. In the case of analog systems, where
one carrier supports a single FM voice channel, a radio
is needed for each active voice channel. In digital sys-
tems, where an RF carrier supports multiple voice or
data users via CDMA or TDMA multiple access, fewer
radios are required. In all cases, with conventional
processing a radio is needed for each RF carrier. The
ability to digitally sample and process at higher speeds
allows the use of a common wideband radio for mul-
tiple RF carriers. In this case, digitization occurs for an
entire band, such as a complete 15-MHz PCS spectrum
block. Digital processing performs the RF carrier chan-
nel filtering, as well as the baseband processing. In
addition to allowing wider bands to be processed,
these advances also allow processing to occur at
increasingly higher frequencies, moving the digital
processing from baseband to ever-higher intermediate
frequencies (IFs) and eventually to direct processing at
RF. Sharing a single RF subsection and performing
more processing digitally will provide greater flexibility
Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 119
 Antennas
A/D
AMP
RF/analog
processing
A/D – Analog to digital
AMP – Amplifier
RF – Radio frequency
Figure 6.
High-level view of base station functions showing analog to digital migration.
and lower costs, especially as the cost of digital pro-
cessing continues to decrease.
The increased number of functions performed dig-
itally leads further to implementation in program-
mable or reconfigurable devices via software, and thus
to the designation “software radio” or “software-
definable radio.” A software radio is a highly flexible
radio base station or subscriber terminal platform that
incorporates many of the technologies described
above, as well as others, to give it flexibility and
programmability well beyond what is found in con-
ventional digital or analog radios.24,25
A true software radio would provide a platform
for multiple standards and services, where functional-
ity can be changed via software downloads. The bene-
fits include increased flexibility, smaller size, and
potentially lower cost. As standards evolve and ser-
vices are improved or added, software radio base sta-
tions and customer units can adapt rapidly to new
technologies without the need for major equipment
changes or replacements, thus providing investment
protection and quick response to market demands.
The flexibility of the software radio architecture also
enables intelligent or smart antenna functionality,
since with appropriate design, all information from
multiple antennas can be made available to the digital
120 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
Network Network
Digital
processing interface
processing section. Lucent has already announced the
development of a wideband software radio base sta-
tion product.
Although much of the description above was pre-
sented in the context of base station network equip-
ment, certainly the same technology trends, drivers,
and advances may be applied to end-user terminals.
Modern terminals, especially those based on one of
the current prevalent digital standards, are heavily
based on DSP and/or digital ASIC technology. While
current terminals may not be classified as true soft-
ware radios, some configuration- and parameter-
setting capabilities are available, allowing over-the-air
activation. Many also allow software upgrades. Some
terminals—especially those used in the United States,
where multiple standards exist—allow dual-mode
(usually digital/analog) operation, although they are
generally fixed-programmed for these modes. (In fixed-
programmed operation, two preprogrammed modes
can be used alternately, but they cannot be down-
loaded over the air.) Multi-band terminals are also
becoming much more common. Due to constraints in
cost, size, and power consumption, “full” software
radios may make their way more slowly into sub-
scriber terminals, perhaps gaining acceptance in high-
end terminals first.
 Certainly as the world migrates to IMT-2000—
with its multiple service options, its requirement for
global roaming, and the co-existence of other current
standards—highly flexible terminals will become
more commonplace. The advances in radio technol-
ogy will continue to make this transition possible and
cost effective.
Interference Mitigation and Capacity Improvement
Techniques
In wireless systems, the effect of radio interference
is one of the key determinants of system capacity.
Interference comes from several sources, including:
• Co-channel interference from users in other
cells or systems using the same frequency;
• Interference emanating from multipath propa-
gation, a form of self-interference in which a
signal takes multiple paths due to signal scat-
tering and interferes with itself, causing signal
fading; and
• Multi-user interference within the same cell,
such as would be found in a system where
multiple users are sharing the same frequency.
The effects of interference are compounded by the
users’ mobility, which adds time-varying effects such
as Doppler spread and fading to the resultant signal. In
early, pre-cellular mobile systems, which relied on
high-power transmitters, interference was avoided at
the cost of very low capacity. The cellular concept is
centered around the control and management of
co-channel interference by carefully engineering a pat-
tern of cells to allow the same frequency bands to be
used repeatedly.
A rapid increase in the number of wireless sub-
scribers, coupled with the anticipated deployment of
data services, is placing a heavy demand on increasing
wireless system capacity. This need for additional
capacity is fueling a continual need to develop tech-
niques for increasing spectral efficiency, since the spec-
trum available to wireless service providers is limited
and is quickly becoming saturated.
In general, interference is considered an impair-
ment that reduces system capacity and performance. A
number of techniques have evolved to mitigate inter-
ference and, at the expense of complexity, they
increase either the capacity or the quality, or both. In
addition, techniques have been developed to take
advantage of interference, even to the point of inten-
tionally creating multipath interference to obtain per-
formance increases. This section describes research into
three techniques—intelligent antennas, multi-user
detection/interference cancellation, and Bell Labs
Layered Space Time (BLAST). Each of these techniques
provides interference mitigation and/or interference
exploitation for capacity and performance gains.
Adaptive intelligent antennas. Advances in DSP
are providing the low-cost computational capability
that is making intelligent antennas, long known in
other contexts,26 useful for wireless communications.
Bell Labs pioneered the practical application of adap-
tive antenna processing to wireless in the early to
mid-1990s,27-29 leading to intelligent antenna features
in Lucent’s wireless product line. While increasing
capacity is their primary focus, some additional bene-
fits of intelligent antennas are their increased cell area
coverage, improved call quality, improved mobile bat-
tery life, reduced base station amplifier power,
improved robustness to imperfect cell location, and
their ability to support higher data rates. Intelligent
antennas are especially beneficial for 3G systems,
where high-data-rate users exist.
Intelligent antenna techniques use multiple
antenna elements combined with signal processing to
improve performance. Relatively simple versions
such as higher sectorization and switched multi-
beams can provide some of the benefits of intelligent
antennas, but adaptive processing is rapidly achieving
favor because it can simultaneously exploit all three
of the potential gain mechanisms—aperture gain,
diversity gain, and interference suppression—to
improve performance.
Almost all deployed wireless systems use two
receive antenna elements, or branches, with sufficient
spatial separation to achieve what is known as spatial
diversity. Lucent’s field experiments have shown that
more compact polarization diversity arrangements
can be equally effective. Today most systems use a
single transmit antenna element. Future adaptive
intelligent antenna systems will use multiple transmit
antenna elements, possibly combining spatial and
diversity arrays.
Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 121
 Intelligent antennas can be used to boost the
capacity of TDMA systems by allowing less stringent
restrictions on reuse of carrier frequencies in adjacent
cells. Co-channel interference can instead be mitigated
by employing adaptive antenna processing in the
reverse link and a companion intelligent antenna solu-
tion such as beam steering in the forward link.
In IS-136, for example, a sequence of known sym-
bols—called the synchronization, or SYNC, sequence—
can be used as a training signal, allowing a minimum
mean square error (MMSE) algorithm to be used for
the adaptive processing. Figure 7 shows results from a
field experiment conducted at Whippany, New Jersey,
as described by Cupo et al.29 A target bit-error rate
(BER) of 0.01 can be achieved at a 10- to 15-dB lower
signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) by using the intelli-
gent antenna with adaptive processing and a 4-branch
antenna. This improvement is sufficient to support a
reuse factor reduction from 7 to 3 in the reverse link,
thereby doubling capacity.
For CDMA, all mobile units share the same fre-
quency band and are separated only by coding.
Interference caused by other mobile units (both in-cell
and out-of-cell) determines the capacity. In 3G sys-
tems in which a small number of high-rate data users
might share the same frequency band, adaptive
antenna processing can suppress the interference
caused by these users. For CDMA 3G1X, the
1.25-MHz bandwidth carrier for cdma2000,30 pilot
symbols provide a known training sequence, allowing
adaptive processing to be used. Figure 8 shows that
adaptive processing allows more voice users to be sup-
ported in the presence of several high-rate data users.
Results in the figure indicate that the use of a 4-branch
antenna allows capacity to be doubled relative to
2 branches, and adaptive antenna processing on
4 branches allows 50% more voice users to be sup-
ported versus conventional maximum ratio combining
(MRC). These and other techniques for intelligent
antenna processing in the reverse link, or uplink, are
described in detail in a recent Bell Labs Technical Journal
paper by Buehrer et al.31
The basic mechanisms for improving the forward
link, or downlink, are transmit diversity and spatial
beam forming. These can also be deployed in combi-
122 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
100
10–1 Reference
Bit error rate
10–2
Adaptive
10–3
10–4
–15 –10 –5 0 5 10 15 20
SIR (dB)
SIR – Signal-to-interference ratio
Figure 7.
Example of TDMA adaptive antenna reverse link perfor-
mance improvement (4-branch field experiment).
nation. The most effective means of capitalizing on
transmit diversity are space-time coding techniques,
such as those that have been adopted recently for both
cdma2000 and Universal Mobile Telecommunications
Service (UMTS). One of these, called space-time
spreading (STS), was proposed by Lucent.32,33 It pro-
vides performance improvements of up to 5 dB,
depending on propagation conditions.
Spatial directivity can also be applied to the for-
ward link using either conventional or adaptive beam-
steering algorithms. In either case, baseband signal
processing can be used to direct the transmitted energy
at RF, since phase is preserved through the stages of
upbanding from baseband through IF to RF. Based on
propagation data collected in the Whippany area, the
predicted signal gain to the mobile unit by using a
4-branch transmit array for IS-136 signaling is almost
6 dB—enough to support doubling the capacity.
Intelligent antennas, already used in some Lucent base
station products, show great promise and will become
commonplace as 3G networks are deployed.
Multi-user detection. Traditional cellular system
design uses various techniques—including frequency
reuse patterns, power control, and orthogonal coding—
to manage and control the amount of multi-user inter-
ference in the system. The capacity of the system is
generally determined by how well interference can be
 10–1
Frame error rate
Adaptive supports 50%
more voice users
10–2
Adaptive
supports
25% more
voice users
10–3
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Relative capacity (voice users)
2-branch mixed1 MRC
2-branch mixed1 adaptive
4-branched mixed2 MRC
4-branch mixed2 adaptive
Figure 8.
Sample CDMA adaptive antenna reverse link performance improvement.
managed. The intent is to minimize the amount of
interference before it gets to the receiver. At a base sta-
tion, each user’s channel is generally decoded indepen-
dently of the others, and the output quality is to a great
extent determined by the amount of interference seen.
The concept of multi-user detection regards all
signals—both desired and undesired—as knowable
by the communications receiver. 34 Information
regarding other users’ signals enables the receiver to
cancel or remove the effect of these signals, thereby
lowering the limiting “noise floor” and increasing the
overall capacity.
In a practical setting, the base station receiver may
have knowledge of only those users within its own cell.
In this case the relevant noise floor is caused by the
interference generated by users in other cells. It is well
known that in a power-controlled uplink, interference
from other cells is approximately one-third of the total
interference power. Thus, an optimal multi-user detec-
tor operating only with knowledge of users within a
cell could cancel two-thirds of the interference, render-
2-branch
2 high-speed data
(153.6 kb/s and 76.8 kb/s)
4-branch
3 high-speed data
(153.6 kb/s per 120° sector)
Three-sector
10λ total spacing
Chip rate 1.2288 Mc/s
20° angle spread
60-Hz maximum Doppler frequency
Soft-decision Viterbi decoding
3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
MRC – Maximum ratio combining
ing a three-fold capacity improvement without increas-
ing the number of antennas. If the number of antennas
is increased, even larger gains are possible.
Figure 9 shows a simple example of a multi-user
detector, based on parallel interference cancellation. In
this case two signals—S1 and S2—are being simulta-
neously received, and they interfere with one another.
The multi-user detector estimates, or reconstructs,
each signal and then subtracts and “cancels” it from
the other signal.
A practical multi-user detector is much more
complex than this. Estimating the signals in a noisy
channel is extremely difficult, and there are gener-
ally more than two signals sharing the channel. A
successive interference canceler (SIC) uses many
stages of cancellation. In recent years the engineer-
ing research community has conducted a great deal
of work on lower-complexity, sub-optimal schemes.
Perhaps the most important schemes devised are the
decorrelator, the MMSE detector, and the interfer-
ence cancelers.34-36
Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 123

+ decode
–
Receive/
Received reconstruct
signal signal 1
S1 + S2
Receive/
reconstruct
signal 2
– Receive/
+ decode
Figure 9.
Multi-user detection using interference cancellation.
Recent work at Bell Labs shows promising results
not only in the areas of new multi-user detection tech-
niques that employ multiple antennas, but also in
exploiting the Rayleigh multipath/fading channel. The
multiple antenna successive interference canceler
(MA-SIC) extends the existing concept37 of successive
interference cancellation in two ways. To account for
multipath fading, a RAKE is used at each stage; mul-
tiple antennas are included to perform spatial matched
filtering. The basic processing is of linear complexity,
making the detector quite practical to implement.
Furthermore, it is possible for users to employ different
data rates. This is especially important for 3G evolu-
tion, where voice, circuit data, and packet data will
co-exist.
The performance of the MA-SIC was determined
by taking into account imperfect channel estimation in
both voice only38 and mixed voice/data systems.39
Figure 10 shows the uncoded error rate versus the
number of users for 1, 2, or 4 antennas. The channel
has 3 independent multipaths, and 10 symbols of
averaging are used for channel estimation. One chan-
nel contains high-speed data at ten times the voice
rate, and the remaining users are voice. The solid lines
refer to a conventional RAKE receiver, while the
124 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
Cleaner signal
Receive/ S1
signal 1
Interference
subtraction
Cleaner signal
S2
signal 2
dashed lines indicate the MA-SIC. Assuming an oper-
ating point of about 1.0E-02, a single antenna MA-SIC
shows about 100% capacity gain over the RAKE.
A 4-antenna MA-SIC shows a ten-fold gain over a
single-antenna RAKE.
Other work at Bell Labs is pushing the state of the
art for MMSE detection, including an approach called
the space-time MMSE detector. Work to understand
the performance and complexity of various forms of
these algorithms in a cellular, fading/multipath con-
text with advanced error-correcting codes is ongoing.
Future research challenges include blind and adaptive
algorithms that work without knowledge of all the
codes, low complexity algorithms suitable for the
mobile terminals, and algorithms for packet data
systems.
Bell Labs layered space time. To address the
problem of multi-path propagation due to scattering,
several forms of diversity have been developed over
the years. As described in an earlier section, one of the
most popular forms of diversity is spatial diversity,
wherein multiple antennas are used at the receiver or,
alternatively, at the transmitter. Recent advances in
information theory have shown that, with the simul-
taneous use of multiple antennas at both transmitter
 MA-SIC versus RAKE, P = 1, 2, 4 L = 3, M =10
10–1

10–2

Bit error rate

10–3

10–4

10–5

10–6
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Number of users

L – Number of independent multipaths RAKE

M – Number of symbols of averaging MA-SIC
MA-SIC – Multiple antenna
successive interference canceler
P – Number of antennas
RAKE – Optimum receive structure
consisting of several parallel receivers

Figure 10.
Capacity results for the MA-SIC.

and receiver, multipath propagation can not only be
mitigated, but also exploited—at least, theoretically—
by establishing multiple parallel channels that operate
simultaneously and on the same frequency. Foschini
and Gans40 of Bell Labs studied and quantified the
potential capacities attainable with multiple transmit
and receive antennas in rich multipath environments.
They proposed a class of architectures labeled
BLAST 41,42 and showed that BLAST can achieve
extraordinary levels of link spectral efficiency, levels
that are simply unattainable using conventional tech-
niques. In BLAST, multiple data streams are simulta-
neously radiated using multiple antennas. In
sufficiently scattering environments, the receiver can
separate and successfully decode all those data streams
using sophisticated signal processing that bridges the
gap between adaptive antennas and multi-user detec-
tion. A BLAST transmitter needs no explicit channel
information and therefore eliminates the need for
costly fast-feedback links.
Using a vector extension of Shannon’s original
formula,43 Foschini and Gans40,41 showed that in rich-
scattering conditions, with uncorrelated transfer coeffi-
cients, the spectral efficiency of a system with N
receive and N transmit elements grows—for suffi-
ciently large N—linearly with N, as shown in
Figure 11. This is a key result because, in conven-
tional diversity systems, an increase in N simply
improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); therefore, it
results in an asymptotically logarithmic spectral effi-
ciency improvement. This is clearly shown in
Figure 11, where the dashed curve represents a system
with one transmit antenna and N receive antennas for
the 24-dB SNR case.

Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 125

 100
Capacity achieved
at 1.9 GHz, 24 dB
Spectral efficiency (b/s/Hz)
50
0
0 5
Figure 11.
Spectral efficiency as a function of the number of uncorrelated transmit and receive antennas at different average
SNR levels.
To try to realize these theoretical spectral efficien-
cies, in 1996 Foschini proposed the diagonal BLAST
(D-BLAST) architecture.41 D-BLAST can approach
closely and even attain the Shannon spectral efficiency
bound, although it suffers from a significant level of
complexity. Later, Foschini et al.42 proposed a simpler
architecture, known as vertical BLAST (V-BLAST),
which still achieves a hefty portion (roughly 50%) of
that efficiency. In V-BLAST, the multiple data streams
are identical in rate and independently encoded. With
these simplifying constraints, multi-user detection
techniques can be used wherein, for detection pur-
poses, every data stream is regarded as a separate user.
The V-BLAST algorithm was implemented using a
prototype with 12 transmit and 16 receive antennas.
Built in the Crawford Hill laboratory, this narrowband
prototype, which operated at 1.92 GHz, almost imme-
diately yielded unprecedented levels of spectral effi-
ciency.44 One such experimental result, corresponding
to 36 b/s/Hz at 24 dB average SNR, is also shown in
Figure 11. This impressive figure, achieved with an
uncoded transmission, is very close to what the
V-BLAST theory predicts for an ideal rich-multipath
channel at that SNR. Attaining the same level of effi-
ciency—36 bits per vector symbol—with a conven-
126 Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000
24 dB
18 dB
12 dB
6 dB
0 dB
Optimum combining at 24 dB
with one transmit antenna
10 15 20 25 30
Number of antennas
tional system would require a signal constellation with
over 200 billion points. Furthermore, a constellation
with such a density of points would demand more than
120 dB of SNR to operate at a reasonable error rate.
A number of important practical considerations
have to be addressed before the full potential of
BLAST can be exploited. Chief among these is the
issue of quantifying the amount of multipath richness
that characterizes the environments of interest for
wireless services. Propagation measurements reported
thus far are encouraging, although they are limited
and mostly restricted to indoor scenarios. Another crit-
ical issue is the need for a separate RF chain per
antenna. Hence, the development of affordable inte-
grated multiple-chain radio solutions has become
another research topic of primordial importance. A par-
ticularly interesting area of future work is the possibility
of overlaying BLAST on one of the emerging 3G stan-
dards to increase capacity and provide downlink high-
speed data access. Preliminary results are promising.45
Conclusions
The wireless industry is undergoing a revolution,
with unprecedented worldwide growth. As we enter
the new millennium, we are on the verge of introduc-
ing 3G systems. Bell Labs technology, with many firsts
in mobile communications, has played a pivotal role in
launching and growing this industry, from fundamen-
tal discoveries in communications theory to key
enabling technologies such as the cellular concept. In
this paper, we have summarized the development of
mobile wireless communications during the twentieth
century. Several exciting enabling technologies—
crucial to the radio link and to improved performance
and features—have been described, along with some
of the breakthrough Bell Labs research in these
technologies.
Acknowledgments
As with most projects, both the research behind
this paper and the paper itself represent the efforts of
many people across Lucent and Bell Labs over many
years. The authors, who have had the privilege of
compiling and documenting their contributions,
gratefully acknowledge their dedication and hard
work. For their contributions in the preparation of
this paper, we especially acknowledge Michael
Recchione, Paul Polakos, T. C. Chiang, Roger Benning,
Laurence Mailaender, Howard C. Huang, Angel Lozano,
Farrokh Rashid-Farrokhi, and John Pustai.
*Trademark
cdma2000 is a trademark of the Telecommunications
Industry Association.
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(Manuscript approved April 2000) JOHN FREIDENFELDS is technology director in Lucent’s
Wireless Networks Group in Whippany,
GEORGE I. ZYSMAN is chief technical officer of Lucent New Jersey, which provides infrastructure
Technologies’ Wireless Networks Group. His equipment and support to wireless services
responsibilities include technology planning companies around the world. He received a
and overall architecture and standards for B.S. in electrical engineering from the
wireless, with a focus on third-generation University of Connecticut in Storrs, an M.S. in electrical
systems. His career with Lucent started at engineering and operations research from the Massa-
Bell Labs, where initially he was responsible for chusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and a
exploratory work in the area of phased array antennas Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University
and microwave equalizers for radar applications. Later, in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Freidenfelds’ responsibili-
at the Mobile Telephone Laboratory at Bell Labs, he ties include technology planning, feasibility assess-
and his co-workers developed the AMPS cellular stan- ment, and market development, with a focus on new
dard. Subsequently, he led the development of digital market opportunities. He is the author of the book
cellular technology. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Capacity Expansion and of several technical articles.
electrical engineering from The Cooper Union in New
York City and master’s and Ph.D. degrees, also in elec-
REINALDO A. VALENZUELA is director of the Wireless
trical engineering, from the Polytechnic Institute of
Communications Research Department of
Brooklyn. Dr. Zysman is a senior member of the IEEE,
Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey. He holds
and he was guest editor of a special issue of IEEE
a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He is also a
the University of Chile in Santiago, and M.S.
charter member of the Bell Labs Technical Journal
and Ph.D. degrees in digital signal process-
Editorial Board.
ing from the Imperial College in London, United
Kingdom. Dr. Valenzuela is currently responsible for
JOSEPH A. TARALLO is director of the Wireless Base wireless system design, with an emphasis on smart
Station and Radio Technology Department antennas; he is also directing research on space-time
in Lucent Technologies’ Wireless Networks processing, multi-user detection, Bell Labs layered
Group in Whippany, New Jersey. He has space-time (BLAST), geolocation, and propagation
been instrumental in the definition and measurements and models. He is an IEEE Fellow,
development of digital wireless systems, holds several patents, and has authored more than
having been involved in the design of CDMA, TDMA, 60 papers.
and GSM systems and also having been a contributor
to multiple standards bodies and working groups. His
PAUL M. MANKIEWICH, director of the Wireless Tech-
current work focuses on the development of key radio
nology Research Department in Murray Hill,
technologies for digital wireless systems, including all
New Jersey, received a B.S. from the State
aspects of third-generation systems. Mr. Tarallo holds
University of New York at Stony Brook, an
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineer-
M.S. from Stevens Institute of Technology
ing from The Cooper Union in New York City. His grad-
in Hoboken, New Jersey, and a Ph.D. from
uate work was in the application of CDMA to cellular
Boston University in Massachusetts, all in physics.
systems. He holds several patents and has authored
Dr. Mankiewich is responsible for shepherding research
and co-authored a number of conference papers.
technology into wireless products such as adaptive
antennas, novel systems, and radio architectures. ◆
RICHARD E. HOWARD, director of the Wireless
Research Laboratory at Bell Labs in Murray
Hill, New Jersey, earned a B.Sc. degree in
physics from the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena and M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in applied physics from Stanford
University in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Howard directs
research on wireless communications and the future of
distributed information systems.

Bell Labs Technical Journal ◆ January–March 2000 129