7.3.

5 GSM Adaptation to aWideband Propagation Channel

Due to the scattering and reflections in propagation media the signal arrives at
the
receiver along multiple paths. The length of those paths is different, the phase
of each
signal replica is different and arrival time is different, as well. This
phenomenon called
time dispersion. As discussed in Section 7.5, time dispersion may cause
intersymbol
interference (ISI). The single information bit (or symbol) is composed by its few
replicas
that may cause the problem with correct demodulation of the signal.
The GSM systemhas to operate in different environments, from rural to dense
urban.
The system specifications recommend a minimum set of qualitative criteria in
terms of
frame (FER) and bit-error-rate (BER) by specifying the performance of the MS
and BS
receivers over a wide range of different operational environments. To this end,
the GSM
specifications define several different channel models and these are used to
specify the
performances of the MS and BS receivers.
Each channel model consists of a number of independently fading impulses, or
paths,
at different time delays. In practice, the power delay profile of mobile radio
channel
cannot be separated into its different paths; however, the channel models
have been
defined with a discrete delay profile in a way that they can be easily
implemented for
equipment testing. The example of GSM channel models is shown in Figure
7.11 for
urban (TU) and rural (RA) channels for GSM that have excess delay spreads
of 5 μs and
0.5 μs, respectively. Using relationships (5.5) and (5.7) and value of GSM
symbol duration
Ts ≈ 3.69 μs, one may conclude that urban channel (TU) is a frequency
selective
channel while the rural channel is rather frequency flat.
Depending on the speed of the terminal impulse, the response of the radio
channel
can change drastically during a frame of 4.6 ms. This means that, for each
time slot,
the receiver must carry out bit synchronization and set the channel equalizer.
A certain
trade-off between burst duration, bit duration and complexity of equalizer has
to
be considered. With the training sequence placed in the middle of the burst,
and considering
the maximum terminal speed and the radio frequency, it has been estimated
that the maximum burst length over which the channel was nearly stationary
would be
about 0.5 ms. Long bursts carry less overheads relative to the user part.