Chapter 2

The DCS-1800 Communication System

2.1 Introduction
DCS-1800 — also known as PCN or GSM-1800 — is a digital cellular communication system.
Handsets (mobile stations) roaming throughout a blanket of cells constantly keep in radio contact
with the base station in the nucleus of the current cell.
Because discussing the whole DCS communication protocol would lead us too far, we con-
fine ourselves to giving some relevant background information on the air-interface between the
mobile station and the base transceiver station. In this introductory chapter on DCS-1800, we
will consecutively cover the frequency plan, the employed modulation method, and its associated
spectrum and constellation diagram.

2.2 Frequency Plan

The DCS-1800 system is basically a frequency-translated version of the GSM-900 digital cel-
lular system. The digital part of the standard (i.e. the communication protocol, the modulation
method, the algorithms, etc.) is essentially identical. The only difference lies in the requirements
for the radio interface1.
Although DCS-1800 is considered a digital system — using digital information coding and
a digital control protocol —, its physical layer still consists of an analog radio interface; The
allocated frequency bands are 1710-1785 GHz and 1805-1880 GHz, of which the lower band is
used for transmitting and the higher band is used for receiving (Fig. 2.1).
1
The difference between the GSM-900 and the DCS-1800 standard is discussed in Section 3.7.
12 The DCS-1800 Communication System

Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) and time-division multiple access (TDMA)

techniques are adopted in order to allow a maximum number of users in the cell accessing the net-
work. First of all, each 75 MHz band is subdivided into 372 carrier frequencies spaced 200 kHz
apart (FDMA). To each base station a few carrier frequencies are assigned. These frequencies
are further subdivided into elementary time slots or burst periods, containing the data (TDMA).
Eight consecutive bursts are grouped together in a so-called TDMA frame, each burst being as-
signed to one of eight ‘virtual’ communication channels. The data stream in the ith channel
is then formed by the ith burst in each incoming frame. Each mobile station is dynamically
assigned a carrier frequency and a channel (time slot) through which the communication takes
place. During this time slot, the mobile station is the only transmitter/receiver using that par-
ticular carrier frequency. In DCS-1800 and GSM, 13 frames occupy exactly 60 ms, so that the
TDMA structure looks like:

Each of these 15/26 6ms bursts contains 156.25 bits — a 148 bit frame, containing
information bits, and 8.25 additional bits —, leading to a gross bit rate of 270.833 kbps.

2.3 Modulation Method

DCS-1800 uses Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) to modulate the data bursts onto
a carrier. GMSK modulation is a smoothed form of MSK (Minimum Shift Keying) which is
essentially binary digital FM. In both schemes the data is coded in the instantaneous frequency
(i.e. the derivative of the phase) rather than directly in the phase itself (like e.g. in QPSK).
One of the most important properties of both GMSK and MSK is that they are constant
envelope modulation techniques. As a consequence, a high power-added efficiency, non-linear
power amplifier (e.g. a Class-E PA) can be used in the transmitter part without generating too
much interference in the adjacent channels. In practice there remains a trade-off between out-of-
channel radiation (so-called spectral regrowth) and the steepness of the PA ramp-up/down. To
alleviate this trade-off, adjacent carrier frequencies are often not used at the same time, giving
rise to a chess-board pattern in the cell PSD.
Since GMSK modulation is a variant of MSK, it is useful to review the basic MSK modula-
tion scheme first. It will become clear why GMSK has been selected in the DCS-1800 system,
and not MSK.

2.3.1 MSK Modulation

MSK can be seen as binary digital FM with a modulation index h of 0.5 around a center frequency
equal to the bit frequency, given by