UNIT 1

Introduction To Wireless Communication Systems

Evolution of mobile radio communications
Wireless communication was a magic to our ancestors but Marconi could initiate it with
his wireless telegraph in 1895. Wireless Communication can be classified into three eras.

• Pioneer Era (Till 1920)

• Pre Cellular Era(1920-1979)
• Cellular Era (beyond 1979)
The first commercial mobile telephone system was launched by BELL in St. Louis, USA,
in 1946. Few lucky customers got the services. Early mobile systems used single high
power transmitters with analog Frequency Modulation techniques to give coverage up to
about 50 miles and hence only limited customers could get the service due to this severe
constraints of bandwidth.

Cellular Era
To overcome the constraints of bandwidth scarcity and to give coverage to larger
sections, BELL lab introduced the principle of Cellular concept. By frequency reuse
technique this method delivered better coverage, better utility of available frequency
spectrum and reduced transmitter power. But the established calls are to be handed over
between base stations while the phones are on move.
Even though the US based BELL lab introduced the cellular principle, the Nordic
countries were the first to introduce cellular services for commercial use with the
introduction of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) in 1981.

First Generation Systems

All these systems were analog systems, using FDMA technology. They are also known
as First Generation (1G) systems. Different systems came into use based on the cellular
principle. They are listed below.

Year Mobile System

1981 Nordic Mobile Telephone(NMT)450

1982 American Mobile Phone System(AMPS)

 1985 Total Access Communication System(TACS)

1986 Nordic Mobile Telephony(NMT)900

Disadvantages of 1G systems
• They were analog and hence are were not robust to interference.
• Different countries followed their own standards, which were incompatible.
To overcome the difficulties of 1G, digital technology was chosen by most of the
countries and a new era, called 2G, started.

Advantages of 2G
• Improved Spectral Utilization achieved by using advanced modulation techniques.
• Lower bit rate voice coding enabled more users getting the services simultaneously.
• Reduction of overhead in signaling paved way for capacity enhancement.
• Good source and channel coding techniques make the signal more robust to Interference.
• New services like SMS were included.
• Improved efficiency of access and hand-off control were achieved.

Name of the Systems Country

DAMPS-Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System North America

GSM-Global System for Mobile communication European Countries and

International applications

JDC - Japanese Digital Cellular Japan

CT-2 Cordless Telephone–2 UK

DECT-Digital European Cordless Telephone European countries

History of GSM
GSM standard is a European standard, which has addressed many problems related to
compatibility, especially with the development of digital radio technology.

Milestones of GSM
• 1982 - Confederation of European Post and Telegraph (CEPT) establishes Group Special
Mobile.
• 1985 - Adoption of list of recommendation was decided to be generated by the group.
• 1986 - Different field tests were done for radio technique for the common air interface.
• 1987 - TDMA was chosen as the Access Standard. MoU was signed between 12 operators.
• 1988 - Validation of system was done.
• 1989 - Responsibility was taken up by European Telecommunication Standards Institute
(ETSI).
• 1990 - First GSM specification was released.
• 1991 - First commercial GSM system was launched.

Frequency Range of GSM

GSM works on four different frequency ranges with FDMA-TDMA and FDD. They are as
follows −

System P-GSM (Primary) E-GSM (Extended) GSM 1800 GSM 1900

Freq Uplink 890-915MHz 880-915MHz 1710-1785Mhz 1850-1910MHz

Freq Downlink 935-960MHz 925-960MHz 1805-1880Mhz 1930-1990MHz

Examples of wireless communication Systems

Today, people need Mobile Phones for many things like talking, internet, multimedia etc.
All these services must be made available to the user on the go i.e. while the user is
mobile. With the help of these wireless communication services, we can transfer voice,
data, videos, images etc.
Wireless Communication Systems also provide different services like video
conferencing, cellular telephone, paging, TV, Radio etc. Due to the need for variety of
communication services, different types of Wireless Communication Systems are
developed. Some of the important Wireless Communication Systems available today
are:

• Television and Radio Broadcasting

• Satellite Communication
• Radar
• Mobile Telephone System (Cellular Communication)
• Global Positioning System (GPS)
• Infrared Communication
• WLAN (Wi-Fi)
• Bluetooth
• Paging
• Cordless Phones
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

There are many other system with each being useful for different applications. Wireless
Communication systems can be again classified as Simplex, Half Duplex and Full
Duplex. Simplex communication is one way communication. An example is Radio
broadcast system.

Half Duplex is two way communication but not simultaneous one. An example is walkie
– talkie (civilian band radio). Full Duplex is also two way communication and it is a
simultaneous one. Best example for full duplex is mobile phones.

The devices used for Wireless Communication may vary from one service to other and
they may have different size, shape, data throughput and cost. The area covered by a
Wireless Communication system is also an important factor. The wireless networks may
be limited to a building, an office campus, a city, a small regional area (greater than a
city) or might have global coverage.

Paging systems
A paging system allows for one-way communication to a large audience. Regardless of
the broadcast source, a one-way paging system lets the speaker provide clear,
amplified instructions throughout a facility. The paging employee speaks a message into
a telephone and that message is then broadcast through a network of speakers.
Messages can also be recorded and broadcast at a later time.
Advantages Of Paging Systems
There are a number of advantages to using a one-way paging system versus other means of
mass communication:

• Emails are often ignored or captured by spam blockers.

• Mass texts depend on a strong, local phone network.
• A paging system is hard-wired into the building's infrastructure, allowing reliable mass
communication.
• A network of speakers ensure that a message is communicated to every area of a
building simultaneously. It's also possible to send pages to specific building "zones" if
needed.
• Another key benefit of a paging system is that no dedicated broadcast mechanism is
required. An employee can simply pick up the phone, select the paging system and
broadcast to the entire building.

Some Common Use Cases For Paging Systems

Paging systems can be used to send a variety of messages. The most common example of a
paging system is rapid communication between employees in a retail setting. A department
store cashier can request assistance from another department to answer a customer
question. In a similar example, a large manufacturing facility can page an employee who
has an incoming call, but is likely not near a specific phone.

One of the most important uses for paging is to warn employees of a fire or other
emergency. In those scenarios, there is no more effective means of quickly communicating
with your workforce.

Cordless telephone systems

As we know almost all the modern apartments and homes usually houses
telephone jacks in all the rooms. This makes it possible to move single telephone
for use in all the rooms as required. Cordless telephone is much friendlier than
this.

Cordless telephone system consists of two units viz. base unit and portable
unit(referred as handset). Base unit is wired with standard telephone line. It is
powered from AC mains and provide place to place and charge the handset unit
on it.

The system is depicted in the fig-1. As shown in the figure, both base unit and
handset will have two way radio transmission and reception. This is possible due
to availability of RF transceiver on both the units to enable full duplex operation.
To facilitate full duplex communication cordless telephone operates on two
different frequencies one for transmit and another for receive. Base Unit
transmits in the range from 43-46 MHz and receives in the 49 MHz range.
Handset unit transmits in 49MHz range and receives in 43-46 MHz range.

FCC has allocated about 25 duplex channels for cordless telephone system.
Here Frequency modulation technique is employed. Crystal control is provided to
set these frequencies. This helps one set frequency channel such that
interference can be avoided. FCC has limited transmit power to maximum value
of 500 mW. Maximum usable range between base unit and portable unit is about
100 ft.

Advanced cordless systems also have beed developed which operates in PCS
band from 902 to 928 MHz. There are 4 basic advanced cordless telephone
systems exist.
• The first category uses FM on channels in 900 MHz frequency range.
• The second type operates in 900 MHz range and is digital. ADPCM is used.
• The third type uses spread spectrum and operates at 902-928 MHz range.
• The fourth type uses spread spectrum and operates at 2.4GHz range.

Overview of generations of cellular systems

Simply, the "G" stands for "GENERATION" . While you connected to internet, the speed of
your internet is depends upon the signal strength that has been shown in alphabets like 2G, 3G, 4G
etc. right next to the signal bar on your home screen. Each Generation is defined as a set of
telephone network standards , which detail the technological implementation of a particular
mobile phone system. The speed increases and the technology used to achieve that speed also
changes. For eg, 1G offers 2.4 kbps, 2G offers 64 Kbps and is based on GSM, 3G offers 144 kbps-
2 mbps whereas 4G offers 100 Mbps - 1 Gbps and is based on LTE technology .

The aim of wireless communication is to provide high quality, reliable communication just like
wired communication(optical fibre) and each new generation of services represents a big step(a
leap rather) in that direction. This evolution journey was started in 1979 from 1G and it is still
continuing to 5G. Each of the Generations has standards that must be met to officially use the G
terminology. There are institutions in charge of standardizing each generation of mobile
technology. Each generation has requirements that specify things like throughput, delay, etc. that
need to be met to be considered part of that generation. Each generation built upon the research
and development which happened since the last generation. 1G was not used to identify wireless
technology until 2G, or the second generation, was released. That was a major jump in the
technology when the wireless networks went from analog to digital .

1G - First Generation
This was the first generation of cell phone technology . The very first generation of commercial
cellular network was introduced in the late 70's with fully implemented standards being established
throughout the 80's. It was introduced in 1987 by Telecom (known today as Telstra), Australia
received its first cellular mobile phone network utilising a 1G analog system. 1G is an analog
technology and the phones generally had poor battery life and voice quality was large without
much security, and would sometimes experience dropped calls . These are the analog
telecommunications standards that were introduced in the 1980s and continued until being
replaced by 2G digital telecommunications. The maximum speed of 1G is 2.4 Kbps .

2G - Second Generation
Cell phones received their first major upgrade when they went from 1G to 2G. The main
difference between the two mobile telephone systems (1G and 2G), is that the radio signals used
by 1G network are analog, while 2G networks are digital . Main motive of this generation was to
provide secure and reliable communication channel. It implemented the concept
of CDMA and GSM . Provided small data service like sms and mms. Second generation 2G
cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by
Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Oyj) in 1991. 2G capabilities are achieved by allowing multiple users
on a single channel via multiplexing. During 2G Cellular phones are used for data also along with
voice. The advance in technology from 1G to 2G introduced many of the fundamental services
that we still use today, such as SMS, internal roaming , conference calls, call hold and billing
based on services e.g. charges based on long distance calls and real time billing. The max speed of
2G with General Packet Radio Service ( GPRS ) is 50 Kbps or 1 Mbps with Enhanced Data Rates
for GSM Evolution ( EDGE ). Before making the major leap from 2G to 3G wireless networks,
the lesser-known 2.5G and 2.75G was an interim standard that bridged the gap.

3G - Third Generation
This generation set the standards for most of the wireless technology we have come to know and
love. Web browsing, email, video downloading, picture sharing and other Smartphone
technology were introduced in the third generation. Introduced commercially in 2001, the goals
set out for third generation mobile communication were to facilitate greater voice and data
capacity, support a wider range of applications, and increase data transmission at a lower cost .

The 3G standard utilises a new technology called UMTS as its core network architecture -
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. This network combines aspects of the 2G network
with some new technology and protocols to deliver a significantly faster data rate. Based on a set
of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunications use services and networks
that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 ( IMT-2000 ) specifications
by the International Telecommunication Union. One of requirements set by IMT-2000 was that
speed should be at least 200Kbps to call it as 3G service.

3G has Multimedia services support along with streaming are more popular. In 3G, Universal
access and portability across different device types are made possible (Telephones, PDA's, etc.).
3G increased the efficiency of frequency spectrum by improving how audio is compressed during
a call, so more simultaneous calls can happen in the same frequency range. The UN's International
Telecommunications Union IMT-2000 standard requires stationary speeds of 2Mbps and mobile
speeds of 384kbps for a "true" 3G. The theoretical max speed for HSPA+ is 21.6 Mbps.

Like 2G, 3G evolved into 3.5G and 3.75G as more features were introduced in order to bring about
4G. A 3G phone cannot communicate through a 4G network , but newer generations of phones
are practically always designed to be backward compatible, so a 4G phone can communicate
through a 3G or even 2G network .

4G - Fourth Generation
4G is a very different technology as compared to 3G and was made possible practically only
because of the advancements in the technology in the last 10 years. Its purpose is to provide high
speed , high quality and high capacity to users while improving security and lower the cost of
voice and data services, multimedia and internet over IP. Potential and current applications include
amended mobile web access, IP telephony , gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video
conferencing, 3D television, and cloud computing.

The key technologies that have made this possible are MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output)
and OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing). The two important 4G standards
are WiMAX (has now fizzled out) and LTE (has seen widespread deployment). LTE (Long Term
Evolution) is a series of upgrades to existing UMTS technology and will be rolled out on Telstra's
existing 1800MHz frequency band. The max speed of a 4G network when the device is moving is
100 Mbps or 1 Gbps for low mobility communication like when stationary or walking, latency
reduced from around 300ms to less than 100ms, and significantly lower congestion. When 4G first
became available, it was simply a little faster than 3G. 4G is not the same as 4G LTE which is
very close to meeting the criteria of the standards. To download a new game or stream a TV show
in HD, you can do it without buffering .

Newer generations of phones are usually designed to be backward-compatible , so a 4G phone

can communicate through a 3G or even 2G network. All carriers seem to agree that OFDM is one
of the chief indicators that a service can be legitimately marketed as being 4G. OFDM is a type of
digital modulation in which a signal is split into several narrowband channels at different
frequencies. There are a significant amount of infrastructure changes needed to be implemented
by service providers in order to supply because voice calls in GSM , UMTS and CDMA2000 are
circuit switched, so with the adoption of LTE, carriers will have to re-engineer their voice call
network. And again, we have the fractional parts: 4.5G and 4.9G marking the transition of LTE
(in the stage called LTE-Advanced Pro) getting us more MIMO, more D2D on the way to IMT-
2020 and the requirements of 5G .

5G - Fifth Generation
5G is a generation currently under development , that's intended to improve on 4G. 5G promises
significantly faster data rates, higher connection density, much lower latency, among other
improvements. Some of the plans for 5G include device-to-device communication, better battery
consumption, and improved overall wireless coverage. The max speed of 5G is aimed at being as
fast as 35.46 Gbps , which is over 35 times faster than 4G.

Key technologies to look out for: Massive MIMO , Millimeter Wave Mobile Communications
etc. Massive MIMO, milimetre wave, small cells, Li-Fi all the new technologies from the previous
decade could be used to give 10Gb/s to a user, with an unseen low latency, and allow connections
for at least 100 billion devices . Different estimations have been made for the date of commercial
introduction of 5G networks. Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance feel that 5G should be
rolled out by 2020 to meet business and consumer demands.

Comparison of various wireless systems

 Introduction to Personal Communication Services (PCS)
PCS architecture
What is PCS(Personal communications services)?

Personal communications services (PCS) refers to a wide variety of wireless access and personal
mobility services provided through a small terminal, with the goal of enabling communications
at any time, at any place, and in any form.

PCS technologies have grown rapidly in the telecommunications industry.

Explain PCS architecture.

PCS architecture has mainly 3 types of Interfaces

• Um interface The “air” or radio interface standard that is used for exchanges between a
mobile (ME) and a base station (BTS / BSC). For signalling, a modified version of the ISDN
LAPD, known as LAPDm is used.
• Abis interface This is a BSS internal interface linking the BSC and a BTS, and it has not
been totally standardised. The Abis interface allows control of the radio equipment and
radio frequency allocation in the BTS.
• A interface The A interface is used to provide communication between the BSS and the
MSC.
PCS architecture divides into to 3 subsystem i.e.Base Station Subsystem(BSS),Network
Switching Subsystem (NSS) and Operation and Support Subsystem (OSS)

Mobile station
PCS use mobile stations (MSs) to communicate with the base stations (BSs) in a PCS network.

MS is also referred to as handset, mobile phone, subscriber unit, or portable.

Mobile stations (MS), mobile equipment (ME) or as they are most widely known, cell or mobile
phones are the section of a GSM cellular network.

In recent years their size has fallen dramatically while the level of functionality has greatly
increased.

There are a number of elements to the cell phone, although the two main elements are the main
hardware and the SIM.

It contains a number known as the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). This is
installed in the phone at manufacture and “cannot” be changed. It is accessed by the network
during registration to check whether the equipment has been reported as stolen.

The SIM or Subscriber Identity Module contains the information that provides the identity of the
user to the network. It contains are variety of information including a number known as the
International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI).

Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

The Base Station Subsystem (BSS) section of the GSM network architecture that is
fundamentally associated with communicating with the mobiles on the network. It consists of
two elements:
• Base Transceiver Station (BTS): The BTS used in a GSM network comprises the radio
transmitter receivers, and their associated antennas that transmit and receive to directly
communicate with the mobiles. The BTS is the defining element for each cell. The BTS
communicates with the mobiles and the interface between the two is known as the Um
interface with its associated protocols.

• Base Station Controller (BSC): The BSC forms the next stage back into the GSM network.
It controls a group of BTSs, and is often co-located with one of the BTSs in its group. It
manages the radio resources and controls items such as handover within the group of
BTSs, allocates channels and the like. It communicates with the BTSs over what is termed
the Abis interface.

Network Switching Subsystem (NSS)

The GSM system architecture contains a variety of different elements, and is often termed the
core network. It provides the main control and interfacing for the whole mobile network. The
major elements within the core network include:

• Mobile Services Switching Centre (MSC): The main element within the core network area
of the overall GSM network architecture is the Mobile switching Services Centre (MSC). The
MSC acts like a normal switching node within a PSTN or ISDN, but also provides additional
functionality to enable the requirements of a mobile user to be supported. These include
registration, authentication, call location, inter-MSC handovers and call routing to a mobile
subscriber. It also provides an interface to the PSTN so that calls can be routed from the
mobile network to a phone connected to a landline. Interfaces to other MSCs are provided
to enable calls to be made to mobiles on different networks.

• Home Location Register (HLR): This database contains all the administrative information
about each subscriber along with their last known location. In this way, the GSM network is
able to route calls to the relevant base station for the MS. When a user switches on their
phone, the phone registers with the network and from this it is possible to determine
which BTS it communicates with so that incoming calls can be routed appropriately. Even
when the phone is not active (but switched on) it re-registers periodically to ensure that
the network (HLR) is aware of its latest position. There is one HLR per network, although it
may be distributed across various sub-centres to for operational reasons.

• Visitor Location Register (VLR): This contains selected information from the HLR that
enables the selected services for the individual subscriber to be provided. The VLR can be
implemented as a separate entity, but it is commonly realised as an integral part of the
MSC, rather than a separate entity. In this way access is made faster and more convenient.

• Equipment Identity Register (EIR): The EIR is the entity that decides whether a given
mobile equipment may be allowed onto the network. Each mobile equipment has a number
 known as the International Mobile Equipment Identity. This number, as mentioned above,
is installed in the equipment and is checked by the network during registration. Dependent
upon the information held in the EIR, the mobile may be allocated one of three states –
allowed onto the network, barred access, or monitored in case its problems.

• Authentication Centre (AuC): The AuC is a protected database that contains the secret
key also contained in the user’s SIM card. It is used for authentication and for ciphering on
the radio channel.

• Gateway Mobile Switching Centre (GMSC): The GMSC is the point to which a ME
terminating call is initially routed, without any knowledge of the MS’s location. The GMSC is
thus in charge of obtaining the MSRN (Mobile Station Roaming Number) from the HLR
based on the MSISDN (Mobile Station ISDN number, the “directory number” of a MS) and
routing the call to the correct visited MSC. The “MSC” part of the term GMSC is misleading,
since the gateway operation does not require any linking to an MSC.

Operation and Support Subsystem (OSS)

The OSS or operation support subsystem is an element within the overall GSM network
architecture that is connected to components of the NSS and the BSC. It is used to control and
monitor the overall GSM network and it is also used to control the traffic load of the BSS. It
must be noted that as the number of BS increases with the scaling of the subscriber population
some of the maintenance tasks are transferred to the BTS, allowing savings in the cost of
ownership of the system.

Mobility management
Wireless mobility management in Personal Communications Service (PCS) is the assigning
and controlling of wireless links for terminal network connections. Wireless mobility
management provides an "alerting" function for call completion to a wireless terminal,
monitors wireless link performance to determine when an automatic link transfer is required,
and coordinates link transfers between wireless access interfaces.
One use of this is wireless push technology, by pushing data across wireless networks, this
coordinates the link transfers and pushes data between the backend and wireless device only
when an established connection is found.

Network Signaling
In telephony, signaling is the exchange of information between involved points in the
network that sets up, controls, and terminates each telephone call. In in-band signaling , the
signaling is on the same channel as the telephone call. In out-of-band signaling , signaling is
on separate channels dedicated for the purpose.

A Basic Cellular System

Cellular systems are widely used today and cellular technology needs to offer very efficient use
of the available frequency spectrum. With billions of mobile phones in use around the globe
today, it is necessary to re-use the available frequencies many times over without mutual
interference of one cell phone to another.

It is this concept of frequency re-use that is at the very heart of cellular technology. However the
infrastructure technology needed to support it is not simple, and it required a significant
investment to bring the first cellular networks on line.

Early schemes for radio telephones schemes used a single central transmitter to cover a wide
area. These radio telephone systems suffered from the limited number of channels that were
available.

Often the waiting lists for connection were many times greater than the number of people that
were actually connected. In view of these limitations this form of radio communications
technology did not take off in a big way. Equipment was large and these radio communications
systems were not convenient to use or carry around.

The need for a spectrum efficient system

To illustrate the need for efficient spectrum usage for a radio communications system, take the
example where each user is allocated a channel. While more effective systems are now in use,
the example will take the case of an analogue system. Each channel needs to have a bandwidth
of around 25 kHz to enable sufficient audio quality to be carried as well as enabling there to be a
guard band between adjacent signals to ensure there are no undue levels of interference. Using
this concept it is only possible to accommodate 40 users in a frequency band 1 MHz wide. Even
of 100 MHz were allocated to the system this would only enable 4000 users to have access to the
system. Today cellular systems have millions of subscribers and therefore a far more efficient
method of using the available spectrum is needed.

Cell system for frequency re-use

The method that is employed is to enable the frequencies to be re-used. Any radio transmitter
will only have a certain coverage area. Beyond this the signal level will fall to a limited below which
it cannot be used and will not cause significant interference to users associated with a different
radio transmitter. This means that it is possible to re-use a channel once outside the range of the
radio transmitter. The same is also true in the reverse direction for the receiver, where it will only
be able to receive signals over a given range. In this way it is possible to arrange split up an area
into several smaller regions, each covered by a different transmitter / receiver station.

These regions are conveniently known as cells, and give rise to the name of a "cellular" technology
used today. Diagrammatically these cells are often shown as hexagonal shapes that conveniently
fit together. In reality this is not the case. They have irregular boundaries because of the terrain
over which they travel. Hills, buildings and other objects all cause the signal to be attenuated and
diminish differently in each direction.

It is also very difficult to define the exact edge of a cell. The signal strength gradually reduces and
towards the edge of the cell performance will fall. As the mobiles themselves will have different
levels of sensitivity, this adds a further greying of the edge of the cell. Therefore it is never
possible to have a sharp cut-off between cells. In some areas they may overlap, whereas in others
there will be a "hole" in coverage.

Cell clusters
When devising the infrastructure technology of a cellular system, the interference between
adjacent channels is reduced by allocating different frequency bands or channels to adjacent
cells so that their coverage can overlap slightly without causing interference. In this way cells can
be grouped together in what is termed a cluster.

Often these clusters contain seven cells, but other configurations are also possible. Seven is a
convenient number, but there are a number of conflicting requirements that need to be balanced
when choosing the number of cells in a cluster for a cellular system:

• Limiting interference levels

• Number of channels that can be allocated to each cell site

It is necessary to limit the interference between cells having the same frequency. The topology
of the cell configuration has a large impact on this. The larger the number of cells in the cluster,
the greater the distance between cells sharing the same frequencies.

In the ideal world it might be good to choose a large number of cells to be in each cluster.
Unfortunately there are only a limited number of channels available. This means that the larger
the number of cells in a cluster, the smaller the number available to each cell, and this reduces
the capacity.

This means that there is a balance that needs to be made between the number of cells in a
cluster, and the interference levels, and the capacity that is required.

Cell size
Even though the number of cells in a cluster in a cellular system can help govern the number of
users that can be accommodated, by making all the cells smaller it is possible to increase the
overall capacity of the cellular system. However a greater number of transmitter receiver or base
stations are required if cells are made smaller and this increases the cost to the operator.
Accordingly in areas where there are more users, small low power base stations are installed.

The different types of cells are given different names according to their size and function:

• Macro cells: Macro cells are large cells that are usually used for remote or sparsely populated
areas. These may be 10 km or possibly more in diameter.
• Micro cells: Micro cells are those that are normally found in densely populated areas which
may have a diameter of around 1 km.
• Pico cells: Picocells are generally used for covering very small areas such as particular areas
of buildings, or possibly tunnels where coverage from a larger cell in the cellular system is not
possible. Obviously for the small cells, the power levels used by the base stations are much
lower and the antennas are not position to cover wide areas. In this way the coverage is
minimised and the interference to adjacent cells is reduced.
• Selective cells: Sometimes cells termed selective cells may be used where full 360 degree
coverage is not required. They may be used to fill in a hole in the coverage in the cellular
system, or to address a problem such as the entrance to a tunnel etc.
• Umbrella cells: Another type of cells known as an umbrella cell is sometimes used in
instances such as those where a heavily used road crosses an area where there are microcells.
Under normal circumstances this would result in a large number of handovers as people
driving along the road would quickly cross the microcells. An umbrella cell would take in the
coverage of the microcells (but use different channels to those allocated to the microcells).
However it would enable those people moving along the road to be handled by the umbrella
cell and experience fewer handovers than if they had to pass from one microcell to the next.

Intrastructure technology
Although the illustrations used here to describe the basic infrastructure technology used for
cellular systems refers to the original first generation systems, it serves to provide an overview
of the basic cellular concepts that form the cornerstones of today's cellular technology. New
techniques are being used, but the basic concepts employed are still in in use.

Multiple access techniques: FDMA, TDMA, CDMA

In wireless communication systems, it is often desirable to allow the subscriber to send information
simultaneously from the mobile station to the base station while receiving information from the base station
to the mobile station.
A cellular system divides any given area into cells where a mobile unit in each cell communicates with a
base station. The main aim in the cellular system design is to be able to increase the capacity of the
channel, i.e., to handle as many calls as possible in a given bandwidth with a sufficient level of quality of
service.
There are several different ways to allow access to the channel. These includes mainly the following −
 • Frequency division multiple-access (FDMA)
• Time division multiple-access (TDMA)
• Code division multiple-access (CDMA)
• Space division multiple access (SDMA)
Depending on how the available bandwidth is allocated to the users, these techniques can be classified
as narrowband and wideband systems.

Narrowband Systems

Systems operating with channels substantially narrower than the coherence bandwidth are called as
Narrow band systems. Narrow band TDMA allows users to use the same channel but allocates a unique
time slot to each user on the channel, thus separating a small number of users in time on a single channel.

Wideband Systems

In wideband systems, the transmission bandwidth of a single channel is much larger than the coherence
bandwidth of the channel. Thus, multipath fading doesn’t greatly affect the received signal within a
wideband channel, and frequency selective fades occur only in a small fraction of the signal bandwidth.

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

FDMA is the basic technology for advanced mobile phone services. The features of FDMA are as follows.

• FDMA allots a different sub-band of frequency to each different user to access the network.
• If FDMA is not in use, the channel is left idle instead of allotting to the other users.
• FDMA is implemented in Narrowband systems and it is less complex than TDMA.
• Tight filtering is done here to reduce adjacent channel interference.
• The base station BS and mobile station MS, transmit and receive simultaneously and continuously in FDMA.

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

In the cases where continuous transmission is not required, there TDMA is used instead of FDMA. The
features of TDMA include the following.

• TDMA shares a single carrier frequency with several users where each users makes use of non-overlapping
time slots.
• Data transmission in TDMA is not continuous, but occurs in bursts. Hence handsoff process is simpler.
• TDMA uses different time slots for transmission and reception thus duplexers are not required.
• TDMA has an advantage that is possible to allocate different numbers of time slots per frame to different
users.
• Bandwidth can be supplied on demand to different users by concatenating or reassigning time slot based on
priority.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Code division multiple access technique is an example of multiple access where several transmitters use
a single channel to send information simultaneously. Its features are as follows.
 • In CDMA every user uses the full available spectrum instead of getting allotted by separate frequency.
• CDMA is much recommended for voice and data communications.
• While multiple codes occupy the same channel in CDMA, the users having same code can communicate
with each other.
• CDMA offers more air-space capacity than TDMA.
• The hands-off between base stations is very well handled by CDMA.

Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

Space division multiple access or spatial division multiple access is a technique which is MIMO (multiple-
input multiple-output) architecture and used mostly in wireless and satellite communication. It has the
following features.

• All users can communicate at the same time using the same channel.
• SDMA is completely free from interference.
• A single satellite can communicate with more satellites receivers of the same frequency.
• The directional spot-beam antennas are used and hence the base station in SDMA, can track a moving
user.
• Controls the radiated energy for each user in space.

Spread Spectrum Multiple Access

Spread spectrum multiple access (SSMA) uses signals which have a transmission bandwidth whose
magnitude is greater than the minimum required RF bandwidth.
There are two main types of spread spectrum multiple access techniques −

• Frequency hopped spread spectrum (FHSS)

• Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)

Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

This is a digital multiple access system in which the carrier frequencies of the individual users are varied
in a pseudo random fashion within a wideband channel. The digital data is broken into uniform sized bursts
which is then transmitted on different carrier frequencies.

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

This is the most commonly used technology for CDMA. In DS-SS, the message signal is multiplied by a
Pseudo Random Noise Code. Each user is given his own code word which is orthogonal to the codes of
other users and in order to detect the user, the receiver must know the code word used by the transmitter.
The combinational sequences called as hybrid are also used as another type of spread spectrum. Time
hopping is also another type which is rarely mentioned.
Since many users can share the same spread spectrum bandwidth without interfering with one another,
spread spectrum systems become bandwidth efficient in a multiple user environment.

Introduction to Wireless Channels and Diversity