Multiple Access Techniques

Duplexing
• Duplexing facilitates communications in both
directions simultaneously: base station to mobile and
mobile to base station
– Half Duplex, Full Duplex
• Duplexing is done either using frequency or time
domain techniques:
– Frequency division duplexing (FDD)
– Time division duplexing (TDD)
• FDD is suitable for radio communication systems,
whereas TDD is more suitable for fixed wireless
systems
 Multiplexing
• Many to one
 FDM
• FDM(Frequency-Division Multiplexing)
– is an analog technique that can be applied when
the bandwidth of a link is greater than the
combined bandwidths of the signals to be
transmitted
 FDM (cont’d)
• FDM process
– each telephone generates a signal of a similar
frequency range
– these signals are modulated onto different carrier
frequencies(f1, f2, f3)
 FDM (cont’d)
• FDM multiplexing process, time-domain
 FDM(cont’d)
• FDM multiplexing process, frequency-domain
 FDM(cont’d)
• Demultiplexing
– separates the individual signals from their carries
and passes them to the waiting receivers.
 FDM(cont’d)
• FDM demultiplexing process, time-domain
 FDM(cont’d)
• FDM demultiplexing, frequency-domain
Example
Example (cont’d)
 FDM(cont’d)
• Example : Cable Television
– coaxial cable has a bandwidth of approximately
500Mhz
– individual television channel require about 6Mhz
of bandwidth for transmission
– can carry 83 channels theoretically
 Analog Hierarchy

To maximize the efficiency of their infrastructure, telephone companies have traditionally

multiplexed signals from lower bandwidth lines onto higher bandwidth lines.
 Channelization Approaches
• Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
– Frequency band allocated to users
– Broadcast radio & TV, analog cellular phone
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
– Periodic time slots allocated to users
– Telephone backbone, GSM digital cellular phone
• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
– Code allocated to users
– Cellular phones, 3G cellular
 TIME

Channel-1

Channel-2

Channel-3

Channel-4

Channel-5

FREQUENCY
Channel-6
FDMA

Channel-7

Channel-8

Channel-9
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• The frequency spectrum is divided into unique

frequency bands or channels
• These channels are assigned to users on demand
• Multiple users cannot share a channel
• Users are assigned a channel as a pair of frequencies
(forward and reverse channels)
• FDMA requires tight RF filtering to reduce adjacent
channel interference
Time-frequency characteristic of FDMA
Time Division Multiplexing
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• TDMA systems divides the radio spectrum into
time slots, and in each time slot only one use
is allowed to either transmit or receive
• Transmission for any user is non-continuous
• In each TDMA frame, the preamble contains
the address and synchronization information
• TDMA shares a single carrier frequency with
several users
• TDMA could allocate varied number of time
slots per frame to different users
 FREQUENCY

Channel-1

Channel-2

Channel-3

Channel-4

Channel-5

TIME
Channel-6

Channel-7
TDMA

Channel-8

Channel-9

Channel-10
Time-frequency characteristic of
synchronous TDMA
 TDMA Frame
One TDMA Frame

Preamble Information Trail Bits

Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 … Slot N

Guard Sync Control

Bits Bits Bits Information CRC

One TDMA Slot

A Frame repeats in time
 Features of TDMA
– Share a single carrier frequency with several users.

– Data transmission is not continuous, but occurs in

bursts.

– No duplexers is required since users employ different

time slots for transmission and reception.

– TDMA can allocate different numbers of time slots per

frame to different users, allowing bandwidth be
supplied on demand to different users.
Frequency Bands

CDMA 824- 849 MHz

869- 894 MHz

PCS 1850- 1910 MHz

1930- 1990 MHz
Code Division Multiple Access
 CDMA
• The narrowband message signal is multiplied by a very large
bandwidth signal called spreading signal
• The spreading signal has a pseudo-noise code sequence that
has a chip rate which is orders of magnitudes greater than the
data rates of the message
• All users use the same carrier frequency and can transmit
simultaneously
• Each use has its own pseudorandom codeword that is
orthogonal to the others.
• The receivers need to know the codeword of the
corresponding sender
• Power control is used to combat the near-far problem
• Near-far problem:
– When many mobile users share the same channel, the strongest
received mobile signal will capture the demodulator at a base station.
Thus a nearby subscriber could overpower the base-station receiver by
drowning out the signals of far away subscribers
 Features of CDMA
• Many users of a CDMA system share the same
frequency.
• The symbol (chip) duration is very short and
usually much less than the channel delay spread.
• The near-far problem occurs at a CDMA Receiver if
an undesired user has a high detected power as
compared to the desired user.
 Features contd.
• Many users of CDMA share the same frequency – either TDD
or FDD may be used
• CDMA has soft capacity limit – system performance is
inversely proportional to the number of users
• Multipath fading is reduced because of the signal spread
• Channel data rates are very high
• Prone to self-jamming and near-far problem
• Self-jamming: when the spreading sequences of different users are not
exactly orthogonal
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) Based Multiple Access (OFDMA)

• Orthogonality Principle
• OFDM
• OFDM-FDMA
 Orthogonality Principle
• Vector space
– A, B and C vectors in space
are orthogonal to each other
– A.B=B.C=C.A=0
– (A+B+C).A=(mod A)^2
– (A+B+C).B=(mod B)^2 B
– (A+B+C).C=(mod C)^2

A
C

34
 Orthogonality Principle cont..

• Real Function space

Orthogonality Principle cont..

Here mw and nw are called

m-th and n-th harmonics of w
respectively
 Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing(OFDM)
• It is a special kind of FDM
• The spacing between carriers are such that
they are orthogonal to one another
• Therefore no need of guard band between
carriers.
• One example makes the thing clear

37
 Example of OFDM
• Lets we have following information bits
– 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1,
…
• Just converts the serials bits to parallel bits
C1 C2 C3 C4

1 1 -1 -1
1 1 1 -1
1 -1 -1 -1
-1 1 -1 -1
-1 1 1 -1
-1 -1 1 1
 Example of OFDM cont..
Modulate each column with corresponding sub-carrier using BPSK

Modulated signal for C1 Modulated signal for C2

Modulated signal for C3 Modulated signal for C4

 Example of OFDM cont..

• Final OFDM Signal = Sum of all signal

V(t)

Generated OFDM signal, V(t)

 OFDM-FDMA (OFDMA)
• Each terminal occupies a
subset of sub-carriers
• Subset is called an OFDMA
traffic channel
• Each traffic channel is user4
assigned exclusively to one user3
user at any time
user2

user1
 OFDM-FDMA (OFDMA)
• The IEEE 802.16e/ WiMax use OFDMA as
Multiple access technique
– Bandwidth options 1.25, 5, 10, or 20 MHz
– Entire bandwidth divided into 128, 512, 1024 or
2048 sub carriers
– 20 MHz bandwidth with 2048 sub carriers has 9.8
KHz spacing between sub carriers
 Advantages of OFDMA

• Multi-user Diversity
– broadband signals experience frequency selective
fading
– OFDMA allows different users to transmit over
different portions of the broadband spectrum
(traffic channel)
– Different users perceive different channel qualities,
a deep faded channel for one user may still be
favorable to others

45
Advantages of OFDMA cont..

Multi-user Diversity
 Advantages of OFDMA cont..
• Efficient use of Spectrum

4/3 Hz per symbol

6/5 Hz per symbol

 Disadvantages of OFDMA

• Peak to average power

ratio (PAPR)

The large amplitude variation increases in-band noise and increases the BER
when the signal has to go through amplifier nonlinearities.
 Disadvantages of OFDMA cont..

• Synchronization
– Tight Synchronization between users are required for
FFT in receiver
– Pilot signals are used for synchronizations
• Co-channel interference
– Dealing with this is more complex in OFDM than in CDMA
– Dynamic channel allocation with advanced
coordination among adjacent base stations

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 Research issues and Conclusion

• Future works
– Peak-to-average power reduction in OFDM
– Timing and Frequency Synchronization
– Efficient digital signal processing Implementation of OFDM
– Multiple input/Multiple output (MIMO) OFDM
• Conclusion
– Different variations of OFDMA are proposed
and have different pros and cons

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