Chapter 21: Cellular Radio

TRUE/FALSE 1. AMPS was the original mobile phone system in America. ANS: F 2. AMPS is an analog system. ANS: T 3. AMPS is a circuit-switched system. ANS: T 4. Originally, only one carrier was allowed to operate an AMPS system in any given region. ANS: F 5. High path loss makes it easier to reduce interference in a cellular system. ANS: T 6. Adjacent cell sites usually have some overlap. ANS: T 7. Portable handheld cell phones have a maximum ERP of 4 watts. ANS: F 8. All cell sites in a region are connected to a central office. ANS: T 9. AMPS provides for direct cell phone-to-cell phone connection. ANS: F 10. AMPS reuses frequencies over a relatively short distance. ANS: T 11. AMPS uses narrowband FM. ANS: T 12. With AMPS, each individual cell uses all available voice channels. ANS: F

13. Besides voice channels, AMPS uses a set of control channels. ANS: T 14. In AMPS, some control functions are done over the voice channels. ANS: T 15. Paging signals are sent over voice channels in AMPS. ANS: F 16. For efficient handoff, an optimum cell-site radius is a bit less than 0.5 km. ANS: F 17. With AMPS, a cell phone can receive a voice channel and a control channel simultaneously. ANS: F 18. "Blank-and-burst" control signaling is done over the voice channel. ANS: T 19. There is no encryption in AMPS. ANS: T 20. The MIN represents the 10-digit phone-number of the cell phone. ANS: T 21. The MIN is stored in the NAM. ANS: T 22. If used, the ESN must be keyed in by the cell phone user. ANS: F 23. Both the ESN and the MIN are required for proper billing. ANS: T 24. The power a cell phone transmits is controlled by the land station. ANS: T 25. It is possible to have a "collision" when two cell phones try to use the same control channel at the same time. ANS: T

26. The DCC is used to tell a cell phone it is "roaming". ANS: F 27. With AMPS, handoffs always involve a change in the voice channel. ANS: T 28. With AMPS, handoffs result in a 100-msec interruption of the voice signal. ANS: T 29. The AMPS system was designed to ensure privacy. ANS: F 30. It is relatively easy to "clone" an AMPS cell phone. ANS: T 31. The AMPS system is full-duplex. ANS: T 32. Analog cell phones require linear RF amplifiers. ANS: F 33. The optimum size of a cell depends on the amount of traffic. ANS: T 34. Calls can never be blocked on a cell phone. ANS: F 35. Calls can be "dropped" when a cell phone moves into another cell. ANS: T 36. Capacity can be increased by using fewer cells. ANS: F 37. Digital data cannot be sent over an AMPS system. ANS: F 38. Digital cellular systems actually use less bandwidth than analog systems. ANS: T

39. Digital cellular systems in North America use the same frequencies, power levels, and channels as AMPS. ANS: T 40. Privacy using the digital cellular system is much better than using AMPS. ANS: T MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. AMPS stand for: a. American Mobile Phone System b. Analog Mobile Phone Service ANS: D 2. PCS stands for: a. Personal Communications Service b. Personal Communications Systems ANS: B 3. RCC stands for: a. Radio Common Carrier b. Radio Cellular Carrier ANS: A 4. MSC stands for: a. Mobile Switching Center b. Mobile Service Cellular ANS: A 5. MTSO stands for: a. Minimum Transmitted Signal Output b. Maximum Transmitted Signal Output ANS: C 6. MIN stands for: a. Manual Identification Number b. Mobile Identification Number ANS: B 7. NAM stands for: a. Numerical Access Mode b. Numerical Assignment Mode ANS: D 8. ESN stands for: a. Electronic Serial Number c. Emission Strength Number c. Number Access Module d. Number Assignment Module c. Maximum In-band Noise d. Minimum In-band Noise c. Mobile Telephone Switching Office d. Mobile Transmission Time-Out c. Maximum Signal Carrier d. Minimum Signal Carrier c. Regional Cellular Carrier d. none of the above c. Personal Cell phone Service d. Portable Communications Systems c. Advanced Mobile Phone System d. Advanced Mobile Phone Service

b. Emitted Signal Number ANS: A 9. SCM stands for: a. Service Class Mark b. Station Class Mark ANS: B 10. SCM identifies the: a. code number of a cell phone b. base-station class ANS: D 11. SID stands for: a. Sequential Interrupt Demand b. Standard Identification Number ANS: C

d. none of the above

c. Signal Class Mark d. Serial-Code Mode

c. signal classification (analog or digital) d. maximum power level of a cell phone

c. System Identification Number d. Signal Intensity Descriptor

12. The SID is used by a cell phone to: a. identify the type of system (analog or digital) b. recognize an AMPS system c. set its transmitted power level d. recognize that it is "roaming" ANS: D 13. DCC stands for: a. Digital Color Code b. Digital Communications Code ANS: A 14. SAT stands for: a. Station Antenna Tower b. Supervisory Audio Tone ANS: B 15. CMAC stands for: a. Control Mobile Attenuation Code b. Control Mobile Access Code ANS: A 16. The CMAC is used to: a. control access to the cell site b. set the access code of the cell phone c. set the transmit power of the cell phone d. select the transmit channel for the cell phone ANS: C 17. In an AMPS system, voice is sent using: c. Central Mobile Access Control d. Carrier Mode Attenuation Control c. Supervisory Access Tone d. none of the above c. Digital Communications Carrier d. Direct Channel Code

a. AM b. FM ANS: B

c. FSK d. CDMA

18. In an AMPS system, control-channel signals are sent using: a. AM c. FSK b. FM d. CDMA ANS: C 19. The ERP of a typical handheld AMPS cell phone is: a. less than 600 W. c. between 1 and 2 watts b. less than 600 mW. d. 4 watts ANS: B 20. BSC stands for: a. Base Station Controller b. Base Signal Controller ANS: A 21. The combination of the mobile cell phone and the cell site radio equipment is called the: a. BSC c. RF interface b. MTSO d. air interface ANS: D 22. The optimum cell-site radius is: a. 2 km b. 0.5 km ANS: D 23. Phone traffic is measured in: a. calls b. erlangs ANS: B 24. One way to increase the capacity of a cell phone system is: a. increase the number of cells c. increase the ERP b. decrease the number of cells d. decrease the ERP ANS: A 25. CDPD stands for: a. Code-Division Packet Data b. Cellular Digital Packet Data ANS: B COMPLETION 1. AMPS uses the ____________________-MHz band. c. Coded Digital Packet Data d. Cellular Digital Pulse Data c. number of users d. number of blocked calls c. as small as possible d. none of the above c. Basic Service Contract d. Basic Service Code

ANS: 800 2. ____________________ is still the most common cellular phone system in North America. ANS: AMPS 3. Frequency ____________________ is what makes cellular phone systems complex. ANS: reuse 4. A ____________________ occurs when an in-use cell-phone moves from one cell site to another. ANS: handoff 5. If a cell-site radius drops below ____________________ km, handoffs will occur too frequently. ANS: 0.5 6. The number of ERP classes in AMPS is ____________________. ANS: three 7. A cell phone permanently installed in a car would be ERP class ____________________. ANS: I one 8. The maximum ERP of class III cell phones is ____________________. ANS: 600 mW 9. A portable, handheld cell phone would be ERP class ____________________. ANS: III three 10. Mobile transmitter power is controlled by the ____________________. ANS: land station 11. A MAC is a mobile ____________________ code. ANS: attenuation 12. For security, you should always assume that AMPS transmissions are ____________________. ANS: public 13. A mobile switching center is also called an ____________________.

ANS: MTSO 14. The optimum size of a cell site depends on the amount of ____________________. ANS: traffic 15. Telephone call traffic is measured in ____________________. ANS: erlangs 16. A cell phone moving into a site with no available frequencies will have a ____________________ call. ANS: dropped 17. The reduction in cell size to increase traffic is called cell ____________________. ANS: splitting 18. A ____________________ site is a very small unit that can mount on a streetlight pole. ANS: microcell 19. Very small cells called ____________________ are used for reliable indoor reception. ANS: picocells 20. Compared with AMPS, digital cellular phones require ____________________ bandwidth. ANS: less SHORT ANSWER 1. Give two reasons why digital cell phone systems are more secure than analog cell phone systems. ANS: 1. Digital is inherently more secure because of its format. 2. Digitized voice signals are easily encrypted. 2. If a 28.8-kbps modem is being used over a cell phone, how many words of text would be lost during a 100-msec handoff interruption assuming 10 bits per letter and 5 letters per word? ANS: 57.6 3. A certain cell site contains 200 cell phones. The probability that a given cell phone is being used is 15%. What is the traffic in erlangs? ANS: 30 4. What is "trunking gain"?

ANS: For a given probability of being blocked, the maximum allowable traffic per channel increases as the number of channels increases.