Introduction to Telecommunication Systems

GSM900
DCS1800

1
Network Overview

Objectives
•Describe the major components of the network
and their interrelationships.
•Describe how your voice is converted to
electrical signals and transmitted over the
network.

2
Definition of a network:

• A system of interconnected elements

• A system of various departments to
support these elements
• Traffic is the flow of information or
messages throughout the network

3
What is a telecommunications network?

• A system of interconnected
elements linked by facilities (i.e.,
physical connections) over which
traffic will flow.

• The traffic may be conversations,

information, or complex video or
audio services. The
telecommunications network
must also be able to control the
interconnected elements

4
Network Components and Architecture

• Physical components required for

telecommunication network
– Transmission Facilities
– Local Loop
– IOF - Interoffice facilities
– Switching Systems
– Customer Premise Equipment
(CPE)

5
Transmission Facilities

•In its simplest form, a transmission facility is a

communication between two end points. This
communication path can also be referred to as:
•Channel
•Circuit
•Trunk
•For telephony purposes, the communication
path (also known as network facilities) can be
classified into two broad categories:
•Local Loop
•Interoffice Facilities (IOF)/Trunk

6
Transmission Facilities………..

• The local loop:

– is a circuit that connects a
customer to the telephone
network.
– provides the customer with
access to the switching
system.
• The term "loop" is derived from
the pair of wires that forms the
electrical path between the
customer and the central office.
• The local loop is also referred to
as the subscriber loop.
• A simple local loop architecture is
depicted in Figure

7
Switching Systems

•The primary functions of switching

systems are to provide:
•Call setup and routing
•Call supervision
•Customer I.D. and phone
numbers
•These are accomplished by
interconnecting facilities
Switching systems located at the
central office (CO) that are used to
provide dial tone and ringing are
referred to as end offices or local
switches. These switches can also be
interconnected with other switches.
•Another type of switch, tandem, is
used as a hub to connect switches and
provide routing. (No dial tone is
provided to the customer.)

8
Components for Transmission

•Three components of any

transmission system are the
•The transmitter
•The receiver
•The communication path
•In its simplest form, the CPE or
customer premises equipment, is the
transmitter and receiver. The media
(twisted pair copper, coaxial cable,
optical fiber, radio waves) that
connects the CPE is the path.

9
Telephone Connection to the Central Office

•Many customers' telephones are

connected to the central office by a
pair of wires within a cable
•Why two wires?
•Because your telephone is an
electro-mechanical instrument, it
requires a battery source and a
ground source.
•The battery source is supplied from
the central office equipment to your
telephone set by a wire called the ring
lead. The ground source is transmitted
from the central office by a wire called
the tip lead. Together, the tip and ring
of the telephone set are commonly
referred to as a cable pair.

10
Analog and Digital Transmission

11
Analog and Digital Transmission

Objectives
•Describe a carrier system.
•Describe the major differences between analog and
digital signals.
•Describe the analog to digital and digital to analog
conversion process.
•Compare and contrast Frequency Division Multiplexing
and Time Division Multiplexing.

12
Introduction

•The telecommunications network can transmit a variety of

information, in two basic forms, analog and digital. In this
lesson we will examine both. This information may be
transmitted over a circuit/channel or over a carrier system.
•Where: A circuit/channel is a transmission path for a single
type of transmission service (voice or data) and is generally
referred to as the smallest subdivision of the network. A
carrier, on the other hand, is a transmission path in which one
or more channels of information are processed, converted to
a suitable format and transported to the proper destination.

The two types of carrier systems we will be discussing in this

lesson are:
1. FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) -- analog
2. TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) - digital

13
Multiplexing

• Multiplexing is the process of transmitting two or more

individual signals over a common path. In effect, it increases
the amount of information transmitted, while decreasing the
requirement for the physical media (no longer a 1:1 ratio).
• Frequency Division Multiplexing
• The first type of multiplexing was an analog multiplexing
technique. Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). In FDM, the
bandwidth of the transmission path serves as the frame of
reference for all of the information being transmitted. The total
bandwidth is divided into subchannels consisting of smaller
segments of the available bandwidth Each subchannel is
capable of carrying a separate signal. Signals are transmitted
simultaneously. Thus, with FDM each channel is:
• Assigned a different frequency
• Separated into channels 4000 Hz. wide.
• The different channels are then stacked and transported over a
common path. In other words, each channel occupies a portion
of the total frequency bandwidth.

14
Why Digital Transmission?

• Digital Transmission, demanded by our customers, has

continually increased since its introduction in 1962. This is due, in
large part, to the fact that more of our customers require a high
degree of accuracy in the information they are transmitting over
our network. And with a digital transmission (as opposed to
analog) system we are able to manage the quality of the signal
by managing the previously discussed transmission impairments.
Thus, digital systems: 1). are a better switching interface 2.) are
easier to multiplex 3.)produce clearer signals

• Digital Signals A digital signal is a discrete signal. It is depicted

as discontinuous -- Discretely variable (on/off) as opposed to an
analog signal which is continuously variable (sine wave) A digital
signal has the following characteristics:
1.) Holds a fixed value for a specific length of time
2.) Has sharp, abrupt changes
3.) A preset number of values allowed

15
The Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) Process

• Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) converts analog signals to a digital format (signal).
This process has four steps

16
Step One: Filtering

•Frequencies below 300 Hz and above

3400 Hz (Voice Frequency range) are
filtered from the analog signal
•The lower frequencies are filtered out
to remove electrical noise induced from
the power lines.
•The upper frequencies are filtered out
because they require additional bits
and add to the cost of a digital
transmission system.
•The actual bandwidth of the filtered
signal is 3100 Hz (3400 - 300). It is
often referred to as 4 kHz.

17
Step Two: Sampling

•The analog signal is sampled 8000

times per second. The rate at which the
analog signal is sampled is related to
the highest frequency present in the
signal. This is based on the Nyquist
sampling theorem. In his calculations,
Nyquist used a voice frequency range
of 4000 Hz (which represents the voice
frequency range that contains
"intelligent" speech). Thus, the
standard became a sampling rate of
8000 Hz, or twice the bandwidth. The
signal that is the result of the sampling
process contains sufficient information
to accurately represent the information
contained in the original signal. The
output of this sampling procedure is a
Pulse Amplitude Modulated, or PAM,
signal.

18
Step Three and Four: Quantizing and Encoding

•In the third step of the A/D conversion

process, we quantize the amplitude of
the incoming samples to one of 255
amplitudes on a quantizing scale
•Thus, in this step the sampled signal
is matched to a segmented scale. The
purpose of step three is to measure the
amplitude (or height) of the PAM signal
and assign a decimal value that defines
the amplitude. Based on the quantizing
scale, each sampled signal is assigned
a number between 0 and +127 to
define its amplitude.
•In the fourth step of the A/D conversion process, the quantized samples are
encoded into a digital bit stream (series of electrical pulses).

19
Time division multiplexing (TDM)

• Time division multiplexing (TDM) is a digital multiplexing

technique. In TDM, a number of low rate channels are fed
into a multiplexer (e.g., D Bank), which combines them
into one high rate digital signal. Each of the 24 VF(voice
frequency)/DS0 channels is assigned a specific time slot
by the TDM(Time Division Multiplexer). Thus, TDM is a
process by which several digital signals are combined
onto a single path and sent sequentially. Relating this
back to the PAM process: The analog signal is sampled
8000 times a second. There will be 8,000 eight-bit words
transmitted per second. These words will be 1/8000
second (or 125 microseconds) apart.

20
Digital Hierarchy

•The digital hierarchy represents the

standard rates by which digital
communications are sent in North
America.
•The basic building block of the digital
hierarchy is the DS0 rate at 64 Kbps.
Remember that multiplying 8-bit words
by the sampling rate of 8000
times/second produces the 64,000 bps
rate. With Time Division Multiplexing,
multiplexing by an additional 24 time
slots and including 8000 framing bits
for timing information produces the
1,544,000 bps or 1.544 Mbs. DS1 is
considered the beginning of high
capacity digital transmission rates.

21
Introduction to Switching

22
Fundamentals of Switching

Objectives
Identify the major functions of switching.
State the meaning of electronic switching systems (ESS)
and stored program control (SPC) switching systems.
Describe how this family of switches differs from earlier
switches. Describe the major components of a digital
switch and the main functions of those components.
Identify and describe the basic traffic measurements.

23
Functions of a Switch

The purpose of a switch is to provide a path for the call. To

process a call the switch performs three main functions:

1) Identifies the customer

2) Sets up the communication path
3) Supervises the call

24
Identify the Customers

Initially customers were identified by the

jack position they occupied on the
switchboard. With the introduction of
electromechanical switches, customers
were as signed telephone numbers. (Also
called line or station numbers.) The
customer's cable pair is terminated and
cross-connected to the office equipment at
the main distributing frame. Office
equipment terminated on the MDF
represents a physical location in the switch
and a specific telephone number. With the
introduction of electronic switches, a
telephone number is no longer wired to a
specific component of the switch. The
telephone number is now associated with a
customer record which exists in the
translations (or memory) of the switch.

25
Set Up the Path

Early in the processing of a call, the

switch needs to determine what type of
a call is being made. By analyzing
either the first digit (is it a 0 or a 1?) or
the first three digits (prefix), the switch
will determine whether the call is
intraswitch or inter-switch. If the call
being processed is an intra-switch call,
the path that the switch will allocate is
called a line (i.e., "on the line side of
the network"). If the call is an inter-
switch call, the path that the switch will
allocate is a trunk.

26
Supervise the Call

The supervision functions of the switch

tend to be overlooked because they are
transparent to the customer. They are,
however, extremely important because
they directly impact the efficient
functioning of the switch itself.

27
Wireless Fundamentals

28
BASIC Telephony

•Signaling
SWITCH / EXCHANGE
•Traffic

•Off Hook
•Dial Tone
•Ring
•Dialing Digits
•Off Hook &
•RBT
Conversation
•Conversation

29
Wireless Telephony

MSC

BSC
BTS BTS

Mobile
Subscriber...

30
Different Standards Worldwide

• Till 1982 Cellular Systems were exclusively Analog Radio Technology.

• Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)

– U.S. standard on the 800 MHz Band

• Total Access Communication System (TACS)

– U.K. standard on 900 MHz band

• Nordic Mobile Telephone System (NMT)

– Scandinavian standard on the 450 & 900 MHz band

31
Different Standards Worldwide

32
Analog Mobile Telephony

• End of 1980’s Analog Systems unable to meet continuing demands

– Severely confined spectrum allocations
– Interference in multipath fading environment
– Incompatibility among various analog systems
– Inability to substantially reduce the cost of mobile terminals and
infrastructure required

33
Digital Mobile Telephony

• Spectrum space - most limited and precious resource

• Solution - further multiplex traffic (time domain)

• Can be realized with Digital Techniques only

34
Cellular Communication

• A cellular system links Mobile subscribers to Public

Telephone System or to another Mobile subscribers.

• It removes the fixed wiring used in a traditional telephone installation.

• Mobile subscriber is able to move around, perhaps can travel

in a vehicle or on foot & still make & receive call.

35
Advantage of Cellular Communication

• Mobility
• Flexibility
• Convergence
• Greater QOS
• Network Expansion
• Revenue/Profit

36
First Mobile Radio Telephone (1924)

Courtesy of Rich Howard

37
First Generation

• Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)

– US trials 1978; deployed in Japan (’79) & US (’83)
– 800 MHz band — two 20 MHz bands
– TIA-553
– Still widely used in US and many parts of the world
• Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT)
– Sweden, Norway, Demark & Finland
– Launched 1981; now largely retired
– 450 MHz; later at 900 MHz (NMT900)
• Total Access Communications System (TACS)
– British design; similar to AMPS; deployed 1985
– Some TACS-900 systems still in use in Europe

38
Second Generation — 2G

• Digital systems
• Leverage technology to increase capacity
– Speech compression; digital signal processing
• Utilize/extend “Intelligent Network” concepts
• Improve fraud prevention
• Add new services
• There are a wide diversity of 2G systems
– IS-54/ IS-136 North American TDMA; PDC (Japan)
– iDEN
– DECT and PHS
– IS-95 CDMA (cdmaOne)
– GSM

39
D-AMPS/ TDMA & PDC

• Speech coded as digital bit stream

– Compression plus error protection bits
– Aggressive compression limits voice quality
• Time division multiple access (TDMA)
– 3 calls per radio channel using repeating time slices
• Deployed 1993 (PDC 1994)
– Development through 1980s; bakeoff 1987
• IS-54 / IS-136 standards in US TIA
• ATT Wireless & Cingular use IS-136 today
– Plan to migrate to GSM and then to W-CDMA
• PDC dominant cellular system in Japan today
– NTT DoCoMo has largest PDC network

40
iDEN

• Used by Nextel
• Motorola proprietary system
– Time division multiple access technology
– Based on GSM architecture
• 800 MHz private mobile radio (PMR) spectrum
– Just below 800 MHz cellular band
• Special protocol supports fast “Push-to-Talk”
– Digital replacement for old PMR services
• Nextel has highest APRU in US market due to “Direct Connect”
push-to-talk service

41
DECT and PHS

• Also based on time division multiple access

• Digital European Cordless Telephony
– Focus on business use, i.e. wireless PBX
– Very small cells; In building propagation issues
– Wide bandwidth (32 kbps channels)
– High-quality voice and/or ISDN data
• Personal Handiphone Service
– Similar performance (32 kbps channels)
– Deployed across Japanese cities (high pop. density)
– 4 channel base station uses one ISDN BRI line
– Base stations on top of phone booths
– Legacy in Japan; new deployments in China today

42
North American CDMA (cdmaOne)

• Code Division Multiple Access

– All users share same frequency band
– Discussed in detail later as CDMA is basis for 3G
• Qualcomm demo in 1989
– Claimed improved capacity & simplified planning
• First deployment in Hong Kong late 1994
• Major success in Korea (1M subs by 1996)
• Used by Verizon and Sprint in US
• Simplest 3G migration story today

43
cdmaOne — IS-95

• TIA standard IS-95 (ANSI-95) in 1993

• IS-95 deployed in the 800 MHz cellular band
– J-STD-08 variant deployed in 1900 MHz US “PCS” band
• Evolution fixes bugs and adds data
– IS-95A provides data rates up to 14.4 kbps
– IS-95B provides rates up to 64 kbps (2.5G)
– Both A and B are compatible with J-STD-08
• All variants designed for TIA IS-41 core networks (ANSI 41)

44
GSM

• « Groupe Special Mobile », later changed to

« Global System for Mobile »
– Joint European effort beginning in 1982
– Focus on seamless roaming across Europe
• Services launched 1991
– Time division multiple access (8 users per 200KHz)
– 900 MHz band; later extended to 1800MHz
– Added 1900 MHz (US PCS bands)
• GSM is dominant world standard today
– Well defined interfaces; many competitors
– Network effect (Metcalfe’s law) took hold in late 1990s
– Tri-band GSM phone can roam the world today

45
Multiple Access Technologies

46
1G — Separate Frequencies

FDMA — Frequency Division Multiple Access

30 KHz
30 KHz
30 KHz
Frequency

30 KHz
30 KHz
30 KHz
30 KHz
30 KHz

47
2G — TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

One timeslot = 0.577 ms One TDMA frame = 8 timeslots

200 KHz
Frequency

200 KHz

200 KHz

200 KHz

Time

48
2G & 3G — CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

• Spread spectrum modulation

– Originally developed for the military
– Resists jamming and many kinds of interference
– Coded modulation hidden from those w/o the code
• All users share same (large) block of spectrum
– One for one frequency reuse
– Soft handoffs possible
• Almost all accepted 3G radio standards are based on CDMA
– CDMA2000, W-CDMA and TD-SCDMA

49
Multi-Access Radio Techniques

Courtesy of Petri Possi, UMTS World

50
3G Vision

• Universal global roaming

• Multimedia (voice, data & video)
• Increased data rates
– 384 kbps while moving
– 2 Mbps when stationary at specific locations
• Increased capacity (more spectrally efficient)
• IP architecture
• Problems
– No killer application for wireless data as yet
– Vendor-driven

51
International Standardization

• ITU (International Telecommunication Union)

– Radio standards and spectrum
• IMT-2000
– ITU’s umbrella name for 3G which stands for International
Mobile Telecommunications 2000
• National and regional standards bodies are collaborating
in 3G partnership projects
– ARIB, TIA, TTA, TTC, CWTS. T1, ETSI - refer to reference
slides at the end for names and links
• 3G Partnership Projects (3GPP & 3GPP2)
– Focused on evolution of access and core networks

52
IMT-2000 Vision

Global
Satellite
Suburban Urban
In-Building

Microcell Picocell
Macrocell

Basic Terminal
PDA Terminal
Audio/Visual Terminal

53
IMT-2000 Radio Standards

• IMT-SC* Single Carrier (UWC-136): EDGE

– GSM evolution (TDMA); 200 KHz channels; sometimes called “2.75G”
• IMT-MC* Multi Carrier CDMA: CDMA2000
– Evolution of IS-95 CDMA, i.e. cdmaOne
• IMT-DS* Direct Spread CDMA: W-CDMA
– New from 3GPP; UTRAN FDD
• IMT-TC** Time Code CDMA
– New from 3GPP; UTRAN TDD
– New from China; TD-SCDMA
• IMT-FT** FDMA/TDMA (DECT legacy)

* Paired spectrum; ** Unpaired spectrum

54
CDMA2000 Pros and Cons

• Evolution from original Qualcomm CDMA

– Now known as cdmaOne or IS-95
• Better migration story from 2G to 3G
– cdmaOne operators don’t need additional spectrum
– 1xEVD0 promises higher data rates than UMTS, i.e. W-CDMA
• Better spectral efficiency than W-CDMA(?)
– Arguable (and argued!)
• CDMA2000 core network less mature
– cmdaOne interfaces were vendor-specific
– Hopefully CDMA2000 vendors will comply w/ 3GPP2

55
W-CDMA (UMTS) Pros and Cons

• Wideband CDMA
– Standard for Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS)
• Committed standard for Europe and likely migration path for
other GSM operators
– Leverages GSM’s dominant position
• Requires substantial new spectrum
– 5 MHz each way (symmetric)
• Legally mandated in Europe and elsewhere
• Sales of new spectrum completed in Europe
– At prices that now seem exorbitant

56
TD-SCDMA

• Time division duplex (TDD)

• Chinese development
– Will be deployed in China
• Good match for asymmetrical traffic!
• Single spectral band (1.6 MHz) possible
• Costs relatively low
– Handset smaller and may cost less
– Power consumption lower
– TDD has the highest spectrum efficiency
• Power amplifiers must be very linear
– Relatively hard to meet specifications

57
Migration To 3G

2.75G 3G
Multimedia
Intermediate
2.5G Multimedia

2G Packet Data

1G Digital Voice
Analog Voice
GPRS W-CDMA
GSM
EDGE (UMTS)
115 Kbps
NMT 9.6 Kbps 384 Kbps Up to 2 Mbps

GSM/
TD-SCDMA
TDMA GPRS
(Overlay)
TACS 2 Mbps?
115 Kbps
9.6 Kbps

iDEN iDEN
9.6 Kbps PDC (Overlay)
9.6 Kbps
AMPS CDMA 1xRTT cdma2000
CDMA 1X-EV-DV

14.4 Kbps
PHS
(IP-Based) 144 Kbps Over 2.4 Mbps
/ 64 Kbps
64 Kbps
PHS 2003 - 2004+
2003+
2001+
1992 - 2000+ Source: U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray
1984 - 1996+

58
Mobile Standard Organizations

Mobile
Operators

GSM, W-CDMA,
UMTS 59