Adapted from T.S.

Rappaport’s

Wireless Communications

Chapter 9

Multiple access techniques for

wireless communications

1
 9.1 Introduction to multiple access

• Sharing of spectrum is required to achieve high

capacity
• Duplexing
* FDD: need a duplexer
- To minimize interference between forward and
reverse links on each channel, the frequency split is
made as grate as possible within the freq. Spectrum.
- But, must not be too great in order to allow
inexpensive duplexers and a common trnsceiver
antenna to be used in each subscriber unit.

* TDD: a time latency, only used for a small coverage

2
• Multiple access techniques (commonly used)
* FDMA
* TDMA
* CDMA
* Packet Radio

3
• Narrowband systems:
* Relate the bandwidth of signal channel to the expected coherence
bandwidth of the radio propagation channel.

• Wideband systems:
* Transmission bandwidth of signal channel is much larger than the
coherence bandwidth of the radio channel.
* Multipath fading does not greatly affect the received signal within
the wideband channel.
* Frequency selective fades occur in only a small fraction of the
signal bandwidth.

4
5
6
9.2 FDMA

• Features

* usually implemented in narrowband systems

* carries only one phone user at a time per channel

* If an FDMA channel is not in use, then it sits idle and

cannot be used by other users to increase or share capacity.

* Since FDMA is a continuous transmission scheme, fewer

bits are needed for overheaded purposes (e.g.,
synchronization and framing) as compared to TDMA.

7
* The symbol time is large as compared to the average delay spread;
Consequently, the amount of inter-symbol interference is low
little or no equalization is required

* complexity is lower

* Need to use duplexers

* Also require tight RF filtering to minimize adjacent channel

interference

* the cell site system costs are higher because of the single channel
per carrier design and need to use costly bandpass filters.

8
• Nonlinear effects in FDMA

* Many channels share the same antenna at the BS

* When operated near saturation for maximum power efficiency, the

power amplifiers are nonlinear.

* Can cause signal spreading, and generate

 inter-modulation frequencies
adjacent-channel interference

9
• # of channels supported in a FDMA system
Bt  2 Bguard
N (9.1)
Bc

where Bguard is the guard band allocated at the edge of the spectrum.

10
11
12
13
9.3 TDMA

• Transmission in a buffer-and-burst method, not

continuously.

• Digital data and digital modulation must be used

• In TDMA/FDD systems, it intentionally induce

several time slots of delay between the forward and
reverse time slots of a particular user, so the duplexer
is not required.

14
• Features:
* Number of time slots per frame depends on modulation
techniques, available bandwidth, etc.

* Data transmission is not continuous, but in burst

low battery consumption, since the subscriber transmitter can
be turned off when not in use.

* Simpler handoff process, since the subscriber is able to listen for

other base stations during the idle time slots. (MAHO)

15
• Features: (Cont.)
* Duplexers are not required. Even if FDD is used, a switch
rather than a duplexer is all that is required.

* Adaptive equalization is usually necessary, since the

transmission rates are generally very high as compared to
FDMA channels.

* High synchronization are guard slots overhead.

* It is possible to allocate different numbers of time slots per

frame to different users.

16
• # of channel slots in a TDMA system

m( Btot  2 Bguard )
N (9.5)
Bc

where m is the number of time slots on each channel.

17
18
• The preamble contains the address and synchronization
information that both the base station and the subscribers
use to identify each other.
• Guard times (bits) are utilized to allow synchronization of
the receivers between different slots and frames.

19
20
21
22
9.4 Spread Spectrum Multiple Access

A narrowband wideband
• Conceptual view signal noise-like signal

Pseudo-noise (PN) sequence

•
 Immune to multi-path interference
Robust multiple access capability in a multiple
users environment

• Types of spread spectrum multiple access

* Frequency hopping
* direct sequence (also called CDMA)

23
24
FH

• carrier frequencies of the individual users are varied in

a pseudo random within a wideband channel

• Digital data is broken into uniform sized bursts which

are transmitted on different carrier frequencies.

• The instantaneous bandwidth of any one transmission

burst is much smaller than the total spread bandwidth.

25
• Pseudorandom change of the carrier frequencies of the
user randomizes the occupancy of a specific channel at any
given time, thereby allowing for multiple access over a
wide range of frequencies.

• in the receiver, a locally generated PN code is used to

synch the receiver instantaneous frequency with that of the
transmitter

26
• At any given point in time, a frequency hopped signal only
occupies a signal, relatively narrow channel since
narrowband FM or FSK is used.

• A frequency hopped system provides a level of security,

especially when a large number of channels are used, since
an unintended (or an intercepting) receiver that does not
know the pseudorandom sequence of frequency slots must
retune rapidly to search for the signal it wishes to
intercept.

27
CDMA

• The narrowband message signal is multiplied by a very

large bandwidth signal called the spreading signal.

• The spreading signal is a pseudo-noise code sequence that

has a chip rate which is order of magnitudes greater than
the data rate of the message.

• Each user has its own pseudorandom codeword which is

approximately orthogonal to all other codewords.

28
• receiver performs a time correlation operation to
detect only the specific desired codeword

• For detection of the message signal, the receiver needs

to know the codeword used by the XMIT.

• Each user operates independently with no knowledge

of the other users.

29
• In CDMA, the power of multipath users at a receiver
determines the noise floor after decorrelation.

• If the power of each user within a cell is not controlled

such that the near-far problem occurs.

• To combat the near-far problem, power control is used

in most CDMA implementations.

This solves the problem of a nearby subscriber overpowering

the base station receiver and drowning out the signals of far
away subscribers.

30
• Features of CDMA:

* Many users share the same frequency. Either TDD or FDD may be
used.

* Has a soft capacity limit. Increasing the number of users in a

CDMA system raises the noise floor in a linear manner.

31
• Thus, there is no absolute limit on the number of users in
CDMA. Rather, the system performance gradually
degrades for all users as the number of users is increased.

* Inherent frequency diversity will mitigate the effects of both

multipath fading and small-scale fading.

* It provide soft handoff.

32
 9.4.3 hybrid spread spectrum techniques

• Hybrid FDMA/CDMA
* The required bandwidth not be contiguous.
* Different users can be allocated different subspectrum bandwidths
depending on their requirements.
* Per Figure 9.6 (P. 460)

• Hybrid direct sequence/Frequency Hopped

* Consists of a direct sequence modulated signal whose center
frequency is made to hop periodically in a pseudorandom fashion.
* Per Figure 9.7 (P. 460)
* Avoids the near-far problem
* But, not adaptable to the soft handoff.

33
34
35
• Time division CDMA

* Different spreading codes are assigned to different cells.

* only one user per cell is allotted a particular time slot.

* it avoids the near-far effect since only one user transmits at a time
within a cell.

36
• Time division frequency hopping

* Subscriber can hop to a new frequency at the start of a new

TDMA frame, thus avoiding severe multipath fading or co-
channel interference.

* Has been adopted for the GSM standard, where the hopping
sequence is predefined and the subscriber is allowed to hop
only on certain frequencies which are assigned to a cell.

* The use of TDFH can increase the capacity of GSM by

several fold.

37
9.5 Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

38
• Controls the radiated energy for each user in space. That is,
serves different users by using spot beam antennas
(Beamformer).

• Per Figure 9.8(P. 461)

• Different areas covered by the antenna beam may be served

by the same frequency (in TDMA or CDMA) or different
frequencies (in FDMA)

• Sectorized antennas are primitive application of SDMA.

But, the adaptive antennas (or smart antennas) are the focus
of many current research. (mainly for the base station
architecture.)

• Why does the reverse link present the most difficult in

cellular systems? 39
9.6 Packet Radio Multiple
Access

• Many users attempt to

access a single channel in
an uncoordinated (or
minimally coordinated)
manner.

• Collisions are detected at

the base station

• ACK or NACK signal is

broadcast to alert the
desired user

40
• Very easy to implement but has low spectral efficiency
and may induce delays.

• ALOHA, developed for early satellite systems, are the

best example of contention techniques.

* Transmit whenever they have data to send

* Then, listen to the acknowledgement feedback to determine if

transmission has been successful or not.

* If collision occurs, waits a random amount of time, and then

retransmits the packet.

41
* The performance of contention techniques can be evaluated by the
throughput and average delay.

* Slotted ALOHA: time is divided into equal time slots of length

greater than the packet duration.

* This prevents partial collisions.

* Figure 9.10 (P. 465) shows that slotted ALOHA double the
channel utilization of pure ALOHA.

42
• CSMA (carrier Sense Multiple Access)

* By listening to the channel before engaging in transmission,

greater efficiencies may be achieved.

* Two important parameters: detection delay and propagation delay.

* Several variations of CSMA:

- 1-persistent CSMA: as soon as the channel is idle, it transmits

the message with probability one.

43
- Non-persistent CSMA: after receiving a NACK, the terminal
waits a random time before retransmission. This is popular for
wireless LAN, where the packet transmission interval is much
greater than the propagation delay.

- P-persistent CSMA: when the channel is idle, the packet is

transmitted in the first available slot with probability P or in the
next slot with probability 1-P.

- CSMA/CD: when collision d is detected during the transmission,

it is aborted in midstream.

- Data sense multiple access: used in CDPD.

44
45
46
• Reservation protocols
* Reservation ALOHA: certain packet slots are assigned with
priority, and is possible for users to reserve slots for the
transmission of packets.
* Packet reservation multiple access (PRMA): as a means of
integrating bursty data and human speech.

• Capture effect in packet radio

* results from near-far effect

• Table 9.2 (P. 469) shows multiple access techniques for

different traffic types.

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48
9.7 Capacity of Cellular Systems

• Radio capacity is determined by the required carrier-to-

interference ratio (C/I) and the channel bandwidth Bc

• Considering the forward channel interference problem, the

co-channel reuse ratio

(9.14)

49
50
• The carrier-to-interference

(9.15)

• Considering only the first tier six co-channel cells,

(9.16)

51
• Assuming the mobile is at the cell edge D0=R, then the
minimum carrier-to-interference ratio that still provides
acceptable signal quality at the receiver is given by

(9.17)

• Thus, the ratio capacity

(9.21)

52
• For n=4

(9.22)

• Typically the minimum required C/I is about 21dB for

narrowband digital system and 18 dB for narrowband
analog FM systems.

53
54
• In a digital cellular system, C/I can be expressed as

(9.24)

55
56
9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular CDMA

• The capacity of CDMA is interference limited, while it is

bandlimted in FDMA and TDMA.

• Therefore, any reduction in the interference will cause a

linear increase in the capacity of CDMA.

• A sectorized antenna system is often used.

57
• Another way is to operate in a discontinuous transmission
mode (DTX). That is, the transmitter is turned off during
the periods of silence in speed. (voice activity ~=3/8)

• At a base station, the signal-to-noise ratio is

(9.28)

58
• The SNR can be further represented in terms of Eb/N0
given by

(9.29)

where
R is the baseband information bit rate,
W is the total RF bandwidth,
S is the signal power of each user.

59
• Taking the background thermal noise ratio account,

(9.30)

• Then, the number of users is

(9.31)

where W/R is the processing gain in CDMA.

60
• When adding the voice activity and sectorized antenna,

(9.33)

• The other commonly used technique to reduce the

interference is power control.

61
62
9.7.2 Capacity of CDMA with Multiple Cells

• A particular base station is unable to control the power of

users in neighboring cells, and these users add to the noise
floor and decrease capacity on the reverse link.

63
• While a single cell CDMA system offers ideal frequency
reuse (f=1), the actual frequency reuse factor of a CDMA
in multi-cells is given by

(9.34)

Where N0 is the total interference power received from (N-1) in-cell

users.

64
 where w1 and w2 represent the user distribution.

• The typical of f could be in the range of 0.316 to 0.707,

depending on the path loss exponent and user distribution.
65
9.7.3 Capacity of Space Division Multiple Access

• For interference limited CDMA operating in an AWGN

channel, with perfect power control and omni-directional
antenna, the average bit error rate,

(9.50)

66
• An ideal adaptive antenna system (smart antenna) is able
to form a beam for each user in the cell of interest, and the
base station tracks each user in the cell as it moves.

67
• For a single cell, the average bit error rate

(9.54)

where
D is the directivity (beam) of the antenna, typically in the
range of 3dB to 10 dB, N is the antenna elements, K is the
number of users.

68
• For a multiple-cell environment,

(9.55)

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