GSM vs.

CDMA

Comparing the two most prevalent mobile

communication technologies

CONFIDENTIAL
 What is …?

• GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication)

Ø Based on TDMA technology
Ø Mainly used in Europe, Middle-east and Africa

•CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

ØBased on a spread-spectrum technology
ØMainly used in North America
Ø

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 Technology: FDMA

• Transmission over Radio Frequency (800MHz – 1900MHz)

• Frequency Division Multiple Access
Ø An analog system. Each user is given one channel (i.e., one
frequency). Bad utilisation.
Power
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Frequency
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CH

CH
CH
CH

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 Technology: TDMA

• GSM uses TDMA (Time Division • CDMA is a "spread spectrum"

Multiple Access) technology, allowing many
users to occupy the same time
and frequency allocations in a
given band/space.
• Each mobile station has a
unique digital code. The signals
are spread over the entire
Power

spectrum of 1.25MHz unlike

FDMA/TDMA.
•
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Frequency
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 Spectrum

• Mobile communication uses Radio Frequency (RF)



• GSM uses frequencies 824 – 849 MHz (25 MHz band) and 869 – 895
MHz (25 MHz band)


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 Cellular Architecture

HLR
BSC A
Abis
VLR
Um
MSC PSTN
BSC
EIR

AuC

BTS

Mobile Base Station Network

Station Subsystem Subsystem

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 Cells

• The coverage area is divided into hexagonal cells

• A BTS is situated at three of the vertices of each cell
• In USA, the spectrum in each cell is divided into two bands: A-band
and B-band, each 25 MHz
• Each 25 MHz band is divided into 832 30 kHz channels
• Two channels separated by 45 MHz Cell Site
 forms a full-duplex channel
• The number of channels used in a cell
 varies from as low as 4 to as many as 80

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 GSM Frames and Burst periods

TCH – Traffic Channel SACCH – Assoc. Control Channel BP – Burst Period

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 Handover/Handoff

• Internal Handovers (only one BSC involved)

Ø Channels in the same cell
Ø Cells under the same BSC
• External Handovers (involved the MSC)
Ø Cells under different BSCs under the same MSC
Ø Cells under different MSCs (anchor MSC and relay MSC)
• Techniques used:
Ø Minimum acceptable performance: increase power i.s.o.
handover
Ø Power budget: handover i.s.o. increasing power
Ø

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 Services

• SMS (Short Message Service)

http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/sms/intro.shtml
• Facsimile (for receiving fax on a mobile station)
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) – a standard to let wireless
equipment access the Internet. A Wireless Markup Language
(WML) is used to encode the pages instead of HTML.
• MMS (Multimedia Message Service)
• EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM evolution)
• The ever elusive “Killer app”

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 History and proponents

• Group Spéciale Mobile • cdmaOne (2G)

Ø Cellular services started Ø IS-95A (First CDMA cellular
standard)
in Europe in 1982
ð First deployed in
Ø 13 operators in Europe Sep 1996 by
sign a MoU in 1987 Hutchison
ð Radiolinja Oy Ø IS-95B (2.5G)
became the ð First deployed in
first GSM Sep 1999 in
network Korea
operator in • CDMA2000 (3G)
1992 Ø CDMA2000 1X (Phase 1)
ð Deployed in Korea
in 2000
Ø CDMA2000 1x EV-DO
Ø CDMA2000 1x EV-DV

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 Standards and standardization

• GSM coordinated by 3GPP • cdmaOne (2G)

Ø Release 99 Ø IS-95A
Ø Release 4 (was Release ð 1.25MHz CDMA
2000) channels
• W-CDMA (Widebad CDMA) ð circuit switched
coordinated by 3GPP2 data
connections at
• B-CDMA (Broadband CDMA)
14.4kbps

Ø IS-95B (2.5G)
• CDMA2000 (3G)
Ø CDMA2000 1X (Phase
1)

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 Statistics (Geography-wise)

• Over 1 billion GSM subscribers • Over 170 million CDMA

subscribers
Millions
500
400
300
200
GSM
100
CDMA
0 a
m a
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ac

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h
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ut
rt
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o
N

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 Statistics (Subscriber growth)

Millions
1,000
900
800
700
600
500 GSM
400
300 CDMA
200
100
0
1

02

3
00

00
20
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 Glossary

• GPRS – General Packet Radio Service; GPRS represents first

implementation of packet switching within GSM, precursor to 3G
• GGSN – Gateway GPRS Support Node; the gateway between the
cellular network and the IP network

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 References

• GSM Association website, at http://www.gsmworld.com

• CDMA Development group, at http://www.cdg.com
• UMTS World, at http://www.umtsworld.com
• How Stuff Works: Cell Phones, at
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm
• Cellular Telephone Basics, at
http://www.privateline.com/Cellbasics/Cellbasics.html
• GSM overview, at
http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria/GSM/gsmreport.html

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