CELLULAR NETWORKS

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 Overview
• Cellular and residential cordless telephones (wireless systems)
were introduced in the mid-1980s.
• The cellular networks are evolving through several generations.
The older generations (1G and 2G) provide lower data rates, while
the new (3G and beyond) offer higher data rates.
• The cellular network consists of many “cells,” managed by BS.

• A Mobile Switching Center (MSC) controls the entire cellular

network.
• Frequency allocations and location management are two of the
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most important issues in cellular networks.
 Overview
Data Rates
2 Mbps

1 Mbps 3G
(144Kbps to 2Mbps)

100 Kbps
2.5G
(10-150Kbps)
10 Kbps
2G
(9.6Kbps)
1 Kbps
1G
(<1Kbps)

1980 1990 2000 2010

Years 3
 Cellular networks: From 1G to 3G
• 1G: First generation wireless cellular: Early 1980s
– Analog transmission, primarily speech: AMPS (Advanced Mobile
Phone Systems) and others

• 2G: Second generation wireless cellular: Late 1980s

– Digital transmission

– Primarily speech and low bit-rate data (9.6 Kbps)

– GSM, IS-95 etc…

• 3G: Broadband multimedia

– 144 kbps - 384 kbps for high-mobility, high coverage

– 2 Mbps for low-mobility and low coverage 4

 Cont…

• The cellular network is comprised of many “cells” that typically

cover 2 to 20 miles in area.
• A Base Transceiver Station (BTS), also known as a Base Station
(BS),is accessed by the mobile units in each cell by using wireless
communications.
• One BTS is assigned to each cell.
• Regular cable communication channels can be used to connect the
BTSs to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC), also known as
Mobile Telecommunications Service Center (MTSC ).
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Cell 1
A Cellular Network

Mobile Public
Telephone Switched
Switching Telephone
Cell 2 Center Network
(MTSC) (PSTN)

HLR VLR

Mobile User Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

Cordless connection HLR = Home Location Register

Wired connection 6
VLR = Visitor Location Register
 Cont…

• The MSC is the heart of cellular networks – it determines the

destination of the call received from a BTS and routes it to a
proper site, either by sending it to another BTS or to a regular
telephone network.
• The MTSC uses two databases called HLR and VLR to locate the
mobile users.
• A collection of technologies have emerged to provide analog as
well as digital services over cellular networks to support mobile
users and applications. Although many of these technologies have
found their space in the cellular space, GSM. 7
 How it Works?
• Each cell in a cellular network is assigned a band of frequencies.
• The allocated frequencies are divided into two types of channels:
• Traffic channels that are used to carry voice and data traffic
• control channels that are used to set up and maintain calls, call
request and call initiation.
• For the sake of simplicity, let us assume that each channel is
assigned a unique frequency and that one user can only use one
channel.
• For example, if the frequency band of a cell is subdivided into 30
traffic channels, then only 30 users can talk simultaneously. User
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31 is blocked and gets a busy signal.
 Mobile telecommunications switching office
(MTSO)
• Essentially an end office to connect calls between mobile units

• Several base stations connected to an MTSO

• In a large system, many MTSOs may be connected to a second level

MTSO and so on
• MTSO connected to BSs, PSTN and each other through packet
switching.
• Two types of channels available between mobile unit and BS
– Control channels – used to exchange information having to do with setting up
and maintaining calls
– Traffic channels – carry voice or data connection between users 9
 Frequency Allocation
Cellular networks: Mostly around 900 MHz – 2GHz
Wavelength Frequency
Gamma-rays

X-rays

0.1 m 3000 GHz Infrared

1 mm THF - terribly high frequency 300 GHz
10 mm EHF - extra high frequency 30GHz
Micro
100 mm SHF - super high frequency 3GHz
Waves
1m UHF - ultra high frequency 300 MHz
10 m VHF - very high frequency 30 MHz
100 m HF - high frequency 3MHz Radio
Waves
1 Km MF - medium frequency 300KHz
10 Km LF - low frequency 30Khz
100 Km VLF - very low frequency 3KHz

Source: Bekkers, R. and Smits, J., “Mobile Telecommunications”, Artech, 2000.10

 Multiple Access Techniques: How to allocate users

Session4

Session2
Session3
Session4
Session1
Frequency
Session3
Frequency

Session2
Session1
Time
Time Time Division
Frequency Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
Multiple Access (FDMA) 2G TDMA
1G Cellular (AMPS) All sessions 3G TDMA
Frequency

based on a
code

Time
2G CDMA (IS-95)
3G CDMA Code Division 11
Multiple Access (CDMA)
 Techniques of Location Management
 Cell-id based location.
• Assigned id of the cell you are in and stored in a database.
• As you move from one cell to another, you are assigned a
different cell-id and the location database is updated.

 Angle of arrival (AOA): the angle at w/c radio waves from your
device "attach” an antenna is used to calculate the location of the
device.

 Estimated Time & Signal Strength -the time taken b/n the device &
the antenna is used to calculate the location of the device.

 Network assisted Global Positioning System (GPS): a GPS chip is

installed inside a phone & thus the location of the user is tracked.
 0G Wireless
• Mobile radio telephones were used for military communications
in early 20th century
• Car-based telephones first introduced in mid 1940s
– Single large transmitter on top of a tall building

– Single channel used for sending and receiving

– To talk, user pushed a button, enabled transmission and disabled

reception

• IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System)

– allow users to talk and listen at the same time

– Used two channels (one for sending, one for receiving)

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– No need for push-to-talk
 First-Generation Cellular
• Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) invented at Bell Labs
and first installed in 1982
• Key ideas:

– Exclusively analog

– Geographical area divided into cells (typically 10-25km)

– Cells are small: Frequency reuse exploited in nearby (not

adjacent) cells
– As compared to IMTS, could use 5 to 10 times more users in
same area by using frequency re-use (divide area into cells)
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 Cell Design
E
F D
E
F D A
G C
A
G C B
B E
F D
A
G C
B
• Cells grouped into a cluster of seven
• Letters indicate frequency use
• For each frequency, a buffer of two cells is used before reuse
• To add more users, smaller cells (microcells) are used
• Frequencies may not need to be different in CDMA (soft handoff)15
 Cellular Network Organization
• Cell design (around 10 mile radius)

– Served by base station consisting of transmitter, receiver, and

control unit
– Base station (BS) antenna is placed in high places (high rise
buildings) –
– Cells set up such that antennas of all neighbors are equidistant
(hexagonal pattern)
• In North America, two 25-MHz bands allocated to AMPS

– One for transmission from base to mobile unit

– One for transmission from mobile unit to base 16

 Approaches to Increase Capacity

• Adding/reassigning channels: some channels are not used

• Frequency borrowing: frequencies are taken from adjacent cells

by congested cells
• Cell splitting: cells in areas of high usage can be split into
smaller cells
• Microcells: antennas move to buildings, hills, and lamp posts

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 Security Issues with 1G
• Analog cellular phones are insecure

• Anyone with an all band radio receiver can listen in

• Theft of airtime:

– all band radio receiver connected to a computer

– can record 32 bit serial number and phone number of

subscribers when calling
– can collect a large database by driving around

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 Second Generation Cellular

• Based on digital transmission

• US: divergence happened

– Became several players in 2G due to competition

– Survived

• IS-54 and IS-135: backward compatible with AMPS

frequency allocation (dual mode - analog and digital)
• IS-95: uses spread spectrum

• Europe: Convergence happened

– 5 incompatible 1G systems (no clear winner)

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 Advantages of Digital Communications for
Wireless

• Voice, data and fax can be integrated into a single system

• Better compression can lead to better channel utilization

• Error correction codes can be used for better quality

• Sophisticated encryption can be used

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 Differences B/n 1st and 2nd Generation Systems

• Digital traffic channels – first-generation systems are almost

purely analog; second-generation systems are digital
• Encryption – all second generation systems provide encryption to
prevent eavesdropping
• Error detection and correction – second-generation digital traffic
allows for detection and correction, giving clear voice reception
• Channel access – second-generation systems allow channels to
be dynamically shared by a number of users

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 Mobile Station and Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

Mobile station
• Mobile station communicates across Um interface (air interface) with
base station transceiver in same cell as mobile unit
• Mobile equipment (ME) – physical terminal, such as a telephone or PC

• GSM subscriber units are generic until SIM is inserted

BSS – Base Station Subsytem

• BSS consists of base station controller and one or more base transceiver
stations (BTS)
• BSC reserves radio frequencies, manages handoff of mobile unit from
one cell to another within BSS, and controls paging 22
 Network Subsystem Center
• Mobile Switching Center (MSC) is at core; consists of several
databases
– Home location register (HLR) database – stores information about
each subscriber that belongs to it
– Visitor location register (VLR) database – maintains information
about subscribers currently physically in the region
– Authentication center database (AuC) – used for authentication
activities, holds encryption keys
– Equipment identity register database (EIR) – keeps track of the
type of equipment that exists at the mobile station
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 How Cell-based Location Services Work
6 2
9
BTS Terminating Gateway
10 MTSC MTSC Public 1
10 10 Switched
9 10 7 8 5 3 Telephone
4 Network
(PSTN) 10
VLR HLR
5

1. Call made to mobile unit (cellular phone) 6. Call routed to terminating MSC
2. Telephone network recognizes number and 7. MSC asks VLR to correlate call to
gives to gateway MSC the subscriber
3. MSC can’t route further, interrogates user’s 8. VLR complies
HLR 9. Mobile unit is paged
4. Interrogates VLR currently serving user 10. Mobile unit responds, MSCs convey
(roaming number request) information back to telephone
5. Routing number returned to HLR and then
to gateway MSC
Legend: MTSC= Mobile Telephone Service Center, BTS = Base Transceiver Station
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HLR=Home Location Register, VLR=Visiting Location Register
 Drawbacks of CDMA Cellular

• Self-jamming – CDMA works better if all mobile users

are perfectly aligned on chip (code) boundaries. If this

is not the case, then some interference can happen.
– This situation is better with TDMA and FDMA because time
and frequency guard bands can be used to avoid the overlap.

• Soft handoff – requires that the mobile acquires the new

cell before it relinquishes the old; this is more complex

than hard handoff used in FDMA and TDMA schemes
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EnablingWireless
Technologies
Network Evolution to 3rd Generation

3G
2 Mbps
CDMA Migration CDMA2000
3XRTT W-CDMA
1G-2G Migration (UMTS) (UMTS)
500 kbps
TDMA Migration

2.5G
150 Kbps EDGE
CDMA-2000
1XRTT
100 Kbps

GPRS
2G
50 Kbps

IS-95
10 Kbps 1G
GSM
1 Kbps AMPS

1980 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 26

 4G Systems
• Wireless networks with cellular data rates of 20 Mbits/second and
beyond.
• AT&T has began a two-phase upgrade of its wireless network on the
way to 4G Access.
• Nortel developing features for Internet protocol-based 4G networks
• Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens found a new Wireless World
Research Forum (WWRF) for research on wireless communications
beyond 3G.
• Many new technologies and techniques (multiplexing, intelligent
antennas, digital signal processing)

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