TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2:
Spread spectrum techniques
2.1 Spread Spectrum
2.2. How does it work?
2.3. Freq. Hopping systems
2.4. Direct sequence system
CHAPTER 3:
code division multiple access
3.1 What is CDMA?
3.2. Gsm v/s CDMA
3.3. Features of CDMA
3.4. Advantages of CDMA
chapter 4:
Channels in cdma
4.1. CDMA FORWARD CHANNELS
4.1.1Pilot Channel
4.1.2Sync Channel
4.1.3Paging Channel
4.1.4Forward Traffic Channel
4.2. CDMA REVERSE CHANNELS
4.2.1 Access Channel
4.2.2 Reverse Traffic Channel
CHAPTER 5:

2.1 Spread spectrum

In radio applications multiple access implies multiple users can share the same radio
frequency band allocated simultaneuosly. Traditional ways of multiple access have been
frequency division multiple ACCESS (FDMA) and time division multiple access (tdma).
In FDMA the frequency band is divided in slots(each user is given one frequency slot)
while in TDMA the users are allowed to use the frequency band in a predefined interval.

Optimum FDMA frequency plan when path

FDMA network cell frequency plan
loss is R-n, where 3 < n < 5

CDMA network cell frequency plan

Spread spectrum(SS) is used in the recently adopted technique called Code Division
Multiple Access(CDMA).Originally used in military to avoid jamming , spread spectrum
is now available for use in personal communication systems(PCS) for its superior
performance in an interference dominated environment.
2.2 How does it work?
Spread spectrum assigns a code to each user and which spreads its signal bandwidth in
such a way that only the same code can recover it at the reciever end.This method has the
property that the unwanted signals with different codes get spread even more be the
process , making them like noise to the reciever.
2.3. Freq. Hopping systems
Frequency Hopping(FH) and Direct Sequence(DS) are the commonly used spread
spectrum techniques.In Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum(FHSS) signal hops from
one frequency to another according to a predefined sequence. Different signals use
different sets of hopping rules.Direct Sequence is the best known SS technique.

Data signal is multiplied by a Pseudo Random Noise Code(PNcode).Each user is

assigned a unique code called a Pseudo-Noise code.The receiver with the identical code
can de spread the signal to recover the signal, SS radios can tolerate a high level of
2

interference unlike conventional radios, providing much greater capacity increase in

frequency reuse.However, since many users can share the same spread spectrum
bandwidth without interfering with one another, SS systems become bandwidth efficient
in multiple user environments. This reason makes SS communication an ideal choice for
metropolitan areas with large blocking rates. Frequency reuse is universal that is; multiple
users utilize each CDMA carrier frequency.
The spread of energy over a wide band, or lower spectral power density, makes SS
signals less likely to interfere with narrow band communications, because the spreaded
signal power is near that of gaussian noise levels. Narrow band communications,
conversely, cause little to no interference to SS systems because the correlation receiver
effectively integrates over a very wide bandwidth to recover an SS signal. The correlator
then "spreads" out a narrow band interferer over the receiver's total detection bandwidth.
From a system viewpoint, the performance increase for very wideband systems is
referred to as "process gain". This term is used to describe the received signal fidelity
gained at the cost of bandwidth. Errors introduced by a noisy channel can be reduced to
any desired level without sacrificing the rate of information transfer using Claude
Shannon's equation describing channel capacity:
C =W log 2 (1+S/N)
Where C = Channel capacity in bits per second, W = Bandwidth, S/N = Energy per
bit/Noise power
3.1 What is CDMA?
CDMA is a "spread spectrum" technology, allowing many users to occupy the same time
and frequency allocations in a given band/space. As its name implies, CDMA assigns
unique codes to each communication to differentiate it from others in the same spectrum.
In a world of finite spectrum resources, CDMA enables many more people to share the
airwaves at the same time than do alternative technologies.
The CDMA air interface is used in both 2G and 3G networks. 2G CDMA standards are
branded cdmaOne and include IS-95A and IS-95B. CDMA is the foundation for 3G
services: the two dominant IMT-2000 standards, CDMA2000 and WCDMA, are based on
CDMA.Due to its optimized radio technology, CDMA2000 enables operators to invest in
fewer cell sites and deploy them faster, ultimately allowing the service providers to
increase their revenues with faster Return On Investment (ROI). Increased revenues,
along with a wider array of services, make CDMA2000 the technology of choice for
service providers.
3.2 GSM versus CDMA
CDMA systems are the latest technology on the market and are already eclipsing TDMA
in terms of cost and call quality. Since CDMA offers far greater capacity and variable
data rates depending on the audio activity, many more users can be fit into a given
frequency spectrum and higher audio quality can be provide. The current CDMA systems
boast at least three times the capacity of TDMA and GSM systems.

The fact that CDMA shares frequencies with neighboring cell towers allows for easier
installation of extra capacity, since extra capacity can be achieved by simply adding extra
cell sites and shrinking power levels of nearby sites. CDMA technology also allows lower
cell phone power levels (200 miliwatts) since the modulation techniques expect to deal
with noise and are well suited to weaker signals. The downside to CDMA is the
complexity of deciphering and extracting the received signals, especially if there are
multiple signal paths (reflections) between the phone and the cell tower (called multipath
interference). As a result, CDMA phones are twice as expensive as TDMA phones and
CDMA cell site equipment is 3-4 times the price of TDMA equivalents.
GSM stands for "Global System for Mobile Communications." GSM is mostly a
European system and is largely unused in the US. GSM is interesting in that it uses a
modified and far more efficient version of TDMA. GSM keeps the idea of timeslots and
frequency channels, but corrects several major shortcomings. Since the GSM timeslots
are smaller than TDMA, they hold less data but allow for data rates starting at 300 bits
per second. Thus, a call can use as many timeslots as necessary up to a limit of 13 kilobits
per second. When a call is inactive (silence) or may be compressed more, fewer timeslots
are used. To facilitate filling in gaps left by unused timeslots, calls do "frequency
hopping" in GSM. This means that calls will jump between channels and timeslots to
maximize the system?s usage. A control channel is used to communicate the frequency
hopping and other information between the cell tower and the phone. To compare with
the other systems, it should be noted that GSM requires 1 Watt of output power from the
phone.

3.3. Features of cdma

Multi-path
One of the amazing things about CDMA is that many of its benefits occur in urban
environments where they are needed the most. One such feature is CDMA's use of a Rake
correlator, which actually allows CDMA implementations to benefit from multi-path
signal propagation, which often occurs when signals bounce off of and between
buildings. This is an important benefit because it allows CDMA phones to have lower
power output; this lengthens battery life but more importantly allows for more cells to be
crammed into urban areas where there is a greater need for more capacity. A Rake
correlator works by taking advantage of the way that pseudo-random codes are almost
orthogonal to slightly delayed versions of themselves. This means that a receiver can take
a matched filter and sift it through the received signal to find where the signal peaks.
Then the receiver sums the signals from the various paths and thus the signal strength
from each of the multi-paths adds to the signal strength instead of the noise. In traditional
cellular implementations, the signals that are not direct usually contribute to the
combined noise and thus lower overall signal to noise ratio; SNR actually improves for
CDMA in a multi-path environment.
Power Control/Variable Power Output
Although not intrinsically tied to CDMA, most implemented versions of CDMA also
feature a dynamically variable power output. Basically what happens is the phone sends a
predetermined signal pattern to the tower. The tower then takes the inverse transform of
the signal it receives and transmits it to the handset, which applies it to its power output.
This causes the handset to have an extremely non-constant power output. The result is
that the received power by the tower which has gone through the forward transform of
the channel is now flat. The phone is in essence trying to cancel out the effects of the
channel by applying an inverse transform first. This equalization of power received from
each handset allows a system to maximize the capacity of each cell.
Frequency Reuse
This brings us to another major benefit of CDMA, higher frequency reuse. In general,
most traditional wireless implementations only allow each cell to use about 1/6 the total
bandwidth allotted to the wireless carrier. This is because a cell cannot use the same
frequencies as the any of the cells directly next to it because they would interfere with the
transmissions in the neighboring cell. Since CDMA phones have lower power output and
because CDMA uses orthogonal codes, even if it does receive a signal from the
neighboring cell in the same frequencies, when it multiplies the input by its orthogonal
chip, all the other signals cancel out so it's as if they didn't exist. This allows for about
twice the frequency reuse rate of traditional implementations. That means about 1/3 the
total spectrum allotted to the carrier can be used in each cell.
Capacity Dependent on Number of Users/Soft Capacity
An overall consequence of the many benefits of CDMA is that there is not a sheer cutoff
in the number of users that it can support unlike TDMA or traditional cellular. In CDMA,
the limiting criteria on the number of users that can be supported, ultimately depends on
how much noise you're willing to tolerate. Since pseudo-random codes are not in reality

perfectly orthogonal, each additional signal added onto the channel does contribute
slightly to the noise level. Eventually if you add enough calls, the noise level gets too
high and impedes efficient communication. The practical effect of this is the introduction
of static into the voice signal because of the increase in the bit error rate. This means that
the number of calls that can be handled is dependent on how much noise can be tolerated.
This is useful if a carrier decides that they would rather suffer more static during peak
hours in exchange for enabling their network to handle more calls. This is also beneficial
during handoffs from one tower to another. With traditional cellular and TDMA, if the
receiving tower does not have the capacity for another call, the call must be dropped.
With CDMA, the receiving tower can decide to accept the call at a lower quality and then
raise the quality back up when it is handling fewer calls.

Vocoder
The vocoder in CDMA not only allows for more efficient transmission of the voice signal
by using an adaptive bit rate. It also reduces the background noise in the process. This
occurs because the vocoder sets its data rate thresholds higher depending on the
background noise level. The higher the background noise level, the higher the threshold is
moved. This allows the vocoder to only go to the higher bit rates when someone is talking
into the phone as opposed to when the background noise level increases. This also has the
side benefit of removing a good deal of ambient noise from the voice signal which
improves voice quality.
Privacy and Security
Now that we've seen how CDMA can provide cheap, clear, and energy efficient wireless
communication, let's look at how CDMA can prevent others from listening in on our
conversation. CDMA by its very nature is more cryptic than both traditional analog
cellular and TDMA. Encoding and decoding CDMA is rather computationally complex,
especially considering that this encoding has to be done by a little battery powered phone.
When the idea of using orthogonal codes first was developed, it was probably more
realistic to view it as an encryption algorithm than a transmission scheme. This is in stark
contrast to analog cellular where all that's needed is a broad range tuner that's available at
Radio Shack. In order to pick off a CDMA conversation, it is necessary to know the
codes being used which could probably be looked up in a book. Further more a computer
is needed to do the decoding. This might not seem like such a difficult task since it was
just mentioned that decoding is currently done with little battery powered phones.
However, it cannot be overlooked that CDMA handsets implement encoding and
decoding in HARDWARE and someone trying to pick off a CDMA conversation would
have to do the decoding on their home computer in SOFTWARE, hardware being several
orders of magnitude faster than software. As we discovered while doing this project,
although one might think an Ultra 10 is fast, it still can't do CDMA encoding or decoding
in real time (on Matlab, it might have been able to do it if we wrote the programs in C).
Furthermore, we have completely overlooked the fact that in actuality, when CDMA is
used, the digital signal being transmitted is encrypted. This means that in order pick off a
CDMA phone call, one would have to some how find the encryption key in addition to

doing all the things we've just mentioned. The empirical evidence to the effectiveness of
CDMA's security is that currently, there are few if any reports of people listening in on
other people's conversations or of air-time fraud like there was when analog cellular was
most popular.
3.4. Advantages of CDMA
Increased Voice Capacity
Voice is the major source of traffic and revenue for wireless operators, but packet data
will emerge in coming years as animportant source of incremental revenue. CDMA2000
delivers the highest voice capacity and packet data throughput using the least amount of
spectrum for the lowest cost.
CDMA2000 1X supports 35 traffic channels per sector per RF (26 Erlangs/sector/RF)
using the EVRC vocoder, which became commercial in 1999.
Voice capacity improvement in the forward link is attributed to faster power control,
lower code rates (1/4 rate), and transmit diversity (for single path Rayleigh fading). In the
reverse link, capacity improvement is primarily due to coherent reverse link.
Higher Data Throughput
Today's commercial CDMA2000 1X networks (phase 1) support a peak data rate of 153.6
kbps. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, commercial in Korea, enables peak rates of up to 2.4 Mbps
and CDMA2000 1xEV-DV will be capable of delivering data of 3.09 Mbps.

Frequency Band Flexibility

CDMA2000 can be deployed in all cellular and PCS spectrum. CDMA2000 networks
have already been deployed in the 450 MHz, 800 MHz, 1700 MHz, and 1900 MHz
bands; deployments in 2100 MHz and other bands are expected in 2004. CDMA2000 can
also be implemented in other frequencies such as 900 MHz and 1800 MHz and 2100
MHz. The high spectral efficiency of CDMA2000 permits high traffic deployments in
any 1.25 MHz channel of spectrum.
Increased Battery Life
CDMA2000 significantly enhances battery performance.
Benefits include:
Quick paging channel operation
Improved reverse link performance
New common channel structure and operation

Reverse link gated transmission

New MAC states for efficient and ubiquitous idle time operation
Synchronization
CDMA2000 is synchronized with the Universal Coordinated Time (UCT). The forward
link transmission timing of all CDMA2000 base stations worldwide is synchronized
within a few microseconds. Base station synchronization can be achieved through several
techniques including self-synchronization, radio beep, or through satellite-based systems
such as GPS, Galileo, or GLONASS. Reverse link timing is based on the received timing
derived from the first multipath component used by the terminal.
There are several benefits to having all base stations in a network synchronized:
The common time reference improves acquisition of channels and hand-off procedures
since there is no time ambiguity when looking for and adding a new cell in the active set.
It also enables the system to operate some of the common channels in soft hand-off,
which improves the efficiency of the common channel operation.
Common network time reference allows implementation of very efficient "position
location" techniques.
Power Control
The basic frame length is 20 ms divided into 16 equal power control groups. In addition,
CDMA2000 defines a 5 ms frame structure, essentially to support signaling bursts, as
well as 40 and 80 ms frames, which offer additional interleaving depth and diversity
gains for data services. Unlike IS-95 where Fast Closed Loop Power Control was applied
only to the reverse link, CDMA2000 channels can be power controlled at up to 800 Hz in
both the reverse and forward links.
In the reverse link, during gated transmission, the power control rate is reduced to 400 or
200Hz on both links. The reverse link power control sub-channel may also be divided
into two independent power control streams, either both at 400 bps, or one at 200 bps and
the other at 600 bps. This allows for independent power control of forward link channels.
In addition to the closed loop power control, the power on the reverse link of CDMA2000
is also controlled through an Open Loop Power Control mechanism. This mechanism
inverses the slow fading effect due to path loss and shadowing. It also acts as a safety
fuse when the fast power control fails. When the forward link is lost, the closed loop
reverse link power control is "freewheeling" and the terminal disruptively interferes with
neighboring. In such a case, the open loop reduces the terminal output power and limits
the impact to the system. Finally the Outer Loop Power drives the closed loop power
control to the desired set point based on error statistics that it collects from the forward
link or reverse link. Due to the expanded data rate range and various QoS requirements,
different users will have different outer loop thresholds; thus, different users will receive
different power levels at the base station. In the reverse link, CDMA2000 defines some
nominal gain offsets based on various channel frame format and coding schemes. The
remaining differences will be corrected by the outer loop itself.

Soft Hand-off
Even with dedicated channel operation, the terminal keeps searching for new cells as it
moves across the network. In addition to the active set, neighbor set, and remaining set,
the terminal also maintains a candidate set.
When a terminal is traveling in a network, the pilot from a new BTS (P2) strength
exceeds the minimum threshold TADD for addition in the active set. However, initially
its relative contribution to the total received signal strength is not sufficient and the
terminal moves P2 to the candidate set. The decision threshold for adding a new pilot to
the active set is defined by a linear function of signal strength of the total active set. The
network defines the slope and cross point of the function. When strength of P2 is detected
to be above the dynamic threshold, the terminal signals this event to the network. The
terminal then receives a hand-off direction message from the network requesting the
addition of P2 in the active set. The terminal now operates in soft hand-off.
The strength of serving BTS (P1) drops below the active set threshold, meaning P1
contribution to the total received signal strength does not justify the cost of transmitting
P1. The terminal starts a hand-off drop timer. The timer expires and the terminal notifies
the network that P1 dropped below the threshold. The terminal receives a hand-off
message from the network moving P1 from the active set to the candidate set. Then P1
strength drops below TDROP and the terminal starts a hand-off drop timer, which expires
after a set time. P1 is then moved from candidate set to neighbor set. This step-by-step
procedure with multiple thresholds and timers ensures that the resource is only used when
beneficial to the link and pilots are not constantly added and removed from the various
lists, therefore limiting the associated signaling.
In addition to intrasystem, intrafrequency monitoring, the network may direct the
terminal to look for base stations on a different frequency or a different system.
CDMA2000 provides a framework to the terminal in support of the inter- frequency
handover measurements consisting of identity and system parameters to be measured.
The terminal performs required measurements as allowed by its hardware capability.
In case of a terminal with dual receiver structure, the measurement can be done in
parallel. When a terminal has a single receiver, the channel reception will be interrupted
when performing the measurement. In this instance, during the measurement, a certain
portion of a frame will be lost. To improve the chance of successful decoding, the
terminal is allowed to bias the FL power control loop and boost the RL transmit power
before performing the measurement. This method increases the energy per information
bit and reduces the risk of losing the link in the interval. Based on measurement reports
provided by the terminal, the network then decides whether or not to hand-off a given
terminal to a different frequency system. It does not release the resource until it receives
confirmation that hand-off was successful or the timer expires. This enables the terminal
to come back in case it could not acquire the new frequency or the new system.
Transmit Diversity

Transmit diversity consists of de-multiplexing and modulating data into two orthogonal
signals, each of them transmitted from a different antenna at the same frequency. The two
orthogonal signals are generated using either Orthogonal Transmit Diversity (OTD) or
Space-Time Spreading (STS). The receiver reconstructs the original signal using the
diversity signals, thus taking advantage of the additional space and/or frequency
diversity.
Another transmission option is directive transmission. The base station directs a beam
towards a single user or a group of users in a specific location, thus providing space
separation in addition to code separation. Depending on the radio environment, transmit
diversity techniques may improve the link performance by up to 5 dB.
Voice and Data Channels
The CDMA2000 forward traffic channel structure may include several physical channels:
The Fundamental Channel (F-FCH) is equivalent to functionality Traffic Channel (TCH)
for IS-95. It can support data, voice, or signaling multiplexed with one another at any rate
from 750 bps to 14.4 kbps.
The Supplemental Channel (F-SCH) supports high rate data services. The network may
schedule transmission on the F-SCH on a frame-by- frame basis, if desired.
The Dedicated Control Channel (F-DCCH) is used for signaling or bursty data sessions.
This channel allows for sending the signaling information without any impact on the
parallel data stream.
The reverse traffic channel structure is similar to the forward traffic channel. It may
include R-PICH, a Fundamental Channel (R-FCH), and/or a Dedicated Control Channel
(R-DCCH), and one or several Supplemental Channels (R-SCH). Their functionality and
encoding structure is the same as for the forward link with data rates ranging from 1 kbps
to 1 Mbps (It is important to note that while the standard supports a maximum data rate
of 1 Mbps, existing products are supporting a peak data rate of 307 kbps).
Traffic Channel
The traffic channel structure and frame format is very flexible. In order to limit the
signaling load that would be associated with a full frame format parameter negotiation,
CDMA2000 specifies a set of channel configurations. It defines a spreading rate and an
associated set of frames for each configuration.
The forward traffic channel always includes either a fundamental channel or a dedicated
control channel. The main benefit of this multichannel forward traffic structure is the
flexibility to independently set up and tear down new services without any complicated
multiplexing reconfiguration or code channel juggling. The structure also allows different
hand-off configurations for different channels. For example, the F-DCCH, which carries
critical signaling information, may be in soft hand-off, while the associated F-SCH
operation could be based on a best cell strategy.

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Supplemental Channels
One key CDMA2000 1X feature is the ability to support both voice and data services on
the same carrier. CDMA2000 operates at up to 16 or 32 times the FCH rate-also referred
to as 16x or 32x in Release 0 and A, respectively. In contrast to voice calls, the traffic
generated by packet data calls is bursty, with small durations of high traffic separated by
larger durations of no traffic. It is very inefficient to dedicate a permanent traffic channel
to a packet data call. This burstiness impacts the amount of available power to the voice
calls, possibly degrading their quality if the system is not engineered correctly. Hence, a
key CDMA2000 design issue is assuring that a CDMA channel carrying voice and data
calls simultaneously do so with negligible impact to the QoS of both.
Supplemental Channels (SCHs) can be assigned and deassigned at any time by the base
station. The SCH has the additional benefit of improved modulation, coding, and power
control schemes. This allows a single SCH to provide a data rate of up to 16 FCH in
CDMA2000 Release 0 (or 153.6 kbps for Rate Set 1 rates), and up to 32 FCH in
CDMA2000 Release A (or 307.2 kbps for Rate Set 1 rates). Note that each sector of a
base station may transmit multiple SCHs simultaneously if it has sufficient transmit
power and Walsh codes. The CDMA2000 standard limits the number of SCHs a mobile
station can support simultaneously to two. This is in addition to the FCH or DCCH,
which are set up for the entire duration of the call since they are used to carry signaling
and control frames as well as data. Two approaches are possible: individually assigned
SCHs, with either finite or infinite assignments, or shared SCHs with infinite
assignments.
For bursty and delay-tolerant traffic, assigning a few scheduled fat pipes is preferable to
dedicating many thin or slow pipes. The fat-pipe approach exploits variations in the
channel conditions of different users to maximize sector throughput. The more sensitive
the traffic becomes to delay, such as voice, the more appropriate the dedicated traffic
channel approach becomes.
Turbo Coding
CDMA2000 provides the option of using either turbo coding or convolutional coding on
the forward and reverse SCHs. Both coding schemes are optional for the base station and
the mobile station, and the capability of each is communicated through signaling
messages prior to the set up of the call. In addition to peak rate increase and improved
rate granularity, the major improvement to the traffic channel coding in CDMA2000 is
the support of turbo coding at rate 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4. The turbo code is based on 1/8 state
parallel structure and can only be used for supplemental channels and frames with more
than 360 bits. Turbo coding provides a very efficient scheme for data transmission and
leads to better link performance and system capacity improvements. In general, turbo
coding provides a performance gain in terms of power savings over convolutional coding.
This gain is a function of the data rate, with higher data rates generally providing more
turbo coding gain.

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CDMA uses the terms "forward" and "reverse" channels just like they are used in analog systems. Base
transmit equates to the forward direction, and base receive is the reverse direction. ("Forward" is what the
subscriber hears and "reverse" is what the subscriber speaks.)
CDMA FORWARD AND REVERSE CHANNELS
Forward Channels
The Forward CDMA channel is the cell-to-mobile direction of communication or the downlink path. It
consists of:

Pilot Channel is a reference channel which the mobile station uses for acquisition, timing and as a phase
reference for coherent demodulation. It is transmitted at all times by each base station on each active
CDMA frequency. Each mobile station tracks this signal continuously.
Sync Channel carries a single, repeating message that conveys the timing
and system configuration information to the mobile station in the
CDMA system.
Paging Channels primary purpose is to send out pages, that is, notifications of incoming calls, to the
mobile stations. The base station uses them to transmit system overhead information and mobile stationspecific messages.
Forward Traffic Channels are code channels used to assign call (usually voice) and signaling traffic to
individual users.

Reverse Channels
The Reverse CDMA channel is the mobile-to-cell direction of communication or the uplink path.

12

Figure Reverse Link coding process for a single Traffic channel

Access Channels are used by mobile stations to initiate communication with the base station or to respond
to Paging Channel messages. The Access Channel is used for short signaling message exchanges such as
call originations, responses to pages, and registrations.
Reverse Traffic Channels are used by individual users during their actual calls to transmit traffic from a
single mobile station to one or more base stations.
HANDOFF:
Soft / Softer Handover

In FDMA based cellular systems, neighbor cells use different set of

frequencies. When the signal power received by the mobile unit from a neighbor base
station exceeds the signal power of the current cells base station by a certain threshold,
the mobile unit stops communicating with the current base station and connects to the
neighboring station. This is called hard handover.
In CDMA systems, neighbor cells use the same frequency band. If hard
handover is used, this will cause excessive interference and degrade preformance because
the signals coming from other base stations have comparable strengths to the current base
stations signal strength. Instead of this, another handover method soft handover is used.
In this method, a mobile unit enters the soft handover state when the signal strength of
the neighboring cell exceeds a certain threshold but is still below the current base
stations signal strength. In soft handover state, the mobile is connected to both base
stations and its transmission power is controlled by the base station with the higher signal
strength. FigureA illustrates the soft handover.
CDMA is well-suited for soft handover. In the uplink two or more base
stations can receive the mobile signal and in the downlink mobile unit can combine
signals from different users by a Rake Receiver. This is called macro diversity.
CDMA also offer softer handoffs. A softer handoff occurs when a subscriber is
simultaneously communicating with more than one sector of the same cell.
The advantages of soft handoff are as follows :

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Soft Handoff eliminates the short disruption of speech one hears with non-CDMA
technologies during a handoff. Narrow band technologies compete for the signal. In
CDMA, the cells come together to obtain the best possible combined signal. CDMA
handoffs do not create the hole in speech that is heard in other technologies.
Some cellular systems suffer from the pingpong effect of a call getting repetitively
switched back and forth between two cells when the subscriber unit is near a cell border.
In the worst case, this increases the chance of a call getting dropped

Base Station
Controller

BSC

Base Station

Base Station

Mobile Unit

Figure A: Soft Handover with Two Base Stations

In the uplink, the mobile station signal is received by two base stations which pass the
signal to the combining point called base station controller. In the downlink same
information is transmitted via both base stations to the mobile unit which treats them as
multipath signals and combine them.

during one of the handoffs, and in the best case, causes noisier handoffs.

14

CDMA handoff avoids this problem entirely. Finally, CDMA call can be in a soft handoff
condition with up to three cells at the same time. Therefore the chance of a loss of
connection is greatly reduced.

15