CDPD: Cellular Digital Packet Data

Daniel Grobe Sachs Quji Guo

What is CDPD?
Motivation: Packet data over AMPS
AMPS is unsuited for packet data
Long call setup times Modem handshaking required

Analog providers have AMPS allocation.

Use AMPS channels to provide data service. Cellular digital packet data Cant interfere with existing analog service.

CDPD is cheap: no new spectrum license needed!

Design Goals
Goals:
Low speed, high latency data service
Primarily intended for paging and email.

Provide broadcast and multiple-access service. Dynamically shared media, always online. Share channels with AMPS allocation Transparency to existing AMPS service.

CDPD History
Standard released Jan, 1995 (v1.1) Initially used by police (~1996) Wide service availability around 2000
Omnisky, Verizon Wireless, others.

Covers most US population centers

Champaign-Urbana now covered. Rural area coverage poor.

CDPD Market
CDPD is used primarily for
Law enforcement Handheld/laptop IP access Main competition: Wireless Web phones.

CDPD costs:
Wireless modems: ~$300 (Omnisky Palm V) Service: $30-$40 per month (handheld) $40-$80 per month (laptop)

Omnisky Coverage Map

Source: Omnisky (http://www.omnisky.com)

CDPD Infrastructure

Source: A. Salkintzis, Packet Data over Cellular Networks: The CDPD Approach

CDPD - Layering
Application
Transport Network Data link
IP/CLNP Connectionless Network Protocol SNDCP Subnetwork Dependant Convergence Protocol MDLP MAC
Mobile Data Link Protocol Media Access Control

Physical Network layer

Physical Physical

CDPD Layer

CDPD Physical Layer

30KHz BW channels, shared with AMPS Separate forward and reverse channels
Forward channel is continuous Reverse channel is multiple access.

Gaussian Minimum-Shift Keying-GMSK

GMSK compromises between channel bandwidth and decoder complexity.
IP/CLNP SNDCP MDLP

19.2kbps per channel.

MAC
Physical

AMPS and CDPD

CDPD runs alongside AMPS
AMPS system is unaware of CDPD system CDPD system watches AMPS behavior

AMPS generally has unused channels.

Blocked calls when all channels are allocated. 1% block probability => all channels used only 1% of the time.

CDPD Channel Usage

CDPD uses unused AMPS channels.
Usually are several available. Each 30KHz channel = 19.2kbps up and down

CDPD channel hopping.

Forced: AMPS must be vacated within 40ms of allocation for voice use. Planned: Regular hops prevent AMPS system from identifying channel as unusable.

Channel Scanning
1. Check signal levels from nearby cells.
Use a list of reference channels distributed by the CDPD infrastructure to find levels.

2. Select cell with best signal.

If non-critical and no cell is significantly better than current, no handoff is done (hysteresis)

3. Scan RF channels in cell for CDPD.

Stop when an acceptable channel is found.

Handoff in CDPD
Critical handoffs: Must choose new channel
High error rate is observed or BS signal lost. Received signal strength below a threshold. Base station does not receive data from mobile.

Noncritical handoffs
Channel rescan interval expires. Signal strength changes significantly.

CDPD effects on AMPS

CDPD logically transparent to AMPS Can reduce AMPS service quality
More channel usage => increased interference. If AMPS system is close to SIR margin, CDPD can push it below. Full CDPD usage can push SIR down ~2dB
19 channels/cell, Pblock = 0.02, 12.3 Erlangs

Limiting channels used reduces SIR cost..

Data Transmission Format

All links are base to mobile.
Mobile to mobile goes through base station. Full-duplex; separate forward and reverse links.

Forward link
Continuous transmission by BS

Reverse link
Shared multiple access for mobiles. Reverse link activity indicated by BS.

IP/CLNP SNDCP MDLP

MAC
Physical

Forward Link Structure

Source: A. Salkintzis, Packet Data over Cellular Networks: The CDPD Approach

Reverse Link Structure

Source: A. Salkintzis, Packet Data over Cellular Networks: The CDPD Approach

Reverse Link MAC

Near/Far problem
Mobile may not detect a faraway transmitter. Base station must report busy status.

Protocol:
Digital Sense Multiple Access Nonpersistant: Checks once for busy state. IP/CLNP Slotted: Can only start when BS reports state. SNDCP

Similar to Ethernet MAC.

MDLP

MAC
Physical

Reverse Link MAC

Source: J. Agostsa et al., CDPD: Cellular Data Packet Standards and Technoloy

Reverse Link MAC

Reverse link idle => can transmit.
Busy status checked before transmission starts.. Continue burst unless error is indicated. If BS indicates error, assume collision; exponential backoff is used.

Reverse link busy:

Delay for a random number of slots. Check busy status again.

Mobile Data Link Protocol

IP/CLNP

SNDCP
MDLP MAC
Source: J. Agostsa et al., CDPD: Cellular Data Packet Standards and Technoloy

Physical

CDPD - MDLP
Mobile Data Link Layer Protocol (MDLP)
High-level data link control (HDLC)
Similar to ISDN HDLC.

Mobile (M-ES) to Infrastructure (MD-IS)

In this layer, air link and BS become transparent Connection oriented

MDLP Frame (message structure)

Address, control field, information field No checksum; MAC discards incorrect packets.

CDPD - MDLP
Temporary equipment identifier (TEI)
Identifies destination mobile - virtual address. Assigned by infrastructure.

Packet types
Unacknowledged information Sequenced information
Sequence number, ack, timeout Sliding window Selective rejection supported.

CDPD - SNDCP
Subnetwork-Dependent Convergence Protocol (SNDCP)
Between IP or CLNP and MDLP In both mobile and infrastructure (MD-IS) Segmentation, compression, encryption Questions:
Where and how to segment data? Where and how to compress data?

IP/CLNP

SNDCP
MDLP MAC Physical

CDPD - SNDCP
Segmentation
Goal: to fit the size of underlying frames Two type of headers
Sequenced headers:
For compressed, encrypted, and segmented user data.

Unnumbered headers: Control information.

Efficiency consideration (similar to X.25)

Which layer should segment/assemble messages? Use More indicator to avoid IP fragmentation.

CDPD - SNDCP
Compression
Header compression
To send the Delta information

Data compression
V.42bis a dictionary-based compression

Which layer should compress data?

Source-dependent compression higher layer Source-independent compression lower layer

CDPD - Registration
Low-level protocols ignore authentication. Registration and Authentication
M-ES, serving MD-IS, home MD-IS
Base station (MDBS) has no network function.

Network Equipment identifier (IP, etc.) Forwarding database in home MD-IS

Deregistration
Table maintenance timer

Problems with CDPD

Limited bandwidth
19.2kbps shared per channel Modern applications demand more bandwidth.

Security:
Man in the middle identity theft attack IP network attacks Denial of Service attacks easy.

Potential Improvements
Multichannel / multicarrier transmission
Would allow faster rates with AMPS compatibility.

Security Improvements
Secure against man-in-the-middle attacks.

Switch to CDMA/GSM.
Digital cellular services are more able to accommodate data services.

References
J. Agosta and T. Russell, CDPD: Cellular Packet Data Standards and Technology, McGraw Hill, 1996. Y. Frankel et al., Security Issues in a CDPD Wireless Network, IEEE Personal Communications, August 1995, pp. 16-26. D. Saha and S. Kay, Cellular Digital Packet Data Network, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, August 1997, pp. 697-706. A. Salkintzis, Packet Data over Cellular Networks: The CDPD Approach, IEEE Communication Magazine, June 1999, pp. 152-159. A. Salkintzis, Radio Resource Management in Cellular Digital Packet Data Networks, IEEE Personal Communications, December 1999, pp. 28-36