Chapter Thirteen:

Multiplexing and Multiple-

Access Techniques
Introduction

Most communication systems require the sharing of

channels

Shared media is common in cable television, telephone

systems, and data communications

Two types of combining signals are:

Multiplexing - combining signals from the same sources

Multiple-access - combining signals from multiple sources

Review of Hartleys Law

Hartleys law demonstrates the theoretical limit to how

much information can be delivered over a medium

Hartleys law shows that time and bandwidth are

equivalent

A communications medium can be shared equally by

dividing either quantity among users

The frequency spectrum can be divided by using:

FDM (frequency-division multiplexing)

TDM (time-division multiplexing

CDMA (code-division multiple access)

Frequency-Division Multiplexing
and Multiple Access (FDM/FDMA)

FDM/FDMA is the most basic form of multiplexing and

has been used since the first days of radio

Each transmission is assigned a band of frequencies on a

full-time basis

FDM/FDMA is versatile, being used in radio, all types of

cable, and optical fiber
Time-Division Multiplexing and
Multiple Access (TDM/TDMA)

TDM is used mainly for digital communication

Each information signal is allowed all the available

bandwidth, but only for part of the time

In theory, it is possible to divide the bandwidth among all

users of a channel

Continuously varying signals are not well suited to TDM

Many signals can be sent on one channel by sending a

sample from each signal in rotation
TDM in Telephony

TDM is used extensively in telephony

Many different standards for TDM exist

On arrangement is the DS-1 signal

Consists of 24 PCM voice channels

Each channel is sampled at 8 kHz with 8 bits per sample

Each channel therefore has 64 kb/s

Consists of frames which contain the bits representing one sample

from each of the 24 channels

The multiplexed signal is sent at 8000 frames/sec, giving a total of

1.544 Mb/s transmission rate
TDM Framing

The framing bits are used

to enable the receiver to
determine which sample
and which bit in the
sample are being received
at a given time

The receiver must be able

to distinguish between
frames in order to decode
the signaling information
that is sent with the signal
Digital Switching

One characteristic important to digital communication is

the ease and variety of methods available for switching

Switching signals from one line to another is known as

space switching to distinguish it from time switching
Time Switching

A time switch moves PCM samples from one time slot to

another in a TDM signal
Space Switching

A real switch has to handle very large numbers of subscribers

One way of accomplishing this is to use a combination of

time and space switches

A digital space switch is a crosspoint type of switch, but very

fast

A digital switch is completely electronic and not mechanical

Time-Space-Time Switching
In a time-space-time switch, each of the time switches has a separate bus,
called a highway, at its output
Each of the space switches connects two or more time switches at its input to
two or more others at its output as shown below:
Spread-Spectrum Systems

One of the problems facing communication systems is the

proliferation of devices using limited available bandwidth,
such as CB and cordless telephone systems

One approach to solve this problem is use a complex,

computer-controlled system of frequency reuse

The problem with this approach is the delegation of strong

central control to government or service providers
Spread-Spectrum Communication

One technique to solve these problems is the use of spread-

spectrum communication

This technique, as the name implies, spreads the signal

over a broader spectrum of frequencies than is usual

By using a smaller portion of a greater bandwidth, less

interference is produced between competing signals

Spread-spectrum signals use very low power and may have

a signal-to-noise ratio of less than one
Types of Spread-Spectrum Systems

There are two important types of spread-spectrum systems:

Frequency-hopping

Direct-sequence
Frequency-Hopping Systems

Frequency-hopping systems are the simpler of the two

systems available

A frequency generator is used that generates a carrier that

changes frequency many times a second according to a
programmed sequence of channels known as pseudo-
random (PN) noise sequence

It is called this because if the sequence is not known, the

frequencies appear to hop about unpredictably
Direct-Sequence Systems

Direct-sequence systems inject pseudo-random noise (PN)

into the bit stream that has a much higher rate than the
actual data to be communicated

The data to be transmitted is combined with the PN

The PN bits are inverted when real data is represented by a one

and leave the bit stream unchanged when a data zero is transmitted

The extra bits transmitted this way are called chips

Most direct-sequence systems use a chipping rate of at least ten

times the bit rate
Direct-Sequence Spectrum

The use of high-speed PN sequence results in an increase

in the bandwidth of the signal, regardless of the
modulation scheme used to encode the signal
Reception of Spread-Spectrum Signals

The type of receiver used for spread-spectrum signals

depends upon how the signal is generated

For a frequency-hopped signal, a conventional narrowband

receiver is needed that hops in the same way and is
synchronized to the transmitter

One way to synchronize the signals is to transmit a tone on

a prearranged channel at the start of each transmission
before it begins hopping

A more reliable method is to for the transmitter to visit

several channels in a prearranged order before beginning a
normal transmission
Reception of Direct-Sequence
Spread-Spectrum

Direct-sequence spread-spectrum transmissions require a

wideband receiver with autocorrelation incorporated into it

Autocorrelation involves multiplying the the received signal

by a signal generated at the receiver from the PN code

When the input signal corresponds to the PN code, the

output will be large; at other times, the output will be small
Code-Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)

For code-division multiple access, all that is required is for

each transmitter to be assigned a different pseudo-noise
(PN) sequence

If possible, orthogonal sequences should be used

The PN sequence for the transmitter is only given to the

receiver that is to operate with the transmitter

The receiver will then only receive the correct signals and
ignore all others