CDMA Technology

Overview

CDMA Basics

CDMA Technology Overview

 Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will have an

understanding of the following concepts:
• CDMA and other access technologies
• CDMA coding, forward, and reverse channels
• Vocoding, multiplexing, and power control
• Components that comprise a CDMA system
• CDMA messaging and call flow

CDMA Technology Overview

 Why CDMA?

C ode
CDMA is extremely robust and
provides excellent audio quality

D ivision • CDMA is the technology of

choice for both 800 MHz
Cellular and 1900 MHz PCS
service providers

M ultiple
• CDMA satisfies CTIA Users’
Performance Requirements
• CDMA provides high capacity
(many times the capacity of

A ccess
AMPS)
• CDMA provides privacy through
its coding scheme

CDMA Technology Overview

 What is Multiple Access?
Multiple Access: Simultaneous private use of a
transmission medium by multiple,
independent users.

Since the beginning of telephony and radio,

system operators have tried to squeeze the
maximum amount of traffic over each circuit
Transmission
Types of Media
• Twisted pair - copper Medium
• Coaxial cable
• Fiber optic cable
• Air interface (radio signals)
Advantages of Multiple Access
• Increased capacity: serve more users Each pair of users enjoys a
• Reduced capital requirements since fewer dedicated, private circuit
media can carry the traffic through the transmission
• Decreased per-user expense medium, unaware that the
other users exist.
• Easier to manage and administer

CDMA Technology Overview

 Multiple Access Technologies
Channel: An individually-assigned, dedicated
pathway through a transmission FDMA
medium for one user’s information

The physical transmission medium is a resource that Power

can be subdivided into individual channels according to y
different criteria depending on the technology used: enc
Tim u
eq
e Fr
Here’s how the three most popular technologies
establish channels:
• FDMA (Frequency Division Multiplex Access) TDMA
− each user on a different frequency
− a channel is a frequency Power
• TDMA (Time Division Multiplex Access) cy
en
− each user on a different window period in time Tim
e Fre
q u
(“time slot”)
− a channel is a specific time slot on a specific
frequency CDMA
• CDMA (Code Division Multiplex Access)
− each user uses the same frequency all the
Power
time, but mixed with different distinguishing
code patterns cy
u en
− a channel is a unique set of code patterns Tim
e Fr
e q

CDMA Technology Overview

 CDMA System Components

T1s T1 or E1s

DMS-MTX BTS

MAP BSM BSC

MTSO

•• Mobile
MobileTelephone
TelephoneExchange
Exchange(MTX)
(MTX)provides
providescall
callprocessing
processingfunctions
functionsforfor
AMPS/TDMA/CDPD/CDMA cellular
AMPS/TDMA/CDPD/CDMA cellular systems systems
•• Base
BaseStation
StationManager
Manager(BSM)
(BSM)provides
providesaaGraphical
GraphicalUser
UserInterface
Interface(GUI)
(GUI)for
for
operations,
operations,administration
administrationand
andmaintenance
maintenanceofofthetheBSC,
BSC,BTS
BTSand anditself
itself
•• Base
BaseStation
StationController
Controller(BSC)
(BSC)provides
providesdata
datarouting,
routing,voice
voicecoding
coding
and some hand-off functions
and some hand-off functions
•• Base
BaseStation
StationTransceiver
TransceiverSubsystem
Subsystem(BTS)
(BTS)provides
providesthetheRF
RFlink
link
to
tothe
thesubscriber
subscriber
•• MTX,
MTX,BSC
BSCandandBSM
BSMareareidentical
identicalfor
for800
800and
and1900
1900MHz
MHzproducts
products

CDMA Technology Overview

 Defining Our Terms
■ CDMA Channel or CDMA Carrier or CDMA Frequency
• Duplex channel made of two 1.25 MHz-wide bands of electromagnetic
spectrum, one for Base Station to Mobile Station communication (called the
FORWARD LINK or the DOWNLINK) and another for Mobile Station to Base
Station communication (called the REVERSE LINK or the UPLINK)
• In 800 Cellular these two simplex 1.25 MHz bands are 45 MHz apart
• In 1900 MHz PCS they are 80 MHz apart
■ CDMA Forward Channel CDMA CHANNEL
CDMA CDMA
• 1.25 MHz Forward Link Reverse Forward
Channel Channel
■ CDMA Reverse Channel 1.25 MHz 1.25 MHz

• 1.25 MHz Reverse Link

45 or 80 MHz
■ CDMA Code Channel
• Each individual stream of 0’s and 1’s contained in either the CDMA Forward
Channel or in the CDMA Reverse Channel
• Code Channels are characterized (made unique) by mathematical codes
• Code channels in the forward link: Pilot, Sync, Paging and Forward Traffic
channels
• Code channels in the reverse link: Access and Reverse Traffic channels
CDMA Technology Overview
 CDMA Is a Spread-Spectrum System

TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM • Traditional technologies try to squeeze

Spread Spectrum
Narrowband the signal into the minimum required
Slow Signal Slow bandwidth
Information Information
Sent Recovered • Direct-Sequence Spread spectrum
TX RX systems mix their input data with a fast
spreading sequence and transmit a
wideband signal
SPREAD-SPECTRUM SYSTEM
• The spreading sequence is
Wideband Signal independently regenerated at the
Slow Slow receiver and mixed with the incoming
Information
Sent
Information
Recovered
wideband signal to recover the original
TX RX
data
• The de-spreading gives substantial
Fast
Spreading
Fast
Spreading
gain proportional to the bandwidth of
Sequence Sequence the spreading signal
• CDMA uses a larger bandwidth but then
Spread Spectrum Payoff: uses resulting processing gain to
Processing Gain increase capacity

CDMA Technology Overview

 Spread Spectrum Principles

MA T
HAM H Power is “Spread” Over a Larger Bandwidth
ME R

MATH
HAMMER

30 KHz
1.25 MHz

CDMA Technology Overview

 Spread Spectrum Principles

Many code channels are individually

“spread” and then added together to
create a “composite signal”

CDMA Technology Overview

 Spread Spectrum Principles

Using the “right” mathematical

sequences any Code Channel
can be extracted from the received
composite signal

UNWANTED POWER
FROM OTHER SOURCES

CDMA Technology Overview

 Anything We Can Do, We Can Undo

ORIGINATING SITE DESTINATION

Spread Data Stream
(Base Band + Spreading Sequence)
Input Recovered
Data Data
(Base Band) (Base Band)

Spreading Spreading
Sequence Sequence

■ Any data bit stream can be combined with a spreading sequence

■ The resulting signal can be de-spread and the data stream
recovered if the original spreading sequence is available and
properly synchronized
■ After de-spreading, the original data stream is recovered intact

CDMA Technology Overview

 “Shipping and Receiving” via CDMA

Shipping Receiving

FedEx

FedEx
Data Mailer Mailer Data

■ Whether in shipping and receiving, or in CDMA,

packaging is extremely important!
■ Cargo is placed inside “nested” containers for protection
and to allow addressing
■ The shipper packs in a certain order, and the receiver
unpacks in the reverse order
■ CDMA “containers” are spreading codes

CDMA Technology Overview

 CDMA’s Nested Spreading Sequences

ORIGINATING SITE DESTINATION

Spread-Spectrum Chip Streams
X+A X+A+B X+A+B+C X+A+B X+A

Input Recovered
Data Data
X X

Spreading Spreading Spreading Spreading Spreading Spreading

Sequence Sequence Sequence Sequence Sequence Sequence
A B C C B A
■ CDMA combines three different spreading sequences to create unique,
robust channels
■ The sequences are easy to generate on both sending and receiving
ends of each link
■ The sequences are applied in succession at the sending end and then
reapplied in opposite order to recover the original data stream at the
receiving end

CDMA Technology Overview

 Walsh Codes

• 64 Sequences, each 64 chips long WALSH CODES

#
0
---------------------------------- 64-Chip Sequence ------------------------------------------
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

a chip is a binary digit (0 or 1)

1 0101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101
2 0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011
3 0110011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110
4 0000111100001111000011110000111100001111000011110000111100001111

• Each Walsh Code is Orthogonal to all other

Walsh Codes
5
6
7
8
9
10
0101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010
0011110000111100001111000011110000111100001111000011110000111100
0110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001
0000000011111111000000001111111100000000111111110000000011111111
0101010110101010010101011010101001010101101010100101010110101010
0011001111001100001100111100110000110011110011000011001111001100
11 0110011010011001011001101001100101100110100110010110011010011001

• It is possible to recognize, and therefore

12 0000111111110000000011111111000000001111111100000000111111110000
13 0101101010100101010110101010010101011010101001010101101010100101
14 0011110011000011001111001100001100111100110000110011110011000011
15 0110100110010110011010011001011001101001100101100110100110010110

extract, a particular Walsh code from a 16

17
18
0000000000000000111111111111111100000000000000001111111111111111
0101010101010101101010101010101001010101010101011010101010101010
0011001100110011110011001100110000110011001100111100110011001100

mixture of other Walsh codes that are 19

20
21
0110011001100110100110011001100101100110011001101001100110011001
0000111100001111111100001111000000001111000011111111000011110000
0101101001011010101001011010010101011010010110101010010110100101

“filtered out” in the process 22

23
24
0011110000111100110000111100001100111100001111001100001111000011
0110100101101001100101101001011001101001011010011001011010010110
0000000011111111111111110000000000000000111111111111111100000000
25 0101010110101010101010100101010101010101101010101010101001010101

• Two same-length binary strings are 26

27
28
0011001111001100110011000011001100110011110011001100110000110011
0110011010011001100110010110011001100110100110011001100101100110
0000111111110000111100000000111100001111111100001111000000001111

orthogonal if the result of XORing them has

29 0101101010100101101001010101101001011010101001011010010101011010
30 0011110011000011110000110011110000111100110000111100001100111100
31 0110100110010110100101100110100101101001100101101001011001101001

the same number of 0s as 1s

32 0000000000000000000000000000000011111111111111111111111111111111
33 0101010101010101010101010101010110101010101010101010101010101010
34 0011001100110011001100110011001111001100110011001100110011001100
35 0110011001100110011001100110011010011001100110011001100110011001
36 0000111100001111000011110000111111110000111100001111000011110000
37 0101101001011010010110100101101010100101101001011010010110100101
38 0011110000111100001111000011110011000011110000111100001111000011
39 0110100101101001011010010110100110010110100101101001011010010110
40 0000000011111111000000001111111111111111000000001111111100000000
41 0101010110101010010101011010101010101010010101011010101001010101
42 0011001111001100001100111100110011001100001100111100110000110011
EXAMPLE: 43
44
0110011010011001011001101001100110011001011001101001100101100110
0000111111110000000011111111000011110000000011111111000000001111
45 0101101010100101010110101010010110100101010110101010010101011010
46 0011110011000011001111001100001111000011001111001100001100111100

Correlation of Walsh Code #23 with Walsh Code #59 47

48
49
0110100110010110011010011001011010010110011010011001011001101001
0000000000000000111111111111111111111111111111110000000000000000
0101010101010101101010101010101010101010101010100101010101010101
50 0011001100110011110011001100110011001100110011000011001100110011
51 0110011001100110100110011001100110011001100110010110011001100110
#23 0110100101101001100101101001011001101001011010011001011010010110 52
53
0000111100001111111100001111000011110000111100000000111100001111
0101101001011010101001011010010110100101101001010101101001011010
#59 0110011010011001100110010110011010011001011001100110011010011001 54
55
0011110000111100110000111100001111000011110000110011110000111100
0110100101101001100101101001011010010110100101100110100101101001
XOR 0000111111110000000011111111000011110000000011111111000000001111 56
57
0000000011111111111111110000000011111111000000000000000011111111
0101010110101010101010100101010110101010010101010101010110101010
58 0011001111001100110011000011001111001100001100110011001111001100
59 0110011010011001100110010110011010011001011001100110011010011001

Correlation Results: 32 1’s, 32 0’s: Orthogonal!! 60

61
62
0000111111110000111100000000111111110000000011110000111111110000
0101101010100101101001010101101010100101010110100101101010100101
0011110011000011110000110011110011000011001111000011110011000011
63 0110100110010110100101100110100110010110011010010110100110010110

CDMA Technology Overview

 Correlation and Orthogonality
Correlation is a measure of the similarity between two binary strings

Code #23 0110100101101001100101101001011001101001011010011001011010010110

–(Code #23) 1001011010010110011010010110100110010110100101100110100101101001
Code #59 0110011010011001100110010110011010011001011001100110011010011001

#59
#23 #23
#23 #23 –(#23)

PARALLEL
PARALLEL ORTHOGONAL
ORTHOGONAL ANTI-PARALLEL
ANTI-PARALLEL

XOR:
XOR: all
all0s
0s XOR:
XOR: half
half0s,
0s,half
half1s
1s XOR:
XOR: all
all1s
1s

Correlation:
Correlation:100%
100% Correlation:
Correlation:0%
0% Correlation:
Correlation:–100%
–100%
(100%
(100%match)
match) (50%
(50%match,
match,50%
50%no-match)
no-match) (100%
(100%no-match)
no-match)

CDMA Technology Overview

 The Short PN Sequences

The two Short PN Sequences, I and Q, 32,768 chips long

26 2/3 ms.
are 32,768 chips long
(75 repetitions in 2 sec.)
• Together they can be considered a I
two-dimensional binary “vector” with Q
distinct I and Q component sequences,
each 32,768 chips long Unique Properties:
• Each Short PN Sequence (and, as a Short PN Sequence vs. Itself @ 0 Offset
matter of fact, any sequence) I
Q
correlates with itself perfectly if I
compared at a timing offset of 0 chips Q
100% Correlation: All bits = 0
• Each Short PN Sequence is special:
Orthogonal to a copy of itself that has Short PN Sequence vs. Itself @ Any Offset
been offset by any number of chips I
Q
(other than 0) I
Q
Orthogonal: 16,384 1’s + 16,384 0’s

CDMA Technology Overview

 The Long PN Sequence
Long Code Register
(@ 1.2288 MCPS)

AND Public Long Code Mask

1100011000 PERMUT ED ESN
(STATIC)

SUM
=
User Long Code
Sequence
Modulo-2 Addition (@1.2288 MCPS)

• Each mobile station uses a unique User Long Code Sequence generated by applying
a mask, based on its 32-bit ESN, to the 42-bit Long Code Generator which was
synchronized with the CDMA system during the mobile station initialization

• Generated at 1.2288 Mcps, this sequence requires 41 days, 10 hours, 12 minutes and
19.4 seconds to complete

• Portions of the Users Long Codes generated by different mobile stations for the
duration of a call are not exactly orthogonal but are sufficiently different to permit
reliable decoding on the reverse link

CDMA Technology Overview

 How Many Spreading Codes Do We Need?
(Discriminating Among Forward Code Channels)

Pilot
Sync
FW Traffic FW Traffic
(for user #1) (for user #2)
Paging
FW Traffic
(for user #3)

■ A Mobile Station tuned to a particular CDMA frequency receives a Forward

CDMA Channel from a sector in a Base Station.
■ This Forward CDMA Channel carries a composite signal made of up to 64
forward code channels
■ Some of these code channels are traffic channels while other are overhead
channels needed by the CDMA system to operate properly.
■ A set of 64 mathematical codes is needed to differentiate the 64 possible
forward code channels that can be contained in a Forward CDMA Channel.
The codes in this set are called “Walsh Codes”
CDMA Technology Overview
How Many Spreading Codes Do We Need?
(Discriminating Among Base Stations)

Up to 64 Up to 64
Code Channels Code Channels
A B
■ A mobile Station is surrounded by Base Stations, all of them transmitting on
the same CDMA Frequency
■ Each Sector in each Base Station is transmitting a CDMA Forward Traffic
Channel containing up to 64 distinct forward code channels
■ A Mobile Station must be able to discriminate between different Sectors of
different Base Stations and listen to only one set of code channels
■ Two binary digit sequences called the I and Q Short PN Sequences (or
Short PN Codes) are defined for the purpose of identifying sectors of
different base stations
■ These Short PN Sequences can be used in 512 different ways in a CDMA
system. Each one of them constitutes a mathematical code which can be
used to identify a particular sector of a particular base station

CDMA Technology Overview

 How Many Spreading Codes Do We Need?
(Discriminating Among Reverse Code Channels)

■ The CDMA system must be able to

uniquely identify each Mobile Station that
RV Traffic
may attempt to communicate with a Base
from M.S. Station
#1837732008
RV Traffic ■ A very large number of Mobile Stations will
from M.S.
#8764349209 be in the market
■ One binary digit sequence called the
Long PN Sequence (or Long PN Code)
is defined for the purpose of uniquely
identifying each possible reverse code
channel
■ This sequence is extremely long and can
System Access RV Traffic
Attempt by M.S. from M.S. be used in trillions of different ways. Each
#4348769902 #223663748 one of them constitutes a mathematical
(on access channel #1) code which can be used to identify a
particular user (and is then called a User
Long Code) or a particular access channel
(explained later in this course)

CDMA Technology Overview

 Summary of Characteristics & Functions

• Each CDMA spreading sequence is used for a

specific purpose on the forward link and a
different purpose on the reverse link Cell

• The sequences are used to form “code channels”

for users in both directions
64 chips long Type of Special Forward Reverse
How Length Link Link
Sequence Many Properties Function Function
64 User Orthogonal
codes Walsh 64 chips Mutually identity Modulation
64 1/19,200
Orthogonal
Codes sec. within cell’s (information
signal carrier)

32,768 chips long Orthogonal

26-2/3 ms. 32,768
Short PN chips with itself at Distinguish Quadrature
(75 repetitions in 2 sec.)
2 26-2/3 ms any time Cells & Spreading
I Sequences 75x in 2 shift value Sectors (Zero offset)
Q sec. except 0

AND Long PN near-

Data
242 chips Scrambling Distinguish
= Sequences 1 ~41 days orthogonal
to avoid all users
SUM if shifted
1’s or 0’s
Modulo-2 Addition

CDMA Technology Overview

 Lesson Review

1. If a signal is deliberately transmitted using more RF bandwidth than

required, it is easier to detect at the receiver. This “waste” is
formally defined as what?
Processing gain
2. What vocoder function stores a collection of arbitrary waveform
segments?
Code book
3. Are all CDMA Walsh Codes orthogonal?
Yes
4. What sequence best describes this conversion relationship in
CDMA:
chips ⇐ symbols ⇐ bits
5. List the four overhead (support) channels.
Paging, sync, access, pilot

CDMA Technology Overview

CDMA Technology Overview