Introduction to Mobile communications

Why Wireless?

Basic Communications System Elements

● Source

● Destination

● Transmission Medium

Source Network Destination

Transmission Medium
 Transition medium
Transmission Medium

Wire Wireless

Twisted-pair cable Coaxial cable Fiber-optic cable LOS Non-LOS

What Wireless?
Why Wireless?
Drawbacks of wireless communication
Types of communication systems

TX RX

TX+RX TX +RX

TX+RX TX +RX
Duplex Transmission & Multiple Access
Duplex Transmission
Multiple Access
 Multiple-access for Digital Communication Systems

• The frequency spectrum must be shared by all the users in the system.
• Three method for sharing spectrum:
– FDMA
• Frequency-division multiple-access.
– TDMA
• Time-division multiple-access.
– CDMA
• Code-division multiple-access.
• Most modern systems use combinations:
– TDMA/FDMA
– CDMA/FDMA
 Multiple-Access
• Three ways to separate signals.
– Frequency

Code
– Time
– Code

Frequency
 FDMA
– Frequency-division multiple-access.
– Each user is assigned one frequency

Channel 1 2 3 4

guard frequency
30 kHz band
 FDMA

• Frequency-Division
Frequency Multiple-Access
• Examples:
– AMPS

Code
 TDMA
• Time-division multiple-access
• All users transmit at same frequency.
• Each user transmits at a different time.

User 1 User 1
20 msec time
time slot
User 2 User 2
guard
time
User 3 User 3
 TDMA

• Time-Division Multiple-
Frequency Access
• Examples:
– USDC/IS-136

Code
 CDMA

• Code-Division Multiple-
Frequency Access
• Examples:
– IS-95

Code
– Bluetooth
 Wave Properties

Lower frequencies, with longer wavelengths,

are better suited to transmission over large
distances,

Higher frequencies, with shorter

wavelengths, are better suited to
transmission over small distances,

Fading
dip point
nλ
Questions ?
 History of wireless History of wireless
communication
archaic mobile communication

• optical transmission (smoke/light

signals,..)
• acoustic transmission (drums, alpine
horns,...)

Early telecommunications involved

smoke, flags, drums, and other such
methods
to relay messages and information.
History of wireless History of wireless
communication
 The Wireless Telegraph

• Wireless (electrical) telegraph (Marconi).

– 1899, Transmission across English channel.
– 1901, 1st transatlantic communication.
– 1907, Commercial ship-to-shore service.
 Mobile Telephone Service (MTS)
• MTS:
– High power transmitter, at high elevation.

Same
Frequecies

Washington Baltimore
Call
dropped
 Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS)
• Improvements to MTS:
– Full-duplex signaling, 1965.
• No need for push-to-talk.
– Improved capacity
• 120 kHz channels in 1946.
• 60 kHz channels in 1950 (2x capacity).
• 30 kHz channels in 1965 (4x capacity).
– Automatic trunking, 1965.
• Allows more subscribers.
 The Birth of Cellular

• Problem with IMTS:

– Not enough channels for the demand.
• Solution:
1) Release more bandwidth.
• 1974-1975, FCC released 80 MHz of bandwidth previously used by UHF television.
2) Break the coverage region into cells
• The cellular concept.
Questions ?