GSM vs.

CDMA

Comparing the two most prevalent mobile

communication technologies

CONFIDENTIAL
 What is …?

• GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication)

 Based on TDMA technology

 Mainly used in Europe, Middle-east and Africa

• CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

 Based on a spread-spectrum technology

 Mainly used in North America

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 Technology: FDMA

• Transmission over Radio Frequency (800MHz – 1900MHz)

• Frequency Division Multiple Access

 An analog system. Each user is given one channel (i.e., one

frequency). Bad utilisation.
Power
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Frequency
3

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CH

CH
CH
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 Technology: TDMA

• GSM uses TDMA (Time Division • CDMA is a "spread spectrum"

Multiple Access) technology, allowing many users to
occupy the same time and
frequency allocations in a given
band/space.
• Each mobile station has a unique
digital code. The signals are
Power

spread over the entire spectrum of

1.25MHz unlike FDMA/TDMA.
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Frequency
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 Spectrum

• Mobile communication uses Radio Frequency (RF)

• GSM uses frequencies 824 – 849 MHz (25 MHz band) and 869 – 895 MHz
(25 MHz band)

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 Cellular Architecture

HLR
BSC A
Abis
VLR
Um
MSC PST
BSC N
EIR

AuC

BTS

Mobile Base Station Network

Station Subsystem Subsystem

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 Cells

• The coverage area is divided into hexagonal cells

• A BTS is situated at three of the vertices of each cell

• In USA, the spectrum in each cell is divided into two bands: A-band
and B-band, each 25 MHz
• Each 25 MHz band is divided into 832 30 kHz channels
Cell Site
• Two channels separated by 45 MHz

forms a full-duplex channel

• The number of channels used in a cell

varies from as low as 4 to as many as 80

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 GSM Frames and Burst periods

TCH – Traffic Channel SACCH – Assoc. Control Channel BP – Burst Period

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 Handover/Handoff

• Internal Handovers (only one BSC involved)

 Channels in the same cell

 Cells under the same BSC
• External Handovers (involved the MSC)

 Cells under different BSCs under the same MSC

 Cells under different MSCs (anchor MSC and relay MSC)
• Techniques used:

 Minimum acceptable performance: increase power i.s.o. handover

 Power budget: handover i.s.o. increasing power

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 Services

• SMS (Short Message Service)

http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/sms/intro.shtml
• Facsimile (for receiving fax on a mobile station)

• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) – a standard to let wireless

equipment access the Internet. A Wireless Markup Language (WML) is
used to encode the pages instead of HTML.
• MMS (Multimedia Message Service)

• EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM evolution)

• The ever elusive “Killer app”

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 History and proponents
• Group Spéciale Mobile
 Cellular services started in
Europe in 1982
 13 operators in Europe sign
a MoU in 1987
 Radiolinja Oy became
the first GSM network
operator in 1992
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• cdmaOne (2G)
 IS-95A (First CDMA cellular
standard)
 First deployed in Sep 1996
by Hutchison
 IS-95B (2.5G)
 First deployed in Sep 1999
in Korea
• CDMA2000 (3G)
 CDMA2000 1X (Phase 1)
 Deployed in Korea in 2000
 CDMA2000 1x EV-DO
 CDMA2000 1x EV-DV
11
 Standards and standardization

• GSM coordinated by 3GPP • cdmaOne (2G)

 Release 99  IS-95A
 Release 4 (was Release  1.25MHz CDMA
2000) channels
• W-CDMA (Widebad CDMA)  circuit switched data
coordinated by 3GPP2 connections at 14.4kbps
• B-CDMA (Broadband CDMA)  IS-95B (2.5G)
• CDMA2000 (3G)

 CDMA2000 1X (Phase 1)

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 Statistics (Geography-wise)

• Over 1 billion GSM subscribers • Over 170 million CDMA

subscribers
Millions
500
400
300
200
GSM
100
CDMA
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CONFIDENTIAL 13
 Statistics (Subscriber growth)

Millions
1,000
900
800
700
600
500 GSM
400
300 CDMA
200
100
0
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 Glossary

• GPRS – General Packet Radio Service; GPRS represents first

implementation of packet switching within GSM, precursor to 3G
• GGSN – Gateway GPRS Support Node; the gateway between the
cellular network and the IP network

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 References

• GSM Association website, at http://www.gsmworld.com

• CDMA Development group, at http://www.cdg.com

• UMTS World, at http://www.umtsworld.com

• How Stuff Works: Cell Phones, at

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm
• Cellular Telephone Basics, at
http://www.privateline.com/Cellbasics/Cellbasics.html
• GSM overview, at http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria/GSM/gsmreport
.html

CONFIDENTIAL 16