CELLULAR NETWORKS AND STANDARDS

Mobile Radio Networks

There are three major types of terrestrial mobile communications technologies. 1. Paging: Brief numeric, alphanumeric or voice messages
are sent to the subscriber typically broadcasting. using simultaneous

2. Cordless Communication: 3. Cellular:

Users are provided limited mobility from a dedicated base station. Users are provided wide area mobility from multiple base stations with handover permitted.

Mobile Communication Objectives

Any time Anywhere communication Mobility & Roaming High capacity & subs. density Efficient use of radio spectrum Seamless Network Architecture Low cost Innovative Services Standard Interfaces

History of Mobile Communication

1946 Appeared in St .Louis USA ( By AT & T) at 150 MHz band FM 120 KHz BW 1960 450 MHz Band FM 30 KHz BW 1970 BELL LAB introduced Cellular Principle 1979 Advanced Mobile Phone System in US 1985 Total Access Communication System (TACs in UK) 1986 Nordic Mobile Telephony Systems (NMT) 1990 Digital Systems

History of Mobile Communication

The significant stages in the evolution of cellular radio systems is referred to in terms of generations: 1st Generation or 1G 2nd Generation or 2G 2.5G 2.75G 3rd Generation or 3G 4th Generation or 4G

1st Generation Cellular Systems

1st Generation Cellular Characteristics

Widespread Introduction in early 1980s Analogue modulation Frequency Division Multiple Access Voice traffic only No inter-network roaming possible Insecure air interface
In early networks, the emphasis was to provide radio coverage with little consideration for the number of calls to be carried. As the subscriber base grew, the need to provide greater traffic capacity had to be addressed.

1st Generation Standards

AMPS (Analogue Advanced Mobile Phone System) North American Standard in cellular band (800MHz) TACS (Total Access Communications System)
UK originated Standard based on AMPS in 900MHz band

NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony System)

Scandinavian Standard in 450MHz and 900MHz bands

C-450
German Standard in 450MHz band

JTACS (Japanese Total Access Communications System)

Japanese Standard in 900MHz band

1st Generation Planning

Macrocellular
High sites for coverage driven planning Antennas above roof height

Frequency planning required

be For networks with more cells than frequencies these planned. Order 30km must

Large cell size Hard handover

Mobile only ever connected to a single cell

Hexagonal Grid Representation

The First Generation - Problems

Limited capacity could not cope with increase in subscribers Bulky equipment Poor reliability Lack of security air interface analogue signals could be intercepted Incompatibility between systems in different countries - no roaming To improve on the analog systems, the European Conference of Posts and Tlcommunications Administrations (CEPT) established Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) to set a new standard. The system developed became the Global System for Mobile Communications (also GSM).

2nd Generation Cellular Systems

2nd Generation Characteristics

Widespread Introduction in 1990 s Uses digital modulation Variety of multiple access strategies More efficient use of radio spectrum Voice and low rate circuit switched data International roaming capability Secure air interface Compatibility with ISDN

 Digital systems offer considerable advantages in terms of capacity and security and introduce new possibilities for data traffic. While first generation systems used a cellular structure and frequency re-use patterns, digital systems developed this concept to include multi-layer cellular patterns (microcells and macro cells). The greater immunity to interference inherent in digital transmission allowed tighter frequency re-use patterns to be implemented.

cdmaOne Characteristics
First networks in 1996 Derived from Qualcomm IS-95 air interface Largely American subscriber base with some Asian networks Code Division Multiple Access
The closest 2nd generation standard to many of the 3rd generation standards

ANSI-41 core network Chip rate of 1.2288Mcps

D-AMPS/PDC Characteristics
TDMA (D-AMPS)
North American TDMA/FDMA based standard based upon AMPS Predominantly used in North and South America ANSI-41 Core Network Planning Similar to GSM

PDC
Japanese TDMA/FDMA based standard Predominantly used in Asia Planning Similar to GSM

GSM Development and Characteristics

GSM Development First networks in 1992 European developed standard, but with worldwide subscriber base Different frequency bands
GSM450, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900

Largest 2nd Generation subscriber base Frequency/Time Division Multiple Access Open/ Standardised Interfaces

GSM Cellular Structure

The aim of a GSM system is to make best use of the available frequencies (spectrum) to provide:
Coverage getting a usable radio signal to all areas in the network Capacity handling the call traffic generated by the subscribers Quality low interference, few calls dropped etc.

The cellular structure allows the re-use of frequencies across the network. Planning the pattern of this re-use is a key part of the system design.

GSM Planning
Key Network planning parameters Coverage getting a usable radio signal to all areas in the network Capacity handling the call traffic generated by the subscribers Quality low interference, few calls dropped etc. Frequency re-use planning required Optional parameters requiring planning Hierarchical Cell Structures (macrocell/microcell) Frequency Hopping Discontinuous Transmission Power Control Subscriber/traffic analysis Capacity limited by number of TRX s

2.5G Characteristics
Available now... Digital modulation Voice and intermediate rate circuit/packet switched data 2G technology roaming Secure air interface Based upon existing dominant 2G standards such as GSM and cdmaOne Enhanced data rates

Access Techniques
FDMA TDMA CDMA

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MULTIPLE ACCESS TECHNIQUES

F R E Q U

FDMA

TDMA
E N C

CDMA
Y TIME
U K YADAV DGM RTTC 23

FDMA
The frequency division multiple access (FDMA) channelaccess scheme is based on the frequency-division multiplex (FDM) scheme, which provides different frequency bands to different data-streams. In the FDMA case, the data streams are allocated to different users or nodes. An example of FDMA systems were the first-generation (1G) cell-phone systems. A related technique is wave-length division multiple access (WDMA), based on wavelength division multiplex (WDM), where different users get different colors in fiber-optical communication

TDMA
The time division multiple access (TDMA) channel access scheme is based on the time division multiplex (TDM) scheme, which provides different time-slots to different datastreams (in the TDMA case to different transmitters) in a cyclically repetitive frame structure. For example, user 1 may use time slot 1, user 2 time slot 2, etc. until the last user. Then it starts all over again.

CDMA
CDMA employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel. CDMA is a form of spread-spectrum signalling, since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than the data being communicated.

INTRODUCTION TO GSM

INTRODUCTION TO GSM

INTRODUCTION

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a set of recommendations and specifications for a digital cellular telephone network (known as a Public Land Mobile Network, or PLMN). These recommendations ensure the compatibility of equipment from different GSM manufacturers, and interconnectivity between different administrations, including operation across international boundaries. GSM networks are digital and can cater for high system capacities. They are consistent with the world-wide digitization of the telephone network, and are an extension of the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), using a digital radio interface between the cellular network and the mobile subscriber equipment.

INTRODUCTION TO GSM

CELLULAR TELEPHONY

A cellular telephone system links mobile subscribers into the public telephone system or to another cellular subscriber. Information between the mobile unit and the cellular network uses radio communication. Hence the subscriber is able to move around and become fully mobile. The service area in which mobile communication is to be provided is divided into regions called cells. Each cell has the equipment to transmit and receive calls from any subscriber located within the borders of its radio coverage area.

Radio Cell Mobile subscriber

INTRODUCTION TO GSM

GSM FREQUENCIES GSM systems use radio frequencies between 890-915 MHz for receive and between 935-960 MHz for transmit. RF carriers are spaced every 200 kHz, allowing a total of 124 carriers for use. An RF carrier is a pair of radio frequencies, one used in each direction. Transmit and receive frequencies are always separated by 45 MHz.

UPLINK FREQUENCIES

DOWNLINK FREQUENCIES

890

915

935

960

UPLINK AND DOWNLINK FREQUENCY SEPARATED BY 45MHZ

INTRODUCTION TO GSM

Extended GSM (EGSM) EGSM has 10MHz of bandwidth on both transmit and receive. Receive bandwidth is from 880 MHz to 890 MHz. Transmit bandwidth is from 925 MHz to 935 MHz. Total RF carriers in EGSM is 50.

UPLINK FREQUENCIES

DOWNLINK FREQUENCIES

880

890

915

925

935

960

UPLINK AND DOWNLINK FREQUENCY SEPARATED BY 45MHZ

INTRODUCTION TO GSM

DCS1800 DCS1800 FREQUENCIES DCS1800 systems use radio frequencies between 1710-1785 MHz for receive and between 1805-1880 MHz for transmit. RF carriers are spaced every 200 kHz, allowing a total of 373 carriers. There is a 100 kHz guard band between 1710.0 MHz and 1710.1 MHz and between 1784.9 MHz and 1785.0 MHz for receive, and between 1805.0 MHz and 1805.1 MHz and between 1879.9 MHz and 1880.0 MHz for transmit. Transmit and receive frequencies are always separated by 95 MHz.

UPLINK FREQUENCIES

DOWNLINK FREQUENCIES

1710 MHz

1785 MHz

1805 MHz

1880 MHz

UPLINK AND DOWNLINK FREQUENCY SEPARATED BY 95MHZ

FEATURES OF GSM

FEATURES OF GSM

INCREASED CAPACITY

The GSM system provides a greater subscriber capacity than analogue systems. GSM allows 25 kHz per user, that is, eight conversations per 200 kHz channel pair (a pair comprising one transmit channel and one receive channel). Digital channel coding and the modulation used makes the signal resistant to interference from cells where the same frequencies are re-used (co-channel interference); a Carrier to Interference Ratio (C/I) level of 12 dB is achieved, as opposed to the 18 dB typical with analogue cellular. This allows increased geographic reuse by permitting a reduction in the number of cells in the reuse pattern.

FEATURES OF GSM

AUDIO QUALITY

Digital transmission of speech and high performance digital signal processors provide good quality speech transmission. Since GSM is a digital technology, the signals passed over a digital air interface can be protected against errors by using better error detection and correction techniques. In regions of interference or noise-limited operation the speech quality is noticeably better than analogue.

USE OF STANDARDISED OPEN INTERFACES Standard interfaces such as C7 and X25 are used throughout the system. Hence different manufacturers can be selected for different parts of the PLMN. There is a high flexibilty in where the Network components are situated.

FEATURES OF GSM

IMPROVED SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY GSM offers high speech and data confidentiality. Subscriber authentication can be performed by the system to check if a subscriber is a valid subscriber or not. The GSM system provides for high degree of confidentiality for the subscriber. Calls are encoded and ciphered when sent over air. The mobile equipment can be identified independently from the mobile subscriber. The mobile has a identity number hard coded into it when it is manufactured. This number is stored in a standard database and whenever a call is made the equipment can be checked to see if it has been reported stolen.

FEATURES OF GSM

CLEANER HANDOVERS

GSM uses Mobile assisted handover techique. The mobile itself carries out the signal strength and quality measurement of its server and signal strength measurement of its neighbors. This data is passed on the Network which then uses sophisticated algorithms to determine the need of handover.

SUBSCRIBER IDENTIFICATION In a GSM system the mobile station and the subscriber are identified separately. The subscriber is identified by means of a smart card known as a SIM. This enables the subscriber to use different mobile equipment while retaining the same subscriber number.

FEATURES OF GSM

ENHANCED RANGE OF SERVICES

Speech services for normal telephony. Short Message Service for point ot point transmission of text message. Cell broadcast for transmission of text message from the cell to all MS in its coverage area. Message like traffic information or advertising can be transmitted. Fax and data services are provided. Data rates available are 2.4 Kb/s, 4.8 Kb/s and 9.6 Kb/s. Supplementary services like number identification , call barring, call forwarding, charging display etc can be provided.

FEATURES OF GSM

FREQUENCY REUSE There are total 124 carriers in GSM ( additional 50 carriers are available if EGSM band is used). Each carrier has 8 timeslots and if 7 can be used for traffic then a maximum of 868 ( 124 X 7 ) calls can be made. This is not enough and hence frequencies have to be reused. The same RF carrier can be used for many conversations in several different cells at the same time.

The radio carriers available are allocated according to a regular pattern which repeats over the whole coverage area. The pattern to be used depends on traffic requirement and spectrum availability. Some typical repeat patterns are 4/12, 7/21 etc.

2 1 4 5 6 1 7 2 3

Data Rate

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Comparison Between Different Technologies

Feature NMT GSM ISUMTS (3GS 95 (CDMA M) one) IS2000 (CDM A 2000)

Technology

FDMA

TDMA and FDMA

W-CDMA

CDMA

CDMA

Generation

1G

2G

3G

2G

3G

Encoding

Analog

Digital

Digital

Digital

Digital

Year of First Use

1981

1991

2001

1995

2000 / 2002

Worldwide market share

0%

72%

12%

0.6%

12%

Comparison Between Different Technologies

Feature NMT GSM UMTS (3GSM) IS-95 (CDMA one) IS-2000 (CDMA 2000)
Worldwide, all countries except Japan and South Korea

Roaming

Scandinavia

Worldwide

Limited

Limited

Handset interoperability Operator locking

None Monopoly

SIM card Unlockable Interferes with some electronics, such as amplifiers

SIM card Unlockable

None ESN

RUIM (not commonly implemented) ESN

Common Interference

None

None

None

None

Signal quality/coverage area

Good coverage due to low frequencies

Good coverage indoors on 850/900 MHz. Repeaters possible. 35 km hard limit.

Smaller cells and lower indoors coverage on Unlimited cell size, Unlimited cell size, 2100 MHz; low transmitter low transmitter equivalent coverage power permits large power permits large indoors and cells cells superior range to GSM on 850/900 MHz.

Comparison Between Different Technologies

Feature NMT GSM UMTS (3GSM) IS-95 (CDMA one) IS-2000 (CDMA 2000) 0.2 MHz = 8 5 MHz = 2 Mbit/s. timeslots. Each 42Mbps for HSPA+. timeslot can hold up Each call uses 1.8-12 Lower than CDMA1.228 Mhz = 3Mbps to 2 calls (4 calls kbit/s depending on 2000? with VAMOS) chosen quality and through audio complexity. interleaving.

Frequency utilization/Call density

Very low density

Battery life

Low, due to high transmitter power (1 watt)

Originally lower Very good due to than GSM, but with Lower due to high simple protocol, new chipsets, good coverage and DTX/DRX and demands of CDMA mature, powerpower control. Voice over HSPA all efficient chipsets. improve battery life close to that of GSM.

Lower due to high demands of CDMA power control and young chipsets.

Handoff Cell Breathing

Hard No Scandinavian telecom operators

Hard No

Soft Yes

Soft Yes

Soft Yes

Intellectual property

Concentrated among Concentrated among a few manufacturers a few manufacturers

Qualcomm

Qualcomm

MULTI-LAYER NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

Cells
A cell is the basic geographic unit of cellular system. The term cellular comes from the honeycomb areas into which a coverage region is divided. Cells are base stations transmitting over small geographic areas that are represented as hexagons. Each cell size varies depending upon landscape. Because of the constraint imposed by natural terrain and man-made structures, the true shape of cell is not a perfect hexagon.

CLUSTER
The cells are grouped into clusters. The number of cells in a cluster must be determined so that the cluster can be repeated continuously within the covering area of an operator. The typical clusters contain 4, 7, 12 or 21 cells. The number of cells in each cluster is very important. The smaller the number of cells per cluster is, the bigger the number of channels per cell will be. The capacity of each cell will be therefore increased. However a balance must be found in order to avoid the interference that could occur between neighboring clusters. This interference is produced by the small size of the clusters (the size of the cluster is defined by the number of cells per cluster). The total number of channels per cell depends on the number of available channels and the type of cluster used.

Cell environment
Conventional

Single cell Concentric cell Extended cell Multi-band cell

Hierarchical: introducing Upper and Lower cell layers

Indoor cell
Micro cell Mini cell or Macro Cell Umbrella cell Selective cell

Type of Cells
Macro cells The macro cells are large cells for remote and sparsely populated areas Micro cells These cells are used for densely populated areas. By splitting the existing areas into smaller cells, the number of channels available is increased as well as the capacity of the cells. The power level of the transmitters used in these cells is then decreased, reducing the possibility of interference between neighboring cells.

Type of Cells
Selective cells It is not always useful to define a cell with a full coverage of 360 degrees. In some cases, cells with a particular shape and coverage are needed. These cells are called selective cells. Typical examples of selective cells are the cells that may be located at the entrances of tunnels where coverage of 360 degrees is not needed. In this case, a selective cell with coverage of 120 degrees is used. Indoor Cells Indoor Building solutions are used to provide where microcells can not provide the coverage such as Big malls, hospitals, Basement etc

Type of Cells
Umbrella cells A freeway crossing very small cells produces an important number of handovers among the different small neighboring cells. In order to solve this problem, the concept of umbrella cells is introduced. An umbrella cell covers several micro cells. The power level inside an umbrella cell is increased comparing to the power levels used in the micro cells that form the umbrella cell. When the speed of the mobile is too high, the mobile is handed off to the umbrella cell. The mobile will then stay longer in the same cell (in this case the umbrella cell). This will reduce the number of handovers and the work of the network.

A too important number of handover demands and the propagation characteristics of a mobile can help to detect its high speed.

Cell profile
One unique combination of the five parameters CELL_DIMENSION_TYPE: macro, micro
CELL _LAYER_ TYPE : single, upper, lower, indoor CELL _PARTITION_ TYPE : normal, concentric CELL _RANGE: normal, extended inner, extended outer FREQUENCY_RANGE : PGSM(GSM900); DCS1800; EGSM;DCS1900; PGSM-DCS1800; EGSM-DCS1800 and GSM 850 based on BCCH frequency