PRACTICAL TRAINING REPORT

ON

CDMA TECHNOLOGY

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITEED BY:

MR. HITESH WADHWA DEEPAK AHUJA
HOD ECE DEPTT. 07/ECE/11

SAT PRIYA INSTITUTE OF ENGG. &

TECHNOLOGY
(SPIET, ROHTAK)
 Multiple Access
Technologies
• FDMA (example: AMPS)
Frequency Division Multiple Access

each user has a private frequency

• TDMA (examples: IS-54,GSM)

Time Division Multiple Access

each user has a private time on a private

frequency

• CDMA (IS-95, J-Std. 008)

Code Division Multiple Access

users co-mingle in time and frequency but

each user has a private code

As one of the major problems facing the development of telecommunications,

bandwidth demand has driven the search for protocols that could be used to maximize
bandwidth efficiency. Multiple accesses ("multiplexing" for short) enable multiple
signals to occupy a single communications channel. There are three basic types of
division-based protocols used to do this: frequency division multiple access (FDMA),
time division multiple access (TDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA).

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

different signals are assigned frequency channels. A channel is a frequency. FDMA is

a basic technology in the analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). With
FDMA, each channel can be assigned to only one user at a time. FDMA is also used
in the Total Access Communication System (TACS).

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

it makes use of the same frequency spectrum but allows more users on the same band
of frequencies by dividing the time into “slots” and shares the channel between users
by assigning them different time slots. TDMA is utilized by Digital-Advanced Mobile
Phone System (D-AMPS) and Global System for Mobile communications (GSM).
However, each of these systems implements TDMA in a somewhat different and
incompatible way.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

each user is assigned a different pseudorandom binary sequence that modulates the
carrier, spreading the spectrum of the waveform and giving each user a unique code
pattern. This technology is used in ultra-high-frequency (UHF) cellular telephone
systems in the 800-MHz and 1.9-GHz bands.

CDMA USES A DIFFERENT DIMENSION

• All CDMA users occupy the same frequency at the same time! Time and
frequency are not used as discriminators

• CDMA interference comes mainly from nearby users CDMA operates by

using CODING to discriminate between users

• Each user is a small voice in a roaring crowd -- but with a uniquely

recoverable code

CDMA IS A SPREAD-SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY

• Traditional technologies try to squeeze signal into minimum required
bandwidth.

• CDMA uses larger bandwidth but uses resulting processing gain to increase
Capacity
 CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS

INTRODUCTION:-

Mobile communications are rapidly becoming more and more necessary for
everyday activities. With so many more users to accommodate, more efficient use of
bandwidth is a priority among cellular phone system operators. Equally important is
the security and reliability of these calls. One solution that has been offered is a
CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS SYSTEM.

CDMA is one method for implementing a multiple access communication

system. MULTIPLE ACCESS is a technique where many subscribers or local stations
can share the use of the use of a communication channel at the same time or nearly so
despite the fact originate from widely different locations. A channel can be thought of
as merely a portion of the limited radio resource, which is temporarily allocated for a
specific purpose, such as someone’s phone call. A multiple access method is a
definition of how the radio spectrum is divided into channels and how the channels
are allocated to the many users of the system.

Since there are multiple users transmitting over the same channel, a method
must be established so that individual users will not disrupt one another.

MEANING OF CDMA:

Here, the users are spread across both frequency and time in the same channel.
Here, unique digital codes, rather than separate RF frequencies or channels are used to
differentiate subscribers. The codes are shared by both the mobile stations (cellular
phone) and the base station, and are called “pseudo random code sequences” or
“pseudo-noise code sequences”.

BASIS OF CDMA:
Basis of CDMA is the spread spectrum technology.
SPREAD SPECTRUM is a means of transmission in which the data sequence
occupies a bandwidth in excess of the minimum bandwidth necessary to send it.
Spread spectrum is accomplished before transmission through the use of a code that is
independent of the data sequence (PN).

It can provide secure communication in hostile environment such that the

transmitted signal is not easily detected or recognized by unwanted listeners. It can
reject interference whether it is the unintentional interference by another user
simultaneously attempting to transmit through the channel, or the intentional
interference by a hostile transmitter attempting to jam the transmission. Another
application is in multiple access communication in which a number of independent
users can share a common channel without an external synchronizing mechanism.

CDMA BASICS

The whole CDMA technology is utilized only in a small portion of the whole
procedure of Tele Communication network. This technology is used only when the
network interacts with the subscriber or the subscriber interacts with the network.
First of all we must learn how does the subscriber interacts with the network.

As shown in the figure there are three stages of a call formation:

1. From the sender subscriber to the nearest tower. This is done by transmitting the
signal by spread spectrum technology.

2. From that tower to the tower under which the receiving subscriber comes. This is
done through Radio Access Network(RAN). It provides the basic transmission, local
control and the management functions associated with processing subscriber device
service.

3. From the tower to the receiver subscriber. This involves a series of processes for
receiving a spread spectrum signal.

Types of Spread Spectrum Modulation

The types of spread spectrum modulation commonly used in communication systems

are classified as:

Direct Sequence

Frequency Hopping

CDMA is a direct sequence system

Direct Sequence

In direct sequence modulation the carrier frequency is

fixed and the bandwidth of the transmitted signal is
larger and independent of the bandwidth of the
information signal

Frequency Hopping

The carrier frequency is varied and the bandwidth of

the transmitted signal is comparable to the bandwidth
of the information signal. Information is modulated on
top of a rapidly changing carrier frequency.
A number of advantages are:

• Low power spectral density. As the signal is spread over a large frequency-
band, the Power Spectral Density is getting very small, so other
communications systems do not suffer from this kind of communications.

• Interference limited operation. In all situations the whole frequency-spectrum

is used.

• Privacy due to unknown random codes. The applied codes are – in principle -
unknown to a hostile user. This means that it is hardly possible to detect the
message of another user.

• Applying spread spectrum implies the reduction of multi-path effects.

• Random access possibilities. Users can start their transmission at any arbitrary
time.

• Good anti-jam performance.

There are different type of codes which are used for generating different codes
in cdma technologies.

• PN LONG CODES
• PN SHORT CODES
• WALSH CODES

PN LONG CODES

The Long Code is a PN sequence that is 2^42 1 bits (chips) long. It is generated at a
rate of 1.2288 Mbps (or Mcps) giving it a period (time before the sequence repeats) of
approximately 41.4 days. The long code is used to encrypt user information. Both the
base station and the mobile unit have knowledge of this sequence at any given instant
in time based on a specified private ``long code mask'' that is exchanged.

PN SHORT CODES

The Short Code is a PN sequence that is 2 ^ 15 bits (chips) in length. This code is
generated at 1.2288 Mbps (or Mcps) giving a period of 26.67 ms. This code is used
for final spreading of the signal and is transmitted as a reference known as the ``Pilot
Sequence'' by the base station. All base stations use the same short code. Base stations
are differentiated from one another by transmitting the PN short code at different
``offsets'' in absolute.

WALSH CODES

CDMA defines a group of 64 orthogonal sequences, each 64 bits long, known as

Walsh Codes. These sequences are also referred to as Wash Functions. These codes
are generated at 1.2288 Mbps (Mcps) with a period of approximately 52 µs. These are
used to identify users on the forward link. For this reason they are also referred to as
either Walsh Channels or TCH. All base stations and mobile users have knowledge of
all Walsh codes.

Direct-Spread CDMA Principles

As will be seen later, PN codes have some unique properties. One of them is that any
physical channel or user application, when spread by a PN code at the transmitter, can
be uniquely identified at the receiver by multiplying the received baseband signal
with a phase coherent copy of that PN code. To illustrate how a CDMA receiver can
detect the signal from a desired user in the presence of signals received from other
users in a CDMA system, consider Figure below which shows the block diagram of
an overly simplified CDMA receiver. Suppose that the receiver wants to detect the
data stream
Cdma system
FREQUENCY-HOPPING SPREAD SPECTRUM

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a spread- spectrum method of

transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency
channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver.In
this,the carrier frequency is varied and the bandwith of the transmitted signal is
comparable to the bandwith of the information signal.Information is modulated on the
top of a rapidly changing carrier frequency. Frequency-Hopping is less effected by the
Near-Far effect than Direct-Sequence. Frequency-Hopping sequences have only a
limited number of hits with each other. This means that if a near-interferer is present,
only a number of frequency-hops will be blocked instead of the whole signal. From
the hops that are not blocked it should be possible to recover the original data-
message.

Frequency hopping

METHOD OF SPREADING THE BANDWIDTH OF SIGNAL

The procedure of spreading the bandwidth of signal is very simple and can be
explained with the help of figures given below.

Figure A: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum System

Implementing CDMA Technology

The following section describe how a system might implement the steps illustrated in
Figure A.

Input data
CDMA works on Information data from different possible sources with different data
rates, such as digitized voice or ISDN channels. The system works with 64 Kbits/sec
data, but can accept input rates of 8, 16, 32, or 64 Kbits/sec. Inputs of less than 64
Kbits/sec are padded with extra bits to bring them up to 64 Kbits/sec. For inputs of 8,
16, 32, or 64 Kbits/sec, the system applies Forward Error Correction
(FEC) coding, which doubles the bit rate, up to 128 Kbits/sec. The Complex
Modulation scheme (which will be discussed in more detail later), transmits two bits
at a time, in two bit symbols. For inputs of less than 64 Kbits/sec, each symbol is
repeated to bring the transmission rate up to 64 Ksymbols/sec. Each component of the
complex signal carries one bit of the two bit symbol, at 64 Kbits/sec, as shown in
figure B below.

Figure B: Complex Modulation scheme

Generating Pseudo-Random Codes

For each channel the base station (BS) generates a unique code that changes for every
connection. The base station adds together all the coded transmissions for every
subscriber. The subscriber unit correctly generates its own matching code and uses it
to extract the appropriate signals. In order for all this to occur, the pseudo-random
code must have the following properties:
 • It must be deterministic; the subscriber station must be able to independently
generate the code that matches the base station code.

• It must appear random to a listener without prior knowledge of the code (i.e. it
has the statistical properties of sampled white noise).

• The cross-correlation between any two codes must be small.

• The code must have a long period (i.e. a long time before the code repeats
itself).

Code Correlation

In this context, correlation has a specific mathematical meaning. In general the

correlation function has these properties:

• It equals 1 if the two codes are identical

• It equals 0 if the two codes have nothing in common Intermediate values

indicate how much the codes have in common. The more they have in
common, the harder it is for the receiver to extract the appropriate signal.

There are two correlation functions:

Cross-Correlation: The correlation of two different codes. This should be as small as

possible.
Auto-Correlation : The correlation of a code with a time-delayed version of itself. In
order to reject multi-path interference, this function should equal 0 for any time delay
other than zero.

Note: The receiver uses Cross-correlation to separate the appropriate signal from
signals meant for other receivers, and Auto-correlation to reject multi-path
interference.

Pseudo-Noise (PN) Spreading:

The FEC coded Information data modulates the pseudo-random code, as shown in
fig. c

Figure C.1 Pseudo-Noise Spreading

Figure C.2 Frequency Spreading

Some terminology related to the pseudo-random code:

• Chipping Frequency (fc): the bit rate of the PN code.

 • Information rate (fi): the bit rate of the digital data.

• Chip: One bit of the PN code.

• Epoch: The length of time before the code starts repeating itself (the period of
the code). The epoch must be longer than the round trip propagation delay
(The epoch is on the order of several seconds)

Figure c.2, shows the process of frequency spreading. In general, the bandwidth of a
digital signal is twice its bit rate. The bandwidths of theinformation data (fi) and the
PN code are shown together. The bandwidth of the combination of the two, for fc>fi,
can be approximated by the bandwidth of the PN code.

Processing Gain:

An important concept relating to the bandwidth is the processing gain (Gp). This is a
theoretical system gain that reflects the relative advantage that frequency spreading
provides. The processing gain is equal to the ratio of the chipping frequency to the
data frequency:

There are two major benefits from high processing gain:

• Interference rejection: the ability of the system to reject interference is directly

proportional to Gp.
• System capacity: the capacity of the system is directly proportional to Gp.
Therefore the higher the PN code bit rate (the wider the CDMA bandwidth),
the better the system performance.

Transmitting Data:

The resultant coded signal next modulates an RF carrier for transmission using
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). QPSK uses four different states to encode
each symbol. The four states are phase shifts of the carrier spaced 90_ apart.
 Figure D.1 Complex Modulator

Figure D.2 Complex Modulation

By convention, the phase shifts are 45, 135, 225, and 315 degrees. Since there are four
possible states used to encode binary information, each state represents two bits. This
two bit “word” is called a symbol. Figure D.1&2 shows in general how QPSK
works.

Receiving Data:

The receiver performs the following steps to extract the Information:

 • Demodulation

• Code acquisition and lock

• Correlation of code with signal

• Decoding of Information data

Demodulation: The receiver generates two reference waves, a Cosine wave and a
Sine wave. Separately mixing each with the received carrier, the receiver extracts I(t)
and Q(t). Analog to Digital converters restore the 8-bit words representing the I and Q
chips.

Code Acquisition and Lock: The receiver, as described earlier, generates its own
complex PN code that matches the code generated by the transmitter. However, the
local code must be phase-locked to the encoded data. The Radio Carrier Station
(RCS) or Base Station (BS) and a Fixed Subscriber Unit (FSU) or Mobile Station
(MS) each have different ways of acquiring and locking onto the other’s transmitted
code.

Correlation and Data Dispreading: Once the PN code is phase-locked to the

pilot, the received signal is sent to a correlator that multiplies it with the complex PN
code, extracting the I and Q data meant for that receiver. The receiver reconstructs the
Information data from the I and Q data.

Transmitting A Spread Spectrum Signal involves:

• Modulating the information signal with the spreading PN sequence.

• Modulating the resulting signal with the desired carrier wave.
• Band Pass filtering the output and transmitting the resulting RF signal.

Receiving a Spread Spectrum Signal involves the following steps:

• Demodulating the signal with the RF carrier.

• Low Pass Filtering the resulting wide band signal.
• Demodulating the signal with the known spreading sequence and integrating
the despread signal over a bit rate to recover the information signal.
The figure below shows the series of steps that are follwed after the signal has
reached the tower from the mobile and before the signal comes to the mobile from the
tower. The process of decoding and interleaving also takes place in the mobile set
itself. Interleaving in computer science is a way to arrange data in a non-contiguous
way in order to increase performa

The "Magic" of CDMA

CDMA offers an answer to the capacity problem. The key to its high capacity is the
use of noise-like carrier waves. Instead of partitioning either spectrum or time into
disjoint "slots" each user is assigned a different instance of the noise carrier. While
those waveforms are not rigorously orthogonal, they are nearly so. Practical
application of this principle has always used digitally generated pseudo-noise, rather
than true thermal noise. The basic benefits are preserved, and the transmitters and
receivers are simplified because large portions can be implemented using high-density
digital devices. The major benefit of noise-like carriers is that the system sensitivity to
interference is fundamentally altered. Traditional time or frequency slotted systems
must be designed with a reuse ratio that satisfies the worst-case interference scenario,
but only a small fraction of the users actually experience that worst-case. Use of
noise-like carriers, with all users occupying the same spectrum, makes the effective
noise the sum of all other-user signals. The receiver correlates its input with the
desired noise carrier, enhancing the signal to noise ratio at the detector. The
enhancement overcomes the summed noise enough to provide an adequate SNR at the
detector. Because the interference is summed, the system is no longer sensitive to
worst-case interference, but rather to average interference. Frequency reuse is
universal, that is, multiple users utilize each CDMA carrier frequency. The reuse
pattern is

The rainbow cells indicate that the entire 1.25 MHz passband is used by each user,
and that same passband is reused in each cell.

Multipath Propagation

System capacity, as you might expect, is affected by propagation phenomena. Users

of analog cellular phones are familiar with the fading that is so annoying, especially in
handheld portables when standing nearly still. Fading in a moving vehicle is more
rapid, being caused by motion of the vehicle through stationary interference patterns,
where the spatial scale of the interference pattern is the wavelength, about one foot.
CDMA is much more robust than the analog technologies in the presence of
multipath, but it does affect capacity.

There are two questions that one must address regarding multipath fading and
CDMA. First, under what circumstances will CDMA experience fading, and second,
what is the effect of fading, when it occurs, on the CDMA channel?
When does multipath cause fading, and when does it not?

When the multipath components are "resolved" by the CDMA waveform, that is,
when their delays are separated by at least the decorrelation time of the spreading,
then they can be separated by the despreading correlator in the receiver. They do not
interfere because each component correlates at a different delay. When the multipath
components are separated by less than the decorrelation time, then they cannot be
separated in the receiver, and they do interfere with one another, leading to what is
sometimes called flat fading.

The duration of one spreading chip is 1/1.2288MHz = 814 ns, or at the speed of light,
244 meters. Multipath differences less than this will lead to flat fading; greater will
lead to resolved multipath, which will be diversity combined by the receiver.

To address the second question, that of the effects of fading, the answer is complex
and is different in the forward and reverse links. It also depends on the fading rate,
which in turn depends on the velocity of the mobile station. Generally fading
increases the average SNR needed for a particular error rate. The increase can be as
much as perhaps 6 dB. In the reverse link, the power control will mitigate the effects
of fading at low speed; at high speed it has little effect. At high speed, and in both
links, the interleaving becomes more effective as the characteristic fade time becomes
less than the interleaver span.

BAND OF OPERATION:

There are 2 CDMA common air interface standards: Cellular (824-894 MHz) – IS-
95A and PCS (1850-1990 MHz) - Joint-STD-008

1. Cellular Band

• 45 MHz spacing for forward & reverse channel

• Frequency assignments are on 30 kHz increments

2. PCS Band

• 80 MHz spacing for forward & reverse channel

• Frequency assignments are on 50 kHz increments
MULTIPATHS IN CDMA TECHNOLOGY
Multipaths

Propagation in relatively small congested cells is dominated by diffraction, scattering,

and reflection caused by the structures and objects surrounding both the cell site and
the mobile antennas. The multipaths formed by the scatterers and reflectors add up at
the receive antenna to produce the received signal.

Diffraction occurs when the radio path is blocked by an object that has sharp
irregularities.

Scattering occurs when the wave strikes objects that are small compared to a
wavelength. Foliage, lampposts, and street signs produce scattering.

Reflection occurs when a propagating electromagnetic wave impinges upon an object

that has very large dimensions when compared to the wavelength of the propagating
wave

Better Use of Multipath

One of the main advantages of CDMA systems is the capability of using signals that
arrive in the receivers with different time delays. This phenomenon is called
multipath. FDMA (analog cellular) and TDMA, which are narrowband systems,
cannot discriminate between the multipath arrivals, and resort to equalization to
mitigate the negative effects of multipath. Due to its wide bandwidth and rake

receivers, CDMA uses the multipath signals and combines them to make an even
stronger signal at the receivers.

Cdma physical layers

Cdma spreading rates:

Spreading Rates

CDMA2000 supports two different spreading rates:

• Spreading Rate 1 — also called “1x”– Both Forward and Reverse Channels
use a single direct-sequence spread carrier with a chip rate of 1.2288 Mcps.

• Spreading Rate 3 — also called “3x” or MC (Multi-Carrier)–

• Forward Channels use three direct-sequence spread carriers each with a chip
rate of 1.2288 Mcps.
• Reverse Channels use a single direct-sequence spread carrier with a chip rate
Of 3.6864 Mcps.

CDMA 2000 physical layer

The increased performance available from CDMA2000 is at the expense of

complexity.

Currently 1x spreading rates are being deployed in Release 0. The 3x rates are now
completely defined (both Physical Layer and Signaling Layers) in Release A.

Many Radio Configurations are required to define the spreading rates, Forward Error
Correction rates, and Data rates.

New Physical Channels have been added for better signaling efficiency and higher
data rates.

Transmit Diversity has been added to improve the performance in difficult

environments.

The Reverse link now contains a Pilot signal to improve the capacity of the
Reverse link.

• 1x (1.2288 MHz) spreading rate.

• Two Radio Configuration with fixed data rates:
– 9.6 kbps for RC1
– 14.4 kbps for RC2
• Data is BPSK modulated on Forward link.
• Forward link uses coherent modulation.
• Reverse link uses non-coherent modulation.
• Fixed 20 ms frames.
RC1 and RC2
Radio Configurations 1 and 2 are the TIA/EIA-95 backward-compatible modes of
operation. These two modes are simpler than the CDMA2000 modes.

The Spreading rate is fixed at the 1x rate.

There are only two data rate sets available: 9.6 kbps and 14.4 kbps. These are the
maximum channel rates, with ½ , ¼ and 1/8 of these channels rates also being
available for variable rate voice services.

The data is modulated in a BPSK format onto the radio frequency carrier wave, where
in CDMA2000 the modulation is QPSK.

Since the Forward link also contains a Pilot signal, the Mobile is able to demodulate
coherently.

The Reverse link does not contain a Pilot in RC1 and RC2, so demodulation in the
Base Station is non-coherent.

All frame times are fixed at 20 ms. This gives reasonable delays that are acceptable
for voice services, and reasonable interleaver gains.
 CDMA Forward Channel Characteristics

Forward Link Characteristics

• Same Channel —All of the Code Channels transmitted from the Base Station
take the same paths to the mobile. For this reason, they experience the same
path attenuation and fading environment.

• Better Codes for Separation —Transmitting all the Forward Channels from
the same source allows us to synchronize all the Forward Channels. This
allows for the use of Walsh codes to separate users in the Forward direction.

• Coherent Demodulation at the Mobile—The one-to-many relationship of

the Base Station to the mobiles makes the use of a Pilot signal efficient. The
mobile can use a Pilot transmitted from the Base Station in order to
demodulate coherently.
 CDMA REVERSE CHANNEL CHARACTERSTICS

Reverse Link Characteristics

Mobiles, of course, may be anywhere in the cell. One mobile may be 10 miles from
the Base Station, while another mobile may be only a few hundred yards away. As a
result, mobiles can experience greatly differing amounts of path loss due to their
varying distance from the Base Station and varying multipath environments. Path loss
can easily vary by 80 dB. If all mobiles attempted to transmit at the same power level,
some signals could arrive at the Base Station 80 dB stronger than others. Each mobile
must be carefully power-controlled to ensure that transmissions arrive at the Base
Station at an appropriate level. Additionally, the mobiles’ transmissions do not fade
together. They typically take different paths and are subject to different propagation
conditions. Lastly, the BTS will demodulate non-coherently due to the lack of a
coherent phase reference.

Near Far Problem

A user close to a cell would saturate the receiver and eliminate all users further away,
unless the power is controlled. This is referred to as Near /Far problem. Because the
cross-correlation between two PN codes is not exactly equal to zero, the system must
overcome the Near/Far problem.

The output of the correlator consists of two components:

• The autocorrelation of the PN code with the desired coded signal

• The sum of the cross-correlation of the PN code with all the other coded
signals.

Mathematically, if we are trying to decode the kth signal, we have:

Where:
• Aj is the amplitude of the jth signal,

• rjk is the cross-correlation between the kth and jth signal, and

• S is the sum over all the j signals (excluding k).

Since the cross-correlation is small (ideally, it is zero), the sum of cross-correlation

terms should be much less than the amplitude of the desired signal. However, if the
desired signal is broadcast from far away, and undesired signals are broadcast from
much closer, the desired signal may be so small as to be drowned out by the
crosscorrelation terms.

Note: This problem only exists in the reverse direction. The BS is receiving signals
from many MS at different distances, but the MS is receiving all signals from one BS.
The BS controls the power of each MS so that the signals received from all MS are
the same strength.
CDMA Logical Channels

FORWARD LINK
The Forward CDMA link consists of up to 64 logical channels (code channels). A
code channel is one of a set of 64 so-called Walsh functions. The Walsh makes the
channels completely separable in the receiver. Each forward code channel is spread
by the Short Code (short PN code) , which has I- and Q-components. The two coded,
covered, and spread streams are vector-modulated on the RF carrier. The spreading
modulation is thus QPSK, superimposed on a BPSK code symbol stream.
The Forward Link is divided into 64 code channels. The logical structure is described
below.

Pilot Channel: This channel is all zeros – carrying no data information. This
channel is the beacon channel that defines the radius of the cell and hence is
transmitted with the largest power. It is used as a timing source in system acquisition
and as a measurement device during handoffs (MAHO). Pilot channel is assigned
W0.The period of the pilot short code, 215= 26.67 ms at the 1.2288 MHz chip rate.
The pilot phases are assigned to BS in multiples of 64 chips, giving a total of 215/
64= 512 possible assignments. Hence this 9-bit number (512 assignments) identifies
the pilot phase assignment is called the Pilot Offset.

Synchronization Channel: Used by the mobile during system acquisition to

receive the system time, system identification and parameter information and state of
the Long Code. Sync Channel is W32. This operates at 1200 bps.

Paging Channel: This channel carries overhead messages, pages, call setup
messages and orders. The bps (4800 or 9600bps) of this channel is got from the
Synchronization Channel. The paging channel is assigned Walsh codes W1-W7. W1
is called the primary paging channel and overhead messages are always transmitted
on the primary PCH. It operates in slotted-mode (mobiles ‘sleep’ and ‘wakeup’ when
it’s time to listen).

Traffic Channel: The traffic channels are assigned to individual users to carry call
traffic. All the remaining Walsh codes are available, subject to overall capacity
limited by noise.

REVERSE LINK

Reverse CDMA Channel consists of 2 42-1 logical channels. One of the logical
channels is permanently and uniquely associated with each MS. The channel does not
change upon handoff. The reverse CDMA Channel does not follow the strict
orthogonal rule strictly uses a very long period spreading code, in distinct phases.
The correlations between mobile stations are not zero, but they are acceptably small.
Access Channel: Access channels are used by mobiles not yet in a call; to
transmit registration requests, call setup requests, page responses, order responses,
and other signaling information. An access channel is really just a public long code
offset unique to the BTS sector. Access channels are paired to Paging Channels. Each
paging channel can have up to 32 access channels. These channels operate at 4800
bps.
Reverse Traffic Channel: The reverse traffic channels are used by individual
users during their actual calls to transmit traffic to the BTS. A reverse traffic channel
is really just a user-specific public or private Long Code mask

CALL PROCESSING OVERVIEW

Call Processing States

Pilot and Sync Channel Processing - During Pilot and Sync Channel processing, the
mobile uses the Pilot Channel and Sync Channel to acquire and synchronize to the
CDMA system. This is the Mobile Initialization state.
Paging Channel Processing - In the Idle state, the mobile monitors the Paging
Channel to receive messages.

Access Channel Processing - During Access Channel processing, the Base Station
monitors the Access Channel to receive messages that the mobile sends while the
mobile is in the System Access state. The mobile listens to the Paging Channel for
acknowledgments and responses.

Traffic Channel Processing - During Traffic Channel processing, the Base Station
uses the Forward and Reverse Traffic Channels to communicate with the mobile
while it is in the Mobile Station Control state.

Block Diagram Of Call Processing

 HANDOFF
When a mobile user travels from one area of coverage or cell to another cell within a
call’s duration the call should be transferred to the new cell’s base station. Otherwise,
the call will be dropped because the link with the current base station becomes too
weak as the mobile recedes Indeed, this ability for transference is a design matter in
mobile cellular system design and is call handoff.
The handoff process in CDMA can take several variants:
 • Soft handoff, involves an inter-cell handoff and is a make-before-brake
connection.The connection between the mobile and the cell site is maintained
by several cell sites during the process. A soft handoff can occur only hen the
old and new cell sites are operating on the same CDMA frequency channel.
• Softer handoff, is an intra-cell handoff occurring between the sectors of a cell
site and is a make-before-break type. The softer handoff occurs only at the
service cell site.
• Hard handoff, is meant to enable a mobile to hand off from a CDMA call to an
analog call. The process is functionally brake-before-make and is implemented
in areas where CDMA service is no longer available. The continuity of the
radio link is not maintained during the hard handoff. A hard handoff also can
occur between two distinct CDMA channels that are operating on different
frequencies.

HANDOFFS IN CDMA
“Soft” Handoffs:
Multi-Cell
Multi-Sector
Multi-Cell/Multi-Sector

“Hard” Handoffs:
CDMA to CDMA
CDMA to Analog

Idle Handoff

Access Handoff:
Access Entry
Access Probe & Access Handoff

Types of CDMA Handoffs – Overview

CDMA supports handoffs of the mobile from one cell to another while the mobile is
on a Traffic Channel or in the Idle state.

The in-traffic transition from one cell to another can be either a soft handoff or a hard
handoff. These terms will be discussed later in this section. Transition from one cell to
another while in the Idle state must be a hard handoff.
Access handoff has multiple forms:
• Access Entry handoff is an Idle handoff before the handoff process begins.
• Access Probe Handoff sends the Access probes to different sectors or different
Base Stations.
• Access Handoff transfers the reception of the Paging Channel from one Base
Station to another while the mobile is in the System Access State, but after an
Access Attempt.

Multi-Cell "Soft" Handoff

Soft Handoff is Mobile Assisted

Soft handoff is a the process of establishing a link with a target cell before breaking
the link with a serving cell.

In the CDMA system the mobiles continuously search for Pilot Channels on the
current frequency. The purpose of this search is to detect potential candidates for
handoff. When the mobile detects a Pilot Channel that is not associated with any of
the Forward Traffic Channels currently demodulated, it sends a message to the
serving cell. This report contains the PN phase (PN offset plus differential path delay)
at which the Pilot Channel is received and an estimate of the SNR of the Pilot
Channel. The PN offset is then obtained by the cell (or BSC) from the PN phase, and
used to determine the identity of the Pilot Channel (i.e., which cell is transmitting it).
The PN phase can also be used to obtain an estimate of the path delay between the
mobile and the target cell, which in turn facilitates acquisition of the mobile by that
cell. The Pilot Channel SNR provides an indication to the system as to the importance
of setting up the handoff.

Requires Both Cells to Be on the Same Frequency

The mobile typically contains only one RF receiver section. Therefore soft handoff
requires that both the serving cell and the target cell be transmitting on the same
frequency.

Multi Cell Softer Handoff

All Cells Deliver Vocoded Frames to the BSC:

All cells participating in a soft handoff transmit identical frames. The mobile
combines the frames and presents a single frame to the vocoder. The Channel element
performs this same function in each of the cells involved in the handoff. All cells
deliver vocoded frames to the BSC.
Softer Handoff

Softer handoff is a handoff between two sectors of the same cell.

Signals received by different sectors can all be directed to the same rake receiver in
the BTS and combined non-coherently. Only one voice frame is then advanced to the
BSC. Softer handoff enables greater efficiency in the use of hardware. Only one
Channel element is required to support a softer handoff.

Multi Cell/Multi Sector Handoff

Multiple cells and multiple sectors can be involved in a handoff in a variety of ways.
The figure depicts a scenario where a mobile is in softer handoff with two sectors of
the same cell and is also in soft handoff with another cell. The BSC will receive a
vocoded frame from each cell and choose the frame that is error-free.
 Multi cell/multi sector handoff

Idle Handoff Region

While in the Idle state, the mobile may move from one cell to another. Idle handoff
arises from the transition between any two cells. Idle handoff is initiated by the
mobile when it measures a Pilot signal significantly stronger (3 dB) than the curren
serving Pilot.

Idle handoff process

The Idle Handoff Process

As the mobile moves from cell to cell, it must handoff to a new Paging Channel. The
mobile performs this idle handoff autonomously when the strength of a new Pilot
exceeds the strength of the serving Pilot by 3 dB.

The Idle Handoff Region

The idle handoff region is the area where the mobile should perform the handoff to a
new Paging Channel. It is not formally defined. The idle handoff region is the area in
which the strength of a non-serving Pilot is at least 3 dB greater than the strength of
the serving Pilot and the serving Pilot is still usable (e.g., serving Pilot Ec/Io > - 15
dB).

Registration Overview

Registration Updates a Database:

Registration refers to the process by which mobiles make their whereabouts known to
the cellular system.
Cellular systems use registration as a means to balance the load between the Access
Channel and the Paging Channel. Without any type of registration, mobiles must be
paged over the entire cellular system, resulting in the need for transmitting on the
order of C pages per call delivery for a system with C Base Stations. Requiring a
mobile to register every time it moves to the coverage area of a new Base Station
would reduce the number of pages per call delivery to unity. However, such an
approach would create overwhelming load on both the Paging and Access Channels
due to the transmission of the registration messages and their acknowledgments.
Systems and Networks

TIA/EIA-95 recognizes the established construct of systems, as defined by SIDs or

System Identification numbers. With respect to treatment of SIDs, TIA/EIA-95 is in
general compatible with AMPS and TDMA.

The proposed CDMA system provides a network identifier (NID) for the cells within
a system. A network is a subset of the cells in a system. A network might be set up in
several ways, including the following:

• The network consists of cells belonging to a group of BSCs that share a

common
• Visitor Location Register (VLR); or
 • The network consists of a group of cells belonging to a single BSC; or
• The network consists of a group of cells belonging to a private network
operating within the public system. It is possible for the private network to
share a BSC with the public system or with other private networks.

It is assumed here that a separate VLR is associated with each network, i.e., with each
distinct (SID, NID) pair. The NID broadcast by the cells allows an extension of the
roaming concept, permitting a CDMA mobile to be configured to enable or disable
roaming from NID to NID within a system. The NID can also provide additional
flexibility in autonomous registration.

Roaming
• Cellular Service is normally subscribed to from a particular system.

• Obtaining Service from another system is possible, but additional charges are
generally incurred.

• Users traveling outside their normal Service area are said to be Roaming.

Determining Roaming States:

The first five forms of registration, as a group, are enabled by roaming status for any
Mobile Identification Number (MIN). The serving system can, for example, enable
registration of roaming mobiles while not requiring registration for mobiles that are
not roaming. The mobile user can also disable these forms of autonomous registration
while roaming by specifying that a MIN is not configured to receive mobile
terminated calls when roaming.
The Mobile’s “Home”
The mobile maintains a list of systems and networks that it has subscribed service
from. This is the Home List

Roaming Status

The mobile can be in one of three roaming states: home (not roaming), NID roaming,
or SID roaming.

The mobile has a list of (SID,NID) pairs which it considers as home (i.e., systems and
networks that are associated with the organization from which the mobile user
commonly obtains service).

• When the mobile is in the coverage area of a Base Station associated with a
system and network that appears in that list, the mobile is considered to be
home.

• When the mobile is in the coverage area of a Base Station associated with a
system that appears in that list and a network that does not appear with that
system on the list, the mobile is considered to be a NID roamer.

• Otherwise, the mobile is considered to be a SID roamer. This last case

corresponds to the usual roaming status of analog and TDMA mobiles.
The special value 65535 may not be used as a valid NID value by the cellular system.
If the mobile contains this value as a NID value in the list of its (SID,NID) home
pairs, it will consider any network in that particular system to be a home network.

Authentication

Authentication:

Authentication is the process by which a mobile confirms its identity to the Base
Station. Fraud is a concern in wireless systems, and service providers want to protect
themselves from lost revenues due to “cloned” mobiles.

CDMA2000 uses two types of authentication:

• Global Challenge – The mobile authenticates itself to the Base Station each
time it sends certain messages on the Access Channel.

• Unique Challenge – The Base Station may challenge a mobile station to

authenticate
• itself. This is typically done after the Global Challenge fails.

Shared Secret Data:

The mobile and the Base Station each possess a copy of Shared Secret Data (SSD),
which is used in the authentication process. The mobile is assigned an authentication
key, called the A-key, when the subscription is activated. The A-key is used to
compute the SSD. The SSD then is used in the authentication process. The Base
Station may request that the mobile update the SSD, using the SSD Update Procedure.

Encryption

Encryption:

CDMA systems support encryption to protect sensitive subscriber information, such

as Personal Identification Numbers (PIN), Short Message Service (SMS) messages,
dialed digits, etc.Encryption is used in a CDMA system only if authentication is also
used.
The details of encryption algorithms are controlled by the United States government,
and are not published as part of the CDMA2000 standard. The following forms of
encryption are supported in CDMA2000:

• Cellular Message Encryption Algorithm – CDMAOne and CDMA2000

systems support encryption of certain fields of selected fields of selected
signaling messages. An Enhanced Cellular Message Encryption Algorithm
was introduced in TIA/EIA-95B.

• Voice Privacy – CDMAOne and CDMA2000 systems provide voice (and

data) privacy using a private long code mask.

• Extended Encryption – This new set of encryption procedures was introduced

in CDMA2000. This allows encryption to be enabled over the entire Layer 3
signaling message, as well as over the user information (voice and user data).

CAPACITY

CDMA is different from other technologies in that many users operate on a single
wideband RF carrier. Additionally, this carrier frequency may be reused by the
adjacent cell (N=1 reuse). CDMA capacity is only interference limited, therefore any
reduction in interference converts directly and linearly into an increase in capacity.
Interference is introduced from several sources including:
• Co-cell mobile users
• Adjacent cell mobile users
• Adjacent cell base stations
• Thermal and spurious noise

CDMA employs several techniques to reduce these interference sources including:

• Suppressing or squelching transmissions during quiet periods of each
speaker
• Using sectored base station antennas
• Dynamic power control to keep transmit levels to the minimum required to
close the link
Adding Capacity:

Within a Cell:

Because people have fallen in love with mobile phones, macrocells have run out of
call capacity. The service providers like this because it means their cellular
infrastructure is being utilized to its fullest. Consumers, on the other hand, get
frustrated when they try to make a mobile call and they are greeted with a busy signal.
When macrocells run out of call carrying capacity, the only thing the service
providers can do—if they want to keep their customers—is to subdivide the macrocell
into smaller microcells,

Dividing up a macrocell into microcells:

When subdividing a macrocell into microcells, each microcell must be capable of

communicating directly with the MSC, which means laying copper wire or fiber-optic
cable or, more frequently, setting up a point-to-point microwave connection. In any
event, replacing a macrocell with several microcells is an expensive proposition and
the expense must be justified. As a result, microcells only appear in well-traveled
corridors, like along a busy freeway.

Occasionally, it even makes sense to further subdivide a microcell into smaller

picocells, where mobile traffic is highly concentrated, like a common area in a large
city (think Times Square).

Uncovered Areas:

When mobile telephone service providers began to roll out their systems, they
naturally placed the first macrocells in the highest traffic areas, which meant that even
after the service was up and running, there were still areas within the service
provider's territory that did not have service. The two places that got call coverage last
were the outer fringes of the service provider's territory and places within the territory
that suffer from some sort of obstruction. The latter is comprised of tunnels, subways,
and the insides of buildings.

The general category of product used to extend a macrocell's coverage is called a

repeater. Repeaters come in many shapes and sizes but they all perform one basic
function: they extend the wireless range of a macrocell. In that vein, they
communicate directly with the macrocell either via copper, fiber optics, or a wireless
link

Functionally, there is a very significant difference between using a repeater to extend

capacity and breaking down macrocells into microcells to increase capacity.
Microcells add capacity because each microcell communicates directly with the MSC.
Repeaters, because they communicate with the macrocell itself, actually take away
capacity from the macrocell. Every person using the repeater's capacity inside the
tunnel means that one less person outside the tunnel can use the macrocell's capacity.

One of the fastest growing uses for repeaters is for in-building applications. In this
situation, an antenna is placed on the roof of the building to transmit and receive
mobile calls. The signal is then routed from the rooftop antenna, down through the
building, to a small repeater on every floor. The signals from the repeater are
transmitted and received through an antenna no bigger than a smoke

CDMA Spectrum Requirements

With CDMA being a wideband technology, a significant amount of spectrum

(1.77MHz) needs to be cleared. This section discusses the spectrum clearing
requirements and implementation processes as a function of CDMA system capacity,
frequency and existing infrastructure.

Required frequency bands

IS-95 CDMA signal is spread over a bandwidth of approximately 1.23MHz.
However, in order to avoid the interference between the CDMA signal and other
technologies, a certain amount of spectrum needs to be allocated for guard bands. For
a single CDMA carrier, 1.77MHz of spectrum needs to be cleared. This includes
1.23MHz of the spectrum allocated for the signal itself plus 270KHz on each side of
the signal spectrum for guard bands (see .). In the case where multiple carriersare
implemented, there is no need for guard bands between the CDMA carriers.
0 .2 7 M H z 0 .2 7 M H z

1 .2 3 M H z
GUARD GUARD

C D M A C a r r ie r

1 .7 7 M H z
 Figure 0-1: Guard-bands required for implementation of one CDMA Carrier

0.27MHz 0.27MHz

1.23MHz 1.23MHz
GUARD GUARD

CDMA Carrier CDMA Carrier

3.00MHz
Figure 0-2: Guard-bands required for implementation two CDMA carriers

In the US, IS-95 based CDMA systems are implemented in both 800 and 1900MHz
bands. In the 800 MHz band, the A and B bands are licensed 12.5MHz each. Ideally,
it would be possible to implement up to 10 CDMA carriers. The guard band
requirements allow only 9 carriers to be implemented in both A and B bands.
summarizes the channel numbers and corresponding uplink / downlink frequency
pairs for the CDMA carriers in the 800 MHz range for both carriers.

Table 0-1: CDMA Channel Allocation for 800MHz Frequency Band (uplink / downlink)

Side A Carrier Side A Carrier Side B Carrier Side B Carrier

Channel Frequency [MHz] Channel Frequency [MHz]
283 833.49 / 878.49 384 836.52 / 881.52
242 832.26 / 877.26 425 837.75 / 882.75
201 831.03 / 876.03 466 838.98 / 883.98
160 829.80 / 874.80 507 840.21 / 885.21
119 828.57 / 873.57 548 841.44 / 886.44
78 827.34 / 872.34 589 842.67 / 887.67
37 826.11 / 871.11 630 843.90 / 888.90
1019 824.88 / 869.88 777 848.31 / 893.31
691 845.73 / 890.73 736 847.08 / 892.08
In order to implement CDMA carriers at channels 1019 and 777 additional frequency
coordination is required between the corresponding cellular provider and non-cellular
providers. The 1.23MHz carrier frequency for CDMA reaches the end of the licensed
spectrum. This leaves no licensed spectrum for the guard band. Also,
implementation of the CDMA carrier at channel 736 requires frequency coordination
between the A side and B side cellular carriers. In the PCS (1900 MHz) band, CDMA
can be implemented in any of six available frequency blocks.

Comparison of Various CDMA Offerings and Standards

The worldwide growth rate of CDMA is the fastest of any technology to date. The
robustness and compatibility of the various CDMA technology definitions and
standards has raised questions throughout the industry. This chapter will emphasize
some differences among standards that evolve from standard IS-95. These standards
are baseline for various wireless communication systems in more than 25 countries
around the world, including United States, China, India and Indonesia. In addition,
the Japanese CDMA standard and future wideband CDMA issues are discussed.

Standards for CDMA systems:

In the United States, the CDMA application to mobile communications is defined for
two spectral bands: the 850 MHz band (cellular) and 1900 MHz band (PCS). Several
documents describe the system characteristics and the minimum requirements for base
station and mobile stations. The authors of these documents include:

• Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)

• Electronic Industry Association (EIA)
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
This chapter will focus on air interface standards for CDMA systems. The term ‘air
interface’ means the standards define the transceiver compatibility for wireless
communications. There are two CDMA common air interface standards:

• TIA/EIA/IS-95A - Defines Personal Station / Base Station compatibility

requirements for cellular band (from 849 to 894 MHz)

• ANSI J-STD-008 - Defines Personal Station / Base Station compatibility

requirements for PCS band (from 1850 to 1990 MHz)

The difference between these two standards will be discussed with an emphasis on the
major differences between IS-95A standard and IS-95 ancestor. While the standards
are stable documents, they continue to be reviewed by committees responsible for
them. Option service standards (primarily vocoders), network interface standards and
performance specifications are examples of other associated documents.

CDMA in cellular and PCS band:

The cellular band spectrum allocation is shown in Figure 0-3. With the exception of
guard bands, the CDMA stations are permitted to operate on any AMPS channel.
CDMA stations, of course, would normally be assigned channels with at least
1.25MHz separation (about 42 AMPS channels). In the cellular band, the mobile
station transmit frequency is always 45MHz lower than the base station transmit
frequency.

1 10 10 1.5 2.5

A" A B A' B'

824 MHz 825 MHz UPLINK 835 MHz 845 MHz 846.5 MHz 849 MHz
869 MHz 870 MHz DOWNLINK 880 MHz 890 MHz 891.5 MHz 894 MHz

Figure 0-3: Cellular band spectrum allocation.

Both A and B carriers have 12.5MHz of spectrum in for both the uplink and
downlink. For the CDMA channel allocation, size and adjacency of A' and B' bands
present problems. The B' band, in particular, can accommodate two CDMA channels
only if they are slightly overlapped. The drawback is a small loss of capacity.

The PCS frequency band has two 60 MHz wide sub-bands for forward and reverse
link transmission. 80 MHz separates the channels for the uplink and downlink. There
are three 15 MHz bands plus three 5 MHz bands, as illustrated in Figure 0-4.

15 5 15 5 5 15
width of sub-bands [MHz]

A D B E F C sub-bands

1850 1865 1870 1885 1890 1895 1910 MS Tx freq. limits [MHz]

1930 1945 1950 1965 1970 1975 1990 BS Tx freq. limits [MHz]
#0 #300 #400 #700 #800 #900 #1199 channel numbers

Figure 0-4: PCS band structure.

Similar to the division of the cellular band with 30 kHz AMPS channels, the PCS
band is divided into 50 kHz channels. There are 1200 channels in the entire PCS
band (60MHz/50kHz). Some important considerations are:

• Since a guard band is required, assignment of channels near the band

edges are conditional on whether the neighboring bands are held by the same
operator.

• Operation near the edges of the allocated spectrum is forbidden in 1.2

MHz guard bands.

• In contrast with the cellular configuration, IS-95A suggests the particular

CDMA channel numbers as shown in Table 0-2.
 Table 0-2: CDMA Preferred Frequency Assignments

Band Preferred PCS channels

A 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250, 275
B 325, 350, 375
C 425, 450, 475, 500, 525, 550, 575, 600, 625, 650, 675
D 725, 750, 775
E 825, 850, 875
F 925, 950, 975, 1000, 1025, 1050, 1075, 1100, 1125, 1150, 1175

Although RF propagation characteristics of signals in the cellular and PCS bands are
not considered in the Standards, they make a difference between the implementations.
Free-space losses are larger at higher frequencies and propagation models account for
that difference by adjustment of the appropriate parameters. For example, Lee’s
propagation model has a parameter called one-mile intercept [dBm], which is smaller
for PCS carriers than for cellular band carriers. The difference is
20*log(1900MHz/850MHz)=7dB. Signal decay per distance is the same for both
bands. will briefly describe different power control algorithms for two systems (max.
bit-rate of 9.6 kpbs and 14.4 kpbs)

Wideband CDMA

Our imagination might not be wide enough, but we can agree that two key
characteristics of future global connections will be the speed of the mobile multimedia
and worldwide accessibility.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is developing a world-wide

standard which will provide direction for many technological developments and assist
in the convergence of the existing, essentially competing, wireless access
technologies. The standard, known as IMT-2000 (International Mobile
Telecommunications - 2000), is to be a globally compatible wireless communication
system that integrates paging, cordless, cellular, and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite
systems. IMT-2000 is suppose to merge various wireless services such as:

• Voice and high-quality audio

• High-speed data transmission
• Video conferencing and multimedia
• Interactive news delivery (voice, video, E-mail, graphics)
• Interactive audio and video (CD-quality voice, video, graphics)
• Web browsing
• Position/location-dependent information
Many vendors from around the world have submitted (or will submit) proposals for
IMT-2000. A common term used for technologies that will answer on IMT-2000
demands is 3G technologies (third generation technologies). Wideband CDMA (W-
CDMA) is based on current CDMA technology (both IS-95 and Asian versions) and
is the essence of almost all proposed 3G technologies.

Wideband cdmaOne as a 3G technology:

The current CDMA technology, based on IS-95 and related standards is known as
cdmaOne. Wideband cdmaOne is a technology that is evolving from cdmaOne.
Wideband cdmaOne is defined by Qualcom, Lucent, Nortel, Motorola and Samsung.

Wideband cdmaOne offers high capacity and service enhancements that meet the
requirements for IMT-2000, while still preserving the compatibility with existing IS-
95 CDMA technology. Development of the wideband technology assumes a gradual
build-up of high data rate services via new dual-bandwidth terminals: channel
bandwidths will be N ×1.25 MHz (N=1,3,6). Together with guard bands, three 1.25
MHz carriers will be used in the 5 MHz bandwidth, while six carriers need 10 MHz.
There are two approaches to forward link implementation (see Figure 0-5 for 5MHz
bandwidth case): multi-carrier down link and direct-spread.

Direct-Spread Forward
Link Signal

guard band guard band

f
0 1 MHz 2 MHz 3 MHz 4 MHz 5 MHz

Figure 0-5: 5 MHz wideband CDMA signal - Direct Sequence CDMA over 3.75 MHz Spectrum
 Multi-Carrier Forward
Link Signal

guard band guard band

f
0 1 MHz 2 MHz 3 MHz 4 MHz 5 MHz

Figure 0-6: 5 MHz wideband CDMA signal - Multi-Carrier CDMA over 3.75 MHz Spectrum

Both approaches offer similar data rates, but multi-carrier CDMA forward link signals
are orthogonal to IS-95 forward link signals, which allows overlay (spectrum
sharing). Transmit diversity makes an advantage for the multi-carrier option. Further,
the reverse link signal will provide a time (offset) reference, which enables coherent
demodulation.

These features, together with improvement in packet data protocols, will be capable of
supporting interactive data services with low packet delays.

Key features of CDMA2000 are:

• Leading performance: CDMA2000 performance in terms of data-speeds,

voice capacity and latencies continue to outperform in commercial
deployments other comparable technologies

• Efficient use of spectrum: CDMA2000 technologies offer the highest voice

capacity and data throughput using the least amount of spectrum, lowering the
cost of delivery for operators and delivering superior customer experience for
the end users
 • Support for advanced mobile services: CDMA2000 1xEV-DO enables the
delivery of a broad range of advanced services, such as high-performance
VoIP, push-to-talk, video telephony, multimedia messaging, multicasting and
multi-playing online gaming with richly rendered 3D graphics
• All-IP – CDMA2000 technologies are compatible with IP and ready to support
network convergence. Today, CDMA2000 operators that have deployed IP-
based services enjoy more flexibility and higher bandwidth efficiencies, which
translate into greater control and significant cost savings.
• Devices selection: CDMA2000 offers the broadest selection of devices and
has a significant cost advantage compared to other 3G technologies to meet
the diverse market needs around the world

• Seamless evolution path : CDMA2000 has a solid and long-term evolution

path which is built on the principle of backward and forward compatibility, in-
band migration, and support of hybrid network configurations

• Flexibility: CDMA2000 systems have been designed for urban as well as

remote rural areas for fixed wireless, wireless local loop (WLL), limited
mobility and full mobilility applications in multiple spectrum bands, including
450 MHz, 800 MHz, 1700 MHz, 1900Mhz and 2100 MHz

CDMAONE NETWORK DIAGRAM:

Cell pattern covering a geographic area.

In the world of mobile telephony, there is one major tradeoff constantly taking place.
Ideally, the system has a large number of very small hexagons. The greater the
number of hexagons, the more simultaneous calls the system can handle (think
revenue). However, the greater the number of hexagons, the more infrastructure that
is required to implement the system (think expenses). As a result, cell coverage is a
dynamic activity that is constantly changing in response to increases in capacity
requirements.

Did You Know?

Cells come in three basic sizes: macrocells, microcells, and picocells. There are no
exact definitions for each of these except to say that macros are bigger than micros,
which are bigger than picos. Macrocells are representative of the first-generation
cellular systems. Microcells and picocells are new developments that have resulted
from the subdivision of macrocells to add capacity.

INFRASTRUCTURE:

At the center of every cell is a cell site or basestation. The cell site contains all of the
electronics that enable wireless communication, including all of the RF hardware. At
a minimum, cell sites consist of one or more antennas, cables, a transmitter and
receiver, a power source, and other control electronics. If the capacity requirements of
the cell are small, the cell may employ a single omnidirectional antenna to provide
coverage. In situations where more capacity is required, the cell is usually broken
down into three sectors (120þ each) and one or more antennas are used to provide
coverage for each sector.

At their very simplest, all cell sites provide three functions. Cell sites talk to each
other (think mobile-to-mobile calls), they connect to the public switched telephone
network or PSTN (think mobile-to-landline calls), and they count how many minutes
you talk (think money). All three of these functions take place at something called a
mobile switching center or MSC, also called a mobile telephone switching office or
MTSO.

Cellular system infrastructure:

the MSC is directly connected to each cell site and to the PSTN. When a call is made,
it gets routed from the current cell to the MSC and then onto the PSTN (if the other
person is on a landline phone) or to another cell (if the other person is on a mobile
phone)—and all the while the cash register at the MSC is ringing away.

The MSC is connected to the PSTN by a very high-capacity telephone connection.

The MSC is connected to each cell site by one of three methods. It uses either a high-
capacity copper telephone line (called a T1 line), a fiber-optic cable, or a point-to-
point microwave relay (as discussed in the previous chapter). The choice of which
method is used depends on several things, including the particular cell site's traffic
level, how far away the cell is from the MSC, and the terrain between them.
 Coverage comparison:

Following table shows the dependency of frequency on coverage area of one cell:

Frequency Cell radius Cell area Relative Cell

(MHz) (km) (km2) Count

450 48.9 7521 1.0

950 26.9 2269 3.3

1800 14.0 618 12.2

2100 12.0 449 16.2

CDMA TECHNOLOGY IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION

Through CDMA’s application in cellular telephony is relatively new, but it is not a

new technology. CDMA has been used in much military application, such as anti
jamming, ranging and secure communication.

The use of CDMA for civilian radio application is novel. Commercial

application became possible because of following evolutionary developments.

• Availability of very low cost, highly dense digital integrated circuits, which
reduce the size, weight and cost of the subscriber station to an acceptably low
level.
• Realization that optimal multiple access communication requires that all user
station regulate their transmission power to the lowest that will achieve
adequate signal quality.
 TYPES OF CDMA NETWORKS

• CDMA 2000 1X
• CDMA 2000 1XEV
• CDMA 1XRTT
• CDMA EV-DO
• CDMA 1XEV-DV

CDMA2000 1x

CDMA2000 1x is a standard that aims to bring high data rate capabilities to wireless
communication products. It supports both voice and 153 Kbps of data using the same
bandwidth configuration as legacy IS-95A1 CDMA networks (i.e., 1.25 megahertz
(MHz) channel bandwidth). This commonality gives 1x technology backwards
compatibility with IS-95A – the standards can co-exist in the same system. When 1x
technology is fully implemented, users will not be required to discard their IS-95A
handsets; however, the additional capabilities offered by 1x technology will not
operate on IS-95A handsets. 1x 1IS-95A is the standard that outlines the protocol for
cellular subscriber user/device mobility and uses CDMA as the air access technology
Emerging Wireless Services Assessment May 2002

CDMA2000 is a hybrid 2.5G / 3G technology of mobile telecommunications

standards that use CDMA, a multiple access scheme for digital radio, to send voice,
data, and signalling data (such as a dialed telephone number) between mobile phones
and cell sites. CDMA2000 is considered a 2.5G technology in 1xRTT and a 3G
technology in EVDO. CDMA2000 is also known as IS-2000.

CDMA (code division multiple access) is a mobile digital radio technology where
channels are defined with codes (PN codes). CDMA permits many simultaneous
transmitters on the same frequency channel, unlike TDMA (time division multiple
access), used in GSM and D-AMPS, and FDMA, used in AMPS ("analog" cellular).
Since more phones can be served by fewer cell sites, CDMA-based standards have a
significant economic advantage over TDMA- or FDMA-based standards.
CDMA2000 has a relatively long technical history, and remains compatible with the
older CDMA telephony methods (such as cdmaOne) first developed by Qualcomm, a
commercial company, and holder of several key international patents on the
technology.

The CDMA2000 standards CDMA2000 1xRTT, CDMA2000 EV-DO, and

CDMA2000 EV-DV are approved radio interfaces for the ITU's IMT-2000 standard
and a direct successor to 2G CDMA, IS-95 (cdmaOne). CDMA2000 is standardized
by 3GPP2.

CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry

Association (TIA-USA) in the United States, not a generic term like CDMA. (This is
similar to how TIA has branded their 2G CDMA standard, IS-95, as cdmaOne.)

CDMA2000 is an incompatible competitor of the other major 3G standard UMTS. It

is defined to operate at 450 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1700 MHz,
1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz.

CDMA2000 1xEV

1xEV is an enhancement of the current CDMA technology, developed by

QUALCOMM (i.e., the IS-8562 TIA/EIA standard). 1xEV is a high-performance,
cost-effective solution that offers high-speed, high-capacity wireless Internet access
with minimal impact to network and spectrum resources.
New technologies that will be available in the market include wireless-capable
Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), Smart Phones, and PCs-on-a-chip, which will
allow consumers and business professionals the ability to communicate at anytime
with “always-on” access to the Internet. 1xEV is the ideal technology for providing
these Internet-based applications. Because 1xEV is built on an Internet Protocol (IP)
backbone using standard IP network elements, a solid economic base and network
infrastructure is already available for use.
1xEV is designed and optimized for packet data transmission. Because voice and
data have very different packet transmission requirements, the combination of
these two services leads to inefficiencies in the network. 1xEV alleviates these
 transmission inefficiencies by requiring separate CDMA carriers for data and
voice channels. According to QUALCOMM, even with a separate CDMA carrier,
1xEV remains fully compatible with IS-95/1x, from a radio frequency (RF)
perspective. The 1xEV technology uses the same 1.228 Mbps symbol rate, link
budgets, network plans, and RF designs for access terminals (i.e., handsets and
other wireless devices) and infrastructure. Also, allocation of voice and data on
separate carriers simplifies system software development and avoids load-
balancing tasks.

In a wireless, internet-based environment, data-enabled equipment usually

receives more data from the network infrastructure than is transmitted in the
reverse direction. This being the case, 1xEV provides asymmetric data rates on
both the forward link (i.e., from the base station to the subscriber) and reverse link
(i.e., from the subscriber to the base station).

1xEV’s peak data rates are—

• Forward link = 2.457 Mbps/sector
• Reverse link = 153.6 Kbps/sector.

This entire high performance data throughput is achieved with only 1.25 MHz of

spectrum. According to QUALCOMM, given a loaded sector with a number of users

distributed uniformly across the coverage area, the average forward link throughput in

a three-sector cell is— 2 IS-856 is the standard that defines the 1x Technology,

specifically for the 1x-DO, the high data rate, data-only derivative of 1x Technology.

Forward link:

Pedestrian Environment

• 3.1 Mbps/cell (single receive antenna)

• 4.0 Mbps/cell (dual receive antenna)

Low Speed Mobile Environment

• 2.0 Mbps/cell (single receive antenna)

 • 3.1 Mbps/cell (dual receive antenna)

High Speed Mobile Environment

• 1.3 Mbps/cell (single receive antenna)

• 2.5 Mbps/cell (dual receive antenna)

The most important factor for data optimization is the capability of the forward link.
Because most Internet applications (Web-browsing, e-mail, etc.) have asymmetric
bandwidth requirements3, optimizing the forward link is especially important for the
wireless Internet. There are two factors that should be improved when increasing the
forward link capabilities of 1xEV – the burst rate and multiplexing efficiency. The
burst rate is defined as the data rate the subscriber sees when receiving packets from
the base station. Multiplexing efficiency is the measure of how well the base station
divides air resources among many active subscribers.

QUALCOMM states that the 1xEV design employs a shared forward link and can
serve a user at any instant. When a user is being served, an access terminal receives
the full power of the base station transmitter. The access terminal (handset) calculates
the received signal’s carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I) and coordinates with the access
point (base station) to attain the highest data rate possible to receive information. This
allows the access point transmitter to operate at full power and transmit data at the
highest possible data rate for each access terminal request. Dynamic power control
and automatic rate fallback techniques are also used to allow the base station and user
equipment to coordinate to achieve the highest data rates possible given the status of
the link.

Another benefit of the shared forward link is the scheduling algorithm, which
optimizes the data transmission on the forward link for multiple users. As more
subscribers access the 1xEV system, the scheduler assists in improving the traffic
flow by proportionally scheduling data to each subscriber’s average throughput – a
technique known as load-balancing.

1xEV allows a maximum of 60 active users (per serving antenna sector) to request
and receive packets simultaneously. Depending on a specific activity factor (i.e.,
traffic loading), a much larger number of users can use the system. For example, if
users in a given sector are operating applications with an estimated 10 percent activity
factor, then 600 users can effectively be served at a time.

CDMA 1xRTT

CDMA2000 1xRTT, the core CDMA2000 wireless air interface standard, is also
known as 1x, 1xRTT, and IS-2000. The designation "1x", meaning "1 times Radio
Transmission Technology", indicates the same RF bandwidth as IS-95: a duplex pair
of 1.25 MHz radio channels. This contrasts with 3xRTT, which uses channels 3 times
as wide (3.75 MHz). 1xRTT almost doubles the capacity of IS-95 by adding 64 more
traffic channels to the forward link, orthogonal to (in quadrature with) the original set
of 64. Although capable of higher data rates, most deployments are limited to a peak
of 144 kbit/s (up and down). IMT-2000 also made changes to the data link layer for
the greater use of data services, including medium and link access control protocols
and QoS. The IS-95 data link layer only provided "best effort delivery" for data and
circuit switched channel for voice (i.e., a voice frame once every 20 ms).

1xRTT officially qualifies as 3G technology, but it is considered by some to be a 2.5G

(or sometimes 2.75G) technology. This allows it to be deployed in 2G spectrum in
some countries that limit 3G systems to certain bands.

CDMA 1XEV-DO

As indicated, QUALCOMM will roll out 1xEV in two phases. The first phase, called
1xEV-DO (1x Evolution–Data Only) will only provide data. 1xEV-DO incorporates a
new air interface technology designed specifically for packet data transmission and
offering a bandwidth efficiency for data traffic that is three to four times greater than
the current 3G standard, 1xRTT. 1xEV-DO has a peak data rate of 2.45 Mbps on the
forward link, while using only 1.25 MHz of spectrum.
Because the 1xEV-DO technology is used exclusively for packet data, data rates are
adjustable. Current cellular CDMA voice systems are designed to provide a constant
bit rate (typically between 8–16 )

The base station adjusts its transmit power based on power control feedback (received
from the handset) to maintain the target bit rate in the presence of varying channel
conditions. If the bit rate drops below the target rate, the voice call can be lost.

Guaranteed data rates are not necessary for packet data, as long as some minimum
performance level is maintained. More important, with an adjustable data
transmission scheme, packet data users can achieve significantly improved data rates
over current systems. With these factors in mind, an air interface designed specifically
for wireless Internet access should provide the highest data rate possible at any given
time, and requires a system that can adapt the data rate based on the channel quality
seen by each subscriber.

1xRTT has voice-centric designs that are optimized for a fixed data rate, with no
efficient mechanism for varying the data rate based on a subscriber’s channel quality.
The result is a significant loss in capacity. For example, a user may be served at 32
Kbps, even when the channel conditions would have allowed for a much higher data
rate.

1xEV-DO has an adaptive scheme that allows the base station to shift its data rate for
each active user every few milliseconds. This adaptive scheme is possible because the
active terminals constantly measure the channel conditions based on received pilot
signals from all surrounding base stations. The base stations then report back to the
network with the maximum data rate at which each terminal can receive, thus making
the entire network more efficient.

The possibilities and applications for using wireless high-speed data to ensure the
safety of the public are virtually endless.

Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data only, abbreviated as EV-DO or

EVDO and often EV, is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission
of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. It uses
multiplexing techniques including Code division multiple access (CDMA) as well as
Time division multiple access (TDMA) to maximize both individual user's throughput
and the overall system throughput. It is standardized by 3rd Generation Partnership
Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and has been
adopted by many mobile phone service providers around the world – particularly
those previously employing CDMA networks. It is also used on the Globalstar
satellite phone network.[1]

CDMA 1xEV-DV

The second phase of the 1xEV rollout, called 1xEV-DV (1xEvolution–Data and
Voice), is expected to become available several years after the data-only phase and
will provide both data and voice services. This next evolution in wireless technology
is designed to provide integrated voice with simultaneous high-speed packet data, and
video conferencing capabilities. 1xEV-DV is the 3G evolution of CDMA2000 1x
wireless communications, which will provide a peak data rate on a single 1.25 MHz
carrier, specifically, 5 Mbps with an average throughput of 1.2 Mbps. This is about
twice the speed of the 1xEV-DO throughput. 1xEV-DV will be backward compatible
with IS-95A/B and CDMA2000 1x, allowing for a graceful operator migration from
currently deployed systems.

CDMA2000 EV-DV (Evolution-Data/Voice), supports downlink (forward link) data

rates up to 3.1 Mbit/s and uplink (reverse link) data rates of up to 1.8 Mbit/s. EV-DV
can also support concurrent operation of legacy 1x voice users, 1x data users, and
high speed EV-DV data users within the same radio channel.

In 2004-2005 timeframe, there was much debate on the relative merits of DV and DO.
Traditional operators with an existing voice network preferred deploying DV, since it
does not require an overlay. Other design engineers, and newer operators without a 1x
voice network, preferred EV-DO because it did not have to be backward compatible,
and so could explore different pilot structures, reverse link silence periods, improved
control channels, etc. And the network cost was lower, since EV-DO uses an IP
network and does not require a SS7 network and complex network switches such as a
mobile switching center (MSC). Also, equipment was not available for EV-DV in
time to meet market demands whereas the EV-DO equipment and mobile application-
specific integrated circuits (ASIC) were available and tested by the time the EV-DV
standard was completed. As a result, the EV-DV standard was less attractive to
operators, and has not been implemented. Verizon Wireless, then Sprint Nextel in
2004 and smaller operators in 2005 announced their plans to deploy EV-DO. So in
March 2005, Qualcomm suspended development of EV-DV chipsets, and focused on
improving the EV-DO product line.

Benefits of 1xEV-DV
Support for real-time and non-real-time data services - Reuse of 1x network
components, thereby extending the useful life and value of existing cdma20001x
investments and reducing
CAPEX- Support for voice and data in the same carrier – no need to buy spectrum -
Seamless backwards compatibility with IS-95A/B and cdma2000 1x network
equipment and handsets - The extension of cdma2000 1x capabilities to enable new
voice, data and multimedia services Support for current IS-95A/B and 1x services,
including simultaneous voice and data - A graceful, standardized migratory pathway
for CDMA technology- Delivers unique new features for CDMA operators -
Dynamic balancing of spectrum between voice & data to maximize network
efficiency - Deployment flexibility – Add spectrum based on demand - new spectrum
not needed to deploy
- Peak data rates of 3.1 Mbps
per sector

ADVANTAGES OF CDMA

CDMA technology provides the following benefits to end user

• Improved Privacy
• Excellent Voice Quality
• Soft and Softer Handoff to Improve Call Quality
• Longer Battery Life for Mobile Phone Units
• Packetized Structure to Support Simultaneous Voice and Data
• Increased System Capacity

CDMA technology provides the following benefits to end-user customers:

• Improved privacy: CDMA provides built-in privacy on every call by the use
of three PN (pseudorandom number) codes.
• Excellent voice quality: Voice quality and clarity improve when speech is
converted into digital signal. New and improved vocoders provide this
functionality.
 • Soft and softer handoff to improve call quality-Soft handoffs means that there
is no degradation in call quality when moving from one cell site to another.
Softer handoffs mean that there is no degradation in call quality when moving
from one face to another (in the same cell).Soft/softer handoffs also greatly
improve data transmission.
• Longer battery life for mobile phone units: Digital mobile units, operating at
only 200 mW, require significantly less RF power so the battery life of the
mobile unit is greatly increased.
• Packetized structure supports simultaneous voice and data: Packet switching
allows the interleaving of voice and data signals. Encoded information is
segmented into information packets that are stored or transmitted piecemeal
over the network to best use the total available bandwidth of the packet pipe.
• Increased system capacity: The 10-to-1 increase in system capacity means
faster and easier access to the cellular network with fewer dropped or blocked
calls.

Benefits of CDMA to Service Providers:

CDMA provides the following benefits to service providers:

• Increased System Capacity

• Simplified Frequency Reuse
• Improved Interference Immunity
• Lower RF Power Requirements at the Cell Site
• Soft/Softer Handoffs
• Variable Rate Speech Coding
• Packetized Communications Structure
• Cloning Protection

CDMA provides the following benefits to service providers:

• Increased system capacity: CDMA technology increases system capacity by
assigning unique secure codes to each cellular transmission, allowing
numerous phone calls to be transmitted simultaneously on one radio
frequency.
 • Simplified frequency reuse: The N+1 frequency reuse pattern reduces the
need for frequency engineering while growing or modifying the network.

• Improved interference immunity: CDMA is not adversely affected by day-to-

day and seasonal variations in weather, foliage, and atmospheric conditions as
compared to FDMA channels.

• Lower RF power requirements at the cell site: CDMA requires lower RF

power to transmit the same distances as FDMA and TDMA, which translate to
less power consumption and longer battery life if commercial AC is lost. It is
not uncommon to transmit at 1/4 of FDMA power in CDMA mode at the cell
site.

• Soft/softer handoffs: Soft/softer handoffs, an exclusive feature of CDMA,

permit a call to be live on more than one sector (or cell) at the same time while
the mobile is traveling through handoff zones.

• Variable rate speech coding: Variable rate (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and full) speech
coding permits higher rate voice coding using bandwidth on demand,
minimizing power, and increasing capacity. It also enables efficient mixing of
voice and data.
• Packetized communications structure: Packets are well suited to data
transmission and services. The trunking efficiencies gained by moving speech
processing to the MSC (mobile switching center) and implementing packet
pipes lower facility costs.

• Cloning protection (fraud): Because CDMA transmissions are more difficult

to decipher, ESNs are more difficult to determine.

CONCLUSION

CDMA is radically new concept in wireless communication.

It has gained widespread international acceptance by celluler radio system operators
as an upgrde that will dremetically increase both their systems capacity and the
service quality. Moreever it spread spectrum technology is both more secure , less
probable to intercept and jam,highly private and offer higher trasmmission quality
than TDMA because of its increase resistance to multipath distortion .
The principle type od CDMA systems are direct sequence CDMA ,frequency hopping
CDMA and multicarrier CDMA . the major problem in CDMA is the multiple Access
interference(MAI) which arises due the deviation of the spreading codes from perfect
orthogonality . capacity of CDMA is interference limited .the obvious way to increase
capacity of the CDMA is to reduce the level of interference . This is achieved by
reducing cross correlation, power control and with antenna arrays.

Introduction to

Mobile Telephone Systems-

1G, 2G, 2.5G & 3G

Wireless Technologies

Mobile Phone System:

Cellular, personal communication service (PCS), and third generation 3G mobile
radio systems are all cellular wireless communication networks that provide for voice
and data communication throughout a wide geographic area. Cellular systems divide
‘large geographic areas’ area into small radio areas (cells) that are interconnected with
each other. Each cell coverage area has one or several transmitters and receivers that
communicate with mobile telephones within its area. The cellular system connects
mobile radios (called mobile stations) via radio channels to base stations. Some of the
radio channels (or portions of a digital radio channel) are used for control purposes
(setup and disconnection of calls) and some are used to transfer voice or customer
data signals. Each base station contains transmitters and receivers that convert the
radio signals to electrical signals that can be sent to and from the mobile switching
center (MSC). The MSC contains communication controllers that adapt signals from
base stations into a form that can be connected (switched) between other base stations
or to lines that connect to the public telephone network. The switching system is
connected to databases that contain active customers (customers active in its system).
The switching system in the MSC is coordinated by call processing software that
receives requests for service and processes the steps to setup and maintain
connections through the MSC to destination communication devices such as to other
mobile telephones or to telephones that are connected to the public telephone
network. When linked together to cover an entire metro area, the radio coverage areas
(called cells) form a cellular structure resembling that of a honeycomb. Cellular
systems are designed to overlap each cell border with adjacent cell borders to enable a
“hand-off” from one cell to the next. As a customer (called a subscriber) moves
through a cellular system, the mobile switching center (MSC) coordinates and
transfers calls from one cell to another and maintains call continuity. Key drivers for
the mobile telephone market growth include new wireless technology (3G) service
availability and the replacement market for mobile phones with new capabilities such
as camera phones, color displays, and increased accessory capabilities

Technologies:

The key technologies used in cellular mobile radio include cellular frequency reuse,
analog cellular (1st generation), digital mobile radio (2nd generation), packet based
digital radio (2 ½ generation), and wideband radio (3rd generation).

1G 2G 2.5G 3G
Signal Analog Digital Digital Digital
Type
Switching Circuit Circuit Packet Packet
Offerings Voice Messaging Internet Multimedia
Data Rate — 14 Kbps 144 384 Kbs–2
Kbps Mbps

1st – Generation:
Analog Mobile Radio:

To allow for the conversion from analog systems to digital systems, some cellular
technologies allow for the use of dual mode or multi-mode mobile telephones. These
handsets are capable of operating on an analog or digital radio channel, depending on
whichever is available. Most dual mode phones prefer to use digital radio channels, in
the event both are available. This allows them to take advantage of the additional
capacity and new features such as short messaging and digital voice quality, as well as
offering greater capacity.

Regardless of the size and type of radio channels, all cellular and PCS systems allow
for full duplex operation. Full duplex operation is the ability to have simultaneous
communications between the caller and the called person. This means a mobile
telephone must be capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving to the radio
tower. The radio channel from the mobile telephone to the radio tower is called the
uplink and the radio transmission channel from the base station to the mobile
telephone is called the downlink. The uplink and downlink radio channels are
normally separated by 45 MHz to 80 MHz. One of the key characteristics of cellular
systems is their ability to handoff (also called handover) calls from one radio tower to
another while a call is in process. Handoff is an automatic process that is a result of
system monitoring and short control messages that are sent between the mobile phone
and the system while the call is in progress. The control messages are so short that the
customer usually cannot perceive that the handoff has occurred. Analog cellular
systems are regularly characterized by their use of analog modulation (commonly FM
modulation) to transfer voice information. Ironically, almost all analog cellular
systems use separate radio channels for sending system control messages. These are
digital radio channels.

In early mobile radio systems, a mobile telephone scanned the limited number of
available channels until it found an unused one, which allowed it to initiate a call.
Because the analog cellular systems in use today have hundreds of radio channels, a
mobile telephone cannot scan them all in a reasonable amount of time. To quickly
direct a mobile telephone to an available channel, some of the available radio
channels are dedicated as control channels. Most cellular systems use two types of
radio channels, control channels and voice channels. Control channels carry only
digital messages and signals, which allow the mobile telephone to retrieve system
control information and compete for access.

The basic operation of an analog cellular system involves initiation of the phone when
it is powered on, listening for paging messages (idle), attempting access when
required and conversation (or data) mode.

When a mobile telephone is first powered on, it initializes itself by searching

(scanning) a predetermined set of control channels and then tuning to the strongest
one. During the initialization mode, it listens to messages on the control channel to
retrieve system identification and setup information. After initialization, the mobile
telephone enters the idle mode and waits to be paged for an incoming call and senses
if the user has initiated (dialed) a call (access). When a call begins to be received or
initiated, the mobile telephone enters system access mode to try to access the system
via a control channel. When it gains access, the control channel sends an initial voice
channel designation message indicating an open voice channel. The mobile telephone
then tunes to the designated voice channel and enters the conversation mode. As the
mobile telephone operates on a voice channel, the system uses Frequency Modulation
(FM) similar to commercial broadcast FM radio. To send control messages on the
voice channel, the voice information is either replaced by a short burst (blank and
burst) message or in some systems, control messages can be sent along with the audio
signal. A mobile telephone’s attempt to obtain service from a cellular system is
referred to as “access”. Mobile telephones compete on the control channel to obtain
access from a cellular system. Access is attempted when a command is received by
the mobile telephone indicating the system needs to service that mobile telephone
(such as a paging message indicating a call to be received) or as a result of a request
from the user to place a call. The mobile telephone gains access by monitoring the
busy/idle status of the control channel both before and during transmission of the
access attempt message. If the channel is available, the mobile station begins to
transmit and the base station simultaneously monitors the channel’s busy status.
Transmissions must begin within a prescribed time limit after the mobile station finds
that the control channel access is free, or the access attempt is stopped on the
assumption that another mobile telephone has possibly gained the attention of the base
station control channel receiver. If the access attempt succeeds, the system sends out a
channel assignment message commanding the mobile telephone to tune to a cellular
voice channel. When a subscriber dials the mobile telephone to initiate a call, it is
called “origination”. A call origination access attempt message is sent to the cellular
system that contains the dialed digits, identity information along with other
information. If the system allows service, the system will assign a voice channel by
sending a voice channel designator message, if a voice channel is available. If the
access attempt fails, the mobile telephone waits a random amount of time before
trying again. The mobile station uses a random number generating algorithm
internally to determine the random time to wait. The design of the system minimizes
the chance of repeated collisions between different mobile stations which are both
trying to access the control channel, since each one waits a different random time
interval before trying again if they have already collided on their first, simultaneous
attempt.

To receive calls, a mobile telephone is notified of an incoming call by a process called

paging. A page is a control channel message that contains the telephone’s Mobile
Identification Number (MIN) or telephone number of the desired mobile phone. When
the telephone determines it has been paged, it responds automatically with a system
access message that indicates its access attempt is the result of a page message and the
mobile telephone begins to ring to alert the customer of an incoming telephone call.
When the customer answers the call (user presses “SEND” or “TALK”), the mobile
telephone transmits a service request to the system to answer the call. It does this by
sending the telephone number and an electronic serial number to provide the users
identity. After a mobile telephone has been commanded to tune to a radio voice
channel, it sends mostly voice or other customer information. Periodically, control
messages may be sent between the base station and the mobile telephone. Control
messages may command the mobile telephone to adjust its power level, change
frequencies, or request a special service (such as three way calling). To conserve
battery life, a mobile phone may be permitted by the base station to only transmit
when it senses the mobile telephone’s user is talking. When there is silence, the
mobile telephone may stop transmitting for brief periods of time (several seconds).
When the mobile telephone user begins to talk again, the transmitter is turned on
again. This is called discontinuous transmission.
Analog Cellular Systems:
There are many types of analog and digital cellular systems in use throughout the
world. Analogsystems include AMPS, TACS, JTACS, NMT, MCS and CNET.

Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS):

Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) was the original analog cellular system in
the United States. It is still in widespread use and by 1997; AMPS systems were
operating in over 72 countries. The AMPS system continues to evolve to allow
advanced features such as increased standby time, narrowband radio channels, and
anti-fraud authentication procedures.

Total Access Communication System (TACS):

The Total Access Communication System (TACS) is very similar to the US EIA-553
AMPS system. Its primary differences include changes to the radio channel
frequencies, radio channel bandwidths, and data signaling rates. The TACS was
introduced to the U.K. in 1985. After its introduction in the UK in 1985, over 25
countries offered TACS service. The introduction of the TACS system was very
successful and the system was expanded to add more channels through what is called
Extended TACS (ETACS). The TACS system was deployed in 25 kHz radio
channels, compared to the 30 kHz channels used in AMPS. This narrower radio
bandwidth reduced the data speed of the signaling channel.

Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT):

There are two Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) systems; NMT 450 that is a low
capacity system and NMT 900 that is a high capacity system. The Nordic mobile
telephone (NMT) system was developed by the telecommunications administrations
of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark to create a compatible mobile telephone
system in the Nordic countries. The first commercial NMT 450 cellular system was
available at the end of 1981. Due to the rapid success of the initial NMT 450 system
and limited capacity of the original system design, the NMT 900 system version was
introduced in 1986. There are now over 40 countries that have NMT service available.
Some of these countries use different frequency bands or reduced number of channels.

The NMT 450 system uses a lower frequency (450 MHz) and higher maximum
transmitter power level which allows a larger cell site coverage areas while the NMT
900 system uses a higher frequency (approximately the same 900 MHz band used for
TACS and GSM) and a lower maximum transmitter power which increases system
capacity. NMT 450 and NMT 900 systems can co-exist which permits them to use the
same switching center. This allows some NMT service providers to start offering
service with an NMT 450 system and progress up to a NMT 900 system when the
need arises.

Narrowband AMPS (NAMPS):

Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS) is an analog cellular system

that was commercially introduced by Motorola in late 1991 and was deployed
worldwide. Like the existing AMPS technology, NAMPS uses analog FM radio for
voice transmissions. The distinguishing feature of NAMPS is its use of a “narrow” 10
kHz bandwidth for radio channels, a third of the size of AMPS channels. Because
more of these narrower radio channels can be installed in each cell site, NAMPS
systems can serve more subscribers than AMPS systems without adding new cell
sites. NAMPS also shifts some control commands to the sub-audible frequency range
to facilitate simultaneous voice and data transmissions.

2ND - GENERATION:
Digital Mobile Radio:
There are two basic types of systems; analog and digital. Analog systems commonly
use FM modulation to transfer voice information and digital systems use some form
of phase modulation to transfer digital voice and data information. Although analog
systems are capable of providing many of the services that digital systems offer,
digital systems offer added flexibility as many of the features can be created by
software changes. Digital cellular systems use two key types of communication
channels, control channels and voice channels. A control channel on a digital system
is usually one of the sub-channels on the radio channel. This allows digital systems to
combine a control channel and one or more voice channels on a single radio channel.
The portions of the radio channel that is dedicated as a control channel carries only
digital messages and signals that allow the mobile telephone to retrieve system control
information and compete for access. The other sub-channels on the radio channel
carry voice or data information. The basic operation of a digital cellular system
involves initiation of the phone when it is powered on, listening for paging messages
(idle), attempting access when required and conversation (or data) mode. When a
digital mobile telephone is first powered on, it initializes itself by searching
(scanning) a predetermined set of control channels and then tuning to the strongest
one. During the initialization mode, it listens to messages on the control channel to
retrieve system identification and setup information. Compared to analog systems,
digital systems have more communication and control channels. This can result in the
mobile phone taking more time to search for control channels. To quickly direct a
mobile telephone to an available control channel, digital systems use several
processes to help a mobile telephone to find an available control channel. These
include having the phone memorize its last successful control channel location, a table
of likely control channel locations and a mechanism for pointing to the location of a
control channel on any of the operating channels.

After a digital mobile telephone has initialized, it enters an idle mode where it waits to
be paged for an incoming call or for the user to initiate a call. When a call begins to be
received or initiated, the mobile telephone enters system access mode to try to access
the system via a control channel. When it gains access, the control channel sends a
digital traffic channel designation message indicating an open communications
channel. This channel may be on a different time slot on the same frequency or to a
time slot on a different frequency. The digital mobile telephone then tunes to the
designated communications channel and enters the conversation mode. As the mobile
telephone operates on a digital voice channel, the digital system commonly uses some
form of phase modulation (PM) to send and receive digital information.
A mobile telephone’s attempt to obtain service from a cellular system is referred to as
“access”. Digital mobile telephones compete on the control channel to obtain access
from a cellular system. Access is attempted when a command is received by the
mobile telephone indicating the system needs to service that mobile telephone (such
as a paging message indicating a call to be received) or as a result of a request from
the user to place a call. Digital mobile telephones usually have the ability to validate
their identities more securely during access than analog mobile telephones. This is
made possible by a process called authentication. Authentication processes share
secret data between the digital mobile phone and the cellular system. If the
authentication is successful, the system sends out a channel assignment message
commanding the mobile telephone to change to a new communication channel and
conversation can begin. After a mobile telephone has been commanded to tune to a
radio voice channel, it sends digitized voice or other customer data. Periodically,
control messages may be sent between the base station and the mobile telephone.
Control messages may command the mobile telephone to adjust its power level,
change frequencies, or request a special service (such as three way calling). To send
control messages while the digital mobile phone is transferring digital voice, the voice
information is either replaced by a short burst (called blank and burst or fast
signaling), or else control messages can be sent along with the digitized voice signals
(called slow signaling). Most digital telephones automatically conserve battery life as
they transmit only for short periods of time (bursts). In addition to savings through
digital burst transmission, digital phones ordinarily have the capability of
discontinuous transmission that allows the inhibiting of the transmitter during periods
of user silence. When the mobile telephone user begins to talk again, the transmitter is
turned on again. The combination of the power savings allows some digital mobile
telephones to have 2 to 5 times the battery life in the transmit mode.

Digital technology increases system efficiency by voice digitization, speech

compression (coding), channel coding, and the use of spectrally efficient radio signal
modulation. Standard voice digitization in the Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN) produces a data rate of 64 kilobits per second (kbps). Because transmitting a
digital signal via radio requires about 1 Hz of radio bandwidth for each bps, an
uncompressed digital voice signal would require more than 64 kHz of radio
bandwidth. Without compression, this bandwidth would make digital transmission
less efficient than analog FM cellular, which uses only 25-30 kHz for a single voice
channel. Therefore, digital systems compress speech information using a voice coder
or Vocoder. Speech coding removes redundancy in the digital signal and attempts to
ignore data patterns that are not characteristic of the human voice. The result is a
digital signal that represents the voice audio frequency spectrum content, not a
waveform.

A Vocoder characterizes the input signal. It looks up codes in a code book table that
represents various digital patterns to choose the pattern that comes closest to the input
digitized signal. The amount of digitized speech compression used in digital cellular
systems varies. For the IS-136 TDMA system, the compression is 8:1. For CDMA,
the compression varies from 8:1 to 64:1 depending on speech activity. GSM systems
compress the voice by 5:1.

Digital Cellular Systems:

The types of 2nd generation digital cellular systems include GSM and CDMA.

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM):

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system is a global digital
radio system that uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology. GSM is a
digital cellular technology that was initially created to provide a single-standard pan-
European cellular system. GSM began development in 1982, and the first commercial
GSM digital cellular system was activated in 1991. GSM technology has evolved to
be used in a variety of systems and frequencies (900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz)
including Personal Communications Services (PCS) in North America and Personal
Communications Network (PCN) systems throughout the world. By the middle of
2003, 510 networks in 200 countries offered GSM service. The GSM system is a
digital-only system and was not designed to be backward-compatible with the
established analog systems. The GSM radio band is shared temporarily with analog
cellular systems in some European nations. When communicating in a GSM system,
users can operate on the same radio channel simultaneously by sharing time slots. The
GSM cellular system allows 8 mobile telephones to share a single 200 kHz bandwidth
radio carrier waveform for voice or data communications. To allow duplex operation,
GSM voice communication is conducted on two 200 kHz wide carrier frequency
waveforms. The GSM system has several types of control channels that carry system
and paging information, and coordinates access like the control channels on analog
systems. The GSM digital control channels have many more capabilities than analog
control channels such as broadcast message paging, extended sleep mode, and others.
Because the GSM control channels use only a portion (one or more slots), they
typically co-exist on a single radio channel with other time slots that are used for
voice communication.

A GSM carrier transmits at a bit rate of 270 kbps, but a single GSM digital radio
channel or time slot is capable of transferring only 1/8th of that, about 33 kbps of
information (actually less than that, due to the use of some bit time for non-
information purposes such as synchronization bits).

Code Division Multiple Access (IS-95 CDMA):

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system (IS 95) is a digital cellular system
that uses CDMA access technology. IS-95 technology was initially developed by
Qualcomm in the late 1980’s. CDMA cellular service began testing in the United
States in San Diego, California during 1991. In 1995, IS-95 CDMA commercial
service began in Hong Kong and now many CDMA systems are operating throughout
the world, including a 1.9 GHz all-digital system in the USA that has been operating
since November 1996. Spread spectrum radio technology has been used for many
years in military applications. CDMA is a particular form of spread spectrum radio
technology. In 1989, CDMA spread spectrum technology was presented to the
industry standards committee but it did not meet with immediate approval. The
standards committee had just resolved a two-year debate between TDMA and FDMA
and was not eager to consider another access technology. The IS-95 CDMA system
allows for voice or data communications on either a 30 kHz AMPS radio channel
(when used on the 800 MHz cellular band) or a new 1.25 MHz CDMA radio channel.
The IS-95 CDMA radio channel allows multiple mobile telephones to communicate
on the same frequency at the same time by special coding of their radio signals. The
CDMA system is compatible with the established access technology, and it allows
analog (EIA-553) and dual mode (IS-95) subscribers to use the same analog control
channels. Some of the voice channels are replaced by CDMA digital transmissions,
allowing several users to be multiplexed (shared) on a single RF channel. As with
other digital technologies, CDMA produces capacity expansion by allowing multiple
users to share a single digital RF channel. CDMA systems use a maximum of 64
coded (logical) traffic channels, but they cannot always use all of these. To obtain a
maximum of 64 communication channels for each CDMA radio channel, the average
data rate for each user should approximate 3 kbps. If the average data rate is higher,
less than 64 traffic channels can be used. CDMA systems can vary the data rate for
each user dependent on voice activity (variable rate speech coding), thereby
decreasing the average number of bits per user to about 3.8 kbps. Varying the data
rate according to user requirement allows more users to share the radio channel, but
with slightly reduced voice quality. This is called soft capacity limit.

GENERATION 2.5:
Packet Based Digital Cellular:

Packet Based Cellular (commonly called - generation 2.5, or 2.5G) are 2nd
Generation cellular technologies that have been enhanced to provide for advanced
communication applications. Packet based digital cellular systems help the industry
transition from one capability to a much more advanced capability. In cellular
telecommunications, 2.5G systems used improved digital radio technology to increase
their data transmission rates and new packet based technology to increase the system
efficiency for data users.

Upgraded Digital Cellular System:

The types of upgraded 2nd generation digital cellular systems (generation 2.5) include
GPRS, EDGE, and CDMA2000, 1xRTT.

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS):

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a portion of the GSM specification that
allows packet radio service on the GSM system. The GPRS system adds (defines)
new packet channels and switching nodes within the GSM system. The GPRS system
provides for theoretical data transmission rates up to 172 kbps.

Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE):

Some also refer it to as generation 2.75 technology. Enhanced Data Rates for global
Evolution (EDGE) is an evolved version of the global system for mobile (GSM) radio
channel that uses new phase modulation and packet transmission to provide for
advanced high-speed data services. The EDGE system uses 8 levels Phase Shift
Keying (8PSK) to allow one symbol change to represent 3 bits of information. This is
3 times the amount of information that is transferred by a standard 2 level Gaussian
Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) signal used by the first generation of GSM system.
This results in a radio channel data transmission rate of 604.8 kbps and a net
maximum delivered theoretical data transmission rate of 384 kbps. The advanced
packet transmission control system allows for constantly varying data transmission
rates in either direction between mobile radios.

3RD GENERATION:
Wideband Digital Cellular:

Wideband Digital Cellular (commonly called 3rd generation) is cellular technology

that uses wideband digital radio technology as compared to 2nd generation
narrowband digital radio. A wideband digital cellular system that permits very high-
speed data transmission rates through the use of relatively wide radio channels. In this
system, the radio channels are much wider many tens of times wider than 2nd
generation radio channels. This allows wideband digital cellular systems to send high-
speed data to communication devices. This system also uses communication servers
to help to manage multimedia communication sessions. Aside from the use of
wideband radio channels and enhanced packet data communication, the 3rd
generation systems typically use the same voice network switching systems (such as
the MSC) as 2nd generation mobile communications systems.

Wideband Digital Cellular Systems:

The 3rd generation wireless requirements are defined in the International Mobile
Telecommunications “IMT-2000” project developed by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU). The IMT-2000 project that defined requirements
for high-speed data transmission, Internet Protocol (IP)-based services, global
roaming, and multimedia communications. After many communication proposals
were reviewed, two global systems are emerging; wideband code division multiple
access (WCDMA) and CDMA2000.

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA):

WCDMA is a 3rd generation digital cellular system that uses radio channels that have
a wider bandwidth than 2nd generation digital cellular systems such as GSM or IS-95
CDMA. WCDMA is normally deployed in a 5 MHz channel plan.

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) oversees the creation of industry
standards for the 3rd generation of mobile wireless communication systems
(WCDMA). The key members of the 3GPP include standards agencies from Japan,
Europe, Korea, China and the United States.

The 3GPP technology, also known as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications

System (UMTS), is based on an evolved GSM core network that contains 2.5G
elements, namely GPRS switching nodes. This concept allows a GSM network
operator to migrate to WCDMA by adding the necessary 3G radio elements to their
existing network, thus creating ‘islands’ of 3G coverage when the networks first
launch. A large number of GSM operators have secured spectrum for WCDMA and
many network launches are imminent, with live networks presently in Japan, the
United Kingdom and Italy.

Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000):

CDMA2000 is a family of standards that represent an evolution from the IS- 95 code
division multiple access (CDMA) system that offer enhanced packet transmission
protocols to provide for advanced high-speed data services. The CDMA2000
technologies operate in the same 1.25 MHz radio channels as used by IS-95 and offer
backward compatibility with IS-95. The CDMA2000 system is overseen by the Third
Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). The 3GPP2 is a standards setting project
that is focused on developing global specifications for 3rd generation systems that use
ANSI/TIA/EIA-41 Cellular Radio Intersystem Signaling.

Fourth Generation (4G) Networks:

Even before 3G networks are fully launched and utilized, various study groups are
considering the shape of the next generation of cellular technology, so called 4G.
There is no single global vision for 4G as yet but the next generation of network is
likely to be all IP-based, offer data rates up to 100 Mbps and support true global
mobility. One route towards this vision is the convergence of technologies such as 3G
cellular and Wireless LANs (WLANs).