Republic of Iraq

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University of Kufa
College of Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering

Introduction to Mobile Communications

A Report submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering as part of the

final exam requirements for Communications Material for the second course of
the year 2019-2020

BY
Ihsan Alwan Naser
Supervised By
Lec. Dr. Yahya Harbi

July Dhul Qi'dah

2020 1441
Contents

1 Introductory Concepts 1

1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Evolution of Mobile Radio Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.3 Present Day Mobile Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.4 Fundamental Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.4.1 Radio Transmission Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.5 How a Mobile Call is Actually Made? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.5.1 Cellular Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.5.2 Operational Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.5.3 Making a Call .......................... 8

1.6 Future Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 1

Introductory Concepts

1.1 Introduction

Communication is one of the integral parts of science that has always been a focus

point for exchanging information among parties at locations physically apart. After

its discovery, telephones have replaced the telegrams and letters. Similarly, the term
„mobile‟ has completely revolutionized the communication by opening up innovative

applications that are limited to one‟s imagination. Today, mobile communication

has become the backbone of the society. All the mobile system technologies have

improved the way of living. Its main plus point is that it has privileged a common

mass of society. In this chapter, the evolution as well as the fundamental techniques

of the mobile communication is discussed.

1.2 Evolution of Mobile Radio Communications

The first wireline telephone system was introduced in the year 1877. Mobile com-

munication systems as early as 1934 were based on Amplitude Modulation (AM)

schemes and only certain public organizations maintained such systems. With the

demand for newer and better mobile radio communication systems during the World
War II and the development of Frequency Modulation (FM) technique by Edwin

Armstrong, the mobile radio communication systems began to witness many new

changes. Mobile telephone was introduced in the year 1946. However, during its

initial three and a half decades it found very less market penetration owing to high

1
 Figure 1.1: The worldwide mobile subscriber chart.

costs and numerous technological drawbacks. But with the development of the cel-

lular concept in the 1960s at the Bell Laboratories, mobile communications began to

be a promising field of expanse which could serve wider populations. Initially, mobile

communication was restricted to certain official users and the cellular concept was

never even dreamt of being made commercially available. Moreover, even the growth
in the cellular networks was very slow. However, with the development of newer and

better technologies starting from the 1970s and with the mobile users now connected
to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), there has been an astronomical

growth in the cellular radio and the personal communication systems. Advanced

Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was the first U.S. cellular telephone system and it
was deployed in 1983. Wireless services have since then been experiencing a 50%

per year growth rate. The number of cellular telephone users grew from 25000 in

1984 to around 3 billion in the year 2007 and the demand rate is increasing day by
day. A schematic of the subscribers is shown in Fig. 1.1.

2
 Figure 1.2: Basic mobile communication structure.

1.3 Present Day Mobile Communication

Since the time of wireless telegraphy, radio communication has been used extensively.

Our society has been looking for acquiring mobility in communication since then.

Initially the mobile communication was limited between one pair of users on single
channel pair. The range of mobility was defined by the transmitter power, type of

antenna used and the frequency of operation. With the increase in the number of

users, accommodating them within the limited available frequency spectrum became
a major problem. To resolve this problem, the concept of cellular communication
was evolved. The present day cellular communication uses a basic unit called cell.

Each cell consists of small hexagonal area with a base station located at the center
of the cell which communicates with the user. To accommodate multiple users

Time Division multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) and their hybrids are used. Numerous

mobile radio standards have been deployed at various places such as AMPS, PACS,

3
Figure 1.3: The basic radio transmission techniques: (a) simplex, (b) half duplex

and (c) full duplex.

GSM, NTT, PHS and IS-95, each utilizing different set of frequencies and allocating

different number of users and channels.

1.4 Fundamental Techniques

By definition, mobile radio terminal means any radio terminal that could be moved

during its operation. Depending on the radio channel, there can be three differ-

ent types of mobile communication. In general, however, a Mobile Station (MS)

or subscriber unit communicates to a fixed Base Station (BS) which in turn com-

municates to the desired user at the other end. The MS consists of transceiver,

control circuitry, duplexer and an antenna while the BS consists of transceiver and

channel multiplexer along with antennas mounted on the tower. The BS are also

linked to a power source for the transmission of the radio signals for communication
and are connected to a fixed backbone network. Figure 1.2 shows a basic mobile

communication with low power transmitters/receivers at the BS, the MS and also

4
the Mobile Switching Center (MSC). The MSC is sometimes also called Mobile Tele-

phone Switching Office (MTSO). The radio signals emitted by the BS decay as the
signals travel away from it. A minimum amount of signal strength is needed in

order to be detected by the mobile stations or mobile sets which are the hand-held
personal units (portables) or those installed in the vehicles (mobiles). The region

over which the signal strength lies above such a threshold value is known as the

coverage area of a BS. The fixed backbone network is a wired network that links all

the base stations and also the landline and other telephone networks through wires.

1.4.1 Radio Transmission Techniques

Based on the type of channels being utilized, mobile radio transmission systems may

be classified as the following three categories which is also shown in Fig. 1.3:

· Simplex System: Simplex systems utilize simplex channels i.e., the commu-
nication is unidirectional. The first user can communicate with the second

user. However, the second user cannot communicate with the first user. One
example of such a system is a pager.

· Half Duplex System: Half duplex radio systems that use half duplex radio

channels allow for non-simultaneous bidirectional communication. The first

user can communicate with the second user but the second user can commu-
nicate to the first user only after the first user has finished his conversation.

At a time, the user can only transmit or receive information. A walkie-talkie

is an example of a half duplex system which uses „push to talk‟ and „release to

listen‟ type of switches.

· Full Duplex System: Full duplex systems allow two way simultaneous com-

munications. Both the users can communicate to each other simultaneously.

This can be done by providing two simultaneous but separate channels to both

the users. This is possible by one of the two following methods.

– Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD): FDD supports two-way radio

communication by using two distinct radio channels. One frequency chan-

nel is transmitted downstream from the BS to the MS (forward channel).

5
Figure 1.4: (a) Frequency division duplexing and (b) time division duplexing.

A second frequency is used in the upstream direction and supports trans-

mission from the MS to the BS (reverse channel). Because of the pairing of

frequencies, simultaneous transmission in both directions is possible. To

mitigate self-interference between upstream and downstream transmis-

sions, a minimum amount of frequency separation must be maintained

between the frequency pair, as shown in Fig. 1.4.

– Time Division Duplexing (TDD): TDD uses a single frequency band

to transmit signals in both the downstream and upstream directions.

TDD operates by toggling transmission directions over a time interval.

This toggling takes place very rapidly and is imperceptible to the user.

A full duplex mobile system can further be subdivided into two category: a

single MS for a dedicated BS, and many MS for a single BS. Cordless telephone

systems are full duplex communication systems that use radio to connect to a
portable handset to a single dedicated BS, which is then connected to a dedi-
cated telephone line with a specific telephone number on the Public Switched

Telephone Network (PSTN). A mobile system, in general, on the other hand,

is the example of the second category of a full duplex mobile system where

many users connect among themselves via a single BS.

6
 Figure 1.5: Basic Cellular Structure.

1.5 How a Mobile Call is Actually Made?

In order to know how a mobile call is made, we should first look into the basics of

cellular concept and main operational channels involved in making a call. These are

given below.

1.5.1 Cellular Concept

Cellular telephone systems must accommodate a large number of users over a large

geographic area with limited frequency spectrum, i.e., with limited number of chan-

nels. If a single transmitter/ receiver is used with only a single base station, then

sufficient amount of power may not be present at a huge distance from the BS.

For a large geographic coverage area, a high powered transmitter therefore has to
be used. But a high power radio transmitter causes harm to environment. Mobile

communication thus calls for replacing the high power transmitters by low power

transmitters by dividing the coverage area into small segments, called cells. Each
cell uses a certain number of the available channels and a group of adjacent cells
together use all the available channels. Such a group is called a cluster. This cluster

can repeat itself and hence the same set of channels can be used again and again.

Each cell has a low power transmitter with a coverage area equal to the area of the

7
cell. This technique of substituting a single high powered transmitter by several low

powered transmitters to support many users is the backbone of the cellular concept.

1.5.2 Operational Channels

In each cell, there are four types of channels that take active part during a mobile

call. These are:

· Forward Voice Channel (FVC): This channel is used for the voice trans-

mission from the BS to the MS.

· Reverse Voice Channel (RVC): This is used for the voice transmission

from the MS to the BS.

· Forward Control Channel (FCC): Control channels are generally used

for controlling the activity of the call, i.e., they are used for setting up calls
and to divert the call to unused voice channels. Hence these are also called

setup channels. These channels transmit and receive call initiation and service

request messages. The FCC is used for control signaling purpose from the BS

to MS.

· Reverse Control Channel (RCC): This is used for the call control purpose

from the MS to the BS. Control channels are usually monitored by mobiles.

1.5.3 Making a Call

When a mobile is idle, i.e., it is not experiencing the process of a call, then it searches

all the FCCs to determine the one with the highest signal strength. The mobile
then monitors this particular FCC. However, when the signal strength falls below
a particular threshold that is insufficient for a call to take place, the mobile again

searches all the FCCs for the one with the highest signal strength. For a particular

country or continent, the control channels will be the same. So all mobiles in that

country or continent will search among the same set of control channels. However,

when a mobile moves to a different country or continent, then the control channels

for that particular location will be different and hence the mobile will not work.

Each mobile has a mobile identification number (MIN). When a user wants to
make a call, he sends a call request to the MSC on the reverse control channel. He

8
also sends the MIN of the person to whom the call has to be made. The MSC then

sends this MIN to all the base stations. The base station transmits this MIN and all
the mobiles within the coverage area of that base station receive the MIN and match

it with their own. If the MIN matches with a particular MS, that mobile sends an
acknowledgment to the BS. The BS then informs the MSC that the mobile is within

its coverage area. The MSC then instructs the base station to access specific unused

voice channel pair. The base station then sends a message to the mobile to move to

the particular channels and it also sends a signal to the mobile for ringing.
In order to maintain the quality of the call, the MSC adjusts the transmitted

power of the mobile which is usually expressed in dB or dBm. When a mobile moves

from the coverage area of one base station to the coverage area of another base sta-

tion i.e., from one cell to another cell, then the signal strength of the initial base

station may not be sufficient to continue the call in progress. So the call has to be
transferred to the other base station. This is called handoff. In such cases, in order

to maintain the call, the MSC transfers the call to one of the unused voice channels

of the new base station or it transfers the control of the current voice channels to
the new base station.

Ex. 1: Suppose a mobile unit transmits 10 W power at a certain place. Express this

power in terms of dBm.

Solution: Usually, 1 mW power developed over a 100 Ω load is equivalently called

0 dBm power. 1 W is equivalent to 0 dB, i.e., 10 log10(1W ) = 0dB. Thus,

1W = 103mW = 30dBm = 0dB. This means, xdB = (x + 30)dBm. Hence,

10W = 10 log10(10W ) = 10dB = 40dBm.

Ex. 2: Among a pager, a cordless phone and a mobile phone, which device would

have the (i) shortest, and, (ii) longest battery life? Justify.

Solution: The „pager‟ would have the longest and the „mobile phone‟ would have the

shortest battery life. (justification is left on the readers)

9
1.6 Future Trends

Tremendous changes are occurring in the area of mobile radio communications, so

much so that the mobile phone of yesterday is rapidly turning into a sophisticated

mobile device capable of more applications than PCs were capable of only a few
years ago. Rapid development of the Internet with its new services and applications

has created fresh challenges for the further development of mobile communication

systems. Further enhancements in modulation schemes will soon increase the In-

ternet access rates on the mobile from current 1.8 Mbps to greater than 10 Mbps.

Bluetooth is rapidly becoming a common feature in mobiles for local connections.

The mobile communication has provided global connectivity to the people at

a lower cost due to advances in the technology and also because of the growing

competition among the service providers. We would review certain major features
as well as standards of the mobile communication till the present day technology in

the next chapter.

1.7 References

1. T. S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed.

Singapore: Pearson Education, Inc., 2002.

2. K. Feher, Wireless Digital Communications: Modulation and Spread Spectrum

Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

3. J. G. Proakis, Digital Communications, 4th ed. NY: McGraw Hill, 2000.

10