COMPREHENSIVE

VIVA
[TCSS, CMC, STLD]

-Anand Lahoti
(07E31A0405)
CELLULAR AND
MOBILE
COMMUNICATIONS
MOBILE NETWORK
 A mobile network is a radio network distributed over land areas
called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location
transceiver known as a cell site or base station.
 When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a
wide geographic area.
 This enables a large number of portable transceivers (mobile
phones, pagers, etc) to communicate with each other and with
fixed transceivers and telephones anywhere in the network, via
base stations, even if some of the transceivers are moving
through more than one cell during transmission.
 Mobile networks offer a number of advantages over alternative
solutions:
 • increased capacity
 • reduced power usage
 • larger coverage area
 • reduced interference from other signals
CELL SIGNAL ENCODING
 To distinguish signals from several different transmitters,
frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and code division
multiple access (CDMA) were developed.
 With FDMA, the transmitting and receiving frequencies used in
each cell are different from the frequencies used in each
neighbouring cell.
 In a simple taxi system, the taxi driver manually tuned to a
frequency of a chosen cell to obtain a strong signal and to avoid
interference from signals from other cells.
 The principle of CDMA is more complex, but achieves the same
result.
 Other available methods of multiplexing such as polarization
division multiple access (PDMA) and time division multiple
access (TDMA) cannot be used to separate signals from one cell
to the next since the effects of both vary with position and this
would make signal separation practically impossible.
 Time division multiple access, however, is used in combination
with either FDMA or CDMA in a number of systems to give
multiple channels within the coverage area of a single cell.
FREQUENCY REUSE
 The key characteristic of a cellular network is
the ability to re-use frequencies to increase
both coverage and capacity.

 As described above, adjacent cells must

utilise different frequencies, however there
is no problem with two cells sufficiently far
apart operating on the same frequency.

 The elements that determine frequency reuse

are the reuse distance and the reuse factor.
MOBILE NETWORK: A CELLULAR NETWORK
 The most common example of a cellular network is a mobile phone
(cell phone) network.

 A mobile phone is a portable telephone which receives or makes

calls through a cell site (base station), or transmitting tower.

 Radio waves are used to transfer signals to and from the cell phone.

 Modern mobile phone networks use cells because radio frequencies

are a limited, shared resource.

 Cell-sites and handsets change frequency under computer control

and use low power transmitters so that a limited number of radio
frequencies can be simultaneously used by many callers with less
interference.
 A cellular network is used by the mobile phone operator to
achieve both coverage and capacity for their subscribers.

 Large geographic areas are split into smaller cells to avoid

line-of-sight signal loss and to support a large number of
active phones in that area.

 All of the cell sites are connected to telephone exchanges

(or switches), which in turn connect to the public
telephone network.

 There are a number of different digital cellular

technologies, including: Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Evolution-
Data Optimized (EV-DO), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM
Evolution (EDGE), 3GSM, Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telecommunications (DECT), Digital AMPS (IS-136/TDMA),
and Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN).
GSM
 Structure of a 2G cellular network
 A simple view of the cellular mobile-radio network consists of
the following:
• A network of Radio base stations forming the Base station
subsystem.
• The core circuit switched network for handling voice calls and
text
• A packet switched network for handling mobile data
• The Public switched telephone network to connect subscribers
to the wider telephony network
 This network is the foundation of the GSM system network.

 There are many functions that are performed by this network

in order to make sure customers get the desired service
including mobility management, registration, call set up, and
handover.
CELLULAR HANDOVER/HANDOFF IN MOBILE
PHONE NETWORKS

 As the phone user moves from one cell area to another cell whilst a
call is in progress, the mobile station will search for a new channel to
attach to in order not to drop the call. Once a new channel is found,
the network will command the mobile unit to switch to the new
channel and at the same time switch the call onto the new channel.

 As the user moves from one cell to another, the handset sets up radio
links with multiple cell sites simultaneously.

 This is known as "soft handoff" because, unlike with traditional cellular

technology, there is no one defined point where the phone switches to
the new cell.

 If there is no ongoing communication or the communication can be

interrupted, it is possible for the mobile unit to spontaneously move
from one cell to another and then notify the base station with the
strongest signal.Cellular frequency choice in mobile phone networks
CELLULAR TRAFFIC
 This article discusses the mobile cellular network aspect of
telegraphic measurements.

 Mobile radio networks have traffic issues that do not arise in

connection with the fixed line PSTN.

 Important aspects of cellular traffic include: quality of

service targets, traffic capacity and cell size, spectral
efficiency and sectorization, traffic capacity versus coverage,
and channel holding time analysis.

 Teletraffic engineering is a necessary field in

telecommunications network planning to ensure that network
costs are minimized without compromising the quality of
service delivered to the user of the network.
GSM ARCHITECTURE

The GSM architecture consists of three

subsystems

 Base station subsystem

 Network Station subsystem
 Operating station Subsystem
CELL SITE
 A cell site is a term used to describe a site where antennas and
electronic communications equipment are placed on a radio
mast or tower to create a cell in a cellular network.

 A cell site is composed of a tower or other elevated structure

for mounting antennas, and one or more sets of
transmitter/receivers transceivers, digital signal processors,
control electronics, a GPS receiver for timing (for CDMA2000 or
IS-95 systems), regular and backup electrical power sources, and
sheltering.

 A synonym for "cell site" is "cell tower", although many cell site
antennas are mounted on buildings rather than as towers. In
GSM networks, the technically correct term is Base Transceiver
Station (BTS), and colloquial British English synonyms are
"mobile phone mast" or "base station".
GSM FREQUENCY BANDS

• The effect of frequency on cell coverage means that different

frequencies serve better for different uses. Low frequencies, such as
450 MHz NMT, serve very well for countryside coverage.

• Higher frequencies are a disadvantage when it comes to coverage,

but it is a decided advantage when it comes to capacity.
THE FUTURE OF MOBILE NETWORKING
 The recently released 4th generation, also known as Beyond 3G,
aims to provide broadband wireless access with nominal data rates
of 100 Mbit/s to fast moving devices, and 1 Gbit/s to stationary
devices defined by the ITU-R, 4G systems may be based on the
3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular standard, offering peak bit
rates of 326.4 Mbit/s.
 A 4G system should be a complete replacement for current network
infrastructure and is expected to be able to provide a
comprehensive and secure IP solution where voice, data, and
streamed multimedia can be given to users on a "Anytime,
Anywhere" basis, and at much higher data rates than previous
generations.
 Sprint in the US has claimed its WiMax network to be "4G network"
which most cellular telecoms standardization experts dispute
repeatedly around the world.
 Sprint's 4G is seen as a marketing gimmick as WiMax itself is part of
the 3G air interface. The officially accepted, ITU ratified standards-
based 4G networks are not expected to be commercially launched
until 2011.
COMPARISON TO SIMILAR SYSTEMS

 Car phone 
A type of telephone permanently mounted in a vehicle, these
often have more powerful transmitters.

 Cordless telephone (portable phone) 

Cordless phones are telephones which use one or more radio
handsets in place of a wired handset. The handsets connect
wirelessly to a base station, which in turn connects to a
conventional land line for calling.

 Professional Mobile Radio 

Advanced professional mobile radio systems can be very
similar to mobile phone systems. Notably, the IDEN standard
has been used as both a private trunked radio system as well
as the technology for several large public providers.
 Radio phone 
This is a term which covers radios which could
connect into the telephone network. These
phones may not be mobile; for example, they
may require a mains power supply, or they may
require the assistance of a human operator to set
up a PSTN phone call.

 Satellite phone 
This type of phone communicates directly with
an artificial satellite, which in turn relays calls to
a base station or another satellite phone.
 IP Phone 
This type of phone delivers or receives calls over
internet, LAN or WAN networks using VoIP as
opposed to traditional CDMA and GSM networks.
In business, the majority of these IP Phones tend
to be connected via wired Ethernet, however
wireless varieties do exist. Several vendors have
developed standalone WiFi phones.
Additionally, some cellular mobile phones
include the ability to place VoIP calls over
cellular high speed data networks and/or
wireless internet.
CHANNEL REUSE AND SIGNAL STRENGTH
 Channel reuse-
The concept of "maximum" range is misleading, however, in a
cellular network. Cellular networks are designed to create a mass
communication solution from a limited amount of channels (slices
of radio frequency spectrum necessary to make one conversation)
that are licensed to an operator of a cellular service. To overcome
this limitation, it is necessary to repeat and reuse the same
channels at different locations. Just as a car radio changes from
one local station to a completely different local station with the
same frequency when you travel to another city, the same radio
channel gets reused on a cell mast only a few miles away.

 Signal strength-
In telecommunications, particularly in radio, signal strength
refers to the magnitude of the electric field at a reference point
that is a significant distance from the transmitting antenna. It may
also be referred to as received signal level or field strength.
Typically, it is expressed in voltage per length or signal power
received by a reference antenna.
CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS

 Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access

method utilized by various radio communication
technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile
phone standards called cdmaOne and CDMA2000 (which
are often referred to as simply CDMA), which use CDMA
as an underlying channel access method.

 Synchronous CDMA
Synchronous CDMA exploits mathematical properties of
orthogonality between vectors representing the data
strings. For example, binary string 1011 is represented
by the vector (1, 0, 1, 1). Each user in synchronous
CDMA uses a code orthogonal to the others' codes to
modulate their signal.
REASONS FOR WEAK SIGNAL
 Rural areas-
In many rural areas the housing density is too low to make construction of a new
base station commercially viable.

 Building construction material-

Some construction materials very rapidly attenuate cell phone signal strength. Older
buildings, such as churches, which use lead in their roofing material will very effectively
block any signal.

 Building size-
Large buildings, such as warehouses, hospitals and factories, often have no cellular
reception further than a few meters from the outside wall.

 Multipath interference-
Even in urban areas which usually have strong cellular signals throughout, there are
often dead zones caused by destructive interference of waves which have taken
different paths (caused by the signal bouncing off buildings etc.).

 Diffraction and general attenuation-

The longer wavelengths have the advantage of being able to diffract to a greater
degree so are less reliant on line of sight to obtain a good signal, but still attenuate
significantly.