TM355:

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
BLOCK 3
PART 1:
ACCESS AND CORE NETWORKS

PART 2:
MOBILE AND NOMADIC COMMUNICATIONS

Arab Open University

Prepared By: Dr. Naser Zaeri
 OUTLINE

• Part 1: Access and core networks

• Introduction
• The core network
• Protocols and layers

• Part 2: Mobile and nomadic communications

• Introduction
• Comparing mobile communications networks
• Third-generation mobile communications (3G)

2
 Part 1:

Access and core networks

3
 1. INTRODUCTION [1/2]
• A useful structural division of mobile networks is as follows:
• The core network is largely a fixed, high-speed, intensively used
communications network. It is somewhat analogous to a network of motorways
and major trunk roads. Core networks often interconnect with other core
networks. For example, all the mobile operators’ core networks interconnect
with the PSTN core network.
• The access network links end-users’ equipment to the core network via a local
exchange or local radio node. The access network is analogous to the minor
roads that give access to motorways and other trunk routes.
• Consumer premises equipment (CPE) consists of the devices used by
subscribers for consuming data (for example, fixed-line telephones, computers
and fax machines). In the mobile world, user equipment (UE) is the term used
for this part of the network.

4
 1. INTRODUCTION [2/2]

• There are five main kinds of technology used in access

networks, differentiated largely by the nature of the physical
medium used:
• Copper telephone wires
• Coaxial cable
• Optical fibre
• Mobile radio communications
• Nomadic radio communications, principally WiFi.
• All the forms of access network listed require a core
network.
• In practice there is a great deal of overlap between core
networks, and a great deal of overlap between access networks.

5
 2. THE CORE NETWORK
2.1 PUBLIC SWITCHED TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK (PSTN)
[1/4]

• PSTN or ‘trunk’ network carries data traffic and telephony

from many access networks.
• The trunk network has wide geographical coverage, and this
coverage is managed through a hierarchical system of
exchanges.
• Each user is connected to a local exchange via the PSTN
access network, which nowadays normally incorporates digital
subscriber line (DSL) technology.
• Since the introduction of DSL broadband, one of the functions
of the local exchange has been to split a user’s incoming
voice traffic from data traffic.

6
 2.1 PUBLIC SWITCHED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
NETWORK (PSTN) [2/4]

• In many cases, the incoming line from a customer’s premises (Figure 1.1)
is connected to a splitter at the local exchange.
• The splitter is a frequency filter, and is able to separate voice and data
traffic because they are carried in separate frequency bands.

7
 2.1 PUBLIC SWITCHED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
NETWORK (PSTN) [3/4]

• Data travelling from the user is multiplexed with other users’ data at
the local exchange via a digital subscriber line access multiplexer
(DSLAM) or, increasingly, a multi-service access node (MSAN).
• The part of the network connecting the user’s premises to the DSLAM or
MSAN is the access network.
• The DSLAM and MSAN are concentrators that transfer data traffic from
many local loops into a higher-speed digital communications channel,
which is then used to carry a number of data connections to the internet
service provider(s).
• From the DSLAM or MSAN we enter the core network, which
interconnects the local exchanges and also includes the so-called backhaul
link for each DSLAM or MSAN, connecting it to the internet service
provider (ISP).

8
 2.1 PUBLIC SWITCHED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
NETWORK (PSTN) [4/4]

• The backhaul link delivers data packets to a broadband remote access

server (BRAS).
• The BRAS is operated by the ISP, which may or may not be the same
organisation as the one providing the core network.
• The BRAS effectively terminates the broadband connection, allowing the
data packets to be extracted and then aggregated for forwarding towards
their final destination.
• Data units received by the ISP’s BRAS are sent towards their destination
via a router connected to the internet.
• The decision on where to send the packets will depend on
the IP address contained in the header of the packet sent
from the customer’s home device.

9
 2.2 MULTIPROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING
(MPLS) [1/3]

• The core network is being converted to – or has been

converted to – a so-called ‘all-IP’ network (‘IP’ here standing
for ‘Internet Protocol’).
• The term ‘all-IP’ is not quite what it might appear to be
because the protocol used, multiprotocol label switching
(MPLS), is a hybrid of the previous non-IP (but packet-
based) core and an IP core.
• The hybrid nature of MPLS means that the underlying
infrastructure of the core network can be more easily adapted
to IP traffic than would otherwise be the case.

10
 2.2 MULTIPROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING
(MPLS) [2/3]

• The benefits of MPLS include:

• quality of service (QoS) differentiation of traffic, such that certain
types of traffic can be prioritised according to a classification shown in
headers
• fast forwarding of packets resulting from the use of labels, and the
binding of IP prefixes to labels
• facilitated creation of virtual private networks (VPNs) and Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks
• traffic engineering:
• reserving capacity for particular forms of traffic
• treating packets of data differently according to the type of traffic
• making optimum use of network resources by spreading the load on the
network evenly.

11
 2.2 MULTIPROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING
(MPLS) [3/3]

• The essence of MPLS can be summed up as follows:

1) The encapsulation of a packet from another protocol (typically an IP
packet) as the payload of an MPLS packet.
2) The routing of the MPLS packet through the MPLS network using a
label applied to the packet
• The label is simply a number.
3) The replacement of the label with another label every time the
packet is processed by a label-switching router.

12
 3. PROTOCOLS AND LAYERS [1/2]

• Communications networks employ a wide range of protocols,

such as Ethernet and IP.
• Protocols control many aspects of the communications process:
• establishing connections
• managing interchanges of data:
• routing packets across the internet
• managing how web pages are accessed and displayed
• transferring files
• managing emails
• keeping data packets from one ‘conversation’ separate from others that might be
sharing the same network or device
• clearing the connection down when it is no longer needed.

13
 3. PROTOCOLS AND LAYERS [2/2]

• Protocols can be conceptually grouped into layers, with

protocols in each layer carrying out functions that are particular
to that layer.
• Functionality at each layer is designed such that there is a clear
handover procedure to the associated protocols in the layers
above and below.
• In general, handover procedures operate only between adjacent
layers – so that, for example, handover would operate between
a layer and the ones above or below, but not the ones two (or
more) above or below.
• The exact arrangement of the layers differs between
models.
14
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [1/7]
• Figure 1.5 shows two layer models or
protocol stacks, the seven-layer open
systems interconnection (OSI) model and
the TCP/IP model (sometimes called the
Internet Protocol stack).
• The latter can be thought of as a specific
instance of the OSI model that covers
only a subset of it (layers 3 and 4).

• Models tend to represent only the things that users are expected to be
concerned with; hence the TCP/IP model does not cover the functions above
the transport layer or below the internet (or network) layer, whereas the OSI
model does.

15
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [2/7]

• Below layer 1 of the OSI model, and not shown in the figure,
are the transmission media – such as light, radio waves and
electric currents – that are used to convey data.
• For network communications engineers, the most important
layers are the lower four of the OSI protocol stack, or the
lower three of the TCP/IP model.
• Network engineers also need to know about the ‘below layer
1’ media, because they influence what happens in the layers
above.

16
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [3/7]

• In layer 1 of the OSI model, the physical layer, protocols

concern the specification of such things as the voltages used to
represent 1s and 0s, the durations of bits and so on.
• Layer 1 does not represent the physical medium itself, such as
an optical fibre or a radio wave, but it does embody protocols
that specify the way in which the phenomena associated with
those physical media (such as voltage phases and amplitudes)
are exploited to represent data.

17
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [4/7]

• Layer 2 of the OSI model, the data link layer, is concerned with
reliable point-to-point communications.
• A ‘link’ in this context is a connection between two devices on the
same local network (which might consist of only the two linked
devices).
• Ethernet is an example of a well-known layer 2 protocol; another
example is point-to-point protocol (PPP).
• Data units at layer 2 are forwarded to their destination by a process
known as local area network (LAN) switching, or just switching.
• Layer 2 is also concerned with medium access protocols, which
specify how access to a medium will be apportioned among users.

18
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [5/7]

• The network or internet layer (layer 3 of the OSI model) is

responsible for getting data from source to destination across
(usually) multiple networks.
• The computers, or similar devices, at source and destination
are known as hosts.
• At layer 3, forwarding of data packets towards their
destination is known as routing.
• IP is a well-known layer 3 protocol, but network address
translation (NAT) is an example of another.

19
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [6/7]

• The transport layer (layer 4 of the OSI model) organises data

packets end to end (between the source and destination hosts)
according to the associated service.
• For example, TCP ensures that all data packets related to the
viewing of a website are organised so that the correct pages
are displayed to the person clicking on a particular link and
not to one of the many other users who may be viewing that
site at that time.
• TCP does this by allocating a unique port number to each
service for its duration.
• Another layer 4 protocol is user datagram protocol (UDP).

20
 3.1 LAYER MODELS [7/7]

• The application layer (or session/presentation/application

layers in the OSI model) includes familiar applications such as
web browsers, as well as some less well-known ones.
• These include three mail delivery protocols: internet message
access protocol (IMAP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP)
and post office protocol (POP).

21
 Part 2:

Mobile and nomadic

communications

22
 1. INTRODUCTION [1/2]

• This part of Block 3 concerns mobile and nomadic

communications.
• Its main focus is the third-generation (3G) and fourth-
generation (4G) systems that support the use of ‘smartphones’
• The final section looks at WiFi.
• Mobility requires that the underlying infrastructure be capable
of seamlessly handing the user over from one access point
(such as a base station) to another.

23
 1. INTRODUCTION [2/2]
• ‘seamlessly’: any communications session, such as telephone
conversation, video streaming, web browsing or emailing,
should continue uninterrupted during handover to another
access point.
• Currently WiFi does not allow this to happen over a large area,
although institutional or corporate WiFi can be set up to enable
a limited degree of mobility within the premises.
• Thus WiFi is considered to be nomadic rather than mobile,
because it is intended for users who are static for a given
session.

24
 2. COMPARING MOBILE
COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

• Though 3G and 4G were designed to carry out

the same function, they are quite different –
not only in terms of their network structure,
but also in the techniques they use to handle
multiple signals within the shared medium of
radio.

25
2.1 CORE AND ACCESS NETWORKS [1/6]
• Mobile access networks are nowadays often shared between operators,
although in the early days of mobile communications it was usual for each
operator to construct its own access network.
• Mobile access networks and core networks have evolved through
successive generations from a purely telephonic system to, in 4G, a purely
data-based system.
• Each new generation of the access network has been based on access
protocols that are incompatible with those of earlier generations.
• The core network, however, contains many of the same or similar elements
that were present in earlier generations of core networks, although there
have also been differences with each generation.

26
2.1 CORE AND ACCESS NETWORKS [2/6]

27
2.1 CORE AND ACCESS NETWORKS [3/6]

• The 3G and 4G core networks can interact regarding, for example,

mobility management.
• Notice how much more complex the 3G system appears to be than the 4G.
• A key feature of the 4G system is that the elements are part of an IP
network.
• Almost any element can communicate with any other.
• In contrast, in the 3G network (and the earlier 2G network) there is much more of a
hierarchy of connections.
• In the 3G network, each cluster of Node Bs (i.e. base stations) is under the
control of a Radio Network Controller (RNC), and the RNCs are
themselves in a tier below nodes in the core network.
• The RNCs perform several functions related to resource management.

28
 2.1 CORE AND ACCESS NETWORKS [4/6]
• RNCs in the 3G system split voice traffic from data traffic, as
follows:
• The RNC sends voice traffic to a circuit-switched part of the core network.
• The data traffic goes into a core network that is largely the one devised for
GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) – hence the appearance of node names
in the core such as serving GPRS support node (SGSN).
• SGSNs are less numerous than RNCs, and are somewhat analogous to local
exchanges in the fixed network.
• Certain SGSNs are designated as gateway devices (GGSNs), because they
provide a gateway to other IP networks such as the internet.
• The mobile core network also contains facilities for authentication of
devices and for recording the locations of devices as they move around the
network.

29
2.1 CORE AND ACCESS NETWORKS [5/6]

• The 4G core network is a radical departure from the

earlier networks.
• All the main elements of the 4G network can in principle communicate
with each other using IP, although for administrative convenience the
network is partitioned into subnetworks.
• Overall, the 4G network is flatter and less hierarchical than the 3G and
earlier mobile networks.
• This has been enabled by a reduction in the cost of complex electronics
over the years, such that a 4G base station (now called an eNode B, or
evolved Node B) can perform more complex processes than were possible
in base stations of earlier generations.

30
2.1 CORE AND ACCESS NETWORKS [6/6]
• As a result, the 4G access network contains only one type of element,
the eNode B (or radio base station).
• The RNCs have disappeared, and the eNode Bs can talk to each other
on a peer-to-peer basis.
• Most of the functions that originally belonged to an RNC, including
handling the radio access network protocol stack, have been transferred to
the eNode Bs, with the rest being handed over to the core network.
• Unlike the 2G and 3G networks, the 4G network does not offer native
support for voice services, which have to be provided by an additional
subsystem called the IP Multimedia Subsystem (ISM).
• This provides a range of multimedia services, including the voice service – which in 4G is
known as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and, as its name implies, is a form of VoIP.

31
 2.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS [1/3]
• Each form of multiple access shown in Table 2.1 is incompatible with the
others.
• Hence a 3G mobile device, for example, cannot communicate with a 2G or
a 4G access network.
• Multi-standard devices are equipped with more than one variety of
radio technology to enable them to operate on different generations of
mobile network.

32
 2.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS [2/3]
• Why each generation has delivered faster data rates
than the ones before?
• Successive generations of mobile communications have
used spectrum more efficiently.
• Greater amount of spectrum used for the radio channel
in successive generations.
• The amounts of spectrum available to a user in a cell in 3G
and 4G can be increased by channel bonding, in which two
or more channels are used together.

33
 2.2 MULTIPLE ACCESS [3/3]
• Generally speaking, downlink communication (from base station to user) is
separated from uplink communication (from user to base station) by the
use of different frequency bands.
• The use of separate frequency bands enables simultaneous uplink and
downlink communication, which is known as frequency division
duplexing (FDD).
• FDD is very widely used but there is an alternative, and at present much
less used, way of separating uplink and downlink known as time division
duplexing (TDD).
• In TDD the uplink and downlink share the same frequency, but access to
the frequency rapidly alternates between uplink and downlink.
• Strictly speaking, in TDD uplink and downlink communications do not
happen simultaneously, but the alternation is so rapid that users are usually
unaware of it.

34
3. THIRD-GENERATION MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS (3G)
3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS
(WCDMA) [1/7]

• WCDMA, being ‘wideband’, could be expected to

use more spectrum than CDMA.
• This could mean that it provides a higher data rate,
or a more robust data service, or both.
• WCDMA has a ‘soft’ limit on the number of users
it can service, unlike the radio access method used in
2G (GSM).

35
 3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS (WCDMA) [2/7]
• In 2G, each radio channel uses time division multiple access
(TDMA), in which each user is allocated one time slot in a
cyclically recurring sequence of eight slots.
• TDMA is therefore a form of time division multiplexing, and
the number of slots in a cycle (eight) determines the maximum
number of users a channel can support.
• In TDMA, users sharing a channel only appear to have
simultaneous access to the medium.
• At any instant a single user is being served, but the rapid
turn-taking among users gives an impression of
simultaneous access.

36
 3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS (WCDMA) [3/7]
• In WCDMA, as more and more users operate in a cell, the
quality that each user experiences deteriorates somewhat, but
there is not the same absolute limit on users that TDMA
imposes.
• Unlike with TDMA, simultaneous users in WCDMA do
actually access the medium simultaneously.
• WCDMA also enables adjacent cells to operate on the same
frequency band, which offers many advantages, including
‘soft’ handover from cell to cell as a user travels across the
cell boundary.

37
 3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS (WCDMA) [4/7]
• There are two main sorts of code in WCDMA: channelisation codes (not
to be confused with channel codes, which were introduced in Block 2) and
scrambling codes.
• Channelisation codes define channels of data.
• In the downlink in 3G WCDMA, data for all users in the cell is
transmitted simultaneously and at the same frequency.
• All users in the cell receive the same signal, and therefore, in effect, each
user receives every user’s data.
• However, because the data is conceptually arranged in channels, one for
each user, users are able to extract only their own data from the aggregated
transmission – other users’ data is in different channels and thus not
accessible.
• In the uplink, channelisation codes are used to keep separate the different
kinds of data a user needs to send (e.g. signalling data and user data).
38
 3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS (WCDMA) [5/7]
• The other type of code that WCDMA depends on is the
scrambling code.
• Scrambling codes are applied to channelisation-encoded signals to
give them a noise-like character.
• This may seem perverse, as noise is a perpetual problem in almost
any communications system.
• However, scrambling encoded signals are only noise-like
(technically they are pseudo-random).
• The receiver ‘knows’ the scrambling code that gave the signal its
noise-like character, and by applying the same code can greatly
improve the signal-to-noise ratio, enabling the signal to be extracted
from the background noise.

39
 3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS (WCDMA) [6/7]
• In both the uplink and the downlink, channelisation codes are
applied before scrambling codes.
• At the receiver (whether base station or mobile device), the
order of decoding is the reverse of the order of encoding.
• The scrambling encoded signal is first descrambled to reveal
the channelisation-coded signal, and then channelisation
decoding is applied to recover the data.

40
 3.1 WIDEBAND CODE DIVISION
MULTIPLE ACCESS (WCDMA) [7/7]
• In the downlink, the coding happens in the base station (or
Node B) under the direction of the radio network controller
(RNC), which specifies the codes to be used.
• All decoding in the downlink happens in the user equipment,
again under the direction of the RNC, which can communicate
signalling information to the user equipment.
• In the uplink, coding happens inside the user equipment, and
decoding happens in the base station.

41
 3.2 CHANNELISATION CODES
3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [1/8]
• Channelisation encoding in WCDMA consists of replacing each of
the 1s and 0s of a user’s binary data stream with several shorter-
duration chips prior to transmission.
• Each chip, like a bit of binary data itself, has two possible states,
but these states are customarily represented as 1 and −1, rather than
1 and 0.
• Because chips take values of 1 and −1, they are said to be bipolar.
• The pattern of chips used to encode 1s and 0s is different for
each stream of data.
• Data intended for user A, for example, would have a different
channelisation code applied than data intended for user B.

42
3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [2/8]

• To show how the channelisation-encoding process works:

• Start with the data intended for A.
• This is shown below, and consists of the five bits:
1, 1, 0, 0, 0.

43
 3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [3/8]

• Figure 2.4 shows the channelisation code, or chip pattern,

that is assigned to A and used to encode A’s data: 1, −1, 1,
−1.
• We encode A’s data as follows:
• Wherever there is a 1 in the data, we replace it with the
chip sequence corresponding to the channelisation code:
1, −1, 1, −1.
• Wherever there is a 0, it is replaced with the inverse of
the same chip sequence.
• The inverse of a chip sequence has every chip in the
original sequence multiplied by –1:
[1, −1, 1, −1] × −1
or
−1, 1, −1, 1.
44
3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [4/8]

45
3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [5/8]

46
 3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [6/8]

• Now, assume data intended for B is:

1, 1, 1, 1, 0.

• B will have a different channelisation code from A.

• In this example, let B’s channelisation code:
1, −1, −1, 1 (Figure 2.8.)

47
3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [7/8]

• Then, encoding of B’s data using B’s code is as shown

below:

48
 3.2.1 AT THE TRANSMITTER: ENCODING [8/8]

• The simultaneous transmission of A’s

and B’s data is accomplished by
transmitting a superposition of the two
channelisation-encoded versions.
• The chip sequence that is transmitted is
therefore:
2 −2 0 0
2 −2 0 0
0 0 −2 2
0 0 −2 2
−2 2 0 0.
• The next stage in WCDMA is scrambling
encoding (Section 3.3.)

49
3.2.2 AT THE RECEIVER: DECODING [1/3]

• A’s and B’s receivers collect the same signal from the base
station, and after the descrambling process, the signal is a
superposition of their separately encoded data, as shown in
Figure 2.9(c).
• Each receiver extracts just its own data by carrying out a
mathematical operation called correlation.
• In the period of time representing the first bit, the superposed
set of chips received is 2, −2, 0, 0, as shown in Figure 2.9(c).
(B’s receiver has exactly the same set of chips.)
• Receiver A multiplies, in order, each of the first four received
chips by the corresponding chip in A’s code.

50
3.2.2 AT THE RECEIVER: DECODING [2/3]

51
3.2.2 AT THE RECEIVER: DECODING [3/3]

• Note: using four chips in the code in this example has given a
scaling factor of 4.
• The recovered information perfectly replicates the transmitted
information.
• It is noise-free, despite having been transmitted
simultaneously with – and sharing the same frequency as –
another stream of data.
• This level of perfection depends on perfect orthogonality of
the superposed data streams, and that depends on the
orthogonality of the channelisation codes.

52
 3.2.3 ORTHOGONALITY OF
CHANNELISATION CODES [1/2]
• For streams of encoded data to be orthogonal, the channelisation
codes themselves must be mutually orthogonal, and the encoded
streams must be synchronised.
• This means that correlation of one channelisation code with
another channelisation code must result in zero.
• Any result other than zero means the codes are not orthogonal.
• The correlation calculation gives the following:
(1 × 1) + (−1 × −1) + (1 × −1) + (−1 × 1) = 1 + 1 −1 −1 = 0.
• The result is zero, confirming the orthogonality of the codes.

53
 3.2.3 ORTHOGONALITY OF
CHANNELISATION CODES [2/2]
• Orthogonality of channelisation-
encoded chip sequences is
compromised if the sequences are
not synchronised with each other.
• Chip sequences are unsynchronised
if the starts and ends of chips in one
sequence do not coincide with the
starts and ends of chips in another.

54
 3.2.4 WALSH CODES [1/2]
• The channelisation are from a set of mutually orthogonal codes known as
Walsh codes.
• Walsh codes are not restricted to four chips, but the number of chips is
always an integer power of 2; thus possible numbers of chips are 2, 4, 8,
16, 32 and so on.
• The number of chips is often referred to as the length of the code.
• In practice, the lengths of WCDMA channelisation codes vary up to a
maximum of 512 chips in the downlink direction, whereas in the uplink
direction the maximum length is 256 chips.
• The number of Walsh codes of a given length is numerically equal to the
length of the code.
• This means that in the downlink direction, theoretically 512 users in a cell could each be
allocated a distinct 512-chip code.

55
 3.2.4 WALSH CODES [2/2]

• The codes are allocated to users by the RNC, and all codes use
the same chip rate, which is standardised at 3.84 Mchip/s in
3G mobile telephony and data communications.
• By virtue of the fact that a common chip rate is used for all
codes, short codes give higher user bit rates than long codes.
• Longer codes, however, give greater robustness and are
typically used in weak signal areas.

56
 3.2.5 SPREADING FACTOR
• Another way of expressing this is to say that the signal power in the modulated
wave is spread over a wider span of frequencies.
• This happens because the signal now makes more fluctuations in a given length of
time.
• WCDMA, therefore, is an example of spread-spectrum transmission, in which a
transmitted modulated signal is made to occupy a wider (usually much wider)
bandwidth than it would occupy using more conventional methods.
• The factor by which the spectrum is spread is known as the spreading factor, and is
equal to the number of chips used to represent a single bit of data in the coding
process.
• The spectrum-spreading effect of the codes is highly important in giving resilience
against noise.
• Spreading the spectrum gives enhanced immunity to certain types of noise, so the
spreading is said to give a processing gain.

57
 3.3 SCRAMBLING CODES [1/3]
• Scrambling codes are also called pseudo-random codes or pseudo-noise
codes.
• They are applied to channelisation-encoded data to give it noise-like
properties.
• That is, scrambling codes are designed to make the channelisation-encoded
data appear to consist of a random arrangement of chips.
• However, they are not genuinely random, as the term ‘pseudo-random’
indicates.
• Encoding with a scrambling code produces a chip-for-chip replacement of
the chip sequence produced by channelisation encoding.
• In that sense, the scrambling process does not produce additional spreading
beyond that created by the channelisation code.

58
 3.3 SCRAMBLING CODES [2/3]
• Encoding with a scrambling code
entails a chip-by-chip multiplication
of the channelisation-encoded data
with the scrambling code.
• For example, in Figure 2.16(a) the
first chip of the channelisation-
encoded data is 2, and in Figure
2.16(b) the first chip of the
scrambling code is 1.
• The product of these is 2, which is the
value of the first chip of the
scrambling-encoded data shown in
Figure 2.16(c).

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3.3 SCRAMBLING CODES [3/3]

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 3.3.1 WHY SCRAMBLE?

• If scrambling codes were not used, and instead the

channelisation encoding had been the last stage before
modulation and transmission, there would be a danger that an
interfering signal from another base station that contained a
usage of the same channelisation code would also be de-
spread and hence produce a high level of interference.
• Adjacent cells are very likely to use the same
channelisation codes because the number of channelisation
codes is relatively low, and codes are intensively reused from
cell to cell.

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 3.3.2 USES IN THE DOWNLINK AND
UPLINK
• The fact that each base station has a unique scrambling code – unique at least over a
fairly large geographical area – means that base stations can be distinguished from each
other by their scrambling codes.
• All receiving devices in the area officially served by a base station are able to establish
what scrambling code is used by that base station during an initial setting-up phase prior
to data transmission.
• After that phase, correlation with the scrambling code enables receivers to recover
channelisation-encoded downlink data as described above.
• Of course, this downlink data contains data for all devices in the cell, but a receiving
device uses correlation with its own channelisation code to extract just the data for that
device – again as described earlier.
• Downlink channelisation codes therefore need only be unique within a cell.
• The same channelisation codes can be used in a neighbouring cell.

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