Chapter Five

Multiple Access
Techniques for Mobile
Communication Systems

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 Lecture Outline
 Introduction to multiple access
techniques
 FDMA techniques

 TDMA techniques

 CDMA techniques

 Summary

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 Used Acronyms
 FDMA: Frequency division multiple
access
 TDMA : Time division multiple access
 CDMA : Code division multiple access
 DSSS: Direct sequence spread spectrum
 FHSS: Frequency hoping spread spectrum
 THSS: Time hoping spread spectrum

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 Introduction to Multiple Access Techniques
 Multiplexing: Allowing many (mobile) users to share a given resources
For high quality communication, this must be done without severe
degradation in the performance of the system

 Multiple users want to communicate in a common geographic area

Cellular Example: Many people want to

talk on their cell phones. Each phone

would communicate(link) with a BS.

Problem: How should we share our

resources so that as many users as possible

can communicate simultaneously

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 Hence multiplexing is the process of combining a number of
communication channels and transmitting them over one
physical medium

Where as de-multiplexing is the process used to separate

and recover the original channels at the receiver

 Main types of multiplexing

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techniques are:

Frequency division multiplexing,

FDM Time division multiplexing, TDM

Code division multiplexing, CDM

 Example: MA techniques in wireless cellular
communication
system
s

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 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
 FDMA is an analog MA technique where each transmitter is assigned
a
portion of the frequency spectrum (or band)
 The transmitted signal spectra component must be confined to the
allocated frequency band

 Different users are separated in the frequency domain.

 To separate the channels, a guard band may be used

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 Example: AMPS (1G, analog) used 30KHz for each user.
 Pros
e
 Very simple to design

 Narrowband (no ISI)

 Synchronization is easy
 No interference among users

in a cell
 Cons
 Static spectrum allocation
 High Q analog filters or larg

guard band is required

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 Implementation example: North American FDM
telephone
 Designed to transmit a large number of analog voice channels
 Basic channel is called Voice Channel and has a BW of 0-4 kHz


The voice channel is modulated (frequency shifted) to occupy a
specific frequency band.
 With three successive levels of multiplexing, a total of 600 voice
channels are multiplexed together.

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 Drawbacks of FDMA
 The bandwidths of FDMA systems are generally narrow
 FDMA is usually implemented in a narrow band system
 Prone to noise problems

 Overtaken by TDMA, which is better suited for digital data

 Demultiplexing requires a series of band pass filters

 FDMA requires tight filtering to minimize adjacent
channel interference.

 These filters are relatively complicated and expensive

 As a result, receivers in FDMA system are generally

expensive
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 Time Division Multiple Access Techniques (TDMA)
 Each user is allowed to transmit only within specified
time
intervals (Time Slots).

 Different users transmit in different Time Slots.

 When users transmit, they occupy the whole frequency
bandwidth (separation is performed in the time domain).

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 TDMA system may be in two modes: FDD (Frequency division
duplex) and TDD (Time division duplex).
 FDD and TDD are the techniques used to separate uplink
and downlink channel signals.

TDMA TDMATDD
FDD
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 TDMA TDD: has a better advantage in case where the
asymmetry of the uplink and downlink data speed is variable.
 As the amount of uplink data increases, more bandwidth can
be allocated to that and as it shrinks it can be taken away.
 TDMA FDD: is much more efficient in the case of symmetric
traffic.

 Uplink and downlink sub-bands are would be separated by

the
"frequency offset".
 Makes radio planning easier and more efficient since BS do
not hear each other (as they transmit and receive in different
sub- bands) and therefore will normally not interfere each 13
 TDMA Frame Structure: TDMA requires a centralized
control node, whose primary function is to transmit a periodic
reference burst that defines a frame and forces a measure of
synchronization of all the users.
 The frame so-defined is divided into time slots, and each user
is assigned a Time Slot in which to transmit its information.

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 TDMA frame structure

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 TDMA guard times: Since there are significant delays between users,
each user receives the reference burst with a different phase, and its
traffic burst is transmitted with a corresponding different phase within
the time slot.
 There is, therefore, a need for guard times to take account of this
uncertainty.
 Each Time Slot is therefore longer than the period needed for the actual
traffic burst, thereby avoiding the overlap of traffic burst even in the
presence of these propagation delays.

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 TDMA Preamble: Since each traffic burst is transmitted independently
with an uncertain phase relative to the reference burst, a preamble is
required at the beginning of each traffic burst.

The preamble allows the receiver to acquire the coarse

synchronization provided by the reference burst with a fine estimate
of timing and carrier phase.

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 TDMA frame structure

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 TDMA reference transmitter
scheme

 Buffer: the symbols of the original signal are organized in groups of

Nbps symbols. Each group is transmitted in a single Time Slot of
duration TS. Time Slots are organized in frames of duration TF.

 Coder: the position in time , each group is modified according to the

TDMA code, that is assigned to the user. The TDMA code indicates
which slot inside each frame must be occupied by the user.
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 Types of TDM
 Synchronous and asynchronous types
 Synchronous TDM ( STDM)
 Each source is repeatedly assigned a portion of the channel
 TDM is understood to imply STDM
 Used in circuit switched telephone networks
 Asynchronous TDM( ATDM)
 Each source is assigned a portion of the channel only when it
is
needed
 ATDM is used in statistical multiplexers, packet switches, and
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) 20
 TDM Implementation
 Bit interleaving: Each channel is assigned a time slot
corresponding to a single bit
 Byte/word interleaving: Each channel is assigned a longer
time slot corresponding to some larger number of bits called
word.

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 Example1: T1 digital system
 Analog voice signal is sampled at 8-kHz rate, i.e., the time
between samples is 125 μ second
 Each sample is then companded, quantized, and represented
by 8 bits (i.e., a time slot)

• Thus one voice call/channel is represented by 64-kbps

stream
 Digital Signalling 0 (DS0): is a basic digital signalling at the
rate of 64 kbps, corresponding to the capacity of one voice
channel

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 In the T1 system, 24 time slots are multiplexed together to form
a frame

 Here byte interleaving is used

 Each time slot is an 8-bit encoded word

 One more bit is added for frame synchronization and alignment

 If we combine these 64kbps channels together

• 24 voice time slots x 8 bits per slot = 192 bits

• 192 bits + 1 framing bit = 193 bits / frame

• 8000 frames/second x 193 bits/frame= 1.544 Mbps

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 Advantage of TDMA Techniques
 Data transmission is bursty: low battery consumption,

• Tx can be turned off when it is idle

 Hand off is simple: b/c BS can listen other BS during idle

time
• MS can only listen and broadcast for its own time slot.
• On the rest of the time it can carry out measurement on
the network.

• Detect surrounding transmissions on different

frequencies

 ...
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 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
 Alternative to FDMA and TDMA

 What happen if we could allow users to share time and frequency

 Eliminates need for tight synchronization among many
different users

 Eliminates need for expensive analog filters

 May have favourable impact on capacity

 But:

 How do we separate the users

 Won’t they interfere with each other

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 CDMA Principles: does not divide up the channel in time (as
TDMA), or frequency (as FDMA), but instead encodes data with
a certain code associated with a channel.

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 Each user is assigned a unique code sequence (spreading code)
to encode its data signal.
 The receiver, knowing the code sequence of the user, decodes the
received signal and recovers the original data.
 The bandwidth of the coded data signal is chosen to be
much larger than the bandwidth of the original data signal.

Thus, the encoding process enlarges (spreads) the spectrum of

the data signal.

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 CDMA is based on spread-spectrum modulation.

 If multiple users transmit a spread-spectrum signal at the same

time, the receiver will still be able to distinguish between
users, provided that each user has a unique code that has a
sufficient low cross-correlation with the other codes.
 Spread Spectrum Techniques:
 Idea: “Spread” the signal to a wider bandwidth that is actually
necessary to avoid short, frequency selective distortions

o One form of frequency diversity exploitation

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 Main implementation options of spread
spectrum

1. Frequency and Time Hopping

2. Direct Sequence (is the basis for CDMA)

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 Types of CDMA:
 Direct Sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA): The original data signal
is multiplied directly by a high chip rate spreading code.

 Frequency Hopping CDMA (FH-CDMA): The carrier

frequency at which the original data signal is transmitted
is rapidly changed according to the spreading code.

 Time Hopping CDMA (TH-CDMA): The original data

signal is not transmitted continuously. Instead, the signal is
transmitted in short bursts where the times of the bursts
are decided by the spreading code.

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 DSSS: XOR of a “long” symbol with a chipping sequence/code
 DSSS can also be determine by point wise product of vectors
when using +/-1 instead of 0/1

 Assign: “1” = -1, “0” = +1

 Formally: Transmitted signal, AS(t) for 0 ≤ t ≤ T,

• T symbol time
• Represent data by Ad(t) = constant over the duration of
a given symbol
• Ak(t) is the chipping key for 0 ≤ t≤ T

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 The resulting signal has more level changes per time
• Higher bandwidth required
 Example 1: Sender A sends Ad = 1, chipping key Ak

=010011 Rewrite for only one value per chip as :

Ad = (-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1); Ak = (+1, -1, +1, +1, -1, -1)
Compute transmitted signal As = Ad * Ak (point wise product)

AS = Ad * Ak = (-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1) * (+1, -1, +1, +1, -1, -1)

= (-1, +1, -1, -1, +1, +1)

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 Summary

 In communications, a channel access method is used to share a

communications channel or physical medium between multiple users.
 The goal in the design of cellular systems is to be able to handle as many
calls as possible in a given bandwidth with some reliability.
 In cellular system, each MS can distinguish a signal from the serving BS and
differentiate the signals from neighbouring BSs. To accommodate a number
of users, many traffic channels need to be made available.
 In principle there are three different ways to allow access to the channel:
frequency, time, and code division multiplexing and is addressed by three
multiple access techniques; FDMA, TDMA, CDMA.

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