Multiple Access Techniques for

Wireless Communications
9.1 introduction
 Multiple access schemes are used to allow many mobile users
to share simultaneously a finite amount of radio spectrum.
 High capacity is required.
 must be done without severe degradation in the performance.

 Duplexing is needed to allow subscribers send and receive

information simultaneously.
e.g., telephone systems,
(1) Duplexing

Using frequency or time domain techniques.

Frequency division duplexing (FDD)

 Provides two distinct bands of frequencies for every user.
 Forward band----from the base station to the mobile
 Reverse band----from the mobile to the base.
 Consists of two simplex channels
 Duplexer is used
 The frequency split between the forward and reverse channel is
constant.

Time division duplexing (TDD)

 Uses time to provide both a forward and reverse link.
 If the time split between the forward and reverse time slot is
small, then the transmission and reception of data appears
simultaneous.
 Allows communication on a single channel and simplifies the
subscriber equipment since a duplexer is not required.
Trade-offs between FDD and TDD:

FDD
 Each transceiver simultaneously transmits and receives radio
signals which vary by more than 100 dB, the frequency
allocation used for the forward and reverse channels must be
carefully coordinated with out-of-band users that occupy
spectrum between these two bands.

 The frequency separation must be coordinated to permit the

use of inexpensive RF technology.

TDD
 Eliminate the need for separate forward and reverse frequency
bands.

 There is a time latency due to the fact that communications is

not full duplex in the truest sense.
(2) Multiple Access

 Three major techniques:

 Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
 Time division multiple access (TDMA)
 Code division multiple access (CDMA)
 Others:
 Packet radio (PR)
 Space division multiple access (SDMA)

 These techniques can be grouped as narrowband and

wideband systems, depending upon how the
available bandwidth is allocated to the users.
The duplexing technique of a multiple access system is usually
described along with the particular multiple access scheme
a) Narrowband Systems

 The available radio spectrum is divided into a large number of

narrowband channels.
 Each channel is relatively narrow compared with the coherence
bandwidth.
 The channels are usually operated using FDD.
 To minimize interference between forward and reverse links,
the frequency split is made as great as possible
allowing inexpensive duplexers

 Narrowband FDMA ---- a user is assigned a particular channel

which is not shared by other users in the vicinity.
If FDD is used, the system is called FDMA/FDD.

 Narrowband TDMA ---- allows users to share the same

channel but allocates a unique time slot to each user.
 For narrowband TDMA, there generally are a large number of
channels allocated using either FDD or TDD, and each channel
is shared using TDMA.
TDMA/FDD or TDMA/TDD
b) Wideband systems

 The transmission bandwidth of a single channel is much larger

than the coherence bandwidth.
multipath fading does not greatly affect the received signal,
frequency selective fades occur in only a small fraction of the
bandwidth.
 A large number of transmitters are allowed to transmit on the
same channel.

Wideband TDMA ---- allocates time slots to the many transmitters

on the same channel and allows only one transmitter to access
the channel at any instant of time,
TDMA/FDD, TDMA/TDD

Wideband CDMA ---- allows all of the transmitters to access the

channel at the same time.
CDMA/FDD, CDMA/TDD
9.2 Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA)
 Each user is allocated a unique frequency band or channel.
 These channels are assigned on demand, and can not be
shared.
The features of FDMA:

 The FDMA channel carries only one phone circuit at a time.

 If an FDMA channel is not in use, then it sits idle and cannot be

used by other users to increase or share capacity. It is
essentially a wasted resource.

 After the assignment of a voice channel, the base station and

the mobile transmit simultaneously and continuously.

 The bandwidths of FDMA channels are relatively narrow (30

kHz) as each channel supports only one circuit per carrier. That
is, FDMA is usually implemented in narrowband systems.

 The symbol time is large as compared to the average delay

spread. This implies that the amount of intersymbol
interference is low and, thus, little or no equalization is required
in FDMA narrowband systems.
The features of FDMA (continued):

 The complexity of FDMA mobile systems is lower when

compared to TDMA systems, though this is changing as digital
signal processing methods improve for TDMA.

 Since FDMA is a continuous transmission scheme, fewer bits

are needed for overhead purposes (such as synchronization
and framing bits) as compared to TDMA.

 FDMA systems have higher cell site system costs as compared

to TDMA systems, because of the single channel per carrier
design, and the need to use costly bandpass filters to eliminate
spurious radiation at the base station.

 The FDMA mobile unit uses duplexers since both the

transmitter and receiver operate at the same time. This results
in an increase in the cost of FDMA subscriber units and base
stations.

 FDMA requires tight RF filtering to minimize adjacent channel

interference.
Nonlinear Effects in FDMA:

 In FDMA, Many channels share the same antenna at the base

station.

 The power amplifiers or the power combiners, when operated

at or near saturation for maximum power efficiency, are
nonlinear.

 The nonlinearities cause signal spreading in the frequency

domain and generate intermodulation (IM) frequencies.
interfere adjacent-channels, or adjacent services

 Intermodulation distortion products occur at frequencies mf1 +

nf2 for all integer values of m and n.

 Some of the possible intermodulation frequencies that are

produced by a nonlinear device are
(2n+1)f1-2nf2, (2n+2)f1-(2n+1)f2, (2n+1)f1-2nf2, (2n+2)f2-
(2n+1)f1,
etc. for n = 0, 1, 2, ……
9.3 Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)
 Each user occupies a cyclically repeating time slot,
achannel may be thought of as particular time slot that reoccurs
every frame, where N time slots comprise a frame.
 Transmit data in a buffer-and-burst method, the transmission
for any user is noncontinuous.
digital data and digital modulation must be used with TDMA.
Frame structure:

The transmission from various users is interlaced into a repeating

frame structure.
 Frame ---- consists of a number of slots (information message),
together with a preamble, and tail bits.
 Preamble ---- contains the address and synchronization
information that both the base station and the subscribers use to
identify each other.
 Guard times ---- allow synchronization of the receivers between
different slots and frames.
Features of TDMA:

 TDMA shares a single carrier frequency with several users, where

each user makes use of nonoverlapping time slots. The number
of time slots per frame depends on several factors, such as
modulation technique, available bandwidth, etc.
 Data transmission for users of a TDMA system is not continuous,
but occurs in bursts. This results in low battery consumption,
since the subscriber transmitter can be turned off when not in
use (which is most of the time).
 Because of discontinuous transmissions in TDMA, the handoff
process is much simpler for a subscriber unit, since it is able to
listen for other base stations during idle time slots. An enhanced
link control, such as that provided by mobile assisted handoff
(MAHO) can be carried out by a subscriber by listening on an idle
slot in the TDMA frame.
 TDMA uses different time slots for transmission and reception,
thus duplexers are not required. Even if FDD is used, a switch
rather than a duplexer inside the subscriber unit is all that is
required to switch between transmitter and receiver using TDMA.
Features of TDMA (continued):

 Adaptive equalization is usually necessary in TDMA systems,

since the transmission rates are generally very high as compared
to FDMA channels.
 In TDMA, the guard time should be minimized. If the transmitted
signal at the edges of a time slot are suppressed sharply in order
to shorten the guard time, the transmitted spectrum will expand
and cause interference to adjacent channels.
 High synchronization overhead is required in TDMA systems
because of burst transmissions. TDMA transmissions are slotted,
and this requires the receivers to be synchronized for each data
burst. In addition, guard slots are necessary to separate users,
and this results in the TDMA systems having larger overheads as
compared to FDMA.
 TDMA has an advantage in that it is possible to allocate different
numbers of time slots per frame to different users. Thus
bandwidth can be supplied on demand to different users by
concatenating or reassigning time slots based on priority.
Efficiency of TDMA:

 The frame efficiency, is the percentage of bits per frame which

contain transmitted data.

It is a measure of the percentage of transmitted data that contains

information as opposed to providing overhead for the access
scheme.
 The transmitted data may include source and channel coding bits,
so the raw end-user efficiency of a system is generally less than
frame efficiency.

Number of channels In TDMA system:

 Can be found by multiplying the number of TDMA slots per
channel by the number of channels available
FDMA/TDMA with FDD in GSM
9.4 Spread Spectrum Multiple Access
(SSMA)
 Transmission bandwidth is several orders of magnitude greater
than the minimum required RF bandwidth.
Pseudo-noise (PN) sequence converts a narrowband signal
to a wideband noise-like signal.

 Provides immunity to multipath interference and robust

multiple access capability.

 Bandwidth efficient in a mutiple user environment.

 Two main types SSMA:

 Frequency hopped multiple access (FH)
 Direct sequence multiple access (DS)

Direct sequence multiple access is also called code division

multiple access (CDMA).
9.4.1 Frequency Hopped Multiple
Access (FHMA)
Definition ：
The carrier frequencies of the individual users are varied in a
pseudorandom fashion within a wideband channel.

 Data is broken into uniform sized bursts then transmitted on

different carrier frequencies.
 The instantaneous bandwidth of any one transmission burst is
much smaller than the total spread bandwidth.
 The pseudorandom change of the carrier frequencies of the
user randomizes the occupancy of a specific channel at any
given time, multiple access allowed.
 In the FR receiver, a locally generated PN code is used to
synchronize the receivers instantaneous frequency.
 At any given point in time, a frequency hopped signal only
occupies a single, relatively narrow channel.
 Spread spectrum technology
• Problem of radio transmission: frequency dependent fading can wipe out
narrow band signals for duration of the interference
• Solution: spread the narrow band signal into a broad band signal using a special
code
• protection against narrow band interference
power interference spread power signal
signal
spread
detection at interference
receiver

f f

• Side effects:
• coexistence of several signals without dynamic coordination
• tap-proof
• Alternatives: Direct Sequence, Frequency Hopping
 Effects of spreading and interference
dP/df dP/df

user signal
i) ii) broadband interference
narrowband interference
f f
sender
dP/df dP/df dP/df

iii) iv) v)
f f f
receiver
 Spreading and frequency selective fading
channel
quality

1 2 5 6
narrowband channels
3
4
frequency
narrow band guard space
signal

channel
quality
2
2 spread spectrum channels
2
2
2
1

spread frequency
spectrum
DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum) I
• XOR of the signal with pseudo-random number (chipping sequence)
• many chips per bit (e.g., 128) result in higher bandwidth of the signal
• Advantages
• reduces frequency selective tb
fading
• in cellular networks user data
• base stations can use the 0 1 XOR
same frequency range
• several base stations can tc
detect and recover the signal chipping
• soft handover sequence
01101010110101
• Disadvantages =

• precise power control necessary resulting

signal
01101011001010

tb: bit period

tc: chip period
DSSS (Direct Sequence
spread
Spread Spectrum) II
spectrum transmit
user data signal signal
X modulator

chipping radio
sequence carrier

transmitter

correlator
lowpass sampled
received filtered products sums
signal signal data
demodulator X integrator decision

radio chipping
carrier sequence

receiver
FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
I
• Discrete changes of carrier frequency
• sequence of frequency changes determined via pseudo random number sequence
• Two versions
• Fast Hopping:
several frequencies per user bit
• Slow Hopping:
several user bits per frequency
• Advantages
• frequency selective fading and interference limited to short period
• simple implementation
• uses only small portion of spectrum at any time
• Disadvantages
• not as robust as DSSS
• simpler to detect
 FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
II t b

user data

0 1 0 1 1 t
f
td
f3 slow
f2 hopping
(3 bits/hop)
f1

td t
f

f3 fast
f2 hopping
(3 hops/bit)
f1

tb: bit period td: dwell time

FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
III user data
narrowband
signal
spread
transmit
signal
modulator modulator

frequency hopping
synthesizer sequence
transmitter

narrowband
received signal
signal data
demodulator demodulator

hopping frequency
sequence synthesizer
receiver
9.4.1 Frequency Flopped Multiple
Access (FHMA)
Difference between FHMA and FDMA:
 In FHMA, The frequency hopped signal changes channels at
rapid intervals.

Fast hopping and slow hopping:

 fast frequency hopping ---- the rate of change of the carrier
frequency is greater than the symbol rate
Can be thought of as an FDMA system which employs frequency
diversity
 slow frequency hopping ---- the channel changes at a rate less
than or equal to the symbol rate
9.4.1 Frequency Flopped Multiple
Access (FHMA)
 FHMA systems often employ energy efficient
constant envelope modulation.
 Inexpensive receivers may be built to provide noncoherent
detection of FHMA.
linearity is not an issue.

 A frequency hopped system provides a level of security,

especially when a large number of channels are used.
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
 In CDMA, the narrowband message signal is multiplied by a
very large bandwidth signal called the spreading signal.
 The spreading signal is a pseudo-noise code sequence that
has a chip rate which is orders of magnitudes greater than the
data rate of the message.
 All users use the
same carrier
frequency and may
transmit
simultaneously.
 Each user has its
own pseudorandom
codeword which is
approximately
orthogonal to all
other code words.
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
 The receiver performs a time correlation operation to detect
only the specific desired codeword.
All other codewords appear as noise due to decorrelation.
 The receiver needs to know the codeword used by the
transmitter.
Each user operates independently with no knowledge of the other
users.
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
near-far problem:

 The near-far problem occurs when many mobile users share

the same channel.
 In general, the strongest received mobile signal will capture the
demodulator at a base station.
 In CDMA, stronger received signal levels raise the noise floor at the
base station demodulators for the weaker signals, thereby
decreasing the probability that weaker signals will be received.
 the power of multiple users at a receiver determines the noise floor
after decorrelation.
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
Power control:

 Provided by each base station in a cellular system and assures

that each mobile within the base station coverage area
provides the same signal level to the base station receiver.
This solves the problem of a nearby subscriber
overpowering the base station receiver and drowning out the
signals of far away subscribers.

 Power control is implemented at the base station by rapidly

sampling the radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) levels of
each mobile and then sending a power change command over
the forward radio link.
out-of-cell mobiles provide interference which is not under
the control of the receiving base station.
Advantages of CDMA over 1G FDMA and 2G TDMA based
cellular systems
Advantage 1: Jammer Margin
Jammer is a malicious user who
transmits with high power to cause
interference leading to disruption
of communication links

y(n)=x(n)+w(n)

SNR at Receiver=
Signal Power Fig. Disruption by Jammer in
Wireless Communication
Noise power
• In the presence of Jamming signal of power the receive signal
can be given as,
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
Features of CDMA:

 Many users of a CDMA system share the same frequency.

Either TDD or FDD may be used.

 Unlike TDMA or FDMA, CDMA has a soft capacity limit.

Increasing the number of users in a CDMA system raises the
noise floor in a linear manner. Thus, there is no absolute limit
on the number of users in CDMA. Rather, the system
performance gradually degrades for all users as the number of
users is increased, and improves as the number of users is
decreased.

 Multipath fading may be substantially reduced because the

signal is spread over a large spectrum. If the spread spectrum
bandwidth is greater than the coherence bandwidth of the
channel, the inherent frequency diversity will mitigate the
effects of small-scale fading.
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
Features of CDMA (continued):

 Channel data rates are very high in CDMA systems.

Consequently, the symbol (chip) duration is very short and
usually much less than the channel delay spread. Since PN
sequences have low autocorrelation, multipath which is
delayed by more than a chip will appear as noise. A RAKE
receiver can be used to improve reception by collecting time
delayed versions of the required signal.

 Since CDMA uses co-channel cells, it can use macroscopic

spatial diversity to provide soft handoff. Soft handoff is
performed by the MSC, which can simultaneously monitor a
particular user from two or more base stations. The MSC may
chose the best version of the signal at any time without
switching frequencies.
9.4.2 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
Features of CDMA (continued):

 Self-jamming is a problem in CDMA system. Self-jamming

arises from the fact that the spreading sequences of different
users are not exactly orthogonal, hence in the despreading of a
particular PN code, non-zero contributions to the receiver
decision statistic for a desired user arise from the
transmissions of other users in the system.

 The near-far problem occurs at a CDMA receiver if an undesired

user has a high detected power as compared to the desired
user.
9.7 Capacity of Cellular Systems
 Usually, the C/I for each user is required to be greater than
some minimum (C/I)min, then the following equation must
hold for acceptable performance:

 Therefore, the reuse factor is

 The radio capacity of a cellular system is defined as

, where N=Q2/3

 Thus, The radio capacity is

9.7 Capacity of Cellular Systems
 In order to provide the same voice quality, (C/I) min may be
lower in a digital systems when compared to an analog
system.
(C/I) min is about 12 dB for narrowband digital systems
and 18 dB for narrowband analog FM systems.
 Each digital wireless standard has a different (C/I) min .

How to compare different systems?

use an equivalent C/I .
 If Bc and m are kept constant, we

have

Bc ---- bandwidth of a particular system

(C/I)min ---- tolerable C/I value for the same system
Bc’ ---- bandwidth for a different system
(C/I)eq ---- minimum C/I value for the different system when
compared to (C/I)min the for a particular system.
9.7 Capacity of Cellular Systems
Capacity of Digital Cellular TDMA in practical systems:
TDMA systems improve capacity by a factor of 3 to 6
times
as compared to analog cellular radio systems, because of
many techniques used.
 Powerful error control and speech coding enable better link
performance in high interference environments.
 By exploiting speech activity, some TDMA systems are able
to better utilize each radio channel.
 Mobile assisted handoff (MAHO) allows subscribers to
monitor the neighboring base stations, and the best base
station choice may be made by each subscriber.
 MAHO allows the deployment of densely packed microcells,
thus giving substantial capacity gains in a system.
 TDMA also makes it possible to introduce adaptive channel
allocation (ACA). ACA eliminates system planning since it
is not required to plan frequencies for cells.
Various proposed standards such as the GSM, U.S digital cellular
(USDC), and Pacific Digital Cellular (PDC) have adopted digital
TDMA for high capacity.
9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular
CDMA
 The capacity of CDMA systems is interference limited
while it is bandwidth limited in FDMA and TDMA.
 Reduction in the interference will cause a linear increase in the
capacity of CDMA.
 Link performance for each user increases as the number of users
decreases.
 Ways to reduce interference:
 multisectorized antennas
 Operate in a discontinuous transmission mode (DTX)

 CDMA can reuse the entire spectrum for all cells

Results in an increase of capacity by a large percentage over the normal
frequency reuse factor.
9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular
CDMA
Capacity of a single cell CDMA system

 forward link:
 The cell-site transmitter linearly combines the spread signals
of the individual users.
 A weighting factor for each signal is used for power control.
For a single cell system weighting factors can be assumed to be
equal.
 A pilot signal is also included in the cell-site transmitter
Used by each mobile to set its own power control for the reverse link.

 Reverse link:
 All the signals on the reverse channel are received at the same
power level at the base station
9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular
CDMA
Derivation of the capacity:
 Let the number of users be N. Then, each Demodulator at the cell site
receives a composite waveform containing the desired signal of
power S and (N-1) interfering users, each of which has power, S.
Thus, the signal-to-noise ratio is

 The SNR at the base station receiver can be represented in terms of

Eb/N0 given by

 Take the background thermal noise into consideration, Eb/N0 can be

represented as

 Then the number of users that can access the system is

W/R is called the processing gain.

9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular
CDMAIn order to achieve an increase in capacity, the interference due
to other users should be reduced.

Ways to reduce interference:

 multisectorized antennas
 Results in spatial isolation of users.
 The directional antennas receive signals from only a
fraction of the current users
 Leading to the reduction of interference.
e.g., using three antennas, each having a beam width of
120o, increases the capacity by a factor of 3.
 Operate in a discontinuous transmission mode (DTX)
 Takes advantage of the intermittent nature of speech.
 Transmitter is turned off during the periods of silence in
speech.
Voice signals have a duty factor of about 3/8 in landline
networks and 1/2 for mobile systems.
 The average capacity of a CDMA system can be
increased by a factor inversely proportional to the duty
factor.
9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular
CDMA
 With the use of these two techniques, the new average
value of Eb/No' within a sector is given as

• interference received by a sector antenna, which is one-third of the

interference received by an omni-directional antenna.o
where Ns is the number of users per sector, and N ' is
 When the number of users is large and the system is
interference limited rather than noise limited, the number of
users can be shown to be

When voice activity factor = 3/8, using three sectors, the SNR
increases by a factor of 8, which leads to an 8 fold increase in
the number of users.
9.7.1 Capacity of Cellular
CDMA
CDMA Power Control:
the system capacity is maximized if each mobile
transmitter power level is controlled so that its signal
arrives at the cell site with the minimum required signal-to-
interference ratio.

 if a mobile signal arrives at the cell site with a signal that is

too weak, and often the weak user will be dropped.

 If the received power from a mobile user is too great the

performance of this mobile unit will be acceptable, but it
will add undesired interference to all other users in the cell.