MODULE-3

Multiple access techniques: FDMA, TDMA,

CDMA, OFDMA techniques – Features and
comparison.
Mobile communication systems: History of
mobile communication system-1G, 2G, 3G, 4G,
5G. Global System for Mobile Communication
(GSM)- features and services, GSM architecture,
GSM channel types. Architectural review of UMTS.
Problem:
For any wireless service, only a fixed limited finite amount
of radio spectrum (or number of channels) is available to
provide simultaneous communication links to many
subscribers in a given service area.

Solution:
Multiple access techniques are used to achieve high subscriber
capacity by sharing the available limited spectrum among
many subscribers simultaneously, while maintaining the
desired quality of communications.
Four basic forms of multiple access techniques:
1. Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
2. Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
3. Spread Spectrum Multiple Access (SSMA)
4. Space-Division Multiple Access (SDMA).
FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLE
ACCESS
FDD
• Same frequency for uplink and
downlink
• Macro cellular for several Kms
• Base station dynamically assigns
frequencies
• A forward channel is used to transfer
data from the cell-site to the mobile
subscriber
• Reverse channel is used to transfer
data from the mobile subscriber to the
cell-site.
• Each pair of communicating mobile
subscribers is assigned different
frequency channels to enable full
 The structure of forward and reverse channels in FDMA

. If there are N channels in a FDMA system, the total bandwidth

Bt is equal to N × Bc. A guard band Wg is used to minimise
adjacent channel interference between two adjacent channels,
In order to minimise adjacent channel
interference, two design measures are usually
considered:

– The power spectral density of the modulated signal is controlled so

that the power radiated into the adjacent band is at least 60 to 80 dB
below that in the desired band. This requirement can be achieved with
the use of highly selective filters in the system design.
– Usually, it is extremely difficult to achieve the desired filter
characteristic so as not to cause adjacent channel interference. Guard
bands are inserted as buffer frequency zones in adjacent channels.
• In general, the spectral efficiency in FDMA systems
depends on how closely the individual channels
(frequency subbands) can be assigned.
• There are several factors that limit the adjacent
channel spacing, the most important of which is
adjacent channel interference (ACI).
• The transmitter RF power amplifiers or the transmitter
multichannel power combiners are nonlinear devices when
operated at or near saturation signal levels for maximum power
efficiency.
• The nonlinearities cause spreading of the signal in the frequency
domain and generate intermodulation frequencies which are
undesirable harmonics.
• Harmonic frequencies generated within the operating frequency
band cause interference to other subscribers active in the same
wireless system at that time.
• Harmonic frequencies generated outside the operational
frequency band cause interference to other wireless services
operating in those adjacent bands.
 A useful feature of FDMA systems is that the radio
transmission takes place over a narrow channel of
bandwidth (B/N) Hz for each mobile subscriber.

Due to narrowband transmissions, flat fading may be

experienced by the signal.
The number of channels, N that
can be simultaneously
supported in an FDMA system is
given by
N = (Bt- 2 Bg) / Bc
Where
Bt is the total spectrum
allocation
Bg is the guard band allocated
at the edge of the allocated
spectrum band
Bc is the channel bandwidth.
DISADVANTAGES
• If the assigned channel is not in use • FDMA is usually implemented in
then it remains idle and cannot be narrowband systems. The
used by other mobile subscribers. bandwidths of FDMA channels are
• This is clearly wastage of spectrum relatively narrow (for example, 30
resource. The utilisation of a channel kHz in AMPS) as each channel
during free time is essential to supports only one communication
increase system capacity. link per carrier.
• FDMA requires tight RF filtering to • The symbol time of a narrowband
minimise adjacent channel signal is large as compared to the
interference. Therefore, there is a average delay spread. This implies
need to use costly bandpass filters that the amount of intersymbol
to eliminate spurious radiations at interference is also low.
the base stations. • So there may not be any
• Because of the single channel per requirement to implement
carrier design, FDMA systems have equalisation in FDMA narrowband
higher cell site system costs. systems which is certainly an
advantage.
TIME DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS
 CDMA
spread-spectrum multiple access
or code-division multiple access
(CDMA).
 CDMA refers to a multiple access technique in which the
individual mobile subscribers occupy the complete spectrum
whenever they transmit.
 Many mobile subscribers can occupy the same spectrum at
the same time.
 The integration of different types of traffic such as voice, data,
and video can be readily accomplished in a CDMA
environment, as subscribers do not require any specific
coordination.
 CDMA is a form of spread spectrum modulation in which
subscribers are allowed to use the available spectrum, but
their signal must be spread with a specific PN code to
distinguish it from other signals.
 In CDMA, all subscribers transmit information simultaneously
by using the same carrier frequency. Each subscriber has its
own code word, which is orthogonal to code words of other
subscribers.
 To detect the information, the receiver should know the exact
code word used by the transmitter and perform a time
correlation operation.
 All other code words appears as noise due to de-correlation
and power should be high to minimize this noise power at the
receiver end.
In a CDMA system, different
spread-spectrum codes are
generated by the PN code
generator and assigned to each
subscriber, and multiple
subscribers share the same
frequency
CDMA/FDD that is used in second-
generation IS-95 and third-
generation IMT-2000 digital cellular
systems in which the forward and
reverse channels use different
carrier frequencies.
In a CDMA/TDD system, the same
carrier frequency is used for uplink
and downlink transmissions.
 In CDMA, each active mobile subscriber is a
source of noise to the receiver of other active
mobile subscribers.
 If the number of active mobile subscribers is
increased beyond a certain number in the
system, the whole CDMA system collapses
because the signal received in each specific
mobile receiver will be buried under the noise
caused by many other mobile subscribers.
 The main concern in a CDMA system is how
many active mobile subscribers can
simultaneously use it before the system
collapses!
 The received signals at the cell-site from a faraway mobile subscriber could be masked by
signals from a close-by mobile subscriber in the reverse channel due to the near–far
problem.

 However, by using automatic power control that enables to adjust the mobile transmitting
power enables the system to overcome the near–far problem, and achieve high efficiency
of frequency utilization in a CDMA system.

 A CDMA system is usually quantified by the chip rate of the orthogonal PN codes, which is
defined as the number of bits changed per second. The orthogonality of the codes enables
simultaneous data transmission from many mobile subscribers using the complete
frequency band assigned for a cell-site.

 Each mobile receiver is provided the corresponding PN code so that it can decode the data
it is expected to receive. The encoding in the transmitter and the corresponding decoding
at the receiver make the system design robust but quite complex.
Features of CDMA
• the system performance gradually degrades for all active subscribers
as the number of active subscribers is increased, and improves as the
number of active subscribers is decreased.
• Multipath fading is substantially reduced because the signal is spread
over a large spectrum.
• the inherent frequency diversity will mitigate the effects of small-scale
fading.
• The channel data rates are very high.
• the duration of the symbol or chip is extremely short and usually
much less than the channel delay spread.
CDMA uses cochannel cells in adjacent cells, so it can use
macroscopic spatial diversity scheme to provide soft hand-off.
the self-jamming problem arises if spreading sequences of different
subscribers are not exactly orthogonal.
the near–far problem occurs if the received signal power of a desired
subscriber at the cell-site is less than that of the undesired subscribers
not exactly orthogonal.
Each subscriber operates independently with no knowledge of other
subscribers.
OFDMA
Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is a multi-user
version of the Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) digital-
modulation scheme.
all of the sub-channels are dedicated to a single data source.
The OFDM scheme uses advanced digital signal-processing techniques to
distribute the data over multiple carriers at precise frequencies.
The precise relationship among the subcarriers is referred to as
orthogonality.
This means that the peaks of the power spectral density of each
subcarrier occur at a point at which the power of other subcarriers is zero.
With OFDM, the subcarriers can be packed tightly together because there
is minimal interference between adjacent subcarriers.
• where N is an integer related to the number of
subcarriers, and Fb is the base frequency, centered at
0.
• The entire bandwidth could be used to send the data
stream, in which case each bit duration would be 1/R.
• The alternative is to split the data stream into N
substreams, using a serial-to-parallel converter.

• Each substream has a data rate of R/N bps and is

transmitted on a separate subcarrier, with a spacing
between adjacent subcarriers of Fb.

• Now the bit duration is N/R.

• The base frequency, Fb is the lowest-frequency

subcarrier.

• All of the other subcarriers are integer multiples of

the base frequency, namely 2Fb, 3Fb, and so on.
• For transmission, the set of OFDM subcarriers is further modulated
to a higher frequency band.
• A digital modulation scheme used with OFDM is Quadrature Phase
Shift Keying (QPSK). In this case, each transmitted symbol
represents two bits.
• To minimize ISI, data are transmitted in bursts, with each burst
consisting of a cyclic prefix followed by data symbols.
• The cyclic prefix is used to absorb transients from previous bursts
caused by multipath.
• The resulting waveform created by the combined multipath signals
is not a function of any sample from the previous burst.
ADVANTAGES
• frequency-selective fading affects some subchannels only and not the
complete signal.
• OFDM overcomes intersymbol interference in a multipath
environment.
• allows simultaneous low-data-rate transmission from several users as
well as to support differentiated Quality of Service (QoS), that is, to
control the data rate and error probability individually for each user.
• better system spectral efficiency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYRMYSIVj1o&list=PPSV