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Telecommunication Systems
Generations of Cellular Networks
1. 2. 3. 4. Analog Cellular Networks 1G Digital Cellular Networks 2G Mobile Broadband Data 3G Native IP Networks 4G

1. Analog Cellular Networks 1G

These are analog telecommunications introduced in 1980s, the radio signals used were analog based. A voice call gets modulated to a higher frequency of about 150MHz and up as it is transmitted between radio towers done by technique called Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA). What is FDMA? Keep in mind that a channel is a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over multiplexed medium such as a radio channel and is used to convey an information signal from transmitter to receiver. It is often measured in Hz as Bandwidth or data rate in bits per second. FDMA (Frequency-Division Multiple Access) is the division of the frequency band allocated for wireless cellular telephone commuication into 30 channels, each of which can carry a voice conversation, or with digital service, carry digital data. With FDMA, each channel can be assigned to only one user at a time. Remember that FDMA uses narrowband channels. As the name tells, FDMA uses FDM which subdivide the frequency dimension into several non-overlapping frequency bands. Each channel is allocated its own frequency band. Senders using a certain frequency band can use this band continuously. Again, guard spaces are needed to avoid frequency band overlapping called adjacent channel interface. This scheme is used for radio stations within the same region, where each radio station has its own frequency. Keep in mind that Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) systems are the total available bandwidth is split into many channels of smaller bandwidth plus guard spaces between the channels. Transmitter and receiver stay on one of these channels for a certain tme and then hop to another channel. The pattern of channel usage is called the hopping sequence. The reason to using hopping pattern is that it is highly resistant to narrowband interference. But in case of FDMA, hopping patterns are typically fixed, at least for a longer period because in FDM scheme, the receiver must be able to tune to the right frequency. As an example of an FDM system, Commercial broadcast radio (AM and FM radio) simultaneously transmits multiple signals or "stations" over the airwaves. These stations each get their own frequency band to use, and a radio can be tuned to receive each different station. Another good example is cable television, which simultaneously transmits every channel, and the TV "tunes in" to which channel it wants to watch. Further FDMA shall be discussed in 2G.

2 Concept of Uplink and Downlink? Since now we are familiar with FDM and FDMA, a question comes in mind that why sudden use of FDM is needed? Actually FDM is used for simultaneous access to the medium by base station and mobile station in cellular networks. Here the two partners typically establish a duplex channel. The two directions, mobile station to base station is called uplink and base station to mobile station is called downlink are separated using different frequencies and thus pattern is to be known as Frequency Division Duplex (FDD). Both partners have to know the frequencies in advance whether in 1G or 2G, they cannot just listen into the medium. Usage of 1G AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) is used for 1G in United States. Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) was a 1G standard used in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), as well as in its neighboring countries Switzerland and Netherlands, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Italy used a telecommunications system called RTMI. In the United Kingdom, Total Access Communication System (TACS) was used. France used Radiocom 2000. In West Germany, Portugal, and South Africa, a telecommunications system known as C-450 was used. Two competing systems in Japan, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and DDI, developed various standards: NTT developed TZ-801, TZ-802 and TZ-803, while DDI developed a standard called Japan Total Access Communications System (JTACS). Note: The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G generation) was launched in Japan by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nationwide 1G network. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming. The first 1G network launched in the USA was Chicago-based Ameritech in 1983 using the Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone. Several countries then followed in the early-to-mid 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. Properties of 1G Used for voice purposes only, the technology didnt provide for SMS(Short Messaging Service) or other data services. It is circuit switched obviously by analog means, using electromechanical switches. This means that when you place a call, a connection is established for you, and is maintained until you hang up. You are billed for the duration of the call, regardless of how much talking occurred. This is appropriate for voice communication where one person or the other is talking at any point in time. 1G speeds vary between that of a 28k modem(28kbit/s) and 56k modem(56kbit/s), meaning actual download speeds of 2.9KBytes/s to 5.6KBytes/s. It has low capacity, unreliable handoff, poor voice links, and no security at all since voice calls were played back in radio towers, making these calls susceptible to unwanted eavesdropping by third parties. Concept of Circuit Switching Circuit switching is a methodology of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel (circuit) through the network before the nodes may communicate. The

3 circuit guarantees the full bandwidth of the channel and remains connected for the duration of the communication session. The circuit functions as if the nodes were physically connected as with an electrical circuit. The defining example of a circuit-switched network is the early analog telephone network. When a call is made from one telephone to another, switches within the telephone exchanges create a continuous wire circuit between the two telephones, for as long as the call lasts. In circuit switching, the bit delay is constant during a connection, as opposed to packet switching, where packet queues may cause varying and potentially indefinitely long packet transfer delays. No circuit can be degraded by competing users because it is protected from use by other callers until the circuit is released and a new connection is set up. Even if no actual communication is taking place, the channel remains reserved and protected from competing users. While circuit switching is commonly used for connecting voice circuits, the concept of a dedicated path persisting between two communicating parties or nodes can be extended to signal content other than voice. Its advantage is that it provides for continuous transfer without the overhead associated with packets making maximal use of available bandwidth for that communication. Its disadvantage is that it can be relatively inefficient because unused capacity guaranteed to a connection cannot be used by other connections on the same network.

2. Digital Cellular Networks 2G

There are two 2G technologies GSM and CDMA, that are incompatible with each other in every respect. We shall discuss only GSM right now first. It is also circuit switched.

GSM
GSM represents todays most successful digital mobile telecommunication system. It is used by over 100 million people in more than 130 countries worldwide. Back in early 1980s, Europe was facing problems of many co-existing analog mobile phone systems, which were often based on similar standards e.g. NMT 450, but running on slightly different carrier frequencies. To avoid this situation for a second generation fully digital system, the GSM was founded in 1982. Formerly GSM was known as Groupe Speciale Mobile and now is known to be as Global System for Mobile Communications. The primary goal of GSM was to provide a mobile phone system that allows roaming of users through Europe and provides voice services compatible to ISDN and other PSTN systems. What is ISDN and PSTN? The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by switching centers, thus allowing any telephone in the world to communicate with any other. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital in its core and includes mobile as well as fixed telephones. Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network. ISDN is a circuit-switched telephone network system, which also provides access to packet switched networks, designed to allow digital transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in potentially better voice

4 quality than an analog phone can provide. It offers circuit-switched connections (for either voice or data), and packetswitched connections (for data), in increments of 64 kilobit/s. Versions of GSM GSM 900 (Uplink=890-915MHz, Downlink=935-960MHz) GSM 1800 (Uplink=1710-1785MHz, Downlink=1805-1880MHz) called DCS (Digital Cellular System) GSM 1900 (Uplink=1850-1910MHz, Downlink=1930-1990MHz) called PCS (Personal Communication Service) What is PLMN? A PLMN is a network that is established and operated by an administration for the specific purpose of providing land mobile telecommunications services to the public. A PLMN is identified by the Mobile Country Code (MCC) and the Mobile Network Code (MNC). Each operator providing mobile services has its own PLMN. PLMNs interconnect with other PLMNs and Public switched telephone networks (PSTN) for telephone communications or with internet service providers for data and internet access of which links are defined as interconnect links between providers. Concept of TDMA It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This allows multiple stations to share the same transmission medium (e.g. radio frequency channel) while using only a part of its channel capacity. TDMA is a type of Time-division multiplexing, with the special point that instead of having one transmitter connected to one receiver, there are multiple transmitters. In the case of the uplink from a mobile phone to a base station this becomes particularly difficult because the mobile phone can move around and vary the timing advance required to make its transmission match the gap in transmission from its peers. GSM combines TDMA with Frequency Hopping and wideband transmission to minimize common types of interference. In the GSM system, the synchronization of the mobile phones is achieved by sending timing advance commands from the base station which instructs the mobile phone to transmit earlier and by how much. This compensates for the propagation delay resulting from the light speed velocity of radio waves. The mobile phone is not allowed to transmit for its entire time slot, but there is a guard interval at the end of each time slot. As the transmission moves into the guard period, the mobile network adjusts the timing advance to synchronize the transmission. Initial synchronization of a phone requires even more care. Before a mobile transmits there is no way to actually know the offset required. For this reason, an entire time slot has to be dedicated to mobiles attempting to contact the network (known as the RACH in GSM). The mobile attempts to broadcast at the beginning of the time slot, as received from the network. If the mobile is located next to the base station, there will be no time delay and this will succeed. If, however, the mobile phone is at just less than 35 km from the base station, the time delay will mean the mobile's broadcast arrives at the very end of the time slot. In that case, the mobile will be instructed to broadcast its messages starting nearly a whole time slot earlier than would be expected otherwise. Finally, if the mobile is beyond the 35 km cell range in GSM, then the RACH will arrive in a neighbouring time slot and be ignored. It is this feature, rather than limitations of power, that limits the range of a GSM cell to 35 km when no special extension techniques are used. By changing the synchronization between the uplink and downlink at the base station, however, this limitation can be overcome. For cellular, TDMA triples the capacity of the original analog method (FDMA). It divides each channel into three subchannels providing service to three users instead of one. The GSM cellular system is also based on TDMA, but GSM defines the entire network, not just the air interface. From here we can say GSM is TDMA/FDMA/FDD system.

Interfaces in GSM
GSM provides voice and data services by means of interfaces which provides connectivity between station to networks. Through this ease, GSM has defined its services in three different categories i.e. 1) bearer 2) tele and 3) supplementary of which all shall be discussed later. 1) Um Interface (Radio Interface) A mobile station (MS) is connected to the GSM public land mobile network (PLMN) via the Um interface. In other words, Um interface is the air interface for the GSM mobile telephone standard between the mobile station (MS) and the Base transceiver station (BTS). It is called Um because it is the mobile analog to the U interface of ISDN. It consists of many mechanisms for multiplexing and media access. Concept of SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access) It is used for allocating a separated space to users in wireless networks. Its application is assigning an optimal base station to a mobile phone user. Here GSM implements SDMA using cells with BTS and assigns an MS to a BTS. Also furthermore, FDD is used to separate downlink and uplink. Media Access for GSM combines TDMA and FDMA. In GSM 900, there are 124 channels are used for FDMA. Each channel is 200kHz wide. In GSM 1800, 374 channels are used for FDMA