Technologies

The key technologies used in cellular mobile radio include cellular frequency reuse, analog cellular (1st generation), digital mobile radio (2nd generation), packet based digital radio (2 ½ generation), and wideband radio (3rd generation).

Cellular Frequency Reuse

In early mobile radio telephone systems, one high-power transmitter served a large geographic area with a limited number of radio channels. Because each radio channel requires a certain frequency bandwidth (radio spectrum) and there is a very limited amount of radio spectrum available, this dramatically limits the number of radio channels that keeps the low serving capacity of such systems. For example, in 1976, New York City had only 12 radio channels to support 545 customers and a two-year long waiting list of typically 3,700 [1].

To conserve the limited amount of radio spectrum (maximum number of available radio channels), the cellular system concept was developed. Cellular systems allow reuse of the same channel frequencies many times within a geographic coverage area. The technique, called frequency reuse, makes it possible for a system to provide service to more customers (called system capacity) by reusing the channels that are available in a geographic area. In large systems such as the systems operating in New York City and Los Angeles, radio channel frequencies may be reused over 300 times. As systems start to become overloaded with many users, to increase capacity, the system can expand by simply adding more radio channels to the base station or by adding more cell cites with smaller coverage areas.

To minimize interference in this way, cellular system planners position the cell sites that use the same radio channel farthest away from each other. The distances between sites are initially planned by general RF signal propagation rules. But it is difficult to account for enough propagation factors to precisely position the towers , so the cell site position and power levels are usually adjusted later.

Figure 1.3 shows that radio channels (frequencies) in a cellular communication system can be reused in towers that have enough distance between them. This example shows that radio channel signal strength decreases exponentially with distance. As a result, mobile radios that are far enough apart can use the same radio channel frequency with minimal interference.

Figure 1.3: Frequency Reuse

The acceptable distance between cells that use the same channels are determined by the distance to radius (D/R) ratio. The D/R ratio is the ratio of the distance (D) between cells using the same radio frequency to the radius (R) of the cells . In today s analog system, a typical D/R ratio is 4.6:1 a channel used in a cell with a 1-mile radius would not interfere with the same channel being reused at a cell 4.6 miles away. For some of the digital systems (such as TDMA or GSM), the reuse factor can be lower than 2.0.

Another technique, called cell splitting, helps to expand capacity gradually. Cells are split by adjusting the power level and/or using reduced antenna height to cover a reduced area. Reducing a coverage area by changing the RF boundaries of a cell site has the same effect as placing cells farther apart, and allows new cell sites to be added. However, the boundaries of a cell site vary with the terrain and land conditions, especially with seasonal variations in foliage. Coverage areas can actually increase in fall and winter as the leaves fall from the trees.

When a cellular system is first established, it can effectively serve only a limited number of callers . When that limit is exceeded, callers experience system busy signals (known as blocking) and their calls cannot be completed. More callers can be served by adding more cells with smaller coverage areas - that is, by cell splitting. The increased number of smaller cells provides more available radio channels in a given area because it allows radio channels to be reused at closer geographical distances.

Analog Cellular

To allow for the conversion from analog systems to digital systems, some cellular technologies allow for the use of dual mode or multi-mode mobile telephones. These handsets are capable of operating on an analog or digital radio channel, depending on whichever is available. Most dual mode phones prefer to use digital radio channels, in the event both are available. This allows them to take advantage of the additional capacity and new features such as short messaging and digital voice quality, as well as offering greater capacity.

Cellular systems have several key differences that include the radio channel bandwidth, access technology type (FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA), data signaling rates of their control channel(s) and power levels. Analog cellular systems have very narrow radio channels that vary from 10 kHz to 30 kHz. Digital systems channel bandwidth ranges from 30 kHz to 1.25 MHz. Access technologies determine how mobile telephones obtain service and how they share each radio channel. The data signaling rates determine how fast messages can be sent on control channels. The RF power level of mobile telephones and how the power level is controlled ordinarily determines how far away the mobile telephone can operate from the base station (radio tower).

Regardless of the size and type of radio channels, all cellular and PCS systems allow for full duplex operation. Full duplex operation is the ability to have simultaneous communications between the caller and the called person. This means a mobile telephone must be capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving to the radio tower. The radio channel from the mobile telephone to the radio tower is called the uplink and the radio transmission channel from the base station to the mobile telephone is called the downlink. The uplink and downlink radio channels are normally separated by 45 MHz to 80 MHz.

One of the key characteristics of cellular systems is their ability to handoff (also called handover) calls from one radio tower to another while a call is in process. Handoff is an automatic process that is a result of system monitoring and short control messages that are sent between the mobile phone and the system while the call is in progress. The control messages are so short that the customer usually cannot perceive that the handoff has occurred.

Analog cellular systems are regularly characterized by their use of analog modulation (commonly FM modulation) to transfer voice information. Ironically, almost all analog cellular systems use separate radio channels for sending system control messages. These are digital radio channels.

In early mobile radio systems, a mobile telephone scanned the limited number of available channels until it found an unused one, which allowed it to initiate a call. Because the analog cellular systems in use today have hundreds of radio channels, a mobile telephone cannot scan them all in a reasonable amount of time. To quickly direct a mobile telephone to an available channel, some of the available radio channels are dedicated as control channels. Most cellular systems use two types of radio channels, control channels and voice channels. Control channels carry only digital messages and signals, which allow the mobile telephone to retrieve system control information and compete for access.

Control channels only carry control information such as paging (alert) and channel assignment messages. Voice channels are primarily used to transfer voice information. However, voice channels must also be capable of sending and receive some digital control messages to allow for necessary frequency and power changes during a call.

Current analog systems serve only one subscriber at a time on a radio channel, so the number of radio channels available influences system capacity. However, a typical subscriber uses the system for only a few minutes a day, so on a daily basis, and many subscribers share a single channel. As a rule, 20 - 32 subscribers share each radio channel [2], depending upon the average talk time per hour per subscriber. Generally, a cell with 50 channels can support 1000 - 1600 subscribers.

The basic operation of an analog cellular system involves initiation of the phone when it is powered on, listening for paging messages (idle), attempting access when required and conversation (or data) mode.

When a mobile telephone is first powered on, it initializes itself by searching (scanning) a predetermined set of control channels and then tuning to the strongest one. During the initialization mode, it listens to messages on the control channel to retrieve system identification and setup information.

After initialization, the mobile telephone enters the idle mode and waits to be paged for an incoming call and senses if the user has initiated ( dialed ) a call (access). When a call begins to be received or initiated, the mobile telephone enters system access mode to try to access the system via a control channel. When it gains access, the control channel sends an initial voice channel designation message indicating an open voice channel. The mobile telephone then tunes to the designated voice channel and enters the conversation mode. As the mobile telephone operates on a voice channel, the system uses Frequency Modulation (FM) similar to commercial broadcast FM radio. To send control messages on the voice channel, the voice information is either replaced by a short burst (blank and burst) message or in some systems, control messages can be sent along with the audio signal.

A mobile telephone s attempt to obtain service from a cellular system is referred to as access . Mobile telephones compete on the control channel to obtain access from a cellular system. Access is attempted when a command is received by the mobile telephone indicating the system needs to service that mobile telephone (such as a paging message indicating a call to be received) or as a result of a request from the user to place a call. The mobile telephone gains access by monitoring the busy/idle status of the control channel both before and during transmission of the access attempt message. If the channel is available, the mobile station begins to transmit and the base station simultaneously monitors the channel s busy status. Transmissions must begin within a prescribed time limit after the mobile station finds that the control channel access is free, or the access attempt is stopped on the assumption that another mobile telephone has possibly gained the attention of the base station control channel receiver.

If the access attempt succeeds, the system sends out a channel assignment message commanding the mobile telephone to tune to a cellular voice channel. When a subscriber dials the mobile telephone to initiate a call, it is called origination . A call origination access attempt message is sent to the cellular system that contains the dialed digits, identity information along with other information. If the system allows service, the system will assign a voice channel by sending a voice channel designator message, if a voice channel is available. If the access attempt fails, the mobile telephone waits a random amount of time before trying again. The mobile station uses a random number generating algorithm internally to determine the random time to wait. The design of the system minimizes the chance of repeated collisions between different mobile stations which are both trying to access the control channel, since each one waits a different random time interval before trying again if they have already collided on their first, simultaneous attempt.

To receive calls, a mobile telephone is notified of an incoming call by a process called paging. A page is a control channel message that contains the telephone s Mobile Identification Number (MIN) or telephone number of the desired mobile phone. When the telephone determines it has been paged, it responds automatically with a system access message that indicates its access attempt is the result of a page message and the mobile telephone begins to ring to alert the customer of an incoming telephone call. When the customer answers the call (user presses SEND or TALK ), the mobile telephone transmits a service request to the system to answer the call. It does this by sending the telephone number and an electronic serial number to provide the users identity.

After a mobile telephone has been commanded to tune to a radio voice channel, it sends mostly voice or other customer information. Periodically, control messages may be sent between the base station and the mobile telephone. Control messages may command the mobile telephone to adjust its power level, change frequencies, or request a special service (such as three way calling).

To conserve battery life, a mobile phone may be permitted by the base station to only transmit when it senses the mobile telephone s user is talking. When there is silence, the mobile telephone may stop transmitting for brief periods of time (several seconds). When the mobile telephone user begins to talk again, the transmitter is turned on again. This is called discontinuous transmission.

Figure 1.4 shows a basic analog cellular system. This diagram shows that there are two types of radio channels; control channels and voice channels. Control channels typically use frequency shift keying (FSK) to send control messages (data) between the mobile phone and the base station. Voice channels typically use FM modulation with brief bursts of digital information to allow control messages (such as handoff) during conversation. Base stations typically have two antennas for receiving and one for transmitting. Dual receiver antennas increases the ability to receive the radio signal from mobile telephones which typically have a much lower transmitter power level than the transmitters in the base station. Base stations are connected to a mobile switching center (MSC) typically by a high speed telephone line or microwave radio system. This interconnection must allow both voice and control information to be exchanged between the switching system and the base station. The MSC is connected to the telephone network to allow mobile telephones to be connected to standard landline telephones.

Figure 1.4: Analog Cellular System (1st Generation)

Digital Mobile Radio

There are two basic types of systems; analog and digital. Analog systems commonly use FM modulation to transfer voice information and digital systems use some form of phase modulation to transfer digital voice and data information. Although analog systems are capable of providing many of the services that digital systems offer, digital systems offer added flexibility as many of the features can be created by software changes. The trend at the end of the 1990 s was for analog systems to convert to digital systems.

Digital mobile radio systems are often characterized by their type of access technology (TDMA or CDMA). The access technology determines how that digital information is transferred to and from the cellular system.

Digital cellular systems can ordinarily serve several subscribers on a single radio channel at the same time. Depending on the type of system, this can range from 3 to over 20. To allow this, almost all digital cellular systems share the fundamental characteristics of digitizing and compressing voice information to accomplish this. This allows a single radio channel to be divided into several sub-channels (communication channels). Each communication channel can serve a single customer.

Because each subscriber typically uses the cellular system for only a few minutes a day, several subscribers can share each one of these communication channels during the day. As a rule, 20 - 32 subscribers can share each communication channel; so if a digital radio channel has 8 communications channels (sub-channels), a cell site with 25 radio channels can support 4000 to 6400 subscribers.

Digital cellular systems use two key types of communication channels, control channels and voice channels. A control channel on a digital system is usually one of the sub-channels on the radio channel. This allows digital systems to combine a control channel and one or more voice channels on a single radio channel. The portion of the radio channel that is dedicated as a control channel carries only digital messages and signals that allow the mobile telephone to retrieve system control information and compete for access. The other sub-channels on the radio channel carry voice or data information.

The basic operation of a digital cellular system involves initiation of the phone when it is powered on, listening for paging messages (idle), attempting access when required and conversation (or data) mode.

When a digital mobile telephone is first powered on, it initializes itself by searching (scanning) a predetermined set of control channels and then tuning to the strongest one. During the initialization mode, it listens to messages on the control channel to retrieve system identification and setup information. Compared to analog systems, digital systems have more communication and control channels. This can result in the mobile phone taking more time to search for control channels. To quickly direct a mobile telephone to an available control channel, digital systems use several processes to help a mobile telephone to find an available control channel. Theseinclude having the phone memorize its last successful control channel location, a table of likely control channel locations and a mechanism for pointing to the location of a control channel on any of the operating channels.

After a digital mobile telephone has initialized , it enters an idle mode where it waits to be paged for an incoming call or for the user to initiate a call. When a call begins to be received or initiated, the mobile telephone enters system access mode to try to access the system via a control channel. When it gains access, the control channel sends a digital traffic channel designation message indicating an open communications channel. This channel may be on a different time slot on the same frequency or to a time slot on a different frequency. The digital mobile telephone then tunes to the designated communications channel and enters the conversation mode. As the mobile telephone operates on a digital voice channel, the digital system commonly uses some form of phase modulation (PM) to send and receive digital information.

A mobile telephone s attempt to obtain service from a cellular system is referred to as access . Digital mobile telephones compete on the control channel to obtain access from a cellular system. Access is attempted when a command is received by the mobile telephone indicating the system needs to service that mobile telephone (such as a paging message indicating a call to be received) or as a result of a request from the user to place a call. Digital mobile telephones usually have the ability to validate their identities more securely during access than analog mobile telephones. This is made possible by a process called authentication. Authentication processes share secret data between the digital mobile phone and the cellular system.

If the authentication is successful, the system sends out a channel assignment message commanding the mobile telephone to change to a new communication channel and conversation can begin.

After a mobile telephone has been commanded to tune to a radio voice channel, it sends digitized voice or other customer data. Periodically, control messages may be sent between the base station and the mobile telephone. Control messages may command the mobile telephone to adjust its power level, change frequencies, or request a special service (such as three way calling). To send control messages while the digital mobile phone is transferring digital voice, the voice information is either replaced by a short burst (called blank and burst or fast signaling), or else control messages can be sent along with the digitized voice signals (called slow signaling).

Most digital telephones automatically conserve battery life as they transmit only for short periods of time (bursts). In addition to savings through digital burst transmission, digital phones ordinarily have the capability of discontinuous transmission that allows the inhibiting of the transmitter during periods of user silence. When the mobile telephone user begins to talk again, the transmitter is turned on again. The combination of the power savings allows some digital mobile telephones to have 2 to 5 times the battery life in the transmit mode.

Digital technology increases system efficiency by voice digitization, speech compression (coding), channel coding, and the use of spectrally efficient radio signal modulation.

Standard voice digitization in the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) produces a data rate of 64 kilobits per second (kbps). Because transmitting a digital signal via radio requires about 1 Hz of radio bandwidth for each bps, an uncompressed digital voice signal would require more than 64 kHz of radio bandwidth. Without compression, this bandwidth would make digital transmission less efficient than analog FM cellular, which uses only 25-30 kHz for a single voice channel. Therefore, digital systems compress speech information using a voice coder or Vocoder. Speech coding removes redundancy in the digital signal and attempts to ignore data patterns that are not characteristic of the human voice. The result is a digital signal that represents the voice audio frequency spectrum content, not a waveform.

A vocoder characterizes the input signal. It looks up codes in a code book table that represents various digital patterns to choose the pattern that comes closest to the input digitized signal. The amount of digitized speech compression used in digital cellular systems varies. For the IS-136 TDMA system, the compression is 8:1. For CDMA, the compression varies from 8:1 to 64:1 depending on speech activity. GSM systems compress the voice by 5:1.

As a general rule, with the same amount of speech coding analysis, the fewer bits used to characterize the waveform, the poorer the speech quality. If the complexity (signal processing) of the speech coder can be increased, it is possible to get improved voice quality with fewer bits.

Voice digitization and speech coding take processing time. Typically, speech frames are digitized every 20 msec and inputted to the speech coder. The compression process, time alignment with the radio channel, and decompression at the receiving end all delay the voice signal. The combined delay can add up to 50-100 msec. Although such a delay is not usually noticeable in two-way conversation, it can cause an annoying echo when a speaker- phone is used, or the side tone of the signal is high (so the users can hear themselves ). However, an echo canceller can be used in the MSC to process the signal and remove the echo.

Once the digital speech information is compressed, control information bits must be added along with extra bits to protect from errors that will be introduced during radio transmission. The combined digital signal (compressed digitized voice and control information) is sent to the radio modulator where it is converted to a digitized RF signal. The efficient conversion to the RF signal constantly involves some form of phase shift modulation.

Figure 1.5 shows a basic digital cellular system. This diagram shows that there usually is only one type of digital radio channel called a digital traffic channel (DTC). The digital radio channel is ordinarily sub-divided into control channels and digital voice channels. Both the control channels and voice channels use the same type of digital modulation to send control and content data between the mobile phone and the base station. When used for voice, the digital signal is usually a compressed digital signal that is from a speech coder. When conversation is in progress, some of the digital bits are usually dedicated for control information (such as handoff). Similar to analog systems, digital base stations have two antennas that increases the ability to receive weak radio signals from mobile telephones. Base stations are connected to a mobile switching center (MSC) normally by a high speed telephone line or microwave radio system. This interconnection may allow compressed digital information (directly from the speech coder) to increase the number of voice channels that can be shared on a single connection line. The MSC is connected to the telephone network to allow mobile telephones to be connected to standard landline telephones.

Figure 1.5: Digital Cellular System (2nd Generation)

Packet Based Digital Cellular (Generation 2.5)

Packet Based Cellular (commonly called - generation 2.5, or 2.5G) are 2nd Generation cellular technologies that have been enhanced to provide for advanced communication applications. Packet based digital cellular systems help the industry transition from one capability to a much more advanced capability. In cellular telecommunications, 2.5G systems used improved digital radio technology to increase their data transmission rates and new packet based technology to increase the system efficiency for data users.

Figure 1.6 shows a 2nd generation digital cellular system that has been upgraded to offer similar features as 3rd generation systems. This diagram shows that the existing 2nd generation digital radio channel bandwidth is reused. In some cases, the modulation technology has been changed to allow for higher data transfer rates. In all cases, the digital traffic channel (DTC) is upgraded to allow for both circuit switched and packet data transmission capability. This is accomplished by dividing the digital radio channel into more control channels and digital communication channels (voice and data). This diagram shows that the digital radio channel can be connected to the existing mobile communication network for voice services or it can be connected (sometimes simultaneously) to a packet data network (such as the Internet) to allow for multimedia communication services.

Figure 1.6: Upgraded Digital Cellular System (2 1/2 Generation)

Wideband Digital Cellular (3rd Generation)

Wideband Digital Cellular (commonly called 3rd generation) is cellular technology that uses wideband digital radio technology as compared to 2nd generation narrowband digital radio.

Figure 1.7 shows a wideband digital cellular system that permits very high- speed data transmission rates through the use of relatively wide radio channels. In this system, the radio channels are much wider many tens of times wider than 2nd generation radio channels. This allows wideband digital cellular systems to send high-speed data to communication devices. This system also uses communication servers to help to manage multimedia communication sessions. Aside from the use of wideband radio channels and enhanced packet data communication, this diagram shows that 3rd generation systems typically use the same voice network switching systems (such as the MSC) as 2nd generation mobile communications systems.

Figure 1.7: Wideband Digital Cellular System (3rd Generation)