Wireless Networks 3

CDMA, 3G and WiMAX

Introduction to WiMAX

Wireless Broadband

Wireless technologies

Proliferating in a major way into the first mile (computers) or the

last mile subscriber access(communication)
This technologies are generally called as Wireless Local
Loop(WLL) or Wireless in Local Loop(WiLL)
Wireless Local Loop

Known as fixed-wireless system

Background
Today world is moving towards a convergence of voice, data
and video
IEEE 802 committee set up the 802.16 working group to
develop wireless broadband or wireless MAN standards
WirelessMAN

Offers an alternative to high bandwidth wired access network like

fiber optic, cable modems and DSL
Popularly known as WiMAX(Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access)

Provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes

from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile Internet access
Provides around 10Mbps bandwidth without the need for cables

WiMAX Deployment Architecture

Release of 802.16 standards in April 2002 has paved way for

the entry of broadband wireless access as a new bearer to
link home and business with core telecommunication
networks

WirelessMAN
Facilitates network access to buildings through exterior
antennas communicating with radio base stations
Provides less expensive access with more ubiquitous broadband
access
Integrates data, voice and video services
Fast network deployment, using a small number of base stations
on buildings / poles
Can grow as the demand increases
At any point of time the number of active users are always a
fraction of the number of subscribers

3 working groups of 802.16 standard

IEEE 802.16.1 Air interface for 10 66 GHz
IEEE 802.16.2 Coexistence of broadband wireless access
systems
IEEE 802.16.3 Air interface for licensed frequency 2 to
11 GHz

802.16 standard - layered architecture

Organized into 3 layered architecture

Physical layer
Specifies the frequency band
Modulation scheme
Error correction techniques
Synchronization between transmitter and receiver
Data rate and the multiplexing structure

MAC layer
Responsible for transmitting data in frames and controlling access to
the shared wireless medium through MAC layer
MAC protocol defines how and when a base station or subscriber
station may initiate transmission on the channel

Convergence Layer
Provides functions specific to the service being provided
IEEE 802.16 bearer services include digital audio / video multicast,
digital telephony, ATM, Internet access, wireless trunks in
telephone networks and frame relay

Telephone

IP

ATM

Multimedia
Outside WiMAX
Standards

Frame Relay

CS SAP

Service-Specific Convergence Sublayer (CS)

MAC SAP

MAC

MAC Common Part Sublayer (MAC CPS)

PHY SAP
Physical Layer (PHY)

WiMAX Protocol Stack

PHY

Within
WiMAX
Standards

Physical Layer

802.16 standards specifies 3 physical layers:

WirelessMAN-SC2 This uses single carrier modulation format

WirlessMAN-OFDM This uses orthogonal frequency-division

multiplexing with a 256-point transform

Supports existing networks and protocols

Access is by TDMA
Air interface is mandatory for license-exempt bands

WirelessMAN-OFDMA This uses orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access with a 2048-point transform

Multiple access is provided by addressing a sub-set of the multiple carriers

to individual receivers

802.16 Medium Access Control

Designed for point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access

It addresses the need for very high bit rates (both uplink to base
station & downlink from the base station)
Supports variety of services like multimedia and voice
Accommodates both continuous and bursty traffic
Facilitates more demanding physical environment and different
service requirements of the frequencies between 2 and 11GHz
The 802.16 project is upgrading the MAC to provide automatic
repeat request (ARQ) and support for mesh

Broadband Applications
Wireless broadband allows higher data rates in home,
offices and even mobile environment
Includes standard Ethernet LAN or WiFi indoor using
802.16d and outdoor mobile using 802.16e
Introduced

IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

Standards

Broadband Mobile Cellular System

In mobile cellular system, the cellular network itself will be
mobile
Cellular system like 3G provides a high data rate
WirelessMAN has also geared up to support high data rate
High data rates are possible with low speed mobility
High speed mobility is still in its infancy, specially designed
for high-speed telematics application

MOBILE BROADBAND
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
WITH MOVING BTS

The above diagram depicts mobile communication system

to support high-speed mobility, this is achieved by installing

Moving base stations

Fixed radio ports uniformly distributed along the median of the
roadway
The moving base stations allow communication links to be
established between the mobile units traveling on the roadway
and a fixed communication network through the fixed radio ports
The small-cell (picocell) architecture of the proposed system
enables the use of extremely lightweight low-power mobile units
that can be used almost anywhere

The picocell here will move in the direction of the moving vehicle
so that the relative speed between them is low
This proposed infrastructure is suitable for high speed multilane
highways in cities, facilitating communication to devices traveling
at a speed up to 150kmph

MOVING TO 3G

Introduction

The world of telecommunications is changing as it is

influenced by

Trends in media convergence

Industry consolidation

Perception of mobile phones has changed significantly over

the last few years and more changes predicted in future

Changes predicted in future are:

Mobile device will be used as integral part of our lives

Data usage of 3G will become important and different from the
traditional voice business
The look of the phone will be as important as usage
A great deal of convergence will take place between information
and communication technology
Mobile communications will be similar to its social positioning,
people will have only a mobile device

To address these challenges and opportunities, the mobile

telecommunication technology needs to adapt new
techniques, facilities and services
The 3G system will offer lot of telecommunication services
like voice, multimedia, video and high speed data
CDMA is the preferred approach for the 3G networks and
systems
cdma2000
standards
are
being
driven
by
Telecommunication Industries Association (TIA)
CDMA uses air interface, which is based on IS-95 and
cdmaOne

Japan 3G standards users Wideband Code Division

Multiple Access (WCDMA) (DoCoMo) version
In Europe, Asia, Australia and many other parts f the world
of 3G has been accepted as Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System(UMTS) and WCDMA
UMTS / WCDMA is being driven by ETSI and is the
normal evolution of GSM / GPRS

Goal of UMTS

Provide more attractive and richer services to the user

Universal Roaming any user will be able to move across the

world and access the network
Higher Bit Rate more speed would open the path towards
multimedia applications
Mobile Fixed Convergence there is a need to offer user crossdomain services
Flexible Service Architecture by standardizing no the services
themselves, but the building blocks that make up the services

International Mobile Telecommunications- 2000

(IMT- 2000)

IMT- 2000

Is the global standard for third generation (3G) wireless

communication
Defined by a set of interdependent ITU Recommendations
Provides a framework for worldwide access of services by linking the
diverse systems of terrestrial and / or satellite based networks
through the synergy between digital mobile telecommunications
technologies and systems for fixed and mobile wireless access systems
It was originally envisioned to be launched in the year 2000 with a
bandwidth of 2000K
Popularly known as 3G - includes EDGE, CDMA 2000, UMTS,
DECT and WiMAX standards

Evolution beyond IMT-2000 and towards 4G

3GPP and 3GPP2 are researching on extensions of current

3G standards

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Ultra Mobile Broadband

Technologies would be fully based on an all-IP network

infrastructure
They are moving towards IMT-Advanced (4G) standards

These standards fall short of the speed requirements for 4G

Standards here are classified as 3.9G or Pre-4G

CDMA - 2000

cdma2000 is the third generation version of cdmaOne / IS-95

Uses Radio Transmission Technology (RTT)

Is a spread spectrum, wideband radio interface
Uses CDMA technology as the underlying modulation technology and
IMT-2000
Addresses the specification for indoor, indoor-to-outdoor,
pedestrian and vehicular environment
Can operate in a wide range if environments like

Indoor / Outdoor picocell (<50 m radius - office floor)

Indoor / Outdoor microcell (upto 1Km radius shopping mall)
Outdoor macrocell (1-35Km radius)
Outdoor megacell ( >35Km radius)
Wireless in Local Loop(WLL)

Multicarrier and Direct Spread in

cdma2000

Supports chip rates of N x 1.2288Mcps (where N=1,3,6,9,12)

Case Multicarrier

N=1 spreading is similar to IS-95

For N>1, if N=3 it is Multicarrier and Direct Spread (see figure)
N>1
The modulation symbols are demultiplexed on to N separate 1.25MHz
carriers where N=3, 6, 9, 12
Each of these carriers is then spread with 1.2288 M chips

Case Direct Spread

N>1
Modulation symbols are spread on a single carrier with a chip rate of
Nx1.2288 M chips where N=3,6,9,12

Multicarrier and Direct Spread

Spectrum in cdma2000

Services

Two types of data services under consideration in

cdma2000

Packet data

Used for asymetric, bursty traffic like Internet browsing / mails

Circuit switched data

Used for delay sensitive real time traffic

Video applications are potential candidates
Needs dedicated channel for the duration of the call

UMTS / WCDMA
Standard body for ETSI for 3G is called UMTS and 3GPP
Some of the CDMA encoding techniques are patented by
Qualcomm
To resolve copyright issues get different flavors of CDMA

ETSI in Europe
ARIB in Japan
Called as Wideband CDMA or WCDMA
WCDMA

Also known as UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) FDD

(Frequency Division Duplex)

Fixed Wireless
3G is commonly associated with mobile phones
3G specification includes the fixed wireless
Currently we use separate links for data and voice
A fixed wireless will make it only one common link
The IMT-2000 specification makes specific provision for 3G
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)
FWA

Is expected to become the mainstream technology in emerging

economies across the globe
In developed countries 3G residential wireless represents a new
horizon for competitive access providers

1.5 Mbps 2Mbps data to home

In India

Some operators are using CDMA 1X technology for WiLL

Offers both mobile and fixed phones
Fixed phone line are example of fixed wireless access
Fixed wireless 3G is converged, multimedia-driven technology

3G utilizes point-to-multipoint network architecture

Transmit data and voice simultaneously at high speeds across core wireless
infrastructure

Application of 3G

Background
3G can work in multiple ways
Can run in tunneling mode or in an application mode
Tunneling mode

Device works more as a pass through device or a modem

Mobile phone is connected to another device like a laptop and
functions as a wireless media interface
Here the intelligence of the phone is not used but only the
communication interface of the phone is used

Application mode

Runs on phone
A 3G mobile phone supports SMS, WAP, Java etc.
A MExE classmark 3 mobile device will have an execution
environment that will allow application development for the
client device
The application platform can be Java (JavaPhone, PersonalJava,
J2ME, JVM) , C / C++ (Symbian, Brew, or PalmOS) or Visual
Basic(Windows CE)
Wireless Telephony Application Interface (WTAI) can also be
used in a WAP environment to access the telephone reosurce

Types of client applications in 3G

Local Applications

Occasionally Connected Computing Environment

The user will connect to the network occasionally

Downloading and uploading of emails are the best example here

Online Applications

Games, cartoon and similar applications

May be downloaded over the air and used offline

Corporate applications like order booking, updating of inventory status

Real-time Applications

Could be real-time sock updates or applications for law-enforcement

agents for real-time tracking or navigational systems

3G Specific Applications
Personal Applications
Content Applications
Communication Applications
Productivity Applications
Business Applications

New and specific to 3G are

Virtual Home Environment (VHE)
Personal Communication Networks (PCN)
Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM)
Audio / Video
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP / Voice over Packet
Network)
Electronic Agents
Downloading of Software and Content
ENUM protocol emerging from work of Internet
Engineering Task Forces Telephone Number

CDMA

SPREAD SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY

Conventional transmission system

Information modulated with a carrier signal

Transmitted through a medium
When transmitted, all the power of the signal is transmitted
centered around a particular frequency
This frequency represents a specific channel and generally has a
very narrow band

Narrow Band and Spread Spectrum

In spread-spectrum the transmission signal bandwidth is

much higher than the information bandwidth
There are numerous ways to cause a carrier to spread

All spread-spectrum systems can be viewed as two steps

modulation processes
First data to be transmitted is modulated
Second carrier is modulated by the spreading code, causing it to
spread out over a large bandwidth

Different spread spectrum techniques

Direct Sequence (DS)

Frequency Hoping (FH)

Spread spectrum used to transmit digital information

Mix digital information stream with a pseudo random code
Center frequency of a conventional carrier is altered many times
within a fixed time period in accordance with a pseudo-random
lists of channels

Chrip

Called as chrip spread spectrum

Employs a carrier that is swept over a range of frequencies
Application in ranging and radar system

Time Hopping

Works in a timehopped signal

The carrier is on-off keyed by the pseudo-noise (PN) sequence
resulting in a very low duty cycle
The speed of keying determines the amount of signal spreading

Hybrid System

Combines the best points of two or more spread spectrum systems

The performance of this system is usually better than can be obtained
with a single spread-spectrum technique for the same cost
The most common hybrids combine both frequency-hopping and
direct-sequence techniques

Amateurs and business community

Are currently authorized to use only two spreading techniques

FH and DS techniques

Rest of the Spread-Spectrum technologies are classified and

used by military and space sciences

IS-95
Telecommunications Industry Associations (TIA)
developed the IS-95 standard
Standard formed the basis for the first CDMA systems
deployed in the cellular band in North America
The IS-95 family of standards is known as cdmaOne
It is a second generation digital mobile communication
system

Speech and Channel Coding

Audio basics

The normal audio range of human being is between 20Hz to 20KHz

This range is normally used for high fidelity CD quality music
In case of telephonic communications where generally human voice is
used, the frequency range of 300 3300Hz is sufficient
For digitization the speech it is sufficient to sample at 8000 samples
per second (assuming a bandwidth of up to 4000 Hz)
Thus for any telephonic quality speech, 12 bits are sufficient to encode
each sample
By logarithmic sampling 12 bits can be reduced to 8 bits per sample

This results in the PCM encoding of the speech and digitization of

the voice at 64Kbps
This digitized voice is then passed through a coding scheme using
Code-Excited Linear Prediction (CELP) algorithm

Case of mobile telecommunication

environment
Signal strength varies with location and movement of the
mobile transmitter / receiver
Signal strength influence error rate which affects the quality
of communication
Due
to varying signal strengths, the mobile
telecommunications system are susceptible to burst errors
What is burst error?

Grouping of errors in adjacent bits as compared to errors that are

dispersed over the whole data block

IS-95 addresses the problem of burst errors by utilizing and

error correction scheme based on encoding and interleaving

IS-95 Architecture

Similar to the network elements within a GSM network

cdmaOne / IS-95 uses CDMA for its radio or last mile

communication
Varies only in the radio interface

Main elements of the reference model are:

Mobile Station (MS)

Base Station (BS)
Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
Home Location Register(HLR)
Data Message Handler (DMH)
Virtual Location Register (VLR)
Authentication Center (AC)
Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
Operations Systems (OS)
Interworking Function(IWF)
External Networks

The IS-95 Architecture Model

Important Components

Data Message Handler (DMH)

Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

Responsible for overall management of the wireless network

Internetworking Functions (IWF)

Provides information about the mobile device for record purposes

The EIR may be located with the MSC or may be located independent
of it

Operating System (OS)

Responsible for collating the billing data

Enables the MSCE to communicate with other networks

External Networks (PSTN)

An ISDN, PLMN or PSPDN

IS-95 Channel Structure

About Channel Structure

IS-95 system operates on the same frequency band as the first generation
AMPS
It uses FDD with 25MHz in each direction
Uses 824 849MHz for forward link
In digital communication, one data path maps on to one communication
channel
In FDMA system one channel occupies a distinct frequency band
In TDMA, it is a distinct timeslot within a frequency
In CDMA, a channel is defined in terms of a code sequence and
frequency
This results in offering a higher channel capacity, which translates into an
overall higher bandwidth

IS-95 uses

Different modulation and spreading technique for forward and

reverse link
Forward link uses 64 Walsh codes to maps 64 logical
channels
The base station simultaneously transmits the user data for all
mobiles in the cell by using different Walsh codes for each mobile
This is spread using a PN (pseudo noise)of length 215 chips
The user data is spread to a channel chip rate of 1.2288Mchips
On the reverse link, channels are identified by long PN sequence

For forward channels

Base stations transmit information in 4 logical channel formats

Pilot channels
Sync channels
Paging channels (PCH)
Traffic channels(Code)

On the reverse link, all mobiles respond in an asynchronous fashion

The user data is encoded, interleaved and then blocks of 6 bits are
mapped to one of the 64 orthogonal Walsh functions
Finally the data is spread by a user specific code of 42 bits
The reverse channel is organized in access and traffic channels

Pilot Channel

The pilot CDMA signal transmitted by a base station provides a

reference to all mobile stations
Assigned a Walsh code of p W0
The pilot signal level for all base stations is kept at 4 6dB, so that
the MS at the cell boundaries should be able to receive the pilot
signal from other cells to decide when to perform handoff
The pilot signals from all base stations use the same PN sequences,
but each base station is identified by a unique tone offset
These offsets are in increments of 64 chips to provide 512 unique
offsets

Sync Channel

Is assigned the Walsh function W32

Is used with the pilot channel to acquire initial time
synchronization
W32 has a pattern of 32 consecutive 0s and 32s
Parameters of Sync channel are

System Identification (SID)

Network Identification (NID)
Pilot short PN sequence offset index
Long-code state
System time
Offset of local time
Daylight saving time indicator and Paging Channel data

Paging Channel

Up to 7 paging channels which transmits control information to the

terminals that do not have calls in progress
The paging channels are assigned the Walsh functions W1 to W7
Message carried by paging channel include:

System Parameter Message like base station identifier, the number of

paging channels and channel number
Neighbor List Message information about neighbor base station
parameter, like the PN offset
Access Parameter Message parameters required by the mobile to
transmit on an access channel
Page Message provides a page to the mobile station
Channel Assignment Message to inform the mobile station to tune to
a new carrier frequency
Data Burst Message data message sent by the base station to the mobile
Authentication Challenge allows the base station to validate the
mobile identity

Role of Access Channel

Used by a terminal without a call in progress

Sends message to the base station for three principal purposes

To originate a call
To respond to a paging messages
To register its location

Each base station information operates with up to 32 access

channels
The messages carried by the access channel include:

Order message, registration message, data burst message,

originate message, authentication challenge response message

IS-95 Forward and Reverse Link

Channel Structures

IS-95 Call Processing

To set up a call or to transmit data, a data path needs to be
established through a traffic channel
To establish a traffic channel, a mobile station in IS-95 goes
through several states like:

System initialization
System idle state
System access
Traffic channel state

Phases in details

In system initialization state the mobile acquires a pilot channel by

searching all the PN offset and selects the strongest pilot (W0) signal
Once the pilot is acquires the sync channel is acquired using the W32
Walsh function and the detected pilot channel
Then the mobile obtains the system configuration and the timing
information
Then the mobile enter the system idle state where it monitors the
paging channel
If a call is being places or received the mobile enters the system access state
where the necessary parameters are exchanged
The mobile transmits its response on the access channel and the base
station transmits its response on the paging channel
When the access attempts is successful the mobile enter the traffic state
In the traffic state voice or data is transcated

CDMA Registration
The registration process is used by the mobile device to
notify its location, status, identification and other
characteristics
Location information is required to page the mobile for an
incoming mobile terminated call
When the MS does power on or power off it goes through
the registration process as well, and the registration
information is stored in HLR
These functions are similar to GSM

Handoff and Roaming

A handover in GSM is called a handoff in IS-95
When a subscriber moves away from a base station, the
signal power reduces drop in connection
Ensuring call does not break some other base station close
to the mobile station needs to attach the mobile to it and let
the call continue without interruption
Handover in GSM is hard handover

The attachment with the current cell is broken first and then a
new connection is setup with another cell
Thus in GSM it is break before make

Handoff in CDMA
Spectrum is spread and everybody gets the same signal
Logically a mobile station in CDMA is always connected to
different base stations at the same time
Handoff here is managed by changing the attachment
Three types of handoffs

Soft handoff
Hard handoff
Softer handoff

Soft and Softer Handoff

Soft Handoff
Is an intercell handoff
Control of a mobile station is assigned to an adjacent sector
or an adjacent cell without dropping the original radio link
The mobile keeps two radio links during the soft handoff
process
Once the new communication link is well established the
original link is dropped
This process is called as make before break this
guarantees no loss of voice during handoff
In the above diagram as the user moves, a soft handoff takes
place from cell B to cell A

Hard Handoff
This is case of interfrequency handoffs
CDMA to CDMA hard handoff is the process in which a
mobile is directed to handoff to a different frequency
assigned to an adjacent cell or a sector
The mobile drops the original link before establishing the
new link
Similar to a GSM handover
The voice is muted momentarily during this process
This handoff is completely fast and cannot be noticed

Softer Handoff
A mobile communicates with two sectors of the same cell
A rake receiver at the base station combines the best
version of the voice frame from the diversity antennas of
the two sectors into a single traffic frame
This is a logical handoff where signal from multiple sectors
are combined instead of switching from one sector to
another

IS -95 Channel Capacity

The channel capacity of CDMA system depends on the

following criteria:

Voice Activity Detection

Sectorization for Capacity
Frequency Reuse Considerations

Note:

The CDMA capacity is about four times that of TDMA and eight tomes
that of FDMA

CDMA versus GSM

GSM

Relatively mature technology

Huge installation base
Experienced operators and equipment manufacturers
Interoperability is well proven
Complete, open and has proven standards
Includes all the specifications from the handset other via the air,
switch, interconnect it with switching and every aspect of mobile
telecommunication

IS-95

Mainly single vendor(Qualcomm cdmaOne) specification

Covers the air interface making it incomplete
CDMA is generally believed to have high potential to address
some the difficult challenges of the past quite efficiently
(Check the table in next slide)

GSM versus 3G

CDMA DATA PROTOCOL STACK