Short Questions & Answers on Mobile Communication

1. What are the technical issues in planning of a cellular network?

Ans-
 Selection of frequency reuse pattern for different radio
transmission Techniques
 Physical deployment and radio coverage modeling
 Plans to account for the growth of the network
 Analysis of the relationship between the capacity, cell size
and the cost of infrastructure

2. What is near-far effect in wireless network?

Ans-
When used with FM or spread spectrum modulation, it is possible for the
strongest user to successfully capture the intended receiver , even when
many users are also transmitting . If the closest transmitter is able to
capture a receiver because of small propagation path loss, it is called as
near –far effect in wireless network.

3. What is mobility management?

Ans-
Mobility management refers to the operations required for tracking the
mobile and restructuring existing connections as it moves. Mobility
management consists of Location management and Handoff management

4. Why are electromagnetic waves with very low frequency not used for data
transmission in computer networks?
Ans-
 Low frequency has longer wavelength
 Data rates depends upon the bandwidth

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5. Distinguish between 3G and 4G cellular networks.

Details 3G including 2.5G 4G

(EDGE)
Major requirement Predominantly voice Converge data and
driving architecture driven,data was always voice
add on over IP

Network architecture Wide area cell-based Hybrid-integration of

WLAN (WiFi, Bluetooth)
and wireless wide-area
networks
Speeds 384 kbps to 2 Mbps 20 to 100 Mbps in
mobile
mode

Frequency band Dependent on country Higher frequency bands

or (2 to 8 GHz)
continent (1.8 to 2.4
GHz)
Bandwidth 5 to 20 MHz 2. 100 MHz or more

Switching design basis Circuit and packet All digital with

packetized
voice

Access technologies WCDMA, cdma2000 OFDM and multicarrier

(MC)-CDMA

6. Differentiate hard and soft handoff?

Ans-
o Hard hand off –
o Existing connection must be broken before a new connection is
established

 2
 There is a short break in transmission which can be noticed by the user

o Soft hand off

o A new connection is established before the old one is released

6. How are guard spaces realized between users in CDMA?

Ans-
The guard space between a pair of users in CDMA systems is the
orthogonality between their spreading codes. The lower the correlation
between any pair of spreading codes is, the better is the user separation.

7. What are the benefits of reservation schemes?

Ans-
o No other station is allowed to transmit during that slot
o Avoidance of congestion
o Waiting time is clearly known

8. Define a cell.
Ans-
In mobile communication, the coverage area is divided into smaller areas
which are each served by it’s own base station. These smaller areas are
called cells.

10. What is frequency reuse?

Ans-
Spatially reusing the available spectrum so that the same spectrum can
support multiple users separated by a distance is called frequency reuse.

11. Mention the various multiple access schemes used in wireless

communication.

Ans-
Frequency Division Multiplexing Access, Time Division Multiplexing Access
and Code Division Multiplexing Access

12. What is co-channel interference?

Ans-

3
 Interference between signals from co channels are termed as co channel
interference

13. What is adjacent channel interference?

Ans-
Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to the
desired signal is called adjacent channel interference.

14.Mention the different types of cells.

Ans-
Femto cells, pico cells, micro cells, macro cells and mega cells.

15. What is a picocell?

Ans-
Small cells inside a building that support local indoor networks such as
wireless LANs. Size of these cells are in the range of few tens of meters.

16.What is cellular topology?

Ans-
Cellular topology refers to infrastructure topology employing frequency
reuse concept.

17.What are the various channel allocation techniques used in cellular

communication?
Ans-
Fixed Channel Allocation, dynamic channel allocation and hybrid channel
allocation.

18. What is a cluster?

Ans-
The N cells which collectively use the complete set of available frequencies
is called a cluster.

19.What are the technical issues in planning of a cellular network?

Ans-
• Selection of frequency reuse pattern for different radio transmission
techniques

4
 • Physical deployment and radio coverage modelling
• Plans to account for the growth of the network
• Analysis of the relationship between the capacity, cell size and the
cost of infrastructure

20. What is cell splitting?

Ans-
This is the process of subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells, each
with it’s own base station and a corresponding reduction in antenna height
and transmitter power.
Cell splitting increases the capacity of a cellular system since it increases the
number of times that channels are reused.

21.What is cell sectoring?

Ans-

The co channel interference in a cellular system may be decreased by

replacing a single omni directional antenna at the base station by several
directional antennas, each radiating within a specified sector. By using
directional antennas, a given cell will receive interference and transmit with
only a fraction of the available co channel cells. This technique for reducing
co channel interference and thus increasing system performance by using
directional antennas is called sectoring.

22.What is a page?
Ans-
It is a brief message which is broadcast over the entire service area, usually
in a simulcast fashion by many base stations at the same time.

23. What are the channels used in mobile communication systems?

Ans-
• Forward voice channels (FVC)
• Reverse voice channels (RVC)
• Forward control channels (FCC)
• Reverse Control channels (RCC)

24. What are the basic units of a Cellular system?

5
 Ans-
• Mobile stations
• Base stations
• Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or Mobile Telephone Switching Office
(MTSO).

25. What are the limitations of conventional mobile telephone system?

Ans-
• Limited service capability
• Poor service performance
• Inefficient frequency spectrum utilization

26.What are the disadvantages of cellular systems with small cells?

Ans-
• Requires complex infrastructure
• Requires frequent hand-over
• Involves complicated frequency planning

27. Is IEEE 802.11 and Wi-Fi same? State the purpose of WiFi
Ans:
No ,WiFi is wireless internet. The laptop has an internal wireless card so it
can be connected to wireless routers.No need to have an Ethernet cable to
connect to the web.

28.What are the various types of wireless network topologies?

Ans-
Infrastructure network topology and ad hoc topology.

29.What are the classifications of Wireless technologies and systems?

Ans-
• Cellular mobile radio systems
• Cordless telephones
• Wide-area wireless data systems
• High-speed WLANs
• Paging/messaging systems
• Satellite-based mobile systems

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30.Define BCA.
Ans-
Borrowing Channel Allocation is a method by which more frequencies are
allotted dynamically for high traffic cells.

31. Why 800 MHz frequency is selected for mobiles?

Ans-
• Fixed Station Services - 30 MHz to 100 MHz
• Television Broadcasting - 41 MHz to 960 MHz
• FM Broadcasting - 100 MHz
• Air to Ground system - 118 MHz to 136 MHz
• Maritime mobile services - 160 MHz
• Military Aircraft use - 225 MHz to 400 MHz
• Frequency bands between 30 MHz to 400 MHz is crowded with large
number of services and above 10 GHz is not used due to propagation
path loss, multipath fading and improper medium due to rain activity.
• So 800 MHz is chosen for mobile communication.

32. Mention the function of the base station.

Ans-
The base station serves as a bridge between all mobile users in the cell and
connects the simultaneous mobile calls via telephone lines or microwave
links to the mobile switching center(MSC)

33.What are the functions of MSC?

Ans-
The MSC coordinates the activities of all the base stations and connects the
entire cellular system to the PSTN.

34. Define foot print.

Ans-
The actual radio coverage of a cell is known as the foot print. It is
determined from field measurements or propagation prediction models.

35.Mention the basic propagation mechanisms, which impact propagation in

mobile communication.

7
 Ans-
The basic propagation mechanisms are
• Reflection
• Diffraction
• Scattering

36.What is reflection?
Ans-
Reflection occurs when a propagating electromagnetic wave impinges upon
an object, which has very large dimension when compared to the
wavelength of propagating wave.

37. What is diffraction?

Ans-
Diffraction occurs when the radio path between the transmitter and
receiver is obstructed by a surface that has sharp irregularities.
38.What is scattering?
Ans-
Scattering occurs when the medium through which the wave travels
consists of objects with dimensions that are small compared to the
wavelength and where the number of obstacles per unit volume is large.

39. What are the principles of Cellular Architecture?

Ans-
• Low power Transmitters and Coverage Zones.
• Frequency Reuse.
• Cell splitting to increase Capacity.
• Hand off and Central Control.

40.State the expression used to locate co channel cells.

Ans-
N = i2 + ij + j2

41. Define co channel cells.

Ans-
The cells that operate with the same set of frequencies are referred as co
channel cells.

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42.Write some features of TDMA?
Ans-
• In TDMA , no. of time slots depends upon modulation technique
,available bandwidth
• Data transmission occurs in bursts It uses different time slots for
transmission and reception, then duplexers are not required
• Adaptive equalization is necessary
• Guard time should be minimized

43. Write some features of CDMA?

Ans-
• In CDMA system, many users share the same frequency either TDD or
FDD may be used
• Channel data rate is high
• Multipath fading may be substantially reduced
• CDMA uses co –channel cells, it can use macroscopic spatial diversity
to provide soft hand off
44. What is near-far effect in wireless network?
Ans-
When used with FM or spread spectrum modulation, it is possible for the
strongest user to successfully capture the intended receiver , even when
many users are also transmitting . If the closest transmitter is able to
capture a receiver because of small propagation path loss, it is called as
near –far effect in wireless network

45.What is the primary goal of IEE 802.11?

Ans-
The primary goal of the standard was the specification of a simple, robust,
WLAN which offers time bounded and asynchronous services also it should
be able to operate with multiple physical layers .

46. What are Advantages of wireless LAN?

Ans-
• Flexibility
• Planning
• Design

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 • Robustness
• Quality Service
• Cost
• Proprietary Solution
• Restriction
• Safety and Security

47.What are Design Goals of Wireless LAN?

Ans-
• Global Operation
• Low Power
• License-free Operation
• Robust transmission technology
• Simplified spontaneous co-operation
• Easy to use
• protection of investment
• Safety and Security
• Transparency for application.
48. What is mobility management?
Ans-
Mobility management refers to the operations required for tracking the
mobile and restructuring existing connections as it moves. Mobility
management consists of Location management and Handoff management .

49. Define location management and handoff management.

Ans-
• Location management refers to the activities a wireless network
should perform in order to keep track of where the mobile is.
• Handoff management handles the messages required to make the
changes in the fixed network to handle the change in location during
a ongoing communication.

50. What is meant by GPRS?

Ans-
General packet radio services, a technology for radio transmission of small
packets of data, esp. between cellular phones and the Internet .

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51.What do you meant by roaming?
Ans-
Extending of connectivity service in a location that is different from the
home location where the service was registered. Roaming ensures that the
wireless device is kept connected to the network, without losing the
connection.

52. What are types of Handover?

Ans-
Intra-cell handover Inter-cell , intra- BSC handover Inter-BSC, intra-MSC
handover Inter MSC handover .

53. What are subsystems in GSM system?

Ans-
• Radio subsystem(RSS)
• Network & Switching subsystem(NSS)
• Operation subsystem(OSS)

54. What are the information in SIM?

Ans-
• card type, serial no, list of subscribed services
• Personal Identity Number(PIN)
• Pin Unlocking Key(PUK)
• An Authentication Key(KI)

55. What is GSM?

Ans-
GSM stands for Global System for mobile Communication. This is the most
successful digital mobile telecommunication system.this is second
generation and it permits integration of voice and data services.

56.What are the basic elements of telecommunication systems?

Ans-
• Transmitter – it takes the information and converts into signal
• Transmission medium – it carries the signal
• Receiver – receives the signal and converts it back into usable
information.

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53.List the databases of NSS in GSM?
Ans-
• Home location register
• Visitor location register
• Authentication center

54.What are the functions of OSS in GSM?

Ans-
• Manage all charging and billing procedures
• Manage all mobile equipment in the system

55. What are the services offered by the GSM?

Ans-
• There are three user services offered by GSM, they are
• Bearer or data service
• Telephone service
• Supplementary ISDNservice
56. What are the logical channels in GSM?
Ans-
• Traffic channels(TCH)
• Control Channels(CCH)

57.What are the security services of GSM?

Ans-
• Access control and authentication
• Confidentiality
• Anonymity

58. What is MSC ?

Ans-
Main Service Channel (MSC) carries all user data.eg. audio, multimedia
data.

59.What is FIC ?
Ans-

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 The Fast Information Channel(FIC) contains Fast Information Block(FIB) with
256bits each(16 bit checksum). An FIC carries all control information which
is required for interpreting the configuration and content of the MSC.

60.What is meant by beacon?

Ans-
A beacon contains a timestamp and other management information used
for power management and roaming. e.g., identification of the base station
subsystem(BSS) .

61. What is Active scanning?

Ans-
Active scanning comprises sending a probe on each channel and waiting for
response. Beacon and Probe response contain the information necessary to
join the new BSS.

62.What is Passive Scanning?

Ans-
Passive Scanning Simply means listening into the medium to find other
networks, i.e. receiving the beacon of another network issued by the
synchronization function within an access point .

63. What do you mean by Polling?

Ans-
Polling is a strictly centralized scheme with one master and several slave
stations. The master can collect the list of stations during the contention
phase and can poll these slaves according to many schemes like round
robin, random access, reservation scheme etc.

64.What is MobileIP?
Ans-
Mobility in the network layer is termed as Mobile IP.

65. What are the requirements of Mobile IP?

Ans-
• Compatibility
• Transparency

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 • Scalability and Efficiency
• Security

66. Define COA.

Ans-
A COA defines the current location of the MN from an IP point of view. All IP
packets sent to the MN are delivered to the COA, not directly to the IP
address of the MN. Packet delivery toward the MN is done using a tunnel.

67.What is Co-located COA?

Ans-
A COA is called co-located if the Mobile Node temporarily acquired an
additional IP address which acts as a COA. This address is now topologically
correct, and the tunnel endpoint is at the mobile node.

68. What is encapsulation and decapsulation?

Ans-
Encapsulation is the mechanism of taking a packet consisting of packet
header and data and putting it into the data part of a new packet. The
reverse operation, taking a packet out of the data part of another packet, is
called decapsulation.

69.What is the purpose of GRE?

Ans-
GRE allows the encapsulation of packets of one protocol suite into the
payload portion of a packet of another protocol suite. The packet of one
protocol suite with the original packet header and data is taken and a new
GRE header is prepended. Together this forms the new data part of the new
packet.

70. What do you mean by binding request?

Ans-
Any node that wants to know the current location of the mobile node can
send a binding request to the home agent/ the home agent can check if the
MN has allowed dissemination of its current location. If the HA is allowed to
reveal the location it sends back a binding update.

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71.What are the enhancements made in DSDV?
Ans-
• DSDV adds to things to the Distance vector algorithm,
• Sequence Number
• Damping

72. What is Route Maintenance?

Ans-
If a node is continuously sending packets via a route . it has to make sure
that the route is held upright. As soon as a node detects problems with the
current route, it has to find an alternate route.

73.What is route discovery?

Ans-
A node only tries to discover a route to a destination of it has to send
something to this destination and there is currently no known route. If a
node needs to discover a route, it broadcasts a route request with a unique
identifier and the destination address as parameters.

74. What is DHCP?

Ans-
DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, meant for automatic
configuration of IP address.

75.What is the purpose of DHCPREQUEST?

Ans-
When the client sends a DHCP discover message the server responds with
the DHCP offer message and offers a list of configuration parameters. Now
the client can choose among one of the offered configurations and rejecting
the others using DHCPREQUEST.

76. What should be done to optimize the route discovery?

Ans-
Too many broadcasts can be avoided by maintaining a counter. A node can
cache path fragments from recent requests.A node can also update this
cache from packet headers.

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77.What are the metrics should be considered while routing?
Ans-
• Number of hops
• Interference
• Reliability and Error rate

78. What is binding warning?

Ans-
If a node decapsulates a packet for an MN, but it is not the current FA for
this MN, this node sends a binding warning to the HA of the MN. The
warning contains the IP address of the MN and the address of the node that
has tried to send the packet to this MN. The HA should now send binding
update to the node that obviously has a wrong COA for the MN.

79.What is the main purpose of registration request in mobile IP?

Ans-
The main purpose of registration is to inform the HA of the current location
for correct forwarding of packets. Registration is done by mobility binding .

80. What do you mean by mobility binding?

Ans-
The MN sends its registration request containing the COA to the FA which is
forwarding the request to the HA. The HA now sets up a mobility binding
containing the mobile nodes home IP address and the current COA.

81.What are the services provided by the foreign agent?

Ans-
The FA can provide serveral services to the MN during its visist in the
foreign network. The FA can have the COA thus acting as tunnel endpoint
and forwarding packets to the MN. Furthermore the FA can be a default
router for the MN. The FA can also provide security services.

82. What is Foreign agent COA?

Ans-

16
 The COA could be located at the FA, ie., the COA is an IP address of the FA.
Thus the FA is the tunnel end point and forwards packets to the MN. many
MN using the FA can share this COA as common COA.

83.Mention the steps to deliver the packet in MobileIP.

Ans-
• Identification of current location of MN
• Encapsulation and tunnelling of packets by HA
• Decapsulation of packets by FA
• MN receiving the packet.

84. Define tunnelling.

Ans-
Tunnel establishes a virtual pipe for data packets between tunnel entry and
tunnel endpoint.Packets entering the tunnel are forwarded inside the
tunnel and leave the tunnel unchanged.

85.Why is routing in multihop adhoc networks complicated?

Ans-
• Traditional routing algorithms will not work efficiently
• Centralised approaches will not work
• Forwarding a packet in the case of unknown topology is flooding.

86. What are the two parts of DSR?

Ans-
• Route Discovery
• Route Maintenance

87.What is proactive routing?

Ans-
It maintains fresh lists of destinations and their routes by periodically
distributing routing tables throughout the network.

88. What is Reactive routing?

Ans-
It finds a route on demand by flooding the network with route request
packets.

17
89.What is multicasting?
Ans-
The delivery of packets from one or more senders to a group of receivers.

90. What is WAP?

Ans-
Wireless application protocol(WAP) is a common effort of many companies
and organizations to set up a framework for wireless and mobile web access
using many different transport systems. Eg. GSM, GPRS, UMTS.

91.List the interfaces used in WAP architecture

Ans-
• Transport layer service access point
• Security service access point
• Transaction service access point
• Appication service access point

92. What is the use of WAE?

Ans-
The application layer with the Wireless Application Environment (WAE)
offers a framework for the integration of different www and mobile
telephony application.

93.What are the benefits of using WTP?

Ans-
It offers several advantages to higher layers, including an improved
reliability over datagram services, improved efficiency over connection
oriented service, and support for transaction oriented services such as web
browsing.

94. How does the WTP achieves reliability?

Ans-
The reliability can be achieved by duplicate removal, retransmission,
acknowledgements and unique transaction identifiers.

95. What are the features of WSP?

18
 Ans-
• Session management
• Capability management
• Content management

96.List the basic features of WML?

Ans-
• The WML includes serveral basic features such as
• Text and images
• User interaction
• Navigation
• Context management

97. What is WDP?

Ans-
The wireless datagram protocol operates on top of many different bearer
services capable of carrying data. The WDP offers more or less the same
services as the UDP.In order to multiplexing and demultiplexing of data the
WDP offers a source anddestination port numbers.
98.What is WTA?
Ans-
The wireless telephony application is a collection of telephony specific
extension for call and feature control mechanisms, merging data networks
and voice networks.

99. What is WAP 2.0?

Ans-
The WAP 2.0 continues to support WAP 1.x protocols but it additionally
integrates IP, TCP, TLS and HTTP. It supports WML as well as XHTML with a
mobile profile.

100. What are the benefits of using WAP?

Ans-
• Interoperable
• Scalable
• Efficient

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101. What is the use of WCMP?
Ans-
The wireless control message protocol is used to provide the error handling
mechanism for WDP. It contains control messages that resemble the ICMP
messages for IPV4. it can be used for WDP nodes and gateways.

102. What is WTLS?

Ans-
The Wireless transport layer security can provide different levels of security
i.e., privacy, data integrity, and authentication and it has been optimized for
low bandwidth, high delay bearer networks. It supports datagram and
connection oriented transport layer protocols.

103. Define snooping TCP.

Ans-
The FA buffers all packets with destination mobile host and additionally
snoops the packet flow in both directions to recognize acknowledgements is
called snoopingTCP.

104. What is WML?

Ans-
Wireless Markup Language is a tag based browsing language for screen
management, data input, hyperlinks and navigation support.

105. What is WML script?

Ans-
Complement to WML. Derived from javascript. Provides general scripting
capabilities.

106. What is WMLBrowser?

Ans-
WMLBrowser is a library that provides several functions typical for a
browser,such as prev to go back one card or refresh to update the context
of the user interface.

107. Define WAP

Ans-

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 WAP is Wireless Application Protocol.It is the basic Objetive of the WAP
forum are to bring diverse Internet content and others data service to
digital cellular phones and other wireless,mobile terminals.Moreever a
protocol suite should enable global wirless communication across different
wireless network technologies.All WAP forum solution must
be:interoperable,scaleable,efficient,reliable.

108. What is HTTP?

Ans-
The Hypertext transfer protocol is a stateless, lightweight, application level
protocol for data transfer between servers and clients. An HTTP transaction
consists of an HTTP request issued by a client and an HTTP response from
the server. Stateless means that all HTTP transactions independent of each
other.

109. What is image scaling?

Ans-
If a page contains a true color, high-resolution picture, this picture can be
scaled down to fewer colors, lower resolution, or finally to only the title of
the picture. The user can decide to download the picture separately.
Further one can offer clipping, zooming, or detail studies to users if they are
interested in a part of the picture.

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