GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)

GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is the technology that underpins most of the world's mobile phone networks. The GSM platform is a hugely successful wireless technology and an unprecedented story of global achievement and cooperation. GSM has become the world's fastest growing communications technology of all time and the leading global mobile standard, spanning 210 countries. Today, GSM technology is in use by more than one in five of the world's population by mid-March 2006 there were over 1.7 billion GSM subscribers, representing approximately 77% of the world's cellular market. The growth of GSM continues unabated with almost 400 million new customers in the last 12 months. The progress hasn't stopped there. Today's GSM platform is living, growing and evolving and already offers an expanded and feature-rich 'family' of voice and multimedia services.

Fig.18.1. GSM Network

GSM is an open, digital cellular technology used for transmitting mobile voice and data services. GSM differs from first generation wireless systems in that it uses digital technology and time division multiple access transmission methods. GSM is a circuit-switched system that divides each 200kHz channel into eight 25kHz time-slots. GSM operates in the 900MHz and 1.8GHz bands in Europe and the 1.9GHz PCS band in the US. GSM allowing the transmission of basic data services such as SMS (Short Message Service). Another major benefit is its

international roaming capability, allowing users to access the same services when traveling abroad as at home. This gives consumers seamless and same number connectivity in more than 200 countries. GSM satellite roaming has also extended service access to areas where terrestrial coverage is not available.

GSM Specifications Frequency 900 MHz or 1800 MHz (Some countries in the Americas including Canada and the United States use the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands, 400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries, notably Scandinavia) Channel separation - The separation between adjacent carrier frequencies. In GSM, this is 200 kHz. Modulation - Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK). Transmission rate - 270 kbps. (A total of 156.25 bits is transmitted in 0.577 milliseconds, giving a gross bit rate of 270.833 kbps) Access method - Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) concept Speech coder - Linear predictive coding (LPC). Speech is encoded at 13 kbps.

Frequency Reuse Frequency reuse is based on assigning to each cell a group of radio channels used within a small geographic area. Cells are assigned a group of channels that is completely different from neighboring cells. The coverage area of cells is called the footprint. This footprint is limited by a boundary so that the same group of channels can be used in different cells that are far enough away from each other so that their frequencies do not interfere. The number of available frequencies is 7; the frequency reuse factor is 1/7.

Fig.18.2. Frequency Reuse

TDMA Vs CDMA

In todays world cell phone has become the single greatest tool in day today life. It has become a necessity that business associates should be able to communicate on the go. An important question when designing and standardizing cellular systems is the selection of the multiple access schemes. There are three basic principles in multiple access, FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). All three principles allow multiple users to share the same physical channel. But the two competing technologies differ in the way user sharing the common resource. TDMA allows the users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. Each user takes turn in a round robin fashion for transmitting and receiving over the channel. CDMA uses a spread spectrum technology that is it spreads the information contained in a particular signal of interest over a much greater bandwidth than the original signal. In TDMA users can only transmit in their respective time slot. Unlike TDMA, in CDMA several users can transmit over the channel at the same time. TDMA stands for "Time Division Multiple Access", while CDMA stands for "Code Division Multiple Access". Three of the four words in each acronym are identical, since each technology essentially achieves the same goal, but by using different methods. Each strives to better utilize the radio spectrum by allowing multiple users to share the same physical channel. More than one person can carry on a conversation on the same frequency without causing interference. This is the magic of digital technology. Where the two competing technologies differ is in the manner in which users share the common resource. TDMA does it by chopping up the channel into sequential time slices. Each user of the channel takes turns transmitting and receiving in a round-robin fashion. In reality, only one person is actually using the channel at any given moment, but he or she only uses it for short bursts. He then gives up the channel momentarily to allow the other users to have their turn. This is very similar to how a computer with just one processor can seem to run multiple applications simultaneously.

Fig.18.3. TDMA

CDMA on the hand really does let everyone transmit at the same time. Conventional wisdom would lead you to believe that this is simply not possible. Using conventional modulation techniques, it most certainly is impossible. What makes CDMA work is a special

type of digital modulation called "Spread Spectrum". This form of modulation takes the user's stream of bits and splatters them across a very wide channel in a pseudo-random fashion. The "pseudo" part is very important here, since the receiver must be able to undo the randomization in order to collect the bits together in a coherent order.

Fig.18.4. CDMA