Third Generation Mobile

Systems

Author: Rob Walters, Satin Information Services

FORUM CHAMBERS, THE FORUM,

PHILLIPS OMNICOM TRAINING STEVENAGE, HERTS, SG1 1EL UK
TEL 01438 742424 FAX 01438 740154

07/10/2001 3G_1
Overview

• This course is designed to provide you with a general

appreciation of third generation mobile
– The why
– The how
– The what
• It provides a market and technical background to 3G
• It introduces you to CDMA
• It focuses on UMTS in particular
– the air interface
– the radio network
– the terminals
– the core network
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Scope of the Subject

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Third Generation Mobile Systems

• Background to Third Generation

• 3G Drivers
• 3G Standards
• Understanding CDMA
• UMTS Air Interface
• UMTS Radio Access Network
• UMTS Mobiles
• Interworking and the 3G Core
Network
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Background to Third Generation

• Mobile market evolution

• Mobile systems evolution
• Cellular basics

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 The World Cellular Market

350 305m
300
Million Subscribers

250 204m

200
138m GSM
150
87m
100 55m
34.1m
50 22.9m
16m
0

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Year End Source: GSM Association
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Penetration of Mobiles in Europe
27
Europe
April
UK
27 1999

Italy 40

42
Denmark

50
Sweden

Norway 53

60
Finland

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
% Penetration
Source: Global Mobile
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Growth in the 15 EU Countries

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 The Evolving Traffic Mix
400

350
Millions of Users

300 CIRCUIT

250 PACKET

200 SMS ONLY

150

100

50

0
END 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
YEAR
Total Global
371 450 527 602 674 744 806 863 912 Cellular
Subscribers
07/10/2001 3G_1 Source: OVUM 1998
 Percentage of Subscribers Using Data

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
END 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
YEAR

Source: OVUM 1998

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Third Generation Vision

• Communications to anyone anywhere

• Communications can include the provision of information
• Integrating all the following users
– fixed
– cellular
– cordless
– private mobile radio
– paging
– satellite
– specialised (aeroplane, etc)

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Third Generation Vision - More
Local area - 2 Mbps
• Services
Limited mobility - 384 kbps
– voice
– fax Full mobility - 144 kbps
– data up to 2Mbits/s
– video
– high speed computer access
• Cell types
– satellite
– macrocell
– microcell
– picocell

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 System Evolution

CDMA2000
UMTS
EDGE
GSM1900 GPRS
CDMAOne
PDC
GSM1800
GSM900
DECT
CT2
JNTACS
NMT900
C-Net
TACS
IMT450
AMPS
JTACS
79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 0 1 2

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Popularity of Digital Systems
70

60

50
Million Subs

40

30
End 1997

20

10

0
GSM900

PDC

DAMPS

CDMA

GSM1800

GSM1900

Source: Motorola
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GSM from the past
Heinrich Hertz (1886) sent waves to a loop of wire which acted as an
antenna.
Gugliemo Marconi (1899) sent the first Morse Code signal "..." across
the Atlantic Ocean.
Detroit Police Department (1921) installed first land mobile
radiotelephone system
Bell Labs (1947) describes the cellular concept
AMPS (1979) first analogue cellular system is launched in 1979
GSM (1981) work begins within “Groupe Speciale Mobile”
GSM (1991) first commercial systems begin operation
GSM (1998) 100 million users achieved - and rising

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GSM Growth & Development

• 1987-1990 the GSM900 phase 1 spec was developed

• 1989 GSM became an ETSI technical committee
• 1990 Phase 1 GSM900 specs were frozen
• 1991 First systems operational
• 1992 All European countries began to introduce GSM
• 1996 Services linked in many countries in the world
• 1997 Dual phones became available

End 1998 China had 23 million users

Adding 600,000 new users per month

07/10/2001 3G_1
GSM from the past
Heinrich Hertz (1886) sent waves to a loop of wire which acted as an
antenna.
Gugliemo Marconi (1899) sent the first Morse Code signal "..." across
the Atlantic Ocean.
Detroit Police Department (1921) installed first land mobile
radiotelephone system
Bell Labs (1947) describes the cellular concept
AMPS (1979) first analogue cellular system is launched in 1979
GSM (1981) work begins within “Groupe Speciale Mobile”
GSM (1991) first commercial systems begin operation
GSM (1998) 100 million users achieved - and rising

07/10/2001 3G_1
GSM Growth & Development

• 1987-1990 the GSM900 phase 1 spec was developed

• 1989 GSM became an ETSI technical committee
• 1990 Phase 1 GSM900 specs were frozen
• 1991 First systems operational
• 1992 All European countries began to introduce GSM
• 1996 Services linked in many countries in the world
• 1997 Dual phones became available

End 1998 China had 23 million users

Adding 600,000 new users per month

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GSM Subscriber Growth

250,000,000

200,000,000
Subscribers

150,000,000

100,000,000

50,000,000

0
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1999 2003

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GSM Networks

350

300
GSM Netw orks
250
GSM
200 Countries/Areas

150

100

50

0
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

07/10/2001 3G_1
GSM Market Distribution

20%

40%

14%

6%
12% 1% 7%
Europe
North America
South America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Arab States
Central Asia
Asia Pacific

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Cellular from the Regions

• North America and US influenced countries CDMA2000

– Dominated by AMPS
– USA has slower growth because recipient pays for calls
– Mess of digital systems at 800 and 1900 MHz Rest of the
– Greatest need is compatibility world - pools
• Europe and related countries of influence
but some
– Moving quickly from analogue mess to GSM mess
– Plenty of capacity at 1800 MHz
– Greatest need is high speed data UMTS
• Japan and related countries
– Rise and fall of Personal Handyphone
– Replaced by own digital system PDC (Personal Digital Cellular)
– Need capacity for voice and a market for systems
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Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS) Reality
• UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) is the joint Japanese
and European standard
– Roaming across Europe and Asia Pro
bab
– USA possibly goings its own way ly a
rriv
• True fixed line and mobile convergence ing
200
• Data rates 2-
20 05
– Up to 384 Kbps high mobility, wide area
– Up to 2 Mbps, low mobility, local area
• Initial allocation of 155 MHz of bandwidth in 2 GHz band
– Two times 60 MHz paired (W-CDMA)
– 35 MHz unpaired (TD-CDMA)
– Auctions in 2000
• Evolution or revolution?
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UMTS According to the UMTS Forum

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UMTS Timescale

Source: UMTS Forum

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UMTS Market

Source: Alcatel

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 Coverage of UMTS - 2007

UMTS coverage ‘island’ • Year 2007

• 80% of population
(possible license
GSM coverage
requirement)
• Equates to only 24% of
area coverage
• Even covering this area
could cost billions

Source: PA Technology

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UMTS Evolution - The Dawning

PSTN MSC HLR, etc

Circuit Switched

GSM Architecture
BSC
BTS

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UMTS Evolution: Morning Break

PSTN MSC HLR, etc

Gateway GPRS
Adding GPRS Support Node

Serving GPRS
Support Node Packet Switched
Frame Relay

BSC
BTS PSDN Internet

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UMTS Evolution: Noon

PSTN MSC HLR, etc

Gateway GPRS
Adding UMTS Support Node

Serving GPRS
Support Node
ATM

BSC
BTS PSDN Internet
RNC

Node B
So it’s just a new modem then
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 Cellular Basics

• If an operator is allocated 10
MHz
• and if each voice channel
requires 25 kHz
We got the • and you need to talk and Transmit
bandwidth! listen (50 kHz) & Receive

• then the maximum number of

calls that you can handle at
one time is 200, say 196 with
What are you going some guard bands
to do with it? • and you paid how much!!!

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Cellular Objectives

• The key objectives of a cellular telephone system are to:

– Serve a high subscriber density efficiently Some
– Serve a low subscriber density efficiently target
– Use the radio spectrum efficiently
– Provide wide-area coverage
– Have low cost of use
– Provide service to vehicles, transportables and hand-
held units
– Provide conventional telephone quality speech service
– Provide additional services such as data and facsimile
transmission

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Why Digital?

• Digital is more resilient

Perceived Signal to Noise

Better
– Less interference Digital
– Closer base stations
– More capacity
• Digital systems can carry Analogue
data efficiently
– Messaging
Better
– Email
Channel Signal to Noise
– Web access
• Compatible with wireline

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Media Access Control: FDMA
Each Carrier Carries One
Traffic Channel
Power

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5 Ch 6

Centre Freq Frequency

Bandwidth
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MAC Alternatives - TDMA
Freq
TDMA “Frame” Length

Carrier 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Carrier 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Carrier 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Carrier 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Carrier 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Carrier 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time
Each Time-slot Carries One Traffic
Channel Actually FDM/TDMA
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MAC Alternatives - CDMA
Power

All Channels Share

Same RF Band

Freq

Code 1 Code 1 Code 3 Code 4

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4

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Cellular Concepts

• The key ways in which

Rural Base Station
a cellular system can
meets its objectives
are through:
– The architecture of
the cellular system
– Frequency re-use
– Providing call
handover
capabilities
– Roaming
capabilities
City
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Frequency Assignment

• Available spectrum is limited 196 channels spread across cells

gives 28 channels per cell
• Need to support large number of
users 29-56
• The challenge is to assign the 1-28 57-84 29-56
available frequencies across the 1-28 57-84
network while minimising the
co-channel reuse distances
• The example shows a repeat
pattern of 7 cells

Brown gets channels 1-28 and

these can be re-used 2 cells away,
and so on

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Mobile Control
Control Channel
• Mobiles need a general channel to
– Log on, initiate calls, accept
calls, etc
• This is called the control channel
– Each base station has at least Idle
one Idle
• When a call is established the
mobile is re-tuned to a traffic Idle
Call
channel Up link
– During the call all signalling
Traffic
takes place over the traffic
Channel
channel Down link

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Call Handover

• An essential part of any

cellular radio system
• Enables conversations
to continue as mobiles
move between base Base 1
station coverage areas
• Process controlled by
the system Base 2
• Decision was based on
base station
measurements - mobile
now involved.

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The Global System for Mobile Comms

BTS
BTS
BSC

MSC

BSC

MS
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Network Architecture: Some Detail
OMS Mobile Station
MS
HLR
VLR
BSS Air
Other Interface
BSCs

MSC BSC BTS

AUC
Other
BTSs

EIR HLR- Home Location Register

VLR-Visitor Location register
PSTN AUC-Authentication Centre
EIR- Equipment ID Register
NSS MSC- Mobile Switching Centre
BSC-Base Station Controller
07/10/2001 3G_1 BTS-Base Transceiver Station
GSM Multiple Access Structure
Transmit only,
repeat for receive
Available Spectrum

200 kHz RF Channel RF Channel ............. RF Channel

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Time Slots or Bursts

Note that half rate
A call Another call provides 16 channels
rather than 8

Time

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The Journey
Information source Information sink
BTS
Source encoder Source decoder
(Speech coder) (Speech decoder)

Error coder Error-decoder

Interleaver De-interleaver

Encryption Decryption

Burst Formatting Re-formatting

Modulator Radio channel Demodulator

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GSM Air Interface

Multiple Access Scheme FDMA/TDMA

Duplexing Method Frequency Division Duplexing
RF Channel Bandwidth 200 kHz
Time Slots per Channel 8 (full rate)
Carrier Spacing 200 kHz Raster
Frame Length 4.615 ms
Bit Rate per RF Channel 271 kbps
Modulation Gaussian Mininum Shift Keying
User Data Rate 13 kbps speech, 9.6 kbps

07/10/2001 3G_1
Refresher

• Why is GSM so important to in the development of 3G

systems?
• What is a HLR in practical terms?
• Why are modern cellular systems digital?
• What are the components of the BSS?
• Which standards group is responsible for GSM?
• Does a CDMA system re-use frequencies?

07/10/2001 3G_1
 Third Generation Mobile Systems

EndThe
of Section
End

Rob Walters
rob@satin.co.uk +44 1865 208 930
07/10/2001 3G_1