CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introductory Topics in Mobile Networks

The technologies related to wireless communication can be complex to differentiate. Wireless
technology has been around for a while; however, there has been a relatively recent and rapid
surge in the evolution of new wireless standards to support the convergence of voice, video and
data communication. Much of this rapid evolution, or revolution, is a result of people seeking
ubiquitous and immediate access to information and the assimilation of the internet into business
practices and for personal use. People “on the go” want their internet access to move with them,
so that their information is available at anytime, anywhere.

There are many factors that can be used to characterize wireless technologies:
• Spectrum, or the range of frequencies in which the network operates
• Transmission speeds supported such as 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, etc
• Underlying transmission mechanism, such as frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time
division multiple access (TDMA), or code division multiple access (CDMA)
• Architectural implementation, such as enterprise based (or in-building), fixed, or mobile
Challenges in Wireless Communication Systems
Wireless channel
 Have time varying and multipath propagation properties.
 Communicate over a medium significantly less reliable than wired physical layer.
 Are unprotected from outside signals and interceptions. Multiuser interference (MUI) is a
significant problem in wireless communications.
 Have neither absolute nor readily observable boundaries outside of which stations are
known to be unable to receive network frames.
User Mobility
 Destination address does not equal to a fixed destination location.
 Power management --- performance, interference lever and power consumption.
 Hand-off --- A mobile switches its serving base station while moving from cell to cell.
 Location management --- tracks the user’s movement, support users roaming delivers
calls to the user at its current location.

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Types of Wireless networks:
 Cellular network
 Ad hoc network
 Sensor network
Cellular Network
Overview of Basic Network Elements Associated with Cellular Networks and
Mobile Wireless
This section provides a brief introduction to a few of the basic network components associated
with the existing telecommunications infrastructure. It specifically discusses the existing mobile
wireless network infrastructure components. In the early 1980s, support for mobile wireless
communications was introduced using cellular networks, which were based on analog
technologies such as AMPS. Many of the telecommunications entities associated with cellular
networks still play a vital role in today’s wireless networks. As wireless communications
technologies continue to progress and IP data networking is further integrated into the existing
infrastructure, some of the functions of these entities might still exist within the network, but will
be implemented in different and more effective ways. The following network elements are part
of a typical cellular telecommunications network:

• Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

• Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
• Base Station (BS)
• Home Location Register (HLR)
• Visitor Location Register (VLR)
• Authentication Center (AC)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
The PSTN is the foundation and remains the predominant infrastructure that currently supports
the connection of millions of subscribers worldwide. The PSTN has several thousands of miles
of transmission infrastructure, including fixed land lines, microwave, and satellite links. After the
introduction of cellular telephone systems in the early and mid-1980s, and with the rapid
development of mobile wireless communication services, the PSTN still provides the fixed
network support using the Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) protocol to carry control and
signaling messages in a packet-switched environment.
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Mobile Switching Center (MSC)

The MSC, usually located at the Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO), is part of the
mobile wireless network infrastructure that provides the following services:

• Switches voice traffic from the wireless network to the PSTN if the call is a mobile-to-
landline call, or it switches to another MSC within the wireless network if the call is a
mobile-to-mobile call.
• Provides telephony switching services and controls calls between telephone and data
systems.
• Provides the mobility functions for the network and serves as the hub for up to as many as
100 BSs.

More specifically, the MSC provides the following functions:

• Mobility management for the subscribers (to register subscribers, to authenticate and
authorize the subscribers for services and access to the network, to maintain the information
on the temporary location of the subscribers so they can receive and originate voice calls).
• Call setup services (call routing based on the called number). These calls can be to another
mobile subscriber through another MSC, or to a landline user through the PSTN.
• Connection control services, which determine how calls are routed and establishes trunks to
carry the bearer traffic to another MSC or to the PSTN.
• Service logic functions, which route the call to the requested service for the subscriber, such
as an 800 service, call forwarding, or voicemail.
 Transcoding functions, which decompress the voice traffic from the mobile device going to
the PSTN and compresses the traffic going from the PSTN to the mobile device.

Base Station (BS)

The BS is the component of the mobile wireless network access infrastructure that terminates the
air interface over which the subscriber traffic is transmitted to and from a mobile station (MS).

In GSM-based networks, the BS is called a Base Transceiver Station (BTS).

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Home Location Register (HLR)
The HLR is a database that contains information about subscribers to a mobile network that is
maintained by a particular service provider. In addition, for subscribers of a roaming partner, the
HLR might contain the service profiles of visiting subscribers.

The MSC uses the subscriber information supplied by the HLR to authenticate and register the
subscriber. The HLR stores “permanent” subscriber information (rather than temporary
subscriber data, which a VLR manages), including the service profile, location information, and
activity status of the mobile user.

Visitor Location Register (VLR)

The VLR is a database that is maintained by an MSC, to store temporary information about
subscribers who roam into the coverage area of that MSC. The VLR, which is usually part of an
MSC, communicates with the HLR of the roaming subscriber to request data, and to maintain
information about the subscriber’s current location in the network.

Authentication Center (AC)

The AC provides handset authentication and encryption services for a service provider. In most
wireless networks today, the AC is collocated with the HLR, and is often implemented as part of
the HLR complex.

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Cellular System Architecture

Radio Access: RF related signal processing and radio resource management. Mobile => base
station => BSC or RNC => MSC.

Core Network: Main part is MSC (mobile switching center), performs user authentication,
admission control, traffic control, roaming, billing, network support and maintenance etc.

Backbone networks: Providing voice services (PSTN, Public Switched Telephone Network),
data services (through Internet), and emergency services. Wireless networks need to be
connected to backbone networks to extend its service capabilities and geographic coverage.

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Multiple Access Techniques

Fig. 1 an illustration of a cell with a mobile station and base station

fig. 2: - call set up from mobile host (MH) to base station (BS)

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 MANETs: Mobile Ad hoc Networks
Collection of wireless mobile nodes dynamically forming a distributed network without any pre-
existing infrastructure
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks – Characteristics

 An autonomous system of nodes  Multi-hop forwarding to ensure

(MHs) network connectivity
 Connected by wireless links  Topology may change dynamically
 Lack of fixed infrastructure relays  Random Multi-hop Graph
 Absence of centralized authority  Energy-constrained
 Peer-to-peer connectivity  Bandwidth-constrained, variable
capacity links

1.2. Problems in Wireless networking

 Higher loss rates due to interference: emission from engines, lightning etc…..
 Low transmission rate
 Higher delays, Higher jitter.
 Lower security, simpler active attacking; radio interference accessible for everyone, base
station can be simulated, thus attracting calls from mobile phones.
 Always shared medium; secure access is important
Applications of MANETs
Crisis-management applications: Natural disasters, where the entire communication
infrastructure is in disarray

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  Tele-medicine: Paramedic assisting a victim at a remote location can access medical
records, can get video conference assistance from a surgeon for an emergency
intervention
 Virtual navigation: A remote database contains geographical representation of streets,
buildings, and characteristics of large metropolis and blocks of this data is transmitted in
rapid sequence to a vehicle to visualize needed environment ahead of time
 Education via the internet: Educational opportunities on Internet to K-12 students and
other interested individuals and it is possible to have last-mile wireless Internet access
Sensor Network
 Micro-sensors, on-board processing, and wireless interfaces all feasible at very small
scale
 Will enable spatially and temporally dense environmental monitoring
 Embedded Networked Sensing will reveal previously unobservable phenomena
Example use of a Sensor Network
 Measuring pollutant concentration
 Pass on information to monitoring station
 Predict current location of pollutant contour based on various parameters
 Take corrective action
What is a Sensor and a Sensor Network?

Portable and self-sustained (power, communication, intelligence)

Capable of embedded complex data processing
Technology trends predict small memory footprint may not be a limitation in future sensor nodes
Equipped with multiple sensing, programmable computing and communication capability
Wireless sensor networks are a collection of tiny disposable and low power devices
A sensor node is a device that converts a sensed attribute (e.g. temperature, vibration) into a form
understandable by users

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Wireless sensor networks have been used for years for a number of applications
The number of sensors can be large to cover as much area as desirable
Types of Sensors
 Pressure
 Temperature
 Light
 Biological
 Chemical
 Strain, fatigue
 Tilt

 Capable of surviving harsh

environment (heat, humidity,
corrosion, pollution, radiation, etc)
 Could be deployed in large
numbers

Characteristics of Wireless Sensor Networks

Advantages:
 Ease of deployment
 Extended range
 Fault tolerance‰
Limitations:
 Low-bandwidth
 Error-prone transmissions
 Need for collision-free channel access
 Limited amount of energy available
 Usually sensors placed where it is difficult to replace their batteries

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1.3. Multiple Access Techniques
Multiple access techniques are used to allow a large number of mobile users to share
the allocated spectrum in the most efficient manner. As the spectrum is limited, so the
sharing is required to increase the capacity of cell or over a geographical area by
allowing the available bandwidth to be used at the same time by different users. And
this must be done in a way such that the quality of service doesn’t degrade within the
existing users.

FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access) each user is allocated a unique frequency band
or channel; no other user can share the same frequency band.
TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) divides the radio spectrum into time slots, and in each
slot, only one user is allowed to either transmit or receive.
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) each user is assigned a special code sequence
(signature) to modulate its message signal; all users are allowed to transmit over the same
channel simultaneously and asynchronously.
How a cellular telephone call is made?
Initiating a call
 The mobile sends a call initiation request through the reverse control channel; with this
the unit transmits its MIN, ESN (Electronic Serial Number) and the phone number of the
called party.
 Base station receives the request and sends it to the MSC.
 The MSC validates the request, making connection to the called party through PSTN.

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  The MSC instructs the base station and mobile user to move to an unused forward and
reverse voice channel pair.
Receiving a call
 Turn on a cellular phone
 The cellular phone scan the control channels to determine the one with the strongest
signal, it then monitors the signal drops below a usable level. At his point, it starts to
search of strongest base station again.
 If a phone call is placed to a mobile user, the MSC dispatches the request to the entire
base stations in the system; the MIN (mobile identification number, i.e. the mobile’s
phone number) is broadcast as a paging message through the forward control channel.
 The mobile receives the signal through the base station it monitors and responds by
identifying itself through the reverse control channel.
 The base station informs the MSC of the handshake.
 The MSC instructs the base station to move the call to an unused voice channel within the
cell.
 The base station signals the mobile to change frequencies to the unused forward and
reverse voice channel pair.
 The base station instructs the mobile phone to ring, thereby to instruct the user to answer
the phone.
Roaming
 All cellular systems provide a service called roaming. This allows subscribers to operate
in service areas other than the one from which the service is subscribed.
 The MSC issues a global command every several minutes, asking all unregistered
mobiles to report their subscription information.
 Mobiles report back upon receiving the request.
 If the mobile has roaming authorization for billing purpose, the MSC registers the
subscriber as a roamer.

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1.4. Introduction to cellular concept
Wireless System Evolution: Cellular Networks

AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone System USDC United States Digital Cellular
GPRS General Packet Radio Service UMTS Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System
ETACS European Total Access
Communication System GSM Global Systems for Mobile 3GPP 3rd
EDGE Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Generation Partnership Project
Evolution CDPD Cellular Digital Packet Data
AMPS systems (1G Wireless System)
1G refers to the initial category of mobile wireless networks that used only analog technology
and were developed primarily for voice services. All based on analog techniques, all used FDMA
and FM modulation.
 System capacity is low. Data rate: 8~10 kbps
 Representative Standards:
AMPS: Advanced Mobile Phone System, developed by AT&T Bell Labs in late 1970s.
First deployed in 1983. The first AMPS system used large cells and Omni-directional
base station antennas; therefore, the number of users that can be supported was quite
limited. An AMP is used all over the world and is esp. popular in US, South America,
China and Australia.
ETACS: European Total Access Communication Systems. Almost identical to AMPS
except that the channel bandwidth is scaled to 25 kHz instead of 30 kHz as in AMPS.

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2G Wireless Systems: Characteristics
2G refers generically to a category of mobile wireless networks and services that use digital
technology. 2G wireless networks introduce support for data services. GSM, TDMA and CDMA
are examples of 2G mobile network standards.
 Deployed in mid 1990s, 2G wireless systems all use digital voice coding and digital
modulation.
 Can provide advanced call capabilities and at least a 3-times increase in overall system
capacity.
 Was designed before the widespread of the Internet, mainly supported voice-centric
services and limited date-service, like short messages, FAX,etc.
2G Wireless Systems: Representative Standards
 GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications)
o A TDMA system, serves as the pan-European cellular service, provides a wide
range of network service, including phone service, FAX, short message service.
Support 24.7kbps data rate.
 USDC IS-136 (United States Digital Cellular)
o A TDMA system which is compatible with AMPS, it supports more users (6
times) with improved performance. It shares the same frequencies, frequency
reuse plan and base stations as AMPS. Provides access to VPN, supports short
messages. Support 48.6kbps data rate.
 IS-95 (United States Digital Cellular Standard) A CDMA standard also designed to be
compatible with AMPS through using of CDMA/AMPS dual mode phones and base
stations. Capacity is 8~10 times that of AMPS. Support 14.4kbps data rate.
2.5G Wireless System
2.5G refers generically to a category of mobile wireless networks that have a packet data overlay built on
top of the circuit-switched voice network to support higher data rates than 2G mobile networks (2G
networks support data in a circuit-switched model). General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is an example
of a 2.5G mobile network standard.
Compared to 2G systems, 2.5G systems enable high speed data communications, provides
continuous connection to internet.
 CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), a data service for 1st and 2nd generation US
cellular systems without additional bandwidth requirement, packet channels are
dynamically assigned to idle voice channels. Support 48.6kbps data rate as in IS-136.
 GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), based on GSM by allowing multiple slots of a
GSM radio channel be dedicated to an individual user, promises data rate from 56 kbps to
114kbps--- continuous connection to the Internet for mobile phone and computer users,
easy access to VPN (Virtual Private Network).
 EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), providing 384kbps rate by using
improved modulation (8-PSK instead of GMSK in GSM) and relaxed error control. Also
it’s referred to as EGPRS.

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 CDMA one (IS-95B): Providing high speed data access on a common CDMA radio
channel by dedicating multiple orthogonal user channels for specific users or specific
purposes. Support 115.2kbps.
3G Wireless Systems: Features
3G refers generically to a category of mobile networks which operate at a higher frequency
bandwidth (typically 2.1 GHz and higher) and have a larger channel bandwidth. This enables 3G
networks to support very high data rates, up to 2 Mbps. With the higher bandwidth, more data
and multimedia services are possible. 3G refers to the radio network and RF technology, and
does not affect the switching core.
 Features:
o High transmission rate and the support of multimedia services.
 Multiple-megabit internet services, and simultaneous voice and data
access with multiple parties at the same time using a single mobile
handset.
 Date rate: around 2Mbps. Bandwidth: in the order of MHz
 Seamless global roaming: wireless access from anywhere on the earth.
Obviously, it will include the satellite networks.
 3GPP and 3GPP2
o Worldwide standardization organizations established to gather global expertise,
participated by almost all the big companies.
o 3GPP: based on backward compatibility to GSM, IS-136, GPRS, EDGE etc.
o 3GPP2: based on backward compatibility to IS-95, and CDMA one.
3G Wireless Systems: Challenges
 Impact of high transmission rate --- frequency selective fading
o High transmission rate implies that the signal bandwidth is much wider than the
coherence bandwidth of the channel, different frequency components in the signal
will experience different fading characteristic.
o Solution: Modulate each signal components onto a different subcarrier and send them
over the channel in parallel, so that each component will experience flat fading. =>
Multicarrier systems.
 System capacity and user mobility
o Enlarged capacity and higher transmission rate requires more efficient deployment of
the available bandwidth, which implies that the system needs to be reused more often.
o Higher degree of frequency reuse implies more complex mobile management.
o How to increase spectrum efficiency is the ultimate goal of communication research...
3G Wireless Systems: Representative Standards
3GPP UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) A wideband CDMA (5MHz)
standard based on the network fundamentals of GSM/EDGE, is designed to provide backward
compatibility with GSM, IS-136, GPRS and EDGE. Can support 2Mbps data rate. New RF
equipment needed.

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3GPP2 CDMA 2000 3G 1X-3X Use one (same bandwidth as IS-95) or three adjacent 1.25MHz
channels (3-times bandwidth as that of IS-95) to provide instantaneous packet data access at
144kbps or 2Mbps. No additional RF equipment needed, changes are all made in software or
baseband hardware.
TD-SCDMA (Time-division Synchronous CDMA) a standard proposed by CATT (China
Academy and Telecommunications Technology) and Siemens Corporation. Relies on the
existing GSM infrastructure and allows 3G data access by adding high data rate equipment
(smart antennas) at each GSM station. Support up to 384kbps of packet data.

4G
Data rate 100 Mbps; achieves “Telepresence”
Traffic Channel, Cell, cell size, cluster, types of MSU, BTS
In the early years of mobile radio systems, a large coverage was achieved by using a single high-
powered transmitter with the antenna mounted on tall tower. Although a large coverage could be
attained by this approach, it does not allow the reuse of the same radio frequencies due to
interference. The cellular concept was invented in solving the spectral congestion and user
capacity. Cellular telephony is a system-level concept, which replaces a single high power
transmitter with a large number of low-power transmitters for communication between any two
devices over a large geographic area. Primary goal of the cellular telephone network is to provide
wireless communication between two moving devices, called mobile stations or between one
mobile unit and a stationary unit, commonly referred to as land-line unit. To accommodate a
large number of users over a large geographic area, the cellular telephone system uses a large
number of low-power wireless transmitters to create cells. Variable power levels allow cells to
be sized according to subscriber density and demand within a particular region. As mobile users
travel from cell to cell, their conversations are handed off between cells. Channels (frequencies)
used in one cell can be reused in another cell some distance away, which allows communication
by a large number stations using a limited number of radio frequencies.

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Cellular Telephone System

Fig. Schematic diagram of a cellular telephone system

Frequency Reuse Principle

Cellular telephone systems rely on an intelligent allocation and reuse of channels. Each base
station is given a group of radio channels to be used within a cell. Base stations in neighboring
cells are assigned completely different set of channel frequencies. By limiting the coverage
areas, called footprints, within cell boundaries, the same set of channels may be used to cover
different cells separated from one another by a distance large enough to keep interference level
within tolerable limits.

Cells with the same letter use the same set of frequencies, called reusing cells. N cells which
collectively use the available frequencies (S = k.N) is known as cluster. If a cluster is replicated
M times within a system, then total number duplex channels (capacity) is C = M.k.N= M.S.

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Reuse factor: Fraction of total available channels assigned to each cell within a cluster is 1/N.
Example showing reuse factor of ¼ is shown in Fig. 5.9.2 (a) and Fig. 5.9.2(b) shows reuse
factor of 1/7.

Figure 5.9.2 (a) Cells showing reuse factor of ¼, (b) Cells showing reuse factor of 1/7

Mobility Management

A MS is assigned a home network, commonly known as location area. When a MS migrates out
of its current BS into the footprint of another, a procedure is performed to maintain service
continuity, known as Handoff management. An agent in the home network, called home agent,
keeps track of the current location of the MS. The procedure to keep track of the user’s current
location is referred to as Location management. Handoff management and location management
together are referred to as Mobility management.

Handoff: At any instant, each mobile station is logically in a cell and under the control of the
cell’s base station. When a mobile station moves out of a cell, the base station notices the MS’s
signal fading away and requests all the neighboring BSs to report the strength they are receiving.
The BS then transfers ownership to the cell getting the strongest signal and the MSC changes the
channel carrying the call. The process is called handoff.

Roaming: Two fundamental operations are associated with Location Management; location
update and paging. When a Mobile Station (MS) enters a new Location Area, it performs a

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location updating procedure by making an association between the foreign agent and the home
agent. One of the BSs, in the newly visited Location Area is informed and the home directory of
the MS is updated with its current location. When the home agent receives a message destined
for the MS, it forwards the message to the MS via the foreign agent. An authentication process
is performed before forwarding the message.

Circuit switching vs. packet switching

Long distance transmission is typically done over a network of switched nodes. Data is routed by
being switched from node to node. Two different switching technologies are there

— Circuit switching
— Packet switching

Circuit switching

In circuit switching network dedicated channel has to be established before the call is made
between users. The channel is reserved between the users till the connection is active. For half
duplex communication, one channel is allocated and for full duplex communication, two
channels are allocated. It is mainly used for voice communication requiring real time services
without any much delay.

Circuit switching is used in public telephone networks and is the basis for private networks built
on leased-lines. Circuit switching was developed to handle voice traffic but also digital data
(although inefficient). The connection is transparent: once it is established, it appears to attached
devices as if there were a direct connection

Communication via circuit switching involves three phases:

o Circuit Establishment
o Data Transfer
o Circuit Disconnect
Circuit switching is inefficient because:

(1) Channel capacity dedicated for duration of connection

(2) If no data transfer, channel capacity is wasted
(3) Set up (connection) takes time
- Once connected, transfer is transparent to the users
o Info is transmitted at a fixed data rate with no delay (except for the propagation
delay)
— Developed for voice traffic (phone)

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 o may also be used for data traffic via modem

As shown in the figure, if user-A wants to use the network; it need to first ask for the request to
obtain the one and then user-A can communicate with user-C. During the connection phase if
user-B tries to call/communicate with user-D or any other user it will get busy signal from the
network.

Packet switching
In packet switching network unlike circuit switching network, it is not required to establish the
connection initially. The connection/channel is available to use by many users. But when
capacity or number of users increases then it will lead to congestion in the network. Packet
switched networks are mainly used for data and voice applications requiring non-real time
scenarios.

As shown in the figure, if user-A wants to send data/information to user-C and if user-B wants to
send data to user-D, it is simultaneously possible. Here information is padded with header which
contains addresses of source and destination. This header is sniffed by intermediate switching
nodes to determine their route and destination.

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In packet switching, station breaks long message into packets. Packets are sent one at a time to
the network. Packets are handled in two ways, viz. datagram and virtual circuit.

In datagram, each packet is treated independently. Packets can take up any practical route.
Packets may arrive out of order and may go missing.

In virtual circuit, preplanned route is established before any packets are transmitted. The
handshake is established using call request and call accept messages. Here each packet contains
virtual circuit identifier (VCI) instead of the destination address. In this type, routing decisions
for each packet are not needed.

As shown above in Packet switched (PS) networks quality of service (QoS) is not guaranteed
while in circuit switched (CS) networks quality is guaranteed.
PS is used for time insensitive applications such as internet/email/SMS/MMS/VOIP etc.
In CS even if user is not talking the channel cannot be used by any other users, this will waste
the resource capacity at those intervals.
The example of circuit switched network is PSTN and example of packet switched network is
GPRS/EDGE.

Table 1: - summary of difference between circuit switching and packet switching of type
datagram and virtual circuit.

Circuit Switching Packet Switching(Datagram Packet Switching(Virtual

type) Circuit type)
Dedicated path No Dedicated path No Dedicated path
Path is established for entire Route is established for each Route is established for entire
conversation packet conversation
Call setup delay packet transmission delay call setup delay as well as
packet transmission delay
Overload may block call setup Overload increases packet Overload may block call setup
delay and increases packet delay
Fixed bandwidth Dynamic bandwidth Dynamic bandwidth
No overhead bits after call overhead bits in each packet overhead bits in each packet
setup
2.
2.1. GSM

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GPRS

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