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Cellular Network Basics

Cellular Network Basics

• There are many types of cellular services; before delving into
details, focus on basics (helps navigate the “acronym soup”)
• Cellular network/telephony is a radio-based technology; radio
waves are electromagnetic waves that antennas propagate
• Most signals are in the 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900
MHz frequency bands

Cell phones operate in this frequency

range (note the logarithmic scale)

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Cellular Network
• Base stations transmit to and receive from mobiles at the
assigned spectrum
– Multiple base stations use the same spectrum (spectral reuse)
• The service area of each base station is called a cell
• Each mobile terminal is typically served by the ‘closest’ base
stations
– Handoff when terminals move

Cellular Network Generations

• It is useful to think of cellular Network/telephony in
terms of generations:
– 0G: Briefcase-size mobile radio telephones
– 1G: Analog cellular telephony
– 2G: Digital cellular telephony
– 3G: High-speed digital cellular telephony (including video
telephony)
– 4G: IP-based “anytime, anywhere” voice, data, and
multimedia telephony at faster data rates than 3G
(to be deployed in 2012–2015)

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Evolution of Cellular Networks

1G 2G 2.5G 3G 4G

The Multiple Access Problem

• The base stations need to serve many mobile
terminals at the same time (both downlink
and uplink)
• All mobiles in the cell need to transmit to the
base station
• Interference among different senders and
receivers
• So we need multiple access scheme

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Multiple Access Schemes

3 orthogonal Schemes:
• Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Frequency Division Multiple Access

frequency

• Each mobile is assigned a separate frequency channel for the

duration of the call
• Sufficient guard band is required to prevent adjacent channel
interference
• Usually, mobile terminals will have one downlink frequency band
and one uplink frequency band
• Different cellular network protocols use different frequencies
• Frequency is a precious and scare resource. We are running out of it
– Cognitive radio

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Time Division Multiple Access

Guard time – signal transmitted by mobile

terminals at different locations do no arrive
at the base station at the same time

• Time is divided into slots and only one mobile terminal transmits
during each slot
– Like during the lecture, only one can talk, but others may take the
floor in turn
• Each user is given a specific slot. No competition in cellular network
– Unlike Carrier Sensing Multiple Access (CSMA) in WiFi

Code Division Multiple Access

• Use of orthogonal codes to separate different transmissions
• Each symbol of bit is transmitted as a larger number of bits
using the user specific code – Spreading
– Bandwidth occupied by the signal is much larger than the information
transmission rate
– But all users use the same frequency band together

Orthogonal among users

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2G(GSM)

GSM
• Abbreviation for Global System for Mobile
Communications
• Concurrent development in USA and Europe in
the 1980’s
• The European system was called GSM and
deployed in the early 1990’s

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GSM Services
• Voice, 3.1 kHz
• Short Message Service (SMS)
– 1985 GSM standard that allows messages of at most 160 chars. (incl.
spaces) to be sent between handsets and other stations
– Over 2.4 billion people use it; multi-billion $ industry
• General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
– GSM upgrade that provides IP-based packet data transmission up to
114 kbps
– Users can “simultaneously” make calls and send data
– GPRS provides “always on” Internet access and the Multimedia
Messaging Service (MMS) whereby users can send rich text, audio,
video messages to each other
– Performance degrades as number of users increase
– GPRS is an example of 2.5G telephony – 2G service similar to 3G

GSM Channels
Downlink
Channels

Uplink

• Physical Channel: Each timeslot on a carrier is referred to as a

physical channel
• Logical Channel: Variety of information is transmitted
between the MS and BTS. Different types of logical channels:
– Traffic channel
– Control Channel

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GSM Frequencies
• Originally designed on 900MHz range, now also
available on 800MHz, 1800MHz and 1900 MHz
ranges.
• Separate Uplink and Downlink frequencies
– One example channel on the 1800 MHz frequency band,
where RF carriers are space every 200 MHz
UPLINK FREQUENCIES DOWNLINK FREQUENCIES

1710 MHz 1785 MHz 1805 MHz 1880 MHz

UPLINK AND DOWNLINK FREQUENCY SEPARATED BY 95MHZ

GSM Architecture

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Mobile Station (MS)

• MS is the user’s handset and has two parts
• Mobile Equipment
– Radio equipment
– User interface
– Processing capability and memory required for various
tasks
• Call signalling
• Encryption
• SMS
– Equipment IMEI number
• Subscriber Identity Module

Subscriber Identity Module

• A small smart card
• Encryption codes needed to identify the subscriber
• Subscriber IMSI number
• Subscriber’s own information (telephone directory)
• Third party applications (banking etc.)
• Can also be used in other systems besides GSM, e.g., some
WLAN access points accept SIM based user authentication

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Base Station Subsystem

• Transcoding Rate and Adaptation Unit (TRAU)
– Performs coding between the 64kbps PCM coding used in the
backbone network and the 13 kbps coding used for the Mobile
Station (MS)
• Base Station Controller (BSC)
– Controls the channel (time slot) allocation implemented by the
BTSes
– Manages the handovers within BSS area
– Knows which mobile stations are within the cell and informs the
MSC/VLR about this
• Base Transceiver System (BTS)
– Controls several transmitters
– Each transmitter has 8 time slots, some used for signaling, on a
specific frequency

Network and Switching Subsystem

• The backbone of a GSM network is a telephone network with
additional cellular network capabilities
• Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
– An typical telephony exchange (ISDN exchange) which supports mobile
communications
– Visitor Location Register (VLR)
• A database, part of the MSC
• Contains the location of the active Mobile Stations
• Gateway Mobile Switching Center (GMSC)
– Links the system to PSTN and other operators
• Home Location Register (HLR)
– Contain subscriber information, including authentication information
in Authentication Center (AuC)
• Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
– International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) codes for e.g.,
blacklisting stolen phones

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Home Location Register

• One database per operator
• Contains all the permanent subscriber information
– MSISDN (Mobile Subscriber ISDN number) is the telephone
number of the subscriber
– International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) is a 15 digit code
used to identify the subscriber
• It incorporates a country code and operator code
– IMSI code is used to link the MSISDN number to the subscriber’s
SIM (Subscriber Identity Module)
– Charging information
– Services available to the customer
• Also the subscriber’s present Location Area Code, which
refers to the MSC, which can connect to the MS.

Other Systems
• Operations Support System
– The management network for the whole GSM network
– Usually vendor dependent
– Very loosely specified in the GSM standards
• Value added services
– Voice mail
– Call forwarding
– Group calls
• Short Message Service Center
– Stores and forwards the SMS messages
– Like an E-mail server
– Required to operate the SMS services

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Location Updates
• The cells overlap and usually a mobile station
can ‘see’ several transceivers (BTSes)
• The MS monitors the identifier for the BSC
controlling the cells
• When the mobile station reaches a new BSC’s
area, it requests an location update
• The update is forwarded to the MSC, entered
into the VLR, the old BSC is notified and an
acknowledgement is passed back

Handoff (Handover)
• When a call is in process, the changes in location
need special processing
• Within a BSS, the BSC, which knows the current
radio link configuration (including feedbacks from
the MS), prepares an available channel in the new
BTS
• The MS is told to switch over to the new BTS
• This is called a hard handoff
– In a soft handoff, the MS is connected to two BTSes
simultaneously

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Roaming
• When a MS enters another operators network, it
can be allowed to use the services of this
operator
– Operator to operator agreements and contracts
– Higher billing
• The MS is identified by the information in the SIM
card and the identification request is forwarded
to the home operator
– The home HLR is updated to reflect the MS’s current
location

3G, 3.5G and 4G (LTE)

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3G Overview
• 3G is created by ITU-T and is called IMT-2000

Evolution from 2G
2G IS-95 GSM- IS-136 & PDC

GPRS
IS-95B
2.5G
HSCSD EDGE

Cdma2000-1xRTT W-CDMA
3G Cdma2000-1xEV,DV,DO EDGE
TD-SCDMA
Cdma2000-3xRTT
3GPP2 3GPP

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Service Roadmap
Improved performance, decreasing cost of delivery

Broadband
3G-specific services take
in wide area
advantage of higher bandwidth
and/or real-time QoS Video sharing
Video telephony
A number of mobile Real-time IP
services are bearer Multitasking multimedia and games
independent in nature WEB browsing Multicasting
Corporate data access
Streaming audio/video
MMS picture / video
xHTML browsing
Application downloading
E-mail
Voice & SMS Presence/location
Push-to-talk
Typical
average bit GSM GPRS EGPRS WCDMA HSDPA
rates 9.6 171 473 2 1-10
(peak rates
higher) kbps kbps kbps Mbps Mbps
2000 1x
CDMA

CDMA

CDMA
EVDO

EVDV
2000-

2000-

GSM Evolution to 3G
High Speed Circuit Switched Data
Dedicate up to 4 timeslots for data connection ~ 50 kbps
Good for real-time applications c.w. GPRS
Inefficient -> ties up resources, even when nothing sent
Not as popular as GPRS (many skipping HSCSD)

Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution

GSM Uses 8PSK modulation
HSCSD
9.6kbps (one timeslot) 3x improvement in data rate on short distances
GSM Data Can fall back to GMSK for greater distances
Also called CSD Combine with GPRS (EGPRS) ~ 384 kbps
Can also be combined with HSCSD
GSM GPRS
WCDMA
General Packet Radio Services
Data rates up to ~ 115 kbps EDGE
Max: 8 timeslots used as any one time
Packet switched; resources not tied up all the time
Contention based. Efficient, but variable delays
GSM / GPRS core network re-used by WCDMA (3G)

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UMTS
• Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS)
• UMTS is an upgrade from GSM via GPRS or EDGE
• The standardization work for UMTS is carried out
by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
• Data rates of UMTS are:
– 144 kbps for rural
– 384 kbps for urban outdoor
– 2048 kbps for indoor and low range outdoor
• Virtual Home Environment (VHE)

UMTS Frequency Spectrum

• UMTS Band
– 1900-2025 MHz and 2110-2200 MHz for 3G transmission
– In the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–2155 MHz will be
used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used.

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UMTS Architecture
Base Station
Network Subsystem
Mobile Station Subsystem Other Networks

MSC/ GMSC
BSC VLR PSTN
BTS
ME
SIM

EIR HLR AUC PLMN

RNS
GGSN
SGSN
Node RNC Internet
ME B
USIM

UTRAN
+
SD

Note: Interfaces have been omitted for clarity purposes.

UMTS Network Architecture

• UMTS network architecture consists of three
domains
– Core Network (CN): Provide switching, routing and
transit for user traffic
– UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN):
Provides the air interface access method for user
equipment.
– User Equipment (UE): Terminals work as air interface
counterpart for base stations. The various identities
are: IMSI, TMSI, P-TMSI, TLLI, MSISDN, IMEI, IMEISV

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UTRAN
• Wide band CDMA technology is selected for UTRAN air
interface
– WCDMA
– TD-SCDMA
• Base stations are referred to as Node-B and control
equipment for Node-B is called as Radio Network Controller
(RNC).
– Functions of Node-B are
• Air Interface Tx/Rx
• Modulation/Demodulation
– Functions of RNC are:
• Radio Resource Control
• Channel Allocation
• Power Control Settings
• Handover Control
• Ciphering
• Segmentation and reassembly

3.5G (HSPA)
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two
mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that
extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA
protocols
3.5G introduces many new features that will enhance the UMTS
technology in future. 1xEV-DV already supports most of the
features that will be provided in 3.5G. These include:
- Adaptive Modulation and Coding
- Fast Scheduling
- Backward compatibility with 3G
- Enhanced Air Interface

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4G (LTE)
• LTE stands for Long Term Evolution
• Next Generation mobile broadband
technology
• Promises data transfer rates of 100 Mbps
• Based on UMTS 3G technology
• Optimized for All-IP traffic

Advantages of LTE

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Comparison of LTE Speed

Major LTE Radio Technogies

• Uses Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM) for downlink
• Uses Single Carrier Frequency Division
Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) for uplink
• Uses Multi-input Multi-output(MIMO) for
enhanced throughput
• Reduced power consumption
• Higher RF power amplifier efficiency (less
battery power used by handsets)

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LTE Architecture

LTE vs UMTS
• Functional changes compared to the current
UMTS architecture

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Case Study
Mobility:
A Double-Edged Sword
for HSPA Networks
Fung Po Tso, City University of Hong Kong
Jin Teng, Ohio State University
Weijia Jia, City University of Hong Kong
Dong Xuan, Ohio State University

ACM Mobihoc’10

Context
Evolved hardware technologies
+
Improved network bandwidth
=
Entertainment apps on mobile

MobiHoc '10 44

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Context
When you are NOT mobile, you use

MobiHoc '10 45

Context
When you are mobile, you use

MobiHoc '10 46

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Context

Millions of passengers per day!

MobiHoc '10 47

Context Can HSPA provide

HSPA Node B
the same level of
HSPA Node B
service to mobile
users on public
transport?

pictures’ source: Wikipedia

MobiHoc '10 48

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Outline
• Measurement Methodology
• General Impact of Mobility
• Mobility Impact on Bandwidth Sharing
• Mobility Impact in Transitional Region
• Conclusion

MobiHoc '10 49

Measurement Routes

Type Average Highest Characteristics

Speed Speed

Trains 40 kmh 100 kmh Surface ground

Subways 30 kmh 80 kmh Underground

Self-driving 50 & 30 80 kmh Surface ground

Vehicles & Buses kmh

Ferries 80 kmh 90 kmh Sea, Surface ground

MobiHoc '10 50

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Measurement Route

Over 100 km in 3 months

MobiHoc '10 51

Measurement Setup
• Two Servers:
– Lab & Data Center
• Three types of
evaluations:
– download only;
upload only;
simultaneous
download & upload.

MobiHoc '10 52

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General Impact of Mobility

• A large spread of HSDPA bit rates and signal
quality

MobiHoc '10 53

Context
Common View: Mobility is irrelevant, if not detrimental,
to the fairness in HSPA bandwidth sharing among users

Observation: The bandwidth sharing practice in

stationary HSPA environments is unfair. In
contrast, mobility surprisingly improves fairness
of bandwidth sharing (fairer).

MobiHoc '10 54

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Bandwidth Sharing among Users

• Mobility actually improves the fairness of
bandwidth sharing among users

MobiHoc '10 55

Bandwidth Sharing among Users

• UE can hardly keep its dominancy under rapid
change of radio environment.
– Mobile nodes may see better signal quality at new
locations
• Cell to cell based scheduling algorithm prevent
unfairness from propagating

MobiHoc '10 56

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Context
Common View: Mobility affects all flows equally. And
TCP flows suffer more than UDP ones

Observation: TCP flows unexpectedly see much

better performance during mobility than UDP
flows.

MobiHoc '10 57

Bandwidth Sharing among Traffic Flows

• TCP flows see better performance during

mobility

MobiHoc '10 58

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Bandwidth Sharing among Traffic Flows

• TCP traffic is much constrained and adaptive

to the channel condition, while UDP traffic
keeps pumping almost the same amount of
data regardless of the channel condition

MobiHoc '10 59

Context
Common View: Handoffs are triggered in the
transitional region between cells and always result in a
better wireless connection

Observation: Nearly 30% of all handoffs, selection

of a base station with poorer signal quality can be
witnessed

MobiHoc '10 60

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Mobility Impact in Transitional Regions

• throughput often
drops sharply, and
sometimes, as high
as 90% during
handoff period.

MobiHoc '10 61

Mobility Impact in Transitional Regions

• Ec/Io of the new
base stations are
statistically better
than the original
base stations by
10dBm.

• But almost 30% of

all the handoffs do
not end up with a
better base stations

MobiHoc '10 62

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Conclusion
• Mobility is a double edged sword
– Degrades HSPA services, e.g. throughput
– Improves fairness in bandwidth allocation among
users and traffic flows
• Communication characteristics in HSPA
transitional regions are very complicated

MobiHoc '10 63

Acknowledgement
• Part of the slides are adapted from the slides
of Posco Tso, Harish Vishwanath, Erran Li and
Justino Lorenco, Saro Velrajan and TCL India

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