TIME DIVISION MULIPLE ACCESS

 TDMA is a channel access method For shared medium networks. It allows several users
to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots.

 TDMA is used in the digital 2G cellular systems such as Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM),

TDMA is a type of Time-division multiplexing, with the special point that instead of having one
transmitter connected to one receiver, there are multiple transmitters. In the case of the uplink
from a mobile phone to a base station this becomes particularly difficult because the mobile
phone can move around and vary the timing advance required to make its transmission match the
gap in transmission from its peers. ultiple access[CDMA] due to reduced intra cell interference

• Higher synchronization overhead than CDMA

• Advanced equalization may be necessary for high data rates if the channel is "frequency
selective" and creates Intersymbol interference
• Cell breathing (borrowing resources from adjacent cells) is more complicated than in
CDMA
• Frequency/slot allocation complexity
• Pulsating power envelop: Interference with other.
TDMA in mobile phone systems

2G systems

Most 2G cellular systems, with the notable exception of IS-95, are based on TDMA. GSM, D-
AMPS, PDC, iDEN, and PHS are examples of TDMA cellular systems. GSM combines TDMA
with Frequency Hopping and wideband transmission to reduce interference, this minimizes
common types of interference.

In the GSM system, the synchronization of the mobile phones is achieved by sending timing
advance commands from the base station which instructs the mobile phone to transmit earlier
and by how much. This compensates for the propagation delay resulting from the light speed
velocity of radio waves. The mobile phone is not allowed to transmit for its entire time slot, but
there is a guard interval at the end of each time slot. As the transmission moves into the guard
period, the mobile network adjusts the timing advance to synchronize the transmissio

3G systems

Although most major 3G systems are primarily based upon CDMA, time division duplexing
(TDD), packet scheduling (dynamic TDMA) and packet oriented multiple access schemes are
available in 3G form, combined with CDMA to take advantage of the benefits of both
technologies.

While the most popular form of the UMTS 3G system uses CDMA and frequency division
duplexing (FDD) instead of TDMA, TDMA is combined with CDMA and Time Division
Duplexing in two standard UMTS UTRA modes, UTRA TDD-HCR (better known as TD-
CDMA), and UTRA TDD-LCR (better known as TD-SCDMA). In each mode, more than one
handset may share a single time slot. UTRA TDD-HCR is used most commonly by UMTS-TDD
to provide Internet access, whereas UTRA TDD-LCR provides some interoperability with the
forthcoming Chinese 3G standard
Other networks

TDMA is used along with FDMA by the Iridium and Thuraya satellite phone

TDMA in wired networks

The ITU-T G.hn standard, which provides high-speed local area networking over existing home
wiring (power lines, phone lines and coaxial cables) is based on a TDMA scheme.

Thuraya is a regional satellite phone provider. Its coverage area is most of Europe, the Middle
East, North, Central and East Africa, Asia and Australia.[1]

Comparison with other multiple-access schemes

A major advantage of TDMA is that the radio part of the mobile only needs to listen and
broadcast for its own time slot.] This allows safe inter frequency handovers, something which is
difficult in CDMA systems.

CDMA supports "soft hand-off" which allows a mobile phone to be in communication with up to
6 base stations simultaneously, a type of "same-frequency handover". The incoming packets are
compared for quality. CDMA's "cell breathing" characteristic, where a terminal on the boundary
of two.

A disadvantage of TDMA systems is that they create interference at a frequency which is

directly connected to the time slot length. This is the buzz which can sometimes be heard if a
TDMA phone is left next to a radio or speakers. Another disadvantage is that the "dead time"
between time slots limits the potential bandwidth of a TDMA channel. These are implemented in
part because of the difficulty in ensuring that different terminals transmit at exactly the times
required. Handsets that are moving will need to constantly adjust their timings to ensure their
transmission is received at precisely the right time, because as they move further from the base
station, their signal will take longer to arrive. This also means that the major TDMA systems
have hard limits on cell sizes in terms of range, though in practice the power levels required to
receive and transmit over distances greater than the supported range would be mostly impractical
anyway.
Channel access methods:-

• MF-TDMA
• STDMA

Multi-frequency time division multiple access (MD-TDMA)

MF-TDMA (Multi-Frequency, Time Division Multiple Access) is the leading technology for
dynamically sharing bandwidth resources in an over-the-air, two-way communications network.
Many variations of MF-TDMA technology (including simple TDMA) exist and are commonly
used in multiple types of networks, including:

• Most two-way communication satellite networks,

• The most common cellular telephony networks (e.g., GSM), and
• Some metro-wireless data access networks (e.g., WiMax)

Application
A Multi-Frequency Time Division Multiple Access (MF-TDMA) system has been developed for
a thin route satellite communication network which has most of the desirable features of both
FDMA and Time division multiple access (TDMA) systems.

the MF-TDMA and FDMA systems can have greater throughput capacity compared to TDMA.
This improvement depends on the amount of satellite transponder backoff required to keep the
intermodulation effects small, and is the result of the TDMA downlink having been sized for the
smallest station and largest rain margin. In the case where the earth station must provide circuits
to more than one station simultaneously, MF-TDMA is advantageous over FDMA because fewer
modems are required. Use of MFTDMA can lead to lower earth station costs by requiring lower
transmitter power compared to TDMA, and fewer modems compared to FDMA. Even though
the control algorithm for a MFTDMA network is somewhat more complicated, a high degree of
flexibility in channel assignment is retained.

Self-Organized Time Division Multiple Access (STDMA)

Self-Organized Time Division Multiple Access (STDMA) is a channel access method which
was designed by Håkan Lans[1], based on time-division multiplexing.

The term "Self-Organized" describes the manner in which time slots are assigned to users. Time
division multiple access (TDMA) divides a channel into frames, which furthermore are
subdivided into a vast number of time slots. Users transmit in rapid succession, one after the
other, each using his own time slot. One of the drawbacks of TDMA is that it requires a central
station for slot assignment and time synchronisation. STDMA proposes a method for assigning
slots without the involvement of a central station. Time synchronisation is usually taken care of
using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).