WCN ASSIGNMENT

HISTORY OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

1. Why is FM, rather than AM used in mobile radio systems today? List as many
reasons as you can think of, and justify your responses. Consider issues such as
fidelity, power Consumption and noise.
Amplitude modulation:
Amplitude modulation is the process of varying the amplitude of the carrier
wave in proportion to that of the message signal being transmitted. Amplitude
modulation is used in radio transmissions for broadcasting and two-way radio
communication applications.
One of the key reasons for the use of amplitude modulation was its ease of
use. The system simply required the carrier amplitude to be modulated, and the
detector is a simple diode-based circuit.
Frequency modulation:
In frequency modulation, the frequency rather than the amplitude of the carrier
wave is made to vary in proportion to the varying amplitude of the modulating signal.
Frequency modulation is widely used on frequencies above 30 MHz, and it is
particularly well known for its use for Very High Frequency FM broadcasting.
Why is FM preferred over AM?
FM is more apparent in signal transmission when compared to AM. Its wave
length is short whereas the frequency is high and vice versa for AM. Natural or
human activity like traffic etc doesn't affect the FM transmission whereas AM
transmission gets affected.
The advantages of FM in comparison with AM are Noise Reduction, Less
adjacent Channel, Transmitter Efficiency and co-channel Interference.
A. Greater SNR and less noise interference:
The greatest advantage of FM is its ability to eliminate noise interference and
thus increase the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). Here, Shannon’s law (more bandwidth
= less noise) is used to improve the received signal to noise ratio resulting in less
noise and interference.
In FM, amplitude variations of the modulating (message) signal cause
frequency deviations and not a change in the amplitude of the carrier. Noise
interference results in amplitude variations of the carrier and thus it can be easily
removed by the use of amplitude limiters. The amplitude limiter in the FM section of
the receiver works on the principle of passing the stronger signal and eliminating the
weaker. This principle is called the ‘capture effect’. In this manner, a relatively weak
interfering signal or any pick-up from a co-channel station (a station operating at the
same carrier frequency) gets eliminated in a FM system.
 However, in AM, the interfering signal or station can be heard or received
even when a 100 : 1 relationship exists between their amplitudes.
B. Depth of Modulation:
The amplitude of the FM wave is independent of the depth of modulation,
whereas in AM it is dependent on this parameter. This means that low level
modulation can be used in FM and all succeeding amplifiers can be class ‘C’ which
are more efficient. Thus, unlike AM, all amplifiers handle constant power and this
results in more economical FM transmitters.
C. Frequency Range:
FM radio ranges in a higher spectrum from 88 to 108 MHz. (OR) 1200 to 2400
bits per second whereas AM radio ranges only from 535 to 1705 KHz (OR) Up to
1200 bits per second.
D. Fidelity:
High fidelity AM transmission is limited by high-level man-made noise and
atmospheric disturbances which AM receivers cannot reject without loss of fidelity.
On the other hand, FM broadcasting is capable of higher fidelity—that is,
more accurate reproduction of the original program sound—than other broadcasting
technologies, such as AM broadcasting or DAB radio. Therefore, FM is used for most
broadcasts of music or general audio (in the audio spectrum). FM radio stations use
the very high frequency range of radio frequencies.
Normal TV sound is also broadcast using FM. The FM band used in broadcast
is generally called wide-FM, or W-FM. In two-way radio, Narrowband-FM (N-FM) is
used to conserve bandwidth. In addition, it is used to send signals into space.
E. Power Consumption:
In AM systems, the power consumption for signal transmission is higher when
compared to FM systems. Atleast two-thirds of the total power is concentrated in the
carrier signal. In AM systems, the power depends on the modulation index also called
‘MA’. When MA reaches unity, the power consumption is 100%. In FM systems, the
power of the transmitted signal is proportional to the amplitude of the
unmodulated carrier signal and it is constant. Therefore FM is usually more power-
efficient than AM systems.
F. Frequency deviation:
In FM systems, the frequency deviation of the signal is related to the noise
ratio. A higher frequency deviation means that the baseband signal can be easily
retrieved from the FM signals, whereas less deviation means it is harder to separate
the data from the noise. In AM systems, the only method of reducing noise in the
transmission is the increase in the transmitted power of the signal. This increases the
cost of operation of the AM system.
G. In an AM system, there is no guard band in between two adjacent
 channels. This seriously increases the occurrence of interference of AM radio
station unless one signal is strong enough to overpower the other. Whereas in the
case of FM signal, the adjacent FM channels are separated by guard bands which
results in very little interference between adjacent FM channels.

Thus, these are the advantages of Frequency modulation over Amplitude

modulation thereby making FM more preferable to AM.

2. List the factors that led to the development of a) the GSM system for Europe and b)
the US Digital Cellular systems. Compare and contrast the importance for both efforts
to
i) Maintain Compatibility with existing cellular phones
ii) Obtain spectral efficiency
iii) Obtain new radio spectrum

The GSM System for Europe:

GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) is a digital mobile network
that is widely used by mobile phone users in Europe and other parts of the world.
GSM uses a variation of time division multiple access (TDMA) and is the most
widely used of the three digital wireless telephony technologies: TDMA, GSM and
code-division multiple access (CDMA). GSM digitizes and compresses data, then
sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot.
It operates at either the 900 megahertz or 1,800 MHz frequency band.

GSM is the second generation’s system for mobile telephony that is used
today in parallel with the third generation (3G) and the newly built 4G. SIM cards are
one of the key features of GSM networks. They house your service subscription,
network identification, and address book information.

GSM is a circuit-switched system that divides each 200 kHz channel into eight
25 kHz time-slots. GSM operates on the mobile communication bands 900 MHz and
1800 MHz in most parts of the world. In the US, GSM operates in the bands 850 MHz
and 1900 MHz.

Features of GSM:

 Encryption for phone calls

 Data networking
 Short Message Service (SMS) for text messages and paging
 Call forwarding
 Caller-ID
 Call waiting
  Multi-party conferencing
 Improved spectrum efficiency
 International roaming
 Low-cost mobile sets and base stations (BSs)
 High-quality speech
 Compatibility with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and other
telephone company services
Development of GSM :
Predecessors to GSM, including Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) in
the United States and Total Access Communication System (TACS) in the United
Kingdom, were built with analog technology. However, these telecommunications
systems were unable to scale with the adoption of more users. The shortcomings of
these systems pointed to a need for a more efficient cellular technology that could also
be used internationally.
To achieve that goal, the European Conference of Postal and
Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) set up a committee to develop a
European standard for digital telecommunications in 1983. CEPT decided on several
criteria that the new system must meet: international roaming support, high speech
quality, support for handheld devices, low service cost, support for new services and
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) capability.
In 1987, representatives from 13 European countries signed a contract to
deploy a telecommunications standard. The European Union (EU) then passed laws to
require GSM as a standard in Europe. In 1989, the responsibility of the GSM project
was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI).

U.S Digital Cellular Systems (USDC) :

In late 1991, U.S. Digital Cellular (USDC, IS-54) was introduced to replace
AMPS analog channels. It has 3 times of capacity due to the use of digital modulation
( DQPSK), speech coding, and TDMA technologies. It could further increase up to 6
times of capacity given the advancements of DSP and speech coding technologies.
USDC is also known as North American Digital Cellular (NADC). It has been
installed in North America in the countries like Canada and Mexico.
The dual mode USDC/AMPS system was standardized as Interim Standard 54
(IS 54). It was standardized by Electron Industries Association and
Telecommunication Industry Association (EIA/TIA) in 1990. It was later upgraded to
IS-136.
 USDC (United States Digital Cellular System) maintains compatibility with
AMPS in a number of ways. Therefore, USDC is also known as D-AMPS (digital
AMPS).
Development of USDC :
In addition to AMPS’s inability to support ever-increasing demand for mobile
communication usage, it also had poor security system which allowed people to steal
a phone's serial code to use for making illegal calls. All of these triggered the search
for a more capable system.
The quest resulted in USDC IS-54, the first American 2G standard. In March
1990, the North American cellular network incorporated the IS-54B standard, the first
North American dual mode digital cellular standard. This standard won
over Motorola's Narrowband AMPS or N-AMPS, an analog scheme which increased
capacity, by cutting down voice channels from 30 kHz to 10 kHz.
Using USDC, a cellular carrier could convert any of its system's analog voice
channels to digital. A dual mode phone uses digital channels where available, and
defaults to regular AMPS where they are not. USDC was backward compatible with
analogue cellular and indeed co-existed on the same radio channels as AMPS.
Compatibility of USDC and GSM :
GSM phones are fairly easy to unlock and transfer between networks. Third-
party manufacturers often sell phones designed for GSM networks since they don’t
require access to specific carrier bands. GSM phones can even work in countries with
compatible GSM networks and offer wider international roaming. GSM also covers
rural areas more completely than USDC in the U.S.
Spectral efficiency of USDC and GSM :
Spectral Efficiency of USDC IS 54:
If the SNR of a wireless communication link is 20 dB and the RF bandwidth
is 20 kHz, determine the maximum theoretical data rate to the USDC illustrated
above. As S/N is 20 dB is equals to 100 and the Radio frequency bandwidth (B) is
20000Hz, then by using Shannon’s channel capacity formula, the maximum possible
data rate is given by,
𝑆
C = Blog2 (1 + 𝑁 ) => 20000log2(1+100) = 133.164 kbps.

Theoretically, the data rate is 48.6kbps which is only one fourth under 20 dB
SNR conditions.
Spectral efficiency of GSM :
If the SNR of a wireless communication link is 10 dB , 30 dB and the radio
frequency and maximum data rate that can be supported in a 200 kHz channel. So, for
SNR = 10 dB = 10, B = 200 KHz.
By using formula,
 𝑆
C = Blog2 (1 + 𝑁 ) => 200000log2(1+10) = 691.886 kbps.

The GSM data rate is 270.883 kbps, which is only about 40%.