Multiple Access Methods

One transponder serving several earth stations simultaneously. 

Multiple access is a radio transmission scheme that allows several earth stations to transmit in the same time span. This
provides the way to network these stations together, either in a Star or a Mesh network. 
Types of Multiple Access Methods 
There are three types of Multiple Access Methods to understand:

 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) - flexible and simple

 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) - popular
 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA Spread Spectrum) - highly secure

This illustration shows how the most common Multiple Access Methods allow the capacity of a standard transponder to be
shared. 

Differences between CDMA and TDMA:

CDMA technology claims that its bandwidth is thirteen times efficient than

TDMA and forty times efficient than analog systems. CDMA also have better security

and higher data and voice transmission quality because of the spread spectrum

technology it uses, which has increased resistance to multipath distortion. The battery life

is higher in TDMA compared to CDMA because CDMA handsets transmit data all the

time and TDMA does not require constant transmission. CDMA has greater coverage

area when compared to TDMA. Though, when it comes to international roaming TDMA

is better than CDMA. CDMA is patented by Qualcomm, so an extra fee is paid to

Qualcomm. When it comes to United States and Canada market size for CDMA is larger

than GSM’s market size but worldwide the market size for GSM is far bigger both in the

number of subscribers and coverage ,than CDMA.

Advantages of CDMA:

One of the main advantages of CDMA is that dropouts occur only when the phone

is at least twice as far from the base station. Thus it is used in the rural areas where GSM

cannot cover. Another advantage is its capacity; it has a very high spectral capacity that it

can accommodate more users per MHz of bandwidth. It uses a vocoder EVRC for noise

reduction where the background noise is reduced. This is exclusively available in CDMA

technology only.

Disadvantages of CDMA:

One major problem in CDMA technology is channel pollution, where signals

from too many cell sites are present in the subscriber’s phone but none of them is

dominant. When this situation arises the quality of the audio degrades. Another

disadvantage in this technology when compared to GSM is the lack of international

roaming capabilities. The ability to upgrade or change to another handset is not easy with

this technology because the network service information for the phone is put in the actual

phone unlike GSM which uses SIM card for this. One another disadvantage is the limited

variety of the handset, because at present the major mobile companies use GSM

technology.

Advantages of TDMA:

There are lots of advantages of TDMA in cellular technologies. It can easily adapt

to transmission of data as well as voice communication. It has an ability to carry 64 kbps

to 120 Mbps of data rates. This allows the operator to do services like fax, voice band

data, and SMS as well as bandwidth-intensive application such as multimedia and

videoconferencing. Since TDMA technology separates users according to time, it ensures

that there will be no interference from simultaneous transmissions. It provides users with

an extended battery life, since it transmits only portion of the time during conversations.
Since the cell size grows smaller, it proves to save base station equipment, space and

maintenance. TDMA is the most cost effective technology to convert an analog system to

digital.

Disadvantages of TDMA:

One major disadvantage using TDMA technology is that the users has a

predefined time slot. When moving from one cell site to other, if all the time slots in this

cell are full the user might be disconnected. Likewise, if all the time slots in the cell in

which the user is currently in are already occupied, the user will not receive a dial tone. 5

Another problem in TDMA is that it is subjected to multipath distortion. To overcome

this distortion, a time limit can be used on the system. Once the time limit is expired the

signal is ignored.

What are the advantages of CDMA over TDMA,FDMA,GSM, etc?

Basically CDMA uses bandwidth better than the other solutions, thus costing the carrier less money to
implement. As far as call clarity there are too many factors that weigh into the decision as to which
technology is better. Phone choice, location, network capacity all affect your call clarity more than what
type of digital technology you are using. As far as dropped calls CDMA uses a soft hand-off which means
that your call is actually be transmitted by more than one tower at a time, which reduces your chances of
a dropped call...of course it still happens on high capacity sites and in areas where the towers have not
been optimized properly...or just in weak coverage areas, but drop calls do tend to happen less often on
CDMA networks.

OPTICAL FIBERS :
Optical fiber is a dielectric waveguide or medium in which information (voice, data or video) is
transmitted through a glass or plastic fiber, in the form of light. The basic structure of an optical fiber
is shown in figure 1. It consists of a transparent core with a refractive index n1 surrounded by a
transparent cladding of a slightly less refractive index n2. The refractive index of cladding is less than
1%, lower than that of core. Typical values for example are a core refractive index of 1.47 and a
cladding index of 1.46. The cladding supports the waveguide structure, protects the core from
absorbing surface contaminants and when adequately thick, substantially reduces the radiation loss to
the surrounding air. Glass core fibers tend to have low loss in comparison with plastic core fibers.
Additionally, most of the fibers are encapsulated in an elastic, abrasion-resistant plastic material which
mechanically isolates the fibers from small geometrical irregularities and distortions. A set of guided
electromagnetic waves, also called the modes of the waveguide, can describe the propagation of light
along the waveguide. Only a certain number of modes are capable of propagating through the
waveguide.
Figure 1.
Transmission Characteristics of Optical Fiber Cables: 
The transmission characteristics of optical fiber cables play a major role in determining the
performance of the entire communication system. Attenuation and bandwidth are the two most
important transmission characteristics when the suitability of optical fiber for communication is
analysed. The various attenuation mechanisms are linear scattering, non linear scattering,
material absorption and fiber bends etc. The bandwidth determines the number of bits of
information transmitted in a given time period and is largely limited by signal dispersion within the
fiber.
Figure 4.
 2.3.1   Attenuation in Optical Fibers :
 Attenuation is defined as the loss of optical power over a set distance, a fiber with a lower
attenuation, will allow more power to reach to the receiver than a fiber with higher attenuation. Signal
attenuation within optical fiber is usually expressed in decibel per unit length (i.e. dB/km).
       Loss in decibel (dB) = 10 log₁₀(Pi/Po)
                                             where Pi and Po are the transmitted and output optical power
respectively. Figure5 shows optical fiber attenuation as a function of wavelength.
Figure 5.

 Dispersion :
It is defined as the spreading of the light pulses as they travel down the fiber. Because of the
spreading effect, pulse tend to overlap, making them unreadable by the receiver which is a critical
problem to deal with. It creates distortion for both digital and analog transmission. Dispersion limits
the maximum possible bandwidth attainable within a particular fiber. Pulse broadening is a very
common problem created by dispersion in digital transmission. To avoid it, the digital bit rate must be
less than the reciprocal of the broadened pulse duration.

5.    BENEFITS OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM :

Some of the innumerable benefits of optical fiber communication system are:
 Immense bandwidth to utilize
 Total electrical isolation in the transmission medium
 Very low transmission loss,
 Small size and light weight,
 High signal security,
 Immunity to interference and crosstalk,
 Very low power consumption and wide scope of system expansion etc.
3. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM :
Like all other communication system, the primary objective of optical fiber communication system also
is to transfer the signal containing information (voice, data, video) from the source to the destination.
The general block diagram of optical fiber communication system is shown in the figure9.
The source provides information in the form of electrical signal to the transmitter. The electrical stage
of the transmitter drives an optical source to produce modulated light wave carrier. Semiconductor
LASERs or LEDs are usually used as optical source here. The information carrying light wave then
passes through the transmission medium i.e. optical fiber cables in this system. Now it reaches to the
receiver stage where the optical detector demodulates the optical carrier and gives an electrical output
signal to the electrical stage. The common types of optical detectors used are photodiodes (p-i-n,
avalanche), phototransistors, photoconductors etc. Finally the electrical stage gets the real information
back and gives it to the concerned destination.
 

 
 
                 It
is notable that the optical carrier may be modulated by either analog or digital information
signal. In digital optical fiber communication system the information is suitably encoded prior to the
drive circuit stage of optical source. Similarly at the receiver end a decoder is used after amplifier and
equalizer stage.
 
4. PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM :

                 Figure10 shows the major elements used in an optical fiber communication system. As
we can see the transmitter stage consists of a light source and associated drive circuitry. Again, the
receiver section includes photodetector, signal amplifier and signal restorer.
                   Additional components like optical amplifier, connectors, splices and couplers are also
there. The regenerator section is  a key part of the system as it amplifies and reshapes the distorted
signals for long distance links.
Figure 10.