Part 7: Duplexing and Multiple Access Techniques

1. Duplexing

• In wireless communications systems, it is often desirable to allow the subscriber to send

simultaneously information to the base station while receiving information from the
base station. For example, in conventional telephone systems, it is possible to talk and
listen simultaneously, and this effect, called duplexing, is generally required in wireless
telephone systems.

• Duplexing may be done using frequency or time domain techniques:

• Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD)

• Time Division Duplexing (TDD)

2. Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD)

• It provides two distinct bands of frequencies for every user.

• Duplexer is used inside each subscriber unit .

• A duplexer separates a transmit and receive path based on signal direction and can be
used for same frequency signals.

3. Time Division Duplexing (TDD)

• Time Division Duplexing (TDD) uses time instead of frequency to provides both a
forward and reverse links.

• A duplexer device is not needed.

1 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Because of the rigid timing required for time slotting, TDD generally is limited to
cordless phone or short range portable access. TDD is effective for fixed wireless access
when all users are stationary so that propagation delays do not vary in time among the
users.

4. Multiple Access Techniques

• Multiple access schemes are used to allow many mobile users to share simultaneously a
finite amount of radio spectrum. The sharing of spectrum is required to achieve high
capacity by simultaneously allocating the available bandwidth (or the available amount
of channels) to multiple users. For high quality communications, this must be done
without severe degradation in the performance of the system.

• Multiple Access Techniques:

1. Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

2. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

3. Spread Spectrum Multiple Access

• Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS)

• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or called Direct Sequence Spread

Spectrum (DS-SS)

4. Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

5. Hybrid Spread Spectrum Techniques.

2 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 6. Packet Radio Protocols:

• ALOHA Protocols

• Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) Protocols

• Reservation Protocols

• FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA are the three major access techniques used to share the
available bandwidth in a wireless communication system.

• The duplexing technique of a multiple access system is usually described along with the
particular multiple access scheme.

3 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
5. Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Each user is allocated a unique frequency band or channel. These channels are assigned
on demand to users who request service. During the period of the call, no other user can
share the same channel.

• In FDMA/FDD systems, the users are assigned a channel as a pair of frequencies; one
frequency is used for the forward channel, while the other frequency is used for the
reverse channel.

6. Features of FDMA

• If a FDMA channel is not in use, then it sits idle and cannot be used by other users to
increase or share capacity. It is essentially a wasted resource.

• The bandwidths of FDMA channels are relatively narrow (30 kHz in AMPS) as each
channel supports only one circuit per carrier. That is, FDMA is usually implemented in
narrowband systems (i.e., the bandwidth is less than the coherence bandwidth of the
channel). This implies that the amount of inter-symbol interference is low and, thus,
little or no equalization is required in FDMA narrowband systems.

• The complexity of FDMA mobile systems is lower when compared to TDMA systems,
though this is changing as digital signal processing methods improve for TDMA.

• Since FDMA is a continuous transmission scheme, fewer bits are needed for overhead
purposes (such as synchronization and framing bits) as compared to TDMA.

• The FDMA mobile unit uses duplexers since both the transmitter and receiver operate
at the same time. This results in an increase in the cost of FDMA subscriber units and
base stations.

• FDMA requires tight RF filtering to minimize adjacent channel interference.

4 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
7. Nonlinear Effects in FDMA

• In a FDMA system, many channels share the same antenna at the base station. The
power amplifiers, when operated at or near saturation, are nonlinear.

• The nonlinearities cause signal spreading in the frequency domain and generate inter-
modulation (IM) frequencies.

• IM is undesired RF radiation which results in (in-band or out-band) adjacent-channel

interference.

8. FDMA/FDD in Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS)

• AMPS is the first US analog cellular system.

• A single user occupies a single channel while the call is in progress, and the single
channel is actually two simplex channels which are frequency duplexed with a 45 MHz
split.

• When a call is completed, or when a handoff occurs, the channel is vacated so that
another mobile subscriber may use it.

• Voice signals are sent on the forward channel from the base station to mobile unit, and
on the reverse channel from the mobile unit to the base station.

• In AMPS, analog narrowband frequency modulation (NBFM) is used to modulate the

carrier.

• The number of channels that can be simultaneously supported in a FDMA system is

given by

𝐵𝑡 − 2𝐵𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑
𝑁=
𝐵𝑐

• where 𝐵𝑡 is the total spectrum allocation, 𝐵𝑐 is the channel bandwidth, and 𝐵𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑 is the
guard band allocated at the edge of the allocated spectrum band, are required to ensure
that users at the edge of the band do not “bleed over” into an adjacent radio service.

5 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Example:

• In US AMPS cellular system, if Bt is 12.5 MHz, Bguard is 10 kHz, and Bc is 30 kHz, find
the number of channels available in the system.

• Solution:

• The number of channels available in the FDMA system is given as

12.5 × 106 − 2(10 × 103 )

𝑁= = 416
30 × 103

9. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

• The time divided into time slots, and in each slot only one user is allowed to either
transmit or receive.

• TDMA systems transmit data in a buffer-and-burst method, thus the transmission for
any user is non-continuous. This implies that, unlike in FDMA systems which
accommodate analog FM, digital data and digital modulation must be used with TDMA.

6 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • The transmission from various users is interlaced into a repeating frame structure. It
can be seen that a frame consists of a number of slots. Each frame is made up of a
preamble, an information message, and tail bits.

• Preamble consists of address and synchronization information for base station and
subscriber identification.

• Guard times needed for synchronization of receivers between a different slots and
frames.

• Different TDMA wireless standards have different TDMA frame structures.

• In TDMA/TDD, half of the time slots in the frame information message would be used
for the forward link channels and half would be used for reverse link channels.

• In TDMA/FDD systems, an identical or similar frame structure would be used solely for
either forward or reverse transmission, but the carrier frequencies would be different
for the forward and reverse links. In general, TDMA/FDD systems intentionally induce
several time slots of delay between the forward and reverse time slots for a particular
user, so that duplexers are not required in the subscriber unit.

10. Features of TDMA

• TDMA shares a single carrier frequency with several users, where each user makes use
of nonoverlapping time slots. The number of time slots per frame depends on several
factors, such as modulation technique, available bandwidth, etc.

• Data transmission for users of a TDMA system is not continuous, but occurs in bursts.
This results in low battery consumption, since the subscriber transmitter can be turned
off when not in use (which is most of the time).

• Because of discontinuous transmissions in TDMA, the handoff process is much simpler

for a subscriber unit, since it is able to listen for other base stations during idle time
slots. An enhanced link control, such as that provided by mobile assisted handoff
(MAHO) can be carried out by a subscriber by listening on an idle slot in the TDMA
frame.

7 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • TDMA uses different time slots for transmission and reception, thus duplexers are not
required. Even if FDD is used, a switch rather than a duplexer inside the subscriber unit
is all that is required to switch between transmitter and receiver using TDMA.

• Adaptive equalization is usually necessary in TDMA systems, since the transmission

rates are generally very high as compared to FDMA channels.

• In TDMA, the guard time should be minimized. If the transmitted signal at the edges of a
time slot are suppressed sharply in order to shorten the guard time, the transmitted
spectrum will expand and cause interference to adjacent channels.

• High synchronization overhead is required in TDMA systems because of burst

transmissions. TDMA transmissions are slotted, and this requires the receivers to be
synchronized for each data burst. In addition, guard slots are necessary to separate
users, and this results in the TDMA systems having larger overheads as compared to
FDMA.

• TDMA has an advantage in that it is possible to allocate different numbers of time slots
per frame to different users. Thus, bandwidth can be supplied on demand to different
users by concatenating or reassigning time slots based on priority.

11. Efficiency of TDMA

• Frame efficiency:
𝑏𝑂𝐻
𝜂𝑓 = (1 − ) × 100%
𝑏𝑇

Where :

𝑏𝑇 = 𝑇𝑓 𝑅 is the total number of bits per frame.

𝑇𝑓 : frame duration, 𝑅: channel bit rate.

𝑏𝑂𝐻 == 𝑁𝑟 𝑏𝑟 + 𝑁𝑡 𝑏𝑝 + 𝑁𝑡 𝑏𝑔 + 𝑁𝑟 𝑏𝑔 is the number of overhead bits per frame

𝑁𝑟 : number of reference bursts per frame.

𝑁𝑡 : number of traffic bursts per frame.

𝑏𝑟 : number of overhead bits per reference burst.

𝑏𝑝 : number of overhead bits per preamble in each slot.

𝑏𝑔 : number of equivalent bits in each guard time interval.

8 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
12. Number of Channels in TDMA System

𝑚(𝐵𝑡𝑜𝑡 − 2𝐵guard )
𝑁=
𝐵𝑐

Where:

𝑚: maximum number of TDMA users supported on each radio channel.

𝐵𝑡𝑜𝑡 : total availabe bandwidth

𝐵guard : guard bandwidth of each side

𝐵𝑐 : bandwidth of each channel.

• Example:

• Consider Global System for Mobile, which is a TDMA/FDD system that uses 25 MHz for
the forward link, which is broken into radio channels of 200 kHz. If 8 speech channels
are supported on a single radio channel, and if no guard band is assumed, find the
number of simultaneous users that can be accommodated in GSM.

• Solution:

25MHz
𝑁= = 1000
(200kHz)/8

Thus, GSM can accommodate 1000 simultaneous users.

• Example:

• If GSM uses a frame structure where each frame consists of eight time slots, and each
time slot contains 156.25 bits, and data is transmitted at 270.833 kbps in the channel,
find (a) the time duration of a bit, (b) the time duration of a slot, (c) the time duration of
a frame, and (d) how long must a user occupying a single time slot wait between two
successive transmissions.

9 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Solution:

• The time duration of a bit

1
𝑇𝑏 = = 3.692𝜇s.
270.833kbps

• The time duration of a slot

𝑇slot = 156.25 × 𝑇𝑏 = 0.577ms.

• The time duration of a frame

𝑇𝑓 = 8 × 𝑇slot = 4.615ms.

• A user has to wait 4.615 ms, the arrival time of a new frame, for its next transmission.

• Example:

• If a normal GSM time slot consists of 6 trailing bits, 8.25 guard bits, 26 training bits, and
two traffic bursts of 58 bits of data, find the frame efficiency.

• Solution:

• A time slot has 6 + 8.25 + 26 + 2(58) = 156.25 bits.

• A frame has 8 × 156.25 = 1250 bits/frame.

• The number of overhead bits per frame is given by

𝑏𝑂𝐻 = 8(6) + 8(8.25) + 8(26) = 322 bits

• Thus, the frame efficiency is

322
𝜂𝑓 = [1 − ] × 100 = 74.24%
1250

13. Spread Spectrum Multiple Access (SSMA)

• Spread spectrum multiple access in which each channel is assigned a unique pseudo-
noise (PN) code which is orthogonal or approximately orthogonal to PN codes used by
other users.

10 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • A PN sequence converts a narrowband signal to a wideband noise-like signal before
transmission.

• Spread spectrum multiple access (SSMA) uses signals which have a transmission
bandwidth that is several orders of magnitude greater than the minimum required RF
bandwidth.

• SSMA also provides immunity to multipath interference and robust multiple access
capability.

• SSMA is not very bandwidth efficient when used by a single user. However, spread
spectrum systems become bandwidth efficient in a multiple user environment.

• The initial application of spread-spectrum (SS) techniques was for military

applications.

• SS investigation was motivated primarily by the desire to achieve highly jam-resistant

communication systems.

• There are two main types of spread spectrum multiple access techniques:

1. Frequency hopped multiple access (FHMA)

2. Direct sequence multiple access (DSMA). It is called code division multiple

access (CDMA).

14. Frequency Hopped Multiple Access (FHMA)

• Frequency hopped multiple access (FHMA) is a digital multiple access system in which
the carrier frequencies of the individual users are varied in a pseudorandom fashion
within a wideband channel.

11 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • FHMA allows multiple users to simultaneously occupy the same spectrum at the same
time, where each user dwells at a specific narrowband channel at a particular instance
of time, based on the particular PN code of the user.

• The pseudorandom change of the channel frequencies of the user randomizes the
occupancy of a specific channel at any given time, thereby allowing for multiple access
over a wide range of frequencies.

• The digital data of each user is broken into uniform sized bursts which are transmitted
on different channels within the allocated spectrum band.

• In the FH receiver, a locally generated PN code is used to synchronize the receiver’s

instantaneous frequency with that of the transmitter.

• At any given point in time, a frequency hopped signal only occupies a single, relatively
narrow channel since narrowband FM or FSK is used.

• A frequency hopped system provides a level of security , especially when a large

number of channels are used, since an unintended (or an intercepting) receiver that
does not know the pseudorandom sequence of frequency slots must retune rapidly to
search for the signal it wishes to intercept.

12 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • FHMA systems often employ energy efficient constant envelope modulation (no
information in the amplitude of the carrier such as FSK). This implies that linearity is
not an issue and the power of multiple users at the receiver does not degrade FHMA
performance. The distortion of carrier amplitude by fading or nonlinear amplification
will not affect the signal.

• Inexpensive receivers may be built to provide noncoherent detection of FHMA (Simple

implementation).

• The FH signal is somewhat immune to fading.

• Bluetooth and HomeRF wireless technologies have adopted FHMA.

15. Difference between FHMA and FDMA

• The difference between FHMA and a traditional FDMA system is that the frequency
hopped signal changes channels at rapid intervals.

• If the rate of change of the carrier frequency is greater than the symbol rate, then the
system is referred to as a fast frequency hopping system.

• If the channel changes at a rate less than or equal to the symbol rate, it is called slow
frequency hopping.

13 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
16. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

• Called Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

• Some 2G systems use CDMA.

• Most of 3G systems use CDMA.

• 4G uses OFDMA instead of CDMA.

• Principle of Operation:

• Each user is assigned a unique code sequence (spreading code).

• The various codes are orthogonal to each other (code1.code2 = 0).

• The data signal is encoded using this code.

• All encoded signals share the same frequency band and therefore interfere.

• Yet a receiver knowing the sender’s code can decode the signal and recover data.

14 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Explanation:

• Due to the multiplication of a symbol with the code, the rate of change increases by a
factor 11.

• This means that cycle rate increase from 1 MHz to 11 MHz.

• In terms of spectrum, this means that after RF modulation the signal is spread from 2
MHz bandwidth to 22 MHz bandwidth.

15 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
17. CDMA Example

• Typically, there are 64 or 128 chips per bit.

• Each station is assigned a unique m-bit code called a chip sequence.

• Inner product of two chip codes is zero.

• It is known how to generate such orthogonal chip sequences using a method known as
Walsh codes.

• If station A is assigned the chip sequence 00011011, it sends a 1 bit by sending

00011011 and a 0 bit by sending 11100100.

• This example from "https://slideplayer.com/slide/5029899/ "

18. Features of CDMA

• Multi access capability: Many users of a CDMA system share the same frequency band.
Either TDD or FDD may be used.

16 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Unlike TDMA or FDMA, CDMA has a soft capacity limit. Increasing the number of users in
a CDMA system raises the noise floor in a linear manner. Thus, there is no absolute limit
on the number of users in CDMA. Rather, the system performance gradually degrades
for all users as the number of users is increased, and improves as the number of users is
decreased.

• Soft handoff.

• Multipath fading may be substantially reduced because the signal is spread over a large
spectrum. If the spread spectrum bandwidth is greater than the coherence bandwidth of
the channel, the inherent frequency diversity will mitigate the effects of small-scale
fading.

• Single frequency reuse can be used (no frequency planning needed).

17 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Interference suppression.

• Assume a signal x(t) and a spreading code g(t)

• x(t) is narrowband compared to g(t)

• The spread signal is generated as:

• In time domain: s(t) = x(t).g(t)

• In frequencydomain: S(w)= X(w)*G(w)

• If the x(t) is narrowband compared to g(t), s(t) will have approximately the
bandwidth of the spreading signal.

• y(t) = s(t) + n(t) is transmitted on the channel , where n(t) is the noise or
interference.

• At the receiver, y(t) is multiplied by the spreading code g(t):

• y(t).g(t) = x(t).g(t).g(t) + n(t).g(t) = x(t) + n(t).g(t)

• The signal x(t) is recovered, the noise is spread.

• Improved confidentiality: a receiver that doesn’t know the code only sees white noise.

18 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Anti-jamming capability: jamming injected in the system is filtered just like
interferences (especially true with narrow-band jamming).

• Low probability of interception: because of its low power density the signal is difficult to
detect and intercept by a hostile listener.

• High complexity of a receiver.

• Huge code space (e.g. 2^32) compared to frequency space

• The near–far problem occurs at a CDMA receiver if an undesired user has a high
detected power as compared to the desired user.

• If A and B use the same power, the signal received by the BS from B is much
stronger than the signal received from A. So, B masks A.

• Precise power control is needed; the BS tells each node to adjust its transmission
power according to its distance.

19. Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

• SDMA serves different users by using spot beam antennas to control the radiated
energy for each user in space.

• These different areas covered by the antenna beam may be served by the same
frequency (in a TDMA or CDMA systern) or different frequencies (in an FDMA system).

• SDMA is done using sectorized antennas or adaptive antennas (simultaneously steer

energy in the direction of many users at once).

19 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
20. Hybrid Spread Spectrum Techniques

• Hybrid combinations that provide certain advantages.

• Hybrid techniques are :

• Hybrid FDMA/CDMA (FCDMA)

• Hybrid Direct Sequence/Frequency Hopped Multiple Access (DS/FHMA)

• Time Division CDMA (TCDMA)

• Time Division Frequency Hopping (TDFH)

21. Hybrid FDMA/CDMA (FCDMA)

• The available wideband spectrum is divided into a number of sub-spectras with smaller
bandwidths. Each of these smaller sub-channels becomes a narrowband CDMA system.

• Advantage: the required bandwidth need not be continuous and different users can be
allotted different sub-spectrum bandwidths depending on their requirements.

• Capacity: the sum of the capacities of a system operating in the sub-spectra.

22. Hybrid Direct Sequence/Frequency Hopped Multiple Access (DS/FHMA)

• This technique consists of a direct sequence modulated signal whose center frequency
is made to hop periodically in a pseudorandom fashion.

• Advantage: it avoids the near–far effect.

• Drawback: frequency hopped CDMA systems are not adaptable to the soft handoff
process since it is difficult to synchronize the frequency hopped base station receiver to
the multiple hopped signals.

20 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
23. Time Division CDMA (TCDMA)

• Different spreading codes are assigned to different cells. Within each cell, only one user
per cell is allotted a particular time slot. Thus at any time, only one CDMA user is
transmitting in each cell.

• When a handoff takes place, the spreading code of the user is changed to that of the new
cell.

• Advantage: it avoids the near–far effect since only one user transmits at a time within a
cell.

24. Time Division Frequency Hopping (TDFH)

• The subscriber can hop to a new frequency at the start of a new TDMA frame.

• Advantages:

• It avoids a severe fade or erasure event on a particular channel.

• It avoids co-channel interference problems between neighboring cells if two

interfering base station transmitters are made to transmit on different
frequencies at different times.

• Application:

• In GSM standard, where the hopping sequence is predefined and the subscriber
is allowed to hop only on certain frequencies which are assigned to a cell. The
use of TDFH can increase the capacity of GSM by several fold.

21 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
25. Packet Radio

• Many subscribers attempt to access a single channel in an uncoordinated (or minimally

coordinated) manner.

• Transmission is done by using bursts of data.

• Collisions from the simultaneous transmissions of multiple transmitters are detected at

the base station receiver, in which case an ACK or NACK signal is broadcast by the base
station to alert the desired user (and all other users) of received transmission.

• Advantages:

• The ability to serve a large number of subscribers with virtually no overhead.

• It is very easy to implement.

• Disadvantages:

• It has low spectral efficiency

• It may induce delays.

• The subscribers use a contention technique (protocol) to transmit on a common

channel.

26. Packet Radio Protocols

• ALOHA Protocols:

• Pure ALOHA

• Slotted ALOHA

• Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) Protocols:

• 1-persistent CSMA

• non-persistent CSMA

22 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • p-persistent CSMA

• CSMA/CD

• Reservation Protocols:

• Reservation ALOHA

• Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA)

27. Pure ALOHA Protocol

• The pure ALOHA protocol is a random access protocol used for data transfer. A user
accesses a channel as soon as a message is ready to be transmitted. After a transmission,
the user waits for an acknowledgment on either the same channel or a separate
feedback channel. In case of collisions, (i.e., when a NACK is received), the user waits for
a random period of time and retransmits the message.

• As the number of users increase, a greater delay occurs because the probability of
collision increases.

• Developed for early satellite systems.

28. Slotted ALOHA Protocol

• In slotted ALOHA, time is divided into equal time slots of length greater than the packet
duration.

• The subscribers each have synchronized clocks and transmit a message only at the
beginning of a new time slot, thus resulting in a discrete distribution of packets.

• This prevents partial collisions, where one packet collides with a portion of another.

• As the number of users increase, a greater delay will occur due to complete collisions
and the resulting repeated transmissions of those packets originally lost. The number of
slots which a transmitter waits prior to retransmitting also determines the delay
characteristics of the traffic.

29. Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) Protocols

• CSMA protocols are based on the fact that each terminal on the network is able to
monitor the status of the channel before transmitting information. If the channel is idle
(i.e., no carrier is detected), then the user is allowed to transmit a packet based on a
particular algorithm which is common to all transmitters on the network.

• In CSMA protocols, detection delay and propagation delay are two important
parameters:

23 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
 • Detection delay is a function of the receiver hardware and is the time required
for a terminal to sense whether or not the channel is idle.

• Propagation delay is a relative measure of how fast it takes for a packet to travel
from a base station to a mobile terminal.

• Propagation delay is important, since just after a user begins sending a packet, another
user may be ready to send and may be sensing the channel at the same time. If the
transmitting packet has not reached the user who is poised to send, the latter user will
sense an idle channel and will also send its packet, resulting in a collision between the
two packets.

30. CSMA Protocols

1. 1-persistent CSMA: the terminal listens to the channel and waits for transmission until it
finds the channel idle. As soon as the channel is idle, the terminal transmits its message
with probability one.

2. non-persistent CSMA: in this type of CSMA strategy, after receiving a negative

acknowledgment the terminal waits a random time before retransmission of the packet.

3. p-persistent CSMA: it is applied to slotted channels. When a channel is found to be idle,

the packet is transmitted in the first available slot with probability p or in the next slot
with probability 1-p.

4. CSMA/CD: In CSMA with collision detection (CD), a user monitors its transmission for
collisions. If two or more terminals start a transmission at the same time, collision is
detected, and the transmission is immediately aborted in midstream. This is handled by
a user having both a transmitter and receiver which is able to support listen-while-talk
operation. For a single radio channel, this is done by interrupting the transmission in
order to sense the channel. For duplex systems, a full duplex transceiver is used.

5. Data sense multiple access (DSMA): DSMA is a special type of CSMA that relies on
successfully demodulating a forward control channel before broadcasting data back on
a reverse channel. Each user attempts to detect a busy-idle message which is
interspersed on the forward control channel. When the busy-idle message indicates that
no users are transmitting on the reverse channel, a user is free to send a packet. This
technique is used in the cellular digital packet data (CDPD) cellular network .

24 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425
31. Reservation Protocols

1. Reservation ALOHA

• It is based on TDM.

• In this protocol, certain packet slots are assigned with priority, and it is possible for
users to reserve slots for the transmission of packets.

• Slots can be permanently reserved or can be reserved on request.

2. Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA)

• PRMA was proposed as a means of integrating data and human speech (where voice is
given priority). PRMA defines a frame structure, much like is used in TDMA systems.
Within each frame, there are a fixed number of time slots which may be designated as
either “reserved” or “available”, depending on the traffic as determined by the
controlling base station.

References

• Wireless Communications Principles and Practice by Theodore S.

Rappaport.Prentice Hall PTRPrenticeHall, Inc.Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Second
Edition 2002.

• Course Notes for ECE8708 by Yimin Zhang, Villanova University,

http://yiminzhang.com.
• http://www.cs.nccu.edu.tw/~jang/teaching/MobileSystem_files/Multiple%20Access%
20Techniques%20for%20Wireless%20Communications_1.pdf

• https://www.academia.edu/37115039/Part_2_Wireless_Communication

25 Prof. Raed Al-Zubi , Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Jordan

Communication Systems-EE425