The Radio interface

• The most important

interface in GSM
technology. i.e.

The GSM technology

Why is it so important..??
• It is universal media for transmission and
reception of signals.
• Key element to enable mobility and wireless
access and provide roaming facility.
• It is limited resource shared by all users.
• It must be well defined to obtain compatibility
between MS and BTS.

The GSM technology

The frequency spectrum is very congested, with only
narrow slots of bandwidth allocated for cellular
communications. Standard GSM has a total of 124
frequencies available for use in a network. Most
network providers are unlikely to be able to use all of
these frequencies and are generally allocated a small
subset of the 124.The spectral efficiency depends on
radio interface and transmission. The spectrum
efficiency can be increased by decreasing the
interference . It includes :
-Frequency reuse
-Sectorization.

The GSM technology

 Frequency re-use
Three types of frequency
reuse patterns
• 7 Cell reuse pattern
2
• 4 cell reuse pattern 7 3
1 D
6 4
• 3 cell reuse pattern 5 Cell Dia = R

• Frequency re-use
increases the capacity 7/21 cell cluster
and hence spectrum
efficiency.
 Sectorization
• Omni directional antennas radiates
same frequency in every direction,
thereby increasing the chances of
interference and no. of cells in a
particular area too.
• Sectorization splits a site into number of
OMNI CELL
cells ,which increases the capacity of
1 ANTENNA
the system.
b2
• Directional antennas are used which
ensures that radio from one sector is b1
concentrated in a particular direction
which :
b3
--increases the signal strength.
--makes frequency reuse pattern 120O CELLS
3 ANTENNAS
to be used efficiently.
 Access methods
• Since radio frequency is limited, so there is no
dedicated channel to individuals but it is
provided on demand. Radio channels are
shared by all users.
• Both FDMA and TDMA methods helps to
provide radio access to subscribers and hence
provides mobility.
 Tdma technology
Time division multiple access is a digital technology that
allows a number of users to access a single radio frequency
channel without interference by allocating a unique time
slots to each user within the channel.
– Each carrier frequency is subdivided in time domain into 8
time slots
– Each mobile transmits data in a frequency, in its particular
time slot - Burst period = 0.577 milli secs.
– 8 time slots called a TDMA frame. Period is .577 * 8 =
4.616 milli secs 0.577 ms

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4.616 ms
 How it works…?
Let us consider that four different conversation is going on
simultaneously.
TDMA divides a single A. Marry had a little lamb.
RF carrier into 8 slots B. Ramu is a good boy.
and provides each C. There was an old man who lived in a shoe.
conversation a single D.Jack and Jill went up the hill
slot for very short duration. After the four slots conversation
has been transmitted, process is repeated again.

RF channel Marry had a Ramu is a There was an Jack and

Freq. 1
Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3` Slot 4
 Tdma advantages
• It can easily adapt to transmission of data as well as voice
communication.

• ability to carry 6 kbps to 120 Mbps of data rates which

allows services like fax, voice band data, and SMS as well as
multimedia too.

• 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.

• most cost effective technology to convert an analog system

to digital.
 Tdma disadvantages
• 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.

• Another problem in TDMA is that it is subjected to multipath

distortion. A signal coming from a tower to a handset might come
from any one of several directions. It might have bounced off
several different buildings before arriving which can cause
interference. to overcome this distortion, a time limit can be used
on the system. The system will be designed to receive ,treat and
process that signal within a certain time limit. Once the time limit
is expired the signal is ignored.
 960 MHz

959.8MHz TS: Time slot

124
123
GSM utilizes two bands of 25 MHz. 890-915 MHz
DOWNLINK ……. Downlink (TDMA frame) = 8 TS
band is used for uplink while the 935-960 MHz is
…… used for downlink.
200KHz

935.2 Mhz 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The frequency bands are divided into 200 KHz
1
935 MHz wide channels called ARFCNs (Absolute Radio
Frequency Channel Numbers) i.e. there are 125
Data burst = 156.25 bit periods = 576.9s
ARFCNs out of which only 124 are used.
915 MHz
Each ARFCN supports 8 users with each user
914.8 MHz
124 transmitting / receiving on a particular time slot
45 MHz (TS).
200KHz
123
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
UPLINK …….
…… Uplink (TDMA frame)
890.2 MHz 2

890 MHz
1

Therefore 1 TDMA frame = 156.25 x 8 = 1250 bits

and has a duration of 576.92s x 8 = 4.615 ms
 frequency division multiple access
(fdma)

• Divide available frequency spectrum

into channels each of the same bandwidth
• Channel separation achieved by filters:
• Good selectivity
• Guard bands between channels
• Signaling channel required to allocate a traffic
channel to a user
• Only one user per frequency channel at any
time
• Used in analog systems, such as AMPS, TACS
• Limitations on:
• frequency re-use
• number of subscribers per area
 Uplink and downlink frequency distribution

Uplink Downlink BTS

890 MHz Frequency 915 MHz 935 MHz Frequency 960 MHz

0 channel # 124 0 channel # 124

Example:
Channel 48
Duplex spacing = 45 MHz
Frequency band spectrum = 2 x 25 MHz
Channel spacing = 200 kHz
Contd…

The bandwidth of 25 MHz is divided into equal parts of

200 kHz and this band of 200kHz is called as GUARD BAND.

 The single radio frequency is called as ABSOLUTE RADIO

FREQUENCY CHANNEL NUMBER (ARFCN).

Frequency allotment is always done in pairs i.e. if 890.2

MHz is allocated as transmission frequency then 935.2
MHz will be allocated to the same operator as receiving
frequency.

The spacing between trans and receive frequency is

called as DUPLEX SPACING and it is equal to 45 MHz
 From Speech to Radio Transmission
Blah... Blah... Blah... Blah… Blah… Blah...
Digitizing and
Source Decoding
Source Coding

Channel Coding Channel Decoding

Interleaving De-interleaving

Ciphering Deciphering

Burst Formatting Burst De-formatting

Modulating Demodulating

The GSM technology