MOBILE COMMUNICATION

Basic concepts:
From ancient to modern times mankind has been
looking for long distance communication. Technical
improvement in 19th century, simplified long distance
communication. Telegraphy and later on telephony,
both the techniques were wire line.

In 1873, JC MAXWELL led the foundation of

electromagnetic theory by summarizing empirical
results in the form of equations which are still valid
today. It would however be several decades before
MARCONI, then improvement of wireless
transmission of more signals about in 1895. Voice
was first transmitted in 1906 by R. FESSEDEN and
the first radio broadcast transmission was in 1909 in
New York. Information such as news, music etc are
transmitted from the radio station to the receiver
equipment. This type of one way transmission is
called SIMPLEX.

The first commercial Wireless Car phone Telephony

service started in 1940 in St. Lewis, Missouri (USA).
The mobile phone equipment was bulky and heavy. It
actually filled the whole back of the car but was a
FULL DUPLEX transmission. In 1950, several radio
systems were installed in Europe. Now days these
are SINGLE CELL.
The user data transmission takes place between
a Mobile Phone and a Base Station (BS). A base
station transmits and receives user data while a
mobile phone is responsible for its user data
transmission and reception. A Base station is capable
to handle the call of several subscribers
simultaneously. The transmission of user data from
base station to mobile phone is called DOWNLINK.
The transmission of user data from mobile phone to
base station is called UPLINK.
The area where wireless transmission between
mobile phone and base station can take place
is called Supply Area or Cell Area. If the
subscriber is leaving the supply area of the cell no
communication is possible anymore. In other words,
the mobile communication was available only in the
cell area. In order to overcome this limitation cellular
system were introduced.

A cellular mobile communication system consists of

several cells which can overlap. By doing so, a whole
geographical area can be supported with mobile
communication service. But what happens when a
subscriber moves during a cell from one cell to
another cell? It would be very annoying if call is
dropped. If subscriber is leaving a cell and in parallel
is entering a new cell then system makes new radio
resources available in neighbouring cell. Then the
call is handed over from one cell to other cell. By
doing so, service continuously is guaranteed even
when the subscriber is moving the service is called
Handover.