RSG
University of Agder
Department of Information and Communication Technology
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EXAM
IKT 501
Mobile Communication Networks
9th December 2008
09:00 — 13:00
6
Calculator
The questions are given in English only, but you can write your
answers either in English or in Norwegian
‘Teacher:
Frank LiPart 1: Multiple Choice Questions (30%)
For each question below, there may be one or several correct answers. You get | point if you
mark a correct answer. You also get I point if you leave the wrong answer unmarked.
Otherwise you get 0 point.
There are 11 questions and 30 answers in this part. You don’t get any point if you mark all 30
answers as correct, or leave all 30 answers unmarked.
Mark an answer as correct by filling in the check-box C) with an ‘x? (EX! ), or teave it
blank to unselect a wrong answer. Draw an ‘O” around the check-box (&) to invalidate
an already marked answer.
1.1 MAC (Medium Access Control) in mobile/wireless networks (3%)
Which statement(s) below is/are correct with respect to MAC mechanism(s) used in the
following mobile/wireless networks?
C1 GSM - TDMA (Time Division Multi
C UMTS — CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) only
(Cl WiMAX ~ CSMA/CA (Carrier Sensing Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance)
1.2 RTS/CTS (Request To Send/Clear To Send) in 802.11 WLANs (Wireless Local Area
Networks) (3%)
Which problem(s) is/are expected to be solved by introducing RTS/CTS in addition to
CSMAICA as part of the MAC mechanism in IEEE 802.11 WLANs?
CI Far-near problem
CO Hidden terminal problem
C1 How to synchronize the stations covered by an AP (Access Point)
1.3 Mobile networks from operators’ perspective (3%)
Which measure(s) below could contribute positively to generate more revenues for a
cellular network operator?
CO Sign international roaming agreements with other operators
Ci Provide better coverage to end users
C1 Accept all call requests even if the link capacity in a CDMA cell has already reached,
since adding a new user will just result in slightly higher interference to existing calls,
1.4 GPRS core network (2%)
Which protocol(s) listed below is/are used in the GPRS core network for CS (Circuit
Switched) domain?
C1 SS7 (Signalling System #7)
0 IP (internet Protocol)1.5 WiMAX in general (3%)
Which statement(s) below is/are correct regarding WiMAX technology?
Cl WiMAX supports both fixed and mobile end users
CO Compared with WiFi, WiMAX has much better support for QoS (Quality of Service),
with flexible support of real-life voice traffic and multimedia data
Cl WiMAX does not work if there is no LOS (Light of Sight) connection between the BS
(Base Station) and a subscriber station
1.6 Evolution from GSM to GSM+GPRS (3%)
When GSM is upgraded to GPRS by introducing SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node)
and GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) nodes, which entity/entities in the radio
access network listed below is/are affected?
CUHLR Home Location Register)
11 BS (Base Station)
CMT (Mobile Terminal)
1.7 International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-2000 (3%)
Which one(s) of the following standards belong(s) to the IMT-2000 family according to
ITU?
Ccpma2000
0 TD-SCDMA
C1 WiMax
1.8. GPRS in general (2%)
Which one of the following entities in GPRS is the gateway to the Internet?
Cisasn
O Gcsn
1.9 Mobile TV (2%)
Which technology/technologies listed below will most likely be used as a technical
standard for Mobile TV?
1 DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)
C MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services)
1.10 Channel occupancy in cellular systems (3%)
Which statement(s) listed below is/are correct with respect to bandwidth occupaney per
channel for each mobile system/wireless network?
C1 GSM - 200 KHz
C7 IBEE 802.11 -22 MHz
D UMTS ~3.84 MHz1.11 QoS in UMTS (3%)
Which traffic class(es) listed below is/are defined according to the QoS definition in
UMTS?
Oi Conversational class
Oi Streaming class
C1 Best-effort class
Part 2: Essay Questions (70%)
‘Write your answers to the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
Question 2: Radio Access Technologies (37%)
2.1 IEEE 802.11 and WLAN (11%)
2.1.a CSMAVCA is the MAC mechanism specified in the IEEE 802.11 standard. Explain
respectively how CS and CA are achieved. In a WLAN, if two stations observe that the
common channel has been idle for DIFS (DCF Interframe Space) and both have packets,
to transmit, which one will get access to the channel and why? (8%)
2.1.b Can we use TDMA as the MAC mechanism in a WLAN? Why or why not? (3%)
2.2 GSM/ GPRS (15%)
2.2.a What is the main difference between handover and roaming? (2%)
2.2.b How many time slots are there in a GSM TDMA frame? How long does a GSM TDMA
frame last? How do we get the conclusion that the channel data rate in GSM is 270.833
Kbps? How do we get the conclusion that a hyperframe will last for 3 hours 28 minutes
and 53.76 seconds? In the frame structure of a normal burst, what is the purpose of
using a 26-bit field? (7%)
2.2.¢ PDP (Packet Data Protocol) is used for session management in GPRS, Between which
‘two entities is PDP used? Give two examples of information carried out in the PDP
context. Can PDP be used directly in IMS? Why or why not? (6%)
2.3 UMTS (11%)
2.3.a In UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network), both FDD and TDD modes are
used. What are the two main reasons for this frequency allocation solution? (3%)2.3.b What is the standard chip rate in UTRAN? Assume that all chips can be used for user
data transmission. If a user has data rate 384 Kbps for web browsing, what is the
corresponding SF (Spreading Factor)? Assume again that all channels can be used for
user data transmission. Given the fact that the SF must be between 4 and 256, how
many simultaneous users are supported at this data rate in this cell? If the user data rate
becomes 12.8 Kbps for voice communication, what are the corresponding SF and the
‘maximal number of simultaneous users respectively in this case? If we have now
already one ongoing web browsing session at the data rate of 384 Kbps, how many
simultaneous calls at the rate 12.8 Kbps could the cell support as the maximal? (8%)
Question 3: GSM/GPRS/UMTS Core Networks and IMS (18%)
3.1 Core networks evolution (10%)
3.1.a The following figure illustrates the cellular core network evolution released by 3GPP
R7. Briefly explain the step-by-step evolution phases from GSM to all IP architecture.
peor
[J semicon
Coon /
concn
igen as
3.2 IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and SIP (Session I
iation Protocol) (8%)
3.2.a What is SIP? Is SIP originally designed for cellular networks? SIP is used as an end-to-
end signalling protocol for multimedia session establishment in IMS. Is it enough to use
SIP alone to establish a real-time video conversation between two terminals? If yes,
explain why. If not, which protocols will also be used for session establishment? When
SIP is used in IMS, what happens when one of the two parties in the communication is a
fixed telephone in PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)?Question 4: Mobility and Emerging Mobile/Wireless Systems (15%)
4.1 Internet Mobility (6%)
4.1.a What are the main differences between macro mobility and micro mobility? Which
mobility problem is solved by Mobile IP? At which protocol layer is this problem,
solved? Is it possible that we solve the problem at another protocol layer? Give one
example if your answer is yes.
4.2 Emerging Mobile/Wireless Systems (9%)
4.2.a What is a WMN (Wireless Mesh Network)? Broadband municipality networking is one
of the most promising application scenarios for WMNs. Give three advantages of using
this technology in this scenario, compared with traditional WiFi networks. (5%)
4.2.b What is UWB (Ultra Wideband)? How do you think the idea of using UWB as a last-
mile solution for broadband Internet access? Give brief reasons for your statement. (4%)