Some Important Questions for Interview point of view.

1.Q What is GSM Tech. Principle behind this?

Ans: - GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication.) It is a digital cellular mobile
communication system. This system meets the criteria as follows.
1. Spectrum efficiency.
2. International Roaming.
3. Low mobile and base station cost.
4. Good Subjective Voice Quality.
5. Compatibility with other systems such as ISDN.
6. Ability to support new services.

MS Mobile Station
BTS Base Transceiver Station
BSC Base Station Controller
BSS Base Station Sub-system
MSC Mobile services Switching Center
HLR Home Location Register
VLR Visitor Location Register
AuC Authentication Center
EIR Equipment Identity Register
OMC Operations and Maintenance Center
NMC Network Management Center
ADM Administration Center
  Mobile Station
The mobile station comes in a number of different forms, ranging from the traditional car-
mounted phone operating at 20W, through transportables operating at 8W and 5W, to the
increasingly popular hand portable units which typically radiate less than 2W. A fifth class for
hand portables operating at 0.8W has been specified for Micro Cellular versions of the
network.
One of the main factors governing the hand portable size and weight is the battery pack.
Several features of the system are designed to allow this either to be smaller or to give a
substantially longer life between charges. Chief among these is Discontinuous Receive (DRX).
This allows the mobile to synchronize its listening period to a known paging cycle of the
network. This can typically reduce the standby power requirements by 90%.

6.3.2.2. The Radio Sub-system

When the mobile user initiates a call, his equipment will search for a local base station. A base
station sub-system (BSS) comprises a base station controller (BSC) and several base
transceiver stations (BTS), each of which provides a radio cell of one or more channels. The
BTS is responsible for providing layers 1 and 2 of the radio interface, that is, an error-corrected
data path. Each BTS has at least one of its radio channels assigned to carry control signals in
addition to traffic. The BSC is responsible for the management of the radio resource within a
region. Its main functions are to allocate and control traffic channels, control frequency
hopping, undertake handovers (except to cells outside its region) and provide radio
performance measurements. Once the mobile has accessed, and synchronized with, a BTS the
BSC will allocate it a dedicated bi-directional signaling channel and will set up a route to the
Mobile services Switching Center (MSC).

6.3.2.3. The Switching Sub-system

The MSC routes traffic and signaling within the network and interworks with other networks.
It comprises a trunk ISDN exchange with additional functionality and interfaces to support the
mobile application. When a mobile requests access to the system it has to supply its IMSI
(International Mobile Subscriber Identity). This is a unique number which will allow the
system to initiate a process to confirm that the subscriber is allowed to access it. This process is
called authentication. Before it can do this, however, it has to find where the subscriber is
based. Every subscriber is allocated to a home network, associated with an MSC within that
network. This is achieved by making an entry in the Home Location Register (HLR), which
contains information about the services the subscriber is allowed. The HLR also contains a
unique authentication key and associated challenge/response generators.

6.3.2.4. Mobility Management and Security

Whenever a mobile is switched on, and at intervals thereafter, it will register with the system;
this allows its location in the network to be established and its location area to be updated in
the HLR. A location area is a geographically defined group of cells. On first registering, the
local MSC will use the IMSI to interrogate the subscriber's HLR and will add the subscriber
data to its associated Visitor Location Register (VLR). The VLR now contains the address of
the subscriber's HLR and the authentication request is routed back through the HLR to the
subscriber's Authentication Center (AuC). This generates a challenge/response pair which is
used by the local network to challenge the mobile. In addition, some operators also plan to
check the mobile equipment against an Equipment Identity Register (EIR), in order to control
stolen, fraudulent or faulty equipment.
The authentication process is very powerful and is based on advanced cryptographic principles.
It especially protects the network operators from fraudulent use of their services. It does not
however protect the user from eavesdropping. The TDMA nature of GSM coupled with its
frequency hopping facility will make it very difficult for an eavesdropper to lock onto the
correct signal however and thus there is a much higher degree of inherent security in the
system than is found in today's analogue systems. Nevertheless for users who need assurance
of a secure transmission, GSM offers encryption over the air interface. This is based on a
public key encryption principle and provides very high security.

6.3.2.5. Call Set-up

Once the user and his equipment are accepted by the network, the mobile must define the type
of service it requires (voice, data, supplementary services etc.) and the destination number. At
this point a traffic channel with the relevant capacity will be allocated and the MSC will route
the call to the destination. Note that the network may delay assigning the traffic channel until
the connection is made with the called number. This is known as off-air call set-up, and it can
reduce the radio channel occupancy of any one call thus increasing the system traffic capacity.

GSM Recievers.
1. GSM 900 in Europe and Asia Pacific.With 890 MHZ – 915 MHZ Uplink and 935
MHZ – 960 MHZ Downlink Frequencies. There are 124 carriers per channel and
carrier width is 200 KHZ, Bandwidth 25 MHZ, Wavelength 33cm. and Channel
separation 20 MHZ. ( Freq MHz = 890 + 0.2 * n ) where 1≤ n ≤124

2. GSM 1800 in Europe, Asia Pacific and Australia. With 1710 – 1785 MHZ Uplink
and 1805 – 1880 MHZ Downlink. The carrier width is 200 khz , Band width 75
Mhz, and channel Separation is 20 Mhz. There are 375 carriers per channel.

Freq. MHz = 1710 + 0.2 * (n – 512) , where 512 ≤ n ≤ 885

3. GSM 1900 US , Canada, Latin America and Africa.With 1850 – 1910 MHZ Uplink
and 1930 – 1990 MHZ Downlink. There are 300 Careers per channel, 60 MHZ
Band width, Channel Separation is 20 MHZ.

Modulation Used in GSM 900 is GMSK (Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying)

Principle Behind this is the Frequency Reuse. A Geographical area is divided into several
hexagonal cells. Each cell has some specific radius and having a set of frequencies. The
frequencies allotted to each cell in such a way that after some distance these frequencies can
again be reuse by other cells without interfering each other.

2.Q How many channels used in GSM .Explain each ?

Ans: - Data burst for traffic

Data burst for control
Two types of channels Physical and Logical.

Physical channel is combination of Time slot and Carrier freq. One RF channel supports eight
physical channels in time slots 0, 1, 2, ----7.

A logical channel carries information of specific type.

Traffic channel (TCH) carries digitally encoded user speech or data and have same function
in both forward and reverse link.

Control channel carries signaling and synchronizing commands between BS and MS. Certain
type of control channels defined for forward and reverse link.

TCH Traffic Channel Full rate and Half rate.

When transmitted as full rate user data is contained within 1 time slot per frame. 22.8 Kbits/ps.
When transmitted as half rate user data is mapped onto same time slot but in alternate frames.
11.4 Kbits/ps.

Four types of control channels.

1. Broadcast Control Channels.
2. Associated control Channels.
3. Dedicated Control Channels.
4. Common Control Channels.

Broadcast Channels: - operates on forward link and transmit data on first time slot. It
Contains.
1. SCH (Synchronization Channel) it is used to identify the serving BS and allowing
each mobile to frame synchronize with the BS. The frame no. is sent with the BSIC
during SCH burst. And also 6 bit BSIC.
2. FCCH (Frequency Correction Channel) The FCCH allows each MS to
synchronize its internal freq. with exact freq. of the BS.
3. BCCH (Broadcast Control Channel) It carries information’s such as cell and
network identity. It also broadcast a list of channels that are currently in use within
a cell.
4. CBCH (Cell Broadcast Channel) Used to transmit short alphanumeric text msg. to
all MS within a cell.

Common Control Channels (CCCH): - CCCH helps to establish the call from the MS. Three
different types of CCCH are defined.
1. The Paging Channel (PCH). It is used to alert the MS of an incoming call.
2. The Random Access Channel (RACH). Is used by MS to access the network.
3. The Access Grant Channel (AGCH). Is used by the Base Station to inform the MS
that which channel it should use.

Dedicated Control Channels (DCCH): - These channels are used for message exchange
between several mobiles or a mobile and network. Two types of DCCH are there.
1. Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channels (SDCCH). Authentication, Registration,
Location area updation, SMS etc. needed for setting up a TCH.
 2. Slow Associated Control Channels (SACCH).

Associated Control Channels: - Associated with the TCH.

1. Slow Associated Control Channel (SACCH). Associated with TCH, Channel
quality, Signal power level.
2. Fast Associated Control Channel (FACCH). Uses time slots from TCH, Handover
info.

4.Q What is Timing Advance ?

Ans.
Timing Advance
The timing of the bursts transmissions is very important. Mobiles are at different distances
from the base stations. Their delay depends, consequently, on their distance. The aim of the
timing advance is that the signals coming from the different mobile stations arrive to the base
station at the right time. The base station measures the timing delay of the mobile stations. If
the bursts corresponding to a mobile station arrive too late and overlap with other bursts, the
base station tells, this mobile, to advance the transmission of its bursts.
1 TA = 554m.
Calculation is given below.
Timing Advance:

T  T (bit) = (2d)  c
Where T= Timing Advance
C = vel.of light 310^5 m /ms
T (bit) = 1  270.833
(Raw bit rate per carrier is 270.833 Kbps. Each carrier is shared by 8 users in TDMA Fashion.
There for bit rate for one user or one time slot is 1 / 270.833 Kbps ).
Now d = T ((T (bit)  c)  2)

= T ((1  270.833)  3  10^5)  2)

Now after calc. d= T  554 m

TA is from 0 to 63.

5.Q What type of modulation used in GSM ?

Ans.

Digital Modulation
Figure 4: GMSK modulator

The modulation chosen for the GSM system is the Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK).
Figure 4 illustrates a GMSK modulator.

Q. What is handover? Explain it.

Ans.
Handover
The user movements can produce the need to change the channel or cell, especially when the
quality of the communication is decreasing. This procedure of changing the resources is called
handover. Four different types of handovers can be distinguished:
 Handover of channels in the same cell.
 Handover of cells controlled by the same BSC.
 Handover of cells belonging to the same MSC but controlled by different BSCs.
 Handover of cells controlled by different MSCs.

Handovers are mainly controlled by the MSC. However in order to avoid unnecessary
signaling information, the first two types of handovers are managed by the concerned BSC (in
this case, the MSC is only notified of the handover).
The mobile station is the active participant in this procedure. In order to perform the handover,
the mobile station controls continuously its own signal strength and the signal strength of the
neighboring cells. The list of cells that must be monitored by the mobile station is given by the
base station. The power measurements allow deciding which the best cell is, in order to
maintain the quality of the communication link. Two basic algorithms are used for the
handover:
 The minimum acceptable performance algorithm. When the quality of the transmission
decreases (i.e. the signal is deteriorated), the power level of the mobile is increased.
This is done until the increase of the power level has no effect on the quality of the
signal. When this happens, a handover is performed.
 The “power budget” algorithm. This algorithm performs a handover, instead of
continuously increasing the power level, in order to obtain a good communication
quality.

 Decibell Relation:
 db and dbm :-

1W = 30 dbm
2W = 33 dbm
dbm = 10 * log ( Pwr in Watts * 1000 ) OR 10 * log (power in Watts) / 1 mW

 dbi and dbd : -

1 dbd = 2.14 dbi

dbi = dbd – 2.14

 Grade of Service GoS :

How much traffic can one cell carry? That depends on the
Number of traffic channels available and the acceptable
Probability that the system is congested, the so called Grade of
Service (GoS).

 Key Performance Indicator ( KPI )

D1 ( Droop 1 ) or SD Droop < 1%
D2 ( Droop 2 ) or TCH Drop < 1.5%
SD Blocking < 0.5%
TCH Blocking < 0.5%
Congestion on SDCCH < 0.5%
Congestion on TCH < 1.5%
HOSR (Handover Success Rate) > 95%
TCH ASSR (TCH Assignment Success Rate) > 97%
CSSR (Call Setup Success Rate) > 98%
Setup Time = 3.5 Sec.
Availability = 99.9 %
CCR (Call Completion Rate) or CSR (Call Success Rate) > 96%

 Received Signal at MS and Path Loss:

= BTS (EIRP) – BTS to MS Path Loss + Donner Antenna Gain (G1) – Feeder Loss +
Serving Antenna Gain (G2) – Avg. Fading Margin.

Where as Path Loss (db) = 20 log ( 4 Π d f / c )

Where ( d = Distance between antennas of BTS and MS.)

MS sensitivity = -102 dbm

BTS sensitivity = -104 dbm
Diversity Gain at BTS = 3.5 dbi
Antenna Gain at MS = 0.0 dbi
Slant Polarization Loss = 1.5 db
MS o/p Power = 2W or up to 0.8 W
EIRP = 53.7 db
Transmitted Power at BTS = 41 to 45 db
 Duplex Loss at BTS = 0.8 db
Feeder loss and Jumper Loss at BTS = 3.00 db
Rayleigh fade margin without hopping = 3.4 db
Interference margin = 3.00 db
Car Loss = 6.00 db
Body Loss = 3.00 db
Dense urban loss = 6.00 db

 Erlang Traffic Theory :

Assuming that one cell has two carriers, corresponding typically to 2x8-2=14 traffic
channels (two physical channels are needed for signaling) and a GoS of 2% is
acceptable, the traffic that can be offered is A=8.20 E. See the table in Figure 3-1.
This number is interesting if an estimate on the average traffic per subscriber can be
obtained. Studies show that the average traffic per subscriber during the busy hour is
typically 15-20 or in special cases 40 - 50 mE. (this can correspond to e.g. one call,
lasting 54-72 seconds, per hour). Dividing the traffic that one cell can offer, Acell=8.20
E, by the traffic per subscriber, here chosen as Asub=0.025 E, the number of subscribers
one cell can support is derived as 8.20/0.025 = 328 subscribers.

When half rate is used it will theoretically double the number of available
traffic channels. In practice, however, live networks will most likely consist
of a mixture between half rate mobiles and full rate mobiles.
Half rate will affect the SDCCH dimensioning since more Signalling will be
required when the number of TCHs is increased. An important dimensioning
factor is therefore the half rate penetration, i.e. the percentage of half rate
mobiles in the network.
When half rate TCH capacity calculations are done it is assumed that the
half rate mobiles are evenly spread among the cells, i.e. all cells have the
same half rate penetration. The TCH capacity calculations made in this
guideline are best illustrated with an example:

If for example a 2 TRX cell is used, it can accommodate 14 full rate TCHs,
i.e. 14 subscribers if one SDCCH/8 is used for Signalling. A half rate
penetration of 10 % would mean that 10 % of the 14 subscribers would be
using a half rate connection, i.e. 1.4 subscribers (after been rounded up = 2
subscribers). This would result in 13 timeslots used for full rate and 1
timeslot used for half rate, resulting in 13 full rate TCHs and 2 half rate
TCHs, i.e. 15 TCHs in total. The TCH capacity is then calculated for 15 TCHs
with an Erlang B table with appropriate blocking figure.
Knowing the SDCCH holding times, with a given number of
performances during busy hour for every procedure, the generated
SDCCH traffic per subscriber can be calculated as follows:
For each type of procedure, multiply the number of performances
per busy hour and subscriber by the holding time of the channel.
By dividing the result by 3.6, the procedures contribution to the
SDCCH load in mErlang/subscriber is achieved.
 SOME IMPORTANT DEFINATIONS REGARDING ANTEENAS.

The purpose of this technical brief is to provide introductory insights into wireless antennas and their
characteristics. The definitions in quotation marks are taken from IEEE Standard Definitions of Terms
for Antennas, IEEE Std 145-1983.

Antenna: "That part of a transmitting or receiving system which is designed to radiate or to receive
electromagnetic waves". An antenna can also be viewed as a transitional structure (transducer)
between free-space and a transmission line (such as a coaxial line). An important property of an
antenna is the ability to focus and shape the radiated power in space e.g.: it enhances the power in
some wanted directions and suppresses the power in other directions.

Frequency bandwidth: "The range of frequencies within which the performance of the antenna, with
respect to some characteristics, conforms to a specified standard". VSWR of an antenna is the main
bandwidth limiting factor.

Input impedance: " The impedance presented by an antenna at its terminals". The input impedance is
a complex function of frequency with real and imaginary parts. The input impedance is graphically
displayed using a Smith chart.

Reflection coefficient: The ratio of the voltages corresponding to the reflected and incident waves at
the antenna's input terminal (normalized to some impedance Z0). The return loss is related to the input
impedance Zin and the characteristic impedance Z0 of the connecting feed line by: Gin = (Zin - Z0) /
(Zin+Z0).

 Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR): The ratio of the maximum / minimum values of standing
wave pattern along a transmission line to which a load is connected. VSWR value ranges from
1 (matched load) to infinity for a short or an open load. For most base station antennas the
maximum acceptable value of VSWR is 1.4. VSWR is related to the reflection coefficient Gin
by: VSWR= (1+|Gin|) / (1-| Gin |).

Isolation: "A measure of power transfer from one antenna to another". This is also the ratio of the
power input to one antenna to the power received by the other antenna, expressed in decibel (dB). The
same definition is applicable to two-port antennas such as dual-polarization antennas.

Far-field region: "That region of the field of an antenna where the angular field distribution is
essentially independent of the distance from a specified point in the antenna region". The radiation
pattern is measured in the far field.

Antenna polarization: "In a specified direction from an antenna and at a point in its far field, is the
polarization of the (locally) plane wave which is used to represent the radiated wave at that point". "At
any point in the far-field of an antenna the radiated wave can be represented by a plane wave whose
electric field strength is the same as that of the wave and whose direction of propagation is in the radial
direction from the antenna. As the radial distance approaches infinity, the radius of curvature of the
radiated wave's phase front also approaches infinity and thus in any specified direction the wave
appears locally a plane wave". In practice, polarization of the radiated energy varies with the direction
from the center of the antenna so that different parts of the pattern and different side lobes sometimes
have different polarization. The polarization of a radiated wave can be linear or elliptical (with circular
being a special case).

Co-polarization: "That polarization which the antenna is intended to radiate".

Cross-polarization: "In a specified plane containing the reference polarization ellipse, the polarization
orthogonal to a specified reference polarization". The reference polarization is usually the co-
polarization.

Antenna pattern: The antenna pattern is a graphical representation in three dimensions of the
radiation of the antenna as a function of angular direction. Antenna radiation performance is usually
measured and recorded in two orthogonal principal planes (such as E-Plane and H-plane or vertical
and horizontal planes). The pattern is usually plotted either in polar or rectangular coordinates. The
pattern of most base station antennas contains a main lobe and several minor lobes, termed side lobes.
A side lobe occurring in space in the direction opposite to the main lobe is called back lobe.

Normalized pattern: Normalizing the power/field with respect to its maximum value yields a normalized
power/field pattern with a maximum value of unity (or 0 dB).

Gain pattern: Normalizing the power/field to that of a reference antenna yields a gain pattern. When
the reference is an isotropic antenna, the gain is expressed in dBi. When the reference is a half-wave
dipole in free space, the gain is expressed in dBd.

Radiation efficiency: "The ratio of the total power radiated by an antenna to the net power accepted
by the antenna from the connected transmitter".

E-plane: "For a linearly polarized antenna, the plane containing the electric field vector and the
direction of maximum radiation". For base station antenna, the E-plane usually coincides with the
vertical plane.

H-plane: "For a linearly polarized antenna, the plane containing the magnetic field vector and the
direction of maximum radiation". For base station antenna, the H-plane usually coincides with the
horizontal plane.

Front-to-back ratio: "The ratio of the maximum directivity of an antenna to its directivity in a specified
rearward direction". Sometimes the directivity in the rearward direction is taken as the average over an
angular region.

Major/main lobe: "The radiation lobe containing the direction of maximum radiation". For most practical
antenna there is only one main beam.

Side lobe level: Is the ratio, in decibels (dB), of the amplitude at the peak of the main lobe to the
amplitude at the peak of a side lobe.

Half-power beamwidth: “In a radiation pattern cut containing the direction of the maximum of a lobe,
the angle between the two directions in which the radiation intensity is one-half the maximum value".
The Half-power beamwidth is also commonly referred to as the 3-dB beamwidth.

Antenna directivity: The directivity of an antenna is given by the ratio of the maximum radiation
intensity (power per unit solid angle) to the average radiation intensity (averaged over a sphere). The
directivity of any source, other than isotropic, is always greater than unity.

Antenna gain: The maximum gain of an antenna is simply defined as the product of the directivity by
efficiency. If the efficiency is not 100 percent, the gain is less than the directivity. When the reference is
a loss less isotropic antenna, the gain is expressed in dBi. When the reference is a half wave dipole
antenna, the gain is expressed in dBd (1 dBd = 2.15 dBi ).

Antenna efficiency: The total antenna efficiency accounts for the following losses: (1) reflection
because of mismatch between the feeding transmission line and the antenna and (2) the conductor and
dielectric losses.
Effective radiated power (ERP): "In a given direction, the relative gain of a transmitting antenna with
respect to the maximum directivity of a half-wave dipole multiplied by the net power accepted by the
antenna from the connected transmitter".

Power handling: Is the ability of an antenna to handle high power without failure. High power in
antenna can cause voltage breakdown and excessive heat (due to conductor and dielectric antenna
losses) which would results in an antenna failure.

Passive intermodulation (PIM): As in active devices, passive intermodulation occurs when signals at
two or more frequencies mix with each other in a non-linear manner to produce spurious signals. PIM is
caused by a multitude of factors present in the RF signal path. These include poor mechanical contact,
presence of ferrous contents in connectors and metals, and contact between two galvanically
unmatched metals. PIM spurious signal, which falls in the up link band, can degrade call quality and
reduce the capacity of a wireless system.

Side lobe suppression: "Any process, action or adjustment to reduce the level of the side lobes or to
reduce the degradation of the intended antenna system performance resulting from the presence of
side lobes". For base station antenna, the first side lobe above the horizon is preferred to be low in
order to reduce interference to adjacent cell sites. At the other hand, the side lobes below the horizon
are preferred to be high for better coverage.

Null filling: Is the process to fill the null in the antenna radiation pattern to avoid blind spots in a cell
site coverage.

Isotropic radiator: "A hypothetical, loss less antenna having equal radiation intensity in all direction".
For based station antenna, the gain in dBi is referenced to that of an isotropic antenna (which is 0 dB).

Omnidirectional antenna: "An antenna having an essentially non-directional pattern in a given plane
of the antenna and a directional pattern in any orthogonal plane". For base station antennas, the
omnidirectional plane is the horizontal plane.

Directional antenna: "An antenna having the property of radiating or receiving electromagnetic waves
more effectively in some directions than others".

Half-wave dipole: "A wire antenna consisting of two straight collinear conductors of equal length,
separated by a small feeding gap, with each conductor approximately a quarter-wave length long".

Log-periodic antenna: "Any one of a class of antennas having a structural geometry such that its
impedance and radiation characteristics repeat periodically as the logarithm of frequency".

Microstrip antenna: "An antenna which consists of a thin metallic conductor bonded to a thin grounded
dielectric substrate". An example of such antennas is the microstrip patch.

Linear array: A set of radiating elements (e.g. dipole or patch) arranged along a line. Radiating
elements such as dipole and patch have dimensions comparable to a wavelength. A linear array has a
higher gain, than a single radiator, and its radiation pattern can be synthesized to meet various antenna
performance requirements such as upper side lobe suppression and null fill. It should be noted that the
gain of any antenna is proportional to its size.

Coaxial antenna: "An antenna comprised of a extension to the inner conductor of a coaxial line and a
radiating sleeve which in effect is formed by folding back the outer conductor of the coaxial line".

Collinear array antenna: "A linear array of radiating elements, usually dipoles, with their axes lying in a
straight line".
Adaptive (smart) antenna: "An antenna system having circuit elements associated with its radiating
elements such that one or more of the antenna properties are controlled by the received signal".

Antenna Terms:

Directivity: The directivity of a transmitting antenna is defined as the ratio of the radiation
intensity flowing in a given direction to the radiation intensity averaged over all direction.
The average radiation intensity is equal to the total power radiated by the antenna divided
by 4 . If the direction is not specified, the direction of maximum radiation intensity is
usually implied. Directivity is some times refered to as directive gain.

Absolute gain: The absolute gain of a transmitting antenna in a given direction is defined
as the ratio of the radiation intensity flowing in that direction to the radiation intensity that
would be obtained if the power accepted by the antenna were radiated isotropically. If the
direction is not specified, the direction of maximum radiation intensity is usually implied.
(Absolute gain is closely related to directivity, but it takes into account the efficiency of
antenna as well as its direction characteristics. To distinquish it, the absolute gain is some
times refered to as power gain.)

Relative gain: The relative gain of a transmitting antenna in a given direction is defined as
the ratio of the absolute gain of the antenna in the given direction to the absolute gain of a
reference antenna in the same direction. The power input to the two antennas must be the
same.

Efficiency: The efficiency of a transmitting antenna is the ratio of the total radiated power
radiated by the antenna to the input power to the antenna.

Effective area (aperature): The effective area or aperature of a receiving antenna in a

given direction is defined as the ratio of the available power at the terminals of the antenna
to the radiation intensity of a plane wave incident on the antenna in the given direction. If
the direction is not specified, the direction of maximum radiation intensity is usually
implied. It can be shown, that when an isotropic area is used as a receiving antenna its
effective area is the wavelength squared divided by 4 . Thus, the gain of a receiving
antenna is the ratio of the antennas effective area to that of an isotropic antenna -- i.e.
.

Antenna factor: The ratio of the magnitude of the electric field incident upon a receiving
antenna to the voltage developed at the antenna's output connector (assuming a 50 ohm
coxial connector) is called the antenna factor. The antenna factor is clearly related to the
gain of antenna, but is often found to be the most convenience parameter for use in the
monitoring of electromagnetic emissions.
 IMPORTANT PARAMETERS FOR DRIVE TEST

Drive Test

Drive Test is done to:-

 Troubleshoot the customer complaint
 Diagnose other problems impacting customer.
 Bench mark the other network parameters.
 Reduce interference in the network.
 Optimise the network.

Drive Test Tool

GPS GSM TEST

MOBILE

COMPUTER

POST PROCESSING
ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

Output of Drive Test tells you about:-

 Unsuccessful calls.
 Dropped calls.
 Coverage
 Poor received quality
 Hand over indication
 Hand over failure.
 Failure signaling message
RF Parameters

1. RX Level -10 to –120 dbm

 -35 to -75
< -65 is Good
We can receive signal on road as well as in house.
 -75 to -85
Satisfactory (So-So).
We can receive signal only on road and not in house.
 > -85
Bad
The signal quality is very poor.

2. RX Quality 0 to 7.
 0 to 7
0 is the best.
Rx quality depends upon Bit Error Rate BER.
BER Rx Q
0 – 0.2 0
0.2 – 0.4 1
0.4 – 0.8 2
0.8 – 1.6 3
1.6 – 3.2 4
3.2 – 6.4 5
6.4 – 12.8 6
12.8 – 25.6 7

Call without Hoping Rx Q should be less then 4.

Call with Hoping RxQ should be less then 5.

3. Speech Quality Index (SQI) -20 to 30.

 -20 to 30
Maximum value is good.
Speech Quality is dependent on Rx Quality and C/I ratio.

4. Speech Quality
 1 to 5
Maximum value is good for speech quality.

Index Quality Scale

1 Unsatisfactory (Speech not understandable)
2 Poor
3 Fair
4 Good
5 Excellent
 5.
Carrier to Interference (C/I) or Co-channel interference ratio.
 -5 to 25 db
> 15 Good
> 9 So-So.

6. Carrier to Adjacent Interference Ratio (C/A)

> 23.

7. Frame Error Rate

It should be 0.

8. Timing Advance TA
1 TA = 554m

T  T (bit) = (2d)  c
Where T= Timing Advance
C = vel.of light 310^5 m /ms
T(bit) = 1  270.833

Now d = T ( ( T (bit)  c )  2 )

= T ( ( 1  270.833 )  3  10^5 )  2 )

Now after calc. d = T  554 m

Total TA is from 0 to 63.

Drive test before network is available for general public. The signal strength from all
BTS is measured at each geographical locations.

SD DROP
1) Bad Radio link quality (any sort of interference, if highly destructive)
2) Non availability of TCH timeslots.
3) could b a problem at NSS end.
4) hardware problem.
etc. ..

1*1 & 1*3 Solution

In 1*1 hopping all sectors uses Same MA list and 1*3 hopping all 3 sectors uses
three different MA list
1*3 is also called discrete hopping
in which no of trx = no of MAL LIST

Handover failures other than Co-Bcch and Neighbour

1. Weak cell boundaries,

2. Congestion on target cell,
3. BCCH and TCH interference,
4. Too many neighboring cell, and
5. incorrect handover parameters

difference of RX full and Sub

simple definition is

RX Lev Full :- DTX is OFF

RX Lev Sub :- DTX is On

detailed

RX Lev Full:
is nothing but the Mobile transmit the measurement report(SACCH multiframe) for every
480ms. this multiframe containes 104 TDMA frames, in 104 TDMA frames 4 TDMA frames
for Decode the BSIC and remaining 100 TDMA frames for Average measurement of serving
cell and neighboring cell

This average measurement of 100 TDMA frames are RX Lev Full

RX Lev Sub:

DTX is a discontinuous transmission, When the mobile conversation 40% of the time either
Transmitter or Receive is idle. When DTX is ON, DTX will switch off the Transmitter or
Receiver when they is no speech Pulses. only few TDMA frames will trasmit, the average of
this TDMA frames is called RX Lev Sub, give you proper measurment of RX level

Separation b/w Antenna should be minimum 3Meters.

C1 & C2

C1 is for cell selection and C2 is for celll reslection.

(when mobile is switched on, it calculates C1 first. Then after recieving neighbour cell
information, it calculates C2 based on the strongest serving cell.)
c1 is used for cell selection & parameter C1 to determine
whether a cell is suitable to camp on.
C1 depends on 4 parameters:
Received signal level (suitably averaged)
The parameter rxLevAccessMin, which is broadcast on the
BCCH, and is related to the minimum signal that the operator
wants the network to receive when being initially accessed by
an MS
The parameter msTxPwrMaxCCH, which is also broadcast on
the BCCH, and is the maximum power that an MS may use when
initially accessing the network
The maximum power of the MS.
c2 is used for reselection & encouraging MSs to select some suitable
cells in preference to others
Cell re-selection is needed if:
Path Loss criterion C1 < 0 for cell camped on, for more than 5 sec
There is DL signaling failure
The cell camped on has been barred
The is a better cell in terms of C2 criterion

HSN – MAIO:
HSN (values 0-63) is basically an Algorithm that assigns frequency to the cell from block/list
of frequencies... Assignment of frequency from the list whatever HSN value is totally
random/algorithm dependent (HSN=0 being cyclic)... normally HSN assigns frequency after
each TDMA frame (4.615msec)... this hopping rate is changable...

MAIO is used as an offset from the frquency, assigned by HSN, to avoid co/adjacnt frquency
clash on the samecell/cosite cell... In b/m exmple as well we have atleast a difference of 2 in
MAIOs to avoid frquency clash...

Taking 1x1 example...

We hve a three sectored site having 1x1 implemented A,B,C... Each hving 4 TRXs, TRXs
A1,B1,C1 being BCCH TRXs

Lets say we have b/m list of frequencies in 1x1 hopping pool...

f1,f2,f3,f4,f5,f6,f7,f8,f9,f10,f11,f12,13,f14,f15,f16,f17,f18

Lets suppose HSN=17 for three cells of the site

TDMA______1____2___3
frame

freq assgned
by
HSN_______f2___f11__f9 (suppositions)

TRX_MAIO
A2___0____f2___f11__f9

A3___6____f8___f17__f15
__________ ^ f8 is assigned which
is 6 blocks ahead of f2 because offset
(MAIO) is 6... so on...

A4___12___f14___f5__f3

B2___2____f4___f13__f11

B3___8____f10___f1__f17

B4___14___f16___f7__f5

C2___4____f6___f15__f13

C3___10___f12___f3__f1

C4___16___ f18___f9__f7

in above mentioned example hopping TRXs have hopped on to 3 frquencies during 3 TDMA
frames without any freq clash...

In 1x1 HSN is same for cells of same site... Sites in close vicinity are given different HSN
values to avoid assignment of same frequencies...

Multiple coverage and Call muting

1) Increase the HO Margin from serving cell to target cells side only
2) Reduce the power of cell to whom serving cell is attempting to HO
3) Increase the RXP for Nokia System(For Example.-95 to -110)
4) Delete the unnecessary HOs those are not required
5) Reduce the power of Overshoots.
6) Try to make single dominant.

Call Mute:

At the time of Hand over failure and Reversion, Call can be in the position of muting or one
sided.
TILTS:
tilts are of two different types...
electrical and mechanical
!). Mechanical tilt:- in this you bend the antenna mechanically without any change in the
internal ckt.
The major lobe will become heart shaped in case of larger tilts and lead to unwanted
distribution of signal in uncontrollable manner.

2).Electrical tilt:-
this is done with the help of phase shifters.
The phase of the feed(voltage) to the dipoles is changed further leading to change in the
radiation pattern in a better manner.

Effects:-
Mechanical Tilt Causes:
Beam Peak to Tilt Below Horizon
Back Lobe to Tilt Above Horizon
At ± 90° No Tilt

Electrical Tilt Causes:

Beam peak to tilt below horizon
Back lobe to tilt below horizon
At ± 90° to tilt below horizon
All the pattern tilts

Adaptive Multi-Rate

Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) is an audio data compression scheme optimized for speech
coding. AMR was adopted as the standard speech codec by 3GPP in October 1998 and is now
widely used in GSM. It uses link adaptation to select from one of eight different bit rates
based on link conditions.

The bit rates 12.2, 10.2, 7.95, 7.40, 6.70, 5.90, 5.15 and 4.75 kbit/s are based on frames which
contain 160 samples and are 20 milliseconds long. AMR uses different techniques, such as
Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction (ACELP), Discontinuous Transmission (DTX),
voice activity detection (VAD) and comfort noise generation (CNG). The usage of AMR
requires optimized link adaptation that selects the best codec mode to meet the local radio
channel and capacity requirements. If the radio conditions are bad, source coding is reduced
and channel coding is increased. This improves the quality and robustness of the network
connection while sacrificing some voice clarity. In the particular case of AMR this
improvement is somewhere around 4-6 dB S/N for useable communication. The new
intelligent system allows the network operator to prioritize capacity or quality per base station.
 Audio data compression

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about a process which reduces the data rate or file size of digital audio
signals. This should not be confused with audio level compression, which reduces the
dynamic range of audio signals.

Audio compression is a form of data compression designed to reduce the size of audio files.
Audio compression algorithms are typically referred to as audio codecs. As with other specific
forms of data compression, there exist many "lossless" and "lossy" algorithms to achieve the
compression effect.

Speech encoding

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Speech coding)

Jump to: navigation, search

Speech coding is the compression of speech (into a code) for transmission with speech
codecs that use audio signal processing and speech processing techniques.

The two most important applications using speech coding are mobile phones and internet
phones.

The techniques used in speech coding are similar to that in audio data compression and

audio coding where knowledge in psychoacoustics is used to transmit only data that is
relevant to the human auditory system. For example, in narrowband speech coding, only
information in the frequency band 400 Hz to 3500 Hz is transmitted but the reconstructed
signal is still adequate for intelligibility.

However, speech coding differs from audio coding in that there is a lot more statistical
information available about the properties of speech. In addition, some auditory information
which is relevant in audio coding can be unnecessary in the speech coding context. In speech
coding, the most important criterion is preservation of intelligibility and "pleasantness" of
speech, with a constrained amount of transmitted data.

It should be emphasised that the intelligibility of speech includes, besides the actual literal
content, also speaker identity, emotions, intonation, timbre etc. that are all important for
perfect intelligibility. The more abstract concept of pleasantness of degraded speech is a
different property than intelligibility, since it is possible that degraded speech is completely
intelligible, but subjectively annoying to the listener.
In addition, most speech applications require low coding delay, as long coding delays interfere
with speech interaction.

The A-law algorithm and the Mu-law algorithm are used in nearly all land-line long distance
telephone communications. They can be seen as a kind of speech encoding, requiring only 8
bits per sample but giving effectively 12 bits of resolution.

The most common speech coding scheme is Code-Excited Linear Predictive (CELP) coding,
which is used for example in the GSM standard. In CELP, the modelling is divided in two
stages, a linear predictive stage that models the spectral envelope and code-book based model
of the residual of the linear predictive model.

In addition to the actual speech coding of the signal, it is often necessary to use channel
coding for transmission, to avoid losses due to transmission errors. Usually, speech coding and
channel coding methods have to be chosen in pairs, with the more important bits in the speech
data stream protected by more robust channel coding, in order to get the best overall coding
results.

The Speex project is an attempt to create a free software speech coder, unemcumbered by
patent restrictions.

Major subfields:

 Wide-band speech
coding
o AMR-WB for
WCDMA
networks
o VMR-WB for
CDMA2000
networks
 Narrow-band speech
coding
o FNBDT for
military
applications
o SMV for CDMA
networks
o Full Rate, Half
Rate, EFR, AMR
for GSM networks
 dB - Decibel
The Decibel is a unit of comparison, in which the ratio of two power values
are expressed using a logarithmic scale usually to the base 10. Although the
dB is a unit of comparison it is sometimes useful to have an agreed reference
point. A common reference is 1mW, which is expressed as 0dBm.
Consequently 2W, the typical maximum power of a GSM handset, is rated
as 33dBm.

dBc
A ratio in Decibels of the sideband power of a signal, measured in a given
bandwidth at a given frequency offset from the centre frequency of the same
signal, to the total in band power of the signal

dBm
A measure of power expressed in terms of its ratio (in Decibels) to one
milliwatt.

dBW
A measure of power expressed in terms of its ratio (in Decibels) to one Watt.