Wireless Access Techniques: FDMA, TDMA and CDMA Compared

Multiple Access Techniques for Wireless
Communications
Wireless Access Tech.
Lab.
Table of Contents(1)
 Introduction
 FDMA
 TDMA
 CDMA
CCU
Wireless Access Tech. Lab.
Lab.
Introduction (1)
 Multiple Access:
 Enable many mobile users to share simultaneously radio
spectrum.
 Provide for the sharing of channel capacity between a

number of transmitters at different locations.
 Aim to share a channel between two or more signals in

such way that each signal can be received without
interference from another.
CCU
Lab.
Introduction (2)
CCU
Lab.
Introduction (3)
 In conventional telephone systems, it is possible to

talk and listen simultaneously, called duplexing.
 Duplexing
 Allow the possibility of talking and listening simultaneously
.
 Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
 Provides two distinct bands of frequencies for every user
 Time Division Duplex (TDD)

 Multiple users share a signal channel by taking turns in time domain
 Each duplexing channel has both a forward time slot and a reverse time
slot to facilitate bidirectional communication.
CCU
Lab.
Introduction (4)
CCU
Lab. Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA) (1)
 Each transmitter is allocated a channel with a

particular bandwidth.
 All transmitters are able to transmit

simultaneously.
CCU
(FDMA) (2)
 Allocation of separate channels to FDMA signals
CCU
(FDMA) (3)
 Time-frequency characteristic of FDMA
CCU
(FDMA) (4)
 Features of FDMA
 If an FDMA channel is not in sue, then it sits idle and can’t
be used by other users.
 Transmit simultaneously and continuously.
 FDMA is usually implemented in narrowband systems.

 Its symbol time is large as compared to the average delay spread.
CCU
(FDMA) (5)
 Features of FDMA (Cont.)

 For continuous transmission, fewer bits are needed for
overhead purposes (such as synchronization and framing
bits) as compared to TDMA.
 FDMA uses duplexers since both TX and RX operate at

the same time.
CCU
Lab.
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) (1)
 Transmitter share a common channel.
 Only one transmitter is allowed to transmit at a

time.
 Synchronous TDMA: access to the channel is restricted to
regular.
 Asynchronous TDMA: a station may transmit at any time
that the channel is free.
CCU
Lab.
 Allocation of time slot in TDMA
CCU
Lab.
 Time-frequency characteristic of synchronous

TDMA
CCU
Lab.
 Features of TDMA (Cont.)
 TDMA systems divide the radio spectrum into time slots.

 Each user occupies a cyclically repeating time slot.
 Transmit data in a buffer-and-burst method, thus the

transmission for any user is not continuous.
 TDMA has TDD and FDD modes.
CCU
Lab.
 TDMA Frame Structure
CCU
Lab.
 TDMA Frame Structure (Cont.)

 In TDMA, the preamble contains the address and
synchronization information that both the base station
and the mobiles use to identify each other.
 Different TDMA standards have different TDMA frame

structures.
CCU
Lab.
 Features of TDMA (Cont.)
 Share a single carrier frequency with several users.
 Data transmission is not continuous, but occurs in bursts.
 No duplexers is required since users employ different

time slots for transmission and reception.
 TDMA can allocate different numbers of time slots per

frame to different users, allowing bandwidth be supplied
on demand to different users.
CCU
Lab.
 Combined used of synchronous TDMA and FDMA
CCU
Lab.
 Asynchronous TDMA: Carrier-Sense Multiple

Access (CSMA)
 Allows a transmitter to access the channel at any time
that is not being used by another transmitter.
CCU
Lab.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (1)
 Transmitter may transmit at the same time, in the

same channel.
 Each signal is modified by spreading it over a large

bandwidth.
 This spreading occurs by combining the transmitter signal
with a spreading sequence.
CCU
Lab.
CCU
Lab.
 example
CCU
Lab.
 Features of CDMA
 Many users of a CDMA system share the same frequency.
 The symbol (chip) duration is very short and usually much

less than the channel delay spread.
 The near-far problem occurs at a CDMA RX if an

undesired user has a high detected power as compared to
the desired user.
CCU
Lab.
Frequency Hopping (1)
 Frequency hopping is a form of FDMA
 Each transmitter is allocated a group of channels,

known as hop set .
 The transmitter transmits data in short bursts,

choosing one of these channels on which to
transmit each burst.
CCU
Lab.
 Time-frequency characteristic of a single

transmitter.
CCU
Lab.
 Signal received form a pair of frequency-hopping

transmitters.
CCU
Lab.
Time Hopping (1)
 Each bit is transmitted as a single pulse, with the v

alue of j-th bit determined by whether it arrives b
efore or after the reference time tj.
CCU
Lab.
Time Hopping (2)
 TH-PPM
 
Ns 1
Str  t     wtr t  iTs  jT f  ciN s  jTc  d i 
i j 0
Tc
t
Tf
Ts
User1 : C(1)=[1 0 0 2] d1=0
User2 : C(2)=[0 1 2 0] d2=1
User3 : C(3)=[2 2 1 1] d3=0
CCU
Lab.
Spread Spectrum Multiple Access (1)
 A transmission technique in which a PN code,

independent of information data, is employed as a
modulation waveform to “spread” the signal energy
over a bandwidth much greater than the signal
information bandwidth.
 At the receiver the signal is “despread” using a

synchronized replica of the PN code.
 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

CCU
Lab.

 A carrier is modulated by a digital code in which the code
bit rate is much larger than the information signal bit
rate. These systems are also called pseudo-noise systems.
 Also called code division multiple access (CDMA)
 A short code system uses a PN code length equal to a

data symbol.
 A long system uses a PN code length that is much longer

than a data symbol.
CCU
Lab.
CCU
Lab.
 Basic principle of DSSS

 For BPSK modulation
CCU
Lab.

 It divides available bandwidth into N channels and hops
between these channels according to the PN sequence.
 Fast hopping
 Slow hopping
CCU
Lab.
CCU
Lab.
 Modulation
CCU
Lab.
CCU
Lab.
CCU
Lab.
 Performance in the presence of interference

 Narrowband interference
 Wideband interference
 Gaussian noise
CCU
Lab.
CCU
Lab.
 Narrowband interference
CCU
Lab.
 Wideband interference
CCU
Lab.
 Gaussian noise
CCU
Lab.
 Hybrid FDMA/CDMA (FCDMA):

 The available wideband spectrum is divided into a number of
subspectras with smaller bandwidths.
 Each of these smaller suchannels becomes a narrowband CD
MA system having processing gain lower than the original CD
MA system.
CCU
Lab.
 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.
 Having an advantage in that they avoid the near-far effect.
CCU
Lab.
 Time Division Frequency Hopping (TDFH)

 The subscriber can hop to a new frequency at the start of a
new TDMA frame.
 Has been adopted in GSM.
CCU
Lab.
Spread Spectrum Access
 SSMA uses signals that have transmission

bandwidth that is several orders of magnitued
larger than minimum required RF bandwidth.
 Provides
 Immunity to multipath interference
 Robust multiple access.
 Two techniques
 Frequency Hopped Multiple Access (FHMA)
 Direct Sequence Multiple Access (DSMA)
 Also called Code Division Multiple Access – CDMA
EE 552/452 Spring 2007 CCU

Lab.
Frequency Hopping (FHMA)
 Digital muliple access technique

 A wideband radio channel is used.
 Same wideband spectrum is used
 The carrier frequency of users are varied in a pseudo-random
fashion.
 Each user is using a narrowband channel (spectrum) at a specific
instance of time.
 The random change in frequency make the change of using the
same narrowband channel very low.
 The sender receiver change frequency (calling hopping) using the
same pseudo-random sequence, hence they are synchronized.
 Rate of hopping versus Symbol rate
 If hopping rate is greather: Called Fast Frequency Hopping
 One bit transmitted in multiple hops.
 If symbol rate is greater: Called Slow Frequency Hopping
 Multiple bits are transmitted in a hopping period
 GSM and Bluetooth are example systems
Lab.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
 In CDMA, the narrowband message signal is multiplied by a very

large bandwidth signal called spreading signal (code) before
modulation and transmission over the air. This is called spreading.
 CDMA is also called DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum).
DSSS is a more general term.
 Message consists of symbols
 Has symbol period and hence, symbol rate
 Spreading signal (code) consists of chips
 Has Chip period and and hence, chip rate
 Spreading signal use a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence (a pseudo-random
sequence)
 PN sequence is called a codeword
 Each user has its own cordword
 Codewords are orthogonal. (low autocorrelation)
 Chip rate is oder of magnitude larger than the symbol rate.
 The receiver correlator distinguishes the senders signal by
examining the wideband signal with the same time-synchronized
spreading code
 The sent signal is recovered by despreading process at the receiver.
Lab.
CDMA Advantages
 Low power spectral density.
 Signal is spread over a larger frequency band
 Other systems suffer less from the transmitter
 Interference limited operation
 All frequency spectrum is used
 Privacy
 The codeword is known only between the sender and receiver. Hence other users
can not decode the messages that are in transit
 Reduction of multipath affects by using a larger spectrum
 Random access possible
 Users can start their transmission at any time
 Cell capacity is not concerete fixed like in TDMA or FDMA systems. Has
soft capacity
 Higher capacity than TDMA and FDMA
 No frequency management
 No equalizers needed
 No guard time needed
 Enables soft handoff

Lab.
CDMA Principle
Represent bit 1 with +1
Represent bit 0 with -1
One bit period (symbol period)
1 1
Data
0
1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1
Coded
Signal
Chip period
Input to the modulator (phase modulation)

Lab.
Processing Gain
 Main parameter of CDMA is the processing gain that is defined as:
Bspread Bchip
Gp  
R R
Gp: processing gain
Bspread: PN code rate
Bchip: Chip rate
R: Data rate
 IS-95 System (Narrowband CDMA) has a gain of 64. Other systems have gain
between 10 and 100.
 1.228 Mhz chipping rate
 1.25 MHz spread bandwidth

Lab.
Near Far Problem and Power Control
 At a receiver, the signals may come from
various (multiple sources.
 The strongest signal usually captures the
modulator. The other signals are considered
as noise B pr(M)
 Each source may have different distances to
the base station
 In CDMA, we want a base station to
receive CDMA coded signals from various M
mobile users at the same time.
 Therefore the receiver power at the base
station for all mobile users should be close M
to eacother.
 This requires power control at the mobiles.
 Power Control: Base station monitors the
RSSI values from different mobiles and M
then sends power change commands to M
the mobiles over a forward channel. The
mobiles then adjust their transmit
power.

Lab.
DSSS Transmitter
Message Baseband sss(t)

+
m(t) BPF Transmitted
p(t) Signal
PN Code
Generator Oscillator
fc
Chip Clock
2 Es
sss (t )  m(t ) p (t ) cos(2f c t   )
Ts

Lab.
DSSS Receiver
s1 (t ) m(t )
IF Wideband Phase Shift Keying
Filter Demodulator Received
Data
sss (t ) p (t )
Received PN Code Synchronization
DSSS Signal Generator System
at IF
2 Es
s1 (t )  m(t ) cos(2f c t   )
Ts

Lab.
CDMA Example
R Receiver (a base station)
Data=1011… Data=0010…
A B
Transmitter (a mobile) Transmitter

Codeword=010011 Codeword=101010
Data transmitted from A and B is multiplexed using CDMA and codewords.

The Receiver de-multiplexes the data using dispreading.

Lab.
SDMA
 use spot beam antennas

 the different beam area can use TDMA, FDMA
, CDMA
 sectorized antenna can be thought of as a SDM
A
 adaptive antennas can bespot used
beam in the future
 (simultaneously steer energy
antenna
in the direction of many users)

Lab.
Features of FDMA
 An FDMA channel carries one phone circuit at a

time
 If channel allocated to a user is idle, then it is not
used by someone else: waste of resource.
 Mobile and base can transmit and receive
simultaneously
 Bandwidth of FDMA channels are relatively low.
 Symbol time is usually larger (low data rate) than
the delay spread of the multipath channel (implies
that inter-symbol interference is low)
 Lower complexity systems that TDMA systems.

Lab.
Capacity of FDMA Systems
Frequency spectrum allocated for FDMA system
…
Guard channel Guard
Band Band
Bt  2 Bguard
N
Bc
Bt : Total spectrum allocation
Bguard: Guard band allocated at the edge of the spectrum band
Bc : Bandwidth of a channel
AMPS has 12.MHz simplex spectrum band, 10Khz guard band, 30kHz
channel bandwidth (simplex): Number of channels is 416.

Lab.
Time Division Multiple Access
 The allocated radio spectrum for the system is

divided into time slots
 In each slot a user can transmit or receive
 A user occupiess a cyclically repeating slots.
 A channel is logically defined as a particular time slot that
repeats with some period.
 TDMA systems buffer the data, until its turn (time
slot) comes to transmit.
 This is called buffer-and-burst method.
 Leaky bucket
 Requires digital modulation

Lab.
TDMA Concept
Downstream Traffic: Forward Channels: (from base to mobiles)
1 2 3 … N 1 2 3 …. N …
Logical forward channel to a mobile
Base station broadcasts to mobiles on each slot
Upstream Traffic: Reverse Channels: (from mobile to base)

1 2 3 … N 1 2 3 …. N …
Logical reverse channel from a mobile

A mobile transmits to the base station in its allocated slot
Upstream and downstream traffic uses of the two different carrier frequencies.

Lab.
TDMA Frames
 Multiple, fixed number of slots are put together into a

frame.
 A frame repeats.
 In TDMA/TDD: half of the slots in the frame is used
for forward channels, the other is used for reverse
channels.
 In TDMA/FDD: a different carrier frequency is used
for a reverse or forward
 Different frames travel in each carrier frequency in
different directions (from mobile to base and vice
versa).
 Each frame contains the time slots either for reverse
channels or forward channel depending on the direction
of the frame. CCU
EE 552/452 Spring 2007
Lab. General Frame and Time Slot Structure in
TDMA Systems
One TDMA Frame
Preamble Information Trail Bits
Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 … Slot N
Guard Sync Control

Bits Bits Bits Information CRC
One TDMA Slot
A Frame repeats in time

Lab.
Efficiency of a Frame/TDMA-System
 Each frame contains overhead bits and data bits.
 Efficiency of frame is defined as the percentage of data
(information) bits to the total frame size in bits.
bOH
efficiency   f  (1  ) x100%
bT
bT  T f xR
bT: total number of bits in a frame
Tf: frame duration (seconds)
bOH: number of overhead bits
( Btot  2 Bguard )
Number of channels in a TDMA cell: N m
Bc
m: maximum number of TDMA users supported in a radio channel

Lab.
TDMA
 TDMA Efficiency
 GSM: 30% overhead
 DECT: 30% overhead
 IS-54: 20% overhead.
 TDMA is usually combined with FDMA
 Neighboring cells be allocated and using different carrier
frequencies (FDMA). Inside a cell TDMA can be used. Cells may
be re-using the same frequency if they are far from each-other.
 There may be more than one carrier frequency (radio channel)
allocated and used inside each cell. Each carrier frequency (radio
channel) may be using TDMA to further multiplex more user (i.e.
having TDMA logical channels inside radio channels)
 For example: GSM uses multiple radio channels per cell site. Each radio
channel has 200KHz bandwidth and has 8 time slots (8 logical channels).
Hence GSM is using FHMA combined with TDMA.

Lab.
Features of TDMA
 Enables the sharing of a single radio channel among N users

 Requires high data-rate per radio channel to support N users
simultaneously.
 High data-rate on a radio channel with fixed bandwidth
requires adaptive equalizers to be used in multipath
environments (remember the RSM delay spread  parameter)
 Transmission occurs in bursts (not continues)
 Enables power saving by going to sleep modes in unrelated slots
 Discontinues transmission also enables mobile assisted handoff
 Requires synchronization of the receivers.
 Need guard bits, sync bits. large overhead per slot.
 Allocation of slots to mobile users should not be uniform.
 It may depend on the traffic requirement of mobiles.
 This brings extra flexibility and efficiency compared to FDMA
systems.
Lab.
Approach Comparison
SDMA SDMA/TDMA/FDMA/CDMA
TDMA FDMA CDMA
Idea segment space into segment sending segment the spread the spectrum
cells/sectors time into disjoint frequency band into using orthogonal codes
time-slots, demand disjoint sub-bands
driven or fixed
patterns
Terminals only one terminal can all terminals are every terminal has its all terminals can be active
be active in one active for short own frequency, at the same place at the
cell/one sector periods of time on uninterrupted same moment,
the same frequency uninterrupted
Signal cell structure, directed synchronization in filtering in the code plus special
separation antennas the time domain frequency domain receivers
Advantages very simple, increases established, fully simple, established, flexible, less frequency
capacity per km² digital, flexible robust planning needed, soft
handover
Dis- inflexible, antennas guard space inflexible, complex receivers, needs
advantages typically fixed needed (multipath frequencies are a more complicated power
propagation), scarce resource control for senders
synchronization
difficult
Comment only in combination standard in fixed typically combined still faces some problems,
with TDMA, FDMA or networks, together with TDMA higher complexity,
CDMA useful with FDMA/SDMA (frequency hopping lowered expectations; will
used in many patterns) and SDMA be integrated with
mobile networks (frequency reuse) TDMA/FDMA
In practice, several access methods are used in combination 67

Example :SDMA/TDMA/FDMA for GSM and IS-54 CCU

Wireless Access Techniques: FDMA, TDMA and CDMA Compared

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Multiple Access Techniques for Wireless

 Provide for the sharing of channel capacity between a

 Aim to share a channel between two or more signals in

 In conventional telephone systems, it is possible to

 Time Division Duplex (TDD)

 Each transmitter is allocated a channel with a

 All transmitters are able to transmit

 Allocation of separate channels to FDMA signals

 Time-frequency characteristic of FDMA

 Transmit simultaneously and continuously.

 FDMA is usually implemented in narrowband systems.

 Features of FDMA (Cont.)

 FDMA uses duplexers since both TX and RX operate at

 Transmitter share a common channel.

 Only one transmitter is allowed to transmit at a

 Allocation of time slot in TDMA

 Time-frequency characteristic of synchronous

 Features of TDMA (Cont.)

 TDMA systems divide the radio spectrum into time slots.

 Transmit data in a buffer-and-burst method, thus the

 TDMA has TDD and FDD modes.

 TDMA Frame Structure

 TDMA Frame Structure (Cont.)

 Different TDMA standards have different TDMA frame

 Features of TDMA (Cont.)

 Share a single carrier frequency with several users.

 Data transmission is not continuous, but occurs in bursts.

 No duplexers is required since users employ different

 TDMA can allocate different numbers of time slots per

 Combined used of synchronous TDMA and FDMA

 Asynchronous TDMA: Carrier-Sense Multiple

 Transmitter may transmit at the same time, in the

 Each signal is modified by spreading it over a large

 The symbol (chip) duration is very short and usually much

 The near-far problem occurs at a CDMA RX if an

 Frequency hopping is a form of FDMA

 Each transmitter is allocated a group of channels,

 The transmitter transmits data in short bursts,

 Time-frequency characteristic of a single

 Signal received form a pair of frequency-hopping

 Each bit is transmitted as a single pulse, with the v

 A transmission technique in which a PN code,

 At the receiver the signal is “despread” using a

 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

 Also called code division multiple access (CDMA)

 A short code system uses a PN code length equal to a

 A long system uses a PN code length that is much longer

 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

 Basic principle of DSSS

 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

 Performance in the presence of interference

 Hybrid FDMA/CDMA (FCDMA):

 Hybrid Direct Sequence/Frequency Hopped Multiple

 Time Division Frequency Hopping (TDFH)

 SSMA uses signals that have transmission

EE 552/452 Spring 2007 CCU

 Digital muliple access technique

 In CDMA, the narrowband message signal is multiplied by a very

EE 552/452 Spring 2007 CCU

EE 552/452 Spring 2007 CCU