1 TELECOM BASICS

* Introduction
Communication Definitions

Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose

of communication.

Telecommunications is a general term for a vast array of technologies that send

Information over distances. Mobile phones, land lines, satellite phones and voice
Over Internet protocol (VoIP) are all telephony technologies -- just one field of
Telecommunications. Radio, television and networks are a few more examples of
Telecommunication.

While most people associate telecommunications with modern technologies, the

strict definition of the term encompasses primitive and even ancient forms of
telecommunication. Among these is the use of smoke signals as a kind of visual
telegraph. Puffs of smoke were time-released by smothering a fire with a blanket,
then quickly removing and replacing the blanket. Widely used by the American
Indians, smoke signals could communicate short messages over long distances,
provided a clear line of sight.

Other forms of early telecommunications include relay fires or beacons. Used

foremostly in warfare, relay fires required a handful of men posted along a range
of hilltops, with the last man closest to the area where troop movement was
expected. When armies were spotted in the distance, he would light a bonfire.
The fire could be seen from a good distance away by the next man in the relay,
who would in turn light his own bonfire, and so the fires were lit in succession
along the range, creating an effective telecommunications signal that traveled
back over several miles in a relatively short period of time. Finally, the last man in
the relay would light a beacon to signal his army below that the opponent was
en-route.

The arrangement of a ship's flags and semaphores were other forms of

telecommunications. A semaphore was a mechanical device atop a tower with
paddle-like blades or flags. The device would be set in a specific position to
communicate information.

Throughout the 19th century, telecommunications devices became more

sophisticated with the advent of electricity, leading to the telegraph, Morse code,
and signal lamps. A signal lamp, the optical version of the telegraph, is a
powerful lamp with shutters that block the light in long or short durations to
translate to the dots and dashes of Morse code. A heliograph is another optical
telegraph -- a mirror used to reflect light to mimic a signal lamp.
2 TELECOM BASICS

Figure 1.1 Communication Terminals.

In the 20th century, telecommunications reached beyond our planet. In June

1969, the world watched and listened as astronauts walked on the moon. Twenty
years later, in August 1989, we would see pictures of Neptune arrive back from
the Voyager 2 spacecraft, riding radio waves that traveled over roughly three
billion miles (4.8 billion km) to reach us in a matter of a few hours.

Strides in telecommunications have changed the world immeasurably. While

pockets of humankind were once isolated from each other, people now have
multiple ways to see and hear what is occurring on the other side of the world in
real time. Satellite technology, television, the Internet and telephony keep the
globe connected in a humming buzz of interactive voices and pictures. In short,
telecommunications has come a long way from smoke signals.

Communication system Components:

Protocol

information
(A) (B)
Transmission media
3 TELECOM BASICS

Transmissions media
- wire - wireless

Electrical signal optical signal electromagnetic wave

acoustic
wave

 Coppers wire _optical fiber

 coaxial cable
 Ethernet cable

information (content)

speech audio video image text

Information (transmission tech)

analogy digital

(Satellite)

protocol
Logical layer

Physical layer
4 TELECOM BASICS

Physical properties the signal :

 Bandwidth
 Modulation
 Carrier
 Transmission mode

Logical layer:

syntax semantics

Connection Types
In telecommunications systems the transmission of information may be
unidirectional or bidirectional. The unidirectional systems that transmit in one
direction only are called simplex, and the bidirectional systems that are able to
transmit in both directions are called duplex systems. We can implement
bidirectional information transfer with half- or full-duplex transmission

Simplex Connection
In simplex operation the signal is transmitted in one direction only. An example of
this principle is broadcast television, where TV signals are sent from a transmitter
to TV sets only and not in the other direction. Another example is a paging
system that allows a user to receive only alphanumerical messages.
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Duplex Connection:
Half Duplex:
In half-duplex operation the signal is transmitted in both directions but only in
one direction at a time. An example of this is a mobile radio system where the
person speaking must indicate by saying the word over that she is done
transmitting and the other person is allowed to transmit. LANs use a high-speed,
half-duplex transmission over the cable even though users may feel that the
communication is continuously bidirectional, that is, full duplex.

Figure 1.3 Half Duplex Transmission.

Full Duplex:
In full-duplex operation signals are transmitted in both directions at the same
time. An example of this is an ordinary telephone conversation where it is
possible for both people to speak simultaneously. Most modern
Telecommunications systems use the full-duplex principle, which we call duplex

Figure 1.4 Full Duplex Transmissions.

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Duplex Techniques:
Time Division Duplex [TDD]:

Using the TDD method, a single frequency channel is assigned to both the
transmitter and the receiver. Both the uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) traffic use
the same frequency f0 but at different times.
Time division duplex (TDD) is the application of time-division multiplexing to
separate outward and return signals. It emulates full duplex communication over
a half duplex communication link. Time division duplex has a strong advantage in
the case where the asymmetry of the uplink and downlink data speed is variable.
As the amount of uplink data increases, more bandwidth can dynamically be
allocated to that and as it shrinks it can be taken away. Another advantage is that
the uplink and downlink radio paths are likely to be very similar in the case of a
slow moving system. This means that techniques such as beam forming work well
with TDD systems.

Examples of TDD systems are:

• The W-CDMA TDD mode (for indoor use)
• UMTS-TDD's TD-CDMA air interface
• The TD-SCDMA system
• DECT
• IEEE 802.16 WiMax TDD mode
• Half-duplex packet mode networks based on carrier sense multiple
access, for example 2-wire or hubbed Ethernet, Wireless local area
networks and Bluetooth, can be considered as TDD systems, albeit not
TDMA with fixed frame length.
7 TELECOM BASICS

Frequency Division Duplex [FDD]:

Figure 1.6 Frequency Divisions Duplex

Using the FDD method, a distinct frequency channel is assigned to both the
transmitter and the receiver. At any particular instant in time, uplink (UL) traffic
uses a frequency f0 that is different from the frequency f1 used by the downlink
(DL) traffic.
Frequency duplex means that the radio transmitter and receiver operates at
different frequencies. The term is frequently used in ham radio operation, where
an operator is attempting to contact a repeater station. The station must be able
to send and receive a transmission at the same time, and does so by altering the
frequency at which it sends and receives slightly. This mode of operation is
referred to as duplex mode or offset mode.
Uplink and downlink sub-bands are said to be separated by the "frequency
offset". Frequency division duplex or frequency duplex is much more efficient in
the case of symmetric traffic. In this case TDD tends to waste bandwidth during
switch over from transmit to receive, has greater inherent latency, and may
require more complex, more power-hungry circuitry.
Another advantage of FDD is that it makes radio planning easier and more
efficient since base stations do not "hear" each other (as they transmit and
receive in different sub-bands) and therefore will normally not interfere each
other. Conversely with TDD systems, care must be taken to keep guard bands
between neighboring base stations (which decreases spectral efficiency) or to
synchronize base stations so they will transmit and receive at the same time
(which increases network complexity and therefore cost, and reduces bandwidth
allocation flexibility as all base stations and sectors will be forced to use the
same uplink/downlink ratio).
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This technique relies upon sharing of the available radio spectrum by the
communications signals that must pass through that spectrum. The terminology
“multiple access” indicates how the radio spectrum resource is intended to be
used: by enabling more than one communications signal to pass within a
particular band; and the “frequency division” indicates how the sharing is
accomplished: by allocating individual frequencies for each communications
signal within the band.
9 TELECOM BASICS

Advantage:
• Supports continuous transmission.
• Easier to synchronize and less overhead.
Disadvantage:
• Requires tight band pass filters to avoid adjacent channel interference.
• Needs channel allocation to avoid co-channel interference.

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA):

Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a
channel access method for shared
medium (usually radio) networks. It allows several
users to share the same
frequency channel by dividing the signal
into different timeslots. The users
transmit in rapid succession, one after the other,
each using his own timeslot.
This allows multiple stations to share the
same transmission medium (e.g. radio
frequency channel) while using only the
part of its bandwidth they require.
TDMA is used in the digital 2G cellular
systems such as Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM), IS-136, Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) and
IDEN, and in the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT)
standard for portable phones. It is also used extensively in satellite systems, and
combat-net radio systems. For usage of Dynamic TDMA packet mode
communication, see below.
TDMA is a type of Time-division multiplexing, with the special point that instead
of having one transmitter connected to one receiver, there are multiple
transmitters. In the case of the uplink from a mobile phone to a base station this
becomes particularly difficult because the mobile phone can move around and
vary the timing advance required to make its transmission match the gap in
transmission from its peers

Advantage:
• Can support FDD or TDD. TDMA/TDD has a relatively simple RF
hardware architecture.
• Good compatibility with digital systems.
• Support mobile assisted handoff.
Disadvantage:
• Overhead for synchronization
• Guard time overhead
• Channel allocation is needed.
10 TELECOM BASICS

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA):

By utilizing the spread spectrum technique, code-division

multiple access
combines modulation and multiple access to achieve a
certain degree of
information efficiency and protection.
Initially developed for military applications, it gradually
developed into a system
that gave the promise of better bandwidth and service
quality in an environment
of spectral congestion and interference.

In this technology, every user is assigned a separate code/s depending upon the
transaction. One user may have several codes in certain conditions.
Thus, separation is not based on frequency or time, but on the basis of codes.
These codes are nothing but very long sequences of bits having a higher bit rate
than the original information.
The major advantage of using CDMA is that there is no plan for frequency reuse,
the number of channels is greater, there is optimum utilization of bandwidth, and
the confidentiality of information is well protected.

Advantage:
• Statistical multiplexing, in particular, it can exploit
• voice activity behavior
• No equalizer is needed
• Soft handoff
• Rake receiver can be used
• No channel allocation

Disadvantage:
• Near-far problem or capturing problem
• User closed to base station may dominate
• distant users
• Power control is critical
• Uplink design is more complicated due to a lack of
• synchronization
11 TELECOM BASICS

Multiplexing Techniques:

In electronics, telecommunications and computer networks, multiplexing (short

muxing) is a term used to refer to a process where multiple analog message
signals or digital data streams are combined into one signal over a shared
medium. The aim is to share an expensive resource. For example, in electronics,
multiplexing allows several analog signals to be processed by one analog-to digital
converter (ADC), and in telecommunications, several phone calls may be
transferred using one wire. In communications, the multiplexed signal is
transmitted over a communication channel, which may be a physical
transmission medium. The multiplexing divides the capacity of the low-level
communication channel into several higher-level logical channels, one for each
message signal or data stream to be transferred. A reverse process, known as
Demultiplexing, can extract the original channels on the receiver side.

Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM):

Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is a form of signal multiplexing
where multiple baseband signals are modulated on different frequency carrier
waves and added together to create a composite signal.
FDM can also be used to combine multiple signals before final modulation
onto a carrier wave. In this case the carrier signals are referred to as
subcarriers.
• Television and radio uses FDM to broadcast many channels over the
same media.
• Filters separate the multiplexed signal back into its constituent component
signals
12 TELECOM BASICS

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM):

Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) is a type of digital or (rarely) analog
multiplexing in which two or more signals or bit streams are transferred

apparently simultaneously as sub-channels in one communication channel,

but physically are taking turns on the channel. The time domain is divided into
several recurrent timeslots of fixed length, one for each sub-channel. A
sample, byte or data block of sub-channel 1 is transmitted during timeslot 1,
sub-channel 2 during timeslot 2, etc. One TDM frame consists of one timeslot
per sub-channel. After the last sub-channel the cycle starts all over again with
a new frame, starting with the second sample, byte or data block from subchannel
1, etc.
• Multiple transmissions can occupy a single link by subdividing them and
Interleaving the portions
• We refer to TDM as a “round robin” use of a frequency
• TDM can be implemented in two ways:
1. Synchronous TDM
2. Asynchronous TD

􀂾 Synchronous TDM

• The multiplexer allocates exactly the same time slot to each device at all
times, whether or not a device has anything to transmit.
• A frame consists of one complete cycle of time slots.
Thus the number of slots in frame is equal to the number of inputs.

• Asynchronous TDM called also statistical time-division multiplexing.

• Each slot in a frame is not dedicated to the fix device
• The number of slots in a frame is not necessary to be equal to the
number of input devices.
• More than one slots in a frame can be allocated for an input device.
• Allows maximum utilization of the link. It allows a number of lower
speed input lines to be multiplexed to a single higher speed line.
13 TELECOM BASICS

Orthogonal
FDM (OFDM):
Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) — essentially identical
to Coded OFDM (COFDM) — is a digital multi-carrier modulation scheme, which
uses a large number of closely-spaced orthogonal sub-carriers to carry data.
These sub-carriers typically overlap in frequency, but are designed not to
interfere with each other as would be the case with traditional FDM, and may be
efficiently separated using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm. Each
subcarrier
is modulated with a conventional modulation scheme (such as quadrature
amplitude modulation) at a low symbol rate, maintaining data rates similar to
conventional single-carrier modulation schemes in the same bandwidth. OFDM
has developed into a popular scheme for wideband digital communication,
whether wireless or over copper wires, used in applications such as digital
television and audio broadcasting, wireless networking and broadband internet
access.

The primary advantage of OFDM over single-carrier schemes is its ability to cope
with severe channel conditions — for example, attenuation of high frequencies in
a long copper wire, narrowband interference and frequency-selective fading due
to multipath — without complex equalization filters. Channel equalization is
14 TELECOM BASICS

simplified because OFDM may be viewed as using many slowly-modulated

narrowband signals rather than one rapidly-modulated wideband signal. The low
symbol rate makes the use of a guard interval between symbols affordable,
making it possible to handle time-spreading and eliminate intersymbol
Interference (ISI). This mechanism also facilitates the design of single-frequency
networks, as the signals from multiple distant transmitters may be combined
constructively, rather than interfering as would typically occur in a traditional single-carrier
system.

• Sends many signals or “chips” per bit.

• Each sender uses a unique pattern of chips.
• May use multiple frequencies for spread spectrum communication.
• Common with wireless systems.

Modulation
 15 TELECOM BASICS

Modulation

analogy signal digital signal digital signal analogy signal

analogy carrier analogy carrier digital carrier digital carrier

(CDMA)

Am Fm

Modulation Techniques:
modulation is the process of varying a periodic waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to
use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may
modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and
pitch. Normally a high-frequency sinusoid waveform is used as carrier signal. The
three key parameters of a sine wave are its amplitude ("volume"), its phase
("timing") and its frequency ("pitch"), all of which can be modified in accordance
with a low frequency information signal to obtain the modulated signal.
A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator and a device that
performs the inverse operation of modulation is known as a demodulator.

We have two main types of modulations:

• Analog modulation.

 Digital modulation
16 TELECOM BASICS

1- Amplitude modulation (am)

17 TELECOM BASICS

Is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting

information via a radio carrier wave.
AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the
information being sent. For example, changes in the signal strength can be used
to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker, or to specify the light
intensity of television pixels.

Advantages:
• Simple to design.

Disadvantages:
• Noise spikes on transmission medium interfere with the carrier signal.
• Loss of connection is read as 0s.

Angel modulation:
These techniques are based on altering the angle (or phase) of a sinusoidal
carrier wave to transmit data, as opposed to varying the amplitude, such as in
AM transmission.
The two main types of angle modulation are:

Frequency Modulation (FM):

With frequency modulation the frequency (rather than the amplitude) of a

constant amplitude,
Constant-frequency sinusoidal carrier is made to vary in proportion to the
Amplitude of the applied modulating signal. This is shown in, where a constant
amplitude.
Carrier is frequency-modulated by a single tone.
Note how the frequency of the carrier changes.
Frequency modulation can be understood by considering.
This shows that a modulating square or sine wave may be used for this type of
18 TELECOM BASICS

modulation. The frequency

of the frequency-modulated carrier remains constant, and this indicates that the
modulating
process does not increase the power of the carrier wave. For FM the
instantaneous frequency ω is made to vary as
Advantages:
• Immunity to noise on transmission medium.
• Always a signal present. Loss of signal easily detected

Disadvantages:
• Requires 2 frequencies
• Detection circuit needs to recognize both frequencies when signal is lost .

Phase Modulation (PM):

is a form of modulation that represents information as variations in the

instantaneous phase of a carrier wave.
Unlike its more popular counterpart, frequency modulation (FM), PM is not
very widely used. This is because it tends to require more complex receiving
hardware and there can be ambiguity problems with determining whether, for
example, the signal has 0° phase or 180° phase.

Advantage:
• Only 1 frequency used
• Easy to detect loss of carrier

Disadvantages:
• Complex circuitry required to generate and detect phase changes.
19 TELECOM BASICS

Digital Modulation:
The aim of digital modulation is to transfer a digital bit stream over an analog
band pass channel, for example over the public switched telephone network
(where a filter limits the frequency range to between 300 and 3400 Hz) or a
limited radio frequency band.

In digital modulation, an analog carrier signal is modulated by a digital bit stream.

Digital modulation methods can be considered as digital-to-analog conversion,
and the corresponding demodulation or detection as analog-to-digital conversion.
The changes in the carrier signal are chosen from a finite number of M
alternative symbols (the modulation alphabet).

These are the most fundamental digital modulation techniques:

20 TELECOM BASICS

Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a form of modulation that represents digital

data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier wave.
The amplitude of an analog carrier signal varies in accordance with the bit stream
(modulating signal), keeping frequency and phase constant.
The level of amplitude can be used to represent binary logic 0s and 1s. We can
think of a carrier signal as an ON or OFF switch. In the modulated signal, logic 0
is represented by the absence of a carrier, thus giving OFF/ON keying operation
and hence the name given.

Phase Shift Keying (PSK):

21 TELECOM BASICS

Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by

changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave).
Any digital modulation scheme uses a finite number of distinct signals to
represent digital data. PSK uses a finite number of phases; each assigned a
unique pattern of binary bits. Usually, each phase encodes an equal number of
bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is represented by the particular
phase. The demodulator, which is designed specifically for the symbol-set used
by the modulator, determines the phase of the received signal and maps it back
to the symbol it represents, thus recovering the original data. This requires the
receiver to be able to compare the phase of the received signal to a reference
signal — such a system is termed coherent (thereby term CPSK for it).

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM):

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a modulation scheme which

conveys data by changing (modulating) the amplitude of two carrier waves.
These two waves, usually sinusoids, are out of phase with each other by 90° and
are thus called quadrature carriers—hence the name of the scheme
22 TELECOM BASICS

Radio interface problem

Communication environment suffer from many problems related to radio

transmission witch may cause degradation of service quality .hence solution to
these problem should be provided we will now discuss the most important
problem.

Shadowing (normal fading):

Fading means that the signal strength received fluctuates around a mean value
while changing the mobile position. the reason for shadowing is the presence of
obstacles like large building or hill in the path between the site and the mobile
.the distance between fading dips (minimum value of signal strength )is from 10
to 20 meters . if the used modulation technique is analog and if the mobile is
moving with the speed of car the shadowing will result in undesirable beats in the
speech signal .

Solution to normal fading problem:

• Increasing the fading margin
The receiver sensitivity is defined as the lowest received signal strength
required to regenerating the original signal properly. The fading margin is
defined as the difference between the mean value of the received signal and
the receiver sensitivity. To over com the fading problems the fading margin
should be large enough that the lowest fading dip is still higher than the receiver
sensitivity.

Multi –path fading:

Multi-path fading occurs when there is more than one transmission path from the
transmitter to the receiver and there for more than one signal is arrive at
the receiver.
23 TELECOM BASICS

Rayleigh fading
This occurs when a signal takes more than one path between TX
(transmitter) and RX (receiver) in this case the signal is not received on
the line of sight path directly from TX antenna. Rather it is reflected off
buildings, for example, and is received from several different indirect
paths.
Rayleigh fading occurs when the obstacles are close to receiving antenna
.the received signal is the sum of many identical signals that differ only in
phase (and some extent amplitude). A fading dib and the time that elapses
between tow fading dips depend on both the speed of the TX and the
transmitting frequency.

Solution of Rayleigh fading problem

1. Antenna space diversity
The cell transceiver will use tow receiving antennas instead of one.
Distance of about 5 meters will separate them, and they will receive radio signals
independently, so they will be affected differently by the fading dips and the
better signal received will be selected.
24 TELECOM BASICS

2. Frequency diversity
During conversation, a mobile subscriber is located one TDMA time slot on one
of the RF carriers assigned to its serving cell the fading effect may not be the
same for all of the frequencies, so the time slot of the subscriber will jump or hop
between the frequencies of the cell when it is repeated in each TDMA frame.
If only one of the frequencies is affected severely by fading, small fraction of the
signal will be lost. The hopping sequence might be cyclic or random

power control :
Note message and measuring the station-to-Mobile says it reduced the force or
increase according to distance and proximity to the station
25 TELECOM BASICS

Time Dispersion:
Time dispersion is another problem relating to multiple paths to RX antenna.
However, in contrast to Rayleigh fading the reflected signal comes from an object
far away from the RX antenna. Tim dispersion causes inter simple interference
(ISI) where consecutive symbols (bits) interfere with each other making it difficult
for the recover to determine which symbols is the correct one .
26 TELECOM BASICS

Solution of time dispersion problem

Increase carrier to reflection ratio (C/R)
The C/R ratio is defined as the difference in signal strength between the signal
received from the RBS and the strongest reflected signals.
Its value depends on the relative position of the mobile subscriber. The C/R ratio
27 TELECOM BASICS

increases as the mobile approaches the RBS and vice versa.

Time delay
Each MS on a call is allocated a time slot on tdma a frame. This is an amount of
time during witch the ms transmits to BTS. The information must also arrive at
the BTS writhen that time slot .the time alignment problem occurs when part of
the information transmitted by an ms dose not arrive within the allocated time
slot. Instead, that part may arrive during the next time slot, and many interfere
with information from another MS using that other time slot a large distance
between the ms and BTS cause time alignment. Effectively the signal cannot
travel over the large distance writhen the given time

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