Lecture #07

Multiple Access Techniques

In wireless communication systems, it is often desirable to allow the subscriber to send
information simultaneously from the mobile station to the base station while receiving
information from the base station to the mobile station.

A cellular system divides any given area into cells where a mobile unit in each cell
communicates with a base station. The main aim in the cellular system design is to be able
to increase the capacity of the channel, i.e., to handle as many calls as possible in a given
bandwidth with a sufficient level of quality of service.

There are several different ways to allow access to the channel. These includes mainly the
following −

There are several different ways to allow access to the channel. These includes mainly the
following −

• Frequency division multiple-access (FDMA)

• Time division multiple-access (TDMA)
• Code division multiple-access (CDMA)
• Space division multiple access (SDMA)
• Depending on how the available bandwidth is allocated to the users, these techniques can
be classified as narrowband and wideband systems.

• Narrowband Systems

Systems operating with channels substantially narrower than the coherence bandwidth are
called as Narrow band systems. Narrow band TDMA allows users to use the same
channel but allocates a unique time slot to each user on the channel, thus separating a
small number of users in time on a single channel.
 • Wideband Systems

In wideband systems, the transmission bandwidth of a single channel is much larger than
the coherence bandwidth of the channel. Thus, multipath fading doesn’t greatly affect the
received signal within a wideband channel, and frequency selective fades occur only in a
small fraction of the signal bandwidth.

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

FDMA is the basic technology for advanced mobile phone services. The features of FDMA are
as follows.

This was the initial multiple-access technique for cellular systems in which each individual user
is assigned a pair of frequencies while making or receiving a call as shown in Figure.
• One frequency is used for downlink and one pair for uplink. This is called frequency
division duplexing (FDD).
• That allocated frequency pair is not used in the same cell or adjacent cells during the call
so as to reduce the co channel interference.
• Even though the user may not be talking, the spectrum cannot be reassigned as long as a
call is in place. Different users can use the same frequency in the same cell except that
they must transmit at different times. The features of FDMA are as follows:
 • The FDMA channel carries only one phone circuit at a time. If an FDMA channel is not
in use, then it sits idle and it cannot be used by other users to increase share capacity.
• After the assignment of the voice channel the BS and the MS transmit simultaneously and
continuously. The bandwidths of FDMA systems are generally narrow i.e. FDMA is
usually implemented in a narrow band system The symbol time is large compared to the
average delay spread.
• The complexity of the FDMA mobile systems is lower than that of TDMA mobile
systems. FDMA requires tight filtering to minimize the adjacent channel interference.

FDMA/FDD in AMPS
• The first U.S. analog cellular system, AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) is based
on FDMA/FDD.
• A single user occupies a single channel while the call is in progress, and the single
channel is actually two simplex channels which are frequency duplexed with a 45 MHz
split.
• When a call is completed or when a handoff occurs the channel is vacated so that another
mobile subscriber may use it.
• Multiple or simultaneous users are accommodated in AMPS by giving each user a unique
signal. Voice signals are sent on the forward channel from the base station to the mobile
unit, and on the reverse channel from the mobile unit to the base station.
• In AMPS, analog narrowband frequency modulation (NBFM) is used to modulate the
carrier.

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

As the name suggests, TDMA is a time based access. Here, we give certain time frame to each
channel. Within that time frame, the channel can access the entire spectrum bandwidth

Each station got a fixed length or slot. The slots, which are unused will remain in idle stage.
Suppose, we want to send five packets of data to a particular channel in TDMA technique. So,
we should assign them certain time slots or time frame within which it can access the entire
bandwidth.

In above figure, packets 1, 3 and 4 are active, which transmits data. Whereas, packets 2 and 5 are
idle because of their non-participation. This format gets repeated every time we assign
bandwidth to that particular channel.

Although, we have assigned certain time slots to a particular channel but it can also be changed
depending upon the load bearing capacity. That means, if a channel is transmitting heavier loads,
then it can be assigned a bigger time slot than the channel which is transmitting lighter loads.
This is the biggest advantage of TDMA over FDMA. Another advantage of TDMA is that the
power consumption will be very low.

The features of TDMA includes the following:

• TDMA shares a single carrier frequency with several users where each users makes use
of non overlapping time slots.
• The number of time slots per frame depends on several factors such as modulation
technique, available bandwidth etc.
• Data transmission in TDMA is not continuous but occurs in bursts. This results in low
battery consumption since the subscriber transmitter can be turned OFF when not in use.
Because of a discontinuous trans- mission in TDMA the handoff process is much simpler
for a subscriber unit, since it is able to listen to other base stations during idle time slots.
 • TDMA uses different time slots for transmission and reception thus duplexers are not
required.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

In CDMA technique, a unique code has been assigned to each channel to distinguish from each
other. A perfect example of this type of multiple access is our cellular system. We can see that no
two persons’ mobile number match with each other although they are same X or Y mobile
service providing company’s customers using the same bandwidth.

In CDMA process, we do the decoding of inner product of the encoded signal and chipping
sequence. Therefore, mathematically it can be written as

Encodedsignal=Orginaldata×chippingsequenceEncodedsignal=Orginaldata×chippingsequence

The basic advantage of this type of multiple access is that it allows all users to coexist and use
the entire bandwidth at the same time. Since each user has different code, there won’t be any
interference.

In this technique, a number of stations can have number of channels unlike FDMA and TDMA.
The best part of this technique is that each station can use the entire spectrum at all time.

Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

Space division multiple access or spatial division multiple access is a technique which is MIMO
(multiple-input multiple-output) architecture and used mostly in wireless and satellite
communication. It has the following features.

• All users can communicate at the same time using the same channel.
• SDMA is completely free from interference.
• A single satellite can communicate with more satellites receivers of the same frequency.
• The directional spot-beam antennas are used and hence the base station in SDMA, can
track a moving user.
• Controls the radiated energy for each user in space.