First Generation

Justin Champion C208 Ext:3273

First Generation

What we will look at

1st Generation technology Analogue signals Frequency Division Handover Infrastructure

First Generation

Early Wireless communications

Signal fires Morse Code Radio

Radio Transmitter 1928 Dorchester

First Generation

1st Generation devices

Introduced in the UK by Vodafone

January 1985 Total Access Cellular System (TACS)

UK Technology (and Italy)

This was based on the American design of AMPS

Used the 900MHz frequency range Germany adopted C-net France adopted Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT)

Europe

First Generation

Operates

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) Covered in next slide Operates in the 900MHz frequency range Three parts to the communications

Voice channels Paging Channels Control Channels

PCS 1G to 2G technology

FDMA

Breaks up the available frequency into 30 KHz channels Allocates a single channel to each phone call The channel is agreed with the Base station before transmission takes place on agreed and reserved channel The device can then transmit on this channel

No other device can share this channel even if the person is not talking at the time! A different channel is required to receive

The voice/sound is transmitted as analogue data, which means that a large than required channel has to be allocated.

PCS 1G to 2G technology

FDMA
Frequency

PCS 1G to 2G technology

FDMA

You use this technology all of the time!

Consider your radio in the house As you want different information you change the frequency which you are receiving

PCS 1G to 2G technology

Voice calls

Are transferred using Frequency modulation The rate at which the carrier wave undulates is changed

Encoding information More resistant to interference than AM radio

(www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0030280.html, 2004)

PCS 1G to 2G technology

1G infrastructure

PSTN

Mobile Switching Centre

First Generation

Infrastructure

Base Station

Carries out the actual radio communications with the device Sends out paging and control signals Takes responsibility

MSC

Controls all calls attached to this device Maintains billing information Switches calls (Handover)

First Generation

Cellular Architecture

Allows the area to be broken into smaller cells The mobile device then connects to the closest cell
Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell Cell

First Generation

Cellular Architecture continued

Cellular architecture requires the available frequency to be distributed between the cells If 2 cells next to each other used the same frequency each would interfere with each other

Cell Cell Cell

Cell

Cell

Frequency 900

First Generation

Cellular Architecture continued

There must be a distance between adjoining cells This distance allows communications to take place

Cell

Frequency 900

Cell
Cell Cell Cell Cell

Frequency 920

Cell

Cell

Frequency 940

Frequency 960

First Generation

Cellular Architecture continued

This is referred to as the Minimum Frequency Reuse Factor This requires proper planning and can be an issue for all radio based wireless communications Planning the radio cell and how far a signal may go

Cell Cell Cell

Cell

First Generation

Radio Planning

Logically we picture a cell as being a Octagon In reality the shape of a transmission will change depending on the environment In this diagram of a cell you can see this

The building are the rectangles in dark green The darker the shade of green the stronger the signal Cell
Cell Cell Cell

Cell

First Generation

Radio Planning

Planning needs careful thought You must cover the entire area with the minimum of base stations Base stations cost the company money They also make the potential for radio problems greater Simulations can be used but accurate models of the area is required Best solution is to measure the signals at various points

From this a decision can be made Cell Cell Cell Cell

First Generation

Cellular infrastructure why ??

Cells with different frequencies allow devices to move between these cells

The device just informing what frequency they are communicating at

Cellular communications can only travel a certain distance

Discussed in the wireless LANs lecture Cell sizes are flexible

Examples in the TUK TACS system were up to 50 Miles!

First Generation

Cellular infrastructure

Once you get to the edge of a cell you will need a handover

Handover allows the user to move between cells

After a certain distance the amount of data which is sent in error becomes greater than the data sent correctly at this point you need to connect to a new cell which is closer. TACS carries this out by monitoring the amplitude of the voice signal

First Generation

Cellular infrastructure

Communicating with BS1 Moving towards BS2

BS1

BS2

First Generation

Cellular infrastructure

Power of signal now weakening

BS1

BS2

First Generation

Cellular infrastructure

Paging signal stronger so hand over to new MSC

BS1

BS2

First Generation

Handover

Once a handover is decided upon by the BS

The MSC is informed

All BS in the area of the current location are informed to start paging the device The BS with the strongest signal is then handed over to The call can continue In reality a lot of calls were dropped whilst waiting for a handover to take place

Ending a call

A 8Khz tone is sent for 1.8 seconds

The phone then returns to an idle state

First Generation

TACS

Problems Roaming was not applicable outside of the UK

All of Europe was using different standards Different frequencies Different frequency spacing Different encoding technologies Calls were easily listened upon Limited capacity of the available spectrum Analogue signal meant a larger than required amount of the frequency had to be allocated to each call Expansion of the network was difficult GSM was introduced Next weeks lecture!

Security

This was unacceptable

First Generation

Summary

1G systems

TACS

Frequency Use Infrastructure Handover Problems