Introduction to Mobile Network Engineering: GSM, 3G-WCDMA, LTE and the Road to 5G

Alexander Kukushkin

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119484226
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Mobile & Wireless Communications
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Summarizes and surveys current LTE technical specifications and implementation options for engineers and newly qualified support staff

Concentrating on three mobile communication technologies, GSM, 3G-WCDMA, and LTE—while majorly focusing on Radio Access Network (RAN) technology—this book describes principles of mobile radio technologies that are used in mobile phones and service providers' infrastructure supporting their operation. It introduces some basic concepts of mobile network engineering used in design and rollout of the mobile network. It then follows up with principles, design constraints, and more advanced insights into radio interface protocol stack, operation, and dimensioning for three major mobile network technologies: Global System Mobile (GSM) and third (3G) and fourth generation (4G) mobile technologies. The concluding sections of the book are concerned with further developments toward next generation of mobile network (5G). Those include some of the major features of 5G such as a New Radio, NG-RAN distributed architecture, and network slicing. The last section describes some key concepts that may bring significant enhancements in future technology and services experienced by customers.

Introduction to Mobile Network Engineering: GSM, 3G-WCDMA, LTE and the Road to 5G covers the types of Mobile Network by Multiple Access Scheme; the cellular system; radio propagation; mobile radio channel; radio network planning; EGPRS - GPRS/EDGE; Third Generation Network (3G), UMTS; High Speed Packet data access (HSPA); 4G-Long Term Evolution (LTE) system; LTE-A; and Release 15 for 5G.

• Focuses on Radio Access Network technologies which empower communications in current and emerging mobile network systems
• Presents a mix of introductory and advanced reading, with a generalist view on current mobile network technologies
• Written at a level that enables readers to understand principles of radio network deployment and operation
• Based on the author's post-graduate lecture course on Wireless Engineering
• Fully illustrated with tables, figures, photographs, working examples with problems and solutions, and section summaries highlighting the key features of each technology described

Written as a modified and expanded set of lectures on wireless engineering taught by the author, Introduction to Mobile Network Engineering: GSM, 3G-WCDMA, LTE and the Road to 5G is an ideal text for post-graduate and graduate students studying wireless engineering, and industry professionals requiring an introduction or refresher to existing technologies.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Over the last few decades, mobile radio communications have become ubiquitous throughout the world. People have become accustomed to the technology through commercial mobile phones. The mobile network infrastructure that enables communications has become a normal part of urban environment in which people live.

There is also great number of other mobile radio applications essential in the modern world that are used in navigation, transportation, machine‐to‐machine communications (M2M), robotics, emergency and low enforcement services, broadcasting, space exploration, the military and so on. Mobile radio is, in fact, a part of more a widely defined wireless technology that, of course, includes wireless LANs (WiFi) with fixed and nomadic access.

Each application was developed on the basis of specific needs and, in some aspects, the mobile radio networks for emergency services and commercial mobile services are different. Nonetheless, the underlying principles in mobile communications, such as radio link design given performance constraints, separation of control and traffic channels, mobility support, principles of the channel allocation in the cell, radio network management and so on, have lots in common in many applications. Moreover, some of the commercial technologies, such as LTE, now appeared to support land mobile radio applications for emergency and public safety services.

This book is written as a modified and expanded set of lectures on the wireless engineering course I had privilege to teach at the University of Sydney, Australia for a couple of years. Most of the concepts of these lectures were adopted from published standards and also based on personal experience in the field as well as from some works of other authors. The course was delivered as post‐graduate study. The assumption was made that the fundamentals of digital communications were already known to attendees and the objective was to explain the subject using mathematical arguments as little as possible; that is, close to common practice in the commercial communications industry. The target audience are engineers who are involved in either network operations or technical pre‐sale. The content is limited to major three mobile communication technologies: GSM, 3G‐Wideband Code Division Multiple‐Access (WCDMA) and LTE with the major focus on radio access network (RAN) technology. The core part of the network is a complex subject on its own and is described only to discuss its role in e2e procedures and interfaces with the radio network.

Chapter 2
Types of Mobile Network by Multiple‐Access Scheme

Mobile radio networks can be distinguished by operation modes, services and applications and multiple‐access schemes. A major influence on the development of commercial radio communication systems is the scarcity of radio spectrum available for utilization. An apparent objective is to assign the maximum number of users to an available radio frequency segment. This objective is achieved by using various multiple‐access schemes. Here, we list the four most common technologies:

1. frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
2. time‐division multiple access (TDMA)
3. code division multiple access (CDMA)
4. orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)

Figure 2.1 illustrates the principles of multiple‐access schemes used in mobile communications.

Figure 2.1 Common multiple‐access schemes.

In FDMA, each mobile user (or user group) is allocated a frequency channel for the duration of the call, while in the TDMA scheme a group of callers use the same frequency channel but during different time intervals. Most of the systems using TDMA do, in fact, combine both schemes: FDMA and TDMA. In this approach, the system allocates a set of frequency channels to several groups of users, one frequency channel per group. One user in each group accesses an allocated frequency channel during a system assigned time slot. We will have a detailed look at the frequency‐time‐domain channel structure when considering the Global System Mobile (GSM) based on combined FDMA/TDMA multiple‐access technology.

In CDMA, all users occupy the same frequency channel and can transmit/receive at the same time. The information stream of each user is coded by a specific code ensuring orthogonality between users. It can be achieved by allocating additional frequency bandwidth to each user in excess of the bandwidth required for transmitting user source data. The third‐generation mobile system, WCDMA, utilizes this technology. The WCDMA system will be considered in Chapter 9.

In OFDMA, a large spectrum segment is allocated as a channel pool available to one or many simultaneous users. As seen in Figure 2.1, user allocated channel bandwidth and duration can be varied according to user service requirements and instant availability of common resource/channel pool. User channels are mapped on the set of orthogonal narrowband carriers, thus excluding mutual interference. The details of the OFDMA scheme will be discussed in the Chapter 11 discussion about LTE technology.

Chapter 3
Cellular System

3.1 Historical Background

A scarcity of the available frequency spectrum is a major issue in the development of mobile networks. We consider a well quoted and quite convincing example of a GSM system. For example, only 25 MHz of the radio spectrum is available for the GSM system in the 900 MHz frequency range. That may allocate a maximum of 125 frequency channels each with a carrier bandwidth of 200 kHz. Within an eightfold time multiplex for each carrier, a maximum of 1000 channels can be realized. This number is further reduced by guard bands in the frequency spectrum and the overhead required for signalling.

Apparently, 1000 simultaneous users cannot produce sufficient revenue to justify the licence cost of 25 MHz of spectrum. In order to be able to serve several hundreds of thousands or millions of subscribers in spite of this limitation, frequencies must be spatially reused; that is,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Types of Mobile Network by Multiple‐Access Scheme
• Chapter 3: Cellular System
• Chapter 4: Radio Propagation
• Chapter 5: Mobile Radio Channel
• Chapter 6: Radio Network Planning
• Chapter 7: Global System Mobile, GSM, 2G
• Chapter 8: EGPRS: GPRS/EDGE
• Chapter 9: Third Generation Network (3G), UMTS
• Chapter 10: High‐Speed Packet Data Access (HSPA)
• Chapter 11: 4G‐Long Term Evolution (LTE) System
• Chapter 12: LTE‐A
• Chapter 13: Further Development for the Fifth Generation
• Chapter 14: Annex: Base‐Station Site Solutions
• Index
• End User License Agreement