Chapter Two

CELL-PHONE TECHNOLOGY

Wireless phones which receive their signals from towers. A cell is typically the area (several
miles) around a tower in which a signal can be received. Cell phones provide an incredible array
of functions. Depending on the cell-phone model, you can:-

 Make task or to-do list

 Store contact information
 Keep track of appointments and set reminders
 Use the built-in calculator for simple math
 Send or receive e-mail
 Get information (news, entertainment, stock quotes) from the internet
 Play games
 Watch TV
 Send text messages
 Integrate other devices such as PDAs, MP3 players and GPS receivers

A cell phone is a full-duplex device. That means that you use one frequency for talking and a
second, separate frequency for listening. Both people on the call can talk at once.
Division of a city into small cells allows extensive frequency reuse across a city, so that
millions of people can use cell phones simultaneously. Cell phones operate within cells, and they
can switch cells as they move around. Cells give cell phones incredible range. Someone using a
cell phone can drive hundreds of miles and maintain a conversation the entire time because of the
cellular approach. Each cell has a base station that consists of a tower and a small building
containing the radio equipment.

Cell structure
A single cell in an analog cell-phone system uses one-seventh of the available duplex voice
channels. That is, each cell is using one-seventh of the available channels so it has a unique set of
frequencies and there are no collisions:

 A cell-phone carrier typically gets 832 radio frequencies to use in a city.

 Each cell phone uses two frequencies per call -- a duplex channel –

So there are typically 395 voice channels per carrier. (The other 42 frequencies are used for
control channels) Therefore, each cell has about 56 voice channels available. In other words, in
any cell, 56 people can be talking on their cell phone at one time. Analog cellular systems are
considered first-generation mobile technology, or 1G.

With digital transmission methods (2G), the number of available channels increases. For
example, a TDMA-based digital system (more on TDMA later) can carry three times as many
calls as an analog system, so each cell has about 168 channels available.

Cell phones have low-power transmitters in them. Many cell phones have two signal strengths:
0.6 watts and 3 watts. The base station is also transmitting at low power. Low-power
transmitters have two advantages:

 The transmissions of a base station and the phones within its cell do not make it very
far outside that cell. Therefore, 2 different cells can reuse the same 56 frequencies.
Hence, the same frequencies can be reused extensively across the city.
 The power consumption of the cell phone, which is normally battery-operated, is
relatively low. Low power means small batteries, and this is what has made handheld
cellular phones possible

The cellular approach requires a large number of base stations in a city of any size. A typical
large city can have hundreds of towers. But because so many people are using cell phones, costs
remain low per user. Each carrier in each city also runs one central office called the Mobile
Telephone Switching Office (MTSO). This office handles all of the phone connections to the
normal land-based phone system, and controls all of the base stations in the region.

All cell phones have special codes associated with them. These codes are used to identify the
phone, the phone's owner and the service provider. The various Cell Phone Codes used are as
follows:

1. Electronic Serial Number (ESN) : It is a unique 32-digit number programmed into the
phone when it is manufactured
2. Mobile Identification Number (MIN) : A 10-digit number derived from the phones
number
3. System Identification Code (SID): A unique 5-digit number that is assigned to each
carrier by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
ESN is a permanent part of the phone while both MIN and SID codes are programmed into the phone
when a service plan is purchased and the phone is activated.

Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO): The switching office that all base
station cell sites connect to. It is a sophisticated computer that monitors all cellular calls,
keeps track of the location of all cellular-equipped vehicles traveling in the system,
arranges hand-offs, keeps track of billing information, etc. The MTSO in turn interfaces
to the PSTN by connection to a Control Office.

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN): It is the network of the world's public
circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the
network of the world's public IP-based packet-switched networks. Originally a network
of fixed-line analogue telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital, and
now includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.

If you have a cell phone, you turn it on and someone tries to call you. Here is what happens
to the call:

1. When you first power up the phone, it listens for an SID on the control channel. The
control channel is a special frequency that the phone and base station use to talk to
one another about things like call set-up and channel changing. If the phone cannot
find any control channels to listen to, it knows it is out of range and displays a "no
service" message.
2. When it receives the SID, the phone compares it to the SID programmed into the
phone. If the SIDs match, the phone knows that the cell it is communicating with is
part of its home system.
3. Along with the SID, the phone also transmits a registration request, and the MTSO
keeps track of your phone's location in a database -- this way, the MTSO knows
which cell you are in when it wants to ring your phone.
4. The MTSO gets the call, and it tries to find you. It looks in its database to see which
cell you are in.
5. The MTSO picks a frequency pair that your phone will use in that cell to take the
call.
6. The MTSO communicates with your phone over the control channel to tell it which
frequencies to use, and once your phone and the tower switch on those frequencies,
the call is connected. Now, you are talking by two-way radio to a friend.

As you move toward the edge of your cell, your cell's base station notes that your signal
strength is diminishing. Meanwhile, the base station in the cell you are moving toward
(which is listening and measuring signal strength on all frequencies, not just its own
one-seventh) sees your phone's signal strength increasing. The two base stations
coordinate with each other through the MTSO, and at some point, your phone gets a
signal on a control channel telling it to change frequencies. This hand off switches your
phone to the new cell.

If you're on the phone and you move from one cell to another -- but the cell you move
into is covered by another service provider, not yours. Instead of dropping the call, it'll
actually be handed off to the other service provider. If the SID on the control channel
does not match the SID programmed into your phone, then the phone knows it is
roaming. The MTSO of the cell that you are roaming in contacts the MTSO of your
home system, which then checks its database to confirm that the SID of the phone you
are using, is valid. Your home system verifies your phone to the local MTSO, which then
tracks your phone as you move through its cells. All of this happens within seconds.

On most phones, the word "roam" will come up on your phone's screen when you leave
your provider's coverage area and enter another's. If you want to roam internationally,
you'll need a phone that will work both at home and abroad. Different countries use
different cellular access technologies.
ANALOG CELL-PHONES (FIRST GENERATION)

In 1983, the analog cell-phone standard called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System)
was approved by the FCC and first used in Chicago. AMPS use a range of frequencies
between 824 megahertz (MHz) and 894 MHz for analog cell phones. In order to
encourage competition and keep prices low, the U. S. government required the presence
of two carriers in every market, known as A and B carriers. One of the carriers was
normally the local-exchange carrier (LEC), a fancy way of saying the local phone
company. Carriers A and B is each assigned 832 frequencies: 790 for voice and 42 for
data. A pair of frequencies (one for transmit and one for receive) is used to create one
channel. The frequencies used in analog voice channels are typically 30 kHz wide -- 30
kHz was chosen as the standard size because it gives you voice quality comparable to a
wired telephone. The transmit and receive frequencies of each voice channel are
separated by 45 MHz to keep them from interfering with each other. Each carrier has 395
voice channels, as well as 21 data channels to use for housekeeping activities like
registration and paging.

A version of AMPS known as Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS)

incorporates some digital technology to allow the system to carry about three times as many
calls as the original version. Even though it uses digital technology, it is still considered analog.

It use separation bandwidth of 60 MHz, AMPS and NAMPS only operate in the 800-MHz band
and do not offer many of the features common in digital cellular service, such as e-mail and Web
browsing.

DIGITAL CELL-PHONES (SECOND GENERATION)

They use the same radio technology as analog phones, but they use it in a different way.
Analog systems do not fully utilize the signal between the phone and the cellular network
-- analog signals cannot be compressed and manipulated as easily as a true digital
signal. Digital phones convert your voice into binary information (1s and 0s) and then
compress it. This compression allows between three and 10 digital cell-phone calls to
occupy the space of a single analog call. Many digital cellular systems rely on
frequency-shift keying (FSK) to send data back and forth over AMPS. FSK uses two
frequencies, one for 1s and the other for 0s, alternating rapidly between the two to send
digital information between the cell tower and the phone. Clever modulation and
encoding schemes are required to convert the analog information to digital, compress it
and convert it back again while maintaining an acceptable level of voice quality. Hence,
digital cell phones have to contain a lot of processing power.
INSIDE A CELL-PHONE

A basic digital cell phone contains just a few individual parts:

 A circuit board containing the brains of the phone

 An antenna
 An Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen
 A keyboard
 A microphone
 A speaker
 A battery

The circuit board is the heart of the system and contains several chips. The analog-to-digital
and digital-to-analog conversion chips translate the outgoing audio signal from analog to digital
and the incoming signal from digital back to analog. The digital signal processor (DSP) is a
highly customized processor designed to perform signal-manipulation calculations at high
speed. The microprocessor handles all the functions for the keyboard and display, deals with
command and control signaling with the base station and also coordinates the rest of the
functions on the board. The Read Only Memory (ROM) and Flash Memory chips provide
storage for the phone's operating system and customizable features, such as the phone directory.
The Radio Frequency (RF) and power section handles power management and recharging, and
also deals with the hundreds of FM channels. Finally, the RF amplifiers handle signals traveling
to and from the antenna.

CELL-PHONE TOWER

A cell-phone tower is typically a steel pole or lattice structure that rises hundreds of feet into the
air. The box houses the radio transmitters and receivers that let the tower communicate with
the phones. The radios transmitters and receivers connect with the antennae on the tower through
a set of thick cables. The tower and all of the cables and equipment at the base of the tower are
heavily grounded.

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN SECOND GENERATION CELL-PHONES

There are four common technologies used by 2G cell-phone networks for transmitting
information:-

1. Frequency Division Multiple Accesses (FDMA): FDMA separates the spectrum into
distinct voice channels by splitting it into uniform chunks of bandwidth. Each call
sends its signal at a different frequency within the available band. FDMA is used
mainly for analog transmission.
 2. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA): TDMA is the access method used by the
Electronics Industry Alliance and the Telecommunications Industry Association for
Interim Standard 54 (IS-54) and Interim Standard 136 (IS-136). Using TDMA, a
narrow band that is 30 kHz wide and 6.7 milliseconds long is split time-wise into three
time slots. Each conversation gets the signal for one-third of the time. This is possible
because voice data that has been converted to digital information is compressed so that it
takes up significantly less transmission space. Therefore, TDMA has three times the
capacity of an analog system using the same number of channels. TDMA systems operate
in either the 800-MHz (IS-54) or 1900-MHz (IS-136) frequency bands.

3. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA): CDMA takes an entirely different approach
from TDMA. CDMA, after digitizing data, spreads it out over the entire available
bandwidth. Multiple calls are overlaid on each other on the channel, with each assigned a
unique sequence code. CDMA is a form of spread spectrum, which simply means that
data is sent in small pieces over a number of the discrete frequencies available for use at
any time in the specified range.

4. Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM): GSM implements TDMA in a

somewhat different and incompatible way from IS-136. GSM systems use encryption to
make phone calls more secure. GSM operates in the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands in
Europe and Asia and in the 850-MHz and 1900-MHz band in the United States. It is used
in digital cellular and PCS (Personal Communication Services)-based systems. GSM is
also the basis for Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (IDEN), a popular system
introduced by Motorola and used by Nextel.

MULTI-BAND VS. MULTI-MODE CELL-PHONES

1. Multiple bands - A phone that has multiple-band capability can switch frequencies. For
example, a dual-band TDMA phone could use TDMA services in either an 800-MHz or a 1900-
MHz system. A quad-band GSM phone could use GSM service in the 850-MHz, 900-MHz,
1800-MHz or 1900-MHz band.
2. Multiple modes - In cell phones, "mode" refers to the type of transmission technology used.
So, a phone that supported AMPS and TDMA could switch back and forth as needed. It's
important that one of the modes is AMPS -- this gives you analog service if you are in an area
that doesn't have digital support.
3. Multiple band/Multiple modes - It allows you to switch between frequency bands and
transmission modes as needed. Changing bands or modes is done automatically by
phones that support these options. Usually the phone will have a default option set, such
as 1900-MHz TDMA, and will try to connect at that frequency with that technology first.
If it supports dual bands, it will switch to 800 MHz if it cannot connect at 1900 MHz and
if the phone supports more than one mode, it will try the digital mode(s) first, and then
 switch to analog. You can find both dual-mode and tri-mode phones. The term "tri-mode"
can be deceptive. It may mean that the phone supports two digital technologies, such as CDMA
and TDMA, as well as analog. In that case, it is a true tri-mode phone. But it can also mean that
it supports one digital technology in two bands and also offers analog support.

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THIRD GENERATION CELL-PHONES

3G technology is intended for the true multimedia cell phone -- typically called smartphones --
and features increased bandwidth and transfer rates to accommodate Web-based applications and
phone-based audio and video files. 3G comprises several cellular access technologies as follows:

1. CDMA2000: based on 2-G Code Division Multiple Access

2. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access-UMTS (WCDMA-UMTS): In W-CDMA
interface different users can simultaneously transmit at different data rates and data rates
can even vary in time. UMTS networks need to support all current second generation
services and numerous new applications and services.
3. Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA): TD-
SCDMA uses the Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode, which transmits uplink traffic
(traffic from the mobile terminal to the base station) and downlink traffic (traffic from
the base station to the terminal) in the same frame in different time slots. That means
that the uplink and downlink spectrum is assigned flexibly, dependent on the type of
information being transmitted. When asymmetrical data like e-mail and internet are
transmitted from the base station, more time slots are used for downlink than for uplink.
A symmetrical split in the uplink and downlink takes place with symmetrical services
like telephony.

PROBLEMS WITH CELL-PHONES

1. Generally, non-repairable internal corrosion of parts results if you get the phone wet or
uses wet hands to push the buttons. Consider a protective case. If the phone does get wet,
be sure it is totally dry before you switch it on so you can try to avoid damaging internal
parts.
2. Extreme heat in a car can damage the battery or the cell-phone electronics. Extreme
cold may cause a momentary loss of the screen display.
3. Analog cell phones suffer from a problem known as "cloning." A phone is "cloned"
when someone steals its ID numbers and is able to make fraudulent calls on the owner's
account. When your phone makes a call, it transmits the ESN and MIN to the network at
the beginning of the call. The MIN/ESN pair is a unique tag for your phone -- this is how
the phone company knows who to bill for the call. When your phone transmits its
MIN/ESN pair, it is possible for nefarious sorts to listen (with a scanner) and capture the
pair. With the right equipment, it is fairly easy to modify another phone so that it contains
your MIN/ESN pair, which allows the nefarious individual to make calls on your
account.