Technocrats Institute of Technology, Bhopal

Project on

Digital Cellular Communication System

GSM

Presented By: Krati Seth

CDMA

GSM
Short for Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM is a digital cellular communications system. It was developed in order to create a common European mobile telephone standard but it has been rapidly accepted worldwide. GSM is designed to provide a comprehensive range of services and features to the users not available on analogue cellular networks and in many cases very much in advance of the old public switched telephone network (PSTN). In addition to digital transmission, GSM incorporates many advanced services and features like worldwide roaming in other GSM networks.

History of GSM and cellular mobile Radio:

The idea of cell-based mobile radio systems appeared at Bell Laboratories (in USA) in the early 1970s. However, mobile cellular systems were not introduced for commercial use until the 1980s. During the early 1980s, analog cellular telephone systems experienced a very rapid growth in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, but also in France and Germany. Each country developed its own system, which was incompatible with everyone else's in equipment and operation. But in the beginnings of cellular systems, each country developed its own system, which was an undesirable situation for the following reasons:

The equipment was limited to operate only within the boundaries of each country, which in a unified Europe were increasingly unimportant. The market for mobile equipment was limited, so economies of scale, and the subsequent savings, could not be realized.

In order to overcome these problems, the Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications (CEPT) formed, in 1982, the Groupe Spcial Mobile (GSM) in order to develop a pan-European mobile cellular radio system (the GSM acronym became later the acronym for Global System for Mobile communications). The standardized system had to meet certain criterias:

Good subjective speech quality Support for international roaming Ability to support handheld terminals Support for range of new services and facilities Spectral efficiency Low mobile and base stations costs Compatibility with other systems such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

In 1989 the responsibility for the GSM specifications passed from the CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The commercial use of GSM started around mid-1991. By the beginning of 1994, there were 1.3 million subscribers worldwide. By the beginning of 1995, there were 60 countries with

operational or planned GSM networks in Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia, Africa, and South America, with a total of over 5.4 million subscribers. As of the end of 1997, GSM service was available in more than 100 countries and has become the de facto standard in Europe and Asia. Presently, GSM networks are operational or planned in over 80 countries around the world.

Architecture of the GSM Network:

The GSM mobile telephony service is based on a series of contiguous radio cells which provide complete coverage of the service area and allow the subscriber operation anywhere within it. Prior to this cellular concept, radiophones were limited to just the one transmitter covering the whole service area. Cellular telephony differs from the radiophone service because instead of one large transmitter, many small ones are used to cover the same area. The basic problem is to handle the situation where a person using the phone in one cell moves out of range of that cell. In the radiophone service there was no solution and the call was lost, which is why the service area was so large. In cellular telephony, handing the call over to the next cell solves the problem. This process is totally automatic and requires no special intervention by the user, but it is a complex technical function requiring significant processing power to achieve a quick reaction. The functional architecture of a GSM system can be broadly divided into the Mobile Station, the Base Station Subsystem, and the Network Subsystem.Each subsystem is comprised of functional entities that communicate through the various interfaces using specified protocols. The subscriber carries the mobile station; the base station subsystem controls the radio link with the Mobile Station. The network subsystem, which is the main part of which is the Mobile services Switching Center, performs the switching of calls between the mobile and other fixed or mobile network users, as well as management of mobile services, such as authentication.

GSM Network overview:

Mobile Station:

The Mobile Station (MS) represents the only equipment the GSM user ever sees from the whole system. It actually consists of two distinct entities. The actual hardware is the Mobile Equipment (ME), which is anonymous and consists of the physical equipment, such as the radio transceiver, display and digital signal processors. The subscriber information is stored in the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), implemented as a Smart Card. The mobile equipment is uniquely identified by the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). The SIM card contains the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), identifying the subscriber, a secret key for authentication, and other user information. The IMEI and the IMSI are independent, thereby providing personal mobility. Thus the SIM provides personal mobility, so that the user can have access to all subscribed services irrespective of both the location of the terminal and the use of a specific terminal. By inserting the SIM card into another GSM cellular phone, the user is able to receive calls at that phone, make calls from that phone, or receive other subscribed services. The SIM card may be protected against unauthorized use by a password or personal identity number. This can be summed-up with the basic GSM architectural equation, MS = ME + SIM. The ME provides generic radio and processing functions to access the network through the radio interface as well as an interface to the user (microphone loudspeaker, display and keyboard) together with an interface to some other terminal equipment (fax machine, PC). The SIM contain all the subscriber-related information stored on the user's side of the radio interface. The MS is operational only when a valid SIM is placed in a ME. Base Station Subsystem:

The Base Station Subsystem is composed of two parts, the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and the Base Station Controller (BSC). The BTS houses the radio transceivers that define a cell and transmits and receives signals on the cells' allocated frequencies with the mobile station. A BSC operates with a group of BTSs and manages the radio resources for one or more of them. The BSC is the connection between the MS and the Network Subsystem. It manages the radiochannel (setup, tear down, frequency hopping, etc.) as well as handovers and the transmission power levels and frequency translations of the voice channel used over the radio link to the standard channel used by the Public Switched Telephone Network or ISDN.

Network Subsystem:

The central component of the Network Subsystem is the Mobile services Switching Center (MSC). It acts like a normal switching node of the normal telephones of the land lines and in addition provides all the functionality needed to handle a mobile subscriber, including registration, authentication, location updating and inter-MSC handovers. These services are provided in conjunction with several functional entities, which together form the Network Subsystem. The MSC provides the connection to the public fixed network (PSTN or ISDN) and is the interface between the GSM and the PSTN networks for both telephony and data. Thus the MSC is primarily responsible for: Traffic management Call set-up Call Routing to a roaming subscriber Termination Charging and accounting information

Services Provided by GSM:

Telecommunication services can be divided into Bearer Services, Teleservices, and Supplementary Services. Call diversion, caller identification, encrypted speech, fax and error protected data are a few examples of current and new services provided by the GSM. Supplementary services are provided on top of teleservices or bearer services, and include features such as caller identification, call forwarding, call waiting, multiparty conversations, and barring of outgoing (international) calls, among others. Teleservices:

A Teleservice utilizes the capabilities of a Bearer Service to transport data, defining which capabilities are required and how they should be set up. The most basic Teleservice supported by GSM is telephony. There is an emergency service, where the nearest emergency service provider is notified by dialing three digits (similar to 911). The Telephony Teleservice and Emergency Teleservice cover normal speech calls. These are both the fundamental services for making ordinary telephone calls, but they are separated because of a special need for Emergency calls. When a call is made from a GSM Mobile Station, the type of service requested is indicated in the set-up message. This means that the GSM operator has the option to treat emergency calls differently by allowing mobile equipment without a SIM card to make them. The ISDN, on which GSM is based, has a great deal of potential for other information and data services. These are the videotext, teletex, and electronic mail services. The Videotex, Teletex and Advanced Message Handling Teleservices provide these for in GSM. The last of these covers the electronic mail requirements.

This Advanced Message Handling Teleservice (or the Electronic Mail Teleservice) is designed to allow quite long messages. GSM has one more Teleservice that is designed for short, paging type messages. This Teleservice, called Short Message Service (SMS), is by far the most widely used and flexible. The SMS Teleservice was originally defined to utilise some spare signalling capacity in GSM. However, it soon became apparent that SMS would become a key service in differentiating GSM from any other cellular service. SMS is effectively an international paging service, overlaid on top of the GSM network, with the capability to send, as well as receive, messages. SMS is a bidirectional service for sending short alphanumeric (up to 160 bytes) messages in a store and forward fashion. For point to point SMS, a message can be sent to another subscriber to the service, and an acknowledgement of receipt is provided to the sender. SMS can also be used in a cell broadcast mode, for sending messages such as traffic updates or news updates. Messages can be stored in the SIM card for later retrieval. Supplementary Services:

The supplementary services basically consist of call forwarding and call barring. Call Forwarding: The Call Forwarding Supplementary Service is used to divert calls from the original recipient to another number, and is normally set up by the subscriber himself. It can be used by the subscriber to divert calls from the Mobile Station when the subscriber is not available, and so to ensure that calls are not lost. A typical scenario would be a salesperson turns off his mobile phone during a meeting with customers, but does not with to lose potential sales leads while he is unavailable. Call Barring: The concept of barring certain types of calls might seem to be a supplementary disservice rather than service. However, there are times when the subscriber is not the actual user of the Mobile Station, and as a consequence may wish to limit its functionality, so as to limit the charges incurred. Alternatively, if the subscriber and user are one and the same, the Call Barring may be useful to stop calls being routed to international destinations when they are routed. The reason for this is because it is expected that the roaming subscriber will pay the charges incurred for international rerouting of calls. So, GSM devised some flexible services that enable the subscriber to conditionally bar calls.

Newer GSM Services:

The newer GSM services were not all generally available by the GSM operators at the time of writing and comprise: Number Identification:

Calling Line Identification Presentation: This service deals with the presentation of the calling party's telephone number. The concept is for this number to be presented, at the start of the phone ringing, so that the called person can determine who is

ringing prior to answering. The person subscribing to the service receives the telephone number of the calling party. Calling Line Identification Restriction: A person not wishing their number to be presented to others subscribes to this service. In the normal course of event, the restriction service overrides the presentation service. Connected Line Identification Presentation: This service is provided to give the calling party the telephone number of the person to whom they are connected. This may seem strange since the person making the call should know the number they dialled, but there are situations (such as forwardings) where the number connected is not the number dialled. The person subscribing to the service is the calling party. Connected Line Identification Restriction: There are times when the person called does not wish to have their number presented and so they would subscribe to this person. Normally, this overrides the presentation service. Malicious Call Identification: The malicious call identification service was provided to combat the spread of obscene or annoying calls. The victim should subscribe to this service, and then they could cause known malicious calls to be identified in the GSM network, using a simple command. This identified number could then be passed to the appropriate authority for action. The definition for this service is not stable. Multi-Party:

This service is similar to a conference type service, in that several calls may be connected with all parties talking to each other. However, there are enough differences, caused by its application in the mobile environment, for it to be known by a different name. Closer User Group:

This service is provided on GSM to enable groups of subscribers to only call each other. In this way, intrusions can be limited only to those members who wish to talk to each other. Charging:

This service was designed to give the subscriber an indication of the cost of the services as they are used. Furthermore, those Service Providers who wish to offer rental services to subscribers without their own Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) can also utilize this service in a slightly different form. Additional Information Transfer:

User-to-User Signaling: This service allows the subscriber to send and receive information to and from the person with whom they have an active call. The amount of

information is limited, but may include text (such as names and addresses), and numbers (such as telephone numbers). Call Transfer: The call transfer service allows the subscriber to transfer or forward a call to another party. This party can be either another GSM Mobile Station or indeed, a person on a different network. One of the difficulties with this service is the billing ramifications. If A calls B, and B asks to be transferred to C, then it is not clear who should be charged for the rest of the call.

Conclusion:
Thus it seems that probably the potential of GSM is not fully realized till date. The real power of its capabilities is yet to be harnessed and will influence the human life in a big way in the future. The future has a lot to see in terms of the new generation state-of-the -art cellular phones and other devices being used in common. Indeed! GSM is making the world a small place!

CDMA
Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards called cdmaOne, CDMA2000 (the3G evolution of cdmaOne) and WCDMA (the 3G standard used by GSM carriers), which are often referred to as simply CDMA, and use CDMA as an underlying channel access method. One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single communication channel. This allows several users to share a band of frequencies (see bandwidth). This concept is called multiple access. CDMA employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel. By contrast, time division multiple access (TDMA) divides access by time, while frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) divides it by frequency. CDMA is a form of spread-spectrum signaling, since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than the data being communicated. An analogy to the problem of multiple access is a room (channel) in which people wish to talk to each other simultaneously. To avoid confusion, people could take turns speaking (time division), speak at different pitches (frequency division), or speak in different languages (code division). CDMA is analogous to the last example where people speaking the same language can understand each other, but other languages are perceived as noise and rejected. Similarly, in radio CDMA, each group of users is given a shared code. Many codes occupy the same channel, but only users associated with a particular code can communicate.

Uses of CDMA:

One of the early applications for code division multiplexing is in GPS. This predates and is distinct from its use in mobile phones. The Qualcomm standard IS-95, marketed as cdmaOne. The Qualcomm standard IS-2000, known as CDMA2000. This standard is used by several mobile phone companies, including the Globalstar satellite phone network. The UMTS 3G mobile phone standard, which uses W-CDMA. CDMA has been used in the OmniTRACS satellite system for transportation logistics.

Steps in CDMA Modulation

CDMA is a spread spectrum multiple access technique. A spread spectrum technique spreads the bandwidth of the data uniformly for the same transmitted power. A spreading code is a pseudo-random code that has a narrow Ambiguity function, unlike other narrow pulse codes. In CDMA a locally generated code runs at a much higher rate than the data

to be transmitted. Data for transmission is combined via bitwise XOR (exclusive OR) with the faster code. The figure shows how a spread spectrum signal is generated. The data signal with pulse duration of Tb is XORed with the code signal with pulse duration of Tc. (Note: bandwidth is proportional to 1 / T where T = bit time) Therefore, the bandwidth of the data signal is 1 / Tb and the bandwidth of the spread spectrum signal is 1 / Tc. Since Tc is much smaller than Tb, the bandwidth of the spread spectrum signal is much larger than the bandwidth of the original signal. The ratio Tb / Tc is called the spreading factor or processing gain and determines to a certain extent the upper limit of the total number of users supported simultaneously by a base station.

Each user in a CDMA system uses a different code to modulate their signal. Choosing the codes used to modulate the signal is very important in the performance of CDMA systems. The best performance will occur when there is good separation between the signal of a desired user and the signals of other users. The separation of the signals is made by correlating the received signal with the locally generated code of the desired user. If the signal matches the desired user's code then the correlation function will be high and the system can extract that signal. If the desired user's code has nothing in common with the signal the correlation should be as close to zero as possible (thus eliminating the signal); this is referred to as cross correlation. If the code is correlated with the signal at any time offset other than zero, the correlation should be as close to zero as possible. This is referred to as auto-correlation and is used to reject multi-path interference. In general, CDMA belongs to two basic categories: synchronous (orthogonal codes) and asynchronous (pseudorandom codes).

Code division multiplexing (Synchronous CDMA)

Each user in synchronous CDMA uses a code orthogonal to the others' codes to modulate their signal. An example of four mutually orthogonal digital signals is shown in the figure. Orthogonal codes have a cross-correlation equal to zero; in other words, they do not interfere with each other. In the case of IS-95 64 bit Walsh codes are used to encode the signal to separate different users. Since each of the 64 Walsh codes are orthogonal to

one another, the signals are channelized into 64 orthogonal signals. The following example demonstrates how each user's signal can be encoded and decoded. Example

An example of four mutually orthogonal digital signals. Start with a set of vectors that are mutually orthogonal. (Although mutual orthogonality is the only condition, these vectors are usually constructed for ease of decoding, for example columns or rows from Walsh matrices.) An example of orthogonal functions is shown in the picture on the left. These vectors will be assigned to individual users and are called the code, chip code, or chipping code.

Asynchronous CDMA
The previous example of orthogonal Walsh sequences describes how 2 users can be multiplexed together in a synchronous system, a technique that is commonly referred to as code division multiplexing (CDM). The set of 4 Walsh sequences shown in the figure will afford up to 4 users, and in general, an NxN Walsh matrix can be used to multiplex N users. Multiplexing requires all of the users to be coordinated so that each transmits their assigned sequence v (or the complement, v) so that they arrive at the receiver at exactly the same time. Thus, this technique finds use in base-to-mobile links, where all of the transmissions originate from the same transmitter and can be perfectly coordinated.

On the other hand, the mobile-to-base links cannot be precisely coordinated, particularly due to the mobility of the handsets, and require a somewhat different approach. Since it is not mathematically possible to create signature sequences that are both orthogonal for arbitrarily random starting points and which make full use of the code space, unique "pseudo-random" or "pseudo-noise" (PN) sequences are used in asynchronous CDMA systems. A PN code is a binary sequence that appears random but can be reproduced in a deterministic manner by intended receivers. These PN codes are used to encode and decode a user's signal in Asynchronous CDMA in the same manner as the orthogonal codes in synchronous CDMA (shown in the example above). These PN sequences are statistically uncorrelated, and the sum of a large number of PN sequences results in multiple access interference (MAI) that is approximated by a Gaussian noise process (following the central in statistics). Gold codes are an example of a PN suitable for this purpose, as there is low correlation between the codes. If all of the users are received with the same power level, then the variance (e.g., the noise power) of the MAI increases in direct proportion to the number of users. In other words, unlike synchronous CDMA, the signals of other users will appear as noise to the signal of interest and interfere slightly with the desired signal in proportion to number of users. All forms of CDMA use spread spectrum process gain to allow receivers to partially discriminate against unwanted signals. Signals encoded with the specified PN sequence (code) are received, while signals with different codes (or the same code but a different timing offset) appear as wideband noise reduced by the process gain. Since each user generates MAI, controlling the signal strength is an important issue with CDMA transmitters. A CDM (synchronous CDMA), TDMA, or FDMA receiver can in theory completely reject arbitrarily strong signals using different codes, time slots or frequency channels due to the orthogonally of these systems. This is not true for Asynchronous CDMA; rejection of unwanted signals is only partial. If any or all of the unwanted signals are much stronger than the desired signal, they will overwhelm it. This leads to a general requirement in any asynchronous CDMA system to approximately match the various signal power levels as seen at the receiver. In CDMA cellular, the base station uses a fast closed-loop power control scheme to tightly control each mobile's transmit power.

Advantages of asynchronous CDMA over other techniques

Efficient Practical utilization of Fixed Frequency Spectrum:

In theory, CDMA, TDMA and FDMA have exactly the same spectral efficiency but practically, each has its own challenges power control in the case of CDMA, timing in the case of TDMA, and frequency generation/filtering in the case of FDMA. TDMA systems must carefully synchronize the transmission times of all the users to ensure that they are received in the correct timeslot and do not cause interference. Since this cannot be perfectly controlled in a mobile environment, each timeslot must have a guard-time, which reduces the probability that users will interfere, but decreases the spectral efficiency. Similarly, FDMA systems must use a guard-band between adjacent

channels, due to the unpredictable doppler shift of the signal spectrum because of user mobility. The guard-bands will reduce the probability that adjacent channels will interfere, but decrease the utilization of the spectrum. Flexible Allocation of Resources;

Asynchronous CDMA offers a key advantage in the flexible allocation of resources i.e. allocation of a PN codes to active users. In the case of CDM (synchronous CDMA), TDMA, and FDMA the number of simultaneous orthogonal codes, time slots and frequency slots respectively is fixed hence the capacity in terms of number of simultaneous users is limited. There are a fixed number of orthogonal codes, timeslots or frequency bands that can be allocated for CDM, TDMA, and FDMA systems, which remain underutilized due to the bursty nature of telephony and packetized data transmissions. There is no strict limit to the number of users that can be supported in an asynchronous CDMA system, only a practical limit governed by the desired bit error probability, since the SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) varies inversely with the number of users. In a bursty traffic environment like mobile telephony, the advantage afforded by asynchronous CDMA is that the performance (bit error rate) is allowed to fluctuate randomly, with an average value determined by the number of users times the percentage of utilization. Suppose there are 2N users that only talk half of the time, then 2N users can be accommodated with the same average bit error probability as N users that talk all of the time. The key difference here is that the bit error probability for N users talking all of the time is constant, whereas it is a random quantity (with the same mean) for 2N users talking half of the time. In other words, asynchronous CDMA is ideally suited to a mobile network where large numbers of transmitters each generate a relatively small amount of traffic at irregular intervals. CDM (synchronous CDMA), TDMA, and FDMA systems cannot recover the underutilized resources inherent to bursty traffic due to the fixed number of orthogonal codes, time slots or frequency channels that can be assigned to individual transmitters. For instance, if there are N time slots in a TDMA system and 2N users that talk half of the time, then half of the time there will be more than N users needing to use more than N timeslots. Furthermore, it would require significant overhead to continually allocate and deallocate the orthogonal code, time-slot or frequency channel resources. By comparison, asynchronous CDMA transmitters simply send when they have something to say, and go off the air when they don't, keeping the same PN signature sequence as long as they are connected to the system. Spread-spectrum characteristics of CDMA:

Most modulation schemes try to minimize the bandwidth of this signal since bandwidth is a limited resource. However, spread spectrum techniques use a transmission bandwidth that is several orders of magnitude greater than the minimum required signal bandwidth. One of the initial reasons for doing this was military applications including guidance and communication systems. These systems were designed using spread spectrum because of its security and resistance to jamming. Asynchronous CDMA has some level of privacy

built in because the signal is spread using a pseudo-random code; this code makes the spread spectrum signals appear random or have noise-like properties. A receiver cannot demodulate this transmission without knowledge of the pseudo-random sequence used to encode the data. CDMA is also resistant to jamming. A jamming signal only has a finite amount of power available to jam the signal. The jammer can either spread its energy over the entire bandwidth of the signal or jam only part of the entire signal. CDMA can also effectively reject narrow band interference. Since narrow band interference affects only a small portion of the spread spectrum signal, it can easily be removed through notch filtering without much loss of information. Convolution encoding and interleaving can be used to assist in recovering this lost data. CDMA signals are also resistant to multipath fading. Since the spread spectrum signal occupies a large bandwidth only a small portion of this will undergo fading due to multipath at any given time. Like the narrow band interference this will result in only a small loss of data and can be overcome. Another reason CDMA is resistant to multipath interference is because the delayed versions of the transmitted pseudo-random codes will have poor correlation with the original pseudo-random code, and will thus appear as another user, which is ignored at the receiver. In other words, as long as the multipath channel induces at least one chip of delay, the multipath signals will arrive at the receiver such that they are shifted in time by at least one chip from the intended signal. The correlation properties of the pseudorandom codes are such that this slight delay causes the multipath to appear uncorrelated with the intended signal, and it is thus ignored. Some CDMA devices use a rake receiver, which exploits multipath delay components to improve the performance of the system. A rake receiver combines the information from several correlates, each one tuned to a different path delay, producing a stronger version of the signal than a simple receiver with a single correlation tuned to the path delay of the strongest signal. Frequency reuse is the ability to reuse the same radio channel frequency at other cell sites within a cellular system. In the FDMA and TDMA systems frequency planning is an important consideration. The frequencies used in different cells must be planned carefully to ensure signals from different cells do not interfere with each other. In a CDMA system, the same frequency can be used in every cell, because channelization is done using the pseudo-random codes. Reusing the same frequency in every cell eliminates the need for frequency planning in a CDMA system; however, planning of the different pseudo-random sequences must be done to ensure that the received signal from one cell does not correlate with the signal from a nearby cell. Since adjacent cells use the same frequencies, CDMA systems have the ability to perform soft hand offs. Soft hand offs allow the mobile telephone to communicate simultaneously with two or more cells. The best signal quality is selected until the hand off is complete. This is different from hard hand offs utilized in other cellular systems. In a hard hand off situation, as the mobile telephone approaches a hand off, signal strength may vary

abruptly. In contrast, CDMA systems use the soft hand off, which is undetectable and provides a more reliable and higher quality signal.

Collaborative CDMA
In a recent study, a novel collaborative multi-user transmission and detection scheme called Collaborative CDMA has been investigated for the uplink that exploits the differences between users fading channel signatures to increase the user capacity well beyond the spreading length in multiple access interference (MAI) limited environment. The authors show that it is possible to achieve this increase at a low complexity and high bit error rate performance in at fading channels, which is a major research challenge for overloaded CDMA systems. In this approach, instead of using one sequence per user as in conventional CDMA, the authors group a small number of users to share the same spreading sequence and enable group spreading and dispreading operations. The new collaborative multi-user receiver consists of two stages: group multi-user detection (MUD) stage to suppress the MAI between the groups and a low complexity maximumlikelihood detection stage to recover jointly the co-spread users data using minimum Euclidean distance measure and users channel gain coefficients. In CDM signal security is high.

CDMA vs. GSM

GSM and CDMA are competing wireless technologies with GSM enjoying about an 82% market share globally. In the U.S., however, CDMA is the more dominant standard. Technically GSM (Global System for Mobile communications, originally from Groupe Spcial Mobile) is a specification of an entire wireless network infrastructure, while CDMA relates only to the air interface the radio portion of the technology. Code division multiple access (CDMA) describes a communication channel access principle that employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code). CDMA also refers to digital cellular telephony systems that use this multiple access scheme, as pioneered by QUALCOMM, and W-CDMA by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is used in GSMs UMTS. Stands for: Code Division Multiple Access Global System for Mobile communication GPRS is again very slow forward

Data transfer:

Faster on EVDO platform which is applicable in CDMA only 18%

Global market share: Storage Type:

82%

Internal Memory

SIM (subscriber identity module) Card Dominant standard worldwide except the U.S.

Dominance:

Dominant standard in the U.S.

International Roaming with GSM and CDMA

Where international business travel is an issue, GSM leaps forward in the race for the title of Most Accessible. Because GSM is used in more than 74% of the markets across the globe, users of tri-band or quad-band handsets can travel to Europe, India, and most of Asia and still use their cell phones. CDMA offers no multiband capability, however, and therefore you cant readily use it in multiple countries. However, certain phones like the Blackberry Tour and the HTC Touch Pro 2 now have Quad-band GSM built in so they can be used overseas with special calling plans from carriers.

Data Transfer Methods in GSM vs. CDMA

Another difference between GSM and CDMA is in the data transfer methods. GSMs high-speed wireless data technology, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), usually offers a slower data bandwidth for wireless data connection than CDMAs high-speed technology (1xRTT, short for single carrier radio transmission technology), which has the capability of providing ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)-like speeds of as much as 144Kbps (kilobits per second). However, 1xRTT requires a dedicated connection to the network for use, whereas GPRS sends in packets, which means that data calls made on a GSM handset dont block out voice calls like they do on CDMA phones.

Interaction between GSM and CDMA

In cities and densely populated areas, there are often high concentrations of GSM and CDMA connection bases. In theory, GSM and CDMA are invisible to one another and should "play nice" with one another. In practice, however, this is not the case. Highpowered CDMA signals have raised the "noise floor" for GSM receivers, meaning there is less space within the available band to send a clean signal. This sometimes results in dropped calls in areas where there is a high concentration of CDMA technology. Conversely, high-powered GSM signals have been shown to cause overloading and jamming of CDMA receivers due to CDMAs reliance upon broadcasting across its entire available band. The result of this little cross-broadcasting joust has led some cities to pass ordinances limiting the space between cell towers or the height they can reach, giving one technology a distinct advantage over the other. This is something to note when choosing a wireless provider. The distance between towers will severely affect connectivity for GSM-based phones because the phones need constant access to the towers narrow band broadcasting.

Prevalence of CDMA vs. GSM

GSM is a lot more widespread in Europe and Asia. In the United States, Sprint and Verizon networks are CDMA whereas AT&T and T-Mobile are on GSM. Most of Europe uses GSM and so does China. In India, Hutch, Bharti and BSNL are on GSM whereas Reliance and Tata Tele are on CDMA networks. In cellular service there are two main competing network technologies: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Cellular carriers including Sprint PCS, Cingular Wireless, Verizon and T-Mobile use one or the other. Understanding the difference between GSM and CDMA will allow you to choose a carrier that uses the preferable network technology for your needs. The GSM Association is an international organization founded in 1987, dedicated to providing, developing, and overseeing the worldwide wireless standard of GSM. CDMA, a proprietary standard designed by Qualcomm in the United States, has been the dominant network standard for North America and parts of Asia. However, GSM networks continue to make inroads in the United States, as CDMA networks make progress in other parts of the world. There are camps on both sides that firmly believe either GSM or CDMA architecture is superior to the other. That said, to the non-invested consumer who simply wants bottom line information to make a choice, the following considerations may be helpful. Coverage:

The most important factor is getting service in the areas you will be using your phone. Upon viewing competitors' coverage maps you may discover that only GSM or CDMA carriers offer cellular service in your area. If so, there is no decision to be made, but most people will find that they do have a choice. Data Transfer Speed:

With the advent of cellular phones doing double and triple duty as streaming video devices, podcast receivers and email devices, speed is important to those who use the phone for more than making calls. CDMA has been traditionally faster than GSM, though both technologies continue to rapidly leapfrog along this path. Both boast "3G" standards, or 3rd generation technologies.

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards:

In the United States only GSM phones use SIM cards. The removable SIM card allows phones to be instantly activated, interchanged, swapped out and upgraded, all without carrier intervention. The SIM itself is tied to the network, rather than the actual phone. Phones that are card-enabled can be used with any GSM carrier. The CDMA equivalent, a R-UIM card, is only available in parts of Asia but remains on the horizon for the U.S. market. CDMA carriers in the U.S. require proprietary handsets that are linked to one carrier only and are not card-enabled. To upgrade a CDMA phone, the carrier must deactivate the old phone then activate the new one. The old phone becomes useless. Roaming:

For the most part, both networks have fairly concentrated coverage in major cities and along major highways. GSM carriers, however, have roaming contracts with other GSM carriers, allowing wider coverage of more rural areas, generally speaking, often without roaming charges to the customer. CDMA networks may not cover rural areas as well as GSM carriers, and though they may contract with GSM cells for roaming in more rural areas, the charge to the customer will generally be significantly higher.

International Roaming:

If you need to make calls to other countries, a GSM carrier can offer international roaming, as GSM networks dominate the world market. If you travel to other countries you can even use your GSM cell phone abroad, providing it is a quad-band phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz). By purchasing a SIM card with minutes and a local number in the country you are visiting, you can make calls against the card to save yourself international roaming charges from your carrier back home. CDMA phones that are not card-enabled do not have this capability; however there are several countries that use CDMA networks. Check with your CDMA provider for your specific requirements. According CDG.org, CDMA networks support over 270 million subscribers worldwide, while GSM.org tallies up their score at over 1 billion. As CDMA phones become R-UIM enabled and roaming contracts between networks improve, integration of the standards might eventually make differences all but transparent to the consumer. The chief GSM carriers in the United States are Cingular Wireless, recently merged with AT&T Wireless, and T-Mobile USA. Major CDMA carriers are Sprint PCS, Verizon and Virgin Mobile. There are also several smaller cellular companies on both networks.