CDMA Technology

Overview

CDMA Basics

CDMA Technology Overview

 Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will have an

understanding of the following concepts:
• CDMA and other access technologies
• CDMA coding, forward, and reverse channels
• Vocoding, multiplexing, and power control
• Components that comprise a CDMA system
• CDMA messaging and call flow

CDMA Technology Overview

 Why CDMA?

C ode
CDMA is extremely robust and
provides excellent audio quality

D ivision • CDMA is the technology of

choice for both 800 MHz
Cellular and 1900 MHz PCS
service providers

M ultiple
• CDMA satisfies CTIA Users’
Performance Requirements
• CDMA provides high capacity
(many times the capacity of

A ccess
AMPS)
• CDMA provides privacy through
its coding scheme

CDMA Technology Overview

 What is Multiple Access?
Multiple Access: Simultaneous private use of a
transmission medium by multiple,
independent users.

Since the beginning of telephony and radio,

system operators have tried to squeeze the
maximum amount of traffic over each circuit
Transmission
Types of Media
• Twisted pair - copper Medium
• Coaxial cable
• Fiber optic cable
• Air interface (radio signals)
Advantages of Multiple Access
• Increased capacity: serve more users Each pair of users enjoys a
dedicated, private circuit
• Reduced capital requirements since fewer
media can carry the traffic through the transmission
medium, unaware that the
• Decreased per-user expense other users exist.
• Easier to manage and administer

CDMA Technology Overview

 Multiple Access Technologies
Channel: An individually-assigned, dedicated
pathway through a transmission FDMA
medium for one user’s information

The physical transmission medium is a resource that Power

can be subdivided into individual channels according to y
different criteria depending on the technology used: e nc
Tim equ
e Fr
Here’s how the three most popular technologies
establish channels:
• FDMA (Frequency Division Multiplex Access) TDMA
− each user on a different frequency
− a channel is a frequency Power
• TDMA (Time Division Multiplex Access) nc
y
e
− each user on a different window period in time Tim qu
e Fre
(“time slot”)
− a channel is a specific time slot on a specific
frequency CDMA
• CDMA (Code Division Multiplex Access)
− each user uses the same frequency all the
Power
time, but mixed with different distinguishing
code patterns nc
y
e
− a channel is a unique set of code patterns Tim
e qu
e Fr

CDMA Technology Overview

 CDMA System Components

T1s T1 or E1s

DMS-MTX BTS

MAP BSM BSC

MTSO

• Mobile Telephone Exchange (MTX) provides call processing functions for 
AMPS/TDMA/CDPD/CDMA cellular systems 
• Base Station Manager (BSM) provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for 
operations, administration and maintenance of the BSC, BTS and itself
• Base Station Controller (BSC) provides data routing, voice coding 
and some hand­off functions
• Base Station Transceiver Subsystem (BTS) provides the RF link 
to the subscriber
• MTX, BSC and BSM are identical for 800 and 1900 MHz products 

CDMA Technology Overview

 Defining Our Terms
■ CDMA Channel or CDMA Carrier or CDMA Frequency
• Duplex channel made of two 1.25 MHz-wide bands of electromagnetic
spectrum, one for Base Station to Mobile Station communication (called the
FORWARD LINK or the DOWNLINK) and another for Mobile Station to
Base Station communication (called the REVERSE LINK or the UPLINK)
• In 800 Cellular these two simplex 1.25 MHz bands are 45 MHz apart
• In 1900 MHz PCS they are 80 MHz apart
■ CDMA Forward Channel CDMA CHANNEL
CDMA CDMA
• 1.25 MHz Forward Link Reverse
Channel
Forward
Channel
1.25 MHz 1.25 MHz
■ CDMA Reverse Channel
• 1.25 MHz Reverse Link 45 or 80 MHz

■ CDMA Code Channel

• Each individual stream of 0’s and 1’s contained in either the CDMA
Forward Channel or in the CDMA Reverse Channel
• Code Channels are characterized (made unique) by mathematical codes
• Code channels in the forward link: Pilot, Sync, Paging and Forward Traffic
channels
• Code channels in the reverse link: Access and Reverse Traffic channels
CDMA Technology Overview
 CDMA Is a Spread-Spectrum System

TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM • Traditional technologies try to

Spread Spectrum
Narrowband squeeze the signal into the minimum
Slow Signal Slow required bandwidth
Information Information
Sent Recovered
• Direct-Sequence Spread spectrum
TX RX
systems mix their input data with a
fast spreading sequence and
SPREAD-SPECTRUM SYSTEM transmit a wideband signal
Wideband Signal
• The spreading sequence is
Slow Slow
independently regenerated at the
Information
Sent
Information
Recovered
receiver and mixed with the
TX RX
incoming wideband signal to recover
the original data
Fast
Spreading
Fast
Spreading
• The de-spreading gives substantial
Sequence Sequence gain proportional to the bandwidth of
the spreading signal
Spread Spectrum Payoff:
Processing Gain • CDMA uses a larger bandwidth but
then uses resulting processing gain
to increase capacity
CDMA Technology Overview
 Spread Spectrum Principles

MA T
HAM H Power is “Spread” Over a Larger Bandwidth
MER

MATH
HAMMER

30 KHz
1.25 MHz

CDMA Technology Overview

 Spread Spectrum Principles

Many code channels are individually

“spread” and then added together to
create a “composite signal”

CDMA Technology Overview

 Spread Spectrum Principles

Using the “right” mathematical

sequences any Code Channel
can be extracted from the received
composite signal

UNWANTED POWER
FROM OTHER SOURCES

CDMA Technology Overview

 Anything We Can Do, We Can Undo

ORIGINATING SITE DESTINATION

Spread Data Stream
(Base Band + Spreading Sequence)
Input Recovered
Data Data
(Base Band) (Base Band)

Spreading Spreading
Sequence Sequence

■ Any data bit stream can be combined with a spreading sequence

■ The resulting signal can be de-spread and the data stream
recovered if the original spreading sequence is available and
properly synchronized
■ After de-spreading, the original data stream is recovered intact

CDMA Technology Overview

 “Shipping and Receiving” via CDMA

Shipping Receiving

FedEx

FedEx
Data Mailer Mailer Data

■ Whether in shipping and receiving, or in CDMA,

packaging is extremely important!
■ Cargo is placed inside “nested” containers for protection
and to allow addressing
■ The shipper packs in a certain order, and the receiver
unpacks in the reverse order
■ CDMA “containers” are spreading codes

CDMA Technology Overview

 CDMA’s Nested Spreading Sequences

ORIGINATING SITE DESTINATION

Spread-Spectrum Chip Streams
X+A X+A+B X+A+B+C X+A+B X+A

Input Recovered
Data Data
X X

Spreading Spreading Spreading Spreading Spreading Spreading

Sequence Sequence Sequence Sequence Sequence Sequence
A B C C B A
■ CDMA combines three different spreading sequences to create
unique, robust channels
■ The sequences are easy to generate on both sending and
receiving ends of each link
■ The sequences are applied in succession at the sending end and
then reapplied in opposite order to recover the original data stream
at the receiving end
CDMA Technology Overview
 Walsh Codes
• 64 Sequences, each 64 chips long
a chip is a binary digit (0 or 1)
•
Each Walsh Code is Orthogonal to all other
Walsh Codes
• It is possible to recognize, and therefore
extract, a particular Walsh code from a
mixture of other Walsh codes that are
“filtered out” in the process
• Two same-length binary strings are
orthogonal if the result of XORing them has
the same number of 0s as 1s
EXAMPLE:
Correlation of Walsh Code #23 with Walsh Code #59
#23 0110100101101001100101101001011001101001011010011001011010010110
#59 0110011010011001100110010110011010011001011001100110011010011001
XOR 0000111111110000000011111111000011110000000011111111000000001111
Correlation Results: 32 1’s, 32 0’s:  Orthogonal!!
CDMA Technology Overview
  WALSH CODES
  #    ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­  64­Chip Sequence  ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
  0   0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
  1   0101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101
  2   0011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011
  3   0110011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110
  4   0000111100001111000011110000111100001111000011110000111100001111
  5   0101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010
  6   0011110000111100001111000011110000111100001111000011110000111100
  7   0110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001
  8   0000000011111111000000001111111100000000111111110000000011111111
  9   0101010110101010010101011010101001010101101010100101010110101010
10   0011001111001100001100111100110000110011110011000011001111001100
11   0110011010011001011001101001100101100110100110010110011010011001
12   0000111111110000000011111111000000001111111100000000111111110000
13   0101101010100101010110101010010101011010101001010101101010100101
14   0011110011000011001111001100001100111100110000110011110011000011
15   0110100110010110011010011001011001101001100101100110100110010110
16   0000000000000000111111111111111100000000000000001111111111111111
17   0101010101010101101010101010101001010101010101011010101010101010
18   0011001100110011110011001100110000110011001100111100110011001100
19   0110011001100110100110011001100101100110011001101001100110011001
20   0000111100001111111100001111000000001111000011111111000011110000
21   0101101001011010101001011010010101011010010110101010010110100101
22   0011110000111100110000111100001100111100001111001100001111000011
23   0110100101101001100101101001011001101001011010011001011010010110
24   0000000011111111111111110000000000000000111111111111111100000000
25   0101010110101010101010100101010101010101101010101010101001010101
26   0011001111001100110011000011001100110011110011001100110000110011
27   0110011010011001100110010110011001100110100110011001100101100110
28   0000111111110000111100000000111100001111111100001111000000001111
29   0101101010100101101001010101101001011010101001011010010101011010
30   0011110011000011110000110011110000111100110000111100001100111100
31   0110100110010110100101100110100101101001100101101001011001101001
32   0000000000000000000000000000000011111111111111111111111111111111
33   0101010101010101010101010101010110101010101010101010101010101010
34   0011001100110011001100110011001111001100110011001100110011001100
35   0110011001100110011001100110011010011001100110011001100110011001
36   0000111100001111000011110000111111110000111100001111000011110000
37   0101101001011010010110100101101010100101101001011010010110100101
38   0011110000111100001111000011110011000011110000111100001111000011
39   0110100101101001011010010110100110010110100101101001011010010110
40   0000000011111111000000001111111111111111000000001111111100000000
41   0101010110101010010101011010101010101010010101011010101001010101
42   0011001111001100001100111100110011001100001100111100110000110011
43   0110011010011001011001101001100110011001011001101001100101100110
44   0000111111110000000011111111000011110000000011111111000000001111
45   0101101010100101010110101010010110100101010110101010010101011010
46   0011110011000011001111001100001111000011001111001100001100111100
47   0110100110010110011010011001011010010110011010011001011001101001
48   0000000000000000111111111111111111111111111111110000000000000000
49   0101010101010101101010101010101010101010101010100101010101010101
50   0011001100110011110011001100110011001100110011000011001100110011
51   0110011001100110100110011001100110011001100110010110011001100110
52   0000111100001111111100001111000011110000111100000000111100001111
53   0101101001011010101001011010010110100101101001010101101001011010
54   0011110000111100110000111100001111000011110000110011110000111100
55   0110100101101001100101101001011010010110100101100110100101101001
56   0000000011111111111111110000000011111111000000000000000011111111
57   0101010110101010101010100101010110101010010101010101010110101010
58   0011001111001100110011000011001111001100001100110011001111001100
59   0110011010011001100110010110011010011001011001100110011010011001
60   0000111111110000111100000000111111110000000011110000111111110000
61   0101101010100101101001010101101010100101010110100101101010100101
62   0011110011000011110000110011110011000011001111000011110011000011
63   0110100110010110100101100110100110010110011010010110100110010110
 Correlation and Orthogonality
Correlation is a measure of the similarity between two binary strings 

Code #23 0110100101101001100101101001011001101001011010011001011010010110

–(Code #23) 1001011010010110011010010110100110010110100101100110100101101001
Code #59 0110011010011001100110010110011010011001011001100110011010011001

#59
#23 #23
#23 #23 –(#23)

PARALLEL ORTHOGONAL ANTI­PARALLEL

XOR:  all 0s XOR:  half 0s, half 1s XOR:  all 1s

Correlation: 100% Correlation: 0% Correlation: –100%

(100% match) (50% match, 50% no­match) (100% no­match)

CDMA Technology Overview

 The Short PN Sequences

The two Short PN Sequences, I and Q, 32,768 chips long

26 2/3 ms.
are 32,768 chips long
(75 repetitions in 2 sec.)
• Together they can be considered a I
two-dimensional binary “vector” with Q
distinct I and Q component sequences,
each 32,768 chips long Unique Properties:

• Each Short PN Sequence (and, as a Short PN Sequence vs. Itself @ 0 Offset

matter of fact, any sequence) I
Q
correlates with itself perfectly if I
Q
compared at a timing offset of 0 chips 100% Correlation: All bits = 0

• Each Short PN Sequence is special:

Orthogonal to a copy of itself that has Short PN Sequence vs. Itself @ Any Offset
been offset by any number of chips I
Q
(other than 0) I
Q
Orthogonal:  16,384 1’s  + 16,384 0’s

CDMA Technology Overview

 The Long PN Sequence
Long Code Register 
  (@ 1.2288 MCPS)

AND Public Long Code Mask

=
1100011000 PERMUT ED ESN
 (STATIC)

SUM
User Long Code
Sequence
Modulo­2   Addition (@1.2288 MCPS)

• Each mobile station uses a unique User Long Code Sequence generated
by applying a mask, based on its 32-bit ESN, to the 42-bit Long Code
Generator which was synchronized with the CDMA system during the
mobile station initialization

• Generated at 1.2288 Mcps, this sequence requires 41 days, 10 hours, 12

minutes and 19.4 seconds to complete

• Portions of the Users Long Codes generated by different mobile stations

for the duration of a call are not exactly orthogonal but are sufficiently
different to permit reliable decoding on the reverse link
CDMA Technology Overview
 How Many Spreading Codes Do We Need?
(Discriminating Among Forward Code Channels)

Pilot
Sync
FW Traffic FW Traffic
(for user #1) (for user #2)
Paging
FW Traffic
(for user #3)

■ A Mobile Station tuned to a particular CDMA frequency receives a Forward

CDMA Channel from a sector in a Base Station.
■ This Forward CDMA Channel carries a composite signal made of up to 64
forward code channels
■ Some of these code channels are traffic channels while other are overhead
channels needed by the CDMA system to operate properly.
■ A set of 64 mathematical codes is needed to differentiate the 64 possible
forward code channels that can be contained in a Forward CDMA Channel.
The codes in this set are called “Walsh Codes”
CDMA Technology Overview
How Many Spreading Codes Do We Need?
(Discriminating Among Base Stations)

Up to 64 Up to 64
Code Channels Code Channels
A B
■ A mobile Station is surrounded by Base Stations, all of them transmitting
on the same CDMA Frequency
■ Each Sector in each Base Station is transmitting a CDMA Forward Traffic
Channel containing up to 64 distinct forward code channels
■ A Mobile Station must be able to discriminate between different Sectors of
different Base Stations and listen to only one set of code channels
■ Two binary digit sequences called the I and Q Short PN Sequences (or
Short PN Codes) are defined for the purpose of identifying sectors of
different base stations
■ These Short PN Sequences can be used in 512 different ways in a CDMA
system. Each one of them constitutes a mathematical code which can be
used to identify a particular sector of a particular base station
CDMA Technology Overview
 How Many Spreading Codes Do We Need?
(Discriminating Among Reverse Code Channels)

■ The CDMA system must be able to

uniquely identify each Mobile Station that
RV Traffic may attempt to communicate with a Base
from M.S. Station
#1837732008
RV Traffic ■ A very large number of Mobile Stations
from M.S.
#8764349209 will be in the market
■ One binary digit sequence called the
Long PN Sequence (or Long PN Code)
is defined for the purpose of uniquely
identifying each possible reverse code
channel
RV Traffic ■ This sequence is extremely long and can
System Access
Attempt by M.S. from M.S. be used in trillions of different ways.
#223663748
#4348769902 Each one of them constitutes a
(on access channel #1)
mathematical code which can be used to
identify a particular user (and is then
called a User Long Code) or a particular
access channel (explained later in this
course)

CDMA Technology Overview

 Summary of Characteristics & Functions

• Each CDMA spreading sequence is used for a 
specific purpose on the forward link and a 
different purpose on the reverse link Cell

• The sequences are used to form “code channels” 
for users in both directions
64 chips long Type of  Forward  Reverse 
How  Length Special  Link  Link 
Sequence Many Properties Function Function
64 User  Orthogonal 
codes Walsh  64
64 chips
1/19,200 
Mutually  identity Modulation
Codes sec. Orthogonal within cell’s  (information 
signal carrier) 

32,768 chips long Orthogonal 
26­2/3 ms. 32,768 
(75 repetitions in 2 sec.) Short PN  2
chips
26­2/3 ms
with itself at 
any time 
Distinguish 
Cells & 
Quadrature 
Spreading 
I Sequences 75x in 2  shift value  Sectors (Zero offset)
Q sec. except 0

AND
 
 Long PN near­
Data 
Scrambling   Distinguish 
= Sequences 1 242 chips
~41 days orthogonal 
to avoid all  users
if shifted
1’s or 0’s
SUM

Modulo­2   Addition

CDMA Technology Overview

 Lesson Review

1. If a signal is deliberately transmitted using more RF bandwidth than

required, it is easier to detect at the receiver. This “waste” is
formally defined as what?
Processing gain
3. What vocoder function stores a collection of arbitrary waveform
segments?
Code book
5. Are all CDMA Walsh Codes orthogonal?
Yes
7. What sequence best describes this conversion relationship in
CDMA:
chips ⇐ symbols ⇐ bits
9. List the four overhead (support) channels.
Paging, sync, access, pilot

CDMA Technology Overview

CDMA Technology Overview