SIMS-201

The Telephone System

Wired and Wireless
2
Overview


Chapter 13
The Telephone System: Wired and
Wireless
Analog Telephone system
Digital telephone system
Cellular telephone system
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Introduction
Now that we have learned what information
is, how to represent it, and how to convert it
from analog to digital form, we can now learn
the techniques and systems used to transmit
this information
The oldest system used to transmit
information globally is considered to be the
telephone system
We will specifically learn about the analog
and digital telephone system, as well as the
cellular telephone system



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The Analog Telephone System
The analog system was the first telephone system
established worldwide. Currently, telephone systems
in a lot of countries are still completely analog. In
time however, these systems will become redundant
as the world switches to digital telephony.

The components of a telephone system include:
Microphone
Receiver
Transmission System
Switching and signaling system
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Telephone system components
microphone
receiver
Transmission
system
Signaling and switching
system
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Microphone
Converts the vibrations in the air into an electrical signal
Receiver
Converts the received electrical signal into sound waves (the
reverse action of a microphone) e.g.: loudspeaker
Transmission system
Conveys the information representing the audio signal from
the microphone to the receiver
Signaling and switching system
Determines and makes appropriate connections among the
pieces of the transmission system to create a path from the
transmitter to the receiver

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The Digital Telephone System
While the description of the analog telephone system provides
an accurate overview of the principles of current telephone
systems, it is a fact that most telephone calls today are really
digital telephone calls
In a digital telephone system, the two ends of the call are
analog, and the middle section is digital. Conversions from
analog to digital (A/D), and back to analog (D/A), are made in
such a way that it is essentially impossible for human ear to
determine that there was any conversion at all
Although the analog telephone system is gradually being
converted to digital, the input and output of the system still
remains analog because the eventual use is for humans that are
only able to process analog information
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At present, most telephone calls are analog from the telephone
at home to the first switching office, so the A/D and D/A
conversion is made at this office
In the future, as telephone systems become all digital, this
conversion from A/D and from D/A will be made within the
telephone set at home
The A/D conversion process was explained in the previous
lectures- The voice signal- an analog waveform was sampled at
a sampling frequency, and quantized to a number of levels.
These values were then assigned binary codes to complete the
conversion process from analog to digital
The D/A process was also explained briefly. The bits were
decoded into their quantized values, and a waveform similar to
the original analog waveform was obtained

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For voice, we recall that the standard sampling frequency is
8000Hz
The standard number of quantization levels for audio signals is
256, requiring 8 bits
So, the bit rate for a digital telephone call is: 8,000x8=64,000
bits per second (64 Kbps)

This is the bit rate that would reach the central office if the A/D
conversion was being done inside the telephone at home
Since many calls arrive at the central office, they can all be
combined, and switched to another center to be routed to the
destination
Combining many channels and sending them simultaneously
through a single transmission line is called multiplexing. We will
learn more about this in a later chapter
bits 1/s=Hz
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One advantage of digital transmission, is that
after digitization, all types of information are
in the form of bits, so a single system, such
as a telephone system can be used to carry
telephone calls, internet data or any other
data at a suitable bit rate

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The Cellular Telephone System
The cellular telephone system is different from the previous
systems that we discussed, because the major transmission
medium is air instead of wires (between the mobile unit and the
base station) as in the analog and digital telephone systems
In a cellular system, the signal from a mobile unit (cell phone)
to a base station is transmitted by radio waves through the air,
instead of through metallic wires
However, the signal from the base station is sent to a mobile
switching center and possibly to a telephone central office
through electrical wires where it is switched to the appropriate
destination
The antenna at the base station converts the radio waves to
electrical signals and circuits in the base station send the signal
to the appropriate mobile switching center

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The Cellular Concept
Base station
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An example cellular telephone system
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How cellular telephone systems work
The area (a city, or a part of town) is divided into a number of
cells (typically 2 to 10 miles in size, but can be smaller for more
crowded areas) and a base station is positioned within each cell
If a user (mobile phone) is within a particular cell, the call is
handled by the corresponding base station within that cell
The base station transmits the signal to the mobile switching
center (also called MTSO), which switches the signal to another
base station, or to a Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN), depending on the destination of the call: whether
another mobile unit or a regular telephone
As a user moves from one cell to another, the call is handed
over to the base station of the other cell-This is called hand-off
The handover is (hopefully) transparent to the user
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MTSO
Mobile Telephone
Switching Office
PSTN
Public Switched
Telephone Network
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The mobile unit and the base station in a cell communicate at a
certain frequency
The signal from the mobile unit arrives at the antenna of the
base station and is converted into an electrical signal

Base station
antenna (3 sector)
1/3
rd
of cell is
covered by each
sector of antenna
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Every cell uses a different set of frequencies
So how does the phone know what frequency to be
on?
A Cell-Site Controller handles this process
When a cell phone is turned on, it registers with
the network and guards a control frequency
When a call is placed, the phone requests that a
frequency (really two) be assigned
When a call is received, the call is set up over the
control channel (find the right phone, tell it what
frequencies to use, connect the call)

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Comments for next class
Finish the chapter
Generations of cellular systems
Satellite telephones
Next Chapter
Radio-Frequency and Satellite Systems
-Satellite systems
-GPS