- [Narrator] Use of the internet on the go

or when making mobile phone

calls is made possible

thanks to the invisible

electromagnetic waves

that mobile phones emit or receive.

However, did you know

that this electromagnetic frequency range

or spectrum is a highly precious resource?

In 2008 the U.S. government

made a whopping 19 billion dollars

through a spectrum auction.

In this video we will look

at the scientific reasons

why this invisible

electromagnetic frequency range

is such a valuable resource.

Whenever you use your phone,

either for internet use

or making a voice call,

you send or receive information

using invisible electromagnetic waves.

These electromagnetic waves are picked up

by your cell tower,

transmitted towards the destination tower,

and then finally to the end user.

In cellular communication,
geographical areas

are divided into different cells

but the difficult thing

in cellular communication

is that if there are five

users in a cell area,

then five different

frequencies should be used

to transmit their signals.

To understand why, let's

consider an example.

Assume balls of three different colors

are ejected from a toy

like a water fountain.

The red ball is supposed

to reach the red cup

and the blue ball the blue cup, etc.

In this arrangement there is no guarantee

that this condition will be met.

However, if you assign a particular size

to a particular color,

this condition can then be easily met.

This is exactly what we do

in cellular communication.

The cell tower takes the

place of the fountain

and users take the place of the cups.

In a similar way to having

balls of different sizes,

we make sure that each

user's frequency is unique.

This way your mobile phone

will only accept the signal

which has your frequency assigned to it.

All other frequency

signals will be rejected

by your device's filter circuit.

This also means each

active user in the world

has to have a unique frequency,

otherwise you will overhear

the signal of someone else.
Throughout this discussion
we have kept on saying

that each user has a unique frequency.

However, to be precise, we
should've used the words

frequency range instead of frequency.

Antennas are capable to transmit signals

into frequency range or band.

Your phone's filtering circuit

also allows a frequency band.

Moreover, we need a modulation technique

to transmit any signal.

If we are using frequency modulation,

we require two frequencies

to transmit signals.

The upper frequency can represent one

and the lower frequency

can represent zero.

This could lead to some

questions about privacy.

What happens if a hacker sets

our frequency in his device

and tries to get access?

However, it's not that simple.

The signals sent over the

frequency are protected

using encryption which

means only your device

will be able to decrypt it.

In total, there are

approximately five billion

cell phone users in the world

and because the entire frequency range

of the electromagnetic
spectrum is not useful
for cellular communications
for various reasons,

assigning a unique
frequency range to each user

is an impossible task.

Let's look at the reasons why

the frequency band is limited

and how we are overcoming this issue

using modern technology.

The electromagnetic spectrum

ranges from radio waves to gamma rays.

The higher frequencies of

electromagnetic radiation

have the worst penetration capabilities

so we don't use those frequencies

for cellular communication.

The lower frequencies of

electromagnetic spectrum

have lower energy that would

require a larger antenna

for transmission

and this is practically

impossible to design.

In the next portion

of the electromagnetic spectrum as shown,

the propagation is dependent

on the properties of the ionosphere layer.

So due to all of these restrictions,

only a small portion

of the electromagnetic spectrum is left.

These frequency slots

are also used for several other purposes

which further reduces cellular

technology's share of them.
The spectrum is one of the resources

which is normally managed

by a government body

in most countries.

The government earns

by distributing various
portions of the spectrum

between companies using an

auction or a lottery system.

In the United States two agencies,

the FCC and NTIA govern the radio spectrum

whereas in Europe the CEPT does the job.

At the global level, the ITU,

International Telecommunication Union,

manages all technical things

related to the spectrum.

The frequency modulation we

explained at the beginning

is already obsolete.

It was used in 1G and analog form.

In the fourth generation, a

technique called QAM is used

in which we can send more bits at a time.

Let's see how it works.

In QAM, variations are made

to the amplitude and phasing

to generate different digital signals.

One such example is shown here.

Hence we see that there are

limited frequency ranges

available for cellular communication

so it becomes necessary to
use these ranges efficiently.

To achieve this,
the cellular system
divides the available range

into a number of frequency slots

and these frequency slots

are then distributed to several towers.

This distribution has the advantage

of using the same frequency

slot for different cell towers

but there is a catch here.

Neighboring cell towers

cannot be allocated the

same frequency slot.

This is done in order

to restrict your phone

from receiving signals meant

for neighboring cell towers.

Assigning a different frequency slot

for different cell areas

is known as frequency slot distribution.

So during a call if you are

moving into a neighboring cell,

you are allocated a different frequency

from your neighboring cell tower

without the call dropping.

The next challenge

is to manage all the active users

within a cell area at the same time.

Here the cell tower frequency

has to be shared amongst several users.

This challenge is solved

by using one of the

multiple access techniques.

These multiple access techniques

can be understood by an analogy.

Think about how 100

musicians can record a song.

They can record in different

rooms or at different times

or in different languages.

Similarly in cellular communication,

the cell tower and multiple users

can share information over

a different frequency slot

or in a different time slot

or using different encoding techniques.

In cellular communications each generation

has introduced different

multiple access techniques.

The main focus of these techniques

has been to utilize the

available spectrum efficiently.

For instance, 4G came up with OFDNA

and OFDNA available range

is split into a large

number of smaller ranges

known as sub-carriers.

These sub-carriers

are mathematically
orthogonal to each other

and each of them are

modulated individually.

We hope this video gives

you a clear understanding

about what is spectrum

and how your government is

able to garner a huge revenue

just by acting as a regulatory body.

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Thank you.