North American TDMA

The North American time division multiple access (NA-TDMA) standard builds on many of the elements found in advanced mobile phone system (AMPS). It contains many of the features used in AMPS and has implemented them in a format suitable for a digital standard. It utilizes the idea of control channels and uses various traffic channels, through which the calls are routed. Base stations are grouped together under the control of a base station controller. This manages a small number of base stations and enables some of the local decisions and control to be effected close to the area where the control is needed. This simplifies the central control that is required and also makes communication faster and more effective. The base station controllers are then connected back to the mobile switching center that takes overall control of the network and links to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).