What does ARFCN mean in Unclassified?

Absolute radio-frequency channel number

In GSM cellular networks, an absolute radio-frequency channel number (ARFCN) is a code that specifies a pair of physical radio carriers used for transmission and reception in a land mobile radio system, one for the uplink signal and one for the downlink signal. ARFCNs for GSM are defined in Specification 45.005 Section 2. There are also other variants of the ARFCN numbering scheme that are in use for other systems that are not GSM. One such example is the TETRA system that has 25 kHz channel spacing and uses different base frequencies for numbering. Different frequencies (ARFCNs) are used for the frequency-based component of GSMs multiple access scheme (FDMA — frequency-division multiple access). Uplink/downlink channel pairs in GSM are identified by ARFCN. Together with the time-based component (TDMA — time-division multiple access) the physical channel is defined by selecting a certain ARFCN and a certain time slot. Note not to confuse this physical channel with the logical channels (e.g. BCCH — Broadcast Control Channel) that are time-multiplexed onto it under the rules of GSM Specification 05.03.

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