ABHIJIT PATHAK

Lecturer, Faculty of Business Studies,

Premier University, Chittagong

Telecommunication

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication)

GSM, the Global System for Mobile communications, is a digital cellular communications system which has

rapidly gained acceptance and market share worldwide, although it was initially developed in a European

context. In addition to digital transmission, GSM incorporates many advanced services and features,

including ISDN compatibility and worldwide roaming in other GSM networks. The advanced services and

architecture of GSM have made it a model for future third-generation cellular systems, such as UMTS. This

paper will give an overview of the services offered by GSM, the system architecture, the radio transmission

structure, and the signaling functional architecture

Architecture of the GSM network

A GSM network is composed of several functional entities, whose functions and interfaces are specified.

Figure 1 shows the layout of a generic GSM network. The GSM network can be divided into three broad

parts. The Mobile Station is carried by the subscriber. The Base Station Subsystem controls the radio link

with the Mobile Station. The Network Subsystem, the main part of which is the Mobile services Switching

Center (MSC), performs the switching of calls between the mobile users, and between mobile and fixed

network users. The MSC also handles the mobility management operations. Not shown is the Operations

and Maintenance Center, which oversees the proper operation and setup of the network. The Mobile Station

and the Base Station Subsystem communicate across the Um interface, also known as the air interface or

radio link. The Base Station Subsystem communicates with the Mobile services Switching Center across the

A interface.
 Figure: General architecture of a GSM network

Mobile Station

The Mobile Station (MS) consists of the mobile equipment (the terminal) and a smart card called the

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). The SIM provides personal mobility, so that the user can have access to

subscribed services irrespective of a specific terminal. By inserting the SIM card into another GSM terminal,

the user is able to receive calls at that terminal, make calls from that terminal, and receive other subscribed

services.

The mobile equipment is uniquely identified by the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI).

The SIM card contains the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) used to identify the subscriber to

the system, a secret key for authentication, and other information. The IMEI and the IMSI are independent,

thereby allowing personal mobility. The SIM card may be protected against unauthorized use by a password

or personal identity number.

Base Station Subsystem

The Base Station Subsystem is composed of two parts, the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and the Base

Station Controller (BSC). These communicate across the standardized Abis interface, allowing (as in the

rest of the system) operation between components made by different suppliers.

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The Base Transceiver Station houses the radio transceivers that define a cell and

handles the radio-link protocols with the Mobile Station. In a large urban area, there

will potentially be a large number of BTSs deployed, thus the requirements for a BTS

are ruggedness, reliability, portability, and minimum cost.

The Base Station Controller manages the radio resources for one or more BTSs. It

handles radio-channel setup, frequency hopping, and handovers, as described below.

The BSC is the connection between the mobile station and the Mobile service

Switching Center (MSC).

Network Subsystem

The central component of the Network Subsystem is the Mobile services Switching Center (MSC). It acts

like a normal switching node of the PSTN or ISDN, and additionally provides all the functionality needed to

handle a mobile subscriber, such as registration, authentication, location updating, handovers, and call

routing to a roaming subscriber.

The Home Location Register (HLR) and Visitor Location Register (VLR), together with

the MSC, provide the call-routing and roaming capabilities of GSM.

The Home Location Register contains all the administrative information of each

subscriber registered in the corresponding GSM network, along with the current

location of the mobile. The location of the mobile is typically in the form of the

signalling address of the VLR associated with the mobile station.

The Visitor Location Register (VLR) contains selected administrative information from

the HLR, necessary for call control and provision of the subscribed services, for each

mobile currently located in the geographical area controlled by the VLR.

The other two registers are used for authentication and security purposes. The

Equipment Identity Register (EIR) is a database that contains a list of all valid mobile
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equipment on the network, where each mobile station is identified by its International

Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). An IMEI is marked as invalid if it has been reported

stolen or is not type approved. The Authentication Center (AuC) is a protected

database that stores a copy of the secret key stored in each subscriber's SIM card,

which is used for authentication and encryption over the radio channel.

Evolution from GSM

• GSM
-- Circuit switched
– First GSM call made in 1991
-- Data transfer with HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data)

• GPRS
-- Packet switched, maximum data rate 115 kbps
– GSM and GPRS users share the same Radio Access Network!
-- EDGE is a transition step in migrating towards packet switching oriented UMTS (3G) networks

Multimedia Messaging System (MMS)

MMS is the evolution of Short Message Service (SMS) (SMS is a text-only messaging
system for mobile networks). With MMS, it is no longer confined to text-only message.
It can send and receive multimedia messages like graphics, video and audio clips and
so on. It has been designed to work with mobile packet data services such as GPRS
and 3G.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a new advanced intelligent messaging service for digital
mobile phones and other mobile terminals that will allow you to see Internet content in special text format
on special WAP-enabled GSM mobile phones.

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)

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Further enhancements to GSM networks are provided by Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)
technology. EDGE provides up to three times the data capacity of GPRS. Using EDGE, operators can handle
three times more subscribers than GPRS; triple their data rate per subscriber, or add extra capacity to their
voice communications.

CDMA
CDMA is a form of wireless multiplexing (Code-Division Multiple Access), in which data can be sent over

multiple frequencies simultaneously, optimizing the use of available bandwidth. CDMA refers to any of

several protocols used in second-generation (2G) and third-generation.

GPRS
GSM's new GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) data transmission technology is optimized for "bursty"

datacom services such as wireless Internet/intranet and multimedia services. It is also known as GSM-IP

(Internet Protocol) because it will connect users directly to Internet Service Providers.

SMS
The acronym SMS stands for short message service. SMS is also often referred to as texting, sending text

messages or text messaging. The service allows for short text messages to be sent from one cell phone to

another cell phone or from the Web to another cell phone.

Including spaces, text messages can’t exceed 160 characters. Some cell phones have full keyboards for faster

texting whereas others require numbers to be tapped multiple times to achieve a particular letter.

BLUETOOTH

The technology enables short-range communication networks between consumer devices incorporating a

Bluetooth interface, and is set to greatly improve the way consumers access data and services wirelessly.

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WiMax

WiMax (802.16a) is a more robust standard for high-speed broadband wireless delivery to laptops and

desktops. The position of the 802.16a standard parallels that of WLAN technology in the late 1990 s.

Some Abbreviations and Acronyms

Though we’ll clarify and explain any abbreviation or notation used in the subsequent sections, the reader is
encouraged to go through this section, as these abbreviations will be used generously throughout the paper.
The following list gives the ones used most often in this paper.

AC Authentication Centre
AUT(H) Authentication
BSC Base Station Controller
BSS Base Station System
BTS Base Transceiver Station
CFB Call Forwarding on mobile subscriber Busy supplementary service

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

CSPDN Circuit Switched Public Data Network
DCE Data Circuit terminating Equipment
DL Data Link (layer)
DTE Data Terminal Equipment
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
FEC Forward Error Correction
GGSN Gateway GPRS Serving node
GMM Global Mobility Management

GSM Global System for Mobile Communication

GPA GSM PLMN Area
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol
HDLC High level Data Link Control
HLR Home Location Register
HLR Home Location Register
IMEI International Mobile station Equipment Identity
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO International Organization for Standardization
LAN Local Area Network
LAPB Link Access Protocol Balanced
LLC Low Layer Compatibility (Also stands for Logical Link Control layer – in a protocol
stack on the SGSN)

MS Mobile Station.
MSC Mobile-services Switching Centre, Mobile Switching Centre
NMC Network Management Centre
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NMSI National Mobile Station Identification number
O&M Operations & Maintenance
OSI Open System Interconnection
PLMN Public Lands Mobile Network
PDP Protocol Data Packet
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
RR Radio Resource
RTOS Real Time Operating Systems
SDU Service Data Unit
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity
VLR Visitor Location Register