RTTC Pune presents

A Journey of Wireless Communication

Introduction to GSM Architecture

V.M.Dapurkar SDE RTTC Pune

23-Dec-13 BRBRAITT

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JABALPUR

Communication PSTN

Subscriber Line (2W)

Inter-Exchange Junction

Subscriber Line (2W)

Telephone Exchanges

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Communication - PLMN

Subscriber Line (2W)

Inter-Exchange Junction

BSC
Telephone Exchange
Mobile Switching Centre (MSC)

BTS

MS

Wired Vs Wireless N/W

WIRED NETWORK
Telephone Exchange

Lay as much cable as needed to meet the demand.

Subscriber Line (2W)

Space Division Multiplexing Available space much more than required and hence dedicated access to each. Teledensity of an area does not pose any problem. Static Network snapshots.

Wired Vs Wireless N/W

WIRELESS NETWORK
Mobile Switching Centre (MSC)

ONLY a window of RF Spectrum is available

RF Channels

MS

BSC

BTS

Frequency/Time Division Multiplexing Limited RF spectrum and hence RF channels assigned on demand Dynamically changing teledensity in each area. Dynamic Network snapshots.

Mobility Issues

Demand on scarce Radio Resources. Security. Keep track of users. Maintain established communication. Power Management of Mobile Phone. Providing service across networks. Billing & Accounting

What are the types in GSM Network?

GSM-900

890-915MHz Uplink,935-960MHz Downlink, Channels 124, carrier spacing 200khz, T/R spacing 45Mhz, Max.cell size 35Km

GSM -1800 1710-1785 MHz Uplink,1805-1880 MHz Downlink,Channels 374, carrier spacing 200khz, T/R spacing 95Mhz.Max Cell size 4Km.
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Spectral Allocation in GSM

890-915 MHz

935-960 MHz

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GSM - Cell layout

F4 F4

F3
F1

F2

F3
F1

F2 F5 F7

F7

F5
F6

F6

Non-interference Separation

Security
Subscriber Identity Authentication To prevent unauthorised access to GSM network & its services. User data confidentiality To ensure privacy of the user data Subscriber Identity Confidentiality To ensure identity of the user in the radio path

Security
Registration The process of verifying the authenticity of the user before allowing him to use the services of the network. Use of Keys & Algorithms Authentication Ciphering.
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Keep Track of Users

Essential to know: Where the user is currently? Can he be reached. Location Update Due to change in location. Due to entry into non-service area. Power on/off

Handover
Use of Cellular principle limits the

area of coverage of a single radio path. Keep the communication path even when the user crosses cell boundaries and enter into new cell.

Service Across Networks

Users can move across Service

Area and Geographical boundaries. Universal service coverage? Use of others Network to provide
service to visitor Agreement between Service Providers.

Billing and Revenue Sharing

System Architecture
Functional Architecture broadly divided into six parts:
Mobile Station. Base Station Subsystem (BSS). Network Switching Subsystem (NSS). Operation and Maintenance Subsystem.

GSM Network Overview

OMCR

A Um
SIM ME

Abis
BTS

BSC

HLR

VLR

OMC

MSC

BSC
BTS EIR AuC

PSTN ISDN PSPDN CSPDN

Mobile Station

Base Station Subsystem

Network Subsystem

GSM Network Architecture

BSS
BTS VLR

NSS
Backhaul BSC

HLR AUC EIR

GPRS, SGSN and GGSN provide packet data services

Internet GGSN

MSC BTS MSC

Transit Net SGSN GSN GPRS Support Node SGSN Serving GSN GGSN Gateway GSN

BSC

Transit Net

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Mobile Station
Mobile Station is really two distinct entities.

Mobile equipment or Mobile terminal. SIM Card. Mobile equipment, which is the actual Hardware, is almost anonymous. SIM card, implemented as a smart card holds the subscriber information.

Mobile Terminal
Different terminals distinguished

principally by their power and application. Fixed terminals 20W Portable terminals for cars 8W Handheld terminals 2W Sophisticated terminals 0.8W Every terminal has an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI).

The SIM
SIM provides Personal Mobility. Holds a unique identifier called

International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Service profile, Secret key for authentication, etc. Provides user access to all subscribed services. SIM makes the terminal operational. Can be password protected by a 4 to 8 digit Personal Identification Number.

The SIM
SIM is classified on the basis of: Operating voltage. RAM capacity.

Operating Voltages: 3V and 5V. RAM Capacity: 8K, 16K, 32K and 64K

Base Station Subsystem

BSS connects the MS and the NSS.
Composed of three parts:

called Base Station (BS) Transcoder and. Base Station Controller (BSC). BSS provides the radio interface functions. Completely digital.

The Base Transceiver Station (BTS) also

Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

BTS houses the radio transceivers that

define a cell. Handles the radio-link protocols with the Mobile Station Each BTS can support a number of transceivers depending on the density of subscribers in the cell. Needs to be rugged, reliable, portable.

BTS Functions
Synchronization of signals of

transmission Radio resources management

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Base Station Controller

BSC manages the radio resources

for one or a group of BTSs. Handles radio-channel setup, frequency hopping, handovers, and control of the RF power levels. Establishes connection between the mobile station and the MSC.

Network & Switching Subsystem

Manages the communication between

the mobile users and other users. Provides all the functionality needed to handle a mobile subscriber such as: Registration. Authentication and security. Location updating. Handovers and Routing to roaming subscribers.

Network & Switching Subsystem

Central component is the MSC

(Mobile Services Switching Centre). It performs the switching functions of the network. Gateway Mobile Services Switching Centre interfaces between the mobile network and PSTN.

Network & Switching Subsystem

Services provided in conjunction with four intelligent databases.
Home Location Register (HLR) Visitor Location Register (VLR) Authentication Centre (AuC)

Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

Home Location Register

Contains all administrative

information of each USER subscribered in an GSM network. Logically there is one HLR per GSM/PLMN network.

HLR
Permanent Register of the

subscribers maintains facilities given to subscriber

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VLR
Maintains subscriber information

who are currently in its service area. Gives current location of the subscriber Temporary Database
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AUC
Verifies SIM cards Authentication of SIM is done

using authentication triplets

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EIR
Used for security purposes Checks IMEI Contains 3 Lists

( White LIST GREY LIST Black LIST )

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OMCR
The maintenance control point for all

BTSs and BSCs in a GSM system. Gives Fault status Of BTSs. Operation and Administration. Data and Software storage for network elements. Traffic reporting and analysis.

OMCR
The maintenance control point for all

BTSs and BSCs in a GSM system. Gives Fault status Of BTSs. Operation and Administration. Data and Software storage for network elements. Traffic reporting and analysis.
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RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Radio Resource management is a group of

functions concerned with the management of transmission resources on the radio path (Um interface). It must cope with limited radio resources and share them dynamically between all demands. The mobile station and the BSC mainly perform the functions of the Radio Resource management.
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ROLE OF RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Establish stable connections

between the mobile stations and the BSC Maintain them despite user movement for the duration of a call. Release the connections between the mobile stations and the BSC.
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Radio resources Management Functions

The Radio Resource management functions

are: Power Control Handover Discontinuous transmission Call re-establishment Frequency hopping.

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POWER CONTROL
Power control enables the mobile station

and/or the BTS to increase or decrease the transmission power on a per-radio link basis. Power Control is separately performed for the uplink and downlink. In both cases the BSC is responsible for initiating Power Control; the mobile station and the BTS adopt transmit power according to the BSC Power Control commands.
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MEASUREMENTS
While a mobile station is active on a call, it has the

responsibility of providing measurement data about the performance of the air-interface to its serving BTS so that the serving BSC can decide if a power control should be performed. Also the serving BTS measures the performance of the air-interface. Whereas the mobile station measures the performance of the downlink, the BTS measures the performance of the uplink. These measurement includes Strength &Quality of the received signal

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Downlink measurements
The mobile station measures and

reports the following measurements to the BSC regarding the Performance of the downlink. Strength of the signal being receiving from its serving BTS (in dBm) Quality of the signal being received from its serving BTS (in bit error rate).
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UPLINK MEASUREMENTS
The BTS measures and reports the

following measurements to the BSC regarding the performance of the uplink: Strength of the signal being received from the mobile station. Quality of the signal being received from the mobile station.
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POWER CONTROL
When the BSC notices that the signal strength

of a particular radio link measured on the uplink becomes below the lower pre-defined threshold because the mobile station moves away from the BTS, it sends a Power Control Command to the mobile station to increase its transmits power (MS_TXPWR) by a predefined step (typically 2 dB). The transmit power of the mobile station can be increased until a maximum defined level is reached.

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POWER CONTROL
The BSC can also send a Power Control

command to the mobile station to reduce transmits power when it notices that the signal strength measured becomes above the upper pre-defined threshold. The downlink Power Control process is similar to the uplink Power Control process.

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REASONS FOR POWER CONTROL

Power Control is a GSM feature that can

be enabled or disabled on a per cell basis One reason to enable Power Control is to save MS battery power. However, the main reason for Power Control is to improve the carrier-to-interference ratio within the cellular network, which helps to minimize interference caused on the other calls in the surrounding area.
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HANDOVER
Handover is the process of automatically

switching a call in progress from one traffic channel to another to neutralize the adverse effects of user movements. The switch can be made either to a TCH within the same cell or in another cell. Note that the handover process will normally be started if power control is not helpful anymore.
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Why Handover
Use of Cellular principle limits the

area of coverage of a single radio path. Keep the communication path even when the user crosses cell boundaries and enter into new cell.
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Handover Process

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HANDOVER PROCESS
As a mobile station moves away from its

serving BTS towards the coverage area of neighboring BTSs, the mobile station measurement reports will show a gradual decrease in signal strength from its serving BTS while showing an increase in measured signal strength from one or more neighboring BTSs.

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HANDOVER PROCESS

It is the responsibility of the serving BSC

to analyze the measurement reports from the mobile station and to decide when a handover should be performed. If it is determined that there is a better BTS to serve the call, the serving BSC initiates the handover procedure.

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Handover types
1)Internal or intra-BSS handover, which

can be: Intra cell handover Inter-cell handover. External or inter-BSS handover, which can be: Intra-MSC handover. Inter-MSC handover.
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Handover types
If the serving and candidate BTSs

reside within the same BSS, the BSC for the BSS can perform the handover without the involvement of the MSC thus termed internal or intra BSS handover. This type of handover can also be sub-divided into intra-cell and inter-cell handovers.
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Handover types
If the serving and candidate BTSs

do not reside within the same BSS, then an inter-BSS handover is performed, which requires the MSC to serving BTS and the candidate BTS. This type of handover can also be divided into intra-MSC and inter-MSC handovers.
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Inter-BSS, Intra-MSC handover PHASES

The MS is continuously listening to the

broadcast channel, measuring the strength of the currently used radio channel and the neighboring channels When the old BSS, currently supporting the MS, determines that the MS requires to be handed over it will send a Handover required message to the MSC with a list of cells to which the MS can be handed over.
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Inter-BSS, Intra-MSC handover PHASES

On receiving the Handover required

message, the MSC begins the process of handing over the MS to the new BSS. The MSC sends a Handover Request message to the selected BSS (new BSS) The new BSS takes the necessary actions to allow the MS to access the new radio resources and then sends the acknowledgement (Handover Request-ACK message to the MSC containing the Handover Reference Number (hrn))
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Inter-BSS, Intra-MSC handover PHASES

The MSC informs the old BSS that the

handover can take place The old BSS sends a command to the MS to tune to the new radio channel The MS accesses the new radio resource by sending the message Handover Access containing the hrn. The hrn is checked by the new BSS to ensure it is as expected and the correct MS has been captured.
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Inter-BSS, Intra-MSC handover PHASES

If this is the correct MS the new BSS sends a handover Detect message to the MSC When the MS is successfully communicating with the new BSS it sends to it a Handover Complete message.

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Inter-BSS, Intra-MSC handover PHASES

The new BSS forwards this message to the MSC. The MS is now served by a new BSS, the trunk reserved for the communication between the MSC and the old BSS can now be released. Consequently the radio traffic channel is released.
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Conditions that can trigger a handover

The BSC will perform a handover due to: Distance (or propagation delay) between the

mobile station and the BTS becomes too big Received signal level (or signal strength) on the downlink or uplink becomes too bad Received signal quality on the downlink or uplink becomes too bad Path loss situation for the mobile station to another cell is better Duration that the mobile station stays in a cell

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Discontinuous transmission
Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) is a

mechanism that allows the radio transmitter to be switched off most of the time during speech pauses. DTX can be enabled or disabled for the uplink and/or downlink mode on a percell basis. The following figure shows Discontinuous Transmission (DTX).
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DISCONTINUOUS TRANSMISSION PROCESS

In the DTX mode, speech is encoded at

13kbit/s when the user is effectively speaking, but in a speech pause information is transmitted at a bit rate around 500 bit/s. this low rate flow is sufficient to encode the background noise, which is re-generated to ensure that the listener does not think that the connection is broken (comfort noise).
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Reasons for DTX

When DTX is applied, actual transmission

on the radio path is reduced. This will cause a decrease of the interference level in cochannel cells (using the same frequency). Another advantage will appear when using DTX in the uplink mode: it saves battery power for the mobile station. However, a disadvantage of the DTX mode is that it slightly deteriorates the quality of transmission.
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CALL RE-ESTABLISHMENT
Call re-establishment enables the mobile

station to resume the contact with the cellular network when the connection to a particular BTS is suddenly broken. This may happen because of a brutal propagation loss, due to obstacles such as bridges and tunnels. Call re-establishment is a GSM feature that can be enabled or disabled on a per cell basis.
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FREQUENCY HOPPING
The Frequency Hopping function

permits the dynamic switching of radio links from one carrier frequency to another. Frequency hopping changes the frequency used by a radio link every new TMDA frame in a regular pattern.
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The reasons of using Frequency Hopping

Decreasing the probability of

interference Frequency Hopping will spread the annoyance of interference over different mobile stations in a particular cell. Suppressing the effect of fading
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Frequency hopping process

The regular pattern, by which a

radio link changes carrier frequency, is described by the hopping sequence. The hopping sequence can have a cyclic pattern or a pseudo-random pattern.

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Frequency hopping process

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Mobility Management
1)Network attachment :It is the process of

selecting an appropriate cell (radio frequency) by the mobile station to provide the available services, and making its location known to the network. When a mobile station is switched on it Measure the BCCH channels
Search for a suitable cell

it registers its presence in this cell (registration process) by means of a location updating procedure.
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BTS

BSC LA 1

MSC 1

BTS

BSC
BTS

LA 2
BTS

VLR 1

SS 7
BSC

HLR MSC 2

BTS

LA 3
BTS

BSC
VLR 2

Location Area

Location Related Identities 3 digits

2 digits

2 octets max
( 16 bits )

MCC

MNC LAI

LAC

LAI = MCC + MNC + LAC MCC - Mobile Country Code. MNC - Mobile Network Code.

LAC - Location Area Code .

Maximum length of LAC is 16 bits. Thus there can be maximum of 65,536 Location Areas in one GSM PLMN. defined

Locating a mobile station

As an active Mobile Station (MS) moves

around in the coverage area of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), it reports its movements so that it can be located when required using the Location Update procedure. When a Mobile-services Switching Center (MSC) in the network needs to establish a call to an MS operating in its area the following happens:
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Locating a mobile station

A page message is broadcast which contains

the identifications code of the MS The broadcast is limited to a cluster of radio cells that together form a location area. The last reported position of the MS identifies the location area to be used for the broadcast. The MS monitors the page messages transmitted by the radio cell in which it is located and, on detecting its own identification code, & responds by transmitting a page response message to the Base Transceiver Station (BTS).
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Locating a mobile station

Communication is then established

between the MSC and the MS via the BTS that received the page response message.

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LOCATION AREA IDENTITY

Every BTS broadcasts, a Location Area

Identity (LAI) MS automatically scans the control channel broadcasts transmitted by the base stations and selects the channel with strongest signal. The LAI code broadcast by the selected channel identifies the location area in which the MS is currently situated. This LAI code is stored in the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of the mobile equipment.
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LOCATION AREA IDENTITY

As the MS moves through the network

area the signal received gradually diminishes in strength. At this point the MS re-tunes to the channel that has become dominant and examines the LAI code that it is broadcasting. If the received LAI code differs from that stored on the SIM, then it confirms that MS has entered another location area and initiates a location update procedure to report the change to the MSC. At the end of the procedure the LAI code in the SIM is also
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Location Management By VLR

A VLR contains a data record for each of the MS

that are currently operating in its area. Each record contains a set of subscriber identity codes, related subscription information, and a Location Area Identity (LAI) code. This information is used by the MSC when handling calls to or from an MS in the area. When an MS moves from one area to another, the responsibility for its supervision passes from one VLR to another. A new data record is created by the VLR that has adopted the MS, and the old record is deleted.
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Location Management By HLR

HLR Stores the address of the VLR in the area

where the subscribers MS is currently located, and the address of the associated MSC. The location information enables incoming calls to be routed to the MS. In The absence this information indicates that the MS is inactive and cannot be reached. When an MS moves from one VLR area to another, the location information in the HLR is updated with the new VLR and MSC addresses. The VLR then creates a new entry for the MS, using subscription data copied from the HLR.
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Thank you

End
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