High Speed Circuit Switched Data

(HSCSD)

High-speed circuit-switched data (HSCSD), is an enhancement to

circuit switched data (CSD), the original data transmission
mechanism of the GSM mobile phone system, four times faster than
GSM, with data rates up to 38.4 kbit/s. But actually on mobile the
speed is less than 15kb/s. It is not 3G.
Like in circuit-switched data, channel allocation is done in circuitswitched mode. The difference comes from the ability to use different
coding methods and/or multiple time slots to increase data
throughput.

HSCSD is a circuit-switched protocol for large file transfer and

multimedia applications.
The physical layer of HSCSD is the same as that for the Phase 2
GSM data services.
The data rate of HSCSD has been increased by using multiple TDMA
time slots (up to 8) instead of one time slot in the current data
applications.
The data rate can also be increased by data compression
techniques.

The data computing session is performed at a terminal equipment

(TE) such as a computer connected to the MT.
The network inter-working function (IWF) supports adaption between
GSM and the external networks.
TAF and IWF are sensitive to the end-to-end services.
The GSM entities between TAF and IWF are independent of the
services.
They only provide the bearer capabilities required to transport the
corresponding data flow.

The radio interface is the same as that of the current GSM system
except that multiple, independent time slots can be utilized to
provide high speed link as previously described.
The radio link protocol (RLP) has been enhanced in HSCSD to
support multi-link (time slot) operation. The protocol may or may not
recover the frame errors between TAF and IWF.

Network Architecture [1]

Network Architecture [2]

A new functionality is introduced at the network and MS to

provide the functions of combining and splitting the data into
separate data streams which will then be transferred via n
channels at the radio interface, where n = 1, 2, 3, ... 8.
Once split, the data streams shall be carried by the n full rate
traffic channels, called HSCSD channels.
Logically the n full rate traffic channels at the radio interface
belong to the same HSCSD configuration
Therefore they shall be controlled as one radio link by the
network for the purpose of cellular operations, e.g. handover.

One innovation in HSCSD is to allow different error correction

methods to be used for data transfer.
The original error correction used in GSM was designed to work at
the limits of coverage and in the worst case that GSM will handle.
This means that a large part of the GSM transmission capacity is
taken up with error correction codes.
HSCSD provides different levels of possible error correction which
can be used according to the quality of the radio link. This means
that in the best conditions 14.4 kbit/s can be put through a single
time slot that under CSD would only carry 9.6 kbit/s, for a 50%
improvement in throughput.

The other innovation in HSCSD is the ability to use multiple time

slots at the same time. Using the maximum of four time slots, this
can provide an increase in maximum transfer rate of up to 57.6 kbit/s
(i.e., 4 14.4 kbit/s) and, even in bad radio conditions where a higher
level of error correction needs to be used, can still provide a four
times speed increase over CSD (38.4 kbit/s versus 9.6 kbit/s). By
combining up to eight GSM time slots the capacity can be increased
to 115 kbit/s.

The user is typically charged for HSCSD at a rate higher than a

normal phone call (e.g., by the number of time slots allocated) for the
total period of time that the user has a connection active. This makes
HSCSD relatively expensive in many GSM networks and is one of the
reasons that packet-switched general packet radio service (GPRS),
which typically has lower pricing (based on amount of data
transferred rather than the duration of the connection), has become
more common than HSCSD.

Apart from the fact that the full allocated bandwidth of the
connection is available to the HSCSD user, HSCSD also has an
advantage in GSM systems in terms of lower average radio interface
latency than GPRS. This is because the user of an HSCSD
connection does not have to wait for permission from the network to
send a packet

HSCSD is also an option in enhanced data rates for GSM evolution

(EDGE) and universal mobile telephone system (UMTS) systems
where packet data transmission rates are much higher. In the UMTS
system, the advantages of HSCSD over packet data are even lower
since the UMTS radio interface has been specifically designed to
support high bandwidth, low latency packet connections. This means
that the primary reason to use HSCSD in this environment would be
access to legacy dial up systems.

Conclusion
Simple implementation relative to GPRS
Minimal impact on infrastructure
Quick to deploy relative to GPRS
Inefficient for moving bursty data
User data rates ultimately less than GPRS

15