GSM

(Global System for Mobile

Communications)

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 GSM
(Global System for Mobile Communications)
GSM offers a wide range of services, including telephony, emergency calling, data up to 14.4
Kb/s, fax up to 9.6 Kb/s, SMS, and others. In addition, it also offers a rich set of supplementary
services. According to ITU specifications, the telecommunication services are categorized into
three different types, i.e., bearer services, teleservices, and supplementary services.

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 1.Bearer Services
1. It provides capability to the customers to send and receive the data from remote
computer.
2. Simply known as Internet services or data services.
3. It supports transparent data transmission over PSTN, ISDN at rates from 300 bps
to 9600 bps.
4. It is implemented in the lower 3 layers OSI model.
5. It provides the user to execute remote applications from mobile.
6. It permits both transparent and non-transparent, synchronous and asynchronous
data transmission.

Additional Bearer service:

■ Asynchronous data
■ Synchronous data
■ Asynchronous PAD (packet switched, packet
assembler/disassembler)
■ HSCSD—asymmetric
■ HSCSD—symmetric 3
 2.Teleservices
Teleservices are telecommunication services providing complete capability, including
terminal equipment functions. Teleservices are characterized by a set of low layer
attributes, a set of high layer attributes, and operational and commercial attributes.

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 Teleservices
 Telephony:
➢ It provides the high quality digital voice transmission, offering
bandwidth of 3.1 kHz of analog phone systems.
➢ Special codes are used for voice transmission, other codes used
for transmission of analog data and fax data.
 Emergency Number:
➢ Single number can be used for entire area.
➢ This service is free of cost and mandatory provided by all service
providers.
➢ This call will automatically setup with closest emergency centers.
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 Teleservices
❖ Short Message Services
➢ This services offers the text data transmission of sizes up to 160
characters.
➢ SMS services use the signalling channels, making possible the
duplex system of the sending and receiving the SMS messages.
 Fax
➢ Using modems fax data is transmitted as digital data over the
analog telephone network according to the ITU-T Standards T.4
and T.30.

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 3.Supplementary services
Supplementary service modifies or supplements a basic telecommunication service. It is offered
together with or in association with a basic telecommunication service.
 User identification
 Call redirection
 Forwarding of ongoing calls.
 Standard ISDN features
 closed user groups
 multiparty communication are available.
 Call barring
 Calling/connected line identity presentation (CLIP)
 Calling/connected line identity restriction (CLIR)
 Call waiting (CW)
 Call hold (CH)
 Advice of charge (AoC)
 Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)
 Operator-determined barring (ODB) 8
 GSM Architecture
The GSM architecture consists of three major interconnected subsystems that interact with
themselves and with users through certain network interface. The subsystems are the Radio
Subsystem (RSS), the network and Switching Subsystem (NSS) and the Operation Subsystem (OSS).
 GSM Architecture

The interfaces defined between each of these sub systems include:

• 'A' interface between NSS and BSS
• 'Abis' interface between BSC and BTS (within the BSS) 10
• 'Um' air interface between the BSS and the MS
1.Radio Subsystem
The radio subsystem signaling of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) is described. Particular
attention is given to the air interface, the Abis interface (between radio transceiver equipment and a base
station controller) and the A interface (between a base station controller and the switch). The details of the
lower layers, particularly on the radio path, are examined. However, the major part of the present work deals
with the upper signaling layers. After a general presentation of their organization, the protocols which are
specific to GSM are presented, in particular those related to radio resource management and mobility
management.

❖ It contains,
➢ Mobile Stations
➢ Base Station Subsystems
➢ The base transceiver station
➢ Base station controllers.
❖ Works:
➢ Establish a communication with MS.
➢ Error Correction.
➢ Power Management.

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❖ Mobile Station (MS):
The Mobile Station (MS) consists of the physical equipment used by a
PLMN subscriber to connect to the network. It comprises the Mobile
Equipment (ME) and the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). The ME
forms part of the Mobile Termination (MT) which, depending on the
application and services, may also include various types of Terminal
Equipment (TE) and associated Terminal Adapter (TA).
➢ It is a cell phone contains 2 major components
■ Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card.
■ Mobile Device.
➢ Each mobile module has unique
identification number know as IMEI
( International Mobile Equipment Identity ).
➢ Apart from telephone interface MS offers other interfaces
like USB, Bluetooth etc.,
➢ SIM contains a chip or microcontrollers that
holdsthe information about subscription
information.
➢ Additional flash memory is used for storing multimedia
contents of users.
➢ SIM Card contains other information like card
type, serial number, a list of
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subscribed services, and Personal Identification Number
 Base Station Subsystem (BSS):
The GSM System contains many BSSs.
The Base Station Subsystem is responsible for managing the radio network, and it is
controlled by an MSC. Typically, one MSC contains several BSSs. A BSS itself may
cover a considerably large geographical area consisting of many cells (a cell refers to
an area covered by one or more frequency resources). Each BSS consists of the
following elements:
· BSC       Base Station Controller
· BTS       several Base Transceiver Station
· TRAU Transcoder and Rate Adaptation Unit (often referred to as TC(Transcoder))

BSS Tasks:
➢ The BSS Maintains all functions necessary to maintain radio connections to an
MS.
➢ It is responsible for coding/decoding of voice.
➢ 1. Radio path control 2. Synchronisation 3. Air- and A-interface signalling
4. Mobility management
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Figure 8. The Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
❖ Base Transceiver Station (BTS):
Base Transceiver Station (BTS):   The BTS used in a GSM network comprises the radio
transmitter receivers, and their associated antennas that transmit and receive to directly
communicate with the mobiles. The BTS is the defining element for each cell. The BTS
communicates with the mobiles and the interface between the two is known as the Um
interface with its associated protocols

➢ BTS Contain all radio equipment's such as antenna, signal

processors and amplifiers.
➢ It encodes the received signal , modulates it on a carrier wave,
and feeds the RF signals to the antenna.
➢ It communicates with both the mobile station and the BSC.

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Figure 9. Nokia Metro Site Base Transceiver Station
❖ Base Station Controller:
The BSC forms the next stage back into the GSM network. It controls a group of BTSs, and is often
co-located with one of the BTSs in its group. It manages the radio resources and controls items
such as handover within the group of BTSs, allocates channels and the like. It communicates with
the BTSs over what is termed the Abis interface.

➢ A BSC manages the radio resources of the BTSs in the sense that it assigns
frequency and time slots for all MSs in the area.
➢ It also manages the handoff from one BTS to another within the BSS.
➢ The BSC multiplexes the radio channels onto the fixed network connection to
the Mobile Switching Centre (MSC).

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 ❖ Transcoder and Rate Adaptation Unit (TRAU):
The primary function of the TRAU is to convert 16kps (inc signaling) GSM speech
channels to 64kbps PCM channels in the uplink direction and the reverse in the
downlink direction. The reason this process is necessary is because MSCs only
switch at the 64kbps channel level.

TRAU can be physically located in the BTS, BSC or MSC and hence leads to a variety of installation configurations.
 2.Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)
It is a subsystem that forms the heart of GSM System, The NSS originally consisted of the
circuit-switched core network, used for traditional GSM services such as voice calls, SMS, and
circuit switched data calls. It was extended with an overlay architecture to provide packet-switched
data services known as the GPRS core network. This allows mobile phones to have access to
services such as WAP, MMS and the Internet.

➢ It connects the wireless networks to the standard public networks

and carries
out usage-based charging, accounting, and also handles the
roaming.
➢ NSS Contains switching center and several databases.
Three main jobs:
1) connects calls from sender to receiver
2) collects details of the calls made and received
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3) supervises operation of the rest of the network components
❖ Mobile Switching Centre (MSC):
It is heart of GSM System, The central component of the Network Subsystem is the MSC. The MSC
performs the switching of calls between the mobile and other fixed or mobile network users, as well as
the management of mobile services such as registration, authentication, location updating, handovers,
and call routing to a roaming subscriber. It also performs such functions as toll ticketing, network
interfacing, common channel signaling, and others. Every MSC is identified by a unique ID.

(MSC) Tasks:
➢ An MSC sets up connections to other MSCs and to other networks such as
Public Data Network (PDN).
➢ MSC Responsible for the connection setup, connection release,
and call handoff to other MSCs.
➢ A Gateway MSC (GMSC) is responsible for gateway
functions, while customer roams in other networks.
➢ It is also handles supplementary services such as call forwarding, multi party
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or group calls, etc.
❖ Home Location Registers (HLRs):
The HLR is a database used for storage and management of subscriptions. The HLR is considered the most
important database, as it stores permanent data about subscribers, including a subscriber's service profile,
IMSI, pre/post paid, user’s current location information, and activity status. When an individual buys a
subscription in the form of SIM, then all the information about this subscription is registered in the HLR of
that operator.
Beside the permanent data it also include dynamic data of home subscriber including VLR address, call
forward number and call barring numbers.

Benefits:
 All HLR data is centralized, thus simplifying its
ongoing maintenance and operation
 High HLR Capacity
 High processing capacity
 On going enhancement
There are some drawbacks with standalone HLR:
 A fault in a HLR will affect many subscribers
 A fault in a HLR will increase the signaling
substantially In the whole signaling network
❖ Visitor Location Register (VLR):
 MS needs an entry to roam in foreign network in their temporary database
VLR It is a subscriber database containing the information about all the MS currently located in the MSC service
area. VLR can be considered as a distributed HLR in the case of a roaming subscriber. If MS moves into a new
service area (MSC), VLR requests the HLR to provide the relevant data and store it, for making the calls for that
MS.
 A temporary database that is updated whenever a new MS enters its are by roaming.
 periodically updates the database on which phones are turned on and ready to receive calls
 The function of VLR is to reduce the number of queries to the HLR and make the user feel as if he
were in his home network.

 VLR is always integrated with MSC to

avoid the signaling load on the
system.
 It can also be viewed as a subset of a
HLR.
 VLR connects with MSC via B interface, HLR via
D interface and with another VLR via G 26
 The function of VLR:
o reduce the number of queries to the HLR and make the user feel as if he were in his home network.
o Setting up and controlling calls along with supplementary
o services.
o Continuity of speech (Handover)
o Location updating and registration
o Updating the mobile subscriber data.
o Maintain the security of the subscriber by allocating TMSI
Receiving and delivering short messages
o Handling signaling to and from
- BSC and MSs using BSSMAP
- other networks e.g PSTN, ISDN using TUP
o IMEI check
o Retrieve data from HLR like authentication data, IMSI, ciphering key
Retrieve information for incoming calls.
o Retrieve information for outgoing calls.
o Attach/Detach IMSI
o Search for mobile subscriber, paging and complete the call.
❖ Gateway MSC (GMSC):
Gateway MSC (GMSC) connects the PLMN with other networks and the entry point for
the mobile subscriber calls having the interrogation facility. It has the function to obtain
the information from the HLR about the subscriber’s current location and reroute the
calls accordingly.
 3.Operation subsystem (OSS)
The operation subsystem contains all the functions necessary for network operation and maintenance, The OSS
or operation support subsystem is an element within the overall GSM mobile communications network
architecture that is connected to components of the NSS and the BSC. It is used to control and monitor the overall
GSM network and it is also used to control the traffic load of the BSS. It must be noted that as the number of BS
increases with the scaling of the subscriber population some of the maintenance tasks are transferred to the BTS,
allowing savings in the cost of ownership of the system.

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❖ Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC):
The OMC centralizes all operations and maintenance activities for the MSCs and
BSSs using remote software control. It provides remote testing, operations, and
maintenance capabilities for the entire system from one central location.
Each BSS, MSC, HLR, VLR, EIR, and AUC can be monitored and controlled from
the OMC.

➢ It supervises all other network

entities.
➢ Its functions are traffic
monitoring, subscribers, security
management and accounting
billing.
❖ Authentication Center (AUC):
AUC is always integrated with HLR for the purpose of the authentication. At subscription
time, the Subscriber Authentication Key (Ki) is allocated to the subscriber, together with
the IMSI. The Ki is stored in the AUC and used to provide the triplets, same Ki is also stored
in the SIM.

 It protest against the intruders targeting the air interface.

 AUC stores the following information for each subscriber:
1. The IMSI number,
2. The individual authentication key Ki,
3. A version of A3 and A8 algorithm.
❖ Equipment Identity Register (EIR):
The Equipment Identity Register (EIR) is a database that used to track handsets using IMEI, it contains
a list of all valid mobile equipment on the network, where its International Mobile Equipment Identity
(IMEI) identifies each MS. An IMEI is marked as invalid if it has been stolen or is not type approved.

Procedure:
 The MSC/VLR requests the IMEI from the MS and sends
it to a
EIR.
 On request of IMEI, the EIR makes use of three possible
defined lists:
- A white list: containing all number of all equipment
identities
that have been allocated in the different participating
countries.
- A black list: containing all equipment identities that
are
considered to be barred.
- A grey list: containing (operator’s decision) faulty or
non approved mobile equipment.
Handovers or Handoffs
Types of Handovers
Factors Affecting Handovers
Types of Handovers in GSM
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Handoffs In Different Generations
All these types of handoffs are usually termed as hard handoff as there
is a shift in the channels involved. There is also another kind of handoff,
called soft handoff