GSM System Essentials

References: Jrg Erbespcher, Hans Jrg Vogel, Christian Bettstetter, GSM: Switching services and protocols, Wiley 2001, ISBN 0-471-499903-X, 332 p.

Jouko Kurki, 14.3.2006

FDMA

CT0/1 AMPS NMT

Development of mobile telecommunication systems

CT2 IS-136 TDMA D-AMPS GSM PDC IMT-FT DECT EDGE GPRS IMT-SC IS-136HS UWC-136 IMT-DS UTRA FDD / W-CDMA IMT-TC UTRA TDD / TD-CDMA IMT-TC TD-SCDMA IS-95 cdmaOne cdma2000 1X IMT-MC cdma2000 1X EV-DO 1X EV-DV (3X) 3G

CDMA

TDMA

1G

2G

2.5G

PSTN / ISDN

MSC

BSS BSS

MSC

BSS

BSS

Second Generation Mobile Network Architecture

Architecture of the GSM system

GSM is a PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network) several providers setup mobile networks following the GSM standard within each country components MS (mobile station) BS (base station) MSC (mobile switching center) LR (location register) subsystems RSS (radio subsystem): covers all radio aspects NSS (network and switching subsystem): call forwarding, handover, switching OSS (operation subsystem): management of the network

GSM: overview
OMC, EIR, AUC HLR NSS with OSS (Core Network) VLR MSC GMSC fixed network

VLR

MSC

BSC BSC RSS (Radio SubSystem)

System architecture: radio subsystem

radio subsystem MS MS network and switching subsystem

Um BTS BTS Abis BSC MSC

Components MS (Mobile Station) BSS (Base Station Subsystem): consisting of BTS (Base Transceiver Station): sender and receiver BSC (Base Station Controller): controlling several transceivers Interfaces Um : radio interface Abis : standardized, open interface with 16 kbit/s user channels A: standardized, open interface with 64 kbit/s user channels

BTS BTS BSS BSC

A MSC

Basic GSM Architecture

AUC Base Station Subsystem (BSS) EIR BTS A-bis BTS Um BTS MS Ater (16 kb/s) other MSCs BTS: Base Transceiver Station BSC: Base Station Controller HLR: Home Location Register VLR: Visited Location Register OMC: Operation & Maintenance Centre EIR: Equipment Identity Register AUC: Authentication Centre BSC TRAU other BSSs F H HLR C D G VLR B Mobile Services Switching Centre (MSC) E OMC other VLRs

A (64 kb/s)

PSTN ISDN CSPDN PSPDN

GSM Interfaces
The component parts of the GSM system interconnect using standard interfaces. These allows an operator to purchase different parts of the system competitively, I.e. from different manufacturers. The more important interfaces are Um the air interface, e.g. transfers GSM speech having bit rate 13 kb/s (bit rate at air interface about 34 kb/s, includes data, signalling and error correction coding) A interface between the BSC and MSC Abis Interface Between BSC and MSC, unoffcial, some suppliers have proprietary solutions, i.e. BSC and BTS need to be from same vendor. However 200..500 TRX / BSC, so not an issue.

Base Station
The Cell Tower ! Includes antenna at the top and a small cabinet with rack / cards having transmitter and receiver (TRX). Base station converts bits to modulation symbols transmitted at selected frequency to users over the air interface. Mobile phone has antenna and radio receiver to convert the RF-signal back to bits. Base Station also provides user data encryption, measurement capabilities etc. Characteristics of Nokia Base stations:

Base Station Controller, BSC

Cell structure
Implements space division multiplex: base station covers a certain transmission area (cell) Mobile stations communicate only via the base station Advantages of cell structures: higher capacity, higher number of users less transmission power needed more robust, decentralized base station deals with interference, transmission area etc. locally Problems: fixed network needed for the base stations handover (changing from one cell to another) necessary interference with other cells Cell sizes from some 100 m in cities to, e.g., 35 km on the country side (GSM) - even less for higher frequencies

segmentation of the area into cells

GSM: cellular network

possible radio coverage of the cell

cell

idealized shape of the cell

use of several carrier frequencies not the same frequency in adjoining cells cell sizes vary from some 100 m up to 35 km depending on user density, geography, transceiver power etc. hexagonal shape of cells is idealized (cells overlap, shapes depend on geography) if a mobile user changes cells handover of the connection to the neighbor cell

Frequency planning I
Frequency reuse only with a certain distance between the base stations Standard model using 7 frequencies:
f3 f5 f4 f1 f3 f7 f6 f4 f1 f2 f5

f2 Fixed frequency assignment: certain frequencies are assigned to a certain cell problem: different traffic load in different cells Dynamic frequency assignment: base station chooses frequencies depending on the frequencies already used in neighbor cells more capacity in cells with more traffic assignment can also be based on interference measurements

Frequency Bands / Bandwidth

Uplink Downlink
1 100 KHz

890 915 MHz 25 MHz 935 960 MHz 25 MHz

2 200 KHz 3 4

124 100 KHz

A 200 kHz carrier spacing has been chosen. Excluding 2x100 kHz edges of the band, this gives 124 possible carriers for the uplink and downlink. The use of carrier 1 and 124 are optional for operators. Each Frequency carrier provides 8 Timeslots for 8 users at a time.

Multiple Access Technique

FDMA/TDMA. The total band is divided into 124x200 kHz bands (FDMA). Each group of 8 users transmit through a 200 kHz band sharing transmission time (TDMA).

GSM 900 and 1800 Characteristics

GSM operates at 900 and 1800 MHz frequency range. 1800 MHz frequency range was added later, basically same functionality, only frequency is different. More channels -> more capacity ! In the USA frequency 1900 MHz used instead of 1800 MHz

Functions of the GSM phone

Power amp Modulation

Output Power: GSM900 Max. 2W in 10 steps GSM1800 Max 1 W in 8 steps

Burst generation

Encryption Interleaving Channel Coder Speech coder

sample

Basic GSM voice coder (RPE-LTP)

Incoming analog signal is divided in 20 ms long blocks for coding. Sampling rate is 8 kHz (160 samples / 20 ms) and resolution 13 bits. 1. First step is short term analysis yielding parameters for short term analysis filter LPC . This yields 36 bits for the 20 ms block. 2. LPC filter output works as excitation input for the RPE filter that makes high compression 4 x 47 b / 20 ms (9.4 kb/s) 3. Long term prediction LTP uses previous and current speech block and a calculates a RPE prediction. This si subtracted before RPE analysis to make that data smaller. There are 4 x 9 bits / 20 ms from LTP analysis. In total there are 260 bits / 20 ms resulting in bit rate of 13 kb/s

Speech coding standards for mobile terminals

GSM FDM/TDM structure

Allocated frequency range divided (Frequency Division Multiplexing, FDM) to Frequency channels, each 200 kHz Within one frequency 8 Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) time slots (=TS) One user needs on time slot, so one frequency is adequate for 8 simultaneous calls

TIME

FREQUENCY

GSM Time slots and burst

Carrier frequency fc 8 TIME SLOTS / FRAME FDMA FRAME DURATION 4,615 ms

the air interface user bits are In inserted to one Time slot. The bits are modulated by the Gaussian Minimum Shift keying (G-MSK) modulation which forms a burst (duration one TS). Total 2 x (57+1) user bits / burst; 2 x 57 = 114 bits for data. 57 bits for user, 1 bit for Stealing bit/Control. Data rata in air interface: 156.25 b/0.577 ms = 271 kb/s 33.8 kb/s per user (8 TS)

TIME SLOT DURATION, 0.577 ms

Training sequence Guard

NUMBER OF BITS P (dBm)

NORMAL BURST, 0.577 ms

Data: 114/0.577 ms = 24.7 kb/s / user

GSM bit rates

26 TDMA FRAMES, (26 FRAME MULTIFRAME), 26 TDMA FRAMES DURATION EXACTLY 120 MS. OTHER TIMES DERIVED FROM THIS. TDMA FRAME 120 MS/26 = 4.615 ms TIMESLOT DURATION = 4.615 ms / 8 = 577 s Normal burst: Total 156.25 bits / timeslot. User bits (gross) 2x57 = 114 bits / timeslot = 24.7 kb/s. bit rate at TDMA frame level: 8 x timeslots 156.25 bits = 1250 bits bit rate = 1250 /4.615 MS = 270.8 kb/s GROSS bit rate / USER (NORMAL BURST) 156.25 BITS / 4.615 MS = 33.8 kb/s User data bit rate (Gross) 114 /4.615 ms = 24.7 kb/s. This still includes error correction etc., so data rte for user traffic is normally less than 20 kb/s.

GSM AND GPRS SERVICE Bit Rates

SPEECH 13 kb/s (FULL RATE) OR 6.5 kb/s (HALF RATE) DATA 9.6 OR 14.4 kb/s

HSCSD (HIGH SPEED CIRCUIT SWITCHED DATA): RESERVES ALL TIME SLOT FOR THE DURATION OF THE CALL NUMBER OF TIMESLOTS USED X SPEED / TS, E.G. 4 X 14.4 kb/s = 57 kb/s. GPRS (GENERAL PACKET RADIO SERVICE) PACKET DATA, USES SEVERAL TIMESLOTS, BUT NOT WHEN VOICE CALLS NEED THE CAPACITY: 9.05/13.4/15.6/21.4 kb/s PER TIMESLOT (coding schemes CS-1/ CS-2/ CS-3 CS-4 ), up to 8 TS @21.4 kb/s = 171.2 kb/s. Typically 3-4 TS max, and often used CS-1..2 => 30..50 kb/s user data rate

Overview of GSM transmission and bit rates

Data services in GSM I

Data transmission standardized with only 9.6 kbit/s advanced coding allows 14,4 kbit/s not enough for Internet and multimedia applications HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit Switched Data) mainly software update bundling of several time-slots to get higher AIUR (Air Interface User Rate) (e.g., 57.6 kbit/s using 4 slots, 14.4 each) advantage: ready to use, constant quality, simple disadvantage: channels blocked for voice transmission
AIUR [kbit/s] 4.8 9.6 14.4 19.2 28.8 38.4 43.2 57.6 TCH/F4.8 1 2 3 4 TCH/F9.6 1 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 TCH/F14.4

GPRS, General Packet Radio Service, provides around 40 kb/s bit rate for IP-packet data, but needs new network elements (separate topic)

GSM Air Interface - FDD/TDD

GSM uses Frequency division duplexing: Transmission happens at different frequency from receiving. The duplexing distance is 45 MHz in GSM900

GSM FDMA / TDMA, Time Slot and burst

Bursts in GSM TDMA (1)

GSM data is transmitted as bursts occupying one time slot (0.577 ms) In of the TDMA frame synchronization and signaling other types of burst used For
(1) normal burst data(57) start(3) frequency correction burst fixed bits(142) training(26) (1) data(57) stop(3)

Voice and data

guard period(8.25)

synchronization burst

data(39) start(3)

extended training(64)

data(39) stop(3)

Synchronization and signaling

guard period(8.25)

dummy burst

mixed bits(58) extended start(8)

training(26) stop(3) data(36)

mixed bits(58)

access burst

synch. seq.(41)

extended guard period (68.25)

Logical Channels in GSM

Logical channels are pipeson which different kind of data is inserted. bit They are formed of Physical Channels that actually transmit the bits using frequency bursts. The key thing is multiplexing the desired data on successively repeated blocks of data. Naming conventions: at the end CH= Channel, C=Common, D=Dedicated, F=fast, S=slow, C=Control, T=Traffic, not fully logical but may help

GSM Channels Channel Types

1. Traffic channels (TCHs) The traffic channels are intended to carry encoded speech or user data.

2. Control Channels (CCHs) The control channels are intended to carry signalling and Synchronization data between the base station and the Mobile station.

Traffic Channels
Traffic channels are intended to carry encoded speech and user data.
Full rate traffic channels at a raw net bit rate of 22.8 Kb/s (TCH/F) Half rate traffic channels at a raw net bit rate of 11.4 Kb/s (TCH/H)

Speech Channels
Speech channels are defined for both full rate and half rate traffic channels. The latter for the future system.

Data Channels
Data channels support a variety of data rates (2.4, 4.8 and 9.6 Kb/s) on both half and full rate traffic channels. The 9.6 Kb/s data rate is only defined for full rate application.

Channel bit rates

Traffic Channels

Control Channels

Security in GSM
Security services access control/authentication user SIM (Subscriber Identity Module): secret PIN (personal identification number) SIM network: challenge response method confidentiality voice and signaling encrypted on the wireless link (after successful authentication) anonymity temporary identity TMSI (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity) newly assigned at each new location update (LUP) secret : encrypted transmission A3 and A8 available via the 3 algorithms specified in GSM Internet A3 for authentication ( secret open interface) , network providers can use stronger A5 for encryption (standardized) mechanisms A8 for key generation ( secret open interface) ,

GSM - authentication

mobile network Ki AC 128 bit A3 SRES* 32 bit RAND 128 bit RAND

SIM RAND 128 bit A3 SIM SRES 32 bit Ki 128 bit

MSC

SRES* =? SRES

SRES 32 bit

SRES

Ki: individual subscriber authentication key

SRES: signed response

GSM - key generation and encryption

mobile network (BTS) Ki AC 128 bit A8 cipher key Kc 64 bit data A5 encrypted data RAND 128 bit RAND

MS with SIM RAND 128 bit A8 Ki 128 bit SIM

Kc 64 bit SRES data MS A5

BSS

GSM frame structure

Used to multiplex traffic and control data on time slots repeated at predetermined intervals 3 h 28 min 53.76 s 6.12 seconds

Traffic and SACCH

Non-Associated Control Channels

GSM frame structure (1)

GSM Frames: TDMA Frame, 8 Time slots (TS), 4.615 ms Frames are numbered by counters (in mobile / BTS by Reduced Frame Number RFN Multiframes: 1. 26 frame MULTIFRAME = 26x 4.615 ms = 120 ms. Traffic Ch and associated control channels (TCH, SACCH and FACCH only) 2. 51 Frame Multiframe, 235.4 ms Used fro multiplexing traffic and signaling in periodic time slots

GSM system features

Adaptive time alignment / Timing Advance (TA) BS is initially calculated the timing advance of MSs on the basis of the received access burst on the RACH The required timing advance for each MS is calculated in terms of the number of bit periods and sent to the MS as a 6 bit number. Timing advances from 0 to 63 bit periods can therefore be accommodated, giving a maximum BS MS separation of 35 Km

Timing Advance (TA)

Power control
RF power control will be used in the GSM MS and BS to reduce the transmit power to the minimum required to achieve the minimum quality objective and hence reduce the level of cochannel interference The MS will be capable of varying its transmit power form its maximum output down to 20 mW in steps of nominally 2 dB. Frequency of power control approximately 2 Hz. The BS calculates the RF Power level to be used by the MS and sends a 4 bit number instruction to the corresponding MS

Transmission withing GSM Network

Some GSM transmission options

CAPACITY PLANNING
What is Erlang ?

Capacity and Erlang

To calculate the capacity of the radio cell, we introduce a concept of traffic that measures the usage of resource. The traffic produced by one user In Erlangs (x Erl) is calculated as follows:

Typically one person produces a traffic amount of: 20 mErl for normal users; e.g. 1 call / hour, duration 72 s -> x = 1 x 72 s /3600 s = 0.02 Erl = 20 mErl 60 mErl for business users

Total traffic is the sum of the calls from all users, this is statistically distributed so statistical methods can be used for capacity planning.

Trunking gain

Erlang B-table

GSM capacity dimensioning examples

Capacity offered by the network has to be large enough to cope with the offered traffic. Erlang B-table gives the capacity of the network from the number of available channels (circuits) in Erlangs. E.g. one GSM frequency has 8 time slots, so 8 different connections can exist simultaneously, and the capacity from Erlang Table with the normally used 2 % call blocking probability) is 3.63 Erl. The amount of users that can be served is: Available capacity / traffic proced by one user. E.g. one GSM frequency of 200 kHz offers 8 TDMA channels. Thus from erlang table the capacity is 3.63 Erl and it can serve 3.63 Erl /20 mErl = 181 normal users. Another example is a busy place in city center and during busy hour we need to support 10.000 people (50 %normal users, 50 % business users) with base stations having 3 frequencies. How many base stations do we need (no coverage problems)? Capacity needed: Average traffic /user = 40 mErl, so total traffic is 40 mErl x 10.000 = 400 Erl. Amount of channels in base station is 8 x 3 = 24. One is needed for BCCH (Broadcast Control Channel) so there are 23 Ch for traffic. Capacity from Erlang B-table is the 15.8 Erl. So we need 400 /15.8 = 26 base stations with 3 frequencies.