Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

1 OVERVIEW OF MOBILE COMMUNICATIONHANDSET, SIM

STRUCTURE
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 INTRODUCTION LEARNING OBJECTIVES WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS: INCEPTION AND OVERVIEW MOBILE HANDSET SIM (SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULE) IDENTIFIERS SUMMARY SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS

1.1

INTRODUCTION

We see that today that Mobile telephones has become an essential part of daily life. In the last one decade, our country has witnessed tremendous growth in mobile communication area. Currently number of mobile telephone connections are many a times more than that of fixed (wire line) telephone connections. About 7- 8 million mobile subscribers are added every month in our country. In mobile communications the connectivity of the user (Mobile Subscriber) with Mobile Network is through radio signals and there are no wires from the network to user equipment. The objective of mobile communications is to provide a truly Anytime, Anywhere communication. Today mobile is providing Voice, messaging and a number of data services to users like real time TV, on line payments of utility bills, m-commerce, news, entertainments etc. Although mobile telephony can be seen in broad sense as the wireless communication and wireless services can be offered through various technologies like GSM, CDMA, CorDECT, etc. but here we will talk about GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) as a wireless communication technology.

1.2

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completion of this training module, trainees will:

Be able to appreciate difference in Fixed line and Mobile networks. Page 1 of 8

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Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

Have a broad understanding of Mobile Communications. Be able to understand concept of a Cell and Radio Coverage. Be able to understand key functions of Handset and SIM card in GSM Network.

1.3

WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS: INCEPTION AND OVERVIEW

From ancient to modern times, mankind has been looking for means of long distance communications. For centuries, letter proved to be the most reliable way to transmit information. Fire, flags, horns, etc. were used to transmit information faster. Technical improvements in the 19th century simplified long distance communications resulting in Telegraphy, and later on telephony. Both techniques were wire line. In 1873, J.C.Maxwell laid the foundation of the electro-magnetic theory, which is still valid today. It would however several decades after (in 1895) that Marconi made economic use of this theory by developing devices for wireless transmission of Morse signals (in 1895). Voice was transmitted on wireless for the first time in 1906 (R. Fesseden), and one of the first radio broadcast transmission 1909 in New York.

The economically most successful wireless application in the first half of the 20th century was radio broadcast. There is one transmitter, the so-called radio station. Information, such as news, music, etc. is transmitted from the radio station to the receiver equipment, the radio device. This type of one-way transmission is called simplex transmission. The transmission takes place only in one direction, from the transmitter to the receiver. This was the first type of fixed wireless transmission. For conversation, a technical solution is required, where the information flow can take place in two directions. This type of transmission is called duplex transmission. Walkytalky was already available the early 1930's. This system already allowed a transmission of user data in two directions, but there was a limitation: The users were not allowed to transmit at the same time. In words, you could only receive or transmit user information at any given instant of time. This type of transmission was therefore often called semiduplex transmission. For telephony services, a technical solutions is required, where subscribers have the impression, that they can speak (transmit) and hear (receive) simultaneously. This type of transmission solution is regarded as full duplex transmission.

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Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

Comparison of Wire Line & Wireless Telephony

Feature User Terminal Portability Connectivity Services offered WireLine Telephone Set Fixed Wired Limited WireLess Mobile Handset Portable Wireless Many

Figure 1: Comparison of Wire-line and wireless systems. A limited amount of mobility along with duplex transmission resulted in the Mobile Telephony. The first commercial wireless car phone telephone service started in the late 1940 in St. Louise, Missouri (USA). It was a car phone service, because at this time, the mobile phone equipment was bulky and heavy. Actually, in the start-up, it occupied the whole back of the car. But it was a real full duplex transmission solution. In the 1950s, several vehicle radio systems were installed in Europe also. These systems are called single cell systems. The user data transmission takes place between the mobile phone and the base station (BS). A base station transmits and receives user data. While a mobile phone is only responsible for its users data transmission and reception, a base station is capable to handle the calls of several subscribers simultaneously. The transmission of user data from the base station to the mobile phone is called downlink (DL), the transmission from the mobile phone to the base station uplink (UL) direction. The area, where the wireless transmission between mobile phones and the base station can take place, is the base stations supply area, called cell.
Base station

Downlink (DL) Uplink

(UL)

Cell = supply area

Figure 2: Cell Coverage Area. BSNL Online Awareness Programme For Restricted Circulation Page 3 of 8

Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

Single cell systems are quite limited. The more and more distant the subscriber is from the base station, the lower the quality of the radio link. If the subscriber is leaving the supply area of the cell, the communication is not possible any more. In other words, the mobile communication service was only available within the cell. In order to overcome this limitation, Multi-cellular systems were introduced. A cellular mobile communication system consists of several cells, which can overlap. By doing so, a whole geographical area can be supported with the mobile communication service. But what happens, when a subscriber moves during a call from one cell to another cell? It would be very annoying, if the call is dropped. If the subscriber is leaving a cell, and in parallel is entering a new cell, then the system makes new radio resource available in the neighboring cell, and then the call is handed over from on cell to the next one. By doing so, service continuation is guaranteed, even when the subscriber is moving. This process is called handover (HO). A handover takes place during a call, i.e. when the mobile phone is in active (dedicated) mode. A mobile phone can also be in idle mode. In this case, the mobile phone is switched on, but no resources are allocated to it to allow transmission of user data. In this mode, the mobile phone is still listening to information, broadcasted by the base station. Why? Imagine, there is an incoming call to this mobile. The mobile phone is then paged in the cell. This means the phone receives information that there is a mobile terminated call. A cellular system may consist of hundreds of cells. If the mobile network does not know, in which cell the mobile phone is located, it must be paged in all of them. To reduce load on networks, paging is done in small parts rather to a group of cells of a mobile network. The group of cells in administrative units in operation is called location area (LA). A mobile phone is paged in only one location area at a time. The LA is used by the GSM system to search for a subscriber in an active state. But how does the cellular system know, in which location area the mobile phone is located? And how does the mobile phone know? In every cell, system information is continuously transmitted. The system information includes the location area information. In the idle mode, the mobile phone is listening to this system information. If the user moves from one cell to the next cell, and the new cell belongs to the same location area, the mobile stays idle. If the new cell belongs to a new location area, then the mobile phone has to become active. It starts a communication with the network; information is send to the mobile network. This is stored in databases within the mobile network, and if there is a mobile terminated call, the network knows where to page the subscriber. The process, where the mobile phone informs the network about its new location is called Location Update Procedure (LUP). The registration of the Mobile is done at the VLR (Visitor Location Register) associated with the Mobile Switching Network.

1.4

MOBILE HANDSET

As mentioned earlier also, the mobile handset is the only mobile part in the mobile communication system. A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone or cell phone) is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area.

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Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as Smartphone.

The first mobile telephone call was made on 17 June 1946 from a car in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, using the Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service.[10] This was followed in 1956 by the worlds first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA) in Sweden. The MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and had a weight of 88.2 pounds (40 kg)

Figure 3: The beginning of Mobile phones.

The common components found on all phones are:

An input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the phone. Most common input mechanism is a keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high-end Smart phones. Antenna to transmit and receive RF signals. Display: Today, we have displays of different sizes and Compositions Associated Terms: AMOLED, LCD, Super LCD, Retina, PPI, Clear Black. Processor: The processor is the engine that drives phone. As phones become more powerful, processors are getting into dual core and quad core territory. Associated Terms: Dual Core, Quad Core, 800 MHz,

1/1.2/1.5GHz, Snapdragon, Tegra, Intel, Qualcomm. RAM: The RAM allows the phone to run multiple applications simultaneously and do various tasks in the background. Associated Terms: 256 MB, 512 MB, 768 MB, 1 GB. Camera: Once considered a luxury in Smartphones, the Camera is now an integral part of Smartphones. BSNL Online Awareness Programme For Restricted Circulation Page 5 of 8

Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

Associated terms: 3.2/5/8/12/41 Megapixels, Auto Focus, Shooting Modes, HD video, LED/Xenon flash. Battery: The battery (with a capacity expressed in mAh or milli ampere hour) determines how long your phone keeps working on a single charge. Associated terms: Li-ion, mAh, removable, non-removable.

Device Connectivity: There are various wired and wireless technologies embedded today on mobile devices to connect them with other phones, tablets, televisions or various accessories. Associated terms: USB On-The-Go, HDMI, Bluetooth 2.0/2.1/3.0, Wi-Fi.

Mobile Internet Connectivity: Phones are no longer used to just make calls and

swap texts. Almost every Smartphone now comes with some sort of Internet connectivity via the operator's data services. Associated terms: HSPA, HSDPA, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, GPRS/EDGE. OS/Platform: The operating system of a phone is the software that makes the phone work, handling basic tasks like calling, texting as well as more complex ones like mail and Web browsing. It works in a similar way like Windows and Mac OS do, on a computer.

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Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

Figure 4: Components of a Mobile Phone.

1.5

SIM (SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY MODULE)

A SIM is an integrated circuit that securely stores the Information related to the subscribers identity which is used to identify and authenticate the subscriber within the GSM Networks. A SIM is embedded into a removable SIM card, which can be transferred between different mobile devices. A SIM card contains its unique serial number (ICCID), international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), security authentication and ciphering information, temporary information related to the local network, a list of the services the user has access to and two passwords: a personal identification number (PIN) for ordinary use and a personal unblocking code (PUK) for PIN unlocking.

What is inside the SIM? Hardware: CPU, I/O Devices, ROM, RAM, EEPROM Software: IMSI, PIN, PUK, Authentication Keys e.g. Ki, Kc, Algorithms like A3, A8. A SIM can be used for various basic applications like storing contact book, SMS etc. as well as for Value Added Services (VAS) like STK. A SIM may be with single IMSI or with two IMSI (Dual IMSI) or three IMSI (triple IMSI). Dual IMSI or Triple IMSI application allows the operator to offer more than one different accounts on the same SIM card without any impact on the network side.

1.6

IDENTIFIERS

The Handset and SIM are identified in the network with a set of identifiers. The Handset is identified with IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity). Whereas SIM is identified with ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier) and IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity).

1.7

SUMMARY

Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is the most widely used wireless technology in the world today. GSM is a second generation (2G) wireless technology that provides high-quality voice and circuit-switched data services in a wide variety of spectrum bands. GSM pioneered many of the world's most popular data services, such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS). The GSM subscriber is provided with a SIM which is used to identify and authenticate the subscriber over the networks. The SIM provides the freedom to use a compatible

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Mobile Communications

Overview of Mobile Communication : Handset & SIM

handset of his/ her choice. Handsets are available ranging from a very basic phone to smart phones.

1.8
1. 2. 3.

SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Name the only mobile component in mobile communication Name the various identifiers used with SIM and Handsets. State various advantages of mobile communication over wire line communication.

1.9
1. 2. 3.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS

GSM System Engineering by Asha Mehrotra The GSM System for Mobile Communications by Michel Mouly, MarieBernadette Pautet. Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice By Theodore S. Rappaport.

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