GSM

GSM SERVICES & FEATURES

Services Provided By GSM 1. Telephony - Basic Teleservice

2. Other Services -Emergency calling -Voice Messaging

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Services Provided By GSM (Cont..)

3. Bearer Services - Low Speed data transfer (upto 9.6 Kbps) -Group 3 Fax and Sms 4. Supplementary ISDN Services - call offering , call forwarding, call restriction, call waiting, call hold. - Multiparty teleconferencing, special schemes

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

General Architecture Of GSM

BSC

HLR

VLR PSTN, ISDN

SIM

BTS MSC BTS Abis BSC EIR A AuC

NS Network Subsystem

ME

MS Um Mobile station

BSS Base Station Subsystem

System Architecture
Mobile Station (MS)
Mobile Equipment (ME) Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)

Base Station Subsystem (BSS) OR RADIO SUB SYSTEM

Base Transceiver Station (BTS) Base Station Controller (BSC)

Network Subsystem(NSS)
1. Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 2.Home Location Register (HLR) 3.Visitor Location Register (VLR) 4.Authentication Center (AUC) 5.Equipment Identity Register (EIR) OPERATION SUPPORT SUBSYSTEM(OSS)

System Architecture Mobile Station (MS)

The Mobile Station is made up of two entities: 1. Mobile Equipment (ME) 2. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)

System Architecture Mobile Station (MS) contd.

Mobile Equipment Produced by many different manufacturers Must obtain approval from the standardization body Uniquely identified by an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)

System Architecture Mobile Station (MS) contd.

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Smart card containing the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) Allows user to send and receive calls and receive other subscribed services Encoded network identification details Protected by a password or PIN Can be moved from phone to phone contains key information to activate the phone

System Architecture Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

Base Station Subsystem is composed of two parts that communicate across the standardized Abis interface allowing operation between components made by different suppliers 1. Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 2. Base Station Controller (BSC)

BSS
Provides and manage radio path between MS and MSC. BSS consists of BSC BSC Connects MS to the NSS Via the MSC. NSS manages the switching functions OSS supports operation & maintenance of the GSM.

System Architecture Base Station Subsystem (BSS) contd.

Base Transceiver Station (BTS) Houses the radio transceivers that define a cell Handles radio-link protocols with the Mobile Station Speech and data transmissions from the MS are recoded Requirements for BTS:
ruggedness reliability portability minimum costs

System Architecture Base Station Subsystem (BSS) contd.

Base Station Controller (BSC) Manages Resources for BTS Handles call set up Location update Handover for each MS

System Architecture Network Subsystem

Mobile Switching Center (MSC) Switch speech and data connections between:
Base Station Controllers Mobile Switching Centers GSM-networks Other external networks

Heart of the network Three main jobs:

1) connects calls from sender to receiver 2) collects details of the calls made and received 3) supervises operation of the rest of the network components

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Mobile Switching center:(MSC)

call set up/supervision/release call routing billing information collection mobility management paging, alerting, echo cancellation connection to BSC, other MSC and other local exchange networks Access to HLR and VLR

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

HLR BSC EIR MSC

VLR
PSTN, ISDN AuC

Network Subsystem MSC: Mobile Switching Center HLR: Home Location Register VLR: Visitor Location register AuC: Authentication Center EIR: Equipment Identity Register

interfaces
BTS TO BSC- Abis interface Abis interface-carries traffic and maintenance data BSC TO MSC-Leased lines/dedicated links(called A interface) A interface uses SS7 protocol

System Architecture Network Subsystem contd.

Home Location Registers (HLR)
- contains administrative information of each subscriber - current location of the mobile

Visitor Location Registers (VLR)

- contains selected administrative information from the HLR - authenticates the user - tracks which customers have the phone on and ready to receive a call - periodically updates the database on which phones are turned on and ready to receive calls

System Architecture Network Subsystem contd.

Authentication Center (AUC)
- mainly used for security - data storage location and functional part of the network

Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

- Database that is used to track handsets using the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) - Made up of three sub-classes: The White List, The Black List and the Gray List - Optional database

Basic Features Provided by GSM

Call Waiting
- Notification of an incoming call while on the handset

Call Hold
- Put a caller on hold to take another call

Call Barring
- All calls, outgoing calls, or incoming calls

Call Forwarding
- Calls can be sent to various numbers defined by the user

Multi Party Call Conferencing

- Link multiple calls together

Advanced Features Provided by GSM

Calling Line ID
- incoming telephone number displayed

Alternate Line Service

- one for personal calls - one for business calls

Closed User Group

- call by dialing last for numbers

Advice of Charge
- tally of actual costs of phone calls

Fax & Data

- Virtual Office / Professional Office

Roaming
- services and features can follow customer from market to market

Advantages of GSM
Crisper, cleaner quieter calls Security against fraud and eavesdropping International roaming capability in over 100 countries Improved battery life Efficient network design for less expensive system expansion Efficient use of spectrum Advanced features such as short messaging and caller ID A wide variety of handsets and accessories High stability mobile fax and data at up to 9600 baud Ease of use with over the air activation, and all account information is held in a smart card which can be moved from handset to handset

GSM RADIO SUBSYSTEM

TWO 25MHz cellular bands used. 890-915 MHz-subscriber to base station(reverse link) 935-960MHz-base to subscriber(forward link) No of available channels =125(assuming no guard band ) or 124 channels 8 time slots ,(125*8=1000),1000 traffic channels

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

GSM Using FDMA

200KHz

1 2 3 4 5 890MHz

Uplink Freq

124 915Mhz

Total Frequency range(Uplink)=25Mhz Spacing between two carriers= 200kHz No. of Carriers=25MHz/200KHz = 124

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

GSM Using TDMA

TDMA Frame is divided into 8 time slots.
Freq Time slots 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 45MHz 200 KHz

Down Link carrier Up Link carrier

03 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 7
4.6 ms 0.57ms Time

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Length of 26 TDMA frames = 120 msec Length of 1 TDMA frame =120/26 = 4.615 msec 1 TDMA frame consists of 8 burst frames Length of 1 burst frame = 0.577msec Out of 26 frames
24 are TCH used for traffic 1 is SACCH used for control 1 is unused

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Frame Multiframe 10 Tdma Frame 1 2 3 4 5

Duration=120ms 24 25 Duration=4.615ms

Format of a single Burst Duration=0.577ms 25 57 1 26 57 Data Training Data

Logical Channels in GSM

Two major classes of logical channels Traffic Channels (TCHs) Traffic Channels are used to carry speech , data and control information.

1 Traffic (TCH) Speech Full rate 22.8 kb/s Half rate 11.4 kb/s Data 9.6kb/s 4.8kb/s 2.4kb/s

Control Channels (CCHs) Signaling and synchronizing commands between base station and mobile station.
27

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Full rate or Half rate Full rate-user data within one TS/frame Half rate-share the time slot ,alternatively transmit Traffic Channels are defined using 26 TDMA frame multi frame. Every 26 frames the 13 and 26 frames consists of slow assisted control channel(SACCH)

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Full Rate Speech Channel (TCH/FS) Raw data rate 13 Kbps. With channel coding ,channel carries 22.8 kbps. Full Rate Data Channel for 9600 bps (TCH/F9.6) Full Rate Data Channel for 4800 bps (TCH/F4.8) Full Rate Data Channel for 2400 bps (TCH/F2.4)

Half Rate TCH

TCH/HS-11.4 Kbps Half Rate Data Channel for 4800 bps (TCH/H4.8) Half Rate Data Channel for 2400 bps (TCH/H2.4) 3 control channels ,BCH,CCCH,DCCH Control channel consists of several logic channels

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

3 Main Control (CCH)

Broadcast (BCCH)
Freq correction (FCCH) Synchronization (SCH)

Common (CCH)
Paging (PCH) Access grant (AGCH) Random Access (RACH)

Dedicated (DCCH)
Fast Associative (FACCH) Slow Associative (SACCH) Stand alone (SDCCH)

CONTROL CHANNEL(CONTD)
BCH and CCCH are allocated only TS 0 (51 frame sequence) TS 1 through TS 7-carries regular traffic 34 Absolute Radio frequency channel Numbers(ARFCN) as standard broadcast channels. Frame 51 does not contain any BCH/CCCHIDLE FRAME. (FORWARD CHANNEL)

Broadcast Channels(BCH)
Operates on the forward link of ARFCN(Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number) within each cell and transmits data only in the first time slot. Uses only the forward link. Provides synchronization for all mobiles with in the cell. BCH data is transmitted in TS 0,

BCH CONTD..
7 Time slots are used for TCH or dummy bursts. 3 separate channels which are given access to TS 0 (51 frame sequence) Broadcast Control Channel(BCCH) Frequency correction channel(FCCH) Synchronization Channel(SCH)

BCCH
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) (UNI DIRECTIONAL)
BTS to MS
send cell identities, organization info about common control channels, cell service available, etc

Radio channel configuration

Current cell + Neighbouring cells Frequencies + frame numbering LA + Cell Identification (CI) + Base Station Identity Code (BSIC)
Prof. Anirudha Sahoo 3.35

Synchronizing information

Registration Identifiers

FCCH & SCH

Frequency Correction Channel
send a frequency correction data burst containing all zeros to effect a constant frequency shift of RF carrier Mobile station knows which frequency to use

Repeated broadcast of Frequency Bursts

Synchronization Channel
send TDMA frame number and base station identity code to synchronize MSs MS knows which timeslot to use

Repeated broadcast of Synchronization Bursts

Prof. Anirudha Sahoo 3.36

CCCH
Commonly used control channels. Page specific users, assign signaling channels to specific users, receive mobile requests Consists of three different channels. PCH PAGING CHANNEL(Forward link channel) RACH-Random Access Channel(Reverse link channel) AGCH-Access Grant Channel(forward link channel)

PCH & RACH

Paging Channel (PCH) - forward link channel
Provides paging signals to all the Base station to Mobiles

Random Access Channel (RACH) -Reverse Link Channel -Ack page from a PCH -Slotted ALOHA Protocol
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AGCH & DCCH

Access Grant Channel(AGCH) - FORWARD LINK CHANNEL -FINAL CCCH message sent by the BS
DCCH (dedicated control channel):
bidirectional point-to-point -- main signaling channels

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3.39

TYPES OF DCCH
Standalone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH)
MS => BS Standalone; Independent of Traffic Channel Used before MS is assigned a TCH for service request, subscriber authentication, equipment validation, assignment to a traffic channel

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3.40

TYPES DCCH CONTD..

SACCH (Slow Associated Control Channel): -FORWARD LINK-slow but regular changing control information to the mobile for out-of-band signaling associated with a traffic channel, eg, signal strength measurements FACCH (Fast Associated Control Channel): -- carries urgent messages --FACCH is assigned whenever a SDCCH has not been dedicated for a particular user.(for handoff messages)
Uses "stealing frames from the TCH , stealing is done by 2 special bits. If the bit is set, the time slot is known as to contain FACCH data ,not TCH for that frame.

Power On

Scan Channels, monitor RF levels

Select the channel with highest RF level among the control channels

Scan the channel for the FCCH Select the channel with next highest Rf level from the control list. NO Is FCCH detected? YES Scan channel for SCH NO

Is SCH detected?

YES

Read data from BCCH and determine is it BCCH? From the channel data update the control channel list NO Is the current BCCH channel included?

YES

FCCH Freq correction channel SCH synchronization channel

Camp on BCCH and start decoding Prof. Anirudha Sahoo

3.42

Example: Outgoing call setup

User keys in the number and presses send Mobile transmits Set Up message on uplink signaling channel (RACH) to the MSC MSC requests HLR/VLR to get subscriber parameters necessary for handling the call. VLR/HLR sends Complete Call msg to the MSC MSC sends an Assignment message to the BSS and asks it to assign TCH for the MS BSS allocates a radio channel (TCH) and sends an Assignment message to MS over SDCCH MS tunes to the radio channel (TCH) and sends an Assignment Complete message to the BSS. BSS deallocates SDCCH. Now voice path is established between MS and MSC MSC completes the PSTN side of the signaling.
Prof. Anirudha Sahoo 3.43

Bursts
Building unit of physical channel Types of bursts
Normal: for transmitting messages in traffic and control channels Frequency Correction: sent by base station for frequency correction at mobile station Synchronization: sent by base station for synchronization Access: for call setup Dummy: to fill an empty timeslot in the absence of data
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Normal Burst
Normal Burst
2*(3 head bit + 57 data bits + 1 signaling bit) + 26 training sequence bit + 8.25 guard bit 57 DATA BITS + 1 STEALING BIT Used for all except RACH, FCCH & SCH

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Traffic Multiframe
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GSM Speech Coding

104 kbps 13 kbps RPE-LTP Channel speech encoder encoder

Analog speech

Low-pass filter

A/D

8000 samples/s, 13 bits/sample

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3.48

GSM
The European TDMA Digital Cellular Standard

Speech coding
Speech is digitized by PCM, o/p of PCM is 64Kb/s It is further reduced by Regular pulse excitedLinear predictive coder, bit rate achieved 13kb/s for full rate (260 bits in 20 msec) Further encoded for error correction, 456 bits per 20 msec, bit rate = 22.8 Kb/s 456 bits are divided into 8 blocks and transmitted during 8 burst periods.

Full Rate Speech Coding

Speech Coding for 20ms segments
260 bits at the output ; Effective data rate 13kbps

Unequal error protection

182 bits are protected 78 bits unprotected

Channel Encoding
Codes 260 bits into (8 x 57 bit blocks) 456 bits

Interleaving
2 blocks of different set interleaved on a normal burst (save damages by error bursts)
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GSM Speech Coding

Bit interleaving: to spread effects of Rayleigh fading across data blocks
channel coder

blocks 57-bit segments 114-bit segments Normal burst 1 2 3

456 bits 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3

456 bits 4 5 6 7 8

1 TB

2 Data

5 Data

7 H TB G

H Training
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GSM Radio Link Processes

Transmit Path
Low Bit Rate Speech Coding

Receive Path
Low Bit Rate Speech Decoding

Channel Coding

Channel Decoding

Bit Interleaving

Bit Deinterleaving

Encryption

Decryption

Overhead
Burst Building and Multiplexing

Demultiplexing Delay Equalisation

Overhead

Carrier Modulation

Carrier Demodulation

Traffic Channel Structure for Full Rate Coding

Slots 1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Bursts for Users allocated in Slot

1 2 3 T 4 T 5 T 6 T 7 8

T T

9T 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 T T T T S T T T T

26 I

T = Traffic S = Signal( contains information about the signal strength in neighboring cells)

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Traffic Channel Structure for Half Rate Coding

Slots 1

Burst for one users

1 2 T 3 T 4 5 T 6 7 T 8 9 T 10 T 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 T 26

Bursts for another users allocated in alternate Slots 1 2 3 4 5 6 T 7 8 9 T 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

T T T

26 S
3.54

T
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GSM Summary
Uplink frequencies Downlink frequencies Total GSM bandwidth 890-915 MHz 935-960 MHz 25 MHz up + 25 MHz down

Channel bandwidth
Number of RF carriers Multiple access Users/carrier Number of simul. users Speech coding rate FEC coded speech rate

200 kHz
124 TDMA 8 992 13 kb/s 22.8 kb/s
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GSM service quality requirements

Speech intelligibility Max one-way delay Max handoff gap Time to alert mobile of inbound cell Release time to called network Connect time to called network 90% 90 ms 150 ms if intercell 4 sec first attempt, 15 sec final attempt 2 sec

4 sec

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GSM 900 and GSM 1800

Frequency band Border spacing Duplex spacing Carrier spacing Carriers Timeslots per carrier Multiple access Typical cell range Handset Power GSM 900 890-915 MHz 935-960 MHz 25 MHz 45 MHz 200 kHz 124 8 TDMA/FDMA <300m 35 km 0.8 & 8 W GSM 1800 1710-1785 MHz 1805-1880 MHz 75 MHz 95 MHz 200 kHz 374 8 TDMA/FDMA <100m 15 km 0.25 & 1 W

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GSM: Frequency Hopping

Optionally, TDMA is combined with frequency hopping to address problem of channel fading
TDMA bursts are transmitted in a pre-calculated sequence of different frequencies (algorithm programmed in mobile station) If a TDMA burst happens to be in a deep fade, then next burst most probably will not be so Helps to make transmission quality more uniform among all subscribers

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GSM handoffs
Intra-BSS: if old and new BTSs are attached to same base station
MSC is not involved

Intra-MSC: if old and new BTSs are attached to different base stations but within same MSC
Inter-MSC: if MSCs are changed
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GSM Intra-MSC handoff

1. Mobile station monitors signal quality and determines handoff is required, sends signal measurements to serving BSS 2. Serving BSS sends handoff request to MSC with ranked list of qualified target BSSs 3. MSC determines that best candidate BSS is under its control 4. MSC reserves a trunk to target BSS 5. Target BSS selects and reserves radio channels for new connection, sends Ack to MSC 6. MSC notifies serving BSS to begin handoff, including new radio channel assignment
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GSM Intra-MSC handoff

7. Serving BSS forwards new radio channel assignment to mobile station 8. Mobile station retunes to new radio channel, notifies target BSS on new channel 9. Target BSS notifies MSC that handoff is detected 10.Target BSS and mobile station exchange messages to synchronize transmission in proper timeslot 11.MSC switches voice connection to target BSS, which responds when handoff is complete 12.MSC notifies serving BSS to release old radio traffic channel
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GSM Inter-MSC handoff

1. MS sends signal measurements to serving BSS 2. Serving BSS sends handoff request to MSC 3. Serving MSC determines that best candidate BSS is under control of a target MSC and calls target MSC 4. Target MSC notifies its VLR to assign a TMSI 5. Target VLR returns TMSI 6. Target MSC reserves a trunk to target BSS 7. Target BSS selects and reserves radio channels for new connection, sends Ack to target MSC 8. Target MSC notifies serving MSC that it is ready for handoff
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GSM Inter-MSC handoff

9. Serving MSC notifies serving BSS to begin handoff, including new radio channel assignment 10. Serving BSS forwards new radio channel assignment to mobile station 11. Mobile station retunes to new radio channel, notifies target BSS on new channel 12. Target BSS notifies target MSC that handoff is detected 13. Target BSS and mobile station synchronize timeslot 14. Voice connection is switched to target BSS, which responds when handoff is complete 15. Target MSC notifies serving MSC 16. Old network resources are released
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