GSM Network

Architecture
MASOOD HABIB
CUSIT
Peshawar
Motivation
Outline
 Introduction and history.
 GSM architecture.
 Implementation.
 Technology and standards.
 Summary
Introduction
 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)
 Anybody – 500 million users (may 2001)
 Anywhere – 168 countries (may 2001)
 Any media – voice, messaging, data, multimedia

Source: Hillebrand, 1
What is mobile Communication?
GSM ????????
 Global system for mobile communication
(GSM) is a globally accepted standard for
digital cellular communication. GSM is the
name of a standardization group
established in 1982……
Why GSM in 1982?
 Good subjective speech quality
 Low terminal and service cost
 Support for international roaming
 Ability to support handheld terminals
 Support for range of new services and
facilities
 ISDN compatibility
Summary of GSM milestones
Year Milestone
1982 GSM formed
1986 field test

1987 TDMA chosen as access method

memorandum of understanding
1988
signed
1989 validation of GSM system
1991 commercial system start-up
1992 coverage of larger cities/airports
1993 coverage of main roads
1995 coverage of rural areas
Phased GSM Approach 1
 GSM Phase 1 features
 Call Forwarding
 All Calls
 No Answer
 Engaged
 Unreachable
 Global roaming - Visit any other country
with GSM and a roaming agreement and
use your phone and existing number
Phased GSM Approach 2
 GSM Phase 2 features
 SMS - Short Message Service - Allows you to send text messages too
and from phones
 Multi Party Calling - Talk to five other parties as well as yourself at the
same time
 Call Holding - Place a call on Hold
 Call Waiting - Notifies you of another call whilst on a call
 Mobile Data Services - Allows handsets to communicate with
computers
 Mobile Fax Service - Allows handsets to send, retrieve and receive
faxes
 Calling Line Identity Service - This facility allows you to see the
telephone number of the incoming caller on our handset before
answering
 Advice of Charge - Allows you to keep track of call costs
 Mobile Terminating Fax - Another number you are issued with that
receives faxes that you can then download to the nearest fax machine.
Phased GSM Approach 3
 GSM Phase 2 + features
 Available by 1998
 Upgrade and improvements to existing services
 GSM in the local loop
 Virtual Private Networks
 Packet Radio
 SIM enhancements
 Premium rate services (e.g. Stock prices sent to your
phone)
GSM Radio Interface
 Spectrum
 900 MHz (and 1800 MHz)
 890-915 MHz Uplink - 935-960 MHz Downlink
 FDMA
 124 carriers under 900 MHz
 TDMA
8 Time Slots per carrier
 1 (physical) channel per Time Slot
1 channel = 1 communication = 15/26 ms
 Cellular System
 The geographic
land link
MSC VLR area is divided into
HLR cells
land link
 Each cell has a
Base Station
VLR MSC managing the
Base Station communications
 A set of cells
Radio link managed by a
MSC Mobile Switching Center single MSC is
VLR Visitor Location Register called Location
HLR Home Location Register Area
Base Station
 In radio communications, a base station is a
wireless communications station installed at a
fixed location and used to communicate as part
of either:
 a push-to-talk two-way radio system, or;
 a wireless telephone system such as cellular
CDMA or GSM.
A Typical GSM Base Station
(Wikipedia.org,2008)
Base Station Sub System
 The Base Station Subsystem (BSS) is the
section of a traditional cellular telephone
network which is responsible for handling
traffic and signaling between a mobile phone
and the Network Switching Subsystem.
 The BSS carries out transcoding of speech
channels, allocation of radio channels to
mobile phones, paging, quality management of
transmission and reception over the Air interface
and many other tasks related to the radio
network.
Base Transceiver Station
 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) is the equipment
which facilitates the wireless communication between
user equipments (UE) and the network.

 The Base Transceiver Station, or BTS, contains the

equipment for transmitting and receiving of radio
signals (transceivers), antennas, and equipment for
encrypting and decrypting communications with the Base
Station Controller (BSC).

 A BTS is controlled by a parent BSC via the Base

Station Control Function (BCF).
Antenna

(Wikipedia.org,2008)
Base Station Controller

 The Base Station Controller (BSC) provides,

classically, the intelligence behind the BTSs.
Typically a BSC has 10s or even 100s of BTSs
under its control. The BSC handles allocation of
radio channels, receives measurements from the
mobile phones, controls handovers from BTS to
BTS.
MSC
 The Mobile Switching Center or MSC is the
primary service delivery node for GSM,
responsible for handling voice calls and SMS as
well as other services (such as conference calls,
FAX). The MSC sets up and releases the end-
to-end connection, handles mobility and hand-
over requirements during the call and takes care
of charging and real time pre-paid account
monitoring.
Packet Control Unit

 The Packet Control Unit (PCU) is a late addition

to the GSM standard. It performs some of the
processing tasks of the BSC, but for packet
data. The allocation of channels between voice
and data is controlled by the base station, but
once a channel is allocated to the PCU, the PCU
takes full control over that channel.
VLR & HLR
 Visitor Location Register (VLR) is a database - part of
the GSM mobile phone system - which stores information
about all the mobiles that are currently under the
jurisdiction of the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) which it
serves.

 The 'Home Location Register' or HLR is a central

database that contains details of each mobile phone
subscriber that is authorized to use the GSM core
network.
Public switched telephone
network
 The public switched telephone network
(PSTN) is the network of the world's public
circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the
same way that the Internet is the network of the
world's public IP-based packet-switched
networks. Originally a network of fixed-line
analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now
almost entirely digital, and now includes mobile
as well as fixed telephones.
GSM Architecture
PLMN
Databases NSS Network and Switching
Subsystem
EIR VLR VLR HLR AuC
EIR Equipment Identity Register
AuC Authentication Center
PSTN

MSC MSC GMSC

GMSC Gateway MSC
SSP

Switches NSS
BSS Base Station System
SSP
BSC Base Station Controller
BSC BSS
BTS Base Transceiver Station
BSS
MS Mobile Station
MS SSP Service Switching Point
BTS
Radio Systems
 Operation and
Support System
OSS is to provide a
network overview and
support the maintenance
activities
Speech Coding
Incoming GSM Call

2
Where is the cellular phone?
 Handset Switched ON > "here I am"
 Location update
 The radio station relays the information
to the nearest exchange: The VLR
 The VLR updates the HLR
 This way, the home exchange
always knows where the phone is
 The telephone number of the cellular
phone indicates the home exchange.
Roaming (# Handover)
 Roaming is the ability to use your own GSM
phone number in another GSM network.
 A roaming agreement is a business
agreement between two network operators
to transfer items such as call charges and
subscription information back and forth, as
their subscribers roam into each others
areas.
Location Based Services
 GSM Architecture Network
Home Location
Register Management
BTS = Base Transceiver Station Center
AuC
AuC = Authentication Center
Equipment ID
OMC = Operation and Maintenance Center
PSTN = Public Switched Telephone Network
ME = Mobile Equipment Visitor Location OMC
Register

Subscriber B
Identity ME T Mobile
S
Data
Module switching
communication
center network
Subscriber B Base station
Identity ME T

Module
S
controller

Subscriber B
Identity ME T PSTN
S
Module
Source: Stallings, 313
Source: Mehrotra, 27
GSM Architecture
MS Transmission BS Transmission
Band : 890 – 915 Band : 935 – 960
MHZ MHZ
45 MHz
Year Introduced 1990

Access method TDMA

1
2 Channel Bandwidth 200 kHz
3
4 Number of duplex 125
5 channels
6
7
Users per channel 8
F1 F2 F1' F2' 8
Frequency Speech coding bit 13 kbps
rate
Data coding bit rate 12 kbps

Frame size 4.6 ms

SIM (Subscriber Identity Module)
Billions of Calls
Millions of Subscribers
Thousand of Different Types of
Telephones
Hundreds of Countries
•Administrative data
Dozens of Manufacturers….
•Security data
And only one Card: The SIM
•Subscriber data
•Roaming data
•PLMN (Public Land Mobile
Network

Source: Hillebrand, 369

http://ucables.com/products/simcards/
Implementation
Receiver
>Channel Decoding
Voice decoding >De-Interleaving Deciphering Demodulation
>Re-formatting

>Channel encoding
>Interleaving
Voice encoding Ciphering Modulation Amplifier
>Burst generation
Transmitter
Central processor, clock and tone, internal bus system, keyboard
(HMI)

SIM = Subscriber Identity Module

Source: Heine, 14
 GSM Variants
Variant Uplink Downlink Total Duplex- Channels
(MHz) (MHz) Bandwidth frequency
GSM-400 451-458 and 461-468 and Twice 14 MHz 10 MHz Twice 72
479-486 489-496

GSM-900 890-915 935-960 Twice 25 MHz 45 MHz Twice 124

(primary
band)
Extended 880-915 925-960 Twice 35 MHz 45 MHz Twice 174
GSM-900
GSM-R 876-880 921-925 Twice 4 MHz 45 MHz Twice 19
DCS-1800 1,710-1,785 1,805-1,880 Twice 75 MHz 95 MHz Twice 373
PCS-1900 1,850-1,910 1,930-1,990 Twice 60 MHz 80 MHz Twice 300

Source: Bekkers, 299

GSM
Logical control channels
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH)
downlink only, used to broadcast Cell specific information;
Synchronization Channel (SCH)
downlink only, used to broadcast synchronization and BSS identification
information;
Paging Channel (PCH)
downlink only, used to send page requests to Mobile Stations;
Random Access Channel (RACH)
uplink only, used to request a Dedicated Control Channel;
Access Grant Channel (AGCH)
downlink only, used to allocate a Dedicated Control CHANNEL;
Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH)
bi‑directional;
Fast Associated Control Channel (FACCH)
bi‑directional, associated with a Traffic Channel;
Slow Associated Control Channel (SACCH)
bi‑directional, associated with a SDCCH or a Traffic Channel;
Cell Broadcast Channel (CBCH)
downlink only used for general (not point to point) short message information.
Summary
 Network architecture
 Implementation
 Voice application
 Data application
SIM Card
SIM?
SIM Card
 The SIM - Subscriber Identity Module - is a
smart chip card, about the size of a
postage stamp.
SIM?
 A SIM card is actually a tiny computer in your
phone.

Current SIMs typically have 16 to 64 kb of

memory, which provides plenty of room for
storing hundreds of personal phone numbers,
text messages, value-added services and
important for us: position data (coordinates) of
tracked animals
SIM Content
 User ID
 IMSI, Ki, PINs, PUKs, etc
 Phone Book
 SMS
 A3/A8 Algorithm
 Challenge response application
 Other info
 Directory structure
SIM and Handy

OSI 7816
 Stack

Application
Application
•Symbian and other Oss
•Direct access to HW APIs
APIs
e.g.
e.g. Symbian
Symbian
Hardware
Hardware
References
Bekkers, Rudi. Mobile Communications Standards: GSM, UMTS, TETRA, and
ERMES. Norwood, MA: Artech House, Inc., 2001.

Halonen, Romero, and Melero. GSM, GPRS, and EDGE Performance: Evolution
Towards 3G/UMTS. England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2003.

Hillebrand, Friedhelm. GSM and UMTS: The Creation of Global Mobile

Communications. England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2002.

Heine, Gunnar. GSM Networks: Protocols, Terminology, and Implementation.

Norwood, MA: Artech House, Inc., 1999.

Mehrotra, Asha. GSM System Engineering. Norwood, MA: Artech House, Inc., 1997.

Harte, Levine, and Livingston. GSM Superphones. United States: APDG Publishing,
Inc. A Division of McGraw-Hill, 1999.