GSM Noncombined channel Configuration

This page describes GSM Noncombined channel configuration for TS0 and TS1. It covers 51 frame
multiframe structure mentioning FCCH,SCH,BCCH,CCCH,SDCCH channel mapping on TS0 and
TS1 for both downlink and uplink.
As mentioned in GSM Channel types signaling channels SDCCH are not combined with
(FCCH+SCH+BCCH+CCCH) on time slot TS0. They are mapped on separate time slot TS1 as
shown in the figure.
In noncombined case, there are nine CCCH blocks mentioned as CCCH(0) to CCCH(8). If the
System information messages (SIs) are more and can not be occupied in BCCH block then first
CCCH block i.e. CCCH(0) can also be used for BCCH and SIs are transmitted on the same.
In GSM system BS_AG_BLKS_RES parameter is used to determine how many of CCCH blocks are
used for AGCH and how many for PCH. This parameter is of 3 bit field and is transmitted on BCCH
SI-3. It has range from 0 to 7. Value of 2 indicates 2 blocks are reserved for AGCH and
remaining(i.e.7) blocks are for PCH. For more details visit GSM Terminology page.
GSM Noncombined channel Configuration for TS0 is mentioned in below figure.

As shown in the figure-1, BCCH/CCCH is mapped in TS0 and as shown in figure-2, SDCCH in TS1.
A total of 8 users can share a time slot. Due to this it is called as SDCCH/8 combination. Here 8
designates that there are 8 total subchannels and each are used by 8 different SDCCH user. From
figure-2 it depicts that there are 8 SDCCHs and 4 SACCHs in downlink multiframe. This is due to
rate of SDCCH is twice that of SACCH channel.
GSM Noncombined channel Configuration for TS1 is mentioned in below figure.

GSM Combined channel configuration
This page describes GSM combined channel configuration for TS0. It covers 51 frame multiframe
structure mentioning FCCH,SCH,BCCH,CCCH,SDCCH,SACCH channel mapping on TS0 for both
downlink and uplink.
As mentioned in GSM Channel types signaling channels SDCCH are combined with
(FCCH+SCH+BCCH+CCCH) on time slot TS0.
In this configuration, position of FCCH+SCH+BCCH is not changed, but CCCH capacity is reduced
from 9 blocks to mere 3 blocks. This 6 blocks are used by 4 blocks of SDCCH and 2 blocks of
SACCH.
In the downlink CCCH gives a way for signaling channels(SDCCH/SACCH) and similarly in the
uplink RACH gives a way for these signaling channels as shown in the figure below.