Mobile Networks

GPRS

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GPRS offers an always-on Internet access GPRS is a packet-oriented data service:

The

TDMA radio slot are used only when transmitting some packet We do a statistical multiplexing of more users over the same slots The fixed part of the network is an IP packet network We add new network nodes that are in fact IP routers

GPRS Network architecture

GPRS Protocols

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

It is an IP router that mimicks in GPRS the same functions that the MSC has in GSM Of course it adds special capabilities to the ones of an IP router:

It

handles BSS interfaces and protocols It manages mobility It routes higher level packets to the right GGSN

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

Tasks:
Authentication

and ciphering procedures ; they are the same ones of GSM Together with GSM RR management it allocates radio resources to each user It routes the IP packets in the PLMN network up to the GGSN node It encapsulates and tunnels the MS packets:

A GTP ( GPRS Tunneling Protocol) tunnel between SGSN and GGSN carries the GPRS packets ( usually IP, but X.25 too) The tunnel has a TID ( Tunnel Identifier ) for each user, derived from the IMSI

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

More tasks:
User

mobility management:

There is a LR (Location Register) like the VLR Localization and subscription data are stored in the LR
Setup

an LLC (Logical Link Control ) connection with the MS, used for reading and writing informations from the MS

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

It bridges GPRS and PDN (Packet Data Network) Usually the PDN is a public IP network (Internet) or a private one (Intranet, normally via an IPSEC tunnel) It encapsulates in GTP tunnels with the current SGSN the mobile user data It stores in its LR the current SGSN of each user, its profile and current PDP context On demand it activates the PDP context:

It describes the connection with an external network, e.g. the assigned IP address, the connection type ( e.g. the Intranet tunnel ), the requested QoS

When connecting to the outside, it behaves like a normal IP router

PCU Packet Control Unit

We must modify the BSC to include GPRS resource handling and implement packet protocols : this is the PCU The PCU is usually located in the BSC (but it could also be in the BTS) Tasks:
Segmentation/reassembly

of LLC level frames Scheduling of packet transmissions in the physical channels (PDCH-Packet Data Channel) ARQ Protocol Channel access control ( resource request and grant) Channel management ( Power control, congestion, control information broadcast, etc)

GPRS

GPRS Protocols

The GPRS protocol stack is defined by:

At

the radio interface:

Management protocols for dynamic resource sharing, as typical for packet networks, at media access level (MAC) and link control level (RLC/LLC) Media access is controlled by request and grant Link control has a retransmission mechanism when errors are detected

On

the fixed network:

IP transport Higher level encapsulation ( normally IP ) in a tunneling protocol (GTP) that is also used for mobility management

SNDCP Subnetwork Dependent Convergence Protocol

It adapts to the network level tunneled by GPRS (IP or X.25) and makes the transport level independent from the transported protocol It offers to higher levels a transport service for varying length PDU between SGSN and MS According to OSI rules, it identifies the type of the higher level using the communication SAPI (NSAPI Network Service Access Point Identifier) It offers:

Compression/decompression of higher level headers Segmentation/reassembly of higher level PDU Multiplexing of many NSAPI over the same LLC link

LLC Logical Link Control

It is a level 2 protocol like the LAPD It implements a logical ciphered p-to-p connection between SGSN and MS It can be used in two modes:

Acknowledged

uses ARQ ( the one from the

RLC level) Unacknowledged no error control or only bad frame detection, it is used for signalling and SMS

RLC Radio Link Control

It implements ARQ splitting the information units in RLC blocks with error detection codes The ARQ is Selective Reject The blocks are numbered modulo 128 The transmission window is 64 It uses cumulative ACK and NACK It can also be unacknowledged

MAC Medium Access Control

It is used for dynamic sharing of radio resources It manages downlink information flow multiplexing It handles access and collisions in uplink It uses an uplink mechanism that has requests sent on contention slots and then allocation grants via downlink signalling

Physical Level

GPRS defines 4 channel coding schema up to 20 kb/s EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution) adds lighter coding and multilevel modulations (8PSK)

Fixed Network

BSSGP (BSS GPRS Protocol)

It

allows signalling and data exchange between SGSN and BSC It uses the lower level transport network

Network service:
It

allows data transport between SGSN and BSS that are not usually connected with dedicated links Usually it is a frame relay circuit ( a PVC between SGSN and BSC)

GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

It allows a transparent transport of network packets (IP or X.25) between GGSN and SGSN over the IP network of the GPRS provider It is like other tunneling protocols used with IP networks ( e.g. IPSEC ) but uses a transport layer that is:

TCP

for more reliable links (usually for X.25) UDP for best effort service (usually for IP)

Physical and logical channels

The physical channel used by GRPS is the PDCH (Packet Data Channel) It uses a slot each frame The minimum transmission unit is the Radio Block The Radio Block is a sequence of 456 coded bits sent from the MAC/RLC to the physical layer that is sent in 4 normal bursts The radio resources are assigned dynamically in Radio Blocks and not in physical slots

Logical channels

PPCH Packet Paging Channel PRACH Packet Random Access Channel PAGCH Packet Access Grant Channel PNCH Packet Notification Channel The set of the above channels is the PCCCH (Packet Common Control Channel) PBCCH Packet Broadcast Control Channel PDTCH Packet Data Traffic Channel (Up or Down) PACCH Packet Associated Control Channel PTACCH Packet Timing Advance Control Channel

Logical channels mapping

We use a multiframe built out of 52 frames In the multiframe 48 frames carry 12 Radio Blocks, 2 are reserved for the PTCCH, 2 are idle ones Mapping of logical into physical channels is packet oriented In the MAC header of each radio block we store the payload type and therefore the logical channel type

Medium Access Control

The MAC dynamically assigns the resources to the MS The transmission resources allocated to a terminal are named TBF (Temporary Flow Block) Each MS can use more than a time slot (PDCH) at the same time The usable PDCH set is assigned from the network to the MS ( at MAC level) together with an USF (3 bit Uplink State Flag) The real usability of a PDCH by an MS depends from the USF value included in the MAC header of downlink radio blocks USF=111 means free, that is that the PRACH can be used for TFB requests, that are granted via the downlink PAGCH

GPRS Radio Access

The slots are shared There is explicit addressing in the MAC header We can use all slots left free by voice service

Mobility Management

Mobility management changes according to MS status:

Idle

It cannot transmit or receive packets and the network considers the MS unreachable It cannot transmit or receive packets but can receive paging informations and signalling ; the MS has been localized in a routing area (RA) associated to an SGSN It can transmit or receive packets and its cell location is known ( we know its CGI Cell Global Identity )

Standby

Ready

Mobility Management

Changeover from idle to ready and viceversa is done via GPRS attach/detach procedures Changeover from ready to standy happens according to an inactivity timer reset by sending LLC frames Changeover from standby to ready happens by sending LLC frames GPRS mobility management is like the GSM one, but the reference one is the SGSN, not the MSC/VLR

Session Management
We must activate a Packet Data Protocol context before sending packets to and from an external network If we activate a session with an external IP network, we must also assign an IP address to the MS, that can be static or dynamic, private or public

GPRS Applications

GPRS Applications