Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Ariel Pashtan
Ariel Pashtan
Aware Networks, Inc., Buffalo Grove, Illinois, USA
Keywords: mobile network, mobile terminal, cellular phone, cellular service, cellular
operator, mobile subscriber, radio access network, core network, cell site, wireless
application protocol, wireless Internet, short message, instant message, emergency call,
quality-of-service.
Contents
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1. Introduction
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2. Mobile networks
3. Mobile terminals
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4. Cellular telephony evolution: from 1G to 3G
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5. Cellular services
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6. Cellular quality-of-service
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7. Billing for cellular services
8. Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
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Biographical Sketch
To cite this chapter
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Summary
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Cellular telephony encompasses the use of cellular phones to place voice calls,
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exchange short messages, transmit data, browse the web, and issue multimedia calls. In
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this topic we describe the evolution of cellular telephony mobile networks, mobile
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terminal features, and elaborate on the associated cellular services and underlying
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supporting technologies.
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1. Introduction
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Cellular telephony has evolved to include many services that are based on the
transmission of data and multimedia, not just voice. Mobile subscriber services offered
by cellular operators are described next. The underlying technologies of some services
are detailed as well. Finally, we end with a description of cellular telephony quality-of-
service and explain how cellular operators bill for user services.
2. Mobile Networks
Cellular telephony derives its name from the partition of a geographic area into small
“cells”. Each cell is covered by a local radio transmitter and receiver just powerful
enough to enable connectivity with cellular phones, referred to also as mobile terminals,
within its area (Figure 1). The set of cells forms the radio access network, and the radio
frequencies used for the transmission of calls and data can be reused between cells. A
different type of reuse, digital code reuse, is used in CDMA-based networks described
later on. Voice and data exchanged between a mobile terminal and regular phone
networks, or the Internet, are transmitted via the mobile network which consists of the
cellular operator’s radio access network and core network.
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A cell site is a site where antennas and radio transmitters and receivers are placed to
create a radio coverage area in the mobile network. Cell sites can be omni-sector,
meaning that the same frequencies are used in all directions, 3-sector where the site
coverage is partitioned into three distinct directional areas, each referred to as a cell
(Figure 2), or 6-sector if the partition is into six areas, in which case the site consists of
six cells. A separate radio frequency is used for each direction of the communication
between mobile terminal and cell site. Communication from the mobile terminal to the
cell site is referred to as uplink transmission, and the reverse direction is the downlink.
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The spectrum of radio frequencies available for communication is limited and a benefit
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of a mobile network is its ability to reuse radio frequencies in different cells, provided
that radio interference does not affect the calls. This reuse provides for increased
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area. As the number of mobile subscribers increases, more cells can be added or existing
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cells can be split into smaller ones. Two major factors that impact interference are the
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distance between cells and the cells’ transmission power. The layout of cells, allocation
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of frequencies, and transmission power specifications are part of radio frequency (RF)
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Radio frequencies are allocated to different cellular radio technologies as shown in the
map of Figure 3 and associated tables (Error! Reference source not found. - Error!
Reference source not found.). Only a few countries are listed as examples of the
spectrum allocation.
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Figure 3: Radio frequencies allocation; (Source: www.ctia.org)
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Finland GSM-900/1800
France GSM-900/1800
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Germany GSM-900/1800
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Greece GSM-900/1800
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Syria GSM-900/1800
Turkey GSM-900/1800, NMT-450
UAE GSM-900, W-CDMA
Uzbekistan GSM-900/1800, CDMA-800, TDMA-800
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Egypt GSM-900
Ethiopia GSM-900
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Ghana GSM-900, TACS-800, AMPS-800
Kenya GSM-900
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Nigeria O GSM-900/1800, TACS-800
Senegal GSM-900/1800
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South Africa GSM-900/1800
800, AMPS-800
Mexico GSM-900/1800
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USA GSM-900/1800
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800, AMPS-800
Brazil GSM-1800, CDMA-800, TDMA-800, iDEN-800,
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AMPS-800
Chile GSM-1900, CDMA-1900, TDMA-800, AMPS-800
Colombia GSM-800/1900, CDMA-800, TDMA-800, AMPS-800
Costa Rica GSM-1800, TDMA-800
Ecuador GSM-800, TDMA-800, AMPS-800
Paraguay GSM-1900, TDMA-800/1900, AMPS-800
Peru GSM-1900, TDMA-800/1900, AMPS-800
Puerto Rico GSM-800/1900, CDMA-1900, TDMA-800/1900,
AMPS-800
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Taiwan GSM-900/1800, CDMA-800
Thailand GSM-900/1800/1900, CDMA-800, AMPS-800
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Table 6: ITU region 3 (yellow)
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2.3. Subscriber Mobility
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Cellular telephony is different from landline telephony in that the mobile subscriber can
place and receive calls while on the move without any disruptions in the calls. When a
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mobile subscriber travels during a call, the network will maintain the call so that it
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proceeds uninterrupted by handing it off between cells in the mobile subscriber’s path
(Figure 4 ).
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Since adjacent cells use different radio frequencies, the mobile terminal moves from one
radio frequency to another in the process of being handed off. The design of a cellular
system needs to verify that handoffs are fast so that roaming subscribers don’t
experience any noticeable break in their calls.
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subscriber through ringing that there is a pending call.
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The partition of a cellular network into separate location areas and the corresponding
location updates issued by the mobile terminal ensure that subscriber location is an
efficient procedure. The alternative, if there are no location areas, is to page the whole
network, which could span the whole of a country, whenever there is an incoming call.
This would obviously place too high an overhead on a network’s communication
channels. The smaller the size of location areas, the higher the number of location
updates issued by roaming subscribers. Effective sizing of a network’s location areas
ensures that the number of location updates does not negatively impact the network’s
communication capacities.
3. Mobile Terminals
Today’s mobile terminals provide relatively large color screens. Some have touch-
sensitive color screens with a stylus used for selections and text input. Besides a radio
for cellular telephony, supported local connectivity often includes infrared, USB, and
Bluetooth. Many phones include an embedded digital camera, a video player, and some
include an MP3 player.
The internal memory can reach tens of megabytes, and an external memory card is
sometimes available too. Java development and run-time environments are often
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provided so that a large number of applications are made available through the Java
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development community. Speaker dependent voice commands are enabled in many
phones, allowing for hands free operation. Included micro-browsers support a number
of markup languages, often including the latest release of the HTML language, HTML
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4.01.
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An example cellular phone is shown in Figure 6.
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Figure 5: Sony Ericsson P910; (Source: © Sony Ericsson 2006. All right reserved)
This particular phone model, the Sony Ericsson P910, has a relatively large screen and a
number keypad that can be flipped open to reveal on the back a QWERTY-style
keyboard for entering text messages.
GSM and UMTS mobile terminals are required to have a subscriber identity module
(SIM) card. A SIM is a small form smart card which stores mobile subscriber
identifying information, subscription information, preferences, and contacts information.
By moving a SIM card from one mobile terminal to another, a mobile subscriber can
use this latter terminal and be charged for the calls that are placed on it. The SIM also
stores the current location area identity to help the mobile terminal determine if it needs
to send a location update message when it is turned on
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4.1. 1G Cellular Systems
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The concept of cellular telephony was invented in AT&T’s Bell Labs in the early
1970’s. The first commercial cellular network was the Nordic mobile telephone (NMT)
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network deployed in the Scandinavian countries in 1981. The advanced mobile phone
service (AMPS) cellular system was deployed in the United States in 1983 and was
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followed by other analog deployments across the world. The total access
communications system (TACS) is another analog system developed by Motorola in the
early 1980s. These first analog-technology mobile systems are referred to as first
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generation or 1G.
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The analog systems use a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) radio system
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where each user channel has a dedicated carrier band. For example, the AMPS system
uses a 30 KHz wide carrier band for each mobile user channel. An improvement upon
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the AMPS system is Narrow AMPS (NAMPS) where each carrier band is only 10 KHz
wide so that three times as many mobile subscribers can be supported. An add-on to the
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AMPS system is cellular digital packet data (CDPD) developed in the early 1990s and
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first deployed in 1994. CDPD enabled the transfer of packet data over analog channels
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by leveraging idle channels for short data transmissions. Data speeds reached up to 19.2
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Kbps.
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As the number of cellular subscribers grew and there was a need for increased network
capacity, digital systems were invented. These included, among others, the European
initiated global system for mobile communication (GSM) and the United States initiated
code division multiple access (CDMA). The 2G version of CDMA is referred to as
cdmaOne. These digital systems form the second generation or 2G. GSM was
developed by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) in the late
1980’s, and the IS-95 CDMA standard, known as cdmaOne, was introduced by the
TR45.5 subcommittee of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in 1993.
Other 2G systems, of smaller scale, included the Japanese personal digital cellular
(PDC) and the TIA time division multiple access (TDMA) IS-136 used mainly in the
Americas.
The GSM system is a TDMA radio system with carrier bands that are 200 KHz wide.
Each band is comprised of eight bearer slots. This is a circuit switched system where a
dedicated bearer slot (a circuit) is allocated to each voice communication so that up to
eight mobile subscribers can be supported on one carrier band. A single cell will
typically support multiple carrier bands. In GSM, the radio frequencies used for the
carrier bands can be reused between cells as long as the radio transmitters that use the
same frequencies are not in adjacent cells. The reuse pattern is referred to as a
“frequency plan” and is engineered so as to minimize radio interference.
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include an integrated push-to-talk (PTT) capability, similar to walkie-talkie that works
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across a wide area network, on the same cell sites used for cellular telephony.
cdmaOne uses a different radio technology referred to as “spread spectrum” where the
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radio spectrum is divided into carriers which are approximately 1.23 MHz wide. In
cdmaOne, each voice channel is assigned a unique code within the carrier and the voice
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signal is spread to a transmitted rate of about 1.23 Megabits per second. Since all user
calls in a given cell share the same channel band, the only way to distinguish between
the calls is through the unique code assigned to each voice channel. The unique code is
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used to spread the original signal and then to decode the signal at the receiver end. The
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cdmaOne network utilizes universal frequency reuse where the same frequency can be
reused in every cell since what distinguishes the voice channels are the unique codes.
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The 2G systems support basic data services with limited capacity since a single voice
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channel is used for the data transmission. Only one wireless bearer slot of a GSM carrier
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band is allocated to the data transfer so that the transfer rate is limited to 9.6 kbps.
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circuit switched data (HSCSD) where multiple bearer slots are made available to the
same call. The downside of this scheme is that the additional bearer slots are no longer
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available to other voice calls for the duration of the data call.
To provide better support for data services, ETSI developed the general packet radio
service (GPRS), a packet transmission system that overlays GSM and inter-works with
external packet data networks such as the Internet. GPRS is a 2.5 generation, or 2.5G,
wireless communication system.
In a GPRS system, each mobile terminal is assigned an IP address. The assignment can
be static, as determined by the cellular operator, or else dynamic, on a per connection
basis. When the mobile terminal is on, it is always connected to GPRS. The mobile
subscriber is charged for the amount of data transferred, not on a time basis as done for
voice calls. A GPRS-enabled mobile terminal can use between one and eight wireless
bearer slots of a GSM carrier band. The bearer slots are dynamically allocated to a user
when there are packets to be sent; the higher the number of assigned slots, the faster the
data transfer with speeds of up to 115 kbps.
An operator’s mobile network is also referred to as a public land mobile network (PLMN). Figure
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Figure 6 shows a GSM PLMN with an overlaid GPRS network; the element and
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interface names are as specified by the ETSI standards. The GSM network elements
used for handling cellular telephony calls are the BSS, MSC/VLR, and HLR.
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The BSS is the base station subsystem that includes the BTS and BSC. The BTS is the
base transceiver station that includes the antennas and handles the radio transmission to
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the mobile terminals. The BSC is the base station controller which manages several
BTSs. The BSC transmits voice calls to the MSC and contains the packet control unit
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The MSC is the mobile switching center; it switches voice calls between the mobile
terminals and the public switch telephone network (PSTN). It handles the setup of calls
and allocation of circuits between mobile terminals and the PSTN, or between mobile
terminals. The VLR is the visitor location register, often co-located with the MSC. This
database stores temporary information about the mobile terminals in its area.
The HLR is the home location register. This database contains the mobile subscribers
profile information that includes the list of subscribed services. The HLR authenticates
mobile terminals that want to access the mobile network and also records the mobile
terminal locations in the network.
The GPRS network includes two new nodes, the serving GPRS support node (SGSN)
and the gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). The traffic from the mobile terminal is
split at the BSC with voice sent to the MSC and data packets sent to the SGSN. The
SGSN is responsible for tracking the GPRS mobile terminals in its area and for routing
data packets to the mobile terminals. It keeps a record of the BSC to which each mobile
in its area is assigned. The GGSN serves as a router that interfaces between the Internet,
or other packet data network, and the IP-based GPRS network. The GGSN allocates IP
addresses to the mobile terminals when these are allocated dynamically, and routes
mobile-destined packets to the appropriate SGSN.
The evolution towards third generation cellular systems (3G) was driven by the need of
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higher capacity, faster data rates, and better quality-of-service (QoS). Also prominent
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was the desire to define a new system that resolved many incompatibilities between the
different standards, mainly GSM and cdmaOne, so as to facilitate, for example, mobile
roaming between the different systems. This work was spearheaded by the International
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Telecommunications Union (ITU) and referred to as International Mobile
Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). The IMT-2000 effort could not reach
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agreement on one common standard and now consists of a family of standards to handle
the evolution of GSM and cdmaOne.
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Some of the standards are based on wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), also referred to as
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(3GPP) established in 1998. The stated objectives of 3GPP are to develop a 3G mobile
system based on evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies that
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they support. In addition, 3GPP handles the development of GSM and enhanced data
rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) standards. 3GPP reported in April 2006 that some 55
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The data rates for transferring data between the mobile terminals and the network
increase with each new cellular generation. The 3G systems are expected to deliver bit
rates in the hundreds of kbps, and up to 2 Mbps in stationary/nomadic user
environments. UMTS employs a 5 MHz channel carrier width to deliver these higher
data rates and increased capacity, a much wider carrier compared to the 1.23 MHz wide
carrier of 2G networks. In addition, unlike the previous generations, one of the new
4.4.1. EDGE
While enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) do not meet all the objectives of
a 3G system, EDGE offers significant higher data rates compared to GPRS. EDGE uses
an enhanced radio modulation scheme which allows sending many more bits of
information in each GSM bearer slot. The new modulation scheme requires more
sophisticated transmitters and receivers in the mobile terminal and the network BTS.
EDGE supports nine different coding schemes with bit rates ranging from 8.4 to 59.2
kbps. The higher bit rates are used when there is very little radio interference in the
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mobile terminal to network transmissions. EDGE is considered an interim step, or
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complementary technology, in the migration to the W-CDMA systems.
4.4.2. W-CDMA
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The W-CDMA system uses wideband direct-sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA) technology
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in a 5 MHz bandwidth to support the IMT-2000 data rate requirements of 384 kbps
wide-area coverage and 2 Mbps local coverage. In the UMTS network, the BSS is
renamed the radio network system (RNS), and the BTS is called Node B. The BSC
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functionality is replaced in UMTS by the radio network controller (RNC). As in the
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2.5G network, the RNC routes voice to the MSC and data packets to the SGSN. UMTS
defines new interfaces:
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Iu: RNC to the core network (comprises the IuCS, IuPS, and Iur).
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• Iur: RNC to RNC (this is a new interface type, not defined in 2.5G).
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Figure 7Figure 8 shows the UMTS radio elements and their interfaces to the core
network. The core network includes the same elements of the 2.5G network, and
supports circuit services via the MSC and packet services via the SGSN and GGSN.
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The Iur interface was defined so that all radio resource management functions are
performed in the RNS without any support from the core network. For example, mobile
terminal admission control, mobile terminal handover, including serving RNC
relocation when the mobile terminal roams to an area served by a different RNC, are
handled exclusively by the RNCs. The terrestrial interfaces, Iub, Iu, and Iur use the
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) protocol for data exchange between the connected
elements.
The 3G RNC enhances the operations performed in the 2G BSC. For example, the
RNC prioritizes the mobile terminal connections according to QoS levels of agreement
between the mobile subscriber and cellular operator. In addition, the 3G mobile terminal
can simultaneously receive data from multiple cells and combine them into a better
signal.
A key aspect of 3G is the support for different levels of service as defined by 3GPP’s
QoS classes, also referred to as traffic classes. These classes include:
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conversational class (e.g., voice applications)
• streaming class (e.g., video applications)
• interactive class (e.g., web browsing)
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background class (e.g., file transfer)
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Additional detail on QoS is provided in the ‘Cellular quality-of-service’ section.
4.4.3. cdma2000 AP
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The cdmaOne air interface has evolved in a few phases. The cdma2000 1X system
offers higher bit rates, compared to cdmaOne, of approximately 144 Kbps. The next
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cdma2000 1XEV-DV (evolution data and voice) recombines voice and data into a
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single wireless carrier with QoS support for real-time data exchanges.
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The cdma2000 core network and defined interfaces (Figure 9) has also enhanced the
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cdmaOne network to handle data and includes a separate data network, similarly to the
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separate GPRS network in GSM. This data network, the packet core network (PCN),
includes a new network element, the packet data serving node (PDSN), an enhanced
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BSC which routes voice calls to the MSC and data packets to the PDSN. Another new
element is the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server used in IP
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session establishment.
The PDSN routes data packets between the radio access network (RAN) and the
Internet and supports the IETF Mobile IP protocol. Mobile IP enables mobile terminal
mobility so that a terminal that attaches to a visited network PDSN can send and receive
packets addressed to its home IP address.
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Figure 8: cdma2000 network for circuit and packet services
5. Cellular Services
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Cellular telephony has evolved from being just a voice service to providing a rich
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collection of data and multimedia services. To enable these new services, radio access
and core network standards are being defined by the 3GPP and 3GPP2 organizations,
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while the open mobile alliance (OMA) standards organization delivers technical
specifications for application and service frameworks. Key cellular services and the
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Text Messaging is the ability to send and receive short messages on a mobile terminal.
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These messages are also referred to as Short Message Service (SMS) messages since the
length of a message is limited, for example, to 160 characters. Longer messages may
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usually be sent too however, they are sent in parts of 160 characters (if this is the limit),
and the mobile subscriber is billed separately for each part.
A mobile subscriber is made aware of a received text message on his mobile terminal
through a beep and an icon (for example, an envelope) displayed on the terminal’s
screen. If a mobile terminal receiver is turned off, or the mobile subscriber is on a call,
text messages are stored in the network and delivery is retried until successful for up to
a limited number of hours (for example, 72 hours).
How does a mobile subscriber enter text on his terminal? There are two entry types for
mobile terminals that do not have a small keyboard. These are the “multitap” and the
predictive text entries. In the “multitap” case, the user has to press a single key multiple
times to select the desired character. With predictive text entry, a built-in dictionary
tries to predict the typed word, based on the sequence of user keystrokes. High-end
mobile terminals are equipped with small keyboards with a QWERTY key layout
similar to the one on regular keyboards.
Text messages can be sent to any wireless phone number. The user types in the
receiver’s mobile terminal number and the message will be delivered across mobile
operators and also internationally. Typical billing for SMS is on a per message basis
with more economical packages available for a monthly fee. For example, in the USA,
the typical cost of an SMS message is $0.10. Higher rates are charged for international
messaging.
Group text messaging is a feature that allows a mobile subscriber to send a text message
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to a wireless phone number that represents a group of users. Each group member is
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identified by his phone number so that a send operation translates to a number of text
messages, one per group member.
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SMS core network
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SMS messaging is asynchronous with no correlation of a mobile subscriber reply to a
previously received message. SMS messages are sent to and received from an SMS
Service Center (SC) over the Short Message Transport Protocol (SMTP) – see
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Figure 9Figure 10. The SMS SC is connected to the cellular operator’s network through
an SMS Gateway / Interworking MSC. For mobile-originated SMS, the mobile terminal
establishes a signaling connection with the mobile switch center (MSC), and the SMS is
transferred over this control channel to the MSC. The MSC then transfers the SMS, via
the SMS Interworking MSC to the SMS SC.
The SMS SC is responsible for delivering received SMS messages. The SMS SC
conveys the message to an SMS Gateway MSC that in turn, interrogates a relevant HLR
for the destination MSC where the mobile subscriber is available. ITU Signaling System
number 7 (SS7) is used to transport the SMS message to the MSC. The MSC then sets,
if need be, a signaling connection to the destination mobile subscriber’s terminal for
SMS delivery.
If the SMS message cannot be delivered, for example, if the destination mobile
subscriber terminal is off, then the SMS SC will hold the message up to a pre-set time
limit (for example, 72 hours) before discarding it. When a mobile subscriber’s terminal
reconnects to the cellular network, the HLR will send a corresponding notification to the
SMS SCs that have indicated an available message for the mobile subscriber. This
allows the notified SMS SCs to retry the sending of an SMS.
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If the transport network is GPRS, then the MSC /VLR SMS delivery function is handled
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by the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), and the delivery of SMS messages occurs
between the SGSN and the mobile terminal. For networks where the transport is all IP-
based, the MSC /VLR SMS delivery function is handled by the IP Short Message
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Gateway (IP SM Gateway). The 3GPP organization has authored corresponding
specifications that enable the delivery of SMS over an IP access to the cellular network.
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Instant messages (IM) are short text messages exchanged between users that want to
chat in real-time. After a user signs on to IM from a mobile device, a list of friends
(referred to as a buddy list) appears on the mobile subscriber’s screen using familiar
screen names or IDs. The mobile subscriber can send a message to the IM service
requesting to see, with the help of special icons, who is online and available to chat,
busy, or offline. IM messages can be sent only to users that are online. Each user is
identified by a text identifier referred to as “short code” or “screen name”, and messages
are sent to these identifiers, not to phone numbers as in SMS.
Most mobile IM systems were designed as extensions of wired Internet services. For
example, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Yahoo! Messenger offer mobile services
that extend the reach of IM to mobile users. In the case of AIM, when mobile
subscribers first sign on, the most current 25 buddies from their respective PC buddy list
are copied into their mobile buddy list. When users sign on to IM from their mobile
device, a mobile icon will typically appear next to their screen name in their friends'
buddy list window to let them know they are using a wireless device.
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There are often two ways to access the IM service. The mobile subscriber can download
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an IM application to the mobile terminal. Alternatively, some IM services provide
mobile users with a browser interface.
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AOL, AIM, and Buddy List are registered trademarks of America Online, Inc. Instant
Messenger is a trademark of America Online, Inc.
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5.3. Multimedia Messaging
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Multimedia Messaging (MMS) allows sending pictures, video, and voice messages to
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another mobile terminal or e-mail address. Mobile subscribers can take a photo or video
using their mobile terminal's embedded camera or a camera attachment, and send it to a
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wireless number or e-mail address. Similarly, they can record a voice message on their
mobile terminal and send it as a MMS message.
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Multimedia messages can also be received on the mobile terminal as an email message
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that is sent to an e-mail address that includes the recipient’s phone number. Typically, a
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mobile subscriber will first receive a text message and then, depending on the message
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5.4. E-mail
Mobile e-mail allows users to check wireline e-mail on their mobile terminal. Services
that allow mobile access to e-mail include Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Hotmail, and AOL’s
mail. The mobile subscriber would typically download on the mobile terminal a
dedicated application that can connect to the mobile subscriber’s mail inbox. To check
for e-mail, a mobile subscriber would open the mail application, sign in to the e-mail
server, and then is presented with his inbox e-mails. The mobile subscriber can scroll
through the e-mail headings and select those that he wishes to download to his mobile
terminal. Some e-mail services provide “e-mail alerts” that are sent to a mobile
subscriber’s mobile terminal to inform the mobile subscriber that there are new e-mails
in his inbox. Newer mobile terminals allow viewing e-mail attachments.
In the US and Europe, government mandates required cellular operators to provide the
location of subscribers that dial emergency calls (911 in the US and 112 in Europe). For
example, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed a mandate in
1999 that requires operators to find 95 percent of subscribers within 150 meters for
handset-based location technology and within 300 meters for network-based location
technology.
In addition, the cellular operators are required to route emergency calls to the correct
emergency call center.
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typically use the serving cell’s identifier to derive the subscriber’s location. In this case,
the location accuracy varies with the cell size.
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Network-based location technologies use location measurement units (LMUs) installed
at the cell sites. The LMUs listen to signals emitted by the mobile terminals and
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measure signal propagation time from the terminals. Measurements are forwarded to a
central site, the location service center, which uses a triangulation method, referred to as
uplink time difference of arrival (U-TDOA), to compute mobile terminal locations.
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from the US government satellite navigation system that comprises 24 satellites that
orbit the earth. At least five satellites are visible from any point on earth and the
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receiver requires four satellites to compute its position in three dimensions using a
triangulation technique. The European Space Agency is building a system similar to
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GPS, referred to as Galileo, which includes 27 satellites and will be operational in 2008.
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Location-based services form a special category of Internet content services that are of
primary interest to mobile subscribers. These services are designed to provide
information that is relevant to the subscriber’s locale. In some services the subscriber
types in the location, for example, a postal code, and specifies a maximum distance that
bounds the area of interest for the requested information. Some restaurant finders use
this approach.
In other instances, the cellular operator tracks the subscriber’s location or the mobile
terminal can provide this information if it includes a GPS receiver. Navigation services,
for example, can leverage location information to guide the subscriber to a specified
destination using visual and audible turn-by-turn driving directions. People and vehicle
tracking services also use location data. They allow subscribers to receive on their
mobile terminals real-time location information on the whereabouts of co-workers or of
vehicles of a fleet. Similarly, safety concerns may prompt subscribers to track the
location of their family members.
In addition to the above described mobile services, the mobile subscriber can access any
web site by entering its URL Internet address. In some cases the web sites can adapt
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their content to the terminal’s micro-browser. Alternatively, some micro-browsers can
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adapt the content of web sites on the terminal device. For example, the Opera micro-
browser includes Small-Screen Rendering™ technology. With this technology, the page
is reformatted to fit inside the mobile terminal’s screen width so that there is no need for
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horizontal scrolling.
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Micro-browsers & wireless Internet architecture
Access to wireless Internet web sites is done with the help of micro-browsers that
execute on the mobile terminals. Like their desktop counterparts, micro-browsers render
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markup files on the device screens. Markup languages include the latest versions of
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HTML and XHTML (an XML version of HTML). The first versions of micro-browsers
were released in the late 1990’s and supported special markup languages such as the
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Forum (now the Open Mobile Alliance, OMA). WML introduced the concepts of cards
and decks. A card is a basic unit of interaction and corresponds to a mobile terminal
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screen. The deck is a collection of related cards sent to the mobile terminal as a package
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to improve the subscriber interaction experience through fast access to locally stored
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screens.
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HTML (cHTML) for its micro-browsers as it wanted to provide mobile content authors
with a language they are familiar with from the wired Internet. The W3C standards
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organization, which authors HTML specifications, produced in 2000 the XHTML Basic
markup, a subset of XHTML that is suitable for mobile terminals. The WAP Forum
(now OMA) extended XHTML Basic and produced the XHTML mobile profile
(XHTML MP). In 2001, the WAP Forum specified WML 2.0; it consists of two markup
languages: XHTML MP and WML 1.3, the latter for backward compatibility purposes.
The WAP Forum specified an architecture and wireless-optimized protocol, the WAP
protocol, to support wireless Internet access (Figure 11). The WAP protocol is multi-
layer starting at the Transport layer through the Application layer and is used between a
mobile terminal and a WAP gateway. The WAP gateway performs protocol conversions
between the wired Internet protocols and the WAP protocol. Additional functions
performed by the gateway include data compression for transmission over the air,
terminal access checking, security, domain name resolution, and data caching.
A unique capability of the WAP architecture is the ability to push unsolicited content to
a mobile terminal. This capability could be used by location-based services that wish to
alert subscribers of local event happenings. To enable the push capability, the WAP
forum specified a push architecture that includes a push initiator (PI) on the network
server side, and a push proxy gateway (PPG) that uses a Push Over-the-Air protocol.
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Figure 10: WAP 2.0 network for wireless Internet
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The WAP Forum specified in 2001 the WAP 2.0 specification that represents
convergence to the Internet standards. The over-the-air protocols include the regular
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HTTP and TCP protocols that render unnecessary the protocol conversions in the WAP
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gateway. Data compressions can still take place in the gateway for improved wireless
link utilization. With the availability of HTTP, the WAP 2.0 push capability is
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implemented using standard HTTP POST requests from the PPG to the mobile terminal.
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get TV clips from their favorite programs, music videos, breaking news stories, weather
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information, and sports clips. Video clips typically have a length of a few tens of
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seconds. Among the early providers is the Japanese NTT DoCoMo operator; they
provide an I-motion video service on their 3G network since 2001.
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networks. Vodaphone is among the cellular operators offering this service. Mobile users
can subscribe to live broadcasting packages from TV networks such as Sky News, Sky
Sports News, and CNN.
5.8. Push-to-talk
The Nextel PTT service is supported by Motorola’s iDEN network which provides fast
call setups that are typically under one second. Initially, this service was offered in
major metropolitan areas and it is now offered on a country-wide basis, where available,
and even across selected countries. For example, by pushing a single button a PTT call
can be established between the US and Argentina.
Unlike regular cellular calls which are billed according to the number of minutes used,
PTT calls are usually tracked and billed per the number of seconds used. Other cellular
operators have deployed similar PTT services implemented in software on top of
existing cellular networks. In these software-based services, referred to as push-to-talk
over cellular (PoC), call setup times are typically longer than those on the special
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purpose iDEN network.
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5.9. IP-based Multimedia Communication
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Motivated by the desire to leverage Internet applications, services and protocols, the
3GPP organization took on the work initiated by the 3G.IP organization to define an IP
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Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). IMS enables cellular operators to offer their subscribers
multimedia services based on the Internet. IMS provides peer-to-peer communication
for IP-based services such as voice-over-IP (VoIP), push-to-talk over cellular (PoC),
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multiparty gaming, videoconferencing, messaging, presence information and content
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sharing.
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Figure 11) is a core network architecture that leverages the IETF session initiation
protocol (SIP) for session management and service control. In SIP, a destination address
is a special uniform resource identifier (URI) called a SIP URI, similar in form to an e-
mail address. For the underlying IMS networking protocol, 3GPP has selected IPv6,
whereas 3GPP2, which has adopted the same IMS architecture, allows both IPv4 and
IPv6.
The architecture elements include the proxy call service control function (P-CSCF), the
interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF), and the serving CSCF (S-CSCF). The 3GPP defined
home subscriber services (HSS) element contains subscriber information needed to
establish calls and IMS sessions. It extends the information in the HLR and provides
support for user security, authorization, mobility management, identification and service
provisioning for both circuit switch, packet switch, and IMS services.
All communication with mobile terminals is handled by the P-CSCF through existing
radio access networks such as the UMTS RNS. The I-CSCF roles include assigning a
S-CSCF to a mobile subscriber performing SIP registration. The assigned S-CSCF
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shown in
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The S-CSCF implements the SIP registrar functionality and session control. Mobile
terminal registration requests are handled by the S-CSCF; this element retrieves
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subscriber profiles from the HSS, handles session requests, and provides notifications to
communicating endpoints.
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Figure 11: IMS network for packet services
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The S-CSCF also provides an IMS service control (ISC) interface to external SIP
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application servers that provide IP services to mobile subscribers. The SIP application
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servers can provide terminating or originating SIP-based services.
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After a mobile is registered it can setup or receive SIP calls. During call setup, the
communicating terminals (mobile or fixed) exchange information on the media
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components of the call (voice, video, etc.) and the corresponding quality-of-service so
that the call can meet user functionality and quality requirements.
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6. Cellular Quality-of-service
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Cellular services, as described in the previous chapter, connect a mobile terminal with a
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end network connection. With each cellular service could be associated a quality-of-
service (QoS). QoS can be either measured or else depends on user-based subjective
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1. Network access
Network access is the ability to connect to a cellular system. When a user hears a busy
signal on the mobile terminal, this is an indication that the call is blocked since the
surrounding cell sites are busy servicing other subscribers. Also, the lack of cellular
coverage in a given area affects the ability of subscribers to place or receive calls, or
transmit data, in that area.
2. Maintaining a connection
The mobile terminal needs to stay connected to the network after a call was setup or a
data transmission was started until the user hangs up. The network can drop cellular
calls or interrupt data transmissions. Dropped calls and interrupted data transmissions
can occur due to radio interference, failed handovers between cells, or when the
subscriber moves to an area with no cellular coverage.
The technical capabilities of a mobile terminal and of the cellular network elements can
affect the quality of speech and data transmission. Environment factors such as radio
interference can also impact the quality of a connection.
Monitoring of QoS can take place via network statistics, operator drive tests, and
subscriber calls into customer support. Network statistics are the most useful means to
track QoS, and have the advantage that they are collected automatically. Processing of
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the statistics can also provide valuable information to network engineers for specifying
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cell traffic-load sharing or for planning network growth as they can indicate usage
trends. Operator drive tests, in contrast, are labor intensive and provide QoS indicators
for mobile traffic at ground level only. However, they can help pinpoint the root cause
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of problems in the network. Finally, subscriber calls provide an immediate indication of
an existing issue. Further analysis is needed to determine what is causing the problem
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reported by the caller.
The statistics collected in a mobile network include, among others, the dropped call rate,
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the average time between dropped calls, the blocked call rate (provides an indication of
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congestion), the call completion success rate, and the handover success rate. Network
elements collect the statistics and upload them every fixed time interval (for example,
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To realize a QoS for any cellular service, underlying bearer services (i.e., transport
services) have to provide QoS provisioning and management functionalities. Each
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bearer service provides QoS functionality for service control (for example, network
resource allocation), for signaling (for example, call priority), and for user data transport
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(for example, the marking of data units for specific quality requirements).
Figure 13 provides a simplified view of the UMTS QoS architecture as defined in 3GPP.
The service QoS is realized by the QoS functions provided in the underlying mobile
terminal local bearer service, the UMTS bearer service, and the external bearer service.
The mobile terminal local bearer service could consist, for example, of a QoS-enhanced
socket API. The UMTS cellular operator is responsible for the UMTS bearer service
and can establish service level agreements (SLAs) with the operators of external bearer
services to enable an end-to-end QoS level.
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Figure 12: Simplified UMTS QoS architecture
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The UMTS bearer relies on the QoS mechanisms provided by the supporting radio
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access bearer service and the core network bearer service. The radio access bearer
service transports signaling and user data between the mobile terminal and the core
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network edge. The core network bearer service provides the backbone that connects the
core network edge with a core network gateway (GGSN) that interfaces to external
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networks. The UMTS packet core network enables different backbone bearer services
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UMTS supports different levels of service as defined by 3GPP’s QoS classes, also
referred to as traffic classes. These classes include:
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conversational class
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• streaming class
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• interactive class
• background class
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voice, voice-over-IP, and video telephony. These exchanges are very delay sensitive.
The streaming class is also delay sensitive, although to a lesser degree. Typical
applications are video and audio streaming.
The interactive class is for the exchange of information between a mobile subscriber
and the network as for example in web browsing, chat applications, and e-mail. Finally,
the background class is mainly for mobile terminal to network information exchange
such as file and application downloads. Therefore, traffic in the background class has a
lower priority than the interactive class. Since the last two traffic classes are less delay
sensitive, they typically provide better error handling by means of packet
retransmissions which cannot take place in real-time exchanges.
In GPRS, each packet data session between a mobile terminal and a gateway element
(GGSN) is associated with a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context. The PDP context
includes a QoS profile that specifies QoS attributes such as delay, service precedence,
reliability, mean throughput, and peak throughput. All application flows share the same
PDP context. In UMTS, the PDP context mechanism is improved to optimize the traffic
flows of multiple applications. Different applications may require separate UMTS-
defined QoS classes, and a distinct PDP context can be associated with each connected
application on the mobile terminal.
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Cellular operators use billing procedures to charge mobile subscribers for services such
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as voice and data. Billing consists of collecting network-generated call detail records
(CDRs) that indicate resource usage. CDRs are typically generated in the mobile switch
(MSC) and then transmitted in batch files to a billing center for further processing. In
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the first generation cellular systems, 1G and 2G, users are charged based on connection
minutes for both voice and data.
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With the advent of 2.5G cellular systems, billing systems needed to cope with different
ways to collect billing information and charge the mobile subscriber. Cellular operators
deployed Internet protocol (IP) billing models where resource usage is collected from
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additional servers, routers, and gateways. The new data services such as e-mail, SMS,
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and web browsing did not fit any more the time-base billing model. In the case of web
browsing, for example, the subscriber is always on-line. The same applies for e-mail,
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where the mobile subscriber may get during the day notifications about new e-mails and
request to download these to the mobile terminal. To cater for these services, new
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billing models emerged where the charge is based on the amount of data transferred.
Alternatively, a mobile subscriber can sign on to flat-rate billing. In this case, the
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An additional billing model takes into consideration the type of data transferred. This is
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a content-based billing approach and is used, for example, for SMS, instant messages,
and multimedia messages. For each of these message types the cellular operator can
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Operators cannot be expected to provide their subscribers with all the content they
require. In an open access model, subscribers can access any web site and retrieve its
content. Some sites charge a monthly fee for their content so that subscribers need to
pay the content provider for content access and the cellular operator for data transfer.
A successful billing model was put into place in the i-mode service provided by Japan’s
NTT DoCoMo. DoCoMo enables mobile subscribers to access the Internet via its i-
mode service launched in1999. For each content site that requires a monthly fee,
DoCoMo bills the subscriber on behalf of the content provider and takes a 9% share of
the bill for its billing service. In addition, mobile subscribers are billed for the data
transfers. In this billing model, content providers are relieved of the customer billing
chores and the mobile subscribers see just one integrated bill that covers both content
access and data transfer.
Some operators offer content packages that group a number of content providers under
one monthly fee. For example, for a fixed monthly fee, Cingular Wireless video service
allows unlimited access to news videos of content providers such as CNN, Fox News,
the ESPN sports channel, The Weather Channel, and others. Other premium video
channels, for example, Music Choice, and Home Box Office (HBO) are available for an
additional monthly fee.
A new service that may impact billing is the capability of cellular operators to track the
location of mobile subscribers. With the inclusion of new mobile tracking capabilities
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such as GPS receivers in the mobile terminals and the operator’s collection of
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subscriber location records, operators could charge separately for location information.
This latter information could be used by location-based services such as yellow pages
and travel guides.
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For each type of content, a user may want a specific quality guarantee of the data
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transmission. One of the touted advantages of 3G systems is their ability to provide
different levels of quality-of-service. Mobile subscribers pick a desired level of service
and pay accordingly a different rate. The cellular operator needs to record a subscriber’s
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selected quality-of-service level and charge the appropriate rate.
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8. Conclusion
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Cellular telephony has undergone tremendous development and change since the first
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cellular system deployments in the early 1980’s. From a voice centric system that
enables users to place phone calls over the air, cellular telephony has evolved to support
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many data services that include information retrieval, message exchange, web browsing,
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We reviewed in this topic the history of cellular technology, the major mobile network
architectures and associated technologies, the operator provided services, as well as
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quality-of-service and billing procedures. In recent years, cellular operators have put a
major emphasis on the introduction of new and appealing data-based services. These
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The cellular industry has made impressive strides in the introduction of advanced voice
and data services. Cellular penetration has reached in some countries very high levels,
and it is not uncommon in these countries to see elementary school children carry their
personal phone. On the other hand, in many countries only a small part of the
population enjoys the benefits of anytime and anywhere communication. Cellular
operators and equipment manufacturers still face many challenges on how to make
cellular telephony available and affordable to many more segments of the world
population.
Glossary
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AMPS: Advanced Mobile Phone Service
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ANSI: American National Standards Institute
API: Application Program Interface
AS: Application Server
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ATM:
BSS:
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Base Station Subsystem
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BTS: Base Transceiver Subsystem
CDG: CDMA Development Group
CDR: AP Call Detail Record
CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access
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P-CSCF: Proxy CSCF
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PDN: Packet Data Network
PDP: Packet Data Protocol
PDSN: Packet Data Serving Node
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PI:
PLMN:
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Public Land Mobile Network
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PoC: Push-to-Talk over Cellular
PPG: Push Proxy Gateway
PS: AP Packet Switched
PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network
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PTT: Push-To-Talk
QoS: Quality of Service
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S-CSCF : Serving-CSCF
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Bibliography
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3GPP TS 03.60, "General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); Service description; Stage 2". [defines the stage-
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elements, software components, and software protocols that are needed to realize mobile Web services,
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IETF RFC 3261, “SIP: Session Initiation Protocol”. [describes SIP, an application-layer control protocol
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Biographical sketch
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Ariel Pashtan, Ph.D., is President of Aware Networks, Inc., Illinois, USA (http://awarenetworks.com).
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He is a network applications consultant and develops service oriented architectures and wireless web
services for cellular systems. Ariel has over 20 years of industry experience working for Motorola, IBM,
Gould, and Israel Aircraft Industries. He was a distinguished member of the technical staff in Motorola
Labs where he managed research projects. His past experience includes leading wireless Web services
architecture research, and cellular network management requirements and standards teams. Past academic
appointments include teaching at Northwestern University and the Technion - Israel Institute of
Technology.
Ariel is the author of "Mobile Web Services", Cambridge University Press, 2005. He published journal
and conference papers on wireless networks and software architecture and design, and holds several U.S.
patents. Ariel is a senior member of the IEEE.
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