BSNL RTTC Ahmedabad

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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited








Regional Telecom Training Centre, Jagatpur, Ahmedabad-382481






GSM and CDMA Basics

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GSM AND CDMA BASICS

CHAPTER

SUBJECT PAGE NO.
1 MOBILE INTRODUCTION 3
2
Cellular Concept
5
3 GSM ARCHITECTURE

10
4 Call Management Overview 22
5 CDMA Concept 79
6 GPRS 85
7 EDGE 115
8 3G COMMUNICATION 131
9 IMT-2000 149
Modulation Techniques in Mobile
Communication
155


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MOBILE INTRODUCTION

The Global System for Mobile communications is a digital
cellular communications system. It was developed in order to create a common European
mobile telephone standard but it has been rapidly accepted worldwide. GSM was designed to
be compatible with ISDN services.
HISTORY OF THE CELLULAR MOBILE RADIO AND GSM
The idea of cell-based mobile radio systems appeared at Bell Laboratories (in USA) in the
early 1970s. However, mobile cellular systems were not introduced for commercial use until
the 1980s. During the early 1980s, analog cellular telephone systems experienced a very rapid
growth in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Today cellular systems
still represent one of the fastest growing telecommunications systems.
But in the beginnings of cellular systems, each country developed its own system, which was
an undesirable situation for the following reasons:
The equipment was limited to operate only within the boundaries of each country.
The market for each mobile equipment was limited.
In order to overcome these problems, the Conference of European Posts and
Telecommunications (CEPT) formed, in 1982, the Group Special Mobile (GSM) in order to
develop a pan-European mobile cellular radio system (the GSM acronym became later the
acronym for Global System for Mobile communications). The standardized system had to meet
certain criteria:
Spectrum efficiency
International roaming
Low mobile and base stations costs
Good subjective voice quality
Compatibility with other systems such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
Ability to support new services
Unlike the existing cellular systems, which were developed using an analog technology, the
GSM system was developed using a digital technology. The reasons for this choice are
explained in section 3.
In 1989 the responsibility for the GSM specifications passed from the CEPT to the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The aim of the GSM specifications is to
describe the functionality and the interface for each component of the system, and to provide
guidance on the design of the system. These specifications will then standardize the system in
order to guarantee the proper inter-working between the different elements of the GSM system.
In 1990, the phase I of the GSM specifications was published but the commercial use of GSM
did not start until mid-1991.


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The most important events in the development of the GSM system are presented in the table 1.
Year Events
1982
CEPT establishes a GSM group in order to develop the standards for a pan-
European cellular mobile system
1985 Adoption of a list of recommendations to be generated by the group
1986
Field tests were performed in order to test the different radio techniques
proposed for the air interface
1987
TDMA is chosen as access method (in fact, it will be used with FDMA)
Initial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by telecommunication
operators (representing 12 countries)
1988 Validation of the GSM system
1989 The responsibility of the GSM specifications is passed to the ETSI
1990 Appearance of the phase 1 of the GSM specifications
1991 Commercial launch of the GSM service
1992
Enlargement of the countries that signed the GSM- MoU> Coverage of larger
cities/airports
1993 Coverage of main roads GSM services start outside Europe
1995 Phase 2 of the GSM specifications Coverage of rural areas

Table 1: Events in the development of GSM
From the evolution of GSM, it is clear that GSM is not anymore only a European standard.
GSM networks are operational or planned in over 80 countries around the world. The rapid and
increasing acceptance of the GSM system is illustrated with the following figures:
1.3 million GSM subscribers worldwide in the beginning of 1994.
Over 5 million GSM subscribers worldwide in the beginning of 1995.
Over 10 million GSM subscribers only in Europe by December 1995.
Since the appearance of GSM, other digital mobile systems have been developed. The table 2
charts the different mobile cellular systems developed since the commercial launch of cellular
systems
Year Mobile Cellular System
1981 Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT), 450>
1983 American Mobile Phone System (AMPS)
1985 Total Access Communication System (TACS) Radiocom 2000 C-Netz
1986 Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT), 900>
1991
Global System for Mobile communications> North American Digital Cellular
(NADC)
1992 Digital Cellular System (DCS) 1800
1994 Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) or Japanese Digital Cellular (JDC)
1995 Personal Communications Systems (PCS) 1900- Canada>
1996 PCS-United States of America>

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Cellular Concept
Traditional mobile service was structured similar to television broadcasting: One very
powerful transmitter located at the highest spot in an area would broadcast in a radius of up to
fifty kilometers. The Cellular concept structured the mobile telephone network in a different
way. Instead of using one powerful transmitter many low-powered transmitter were placed
through out a coverage area. For example, by dividing metropolitan region into one hundred
different areas (cells) with low power transmitters using twelve conversation (channels) each,
the system capacity could theoretically be increased from twelve conversations using one
hundred low power transmitters.


The cellular concept employs variable low power levels, which allows cells to be sized
according to subscriber density and demand of a given area. As the populations grows, cells
can be added to accommodate that growth. Frequencies used in one cell cluster can be reused
in other cells. Conversations can be handed over from cell to cell to maintain constant phone
service as the user moves between cells.


The cellular system design was pioneered by during70s by Bell Laboratories in the United
States, and the initial realization was known as AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service). The
AMPS cellular service was available in United States in 1983. AMPS is essentially generation
1 analog cellular system in contrast to generation 2 digital cellular systems of GSM and
CDMA (1S-95).



Cells :
A cell is the basic geographic unit of cellular system. The term cellular comes from the
honeycomb areas into which a coverage region is divided. Cells are base stations transmitting
over small geographic areas that are represented as hexagons. Each cell size varies depending
upon landscape. Because of constraint imposed by natural terrain and man-made structures, the
true shape of cell is not a perfect hexagon.
A group of cells is called a cluster. No frequencies are reused in a cluster.
Features of Digital Cellular Systems:
Small cells
Frequency reuse
Small, battery-powered handsets
Performance of handovers

\




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Cellular System Characteristics
General

Cellular radio systems allow the subscriber to place and receive
telephone calls over the wire-line telephone network where ever cellular
coverage is provided. Roaming capabilities extend service to users
traveling outside their outside home service areas.

characteristics
of digital
cellular systems

The distinguishing features of digital cellular systems compared to
other mobile radio systems are:
Small cells
A cellular system uses many base stations with relatively
small coverage radii (on the order of a 100 m to 30 km).
Frequency reuse
The spectrum allocated for a cellular network is limited. As
a result there is a limit to the number of channels or frequencies
that can be used. For this reason each frequency is used
simultaneously by multiple base-mobile pairs. This frequency
reuse allows a much higher subscriber density per MHz of
spectrum than other systems. System capacity can be further
increased by reducing the cell size (the coverage area of a single
base station), down to radii as small as 200 m.
Small, battery-powered handsets In addition to supporting much
higher densities than previous systems, this approach enables the
use of small, battery-powered handsets with a radio frequency that
is lower than the large mobile units used in earlier systems.
Performance of handovers
In cellular systems, continuous coverage is achieved by executing a
handover (the seamless transfer of the call from one base station to
another) as the mobile unit crosses cell boundaries. This requires the
mobile to change frequencies under control of the cellular network.
Frequency Reuse :
Why frequency
reuse

The spectrum allocated for a cellular network is limited. As a result
there is a limit to the number of frequencies or channels that can be
used. A cellular network can only provide service to a large number of
subscribers, if the channels allocated to it can be reused. Channel reuse
is implemented by using the same channels within cells located at
different positions in the cellular network service area.
Radio channels can be reused provided the separation between
cells containing the same channel set is far enough apart so that
co-channel interference can be kept below acceptable levels
most of the time. Cells using the same channel set are called co-
channel cells.

Cell clustering The figure on the opposite page shows an example. Within the service
area (PLMN), specific channel sets are reused at a different location
(another cell). In the example, there are 7 channel sets: A through G.
Neighboring cells are not allowed to use the same frequencies. For this
reason all channel sets are used in a cluster of neighboring cells. As

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there are 7 channel sets, the PLMN can be divided into clusters of 7
cells each. The figure shows three clusters.
The number of channel sets is called K. K is also called the reuse factor.
In the figure, K=7. Valid values of K can be found using equation
(where i and j are integers):
K=i+j+I*j
Explaining this equation is beyond the scope of this course. Some
constraints to K are provided later in this chapter. Note that in the
example: Cells are shaped ideally (hexagons). The distance between
cells using the same channel set is always the same.

Other cell
clusters

The figure on the opposite page shows some examples of possible
clusters. The more cells in a cluster, the greater the separation between
co-channel cells when Other clusters are deployed. The idea is to keep
co-channel cell separation the same throughout the system area for cells
of the same size. Some valid cluster sizes that allow this are: 1, 3, 4, 7,
9 and 12.
Procedure for
locating co-
channel cells
It is always possible to find cells using the same channel set, if only the
value of K is known. The following procedure is used.
In the figure on the opposite page an example is shown with K = 19.
Signal
attenuation
With distance
Frequencies can be reused throughout a service area because radio
signals typically attenuate with distance to the base station (or mobile
station). When the distance between cells using the same frequencies
becomes too small, co-channel
Interference might occur and lead to service interruption or
unacceptable quality of service.



Step Action
1 Use the integer values i and j from the equation, and start
With the upper left cell. Through this cell, draw the j-axis.
2 Draw the i-axis. To find the starting point for the i-axis, count j cells
down the j-axis. In the example, one has to count 2 cells down (j=2).
The positive direction of the i-axis is always two cell faces (120
degrees) relative to the positive direction of the j-axis.
3 Find the first co-channel cell. It is found by counting i cells in the positive
i-axis direction. In the example, i = 3.
4 Find the other co-locating cells by repeating the previous steps. The
Starting point is again at the upper left cell, but now choose another
Direction for the j-axis (e.g. rotate the j-axis with 60 degrees, which is
one cell face). As each cell has 6 faces, one will find 6 co-channel cells
around the starting cells. These are the nearest located co-channel
cells.


Capacity/Performance Trade-offs :
n If K increases, then performance increases
n If K increases, then call capacity decreases per cell

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The number of sites to cover a given area with a given high traffic density, and hence the cost
of the infrastructure, is determined directly by the reuse factor and the number of traffic
channels that can be extracted from the available spectrum. These two factors are compounded
in what is called spectral efficiency of the system. Not all systems allow the same performance
in this domain: they depend in particular on the robustness of the radio transmission scheme
against interference, but also on the use of a number of technical tricks, such as reducing
transmission during the silences of a speech communication. The spectral efficiency, together
with the constraints on the cell size, determines also the possible compromises between the
capacity and the cost of the infrastructure. All this explains the importance given to spectral
efficiency.
Many technical tricks to improve spectral efficiency were conceived during the system design
and have been introduced in GSM. They increase the complexity, but this is balanced by the
economical advantages of a better efficiency. The major points are the following:
The control of the transmitted power on the radio path aims at minimizing the average power
broadcast by mobile stations as well as by base stations, whilst keeping transmission quality
above a given threshold. This reduces the level of interference caused to the other
communications;
Frequency hopping improves transmission quality at slow speeds through frequency diversity,
and improves spectral efficiency through interferer diversity;
Discontinuous transmission, where by transmission is suppressed when possible, allows a
reduction in the interference level of other communications. Depending on the type of user
information transmitted, it is possible to derive the need for effective transmission. In the case
of speech, the mechanism called VAD (Voice Activity Detection) allows transmission
requirements to be reduced by an important factor (typically, reduced by half);
The mobile assisted handover, whereby the mobile station provides measurements concerning
neighboring cells, enables efficient handover decision algorithms aimed at minimizing the
interference generated by the cell (whilst keeping the transmission quality above some
threshold).
References:1. The GSM system for mobile communication-Michel Mouly & Marie-
Bernadette Pautet.
2. GSM system Engineering-Asha Mehrotra (Artech House Publisher).

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TYPES OF CELLS
The density of population in a country is so varied that different types of cells are used:
Macro cells
The macro cells are large cells for remote and sparsely populated areas
Micro cells
These cells are used for densely populated areas. By splitting the existing areas into smaller
cells, the number of channels available is increased as well as the capacity of the cells. The
power level of the transmitters used in these cells is then decreased, reducing the possibility of
interference between neighboring cells.
Selective cells
It is not always useful to define a cell with a full coverage of 360 degrees. In some cases, cells
with a particular shape and coverage are needed. These cells are called selective cells. Typical
examples of selective cells are the cells that may be located at the entrances of tunnels where
coverage of 360 degrees is not needed. In this case, a selective cell with coverage of 120
degrees is used.
Umbrella cells
A freeway crossing very small cells produces an important number of handovers among the
different small neighboring cells. In order to solve this problem, the concept of umbrella cells
is introduced. An umbrella cell covers several micro cells. The power level inside an umbrella
cell is increased comparing to the power levels used in the micro cells that form the umbrella
cell. When the speed of the mobile is too high, the mobile is handed off to the umbrella cell.
The mobile will then stay longer in the same cell (in this case the umbrella cell). This will
reduce the number of handovers and the work of the network.
A too important number of handover demands and the propagation characteristics of a mobile
can help to detect its high speed

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GSM ARCHITECTURE


INTRODUCTION

A GSM system is basically designed as a combination of three major subsystems: the
network subsystem, the radio subsystem, and the operation support subsystem. In
order to ensure that network operators will have several sources of cellular
infrastructure equipment, GSM decided to specify not only the air interface, but also
the main interfaces that identify different parts. There are three dominant interfaces,
namely, an interface between MSC and the base Transceiver Station (BTS), and an
Um interface between the BTS and MS.

GSM NETWORK STRUCTURE

Every telephone network needs a well-designed structure in order to route incoming
called to the correct exchange and finally to the called subscriber. In a mobile network,
this structure is of great importance because of the mobility of all its subscribers [1-4].
In the GSM system, the network is divided into the following partitioned areas.

GSM service area;
PLMN service area;
MSC service area;
Location area;
Cells.

The GSM service is the total area served by the combination of all member countries
where a mobile can be serviced. The next level is the PLMN service area. There can
be several within a country, based on its size. The links between a GSM/PLMN
network and other PSTN, ISDN, or PLMN network will be on the level of international
or national transit exchange. All incoming calls for a GSM/PLMN network will be
routed to a gateway MSC. A gateway MSC works as an incoming transit exchange for
the GSM/PLMN. In a GSM/PLMN network, all mobile-terminated calls will be routed to
a gateway MSC. Call connections between PLMNs, or to fixed networks, must be
routed through certain designated MSCs called a gateway MSC. The gateway MSC
contains the interworking functions to make these connections. They also route
incoming calls to the proper MSC within the network. The next level of division is the
MSC/VLR service area. In one PLMN there can be several MSC/VLR service area.
MSC/VLR is a role controller of calls within its jurisdiction. In order to route a call to a
mobile subscriber, the path through links to the MSC in the MSC area where the
subscriber is currently located. The mobile location can be uniquely identified since
the MS is registered in a VLR, which is generally associated with an MSC.

The next division level is that of the LAs within a MSC/VLR combination.
There are several LAs within one MSc/VLR combination. A LA is a part of the

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MSC/VLR service area in which a MS may move freely without updating location
information to the MSC/VLR exchange that control the LA. Within a LA a paging
message is broadcast in order to find the called mobile subscriber. The LA can be
identified by the system using the Location Area Identity (LAI). The LA is used by the
GSM system to search for a subscriber in a active state.

Lastly, a LA is divided into many cells. A cell is an identity served by one BTS.
The MS distinguishes between cells using the Base Station Identification code (BSIC)
that the cell site broadcast over the air.


















GSM Architecture



MOBILE STATION

The MS includes radio equipment and the man machine interface (MMI) that a
subscribe needs in order to access the services provided by the GSM PLMN. MS can
be installed in Vehicles or can be portable or handheld stations. The MS may include
provisions for data communication as well as voice. A mobile transmits and receives
message to and from the GSM system over the air interface to establish and continue
connections through the system .

Different type of MSs can provide different type of data interfaces. To provide a
common model for describing these different MS configuration, reference
configuration for MS, similar to those defined for ISDN land stations, has been
defined.

Each MS is identified by an IMEI that is permanently stored in the mobile unit.
Upon request, the MS sends this number over the signaling channel to the MSC. The
IMEI can be used to identify mobile units that are reported stolen or operating
incorrectly.

OMC
MSC
BSC HLR
A
MS
Other
MSCs
BTS AUC
Other
Networks
EIR
Other
MSCs
VLRs VLR
BSS
B
C
D
E
F
G
U
M
Abis

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Just as the IMEI identities the mobile equipment, other numbers are used to
identity the mobile subscriber. Different subscriber identities are used in different
phases of call setup. The Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN) is the number
that the calling party dials in order to reach the subscriber. It is used by the land
network to route calls toward an appropriate MSC. The international mobile subscribe
identity (IMSI) is the primary function of the subscriber within the mobile network and
is permanently assigned to him. The GSM system can also assign a Temporary
Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) to identity a mobile. This number can be periodically
changed by the system and protect the subscriber from being identified by those
attempting to monitor the radio channel.

Functions of MS

The primary functions of MS are to transmit and receive voice and data over
the air interface of the GSM system. MS performs the signal processing function of
digitizing, encoding, error protecting, encrypting, and modulating the transmitted
signals. It also performs the inverse functions on the received signals from the BS.

In order to transmit voice and data signals, the mobile must be in synchronization
with the system so that the messages are the transmitted and received by the
mobile at the correct instant. To achieve this, the MS automatically tunes and
synchronizes to the frequency and TDMA timeslot specified by the BSC. This
message is received over a dedicated timeslot several times within a multiframe
period of 51 frames. We shall discuss the details of this in the next chapter. The
exact synchronization will also include adjusting the timing advance to compensate
for varying distance of the mobile from the BTS.

The MS monitors the power level and signal quality, determined by the BER for
known receiver bit sequences (synchronization sequence), from both its current
BTS and up to six surrounding BTSs. This data is received on the downlink
broadcast control channel. The MS determines and send to the current BTS a list
of the six best-received BTS signals. The measurement results from MS on
downlink quality and surrounding BTS signal levels are sent to BSC and processed
within the BSC. The system then uses this list for best cell handover decisions.

MS keeps the GSM network informed of its location during both national and
international roaming, even when it is inactive. This enables the System to page in
its present LA.

The MS includes an equalizer that compensates for multi-path distortion on the
received signal. This reduces inter-symbol interface that would otherwise degrade
the BER.

Finally, the MS can store and display short received alphanumeric messages
on the liquid crystal display (LCD) that is used to show call dialing and status
information. These messages are limited to 160 characters in length.





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Power Levels

These are five different categories of mobile telephone units specified by the
European GSM system: 20W, 8W, 5W, 2W, and 0.8W. These correspond to
43-dBm, 39-dBm, 37-dBm, 33-dBm, and 29-dBm power levels. The 20-W and
8-W units (peak power) are either for vehicle-mounted or portable station use.

The MS power is adjustable in 2-dB steps from its nominal value down
to 20mW (13 dBm). This is done automatically under remote control from the
BTS, which monitors the received power and adjusts the MS transmitter to the
minimum power setting necessary for reliable transmission.

SIM Card

As described in the first chapter, GSM subscribers are provided with a SIM
card with its unique identification at the very beginning of the service. By
divorcing the subscriber ID from the equipment ID, the subscriber may never
own the GSM mobile equipment set. The subscriber is identified in the system
when he inserts the SIM card in the mobile equipment. This provides an
enormous amount of flexibility to the subscribers since they can now use any
GSM-specified mobile equipment. Thus with a SIM card the idea of
Personalize the equipment currently in use and the respective information
used by the network (location information) needs to be updated. The smart
card SIM is portable between Mobile Equipment (ME) units. The user only
needs to take his smart card on a trip. He can then rent a ME unit at the
destination, even in another country, and insert his own SIM. Any calls he
makes will be charged to his home GSM account. Also, the GSM system will be
able to reach him at the ME unit he is currently using.

The SIM is a removable SC, the size of a credit card, and contains an
integrated circuit chip with a microprocessor, random access memory (RAM), and
read only memory (ROM). It is inserted in the MS unit by the subscriber when he
or she wants to use the MS to make or receive a call. As stated, a SIM also comes
in a modular from that can be mounted in the subscribers equipment.

When a mobile subscriber wants to use the system, he or she mounts their SIM
card and provide their Personal Identification Number(PIN), which is compared
with a PIN stored within the SIM. If the user enters three incorrect PIN codes, the
SIM is disabled. The PIN can also be permanently bypassed by the service
provider if requested by the subscriber. Disabling the PIN code simplifies the call
setup but reduces the protection of the users account in the event of a stolen SIM.

International Mobile Subscriber Identity.

An IMSI is assigned to each authorized GSM user. It consists of a mobile country
code (MSC), mobile network code (MNC), and a PLMN unique mobile subscriber
identification number (MSIN). The IMSI is not hardware-specific. Instead, it is
maintained on a SC by an authorized subscriber and is the only absolute identity that
a subscriber has within the GSM system. The IMSI consists of the MCC followed by
the NMSI and shall not exceed 15 digits.

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Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

A TMSI is a MSC-VLR specific alias that is designed to maintain user confidentiality. It
is assigned only after successful subscriber authentication. The correlation of a TMSI
to an IMSI only occurs during a mobile subscribers initial transaction with an MSC (for
example, location updating). Under certain condition (such as traffic system disruption
and malfunctioning of the system), the MSC can direct individual TMSIs to provide the
MSC with their IMSI.

Mobile Station ISDN Number

The MS international number must be dialed after the international prefix in order to
obtain a mobile subscriber in another country. The MSISDN numbers is composed of
the country code (CC) followed by the National Significant Number (N(S)N), which
shall not exceed 15 digits.

The Mobile Station Roaming Number (MSRN)

The MSRN is allocated on temporary basis when the MS roams into another numbering area.
The MSRN number is used by the HLR for rerouting calls to the MS. It is assigned upon
demand by the HLR on a per-call basis. The MSRN for PSTN/ISDN routing shall have the
same structure as international ISDN numbers in the area in which the MSRN is allocated. The
HLR knows in what MSC/VLR service area the subscriber is located. At the reception of the
MSRN, HLR sends it to the GMSC, which can now route the call to the MSC/VLR exchange
where the called subscriber is currently registered.

International Mobile Equipment Identity

The IMEI is the unique identity of the equipment used by a subscriber by each PLMN
and is used to determine authorized (white), unauthorized (black), and malfunctioning
(gray) GSM hardware. In conjunction with the IMSI, it is used to ensure that only
authorized usera are granted access to the system. An IMEI is never sent in cipher
mode by MS.

BASE STATION SYSTEM

The BSS is a set of BS equipment (such as transceivers and controllers) that is in
view by the MSC through a single A interface as being the entity responsible for
communicating with MSs in a certain area. The radio equipment of a BSS may be
composed of one or more cells. A BSS may consist of one or more BS. The interface
between BSC and BTS is designed as an A-bis interface. The BSS includes two types
of machines: the BTS in contact with the MSs through the radio interface and the
BSC, the latter being in contact with the MSC. The function split is basically between
transmission equipment, the BTS, and managing equipment at the BSC. A BTS
compares radio transmission and reception devices, up to and including the antennas,
and also all the signal processing specific to the radio interface. A single transceiver
within BTS supports eight basic radio channels of the same TDM frame. A BSC is a
network component in the PLMN that function for control of one or more BTS. It is a
functional entity that handles common control functions within a BTS.

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A BTS is a network component that serves one cell and is controlled by a BSC.
BTS is typically able to handle three to five radio carries, carrying between 24 and 40
simultaneous communication. Reducing the BTS volume is important to keeping down
the cost of the cell sites.

An important component of the BSS that is considered in the GSM architecture
as a part of the BTS is the Transcoder/Rate Adapter Unit (TRAU). The TRAU is the
equipment in which coding and decoding is carried out as well as rate adoption in
case of data. Although the specifications consider the TRAU as a subpart of the BTS,
it can be sited away from the BTS (at MSC), and even between the BSC and the
MSC.

The interface between the MSC and the BSS is a standardized SS7 interface
(A-interface) that, as stated before, is fully defined in the GSM recommendations. This
allows the system operator to purchase switching equipment from one supplier and
radio equipment and the controller from another. The interface between the BSC and
a remote BTS likewise is a standard the A-bis. In splitting the BSS functions between
BTS and BSC, the main principle was that only such functions that had to reside close
to the radio transmitters/receivers should be placed in BTS. This will also help reduce
the complexity of the BTS.

Functions of BTS

As stated, the primary responsibility of the BTS is to transmit and receive
radio signals from a mobile unit over an air interface. To perform this function
completely, the signals are encoded, encrypted, multiplexed, modulated, and then
fed to the antenna system at the cell site. Trans-coding to bring 13-kbps speech to
a standard data rate of 16 kbps and then combining four of these signals to 64
kbps is essentially a part of BTS, though, it can be done at BSC or at MSC. The
voice communication can be either at a full or half rate over logical speech
channel. In order to keep the mobile synchronized, BTS transmits frequency and
time synchronization signals over frequency correction channel (FCCH and BCCH
logical channels. The received signal from the mobile is decoded, decrypted, and
equalized for channel impairments.

Random access detection is made by BTS, which then sends the message to
BSC. The channel subsequent assignment is made by BSC. Timing advance is
determined by BTS. BTS signals the mobile for proper timing adjustment. Uplink
radio channel measurement corresponding to the downlink measurements made
by MS has to be made by BTS.

BTS-BSC Configurations

There are several BTS-BSC configurations: single site; single cell; single site;
multicell; and multisite, multicell. These configurations are chosen based on the rular
or urban application. These configurations make the GSM system economical since
the operation has options to adapt the best layout based on the traffic requirement.
Thus, in some sense, system optimization is possible by the proper choice of the
configuration. These include omni directional rural configuration where the BSC and

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BTS are on the same site; chain and multidrop loop configuration in which several
BTSs are controlled by a single remote BSC with a chain or ring connection topology;
rural star configuration in which several BTSs are connected by individual lines to the
same BSC; and sectorized urban configuration in which three BTSs share the same
site amd are controlled by either a collocated or remote BSC.

In rural areas, most BSs are installed to provide maximum coverage rather then
maximum capacity.

Transcoder

Depending on the relative costs of a transmission plant for a particular cellular
operator, there may be some benefit, for larger cells and certain network topologies, in
having the transcoder either at the BTS, BSC or MSC location. If the trascoder is
located at MSC, they are still considered functionally a part of the BSS. This approach
allows for the maximum of flexibility and innovation in optimizing the transmission
between MSC and BTS.
The transcoder is the device that takes 13-Kbps speech or 3.6/6/12-Kbps data
multiplexes and four of them to convert into standard 64-Kbps data. First, the 13 Kbps
or the data at 3.6/6/12 Kbps are brought up to the level of 16 Kpbs by inserting
additional synchronizing data to make up the difference between a 13-Kbps speech or
lower rate data, and then four of them are combined in the transcoder to provide 64
Kpbs channel within the BSS. Four traffic channel can then be multiplexed on one 64-
Kpbs circuit. Thus, the TRAU output data rate is 64 Kpbs. Then, up to 30 such 64-
Kpbs channels are multiplexed onto a 2.048 Mpbs if a CEPT1 channel is provided on
the A-bis interface. This channel can carry up to 120-(16x 120) traffic and control
signals. Since the data rate to the PSTN is normally at 2 Mbps, which is the result of
combining 30-Kbps by 64-Kbph channels, or 120- Kbps by 16-Kpbs channels.



BSC

The BSC, as discussed, is connected to the MSC on one side and to the BTS on the
other. The BSC performs the Radio Resource (RR) management for the cells under
its control. It assigns and release frequencies and timeslots for all MSs in its own area.
The BSC performs the intercell handover for MSs moving between BTS in its control.
It also reallocates frequencies to the BTSs in its area to meet locally heavy demands
during peak hours or on special events. The BSC controls the power transmission of
both BSSs and MSs in its area. The minimum power level for a mobile unit is
broadcast over the BCCH. The BSC provides the time and frequency synchronization
reference signals broadcast by its BTSs. The BSC also measures the time delay of
received MS signals relative to the BTS clock. If the received MS signal is not
centered in its assigned timeslot at the BTS, The BSC can direct the BTS to notify the
MS to advance the timing such that proper synchronization takes place. The functions
of BSC are as follows.

The BSC may also perform traffic concentration to reduce the number of
transmission lines from the BSC to its BTSs, as discussed in the last section.


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SWITCHING SUBSYSTEMS: MOBILE SWITCHING CENTER AND GATEWAY
SWITCHING CENTER

The network and the switching subsystem together include the main switching
functions of GSM as well as the databases needed for subscriber data and mobility
management (VLR). The main role of the MSC is to manage the communications
between the GSM users and other telecommunication network users. The basic
switching function of performed by the MSC, whose main function is to coordinate
setting up calls to and from GSM users. The MSC has interface with the BSS on one
side (through which MSC VLR is in contact with GSM users) and the external
networks on the other (ISDN/PSTN/PSPDN). The main difference between a MSC
and an exchange in a fixed network is that the MSC has to take into account the
impact of the allocation of RRs and the mobile nature of the subscribers and has to
perform, in addition, at least, activities required for the location registration and
handover.

The MSC is a telephony switch that performs all the switching functions
for MSs located in a geographical area as the MSC area. The MSC must also handle
different types of numbers and identities related to the same MS and contained in
different registers: IMSI, TMSI,ISDN number, and MSRN. In general identities are
used in the interface between the MSC and the MS, while numbers are used in the
fixed part of the network, such as, for routing.

Functions of MSC

As stated, the main function of the MSC is to coordinate the set up of calls
between GSM mobile and PSTN users. Specifically, it performs functions such as
paging, resource allocation, location registration, and encryption.

Specifically, the call-handling function of paging is controlled by MSC. MSC
coordinates the set up of call to and from all GSM subscribers operating in its areas.
The dynamics allocation of access resources is done in coordination with the BSS.
More specifically, the MSC decides when and which types of channels should be
assigned to which MS. The channel identity and related radio parameters are the
responsibility of the BSS, The MSC provides the control of interworking with different
networks. It is transparent for the subscriber authentication procedure. The MSC
supervises the connection transfer between different BSSs for MSs, with an active
call, moving from one call to another. This is ensured if the two BSSs are connected to
the same MSC but also when they are not . In this latter case the procedure is more
complex, since more then one MSC in involved. The MSC performs billing on calls for
all subscribers based in its areas. When the subscriber is roaming elsewhere, the
MSC obtains data for the call billing from the visited MSC. Encryption parameters
transfers from VLR to BSS to facilitate ciphering on the radio interface are done by
MSC. The exchange of signaling information on the various interface toward the
other network elements and the management of the interface themselves are all
controlled by the MSC. Finally, the MSC serves as a SMS gateway to forward SMS
messages from Short Message Service Centers (SMSC) to the subscribers and from
the subscribers to the SMSCs. It thus acts as a message mailbox and delivery
system.


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VLR

The VLR is collocated with an MSC. A MS roaming in an MSC area is controlled by
the VLR responsible for that area. When a MS appears in a LA, it starts a registration
procedure. The MSC for that area notices this registration and transfers to the VLR
the identify of the LA where the MS is situated. A VLR may be in charge of one or
several MSC LAs. The VLR constitutes the databases that support the MSC in the
storage and retrieval of the data of subscribers present in its area. When an MS
enters the MSC area borders, it signals its arrival to the MSC that stores its identify in
the VLR. The information necessary to manage the MS is contained in the HLR and is
transferred to the VLR so that they can be easily retrieved if so required.

Data Stored in VLR

The data contained in the VLR and in the HLR are more or less the same.
Nevertheless the data are present in the VLR only as long as the MS is
registered in the area related to that VLR. Data associated with the
movement of mobile are IMSI, MSISDN, MSRN, and TMSI. The terms
permanent and temporary, in this case, are meaningful only during that time
interval. Some data are mandatory, others are optional.

HOME LOCATION REGISTER

The HLR is a database that permanently stores data related to a given set of
subscribers. The HLR is the reference database for subscriber parameters. Various
identification numbers and addresses as well as authentication parameters, services
subscribed, and special routing information are stored. Current subscriber status
including a subscribers temporary roaming number and associated VLR if the mobile
is roaming, are maintained.

The HLR provides data needed to route calls to all MS-SIMs home based in its
MSC area, even when they are roaming out of area or in other GSM networks. The
HLR provides the current location data needed to support searching for and paging
the MS-SIM for incoming calls, wherever the MS-SIM may be. The HLR is responsible
for storage and provision of SIM authentication and encryption parameters needed by
the MSC where the MS-SIM is operating. It obtains these parameters from the AUC.

The HLR maintains record of which supplementary service each user has
subscribed to and provides permission control in granting services. The HLR stores
the identification of SMS gateways that have messages for the subscriber under the
SMS until they can be transmitted to the subscriber and receipt is knowledge.
Some data are mandatory, other data are optional. Both the HLR and the VLR
can be implemented in the same equipment in an MSC (collocated). A PLMN may
contain one or several HLRs.


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AUTHENTICATION CENTER

The AUC stores information that is necessary to protect communication through the
air interface against intrusions, to which the mobile is vulnerable. The legitimacy of the
subscriber is established through authentication and ciphering, which protects the
user information against unwanted disclosure. Authentication information and
ciphering keys are stored in a database within the AUC, which protects the user
information against unwanted disclosure and access.
In the authentication procedure, the key Ki is never transmitted to the mobile
over the air path, only a random number is sent. In order to gain access to the system,
the mobile must provide the correct Signed Response (SRES) in answer to a random
number (RAND) generated by AUC.
Also, Ki and the cipher key Kc are never transmitted across the air interface
between the BTS and the MS. Only the random challenge and the calculated
response are transmitted. Thus, the value of Ki and Kc are kept secure. The cipher
key, on the other hand, is transmitted on the SS7 link between the home HLR/AUC
and the visited MSC, which is a point of potential vulnerability. On the other hand, the
random number and cipher key is supposed to change with each phone call, so
finding them on one call will not benefit using them on the next call.
The HLR is also responsible for the authentication of the subscriber each time
he makes or receives a call. The AUC, which actually performs this function, is a
separate GSM entity that will often be physically included with the HLR. Being
separate, it will use separate processing equipment for the AUC database functions.

EQUIPMENT IDENTIFY REGISTER

EIR is a database that stores the IMEI numbers for all registered ME units. The IMEI
uniquely identifies all registered ME. There is generally one EIR per PLMN. It
interfaces to the various HLR in the PLMN. The EIR keeps track of all ME units in the
PLMN. It maintains various lists of message. The database stores the ME
identification and has nothing do with subscriber who is receiving or originating call.
There are three classes of ME that are stored in the database, and each group has
different characteristics.


White List: contains those IMEIs that are known to have been assigned to
valid MSs. This is the category of genuine equipment.
Black List: contains IMEIs of mobiles that have been reported stolen.
Gray List: contains IMEIs of mobiles that have problems (for example, faulty
software, wrong make of the equipment). This list contains all MEs with
faults not important enough for barring.


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INTERWORKING FUNCTION

GSM provided a wide range of data services to its subscribers. The GSM
system interface with the various forms of public and private data networks
currently available. It is the job of the IWF to provide this interfacing
capability.

The IWF, which in essence is a part of MSC, provides the subscriber with access to
data rate and protocol conversion facilities so that data can be transmitted between
GSM Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) and a land-line DTE.

ECHO CANCELER

EC is used on the PSTN side of the MSC for all voice circuits. The EC is required at
the MSC PSTN interface to reduce the effect of GSM delay when the mobile is
connected to the PSTN circuit. The total round-trip delay introduced by the GSM
system, which is the result of speech encoding, decoding and signal processing, is of
the order of 180 ms. Normally this delay would not be an annoying factor to the
mobile, except when communicating to PSTN as it requires a two-wire to four-wire
hybrid transformer in the circuit. This hybrid is required at the local switching office
because the standard local loop is a two-wire circuit. Due to the presence of this
hybrid, some of the energy at its four-wire receive side from the mobile is coupled to
the four-wire transmit side and thus retransmitted to the mobile. This causes the echo,
which does not effect the land subscriber but is an annoying factor to the mobile. The
standard EC cancels about 70 ms of delay.

During a normal PSTN (land-to-land call), no echo is apparent because
the delay is too short and the land user is unable to distinguish between the echo and
the normal telephone side tones However, with the GSM round-trip delay added and
without the EC, the effect would be irritating to the MS subscriber.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE CENTER

The OMC provides alarm-handling functions to report and log alarms generated by the
other network entities. The maintenance personnel at the OMC can define that
criticality of the alarm. Maintenance cover both technical and administrative actions to
maintain and correct the system operation, or to restore normal operations after a
breakdown, in the shortest possible time.

The fault management functions of the OMC allow network devices to be
manually or automatically removed from or restored to service. The status of network
devices can be checked, and tests and diagnostics on various devices can be
invoked. For example, diagnostics may be initiated remotely by the OMC. A mobile
call trace facility can also be invoked. The performance management functions
included collecting traffic statistics from the GSM network entities and archiving them
in disk files or displaying them for analysis. Because a potential to collect large
amounts of data exists, maintenance personal can select which of the detailed

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statistics to be collected based on personal interests and past experience. As a result
of performance analysis, if necessary, an alarm can be set remotely.

The OMC provides system change control for the software revisions and
configuration data bases in the network entities or uploaded to the OMC. The OMC
also keeps track of the different software versions running on different subsystem of
the GSM.


References: [1] The GSM system for mobile communication-Michel Mouly & Marie- Bernadette
Pautet.

[2] GSM system Engineering-Asha Mehrotra (Artech House Publisher).

[3] haug, T.,Developing GSM standard, pan-European Digital Cellular
Radio Conf., Nice, France, 1991.

[4] Mouly, M., and pautet Marie-Bernadette,Current Evolution of the
GSM system, IEEE Personal Communications, October 1995,
PP.9-19.

[5] Beddoes, E, W., GSM Network Architecture, GSm Seminar,
Budapest, October 1990, Session 2.1.


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4 Call Management Overview


OBJECTIVE
After completion of this lesson the student is able to:
Describe the steps of a mobile originate Call
Describe the steps of a mobile terminated Call.
MOBILE-TO-LAND CALL SCENARIO
The following table lists the phases of a mobile-to-land call.
Stage Description
1
Request for service, the MS request to setup a call.
2 Authentication; the MSC/ VLR request the AUC for authentication
parameters. Using these parameters the MS is authenticated.
3 Ciphering: Using the parameters that were made available earlier during
the authentication the uplink and the downlink are ciphered.
4 Equipment Validation: the MSC/VLR requests the EIR to check the IMEI
for validity.
5 Call Setup; the MSC established a connection to the MS.
6 Handovers
7 Call release, the speech path is released.


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The following figure shows the Phases 1, 4 and 5.

Fig : 1
OPTIONAL PHASES
The authentication, ciphering, equipment validation and handover phases are optional;
the service provider may decide that some of these phases might not take place in a
mobile-to-land call.
STEPS IN REQUEST FOR SERVICE PHASE
The following is an example of a scenario of a mobile-to-land call. It is assumed that the
MS is already registered with the system and has been allocated a Temporary Mobile
subscriber Identity Number (TMSI).
A Mobile originated call starts by the user entering the director number digits, associated
with the person to be called, on the MS handset. The user presses the Sent key after all
digits have been entered.

MS transmits a channel request message over the Random Access Channel (RACH)

Once the BSS receives the Channel Request message, it allocated a Stand-alone
Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) and forwards this channel assignment
information to the MS over the Access Grant channel (AGCH). It is over the SDCCH

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that the MS will communicate with the BSS and MSC until a traffic channel is
assigned.
The MS transmits a service request message to the BSS over the SDCCH. Included in
this message are the MS TMSI and Location Are Identification (LAI). The BSS
forwards the service request message to the MSC/ VLR.

The following figure shows the request for service phase.



























Fig : 2


AUTHENTICATION AND CIPHERING PHASES
The Authentication and ciphering phase that might be performed here to setup a mobile-
to-land call are exactly the same as seen before in the location update scenarios.
EQUIPMENT VALIDATION
The Mobile-equipment validation process is the means by which a specific piece of mobile
equipment can be identified regardless of the user. It is needed to prevent the use of
stolen, unauthorized, or malfunctioning equipment in the network.
Each piece of mobile equipment is uniquely identified by an International Mobile
Equipment identify (IMEI) code. The IMEI code which is incorporated into the
equipment by the manufacturer has three components: a Type Approval Code (TAC), a
Final Assembly Code (FAC), and a Serial Number (SNR). The IMEI code is secure and
physically protected against unauthorized change.
MS BSS
MSC/
VLR
Channel Request
SDCCH Assignment
Service Request
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment Validation
Call set up
Handover(s)
Call release
Um A
RACH
AGCH
SDCCH
1
2
3

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The Equipment Identify Register (EIR) is responsible for storing the IMEI codes that
identify the mobile equipment deployed in the GSM system.

STEPS IN EQUIPMENT VALIDATION PHASE
At this point in time, the MS has been authenticated and the radio channel is being
encrypted. The MSC will interrogate the MS for its equipment number and checks the
equipments against information in the Equipment Identify Register (EIR).
The MSC transmits a request to the MS requesting it to
respond with its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)
The MS upon receiving this request, reads its equipment serial number and
returns this value to the MSC
The MSC then requests the EIR to check the IMEI for validity. The EIR will first
check to see if the IMEI value is within a valid range. If, so it then checks to see if
the IMEI is on a suspect or know list of invalid equipment.
The EIR returns to the MSC the results of the IMEI validation. If the results are
negative, the MSC might abort the call or possibly let the call continue but inform
the network service provider of the event. In this scenario, well assume that the
IMEI is valid.


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The following figure shows the equipment validation phase.































Fig : 3
STEPS IN CALL SETUP PHASE WITH THE MS
The call is setup a voice path is phase with MS created between the MS and the MSC by
allocating a radio traffic channel and a voice trunk
The MS transmits a call setup request message to the MSC/ VLR after it has
ciphered the radio channel. Included in this request message are the dialed digits.
The MSC, upon receiving the call setup request message, will request the VLR to
supply subscriber parameters necessary for handling the call. The VLR will check
for call barring conditions, such as the MS being barred from making specific
outgoing call (e.g. international calls), or possibly if some supplementary services
are active which prevent the call from being granted. If the VLR determines that
the call cannot be processed, the VLR will provide the reason to the MSC. In this
scenario, well assume that his procedure is successful. The VLR returns a
message to the MSC containing the service parameters for the particular
subscriber.
The MSC informs the MS that the call is proceeding.
Request for service
Authentication
Ciphering

MS BSS
MSC/
VLR
IME I Request
Um A
SDCCH
SDCCH
4
7
5
3
IMEI Response (IMEI)
EIR
F
IMEI Check Results
Check IMEI
Call setup
Handover(s)
Call release
6
3
9
3

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The following figure shows the call setup phase.





















Fig : 4
VOICE PATH ESTABLISHMENT
The next four steps involve establishing a voice path between the MSC and the MS.
The MSC allocates a trunk to the BSS currently serving the MS. The MSC sends a
message to the BSS supplying it with the trunk number allocated (TN), and
requests the BSS to allocate a radio traffic channel (TCH) for the MS
The BSS allocates a radio traffic channel and transmits this assignments to the
MS over the SDCCH
The MS tunes to the assigned radio traffic channel and transmits an acknowledgment to
the BSS.
The BSS connects the radio traffic channel to the assigned trunk of the MSC. Since a
small portion of a radio traffic channel is available for out-of-band signaling, the
SDCCH is no longer used for signaling between the BSS and MS. The BSS de-
allocates the SDCCH. The BSS then transmits a trunk and radio assignment complete
message to the MSC.

STEPS IN CALL SETUP PHASE WITH LAND NETWORK
At this point in time a voice path has been established between the MS and the MSC. The
MS user hears silence since the complete voice path has not yet been established. The last
phase of setting up a mobile-originated call involves the MSC establishing a voice path
from the MSC to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
The MSC sends a network setup message to the PSTN requesting that a call be
setup. Included in the message are the MS dialed digits (DD) and details specifying
which trunk should be used for the call.
MS BSS
MSC/
VLR
Call Setup Request
Request for service
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment Validation

Um A
SDCCH
SDCCH
8
9
Call Proceeding

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The PSTN may involve several switching exchanges before finally reaching the
final local exchange responsible for applying the ringing tone to the destination
phone. The local exchange will generate the ringing tone over the trunk, or series
of trunks (if several intermediate switching exchanges are involved), to the MSC.
At this point in time, the MS will hear ringing tone. The PSTN notifies the MSC
with a network alerting message when this event occurs.
The MSC informs the MS that the destination number is being altered. Note: this
is primarily a status message to the MS. The MS will hear a ringing tone from the
destination local exchange through the established voice path.
When the destination party goes off-hook, the PSTN will inform the MSC of this
event. This event usually triggers the beginning of billing. At this point. The MS
will be connected to the destination party.
The MSC informs the MS that the connection has been established.
The MS acknowledges the receipt of the connect message.
The following figure shows the call setup with land network phase.





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Fig : 5












Request for Service
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment
validation
MS BSS
MSC/
VLR
PSTN
Um A
Network setup
(DD ....)
Network Alerting
Connect (answer)
Start Billing
Alerting
FACCH
Connect
FACCH
Connect
Acknowledgement
14
15
16
17
18
19
FACCH
Handover(s)
Call release


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STEPS IN RELEASE PHASE MS INITIATED
Under normal conditions, the termination of a call is: MS initiated or network initiated.
In this scenario, well assume that the MS initiated the release of the call. A network
initiated release is illustrated in the land-to-mobile call scenario in the upcoming pages.
The mobile user initiated the release of the call by pressing the end button (the
button might be labeled with a different term on the MS. The MS sends a
Disconnect message to the MSC).
The other party (The PSTN party) is notified of the termination of the call by a
Release message from the MSC. The end-to-end connection is terminated.
When the MSC determines that the call has no more reason to exist (no side tasks
to complete, e.g. charging indication) a Release message is sent to the MS.
The MS answers back with a Release complete message. At this stage the lower
connections are released (unless they are used for something else in parallel)
The voice trunk between the MSC and the BSS is released.
The traffic channel is cleared.
The release of the resources is completed.
The following figure shows the release phase MS initiated.

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Fig : 6
Land-To-Mobile Call Scenario
The following table lists the phases of a mobile call
Stage Description
Routing Analysis: the MS terminated call is routed to the visited MSC
using information from the HLR and VLR.
Paging : the MSC initiates a communication with the MS.
Authentication: the MSC/VLR requests the AUC for authentication
parameters. Using these parameters the MS is authenticated.
Ciphering: using the parameters which where made available earlier
during the authentication the uplink and the downlink are ciphered.
Equipment Validation: the MSC/VLR requests the EIR to check the
IMEI for validity.
Call Setup: the MSC establishes a connection to the MS.
Handover (s)
Call release: The speech path is released.
MS BSS
MSC/
VLR
PSTN
Um A
Disconnect
Network Release
Stop Billing
Clear
Release
Release complete
Clear Complete
FACCH
FACCH
Channel Release
FACCH
20
21
22
23
24
25
FACCH
26

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The following figure shows the phases of a land-to-mobile call.


Fig : 7
OPTIONAL PHASES
The authentication, ciphering, equipment validation and handover phases are optional;
the service provider may decide that some of these phases might not take place in a land-
to-mobile call.

STEPS IN ROUTING ANALYSIS PHASE
The following is a scenario of a mobile terminating call. It is assumed that the MS is
already registered with the system and has been allocated a Temporary Mobile Identity
Number (TMSI). It is also assumed that a land subscriber dials the directory number of a
mobile subscriber and the call enters the GSM network via a Gateway MSC (GMSC).

I. The PSTN routes the call to the GMSC of this directory number, based on the Mobile
Subscriber ISDN number (MSISDN)
II. The GMSC, not knowing whether this MS is roaming in its own service area or not,
sends a message, with the MSISDN in it, to the HLR.
III. The HLR requests the MSC/ VLR to provide routing information about this MS.
IV. The MSC/ VLR returns to the GMSC via the HLR, a director number where the MS can
be reached, which is referred to as the MS Roaming Number (MSRN)
V. The call is routed from the GMSC to the visited MSC.




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The following figure shows Land-to-mobile call- Routing Analysis










































Fig : 8





MSC/
VLR
Relea
Paging
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment validation
Call setup
Handover (s)
Call release
Incoming Call
(MSISDN)


Routing info (MSRN)
Get Route (MSISDN)
Get Route (IMSI)
1
2
3
4
5
Incoming Call (MSISDN)
Pa

HLR

GMSC

PSTN
Routing info (MSRN)

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STEPS IN PAGING PHASE
I. The MSC uses the location area identity, provided by the VLR, to determine which
BSSs should page the MS. The MSC transmits a message to each of these BSSs
requesting that a page to be performed. Included in the message is the TMSI of the
MS.
II. Each of the BSSs broadcasts the TMSI of the mobile in a page message on the paging
channel (PCH)
III. When a MS detects its TMSI, or IMSI, broadcasts on the paging channel, it responds
with a channel request message over a common access channel. Random Access
Channel (RACH)
IV. Once the BSS receives the Channel Request message, it allocates a Stand-alone
Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) and forwards this channel assignment
information to the MS over the Access Grant Channel (AGCH). It is over the SDCCH
that the MS will communicate with the BSS and MSC until a traffic channel is
assigned.
V. The MS transmits a page response message to the BSS over the SDCCH. Included in
this message is the MS TMSI and Location Area Identification (LAI)
VI. The BSS forwards the page response message to the MSC. The MSC informs its VLR
that a particular MS is responding to a page.

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The following figure shows the Land-to-mobile call- Paging Phase.










































Fig : 9





MS BSS
MSC/
VLR

Um A
Relea
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment validation
Call setup
Handover (s)
Call release
Routing analysis

PCH

SDCCH Assignment
Perform Page (TMSI)
Channel Request
6
7
8
9
10
AGCH
Page Response
(TMSI, LAI)
SDCCH
Page Response 11
Page
RACH

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AUTHENTICATION, CIPHERING AND EQUIPMENT VALIDATION PHASES
The Authentication and ciphering that might be performed here to phases setup a mobile-to-
land call are the same as seen before in the location update scenario. The equipment validation
phase is done in the same way as in the mobile-to-land scenario.

STEPS IN CALL SETUP PHASE WITH MS
The call with the mobile is setup; a voice path is created between the MS and a voice
trunk:
I. After the MSC receives the Encipher complete message from the MS, the MS is
informed that a call will be setup via a setup message.
II. The MS, upon receiving a setup message, performs compatibility checking before
responding to the setup message- it is possible that the MS might be incompatible
for certain types of call setups. Assuming that the MS passes compatibility checking.
It acknowledges the call setup with a setup confirm message.
III. The MSC selects a trunk (terrestrial channel) to the BSS. The MSC then send an
assignment request message to the BSS requesting it to assign radio resources.
Included in the message are attributes describing the type of radio resource to be
allocated and the trunk (terrestrial channel) to be used.
IV. The BSS upon receiving an Assignment Request message allocates an appropriate
radio traffic channel and transmits an Assignment Command over the SDCCH to
the MS informing in to tune to a new radio channel configuration.
V. The MS tunes to the specified traffic channel and transmits an assignments
complete message back to the BSS. The MS then begins alerting the user (i.e. the
phone rings). Prior to this point in time, the MS user in unaware that he/she is
receiving a call. The MS no longer uses the SDCCH after receiving a traffic channel
assignment.
VI. The BSS upon receiving the assignment complete message connects the assigned
traffic channel to the trunk (terrestrial channel) that was allocated by the MSC. The
BSS places the SDCCH on a free list and transmits an assignment complete message
to the MSC.
It was assumed in the past three steps that the BSS had no complications in assigning and
connecting a radio traffic channel to the specified trunk. Several possible errors include: no
radio resource available. Equipment failure, requested transcoding/ rate adaptation unavailable,
and terrestrial resource already allocated if any of these or other errors occur, the BSS would
send an assignment failure message to the MSC.


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The following figure shows the Land-to-mobile call- Call Setup with MS phase










































Fig : 10






MS BSS
MSC/
VLR

Um A
Relea
Handover (s)
Call release
Routing analysis
Paging
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment validation
SDCCH

Assign Trunk &
Radio Channel
Call Setup Confirm
SDCCH
Call Setup
Radio Assignment
Complete
12
13
14
15
16
SDCCH
Assign Radio
Channel
SDCCH
Trunk & Radio
Assignment
Complete
17

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STEPS IN CALL SETUP PHASE WITH LAND
NETWORK
o As discussed with the previous land figure, the MS will begin alerting the user after it
receives a traffic channel assignment. Once alerting has begun, the MS sends an alerting
message to the MSC.
o The MSC, upon receiving an Alerting indication from the MS, would begin generating
audible ringing to the calling party and send a network alerting via the GMSC to the PSTN.
Prior to this point, the calling party heard silence.
o At this point in the call, the MS is alerting the called party by generating an audible tone to
the calling party. One of three events can occur; calling party hangs-up, mobile subscriber
answers the phone, or the MSC times-out waiting for the mobile subscriber to answer. Since
a radio traffic channel is a valuable resource, GSM does not allow a MS to ring forever.
o In this scenario it is assumed that the mobile subscriber answers the phone, the MS in
response to this action stops alerting and sends a connect message to the MSC.
o The MSC removes audible to the PSTN and connects the PSTN trunk to the BSS trunk
(terrestrial channel), and sends a connect message via the GMSC to the PSTN. The caller and
called party now have a complete talk path. This event typically denotes the beginning of the
call for billing purposes.
o The MSC sends the MS a connect acknowledgement message.

The following figure shows the Land-to-mobile Call-Call Setup with Land Network phase.

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Fig : 11






MS BSS
MSC/
VLR

Um A
Connect
FACCH

Network Altering

FACCH
Connect (Off - hook)
FACCH
Connect
HLR GMSC PSTN
Mobile Alerting
Relea
Connect Acknowledge
Handover (s)
Call release
18
19
20
21
22
Routing analysis
Paging
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment validation

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STEPS IN RELEASE PHASE NETWORK
INITIATED
The release triggered by the land user is done in a similar
way as the release triggered by the mobile user.
I. 1 The MSC receives a Release message from the
network to terminate the end-to-end connection.
II. This causes the sending of a Disconnect message towards
the MS
III. The MS answers by a release message, the MSC release
the connection to the PSTN.
IV. This is acknowledged by a Release Complete from the
MSC
V. The Voice trunk between the MSC and the BSS is cleared
VI. The traffic channel is released.
VII. The resources are completely released.

The following figure shows the Land-to-mobile Call- Release Network Initiate phase.


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Fig : 12







MS BSS
MSC/
VLR

Routing analysis Paging
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment validation
Call setup
Handover(s)
Um A
Release Complete
FACCH

Network Release
FACCH
Release Complete
FACCH
Clear Command
HLR GMSC PSTN
Disconnect
Release
Channel Release
Clear Complete
FACCH
23
24
25
26
27
28
29

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Mobile-To-Mobile Call Scenario
The Mobile-to-mobile call is established using the same
phases as seen earlier.
As shown on the opposite page, the mobile-to-mobile call
phases can be subdivided in to two parts:
The originating mobile part where the phases are the same as those of a mobile-to-land
call, except that the call setup phase is partially performed. This means that only the
call setup with Mobile is done.
The terminating mobile part consist of the same phases as the land-to-mobile call
scenario except again that the call setup phase performs only call setup with mobile.
ORIGINATING MOBILE
The phases of an Originating mobile are:
Request for service
Authentication (Optional)
Ciphering (optional)
Equipment validation (optional)
Call setup
Release.
TERMINATING MOBILE
The phases of a Terminating mobile are:

Routing analysis
Paging
Authentication (Optional)
Ciphering (optional)
Equipment validation (optional)
Call setup
Release.
Radio Resource Management Overview
OBJECTIVES
This lesson describes the different Radio resource management aspects.
After completion of this lesson the student is able to:
Describe all the Radio resource management functions:

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This lesson is applicable to GSM-900, GSM-1800 and GSM-1900. When the term GSM is
mentioned, it includes GSM-900, GSM-1800 or GSM 1900. Unless they are referred to as
separate systems explicitly.

OVERVIEW OF RADIO RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
Radio Resource management is a group of functions concerned with the management of
transmission resources on the radio path (Um interface). It must cope with limited radio
resources (and the corresponding terrestrial resources) and share them dynamically between all
demands.
The role of the Radio Resources management is to:
Establish stable connections between the mobile stations and the BSC (Base
Station Controller)
Maintain them despite user movement for the duration of a call.
Release the connections between the mobile stations and the BSC.
FUNCTIONS PERFORMED BY BSC AND MS
The mobile station and the BSC mainly perform the functions of the Radio Resource
management.

Radio resources Management Functions
The Radio Resource management functions are:
Power Control
Handover
Discontinuous transmission
Call re-establishment
Frequency hopping.
POWER CONTROL
Power control enables the mobile station and/or the BTS to increase or decrease the
transmission power on a per-radio link basis.
Power Control is separately performed for the uplink and downlink. In both cases the BSC is
responsible for initiating Power Control; the mobile station and the BTS adopt transmit power
according to the BSC Power Control commands.
MEASUREMENTS
While a mobile station is active on a call, it has the responsibility of providing measurement
data about the performance of the air-interface to its serving BTS so that the serving BSC can
decide if a power control should be performed. Also the serving BTS measures the
performance of the air-interface. Whereas the mobile station measures the performance of the
downlink, the BTS measures the performance of the uplink.

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DOWNLINK MEASUREMENTS
The mobile station measures and reports the following measurements to the BSC regarding the
Performance of the downlink.
Strength of the signal being receiving from its serving BTS (in dBm)
Quality of the signal being received from its serving BTS (in bit error rate).
UPLINK MEASUREMENTS
The BTS measures and reports the following measurements to the BSC regarding the
performance of the uplink:
Strength of the signal being received from the mobile station.
Quality of the signal being received from the mobile station.
PERIODICAL MEASURING
The mobile station measures periodically the performance of the downlink, and sends the
Measurements in the SACCH (Slow Associated Control Channel) via the serving BTS to the
BSC every SACCH multi-frame. This corresponds to the transmission of data every 104
TDMA frames or 480 ms. The base station measures the quality of the uplink. Also, it transfers
the measurements in the SACCH to the BSC every 480ms.
SIGNAL STRENGTH
When the BSC notices that the signal strength of a particular radio link measured on the uplink
becomes below the lower pre-defined threshold because the mobile station moves away from
the BTS, it sends a Power Control Command to the mobile station to increase its transmits
power (MS_TXPWR) by a pre-defined step (typically 2 dB). The transmit power of the mobile
station can be increased until a maximum defined level is reached.
The BSC can also send a Power Control command to the mobile station to reduce transmits
power when it notices that the signal strength measured becomes above the upper pre-defined
threshold.
The downlink Power Control process is similar to the uplink Power Control process.


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The following figure shows the uplink Power Control
process.

Fig : 13
SIGNAL STRENGTH AND SIGNAL QUALITY
In the description of Power Control given up to this point, the reason for Power Control is
that the uplink/downlink signal strength measured is higher or lower than thresholds specified.
Another reason for activating Power Control is an uplink/ downlink signal quality measured
which is higher or lower than thresholds specified.
In the optimum area, the area delimited by the different pre-defined thresholds. No Power
Control actions are taken. If signal quality and/ or strength are beneath the specified thresholds,
Power Control will increase power (indicated by +). If signal quality and/ or strength are
above the specified thresholds, Power Control will reduce transmits power (indicated by -)

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The following figure shows the optimum area in the uplink
Power Control process.

Fig : 14
GSM FEATURE
Power Control is a GSM feature that can be enabled or disabled on a per cell basis. If power
Control is disabled for the mobile stations, the mobile stations will always transmit at
maximum power level. The same is applicable for the BTS: if Power Control is disabled for
the BTS. It will always transmit at maximum power level.
REASONS FOR POWER CONTROL
One reason to enable Power Control is to save mobile station battery power. However, the
main reason for Power Control is improving the carrier-to-interference ratio within the cellular
network, reducing power on the BTS or the mobile station, while keeping similar signal quality
received, and decrease interference caused on the other calls in the surrounding area.
HANDOVER
Handover is the process of automatically switching a call in progress from one traffic channel
to another to neutralize the adverse effects of user movements. The switch can be made either
to a TCH within the same cell or in another cell.
Usually, handovers take place on the TCH, when the call is in the speech stage. However, in
rare cases it may be necessary to perform a handover when, for example, the call is still in
build up stage. In that case the SDCCH will be handed over to another frequency or time slot.
This type of handover is more likely to take place during transmission of short messages by the
point-to-point Short Message Service (SMS)
Note that the handover process will normally only be started if power control is not
helpful anymore.

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The following figure shows the handover process.

Fig : 15
MEASUREMENTS
To decide if a handover should be performed, the BSC receives measurements data about the
performance of the air interface from its serving BTSs and mobile stations. The BSC uses the
same measurements are those used in the power control process.
DOWNLINK MEASUREMENTS
Quality of the signal being received from its serving BTS (in bit error rate)
Signal strength of the 6 best neighboring BTS downlink control channels (candidate list).
UPLINK MEASUREMENTS
The BTS measures and reports the following measurements to the BSC regarding the
performance of the uplink:
Strength of the signal being receiving from the mobile station,
Quality of the signal being received from the mobile station.
Distance between the serving BTS and the mobile station (in meters)

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HANDOVER PROCESS
As a mobile station moves away from its serving BTS towards the coverage area of
neighboring BTSs, the mobile station measurement reports will show a gradual decrease in
signal strength from its serving BTS while showing an increase in measured signal strength
from one or more neighboring BTSs.
It is the responsibility of the serving BSC to analyze the measurement reports from the mobile
station and to decide when a handover should be performed. If it is determined that there is a
better BTS to serve the call, the serving BSC initiates the handover procedure.
HANDOVER TYPES
The types of handover procedure executed depends on what level of switching must be
performed in order to move the call from the serving BTS to the new candidate BTS.
There are basically four types of handovers:
Internal or intra-BSS handover, which can be:
Intra cell handover
Inter-cell handover.
External or inter-BSS handover, which can be:
Intra-MSC handover.
Inter-MSC handover.
If the serving and candidate BTSs reside within the same BSS, the BSC for the BSS can
perform the handover without the involvement of the MSC thus termed internal or intra BSS
handover. This type of handover can also be sub-divided into intra-cell and inter-cell
handovers. An intra-cell handover is an intra-BSS handover within the same BTS. An inter-cell
handover is a handover between different BTSs.
If the serving and candidate BTSs do not reside within the same BSS, then an inter-BSS
handover is performed, which requires the MSC to serving BTS and the candidate BTS. This
type of handover can also be divided into intra-MSC and inter-MSC handovers.
EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT HAND OVER
TYPES
Different types of handover are explained using the examples of a system consisting of two
MSCs and three BSSs. Also depicted is cell coverage
Areas with example Cell Global Identification codes for each BSS.
Assume that the mobile and land stations are active in a cell, the call is being controlled by
MSC A, and the mobile station is currently in cell area 234-01-100-51.

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The following figure shows four types of handovers.

Fig : 16
INTRA-BSS INTRA CELL HANDOVER
For this type of handover, the mobile station is handed over to a different radio channel within
the same cell area: 234-01-100-51. This is actually an unusual type of handover, since it is not
triggered by poor signal strength (if it was, the candidate base station would be different from
the serving base station). A probably cause for this type of handover would be poor signal
quality (not strength), possibly due to co-channel interference. For this type of handover, BSC2
would allocate a new radio channel and instruct the mobile station to retune.
INTRA-BSS, INTER - CELL HANDOVER
The mobile station moves from area 234-01-100-51 towards area 234-01-100-52. At some
point in time, BSC 2 will determine from the signal strength measurement reports that the base
station responsible for cell area 234-01-100-52 can better serve the call. Since the candidate
base station is also connected to BSC-2, the handover can be coordinated by BSC 2 without the
involvement of MSC A. in this situation, BSC 2 reserves an available radio channel from cell
area 234-01-100-52 and instructs the mobile station to retune to the new radio channel, BSC 2

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is also responsible for switching the voice path between MSC A and the old radio channel to
the new radio channel.
INTER-BSS INTRA- MSC HANDOVER
The mobile station moves from area 234-01-100- 51 towards area 234-01-100-55. At some
point in time, BSC 2 will determine from the signal strength measurement reports that the base
station responsible for cell are 234-01-100-55 can better serve the call. BSC 2 will then
determine that there are no base states connected to it that serves area 234-01-100-55 and will
request MSC A to arrange the handover to the candidate base station. MSC A will determine
that BSC 3 is responsible for cell area 234-01-100-55 and request it to reserve a free radio
channel for a handover. MSC A will relay the new radio channel information back to BSC2.
BSC 2 will then ask the mobile to retune to the new channel. At the same time, MSC A will
switch voice paths between the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the old BSC
(BSC 2) to the new BSC.
BSS, INTER-MSC HANDOVER
The mobile station moves from area 234-01-100-51 towards area 234-01-089-21. Similar to
previous scenario, BSC 2 will ask MSC A to coordinate the handover to 234-01-089-21. MSC
A will determine that it has no base stations under its control responsible for the identified cell
area. MSC A then needs to determine which neighboring MSC is responsible for the cell area,
in this case MSC B. and will ask it to receive a handover.
MS UNAWARE OF HANDOVER
From the mobile stations reference point, it is unaware of the 4 level of handover. The mobile
station has two handover related responsibilities provide performance measurements to its
serving base station and to retune to a new radio channel when ordered to do so.
INTER-PLMN HANDOVER
The GSM specification does not describe the handover between cells of different PLMS.

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INTRA-BSS, INTER-CELL HANDOVER PHASES
The following figure shows the global phases in an intra-BSS, inter-cell handover.
Fig : 17
SCENARIO
The handover scenario consists of:
I. The MS is continuously listening to the broadcast channel, measuring the strength of the
currently used radio channel and the neighboring channels and reporting the result to the
BSS.
II. The BSC allocates a new radio channel and instructs the MS to re-tune to it.
III. The MS tunes to the new radio channel, and sends a Handover Complete to the BSS.
IV. The BSS informs the MSC about the new location of the MS.

The following figure shows an intra-BSS, inter-cell handover

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Fig : 18













MS BSS

MSC

Signal Strength
Measurements
SACCH
FACCH
1
7
2
5
Handover Command
Handover Performed
3
6
4
9
FACCH
Handover Access
FACCH
Handover Command

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INTER-BSS, INTRA-MSC HANDOVER PHASES:
The following figure shows the phases in an inter-BSS,
intra-MSC handover.









































Fig : 19


The table below lists the two stages in an inter-BSS, intra-MSC handover.
b. Allocate new resources


MSC /
VLR A
a. Request to handover
Old BSS

MSC /
VLR A
New BSS
MS served by old BSS:
MS served by new BSS:
MS


MSC /
VLR A
b. Release of old resources
Old BSS

MSC /
VLR A
New BSS
a. Hand over execution
MS
= Voice path
= Connection

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Stage Description
1 MS served by old BSS: the MS detects that there is a better BSS
candidate and requests the MSC (via the old BSS) to be connected
to this BSS. The MSC then allocates resources to the new BSS.
2 MS served by new BSS: the MS tunes to the new BSS and uses the
newly allocated resources. The resources to the old BSS are
released.



SCENARIO
The inter-BSS, intra-MSC handover scenario consists of:

I. The MS is continuously listening to the broadcast channel, measuring the
strength of the currently used radio channel and the neighboring channels
II. When the old BSS, currently supporting the MS, determines that the MS
requires to be handed over it will send a Handover required message to the MSC
with a list of cells to which the MS can be handed over.
III. On receiving the Handover required message, the MSC begins the process of
handing over the MS to the new BSS. The MSC sends a Handover Request
message to the selected BSS (new BSS)
IV. The new BSS takes the necessary actions to allow the MS to access the new radio
resources and then sends the acknowledgement (Handover Request-ACK
message to the MSC containing the Handover Reference Number (hrn))
V. The MSC informs the old BSS that the handover can take place
VI. The old BSS sends a command to the MS to tune to the new radio channel
VII. The MS accesses the new radio resource by sending the message Handover
Access containing the hrn. The hrn is checked by the new BSS to ensure it is as
expected and the correct MS has been captured.
VIII. If this is the correct MS the new BSS sends a handover Detect message to the
MSC
IX. When the MS is successfully communicating with the new BSS it sends to it a
Handover Complete message.
X. The new BSS forwards this message to the MSC.
XI. The MS is now served by a new BSS, the trunk reserved for the communication
between the MSC and the old BSS can now be released.
XII. Consequently the radio traffic channel is released.

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The following figure shows an inter-BSS, intra-MSC handover





Fig : 20




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INTER-BSS, INTER-MSC HANDOVER PHASES
The figure below shows the phases of an Inter-BSS, Inter-MSC handover. MS served by
old BSS, MS served by new BSS.

























Fig : 21


The following table lists the two stages in an inter-BSS, inter-MSC handover.

Stage Description
1 MS served by old BSS: the MS detects that there is a better BSS candidate
and requests the MSC (via the old BSS) to be connected to this BSS. The
MSC then allocates resources to the new BSS.
2 MS served by new BSS: the MS tunes to the new BSS and uses the
newly allocated resources. The resources to the old BSS are released.
b. Allocate new resources


MSC /
VLR A
a. Request to handover
Old BSS

MSC /
VLR A
New BSS
MS served by old BSS:
MS served by new BSS:
MS


MSC /
VLR A
b. Release of old resources
Old BSS

MSC /
VLR A
New BSS
a. Hand over execution
MS
= Voice path
= Connection

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SCENARIO
The inter-BSS, inter-MSC handover scenario consists of:
I. The MS is continuously listening to the broadcast channel, measuring the strength
of the current used radio channel and the neighboring channels.
II. When the old BSS, (BSS-A), currently supporting the MS, determines that the MS
requires to be handed over it will send a Handover required message with a list of
cells to which the MS can be handed over.
III. Upon receipt of this message from the old BSS, MSC-A sends a message to the
MSC-B to perform the handover. This message will contain all information
needed by this MSC to allocate a radio channel and also the identity of the cell to
which the call is to be handed over
IV. MSC-B asks its VLR to allocate a Handover Reference Number (hrn)
V. MSC-B retrieves the hrn which will be used for routing the connection of the call
to MSC-A
VI. If no traffic channel is available in MSC-B, it asks the BSS-B to allocate one
VII. BSS-B returns the allocated traffic channel (TN)
VIII. An Acknowledgement message containing the new radio resources definition is
sent by MSC-B to MSC-A
IX. MSC-A asks MSC-B to establish a communication circuit
X. MSC-B establishes a circuit with MSC-A using the signaling procedures
supported by the network.
XI. The MSC-A informs the old BSS-A that the handover can take place
XII. The BSS-A sends a command to the MS to tune to the new radio channel
XIII. The MS accesses the new radio resource by sending the message Handover Access
containing the hrn. The hrn is checked by BSS-B to ensure it is as expected and
the correct MS has been captured
XIV. If this is the correct MS BSS-B sends a Handover Detect message to the MSC-B
XV. When the MS is successfully communicating with the BSS-B it sends to it a
handover Complete message
XVI. The BSS-B forwards this message to the MSC-B
XVII. By completion of the handover, MSC-B informs MSC-A that the connection can
be ended
XVIII. MSC-A acknowledge the receipt of this message
XIX. The radio traffic channel used earlier by the MS can be released
XX. The BSS-A acknowledged this message to the MSC-A
XXI. The trunk used for the communication between MSC-A and the BSS to serve the
MS is no longer needed and can be released. MSC-A informs MSC-B that the old
resources used by the MS are released.
XXII. The network connection between MSC-A and MSC-B is released

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XXIII. The hrn that was used for the routing of the connection between MSC-A and
MSC-B is no more needed and can be de-allocated.

The following figure shows the Inter-BSS, Inter-MSC Handover Scenario (1).








































Fig : 22



MSC/
VLR
Relea
Paging
Authentication
Ciphering
Equipment validation
Call setup
Handover (s)
Call release
Incoming Call
(MSISDN)


Routing info (MSRN)
Get Route (MSISDN)
Get Route (IMSI)
1
2
3
4
5
Incoming Call (MSISDN)
Pa

HLR

GMSC

PSTN
Routing info (MSRN)

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The following figure shows the Inter-BSS, Inter-MSC Handover Scenario (2).
Fig : 23
Note that the home MSC is also called the anchor MSC; any other MSC is called the relay
MSC.
HANDOVER TRIGGERS
Handover objectives
When a mobile station is active on a call, the serving BSC has the responsibility of
deciding when a handover should be performed. The decision of the BSC is based on the
performance measurement data received from the mobile station and the serving BTS.
During the performance evaluation, the BSC takes the following objectives for optimizing
the handover performance into account:
Maintain a good speech quality
Minimize the number of calls dropped
Maximize the amount of time the mobile station is in the best cell
Minimize the number of handovers.
CONDITIONS THAT CAN TRIGGER A HANDOVER
In order to meet these objectives, the BSC is able to react on different stimuli that cause a
handover.
The BSC will perform a handover due to:
Distance (or propagation delay) between the mobile station and the BTS becomes too
big

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Received signal level (or signal strength) on the downlink or uplink becomes too bad
Received signal quality on the downlink or uplink becomes too bad
Path loss situation for the mobile station to another cell is better
Duration that the mobile station stays in a cell
Each handover cause corresponds to a particular type of handover. Note that the different types
of handovers are GSM features that can be enabled or disabled on a per cell basis.
HANDOVER IN A MULTIPLE CELL LAYER
NETWORK
The BSC uses a slightly different handover algorithm for a network consisting of a single cell
layer (non-hierarchical cell structure network) as for a network consisting of a multiple cell
layer (hierarchical cell structure network, consisting of micro-cells and umbrella cells). In a
multiple cell layer network the policy in mind is: a slow moving mobile station should be
connected to one of the lower layer cells while a fast moving mobile station will cause less
handovers in a large cell of the upper layer. Note that the handover cause Duration that the
mobile station stays in a cell is only applicable to a multiple cell layer network.
POWER BUDGET HANDOVER
A power budget handover takes place as soon as a better cell with respect to the power budget
is available to handle the call.
A power budget handover is based on the path loss. The path loss is the difference between the
actual transmits power of the BTS and the signal level received by the mobile station.
Generally, the mobile station will switch to the BTS with the lowest path loss. By switching to
another cell, the necessary power transmitted by both the mobile station and the base station is
reduced and the level of interference is decreased.
DISTANCE HANDOVER
Distance between the mobile station and the base station can also be a reason for handover. If
the timing advance for the mobile station becomes too big, because it is too far away from the
base station, handover has to take place to a cell that is closer to the mobile station.

SIGNAL LEVEL AND SIGNAL QUALITY
HANDOVER
Other reasons for handover are the signal level for (or signal strength) and the signal quality on
either the uplink or the downlink received from the mobile station and the base station. If the
BSC determines that either the signals have too low quality or too less strength, it can decide to
start the handover procedure.
BASE STATION IDENTITY CODE

Problem definition
A problem could arise when the mobile station in a given position is performing a handover,
but is receiving two cells using the same BCCH frequency. This can happen when the mobile
station is moving along the national borders, where on each side of the border the different
PLMN operators have some frequencies in common.
In order to discriminate between cells transmitting the BCCH channels at the same frequency,
the mobile station uses the Base Station Identify Code (BSIC). The BSIC is broadcast on the
SCH (Synchronization Channel) of each cell.

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DEFINITION OF BSIC
The BSIC is a local color code that allows a mobile station to distinguish between different
neighboring base stations- However; it is not an ambiguous identification of a base station.
Many cells bear the same BSIC. The scheme of BSIC values to be used is normally laid down
in a bilateral agreement between the concerned PLMN operators to prevent that the same BSIC
is used in adjacent PLMNs.
DISCONTINUOUS TRANSMISSION
Definition
Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) is a mechanism that allows the radio transmitter to
be switched off most of the time during speech pauses.
DTX may be applied independently to each direction, so that the control of DTX must
take into account two components:
The uplink mode
The downlink mode
DTX can be enabled or disabled for the uplink and/or downlink mode on a per-cell basis.
The following figure shows Discontinuous Transmission (DTX).







Fig : 24


DISCONTINUOUS TRANSMISSION PROCESS
DTX inhibits the transmission of the radio signal when not required from an information point
of view. In the DTX mode, speech is encoded at 13kbit/s when the user is effectively speaking,
but in a speech pause information is transmitted at a bit rate around 500 bit/s. this low rate flow
is sufficient to encode the background noise, which is re-generated to ensure that the listener
does not think that the connection is broken (comfort noise).
At the transmission side, the voice activity detection function detects whether speech will be
transmitted on a particular radio link or not. When it detects that no speech has to be
transmitted, transmission will cease after a defined period of time after speech activity has
stopped.
The transmitter will periodically send a signal called a Silence Indicator Block every certain
period of time. The Silence Indicator Block provides the comfort noise level information to the
mobile station or BTS.

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REASONS FOR DTX
When DTX is applied, actual transmission on the radio path is reduced. This will cause a
decrease of the interference level in co-channel cells (using the same frequency). Another
advantage will appear when using DTX in the uplink mode: it saves battery power for the
mobile station. However, a disadvantage of the DTX mode is that it slightly deteriorates the
quality of transmission.

Note that transmitting in DTX mode does not save timeslots on the air-interface.
CALL RE-ESTABLISHMENT
Definition
Call re-establishment enables the mobile station to resume the contact with the cellular
network when the connection to a particular VBTS is suddenly broken. This may happen
because of a brutal propagation loss, due to obstacles such as bridges and tunnels.
Call re-establishment is a GSM feature that can be enabled or disabled on a per cell basis.
CALL RE-ESTABLISHMENT PROCESS
After the communication has been lost, the mobile station selects the cell with the highest
signal strength from the neighbor cell list. The neighbor cell list contains the cell identifiers to
which a handover is allowed. It is kept in the BSC of a particular cell. The list is transferred to
the mobile station in the BCCH during the registration phase of a wireless call. The mobile
station uses the neighbor cell list by only measuring the signals from the BTSs located in the
cells that are on the list.
The selected cell identifier is used to re-establish the connection to that particular cell by
following the normal access procedures. Actually, it sends an access request on the RACH
(Random Access Channel) of the particular frequency channel.
At the moment of time the communication is lost, a timer is initiated in the serving MSC.
When the timer expires, it is not possible anymore for the mobile station to re-establish the
call. A typical value for the timer is 4 seconds.
FREQUENCY HOPPING
Definition
The Frequency Hopping function permits the dynamic switching of radio links from one
carrier frequency to another. Frequency hopping changes the frequency used by a radio link
every new TMDA frame in a regular pattern. Frequency Hopping is a GSM feature which can
be enabled or disabled on a per cell basis.
FOR FREQUENCY HOPPING
The reasons of using Frequency Hopping are:
Decreasing the probability of interference
Frequency Hopping will spread the annoyance of interference over different
mobile stations in a particular cell.
Suppressing the effect of Rayleigh fading
Rayleigh fading (or multipath fading) is caused by-different paths followed by the radio signal.
Rayleigh fading can cause coverage holes.

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Rayleigh fading is location and frequency dependent. When the mobile station is stationary or
moves at a slow speed. Frequency Hopping will significantly improve the level of the air-
interface performance. However, when the mobile station moves at a high speed. Frequency
Hopping does not harm, but does not help much either. The more frequencies are used in a
particular cell, the more Frequency Hopping can gain in suppressing the effect of Rayleigh
fading.
FREQUENCY HOPPING PROCESS
The regular pattern, by which a radio link changes carrier frequency, is described by the
hopping sequence. The hopping sequence can have a cyclic pattern or a pseudo-random
pattern.
Following figure shows the Cyclical Frequency Hopping Scheme
Fig : 25
In order to calculate the hopping sequence, a function issued which maps a particular TDMA
frame to a radio frequency within the set of frequencies, using parameters such as TDMA
frame number and number of frequencies in the set of frequencies. Both the uplink and the
downlink use the same hopping sequence. For this purpose the parameters used to calculate the
hopping sequences are also transferred from the BTS to the mobile station.
There is an exception for the frequency hopping sequence. This exception is applicable to
timeslots bearing the common channels (BCCH, FCCH, SCH, PAGCH and RACH) in timeslot
number 0 of the lowest radio frequency. To reduce complexity of the GSM system, the
common channels do not hop (they are fixed).
MOBILITY MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW
Objectives
This lesson describes the major aspects of Mobility management of the GSM system. After
completion of this lesson the student is able to:

Describe how the MS network attachment process is performed
Explain the concept of a PLMN area and its location areas
Explain the relationship between the PLMN area and the MSC-VLR areas
Describe the functions of the HLR and the VLR in relation to Mobile management

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Describe how the Location Update process is performed
Explain the need for mobile authentication and describe the process.
Lesson topics This lesson discusses the following topics:
o Network attachment
o Locating a mobile station
o Location registration
o Mobile station identification
o Location update process
o Request for service phase
o Authentication and ciphering phases
o Update HLR/VLR and TMSI re-allocation phases
o Periodic location update.
NETWORK ATTACHMENT
Definition
Network attachment is the process of selecting an appropriate cell (radio frequency) by
the mobile station to provide the available services, and making its location known to the
network.
The process starts when the mobile station is switched on, and ends when the mobile
station enters the idle mode. In idle mode the mobile station does not have a traffic
channel allocated to make or receive a call. But the Public Land Mobile Network
(PLMN) is aware of the existence of the Mobile station within the chosen cell.
NETWORK ATTACHMENT PROCESS
The network attachment process consists of the following tasks:
Cell identification
When a mobile station is switched on it attempts to make
Contact with a GSM PLMN by performing the following actions:
o Measure the BCCH channels
o Search for a suitable cell
The mobile station measures the signal strength of the BCCH (Broadcast Control
Channel) channels received. It stores in list information about 30 of these BCCH
channels, such as the signal strength and the frequency corresponding to these BCCH
channels.
PLMN selection
A suitable PLMN is chosen
Cell Selection
Cell selection is the process of selecting an appropriate cell (radio frequency) by the
mobile station to provide the available services.
Location update
In order to initiate a call or to receive a call, the mobile station tunes to the control channel
(BCCH plus CCCH) of the chosen cell. Then, it registers its presence in this cell (registration
process) by means of a location updating procedure.

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The following figure shows the network attachment process.

Fig : 26
NO SUITABLE CELL FOUND
If the mobile station is unable to find a suitable cell to access, it attempts to access a cell
irrespective of the PLMN identity, and enters a limited service state in which it can
only attempt to make emergency calls.
PLMN SELECTION MECHANISM
The parts PLMN to be contacted can be selected either in one or the following modes:
Automatic mode
In automatic mode, the mobile station will choose which PLMNs to try all by itself. The
automatic mode is based on the existence of the preferred list, which is stored in a non-volatile
memory in the SIM. This list includes a number of PLMN identities in order of preference and
is under control of the user. The most preferred is usually the home PLMN. The list is filled in
by the user through a mechanism to be specified by the mobile station manufacturer.
The automatic mode is normally used when the mobile station operates on its home PLMN that
is the PLMN the mobile station is subscribed to).
Manual mode

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In manual mode, the user is presented a list containing all found PLMNs. The user chooses one
of the PLMNs from the list.

CELL SELECTION CRITERIA
The mobile station attempts to find a suitable cell by passing through the list in
descending order of received signal strength; the first BCCH channel which satisfies a set
of requirements is selected.
The requirements that a cell must satisfy (before a mobile station can provide service
from it) are:
o It should be a cell of the selected PLMN. The mobile station checks whether the cell is
part of the selected PLMN. It should not be barred.
o The PLMN operator may decide not to allow mobile stations to access certain cells.
These cells may, for example, only be used for handover traffic. Barred cell
information is broadcast on the BCCH to instruct mobile stations not to access these
cells.
o The radio path loss between the mobile station and the selected BTS must be below a
threshold set by the PLMN operator.
LOCATING A MOBILE STATION
Call to an active mobile station
As an active Mobile Station (MS) moves around in the coverage area of a Public Land
Mobile Network (PLMN), it reports its movements so that it can be located when
required using the Location Update procedure.
When a Mobile-services Switching Center (MSC) in the network needs to establish a call
to an MS operating in its area the following happens:
A page message is broadcast which contains the identifications code of the MS.
Not every Base Station Controller (BSC) in the network is requested to transmit the page
message. The broadcast is limited to a cluster of radio cells that together form a location area.
The last reported position of the MS identifies the location area to be used for the broadcast.
The MS monitors the page messages transmitted by the radio cell in which it is located and, on
detecting its own identification code, responds by transmitting a page response message to the
Base Transceiver Station (BTS).
Communication is then established between the MSC and the MS via the BTS that received the
page response message.
NETWORK CONFIGURATION

The configuration of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)
is designed so that an active mobile station moving in the networks area is always able to
report its position.
A network consists of different areas:
o PLMN area
o Location area
o MSC area
o VLR area.
PLMN AREA

A Public-Land-Mobile-network (PLMN) area is the geographical area in which a particular
PLMN operator provides land mobile communication services to the public. From any position
within a PLMN area, the mobile user can set up calls to another user of the same network, or to

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a user of another network. The other network may be a fixed network, another GSM PLMN, or
another type of PLMN. Other network users, and users of other networks, can also call a
mobile user who is active in the PLMN area.

When there are several PLMN operators, the geographical areas covered by their networks
may overlap. National borders normally limit the extent of a PLMN area.

LOCATION AREAS
To eliminate the need for network-wide paging broadcasts, the PLMN within its coverage area.
To enable the approximate position of any MS to be represented by a single parameter, the
total area covered by the network is divided into location areas.
A location area (LA) is a cluster of one or more radio cell. The cell cluster fulfils the
following requirement:
The BTSs in a location area are controlled by one or more BSCs.
BSCs that serve the same location area are always connected-to the same MSC.
Radio cells with BTSs controlled by a common BSC can lie in different location areas
The following figure shows the location and MSC areas

Fig : 27

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LOCATION AREA IDENTITY
Every radio transmitter in the PLMN broadcasts, via a control channel, a Location Area
Identity (LAI) code to identify the location area that it serves.
When an MS is not engaged in a call, it automatically scans the control channel
broadcasts transmitted by the base stations in the locality and selects the channel that is
delivering the strongest signal. The LAI code broadcast by the selected channel identifies
the location area in which the MS is currently situated. This LAI code is stored in the
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of the mobile equipment.
As the MS moves through the network area the signal received from the selected control
channel gradually diminishes in strength until it is no longer the strongest. At this point
the MS re-tunes to the channel that has become dominant and examines the LAI code
that it is broadcasting. If the received LAI code differs from that stored on the SIM, then
the MS has entered another location area and initiates a location update procedure to
report the change to the MSC. At the end of the procedure the LAI code in the SIM is
also updated.
LOCATION AREA IDENTITY FORMAT
A Location Area Identity (LAI) code identifies the location area in a PLMN. The LAI
code has three components:
Mobile Country Code (MCC)
The MCC is a 3-digit code that uniquely identifies the country of domicile of the mobile
subscriber (for example, Germany is 262, India is 404 and Brunei is 528 etc). It is assigned by
the ITU-T
Mobile Network Code (MNC)
The MNC is a 2-digit code (3-digit code for GSM-1900) that identifies the home GSM PLMN
of the mobile subscriber. If more than one GSM PLMN exists in a country, a unique MNC s
assigned to each of them. It is assigned by the government (DOT) of each country.
Location Area Code (LAC)
The LAC component identifies a location area within a PLMN; it has a fixed length of 2 octets
and can be coded using hexadecimal representation. It is assigned by an operator.

Figure the following figure shows a representation of LAI


Fig : 28

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MSC AREAS
An MSC area is a region of the network in which GSM operations are controlled by a
single MSC.
An MSC area consists of one or more location areas. The boundary of an MSC area
follows the external boundaries of the location areas on its periphery. Consequently, a
location area never spans the boundary of an MSC area.

VLR AREAS
A VLR area is a region of the network that is supervised by a single Visitor Location
Register (VLR). In theory, a VLR area may consists of one or more MSC areas. In
practice, however, the functions of the VLR are always integrated with those of the MSC
so that the terms VLR area and MSC area have become synonymous.
LOCATION REGISTRATION
LOCATION RELATED DATA BASES
Two data bases are used by Location Management to store MS location related data.
Visitor Location Register (VLR) and Home Location Register (HLR).
VISITOR LOCATION REGISTER
A VLR contains a data record for each of the MS that are currently operating in its area.
Each record contains a set of subscriber identity codes, related subscription information,
and a Location Area Identity (LAI) code. This information is used by the MSC when
handling calls to or from an MS in the area.
When an MS moves from one area to another, the responsibility for its supervision passes
from one VLR to another. A new data record is created by the VLR that has adopted the
MS, and the old record is deleted.
Provided that an interworking agreement exists between the network operators
concerned, data transactions can cross both network and national boundaries.
HOME LOCATION REGISTER
The HLR contains information relevant to mobile subscribers who are fee-paying
customers of the organization that operates the PLMN.
The HLR stores two types of information:
Subscription information
The subscription information includes the identity code and directory number allocated
to the subscriber, the type of service(s) provided, and any related restrictions.
Location Information
The location information includes the address of the VLR in the area where the
subscribers MS is currently located, and the address of the associated MSC.
The location information enables incoming calls to be routed to the MS. The absence this
information indicates that the MS is inactive and cannot be reached.
When an MS moves from one VLR area to another, the location information in the HLR
is updated with the new VLR and MSC addresses. The VLR then creates a new entry for
the MS, using subscription data copied from the HLR.
Provided that an interworking agreement exists between the network operators
concerned, data transactions can cross both network and national boundaries.


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MOBILE STATION IDENTIFICATION
TYPES OF IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS
During the performance of the location update procedure and the processing of a mobile
call different types of numbers are used:
o Mobile Station ISDN Number (MSISDN)
o Mobile Subscriber Roaming Number (MSRN)
o International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)
o Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI)
o Local Mobile Station Identity (LMSI)
o Each number is stored in the HLR and/or VLR.

MOBILE STATION ISDN NUMBER
The MSISDN is the directory number allocated to the mobile subscriber. It is dialed to
make a telephone call to the mobile subscriber.
The number consists of Country Code (CC) of the country in which the mobile station is
registered (for example, Germany is 49, and Brunei is 63), followed by national mobile
number which consists of Network Destination Code (NDC) and Subscriber Number
(SN). A Network Destination Code is allocated to each GSM PLMN.
The maximum number of digits of the Digit Subscriber Number is a standard of 12 in
accordance with ITU Recommendation. Previously the maximum number of digits
allowed was limited to 10.





The following figure shows a representation of MSISDN


Fig : 29

The composition of the MSISDN is such that it can be used as a global title address in the
Signaling Connection Control Part (SCCP) for routing messages to the HLR of the
mobile subscriber.
MOBILE STATION ROAMING NUMBER
The MSRN is the number required by the gateway MSC to route an incoming call to a
MS that is not currently under the gateways control.

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Using the MSISDN a mobile-terminated call is routed to the gateway MSC. Based on this,
MSISDN the gateway MSC requests for a MSRN to route the call to the current visited
MSC.

INTERNATIONAL MOBILE SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY
A MS is identified by its IMSI. The IMSI is embodied in the SIM of the mobile
equipment. The MS provides it anytime it accesses the network.
An IMSI code has three components:
Mobile Country Code (MCC)
The MCC component of the IMSI is a 3-digit code that uniquely identifies the country of the
domicile of the subscriber. It is assigned by the ITU-T.
Mobile Network Code (MNC)
The MNC component is a 2-digit code that identifies the home GSM PLMN of the mobile
subscriber. The government of each country assigns it. For GSM-1900 a 3-digit MNC is used.
Mobile Subscriber Identification Number (MSIN)
The MSIN is a code that identifies the mobile subscriber within a GSM PLMN. An operator
assigns it.
The following figure gives a representation of IMSI.

The overall number of digits in an IMSI code does not exceed 15.

Fig : 30
TEMPORARY MOBILE SUBSCRIBER IDENTITY
The TMSI is an identity alias that is used instead of the IMSI when possible. The use of
the TMSI ensures that the true identity of the `Mobile subscriber remains confidential by
eliminating the need to transfer an IMSI code enciphered over a radio link.
A VLR allocates a unique TMSI code to each mobile subscriber that is operating in its
area. This code, which is only valid within the area supervised by the VLR, is used to
identify the subscriber in messages to and form the MS. When a change of location area
also involves a change of VLR area. A new TMSI code is allocated and communicated to
the MS. The MS stores the TMSI on its SIM.
The TMSI consists of four octets; coded using a full hexadecimal representation.
LOCAL MOBILE STATION IDENTITY
The LMSI is temporary subscriber data. Note that the use of the LMSI is optional.
In order to speed up the search for subscriber data in the VLR a supplementary Local
Mobile Station Identity (LMSI) can be defined. The LMSI is allocated by the VLR at

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Location updating and is sent to the HLR together with the IMSI. The HLR makes no
use of it but includes it together with the IMSI in all messages sent to the VLR concerning
that MS.
LOCATION UPDATE PROCESS
PHASES OF A LOCATION UPDATE
The following table lists the location update process:
Stage Description
1. Request for service; the MS detects that it has entered a new Location Area
and requests to update its location. The new MSC/VLR identifies the MS.
2. Authentication; the new MSC/VLR requests to the AUC for authentication
parameters. Using these parameters the MS is authenticated.
3. Ciphering; using the parameters that were made available earlier during
the authentication the uplink and the downlink are ciphered.
4. Update HLR/VLR; the new MSC/VLR requests to update the MS location
in the HLR. The MS is de-registered in the old VLR.
5. TMSI re-allocation; the MS is assigned a new TMSI.
OPTIONAL PHASES
The authentication and ciphering phases are optional: they might not take place in a
Location Update, depending on the service suppliers decision.
CALL SCENARIOS
The Location Update process and its different phases area explained in more detail using
call scenarios shown in the following figures:
Phases of a location update (1)

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Fig : 31

REQUEST FOR SERVICE PHASE
STEPS IN REQUEST FOR SERVICE PHASE
In the following location update scenario, it is assumed that a MS enters a new location
area that is under control of a different VLR (referred to as the new VLR) than the one
where the MS is currently registered (referred to as the old VLR).
The following figure shows the steps of the mobile location update scenario.








Fig : 32


The MS enters a new cell area, listens to the Location Area Identity (LAI) being
transmitted on the broadcast channel (BCCH), and compares this LAI with the last LAI
(stored in the SIM) representing the last area where the mobile was registered.
o The MS detects that it has entered a new Location Area and transmits a Channel
Request message over the Random Access Channel (RACH).
o Once the BSS receives the Channel Request message, it allocates a Stand-alone
Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) and forwards this channel assignment
information to the MS over the Access Grant Channel (AGCH). It is over the SDCCH
that the MS will communicate with the BSS and MSC.

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o The MS transmits a location update request message to the BSS over the SDCCH.
Included in this message are the MS Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) and
the old Location Area Identification (oldLAI). The MS can identify itself either with its
IMSI or TMSI. In this example well assume that the mobile provided a TMSI. The
BSS forwards the location update request message to the MSC.
o The VLR analyzes the LAI supplied in the message and determines that the TMSI
received is associated with a different VLR (oldVLR). In order to proceed with the
registration, the IMSI of the MS must be determined. The new VLR derives the identity
of the oldVLR by using the received LAI, supplied in the location update request
message. It also requests the old VLR to supply the IMSI for a particular TMSI.

AUTHENTICATION AND CIPHERING PHASES
Authentication
Since the air interface is vulnerable to fraudulent access, it is necessary to determine if the
IMSI received from the MS is from the SIM that was assigned this IMSI. To prevent access of
unregistered users authentication of subscribers is used. Authentication is built around the
notion and Authentication Key (Ki) that resides in only two places: in an Authentication Center
(AUC) and in the users SIM card. Since the authentication key, Ki, is (or should) never be
transmitted, in is virtually impossible for un-authorized individuals to obtain this key to
impersonate a give mobile subscriber.
AUTHENTICATION PARAMETERS
The MS is authenticated by the VLR with a process that uses three parameters.
RAND, which is completely random number
SRES, which is an authentication signed response. I is generated by apply in an authentication
algorithm (A3) to RAND and Ki.
Kc, which is a cipher key. The Kc parameter is generated by applying the cipher key
generation algorithm (A8) to RAND and Ki.
These parameters (named an authentication triplet) are generated the AUC at the
request of the HLR to which the subscriber belongs. The algorithms A3 and A8 are
defined by the PLMN operator and are executed by the SIM..
The following figure shows the scheme of the algorithms.








Fig : 33


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AUTHENTICATION PROCESS
To authenticate a subscriber, the VLR sends an authentication request message to the MS (step
2, in the figure). The message contains the RAND parameter from an authentication triplet.
The MS applies the A3 algorithm to the received RAND and the Ki key taken from the SIM.
The resulting SRES is returned to the VLR for verification (step 3). The VLR authenticates the
subscriber if the SRES value returned by the MS is equal to that in the triplet involved.
As well as calculating the value of SRES, the MS applies the A 8 algorithm to the received
RAND and the Ki key from the SIM. The Result is the value of Kc to be used when the radio
link has been switched to ciphered mode.
STEPS IN AUTHENTICATION PHASE
The step in the authentication phase is as follows:
o The new VLR sends a request to the HLR/AUC (Authentication and Kc) requesting the
authentication triplets (RAND, SRES, and Kc) available for the specified IMSI.
o The AUC, using the IMSI, extracts the subscribers authentication key (Ki). The AUC
then generates a random number (RAND), applies the Ki and RAND to both the
authentication algorithm (A3) and the cipher key generation algorithm (A8) to produce
an authentication Signed Response (SRES) and a Cipher Key (Kc). The AUC then
returns to the new VLR an authentication triplet: RAND, SRES, and Kc.
o The MSC/VLR keeps the two parameters Kc and SRES for later use and then sends a
message to the MS. The MS reads its Authentication key (Ki) from the SIM, applies the
received random number (RAND) and Ki to both its Authentication Algorithm (A3)
and Cipher key generation Algorithm (A8) to produce an authentication Signed
Response (SRES) and Cipher Key (Kc). The MS saves Kc for later, and will use Kc
when it receives command to cipher the channel.
o The MS returns the generated SRES to the MSC/VLR. The VLR compares the SRES
returned from the MS with the expected SRES received earlier from the AUC. If equal,
the mobile passes authentication. If unequal, all signaling activities will be aborted. In
this scenario, well assume that authentication passes.

The figure the following figure shows the step in the authentication phase.











Fig : 34

MS BSS
New
MSC/
VLR
Old
MSC/
VLR
HLR
Get authentication parameters
(IMSI)
Authentication parameters
(SRES, Kc, RAND)
Authentication Mobile station
(RAND)
Authentication response
(SRES)
Request for service
SDCCH
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
SDCCH

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STEPS IN CIPHERING PHASE
The steps in the ciphering phase are as follows:
o The new MSC/VLR requests the BSS to cipher the radio channel. Included in this
message is the Cipher Key (Kc), which was made available earlier during the
authentication.
o The BSS retrieves the cipher key, Kc, from the message and then transmits a request to
the MS requesting it to begin ciphering the uplink channel.
o The MS uses the cipher key generated previously when it was confirmation over the
ciphered channel to the BSS
o The BSS upon ciphering the downlink channel sends a cipher complete message to the
MSC.

The following figure shows the steps in the ciphering phase.



















Fig : 35
UPDATE HLR/VLR AND TMSI RE-ALLOCATION PHASES
STEPS IN update HLR/VLR PHASE
At this point, we are ready to inform the HLR that the MS is under control of a new VLR
and that the MS can be de-registered from the old VLR.
The steps in the update HLR/VLR phase are:
1. The new VLR sends a message to the HLR informing it that the given IMSI has
changed locations an can be reached by routing all incoming calls to the VLR address
included in the message
2. The HLR requests the old VLR to remove the subscriber record associated with the
given IMSI. The request is acknowledge.
3. The HLR updates the new VLR with subscriber data (mobiles subscribers customer
profile).
MS BSS
New
MSC/
VLR
Old
MSC/
VLR
HLR
Cipher - uplink - channel
SDCCH
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
SDCCH
Uplink - channel-Ciphered
Uplink -radio channel
(Kc)
Ciphering completed
BSS Cipher the downlink channel
Update HLR/VLR
TMSI re-allocation
Um A

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The following figure shows the steps in the update location phase.



















Fig : 36
STEPS IN TMSI RE-ALLOCATION PHASE
At this point in time, the HLR and oldVLR have been informed that the MS has registered
with an MSC under the control of the new VLR/
The remaining task for the new VLR is to allocate and transmit a new TMSI to the MS. For
security reasons, the radio channel is encrypted before sending the new TMSI to the MS.

The steps in the TMSI re-allocation phase are:
o The MSC forwards the location update accept message to the MS. This message
includes the new TMSI.
o The MS retrieves the new TMSI value from the message and updates its SIM with this
new value. The mobile sends then an update complete message back to the MSC.
o The MSC requests from the BSS that the signaling connection be released between the
MSC and the MS.
o The MSC releases its portion of the signaling connection when it receives the clear
complete message from the BSS.
o The BSS sends a radio resource channel release message to the MS and then frees up
the Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) that was allocated previously.
The BSS then informs the MSC that the signaling connections have been cleared.
MS BSS
New
MSC/
VLR
Old
MSC/
VLR
HLR
(1)
(2)
(3)
Authentication
Ciphering
De-register
Mobile Station
Update location
Um A
Mobile Station
De-registered
Location
Updated

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The following figure shows the steps of the TMSI Re-allocation phase.





















Fig : 37

PERIODIC LOCATION UPDATE
Definition
At the discretion of the network operator, every MS may be required to initiate a location
update procedure at regular intervals, regardless of its movements. The length of the interval is
broadcast via the control channel; it may vary from 6 minutes to 25.5 hours. The timing
function is performed by the MS itself.
The periodic location update supplements the normal procedure; its purpose is to refresh
location information that may have been lost or become unreliable.


MS BSS
New
MSC/
VLR
Old
MSC/
VLR
HLR
SDCCH
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
SDCCH
Release radio
Signaling
Channel
Location
Update
Complete
Um A
Location
Update
Accept (TMSI)
Clear Signaling
connection
Clear
Complete
SDCCH

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CDMA CONCEPT
Introduction
Access network, the network between local exchange and subscriber, in the Telecom Network
accounts for a major portion of resources both in terms of capital and manpower. So far, the
subscriber loop has remained in the domain of the copper cable providing cost effective
solution in past. Quick deployment of subscriber loop, coverage of inaccessible and remote
locations coupled with modern technology have led to the emergence of new Access
Technologies. The various technological options available are as follows :
1. Multi Access Radio Relay
2. Wireless In Local Loop
3. Fibre In the Local Loop
Wireless In Local Loop (WILL)
Fixed Wireless telephony in the subscriber access network also known as Wireless in Local
Loop (WLL) is one of the hottest emerging market segments in global telecommunications
today. WLL is generally used as the last mile solution to deliver basic phone service
expeditiously where none has existed before. Flexibility and expediency are becoming the key
driving factors behind the deployment of WILL.
WLL shall facilitate cordless telephony for residential as well as commercial complexes where
people are highly mobile. It is also used in remote areas where it is uneconomical to lay cables
and for rapid development of telephone services. The technology employed shall depend upon
various radio access techniques, like FDMA, TDMA and CDMA.
Different technologies have been developed by the different countries like CT2 from France,
PHS from Japan, DECT from Europe and DAMPS & CDMA from USA. Let us discuss
CDMA technology in WILL application as it has a potential ability to tolerate a fair amount of
interference as compared to other conventional radios. This leads to a considerable advantage
from a system point of view.
SPREAD SPECTRUM PRINCIPLE
Originally Spread spectrum radio technology was developed for military use to counter the
interference by hostile jamming. The broad spectrum of the transmitted signal gives rise to
Spread Spectrum. A Spread Spectrum signal is generated by modulating the radio frequency
(RF) signal with a code consisting of different pseudo random binary sequences, which is
inherently resistant to noisy signal environment.
A number of Spread spectrum RF signals thus generated share the same frequency spectrum
and thus the entire bandwidth available in the band is used by each of the users using same
frequency at the same time.

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Fig : 2.1 CDMA ACCESS A CONCEPT
On the receive side only the signal energy with the selected binary sequence code is accepted
and original information content (data) is recovered. The other users signals, whose codes do
not match contribute only to the noise and are not despread back in bandwith (Ref Figure
10.1 ) This transmission and reception of signals differentiated by codes using the same
frequency simultaneously by a number of users is known as Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA) Technique as opposed to conventional method of Frequency Division Multiple
Access and Time Division Multiple Access.
In figure 10.1 it has been tried to explain that how the base band signal of 9.6 Kbps is spread
using a Pseudo-random Noise (PN) source to occupy entire bandwidth of 1.25 Mhz. At the
receiving end this signal will have interference from signals of other users of the same cell,
users of different cells and interference from other noise sources. All these signals get
combined with the desired signal but using a correct PN code the original data can be
reproduced back. CDMA channel in the trans and receive direction is a FDD (Frequency
Division Duplexing) channel. The salient features of a typical CDMA system are as follows:
s Frequency of operation: 824-849Mhz and 869-894 Mhz
s Duplexing Mehtod: Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD)
s Access Channel per carrier: Maximum 61 Channels
s RF Spacing: 1.25 Mhz
s Coverage: 5 Km with hand held telephones and approx.
20 Km with fixed units.
The different types of codes used for identification of traffic channels and users identification
etc as follows:
Different Codes
Walsh Code :
In CDMA the traffic channels are separated by uinique Walsh code. All such codes are
orthogonal to each other. The individual subscriber can start communication using one of these
codes. These codes are traffic channel codes and are used for orthogonal spreading of the

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information in the entire bandwidth. Orthogonality provides nearly perfect isolation between
the multiple signals transmitted by the base station.
The basic concept behind creation of the code is as follows:
(a) Repeat the function right
(b) Repeat the function below
(c) Invert function (diagonally)


0 ----- 0 0 -------- 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 1
0 0 1 1
0 1 1 0
Long code :
the long pseudo random noise (PN) sequence is based on 2
42
characteristic polynomial. With
this long code the data in the forward direction (Base to Mobile) is scrabled. The PN codes are
generated using linear shift registers. The long code is unique for the subscribers and is known
as users address mask.
Short Code :
The short pseudo random noise (PN) sequence is based on 2
15
characteristic polynomial. This
short code differentiates the cells & the sectors in a cell. It also consists of codes for I & Q
channel feeding the modulator.
Advantages
CDMA wireless access provides the following unique advantages:
Larger Capacity :
let us discuss this issue with the help of Shannons Theorem. It states that the channel capacity
is related to product of available band width and S/N ratio.
C = W log 2 (1+S/N)
Where C = channel capacity
W = Band width available
S/N = Signal to noise ratio.
It is clear that even if we improve S/N to a great extent the advantage that we are expected to
get in terms of channel capacity will not be proportionally increased. But instead if we increase
the bandwidth (W), we can achieve more channel capacity even at a lower S/N. That forms the
basis of CDMA approach, wherein increased channel capacity is obtained by increasing both
W & S/N. The S/N can be increased by devising proper power control methods.

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Vocoder and variable data rates:
As the telephone quality speech is band limited to 4 Khz when it is digitized with PCM its bit
rate rises to 64Kb/s Vocoding compress it to a lower bit rate to reduce bandwidth. The
transmitting vocoder takes voice samples and generates an encoded speech/packet for
transmission to the receiving vocoder. The receiving vocoder decodes the received speech
packet into voice samples. One of the important feature of the variable rate vocoder is the use
of adaptive threshold to determine the required data rate. Vocoders are variable rate vocoders.
By operating the vocoder at half rate on some of the frames the capacity of the system can be
enhanced without noticeable degradation in the quality of the speech. This phenomenon helps
to absorb the occasional heavy requirement of traffic apart from suppression of backgraound
noise. Thus the capacity advantage makes spread spectrum an ideal choice for use in areas
where the frequency spectrum is congested.
Less (Optimum) Power per cell:
Power Control Methods: As we have already seen that in CDMA the entire bandwidth of
1.25Mhz is used by all the subscribers served in that area. Hence they all will be transmitting
on the same frequency using the entire bandwidth but separated by different codes. At the
receiving end the noise contributed by all the subscribers is added up. To minimize the level of
interfering signals in CDMA, very powerful power control methods have been devised and are
listed below:
1. Reserve link open loop power control
2. Reserve link closed loop power control
3. Forward link power control
The objective of open loop power control in the reverse link (Mobile to Base) is that the
mobile station should adjust its transmit power according to the changes in its received power
from the base. Open loop power control attempts to ensure that the received signal strength at
the base station from different mobile stations, irrespective of their distances from the base site,
should be same.
In Closed loop power control in reverse link, the base satation provides rapid corrections to
the mobile stations open loop estimates to maintain optimum transmit power by the mobile
stations. The base station measures the received signal strength from the mobile connected to
it and compares it with a threshold value and a decision is taken by the base every 1.25 ms to
either increase or decrease the power of the mobile.
In forward link power control (Base to Mobile) the cell (base) adjusts its power in the
forward link for each subscriber, in response to measurements provided by the mobile station
so as to provide more power to the mobile who is relatively far away from the base or is in a
location experiencing more difficult environment.
These power control methods attempt to have an environment which permits high quality
communication (good S/N) and at the same time the interference to other mobile stations
sharing the same CDMA channel is minimum. Thus more numbers of mobile station are able
to use the system without degradation in the performance. Apart from the capacity advantage
thus gained power control extends the life of the battery used in portables and minimizes the
concern of ill effects of RF radiation on the human body.

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Seamless Hand-off :
CDMA provides soft hand-off feature for the mobile crossing from one cell to another cell by
combining the signals from both the cells in the transition areas. This improves the
performance of the network at the boundaries of the cells, virtually eliminating the dropped
calls.
No Frequency Planning :
A CDMA system requires no frequency planning as the adjacent cells use the same common
frequency. A typical cellular system (with a repetition rate of 7) and a CDMA system is shown
in the following figures which clearly indicates that in a CDMA network no frequency
planning is required.

Fig : 2.2 CDMA Frequency

Fig : 2.3 Frequency Reuse of 7 in GSM
High Tolerance to Interference :
The primary advantage of spread spectrum is its ability to tolerate a fair amount of interfering
signals as compared to other conventional systems. This factor provides a considerable
advantage from a system point of view.

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Multiple Diversity :
Diversity techniques are often employed to counter the effect of fading. The greater the
number of diversity techniques employed, the better the performance of the system in a
difficult propagation environment.
CDMA has a vastly improved performance as it employs all the three diversity techniques in
the form of the following:
A .Frequency Diversity: A wide band RF signal of 1.25 Mhz being used.
B. Space Diversity: Employed by way of multipath rake receiver.
C. Time Diversity: Employed by way of symbol interleaving error detection and
correction coding.
Capacity Considerations
Let us discuss a typical CDMA wireless in local loop system consisting of a single base station
located at the telephone exchange itself, serving a single cell. In order to increase the number
of subscribers served the cell is further divided into sectors. These sectors are served by
directional antennas.
The capacity of a cellular system is claimed to be 20-40 active lines per sector per 1.25 MHz
for a single CDMA Radio Channel. In WLL environment assuming an average busy hour
traffic of 0.1 Erlang, 400 subscribers can be served per sector over a single 1.25 MHz channel.

Fig : 2.4 A Typical six sectored cell
Assuming typically six sectors in a cell the total capacity of a CDMA network consisting of
1.25 MHz duplex channels is 2400 (400x6) subscribers.
Capacity can further be increased if we use another frequency on the same base station
covering the same geographical area (overlapping cell). Thus in 10 Mhz in the bandwidth we
can utilize 5 MHz of bandwidth in the forward link and 5 Mhz in the reverse link. Hence if we
have 4 RF carriers in 5 Mhz bandwidth, the network can support 12000 (5x400x6) subscribers
per cell. A typical CDMA wireless in local loop system is depicted in the above figure10.4.
Conclusion
Hence we see that use of common frequency, multipath rake receiver, power control &
variable bit rate vocoding and soft hand-off features of CDMA give us the benefits of no
frequency planning, larger capacity, flexibility alongwith high performance quality.
XXXX

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General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS)













Introduction

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a mobile data service available to users of
GSM mobile phones. It is often described as "2.5G", that is, a technology between the
second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile telephony. It provides moderate
speed data transfer, by using unused TDMA channels in the GSM network. Originally
there was some thought to extend GPRS to cover other standards, but instead those
networks are being converted to use the GSM standard, so that is the only kind of
network where GPRS is in use. GPRS is integrated into GSM standards releases
starting with Release 97 and onwards. First it was standardised by ETSI but now that
effort has been handed onto the 3GPP.

GPRS is different from the older Circuit Switched Data (or CSD) connection included
in GSM standards releases before Release 97 (from 1997, the year the standard was
feature frozen). In CSD, a data connection establishes a circuit, and reserves the full
bandwidth of that circuit during the lifetime of the connection. GPRS is packet-
switched which means that multiple users share the same transmission channel, only
transmitting when they have data to send. This means that the total available
bandwidth can be immediately dedicated to those users who are actually sending at
any given moment, providing higher utilization where users only send or receive data
intermittently. Web browsing, receiving e-mails as they arrive and instant messaging
are examples of uses that require intermittent data transfers, which benefit from
sharing the available bandwidth.

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Usually, GPRS data are billed per kilobytes of
information transceived while circuit-switched data
connections are billed per second. The latter is to
reflect the fact that even during times when no data
are being transferred, the bandwidth is unavailable to
other potential users.
GPRS originally supported (in theory) IP, PPP and X.25 connections. The latter has
been typically used for applications like wireless payment terminals although it has
been removed as a requirement from the standard. X.25 can still be supported over
PPP, or even over IP, but doing this requires either a router to do encapsulation or
intelligence built into the end terminal.



Mobile Phone and data standards


PTT
MTS
IMTS

0G
AMTS
PALM 0.5G
ARP
NMT
AMPS
1G
CDPD
GSM
D-AMPS
cdmaOne
PDC
2G
CSD
GPRS
HSCSD
2.5G
wiDEN
CDMA2000 1xRTT 2.75G
EDGE
W-CDMA 3G
CDMA2000 1xEV
3.5G HSDPA
3.75 HSUPA
4G


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How does GPRS work ?

GPRS is packet based, wherein GPRS data is handled as a series of "packets" that can be routed over several paths through the
network, rather than as a continuous bit-stream over a dedicated dial-up connection. With GPRS, the information is split into
separate but related "packets" before being transmitted and reassembled at the receiving end. The Internet itself is an example of
a packet data network, the most famous of many such network types.
In second-generation mobile networks, calls are handled using traditional circuit-
switching technology. A dedicated "circuit", or "timeslot", is allocated between two
points for the duration of a call. No other phone can use this circuit during the call,
regardless of whether any data is being transmitted or not.
The GPRS standard is delivered in a very elegant manner - with network operators needing only to add a couple of new
infrastructure nodes and making a software upgrade to some existing GSM network elements.

Key User Features of GPRS

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a new non-voice value added service
that allows information to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. It
supplements today's Circuit Switched Data and Short Message Service. GPRS is
NOT related to GPS (the Global Positioning System), a similar acronym that is often
used in mobile contexts. GPRS has several unique features which can be
summarized as:

SPEED
Theoretical maximum speeds of up to 171.2 kilobits per second (kbps) are achievable
with GPRS using all eight timeslots at the same time. This is about three times as fast
as the data transmission speeds possible over today's fixed telecommunications
networks and ten times as fast as current Circuit Switched Data services on GSM
networks. By allowing information to be transmitted more quickly, immediately and
efficiently across the mobile network, GPRS may well be a relatively less costly mobile
data service compared to SMS and Circuit Switched Data.
IMMEDIACY
GPRS facilitates instant connections whereby information can be sent or received
immediately as the need arises, subject to radio coverage. No dial-up modem
connection is necessary. This is why GPRS users are sometimes referred to be as
being "always connected". Immediacy is one of the advantages of GPRS (and SMS)
when compared to Circuit Switched Data. High immediacy is a very important feature

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for time critical applications such as remote credit card authorization where it would be
unacceptable to keep the customer waiting for even thirty extra seconds.

NEW APPLICATIONS, BETTER APPLICATIONS

GPRS facilitates several new applications that have not previously been available
over GSM networks due to the limitations in speed of Circuit Switched Data (9.6 kbps)
and message length of the Short Message Service (160 characters). GPRS will fully
enable the Internet applications you are used to on your desktop from web browsing
to chat over the mobile network. Other new applications for GPRS, profiled later,
include file transfer and home automation- the ability to remotely access and control
in-house appliances and machines.

SERVICE ACCESS

To use GPRS, users specifically need:
(1) a mobile phone or terminal that supports GPRS (existing GSM phones do NOT
support GPRS) .
(2) a subscription to a mobile telephone network that supports GPRS use of GPRS
must be enabled for that user. Automatic access to the GPRS may be allowed
by some mobile network operators, others will require a specific opt-in
knowledge of how to send and/ or receive GPRS information using their
specific model of mobile phone, including software and hardware configuration
(this creates a customer service requirement)
(3) a destination to send or receive information through GPRS. Whereas with SMS
this was often another mobile phone, in the case of GPRS, it is likely to be an
Internet address, since GPRS is designed to make the Internet fully available to
mobile users for the first time. From day one, GPRS users can access any web
page or other Internet applications- providing an immediate critical mass of
uses.

Having looked at the key user features of GPRS, lets look at the key features from a
network operator perspective.











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Key Network Features of GPRS

PACKET SWITCHING

GPRS involves overlaying a packet based air interface on the existing circuit switched
GSM network. This gives the user an option to use a packet-based data service. To
supplement a circuit switched network architecture with packet switching is quite a
major upgrade. However, as we shall see later, the GPRS standard is delivered in a
very elegant manner- with network operators needing only to add a couple of new
infrastructure nodes and making a software upgrade to some existing network
elements.
With GPRS, the information is split into separate but related "packets" before being
transmitted and reassembled at the receiving end. Packet switching is similar to a
jigsaw puzzle- the image that the puzzle represents is divided into pieces at the
manufacturing factory and put into a plastic bag. During transportation of the now
boxed jigsaw from the factory to the end user, the pieces get jumbled up. When the
recipient empties the bag with all the pieces, they are reassembled to form the original
image. All the pieces are all related and fit together, but the way they are transported
and assembled varies. The Internet itself is another example of a packet data network,
the most famous of many such network types.

SPECTRUM EFFICIENCY

Packet switching means that GPRS radio resources are used only when users are
actually sending or receiving data. Rather than dedicating a radio channel to a mobile
data user for a fixed period of time, the available radio resource can be concurrently
shared between several users. This efficient use of scarce radio resources means that
large numbers of GPRS users can potentially share the same bandwidth and be
served from a single cell. The actual number of users supported depends on the
application being used and how much data is being transferred. Because of the
spectrum efficiency of GPRS, there is less need to build in idle capacity that is only
used in peak hours. GPRS therefore lets network operators maximize the use of their
network resources in a dynamic and flexible way, along with user access to resources
and revenues.
GPRS should improve the peak time capacity of a GSM network since it
simultaneously:
allocates scarce radio resources more efficiently by supporting virtual connectivity
immigrates traffic that was previously sent using Circuit Switched Data to GPRS
instead, and reduces SMS Center and signalling channel loading by migrating some
traffic that previously was sent using SMS to GPRS instead using the GPRS/ SMS
interconnect that is supported by the GPRS standards.

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INTERNET AWARE

For the first time, GPRS fully enables Mobile Internet functionality by allowing
interworking between the existing Internet and the new GPRS network. Any service
that is used over the fixed Internet today- File Transfer Protocol (FTP), web browsing,
chat, email, telnet- will be as available over the mobile network because of GPRS. In
fact, many network operators are considering the opportunity to use GPRS to help
become wireless Internet Service Providers in their own right.

The World Wide Web is becoming the primary communications interface-
people access the Internet for entertainment and information collection, the intranet for
accessing company information and connecting with colleagues and the extranet for
accessing customers and suppliers. These are all derivatives of the World Wide Web
aimed at connecting different communities of interest. There is a trend away from
storing information locally in specific software packages on PCs to remotely on the
Internet. When you want to check your schedule or contacts, instead of using
something like "Act!", you go onto the Internet site such as a portal. Hence, web
browsing is a very important application for GPRS.
Because it uses the same protocols, the GPRS network can be viewed as a sub-
network of the Internet with GPRS capable mobile phones being viewed as mobile
hosts. This means that each GPRS terminal can potentially have its own IP address
and will be addressable as such.

SUPPORTS TDMA AND GSM

It should be noted right that the General Packet Radio Service is not only a service
designed to be deployed on mobile networks that are based on the GSM digital mobile
phone standard. The IS-136 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) standard, popular
in North and South America, will also support GPRS. This follows an agreement to
follow the same evolution path towards third generation mobile phone networks
concluded in early 1999 by the industry associations that support these two network
types.


Circuit and Packet Switched

Circuit switched connections
Standard GSM uses circuit switched (CS) connections. Each time a connection is
required between two points, a link is established between them, and network
resources are reserved and dedicated for a subscriber's use for the entire duration of
the call. Circuit switched connections have relatively low delay in the network and
have traditionally been used in fixed and mobile networks for speech and data.


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Packet switched connections
Data networks, such as the Internet, Frame Relay and X.25 use packet switched (PS)
connections. With packet switching, the user data is organized in packets
(datagrams), each packet having an identifier or address that is used by routers
(switching elements) in the network to pass the packet to its intended destination.
Hereby each packet is routed individually. GPRS brings packet switching techniques
to GSM networks. A packet switched connection can be either connection less or
connection orientated.














Circuit Switched vs Packet Switched


Circuit Switched
Packet Switched
End-to-end connection (call)
establishment needed
Dedicated resources (e.g.
PCM-tsl) for one user are
reserved during call
establishment
Only 30 - 40% of resources
are
effectively used for speech
transfer
Speech is transferred in real
time
Speech does not accept
delays
Errors in transmission are not
so critical for speech
Charging is usually based on
time
Resources are shared
between different user
sessions, not dedicated
Resources are requested on
demand, more efficient use
Packets are not sent in real
time buffering and delay (in
classical packet networks, e.g.
IP)
Error correction and detection
possible
Charging is usually based on
volume (number of packets)


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GPRS System Architecture and Concepts

Figure shows the architecture of a GPRS network. The GPRS system brings some
new network elements to an existing GSM network. These elements are:

Packet Control Unit (PCU)
Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN): the MSC of the GPRS network
Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN): gateway to external networks
Border Gateway (BG): a gateway to other PLMN
Intra-PLMN backbone: an IP based network inter-connecting all the GPRS
elements
Charging Gateway (CG)
Legal Interception Gateway (LIG)
Domain Name System (DNS)
Firewalls: used wherever a connection to an external network is required.

Not all of the network elements are compulsory for every GPRS network.



























Figure GPRS architecture




HLR
Air (Um)
Gb
Gs
Gr Gf
Gn
Gn
Inter - PLMN
GPRS
Backbone
Gp
External
packet
network
Gi
SGSN
EIR
BSC
MSC/
VLR
SMS -
GMSC
Gd
GGSN
GGSN
Signalling and
data

Signalling

CG
Ga Ga

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Packet Control Unit (PCU)
The PCU separates the circuit switched and packet switched traffic from the user and
sends them to the GSM and GPRS networks respectively. It also performs most of the
radio resource management functions of the GPRS network. The PCU can be either
located in the BTS, BSC, or some other point between the MS and the MSC. There
will be at least one PCU that serves a cell
in which GPRS services will be available. Frame Relay technology is being used at
present to interconnect the PCU to the GPRS core.

Channel Codec Unit (CCU)
The CCU is realised in the BTS to perform the Channel Coding (including the coding
scheme algorithms), power control and timing advance procedures.

Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)
The SGSN is the most important element of the GPRS network. The SGSN of the
GPRS network is equivalent to the MSC of the GSM network. There must at least one
SGSN in a GPRS network. There is a coverage area associated with a SGSN. As the
network expands and the number of subscribers increases, there may be more than
one SGSN in a network. The SGSN has the following functions:

Protocol conversion (for example IP to FR)
Ciphering of GPRS data between the MS and SGSN
Data compression is used to minimise the size of transmitted data units
Authentication of GPRS users
Mobility management as the subscriber moves from one area to another,
and possibly one SGSN to another
Routing of data to the relevant GGSN when a connection to an external
network is required
Interaction with the NSS (that is, MSC/VLR, HLR, EIR) via the SS7
network in order to retrieve subscription information
Collection of charging data pertaining to the use of GPRS users
Traffic statistics collections for network management purposes.



Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)
The GGSN is the gateway to external networks. Every connection to a fixed external
data network has to go through a GGSN. The GGSN acts as the anchor point in a
GPRS data connection even when the subscriber moves to another SGSN during
roaming. The GGSN may accept connection request from SGSN that is in another
PLMN. Hence, the concept of coverage area does not apply to GGSN. There are
usually two or more GGSNs in a network for redundancy
purposes, and they back up each other up in case of failure. The functions of a GGSN
are given below:
Routing mobile-destined packets coming from external networks to the

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relevant SGSN
Routing packets originating from a mobile to the correct external network
Interfaces to external IP networks and deals with security issues
Collects charging data and traffic statistics
Allocates dynamic or static IP addresses to mobiles either by itself or
with the help of a DHCP or a RADIUS server
Involved in the establishment of tunnels with the SGSN and with other
external networks and VPN.

From the external network's point of view, the GGSN is simply a router to an IP sub-
network. This is shown below. When the GGSN receives data addressed to a specific
user in the mobile network, it first checks if the address is active. If it is, the GGSN
forwards the data to the SGSN serving the mobile. If the address is inactive, the data
is discarded. The GGSN also routes mobile originated packets to the correct external
network.


GPRS MS
Different GPRS MS classes were introduced to cope with the different needs of future
subscribers. The mobiles differ in their capabilities.

Three GPRS MS classes were defined:

Class A:
With a class A mobile GSM circuit switched services and GSM GPRS services can be
simultaneously activated. A subscriber can get data from an active GPRS link while
simultaneously making a phone call. A class A mobile allows also a simultaneous
attach, activation and monitor of the classical GSM and GPRS services.
Class B:
A class B mobile allows a simultaneous attach, activation and monitor of the circuit switched
GSM and GPRS services. It does not allow a simultaneous transmission of user data on GSM
and GPRS. For instance, a subscriber has established a GPRS data connection and receives
data packets. A mobile terminating GSM circuit switched call is indicated. The subscriber
accepts the call. While he is making the voice call, the GPRS virtual connection is held or
busy, but no packet data transfer is possible. Having terminated the voice call, packet data can
again be transmitted via the still existing GPRS virtual connection.


Class C:
A class C mobile is either a pure GPRS MS or it supports both GSM circuit switched
services and GPRS. If it supports both then it can be used only in one of the two
modes. If a subscriber switches his mobile into GPRS mode, he can originate or
terminate GPRS calls, but he can no longer originate or terminate GSM circuit
switched calls.

Domain Name Servers
These devices convert IP host names into IP addresses. The backbone DNS is not
used by mobile stations. Instead network element convert for example Access Point

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Names to IP addresses (e.g. APN Internet= 133.44.15.5). There is a primary DNS
server and a secondary DNS server. Details of DNS were described in Introduction to
TCP/IP module, and information is also found in the TCP IP for Mobile Packet Core.
In the specifications, the DNS functionality is included in the SGSN. However, the
main vendors have chosen to separate the DNS functions from the SGSN.

Firewalls
A firewall protects an IP network against external attack (for example, hackers from
the mobile users or from the Internet). In the case of GPRS, the firewall might be
configured to reject all packets that are not part of a GPRS subscriber-initiated
connection. The firewall can also include NAT (Network Address Translation).


Border Gateway
The Border Gateway (BG) is a router that can provide a direct GPRS tunnel between
different operators' GPRS networks. This is referred to as an inter-PLMN data
network. It is more secure to transfer data between two operators' PLMN networks
through a direct connection rather than via the public Internet. The Border Gateway
will commence operation once the GPRS roaming agreements between various
operators have been signed. It will essentially allow a roaming subscriber to connect
to company intranet through the Home GGSN via the visiting PLMN network.


Charging Gateway
GPRS users have to be charged for the use of the network. In a GSM network,
charging is based on the destination, duration, and time of call. However, GPRS offers
connectionless service to users, so it not possible to charge subscribers on the
connection duration. Charging has to be based on the volume, destination, QoS, and
other parameters of a connectionless data transfer. These GPRS charging data are
generated by all the SGSNs and GGSNs in the network. This data is referred to as
Charging Data Records or CDRs. One data session may generate a number of CDRs.
The CDR must be collected and processed. The Charging Gateway (CG) collects all
of these records, sorts them, processes it, and passes it on to the Billing System. Here
the GPRS subscriber is billed for the data transaction. All CDRs contain unique
subscriber and connection identifiers to distinguish it. A protocol called GTP'
(pronounced GTP prime) is used for the transfer of data records between GSNs and
the Charging Gateway.


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GPRS Interfaces
TE Technical Equipment

MT Mobile Terminal
TE together with MT forms Mobile Station (MS)
Gb Interface between an SGSN and a BSS.
Gc Interface between a GGSN and an HLR (Optional)

Gd Interface between an SMS-GMSC and an SGSN, and between an SMS-
IWMSC and an SGSN

Gf Interface between an SGSN and an EIR. (Optional)
Gi Reference point between GPRS and an external packet data network.

Gn Interface between two GSNs within the same PLMN.

Gp Interface between two GSNs in different PLMNs. The Gp interface allows
support of GPRS network services across areas served by the co-operating
GPRS PLMNs.

Gr Interface between an SGSN and an HLR.
Gs Interface between an SGSN and an MSC / VLR.

Ga Interface between SGSN/GGSN and a Charging Gateway (CG).
Each GPRS PLMN has two access points viz. R and Urn.

R Reference point between a non-ISDN compatible TE and MT. Typically this
reference point supports a standard serial interface and is used for origination
or reception of messages. The R reference point for the GPRS MSs is defined
in GSM 07.60.

Um Interface between the mobile station (MS) and the GPRS fixed network part.
The Um interface is the GPRS network interface for providing packet data
services over the radio to the MS. The MT part of the MS is used to access the
GPRS services through this interface.




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Up- gradation Requirements of the GSM
Network elements

Introduction of GPRS in the GSM network requires carrying out following changes in
the existing Hardware/Software to support GPRS services:

i) Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
ii) Home Location Register (HLR)
iii) Network Sub System (NSS)

Besides the above, necessary integration of 'Billing, Network Management, Operation
& Management Center, Wireless data nodes such as WAP server etc with the GPRS
system shouldl be supported.



Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
BSS must be upgraded to support following capabilities without affecting the GSM
services.

1. The GPRS system should communicate with the MSs over the air using radio
signals transmitted from and received by a BSS.
2. The BSS should handle the transmission and reception of radio signals for
speech/circuit data and packet data communication. Also the BSS should be
able to separate speech/circuit data and packet data RF Time slots from each
other to let only the packet data to reach the SGSN.
3. GPRS should coexist together with GSM using the air interface physical
channel.
4. BSS should provide distribution of radio resources requirement for circuit and
packet services and the priority thereby. In case of high loaded cell the
priority shall be given to circuit switched calls.
5. It should be possible to either dedicate a fixed number of channels in the radio
network for GPRS. Also it shall be possible to dynamically convert a voice radio
channel in to GPRS channel.
6. The BSC should have the following GPRS-specific functionality:

i) Frame Relay and BSSGP interface to SGSN
ii) Allocation of PDCH in cells
iii) Distributing paging
iv) GPRS system information broadcast
v) RLC/MAC interface to MS
vi) GPRS radio resource handling
7. The BTS should have the following GPRS-specific functionality:
i) Support of PDCH
ii) RF interface to MS
iii) Packet Control Unit (PCU): The PCU implementation shall support data on

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A-bis interface and terminate the PDCHs on the air interfaces. The PCU
shall also perform the function of grooming of data from the air interface and
'consolidate to the Gb interface.

The PCU hardware/software should be BSC embedded and it shall be possible to
expand, create and modify the PCU related parameters using OMC-R. The PCU
configuration (on Gb resources) should be dynamic. It should be possible to share
Elrgs across the hardware blocks where PCU is implemented.

It shall be possible to support following multiple coding schemes using the same PCU
hardware/ software. There should be at least N=l redundancy for the PCU software.

Coding Code Rate Data Rate Max. Data Rate
Scheme (Per Timeslot) (kbps) (kbps)
CS-l 1/2 9.05 72.4
CS-2 2/3 13.4 107.2
CS-3 3/4 15.6 124.8
CS-4 1 21.4 171.2

Home Location Register (HLR)

The HLR should be upgraded to store information for Packet Switched communication
without affecting the GSM services.

1 The HLR should contain information of supplementary services, authentication
parameters, and whether or not packet communication is allowed in addition to
information about the location of the MS. For GPRS, subscriber information must
be exchanged between HLR and SGSN. The HLR should "also store the
subscription information regarding mobile-terminated SMS, which include the
option of SM transfer via the SGSN to the MS.
2 HLR should be able to store the permanent information of GPRS user and
provide related user data to SGSN on demand. HLR shall update the data on
demand, and inform appropriate SGSN.
3 HLR should be able to store GPRS subscriber location information and update
and remove the information on demand, and inform the appropriate SGSN.
4 At the same time, HLR should also provide GPRS route information for GPRS
service or Short Message Service initiated at network side according to the
location information.
5 HLR should be able to request authentication triplets from AuC and provide
SGSN with authentication parameters.
6 There, should be Backup actions for critical software and hardware of the HLR
system. Redundancy N+1 or 1 + 1 shall be provided. For continuous operation
of the system, the system shall provide software and hardware on-line recovery
capability.




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Network Sub System (NSS)

NSS should be upgraded to support following capabilities without affecting the GSM
services.
1 The Gateway and inter-working MSC shall be upgraded to support SMS
transmission via the SGSN.
2 The MSCNLR should be enhanced for more efficient co-ordination of GPRS and
non-GPRS services e.g. paging for circuit switched calls via the SGSN,
combined location updates for GPRS and non-GPRS mobiles etc.

GPRS NETWORK PLANNING
As already stated, the main difference between GSM and GPRS networks is the
addition of a packet-data handling capability in GPRS. All the differences in network
planning are due to this additional aspect. Radio network planning and core network
planning are aspects most affected, while transmission network planning experiences
minimal changes

Radio Network Planning
The radio network remains largely the same as with GSM Some of the aspects
change owing to the introduction of packet data. This mainly affects the dimensioning
and detailed planning, which directly affect the coverage and capacity planning,
leading to an impact on radio network quality. In GSM, radio network quality meant
voice quality, but in a GPRS network quality includes both voice and data quality This
leads to changes in the key performance indicators (KPls). In the following, only areas
that need changing with respect to radio planning in GSM are explained. Fundamental
Concepts include the following:
logical channels.
Coding schemes.
Management: RRM and MM (radio resource and mobility management).
Resource allocation
Power control.



SESSION MANAGEMENT, MOBILITY MANAGEMENT AND ROUTING.

In PS domain there is no concept of call set up. Therefore the normal procedures of
call handling as in case of Circuit Switching are not applicable here. However, an
analogous concept termed as sessions is applicable in this case. In this section, we
describe some of the features related to session management and illustrate that how
a mobile station (MS) registers with the GPRS network and becomes known to an
external packet data network (PDN). We show how packets are routed to or from
mobile stations, and how the network keeps track of the current location of the user.


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For MSs using both circuit switched and packet switched services, it is possible to
perform combined GPRS/ IMSI attach procedures. The disconnection from the GPRS
network is called GPRS detach. It can be initiated by the MS or by the network (SGSN
or HLR).



ATTACHMENT AND DETACHMENT PROCEDURE

'GPRS Attach' Function: For an MS to use GPRS services, it must register with an
SGSN of the GPRS network. The network checks if the user is authorized, copies the"
user profile from the HLR to the SGSN, and assigns a Packet Temporary Mobile
Subscriber Identity (P- TMSI) to the user.

Session Management, PDP Context

After successful GPRS Attach, MS has to exchange data packets with external PDNs.
It must apply for one or more addresses used in the PDN, e.g., for an IP address in
case the PDN is an IP network. This address is called PDP address (Packet Data
Protocol address). For each session, a so-called PDP context is created, which
describes the characteristics of the session. It contains the PDP type (e.g., IPv4), the
PDP address assigned to the mobile station (e.g., 129.187.222.10), the requested
QoS, and the address of a GGSN that serves as the access point to the PDN. This
context is stored in the MS, the SGSN, and the GGSN. With an active PDP context,
the mobile station is "visible" for the external PDN and is able to send and receive
data packets. The mapping between the two addresses, PDP and IMSI, enables the
GGSN to transfer data packets between PDN and MS. A user may have several
simultaneous PDP contexts active at a given time.

The allocation of the PDP address can be static or dynamic. In the first case, the
network operator of the user's home-PLMN permanently assigns a PDP address to
the user. In the second case, a PDP address is assigned to the user upon activation
of a PDP context. The PDP address can be assigned by the operator of the user's
home-PLMN (dynamic homePLMN PDP address) or by the operator of the visited
network (dynamic visited-PLMN PDP address). The home network operator decides
which of the possible alternatives may be used. In case of dynamic PDP address
assignment, the GGSN is responsible for the allocation and the activation!
deactivation of the PDP addresses. The PDP context specifications are shown in
figure below Following are the steps taken:


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Step#l
The MS informs the SGSN about the requested PDP context, using the message
"Activate PDP Context Request". If dynamic PDP address assignment is requested,
the parameter PDP address will be left empty.






Step#2
Security functions (e.g., Authentication of the user) are performed.

Step#3
If access is granted, the SGSN will send a "Create PDP Context Request" message to
the concerned GGSN.
Step#4
The GGSN creates a new entry in its PDP context table, which enables the GGSN to
route data packets between the SGSN and the external PDN. The GGSN returns a
confirmation message "Create PDP Context Response" to the SGSN, which contains
the PDP address in case dynamic PDP address allocation was requested.
Step#5
The SGSN updates its PDP- context table and confirms the activation of the new PDP
context to the MS ("Activate PDP Context Accept").
GPRS also supports anonymous POP context activation. In this case, security
functions as are skipped, and thus, the user (i.e., the IMSI) using the POP context
remains unknown to the network. Anonymous context activation may be employed for

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pre-paid services, where the user does not want to be identified. Only dynamic
address allocation is possible in this . case.



Fig a


ROUTING
Refer Figure-a showing IP based GPRS backbone network. It gives an example of
how packets are routed in GPRS. We assume that the packet data network is an IP
network. A GPRS mobile station located in PLMNI sends IP packets to a host
connected to the IP network, e.g., to a Web server connected to the Internet. The
SGSN in which the mobile station is registered, will encapsulates the IP packets
coming from the mobile station, examines the PDP context, and routes them through
the intra-PLMN GPRS backbone to the appropriate GGSN.

The GGSN decapsulates the packets and sends them out on the IP network, where IP
routing mechanisms are used to transfer the packets to the access router of the
destination network. The latter delivers the IP packets to the host.

Let us assume the home-PLMN of the mobile station is PLMN2. An IP address has
been assigned to the mobile by the GGSN of PLMN2. Thus, the MS's IP address has
the same network prefix as the IP address of the GGSN in PLMN2. The
corresponding host is now sending IP packets to the MS. The packets are sent out
onto the IP network and are routed to the GGSN ofPLMN2 (the home-GGSN of the
MS). The latter queries the HLR and obtains the information that the MS is currently
located in PLMN I. It encapsulates the incoming IP packets and tunnels them through

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the inter-PLMN GPRS backbone to the appropriate SGSN in PLMN I. The SGSN
decapsulates the packets and delivers them to the MS.

LOCATION MANAGEMENT
The main task of location management is to keep track of the user's current location,
so that incoming packets can be routed to the concerned MS. For this purpose, the
MS frequently sends location update messages to its current SGSN. If the MS sends
updates rather seldom, its location (e.g., its current cell) is not known exactly and
paging is necessary for each downlink packet, resulting in a significant delivery delay.
On the other hand, if location updates happen very often, the MS's location is well
known to the network, and the data packets can be delivered without any additional
paging delay. However, quite a lot of uplink radio capacity and battery power is
consumed for mobility management in this case. Thus, a good location management
strategy must be a compromise between these two extreme methods.

For this reason, a model shown in Figure (below) can be defined for location
management in GPRS. A MS can be in one of three states (viz., Idle, Ready or
Standby). Depending on its current traffic amount; the location update frequency is
dependent on the state of the MS.

In IDLE state the MS is not reachable. Performing a GPRS attach, the MS gets into
READY state. With a GPRS detach it may disconnect from the network and fall back
to IDLE state. All POP contexts will be deleted. The STANDBY state will be reached
when an MS does not send any packets for a longer period of time, and therefore the
READY timer (which was started at GPRS attach) expires.






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In IDLE state, no location updating is performed, i.e., the current location of the MS is
unknown to the network. An MS in READY state informs its SGSN of every movement
to a new cell. For the location management of an MS in STANDBY state, a GSM is
divided into several areas. In general, an RA (Routing Area) consists of several cells.
The SGSN will only be informed when an MS moves to a new RA; cell . changes will
not be disclosed. To find out the current cell of an MS in STANDBY state, paging of
the MS within a certain RA must be performed.

For MSs in READY state, no paging is necessary.

Whenever an NIS moves to a new RA, it sends a "routing area update request" to its
assigned SGSN (see Figure below). The message contains the RDl1ter Area Identity
of its old RA. The base station subsystem (BSS) adds the new cells, from which the
SGSN can derive the new RAI. Two different scenarios are possible:


Intra-SGSN routing area update (as in Figure above): The MS has moved to an RA
that is assigned to the same SGSN as the old RA. In this case, the SGSN has already
stored the necessary user profile and can assign a new to the user ("routing area
update accept"). Since the routing context does not change, there is no need to inform
other network elements, such as GGSN or HLR.
Inter-SGSN routing area update: The new RA is administered by a different SGSN
than the old RA. The new SGSN realizes that the MS has changed to its area and
requests the old SGSN to se d the PDP contexts of the user.
Afterward, the new SGSN informs the involved GGSNs about the user's new routing
context. In addition, the HLR and (if needed) the MSCNLR are informed about the
user's new SGSN. .

There also exist combined RAILA updates. These occur when an MS using GPRS as
well as conventional GSM moves to a new LA. The MS sends a "routing area update

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request" to the SGSN. The parameter "update type" is used to indicate that an LA
update is needed. The message is then forwarded to the VLR, which performs the LA
update.

To sum up, GPRS mobility management consists of two levels: Micro mobility
management tracks the current routing area or cell of the mobile station. It is
performed by the SGSN. Macro mobility management keeps track of the mobile
station's current SGSN and stores it in the HLR, VLR, and GGSN.

AIR INTERFACE-PHYSICAL LAYER
MULTIPLE ACCESS AND RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
GSM uses a combination of FDMA and TDMA for multiple access. As shown in the
Figure below, two frequency bands, 45 MHz apart have been reserved for GSM


operation viz., (890 to 915) MHz for transmission from the MS, Le., Uplink, and (935 to
960) MHz for transmission from the BTS, i.e., Downlink. The 25 MHz bandwidth is
divided into 124 single carrier channels of200 kHz width. A certain number of these
frequency channels is allocated to a BTS, (i.e., to a Cell) for providing the service.

Each of the 200 kHz frequency channels carries eight TDMA channels by dividing
each of them into eight time slots. The eight time slots in these TDMA channels form a
TDMA frame. Each time slot of a TDMA frame lasts for a duration of 156.25 bit times
and, if used, contains a data burst. The time slot lasts 15/26 ms = 576.9s; so a frame
takes 4.613 ms. The recurrence of one particular time slot defines a physical channel.
A GSM mobile station uses the same time slot in the uplink as in the downlink. .

The channel allocation in GPRS is different from the original GSM. GPRS allows a
single mobile station to transmit on multiple time slots of the same TDMA frame

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(multislot operation). This results in a very flexible channel allocation: one to eight time
slots per TDMA frame can be allocated for one mobile station. Moreover, uplink and
downlink are allocated separately, which efficiently supports asymmetric data traffic
(e.g., Web browsing). .
In conventional GSM, a channel is permanently allocated for a particular user during
the entire call period (whether data is transmitted or not). In contrast to this, in GPRS
the channels are only allocated when data packets are sent or received, and they are
released after the transmission. For bursty traffic this results in a much more efficient
usage of the scarce radio resources. With this principle, multiple users can share one
physical channel.

A cell supporting GPRS may allocate physical channels for GPRS traffic. Such a
physical channel is denoted as the PDCHs (Packet Data Traffic Channel) are taken
from the common pool of all channels available in the cell. Thus, the radio resources
of a cell are shared by all GPRS and non-GPRS mobile stations located in this cell.
The mapping of physical channels to either packet switched (GPRS) or circuit
switched (conventional GSM) services can be performed dynamically. Futher, it based
on capacity demand, depending on the current traffic load, the priority of the service
and the multi slot class. A.
load supervision procedure monitors the load of the PDCHs in the cell. According to
the current demand, the number of channels allocated for GPRS (Le., the number
ofPDCHs) can be changed. Physical channels not currently in use by conventional
GSMcan be allocated as PDCHs to increase the quality of service for GPRS. When
there is a resource demand for services with higher priority, PDCHs can be de-
allocated.



LOGICAL CHANNELS IN GPRS

On top of the physical channels, a series of logical channels are defined to perform a
multiplicity of functions, e.g., signalling, broadcast of general system information,
synchronization, channel assignment, paging, or payload transport. Table below lists
the packet data logical channels defined in GPRS. As with conventional GSM, they
can be divided into two categories: traffic channels and signaling (control) channels.







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Group Channel
Function
Direction
Packet data
traffic channel
PDTCH
Data traffic MSBSS
Packet broadcast
control channel
PBCCH Broadcast control MSBSS
Packet common
control channel
(PCCCH)
PRACH
PAGCH
PPCH
PNCH
Random access
Access grant
Paging
Notification
MSBSS
MSBSS
MSBSS
MSBSS
Packet dedicated
control channels
PACCH

PTCCH

Associated
Control
Timing advance
control
MSBSS

MSBSS
TABLE

The Packet Data Traffic Channel (PDTCH) is employed for the transfer of user data. It
is assigned to one MS (or in the case of PTM (point to Multipoint) to multiple mobile
stations). One mobile station can use several PDTCHs simultaneously.

The Packet Broadcast Control Channel (PBCCH) is a unidirectional point-to-multipoint
signaling channel from the BSS to the MS. It is used by the BSS to broadcast specific
infom1ation about the organization of the GPRS radio network to all GPRS mobile
stations of a cell. Besides system information about GPRS, the PBCCH should also
broadcast important system information about circuit switched services, so that a
GSM/GPRS mobile station does not need to listen to the Broadcast Control Channel
(BCCH).


The Packet Common Control Channel (PCCCH) is a bidirectional point-to multipoint
signaling channel that transports signaling information for network access
management, e.g., for allocation of radio resources and paging. It consists of four sub-
channels:
The Packet Common Control Channel (PCCCH) is used by the mobile to
request one or more PDTCH. .
The Packet Access Grant Channel (PAGCH) is used to allocate one or more
PDTCH to a mobile station.
The Packet Paging Channel (PPCH) is used by the BSS to find out the location
of a mobile station (paging) prior to downlink packet transmission.
The Packet Notification Channel (PNCH) is used to inform a mobile station
of incoming PTM messages (multicast or group call).


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The dedicated control channel is a bidirectional point-to-point signaling channel. It
contains the channels PACCH and PTCCH :
The Packet Associated Control Channel (PACCH) is always allocated in
combination with one or more PDTCH that are assigned to one mobile station. It
transports signaling information related to one specific mobile station (e.g., power
control information).
The Packet Timing Advance Control Channel (PTCCH) is used for adaptive framc
synchronization.

The coordination between circuit switched and packet switched logical channels is
important. If the PCCCII is not available in a cell, a mobile station can use the
Common Control Channel (CCCH) of conventional GSM to initiate the packet transfer.
Moreover. if the PI3CCH is not available, it will listen to the Broadcast Control Channel
(BCCH) to get informed about the radio network.

Figure Uplink channel allocation (mobile originated packet transfer)

Figure above shows the principle of the uplink channel allocation (mobile originated
packet transfer). A mobile station requests radio resources for uplink transfer by
sending a "packet channel request" on the PRACH or RACH. The network answers
on the PAGCH or AGCH, respectively. It tells the mobile station which PDCHs it may
use. A so-called Uplink State Flag (USF) is transmitted in the downlink to tell the
mobile station whether or not the uplink channel is free.


MAPPING OF PACKET DATA LOGICAL CHANNELS ONTO
PHYSICAL CHANNELS

The mapping of logical channels onto physical channels has two components:
mapping in. frequency and mapping in time. The mapping in frequency is based on

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the TDMA frame number and the frequencies allocated to the BTS and the mobile
station. The mapping in time is based on the definition of complex multiframe
structures on top of the TDMA frames. A multiframe structure for PDCHs consisting of
52 TDMA frames is shown in Figure below. In this four consecutive TDMA frames
form one block (12 blocks, 80 to B 11). Here two TDMA frames are reserved for
transmission of the PTCCH, and the remaining two frames are idle frames.

Figure Multiframe structure with 52 frames


The mapping of the logical channels onto the blocks BO-B II of the multiframe can
vary' from block to block and is controlled by parameters that are broadcast on the
PBCCH. Standards have defined which time slots may be used by a logical channel.
Besides the 52-multi frame, which can be used by all logical GPRS channels, a 51-
multi frame structure is also defined. It is used for PDCHs carrying only the logical
channels PCCCH and PBCCH and no other logical channels.





CHANNEL CODING .
Channel coding is used to protect the transmitted data packets against errors. The
channel coding technique in GPRS is quite similar to the one employed in
conventional GSM. An outer block coding, an inner convolutional coding, and an
interleaving scheme is used.
Four different coding schemes are defined. The concept of encoding process is
illustrated in Figure below.



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Figure - Encoding of GPRS data packets.

For the coding of the traffic channel (PDTCH), one of the four coding schemes is
chosen, depending on the quality of the channel. Under very bad channel conditions,
we may use CS-l and obtain a data rate of 9.05 kbit/s per GSM time slot, but a very
reliable coding. Under good channel conditions, we transmit without convolutional
coding and achieve a data rate of 21.4 kbit/s per time slot. With eight time slots, we
obtain a maximum data rate of 171.2 kbit/s. In practice, multiple users share the time
slots, and thus, a much lower bit rate is available to the individual user. For example,
approximately 40 kbit/s per user will be achieved, if three users share the time slots
and CS-3 is employed. CS-l is used for the coding of the signaling channels.

After encoding, the code words are input into a block interleaver of depth 4. On the
receiver side, the code words are de-interleaved. The decoding is performed using the
well know Viterbi Algorithm.


Resource Allocation

Radio time-slot allocation also changes in the GPRS air interface. It becomes more
dynamic A GPRS mobile is capable of using the network both for voice (CS) and data
(CS and PS) GPRS traffic is managed by the BSC as it does the allocation of
resources for the CS 31 PS data. The time slots that handle the CS traffic fall under
CS territory and the time slots that handle PS traffic fall under the GPRS territory.
Some of the time slots are in dedicated mode and some in default. Each group of time
slots is known as a territory).
Consider a base station with two transceivers, TRX 1 and TRX2. There are eight
radio time slots in each of the two TRXs. In TRX1, two TS are allocated to the
signaling (i.e.
TRX-1


TRX-2
Figure GPRS timeslot allocation to CS and PS traffic.
BCCH PBCCH TS TS TS TS TS TS
TS TS TS TS TS TS TS TS

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BCCH and PBCCH). Of the remaining six, three fall under dedicated territory and
three under default territory. The TS that are to be used only for the packet data (so
cannot re used for the CS traffic) are known as dedicated time slots and fall under
dedicated territory. The remaining three TS can be used for both voice and data and
fall under default territory.
The eight time slots that are used for voice traffic come under the CS territory.
Consider a case when all the eight TS in TRX2 are occupied and there is a ninth call;
then one TS from the default territory is assigned to this CS traffic. Once the traffic in
TRX2 decreases, the call on the default will be switched back to CS territory, leaving
the default time slots fur possible PS traffic.

Power Control

Power control in GPRS networks is more complicated because of the addition of the
PS traffic. Power control takes place in both the uplink and downlink directions. The
uplink Power control is used to reduce interference and helps in increasing the battery
life of t mobile station. In the downlink direction, the power control feature is used to
control output power of the base station and subsequently help in decreasing the
interference in the network. As in a GSM system, the mobile station performs the
measurements and based on these, the output power of the base station is controlled.






Temporary Block Flow (TBF)

This is a new concept introduced into GPRS networks. The network and mobile
establish
A connection for data flow. This connection is unidirectional in nature and is
maintained For the duration of the call. It is established for the packet data (i.e. blocks)
and is not permanent (hence temporary block flow). It can be uplink, downlink or
simultaneous uplink
downlink.

The Radio Network Planning Process

Both GSM and GPRS have the same radio-wave propagation principles. The one
important extra consideration is the addition of data traffic. Pre-planning and nominal
planning steps, such as site survey and site selection, remain the same as with GSM,
as explained earlier. Detailed planning of the GPRS network takes account of the data
traffic and new equipment added to the network for this. The detailed planning again
focuses on coverage, capacity, frequency and parameter planning.

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Coverage Planning
Coverage in a GPRS network depends are the SIN (signal-to-noise ratio) and data
transmission rates. Interference can be a limiting factor for the maximum data rate in
the network each of the coding schemes (CS-l, CS- 2, etc.) works for a certain range
of CII (channel to interference ratio) for a given value of block error rate (BLER).
The coverage plans are made with the objective of providing a balanced link
budget for both the uplink and downlink directions. The link budget is similar to that of
a GSM radio network. However, the threshold requirements change in GPRS
networks, thereby giving a different coverage area by a cell. The two main parameters
that are required required for link budget calculation are the transmitted power (from)
mobile station and base station and the receiver sensitivity. As the coding schemes in
a GPRS radio network have different SIN requirements, the areas covered will be
different. Coding scheme CS-l covers a large area compared to scheme CS-4. One
important change that is seen in the link budget calculations is the removal of a body
loss value for CS- 2, thereby giving GPRS services a 3 dB advantage compared with
GSM services. The SI/N requirements for CS-3 and CS-4an quite high, thereby
reducing the area covered by them. CS-l and CS-2 are usually used for GPRS radio
network coverage planning, while CS-3 and CS-4 are used for the call centre. As
coverage in a GPRS network is limited by interference (rather than by noise), the G
ratio distribution becomes a detrimental factor in coverage area predictions.




Capacity Planning
Capacity planning of a GPRS network may be subdivided into two parts: capacity
planning for the radio interface and capacity planning f9r'the Gb interface. In, this
section, we deal with capacity planning for the radio interface.
The network has three kinds of traffic: voice, CS data and PS data. All these have
to be considered when doing capacity planning for the radio interface. Circuit-switched
traffic always has priority over PS traffic, but owing to the delay-sensitive nature of
some PS services, some time slots are dedicated to carry the PS traffic only.
CS traffic calculations, as with GSM, pre-dominantly involves the Erlang B tables,
blocking and C/I thresholds. Assume the case shown earlier in Figure There is one
cell that has two TRXs. In ideal conditions (i.e. without blocking), 14 (voice) users can
use the time slots continuously, so traffic of 14 Erlg would be generated if there is no
blocking. If the number of voice users is reduced to eight, then the remaining six time
slots can Ix used for data. It should be noted, however, that data which are not delay-
sensitive could still be sent through the gaps in the air interface. Only the data that are
delay sensitive need uninterrupted availability of time slots.
When an existing GSM network is upgraded to a GPRS network, the available
capacity falls short for the PS data. Increasing the number of TRXs and the time slots
in GPRS territories (dedicated + default) would be one effective way to tackle the

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capacity problem.
Quality of service (QoS) has a deep impact on capacity planning. An increased
load would decrease the quality of a call. For critical applications, a minimum QoS
should be met, which means that the loading can increase only up to a certain point.
Thus, frequency planning takes an important place in achieving a desired QoS level in
a GPRS radio network.








Frequency Planning

Coverage and capacity planning go hand-in-hand, and coverage planning is quite
related to frequency planning. An effective frequency plan will increase coverage
areas significantly and limit interference (as will power control).
The principles and methods of frequency re-use (the same as used in GSM radio
networks, e.g. frequency hopping) are used extensively so that the spectrum is used
effectively. Power control is more necessary in the downlink direction. Using the
BCCH layer does this. The BCCH layer has an important characteristic, namely that
burst transmission in the DL is constant and with full power. This means that variation
in throughput is due to user multiplexing over the same time slot, thereby making the
time slot capacity constant (and independent of the GPRS traffic load). Time slot
capacity is also interference limited. With an increase of traffic, the number of users
per time slot decreases because of interference.
Thus, in a GPRS network, interference reduction becomes quite an important aspect
of the whole network-planning scenario.
Parameter Planning
Parameter planning in a GPRS network can be considered to be an extension of GSM
parameter planning. Signalling, RRM, power control, handover, etc., are still relevant,
and extra parameters related to packet data are added. The major enhancements are
in the signalling parameters.
As seen earlier in Table, there is whole list of parameters associated with the
signalling of packet data transfer. One important parameter to decide is whether or not
the GPRS traffic goes on the BCCH time slot. Then there are parameters that are
related to defining the GPRS territory. Lastly, there life parameters related to routing
and location area codes, to ensure enough capacity is available for paging.

Transmission Network Planning
The fundamental concepts remain the same as for a GSM network ,However, one

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extra aspect that transmission-planning engineers have to deal with is PCU
dimensioning. The packet control unit is located in the BSC, as shown in figure. It is .
responsible for management of the GPRS (or packet) traffic.
The main aspect of dimensioning of the PCU is its capacity with respect to:
the maximum number of PDP contexts
the maximum number of TRXs
the maximum number of BTSs
the maximum number of PCM lines towards the A-bis and towards the Gb
interface, as well as the traffic on the Gb interface
the maximum number of location areas, and routing areas.






Packet Core Network Planning

Owing to the introduction of packet data, core network planning is subdivided into two
major parts: planning for the circuit core and for the packet core. Planning for the
circuit core remains more or less as usual. so will not be repeated here. This section
covers planning for the packet core.
The most important aspect of packet core network planning is dimensioning of the
three interfaces. Gb, Gn and Gj (refer back to Figure GPRS Architecture).





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EDGE: Network Planning and Optimization















INTRODUCTION

GPRS networks are able to handle higher bit rates than GSM networks, but the data
rates still fall short of what is required to make existing GSM networks deliver services
at a speed comparable to that promised by third-generation networks. The delay in the
deployment of third-generation systems led to the emergence of a technology known
as EDGE. This was capable of delivering services similar to those of third-generation
networks, yet with implementation on the existing second-generation networks (e.g.
GSM).
EDGE stands for 'enhanced data rates for GSM evolution'. The enhancement from
GSM was to GPRS (i.e. voice and packet), while further enhancement of GPRS led to
EDGE networks, as shown in Figure 1. The fundamental concept remains the same,
i.e. voice, CS data and PS data being carried, and the network architecture is the
same as in a GPRS network. Enhancement of HSCSD is known as ECSD (enhanced
circuit-switched data), while enhancement of GPRS is known as EGPRS.
EGPRS implementation has a major effect on protocol structure (e.g. on layer 1 or
layer 2). The modulation and coding schemes are quite different in EGPRS (this is
explained later in the chapter).
In ECSD, though user data rates do not go beyond 64 kbps, fewer time slots are
required to achieve this compared HSCSD. The architecture of ECSD is based on
HSCSD transmission and signalling, thus having minimal impact on existing
specifications.
In this chapter we will focus on EDGE network planning aspects from the EGPRS
perspective.


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Figure 1 EDGE evolution

THE EDGE SYSTEM

As shown in Figure 2, the EDGE system is quite similar to the GPRS system (compare with
Figure 1), but with the capability for higher data rates. The most important change the new
modulation scheme. In GSM and GPRS, the GMSK modulation scheme was Used
In GMSK modulation, only one bit per symbol is used. In an EDGE network, octagonal phase-
shift keying (8-PSK) modulation is used which enables a threefold higher gross data rate of
59.2 kbps per radio time slot by transmitting three bits per symbol. GMSK is a constant-
amplitude modulation while 8-PSK has variations in the amplitude. This amplitude variation
changes the radio performance characteristics, so hardware changes in the base stations are
mandatory.




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EDGE NETWORK PLANNING

The radio network planning process is similar to that for GSM and GPRS networks. However,
because of minor hardware and software changes in the existing network, that lead major
changes in network performance, the network planning parameters change quite a bit. Owing
to increased bit rates, transmission planning undergoes a major change with introduction of the
concept of a dynamic A-bis interface. In contrast, core network planning virtually the same as
for a GPRS network.

Radio Network Planning lading Schemes
As already mentioned, the EDGE system is an enhancement to the existing GPRS system.
There are nine modulation and coding schemes (MCS-l to MCS-9) that provide different
throughputs, as shown in Table 1. The MCS scheme carries data from 8.8 kbps to 59.2
Kbps on the existing GSM carrier of 270.833 kbps. For coding schemes MCS-l to MCS-4,
Modulation is still GMSK; for MCS-5 to MCS-9 it is 8-PSK.
Based on this coding scheme, a data rate of 473 kbps (8 bits x 59.2 kbps) can be achieved.
Though GMSK is a more robust scheme, 8-PSK gives more data throughput. However, the
increased data rate comes at the price of decreased sensitivity of the system. This has an
impact on network planning.
Another advantage in EDGE networks is that the switching between different coding
schemes can take place easily, which was not possible in a GPRS network. When data trans-
mission takes place in a GPRS coding scheme, it is not possible to switch the coding scheme
on more reception failure, so the re-transmission takes place with exactly the same protection
as for its initial transmission. In EGPRS, it is possible to change the MCS, i.e. the data block
can be sent again but with better protection than for its initial transmission. This is done
through a process called link adaptation.
One more observation on the coding scheme is that the new set of GMSK coding is being
used, e.g. CS-1 is equivalent to 8 kbps in GPRS networks, with similar changes in coding
schemes CS-2,CS-3 and CS-4. These changes are to provide incremental redundancy
support, as will now be explained.
Table 1
Modulation and Coding Scheme
in EDGE
MCS Modulation User rate (kbps)
I GMSK 8.8
2 GMSK 11.2
3 GMSK 14.8
4 GMSK 17.6
5 8-PSK 22.4
6 8-PSK 29.6
7 8-PSK 44.8

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8 8-PSK 54.4
9 8-PSK 59.2

Link Adaptation and Incremental Redundancy
As the propagation conditions change with time and region, the quality of the signal changes.
Because of this, the modulation and coding schemes change all the time. Link adaptation is used for
maximising the throughput per channel and changing the coding scheme depending upon the
channel conditions. Basically, this leads to provision of the highest throughput possible with the
lowest amount of delay. This gives better link quality and makes EDGE a more efficient system. Link
adaptation (LA) algorithms are responsible for link adaptation. These algorithms activate the LA
feature based on bit-error probability (BEP) measurements.
Incremental redundancy (lR) improves the throughput and is done by automatically adapting the
total amount of transmitted redundancy to the radio channel conditions. This is achieved using two
techniques: ARQ (automatic repeat request) and FEC (forward error correction). In the GPRS
system, when errors are detected in the RLC blocks, re-transmissions requested and provided until
the correct information reaches the destination. FEC provides the redundant user information that is
used by the receiver to correct errors caused by radio channel disturbances. However, in an EDGE
system, not all the redundant information is sent immediately. Only a small amount is send at first. If
decoding is then successful, this saves a lot of capacity; if decoding is unsuccessful, then the normal
ARQ process takes place. Because the LA algorithm selects the amount of redundancy for each
individual transmission, this process basically reduces the number of re-transmissions and
subsequent delays. The re-transmission mechanism in EDGE is more efficient (than in GPRS
networks) I by virtue of the IR phenomenon.
LA operates always on a first-sent block or a re-transmitted block, and upon receiving BEP
measurements will change the MCS according to the condition of the network. IR is a specific
re-transmission algorithm also known as 'hybrid ARQ II' (it includes puncturing, I storage and
soft combining at the receiving end) that if enabled together with LA will allow I a change in
MCS within the family. In order to change MCS during re-transmission, LA should be enabled.
Note that ETSI specifications make IR mandatory only for the MS as receiving side, not
for the BTS.

Channel Allocation
Channel allocation in EDGE networks is nearly the same as in GPRS networks. BCCH, PCH,
RACH, AGCH are the signalling channels, while PACCH is the only associated channel when
the physical resources are assigned. Channel allocation algorithms are responsible for
assignment of the channels to mobile stations. The EDGE base station should be capable of
being synchronized with the existing GSM base stations. This will maximize the efficiency I as
both the base stations can be configured as one sector instead of two, thereby making only
one BCCH necessary for the operation. Moreover, an increase in data rates leads to an
increased signalling requirement for a given traffic and applications.
Smart Radio Concept
Implementation of the smart radio concept enhances the performance of the radio link, both

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in the uplink and downlink directions, by the use of diversity methods described later in the
chapter.


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Radio Network Planning Process
The basic process of radio network planning remains the same as in GPRS networks.
However, because of the changes in the modulation and coding schemes, there are some
changes in the coverage, capacity, and parameter planning of EDGE radio networks.

Coverage Planning
The link budget has a direct impact on coverage. As the EDGE network focuses more on
,PS data, the delay tolerance becomes a critical factor in defining system quality level.
Some factors that affect link budget calculations specifically in EDGE are noted below.
Incremental Redundancy
Use of IR in coordination with LA not only makes re-transmission more efficient but also
optimizes the performance of the system. It reduces the required CII by at least 3 dB. Link
budgets are calculated for a given modulation and coding scheme for a specific BLER. The
BLER value affects directly the gain due to IR. In fact, the higher the BLER, the higher the
IR gain.

Body loss .
When a mobile comes near to the human body, the signal level goes down. This is known
as body loss. In GSM 900, this loss is typically 3 dB. No body loss is taken into account for
packet data services in an EDGE network.

Diversity Effects
Use of diversity schemes generally has a positive impact on link performance, thereby in-
creasing the area covered by individual sites. Both uplink and downlink diversity schemes
are possible. However, smart radio concepts can be used to increase the coverage perfor-
mance of an EDGE network drastically.
In uplink diversity, multiple antennas are used so as to cancel the correlated noise
received at the antennas. Reduction of noise leads to a gain in the signal level. When there
is no noise, the system allows the signal to flow without noise reduction. In the downlink
direction, two transmitters are used and the signal is transmitted through two uncorrelated
paths in bursts with slight delays. The transmitted power increases substantially with the
use of two transmitters. Transmission of the signal over two different paths with delay
reduces the effects of fast fading. Thus, the link performance and coverage can be
increased substantially in EDGE radio networks as compared with GSM or GPRS radio
networks.

Received Signal Strength
Signal strength in radio networks can be expressed in relation to interference signals.
There are three parameters that specify this: Eb/No, Es/No, and C/N. Both Es/No and C/N
can be expressed in terms of Eb/No, which is the ratio of available bit energy to the noise
spectral density (also known as the signal-to-noise ratio). Es/No is the ratio of energy-per-
symbol to noise. For a GPRS system (with GMSK modulation) this ratio is unity, while for
EDGE systems (8-PSK modulation) it is Eb/No + 4.77 dB (as three bits is one symbol). C/N

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is the ratio of total received power to total noise. The following are useful relationships:
Eb/No(dB) = Es/No - 4.77
C/N(dB) = Eb/No + 6.07
Link budget calculations can be done by using MCS and BLER. However, received
signal strength can be calculated for some specified data rates as well. Es/No can be used
for throughput (per time slot) calculations in a cell. As seen in earlier chapters, the received
signal strength is dependent upon the transmitted signal strength, losses, antenna heights
and gains (TX and RX) and distance travelled by the signal. Loss in the signal strength
gives the cell range. Thus, relationship between energy-per-symbol limited by noise can be
plotted with respect to the cell range. Link level simulations with the above calculations can
give the throughput per time slot for each coding scheme.

Capacity Planning
Capacity planning for EDGE networks is quite similar to that for GPRS networks, but the
increase in throughput per radio time slot in EDGE changes some aspects of the planning.
A brief overview of these concepts and their effects on throughput per radio time slot is
given below.
The territory aspects (i.e. dedicated, default, CSW, etc.) stand the same for EDGE
networks. Dedicated territory is specifically for PS traffic, CSW territory for CS traffic;
default territory can be used for PS traffic if the CS traffic is not using it (CS traffic has a
priority over PS traffic for default territory). The number of time slots that are assigned in
each of these territories can be changed dynamically based on the load conditions.
The concept of frequency re-use is similar to that of GSM/GPRS radio networks. The re-
use pattern defines the number of cells that can be used within a cluster in a manner such
that no two neighboring cells have the same frequency. A frequency re-use of 3/9 means
that each frequency is used only once in three sites/cluster, wherein each site is three
sectored. A frequency re-use of 1/3 will have a higher value of interference and thus would
degrade the throughput per radio time slot. Thus, a higher frequency re-use value will give
a higher throughput and less delay. However, the spectral efficiency is higher in cases of
lower frequency re-use as fewer frequencies are being used. Time-slot capacities have a
larger dynamic range compared with GPRS radio networks. The number of time slots
available is fewer than the number of users in a cell (or network). This means that several
users will be using same time slot, reducing the throughput per user. Thus, the higher the
number of users (per time slot), the lower will be the throughput (per user) and the higher
the delay. PS traffic can be allocated to the BCCH TRX or non-BCCH TRX. Since the
spectrum efficiency is usually the same for BCCH and non-BCCH cases, the TSL capacity
remains constant on the BCCH layer, making the BCCH layer more suitable for achieving
high throughput. Usually, the frequency re-use patterns have been found to be more
stringent on non-BCCH TRXs, hence BCCH TRXs are better at giving higher throughput.
Enabling of frequency hopping does not have a major impact on capacity or quality of the
EGPRS radio network.
Capacity planning dimensioning requires inputs related to cell configuration and traffic
behavior. This mainly includes the number of transceivers, definition of EDGE territories
(number of time slots in CSW, dedicated and default territories), CS and PS traffic, etc. The

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outputs of capacity planning mainly include the amount of PS traffic, maximum, minimum
and average PS load, available time slots of CS traffic, blocking rate, etc. Capacity

PIanning based on this dimensioning is done on a cell basis to make sure that required
capacity is available for CS and PS traffic, apart from signalling. Traffic types determine the
signalling needs. Unlike in GPRS networks where short messages increase the resource
(PRACH/PAGCH) requirements for channel set-up, EDGE networks do not face such a
problem because of enhanced data rates. However, in EDGE networks, signalling require-
ments may be greater. This is because, if more and more users are able to get attached to
the network using the same time slot even when the net load is constant (i.e. more users
per time slot means less throughput per user), a decrease in TCH utilization would take
pIace during a TBF. If this TCH utilization remains constant, more signalling channels are
required, reducing the number of users getting connected to the network.
Thus, the steps involved in the dimensioning of an EDGE radio network can be summarized
as follows:
CS and PS territories are identified. For the PS territory, the number of time slots in
the default and dedicated modes should be defined.
Total traffic load inclusive of CS and PS should be defined.
Delay versus load factor should be studied.
Rate reduction factor/parameter must be calculated.
Number of TRXs required for supporting the traffic is calculated.
Outputs of dimensioning can be:
number of time slots required for voice traffic
number of time slots required for data traffic
number of time slots in default and dedicated territories
average and maximum PS load
average and minimum user throughput
number of TRXs required supporting the above parameters.

Parameter Planning
Apart from the parameters that have been discussed in earlier chapters, there are few ad-
ditional parameters in EDGE radio networks. The most important ones are related to link ,
adaptation and incremental redundancy.
Once EGPRS has been enabled; the initial coding scheme is selected. LA parameters
are dependent on the modulation and coding scheme selections, for both initial
transmission and re-transmissions. Although the MCS selections are based on the BTS
parameters, the MCS used for the transmission is based on the BLER limits. However,
MCS for both transmissions and re-transmissions can be affected by the mobile station
memory.
Parameters related to multi-BCF and common BCCH assume importance in an EDGE
radio network. As mentioned before, EDGE-capable and non-EDGE-capable transceivers
in a one sector can be configured to have only one BCCH. TBF parameter setting makes it
possible for TBFs of GPRS and EDGE radio networks to be multiplexed dynamically on

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one time slot. However, this scenario should be avoided, as the performance suffers in both


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the uplink and downlink. In the UL, GPRS performance suffers owing to the large
amount of 8-PSK re-transmissions taking place, while in the DL, it is due to the GMSK
modulation being used where 8-PSK is carrying higher data rates for EDGE.
Parameters related to delay and throughput assume importance owing to higher sub
scriber expectations from an EDGE network.

Transmission Network Planning

The transmission network planning process for an EDGE network is similar to the
existing GSM Network. However, owing to the higher data rates, there is a new
functionality called 'dynamic Abis ' *. Thus, the following concepts assume importance in
the design of an EDGE transmission network:
dynamic Abis
dimensioning of dynamic Abis
dimensioning of the PCU/BSc.

A-bis
The interface between the base station and the BSC is known as the Abis interface, as
show in Figure . In GSM/GPRS networks this interface is 'static'. As we know in
,GSM/GPRS networks the transceiver channels are mapped onto the A-bis PCM time
slots.
Each TCH uses two bits of PCM frame, and these two bits together are known as PCM
sub-time slots. This is 'static' in nature because each TRX reserves its full capacity from
the A-bis interface constantly even if there are no active users in the air-interface. This
make
dimensioning of the Abis interface straightforward compared to that in EDGE networks.



Figure Abis interface

Dynamic A-bis Functionality in EDGE Networks

BTS
A-bis
BSC

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Turning now to EDGE networks, octagonal phase-shift keying (8-PSK) changes data
rates from as low as 8.8 kbps to 59.2kbps, i.e. from coding scheme MCS-l to MCS-9.
Although s voice signals are still carried in 16 kbps A-bis channels, for data this proves
insufficient especially beyond coding scheme MCS-2. To carry more than 16 kbps traffic
in the air.
interface, the data traffic needs more that 16 kbps A-bis channels - probably 32, 48, 64
or 80 kbps. This data traffic is not there all the time, so the concept of 'dynamic' Abis
carne into being. Figure shows an example of 'static' and 'dynamic' A-bis .

Figure 'Static' and 'dynamic' Abis

A group of these dynamic A-bis channels is known as a 'dynamic A-bis pool' (DAP). A
DAP consists of a minimum of one time slot, while the maximum may depend on the
system capability within one PCM.

With EDGE transceivers, the BSC allocates A-bis capacity for data calls from the
EGPRS dynamic pool (EDAP) when needed, i.e. when MCS-3 or higher is used.
Standard GPRS (non-EGPRS) calls using CS-2, CS-3 and CS-4 can also use EDA
resources when allocated in EGPRS territory (EDGE transceivers).

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Time-slot Allocation in Dynamic Abis
Time-slot allocation in the A-bis interface of an EDGE transmission network is almost
the
same as in GSM/GPRS networks. Traffic channels on the A-bis still occupy 16 kbps
sub-time slot for voice, and data rates up to 16 kbps. However, for data rates above 16
kbps, one master sub-time slot of 16 kbps and up to four sub-time slots from the DAP
are required,
as shown in Figure. The requirements for signalling channels for TRXs and BCF are the
same as in GSM/GPRS networks. The pilot bits for synconisation can be
accommodated in the TSO or TS3l (or any other time slot).

Dimensioning of the Dynamic Abis Interface
The dynamic nature of the A-bis interface, and the allocation of a group of time slots for
the DAP, changes the static capacity calculation of GSM/GPRS networks. In the latter,
the A-bis interface allocates the whole capacity for the transceiver irrespective of usage;
that




makes the capacity calculations simpler, because knowledge of the number of TRXs

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and the signalling rate leads to the amount of capacity required on the A-bis interface.
Before we look into DAP dimensioning, it should be remembered that DAP is used
only
for packet data for an MCS scheme greater than 2. Also, for each of the coding
schemes, the number of required traffic channels will vary from none in MCS-l (or CS-l)
to four in MCS-8/9, as shown in Figure . (Designers should refer to specific product
information and the system capabilities before they design the pool.) Also, the number
of A-bis channels will increase when signalling is added to it, which again depends upon
the system being used in the network. The A-bis channels that are present in the pool
are also known as 'slaves' .
Based on the requirements of mobile subscribers, the sub-time slots from the pool
are requested. The number of time slots allocated to the pool is usually in whole
numbers one, two, three, four or more time slots - depending on the DAP handling
capacity of the system. Obviously, the number of time slots allocated to the DAP cannot
be more than 30 (if TSO and TS3l are 'reserved' for management purposes).
Dimensioning of dynamic A-bis means dimensioning of the pool. Once the number of
time slots required for DAP is known, the remaining process becomes similar to dimen-
sioning/planning of GSM/GPRS transmission networks.
The main idea behind DAP dimensioning is to find the number of time slots that can be
assigned to a pool in such a manner that the Abis interface does not become a
limitation for

Figure Transmission requirement for EGPRS coding schemes at the A-bis interface

the air interface throughput. Thus the main inputs for this would be the number of radio
time slots required for PS traffic (i.e. dedicated and default territory in an EDGE radio
network), me capacity of radio time slots, blocking that could take place on the Abis
interface, etc.
Based on these inputs and the number of PCM time slots available for the pool, the
Coding scheme Bit rate(bps) Min. A-bis PCM allocation
CS-1 8000
CS-2 12000
CS-3 14400
CS-4 20000
MCS-1 8800
MCS-2 11200
MCS-3 14800
MCS-4 17600
MCS-5 22400
MCS-6 29600
MCS-7 44800
MCS-8 54400
MCS-9 59200

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required' !number of PCM time slots can be calculated. Obviously, limitations and
capability of the equipment needs to be taken into consideration. So:

n
B (n, N, p) = P (x)
x=N=l

where B is the blocking probability of the DAP, N is the number of time slots available in
the pool, p is the utilisation of EDGE channels in the air interface, and n is the number
of traffic channels used in the air interface.
This dimensioning will result in outputs such as the maximum throughput possible on
the air-interface with A-bis acting as a bottleneck, and the number of time slots required
to 'low maximum possible throughput on the air interface to be carried on the A-bis.



The Impact of Dynamic Abis on Transmission Network Design

Assume that there is a base station site having a configuration of 3 + 3 + 3. When
operating in the GSM mode, using 16 kbps signalling, the required number of PCM time
slots per transceiver is 2.25 (two for traffic and 0.25 for 16 kbps signalling). This means
that total number of time slots required for these nine TRXs is 9 x 2.25 = 20.25; i.e.
21time slots approximately. This would mean that, of 32 time slots, TSO and TS31
along, with these 21 are used' (23 in total), leaving nine time slots available for possible
future grades. In an EDGE network, these nine time slots might be used for the
DAP, if they are sufficient.
Now consider this EDGE network using the MCS-9 coding scheme; i.e. each user
logging the network for PS services requires four A-bis channels, or one full additional
time slot,
apart from the master sub-time slot on the PCM. This means that at a given time only
nine users can use the system at a maximum rate of 59.2 kbps. As soon as a tenth
subscriber logs on to the network also requesting the MCS-9 scheme, the system starts
sharing its resources. This means that although access will be given to this tenth
subscriber, the request will be downgraded to lower coding schemes like MCS-6 or
MCS-7. Also, the coding scheme of the existing subscribers logged on may be
downgraded to MCS-6 or MCS-7, in order to accommodate this new subscriber. So the
throughput on the air-interface goes down because of the limitation on the Abis
interface. In this case it would be advisable to have, more time slots in the pool,
implying more PCMs required per site, with additional CO Thus, the number of time
slots planned for DAP should be a balance between the desirable throughput and cost.



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Core Network Planning

Both CS and PS core network planning remain similar to what was described in
Chapters 4 and 5. The major change in the packet core section is enhanced capacities
of the BSC and GSN to cater to higher data rates on the radio network. Dimensioning of
the packet core network mainly involves the PCV, the Gb interface and the SGSN, as
follows:

PCU dimensioning:
Number of transceivers that can be supported by one PCV
Amount of (data) traffic that can be handled by one PCU
Number of traffic channels that can be handled by one PCU
Gb interface dimensioning:
Minimum number of Gb interfaces required between the PCV and SGSN ,Uplink
and downlink traffic calculations for the frame relay links

SGSN dimensioning:
Number of subscribers
Processing capacity of the SGSN
Gb interface capacity.

NETWORK OPTIMISATION

Optimization of an EDGE network will focus mainly on the radio and transmission
networks owing to the increased data rate on the air-interface and the introduction of the
dynamic
feature on the A-bis interface. Usually, optimization of radio and transmission networks
is performed separately, but this scenario changes owing to the fact that the dynamic
Abis
if not properly planned, may become a bottleneck for the air interface throughput.
There ere are three main steps, as shown in Figure . The 'conventional' radio network
optimization process will be quite similar to that explained in earlier chapters for
SM/GPRS

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networks. Transmission network optimization remains similar also, except for optimizing
the A-bis capacity so that it does not become a bottleneck for the air-interface.

Radio Network Optimization
Coverage, capacity and quality can be improved by using the standard principles of
optimization that have been described earlier for GSM/GPRS. The main focus in EDGE
radio I network optimization will be on throughput, which affects the capacity and
coverage directly. One important point to remember is that, since EDGE implementation
will generally be on top of an existing GPRS network, it is essential that throughput
improvement i_' measured and analysed with respect that of the GPRS network.

Transmission Network Optimization
The optimization process is similar to that in GSM networks, however, there are two
extra factors that need to be considered during the EDGE optimization process: the
dynamic nature of the A-bis interface, and the air-interface throughput changes due to
bottleneck created by the A-bis. As there is a pool of time slots reserved for packet data,
it will always be the case that the number of packet service users increases in the
network. Though the pool itself will be dynamic, the number of time slots that will be
used for the pool will be static; so once it is figured out that the required time slots (in
the pool) need to be increased, some optimization will be required. The situation is more
severe if the number of PCMs required per base station also needs to be increased.

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Key Performance Indicators
The major extra KPls relate to the definitions of the EDGE territory, BLER (block error
rate), MCS schemes used, BCCH usage, etc. These parameter settings define the initial
throughput. Adjustments to these settings (apart from those in the GSM/GPRS network)
will permit maximization of throughput.

Performance Measurements

As usual, performance measurements involve drive tests, reports from the network
management system (NMS), and network planning tools. However, the focus will be on
throughput ill an EDGE network, and the key areas of performance measurement will
therefore be at the air interface and the Abis interface. For the air interface, the interest
will be on capacity, coverage and quality; while for the A-bis interface it will be on the
variation of throughput with respect to modulation and coding schemes. One such
example of performance based on accessibility, retain ability, quality (ARQ) and peak
traffic is shown in Figure .


As stated earlier , performance indicators like the ability of mobile stations to get access to
the cell (accessibility), DCR (retainability), call quality in the downlink IDL-quality), etc. need
to be measured. Figure shows an example of BTS performance measuements.


Accessibility Retainability (dB) (dB)
Date BTS ID (BTS level) (BTS level) UL Quality DL Quality TCH Erlang
MIO6/0 3 8TS1 98.61 99.05 92.73 72.01 0.55
MIO7/03 8TS1 98.21 96.49 91.35 91.23 0.68
MIO8/0 3 8TS1 66.18 100.00 99.11 99.33 2.06
MIO9/03 8TSI 100.00 95.62 0.11

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Measurement of the Abis throughput capacity with respect to the coding schemes used
by mobile subscribers will be critical in adjusting the boundaries of the dynamic pool.
The example in Figure shows the variation of the pool with respect to modulation and
ling schemes. .
Performance of an EDGE network will usually be in terms of the underlying GPRS ark.
The achieved mean throughput values and delay values in an EDGE network are


better than for the GPRS network, even when the load is higher. The
measurement information serves not only to increase coverage and capacity, but
also the quality of service experienced by end-users, which will be closely
observed in EDGE networks. The optimum value of QoS will depend ultimately on
traffic requirements. Interactive traffic has more stringent quality requirements
than background traffic. Spectrum efficiency will playa big role in achieving this.
The tradeoff between the number of transceivers and interference levels (i.e.
between higher throughput and more users) is a delicate issue. Final optimization
plans will be similar to those for GSM/GPRS networks, but with stringent QoS
requirements guiding the results.
Improvement of Throughput in EDGE Networks
QoS depends on the service required, but higher throughput will be the main
QoS-fulfilling requirement in an EDGE network. Throughput on the air interface
and coverage (both at hot

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spots and cell edges) will be the main focus in the planning as well as optimization of
the radio network. Throughput is dependent upon a number of factors such as C II,
handovers, MCS changes, etc.
An increase in the C/I ratio will result in increased throughput (shown in the simulation in
Figure ). Measurement at the cell edges will be critical, and here performance im-
provement can be achieved by using concepts such as antenna tilts, power
increase/decrease, etc.
Increasing the number of handovers will also decrease throughput, so optimization of
the neighbors to reduce unnecessary handovers can be one possible solution to
increase throughput. Throughput also decreases with the number of MCS changes from
higher throughput MCS to lower-throughput MCS. Optimization can be achieved by
parameter auditing after observing the C/I and receiver level statistics against MCS
changes.


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3G COMMUNICATION

The emergence of the Third Generation Mobile Technology (Commonly
known as 3G), has been the latest innovation in the field of communication. In
fact, in the European market few years back the operators have taken license
to operate 3G services at quite high cost. After initial teething troubles, the
technology is finally taking shape. The architecture and the specification are in
place. The products and the network roll outs have started and customer base
is growing. This can give the customers Internet access at 2 Mbps, while
he/she is on the move. Although practically, the bit rate is likely to be lower at
least in the initial phase.

3G is the next generation of wireless network technology that provides high
speed bandwidth (high data transfer rates) to handheld devices. The high data
transfer rates will allow 3G networks to offer multimedia services combining
voice and data. Specifically, 3G wireless networks support the following
maximum data transfer rates:

2.05 Mbits/second to stationary devices.
384 Kbits/ second for slowly moving devices, such as a handset carried
by a walking user.
128 Kbits/second for fast moving devices, such as handset in moving
vehicles.

These data rates are the absolute maximum numbers. For example, in the
stationary case, the 2.05 Mb/second rate is for one user hogging the entire
capacity of the base station. This data rate will be far lower if there is voice
traffic (the actual data rate would depend upon the number of calls in
progress). The maximum data rate of 128 Kbits/second for moving devices is
about ten times faster than that available with the current 2G wireless
networks. Unlike 3G networks, 2G networks were designed to carry voice but
not data. 3G wireless networks have the bandwidth to provide converged voice
and data services. 3G services will seamlessly combine superior voice quality
telephony, high speed mobile IP services, information technology, rich media,
and offer diverse content. Some characteristics of 3G services that have been
proposed are:

Always-on connectivity. 3G networks use IP connectivity, which is packet
based.
Multi-media service with streaming audio and video.
Email with full-fledged attachments such as Power Point files.
Instant messaging with video/audio clips.
Fast downloads of large files such as faxes and Power Point files.
Access to corporate applications.


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ADVANTAGES OF 3G

3G networks offer the users advantages such as:
New radio spectrum to relieve overcrowding in existing systems.
More bandwidth, security and reliability.
Interoperability between service providers.
Fixed and variable data rates.
Asymmetric data rates.
Backward compatibility of devices with existing networks.
Always-online devices, 3G will use IP connectivity. IP is packet based (not
circuit based).
Rich multimedia services.

DISADVANTAGES OF 3G

There are some issues in deploying 3G:
The cost of upgrading base station and cellular infrastructure to 3G is
likely to be very high.
Requires different handsets and there is the issue of handset availability.
3G handsets will be a complex product. Roaming and making both
data/voice works has not yet been fully and seamlessly operational. Also
the higher power requirement (more bits with the same energy/bit)
demand a larger handset, shorter talk time, and larger batteries).
Customers will prefer to have upgradeability/dual operation of existing
handsets.
Base stations need to be closer to each other thus involving more cost.
Content Provisioning to make services popular.

POTENTIAL KILLER APPLICATIONS

Not withstanding the disadvantage mentioned above, telecom industry still
perceive that there a big potential market for 3G services, Perhaps that is the
reason that many operators, specially in Europe have paid heavy license fee to
acquire 3G licenses. The high bandwidth of 3G networks will lead to the
creation of new services, some of which we have no idea at this time. The big
question is what services will be big revenue markets for the wireless service
providers. In 2G networks, the big winners have been short text messaging in
GSM networks (In Europe and countries other that USA) and image downloads.
Some of the services likely to be big winners in 3G networks are:


video conferencing
video messaging
Mobile Games

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The first application is more form business application. The other two are
targeted towards the younger generation. MMS (Multi Media Services) are likely
to grow very fast. Similarly, as per some estimation, it is felt that gaming
industry could be as big as $20-25 billion in near future. In fact, the optimist
predict that it will be bigger than Hollywood box office collection. The trend is
not restricted to US but is likely to be followed by Asian countries. Presently
India and China are perceived as bid market for Mobile Growth (Including 3G).

1. 3G TECHNOLOGY & ARCHITECTURE

3G Technology isnt just a new radio interface. It is lot more from the
consideration both the service provider and the customer. Though 3G is
primarily based on evolution of second-generation technologies such as
GSM/GPRS, the overall picture is quite a bit more complex than that of present
2G. 3G is not just a matter of building a totally new infrastructure, but also
entails to have the migration plans in place, both for the short term and the
long term. Existing 2G operators need to upgrade their networks to remain
competitive.
The 3G terminals will also have new capabilities that 2G terminals do not.
Multimedia applications and host of other services based on standard Internet
technology will converge cellular telephones and the Internet technologies.
Users will be able to download Java based applications on their terminals, just
as they do today on the World Wide Web. Nevertheless, the new technology is
associated with new security threats and even if security is enhanced, the risk
of security lapses will still be there, unless extra precautions are taken.

2. 3G NETWORK

UMTS (universal Mobile Telecommunication System) is amalgamations of both
packet are circuit switched technologies. It has simultaneously been designed
to have the upgradeability features of earlier mobile systems such as GSM and
GPRS. In addition, it is expected that, IP multimedia will be and integral part of
the UMTS standards. Figure 1 shows the various domains of UMTS and some
external networks.

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Figure 1 The UMTS networks and domains
The circles to the left show three different radio access networks, which are
attached to the backbone networks in the middle via the Iu interface. A
Wireless LAN (WLAN) need not be connected to the GPRS backbone but could
also be linked directly to an IP Network. The upper circle to the right depicts
the SIP based and access independent IP Multimedia subsystem. To the far
right are legacy PSTNs and an external IP network (e.g. the Internet).

2.1 THE RADIO ACCESS NETWORKS

One of the main design criteria of UMTS is that different radio access networks
be attachable to the backbone via a common interface, the Iu interface. In
Figure 1 three radio access networks are shown-all of which can be used to
access UMTS services.

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA): Generally 3G or
UMTS radio access is taken as W-CDMA. W-CDMA uses the 2GHz
frequency band and it can reach data transfer speeds up to 2 Mbits/s,
but in reality transfer speed is closer to a couple of hundred kbit/s, the
actual bit rate depending on factors such as cell load and mobility of
user etc.
Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology offers very high bandwidth (of the order
of 25 Mbit/s to user). It gives new advanced radio functions such as
mobility support, a strong security infrastructure, guaranteed quality of
service. It uses the 5 GHz frequency band and the service range is
around 150 m to 300 m. However, a newer version called as WiMax is
being developed which can cater to much longer distances and higher
bandwidth applications.
EDGE is an enhancements of the 2.5G radio access GPRS, which in
turn is a development of the 2G circuit switched GSM. EDGE and
GSM/GPRS are so closely coupled that the cell structure can be left
intact. EDGE can, in theory, reach data transfer speed up to few
hundreds kbit/s, but the real speed is likely to be lower.
WLAN
EDGE
WCDMA
Evolved GPRS
Backbone
Evolved GSM
Backbone
IP Multimedia
IP Network
PSTN
Signaling
Signaling & User Data
Iu

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Figure 2 (a) and 2(b) illustrates how the W-CDMA radio access network is
attached both to the evolved (circuit switched) GSM backbone and the evolved
(packet switched) GPRS backbone. UMTS has both packet switched and circuit
switched domain.

This circuit switched capabilities of UMTS can be useful to an operator that
doesnt won a circuit switched 2G PLMN (such as GSM) or needs more
bandwidth for voice services. Similarly an existing GSM operator that propose
to deploy W-CDMA network, may use the GSM network for standard voice
service and the W-CDMA network for new data and multimedia services. It will
be difficult to build a radio access network with sufficient capacity using only
W-CDMA technology. In this situation it may perhaps be better to have mobile
IP approach.



Figure 2(a) and 2(b) WCDMA radio access network

2.2 THE BACKBONES

The packet switched backbone has evolved form the GPRS backbone. Many of
the basic function are identical, but improvements have been made. It is
considered that IP is still to be the main glue for building up high capacity
backbones. Before we go into the technical discussions on the backbone and
other network elements, let us look at some of the important specifications
related to 3G technology.


MS
C
GMS
C Circuit
Switched
Transport
WCDM
A
PST
N
MSC
Server
IP

Transpor
WCDM
A
PST
N
GMSC
Server
Media
Gateway
Media
Gateway
Signali
Signaling & User

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2.3 3G SPECIFICATIONS

Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) came into existence in December
1998. the objectives of this body can broadly be classified as follows:

1. To produce Technical Specifications for 3G mobile system, which
could be applicable globally.
2. In addition to provide specification for 3G, it is also to give Technical
Specifications for maintenance and development of GSM,GPRS, EDGE
etc.

3. The 3G system for which design specifications are to be worked out
consists of The Access Network and the Core Network. The access
network primarily consists of UTRA (Universal Terrestrial Radio
Access) interface.

For the purpose of developing these specifications, a TSG (Technical
Specifications Group) has been formed. This TSG consists of five different TSGs
depending upon the network component they are dealing with. They are as
follows:
a) Core Network TSG.
b) GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network TSG, known as GERANTSG.
c) Terminal TSG.
d) Radio Access Network TSG, known as RANTSG.
e) Services and System Aspects TSG.

3 UMTS NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

The UMTS network basically comprises of following three elements:

a) Core Network
b) Access Network
c) Terminal or User Equipment.

The inter relationship of the network elements is shown in figure 3. Basic
structure of UMTS is similar to that used in GSM/GPRS network. There are
many similarities in the two architectures. However, the main difference comes
in the protocols residing in UMTS. This is on account of the fact that here the
air interface is based on WCDMA. Moreover, in UMTS, there is a combination of
Voice traffic and data traffic. This results in the network topologies namely, CS
domain (Circuit Switched) and PS domain (Packet Switched). In CS domain,
circuit switched connections are used for communication between user and
destination for voice traffic. Whereas, in PS domain, packet switched
connections are used for communication between user and destination for data
traffic.

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Apart from these network elements, there are other issues which needs to be
discussed as overall implementation and roll out of 3G networks. Some of the
are listed below and are discussed in the later part of the chapter.
Location Area
Roaming
Handing over
Signaling and other Protocols
Security related issues.
We shall now discuss different components of UMTS in following paragraphs.

Figure 3 Basic Structure of UMTS Network
CORE NETWORK

The basic function of core network can be broadly classified as follows:

a) Switching and routing
b) Call Control
c) Mobility Management (MM)
d) Managing the Subscriber Information

A typical core network structure is shown in figure 4. As said above, it has
basically two domains CS and PS depending upon the functions it has to
perform. Accordingly, the two domains are connected to either PSTN network or
Packet network. On the other side, the core network is connected to Access
work.
In order to perform switching functions, there is an MSC (Mobile Switching
Centre) at the heart of the core network. Like GSM network, there are
associated entities such as VLR (Visitor Location Register), HLR (Home Location
Register), AuC (Authentication Centre), FIR (Equipment Identity Register) etc.
VLR contains the subscriber profile, which it obtains from HLR. Here in
addition to MSC/VLR, there is another entity known as Gateway Mobile
Switching Centre (GMSC). The basic function of GMSC is to provide
connectivity to external CS networks.

User
Equipment
(UE)
Access
Network
(AN)
Core
Network
(CN)

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Figure 4 Core Structure connectivity in 3G
In PS Domain, Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) performs the function of
routing entity. It has duel role to play. Thus it performs the function of routing
as well holds the data base of the customers. In addition to SGSN, there is
another entity known as Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). The main
function of the unit is to provide connectivity to the external PS networks.

There are some entities which are common to CS and PS domains. These are
HLR, AuC, EIR, SMS Gateway MSC (SMS-GMSC) and SMS interworking MSC
(SMS-IWMSC). In addition to them, there are certain entities which are service
specific. Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC), CAMEL (Customized
Application for Mobile Enhanced Logic) etc. are some of the important entities
amongst them.


CALL HANDLING AND SESSION MANAGEMENT

As explained earlier WCDMA network comprises of two parts namely Circuit
Switching (CS) for voice call functions and Packet Switching (PS) for handling of
packets. Handling of calls is quite similar to legacy GSM/GPRS. Whereas,
system of handling of Packets is somewhat analogous to GPRS We shall
therefore concentrate more on packet handling.
Node B
Node B
Node B
N M S
R N S
C N
SGSN
RNC
HLR
MSC
BSS
BSS
GGSN
GN
RN
lur
lub
lu-cs
lu-ps
lu-cs
lu-ps
lub
UE
UE
Uu
Uu
PSTN
Internet
A

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In case of call handling functions, there can be two types of call i.e. Mobile
Originated (MO) and Mobile Terminated (MT). For MO calls, the exchange of
signaling takes place between MS and VMSC. Unlike call handling procedure
where each call is handled by separate circuit, in PS domain packets are
transferred from Source to Destination in Sessions. For each session, a PDP
Context is created, which defines its characteristics. The concept of PDP
context is already described in chapter 4, while dealing with GPRS. The PDP
context information is maintained at the MS, SGSN and GGSN. The
management of PDP context, which includes the procedures necessary to
activate, modify and deactivate a PDP context between the MS, SGSN and
GGSN, come under the Session Management (SM) functionality.

Some of the important concepts, which form the basis of all session
management procedures are as follows: PDP Context Activation. Here a PDP
context is initiated by the MS and is between the MS and the network.
However, network may also ask the MS in initiate the activation of PDP context.

Apart from network-requested activation procedure, there could be secondary
PDP context activation which can be initiated by different entities.

PDP Context Modification : These modifications can be initiated by MS,
Network or various entities. These modifications may be for assigning the
priority to certain packets or could be QoS related.

PDP Context Deactivation : PDP context deactivation procedure is used by the
MS or the network to deactivate the ongoing PDP context.

LOCATION SERVICE

Using location service the positional information of MS can be known. This
geographical location is expressed in terms of latitude and longitude which is
based in the GPS technology. The basic functions of HLR , VLR,EIR etc remain
the same as in the legacy GSM network. GMLC receives positioning requests
from Location Service Clients. It then authenticate the client and authorizes it
to make its request. For this purpose, Global positioning system (GPS) is
utilised. GPS is a constellation of 24 satellites. They circle the earth in
nearcircular inclined orbits. By receiving signal from at leat 4 of these
satellites, the receiver position can be determined. This receiver position relates
to latitude, longitude and altitude of the object. GPS system uses one-way
transmission, from satellite to user. Therefore, the user requires only a GPS
receiver and no transmitter. The receiver measures the time in terms of
propogation delay. Using this delay parameter the position of the object can be
identified.


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The location based service has the utility of providing emergency services,
tracking services and even location based charging services. In CAMEL
services, value added services are provided and can be made available outside
the HPLMN (Home Public Land Mobile Network). HPLMN maintains the
subscription records and the current location information of MS. Cell
Broadcast Service (CBS) is similar to SMS ( Short Message Service ) and is
performed in Broadcast Mode within a particular geographical area.

MESSAGING

In addition to these serviced 3G offers legacy SMS service of GSM. There has
been quantum jump in the number of SMS sent across the globe in last 2-3
years. In fact, SMS has turned out to be a killer application for most of the
service providers and major source of revenue. As 3G also offers Multimedia
Messaging Services (MMS), there seems to be lot of potential for this application
as well. MMS messages can contain voice, video, pictures and is likely to be
very popular service. Then another area of great interest is n-line gaming. This
application is alos picking up very fast specially amongst youngest.

IETF is currently working on an Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol
(IMPP). One example of presence service is ICQ, which allows subscribers to see
their friends. Which are on-line. Presence service has two kinds of clients, the
Presentity and the Watchers. Even though these are logically separated, they
may be implemented together. IETF has also come out with a simple model for
Instant Messaging sevice. This consists of a sender and an inbox. One
possibility to implement IMPP, which is being explored, is to use SIP ( Session
Initiation Protocol). IETF has created IMPP work group for this purpose. This
group is also examining to use XML (Extended Mark-up Language) to represent
presence information. The format could describe a range of contact means for
certain users, such as an e-mail or an instant inbox address.

MMS
3GPP has com out with a frame work for the Multimedia Messaging Service
(MMS). Though it is 3GPP standard, but it could be used in GPRS environment
as well. The MMS architecture is shown in figure 5.


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Figure 5 MMS Architecture

MMS user agent resides either on UE or on some entity connected to UE. It
carries out the notification, presentation and composition of incoming
multimedia message to the user. It could have optional features such as
encryption and handling of external devices like cameras and microphones.
User Agent (US) should be able to handle different media formats like MP3,
JPEG etc. User agent has and interface with MMS relay through which it can
send and receive messages. UA can be on 2.5G/GPRS network as well as
shown in figure 5.

The MMS relay is responsible for the storage and handling of MMS messages. It
can be considered as the heart of MMS set up. All multimedia messages are
passed through it. It may provide convergence between external servers and
the User Agent. External servers provide services to MMS UA via the MMS
relay/server. External server could include e-mail servers, SMS server etc.
MMS relay keeps track of the subscription profiles of the users via the HLR and
controls access to the MMS environment. Apart from this, it also does media
conversion and address translation and has the feature of filtering. This gives
the user the facility to decide, what kind of message he/she wants to receive,
when to receive, and from whom to receive them.

It is also responsible for generate charging data. Different data bases are
maintained in HLR. Some of them are MMS user subscription information,
information about the capabilities of the user terminals. MMS server also acts
as storage device for the messages waiting to be deliverd. Depending upon the
3G Mobile
Network
GPRS / EDGE
MMS User Agent
MMS User Agent
Internet
MMS User Agent
Message
Storage
User
Data base
HLR
MMS Server
MMS Relay
MMS Relay

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specific requirement of the operator, MMS server and MMS relay can be
combined or separate.

For exchange of information between different administrative domains, or
between two MMS relays, MMS transfer protocol is used. This is based on
SMTP ( Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the interface being used. The MM 1
transfer protocol is used between the UA and the MMS relay/server. There are
many options for implementation of MM1 transfer protocol. The commonly
used protocol is WAP. Though WAP exists in 3G. but it is expected that it will
be complemented by the new Java technologies and SIP. Sun system has come
out with 3 different versions for Java platforms. They are characterized as Java
2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE), Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
and Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME). J2ME is the likely platform to be
used.

For MMS relay/server to send and retrieve multimedia messages, MM3 transfer
protocol is used. There could be different MM3 implementations depending
upon the requirement and type of external server. For example, for IP based
applications, it could be SMTP, POP3 etc. recently some development are
taking place, wherein a new framework known as Mobile Station Application
Execution Environment (MExE) is being developed. This frame work, apart
from usual features, provides a higher security features.

ACCESS NETWORK

As shown in the figure 6, access network resided between the core network and
user equipment. This allows the core network to be of fixed characterstics, so
that it has got the flexibility of having different access techniques. Access
network performs the functions specific to the WCDMA air interface. For this
purpose it has the Radio Network Sub-system (RNS). It has other part as BSS
(BASE Station Sub-system), which acts in the same fashion as in traditional
GSM architecture. The arrangement of RNS is shown in figure 5. In BSS, like
traditional GSM, BSC ( Base Station Controller) and BTS (Base Transceiver
Station) are connected to them. There can be more than on BTS connected to
each BSC. In case of RNS,BSC is referred as Radio Network Controller (RNC),
while BTS is referred as Node B. Generally speaking, RNS is called as UTRAN (
Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network).

BSC and BTs have their roles similar to GSM set up. Thus the primary task of
BSC is to control the radio resources of the Radio Access network. Similarly,
the function of BTS is to perform channel coding, transcoding and rate
adoption. In addition to that it performs encryption and decryption. The main
difference in UMTS comes in features related to RNS. RNS or UTRAN comprises
of one Radio Network Controller (RNC) and few nodes. As RNS has open
interface, it enables RNS and nodes of different vendors to interoperate with
each other.

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Figure 6 Access Network Connectivity to PS Domain

Important functions of RNC can be classified as follows:
a) Radio Resource Management.
b) Controlling the nodes.
c) Admission and power control.
d) Encryption and decryption.

The main tasks of node are channel coding, rate matching,
spreading/dispreading. It also performs the function of inner-loop power
control. The later two functions are new features of UTRAN and are not
performed by the traditional BTS.

3.2.1 RADIO NETWORK FUNCTIONALITY

In order to optimize the complete wireless system, several functions related to
RAN and UE are required to be coordinated in a cohesive manner. For this
purpose UTRAN has to perform many functions. Some of the important and
essential functions are listed below:
a) Transfer of user data
b) Mobility Management & Handover functions
c) Radio Resource Management
d) Security functions
e) Broadcast services
f) Power control
g) System Access Control


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A brief description of each of these activities is given below.

a) Transfer of User Data

UTRAN transfers the user data between MS and core network. It also performs
the function of transferring the signaling information between the two. The
interface between UTRAN and MS is Uu, whereas its interface with core
network is IU. More details on these interfaces are covered in the later part of
the chapter.

b) Mobility Management

The very gist of any mobile communication if proper and soft handoff.
Handover are generally classified as, soft and softer handover. However, it
could be characterized as hard handover as well.

SOFT AND SOFTER HANDOVER

In case of soft handover, the handset can communicate simultaneously with
two or more cells in two or more base stations. This flexibility of allowing the
connection open to more than one base station results in fewer lost calls,
which is very important to the operator.



Figure 7

In order to have good system performance with frequency re-use of 1 and
power control, soft and softer handover is required. This should enable the
handset to maintain the continuity and quality of the connection while moving
from one cell to another. In soft Handover (SHO, MS maintains simultaneous
radio links with more than one Node-B (refer figure 7). The transmission to
from the MS takes place when both the radio links are used simultaneously.
The disadvantage of SHO is that a UE consumes more network resources.


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This is on account of the fact that the information between UE and RNC will go
through multiple paths in duplicate. These multiple paths are created from
different base stations and requires more RAN resources.

There is another technique called Softer Handover. Here the MS is located in
the overlapping area of two adjacent sectors of same base station ( see figure 8)


Figure 8 Soft Handover

Thus communication between MS and base station takes place via two radio
links, one for each sector. Here RNC is not effected, as combining of signal
takes place internally within the BSS. During soft or softer handover, the
handset will momentarily adjust its power to the base station that requires the
desired amount of transmit power and the preferred cell may change very
rapidly.

The difference between soft and softer handover is that during SHO, the
handset is connected to multiple cells at different base stations, while during
soft handover, the handset is connected to multiple cells at the same base
station. The drawback with soft handover is that it requires additional
hardware resources on the network side, as the handset has multiple
connections.

c) Radio Resource Management

Radio spectrum is a scarce commodity and has to be used very juditiously.
Therefore, it becomes of paramount importance that all the radio resources are
used optimally. In this respect following functions need to be performed
properly.
RNC
M
S
M
S
Soft Handover
Soft Handover

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i) The radio cells and common transport channels are to be configured
base on traffic offered.
ii) The connection between UTRAN and MS is to be setup and released
as per the requirement of the customer. Similarly, connection between
Node B and RNC is to be established and released.
iii) Radio Access Bearer (RAB) channel is to be allocated and deallocated
as per the flow of traffic. The salient point to be kept in mind here is
that different QoS parameters are maintained.
iv) The RF power control is to adjusted in such a manner that
interference between two communication users is kept at minimum.
v) For detection / correction of errors radio channel coding and decoding
has to be done.

d) Security Functions

In any radio network security is of paramount importance. Though the basic
security features of GSM like SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) care
confidentiality, use of share secret key between the user and the network has
been maintained. However, 3G network deploys higher level of security than
legacy 2G networks.

For this purpose features like network domain security, network access
security , user domain security etc. have been introduced. In case of network
domain security, the network nodes exchange the signaling data security. This
is provided through IP sec. Further following security features are adopted:
1. User Identification confidentiality and its untraceability Here the users
permanent identity is hidden and also its current location. Moreover, a
users integrity is protected by making it hard for and attacker to deduce
what services are being utilized by the user.
2. User Authentication only authorized users are allowed to access the
network.
3. Network authentication In this particular case a user authenticate the
network. This is a new feature.

Apart from network Access Security , Network Security plays an important role
in securing the system. Here the signaling and data of the wire line part of the
UMTS network are secured. The network is further secured by providing
Terminal Security. This is achieved by User / USIM authentication. There is
also a feature by which undesired USIMs can be locked out from certain
terminal.

e) Broadcast Services

Broadcast/ Multicast control Layer (BMC) is used for sending the information
in broadcast or multicast mode.

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BMC provides this functionality without any acknowledgement feature. BMC
transfers CB (Cell Broadcast) messages, where RRC is used for control
purposes.


****************************************************8

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IMT-2000









What is IMT-2000 ?

International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) is an initiative of ITU
that seeks to integrate the various satellite, terrestrial, fixed and mobile systems
currently being deployed and developed under a single standard or family of
standards to promote global service capabilities and interoperability after the year
2000.
These services are known as Third Generation or 3G services.
A future standard in which a single inexpensive mobile terminal can truly provide
communications any time, any where.


Wireless Generations

1 G - First Generation - Analog - Only mobile voice services - AMPS, NMT-
450, TACS etc. (Cellular Revolution)
2 G - Second Generation - Digital - Mostly for voice services & data delivery
possible GSM, CDMA(IS-95), DAMPS(IS-136), ETDMA, PDC etc
(Breaking Digital Barrier)
3 G - Third Generation - Voice & Data - Mainly for data services where voice
services will also be possible ( Breaking Data Barrier)


Limitations of 2G Systems

Multiple Standards - No Global Standards
No Common Frequency Band
Low Data Bit Rates
Low Voice Quality
No Support of Video
Various Network Systems to meet Specific Requirements

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What IMT-2000 Offers ?

The 3G networks must be capable of providing the following data rates
144 Kbps at mobile speeds
384 Kbps at pedestrian speeds
2 Mbps in fixed locations
3G systems will be capable of providing data rates up to 2 Mbps, in addition to
voice, fax services.
3G networks will offer the high resolution video and multimedia services on the
move such as mobile service, virtual banking, online billing, video conferencing
etc.



IMT-2000 Key features and objectives

Incorporation of a variety of systems
A high degree of commonality of design worldwide
Compatibility of services within IMT-2000 and with the fixed network
High quality and integrity comparable to the fixed network
Use of small pocket terminal world wide
Connection of mobile users to other mobile users or fixed users
Provisioning of these services over wide range of user densities and coverage
areas.
Efficient use of radio spectrum consistent with providing service at acceptable
cost.
A modular structure which will allow the system to grow in size and complexity
Provision of a framework for the continuing expansion of mobile network services
and access to services and facilities of the fixed network
An open architecture which will permit easy introduction of advances in
technology of different applications



IMT-2000 will provide..

Enhanced voice quality, ubiquitous coverage and enable operators to provide
service at reasonable cost
Increased network efficiency and capacity
New voice and data services and capabilities
An orderly evolution path from 2G to 3G systems to protect investments.




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Spectrum Allocation for IMT-2000

The following spectrum allocations are made for IMT-2000 by ITU till today:
1885-2025 MHz and 2110-2200 MHz
(Core band for IMT-2000)
1710-1885 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz (Additional band).
806-960 MHz (Additional band)











I M T - 2 0 0 0
T h e I T U v i s i o n o f g l o b a l w i r e l e s s a c c e s s
i n t h e 2 1
s t
c e n t u r y
S a t e l l i t e
M a c r o c e l l
M i c r o c e l l
U r b a n
I n - B u i l d i n g
P i c o c e l l
G l o b a l
S u b u r b a n
B a s i c T e r m i n a l
P D A T e r m i n a l
A u d i o / V i s u a l T e r m i n a l

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Technologies for IMT-2000


ITU has finally narrowed down technology options to the following five:
IMT-DS (Direct Spread)
IMT-MC (Multi Carrier)
IMT-TC (Time Code)
IMT-SC (Single Carrier)
IMT-FT (Frequency Time)
















IMT-DS IMT-MC IMT-TC IMT-SC IMT-FT
WCDMA CDMA2000
1X/3X

TDMA CDMA FDMA
CDMA-TDD UWC-136 FDMA/TDMA
DECT
IMT-2000 TERRESTRIAL
RADIO INTERFACES

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Terrestrial Radio Interface Specifications


ITU
NOMENCLATURE
COMMONLY
KNOWN AS
TECHNOLOGY
IMT-DS
DIRECT SPREAD
UTRA-FDD
(UMTS
TERRESTRIAL
RADIO ACCESS)
W-CDMA
IMT-MC
MULTI CARRIER
CDMA2000 1X & 2X CDMA
IMT-TC
TIME CODE
UTRA-TDD
(UMTS
TERRESTRIAL
RADIO ACCESS)
AND
TD-SCDMA
CDMA + TDMA
IMT-SC
SINGLE CARRIER
UWV-136
(UNIVERSAL
WIRELESS
COMMUNICATIONS)
TDMA
IMT-FT
FREQUENCY TIME
DECT TDMA + FDMA



Migration Path

While a multiplicity of 2G standards have been developed and deployed, the ITU
wanted to avoid a similar situation to develop for 3G.
Hence, the ITU Radio communication Sector (ITU-R) has elaborated on a
framework for a global set of 3G standards, which will facilitate global roaming by
operating in a common core spectrum and providing migration path to all the
major existing 2G technologies.
The major 2G Radio access networks are based on either cdma-One or GSM
technologies and different migration path is proposed for each of these
technologies.




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GSM to 3G

GSM can be upgraded for higher data rate upto 115 Kbps through deploying GPRS
(General Packet Radio Service) network .This requires addition of two core modules
SGSN (Serving GPRS Service Node)
GGSN (Gateway GPRS Service Node)
GSM radio access network is connected to SGSN through suitable interfaces.
GPRS phase-II will support higher data rates up to 384 Kbps through incorporating
EDGE
( Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution).
Further, to support data rates up to 2 Mbps, Third Generation radio access network (3G
RAN)
W-CDMA is deployed. 3G RAN is connected to GSM MSC for circuit oriented
services and to SGSN for packet oriented services (internet access). Therefore the
migration path can be represented as :
GSM GPRS EDGE W-CDMA.


CDMA One to 3G

CDMA One progression towards higher speed data is in manageable steps. The present
data rate of 14.4 is upgradeable to 64 Kbps (IS-95B).
Still higher data rates are supported through third generation (3G) networks. CDMA One
supports a low risk and flexible phased evolution to 3G, called cdma2000.
The first step in this transition to CDMA 2000, also referred as 1xRTT (MC-CDMA)
enables delivering peak data rates of 144 Kbps for stationary and mobile applications
Future evolutionary step will produce a harmonized 3xRTT (MC-CDMA) solution
expected to deliver peak data rates of up to 2 Mbps.
In addition, both 1xRTT and 3xRTT are backward compatible to CDMA One. Therefore
the migration path can be represented as :
CDMA One cdma2000 (MC-CDMA)


Migration Summarized

In terms of migration of major 2G system to 3G capabilities, there would finally be 3
modes of CDMA-based radio interfaces (MC-CDMA, W-CDMA and CDMA-TDD) and
two `TDMA based radio interfaces (UWC-136 and DECT).
Considerable work is being carried out in respect of W-CDMA and CDMA 2000
worldwide. All European countries are expected to deploy W-CDMA as they have
GSM based networks. While other countries such as Japan, Korea, USA etc. are likely to
use CDMA-2000 or W-CDMA.

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Modulation Techniques in Mobile Communication
Introduction
Radio communication has been employed as a replacement for copper based cables in the long
distance media for several years. More recent developments in digital radios and advances in
micro-electronic circuits have given rise to wireless in local loop (WILL) systems and cellular
mobile systems.
Modulators have assumed considerable importance in radio communication systems. Their
performance, to a large extent, determines the quality of recovered speech and acapacity of the
system. In Mobile Communications and for fixed wireless applications, bandwidth is a limited
natural resource. Spectrally efficient modulators can accommodate more information content in
the limited available bandwidth. This article describes the various parameters and factors
governing the choice of a modulator for a mobile or fixed wireless digital cellular radio system.
Frequency Band
Various Micro and Macro cellular digital radio technologies used for cellular mobile
systems & fixed applications i.e. wireless in local loop (WLL) systems available in different
frequency bands and their important parameters are indicated below:
GSM Global System for Mobile Communication
DAMPS Digital Advance Mobile Phone Service
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CT-2 Cordless Telephony 2
DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology
PHS Personal Handiphone Service



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Macro Cellular Micro Cellular SYSTEM
TECHNOLOGY
FREQUENCY



Cell Size

Multiple Access

RF Channel
Bit Rate


Modulation
GSM
890-915
935-960
Mhz

Large

TDMA

271.8Kb/s


GMSK
DAMPS
824-849
869-894
Mhz

Large

TDMA

48.6Kb/s


OQPSK
CDMA
824-849
869-
894
Mhz

Large

CDMA

1228
Kb/s


QPSK/
OQPSK
CT2
864-868
Mhz


Small

FDMA

72 Kb/s


2 LEVEL
FSK
DECT
1880-
1900
Mhz


Small

TDMA

1152 Kb/s


GFSK
PHS
1895-
1918.1
Mhz

Small

TDMA

384
Kb/s


OQPSK

Modulators
In order to transmit digital baseband signal, it is necessary to transfer this baseband information
to a higher Radio Frequency (RF) carrier. The modulation process in fact translates the baseband
into a form suitable for physical transmission over a wireless medium. The RF carrier is
characterised by its amplitude, frequency and phase. Thus we may change any of these
characteristics to formulate a modulation method. The basic form of the three modulation
methods used for transmitting digital signals are
a) Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
b) Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
c) Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
Sometimes a combination of above basic methods is used for a typical application.
The signal to be transmitted is a stream of 1s and 0s i.e. ON or OFF in the shape of pulses.
Theoretically an infinite bandwidth is required to transmit such stream of pulses. Since any
communication system has a limited availability of RF Bandwidth, this band limiting introduces
detection errors at the receiver. That is why the filter bandwidth must be chosen to optimize
trade-off between RF bandwidth and error rates. This constraint forms the basis of design and
selection of bandwidth limited digital modulators & demodulators.
A variety of digital modulation schemes are used in wireless communication systems. We shall
discuss the various modulation schemes used particularly in handheld/ cellular mobile radio
environment.

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The Cellular Environment
In a Mobile Network it is a challenge to serve thousands of subscribers with a limited frequency
resource at an affordable cost. In order to overcome this problem Cellular radio systems operates
on principles of frequency reuse where the RF carrier frequencies are simultaneously reused at
geographically separated locations. A typical seven cell pattern is depicted in fig.2.1. Both cells
numbered as 1 use same set of RF channels and hence are termed as co-channel cells.


Fig : 2.5 Frequency Reuse Pattern N=7

Such systems are thus naturally limited by co-channel interference. Hence cellular radio systems
must use modulators that are both bandwidth efficient and are capable of tolerating relatively
higher levels of co-channel interference.
Requirements of A Good Modulation Scheme
To suit the specific requirements of digital cellular radios the modulators should preferably
satisfy the following properties.
Compact Power Density spectrum
To minimize the effect of adjacent channel interference it is necessary that the power radiated
into adjacent channels is about 60 dB below as compared to power transmitted in desired
channel. In other words the modulation technique which offers narrow main beam in the desired
channel and fast diminishing sidelobes is desirable.

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Good bit error rate performance
Modulators with a low (good) bit error rate performance (BER) in the presence of a typical
cellular environment characterized by appreciable co-channel interference and channel
impairments are desirable.
A relatively constant envelope
Portable and Mobile handsets generally use more efficient amplifiers to minimize the battery
drain. Such amplifiers are non linear (Class C) amplifiers. Such non linear amplification shall
lead to degraded BER performance of modulation schemes that transmit the information in the
amplitude of the carrier. Hence it is desirable that a relatively constant envelope signal (wherein
the modulated signal stays within a constant envelope of amplitude) is used alongwith non-linear
amplifiers to prevent the regrowth of undesirable spectral sidelobes during non-linear
amplification.
Modulation Methods
Let us now discuss the following modulation methods and their suitability for digital cellular
radio environment.
Amplitude shift keying (ASK)
In Amplitude Shift Keying we modulate the baseband signal into changes in amplitude of the
transmitter carrier and the frequency of RF carrier remains the same. Unfortunately the error
performance (BER) of ASK signal is inferior to the other forms of digital modulation particularly
when non-linear amplifiers are used as it is the case with mobile/ WLL systems. However there
is a very important use of amplitude modulation combined with phase modulation e.g, 16
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) in fixed point to point radio applications.
Frequency shift keying
In Frequency Shift Keying, RF frequency is varied in accordance to the amplitude of the
modulating signal and the RF carrier amplitude remains constant. FSK allots one fixed frequency
tone (say) f1 for 0s and another fixed frequency tone (say) f2 for 1s. in other words the input data
sequence is used to switch back and forth between these two frequencies according to change
from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0. (Ref fig 2.2). In this simplest form as depicted in fig.2.2 it has two
frequencies & is called a two level (binary) FSK i.e. (BFSK). CT2 technology uses BFSK with
25 Khz deviation from nominal RF Carrier

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Fig : 2.6 Binary Frequency Shift Keying
Minimum Shift Keying (MSK)
Continuous phase modulation is a broad class of frequency modulation technique where the
carrier phase varies in a continuous manner. Such Frequency shifted carriers have a property that
the phase of the carrier traces out a continuous phase trajectory in time according to the
modulation sequence. As the carrier phase is integral of carrier frequency, the BPSK modulated
carriers can be decoded by phase modulation also, using the processing techniques that attempt
to track these phase changes. This phase demodulation provides decoding advantage over
standard frequency detection. That is why FM digital carriers of this type are generally called as
Continuous Phase FSK (CPFSK). MSK is a special form of binary CPFSK. Two level FSK
modulation, where transmission bit rate R is exactly four times the frequency shift (between 1s
and 0s) is called Minimum Shift Keying MSK has following properties.
a) For a modulation bit rate of R Higher frequency = f + 0.25R and Lower frequency
= f - 0.25R and hence difference between higher and lower frequency = 0.5R
b) The signal has a constant envelope.
MSK is attractive because it has relatively compact spectrum and its out-of-band performance is
better than FSK.
An ETSI standard DECT technology uses Gaussian filtered frequency shift keying (GFSK) with
a nominal deviation of 288 Khz. It has properties of a constant envelope and relatively narrow
bandwidth modulation scheme.


Phase Shift Keying
PSK modulation is widely used in Digital Radio Systems. In PSK the phase of the carrier is
varied in accordance with the baseband signal and the amplitude and frequency of the carrier
remains unchanged. Hence PSK is also a constant envelope modulation method. In its simplest
form of two level PSK, the incoming bit stream is given a phase reversal of 180 every time a 1
changes to a 0 and vice versa. The special cases of PSK are indicated by the number of levels of
digital signal e.g 2PSK, 4PSK and 8PSK etc.

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If we use two signals that have phases 0 & 180
0
then the modulation method is called as
binary PSK i.e. BPSK (Ref fig 2.3) if we define four signals each with a phase differing by 90
0
,
then the modulation method is termed as four level (Quadrature) PSK i.e. QPSK (Ref fig 2.4)
2 Phase System (i.e. only one binary stream)
Phase Binary Binary Code of Stream
0 0 0
180
0
1 1
Signal Space Diagram

180 0
(1) (0)
Fig : 2.7 Figure Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)

Since a bit stream is a series of binary digits it requires
Where phases of 0
0
& 180
0
correspond to the 1s and 0s of the bit stream. If the incoming bit
steam is divided into two parallel streams by a serial to parallel converter then these two bit
steams require 2
2
= 4 bits as shown in fig 2.4. these two bit streams are known as in phase (1)
and the quadrature (Q) bit streams.
4. Phase System (i.e. two binary streams)
Phase Quaternary Binary Code of two streams (I&O)
0
0
0 0 0
90
0
1 1 0
180
0
2 1 1
270
0
3 0 1




Signal Space Diagram
90 (1,0)

180 0
(1,1) (0,0)


270 (0,1)

Fig : 2.8 Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)
In BPSK each of the two phases convey an information equivalent to a single bit only where as
in QPSK each of the four phases of carrier represent two bits of data. Thus every phase shift of
the carrier (Symbol), now in QPSK contains double the information as compared to BPSK. In
other words since, symbol rate for QPSK is half the bit rate hence twice the information can be
carried in the same RF channel bandwidth as compared to BPSK.

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Offset Quadrature phase shift keying (OQPSK)
It can be seen that in QPSK, phase transition ranges from 0
0
to 180
0
and occurs at an interval of
twice the bit rate 2T. At the same time if we delay Q stream by half bit interval with respect
to I bit stream, then phase transition range is 0 to 90
0
only & occurs twice as often (i.e. at T
interval as compared to 2T in earlier case). Hence this offsetting of one stream w.r.t another
stream causes limited phase change leading to reduced envelope fluctuations of the signal
making it less susceptible to amplifier non-linearities and reduced the required dynamic range of
the amplifier. It also provides better interference tolerance capability. This type of QPSK is
known as offset QPSK (OQPSK) Modulation scheme. This effect could have been achieved by
filtering a normal QPSK envelope and forces the undesirable use of highly linear amplifiers.
North American digital cellular standard IS-54 (DAMPS) uses / 4 shifted Differential PSK
modulation scheme.
Gaussain Minimum shift Keying (GMSK)
MSK can be derived from OQPSK by replacing the rectangular NRZ pulses in amplitude with a
half cycle sinusoidal pulses. MSK modulation makes the phase changes linear and limited to
/2 over a bit interval T . This enables MSK to provide a significant improvement over QPSK
in respect of adjacent channel interference by having low side lobes. However the main lobe
becomes wider than QPSK. One method to improve the main lobe as well as side lobes is to
preshape the data stream with a filter prior to MSK modulation. A Gaussian shaped filter
which accepts about one percent inter symbol interference (ISI) has a considerable better out of
band performance. That is why this type of modulation is termed as Gaussian MSK or GMSK
modulation.
The relationship between the pre-modulation filter bandwidth B and the bit period T defines
bandwidth of system. If B > 1/T, then the waveform essentially remains a MSK. When B<1/T,
then an ISI occurs. A narrow filter increases the ISI and reduces the signal power. However a
small amount of ISI can be tolerated (traded) for bandwidth reduction. In GSM a B.T product
of 0.3 is used with a channel data rate of 270.8 Kb/s. In DECT technology, utilizing GFSK
modulation, a B.T product of 0.5 is used with a data rate of 1152 Kb/s.
The spectral efficiency of OQPSK is about 20% more than GMSK modulation. But out-of-band
performance of MSK is significantly better than OQPSK. This makes MSK carriers somewhat
more favourable than QPSK systems where both out of band spectra control and constant
envelope carriers are desired. In GSM technology GMSK modulation technique is used. A B.T
product of 0.3 is a best compromise between bandwidth occupancy and interference resistance.
Spectral Efficiency & Carrier power requirements
In cellular systems excessive demand for limited available bandwidth forces the modulator to be
efficient in use of this RF bandwidth. For this reason, the modulator chosen must be spectrally
efficient. If a digital link transmits R bits/s utilizing BW Hz of RF bandwidth then the
bandwidth efficiency () is measured by the channel throughput defined as follows:
= R/BW bits/s/Hz

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Theoretically bandwidth efficiency () for different modulation schemes can be calculated to be
as follows:
Two level Modulation system 1 bit/s/Hz
Four level Modulation system = 2 bit/s/Hz
Eight level Modulation system = 3 bit/s/Hz
We can also have 8 level PSK (8-PSK) and 16-PSK. But higher the level of modulation, more
the system is vunerable to equipment impairments and atmospheric disturbances. This leads to
degradation in transmission quality. Obviously that means a higher level modulation scheme
shall then need a better signal i.e. more carrier power (more Eb/No) for same BER performance,
at the demodulator input which is again not a desirable feature in cellular systems. Infact a four
level PSK demodulator needs precisely twice (3dB more) carrier power as compared to a two
level PSK demodulator for the same BER performance. In other words, the higher the level of
modulation employed, less robust the system is, and higher received signal level is required to
achieve a desired BER performance. The cellular systems being interference limited, shall be
more vunerable to co-channel interference if carrier power level is boosted to overcome
transmission distortions. On the other hand, as indicated above, a higher level modulation
scheme is more spectrally efficient as compared to low level modulation schemes. Hence a
careful trading between carrier power & spectral efficiency has to be adopted while selecting a
modulator for cellular systems.
As a practice today a four level PSK systems seems to be more popular choice for mobile and
portable applications. That allows relatively robust and cheap implementation of several variants
of QPSK (e,g OQPSK and GMSK).
Future Trends
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a modulation technique that has been
recently suggested for use in cellular radios. In this scheme the incoming serial bit stream is
converted into a number of blocks of bits which are then transmitted in parallel by using a
number of sub-carriers which are orthogonal in nature. With this type of block transmission the
symbol rate of these sub-carrier blocks is much less than the incoming serial bit stream and the
effects of delay spread of the RF channel are very much reduced. This has practical advantages
because it may reduce to a great extent the need for channel equalization.
Conclusion
A variety of digital modulation schemes are employed in digital cellular radio systems. The
prime requirements of a good modulator can be summarised as constant envelope modulation,
compact power spectrum density and good bit error rate performance in the presence of co-
channel interference and fading conditions. The most popular digital modulation schemes
employed in cellular radio systems are four level phase shift keying (QPSK) and its variants such
as GMSK and / 4 shifted QPSK (OQPSK). The selection criterion being a low cost solution
with careful trading between carrier power & spectral efficiency while providing a good bit error
rate performance in an interference limited environment of a digital cellular digital system.
XXXX