GSM Basics

Objective

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

z Understand GSM system architecture and function
z State GSM common events
z Describe basic calling process
Content

GSM System Overview

GSM Common Events
Basic Calling Process
Mobile Telecommunication Technology
Evolution
1G 2G 3G
Analog Digital IMT-2000

AMPS GSM
UMTS
CDMA WCDMA
TACS Market IS95 Market
Driving Driving CDMA
TDMA 2000
NMT
IS-136
TD-
Others PDC SCDMA
GSM History

Technology
Development
2000China Mobile
400 million subscribers
Competition
4
Customer 1994GSM enter into China
Demand
3
1991GSM system launched commercially

2
1989GSM Standard Take effect

1
Development of mobile communication system

2M
UMTS 2002
Video
1M High
quality

-on
EDGE 2001 ays 384 k
Mobile Office

Alw 115 k
Graphics Medium
GPRS 2000 quality

text
GSM 1999 56 k

10 k
Voice
Messaging
Bit/s 1k SMS
The way to 3G
Meaning of GSM

GSM: Group Special Mobile

GSM: Global System for Mobile

GSM specification

Field 1: General
Field 2: Services
Field 3: Network Functions
Field 4: MS-BS Interfaces and Protocols
Field 5: Physical Layer on Radio Path
Field 6: Speech Coding
GSM specification

Field 7: MS Terminal Adaptor

Field 8: BS-MSC Interface
Field 9: Network Inter-working
Field 10: Service Inter-working
Field 11: Equipment and Model Acceptance
Specification
Field 12: Operation and Maintenance
GSM Network development

1982: The group special mobile

1986: On-site test
1987: TDMA, RPE-LTP, GMSK
1988: MOU
1989: GSM took effect
1991: First GSM network was deployed
1992: GSM standard was frozen
1993: GSM phase 2 complete
1994: GSM phase 2+ for mobile data service
GSM system architecture

MS (Mobile Station)
MS

BTS
BSS (Base Station System)

BSC

PSTN,
ISDN...
MSC
(Network Switching
Voicemail Server NSS
Subsystem)

SM-SC VLR HLR AuC EIR

OMC OMC
OMS (Operations & Maintenance
NMC GSM interfaces
X.25 links
Management)
GSM network entities

MS
MS(Mobile
(MobileStation)
Station)
Mobile
MobileEquipment
Equipment
Subscriber
SubscriberIdentity
IdentityModule
Module(SIM)
(SIM)

BTS
BTS(Base
(BaseTransceiver
TransceiverStation)
Station)
Provide
Provideradio
radiochannels
channels

BSC
BSC(Base
(BaseStation
StationController)
Controller)
Radio
Radioresource
resourcemanagement
management
Transcoder
Transcoder
GSM network entities

HLR
HLR(Home
(HomeLocation
LocationRegister)
Register)
Database
Database
Subscriber
Subscriberdata
data
Subscriber
Subscriberlocation
locationinfo.
info.

VLR
VLR(Visitor
(VisitorLocation
LocationRegister)
Register)
Database
Database
MSRN
MSRN(Mobile
(MobileStation
StationRoaming
RoamingNumber)
Number)
TMSI
TMSI(Temporary
(TemporaryMobile
MobileSubscriber
SubscriberIdentification)
Identification)
Location
Locationarea
areacodeLAC
codeLAC
Subscriber
Subscriberdata
datarelated
relatedtotosupplementary
supplementaryservice
service
GSM network entities

MSC
MSC(Mobile
(Mobileservice
serviceSwitching
Switchingcenter)
center)
Circuit
Circuitswitching
switching

AUC
AUC(Authenticate
(AuthenticateCenter)
Center)::
Authenticate
Authenticatesubscriber
subscriberaccess
access

EIR
EIR(mobile
(mobilestation
stationEquipment
EquipmentIdentity
IdentityRegister)
Register)::
Identify
Identifyterminal
terminalequipment
equipment

OMC
OMC(Operation
(Operationand
andMaintenance
MaintenanceCenter)
Center)
Provide
ProvideMMI
MMIto
tocontrol
controland
andmonitor
monitorsystem
system
GSM service area

GSM Service Area

PLMN Service Area

MSC Service Area

Location Area

Cell
GSM interfaces

G
VLR VLR

Sm Um Abis A B
D

C
MS BTS BSC MSC HLR

E F

EIR
MSC
GSM operation band

SYSTEM P-GSM 900 E-GSM 900 GSM 1800 GSM 1900

Frequencies
- Uplink 890 - 915 MHz 880 - 915 MHz 1710 - 1785 MHz 1850 - 1910 MHz
- Downlink 935 - 960 MHz 925 - 960 MHz 1805 - 1880 MHz 1930 - 1990 MHz
Wavelength ~33 cm ~33 cm ~17 cm ~16 cm
Bandwidth 25 MHz 35 MHz 75 MHz 60 MHz
Duplex Distance 45 MHz 45 MHz 95 MHz 80 MHz
Carrier Separation 200 kHz 200 kHz 200 kHz 200 kHz
Radio Channels 125 175 375 300
Absolute radio frequency channel Number
ARFCN
GSM900
z Fu (n) = 890 + 0.2n MHz
z Fd (n) = Fu(n) + 45 MHz01 n 124
GSM1800
z Fu (n) = 1710.2 + 0.2(n-512) MHz
z Fd (n) = Fu(n) + 95 MHz512 n 885
Multiple Access Technology (MAT)

Many subscribers share common

telecommunication lines without interference to
each other.

MAT

FDMA CDMA
TDMA

GSM
FDMA

FDMA
z Identify by frequency

Time
FDMA

Frequency
TDMA

TDMA
z Identify by time

Time
TDMA

Frequency
CDMA

CDMA
z Identify by code

Time
CDMA
Code

Frequency
Content

GSM System Overview

GSM Common Events
Basic Calling Process
Subscriber status

IMSI Attach

IMSI Detach

MS busy
Location Update

Originated by MS HLR

Location info stored in

SIM
MS monitor system MSC (old) MSC (new)

infooriginate VLR
VLR
location update once
the new LAC is
different from that in
SIM Location
Update
Location Update

Type
z Power on ON
IMSI ATTACH/DETACH
Location register M SC VLR

MS power on/off LA 2
LA 1
z Normal location update
MS change LA
z Periodic location update
Operator decide the period
(timer)
Location update when time
out
Handover
Handover: Hand-over is a process that transfers a MS that
is in setting up or busy status to a new traffic channel
Why need handover
z Keep and save the call in progress
z Improve network service quality
Decrease call drop rate
Decrease congestion rate
Who will be involved
z MSBTSBSCMSC
MSmeasure downlink radio signal level
BTSmeasure uplink radio signal level and quality and send the
results to BSC
BSCevaluate and decision of HO
MSC routes the call to the other MSC during Inter-MSC HO
Handover classification

Reason:
zPBGT
TA:
zSynchronous
zSignal level
zAsynchronous
zSignal quality
zDistance
zTraffic Position:
zIntra-cell
zInter-cell
zIntra-BSC
zInter-BSC
zInter-MSC
Cell selection and Reselection

After a MS is turned on, it will attempt to

contact a common GSM PLMN, so the
MS will select an appropriate cell, and
extract from it the parameters of the
control channel.

MS change its service

cell in IDLE state
Authentication and Encryption

Triplet
z RAND: the question asked by the network side
z Ki: stored in the SIM card and AUC in a very
confidential way
z SRES: signed response. It is obtained through the
calculation of subscribers unique key parameter Ki.
Authentication process

Execute authentication when

z MS registersetup calllocation update and
active/deactivate supplementary service
z It is optional
z A3 algorithm Mobile Terminal Network

Random number generator

Ki RAND

Ki
A3 algorithm
A3 algorithm

SRES'
SRES
Encryption process

Kc: Encryption key 64-bits (A8 algorithm)

A5 algorithm (exclusive or)
It is optional.
Frame No. Frame No.
Mobile Terminal Network Kc (64-bit) Kc (64-bit)
(22-bit) (22-bit)

Random number
Ki generator
RAND
A5 A5
Ki
A8 algorithm S1 S2 S1 S2
A8 algorithm
(114-bit) (114-bit) (114-bit) (114-bit)

Kc Kc

MS BTS
Content

GSM System Overview

GSM Common Events
Basic Calling Process
Initialization

Initialization is a random access process

MS BTS BSC

Ch request (RACH)
TA, access reason
ACTSDCCH

ACT ACKSDCCH

Imm Assign SDCCHAGCH Imm Assign SDCCHAGCH

Initial messageSDCCH
 Location update process

(1) MS moves from one BTS to another BTS

(2) Learn to the broadcasting information
(3)(4) MS sends the LU request to MSC-A.
(5) MSC-A sends the LU message to HLR
(6) HLR sends back subscriber data.
(7)(8) Subscriber data registration in the VLR.
(9) Sending LU response message
(10) Notifying the original VLR to delete subscriber data.
Outgoing call from MS to PSTN
(1) Random access channel.
(2) Set up signaling connection between
MS and MSC.
(3) Authentication and encryption and
enter the call setup starting phase.
(4) Service channel allocation
(5) Send ringing to the called subscriber,
and send back the call connection
acknowledgment signal to MS.
(6)The called subscriber offhooks to reply,
in which case a response (connection)
message is sent to MS, thus entering the
ultimate call session phase.
Incoming call from PSTN to MS

(1) Send MSISDN number to GMSC

(2) Requests HLR for the MSC address
(3) HLR requests VLR to assign MSRN
(4) GMSC re-search for routes to set up
connection to the visited MSC by MSRN.
(5)(6) MSC obtains related subscriber data
(7)(8) MSC sends paging messages
(9)(10) The MS sends back the paging
response messages, then carries out the
same steps of (1), (2), (3), (4) as shown in the
above outgoing call flow till the mobile station
rings.
(11) The mobile subscriber offhooks to
answer, thus the response (connection)
message is sent back to the fixed network
MS to MS call

(1) MS1 dials the phone number of MS2. BSS informs MSC1 of the call.
(2) MSC1 analyzes the phone number of MS2, finds out the HLR of MS2 and sends the route
application to HLR.
(3) HLR queries the current location information of MS2 and obtains MSRN from the MSC2/VLR2.
(4) MSC2/VLR2 allocates the route information, that is, MSRN and submits the MSRN to the HLR.
(5) HLR sends the MSRN to the MSC1.
(6) MSC2 sets up the call with MSC2 according to the MSRN.
(7) MSC2/VLR2 sends the paging message to MS2.
(8) MSC2/VLR2 receives the message, indicating the access of MS2 is allowed.
(9) The call between MSC2 and MSC1 is set up.
(10) MSC1 sends the successful connection signal to MS1. MS1 and MS2 can talk over the phone.