GSM Fundamentals

ISSUE

Wireless Curriculum Development Section

Engr Chinonso Ezeobi

 INTRODUCTION

,
 GSM-FUNDAMENTALS PRESENTED TO NIGERIAN
SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS- ELECTRICAL DIVISION(
NIGERIAN INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL AND
ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS-NIEEE) BY

ENGR CHINONSO EZEOBI

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 Contents

Basic Concepts of Cellular Mobile System

GSM Network Components

Terrestrial Interface

Service Area and Number Planning

Channels on The Air Interface

Engr
 The Frequency Spectrum

GSM 900

EGSM GSM EGSM GSM

880 890 915 925 935 960

MHz

Duplex Separation: 45MHz

Channel Bandwidth: 200KHz
4

Engr
 The Frequency Spectrum

DCS 1800

Base Station Receive Base Station Transmit

1710 1785 1805 1880MHz

Duplex Separation: 95MHz

Channel Bandwidth: 200KHz
5

Engr
 Frequency Re-Use

What is Frequency Re-Use?

Because frequency resource of mobile system is

very limited,
different Subscribers must use the same
frequency in different place.
Of course, the quality of communication must be
ensured.

6
 Frequency Re-Use

How can we reuse frequency?

7(Site)X 1(Cell)
7 23
Re-use
1

6 4

Engr
 Frequency Re-Use

4(Site)X 3(Cell) 5
1
Re-use 7 9 6
3 2
5 11 8 10
1 4
9 6 12 7
2
3
10 5 11
1
9

Engr
 CELL

Omni
Omni-Directional Cells
1

120 Degree Sectors 1

120
degree 2
3
9

Engr
 Contents

Basic Concepts of Cellular Mobile System

GSM Network Components

Terrestrial Interface

Service Area and Number Planning

Channels on The Air Interface

Radio Technologies

The Future Development

10
 GSM Network Components

NSS AUC
HLR
EIR
OSS OMC

MSC/VLR PSTN

SIM
ME BTS BSC
MS BSS
11

Engr
 Mobile Station—MS

MS=ME+SIM
International Mobile Equipment
Identity (IMEI)
– Mobile Equipment

International Mobile Subscriber

Identity (IMSI)
– Subscriber Identity Module
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Engr
 Subscriber Identity Module – SIM

 International Mobile Subscriber

Identity (IMSI)
 Temporary Mobile Subscriber
Identity (TMSI)
 Location Area Identity (LAI)
 Subscriber Authentication Key
(Ki)
 Mobile Station International
Standard Data Network (MSISDN),
it is optional.

13

Engr
 Base Station Subsystem – BSS

MSC
 The Base Station
Controller – BSC
 The Base Transceiver BSS TC/SM
Station – BTS
 The Trans-coder – TC
and Sub multiplexer BSC
(SM)
BTS
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Engr
 The Network Switching System

NSS AUC
HLR
OMC EIR
EC PSTN

MSC/VLR
IWF

Mobile Switching Center – MSC

Home Location Register – HLR
Visitor Location Register – VLR
Equipment Identity Register – EIR
Authentication Center – AUC
BSS
Inter-Working Function – IWF
Echo Cancellor – EC 15

Engr
 Mobile Service Switching Center – MSC

Call Processing
Operations and Maintenance
Support
Inter-network & Inter-working
Billing

16

Engr
 Home Location Register – HLR

 Subscriber ID (IMSI and MSISDN)

 Current subscriber VLR (current location)
 Supplementary service information
 Subscriber status (registered/deregistered)
 Authentication key and AuC functionality

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Engr
 Visitor Location Register – VLR

 Mobile Status(IMSI detached/ attached)

 Location Area Identity(LAI)
 Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity(TMSI)
 Mobile Station Roaming Number(MSRN)

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Engr
 Equipment Identity Register – EIR

•White List
•Black List IMEI
Is Checked against White List
•Grey List
If NOT found,
checked against
Grey/Black List

If NOT found, checked IMEI

against White List Is Checked against Black/Grey List
indications

If found, returns a Black

or Grey List indicator
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Engr
Operation and Maintenance Sub System

OSS(NMC)

OMC OMC
OMC

Region2 Region 3
Region 1

20

Engr
 Operation and Maintenance Center – OMC

OMC – R: OMC assigned specifically to

the Base Station Subsystem

OMC – S: OMC assigned specifically to

the Network Switching Subsystem

21

Engr
 OMC Functional Architecture

Event/Alarm Security
Management Management

MMI
OS DB
Fault Configuration
Management Management

Performance
Management

22

Engr
 GSM Interface

D
HLR
G H
VLR VLR C AUC
EIR
B F

MSC MSC
E

IWF EC EC IWF
A
TC

Um Abis
MS BTS BSC
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Engr
 SigL1: 2MBps Trunks

HLR
OMC AUC
IWF EIR

MSC/VLR MSC/VLR

EC
EC

TC

BSC PSTN
BTS BTS

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Engr
 2MBps Trunks

Typical Configuration

TS 0 TS 1-15 TS16 TS 17-31

TS = Time slot
TS# Used for
0 Frame Alignment /Error Checking /Signaling
1-15 Traffic
16 CCS7 Signaling (Other TS may also the used)
17-31 Traffic
25

Engr
 Contents

Basic Concepts of Cellular Mobile System

GSM Network Components

Terrestrial Interface

Service Area and Number Planning

Channels on The Air Interface

Radio Technologies

The Future Development

26

Engr
 Physical and Logical Channels

The physical channel is the medium over which

the information is carried
The logical channels consist of the information
carried over the physical channel

TDMA FRAME

0 1 2 3 4 5 60 7
Timeslot
The information carried in one time
slot is called a “burst”

27

Engr
 Traffic Channel

TCH
Traffic Channels
Normal Burst
Speech Data

TCH/FS TCH/HS
TCH/9.6 TCH/2.4
TCH Traffic Channel
TCH/FS Full rate Speech Channel
TCH/HS Half rate Speech Channel
TCH/9.6 Data Channel 9.6kb/s
TCH/4.8 Data Channel 4.8kb/s TCH/4.8
TCH/2.4 Data Channel 2.4Kb/s
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Engr
 Control Channel

CCH Control Channels

DCCH BCCH

SDCCH ACCH
BCCH Synch. CH.

FACCH SACCH CCCH

SCH FCCH

Broadcast Control Channel – BCCH RACH

Common Control Channel – CCCH CBCH
Dedicated Control Channel – DCCH
Associated Control Channel – ACCH PCH/AGCH
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Engr
 Broadcast Control Channel – BCCH

The information carried on the CCH

BCCH is monitored by the mobile
periodically when it is switched BCCH
on and not in a call downlink only
BCCH:Broadcast Control Channel

FCCH: Frequency Correction Synch.

Channel BCCH Channels

SCH: Synchronization Channel

SCH FCCH
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Engr
 Common Control Channel – CCCH

CCH
The CCCH is responsible for
transferring control information
between all mobiles and the
BTS.
CCCH
RACH: Random Access Control
Channel
PCH: Paging Channel RACH CBCH
AGCH: Access Grant Control uplink downlink
Channel
CBCH:Cell Broadcast Channel
PCH/AGCH
downlink
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Engr
 Dedicated Control Channel – DCCH

DCCH is assigned to a single

CCH
mobile connection for call setup
or for measurement and handover
purpose. DCCH
SDCCH: Standalone Dedicated
Control Channel
ACCH: Associated Control
Channel SDCCH ACCH
SACCH: Slow Associated Control
Channel
FACCH:Fast Associated Control
Channel
FACCH SACCH

32

Engr
 How to use these channel?

Power-off state
Search for frequency correction pulse FCCH
Search for synchronous pulse SCH
Unscramble system information
BCCH
Idle state

Snoop into paging message PCH

Send access pulse
RACH
Allocate signaling channel
AGCH
Dedicated mode
Set up the call SDCCH
Allocate voice channel
FACCH
Conversation
Release the call TCH
Idle state
FACCH

33

Engr
 GSM Multiframe

TDMA Frames

0 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0 1 2 3 4 46 47 48 49 50

51 – Frame Multiframes

CONTROL CHANNELS
34

Engr
 Timeslots and TDMA Frames

Higher Capacity Cell

0 1 2 3 4 5 60 7
Broadcast Traffic
Dedicated

0 1 2 3 4 5 60 7
Traffic
Low Capacity Cell

0 1 2 3 4 5 60 7
Combined Traffic
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Engr
 GSM Multiframe

TDMA Frames

0 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0 1 2 3 4 21 22 23 24 25

26 – Frame Multiframes

TRAFFIC CHANNELS
36

Engr
 Contents

Basic Concepts of Cellular Mobile System

GSM Network Components

Terrestrial Interface

Service Area and Number Planning

Channels on The Air Interface

Radio Technologies

37

Engr
 Modulation Techniques

Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Frequency Modulation (FM)
Phase Modulation (PM)

– phase modulation can be implemented easily

for digital signals, this is the method used for
the GSM air interfaces. Phase Modulation is
known as Phase Shift Keying when applied to
digital signals

38

Engr
 Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK)

Phase
1 0 0 1 1 Gaussian
Modulator
Digital Filter

39

Engr
 Battery Life

Power Control

Voice Activity Detection – VAD

Discontinuous Transmission – DTX

Discontinuous Reception – DRX

40

Engr
 Power Control

Both Uplink and Downlink

8W
power settings can be
controlled independently
and individually.

0.8W

5W
Saves radio battery power
Reduces co-channel and
adjacent channel interference

41

Engr
 VAD & DTX

Without DTX

Encoding the speech

silences at a rate of
500 bit/s rather
than the full 13Kb/s.
If the mobile does
With DTX
not transmit during
‘silence’ there is a
reduction in the
overall power
output requirement
Comfort
Noise
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Engr
 DRX

DRX allows the mobile station to effectively “switch off”

during times when reception is deemed unnecessary.

BCCH Multiframe P = Paging Channel

PPPPPP BCCH PP

MS Being MS in MS receive System MS in

paged listen mode listen mode
information 43

Engr
 Multipath Fading

•Diversity
•Frequency
Hopping

Time Dispersion
44

Engr
 Diversity

Approx. 10
wavelengths
When diversity is implemented
two antennas are situated at
the receiver. These antennas
are placed several
wavelengths apart to ensure
minimum correlation between
the two receive paths.
Compare or
The two signals are then add signals
combined, this ensures that a
low signal strength is less likely
to occur.
Resultant Signal

45

Engr
 46

Engr