GSM infrastructure

MSC, BSC, BTS, VLR, HLR, GSGN, GSSN

 Compared to a fixed network
Transit exchang Gateway MSC

Local switches

MSC

BSC
Subscriber stage

Fixed phone MS
 Whats new?
Radio access network
Encryption
Voice coding
Locate a mobile station
Identify and authenticate
Handle mobility during a call
 A bird eyes view GMSC

Access Network MSC databases

BTS BSC

BSC

BSC
BTS
MS BTS
 Typical Mobile operator
One to ten MSC per 1 M subscribers
Ten to one hundred BSC per MSC
Thousands of BTS per 1 M subscribers
 Base Transceiver Station
Controls the radio link
encryption
error control
signal strength
1 - 6 duplex carriers, for
example:
two layers
120o sectors
(6+8)*3 = 42 voice calls
Cost ~ 100 200 k$
 Base Station Controller
communication with the mobile
terminal
local hand-over
voice codecs
carrier allocation
paging to terminals
talks to the MSC
serves up to 40 BTSs
could be co-located with MSC
 Mobile Swicthing Center
Mobility management
identifies and authenticates
locates
switches between BSCs
Handover to other MSCs
64 kbps regular voice channels
 Radio Access network
A carrier is divided into logical channels

control channels CCH

traffic channels TCH

The first carrier holds 2 controll channels and

6 traffic channels. Additional carriers holds only
traffic channels.
 Control Channels
Broadcast
Frequency correction: to synchronize (FCCH)
Broadcast control: this is me, these are my neighbours (BCCH)

Common control
Paging: to notify a mobile station (PCH)
Random access: for the mobile to request service (RACH)
Access grant: reply with assigned dedicated control channel (AGCH)

Dedicated control
Standalone dedicated control: used during call set-up, SMS etc (SDCCH)
Slow associated control: power, time etc (SACCH)
Fast associated control: handover etc, uses the TCH (FACCH)
Cell broadcast: cell broadcast
 Traffic Channels
Duplex
Error control
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
retransmission (ARQ)
Full rate (TCH/F)
13 Kbps speech
9,6 or 14,4 Kpbs data
Half rate (TCH/H)
6,5 Kbps speech
7,2 or 4,8 Kbps data
 Logical channels
Hyperframe: 2048 superframes 3h28m

Superframe: 26 or 51 multiframes 6.12 s

CCH CCH
Multiframe: 26 or 51 TDMA frames

CCH TCH

8 time-slot TDMA frame 4.143 ms

 One TDMA frame
148 b 0.577 ms

tail training tail guard 8.25

Normal burst 3 57 b 26 b 57 b 3

user data user data

stealing flags

Frequency correction burst

Synchronization burst

Dummy burst

Access burst
 Keeping track of a mobile
station
VLR
Location area visiting location register

Location area

update the VLR with new

location area
 Moving to a new MSC

VLR
which LA which MSC ?

Location area

Location area

update the VLR with new

location area and new MSC
 but also.
HLR
home location register

VLR
update the home location register!
 Home Location Register
incomming call
PSTN

where is the mobile?

GMSC
HLR

MSC
How do we reach him?
VLR
 Mobile station numbers
mobile subscriber ISDN number
PSTN (MSISDN) i.e. the phone number

GMSC
HLR
Mobile Station Roaming
Number (MSRN).
MSC

VLR
Temporary Mobile
Subscriber Identity
International Mobile
Subscriber Identity
 Internet
GPRS
Gateway GPRS Support Node
Access Network GGSN

Packet Control Unit

BTS
BSC UDP/TCP tunnel

Serving GPRS Support Node

SGSN

BTS
MS BTS