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 Logical channels
‡ The term PHYSICAL CHANNEL refers to the
particular RF carrier with particular time-slot.

‡ As the physical channels are not allocated

beforehand, any physical channel can be used for
a number of different tasks.

‡ The tasks are given different logical names. Hence

during communication, the tasks are mapped onto
the physical channel.

‡ There are two types of logical channels namely ±

j  channels and 

channels.
 ! |!!

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 Traffic channels
‡ There are two types of TCH namely Half-rate and
Full-rate.

‡ TCH/F carries user speech at 13 kbps, and data at

9.6 kbps, 4.8 kbps & 2.4 kbps.

‡ TCH/H carries user speech at 6.5 kbps, and data at

4.8 kbps & 2.4 kbps.

‡ The gross rate for TCH/F is 22.8 kbps and that for
TCH/H is 11.4 kbps.

Note: Gross rate is the rate after channel coding.

 Vroadcast channels
‡ The VCH are the point-to-multipoint downlink channels.

‡ VCCH are used for correcting radio resource frequencies

and for frame synchronization. VCCH contain LAI and are
always allocated to TS-0.

‡ FCCH is used for frequency correction of the MS, such that

the MS tunes accurately to a VS. This channel sends all
zeros in its burst, as unmodulated carrier.

‡ SCH transmits a 64 bit binary sequence, which is prestored

in MS. The MS achieves the exact timing synchronization
with respect to a frame, by correlating these bits with the
bits that are stored in the SIM.

‡ In addition, SCH carries VSIC and the Reduced Frame

Number (RFN).
 Common control channels
‡ These are point-to-multipoint bidirectional channels.

‡ These are used to establish connections between VS

and MS, before a DCCH is assigned to an MS.

‡ PCH is a downlink channel, which is used for paging

of the MSs.

‡ RACH is an uplink channel which is used by the MS to

request the assignment of DCCH.

‡ AGCH is a downlink channel, which is used to assign

an MS to a specific DCCH.
 Dedicated control channels
‡ These are used for signaling and control, after
the establishment of the call.

‡ SDCCH is used for authentication, location

updates and SMS. Hence, SDCCH is used
before the TCH is assigned to an MS.

‡ The ACCH are always associated with

another channel such as SDCCH or TCH.

‡ SACCH is used for link measurements.

‡ FACCH is used to transmit handover orders.

   
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‡ SDCCH can share a physical channel with a

VCH & a CCCH, and then there can be 4
SDCCHs.

‡ If SDCCHs share a physical channel among

themselves, then there can be 8 SDCCHs.

‡ These are respectively called as SDCCH/4 and

SDCCH/8.
 Channel combinations contd«
‡ SACCH can be shared with TCH or with SDCCH.

‡ When it is shared with full-rate & half-rate TCHs, it

is called as SACCH/TF & SACCH/TH.

‡ When it is shared with SDCCH/4 & SDCCH/8, it is

called as SACCH/C4 & SACCH/C8 respectively.

‡ When FACCH is shared with TCHs, it is called as

FACCH/F & FACCH/H respectively.
 Allowed logical combinations
‡ For traffic time slots:
1. TCH/F or (FACCH/F and SACCH/TF)
2. [TCH/H(0) and TCH/H(1)] or
[FACCH/H and SACCH/TH]
3. [TCH/H(0) or FACCH/H(0) and SACCH/TH(0)]
+ [TCH/H(1)] or FACCH(1) and SACCH/TH(1)]

‡ For control time slots:

1. VCH, CCCH, SDCCH/4 and SACCH/C4
2. VCH (3) and CCCH (2+1)
3. SDCCH/8 and SACCH/C8
 Speech multiframe
‡ Each frame contains 8 time-slots, and each
multiframe contains 26 frames.

‡ The total timing of each multiframe is 120ms.

‡ With a TCH/F multiframe, there are only 24

traffic frames; 13th frame is used for SACCH,
and 26th frame is an Idle one.

‡ With a TCH/H multiframe, there are two

SACCH frames, one per each user TCH.
 Speech multiframe structure
for TCH/F and TCH/H

0 1 2 11 12 13 23 24 25

j
j j j  j j j 

T = frame for the ith TCH, A = SACCH, I = idle frame

0 1 2 11 12 13 23 24 25
j

j &  j j 
Ti, ti = frame for the ith TCH A, a = SACCH
 Control multiframe
‡ The control multiframe contains 51 frames, with
the total duration of 235.38ms.

‡ The VCH and CCCH are implemented only on

certain ARFCN channels.

‡ VCH data is transmitted only in TS-0.

‡ In the 51 frames, the 1st one is for FCCH and

the 2nd one is for SCH.

‡ The next 4 frames are used for VCCH.

 Control multiframe contd«
‡ The next 4 are for PCH/AGCH, after which one
FCCH and one SCH are transmitted.

‡ The next 8 are for PCH/AGCH, after which

FCCH and SCH will be transmitted.

‡ This process of - 2 frames of F&S and 8 frames

of P/A - will continue till the 50th frame.

‡ The 51st frame is an idle one.

‡ In the uplink path, all 51 frames are for RACH.

 Control multiframe structure
Downlink path:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 40 41 50

  "  "  " 

F = FCCH frame, S = SCH frame, V = VCCH frame,
P/A = PCH/AGCH frame, I = Idle frame
Uplink path:
0 1 2 50
###    #
R = RACH frame
 GSM frame structure
‡ In each frame, all the eight users will use the
same ARFCN.

‡ In TCH/F, each TS consists of 156.25 bits, out

of which 8.25 bits are used for guard time.

‡ 3 bits each are used as START and STOP bits,

to prevent overlap with the adjacent TS.

‡ Each frame contains (156.25 x 8) = 1250 bits.

‡ Thus the data rate per user is given by,

156.25 / [120ms/(26x8)] = 270.833 kbps.
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‡ GSM uses 5 bursts: normal burst, synchronization
burst, frequency correction burst, access burst and
dummy burst.

 #
!# j: This is used to carry information

on TCH and on all CCH, except SCH, FCCH & RACH.
 &'    &'  !&
j j  j   j j |

There are 114 bits of encrypted data, grouped into two blocks of
57 bits. Each group is assigned with a Stealing Flag, which will
be set, whenever the particular group is used for FACCH.
The training sequence of 26 bits is used by the equalizer, to
create a channel model. The Tail Vits are always µ000¶, and the
guard period is empty space.
 -# .j # j: In this particular
burst, (39+39) = 78 bits carry the TDMA frame
number, along with the VSIC.

Vy means of the frame no., the MS will know which

logical channel is being transmitted on CCH-TS0.

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The 64 bits at the centre of the burst are utilized as

the synchronization sequence.
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and hence it has a longer guard period.
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from VTS on certain occasions.
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‡ After the authentication process, a cipher key (Kc) of
64-bits is produced, by the AuC.

‡ This key, along with the TDMA frame number (22

bits), is utilized by the A5 algorithm, both in MS and
VS, to produce a 114 bit ciphered block.

‡ The ciphered block is EX-ORed with the 114-bit plain

data, to produce the encrypted data stream, which is
transmitted in the channel.

‡ For decryption, the received data is EX-ORed once

again, with the ciphered block.
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‡ The MS periodically scans the PCHs and locks

onto a PCH with the strongest signal.

‡ For an incoming call to the MS, a ³page request

message´ is broadcast on that particular PCH.

‡ When the MS finds its identity on the PCH, the

MS responds by means of a ³page response
message´.
 Mobility management contd«

‡ The problem here is that, as the MS is mobile, it

is difficult to determine its exact location.

‡ Hence it becomes necessary to transmit the

page request messages to multiple VTSs.

‡ For this reason, the GSM PLMN Area (GPA) is

divided into clusters of cells, and each cluster is
called as ³Location Area´ (LA).
 Mobility management contd«

‡ Whenever MS enters into a new LA, the MS registers

itself, through RACH.

‡ As long as the MS is within the same LA, it is free to

move within the cells, without any re-registration.

‡ Vut if it moves into a different LA, it has to register

again, through RACH.

‡ Thus as the LA of the MS is known, for an incoming

call, all the cells in the particular LA are paged.
 Location Area Identity
‡ The LAI includes the Location Area Code (LAC)
along with the other identities, as follows ±


 !

3 digits 2 digits 2 octets

‡ The cell¶s global identity consists of additional

two octets of Cell Identity (CI), as shown ±


 ! 
3 digits 2 digits 2 octets 2 octets
 Access procedures

‡ With TMSI used for identification, a maximum of

four MSs can be paged in one PCH.

‡ After the addressed MS requests for access,

the VSS acknowledges over the AGCH, along
with the channel no. of SDCCH.

‡ Later, the MS transmits the frame called ³Set

Asynchronous Valanced Mode´ (SAVM), which
contains the paging response.
Access procedures illustration



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 Location registration
‡ GSM supports 3 types of location registration ±
Geographic based, Time based & On-off based.

a) |
 ,$ : Here, the VSSs broadcast the LAC
continuously, and the MS compares the new LAC with the last
LAC stored. If LAC change is detected, the MS registers again.

b) j$ : In this method, the MS registers on its own,

periodically. The minimum registration interval is 6 minutes and
the maximum is 25.5 hours.

c) 
$ : Here, whenever MS is switched on, the u u

operation causes registration. Whenever MS is switched off, the
 u
 operation causes deregistration.
 Mobile identification
‡ When LAC is changed, the VLR may not recognize
the TMSI sent by MS.

‡ Hence it is required to perform the mobile identification

procedure once again.

‡ For this purpose, VLR sends a message to MSC,

which in turn requests the MS, to transmit IMSI.

‡ After the MS sends the IMSI, VLR sends it to HLR for

location update.

‡ The processing of these messages happens in the

MAP layer of MSC.
 Mobile identification process


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