The GSM Radio Link

Specification Coverage and RF Impairments GSM RF Channel Plans

Radio Link Signal Processing

Channel Structures and Time Slots

Radio Link Operation

Radio Link Features

For further reading only
Appendices: 1. Comparison of TDMA Digital Systems 2. Full-Rate ACELP Coder/Decoder Details 3. Speech Processing - DTX Implementation 4. Delay Equaliser Example 5. Regular Pulse-excited Full-rate Coder 6. Vector-sum Excited Linear Predictive Coder

At the end of this unit, you should be able to: Explain the radio channel plans for GSM Trace the GSM speech processing path from encoding through modulation Explain how GSM logical channels are implemented in the GSM physical channel using multiframes (multiplexing) Explain some of the operational aspects of the GSM radio link List and explain key GSM radio link features and their uses in optimising the air interface

Specification Coverage and Radio Link Impairments

Air Interface Specifications

Specification Coverage
Signal processing speech coding error correction coding encryption multiplexing modulation Physical channel characteristics

centre frequency
bandwidth power levels Logical channel definitions and mapping control (set-up)

traffic (voice)
Operations and features mobile operations base station system operations interoperability requirements

Multipath Signal Propagation and Radio Link Impairments

Base-station antenna

Radio Link Impairments Caused By Multipath Propagation 2 3

Transmitted Pulse

Delay Spread
Multiple Received Overlapping Pulses Trms

4 BTS 1

v
D

t
0 D/c

Rayleigh Fading
Signal Level (dB)

Doppler Spread
Multiple Received Frequencies

fd t

fd

f4

f3

f0

f2 v f0 c

f1

frequency

max f d =

GSM RF Channel Plans

RF Channel Plan for GSM 900

45 MHz Duplex Spacing CH CH N=975 1023 CH 1 CH CH N=975 1023 CH 1

CH 124

CH 124

UPLINK
876 MHZ 880 MHZ 890 MHZ PGSM 915 MHZ 821 MHZ 825 MHZ 835 MHZ

DOWNLINK
960 MHZ PGSM

GSMR EGSM

GSMR EGSM

P-GSM = Primary GSM band E-GSM = Extended GSM band GSM-R = GSM Railway band

Uplink P-GSM frequency: Downlink P-GSM frequency: Uplink E-GSM frequency: Downlink E-GSM frequency: RF carrier spacing: 200kHz

890.0 + 0.2 N MHz 935.0 + 0.2 N MHz 890.0 + 0.2 (N-1024) MHz 935.0 + 0.2 (N-1024) MHz

N=1, , 124 N=1, , 124 N=975, , 1023 N=975, , 1023

RF Channel Plan for GSM 1800

Ch N=512 Ch N=512 Ch N=885

Ch N=885

1710 MHz

UPLINK

1785 1805 MHz MHz

DOWNLINK

1880 MHz

95 MHz duplex carrier frequency separation

Uplink frequency: 1710.2 + 0.2 (N-512) MHz Downlink frequency: 1805.2 + 0.2 (N-512) MHz RF carrier spacing: 200kHz

N=512, , 885 N=512, , 885

RF Channel Plan for PCS 1900 USA

N=1

UPLINK
1865 1870 1885 1890 1895

N = 299

N=1

DOWNLINK
1945 1950 1965 1970 1975

N = 299

1850

1910

1930

1990

1857.5

1877.5

1902.5

1937.5

1957.5

1982.5

MHz

80 MHz duplex carrier frequency separation

Uplink frequency: 0.2 N + 1850.0 MHz Downlink frequency: 0.2 N + 1930.0 MHz RF carrier spacing: 200kHz

N=1, , 299 N=1, , 299

Signal Processing in GSM

GSM Radio Link Processes

Transmit Path
Low Bit Rate Speech Coding

Receive Path
Low Bit Rate Speech Decoding

Channel Coding

Channel Decoding

Bit Interleaving

Bit Deinterleaving

Encryption

Decryption

Overhead
Burst Building and Multiplexing

Demultiplexing Delay Equalisation

Overhead

Carrier Modulation

Carrier Demodulation

Speech Coding
Speech Coder Attributes
Requirements Must work indoor/outdoor, city/rural, home/street and in-office environment Pocket phones with long battery life should provide a high service quality at least as good as todays fixed network quality. Main Parameters of Speech Coder for Mobile Radio Applications Quality Bit Rate Delay Complexity Power Consumption Performance under high error rates Approaches for Digitisation of Speech Signals Waveform Digitiser to preserve waveshape of original signal; Parametric Digitiser (Vocoder) to exploit certain properties of speech production; lower bit-rate than waveform coder; and more complex Service Requirements Low Delay Good Speech Quality Network Requirements Low Bit Rate Robustness to Interference No CODER satisfies all the Requirements

Speech Coder Input at Mobile Side

PCM with Uniform Quantisation

Speech Waveform Volts

Time 160 samples in a 20 ms frame

Quantising Levels (8192)

Quantise samples into specific levels and encode into 13-bit values

8000 sps x

13 bits = 104000bps sample

GSM Speech Processing

At Mobile Station

Transmit path

To Channel Coder Speech Encoder

LPF mouthpiece

A/D

104 kbps

uniform

Receive path

From Channel Decoder Speech Decoder

104 kbps LPF earpiece D/A uniform

GSM Speech Input at Network Side

Transcoding Process

Speech Waveform Volts

Time 160 samples in a 20 ms frame

A-law 256 levels

Uniform

8192 levels

64 kbps

104 kbps

GSM Speech Processing

At Network Side Transmit path To Channel Coder Speech Encoder

64 kbps
Digital Speech Input

8-bit A-law to 13-bit uniform transcoder

104 kbps
uniform

Receive path

64 kbps

Digital Speech Output

13-bit uniform to 8-bit A-law transcoder

104 kbps uniform

From Channel Decoder

Speech Decoder

Enhanced Full-Rate Speech Coding

104 kbps uniform

ACELP Full-Rate Speech Encoder

s(k) 12.2 kbps

244 bits/20 ms

Cyclic Coder + Repetition

To Full-Rate Channel 260 bits/20 ms Coder

w(k) 13.0 kbps

240 information bits from ACELP coder taken once 4 bits from ACELP coder taken three times (12 bits) 8 parity bits from cyclic coder

ACELP Full-Rate Speech Coding Parameters

20 ms Speech Frame

Linear Predictive Filter Index 38 bits 160 speech samples/frame at 13 bits/sample for a total of 1080 bits/frame
P 9 bits PG 4 bits A 35 bits IG 5 bits

P 6 bits PG 4 bits
A 35 bits IG 5 bits

P 9 bits PG 4 bits A 35 bits IG 5 bits

P 6 bits PG 4 bits A 35 bits IG 5 bits Encoded speech bits 244 bits/frame (12.2 kbps)

5 ms

5 ms

5 ms

5 ms

P = Pitch lag index (6 bits for relative pitch) PG = Pitch gain index A = Algebraic code index IG = Innovative code index

Channel Coding for Full-rate Speech in GSM

4 Tail bits

50 Most Significant Class 1 bits 3 bit CRC 160 Speech Samples 260 bits (20 ms) ACELP Speech Encoder

3 bits 1/2 Rate Convolutional Coder

Coded Class I bits

Class I bits
182 bits

378 bits

Bit Interleaver 456 bits (20 ms)

Class II bits 78 bits

(8 bursts)

Bit Interleaving in GSM

N-1 Data Block N 0 to 455 N+1 K

0 to 113 Burst 4N
Burst B = 4N + k mod(8) Bit j = 2(49k mod(57)) + (k mod(8) div 4)

0 to 113 Burst 4N+7

Data block N fills even numbered bits in bursts 4N,,4N+3 and odd numbered bits in bursts 4N+4,, 4N+7

Data Encryption in GSM

TDMA frame Number (COUNT) 22 bits

COUNT 22 bits

Key Kc 64 bits

A5 Or A5X 114 bits Cipher block

Key Kc 64 bits

A5 Or A5X 114 bits Cipher block

114 bits plain text data block

(Channel) 114 bits plain text data block

Data to be encrypted is either speech or user data on TCH, or signalling data on DCCH

Data Burst Building for TCH Data

Data Blocks Block N 456 bits N+1 456 bits Bit 57 Interleaving 57 over 8 bursts N+2 456 bits 57 Burst B+7 114 bits

57
Data Bursts Burst B 114 bits

Encrypt and add Stealing bits

Data Bursts

Burst B 116 bits

Add overhead bits

Burst B+7 116 bits

Normal Bursts

Burst B 148 bits Multiplex onto TDMA frames

Burst B+7 148 bits

TDMA Frame f (1250 bits)

TDMA Frame f+7 (1250 bits)

1 Slot corresponds to 156.25 bit periods gross bit rate ~ 271 kbps.

Pre-emptive Signalling on TCH

Transmitting Fast Associated Control Data
Data Burst B with interleaved data for TCH Data bits 0 113

2 stealing bits added to data burst B

Data bits 0 56

Data bits 59 115

HI (B)

Hu (B)

When Hu (B) = HI (B) = 0 All data bits are TCH data bits Hu (B) = 1 Even data bits are stolen for FACCH data Hl (B) = 1 Odd data bits are stolen for FACCH data B 57 even bits stolen B+1 57 even bits stolen B+2 57 even bits stolen B+3 57 even bits stolen B+4 57 odd bits stolen B+5 57 odd bits stolen B+6 57 odd bits stolen B+7 57 odd bits stolen

456 bits of Fast Associated Control Channel (FACCH) Data

Modulation Methods ASK, FSK, and PSK Signals

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) signal Binary Bitstream Binary ASK waveform: 1 1 0 1 0

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) signal Basic or Binary FSK (BFSK, or simply FSK) Extended or M-ary FSK (M-FSK) f0 Binary Bitstream 1 1 0 f1 1

frequency

BFSK waveform:

Phase Shift Keying (PSK) signal Basic or Binary PSK (BPSK, or simply PSK) Extended or M-ary PSK (M-PSK) Binary Bitstream BPSK waveform: 1 1

O I

0
0 1 0

Modulation Processing in GSM

Gaussian Filtered Minimum Shift Keying Input Data Stream Differential Encoding Gaussian Response Filter (BT = 0.3) MSK Phase Modulation Modulated Carrier Output

111010... 00111... 1 bit delay Differential encoding ensures that no repetitive bit patterns exist that might otherwise cause strong out-of-band frequency components

Phase Modulation in GSM

Gaussian-Filtered Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) (Phasor representation) Constant Amplitude Carrier

MSK

bit
0 1

f
+p/2
-p/2

Delay Spread and Distortion Equalisation

Transmitted pulse

Received Multipath pulses

Sum of Received pulses Delay Spread

Need for Equalisation

r(t)
Transmitter Receiver

Delay Equaliser

e(t)

Sample and bit detector

b(t)

r(t)
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0

e(t)

b(t) 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0

Sampling points

GSM Radio Link Characteristics

Summary
Access Method Modulation Method RF Channel Spacing Gross Bit Rate Spectral Efficiency TDMA GMSK 200 kHz 271 kbps 1.35 bps/Hz

Channels per Carrier

Channel Coded Speech Rate Speech Coder Rate

Full-Rate 8 22.8 kbps 13 kbps (RPE-LTP) 12.2 kbps (ACELP)

Half-Rate 16 11.4 kbps 5.6 kbps (VCELP)

Need for Adaptive Time Alignment

33 s delay one-way Near MS BTS 10km Far MS

Mobile 10 km away must start transmitting to base 66 s earlier to compensate for round-trip delay

Adaptive Time Alignment Method

RACH Time Slot (577 ms)

RACH Signal from Mobile Required Advance

Extended Guard Time (252 ms)

Base sends mobile a 6-bit number (063) indicating how many bits to advance its transmission +1bit over the downlink SACCH Delay changes of _ after TCH or SDCCH established

Comparison of TDMA Digital Systems

A Comparison of TDMA-based Digital Cellular Systems

Parameters

GSM For GSM 900 MHz 45 MHz For DCS 1800 MHz 95 MHz For DCS 1900 MHz 80 MHz

NADC (IS-136) NADC 45 MHz NA PCS 80 MHz

JDC 130 MHz Or 48 MHz

Frequency Duplex Separation

Carrier Spacing Modulation Channel coded Rate Full Half

200 kHz GMSK

30 kHz /4 shifted DQPSK

25 kHz /4 shifted DQPSK

22.8 kbps 11.4 kbps

13 kbps

11.2 kbps 5.6 kbps

Multiple Access Full Half 8 Channels 16 Channels 271 kbps 3 Channels 6 Channels 48.6 kbps 3 Channels 6 Channels 42 kbps

Carrier Bit Rate

Equaliser
Diversity Frequency Hopping

Mandatory
Optional Yes

Optional
Optional No

Optional
Optional No