ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology

ECE 5221 Personal Communication Systems

Introduction to GSM
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 2
Course Outline
Part 1: Introduction
o Historical overview
o Elements of network architecture
o Elements of air interface
Part 2: Signal processing and network features
o Voice processing
o GSM Network features
Part 3: Network design
o Coverage planning
o Capacity planning
o Migration towards 3G and beyond
The GSM logo used on numerous
handsets and by carries who wish to
identify a GSM product
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 3
History
Driving Factors:
Incompatibility of the European analog cellular systems
Reaching of capacity limits
Costs of the equipment
1982, Conference of European Post and Telecommunications formed Group Speciale Mobile (GSM)
1987, 15 operators from 13 countries signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
1991, Finlands operator Radiolinia launched first GSM network in July 1991
1992, Massive deployment of GSM started
By 2000 GSM became the most popular 2G technology worldwide
GSM standard still evolving and enriched with new features and services

GSM = Global System for Mobile communications
(GSM: originally from Groupe Spcial Mobile)
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Deployment worldwide
930 networks in 222 countries and regions
More than 3 billion subscribers worldwide
More than 80% worldwide market share
Worldwide map of GSM coverage (source www.gsmworld.com)
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GSM in the USA
1994, US FCC auctioned large blocks of
spectrum in 1900MHz
GSM started deployment in PCS band
1995, American Personal
Communications launched first GSM
network
In 2002, 850 band opened for GSM
Currently there are ~ 95M GSM
subscribers
Largest GSM operators
ATT
T-Mobile


ATT coverage map
T-Mobile coverage map
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 6
GSM Standards
Divided into 12 series
Standardization efforts coordinated
by ETSI
www.etsi.org
Specifications available online
free of charge
Standardization and public
availability of specification - one of
fundamental factors of GSM
success

Series Specifications area
01 General
02 Service aspects
03 Network aspects
04 MS-BS interface and protocol
05 Physical layer and radio path
06 Speech coding specification
07 Terminal adapter for MS
08 BS-MSC interface
09 Network internetworking
10 Service internetworking
11 Equipment and type approval specification
12 Operation and maintenance
GSM Standard
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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GSM Network Layout
GSM system layout is standardized
o Standardization involves:
Elements of the network
Communication Interfaces
o Standard layout allows for the use of equipment from different suppliers
MSC
Area
HLR
MSC
Area
VLR
MSC TRAU BSC
BTS
BTS
BSS
MSC Area
BSS
BSS
BTS
PSTN
PLMN - Public Land Mobile Network
Gateway
MSC
NSS
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GSM Components and Interfaces
Network has many functional components
Components are integrated through a network protocol MAP
Standardized interfaces
Um (air interface)
A GERAN interface
A-Bis (somewhat standardized)
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Mobile Station (MS)
Two functional parts
o HW and SW specific for
GSM radio interface
o Subscriber Identity
Module (SIM)
SIM detaches user identity
from the mobile
o Stores user information
o Without SIM only
emergency calls
Functional diagram of GSM mobile
SIM card
Most popular GSM phone
Nokia 1100 200M+ sold
Keyboard
Control
Display
Transmit Audio
Signal
Processing
Receive Audio
Signal
Processing
Channel
Decoding
Deinterleaving
Message
Regenerator
Channel
Encoding
Interleaving
Message
Generator
Ciphering
Ciphering
RF
Processing
RF
Processing
SIM
Duplexer
Antenna
ANTENNA
ASSEMBLY
TRANSMITTER
RECEIVER
TRANSCEIVER UNIT
CONTROL
SECTION
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Base Transceiver Station (BTS)
BTS is a set of transceivers (TX/RX).
GSM BTS can host up to 16 TX/RX.
In GSM one TX/RX is shared by 8 users.
The main role of TX/RX is to provide
conversion between traffic data on the
network side and RF communication on
the MS side.
Depending on the application, it can be
configured as macrocell, microcell, omni,
sectored, etc.

Typical BTS installation
BTS antenna system
Macrocell BTS radio
cabinet hosts TX/RX
Femto-cell
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BSC plays a role of a small digital exchange.
It can be connected to many BTSs and it offloads a great deal of
processing from MSC
One BSC connects to several tens to couple of hundred BTS
Some of BSC responsibilities:
o Handoff management
o MAHO management
o Power control
o Clock distribution
o Operation and maintenance
TRAU is responsible for transcoding the user data from 16Kb/sec
to standard ISDN rates of 64Kb/sec.
It can physically reside on either BSC side or MSC side.
If it resides on the MSC side, it provides substantial changes in
the backhaul 4 users over a single T-1/E-1 TDMA channel.
TRAU, BSC and BTSs form Base Station Subsystem (BSS


Base Station Controller (BSC) and TRAU
Typical BSC
TRAU = Transcoding and Rate Adaptation Unit
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Responsible for connecting the mobile to the
landline side
GSM MSC is commonly designed as a regular
ISDN switch with some added functionality for
mobility support
GSM Network can have more than one MSC
One of the MSC has an added functionality for
communication with public network Gateway
MSC (GMSC)
All calls from the outside networks are routed
through GMSC


Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
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Registry HLR/VLR
HLR Home Location Registry
Database for permanent or semi-
permanent data associated with the user
Logically, there is only one HLR per
network
Typical information stored in HLR:
International Mobile Service Identification
Number (IMSI), service subscription
information, supplementary services,
current location of the subscriber, etc.
HLR is usually implemented as an
integral part of MSC

VLR Visitor Location registry
Temporary database that keeps the
information about the users within the
service area of the MSC
Usually there is one VLR per MSC
The main task of the VLR is to reduce
the number of queries to HLR. When
the mobile, registers on the system its
information is copied from HLR to VLR
VLR is usually integrated with the switch

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AUC/EIR
AUC Authentication center
Integral part of HLR
GSM specifies elaborate
encryption
Three levels
o A5/1 USA + Europe
o A5/2 COCOM country list
o No encryption rest of the
world
EIR Equipment Identity Registry
Responsible for tracking equipment
and eligibility for service
Maintains three lists
o White list approved mobile
types
o Black list barred mobile types
o Gray list tracked mobile
types



Over years many other vendor specific features added to the system
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 15
GSM Air Interface - Um
Interface between the MS and the GSM network
Subject to rigorous standardization process
We examine:
o Channelization
o Multiple access scheme
o Interface organization:
On the physical level
On the logical level



ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Frequency allocation
For PCS-1900 band
o ARFCNul = (Fc-1850)/0.2+511; ARFCNdl = (Fc-1930)/0.2+511
For GSM-850
o ARFCNul = (Fc-824)/0.2+127; ARFCNdl = (Fc-969)/0.2+127


Mapping formulas
GSM is FDD technology
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TDMA Access Scheme
Multiple users operate on the same
frequency, but not at the same time.
Advantages of TDMA:
o Relatively low complexity
o MAHO
o Different user rates can be
accommodated
o Easier integration with the
landline
Disadvantages:
o High sync overhead
o Guard times
o Heavily affected by the
multipath propagation

Uplink ( From MS to BS)
Wireless Communication Channel
Downlink ( From BS to MS )
Base Station
f
u0,
s
1
f
d0,
s
1
, s
2
, ...,s
8
S
1
S
2
S
3
.... S
8
s
1
s
7
s
8
....
s
1
s
2
s
3
f
u0,
s
2
f
u0,
s
8
TDMA = Time Division Multiple Access
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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GSM as a TDMA system
GSM is a
combination of
FDMA and TDMA
TDMA supports:
o Up to 8 full rate
users
o Up to 16 half rate
users
GSM uses
Frequency Division
Duplexing


BTS
USER 1 USER 2 .... USER 8
USER 6 USER 7 USER 8 USER 1
USER 1,
ARFCN
1
USER 2,
ARFCN
1
USER 8,
ARFCN
1
USER 9,
ARFCN
2
USER 10,
ARFCN
2
USER 16,
ARFCN
2
ARFCN
1
ARFCN
2
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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GSM bursts
Data sent over one time slot =
burst
Five types: normal, frequency
correction, synchronization,
dummy, access
Format of a burst defied by its
function
DL: normal, frequency correction,
synchronization, dummy
UL: normal, access

Time/Frequency/Amplitude diagram for GSM
normal burst
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Normal Burst
Used to carry information on both control and traffic channels
Mixture of data and overhead
GSM defines 8 training sequences assigned in color code mode
Both on the forward and reverse link
Total of 114 encoded user information bits
Total of 34 overhead bits
Tail Traffic/Signaling Flag Training Sequence Flag Traffic/Signaling Tail
3 57 1
26 1 57 3
Normal burst
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Frequency Correction Burst
Sometimes referred to as the F-burst
Provides mobile with precise reference to the frequency of the broadcast control
channel
Inserting the F-bursts on the control channel produces spectral peak 67.7 KHz
above the central frequency of the carrier
Only on the forward link



Spectral characteristics of the control
channel.
The peak in the spectrum allows for
easier MS network acquisition
Format of the F-burst
Fixed sequence consists of all zeros
f
c
f
c
+67.7 KHz frequency
Power Spectrum Density
BW = 200KHz
Tail Fixed Bit Sequence (All zeros) Tail
3 3
142
Frequency correction burst
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Synchronization Burst
Facilitates the synchronization of the MS to the network at the base band
Commonly referred to as S-burst
Only on the forward link
The same sync sequence is used in all GSM networks

Tail Synchronization Training Sequence Synchronization Tail
3 3 39 39 64
Synchronization burst
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Dummy Burst
Supports MAHO
Used to ensure constant power level of the broadcast
control channel
Only on the forward link

Tail Predefined Bit Sequence Tail
3 3
142
Dummy burst
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Access Burst
Used when the MS is accessing the system
Shorter in length burst collision avoidance
Extended synchronization sequence
Used only on the reverse link

GSM mobiles use slotted ALOHA to access the system
In the case of collision a hashing algorithm is provided
Tail Synchronization Access Bits Tail
8
41 36 3
Access burst
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GSM TDMA Hierarchical Organization
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 21 22 23 24 25
1 TDMA Frame
4.615 ms
26 Multiframe
120 ms
51 Multiframe
235.4 ms
51 x 26 Superframe or 26 x 51 Superframe
6s 120 ms
Hyperframe
3 h 28 min 53 s 760 ms
0 1 2 3 4 48 49 50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2043 2044 2045 2046 2047
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 46 47 48 49 50
0 1 2 3 4 23 24 25
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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GSM Time Division Duplex
Communication on the forward and reverse link does not
happen simultaneously
Delay of three slots between TX and RX
Time division duplexing avoids RF duplexer at the RF stage
o Reduces the cost of mobile
o Saves battery


0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 0
1 2 3 4 5 7 6 5
Forward Link - BTS Transmits
Reverse Link - MS Transmits
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GSM Logical Channels
GSM Logical
Channels
TCH
TCH/F TCH/H
CCH
BCH CCCH DCCH
CBCH
ACCH SDCCH
FACCH SACCH
FCCH
SCH
BCCH
PCH
AGCH
RACH
TCH - Traff ic Channel
TCH/F - Traf fic Channel (Full Rate)
TCH/H - Traf fic Channel (Half Rate)
BCH - Broadcast Channels
FCCH - Frequency Correction Channel
SCH - Synchronization Channel
BCCH - Broadcast Control Channel
CCCH - Common Control Channels
PCH - Paging Channel
AGCH - Access Grant Channel
RACH - Random Access Channel
DCCH - Dedicated Control Channels
SDCCH - Stand-alone Dedicated
Control Channel
ACCH - Associated Control Channels
SACCH - Slow Associated Control
Channel
FACCH - Fast Associated Control
Channel
CCH - Control Channel
CBCH - Cell Broadcast Channel
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Traffic channel carries speech and user data in both directions
o Full rate ~ 33.85 Kb/sec
o Half rate ~ 16.93 Kb/sec
o Full rate uses 1 slot in every frame
o Half rate uses 1 slot in every other frame





Data rates differ due to differences in Error Control Coding

Traffic Channels (TCH)
Full Rate TCH can carry:
Voice (13 Kb/sec)
Date at rates:
-9.6 Kb/sec
-4.8 Kb/sec
-2.4 Kb/sec
Half Rate TCH can carry:
Voice (6.5 Kb/sec)
Date at rates:
-4.8 Kb/sec
-2.4 Kb/sec
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Control Channels
GSM Defines 3 types of Control Channels:
1. Broadcast Channels (BCH)
Broadcast information that helps mobile
system acquisition, frame synchronization,
etc. They advertise properties and
services of the GSM network.
Forward link only
2. Common Control Channels (CCCH)
Facilitate establishment of the link between
MS and system
Both forward and reverse link
3. Dedicated Control Channels (DCCH)
Provide for exchange the control
information when the call is in progress
Both forward and reverse in band
signaling


CCH
BCH
CCCH
DCCH
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Broadcast Channels (BCH)
Three types of BCH:
1. Synchronization channel (SCH)
Provides a known sequence that helps mobile
synchronization
at the baseband
Communicates with S-burst
Broadcasts Base Station Identity Code (BSIC)
2. Frequency Correction channel (FCH)
Helps mobile tune its RF oscillator
Communicates with F-burst
3. Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH)
Provides mobile with various information
about network, its services, access
parameters, neighbor list, etc.


BCH
SCH
FCH
BCCH
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Broadcast Channels (BCH) contd.
In general, the information sent over BCCH can be grouped into four categories:
1) Information about the network
2) Information describing control channel structure
3) Information defining the options available at the particular cell
4) Access parameters

Some BCCH messages
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
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Common Control Channel (CCCH)
Three types of CCCH:
1. Random Access Channel (RACH)
Used by mobile to initialize communication
Mobiles use slotted ALOHA
Reverse link only
2. Paging Channel (PCH)
Used by the system to inform the mobile
about an incoming call
Forward link only
GSM Supports DRX
3. Access Grant Channel (AGC)
Used to send the response to the mobiles
request for DCCH
Forward link only

CCCH
RACH
PCH
AGC
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Dedicated Control Channels (DCCH)
Three types of DCCH:
1. Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel
(SDCCH)
Used to exchange overhead information
when
the call is not in progress
2. Slow Associated Control Channel (SACCH)
Used to exchange time delay tolerant
overhead
information when the call is in progress
3. Fast Associated Control Channel (FACCH)
Used to exchange time critical information
when the call is in progress


DCCH
SDCCH
SACCH
FACCH
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Logical Channels - Summary
UL - Uplink DL - Downlink
Channel UL only DL only UL/DL Point to
point
Broadcast Dedicated Shared
BCCH X X X
FCCH X X X
SCH X X X
RACH X X X
PCH X X X
AGCH X X X
SDDCH X X X
SACCH X X X
FACCH X X X
TCH X X X
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Timing Advance
Mobiles randomly
distributed in space
Timing advance
prevents burst collision
on the reverse link
Maximum
advancement is 63
bits

BTS
SLOT 0 SLOT 1 SLOT 2 SLOT 3 SLOT 4 SLOT 5
MS
2
MS
1
d
2
, Slot 2
d
1
, Slot 1
d
1
> d
2
MS
2
MS
1
T
1
T
2
Collision
T
1
- Delay of MS
1
Signal
T
2
- Delay of MS
2
Signal
SLOT 7 SLOT 6
km 35
bit
s
10 693 . 3 bit 63
s
m
10 3
2
1
max
6 8
~
|
.
|

\
|
=

D
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 36
Signal Processing
From Voice to Radio Waves
Sampling,
Quantization and
source encoding
Channel
Encoding
(Error Correction
Coding)
Interleaving
Burst
Formating
Mapping
De-
Ciphering
Modulation
De-Modulation
Ciphering
Burst
Formating
Mapping
De
-Interleaving
Channel
Decoding
(Error Correction )
Source Decoding
and Wavef orm
Generation
Um
Interf ace
Voice
Signal
Voice
Signal
Transmit Side
Receive Side
As a digital TDMA technology GSM implements extensive
signal processing

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Sampling and Quantization
Sampling
o Sampling theorem
specifies conditions for
discretization of band
limited analog signals
o Voice needs to be
sampled at the sampling
rate greater then
8000Hz
Quantization
o Discrete values
assigned to continuous
samples
o Quantization noise
o In GSM, voice is
sampled at 8 K
samples/sec and
quantized with 8192
levels (13 bit words)
111 +3V
110 +2V
101 +1V
0V
001 -1V
010 -2V
011 -3V
111 +3V
110 +2V
101 +1V
0V
001 -1V
010 -2V
011 -3V
Analog Signal
Sampling Pulse
PAM
101 110 101 100 010 010 010 100 111 111
PCM
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Speech Source Encoding
Speech coder reduces the data rate
needed for voice signal representation
GSM specifies operation of :
o Full rate vocoder
13Kb/sec
o Half rate vocoder
5.6Kb/sec
o Enhanced Full Rate (EFR)
12.2Kb/sec
o AMR (Adaptive multi rate)
AMR-FR (4.75-12.2Kb/sec)
AMR-HR (4.75-7.95Kb/sec)
AMR rate - function of C/I


BPF
A/D
converter
SPEECH
ENCODER
CHANNEL
CODING
TO
MODULATOR
MICROPHONE
BAND-PASS
300 Hz-3.4 kHz
SPEECH
DECODER
CHANNEL
DECODER
LP
LOW-PASS
4 kHz
D/A
converter
Vocoders enable efficient channel
utilization
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 39
Performance comparison of some
commercial vocoders
Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) - Voice Quality
source IIR. The First Annual CDMA Congress
London, Oct. 29-30, 1997
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Clean Speech 20dB SNR
Babble
20dB SNR
Car
15dB SNR
Street
Mu-PCM
8Kb/s EVRC
(CDMA)
13Kb/s CELP
(CDMA)
IS-136 ACELP
GSM EFR

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Error control coding (ECC) increases the robustness of the
signal
ECC increases the overhead and reduces the efficiency of the
communication
In GSM, the ECC increases the overhead per user by 57%

Channel Encoding
TYPE Ia
BITS
TYPE II
BITS
TYPE Ib
BITS
CONVOLUTIONAL
ENCODER
r=1/2
K=5
M
U
X
ERROR DETECTING CODE
50
132
78
3
4
189
189
378
456
0
TO
INTERLEAVER
F
R
O
M


V
O
C
O
D
E
R
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 41
Interleaving
In mobile
communications, the
errors are bursty
Optimal performance
from ECC is obtained for
uniform error
distribution
Interleaving increases
the performance of ECC
in mobile environment
(
(
(
(
(
(

25 20 15 10 5
24 19 14 9 4
23 18 13 8 3
22 17 12 7 2
21 16 11 6 1
b b b b b
b b b b b
b b b b b
b b b b b
b b b b b
Data is written
column-wise
Data is read
row-wise

Interleaver
b
1
b
2
b
3
b
4
b
5
b
6
b
7
b
8
b
9
b
10
b
11
b
12
b
13
b
14
b
25
b
16
b
17
b
18
b
19
b
20
...
b
1
b
6
b
11
b
16
b
21
b
2
b
7
b
12
b
17
b
22
b
3
b
8
b
13
b
18
b
23
b
4
b
9
b
14
b
19
b
24
..
Burst Error
Caused by
Rayleigh Fading
Errors are spread over the bit stream
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 42
Modulation: GMSK (Gaussian MSK)
GMSK has excellent spectral
characteristics
o Low sidelobes
o Robust to non- linearities
Price paid is in the increased
Inter Symbol Interference (ISI)
Simplified GMSK block diagram
MSK
Filtered MSK
GMSK
(f-f
o
) / Rb 0 1 2 3
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
POWER SPECTRAL
DENSITY
dB
Spectral
characteristics
of GMSK
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 43
Tail Traffic/Signaling Flag Training Sequence Flag Traffic/Signaling Tail
3 57 1 26 1 57 3
Sequence used for equalizer training
Equalization
Necessary due to the multipath
propagation
Needs to have :
o Fast convergence
o Low complexity
Two modes of operation
1. Training
2. Equalization
GSM equalizer capable of equalizing for
two equal multi paths separated by 16
microseconds
Introduces overhead of about 18%

RF
Processing
Adaptive
Equalizer
Equalization
Algorithm
Extraction of
Synchronization
Bits
Unequalized
Data
Equalized
Data
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 44
GSM Network Features
Mobile Assist Handoff (MAHO)
Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
Dynamic Power Control (DPC)
Frequency Hopping (FH)
Intercell Handoff

ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 45
Mobile Assisted Handoff (MAHO)
GSM Implements
MAHO
In the process of
evaluating handoff
candidates, GSM
systems evaluate
measurements
performed by both the
MS and BTS

There are three types
of measurements:

1. Signal Strength
Measurements
2. Signal Quality
Measurements
3. Timing Advance
Measurements
Measurement
type
Link Cell DTX Measurement
Source
RSL Downlink Serving Cell Full Set Mobile
RSL Downlink Serving Cell Subset Mobile
RSL Downlink Neighbors N/A Mobile
Quality Downlink Serving Cell Full Set Mobile
Quality Downlink Serving Cell Subset Mobile
RSL Uplink Serving Cell Full Set BTS
RSL Uplink Serving Cell Subset BTS
RSL Uplink Neighbors Full Set BTS
RSL Uplink Neighbors Subset BTS
Quality Uplink Serving Cell Full Set BTS
Quality Uplink Serving Cell Subset BTS
Timing Advance Uplink Serving Cell N/A BTS
Measurement
type
Link Cell DTX Measurement
Source
RSL Downlink Serving Cell Full Set Mobile
RSL Downlink Serving Cell Subset Mobile
RSL Downlink Neighbors N/A Mobile
Quality Downlink Serving Cell Full Set Mobile
Quality Downlink Serving Cell Subset Mobile
RSL Uplink Serving Cell Full Set BTS
RSL Uplink Serving Cell Subset BTS
RSL Uplink Neighbors Full Set BTS
RSL Uplink Neighbors Subset BTS
Quality Uplink Serving Cell Full Set BTS
Quality Uplink Serving Cell Subset BTS
Timing Advance Uplink Serving Cell N/A BTS
Measurement
type
Measurement
type
Link Link Cell Cell DTX DTX Measurement
Source
Measurement
Source
RSL RSL Downlink Downlink Serving Cell Serving Cell Full Set Full Set Mobile Mobile
RSL RSL Downlink Downlink Serving Cell Serving Cell Subset Subset Mobile Mobile
RSL RSL Downlink Downlink Neighbors Neighbors N/A N/A Mobile Mobile
Quality Quality Downlink Downlink Serving Cell Serving Cell Full Set Full Set Mobile Mobile
Quality Quality Downlink Downlink Serving Cell Serving Cell Subset Subset Mobile Mobile
RSL RSL Uplink Uplink Serving Cell Serving Cell Full Set Full Set BTS BTS
RSL RSL Uplink Uplink Serving Cell Serving Cell Subset Subset BTS BTS
RSL RSL Uplink Uplink Neighbors Neighbors Full Set Full Set BTS BTS
RSL RSL Uplink Uplink Neighbors Neighbors Subset Subset BTS BTS
Quality Quality Uplink Uplink Serving Cell Serving Cell Full Set Full Set BTS BTS
Quality Quality Uplink Uplink Serving Cell Serving Cell Subset Subset BTS BTS
Timing Advance Timing Advance Uplink Uplink Serving Cell Serving Cell N/A N/A BTS BTS
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 46
MAHO - Signal Strength Measurements
Performed on uplink and downlink
Reported as a quantized value RXLEV:
RXLEV = RSL[dBm] + 110
Minimum RXLEV:
-110, MAX RXLEV = -47
On the downlink, measurement
performed for both serving cell and up
to 32 neighbors
Up to 6 strongest neighbors are
reported back to BTS through SACHH



Example measurement report
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 47
MAHO - Signal Strength Measurements
Measurements of the
neighbors are performed on
the BCCH channels not
affected by the DTX
Measurements on the serving
channel affected by the
DTX.
Perform over a subset of
SACCH that guarantees
transmission even in the case
of active DTX
Before processing, the RXLEV
measurements are filtered to
prevent unnecessary handoffs
-100
-90
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Measurement
R
X

L
E
V

(
d
B
m
)
510
520
530
540
550
560
570
580
B
C
C
H

A
R
F
C
N
RX LEV (dBm) BCCH
Example RSL measurement
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 48
MAHO Signal Quality Measurements
Performed on uplink and downlink
Only on the serving channel
Reported as a quantized value RXQUAL
For a good quality call RXQUAL < 3
Measurements are averaged before the
handoff processing
If DTX is active, the measurements are
performed over the subset of SACCH that
guarantees transmission


RXQUAL BER
0 Less than 0.1
1 0.26 to 0.30
2 0.51 to 0.64
3 1.0 to 1.3
4 1.9 to 2.7
5 3.8 to 5.4
6 7.6 to 11.0
7 Above 15
RXQUAL BER
0 Less than 0.1
1 0.26 to 0.30
2 0.51 to 0.64
3 1.0 to 1.3
4 1.9 to 2.7
5 3.8 to 5.4
6 7.6 to 11.0
7 Above 15
RXQUAL RXQUAL BER BER
00 Less than 0.1 Less than 0.1
11 0.26 to 0.30 0.26 to 0.30
22 0.51 to 0.64 0.51 to 0.64
33 1.0 to 1.3 1.0 to 1.3
44 1.9 to 2.7 1.9 to 2.7
55 3.8 to 5.4 3.8 to 5.4
66 7.6 to 11.0 7.6 to 11.0
77 Above 15 Above 15
RXQUAL mapping table
RXQUAL
measurements
Measurement report
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 49
Performed on uplink (BTS)
Only on the serving channel
Used by the BTS to estimate
distance to the MS
Expressed in number of bits
of TX advancement
Can be between 0 and 63
TA


MAHO Time Alignment Measurement
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 50
Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
Typical voice activity is around 60%
DTX discontinues transmission during
silent periods
Benefits of DTX
o Uplink:
System interference reduction
Lower battery consumption
o Downlink
System interference reduction
Reduction of the intermodulation
products
Lower power consumptions
Downsides of DTX usage:
o MAHO measurements are less accurate
o Voice quality is degraded due to
slowness of VAD
Mobile station Environment Typical
voice
activity
Handset Quiet location 55%
Handset Moderate office noise
with voice interference
60%
Handset Strong voice
interference (ex. airport,
railway station)
65-70%
Hands free /
handset
Variable vehicle noise 60%
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 51
Dynamic Power Control (DPC)


There are three reasons for DPC:
1. Reduction of battery consumption
2. Elimination of near-far problem
3. Reduction of system interference
Power Class GSM (900MHz)
[W]
PCS - 1900 / GSM 1800
[W]
1 20
(1)
1
2 8 0.24
3 5 Not Defined
4 2 Not Defined
5 0.8 Not Defined
Power Class GSM (900MHz)
[W]
PCS - 1900 / GSM 1800
[W]
1 20
(1)
1
2 8 0.24
3 5 Not Defined
4 2 Not Defined
5 0.8 Not Defined
Power Class Power Class GSM (900MHz)
[W]
GSM (900MHz)
[W]
PCS - 1900 / GSM 1800
[W]
PCS - 1900 / GSM 1800
[W]
1 1 20
(1)
20
(1)
1 1
2 2 8 8 0.24 0.24
3 3 5 5 Not Defined Not Defined
4 4 2 2 Not Defined Not Defined
5 5 0.8 0.8 Not Defined Not Defined
(1) Not available commercially
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 52
Dynamic Power Control (DPC)
DPC for MS
o Depending on its power class, MS can adjust its power between the max and min
value in 2dB steps
o MS can perform 13 adjustments every SACCH period, i.e., 480ms
o Large adjustments > 24 dB will not be completed before the arrival of new
command
o Commonly implemented as BSC feature. Many vendors are moving it at the BTS
level
DPC for BTS
o Vendor specific
o Based on MAHO reports
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 53
Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS)
Incorporates various cell sizes into
layers of RF coverage
Three common layers:
1. Umbrella cells (HL = 0)
2. Macrocells (HL = 1)
3. Microcell (HL = 2)
HCS provides a way to assign
preference levels between the cells
Very effective way for capacity and
interference management

Signal
Strength
Reselection
Points
Select Micro-Cell
SS_SUFF
Macrocel
Preferred
Micro-Cell
Distance
HL = 1
HL = 2
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 54
Handling of Fast Moving Mobiles
If the mobile is moving at a high speed, it will
spend a short time in the coverage area of the
microcell
To prevent excessive handoffs, a temporal
GSM introduces temporal penalty prevents
immediate handoff initialization
If the duration of mobile stay within the
coverage area is shorter than the temporal
penalty, it will never initialize handoff


ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 55
Frequency Hopping (FH)
FH - multiple carriers used over the course of radio transmission
o There are two kinds of FH:
1. Slow Hopping change of carrier frequency happens at the rate
slower than the symbol rate
2. Fast Hoping carrier frequency changes faster than the symbol
rate
o GSM implements slow FH Scheme
o Carrier frequency is changed once per time slot
o There are two reasons for frequency hopping
1. Frequency Diversity
2. Interference avoidance

ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 56
Frequency Diversity of FH
Mobile environment is
characterized with small
scale fading
The depth of signal fade
is a function frequency
If two signals are
sufficiently separated in
frequency domain they
fade independently
Frequency diversity gain
diminishes for fast
moving mobiles

ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 57
Interference Avoidance of FH
FH averages interference
Allows for tighter reuse of frequencies
Increases the capacity of the system

User 1
User 2
User 3
User 4
User 5
f
1
f
4
f
1
f
1
f
1
f
1
f
1
f
2
f
2
f
2
f
2
f
3
f
4
f
1
f
1
f
2
f
3
f
3
f
4
f
1
f
4
f
3
f
1
f
3
f
4
4T T 2T 3T 5T
4T T 2T 3T 5T
4T T 2T 3T 5T
4T T 2T 3T 5T
4T T 2T 3T 5T
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 58
Baseband FH in GSM
Each radio operates on a
fixed frequency
The bursts are routed to
individual radios in
accordance to their hopping
sequence

Advantages of baseband hopping
No need to real time retune simpler
radios
More efficient combiners
Disadvantage of baseband hopping
Number of hopping frequencies limited
by the number of radios

TX/RX
TX/RX
TX/RX
Carri er
Freuqnacy
f
1
Combiner
Carri er
Freuqnacy
f
2
Carri er
Freuqnacy
f
n
1
2
n
Bus for Routing
and Switchning
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 59
Synthesized FH in GSM
Each radio is hopping in an
independent way
Radios retune real time
Advantages of synthesized hopping:
Set of the hopping frequencies can be assigned in
an arbitrary way
Disadvantage of synthesized hopping:
Need for expensive and lossy combiners

TX/RX
TX/RX
TX/RX
Carri er
Freuqnacy
f
0
,f
1
,...,f
m
Broadband
Combiner
1
2
n
Carri er
Freuqnacy
f
0
,f
1
,...,f
m
Carri er
Freuqnacy
f
0
,f
1
,...,f
m
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 60
FH Algorithms
Random Hopping
Implemented in a pseudo random way
Uses one of 63 available pseudorandom sequences
The actual frequency is obtained as a modulo operation with
number of available frequencies in allocation list (FH group)

, , , , , , ,
3 2 1 4 3 2 1
f f f f f f f
, , , , , , ,
3 2 3 4 4 2 1
f f f f f f f
Cyclic Hopping
o Frequencies are used in the consecutive order
o If the radio is performing cyclic FH the order of frequencies in the
sequence goes from the lowest ARFCN to the highest ARFCN
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 61
Intracell Handoff
High Interference
Measurement indicates:

o Poor RXQUAL
o Good RXLEV

There is high probability that the call will improve with the handoff to
different carrier within the same cell
To avoid unnecessary handoffs, system introduces maximum number
of intercell handoffs


ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 62
GSM RF Planning / Design
Link Budget and Nominal Cell Radius Calculation
Receiver Sensitivity
Required C/I ratio
Mobile Transmit Power
Examples of Link Budget
Calculation of a Nominal Cell Radius
Frequency Planning and Reuse Strategies
Frequency Planning Using Regular Schemes
Automatic Frequency Planning
Capacity of GSM Networks

ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 63
Migration:
1. High speed circuits
switched data
(HSCSD)
2. Packet switched data
(GPRS,EDGE)
3. Integrated packet
services possibly
under different access
scheme (UMTS)

GSM Migration Towards 3G
GSM 2+
9.6 Kb/sec
HSCSD
64 Kb/sec
GPRS
114 Kb/sec
EDGE
384 Kb/sec
UMTS
2Mb/sec
1999
1Q
2000
2Q
2000
3Q
2001
4Q
2002
Timeline
Data Rate
HSCSD - High Speed Circuit Switched Data
GPRS - General Packet Radio System
EDGE - Enhanced Data GSM Environment
UMTS - Universal Mobile Telephone Service
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 64
GSM 2+ Data Services
GSMs traffic channel can support the data transfer of a bit rate up to
9.6Kb/sec
o This data rate can be used for:
Short messages
Fax services
E-mail, etc.
o Circuit switched data services
o Not suitable for Internet
Too slow
Too costly (user would pay for the circuit even if there is no
traffic exchanged

ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 65
High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD)
HSCSD is using existing GSM organization to provide data
services of a somewhat higher data rates
It can combine several existing traffic channels into a single
connection, i.e., it allows for mobiles multislot operation
HSCSD can be implemented through software upgrades on
existing networks and no hardware upgrades are needed
Seems to be less accepted by the service providers

ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 66
GPRS is another new transmission capability for GSM that will be especially
developed to accommodate for high-bandwidth data traffic
GPRS will handle rates from 14.4Kbps using just one TDMA slot, and up to
115Kbps and higher using all eight time slots
It introduces packet switching - can accommodate the data traffic
characteristics

General Packed Radio Data (GPRS)
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 67
GPRS Network architecture
New type of
node:
GPRS Service
Node (GSN)
BSC
BSC
MSC
VLR
HLR
AUC
EIR
BTS
BTS
BTS
BTS
BTS - Base Station
BSC - Base Station Contoller
MSC - Mobile Switching Center
VLR - Visitor Location Register
HLR - Home Location Register
AUC - Authentif ication Center
EIR - Equipment Identity Register
Um
Interface
A-Bis
Interface
A
Interface
D
C
PSTN
B
B,C,D,E,F - MAP
Interfaces
SGSN
GGSN
SGSN - Service GPRS Support Node
GGSN - Gateway GPRS Support Node
Gn
Interface
Gr
Outside
Packet
Network
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 68
GPRS Call routing
SGSN
GGSN
GGSN
SGSN
BTS
BTS
GPRS - PDN
GPRS - PDN
Routing is performed parallel to the GSM network
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 69
Packet switched
Upgrades the modulation scheme
o From GMSK to 8-PSK
o Maximum speed ~59 Kb/sec per time slot, ~473.6 Kb/sec for all 8 time slots
o Variable data rate depending on the channel conditions
Defines several different classes of service and mobile terminals

Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE)
EDGE enabled data mobile
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 70
Practically achievable data rates
Theoretical rates are constrained by mobile
power and processing capabilities
Most mobiles support less than the maximum
allowed by standard
Practically achievable data rates
ECE Department Florida Institute of Technology
Page 71
UMTS 3G cellular service
Provides data rates up to 2Mb/sec
Possibly standardized as W-CDMA

Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS)
Outline of UMTS
(WCDMA) network