GSM Operations & Maintenance

BSNL, Lucknow

BSNL - History
On October 1st, 2000, the Department of Telecom Operations, Government of India became a corporation and was christened Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). It is the largest public sector undertaking of India in telecom. Its 99.9% exchanges are digital. In order to manage efficiently and better way U.P. Telecom Circle was bifurcated into two separate Circles viz., U.P. (East) Telecom Circle with Headquarters at Lucknow and U.P. (West) Telecom Circle with Headquarters at Meerut.

GSM - Introduction
Global System for Mobile (GSM) is a second generation cellular standard developed to cater voice services and data delivery using digital modulation.

GSM - History
Developed by Group Spciale Mobile (founded 1982) which was an initiative of CEPT ( Conference of European Post and Telecommunication) Aim : to replace the incompatible analog system Presently the responsibility of GSM standardization resides with special mobile group under ETSI ( European telecommunication Standards Institute ) Full set of specifications phase-I became available in 1990 Under ETSI, GSM is named as Global System for Mobile communication Today many providers all over the world use GSM (more than 135 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, America) More than 1300 million subscribers in world and 45 million subscriber in India.

GSM Network Architecture

GSM System Architecture

Mobile Station (MS)
Mobile Equipment (ME) Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)

Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

Base Transceiver Station (BTS) Base Station Controller (BSC)

Network Switching Subsystem(NSS)

Mobile Switching Center (MSC) Home Location Register (HLR) Visitor Location Register (VLR) Authentication Center (AUC) Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

GSM System Architecture cont

Mobile Station (MS)
The Mobile Station is made up of two entities: 1.Mobile Equipment (ME) 2. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)

GSM System Architecture cont

Mobile Station - SIM Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
Smart card contains the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) Allows user to send and receive calls and receive other subscribed services Encoded network identification details - Key Ki,Kc and A3,A5 and A8 algorithms Protected by a password or PIN Can be moved from phone to phone contains key information to activate the phone

GSM System Architecture cont

Base Station Subsystem
BSS is composed of two parts that communicate across the standardized Abis interface allowing operation between components made by different suppliers
1.Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 2.Base Station Controller (BSC)

GSM System Architecture cont

Base Transceiver Station (BTS):
Encodes, encrypts, multiplexes,modulates and feeds the RF signals to the antenna. Frequency hopping Communicates with Mobile station and BSC Consists of Transceivers (TRX) units

GSM System Architecture cont

Base Station Controller (BSC)
Manages Radio resources for BTS Assigns Frequency and time slots for all MSs in its area Handles call set up Transcoding and rate adaptation functionality Handover for each MS Radio Power control It communicates with MSC and BTS

GSM System Architecture cont

Mobile Switching Center (MSC) Heart of the network Manages communication between GSM and other networks Call setup function and basic switching Call routing Billing information and collection Mobility management
- Registration - Location Updating - Inter BSS and inter MSC call handoff

MSC does gateway function while its customer roams to other network by using HLR/VLR.

GSM System Architecture cont

Home Location Registers (HLR)
- permanent database about mobile subscribers in a large service area(generally one per GSM network operator) - database contains IMSI,MSISDN,prepaid/postpaid,roaming restrictions,supplementary services.

Visitor Location Registers (VLR)

- Temporary database which updates whenever new MS enters its area, by HLR database - Controls those mobiles roaming in its area - Reduces number of queries to HLR - Database contains IMSI,TMSI,MSISDN,MSRN,Location Area,authentication key

GSM System Architecture cont

Authentication Center (AUC)
- Protects against intruders in air interface - Maintains authentication keys and algorithms and provides security triplets ( RAND,SRES,Kc) - Generally associated with HLR

Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

- Database that is used to track handsets using the IMEI
(International Mobile Equipment Identity) - Made up of three sub-classes: The White List, The Black List and the Gray List - Only one EIR per PLMN

GSM - Operation
Speech Speech

Speech coding

Speech decoding Channel decoding De-interleaving Burst Formatting De-ciphering

13 Kbps Channel Coding

22.8 Kbps Interleaving 22.8 Kbps Burst Formatting

33.6 Kbps
Ciphering 33.6 Kbps

Modulation

Radio Interface
270.83 Kbps

Demodulation

Core Technologies
2G - Second generation telephone technology is based on. Second generation was launched in Finland in the year 1991. 2G networks are fully digital while their predecessors were analog. Three primary benefits Improved voice quality (less noise) Longer battery life Encryption 2.5G Second and a Half generation telephone technology was the stepping stone between 2G and 3G cellular wireless technology. It can provide some of the benefits of 3G and can use some of the existing 2G infrastructure in GSM and CDMA.

Core Technologies cont

3G Third Generation telephone technology is the superseding technology to 2G and preceding 4G. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) defined the third generation (3G) of mobile telephony standards IMT-2000 to facilitate growth, increase bandwidth, and support more diverse applications. Service includes wide area wireless voice telephony , video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. It incorporates high speed Internet access.

Future of 3G
3G evolution (pre-4G) The standardization of 3G evolution is progressing in both 3GPP and 3GPP2. The corresponding specifications of 3GPP and 3GPP2 evolutions are named as LTE and UMB, respectively. 3G evolution uses partly beyond 3G technologies to enhance the performance and to make a smooth migration path. A 4g network is in the pipe line, capable of speeds of 100Mbit/s while moving and 1Gbit/s stationary. This however will take some time.

Thank you!