Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular System
Fundamentals and Call Setup
Instructor: Engr. Prof. Dr. Noor M. Khan

Center for Research in Wireless Communications

Department of Electronic Engineering,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah University,
Islamabad Campus, Islamabad, PAKISTAN
Ph: +92 (51) 111-878787, Ext. 116
email: noor@ieee.org, noormkhan@jinnah.edu.pk

MSC PSTN

Cellular System Fundamentals EE/ECE6473 Cellular Mobile Communications © Dr. Noor M Khan
and Call Setup 1
Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular System

MSC PSTN

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Telephone System

Structure
• A cellular telephone system consists of:
– Mobile stations (MS)
• Handheld or vehicular
– Base stations (BS)
• Towers supporting several transceivers
– Mobile switching center (MSC) or mobile
telephone switching office (MTSO)
• Activity control of all BS, connects to PSTN

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular System Radio

Interface
• The common air interface (CAI) defines
communication between BS and MS
• Types of channels used in a mobile system:
– Forward voice channel (FVC)
forward
– Forward control channel (FCC)
– Reverse voice channel (RVC)
– Reverse control channel (RCC)
reverse
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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Telephone System

• Forward voice channel (FVC)
– BS to MS voice transmission
• Reverse voice channel (RVC)
– MS to BS voice transmission
• Forward control channel (FCC) and Reverse
control channel (RCC)
– Setting up mobile call and moving it to voice
channel

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Identity Cards

• Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
– Network-specific information
• ICCID
• IMSI
• Authentication Key (Ki)
• Local Area Identity (LAI)
• Operator-Specific Emergency Number
– Carrier-specific data
• SMSC (Short Message Service Center) number
• Service Provider Name (SPN),
• Service Dialing Numbers (SDN)
• Advice-Of-Charge parameters
• Value Added Service (VAS) applications
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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Identity Cards

• Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC)
• developed for GSM and WCDMA contains
– SIM for GSM
– USIM for WCDMA
• Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC)
• developed for CDMA2000 contains
– CSIM

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Identity Cards

• Removable User Identity Module (R-UIM)
• developed for joint services contains
– CSIM for CDMA-based systems, CDMA2000, IS95
– SIM for GSM
– USIM for WCDMA

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Telephone System

Mobile Switching Center
(MSC) PSTN
coordinates the routing of calls in a large service area.

Base Transceiver Station PSTN : Public Switching Telephone Network

Reverse Reverse Control Channel Forward Forward

Voice Control * call setting
Control voice
channel channel * call request channel channel
* Transmit voice from * Transmit information * Transmit information * Transmit voice
* call initiation
mobile unit to BS from mobile unit to BS from BS to mobile unit from BS to mobile unit
* other control purpose

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Cellular Telephone Call

• Mobile station (phone) turned on
– it scans for the group of forward control
channels(FCC) to find the one with the
strongest signal
– Monitors that control channel until the signal
drops below usable level
– Again scans for the strongest control channel
• The control channels are defined and
standardized over the entire area
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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Call to a Mobile Phone

Receives call from Verifies that the Requests BS to Connects the
MSC PSTN Sends the
MIN to all base
mobile has a valid
MIN, ESN pair
move mobile to
unused voice
mobile with the
calling party on the
stations channel pair PSTN
Transmits data
Transmits page
FCC (MIN) for
message for mobile
to move to voice
specified user channel

Receives MIN,
RCC ESN, Station Class
Mark and passes to
MSC
Base
Begin
Station FVC voice
transmissio
n

Begin
RVC voice
reception

Receives page and Receives data

FCC matches the MIN message to move to
with its own specified voice
channel

Acknowledges
RCC receipt of MIN and
sends ESN and
Mobile Station Class Mark
Station Begin
FVC voice
reception

Begin
RVC voice
transmissio
n

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Call from a Mobile Phone

Receives call initiation Instructs originating BS to move Connects the
MSC request from BS and verifies mobile to a pair of unused voice
that the mobile has a valid channel
mobile with the
called party on the
MIN, ESN pair PSTN
Page message for
FCC calling mobile with
MIN instructing to
move to voice
channel
Receives call
RCC initiation request,
MIN,ESN, number
of called party and
Station Class Mark.
Base
Begin
Station FVC voice
transmissio
n

Begin
RVC voice
reception

Receives page and

FCC matches the MIN
with its own, moves
to voice channel
Sends a call
initiation request, MIN - Mobile Identification Number
RCC MIN,ESN, SCM ESN - Electronic Serial Number
and the number of
Mobile called party SCM - Station Class Mark
Station Begin
FVC voice
reception

Begin
RVC voice
transmissio
n

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and Call Setup
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan

Roaming(1)

• Roaming allows subscribers to operate in

mobile phone service areas other then the
service area where the service is subscribed
• When a mobile enters area outside the home
service area it is registered as roamer in the
new service area
• Since FCC are everywhere the same,
roamer is receiving information from FCC

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup
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Roaming(2)
• Every several minutes MSC issues command over each FCC to all
mobiles previously unregistered to report their MIN and ESN over the
RCC
• Unregistered mobiles periodically report back subscriber information
upon receiving the registration request
• The MSC uses MIN/ESN data to request billing status from the home
location register (HLR)
• If the mobile has roaming authorization at home, MSC registers the
subscriber in a visiting location register (VLR) as a valid roamer
• Once registered roaming mobiles are allowed to receive and place calls
from the new service area
• Billing is routed automatically to the subscribers home service
provider (HLR)

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Week 8 ; Summer - 2015 EE, MAJU
and Call Setup