Wireless and Mobile Communications

By
Abhijit Bhowmick
SENSE
VIT, Vellore, TN, India

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 Address and Identifiers

 GSM distinguishes explicitly between users and identifier

 The user identity is associated with an MS by means of a personal

chip card, the subscribers identity module called SIM.

 The SIM is portable and therefore transferable between MSs or your

handsets.

 GSM also distinguishes between the subscriber identity and the

telephone number

 Some address and identifiers:

IMEI, IMSI, MSISDN, MSRN, LAI

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 International Mobile Station
Equipment Identity (IMEI)

 IMEI uniquely identifies the mobile equipment internationally .

 It is allocated by the manufacturer and registered by the network

operator who stores it in the Equipment Identity Register (EIR).

 Using an IMEI number one can recognize absolute, stolen or non

functional equipment .

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 International Mobile Subscriber
Identity (IMSI)

 When registering for service with a mobile network operator each

subscriber receives a unique number or identifier which is called the
international mobile subscriber identity IMSI .

 A MS can only be operated if a SIM with a valid IMSI is inserted with

an equipment with a valid IMEI. .

 IMSI consists of the following

i. Mobile Country Code (MCC = 3 decimals digits ).

ii. Mobile Network Code (MNC = 2 decimals digits).

iii. 10 digits Mobile Subscriber Identification Number.

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 Mobile Subscriber ISDN (MSISDN)

. The real telephone number of the mobile is the mobile subscriber

ISDN number (MSISDN).

 It is assigned to the subscriber his or her SIM such that a mobile

station can have several MSISDN’s depending on the SIM.

 A subscriber can hold several MSISDN’s for the selection of different

services such as fax, voice, data, etc.

 The separation of MSISDN and IMSI helps to protect the

confidentiality of the subscriber. In contrast to the MSISDN, IMSI is not
made public.

 MSISDN can be broken up into ,

country code + national destination code + subscriber number

and you can have more fields.

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 Mobile Station Roaming Number
(MSRN)

. The MSRN is a temporary location dependent ISDN number.

 It is assigned to the subscriber his or her SIM such that a mobile

station can have several MSISDN’s depending on the SIM.

 It is assigned by the locally responsible visited location register (VLR).

 Calls are routed to the mobile station using this MSRN.

 Again we have the similar structure of the MSNR,

country code + national destination code + subscriber number

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 Location Area Identifier (LAI)

. Each location area has its own identifier.

 The LAI consists of an internationally standardized part and an

operated dependent part so you have a country code, a mobile
network code, location area code.

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 GSM

 GMSK modulation is used

 GSM uses a combination of FDMA and TDMA.

 Two frequency bands (each 25 MHz) are reserved for GSM. They are
45 MHz apart from each other.

 Uplink- 890-915 MHz

 Downlink- 935-960 MHz

 Each band consists of 124 single carrier channels of 200 kHz.

 In each uplink or downlink bands there exists a guard band of

200 k Hz

 Each of 200 kHz channel carries 8 TDMA channels

(8 time slots/TDMA frame)
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 GSM Interfaces

Radio

interface

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Frame structure in GSM

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 Channels in GSM

Logical channels are divided into two categories

 Traffic channels (TCH)

 Signaling channels or Control channels (CCH).

The traffic channel is used for the transmission of the user payload
which could be data or speech. Earlier it was thought it will be
primarily speech but with the advent of SMS and MMS we are
finding the data is overtaking the speech transfer. These channels do
not carry any control information. Communication can be circuit
switched or packet switched.

Control channels are used to carry control information.

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Channels in GSM

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 Channels in GSM

 Traffic channels (TCH)

 Full rate TCH (22.8 kbps = data/speech + channel coding bits)

o Full rate speech channel (TCH/FS) - 13 kbps
o Full rate data channel
- TCH/F 9.6 i.e., 9.6 kbps
- TCH/F 4.8 i.e., 4.8 kbps
- TCH/F 2.4 i.e., 2.4 kbps

 Half rate TCH (11.4 kbps = data/speech + channel coding bits)

o Full rate speech channel (TCH/HS) – 6.5 kbps
o Full rate data channel
- TCH/H 4.8 i.e., 4.8 kbps
- TCH/H 2.4 i.e., 2.4 kbps

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 Channels in GSM

 Control channels (CCH)

 Broadcast channel (BCH)

 Broadcast control channel (BCCH): This is a unidirectional point

to multi point channel between BS and MS. Following kinds of
information is sent through BCH

- channel configuration (current cell, nearby cell)

- synchronization (frequency and frame numbering)
- registration identifiers ( i.e., LAI)

 Frequency correction channel (FCCH), and the Synchronization

channel (SCH) which are basically broadcast information to identify
a base station. The synchronization channel also transmits
information for frame synchronization which is important.

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 Channels in GSM

 Common control channels (CCCHs)- Bidirectional channels

These channels are used to page specific subscribers, assign

signaling channels to specific users, and receives mobile requests
for service.

 Random access channel (RACH): It is the uplink portion of the

CCCH control channel, it is accessed from the MS in a competitive manner.

 Access grant channel (ACH): It is the downlink part of the common

control channel CCCH.

 Paging channel (PCH): The PCH is a part of the down link CCCH and
is used to page in order to find specific mobile station when a call is
initiated .

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 Channels in GSM

 Dedicated control channels (DCCHs) - Bidirectional channels

 Stand-alone dedicated control channel (SDCCH): It is a dedicated

point to point signaling channel.

 Slow associated control channel (SACCH): It carries information

for the optimal radio operations (synchronization, power control and
channel measurement)

 Fast associated control channel (FACCH): Additional bandwidth is

provided by FACCH .

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 Modulation and Multiple Access in
GSM

 GMSK modulation is used

 GSM uses a combination of FDMA and TDMA.

 Two frequency bands (each 25 MHz) are reserved for GSM. They are
45 MHz apart from each other.

 Uplink- 890-915 MHz

 Downlink- 935-960 MHz

 Each band consists of 124 single carrier channels of 200 kHz.

 In each uplink or downlink bands there exists a guard band of

200 k Hz

 Each of 200 kHz channel carries 8 TDMA channels

(8 time slots/TDMA frame)
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Frame structure in GSM

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Frame structure in GSM

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Consider GSM uses a frame structure where each frame consists of
eight time slots and each time slots contains 156.25 bits. Data is
transmitted over the channels at 270.833 kbps in the channel, find

(i) Time duration of a slot

(ii) Time duration of a frame

(iii) No of frames/sec.

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