GSM TECHNOLOGY -

Standards & Implementation

GSM900
DCS1800

Company Confidential 10/4/99 1

Introduction to Cellular

Company Confidential 10/4/99 2

 Cell Configuration

Omni-directional Cell Sectorial Cell

BTS
BTS

Company Confidential 10/4/99 3

 Frequency Reuse

F= 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Clusters
GSM uses concept of cells
One cell covers small part of network F=2
Network has many cells F=7 F=3
Frequency used in one cell can be used F=1
in another cells
This is known as Frequency Re-use F=6,10 F=4,8
F=2 F=5,9
F=7 F=3 F=2
F=1 F=7 F=3

F=6,10 F=4,8 F=1

Co-Channel ( Re-use ) Cells F=5,9 F=4,8
F=6,10
F=5,9

Company Confidential 10/4/99 4

 GSM Network Architecture

BSC
OML
OMC

VMSC
BTS A
AUC
BTS HLR
BTS TRAU MSC EIR
BTS VLR

BTS BTS SMSC

BTS
MS
BC
BTS BSC

PSTN
Company Confidential 10/4/99 5
 Mobile Station Identities

MSISDN : Human Identity used to call a Mobile Station

MSRN : Mobile Station Roaming No
CC NDC SN

98 XXX 12345

IMSI : Network Identity unique to a SIM

3 digits 2 digits 10 digits
TMSI : Identity unique in a LAI
MCC MNC MSIN
404 XX 12345

IMEI: Serial number unique to every Mobile Station

TAC FAC SNR S

6 digits 2 digits 6 digits 1 digit

Company Confidential 10/4/99 6

 GSM Signaling Interfaces

A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I = SS7
Abis = LAPD VLR
OML = X.25 G
MSC D HLR/
BSC B VLR
AUC
HLR/AUC
C
Abis A
F
BTS
EIR
I
OML E
OMC
SUPP

H
SS7/R2
PSTN GMSC GSMSC

Company Confidential 10/4/99 7

 GSM Air Interface

Separate Bands for Uplink and Downlink

Down link : 935 - 960 MHz ( E-GSM 925 - 960 MHz )
Uplink : 890 - 915 MHz ( E-GSM 880 - 915 MHz)

TDMA and FDMA Multiplex

124 Frequency Channels (ARFCN) for GSM900
1 to 124 for current band

975 to 1023 for E-GSM

200kHz Channels

8 Mobiles share ARFCN by TDMA

0.3 GMSK Modulation

270.833 kbits/sec. rate

Variable Tx Power and Timing

Company Confidential 10/4/99 8

 The GSM Burst

Time

Amplitude

Frequency

Company Confidential 10/4/99 9

 Speech coding Process

22.8 Kbps
20ms
456 bits
Speech Coder

260 bits 13 kbps Tranceiver ( BTS )

13 kbps
260 bits
50 132 78
1a 1b 11 Transcoder Handler
16 kbps
260 + 60 = 320 bits
Channel Coder

456 bits 22.8 Kbps TRAU Frame

Abis
Company Confidential 10/4/99 10
Measuring Adjacent Cell BCH Power
DOWNLINK

UPLINK

ADJACENT
CELL
BCH RXLEV RXLEV RXLEV RXLEV RXLEV

Company Confidential 10/4/99 11

 Mobile Power Control
Mobile is commanded to change its Transmit Power
Change in Power is proportionate to the Path Loss
Change is Power is done in steps of 2 dbs

Tx Level Power dBm

5 33
6 31
7 29
. .
14 15
15 13

Company Confidential 10/4/99 12

 Timing Advance
TDMA approach requires signals to arrive at BTS at the correct
time. They must not overlap

BTS

Company Confidential 10/4/99 13

 Physical and Logical Channel
Physical Channel
TO T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7
ARFCN
( 200Khz ) C T T T T T T T

Logical Channels Logical Channels

Control Channel Traffic Channel

Broadcast Channel Dedicated Control Channel Common Control Channel Full Rate TCH Half Rate TCH

BCCH SDCCH PAGCH

FCH SACCH AGCH
SCH FACCH RACH
CBCH
NCH

Company Confidential 10/4/99 14

 Logical Channels
Traffic Channels
Traffic Channels carry either encoded speech or user data
Two forms of Traffic Channels are defined :
-- Full rate Traffic Channel : Carries encoded information at gross rate of 22.8Kbps
-- Half rate Traffic Channel : Carries encoded information at gross rate of 11.4 Kbps

Speech Traffic Channels

Full rate Traffic Channel for speech : Speech out of encoded information is at 13 kbps
Half rate Traffic Channel for speech : Speech out of encoded information is at 6.5 kbps

Data Traffic Channels

Full rate Traffic Channel for 9.6 kbps user data
Full rate Traffic Channel for 4.8 kbps user data
Full rate Traffic Channel for < 2.4 kbps user data

Traffic Channels Modes

Circuit Switching mode ( transparent connection to a service like telephony )
Packet Swithching mode ( as per recommendation X.25 or other standardised protocols)

Company Confidential 10/4/99 15

 Logical Channels
Broadcast Channels ( BCH )

Frequency Correction Channels ( FCCH ) :

Carries Information for frequency correction of the mobile stations. ( Downlink )

Synchronisation Channels ( SCH ) :

Carries information for frame synchronization of the mobile stations and identification of BTS
( Downlink )
Contains two pieces of information : BSIC & Reduced Frame Number *

Broadcast Control Channels ( BCCH ) :

Broadcasts various cell parameters and other information required by the mobile to access
the network. ( Downlink)

Company Confidential 10/4/99 16

 Logical Channels

Broadcast Channels ( BCH )

TN 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
FN 0 FCCH
SCH
BCCH
BCCH
BCCH
BCCH
CCCH
CCCH
CCCH FCCH & SCH occurs every 10th frame
CCCH BCCH is send in block of 4 frames
FN 10 FCCH BCCH block occurs once in 51 frames
FN 11 SCH

FN 51 I

Company Confidential 10/4/99 17

 Logical Channels

Common Control Channels

Paging Channel ( PCH ) :

Used to page Mobiles ( Downlink )

Access Grant Channel ( AGCH ) :

Used to for allocation of a dedicated channel ( SDCCH ) ( Downlink )

Random Access Channel ( RACH ) :

Used to request allocation of dedicated channel ( SDCCH ) ( Uplink )

Company Confidential 10/4/99 18

 Logical Channels
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
FN 0 FCCH 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Downlink FN 0 RACH
RACH
AGCH
RACH
Uplink
AGCH
RACH
AGCH CCCH is configured
to AGCH & PCH RACH
AGCH
FCCH
either dynamically RACH
FN 10
or through O & M RACH
FN 11 SCH
RACH
FN 12 PCH AGCH & PCH also
RACH
PCH occurs in block of 4
PCH RACH

PCH No of AGCH & PCH RACH

PCH in one Multiframe RACH

depends on channel RACH
PCH
combinations
PCH RACH

FN 19 PCH RACH
RACH
FN 51
FN 51

Company Confidential 10/4/99 19

 Logical Channels
Dedicated Control Channels
Standalone dedicated control channel ( SDCCH ) :
Used for conveying signaling information ( Downlink & Uplink )

Slow Associated Control Channel ( SACCH ) :

Used for conveying slow information associated with SDCCH
and TCH ( Downlink and Uplink )

Fast Associated Control Channel ( FACCH ) :

Associated with TCH for conveying fast signaling information
(D&U)

Cell Broadcast Control Channel ( CBCH ) :

Subset of SDCCH used for broadcasting cell broadcast
messages ( Downlink )

Company Confidential 10/4/99 20

 Mapping of Logical channels on PCHN
Mapping of Channel Combinations using Multiframe Concept
B+D
0 Downlink 50
F S B C F S C C F S D0 D1 F S D2 D3 F S A0 A1 I
TN=0
F S B C F S C C F S D0 D1 F S D2 D3 F S A2 A3 I

0 Uplink 50
D3 R R A2 A3 R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D0 D1 R R D2
D3 R R A0 A1 R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D0 D1 R R D2

B
0 Downlink 50
TN=0 F S B C F S C C F S C C F S C C F S C C I

0 Uplink 50
TN=0 R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

Company Confidential 10/4/99 21

 Mapping of Logical channels on PCHN
Mapping of Channel Combinations using Multiframe Concept
D
0 Downlink 50
D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 A0 A1 A2 A3 I I I
TN=0
D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 A4 A5 A6 A7 I I I

0 Uplink 50
A5 A6 A7 I I I D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 A0
TN=0
A1 A2 A3 I I I D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 A4

B+C
0 Downlink 50
TN=0 I I B C I I C C I I C C I I C C I I C C I

0 Uplink 50
R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

TN=2,4,6

Company Confidential 10/4/99 22

Mapping of Logical channels on PCHN
Mapping of Channel Combinations using Multiframe Concept

T
0 Downlink 25
T T T T T T T T T T T T A T T T T T T T T T T T T I

TN=0

0 Uplink 25
T T T T T T T T T T T T A T T T T T T T T T T T T I

Company Confidential 10/4/99 23

 FRAMES
1 Burst = 577usecs

1 TDMA Frame 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 = 8 bursts = 4.616 ms

Multiframe
0 1 2 23 24 25 0 1 2 48 49 50
1 TCH Multiframe = 26 TF = 120ms 1 CCH Multiframe = 51 TF = 234.6ms

0 1 2 48 49 50
0 1 2 23 24 25
1 Superframe = 51 TCH MF = 1326 TF = 6.12 sec 1 Superframe = 26 CCH MF = 1326 TF = 6.12 sec

0 1 2 3 2044 2045 2046 2047

1 Hyperframe = 2048 Superframes = 2715648 TDMA Frames
= 3 hrs 28 min 53 sec 760 ms

Company Confidential 10/4/99 24