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[Holma] Ch 5 Radio Access Network Architecture by Fabio Longoni, Atte Lansisalmi and Antti Toskala
This chapter gives a wide overview of the UMTS system architecture, logical network elements and the interfaces.
Outline
UMTS Release 99 Architecture User Terminal (UE) UMTS Radio Access Network (UTRAN)
Node B RNC
Introduction
UMTS Architecture consists of a number of logical network elements each with a well defined functionality at a logical level. Open interfaces which are well standardised.
Interfaces defined to such a detailed level that the equipment at the ends of an interface can be from different manufacturers.
GSM Architecture
Equipment Identity Register F C Um Mobile Station BTS Abis A E Authentication Center
Uu
Iu
Node B USIM
Cu
BSC BSS
MSC
Node B
Iub
RNC
Iur
MSC/VLR
GMSC HLR
ME UE
Node B Node B
RNC UTRAN
SGSN
GGSN CN
BSS: Base Station System BTS: Base Transceiver Station BSC: Base Station Controller MSC: Mobile Switching Center
Open Interfaces
Cu interface: This is the electrical interface between the USIM smartcard and the ME. Uu interface: This is the WCDMA radio interface. The Uu is the interface through which the UE accesses the fixed part of the system, and is therefore the most important open interface in UMTS. Iu interface: This connects UTRAN to the CN. Iur interface: The open Iur interface allows soft handover between RNCs from different manufacturers. Iub interface: The Iub connects a Node B and an RNC.
UTRAN
USER EQUIPMENT
User Equipment
The UE is connected to the UTRAN using the Uu interface. UE (User Equipment): It consists of two parts: Mobile Equipment (ME) is radio terminal used for radio comm. UMTS Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) is a smartcard that: - holds the subscriber identity - performs authentication algorithms - stores authentication & encryption keys & - some subscription information needed at the terminal.
Power class 1 Power class 2
+
USIM User Terminal User Equipment (UE)Uu Node B
Note: The maximum output power of FDD PCs 2 till 4 is smaller compared to GSM because of continuous transmission instead of non-continuous transmission of GSM. The maximum transmission power determines the cell radius.
GSM 900 Power class 1 Power class 2 Power class 3 Power class 4 Power class 5
Maximum output power 43dBm (20W) only used in GSM Phase 1 39dBm (8W) 37dBm (5W) 33dBm (2W) 29dBm (0.8W)
Node B USIM
Cu
Node B
Iub
RNC RNS
Iur
MSC/VLR
ME UE
SGSN CN
UTRAN
The main characteristics of UTRAN are: Support of UTRA & all the related functionality. Maximization of the commonalities with GSM, when possible. Use of ATM transport as the main transport mechanism in UTRAN. Use of IP-based transport as the alternative transport mechanism in UTRAN from Release 5 onwards.
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UTRAN
Node B
Node B is equivalent to the GSM Base Station Unit that performs radio transmission and reception with cells. One or more cells maybe served by Node B depending on sectoring method (Omni/Sectored Cells). Node Bs main task is data transmission to and from the UE via the Uu air interface and the RNC via the Iub interface. This includes Forward Error Correction (FEC), Rate Adaptation, DSSS: W-CDMA spreading and de-spreading, QPSK modulation. Handover and micro diversity for cells belonging to same Node B. Measurements: For cells belonging to different Node Bs, but controlled by same RNC, Node B measures and reports quality and strength of connections and determines frame error rate (FER) as a measurement report to the RNC. Power Control: Node B allows the UE to adjust its power using downlink (DL) transmission power control (TPC) commands via the inner-loop power control on the basis of uplink (UL) TPC information.
The UTRAN provides the following functions: Radio Resource Control: setup and release of radio resources. Admission Control: to admit a new request or not. Congestion Control: when overloaded bring back to stable state. Code Allocation: allocation of orthogonal codes from code tree. Power Control: Handover Control Macrodiversity
X-pol. antennas
RNC
Iub Interface ATM
10
Uu Interface WCDMA
10 10 01 0 10
10 1
00
Site support
Base Station
Base station sites can be found in many different places and in different forms. The sites are connected together in different ways.
Node B Node B UE
Iub
Node B SRNC
Iur
Node B
Iub
SRNC
Iur
Node B Node B
DRNC UTRAN UE
Node B Node B
DRNC UTRAN
Controlling RNC (CRNC) RNC controlling a Node B. Each Node B has a CRNC Serving RNC (SRNC): Every UE connected to UTRAN has only one SRNC which is the termination point of all data and signalling with the UTRAN for a UE. Drift RNC (DRNC): any RNC, other than SRNC, that control cells used by the UE. One UE may have zero, one or more DRNCs.
UTRAN
Node B Iub Node B Iur RNC (RNS)
Iu-CS
3G MSC/VLR
Uu UE Uu
RNC Radio Network Controller UE User Equipment = Mobile Equipment (ME) + UMTS SIM (USIM)
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Core Network
PSTN/ ISDN corp. network The Core Network consists of 3 domains: Circuit-switched domain modified version of Network Switching Subsystem (NSS) from GSM. consists of the Mobile Services Switching Center (MSC), which has been adapted for UMTS, and the Visitor Location Register (VLR). Register and service domain consists of the Home Location Register (HLR), the Equipment Identity Register (EIR) and the Authentication Center (AuC). The Service Domain consists of the Intelligent Network (IN) and other Service Development Platforms. Packet-switched domain The Packet Switched Domain is a packet-switched network based on the current GPRS architecture.
EIR
HLR
AC
UTRAN IPbackbone
SGSN
GGSN
PDN WAP
Billing Centre
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Core Network
Core Network consists of two separate but parallel networks: Circuit Switched service domain, which focuses on the MSC. This domain is derived from the GSM network infrastructure and thus shares many of its characteristics. Enable GSM operators to share network infrastructure in early stages of UMTS rollout. Packet Switched service domain: focuses on the GSNs. Packet Switched service uses IP to transport data traffic. Consists of HLR (Home Location Register) is a database located in the users home system that stores the master copy of the users service profile. MSC/VLR (Mobile Services Switching Centre/Visitor Location Register) is the switch (MSC) and database (VLR) that serves the UE in its current location for circuit switched services. GMSC (Gateway MSC) is the switch at the point where UMTS PLMN is connected to external CS networks. All incoming and outgoing CS connections go through GMSC. SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) functionality is similar to that of MSC/VLR but is typically used for PS services. GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) functionality is close to that of GMSC but is in relation to PS services.
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CN Functions
The Core Network provides the following functions: Connection Management (CM): which provides the bearer services and the procedures for circuit-switched connections Session Management (SM): which is responsible for the set up, monitoring and release of a packet-switched connection and; Mobility Management (MM): which is used to determine the location of a User Equipment so a connection can be set up.
Connection Management
Connection Management (CM) covers various functions: depending on the different services used, Bearer Management offers every type of data transfer. These services can be Real Time services (RT), with a fixed delay and regular bitrate, or Non-Real Time services (NRT), with a variable delay. Real time services need a fixed bitrate, for which a circuit-switched connection is typically used. The connection between the User Equipment and the Core Network (CN) is called Radio Access Bearer (RAB). The Core Network initiates the setup, modification, monitoring and release of an RAB. The UTRAN (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) carries out these functions. Call Control (CC) defines the procedures used for setup, monitoring and release of the mobile terminated and mobile originated calls in the circuit-switched domain, e.g. in the MSC. The supplementary services are not necessary for connection setup. They are directly related to a call and make network use more comfortable. Call forwarding and voice mail are typical supplementary services. The short message service is also a task of the Core Network and works the same way as in GSM.
Session Management
Session Management defines the set up, monitoring and release of a packet-switched connection. For this purpose, information defined in the PDP Context is used, such as the quality of service. The PDP Context can be in two different states: - PDP Context Inactive or - PDP Context Active
Mobility Management
Mobility Management serves to locate a User Equipment so a connection can be set up. The circuit-switched Core Network (CN) recognizes three states for a User Equipment. Detached: The User Equipment is switched off. Idle: The User Equipment is still not connected, but a signaling connection can be activated if required. Connected: An active connection exists.
3G MSC/VLR
3G MSC/VLR: This new 3G implementation of the Mobile Switching and Visitor Location Register combines their functionalities and serves as both the switch and a database. The MSC is used to switch the circuit switch data, which includes controlling call signalling and co-ordinating the handover procedures between UTRAN. THE 3G MSC has also been provided with both circuit and packet switching capabilities. The VLR keeps a copy of visiting users service profile.
ATM
RNC
TDM PCM
PSTN/ Transit network
STM-1 Iu-CS
3G MSC
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ATM
RNC
TDM PCM
PSTN/ Transit network
STM-1 Iu-CS
Nokia 3G MSC
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Interfaces of 3G-SGSN
RNC 3G Core Network (VPLMN) NMS Ga CG Iu
Gn
Gp
Gr
3G SGSN
3G SGSN
Gf
EIR
Gd
SMSC
UMTS Protocol
UMTS Releases 4
Transport Network User Plane responsible for data bearer and signalling bearer in the user plane. unautorized usage to kumbes@ieee.org Copyright K.Sandrasegaran. Please report
Data & Control Services & applications HSS PSTN/ISDN IP networks Control
MSC server
IuCS IuCS
UTRAN
IuPS
GGSN CSCF
MGCF
CSE CAP D MSCServer A GERAN UTRAN Iu A Iu Mc (H.248) CSMGW Nb Mc (H.248) CSMGW PSTN, ISDN, PLMN, etc. Nc CAP C GMSCServer
HLR
Release 4 Elements
HSS (Home Subscriber Server): The registers now a part of HSS, are shown as an independent item for simplification, without all the connections to the other elements shown. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol): The key protocol between the terminal and the IMS is the SIP, which is the basis of IMS-related signaling. MGW (Media Gateway): It performs the actual switching for user data and network inter-working processing, e.g., echo cancellation or speech decoding/encoding. MSC or GMSC Server: They take care of the control functionality as MSC or GMSC respectively, but the user data goes via the MGW. One MSC/GMSC server can control multiple MGWs, which allow better scalability of the network when, e.g., the data rate increases with the new data services. In that case, only the number of MGWs needs to be increased.
Call control (MOC, MTC) VLR functionality UE-network signalling Network-network signalling Interaction with cs-MGW CDR generation
HLR
CSMGW
Bearer control Bearer channel termination Media conversion Payload processing Mobile specific functions
IMS
I-CSCF
Rel.4
Separation of control plane from user plane, simpler and more efficient Statistical multiplexing gain and convergence with PS core as ultimate aim More efficient transmission reduces costs this allowing more complex services to be offered Evolutionary phase towards Release 5 which in turn will offer even more advanced services GERAN implementation
Rel.5
IP Multimedia Subsystem High Speed Downlink Packet Access IP transport in the core network IP transport in UTRAN End to end IP services Simpler service integration due to simplified protocol stacks Easy integration and enabling of instant messaging, precence information and real time conversation services
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RAN
SGSN
P-CSCF GGSN
Visited network
IMS
Release 5 Elements
MRF (Media Resource Function): MRF which, e.g., controls media stream resources or can mix different media streams. The standard defines further the detailed functional split for MRF. CSCF (Call Session Control Function): It acts as the first contact point to the terminal in the IMS (as a proxy). The CSCF covers several functionalities from handling of the session states to being a contact point for all IMS connections intended for a single user & acting as a firewall towards other operators networks. MGCF (Media Gateway Control Function): It handles protocol conversions. This may also control a service coming via the CS domain and perform processing in an MGW, e.g., for echo cancellation.