GSM System Standard

Introduction

Year Introduced:1990
Global System for Mobile (GSM) - a 2-G cellular system standard
Originally developed to serve as the pan-European cellular service
Aimed at specifying a common mobile communication system for
Europe
Originally in the 900 MHz band
GSM (Groupe spe'cial mobile) : a committee of working group of
the CEPT.
Later, GSM changed its name to the Global System for Mobile
Communications
Standards by European Technical Standards Institute (ETSI)
Adopted by several non-European countries by the end of 1993
Technically equivalent offshoot - DCS 1800
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GSM Variants
Variant

Uplink
(MHz)

Downlink
(MHz)

Total
Bandwidth

GSM-400

451-458 and
479-486

461-468 and
489-496

Twice 14 MHz

GSM-900
(primary
band)

890-915

935-960

Twice 25 MHz

Extended
GSM-900

880-915

925-960

Twice 35 MHz

GSM-R

876-880

921-925

Twice 4 MHz

DCS-1800

1710-1785

1805-1880

Twice 75 MHz

PCS-1900

1850-1910

1930-1990

Twice 60 MHz

GSM System Architecture

Mobile Station (MS)

MS consists of following two components

Mobile Equipment (ME)

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
Removable plastic card
Stores Network Specific Data such as list of carrier frequencies.
Stores International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) + ISDN
Stores Personal Identification Number (PIN) & Authentication Keys.
Also stores short messages, charging information, telephone book etc.

Allows separation of user mobility from equipment

mobility

Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

One per cell

Consists of high speed transmitter and receiver
BTS antennas
Function of BTS
Provides two channels

Signalling and Data Channel

Performs error protection coding for the radio channel

Base Station Controller (BSC)

Controls multiple BTS
Functions:
Performs radio resource management

Assigns and releases frequencies and time slots for all the MSs in
its area
Reallocation of frequencies among cells
Hand over protocol is executed here

Time and frequency synchronization signals to BTSs

Time Delay Measurement and notification of an MS to BTS
Power Management of BTS and MS

Mobile Switching Center (MSC)

Switching node of a PLMN
Allocation of radio resource (RR)

Handover

Mobility of subscribers

Location registration of subscriber

There can be several MSCs in a PLMN

Gateway MSC (GMSC)

Connects mobile network to a fixed network

Entry point to a PLMN
Usually one per PLMN
Request routing information from the HLR and routes the connection
to the local MSC
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HLR/VLR
HLR - Home Location Register
For all users registered with the network, HLR keeps user
profile
MSCs exchange information with HLR
When MS registers with a new GMSC, the HLR sends the
user profile to the new MSC

VLR - Visitor Location Register

VLR is responsible for a group of location areas, typically
associated with an MSC

Air Interface: MS to BTS

Uplink/Downlink of 25MHz

890 -915 MHz for Uplink (Reverse), 935 - 960 MHz for
Downlink (Forward)

Combination of frequency division and time division

multiplexing
FDMA

No. of carriers = 25 MHz / 200 kHz = 125

Total 125 RF channels.
124 channels of 200 kHz +1 Guard band occupying RF channel BW.

TDMA

Burst (8 time slots per RF channel)

Modulation used
Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK), BT=0.3

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Air Interface: Logical Channel

Two Types
Traffic Channels (TCHs)

Speech Channel
Data Channel

Signalling Channel (Control Channels)

Broadcast Channel (BCH)

Common Control Channel (CCCH)
Dedicated/Associated Control Channel
(DCCH/ACCH)
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Control Channels
1. Broadcast Channel (BCH)- BTS to MS
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH)
Frequency Correction Channel (FCCH)
Synchronization Channel (SCH)

2. Common Control Channel (CCCH)

Paging Channel (PCH)
Random Access Channel (RACH)
MS to BTS
Uses Slotted Aloha

Access Grant Channel (AGCH)

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3. DCCH (dedicated control channel)- Bidirectional pointto-point - main signaling channels

3 types
1. SDCCH (stand-alone dedicated control channel):
for service request, subscriber authentication, equipment validation,
assignment to a traffic channel

2. Slow

Associated Control Channel (SACCH)

Always associated with either TCH or SDCCH Information

Optimal radio operation; Commands for synchronization, Transmitter power

control; Channel measurement

Should always be active; as proof of existence of physical radio

connection

3. Fast Associated Control Channel (FACCH)

for urgent signaling on a traffic channel, e.g, for handoff messages
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Traffic Channels (TCHs)

Speech Channel
Full-Rate Speech Channel
User speech digitized at a raw data rate of 13 kbps.
With GSM channel coding added to the digitized speech,
the full-rate speech channel carries 22.8 kbps.

Half-Rate Speech Channel

Designed for data rate of about 6.5 kbps.
With GSM channel coding added to the digitized speech,
the half-rate speech channel will carry 11.4 kbps.

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 Data Channel
Full-Rate data Channel (TCHIFS)

Full-Rate Data Channel for 9600 bps (TCH/F9.6)

Full-Rate Data Channel for 4800 bps (TCH/F4.8)
Full-Rate Data Channel for 2400 bps (TCH/F2.4)
All produce 22.8 kbps after forward error correction
coding

Half-Rate data Channel (TCHIFS)

Half-Rate Data Channel for 4800 bps (TCH/H4.8)
Half-Rate Data Channel for 2400 bps (TCH/H2.4)
Both produce 11.4 kbps after forward error correction
coding

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GSM Signal Processing

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Frequency Hopping
Optionally, TDMA is combined with frequency
hopping to address problem of channel fading
TDMA bursts are transmitted in a pre-calculated sequence of
different frequencies (algorithm programmed in mobile
station)
If a TDMA burst happens to be in a deep fade, then next
burst most probably will not be so
Helps to make transmission quality more uniform among all
subscribers
Max. hopping rate:217.6 hops per second
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Roaming
VLR registers users roaming in its area
Recognizes mobile station is from another PLMN
If roaming is allowed, VLR finds the mobiles HLR in its
home PLMN
VLR constructs a global title from IMSI to allow signaling
from VLR to mobiles HLR via public telephone network
VLR generates a mobile subscriber roaming number
(MSRN) used to route incoming calls to mobile station
MSRN is sent to mobiles HLR

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GSM handoffs
Intra-BSS: if old and new BTSs are attached to same
base station
MSC is not involved

Intra-MSC: if old and new BTSs are attached to

different base stations but within same MSC
Inter-MSC: if MSCs are changed

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Upgrade in GSM: 2.5 G Standards

HSCSD - High Speed Circuit Switched Data

GPRS - General Packet Radio Service
EDGE - Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Provide solutions to increase the data rates over existing

GSM and IS-136 Networks.

HSCSD, GPRS & EDGE are collectively called 2.5G,
However, EDGE is regarded by many as a 3G
technology.

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