Channel Concepts

In GSM System
www.huawei.com

GBSS Training Team

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

After the completion of this

course, the trainees should
understand about:

Types of Channels in GSM

Different Burst and frame

definition

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page2

BSS Feature Description

BSS Signaling Analysis

Manual

BSC Technical Manual

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page3

Chapter 1 Channel Concepts

Chapter 2 Bursts
Chapter 3 Frames

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page4

Channel Concepts
Downlink

Uplink

Physical channel - Each timeslot on a carrier is referred to as a physical channel.

Per carrier there are 8 physical channels.
Logical channel - Variety of information is transmitted between the MS and BTS.
There are different logical channels depending on the information sent. The logical
channels are of two types

Traffic channel

Control channel
Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page5

Physical and Logical Channel

The physical channel is the medium over which
the information is carried: 200KHz and 0.577ms
The logical channel consists of the information
carried over the physical channels

1 2

Timeslot

3 4

5 6

7 0

1 2

The
Theinformation
informationcarried
carriedin
inone
onetime
time
slot
slotis
iscalled
calledaaburst
burst

TDMA FRAME

TDMA FRAME

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page6

Two types of Logical Channel

Traffic Channel (TCH) :
Transmits traffic information, include data and
speech.

Control Channel (CCH) :

Or Signaling Channel, transmits all kinds of
control information.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page7

Traffic Channel (TCH)

TCH
Traffic Channels

Speech

TCH/FS

TCH/HS

Data

TCH/9.6

TCH Traffic Channel

TCH/FS Full rate Speech Channel
TCH/HS Half rate Speech Channel
TCH/9.6 Data Channel 9.6kb/s
TCH/4.8 Data Channel 4.8kb/s
TCH/2.4 Data Channel 2.4Kb/s
Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

TCH/2.4

TCH/4.8

Page8

Traffic Channel (TCH)

User Data Transmission:

Speech and data (not SMS) are transmitted using traffic

channel (TCH).

Full Rate (TCH): Transmits full rate speech

(13Kbits/sec). A full rate TCH occupies one physical
channel.

Half Rate (TCH/2): Transmits half rate speech

(6.5Kbits/sec). Two half rate TCHs can share one
physical channel, thus doubling the capacity of a cell.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page9

Control Channel (CCH)

CCH (Control Channels)
DCCH
SDCCH

FACCH

BCH

ACCH

SACCH

Broadcast Control Channel BCCH

Common Control Channel CCCH
Dedicated Control Channel DCCH
Associated Control Channel ACCH

BCCH
CCCH
RACH

SCH

CBCH

PCH/AGCH

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Page10

Synch. CH.

FCCH

BCH Channels
BCCH( Broadcast Control Channel )
Downlink only
Broadcasts general information of the serving cell called System
Information
BCCH is transmitted on timeslot zero of BCCH carrier
Read only by idle mobile at least once every 30 sec.
SCH( Synchronization Channel )
Downlink only
Carries information for frame synchronization. Contains TDMA
frame number and BSIC.
FCCH( Frequency Correction Channel )
Downlink only.
Enables MS to synchronies to the frequency.
Also helps mobiles of the n cells to locate TS 0 of BCCH carrier.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page11

CCCH Channels
RACH( Random Access Channel )

Uplink only
Used by the MS to access the Network.

AGCH( Access Grant Channel )

Downlink only
Used by the network to assign a signaling channel upon
successful decoding of access bursts.

PCH( Paging Channel )

Downlink only.
Used by the Network to contact the MS.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page12

DCCH Channels
SDCCH( Standalone Dedicated Control Channel )
Uplink and Downlink
Used for call setup, location update and SMS.
SACCH( Slow Associated Control Channel )
Used on Uplink and Downlink only in dedicated mode.
Uplink SACCH messages - Measurement reports.
Downlink SACCH messages - control info.
FACCH( Fast Associated Control Channel )
Uplink and Downlink.
Associated with TCH only.
Is used to send fast messages like handover messages.
Works by stealing traffic bursts.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page13

Uplink Logical channel

RACH

CCCH

SDCCH
SACCH

DCCH

FACCH
TCH/F
TCH/H

TCH

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Page14

CCH

DCH

Downlink Logical channel

FCCH

CCH

BCCH

SCH
BCCH

CCCH

PCH
AGCH

SDCCH

DCH

DCCH

SACCH
FACCH

TCH

TCH/F
TCH/H

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page15

How to use these channels?

Power-off

Search for frequency correction burst

FCCH

Search for synchronous burst

SCH

Extract system information

BCCH

Monitor paging message

PCH

Send access burst

RACH

Allocate signaling channel

AGCH

Set up the call

SDCCH

Allocate voice channel

SDCCH

Conversation

TCH

Release the call

FACCH

Idle mode

Dedicated mode

Idle mode

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page16

Chapter 1 Channel Concepts

Chapter 2 Bursts
Chapter 3 Frames

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page17

Bursts
Burst:

Unit of transmission ( about hundred modulated bits )

Have finite duration
Occupy a finite number of spectrum
Sent in time and frequency windows ( Slots )

Burst Types:

Normal Burst
Frequency Correction
Synchronization Burst
Access Burst
Dummy Burst

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page18

Normal Burst
FRAME1(4.615ms)

FRAME2

0.577ms
0.546ms
3
Guard Tail
Period Bits

57 bits
Data

26 bits
Flag Training
Bit sequence

57 bits
Flag
Bit

Data

3
Tail Guard
Bits Period
(8.25 bits)

Carries traffic channel and control channels BCCH, PCH, AGCH, SDCCH, SACCH and FACCH.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page19

Normal Burst
Data - Two blocks of 57 bits each. Carries speech, data or control info.
Tail bits - Used to indicate the start and end of each burst. Three bits always 000.

Guard period - 8.25 bits long. The receiver can only receive and decode if the
burst is received within the timeslot designated for it.Since the MS are moving.
Exact synchronization of burst is not possible practically. Hence 8.25bits
corresponding to about 30us is available as guard period for a small margin of
error.

Flag bits - This bit is used to indicate if the 57 bits data block is used as FACCH.
Training Sequence - This is a set sequence of bits known by both the
transmitter and the receiver( BCC of BSIC). When a burst of information is
received the equalizer searches for the training sequence code. The receiver
measures and then mimics the distortion which the signal has been subjected to.
The receiver then compares the received data with the distorted possible
transmitted sequence and chooses the most likely one.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page20

Frequency Correction Burst

FRAME1(4.615ms)

FRAME2

0.577ms
0.546ms
3
Guard Tail
Period Bits

142 bits

Fixed Data

Carries FCCH channel.

Made up of 142 consecutive zeros.
Enables MS to correct its local oscillator locking it to that of the BTS.
Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page21

Tail Guard
Bits Period
(8.25 bits)

Synchronisation Burst
FRAME1(4.615ms)

FRAME2

0.577ms
0.546ms
3

39 bits

Guard Tail Encrypted

Bits
Period Bits

64 bits
Synchronisation
Sequence

39 bits
Encrypted
Bits

Carries SCH channel.

Enables MS to synchronies its timings with the BTS.
Contains BSIC and TDMA Frame number.
Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page22

3
Tail Guard
Bits Period
(8.25 bits)

Access Burst
FRAME1(4.615ms)

FRAME2

0.577ms
8

41 bits

Guard Tail Synchronization

Bits
Period Bits

36 bits

68.25 bits

Encrypted
Sequence

Tail
Bits

Guard
Period

Carries RACH and FACCH channels.

Used for Random and Handover access

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page23

Dummy Burst
FRAME1(4.615ms)

FRAME2

0.577ms
0.546ms
3
Guard Tail
Period Bits

57 bits
Data

26 bits
Flag Training
Bit sequence

57 bits
Flag
Bit

Data

3
Tail Guard
Bits Period

Transmitted on the unused timeslots of the BCCH carrier in the downlink.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page24

Chapter 1 Channel Concepts

Chapter 2 Bursts
Chapter 3 Frames

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page25

Frames

26 TDMA frame multiframe: Used to carry

traffic channels. TCH,SACCH and FACCH.

51 TDMA frame multiframe: Used to carry

control channels BCCH,CCCH,SDCCH and
SACCH.

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page26

GSM Multi-frames
TDMA Frames
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

46 47 48 49 50

51 Frame Multi-frames
CONTROL CHANNELS

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Page27

GSM Multi-frames
TDMA Frames
0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0 1 2 3 4

21 22 23 24 25

26 Frame Multi-frames
TRAFFIC CHANNELS

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Page28

Hyperframe and Superframe Structure

3h 28min 53s 760ms
00

11
6.12s
11

0
00

1 Hyperframe = 2048 superframes = 2,715,648 TDMA frames

22

2045
2045

33

47

11

11

2047
2047

1 Superframe = 1326 TDMAframes = 51(26 fr) 0r 26(51 fr) multiframes

22

48

49

24
24

120ms
00

2046
2046

50
25
25

235.38ms
23
23

24
24

25
25

00

11

Traffic 26 - Frame Multiframe

22

48
48

49
49

50
50

Control 51 - Frame Multiframe

4.615ms
00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77

Copyright 2006 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

TDMA Frame

Page29

Basic Idea about various channels used

in GSM.

Different types of bursts and frames.

Structure of bursts and frames.

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Page30

Thank you
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