Wireless Network Planning Table of contents

Table of Contents
GSM Air Interface..........................................................................................................................1
1.1 GSM System Introduction.................................................................................................1
1.2 Wireless Channel Structure..............................................................................................3
1.2.1 Time Slot and Frame Structure..............................................................................3
1.2.2 Physical Channel....................................................................................................5
1.2.3 Logic Channel.........................................................................................................6
1.2.4 Allowed Channel Combination Type.......................................................................8
1.2.5 The Frame Structure of the Logic Channel............................................................9
1.2.6 The Use of the Common Control Channel .............................................................9
1.2.7 The Early Timing of Uplink and Downlink as well as MS........................................9

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GSM Air Interface

1.1 GSM System Introduction

GSM system structure is shown as in Figure 2-1.

OSS

NMC DPPS PCS SEMC

NSS
OMC

BTS HLR/ AUC

BSC MSC/ VLR
MS BTS
EI R
BSS PSTN
I SDN
PDN

OSS: Operation and Maintenance Subsystem

BSS: Base Station Subsystem
NSS: Network Subsystem
NMC: Network Management Center
DPPS: Data Post Processing System
SEMC: Security Management Center
PCS: SIM Card Personalization Center
OMC: Operation and Maintenance Center
MSC: Mobile Switching Center
VLR: Visitor Location Register
HLR: Home Location Register
AUC: Authentication Center
EIR: Equipment Identification Register
BSC: Base Station Controller
BTS: Base Transceiver Station
MS: Mobile Station
PDN: Public Date Network
PSTN: Public Switched Telephon Network

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ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network

Figure 2-1 GSM System Structure

Figure 2-1 illustrates that a GSM system consists of three subsystems: Operation
and Maintenance Subsystem (OSS), Base Station Subsystem (BSS), and Network
Subsystem (NSS). BSS is the basic part of the GSM system which deals directly with
the wireless cellular aspect. Connected to the mobile station via wireless interface, it
takes charge of transceiving wireless signals and managing wireless resources. NSS
is the core part of the whole GSM system. It has such functions as switching,
connection, and management between different GSM subscribers as well as between
GSM sbscribers and subscribers of other communications networks.Its major
responsibilities include call processing, communication management, mobility
management, part of the wireless resource management, security management,
subscriber data and equipment management, billing record processing, common
channel and signaling processing, and local opreation and maintenance.BSS is
mainly responsible for transceiving wireless signals and managing wirelsss resource.
At the same time, it connects to NSS to realize the connection beteen different
mobile subscribers as well as between mobile subscribers and subscribers of the
fixed network to send system information and subscriber information. Of course this
requires the interworking with OSS.
The actual GSM network can be divided into several different areas. To be specific, it
include the following aspects:
Service Area is the area where the service is available for mobile stations. Within this
area, subcribers of different communications networks can communicate with a
mobile station without knowing its exact position.
PLMN Area refers to the whole area covered by the Public Land Mobile Network
(PLMN), which is a network independent from other communications networks such
as ISDN and PSTN.
MSC Area refers to a part of the PLMN network covered by all the cells controlled by
one MSC.One MSC area may consist of several location areas.
Location Area refers to the area where a mobile station can move freely without
location update. One location area may consists of several cells or base station
areas. In order to call a mobile station, the calling can be initiated from all the base
stations in one location area at the same time.
Base Station Area refers to the area of all the cells within the range of one or more
BTSs placed in the same area.
Cell refers to the radio coverage area labelled by base station identity code or global
cell identity code. When the omnidirectional antenna is used, the cell is equivalent to
the base station area. In design, a specific cellular area, is a cell.

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Figure 2-2 GSM Area Classification

1.2 Wireless Channel Structure

In PLMN, MS connects to the fixed part of the GSM system via wireless channel so
as to enable subscribers to access communications services. In order to realize the
interconnection of MS and BTS, the signal transmission via the wirless channel has
to undergo a series of regulations and a set of standards has to be established. This
set of regulations for signal transmission via the wireless channel is the so-called Air
Interface, also named Um interface.

1.2.1 Time Slot and Frame Structure

The Um interface integrates such technologies as Frequency Dividion Multiple

Access (FDMA), Time Dividion Multiple Access, and frequency hopping technology.
The transmission unit through the Um interface is the Burst composed of about 100
modulated bits. Burst occupies 200kHz frequency band width, and it last
0.577ms(15/26ms). As is shown in Figure 2-3, the time and frequency window it
occupies is called slot. The time a slot occupies is called a time slot, while the
frequency bandwidth it occupies is called a frequency slot. The frequency slot is
equivalent to the radio frequency channel in the GSM norm.
The frame is often represented in the form of n consecutively occurred slots. In the
GSM system, the value of n is set to be 8, and this kind of frame is called TDMA
frame that is each TDMA frame is composed of eight consecutive slots.

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Figure 2-3 The concept of time slot

One physical channel is the burst sent in specific and cyclic slots. In the GSM
system, the cycle is eight, which is a TDMA frame. It is qualified to say that each
radio frequency channel consists of eight physical channels. A physical channel can
be identified and differentiated from others according to the number of one of its slots
in the TDMA frame, and this number is called time slot number.
If a radio frequency channel is not frequency hopping, then its core frequency is
constant. Otherwise, its core frequency is changing, and the changing unit is 200kHz.
The complete TDMA frame structure is shown as in Figure 2-4, while the Burst
structure in Figure 2-5.

Figure 2-4 The TDMA frame structure of the channel

The explanation for the above figure is as follows:

A TDMA frame lasts 4.615ms(120/26ms), composed of eight time slots.
Several TDMA frames constitute a multiframe, whose structures have two kinds: 26
multiframe and 51 multiframe. The cycle of the 26 multiframe structure is 120ms, and
it contains 26 TDMA frames, which are used as service channels and associated
control channels. The cycle of the 51 multiframe structure is 3060/13ms, and it
contains 51 TDMA frames, which are used as control channels.
Several multiframes constitute a super frame, which contains 51×26 ＝ 1326 TDMA

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frames. Each super frame may contain 51 26-multiframes or 26 51-multiframes. The

cycle of super frames is 6.12s.
Several super frames constitute a hyper frame, which contains 2048 super frames.
Its cycle is 12533.76s, that is three hours twenty-eight minutes fifty-three seconds
and 760 milliseconds.In each cycle, a hyper frame contains 2715648 TDMA frames,
which are numbered from zero to 2715647.

Figure 2-5 Several kinds of Burst structure

1.2.2 Physical Channel

The physical channel is the combination of frequency division and time division. It is
composed of the slot flow between BTS and MS.Therefore, any physical channel has
to be described from two dimensions: frequency and time.

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I. 1. Frequency domain description

(1) The working frequency band of the GSM system

Uplink (MS→BTS): 890～915MHz；1710～1785MHz
Downlink (BTS→MS): 935～960MHz； 1805～1880MHz
Duplex interval: 45MHz(900M)；95MHz(1800M)
Carrier frequency interval: 200kHz
(2)Frequency hopping
(3)Cell (frequency point) distribution and mobile station (frequency point) distribution
(4) Mobility distribution deviation and frequency hopping serial generating number

II. Time domain description

TN----time slot number

FN----TDMA frame number

1.2.3 Logic Channel

The logic channel results from the time complexing on the physical channel. Different
logic channels are used for different kinds of information transmission between BTS
and MS. The explanation for the logic channel defined in the GSM norm is as follows:

I. Traffic Channel(TCH)

TCH carries speech or subscriber data, and the full rate TCH carries the information
with the rate of 22.8kbit/s. TCH include the following kinds of traffic channels:
 Enhanced full rate speech TCH (TCH/EFS)
 Full rate speech TCH (TCH/FS)
 9.6kbit/s full rate data TCH (TCH/F9.6)
 4.8kbit/s full rate data TCH (TCH/F4.8)
 ≤2.4kbit/s full rate data TCH (TCH/F2.4)

II. Control Channel (CCH)

The control channel mainly carries signaling or synchronous data. It can be divided
into four kinds according to the different tasks processed:

(1) Broadcasting Channel (BCH)

BCH is the one-point-to-many-points unidirectional control channel from BTS to MS,
which is used to broadcast all kinds of information to MS. BCH can be divided into
three kinds:
FCCH: Frequency Correction Channel, which is used to correct the MS frequency;
SCH: Synchronous Channel, which is used in the MS frame synchronization and BTS
identification;

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BCCH: Broadcasting Control Channel, which is used to broadcast cell informaiton.

(2) Common Control Channel (CCCH)
CCCH is the one-point-to-many-points bidirectional control channel, which is mainly
used to carry signaling information necessary for the access management function,
and it can also carry other kinds of signaling. CCCH is commonly used by all MSs of
the network. It includes three parts:
PCH: Paging channel, which is used by BTS to page MS;
RACH: Random Access Channel, which is used by MS to randomly access the uplink
channel of the network;
AGCH: Access Grant Channel, which is used to assign the special control channel to
the connection with the successful access.
(3) Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH)
DCCH is point-to-point bidirectional control channel. Based on the requirement for the
communications control process, DCCH is assigned to MS to enable it to conduct
point-to-point signaling transmission with BTS. It can be divided into the following
kinds:
SDCCH/8: Separate Dedicated Control Channel;
SACCH/C8: Slow Associated Control Channel associated with SDCCH/8;
SACCH/TF: Slow Associated Control Channel associated with TCH/F;
FACCH/F: Fast Associated Control Channel/Full Rate;
SDCCH/4: Separate Dedicated Control Channel combined with BCCH/CCCH;
SACCH/C4: Slow Associated Control Channel associated with SDCCH/4.
(4) Cell Broadcasting Channel (CBCH)
CBCH is used to broadcast cell short message bit/s only with the downlink direction.
It carries cell broadcasting short message service information, and it uses the same
physical channel with SDCCH.
The summary for the logic channel supported by M900 BTS is shown as in Figure 2-
6.

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Figure 2-6 Logic Channel Classification

1.2.4 Allowed Channel Combination Type

The logic channel is projected to the physical channel based on a specific rule. The
channel combination types allowed in GSM PHASE 2 Norm are as follows:
(1) TCH/F + FACCH/F + SACCH/TF
(2) TCH/H (0,1)+ FACCH/H(0,1)+ SACCH/TH(0,1)
(3) TCH/H (0,0)+ FACCH/H(0,1)+ SACCH/TH(0,1)+ TCH/H(1,1)

(4) FCCH + SCH + BCCH + CCCH (main BCCH)

(5) FCCH + SCH + BCCH + CCCH + SDCCH/4(0..3)+ SACCH/C4 (0..3)
(Combined BCCH)
(6) BCCH + CCCH (Extended BCCH)
(7)SDCCH/8(0. .7)+ SACCH/C8 (0. .7)

 Note:
1. If the system supports SMSCB, the SDCCH (1/8) in the combination (5) and (7)
used as CBCH；
2. The combination (5)(Combined CCCH) can only be adopted when there is no
other CCCH in the cell.
3. CCCH = PCH + RACH + AGCH + NCH.

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1.2.5 The Frame Structure of the Logic Channel

Different logic channels have different frame structures. However, the frame structure
of logical channels is always cyclic in time, although different logic channels have
different cycles. In order to realize high-performance system, the GSM Norm works
hard on the frame structure of the logical channel, which results in the complicated
frame structure system of the GSM system.

1.2.6 The Use of the Common Control Channel

The following explanation is for the use of the common control channel:
 Among all the carrier frequencies in a cell, there is only one carrier
frequency can support BCCH. Of course, it also supports CCCH.The
cell is uniquely labeled by this carrier frequency, which is called C0 in
the protocol.
 C0 carrier frequency must transmit at the constant frequency with the
constant power. That is to say, C0 carrier frequency is not allowed for
frequency hopping. The frequency used by C0 carrier frequency is
called Scaling Frequency.
 TN0 with and only with C0 can support channel combination (4) and
(5), that is main BCCH and combined BCCH.
 Parameter BS_CC_CHANS and extended BCCH.
 Parameter BS_CCCH_SDCCH_COMB and combined BCCH.
 Parameter BS_AG_BLKS_RES.
 Parameter BS_PA_MFRMS.
 The CCCH_GROUP and PAGING_GROUP of the MS as well as the
paging and discontinuous reception.

1.2.7 The Early Timing of Uplink and Downlink as well as MS

In the GSM system, uplinks refer to the links from MS to BTS; while downlinks refer
to those from BTS to MS.
As far as MS is concerned, if the requirement for simultaneous transmission and
reception can be avoided, it will be great, because there is no need for the MS to
protect its transmitter while it is receiving, which can reduce the volume of the MS to
a large extent. In order to realize this point, in the GSM system, the TDMA frame of
the uplink is always three BPs (about 1730μs) behind that of the downlink. Form BTS
perspective, this delay is constant, but for MS, things are different. Due to the mobility
of MS, there always exists a transmission delay from MS to the BTS in its service
cell, and this delay is usually not constant. In order to compensate for the
transmission delay to and from BTS, the transmission of MS must take place earlier,
and this is called the early timing of MS.The range for the early time is between 0～
233μs (this limitation comes from protection bit time domain feature of Access Burst).
Therefore, from the MS perspective, the accurate deviation between the uplink and
downlink is three BPs less the early timing value.
The MS in the special mode must transmit using proper early timing value at any

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time; otherwise, it will lose the synchronization with BTS. In the GSM system, the
method of self-adaptive timing adjustment is employed to ensure that the MS in
the special mode always uses proper early timing value.

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