Wireless Communication and Mobile Computing

Assignment 4

GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

What is GSM?
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spcial Mobile), is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones. It became the de facto global standard for mobile communications with over 80% market share. The GSM standard was developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular networks, and originally described a digital, circuit-switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony. This was expanded over time to include data communications, first by circuit-switched transport, then packet data transport via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS). Further improvements were made when the 3GPP developed third generation (3G) UMTS standards followed by fourth generation (4G) LTE Advanced standards. "GSM" is a trademark owned by the GSM Association.

History
In 1982, work began to develop a European standard for digital cellular voice telephony when the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) created the Groupe Spcial Mobile committee and later provided a permanent technical support group based in Paris. Five years later, in 1987, 15 representatives from 13 European countries signed a memorandum of understanding in Copenhagen to develop and deploy a common cellular telephone system across Europe, and EU rules were passed to make GSM a mandatory standard. The decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States. In 1989, the Groupe Spcial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). In 1987 Europe produced the very first agreed GSM Technical Specification in February). Ministers from the four big EU countries cemented their political support for GSM with the Bonn Declaration on Global Information Networks in May and the GSM MoU was tabled for signature in September. The MoU drew-in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. It got GSM up and running fast. In this short 37-week period the whole of Europe (countries and industries) had been brought behind GSM in a rare unity and speed guided by four public officials Armin Silberhorn (Germany), Stephen Temple (UK), Philippe Dupuis (France), and

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Renzo Failli (Italy). In 1989 the Groupe Spcial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). In parallel, France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986 the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM. Phase I of the GSM specifications were published in 1990. The world's first GSM call was made by the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri to Kaarina Suonio (mayor in city of Tampere) on July 1, 1991, on a network built by Telenokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja. The following year in 1992, the first short messaging service (SMS or "text message") message was sent and Vodafone UK and Telecom Finland signed the first international roaming agreement. Work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in the UK by 1993. Also that year, Telecom Australia became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available. In 1995, fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, the first 1900 MHz GSM network became operational in the United States and GSM subscribers worldwide exceeded 10 million. Also this year, the GSM Association was formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998. In 2000, the first commercial GPRS services were launched and the first GPRS compatible handsets became available for sale. In 2001 the first UMTS (W-CDMA) network was launched and worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002 the first Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) were introduced and the first GSM network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational. EDGE services first became operational in a network in 2003 and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004. By 2005, GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the worldwide cellular network market, serving 1.5 billion subscribers. In 2005 the first HSDPA capable network also became operational. The first HSUPA network was launched in 2007 and worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded two billion in 2008. The GSM Association estimates that technologies defined in the GSM standard serve 80% of the global mobile market, encompassing more than 5 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories, making GSM the most ubiquitous of the many standards for cellular networks. Macau planned to phase out its GSM networks as of June 4, 2015, making it the first region to decommission a GSM network.

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Network structure
Following is the figure of GSM network structure

Fig 1. General Structure of GSM

The network is structured into a number of discrete sections.

Base station subsystem

The base station subsystem (BSS) is the section of a traditional cellular telephone network which is responsible for handling traffic and signaling between a mobile phone and the network switching subsystem. The BSS carries out transcoding of speech channels, allocation of radio channels to mobile phones, paging, transmission and reception over the air interface and many other tasks related to the radio network. GSM is a cellular network, which means that cell phones connect to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. There are five different cell sizes in a GSM networkmacro, micro, pico, femto, and umbrella cells. The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base station antenna is installed on a mast or a building above average rooftop level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average rooftop level; they are typically used in urban areas. Picocells are small cells whose coverage diameter is a few dozen metres; they are mainly used indoors. Femtocells are cells designed for use in residential or small business environments and connect to the service providers network via a broadband internet connection. Umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage between those cells.

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Cell horizontal radius varies depending on antenna height, antenna gain, and propagation conditions from a couple of hundred meters to several tens of kilometers. The longest distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometers (22 mi). There are also several implementations of the concept of an extended cell, where the cell radius could be double or even more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain, and the timing advance. Indoor coverage is also supported by GSM and may be achieved by using an indoor picocell base station, or an indoor repeater with distributed indoor antennas fed through power splitters, to deliver the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate indoor distributed antenna system. These are typically deployed when significant call capacity is needed indoors, like in shopping centers or airports. However, this is not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage is also provided by in-building penetration of the radio signals from any nearby cell.

Network switching subsystem

Network switching subsystem (NSS) (or GSM core network) is the component of a GSM system that carries out call switching and mobility management functions for mobile phones roaming on the network of base stations. It is owned and deployed by mobile phone operators and allows mobile devices to communicate with each other and telephones in the wider public switched telephone network (PSTN). The architecture contains specific features and functions which are needed because the phones are not fixed in one location. The NSS originally consisted of the circuit-switched core network, used for traditional GSM services such as voice calls, SMS, and circuit switched data calls. It was extended with overlay architecture to provide packet-switched data services known as the GPRS core network. This allows mobile phones to have access to services such as WAP, MMS, and the Internet.

GPRS core network

The GPRS core network is the central part of the general packet radio service (GPRS) which allows 2G, 3G and WCDMA mobile networks to transmit IP packets to external networks such as the Internet. The GPRS system is an integrated part of the GSM network switching subsystem.

General support functions

The GPRS core network provides mobility management, session management and transport for Internet Protocol packet services in GSM and WCDMA networks. The core network also provides support for other additional functions such as billing and lawful interception. It was also proposed, at one stage, to support packet radio services in the US D-AMPS TDMA system, however, in practice, all of these networks have been converted to GSM so this option has become irrelevant. Like GSM in general, GPRS module is an open standards driven system. The standardization body is the 3GPP.

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Fig 2. GPRS Core Structure

GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP)

GPRS Tunneling Protocol is the defining IP-based protocol of the GPRS core network. Primarily it is the protocol which allows end users of a GSM or WCDMA network to move from place to place while continuing to connect to the Internet as if from one location at the Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). It does this by carrying the subscriber's data from the subscriber's current serving GPRS support node (SGSN) to the GGSN which is handling the subscriber's session. Three forms of GTP are used by the GPRS core network, GTP-U, GTP-C and GTP.

Operations support system

Operations support systems (also called operational support systems or OSS) are computer systems used by telecommunications service providers. The term OSS most frequently describes "network systems" dealing with the telecom network itself, supporting processes such as maintaining network inventory, provisioning services, configuring network components, and managing faults. The complementary term, business support systems or BSS, is a newer term and typically refers to business systems dealing with customers, supporting processes such as taking orders, processing bills, and collecting payments. The two systems together are often abbreviated OSS/BSS, BSS/OSS or simply B/OSS. Different subdivisions of the BSS/OSS systems are made, depending on whether they follow the TM Forum's diagrams and terminology, industry research institutions or BSS/OSS vendors own view. Nevertheless in general, an OSS covers at least the application areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Network management systems Service delivery Service fulfillment, including the network inventory, activation and provisioning Service assurance Customer care

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GSM vs. CDMA

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) are two dominant technologies for mobile communication. These two technologies differ in the way calls and data travel over the mobile phone networks take place. On comparing both the technologies GSM has some limitation when the call quality is concerned but still has more flexibility and an easy implementation relative to the CDMA technology. The major difference between the two lies in terms of the technology they use, security factors, their global reach and the data transfer speeds. 1. Technology

The CDMA is based on spread spectrum technology which makes the optimal use of available bandwidth. It allows each user to transmit over the entire frequency spectrum all the time. On the other hand GSM operates on the wedge spectrum called a carrier. This carrier is divided into a number of time slots and each user is assigned a different time slot so that until the ongoing call is finished, no other subscriber can have access to this. GSM uses both Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) for user and cell separation. TDMA provides multiuser access by chopping up the channel into different time slices and FDMA provides multiuser access by separating the used frequencies.

2.

Security

More security is provided in CDMA technology as compared with the GSM technology as encryption is inbuilt in the CDMA. A unique code is provided to every user and all the conversation between two users are encoded ensuring a greater level of security for CDMA users. The signal cannot be detected easily in CDMA as compared to the signals of GSM, which are concentrated in the narrow bandwidth. Therefore, the CDMA phone calls are more secure than the GSM calls. In terms of encryption the GSM technology has to be upgraded so as to make it operate more securely.

3.

Spectrum Frequencies

The CDMA network operates in the frequency spectrum of CDMA 850 MHz and 1900 MHz while the GSM network operates in the frequency spectrum of GSM 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.

4.

Global Reach

GSM is in use over 80% of the worlds mobile networks in over 210 countries as compared to CDMA. CDMA is almost exclusively used in United States and some parts of Canada and Japan. As the European Union permissions GSM use, so CDMA is not supported in Europe. In North America, especially in rural areas, more coverage is offered by CDMA as compared to GSM. As GSM is an international standard, so its better to use GSM in international roaming. GSM is in use by 76% of users as compared to CDMA which is in use by 24% users.

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5.

Data Transfer Rate

CDMA has faster data rate as compared to GSM as EVDO data transfer technology is used in CDMA which offers a maximum download speed of 2 mbps. EVDO ready mobile phones are required to use this technology. GSM uses EDGE data transfer technology that has a maximum download speed of 384 kbps which is slower as compared to CDMA. For browsing the web, to watch videos and to download music, CDMA is better choice as compared to GSM. So CDMA is known to cover more area with fewer towers.

6.

Radiation Exposure

GSM phones emit continuous wave pulses, so there is a large need to reduce the exposures to electromagnetic fields focused on cell phones with continuous wave pulses. On the other hand CDMA cell phones do not produce these pulses. GSM phones emit about 28 times more radiation on average as compared to CDMA phones. Moreover, GSM phones are more biologically reactive as compared to CDMA.

References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. GSM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://documentation.netgear.com http://web.eecs.umich.edu http://www.seas.gwu.edu http://www.engineersgarage.com

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