GSM System Architecture

Block Diagram of GSM System

BSS: Base Station Subsystem
BSC: Base Station Controller
BTS: Base Transceiver Station
MSC: Mobile Services Switching Center
OMC: Operation and Maintenance Center
AUC: Authentication Center
EIR: Equipment Identification Register
HLR: Home Location Register
VLR: Visitor Location Register
MS: Mobile Station
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network
PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network
PSPDN: Packet Switched Public DataNetwork
PLMN: Public Land Mobile Network
Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)
NSS Architecture
The network sub-system is divided into six function
units:
Mobile Service Switching Center (MSC)
Home Location Register (HLR)
Visitor Location Register (VLR)
Authentification Center (AUC)
Equipment Identification Register (EIR)
Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC)
Mobile Services Switching Center (MSC)
As the core of a network, MSC provides switching functions,
and connects mobile subscribers with fixed network
subscribers, or with mobile subscribers.

Thus, it provides interfaces to fixed networks (such as PSTN,
ISDN, etc.) and interfaces for interconnection with other
MSCs.
Functions of MSC
MSC obtains all the data for processing subscriber
call requests from 3 types of databases: HLR, VLR
and AUC.
MSC can provides a series of services for subscribers:
-Telecom services, such as phone, fax, and emergency
calls
- Bearer services
- Supplementary services, such as call transfer, call
restriction.
Visitor Location Register( VLR)
VLR stores all related information of mobile subscribers
having entering into its coverage area,which enables
MSC to set up incoming/outgoing calls.It can be taken as
a dynamic subscriber database.
VLR obtains and stores necessary data from the HLR of a
mobile subscriber. Once a mobile subscriber leaves the
coverage area of this VLR, it will be reregistered in
another VLR, the temporarily recorded data of this mobile
subscriber stored in the original VLR will be deleted.
Home Location Register( HLR)
As the central database of the GSM system, HLR stores the
related data of all existing mobile subscribers controlled by the
same HLR. One HLR can control several mobile switching
areas or the whole mobile communication network and the
important static data of all subscribers are stored in the HLR,
including MSISDN,IMSI, access capability, subscriber type
and supplementary services. Furthermore, HLR also stores
the location information of all subscribers, so that any incoming
call is immediately sent to the called subscriber on a selected
path.
Authentication Center( AUC)
As a function unit of HLR, AUC is specially used for
security management of the GSM system.
AUC stores authentication information and encryption
keys for subscriber authentication, encryption of voice,
data, signaling messages on radio interfaces, preventing
unauthorized subscribers access and guaranteeing the
safety of mobile subscriber communication.
Equipment Identification Register( EIR)
EIR stores the international mobile equipment identifier
(IMEI) of mobile equipment.
By checking 3 types of lists, i.e., white lists, black lists,
and gray lists, it respectively lists the mobile equipment
identifiers that are authorized, that should be monitored in
case of faults, and that are unauthorized in case of theft.
Service operators can use such information to locate the
location of a stolen mobile station and block it.
BSS System Architecture
ZXG-10 BSS Structure
Base Station Controller (BSC)
As the control part of BSS, BSC performs the switching
function in BSS.
BSC may be connected with multiple BTSs at one end, and MSC
and OMC at the other end.
BSC mainly manages radio network and radio resources,
supervises and manages radio base station, controls the
establishment, connection and disconnection of radio links in
MS and BTS and the location updating, hand-over and paging
of mobile station, provides functions such as voice encoding,
transcoding, rate adaptation, as well as the operation and
maintenance functions of BSS.
Base Transceiver Station (BTS)
It is the radio tranmission part of the base station
system.
Controlled by BSC, it serves cell radio transceiver
equipment, handles conversion between BSC and radio
channels, and performs radio transmission between BTS
and MS via air interfaces as well as related control
functions.
Mobile Station
Mobile stations are not fixed to one subscriber. On any
mobile station in the system, we can identify the
subscriber with the SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module).
The personal identification number (PIN) can be used to
prevent unauthorized use of the SIM card.
Each mobile station has its own identification number, i.e.,
the International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI). IMEI
mainly consists of the type permission code and the
related manufacturer product number.
Mobile Station
Each mobile subscriber has its own international mobile
subscriber identifier (IMSI), which is stored in the SIM
card and in HLR.
Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)
The Network and Switching Sub-system mainly includes
switching functions of the GSM system, and database
functions used for subscriber data and mobility
management as well as safety management. It manages
the communications among GSM mobile subscribers and
those between GSM mobile subscribers and other
communication network subscribers.
TransCoder (TC)
TC mainly completes voice conversion between
the16kbit/s RPE-LTP (Regular Pulse Excited Long-Term
Prediction) codes and 64kbit/s A-law PCM codes.
In a typical application pattern, ZXG10-TC is located
between MSC and BSC.
Wireless Coverage Area Structure
Functional Layers of GSM
Transmission: data transmission function, providing methods of
carrying subscriber data and transmitting signalings between different
entities in various segments along the communication path.
RR: radio resources management. setting up and releasing stable
connections between mobile stations and MSC at the call setup stage,
which is mainly performed by MS and BSC.Such as: assignment a
channel ,handover,system informations ,measurment report.
MM: refers to mobility and safety management, mobile station
processing -- environment changing, making choices of cells possibly
belonging to different networks, so that the calling subscriber is able
to set up a valid process; infrastructures are required to manage
subscriber location data (location updating), authentification.
CM: refers to communication management, i.e., under subscriber
requests, setting up connections between subscribers, maintaining
and releasing calls (which can be divided into CC - call control, SSM
supplementary service management, and SMS - short messages
service);
OAM: Operation, Administration and Maintenance platform, providing
operation methods for operators. The service is supplied by the
transmission layer directly.
Um Interface Signaling Protocol Model
Layer1: Transmission layer (physical layer), the lowest layer of Um
interface, provides transmission channel for radio link and provides
differently functional logic channels (control channel and traffic
channel ) for higher layer.
Layer2: Data link layer, provides reliable dedicated data link for and
between MS and BTS. Its based on link access protocol of D channel
(LAPD), but add some protocols of mobile applications that are unique
to GSM.
Layer3: Application layer, mainly performs controlling and
management functions.
It includes three sub-layers (CM, MM and RR), each realizes call control,
supplementary service management and short message management
respectively.
Abis Interface Signaling Protocol Model
The Abis interface complies with the requirements in
08.5X series of GSM standards.
Layer1: Physical layer, usually adopts the 2Mbit/sPCM
link in accordance with the specifications stipulated in
ITU-T G.703 and G.704
Layer2: data link layer employs the LAPD protocol,which
is a point to multi-point communication protocol. This
protocol is to provides reliable transmission of the
information in physical layer.
Abis Interface Signaling Protocol Model
Layer3: The upper layer part, mainly transmitting the
application part of BTS, including the radio link
management (RLM) function and the operation and
maintenance function.
Through the Abis interface, BSC provides such signaling
control information as BTS configuration,BTS monitoring,
BTS testing, and service control.
A Interface Signaling Protocol Model
The A interface is used in the message between BSC and
MSC as well as the message coming into/out of MS.
Layer1Physical and electrical parameter and channel
architecture, defining the physical layer structure of MSC~BSC.
It is realized by employing the first level of the message transfer
part (MTP) in the common channel signaling system NO.7
(CCS7), adopting 2Mbit/s PCM digital link as the transmission
link.
A Interface Signaling Protocol Model
Layer2: defining the data link layer and the network
layer, namely MTP2, MTP3 and SCCP.
- MTP2 is a variant of HDLC protocol.
- MTP3 and SCCP (Signal Connection Controlling Part)
chiefly
implement such functions as signaling route selection.
A Interface Signaling Protocol Model
Layer3: Application layer, including BSS application part
(BSSAP) and BSS operation and maintenance
application part (BSSOMAP), maintains and manages the
resources and the connections in BSS as well as controls
both the connection and the disconnection of service.The
BSSAP can be divided into two parts:DTAP Direct
Transmission Application Part and BSSMAP.
BSSAP
DTAP:transfered transparently through BSS (MM +CM)
BSSMAP:BSS management message (RR+BTSM)
Channel types
In a GSM system, channels are divided into logical and
physical channels. Time slots are basic physical
channels; thus each carrier frequency contains 8 physical
channels. Physical channels of radio subsystems support
logical channels which can be subdivided funcationally
into Traffic Channels (TCH) and Control Channels (CCH).
Traffic Channel (TCH)
Traffic channel carries encoded speech or
subscriber data, including full-rate traffic channel and
half-rate traffic channel:
Full-rate traffic channel (TCH/F): total rate is 22.8kbit/s
Half-rate traffic channel (TCH/H): total rate is 11.4kbit/s
1) Speech channel
TCH/FS: full-rate speech traffic channel
TCH/HS: half-rate speech traffic channel
2) Data channel
TCH/F9.6: 9.6kbit/s full-rate data traffic channel
Control Channel
Control channel carries signaling or synchronized
data.
There are three types of control channels:
1) Broadcasting Channels (BCH)
Broadcasting channels are used only as downward
channels, i.e., one-way transmission from the base
station to mobile stations.
Control Channel-BCH
BCH can be divided into three types of channels:
FCCH: Frequency Correction Channel,carrying
information used in MS frequency calibration.
SCH: Synchronization Channel,carrying information of
MS frame synchronization and Base Transceiver Station
(BTS) identification.
BCCH: Broadcasting Control Channel;this channel
broadcasts general BTS information.Among transceivers
at each base station, there is always one transceiver that
contains such a channel, so as to broadcast system
information to mobile stations.
Common Control Channel( CCCH)
2) Common Control Channel( CCCH) are shared by all
mobile stations in the network.
There are 3 types of such channels:
PCH: paging channels,used by a base station to page mobile
stations (downward).
RACH: random access channel, used by mobile stations for
random access network application,i.e.,requesting the
allocation of SDCCH channels (upward).
AGCH: access granted channel, used by a base station to
respond to random access requests of mobile stations, i.e., to
assign one SDCCH or directly assign one TCH (downward).
Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH)
3) Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) In application,
the base station will assign it to a mobile station, so as to
make point-to-point transmission between the base
station and the mobile station.
There are 3 types of such channels:
SDCCH: a stand-alone dedicated control channel,used to
transmit such information as channel assignment.
Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH)
SACCH: slow-speed associated control channel,Used in
combination with one traffic channel or one SDCCH,to
send some specific subscriber information, e.g.,power
and frame adjustment control information, measurement
data, etc.
FACCH: fast associated control channel, combining with
one traffic channel to carry the same signals as SDCCH,
but it is assigned only when SDCCH has not been
assigned. Call connection is realized via frames borrowed
from traffic channels to transmit such commands as
handover.
Traffic
Traffic refers to the numbers of subscribers the network
can
support and is usually described as follows:
A=nT/3600
where,
n- calls made by a subscriber within an hour;
T- average duration of each call(in seconds)
A - Traffic, in Erlang
If one call is made by a subscriber within an hour and last 120
seconds, the traffic is calculated as: A=1120/3600=33mErl?
For convenience of engineering calculation, the traffic is usually
defined as 25mErl per subscriber.
GOS
Grade of Service( GOS) : GOS refers to the degree of
network congestion or call loss rate.
GOS=2% means that 98% of subscribers can make calls
successfully and 2% of subscribers will end up with
unsuccessfulness.
For network operators, 2-5% of GoS is adopted.
Voice Transform Process
Speech Coding
The coding mode is called Regular Pulse Excited-Long
Term Prediction (RPE-LTP).It works as follow: 8KHZ of
sampling is performed first, then divided into frames with
20ms; every frame has 4 sub-frames; the duration of every
sub-frame is 5ms;and the pure bit rate is 13kbit/s.
Channel Encoding
In order to enhance channel antiinterference capacity and
transmission quality, special redundancy technologies should
be adopted to increase the bulk of transmitted information
which can be inserted at a certain pattern (encoding) at the
sending end and extracted at an agreed pattern (decoding) at
the receiving end. This is called the encoding/decoding process
of channels.
Channel Coding
Error Coding: Detect and correct error bits in the receiving
end by adding redundant bits
Channel Interleaving
In radio telecommunication, error bits often occurs in the
burst pulse sequence because of deep signal fading.
Check and correction of errors cannot be efficiently done
merely by means of channel encoding mentioned above.
Interleaving technique is thus adopted, by which the
continuous bits in an information block are segmented
and transmitted individually according to certain rules.
That is, the originally continuous block in the transmission
process becomes discontinuous, forming a group of
interwoven message transmitting blocks, which are to be
recovered (de-interleaving) into the original information
blocks at the receiving end.
An example of interleaving
Channel Interleaving
First Level
Interleaving


Second Level
Interleaving