Call Flow in GPRS

For internal use

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GPRS Architecture

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GPRS Interfaces

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GPRS functions
Mobility management
GPRS Mobility management state model

Location Management
Routing Area Update (RAU) is used by roaming MS to inform the current
location
Paging is used by network to identify the current location of roaming MS

Cell selection/reselection and handover

Cell selection and reselection are Radio Resource (RR) procedures.
In GPRS, there is no PS handover, only cell reselection followed by RAU (if
selected cell in different LAC-RAC)
Cell update done in READY state only

User Data transfer

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GPRS Mobility Management (GMM) State machine

IDLE

IDLE

GPRS Attach

GPRS Detach

READY

READY timer expiry

or
Force to STANDBY

GPRS Detach
or
Cancel Location

GPRS Attach

Implicit Detach
or
Cancel Location

PDU transmission

READY

READY timer expiry

or
Force to STANDBY
or
Abnormal RLC condition

PDU reception

STANDBY

STANDBY

MM State Model of MS

MM State Model of SGSN

Ericsson SGSN

3GPP TS 23.060
This state machine is present in MS and SGSN
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GPRS Mobility Management (GMM) State (contd)

IDLE
MS is not attached
SGSN cannot reach it through paging
No GMM context exists for MS in SGSN
After successful attach procedure, state changed to READY
READY
MS is attached to SGSN
One or several PDP contexts exists for the subscriber
Data transfer is ongoing or recently ended (i.e. READY timer is running)
MS performs cell update (if necessary)
MS performs Routing Area Update if RA changes
SGSN knows the location of MS at the accuracy of serving cell
When READY timer expires, state is changed to STANDBY_REACHABLE
After successful MS initiated Detach procedure, state changed to IDLE

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GPRS Mobility Management (GMM) State (contd)

STATNDBY_REACHABLE
MS is attached to SGSN
MS listens to paging channel
MS perform Routing Area Update (if necessary)
SGSN knows the location of MS at the accuracy of RA
When a downlink PDU arrives at SGSN, it has to page the MS to locate the serving cell
Uplink data transfer (payload or signaling) initiated by MS will change the state to READY
When Mobile Reachable timer expires, state is changed to STANDBY_NOT_REACHABLE
After successful MS initiated Detach procedure, state changed to IDLE

STANDBY_NOT_REACHABLE
MS is attached to SGSN
MS listens to paging channel
MS perform Routing Area Update (if necessary)
SGSN knows the location of MS at the accuracy of RA
When a downlink PDU arrives at SGSN, it has to page the MS to locate the serving cell
Uplink data transfer (payload or signaling) initiated by MS will change the state to READY
When Implicit timer expires, state is changed to IDLE; GMM contexts and PDP contexts are
deleted.
After successful MS initiated Detach procedure, state changed to IDLE

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GMM Procedures
GPRS Attach
GPRS Detach
Intra SGSN Routing Area Update (RAU)
Inter SGSN Routing Area Update (ISRAU)

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GPRS Attach
GPRS MS is not reachable or known by
the network until MS performs attach
procedure
To attach to the network, MS provides
the identity (P_TMSI or IMSI) and
indicates which type of attach procedure
to be performed.
There are three types of attach
procedure:
GPRS Attach
IMSI Attach
IMSI/GPRS Attach
Only GPRS Attach is supported in VF
network
The major steps in GPRS Attach procedure are as follows:
MS sends attach request with its identity (P_TMSI) to SGSN
SGSN authenticates MS and then checks whether the user is authorized for
the service by checking with HLR
SGSN sends a Attach Accept reply to MS with P-TMSI (TLLI)
A database is maintained in SGSN that maps the mobile identity with TLLI
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Authentication procedure
SGSN gets authentication vectors from HLR
by sending Send Authentication Info
message
HLR sends several triplets (SRES, RAND, Kc)
to SGSN
SGSN sends Authentication and Ciphering
Request message to MS with RAND in one
of the triplet
MS calculates the SRES using the RAND and
sends calculated SRES value in
Authentication and Ciphering Response to
SGSN
SGSN compares the stored SRES with the
one received from MS. If both are same, MS
is authenticated

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Routing Area Update

Routing Area update is done by MS in the following
scenarios:
MS enters new RA
Periodic RAU timer in MS expires
Intra SGSN RAU
Old RA and new RA are served by same
SGSN
RA update due to periodic RAU timer
expiration is always Intra SGSN RAU

MS

BSS

SGSN

1. Routeing Area Update Request

2. Security Functions
3. Routeing Area Update Accept
C1
4. Routeing Area Update Complete

Intra SGSN RAU

Inter SGSN RAU
SGSN will accept only those RAU requests with old RA/old SGSN configured as cooperating RA/co-operating SGSN.

SGSN will allocate new P-TMSI if RAU procedure is successful and also IF MS
entered new LAC-RAC
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Inter SGSN RAU

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Session Management (SM) State machine

This state machine is present in MS and SGSN
This state machine is valid only when GMM
state of the MS is not IDLE
Data transfer can happen only when the PDP
context is in Active state. So, if the subscriber
wants to send or receive data, a PDP context
must be activated after attaching to SGSN.
PDP context state moves from Inactive to
Active when PDP context is activated.
PDP context state moves from Active to
Inactive
When PDP context is deactivated
MS is detached normally
MS is detached forcefully when Implicit
detach timer expires

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PDP Context activation

MS initiated PDP context activation
When MS is attached to SGSN, it is assigned a TLLI,
which is known in the wireless network. However, the
external networks nodes (e.g. server in internet) do not
know the MS yet. So, MS must initiate PDP context
activation with GGSN:
MS sends a PDP context activation request to
SGSN
SGSN chooses the GGSN (that serves a particular
type of context) and requests the GGSN to create a
context for the MS.
GGSN replies to SGSN with the TID information
SGSN sends a message to MS informing that a
context is activated.

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MS-initiated PDP Context Deactivation

MS sends a Deactivate PDP Context Request message to the SGSN.

SGSN forwards the request to the GGSN.
GGSN removes the PDP context and returns response.
SGSN returns deactivation complete message to MS.
For WCDMA Systems, the SGSN and RNC exchange information to release the RAB for the PDP context .
When the last RAB is released the Iu connection is also released

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Protocol stack
GMM/SM

GMM/SM

LLC

LLC
Relay

RLC

RLC

BSSGP

BSSGP

MAC

MAC Network
Service

Network
Service

GSM RF

MS

GSM RF L1bis
Um

BSS

L1bis
Gb

Gb - Control plane

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SGSN

Gb - User plane

GPRS Identities
o IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity)
Assigned by the operator and stored in SIM
Used in Attach request (if valid PTMSI not present)

o P-TMSI (Packet Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity)

Assigned by SGSN to MS at the time of Attach and RAU procedures
Used as MS identifier in Attach request, Detach request and Paging

o TLLI (Temporary Logical Link Identifier)

Derived from P-TMSI
Identify logical link connection in LLC layer
Relationship between TLLI and IMSI are known only in MS and SGSN

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GPRS Identities (contd)

There are three types of TLLI.
Local TLLI
o It is valid in the routing area associated with PTMSI
Foreign TLLI
o It is derived from PTMSI allocated in different routing area
Random TLLI
o It is used when valid PTMSI does not exist for MS

Structure of TLLI (bit position)

31

30

29

28

27

26 to 0

Type of TLLI

Local TLLI

Foreign TLLI

Random TLLI

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GPRS Identities (contd)

o RAI (Routing Area Identity)
Each Routing Area is identified by a routing area identifier (RAI).
This is made up of a location area identifier (LAI) and a routing area code
(RAC).

o IP address
MS is assigned IP address as a part of PDP context activation procedure.

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Q&A

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