GSM/GPRS/EDGE Basic Principles
ZTE University
Objective
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
Learn GSM development history
Learn and master network structure of GSM system and
functions & principles of different portions
Learn and be familiar with GSM wireless channel and
protocol
Learn and be familiar with main service call process for
GSM
Content
Chap.1: GSM Overview
Chap.2: GSM Network Structure
Chap.3: Interfaces and Protocols
Chap.4: GSM Radio Channel
Chap.5: Basic Service and Signaling Process
Chap.6: Voice Processing and Key Radio
Technology
Chap.7: GPRS and EDGE
GSM Overview
This chapter mainly introduces some basic
information for GSM, including GSM development
history, supported service type, specification, and
system features.
GSM Basic Concepts
Services Supported by GSM System
GSM Specification
GSM Overview
This section introduces network structure of GSM
system and basic functions of various NEs.
GSM Area Division Concepts
GSM composition
Mobile Switching System (MSS)
Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
Operation & Maintenance Subsystem (OMS)
Mobile Station (MS)
GSM System Number
GSM Area Division Concepts
Relationship between Areas in GSM
GSM composition
PSTN
Um A IBM
Interfac IBM
Interf
e ace MS
MS
Other
BSS MSS
PLMN
GSM System Composition
Mobile Switching System (MSS)
The MSS consists of such entities as the mobile
switching center (MSC), home location register
(HLR), visitor location register (VLR), equipment
identity register (EIR), authentication center (AUC)
and short message center (SMC).
Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
BSS serves as a bridge between the NSS and MS.
It performs wireless channel management and
wireless transceiving. The BSS includes the Base
Station Controller (BSC) and Base Transceiver
Station (BTS).
Operation & Maintenance Subsystem (OMS)
The OMS consists of two parts: Operation &
Maintenance Center – System (OMC-S) and OMC-
Radio (OMC-R). The OMC-S serves the NSS, while
the OMC-R serves the BSS.
Mobile Station (MS)
The MS consists of mobile terminals and Subscriber
Identity Module (SIM) card.
GSM System Number
GSM system number contains:
Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN)
International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)
Mobile Subscriber Roaming Number (MSRN)
Handover Number
Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identification (TMSI)
Location Area Identification (LAI)
GERAN interfaces
This chapter introduces GERAN interfaces, User
plane/control plane protocol stack at PS and CS.
Interfaces
PS-Domain Protocol Stack
CS-Domain Protocol Stack
Interfaces
GSM interfaces
PS-Domain Protocol Stack
User plane protocol stack at PS domain
PS-Domain Protocol Stack
Control plane protocol stack at PS
domain
CS-Domain Protocol Stack
User plane protocol stack at CS domain
CS-Domain Protocol Stack
Control plane protocol stack at CS
domain
GSM Working Frequency Band
This section introduces GSM radio frame, channel
concept, division & function for different channels,
mapping combination mechanism between
channels.
GSM Working Frequency Band
Structure of GSM Radio Frame
Physical Channel and Logical Channel
System Messages
GSM Working Frequency Band
Currently, the GSM communication system works at
900MHz, extended 900MHz and 1800MHz.
1900MHz band is adopted in some countries.
Structure of GSM Radio Frame
There are five layers for structure of GSM radio frame, that
is, timeslot, TDMA frame, multiframe, super frame, and
hyper frame.
1 hyper frame = 2048 super frames =2715648 TDMA frame
1 hyper frame = 1326 TDMA frame (6.12s)
(=51 (26 frames) multi-frames or 26 (51 frames) multi-frames
1 (26 frames) multi-frame = 26 TDMA frame (120ms) 1 (51 frames) multi-frame = 51 TDMA frame (3036/13 ms)
TDMA Frame
Hierarchical frame structure in GSM system
Physical Channel and Logical Channel
GSM uses TDMA and FDMA technologies for physical
channel, as shown in the figure below.
Time
Frequency
Time
Frequency
System Messages
System message falls into 12 types: type1, 2, 2bis,
2ter, 3, 4, 5, 5bis, 5ter, 6, 7, 8.
Basic Service and Signaling Process
This section introduces GSM terminal start,
position register / update, service call and
handover service implementation and signaling
interaction process.
Mobile subscriber state
Location Update
Typical Call and Handover Process
Basic Signaling Process
Mobile subscriber state
The mobile subscriber has three states as follows:
MS starts, network does "Attach" marks on it
MS shutdowns, separated from network
MS Busy
Location Update
Location Update at Same MSC Office
BSC M
LAI
S
1
MSC/VLR （2）
（1）
（3） LAI （4） M
2 S
Location update between different MSCs
MSC/VLR1 M
（5）
S
HLR
（2）
（3） （1） M
MSC/VLR2
（4） S
Typical Call and Handover Process
Call process
Typical Call and Handover Process
Handover process
Basic Signaling Process
MS BTS BSC M SC
CH REQ
CH RQD
CH ACT
CH ACT ACK
IM M ASS CM D
IM M ASS
SABM
EST IND
UA CR：LOC UPD REQ
CC
DT1：CIPH M ODE CM D
ENCRY CM D
CIPH M ODE CM D
CIPH M ODE COM
DI：CIPH M ODE COM
DT1：CIPH M ODE COM
DTAP：LOC UPD ACCEPT
DT1：Clear CM D
DT1：Clear COM
DR：CH REL
CH REL RLSD
DEACT SACCH
DISC RLC
REL IND
UA
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
Location Update Process of MS
Basic Signaling Process
MS BTS BSC M SC
CH REQ
CH RQD
CH ACT
CH ACT ACK
IM M ASS CM D
IM M ASS
SABM
EST IND
UA CR：IM SI DETACH
CREF
DR：CH REL
CH REL
DEACT SACCH
DISC
REL IND
UA
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
IMSI Detach Process
MS BTS BSC M SC
CH REQ
CH RQD
CH ACT
Basic Signaling Process
CH ACT ACK
IM M ASS CM D
IM M ASS
SABM
EST IND
UA CR：CM SERV REQ
CC
DT1：CIPH M ODE CM D
ENCRY CM D
CIPH M ODE CM D
CIPH M ODE COM
DI：CIPH M ODE COM
DT1：CIPH M ODE COM
DTAP:CM SERV ACCP
DTAP:SETUP
DTAP:CALL PROC
DT1:ASS REQ
PHY CONT REQ
PHY CONT CONF
CH ACT
CH ACT ACK
ASS CM D
DR：ASS CM D
Mobile-Originated Call and Called
SABM
UA
EST IND
Party On-hook Process
ASS COM DI：ASS COM
DT1：ASS COM
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
DTAP：Alerting
DTAP：Connect
DTAP：Connect ACK
数据流
DTAP：Disconnect
DTAP：Release
DTAP：Release COM
DT1：Clear CM D
DR：CH REL
CH REL DT1：Clear COM
DEACT SACCH
DISC RLSD
REL IND
UA RLC
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
MS BTS BSC M SC
PAG CM D UDT：PAG
PAG REQ
CH REQ
CH RQD
CH ACT
CH ACT ACK
IM M ASS CM D
Basic Signaling Process
IM M ASS
SABM
EST IND
UA CR：PAG RES
CC
DT1：CIPH M ODE CM D
ENCRY CM D
CIPH M ODE CM D
CIPH M ODE COM
DI：CIPH M ODE COM
DT1：CIPH M ODE COM
DTAP:SETUP
DTAP:CALL CONF
DT1:ASS REQ
PHY CONT REQ
PHY CONT CONF
CH ACT
CH ACT ACK
DR：ASS CM D
Mobile-Terminated Call and Calling
ASS CM D
SABM
Party On-hook Process
EST IND
UA
ASS COM DI：ASS COM
DT1：ASS COM
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
DTAP：Alerting
DTAP：Connect
DTAP：Connect ACK
数据流
DTAP：Disconnect
DTAP：Release
DTAP：Release COM
DT1：Clear CM D
DR：CH REL
CH REL DT1：Clear COM
DEACT SACCH
DISC RLSD
REL IND
UA RLC
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
Basic Signaling Process
MS BTS1 BTS2 BSC M SC
M EAS REP
M EAS RES
CH ACT
CH ACT ACK
DR：HO CM D
HO CM D
HO ACCESS
HO DET
PHY INFO
SABM
EST IND
UA
HO COM
DI：HO COM
DT1：HO PERF
RF CH REL
RF CH REL ACK
Inter-cell Handover Process
key radio enhanced technologies
This section describes basic voice processing for
GSM, and several key radio enhanced
technologies.
Voice Processing
Frequency multiplexing
Adaptive equalizing
Diversity Receiving
Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
Power Control
Timing Advance
Frequency Hopping Technology
Voice Processing
Voice Processing in the GSM System
Frequency multiplexing
Frequency multiplexing is the core concept of the cellular
mobile radio system. In a frequency multiplexing system,
users at different geographical locations (different cells)
can use channels of the same frequency at the same time
(see the figure above).
Adaptive equalizing
Equalizer can do equalizing at frequency domain
and time domain. GSM uses time domain
equalizing, enabling the better performance in
whole system.
Diversity Receiving
Diversity reception technology is commonly used in GSM.
Diversity consists of different forms: Space diversity,
frequency diversity, time diversity and polarity diversity.
Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
The DTX mode accomplishes two objectives: Lower the total
interference level in the air and save the transmitter power.
Speech Frame Transmission in DTX Mode
Power Control
Power control means to control the actual transmitting power (keep it
as low as possible) of MS or BS in radio propagation, so as to reduce
the power consumption of MS/BS and the interference of the entire
GSM network.
Power Control Process
Timing Advance
In the GSM, the MS requires three intervals between timeslots when
receiving or transmitting signals. See the figure below.
Uplink and Downlink Offset of TCH
Frequency Hopping Technology
Frequency hopping (FH) refers to hopping of the carrier frequency
within a wide frequency band according to a certain sequence.
Basic Structure of FH
section describes evolution of GSM
technologies
This section describes evolution of GSM
technologies: basic concept, network structure,
radio channel, and basic application of GPRS and
EDGE.
Definition and Feature
Inheritance and Evolution
GPRS Radio Channel
Radio Link and Media Access Control Flow
Terminal and Application
Definition and Feature
The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is the
packet data service introduced in GSM Phase2+.
The GPRS has the following features:
Seamless connection with IP network
High rate
Always online and flow charging
Mature technology
Definition and Feature
Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE) is a kind
of technology for transition of GSM to 3G.
The EDGE has the following features:
EDGE neither changes GSM or GPRS network structure nor
introduces new network element, but only upgrades the BSS.
EDGE does not change the GSM channel structure, multiframe
structure and coding structure.
EDGE supports two data transmission modes: packet service (non-
real time service) and circuit switching service (real time service).
EDGE adopts octal 8PSK modulation technology, supports 303%
of GMSK payload, and provides higher bit rate and spectral
efficiency.
Compared with GPRS, EDGE adopts new coding mode.
GPRS Radio Channel
This section introduces GPRS physical channel,
GPRS logic channel, mapping of logical channel
combination in the physical channel, and GPRS
channel coding.
Radio Link and Media Access Control Flow
This section introduces paging flow, TBF setup
flow, GPRS suspend/resume flow, and TBF
release flow.
Terminal and Application
The GPRS MSs fall into three categories: Type A,
B, and C.
