UMTS

a technical presentation

u u u

Ari-Pekka Kanerva
April 2002

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Table of Contents

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................................................................3 1 2 3 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................................6 GSM EVOLUTION.....................................................................................................................................................7 UMTS ..............................................................................................................................................................................8 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4 UTRAN.......................................................................................................................................................................8 USIM .........................................................................................................................................................................12 TERMINAL ................................................................................................................................................................13 CORE NETWORK.......................................................................................................................................................17

STANDARDISATION OF 3G ............................................................................................................................... 18 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 RELEASE 99 (RELEASE 3).......................................................................................................................................18 RELEASE 4 (RELEASE 00).......................................................................................................................................20 RELEASE 5 ................................................................................................................................................................22 RELEASE 6 ................................................................................................................................................................25

CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 26

REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................................................... 27 STANDARDS ORGANISATIONS................................................................................................................................. 27 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS .................................................................................................................................... 28

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Acronyms and Abbreviations 1G, 2G, 3G, ... 3GPP All-IP 1st , 2nd, 3rd, etc. Generation (of mobile communications) Third Generation Partnership Project < Used to denote that All traffic and signalling in the network is transported on top of IP protocol. > AMPS Analogous Mobile Phone System < an analogue 1G mobile network > API ATM BICC BSC BTS CDMA CS CSCF downlink DS-CDMA EDGE EMS ETSI FDD FH-CDMA GGSN GMSC GPRS GSM Application Programming Interface Asynchronous Transfer Mode Bearer Independent Call Control Base Station Controller Base Transceiver Station Code Division Multiple Access Circuit Switched Call State Control Function < Node B transmits and UE receives > Direct Sequence CDMA Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution Enhanced Messaging Service European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute Frequency Division Duplex Frequency Hopping CDMA Gateway GPRS Support Node Gateway MSC General Packet Radio System Global System for Mobile communications (originally: Groupe Spcial Mobile) HLR IC I-CSCF ITEF IMEI IMT-2000 Home Location Register Integrated Circuit Interrogating CSCF Internet Engineering Task Force International Mobile Equipment Identification International Mobile Telecommunications 2000

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IP IS-95

Internet Protocol Interim Standard 95 < An American mobile system based on CDMA technology >

IS-136

Interim Standard 136 (formerly IS-54) < An American mobile system based on TDMA technology >

ITU LAN ME MExE MGW MMS MSC MT NMT

International Telecommunication Union Local Area Network Mobile Equipment Mobile Execution Environment Media Gateway Multimedia Messaging Service Mobile Switching Centre Mobile Termination Nordic Mobile Telephone < an analogue 1G mobile network >

NT OSA P- CSCF PLMN PSTN

Network Termination Open System Architecture Proxy CSCF Public Land Mobile Network Public Switched Telephone Network < also known as Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) >

PS RAN RNC RNS RT S- CSCF SGSN SGW SIM SIP TA TDD

Packet Switched Radio Access Network Radio Network Controller Radio Network Subsystem Radio Termination Serving CSCF Serving GPRS Support Node Signalling Gateway Subscriber Identity Module (used in GSM) Session Initiation Protocol Terminal Adaptation Time Division Duplex

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TDMA

Time Division Multiple Access < one time-slot per call >

TE UE UI UICC UMTS uplink USIM UTRA UTRAN WAP VHE WLAN

Terminal Equipment User Equipment User Interface Universal Integrated Circuit Card Universal Mobile Telecommunications System < UE transmits and Node B receives > Universal Subscriber Identity Module (used in UMTS) Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network Wireless Application Protocol Virtual Home Environment Wireless LAN

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Introduction The number of mobile telephone users is rapidly growing. In many western European countries the mobile penetration has far exceeded 50 percent. In Scandinavian countries approximately 4/5 of the population owns a mobile phone. It is estimated that globally the mobile telephone networks will exceed the boundary of one billion subscribers during the summer of 2002.

Currently the mobile networks are used mainly for transmitting speech but the use of mobile telephone networks for data transmission is growing at a rapid pace. It is a common prediction of several analysts that the data will supersede the speech in mobile networks in the course of next 5-10 years. The change from speech to data is so fundamental that together with limited capacity of current second generation (2G) mobile networks it forces the network operators to plan for more efficient and more data oriented network technologies.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has defined requirements for third generation (3G) mobile systems. This collection of definitions is called International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a coalition of several international standardisation organisations, one of which is European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI). 3GPP has defined its own mobile telecommunication system that fulfils IMT-2000 specification. This system is called Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

In this paper I will present the 3GPP standardised evolution path from current GSM networks towards next generation UMTS networks. I will also present main technological aspects of different evolutionary steps during this change. I will not present other IMT-2000 technologies nor go into too detailed definition of UMTS specification. Also the security issues of UMTS are left out. For those readers interested in aspects out the scope of this paper I recommend to turn directly to ITU and/or 3GPP. Links for these and other relevant organisations' web pages are given in the end of this paper.

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GSM Evolution When changing from one network architecture to another one there are two possibilities: evolution and revolution. Revolution means building the new network from scratch. It is the strategy of choice when the two technologies are completely different and no parts of the old system can be reused in the new network. Revolution is also more rapid. It should be chosen when there is a hurry to build up a completely new network.

The revolution is also more expensive. The operator must have enormous resources (including complete funding) in order to build up entire mobile network from scratch. This is one reason why 3GPP has decided to standardise, not just a new network, but rather a path from current functioning GSM network towards completely different UMTS network. This evolution proceeds slowly offering small enough steps allowing the operators to proceed at their own pace. That permits the operators to update their GSM networks step-by-step having the networks functional all the time and getting part of the financing from paying customers. In this way the customers also test the new technologies one-by-one allowing the operators to update their business plans and/or renovation schedule according the market situation and the feedback from subscribers.

Considering the enormous success of GSM technology around the world, it must also be realised that the only reasonable way to success with any new network technology is to allow the technological generations to co-exist for long enough time to convince the clients about the usability (and create the need for) this new technology. It is also economically vital to operators that millions of GSM clients keep financing operators' new investments by using the existing services.

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UMTS As stated earlier, the UMTS specifications define several technological solutions. This allows the operators to choose their own path of evolution from GSM to UMTS. The first specification (Release 99) makes only minor changes to existing GSM leaving most of the network as it already is. Later on the number of changes augments until most of the network elements and software have been changed, or at least updated, to comply with the new requirements of the UMTS.

In this chapter I will present the changes required to GSM network regardless the selected evolutionary path. These changes could be defined as a "technological fingerprint" of UMTS network. They are characteristic to UMTS as a 3G network technology independent of second generation GSM networks and are necessary for all UMTS releases from the first (Release 99) to the latest (at the time of writing this paper; Release 5).

3.1

UTRAN IMT-2000 includes, among other things, several possibilities for radio interfaces. 3GPP has chosen Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) as a UMTS radio technology. The radio access network is a part of the mobile network that is dedicated for over-the-air communication with the users' terminals, i.e. mobile phones. In UMTS standard this network is called Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN).

Old analogous radio networks, e.g. AMPS and NMT, reserve a separate frequency for every call. This dedicated frequency is often called a channel. This technology is called Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) because it allows multiple callers to access the network dividing the calls by frequencies. The problem with this technology is that the calls can be eavesdropped by any regular radio scanner that functions in the same frequency band.

Some networks (e.g. GSM and IS-136) use time instead of frequency to separate the calls from each other. (To be exact GSM uses combination of both but too detailed presentation of GSM radio access is out of the scope of this paper.) Several calls use the

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same frequency but they never transmit at the same time instead they "take turns" in cycles. The cycle must be rapid enough for human to hear the fragmented transmission as continuous. (Buffering allows small breaks between time-slots but too big buffers cause disturbing delays in responses.) This technology is called Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). The problem with TDMA is limited number of calls that can divide the same frequency. When all time-slots in all available frequencies are occupied no more calls can access the network at that time.

The coding technology called Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) uses a third dimension, code, for call separation. There are two variants of this technique. In Frequency Hopping CDMA (FH-CDMA), as the name implies, the transmission uses different frequency in every time-slot. This technology is used, for example, in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN).

Another variant of CDMA, called Direct Sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA), is the coding technology chosen for UTRAN in UMTS. In DS-CDMA the original (narrowband) signal is multiplied by a very large bandwidth signal. This operation is called spreading because the resulting signal has very large bandwidth. Hence the name Wideband CDMA. The caller specific (spreading) code for one caller is approximately orthogonal to codes of all other callers. In this way all can transmit at the same time and using the same frequency. The resulting combination of transmissions appears as noise and even the existence of transmissions is difficult to detect. For this reason WCDMA technology has originally been used in military communications. At the receiving end a single call can be separated from the noise if the spreading code is known. The receiver performs a time correlation operation to detect the transmission of corresponding spreading code. DS-CDMA is efficient technology allowing callers to communicate without knowledge of other users. It doesnt even have a fixed limit for the contemporary transmissions. However, after certain limit too numerous transmissions begin to interfere with each other. Another feature of DS-CDMA to take into consideration is so called near-far effect. This means that transmitter close to receiver blocks the more distant transmission of equal transmitting power. The situation can be compared to two persons talking at the same volume you will hear better the one closer to you. Adjusting the transmission power according the distance between communicating transmitters can compensate the near-far effect. In UMTS the network sets the transmission powers of both the terminals

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and the base stations 1500 times in a second. Transmitting always at the minimum sufficient power will also maximise the battery duration.

Actually the UMTS specifications define two access components for Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA). First uses frequency division technology and is known as UTRA-FDD (Frequency Division Duplex). On the paired frequency bands reserved for UTRA-FDD the WCDMA technology is used (one band for uplink other for downlink). In the specifications the frequencies from 1920 MHz to 1980 MHz (from 1850 MHz to 1910 MHz in North, Central and South America) are reserved for uplink and frequencies from 2110 MHz to 2170 MHz (from 1930 MHz to 1990 MHz in North, Central and South America) are reserved for downlink. The world telecommunication authorities are already trying to allocate extensions to already reserved frequency bands because it is foreseen that the allocated capacity for IMT-2000 wont be enough. The other access component uses time division and is known as UTRA-TDD (Time Division Duplex). UTRA-TDD is defined to use unpaired frequency bands. On these bands doesnt exist fixed division to uplink and downlink. The link capacity is allocated dynamically according the current need. Any frequency range will do as long as there is at least 3,84 MHz available with 200kHz separation between channels. In this paper I have concentrated mostly on WCDMA technology because in practice the authorities in all countries have reserved most of the available frequencies for UTRA-FDD.

For a graphic presentation about above-described coding technologies and the differences between them refer to Figure 1 below.

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Figure 1 Comparison of common channel coding techniques

The ideas of selected coding technologies were presented here in very simplified manner. For more precise and detailed description the reader is encouraged to turn to [2], [5] or some other appropriate text about wireless communication technologies.

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UTRAN Uu RNS C Node B RNC Iu

UE

Node B Iur RNS C Node B RNC

UE Node B

Figure 2 Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)

The hierarchy of radio network elements of UMTS remains fundamentally the same as in GSM, only their names change. In the UTRAN the counterpart of GSM Base Transceiver Station (BTS) is called Node B and the Base Station Controller (BSC) becomes a Radio Network Controller (RNC). A single RNC together with all Node Bs controlled by it form a Radio Network Subsystem (RNS). These terms and elements are illustrated in Figure 2 above [3].

3.2

USIM The SIM card is already familiar to GSM users. However, all mobile networks dont use similar method to identify the subscriber. In some networks the user identity is bound to terminal. In these networks the user cant use different terminals or rental phones with personal subscription. Every time the user changes terminal he needs to contact the operator to register the new equipment. The good experience with GSM SIMs has encouraged the 3GPP to include this technology to UMTS too. In UMTS the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) that holds the subscription information is called

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Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM). Its function is pretty much the same as SIMs in GSM; it holds subscription specific information and helps in user identification and encryption of communication.

3.3

Terminal People commonly talk about mobile phones. In the scope of this paper more appropriate term is terminal because it includes equipment for all kind of wireless communication not only phones for voice conversations. We should also define term Mobile Equipment (ME) to stand for empty terminal directly from factory box without subscriber information (i.e. without USIM) and User Equipment (UE) to stand for ME which includes USIM (and Terminal Equipment, which will be explained later). This distinction might look only philosophical hairsplitting but it is important when functions are divided to network and subscription dependent ones.

The user won't actually see the change of radio interface and coding technology when he changes from second generation GSM to third generation UMTS network. What he will see, is that he needs to buy a new phone and that he needs a new SIM card from his network operator to put into this new phone. After that he will notice the increase in network capacity and new and more attractive services accessible by this new phone. Even though these new services and increased capacity are probably the reason for him to go through this change, they are only indirect indicators of more profound technological change in radio interface described in previous chapter.

Some of the features specified for UMTS are already familiar from GSM, while some others are either completely new or somehow extended. Every UMTS terminal must support the following functions [3]:

An interface to an integrated circuit card for insertion of the Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) Service provider and network registration and deregistration Location update Originating and receiving of both connection-oriented and connectionless services An unalterable equipment identification (IMEI)

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Basic identification of the terminal capabilities The terminal must be able to support emergency call without USIM Support for the execution of algorithms required for authentication and encryption

The most significant modification is that all terminals will originate and receive packetoriented services. This can be interpreted that 3GPP has committed itself to All-IP from the beginning. That together with another important innovation, registration and deregistration for services, will give more choice over service providers. Usually the client benefits from open competition both in quality and in price of available services. It remains to be seen what, if anything, operators will try to do to block its subscribers from accessing the services offered by other operators and independent third parties.

Minor, but not insignificant, improvements to GSM practice are the requirement for unalterable International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) and support for emergency calls even without USIM. The unalterable IMEI makes the terminal less tempting to thieves. The importance of capability to make an emergency call in any circumstances is obvious. Operators may nullify these both improvements implementing them badly. Knowing the IMEI of a stolen phone is futile if they wont be blocked in every UMTS network in the world. Thieves will soon find out where the terminals can be sold. An emergency call might be blocked if all operators at the coverage area categorically deny access to their network services from unidentified users. This happens already in certain GSM networks, which want to limit the use of its network resources only to its own subscribers and to subscribers of operators with whom they have a roaming agreement. We can only hope that all operators will implement their networks wisely.

Above-mentioned functions are mandatory for the terminal to operate correctly in any UMTS network. Besides these functions the UMTS terminal should also support the following additional functions [3]. These functions will facilitate further technology evolution in the future.

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An Application Programming Interface (API) capability A mechanism to download service related information (parameters, scripts or even software), new protocols, other functions and even new APIs into the terminal Maintenance of the Virtual Home Environment (VHE) using the same user interface and/or another interfaces while roaming Optional insertion of several IC cards

These functions will make it possible to offer and use diversity of new services. They also make it possible to create new services even after the terminals have left the factory. This is vital for the emergence of multitude of new economically viable services. Nowadays the user must buy a new phone every time he wants to use services that are based on new technologies (remember WAP?). This limits the creation of services and many interesting ideas are buried because they wouldnt have enough users that are ready to buy a new phone just for a single service. The UMTS terminals should support new innovative services by just downloading necessary software directly from the network.

In incoming omnipresent Internet the same services will be accessed from many different kind of terminals. For example the banking service might be accessed sometimes from office or home PC, some times from Internet caf and other times from mobile terminal. The VHE support allows accessing a service from any terminal without the need to learn different User Interface (UI) for every terminal. The VHE registers user preferences about the UI appearance and offers the service to any terminal with (as much as possible) same already familiar look and feel. Naturally the adaptation of UIs look and feel cant always be perfect because of the varying terminal capabilities. VHE will utilise the mandatory function of terminal to identify its capabilities.

A schematic description of UE, including the terminal and USIM, as well as the relationship between them can be found in Figure 3 below [3].

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User's application

Another user's application

TE

TE

TA USIM security UICC Network(s)

NT RT MT ME

UTRAN

UE Figure 3 Division of User Equipment into functional entities

The following parts, both physical and functional entities, form the actual UMTS terminal [3]:

UICC contains one or even several USIMs. It is responsible of user identification and other security related functions at terminal side. It, for example, holds the subscribers secret encryption keys.

Terminal Equipment (TE) provides the end-user application functions. It knows the standardised telecommunication services on behalf of the user application and terminates the telecommunication service platform.

Mobile Termination (MT) terminates the radio transmission to and from the network. It adapts TE capabilities to those of the radio transmission. MT terminates the service of the UMTS network system.

Network Termination (NT) is the core network dependent part of the MT. It is terminal in core network point-of-view.

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Radio Termination (RT) is radio access network dependent part of MT. It contains functions common to all services using the same RT-specific radio access technology. RT is the terminal in UTRAN point-of-view.

3.4

TE and MT interact with each other via Terminal Adaptation (TA).

Core network When the capabilities of a GSM network are augmented to form an UMTS network the changes only in terminals are clearly not enough. If more terminals are going to transfer more information across the network the core network must be upgraded as well. The UMTS specifications concentrate mainly in two efficient network solutions that are already widely in use in many other networks. Internet is based on Internet Protocol (IP). In Internet all traffic is transferred using IP. The direction of UMTS evolution is towards All-IP technology. It would also make it very easy to interconnect the mobile networks to the Internet. Both networks would profit from this union. The biggest challenge in building an efficient All-IP network is to be able to guarantee the quality of real time traffic. IP is designed only to best-effort traffic without any guarantees of neither rapidity nor even delivery of the traffic. Another, not completely separate, technology is Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) that is widely used in telecom operators core networks. Main advantage of ATM is fixed packet size that allows hardware routers thus making the routing of data traffic very efficient. By combining these two technologies operator can build up very fast and very efficient network that is capable of transferring all kind of information; data, speech, video, etc.

For more information about IP and ATM, as well as IP over ATM the reader is encouraged to turn to [1], which also gives a good overview of internetworking in general.

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Standardisation of 3G The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland is an international organisation within the United Nations System where governments and the private sector co-ordinate global telecom networks and services. ITU has defined requirements for the third generation mobile systems. This collection of definitions is called International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a coalition of several international standardisation organisations, one of which is European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI). 3GPP has defined its own mobile telecommunication system that fulfils IMT-2000 specification. This system is called Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The UMTS system is defined in many separate phases each one of which introduce changes, new elements and new functions to the earlier versions. These phases are called Releases that are numbered originally according the intended specification release date. Due the delays in releasing the specifications the release numbering system is later on simplified to simple release sequence numbering.

In this chapter I will present the main technological changes introduced in different UMTS releases.

4.1

Release 99 (Release 3) The first actual UMTS version, and thus the actual introduction of UMTS, is called Release 99. It was essentially a consolidation of the underlying GSM specifications and the development of new radio access network. Release 99 specifications were frozen in March 2000. According the new release naming convention it is also known as Release 3 but this first release is better known by its original name.

Release 99 laid the foundations for the future high-speed traffic transfer in both circuit switched and packet switched modes by introducing the new radio access technology including the ATM based interface between radio and core networks. In this phase both the new UTRAN and the old GSM RAN will co-exist side by side maintaining all existing GSM services. The most significant new UMTS specific service introduced at

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this phase is Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). A terminal built according Release 99 will support, among other things, the following services:

SMS, AT commands, and multiplexing protocol as in GSM EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service) MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) MExE (Mobile Execution Environment)

In core network of the UMTS Release 99 are supported, among other things, the following protocols and services:

CAMEL Phase 2 and 3 EDGE GPRS GSM-UMTS interworking OSA (Open System Architecture)

The first UMTS networks already functional in Japan are based on Release 99. The problem with these networks is that they are based on some early drafts of Release 99 specifications and dont comply fully with the final specifications. This makes the terminal roaming impossible between different networks. The later built terminal complying with the standard will work on these new networks if they will be updated to fulfil the requirements of the specifications but the terminals already in use will never be functional in future networks.

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SGSN Iu-PS PS core

GGSN

Gb RNC HLR

Iu-CS

A BSC

MSC CS core

GMSC

Figure 4 UMTS Release 99 core network

The core network elements in direct contact with the radio network are those that need to be updated when building UMTS Release 99 networks. In the circuit switched domain the Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) and in the packet switched domain Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) need to become UMTS aware. The old elements will suffice but they need to be updated. Also the Home Location Register (HLR) needs to be updated to contain UMTS specific subscriber information. The gateways to other networks dont need any modifications. Both the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) and Gateway MSC (GMSC) may remain as they are. These elements as well as both GSM and UMTS radio networks and interfaces between them are depicted in Figure 4 above.

4.2

Release 4 (Release 00) The following UMTS version was originally called Release 00 for it was supposed to be released in year 2000. However the new release numbering system was introduced before the specifications were frozen in March 2001 so officially it became Release 4.

Release 4 made the first step towards All-IP network technology. It separated the call signalling and media transfer in circuit switched domain. The Packet switched domain remained practically unmodified in this release.

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The most significant new UMTS specific services introduced at this phase are Location Services (LCS) which are required to be fully supported in both circuit switched and packet switched domains. The most significant new terminal property introduced at this phase is the support for Terminal Local Mode-USAT Local Link which allows USIM applications to access other devices via Bluetooth.

The Release 4 specifications introduced also some new network elements to the circuit switched part of the core network in order to allow the Bearer Independent Call Control (BICC). The new elements and their main functions are the following:

MSC Server and GMSC Server are responsible for call control of both mobile originated and mobile terminated (circuit switched) calls. They do the termination and needed translation of signalling between user and other networks. They also control the MGWs. The MSC Server allows the use of old terminals, e.g. GSM phones, which need not to be aware of BICC.

Media Gateways (MGW) help in actual media transport by converting the payload between IP/ATM/etc. based packet switched core network and circuit switched access networks. MGWs do also needed echo cancellation to minimise the disturbance introduced in media conversions.

Signalling Gateway (SGW) map the signalling between Release 4 and other networks, for example PLMN or PSTN network.

Media ATM/IP Nb

MGW Iu-CS

MGW

RNC A

Mc Mc HLR

MAP SGW Nc

A BSC

MSC server

GMSC server

Signaling

Figure 5 Separation of signalling and media transport of CS calls in Release 4 network

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In the Figure 5 above is demonstrated the BICC in circuit switched part of Release 4 network. It also points out the locations and functions of new network elements introduced in this release. The example in the Figure 5 shows a mobile originated call from UMTS terminal to fixed line PSTN phone. A red line depicts the signalling and the blue line shows the path of actual payload. The course of the example call is following (Examples of used protocols in a particular phases are shown in parentheses):

First the MGW receives the call initiation signalling (RANAP) coming from the mobile terminal The MGW contacts the MSC Server (H.248 - MEGACO) MSC Server consults HLR (MAP) about the subscriber specific information. The subscribed services and registered locations are searched and controlled. It also opens the other termination of the data channel in the MGW.

4.3

MSC Server contacts the right Gateway MSC Server (BICC) Gateway MSC Server contact corresponding MGW (H.248) for other termination of the data channel. It further contacts the SGW on the path to destination network. SGW translates the signalling between UMTS core network and PSTN network (SS7) Data flows (AAL2) between call parties over packet switched network.

Release 5 The Release 5 was originally scheduled to March 2002 but most probably it will be finalised in the end of summer or beginning of autumn 2002. In this phase the network will finally be pure IP network. All signalling and media transfer will use IP protocol for both packet switched and circuit switched calls.

The call control in All-IP communication network is done with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). More about SIP can be found in its definition (RFC 2543) by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

The All-IP communications require new network elements. The most significant new elements needed in this phase are:

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Home Subscriber Server (HSS), which is practically an All-IP HLR. It contains and manages the user identification, numbering, addressing, location, and security information. It also manages a user profile containing service specific information allowing the realisation of VHE.

Call State Control Function (CSCF) is the actual SIP Server and it is divided in three main functions: Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) is the contact point of operators network for calls destined to subscribers of that network operator or to roaming subscribers currently locating in the service area of that operator. The I-CSCF also selects the S-CSCF during the registration procedure and routes all SIP requests from another networks to S-CSCF and MGCF. Serving CSCF (S-CSCF), as its name implies, serves the caller during the call by maintaining the call state required to provide the call related services. It also interacts with the Services Subsystem and controls the MRF. Proxy CSCF (P-CSCF) is the first contact point for User Equipment within IP multimedia core subsystem. It performs the number analysis to detect emergency calls and local service numbers needed for triggering any required special services. P-CSCF also controls that the users are authorised to access the network resources.

Multimedia Resource Function (MRF) performs multiparty call and multimedia conferencing functions. Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF) controls MGW resources as its name implies. It also acts as a router for incoming calls from PSTN/PLMN to an appropriate CSCF and does the protocol conversion between ISUP and SIP.

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MGW and SGW remain mainly as in Release 4. They only need an updated for Release 5 awareness.

Home B
HSS HSS

Home A

HSS HSS

8 9. INVITE S-CSCF S-CSCF 10. INVITE 14. OK 13. OK

7 6. INVITE I-CSCF I-CSCF 15. OK S-CSCF S-CSCF 16. OK 5. INVITE

I-CSCF I-CSCF 2. INVITE

17. OK

Visited B
11. INVITE P-SCSF P-SCSF 12. OK
GGSN GGSN SGSN SGSN Radio Access Network Radio Access Network

Visited A
P-CSCF P-CSCF 18. OK
GGSN GGSN SGSN SGSN Radio Access Network Radio Access Network

1.INVITE

Source: SIP forum

Figure 6 - An example: Call between two roaming mobile terminals

An example of a call between two mobile terminals both of subscribers of different network operators and both roaming in yet another networks service area is shown in Figure 6 above. The different phases of the example call are the following:

Caller A initiates the call by contacting the P-CSCF of roaming network using the SIP protocol. P-CSCF of roaming network forwards the call to the I-CSCF of subscribers home network. I-CSCF of home network consults the HSS to confirm the authorisation and find out the user profile and needed S-CSCF for requested service.

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After consulting the HSS the I-CSCF forwards the call to suitable S-CSCF in the home network. S-CSCF of the home network contacts the I-CSCF of the destinations home network. The consulting of HSS and call forwarding to S-CSCF are done in this network in a similar way. The S-CSCF of called partys home network contacts the roaming network where the called party resides at the moment. The P-CSCF of the roaming network informs the client about the incoming call and receives on OK for call establishment. The acknowledgement traverses through all four network in order to gather the billing information for the call (and to inform the networks about the current call state)

Once the signalling is done the data channel will be opened between the roaming networks GGSNs without sending the actual call payload unnecessarily through the home networks.

This same path through all four networks is done whenever the session parameters need to be updated, that is when the SIP signalling is involved. This indirect path is necessary because the home networks want to gather information about their clients service usage and in order to be able to bill them properly.

4.4

Release 6 The next release, Release 6, is already scheduled for March 2003 but it is probable that it will be delayed for the Release 5 seems to be finalised approximately 6 months late. For Release 6 the 3GPP is working among other things on generic user profiles, digital rights management and speech recognition for speech enabled services. This shows the actual network architecture seems to have reached its target in Release 5. All-IP multimedia network of Release 5 is enough for currently foreseen future. The network supports many new services and Release 6 needs to address the issues about service creation, further development of services, billing and copy protection of digital information. For more detailed information about Release 6 contents and time table the reader is advised to follow the situation on the 3GPP web pages.

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Conclusion The GSM network is evolving from mobile telephone network towards universal mobile multimedia network. This evolution path has several steps. First the radio network needs to be updated to support more traffic over limited available frequencies. Also the terminals need to be updated to support new innovative services that the enhanced network capacity will make viable. Then the core network will evolve towards All-IP network by first separating the signalling from media and finally transferring even the signalling over IP. During this transition period both the old already functioning network and the new evolving network will co-operate side-by-side enabling the access to available services.

The balancing between two extremes is always hard. Traditionally the telecom world has pushed the development towards centralised controlled networks while the Internet world has been driving the global anarchy network of absolute freedom. UMTS will bring the mobile telephone networks, fixed line telephone networks and data networks towards a unified multimedia network. The resulting future mobile Internet will take some of its properties from current Internet, some from current telecommunication networks and some features will be completely new not existing in any current network technology. Will the adopted parts be the best or the worst of every network will greatly depend on the heterogeneity of standardisation bodies and independent researchers but also the objectives of financiers has a big influence on the development of 3G and the further generations of mobile communications. Also the open standards and open service provisioning are important factors for the successful future of UMTS. If the discussion will be kept objective and free the resulting network will probably be successful.

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References In writing this paper I have found the following books to be very useful:

[1] Comer D. Internetworking with TCP/IP volume I Principles, Protocols, And Architecture. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall.1995. [2] Gibson J (editor). The Mobile Communications Handbook. 2nd ed. CRC Press. 1999. [3] Kaaranen H, Ahtiainen A, Laitinen L, Naghian S, Niemi V. UMTS Networks Architecture, Mobility and Services. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2001. [4] Penttinen J. GSM-tekniikka - Jrjestelmn toiminta ja kehitys kohti UMTS-aikakautta. 3 painos. WSOY. 2001. [5] Rappaport T. Wireless Communications - Principles and Practice. Prentice-Hall. 1996.

In addition to these I have found very useful the presentations of Olli Liinamaa from Nokia Networks held September 27th and October 10th 2001 in Helsinki and Oulu respectively and my personal discussions with him during these occasions.

For Finnish speaking readers Id like to recommend [4], which is an excellent textbook about the GSM and UMTS architectures and the evolution from GSM towards UMTS. It is very difficult to find material about this subject in Finnish. Thanks to Jyrki Penttinen for his pioneer work!

Standards organisations For more detailed information and the actual specifications the reader is advised to browse the web pages of following organisations.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), http://www.itu.org/ headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland is an international organisation within the United Nations System where governments and the private sector co-ordinate global telecom networks and services. All official information about IMT-2000 is gathered to http://www.itu.int/home/imt.html.

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), http://www.3gpp.org/ is a coalition of (mainly European) organisations promoting WCDMA technology. All the specifications of

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different UMTS releases can be found through http://www.3gpp.org/specs/specs.htm. A good overview about the UMTS releases is http://www.3gpp.org/specs/releases-contents.htm.

The Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), http://www.3gpp2.org/ is a collaborative third generation telecommunications standards-setting project comprising North American and Asian interests developing global specifications based on CDMA2000 technology.

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), http://www.etsi.org/ is a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to produce the telecommunications standards that will be used for decades to come throughout Europe and beyond.

Special interest groups SIP Forum, http://www.sipforum.org/ is a non-profit association whose mission is to promote awareness and provide information about the benefits and capabilities that are enabled by SIP. A good collection of information about SIP is gathered on the Columbia University SIP pages http://www.cs.columbia.edu/sip/ that are maintained by Henning Schulzrinne, one of the authors of SIP protocol.

Information about UMTS development is gathered e.g. on http://www.umtsworld.com/.

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