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GSM System

D. Vanhoenacker-Janvier Microwave Laboratory, UCL

Outline GSM System

History Configuration of the GSM network GSM signals Performances of the GSM system Design of the base station

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History

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First European cellular radio system installed in Scandinavia in 1981 Other systems installed but incompatibility between the standards and impossibility to use the same equipment across the borders (Analogue FM, SCPC/FDMA, ) CEPT (Confrence Europenne des Postes et Tlcommunications) installs the GSM (Groupe Spcial Mobile) in 1982 in view of specifying a global European system at 900 MHz. Trade off has to be achieved between spectral efficiency, voice quality, cost of the receiver, portability, cost of the base station, etc.

History

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New system installed in 1992 GSM=Global System for Mobile communications A new study group started to work on the next system: UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) GSM used in Europe, South Africa, most Asian countries, Australia

Configuration of the GSM network

Frequency allocation: 890 915 MHz mobile to base station 935 960 MHz base station to mobile FDD system (frequency division duplex) Choice of digital signals Integration of voice, data and signalling Spectral efficiency High quality Low cost terminals

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Configuration of the GSM network

Structure of the GSM network BTS BSC MSC HLR
cell

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Switching center

To the network

BTS BTS=base station transmitters BSC= base station controller MSC=mobile switching center

VLR

HLR=home location register VLR=visitor location register

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Configuration of the GSM network

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Ground coverage performed by the base station (BTS) supervised by the controllers (BSC) which ensure a good quality of the link The mobile has a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM card) which is an international mobile subscriber identity + key BSC is responsible for power control and hand-over, channel allocation, signalling transmission and messages MSC is responsible for the traffic control
Start and end of the calls Routing Cost of the calls Statistics Hand-over procedures intra-cells and inter-cells Connexion to the cable network Management of the mobility and authentication
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Configuration of the GSM network

Mobility management:

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Dynamic data bases Each user is registered in the HLR of his network, which knows the identity of the VLR regularly visited, to speed up routing

GSM signals

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890 MHz

uplink FDD 45 MHz 25 MHz

915

935

downlink

960

Channel 1 (200 kHz)

Channel 124 (200 kHz)

Total band available 25 MHz FDMA 124 channels of 200 kHz TDMA each 200 kHz channel sends an impulse of 577 s in a frame of 4.615 ms (8 slots of 577 s) In a BTS: different channel transmitters, in non adjacent bands (combined FDMA/TDMA) GSM channel = 1 burst in a TDMA frame, in a channel
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GSM signals

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A Traffic channel contains 26 frames (120 ms=26x4.615ms), 24 for the voice, 1 for control and 1 unused Multiplexing:
124 channels (FDMA) 8 slots (TDMA) Total number of channels: 992

Sampling and modulation

Quantization: 13 bits (8192 levels) Sampling frequency: 8 kHz This makes 104 kbits/sec Coding + compression (Regular Pulse Excited Linear Predictive Speech Codec RPE-LPC) reduces to 13 kbits/sec Divided in binary blocs of 260 bits (20 ms speech) Adding protection and Error Correcting Codes (bloc codes + CC (2,1,5)) makes 271 kbits/sec This makes 156,25 bits in 0.577 ms (burst) 1 bit=3.69 s
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GSM signals
260 bits for 20 ms speech

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50 bits

132 bits 3 parity 189 bits

78 bits

50

132

4 initialisation of the decoder

378 bits Convolutional code r=1/2, k=5 Total: 456 bits/20 ms

Interburst interleaving 57 57 57 57 57 57 h1 h2 Control messages

78 bits

8 blocs of 57 bits

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GSM signals
Encryption 3 8,25

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156,25 bits
3 58 (encrypt.) 26 (training) 58 (encrypt.)

1 burst of 0.577 s

26 training symbols for the evaluation of the channel response (channel response, phase variation from Doppler, delay correction for synchronisation) GMSK modulation Max delay of 85 ms in processing (not detectable by the user wrt 240 ms for geostationary satellite communication) Delay equaliser up to 16 s Slow frequency hopping 217/s (frequency diversity)
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GSM signals
Problem of propagation delay

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Max radius of the cell: 35 km, this makes a max delay of 233.3 s for 70 km No overlap between signals arriving at the base station, so we need a guard period of 252 s: 68,25 bits in the burst for the first access!!! First synchronisation sequence sent=41 bits + long guard period. The base station calculates the propagation delay and a timing advance is sent to the mobile (64 bits, precision of 3.69 s). The guard period is reduced to about 30 s, which makes 8.25 bits

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Performances of the GSM system

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Degradation of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) due to noise and interferences Noise: AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise Interferences:
Co-channel interferences Adjacent channel interferences Near-end far-end effect

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Performances of the GSM system

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Co-channel interferences Frequency reuse increases spectral efficiency but produces interferences.

2 cells with the same frequency f1 at a distance D. Key parameter: a=D/R

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Performances of the GSM system

7 cells reuse pattern

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4 cells reuse pattern 1 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 7 1 1

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Performances of the GSM system

12 cells reuse pattern 19 cells reuse pattern

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9 8 2 7 1 4 5 3 12 10 11

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Performances of the GSM system

The minimum distance depends on
The number of cells at the same frequency f1, surrounding the cell The shape of the cell (relief) The height of the emitting antenna

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For ideal hexagonal cells

D = 3K R
K= number of different frequencies used by the base station D=reuse distance (2 cells with the same frequency)
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Performances of the GSM system

K 4 7 12 19 D 3.46 R 4.6 R 6R 7.55 R

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When K increases, D increases also and the interferences are reduced. The total number of channels being fixed, if K increases, there are less channels for one carrier and the efficiency decreases.
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Performances of the GSM system

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Performances of the GSM system

C C = 6 N 0 + I N 0 + 1 I 'i

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Performances of the GSM system

Co-channel interference is function of the parameter a=D/R D can be calculated for a given frequency reuse scheme and a given C/N, as

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C R = K I 1 i Dk
is the slope coefficient of the propagation model Ki is the number of interfering cells at the 1st tier C/I is often of the order of magnitude of 18 dB (USA).

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Performances of the GSM system

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Performances of the GSM system

Adjacent channel interference

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Due to the adjacent channel Due to another channel farther Due to another system (another country) Caused by another cell or control signals May be caused by non-linearities in the system if all channels are used.

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Performances of the GSM system

Near-far effect

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2 mobiles send their signal to the base station, one being very close to the base station, the second one being very far (limit of the cell). Interference at the base station is highly probable Solutions: Separation of the channels (depends on the slope of the input filter to separate the signals) Power reduction from the base station

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Performances of the GSM system

Example 2 mobiles d1=16 km d2=0.8 km Attenuation of 40dB/dec: 40 log d2/d1= 52 dB Farthest mobile is 52 dB lower than the closest Assume an input filter of 12dB/octave or 40 dB/decade
40 log

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f2 = 101.3 = 20 f1

f2 f1 f2 = 52 ; f1 f2 = 1052 40 ; f1 f2 = 101.3 = 20 f1
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40 log

Performances of the GSM system

How to reduce interferences?
Good frequency repartition scheme (! Non linearities) Choice of the channel given to the mobile vs its quality Choice of the radiating pattern of the antennas Choice of the height of the antenna Power levelling Reduce the size of the cells Increase the number of channels in each cell Dynamic assignment of the channels Hand over

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How to increase traffic capacity of the system

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Design of the base station

Parameters available:
Position of the antennas Height of the antennas Type of antennas + diversity

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Position of the antennas

Irregular illumination zone due to terrain irregularities Avoid interferences (take into account other emitters) It is important to optimise the whole system

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Design of the base station

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Choice of the power level received at the limit of the cells (receiver and performances expected), then first choice of the following parameters:
Type of the zone ( attenuation coefficient) Power emitted by the base station Height of the antenna Antenna gain and radiating pattern Size of the cell

Choice of the position of the antenna Evaluation of the power received on the ground with a software (see channel modelling) Check the global coverage and the possible interferences

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Design of the base station

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Design of the base station

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Design of the base station

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Design of the base station

Space diversity at the base station for increasing the performances:

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Boresight In line

Better performances for boresight situation, so better 3 antennas:

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