Ericsson Review No.

1, 2007
26
Background
1ransmission to radio base station (RBS) sites
accounts or a iarge part o the cost o operat-
ing radio access networks. Where operators
have buiit their own transport networks,
transmission aiso represents substantiai in-
vestment (Iigure 1).
1raditionai transmission rom RBSs to
a base station controiier (BSC) is reaiized
using static time-division muitipiexing
(1Dm) circuits. 1his technoiogy has not
been optimized or encient transmission o
bursty data tranc, however. Nor is it easiiy
adapted to the iow-cost transport technoio-
gies, such as IP and Ithernet, which are be-
ing roiied out over copper, nber, and micro-
wave networks.
1he good news is that recent deveiop-
ments in GSm transport and switching
technoiogies promise to overcome these is-
sues, making GSm suitabie to provide ser-
vices both to iow-revenue users and to users
o high-speed data services.
Technical overview, Packet
Abis
!a./.t A/is. Iricssons coiiective soiution or
these deveiopments (Iigure 2), inciudes a
new protocoi or transerring data over the
Abis iink. Simpiy put, rom the air inter-
ace the soiution sends aii tranc (voice, data
and signaiing) in packets over Abis with a
minimum o repacking and reormatting.
1he soiution can be used over 1Dm trans-
port networks as weii as with IP or Ithernet
transport services. Iricssons Packet Abis so-
iution is buiit around two main eatures.
A/is 0tioi.atio. aoa
A/is :. I!
Low TCO using TDM transport
networks
A/is 0tioi.atio. which is Iricssons soiu-
tion or deiivering Packet Abis over 1Dm
transport networks, saves bandwidth by
soieiy transerring bits that contain data.
Aii other bits (or exampie, those that were
previousiy used to maintain a constant bit
rate to nt the PDH channei ormat) are no
ionger inserted.
Iricsson has integrated the A/is 0tioi.atio
soiution into its base station subsystem (BSS).
1he Abis Optimization eature is based on a
sotware upgrade o the RBS, and the intro-
duction o a packet gateway (PGW) in the
BSC, to terminate the Packet Abis protocoi.
1o save even more bandwidth, one may add a
site integration unit (SIU) at RBS sites to ex-
pioit statisticai muitipiexing gains between
RBSs.
D|mens|on|ng examo|e, Ao|s Oot|m|zat|on
1he number o I1/11 iinks required per site
with A/is 0tioi.atio depends on site con-
ngurations and tranc mix. In 11 markets,
one RBS 2106/2206 with up to 12 1RXs can
cover three sectors with oniy one 11. With
ciassic Abis, two 11s wouid be required or
this connguration.
In I1 markets, one I1 can support two
RBSs with up to 18 1RXs. Ior standard base
station conngurations, this couid transiate
into a savings o up to 50`.
Low TCO with Packet Abis using IP or
Ethernet transport services
1he A/is :. I! soiution enabies operators
to use IP and Ithernet transport networks
to connect RBSs to the BSC and thereby
benent rom the iower costs o IP- and
Ithernet-based transport services. 1he soiu-
tion aiso opens the door to shared transport
with WCDmA and to integrated transport
soiutions or RBS sites.
1he soiution is uiiy interoperabie with
Iricssons other products. At an RBS site,
aii IP eatures are impiemented in the new
S1N unction, connecting the site to IP or
Ithernet transport networks. 1he S1N is a
sotware unction that can be impiemented
in Iricssons base stations.
1he site transport node is impiemented
on a amiiy o piatorms that have been op-
timized to nt pico, micro, and macro RBSs.
1he packet-switched termination unit
(PS1U) piatorm or micro RBSs, or in-
stance, has been compieteiy integrated into
Iricssons micro RBS.
In macro RBSs, Iricsson has integrated
the S1N into the site integration unit (SIU),
which is designed to serve as a singie point
o connection that supports common, inte-
grated transport to the RBS site. With the
SIU (Iigure ~), one can encientiy manage
and share backhaui transport or GSm RBSs,
GSM transport evo|ut|on
Per Ola Andersson, Hkan Asp, Aldo Bolle, Harry Leino, Peter Seybolt and Richard Swardh
The success of GSM to date has been nothing short of sensationa|. What
is more, its future continues to ho|d great promise. However, two important
cha||enges must yet be reso|ved to make GSM the mobi|e communica-
tions system for the "next bi||ion users" and to guarantee the commercia|
success of its mobi|e data services. focus on |ow tota| cost of ownership
(TCO}, and dep|oyment of enhanced GPRS (EGPRS} in every network. In
addressing these cha||enges, GSM transport or backhau| constitutes one
very interesting and dynamic area of deve|opment.
F|gure 1
Breakdown of the costs of operat|ng rad|o access networks.
RAN equipment
Site equipment
Spares, support, training
Transmission
Power
Site rental
Operation and
maintenance
NRO
Civil works
Ericsson Review No. 1, 2007
27
WCDmA RBSs, and other equipment that
connects via IP or Ithernet.
1he packet gateway used or A/is 0tioi-
.atio can simuitaneousiy handie IP tranc
and tranc rom the 1Dm transport network,
and terminate A/is :. I! at the BSC site.
Quadrup|ing the performance of EDGE
without extra transmission
many operators who depioy IDGI have
deemed it necessary to constrain throughput
to match the iimitations o avaiiabie 1Dm
transmission capacity. 1he ciassic 1Dm-
based Abis interace has a nxed aiiocation o
transmission timesiots to basic radio channeis.
1hereore, the subordinate 16kbps timesiot
on the Abis interace permanentiy aiiocated
to a tranc channei (1CH) or voice service
wiii never be avaiiabie to carry IDGI data.
With packet Abis the transport resources
make up a common pooi that is used by the
tranc oered at each moment in time.
1he new Packet Abis, however, has no
such permanent connection. 1hereore, I1 or
11 transmission can now oer a muitiiink
point-to-point protocoi (mIPPP) bit pipe
that may be reeiy used by every service o-
ered by the RBS untii it reaches saturation
(congestion). At that point, the BSC dynami-
caiiy reduces the generated ioad through its
controi o mobiie terminais.
In many iocations, operators have aiso iim-
ited IGPRS to one timesiot, giving subscrib-
ers a peak perormance o at most 59.2kbps.
However, by depioying Packet Abis, opera-
tors can quadrupie the speed at most times o
the day without adding transmission capac-
ity, thereby giving users the abiiity to, say,
sur the internet at more than 2~0kbps.
Synchronization
1o compiy with GSm specincations and
guarantee proper GSm network unction,
the RBSs must maintain a stabie and con-
troiied radio requency over the air interace.
Depending on the type o RBS, the stipu-
iated ievei o accuracy is 50 or 100ppb.
RBSs with traditionai 1Dm-based Abis
are synchronized to timing provided by the
transport network iayer-1 ciock rate. 1Dm
networks are typicaiiy synchronized to an ac-
curacy o 16ppb, which with added wander
and a hoidover budget, is weii within the re-
quirements o the air interace.
With A/is :. I!, however, one cannot
assume that the transport network carries
timing or synchronization on iayer-1. Ith-
ernet, or exampie, does not currentiy sup-
port iayer-1 timing or RBS synchronization.
Other means must thus be used to synchro-
nize RBSs. Operators who empioy A/is :.
I! can synchronize their radio base stations
using timing inormation rom
a GPS receiver at the RBS site, or
the IP network.
GPS |ece|ve| at RBS s|te
At an RBS site equipped with a GPS receiver,
one can synchronize RBSs using GPS timing
data. 1his soiution, which is very accurate,
is aiso used to synchronize radio networks.
Notwithstanding, it requires a ciear iine o
sight rom the GPS antenna to the sateiiites
in the sky. In many instaiiations this is im-
possibie to achieve, which eiiminates GPS
as the synchronization soiution o choice or
such sites.
RBS sync||on|zat|on w|t| Ao|s ove| /P
In Iricssons soiution, the S1N provides
RBSs with the timing they need to uinii the
F|gure 2
Packet Ab|s system so|ut|on.
Pico RBS
BSC
GS
ETC
lXU
TRU
TRU
DXU
TRU
New software
New hardware and software
SlU
PSTU
TRU
PGW
Sync. server
TRH
BSC
LAN
Swit-
ches
TRA
GPH
Micro RBS
Macro RBS
lP or Ethernet
transport service
DXU/lXU
TRU
TRU
DXU/lXU
TRU
To other RBSs
To other RBSs
n*E1/T1
n*E1/T1
lP/Ethernet
SlU
TRU
RBS
RBS
TDM
Transport network
F|gure 3
The s|te |ntegrat|on un|t (SIU|.
Ericsson Review No. 1, 2007
28
requency requirements o the air interace.
1he RBSs can use existing synchronization
unctionaiity. 1he basis or this soiution is a
highiy stabie osciiiator (OCXO) buiit into the
Pico, PS1U (iater version), and SIU hardware.
1o compensate or aging and to avoid site vis-
its to recaiibrate the osciiiator, the OCXO is
urther caiibrated over the packet network.
With this soiution, the startup time is kept
independent o IP network perormance. Iive
minutes ater power-on, the OCXO can pro-
vide an accurate requency that can be used
as a timing source or RBS synchronization
unctionaiity. An S1N can provide accurate
timing or severai months rom initiai start-
up without timing or caiibration support
rom the network.
When put into operation, a caiibration ap-
piication in the S1N compensates or OCXO
aging. 1he S1N serves as a ciient to a time
server, reguiariy sending time-stamped tim-
ing packets at a very iow packet rate. 1he
time server returns packets with receive and
transmit time stamps. On reception o these
packets, the S1N adds a receive time stamp
(Iigure 4). 1he message data ormat denned
in N1P is used or transerring timing pack-
ets with time-stamp inormation.
Avaiiabie N1P time servers with Stratum-
1 accuracy (or instance, N1P time servers
which are synchronized to GPS and which
provide a time-stamping accuracy o better
than 100s) can be used and shared with
other appiications. 1hanks to the very iow
timing packet rate, one time server can serve
a iarge number o ciients. 1he robustness o
the totai synchronization unctionaiity has
made it possibie to reiax the requirements
put on time server avaiiabiiity
1he S1N caiibration appiication anaiyzes
and niters received timing packets using an
aigorithm deveioped by Iricsson. 1he caii-
bration appiication can work over every IP
network path that can be used or A/is :. I!
tranc. 1he caiibration appiication thus sup-
ports IP network paths with a packet deiay
variation o up to 50ms. 1his is comparabie
to the quaiity o service (QoS) ciass-1 den-
nition in I1U-1 \.1541, which is intended
or voice over IP (VoIP) using network tech-
niques with iess constrained requirements on
routing and distances. 1he robust aigorithm
is not sensitive to packet ioss or iong peri-
ods (months) o interruption toward the time
server.
1he supported network may be a switched
or routed network that inciudes xDSI-
through-DSIAm access or a sateiiite hop.
1he WAN interace o the S1N can be
Ithernet 10/100/1000BASI or I1/11. Due
to tranc-ioad-dependent processing and
scheduiing deiays in network nodes, the IP
packet transer deiay (IP1D) can accommo-
date wander components with a periodicity
o days. Caiibration may continue or up to
15 days on IP networks with iarge IP1D
wander.
1he Iricsson A/is :. I! soiution to RBS
synchronization can be empioyed over IP
networks with existing switching and rout-
ing equipment in intermediate nodes. 1he
soiution can handie the packet deiay varia-
tion added by these intermediate nodes. Aii
existing intermediate nodes support the mes-
sage data ormat used by the timing packets.
1he highiy stabie OCXO keeps startup time
independent o packet deiay variation in the
IP network.
In the uture, the IIII 1588 protocoi
might be impiemented in some teiecommu-
nications networks. However, this wiii not
improve the perormance o synchronization
or caiibration through existing networks un-
iess every network node is repiaced with a
node that supports an IIII 1588 boundary
ciock or transparent ciock. With IIII 1588
techniques impiemented in every node, the
ciients wiii experience iess packet deiay vari-
ation, which in turn, means that iess stabie
osciiiators may be used in ciient nodes. One
consequence o using a iess stabie osciiiator
is that startup time becomes dependent on
packet deiay variation.
Security
Connecting RBSs over IP networks instead
o over 1Dm-based networks sometimes
raises security concerns. Aithough these
concerns are not generaiiy motivated by any
technicai property o IP, a soiution is never-
theiess oten required. 1here are two main
reasons or this.
the IP network provides connectivity rom
RBSs to the BSC, OSS, and time server.
Depending on how it has been conngured,
a network that is shared with other sys-
tems might oer widespread connectivity,
and
operators oten consider using pubiic or
F|gure 4
RBS synchron|zat|on w|th Ab/s over lP: t|me-stamp|ng examp|e.
Last time local clock
was set/corrected
Local receive
timestamp
Timing packet
T2 T1
T3 T4
Time server Client
Timing packet
Transmit timestamp
Reference timestamp
Originate timestamp
Receive timestamp
Transmit timestamp
Ericsson Review No. 1, 2007
29
semi-pubiic IP networks as a means o re-
ducing their costs.
Some operators may aiso have a corporate
strategy that mandates specinc security soiu-
tions when a generic IP network is used.
Limiting access and potentia| intrusion
Iricssons A/is :. I! soiution incorporates
a number o measures to improve security
(Iigure 5). Ior exampie, it empioys
access controi iists in BSC and RBS IP in-
teraces,
optionai nrewaiis in ront o sensitive
nodes, such as BSC and OSS, or at inter-
connection points between the Abis and
core IP networks, and
IPsec tunneis rom the RBS site to BSC
and OSS sites or to a secure IP backbone.
IP is impiemented nativeiy in aii RBS site
transport nodes. IPsec termination at BSC
and OSS sites is impiemented using specinc
nrewaiis, and IPsec tunneis are managed
rom the OSS.
O&M security
Because Osm tranc is particuiariy sensitive
rom a security viewpoint, aii Osm tranc
that runs over IP is reaiized using secure
socket sheii (SSH) and secured I1P (SI1P).
Iikewise, user authentication is mandatory
or aii Osm connections. 1he system iogs an
audit traii o operator activity and periodi-
caiiy upioads it to the OSS.
P|otect|on of |nsec0|e t|ansm|ss|on
I the access IP network is untrusted - that
is, i it is shared or pubiic - then IPsec shouid
aiways be used to prevent wiretapping and
tranc manipuiation. A typicai exampie
wouid be pico base stations, such as the RBS
2409 (Iigure 6), which target iow-power re-
quency iicenses or the enterprise market.
Pico and Femto base
stations
In addition, the new architecture opens up
compieteiy new business segments. A/is :.
I! yieids cost-eective transport or base sta-
tions with iow tranc, enabiing operators to
address Pico and Iemto-types o soiutions
(smaii base stations that require data rates
o up to a ew hundred kiiobits per second
between the RBS and BSC).
1he Pico ceii soiution, or exampie, is a
compiete RBS 2000 base station with one
1RX. Among other things, operators can
use this soiution to oer dedicated capacity,
coverage and services to smaii or medium-
sized enterprises, which benent rom dedi-
cated GSm teiephony. In this scenario, op-
erators couid even oer speciai taris when
users are in the once. 1his soiution repre-
sents a repiacement to nxed phones. Previ-
ousiy, the backhaui cost o an I1 prohibited
these types o soiutions, but with A/is :. I!
and a cheaper DSI type o backhaui (or even
the corporate IAN itsei), the Pico soiution
becomes economicaiiy easibie.
Iemto ceii soiutions give operators simiiar
opportunities to go ater the home market
with an oer o inexpensive (or ree) caiis at
home using any standard GSm or WCDmA
phone. 1he Iemto runs A/is :. I! to the
BSC/RNC using the home broadband IP
connection or backhaui. Speciai optimiza-
tions handie iow-cost, iow-bandwidth ADSI
iinks. A/is :. I! thus creates a compieteiy
new business opportunity by giving opera-
tors an entireiy new way o buiiding GSm
networks - where end-users introduce new
ceiis into the network.
Satellites
Sateiiites have been used or a number o
years to provide connectivity with base
station sites in remote iocations. Singie-
channei-per-carrier (SCPC) connections have
traditionaiiy served as a ieased I1/11 con-
nection that provides point-to-point connec-
tivity. 1ransmission or these sites is expen-
sive because the sateiiite connection requires
the uii SCPC bandwidth even when there is
no tranc rom the site.
1oday, however, the introduction o A/is
:. I! and advances in sateiiite modem
technoiogy make it possibie to reduce trans-
mission expenses or remote sites. Advanced
moduiation techniques increase the bit rate
per hertz, and bandwidth-sharing technoio-
gy aiiows sites to share sateiiite bandwidth
by means o point-to-muitipoint connections
and a resources-in-pooi concept.
With current sateiiite bandwidth pric-
F|gure 5
Secur|ty |n Er|csson's Ab|s over IP so|ut|on.
OSS
BSC
Firewall and lPsec
Site integration unit
RBS
Core lP
network Access lP
network
lPsec tunnel
SSH session
F|gure 6
P|co base stat|on, RBS 2409.
Ericsson Review No. 1, 2007
30
ing (whoiesaie average USD 1.2 miiiion per
~6mHz transponder per year), it is oten un-
prontabie to provide GSm services to remote
sites with sateiiite transmission. 1o iower the
totai cost o ownership, one must make more
encient use o avaiiabie bandwidth. 1o this
end, Iricssons integrated IP soiution moni-
tors the transport network and IP transport
quaiity o service to make it bandwidth
aware and to give a better end-user experi-
ence.
1hese enhancements reduce the demand or
bandwidth, which iowers 1CO. Iow 1CO is
particuiariy reievant where ARPU is iow, or
exampie, in emerging markets. When used
in conjunction with modern sateiiite technoi-
ogy, Iricssons IP-B1S enabies operators to
prontabiy bring communications to peopie
and piaces that couid not otherwise have it.
With non-optimized transmission based on
traditionai I1 SCPC, or instance, one can nt
~5 B1Ss with 6 1RXs into a ~6mHz sateiiite
transponder. By contrast, with careui end-
to-end engineering using A/is :. I! and
optimization together with advanced satei-
iite modem technoiogy one can nt 5 B1Ss
into the same avaiiabie bandwidth. Iurther-
more, with iocai switching and PS1N inter-
connect, one can nt more than 200 B1Ss into
one sateiiite transponder.
Sateiiite transport is nexibie and easy to
use, aiiowing or rapid, smaii-scaie depioy-
ments. As demand grows, operators can
easiiy adjust sateiiite transport as needed.
I demand justines terrestriai transport, one
can redepioy sateiiite equipment and band-
width, since it is not dependent on iocation
(ordinariiy, one sateiiite can cover an entire
continent).
However, to take uii advantage o these
advances in technoiogy, one must careuiiy
engineer the system end-to-end. With its
combined knowiedge o radio access, IP
backbone and sateiiite technoiogy, Iricsson
is uniqueiy positioned to deiiver the iowest
1CO or B1Ss connected via sateiiite.
Microwave
microwave iinks are used extensiveiy or
base station backhaui - at present, more
than 60` o aii base stations are connected
via microwave iinks. 1he majority o op-
erators seek to minimize their operating ex-
penses (OPIX) by owning their own trans-
port networks instead o ieasing capacity. In
operator-owned transport networks, up to
95` o associated base stations are connected
via microwave iinks.
Aithough traditionai microwave iinks
might provide bridged Ithernet capabiiity,
this does not automaticaiiy impiy a reduc-
tion in costs in an IP or Ithernet scenario.
In a network depioyment, on the other hand,
the aggregation and statisticai muitipiexing
gains resuit in more encient handiing o
tranc capacity. 1hereore substantiai gains
may aiso be achieved by moving to Packet
Abis over traditionai microwave iinks that
support Ithernet over 1Dm. In addition,
new-generation microwave iinks with na-
tive Ithernet transport, QoS support, and
adaptive moduiation microwave iinks oer
a unique way o providing best-eort tranc
transport in combination with guaranteed
transport or 1Dm tranc. 1his urther sup-
ports the evoiution o the packet-based trans-
port in the radio access network.
Adaptive moduiation microwave iinks en-
abie operators to transport best-eort tranc
aiongside guaranteed 1Dm tranc. 1he idea
is to pian the microwave iinks or a target
avaiiabiiity, say 99.999`, when operating at
a given moduiation, or exampie, 4QAm. In
practice, the iinks usuaiiy operate ar above
the receiver threshoid and oniy approach
the receiver iimit during very adverse ad-
ing conditions. As a consequence, Iricsson
pians to introduce microwave systems that
adapt moduiation schemes to ading condi-
tions. 1hese systems wiii deiiver dierent
transport bit rates or dierent atmospheric
conditions.
Iigure shows avaiiabiiity when a mi-
crowave iink runs at dierent moduiation
rates. A iink that uses 4QAm, or exampie,
can deiiver ~4mbps with 99.999` avaiiabii-
ity. When it uses 256QAm, this same iink
has 99.999` avaiiabiiity and can deiiver
196mbps. 1his capacity couid be empioyed
to provide ~4mbps guaranteed tranc with
99.999` avaiiabiiity and best-eort capac-
ity o approximateiy 150mbps, aiso with
99.999` avaiiabiiity. Iinks o this kind can
provide a competitive, cost-eective aiterna-
tive or a capacity-growth scenario in which
the buik o tranc is mobiie data with best-
eort characteristics.
Future Packet Abis
development
1he site-transmission-node unction and the
A/is :. I! eature aiso constitute the cor-
nerstone o Iricssons evoiving mobiie Sot-
switch concept, which reaches aii the way to
the RBS. Given that the majority o caiis are
iocai, the abiiity to keep payioad within the
RBS and route it directiy to the RBS that
serves B-subscribers wiii urther reduce op-
F|gure 7
Ava||ab|||ty of a m|crowave ||nk runn|ng at d|fferent modu|at|on rates.
99.99%
99.999% availability 34Mbps
availability
150Mbps
Rece|ved s|gna|
7|me
256QAM
receiver
threshold
CQPSK
receiver
threshold
Unavailable time
Ericsson Review No. 1, 2007
31
erator 1CO. Iricsson has thus introduced a
new IP payioad interace between RBSs and
m-mGWs, to enabie direct transer o pay-
ioad rom a mobiie subscriber to a iocai nxed
exchange.
RBS iocai switching and direct transer
o payioad are optionai eatures depioyed on
existing GSm network inrastructure rom
Iricsson. No additionai hardware is required
to depioy RBS iocai switching apart rom the
A/is :. I! eature, with its SIU hardware
at the RBS and PGW hardware in the BSC.
Instead, one can reaiize RBS iocai switching
and direct transer o payioad to m-mGWs
by means o new unctionaiity in the BSS
mAP signaiing protocoi between the mSC-S
and BSC. Iricssons BSS mAP interace ex-
changes inormation between nodes, making
it possibie to anaiyze the codec capabiiities
o invoived terminais, and to seiect the best
common denominator. 1his eiiminates the
need or intermediate transcoding, eectiveiy
removing two transcoding steps, whiie render-
ing better voice quaiity and reducing deiay.
1he same basic AXI unctionaiity used to
transorm the mSC into an mSC-S has been
appiied to the BSC. Iikewise, the signaiing
protocoi between the BSC PGW and the
S1N has been enhanced to aciiitate sot-
switch unctionaiity in the S1N.
1o transer payioad directiy rom RBSs to
m-mGWs, the GCP protocoi has been en-
hanced and the m-mGW has been compie-
mented to support every codec used in GSm.
With these additions o unctionaiity on
top o the packet-switched A/is :. I! soiu-
tion, Iricsson has evoived the GSm architec-
ture rom its originai hierarchicai structure
to a compieteiy nat architecture. Iricssons
GSm system is thus poised or the nnai
phase o buiiding GSm coverage or every-
one, everywhere. 1he nat architecture eiimi-
nates the probiem o tromboning iocai tranc
in remote iocations which are served by ew
RBSs and which cannot carry the cost o a
remoteiy iocated BSC.
By reducing costs, the new architecture
enabies operators to prontabiy buiid cover-
age in heretoore uneasabie iocations. In
addition, iarge areas covered by sites con-
nected via sateiiite benent rom reduced
OPIX. 1his, in turn, iowers optimai sub-
scriber taris and makes service avaiiabie to
an even iarger group o users. 1he nat GSm
architecture wiii aiso create new business
opportunities where there are iarge voiumes
o iocai caiis, or exampie, at corporate cam-
puses.
Conclusion
1raditionai transmission rom RBSs to a
BSC has not been optimized or encient
transmission o bursty data tranc, nor is it
easiiy adapted to the iow-cost transport tech-
noiogies, such as IP and Ithernet. However,
recent deveiopments in GSm transport and
switching technoiogies promise to overcome
these issues, making GSm suitabie to pro-
vide services both to iow-revenue users and
to users o high-speed data services.
Packet Abis, Iricssons coiiective soiution
or these deveiopments, inciudes a new pro-
tocoi or transerring data over the Abis iink.
Irom the air interace, the soiution sends aii
tranc in packets over Abis with a minimum
o repacking and reormatting. 1he soiution,
which is buiit on A/is 0tioi.atio and A/is
:. I! eatures, can be used over 1Dm trans-
port networks as weii as with IP or Ithernet
transport services.
A/is 0tioi.atio deiivers Packet Abis over
1Dm transport networks, saving bandwidth
by soieiy transerring bits that contain inor-
mative data. Iricsson has integrated the A/is
0tioi.atio soiution into its BSS.
1he A/is :. I! eature enabies operators
to use IP and Ithernet transport networks
to connect RBSs to the BSC and thereby
benent rom the iower costs o IP- and
Ithernet-based transport services. 1he soiu-
tion aiso opens the door to shared transport
with WCDmA and to integrated transport
soiutions or RBS sites.
1o improve security, Iricssons A/is :.
I! soiution incorporates access controi iists
in BSC and RBS IP interaces, optionai
nrewaiis in ront o sensitive nodes or at in-
terconnection points between the Abis and
core IP networks, and IPsec tunneis rom the
RBS site to BSC and OSS sites or to a secure
IP backbone. Aii Osm tranc that runs over
IP is reaiized using SSH and SI1P.
1he new architecture opens up compieteiy
new business segments. A/is :. I! yieids
cost-eective transport or base stations with
iow tranc, enabiing operators to address Pico
and Iemto types o soiutions.
What is more, the introduction o A/is :.
I! and advances in sateiiite modem technoi-
ogy makes it possibie to reduce transmission
expenses or remote sites.
Iinaiiy, operators who move to Packet
Abis over traditionai microwave iinks that
support Ithernet over 1Dm may enjoy
substantiai gains in the handiing o tranc
capacity.
TERMS AND ABBREVIATION
ADSL Asymmetrical DSL
ARPU Average revenue per user
BSC Base station controller
BSS Base station subsystem
BTS Base station transceiver
CS Circuit switched
DSL Digital subscriber line
DSLAM DSL access multiplexer
DTX Discontinuous transmission
E1 2.048Mbps data circuit (Europej
EDGE Enhanced data for GSM evolution
EGPRS Enhanced GPRS
FTP File transfer protocol
GCP Gateway control protocol
GFP Generic framing procedure
GPRS General packet radio service
GPS Global positioning system
GRE Generic routing encapsulation
GSM Global system for mobile
communications
lP lnternet protocol
lPsec Secure lP
lPTD lP packet transfer delay
LAN Local area network
MAP Mobile application part
MGW Media gateway
MLPPP Multilink point-to-point protocol
M-MGW Mobile MGW
MPLS Multiprotocol label switching
MSC Mobile switching/service center
MSC-S MSC system
NTP Network time protocol
O&M Operation and maintenance
OPEX Operating expenses
OSS Operations support system
OCXO Oven compensated crystal
oscillator
PDH Plesiochronous digital hierarchy
PGW Packet gateway
PSTU Packet-switched termination unit
QAM Quadrature amplitude multiplexing
RAN Radio access network
RBS Radio base station
SCPC Single channel per carrier
SFTP Secured FTP
SDH Synchronous digital hierarchy
SlU Site integration unit
SONET Synchronous optical network
SSH Secure socket shell
STM Synchronous transfer mode
STN Site transport node
T1 1.544Mbps data circuit
TCH Traffc channel on the air interface
TCO Total cost of ownership
TDM Time-division multiplexing
TRX Transceiver
volP voice over lP
WAN Wide area network
WCDMA Wideband code-division
multiple acce