What Happens as You Move Around

Town With Your Mobile Phone

CONTENTS :

Introduction
Network Architecture
Registration and Routing
Location Updating
Roaming

Introduction
The fixed line PSTN severely limits communications by forcing people to be present at a
particular location for connection to be established. For many years people have longed
for a truly mobile system that would allow them to move where they pleased, and yet still
be able to make calls, and more challengingly, receive calls. Today this vision is
becoming a reality as second generation mobile phones are quickly becoming necessities
rather than luxuries.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) system will be used to illustrate
the way in which this technology works.

Network Architecture
The user's handset or Mobile Station (MS) can be considered to be made of two parts:
1. The Mobile Equipment (ME), which provides the radio and signal processing,
needed to access the GSM network, i.e. the `hardware'.
2. The SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), a smart card which carries all the
subscriber specific information needed by the MS, eg. Subscriber identity, recent
location data, messages received, service profile, etc.
The use of the SIM in the GSM system means that the term mobility takes on a new
dimension. First generation Analogue systems allowed Terminal Mobility, which meant
that each handset/terminal had a unique terminal identifier (TID), independent of the
point of attachment to the network. The subscriber was identified according to the
terminal used, and billing made accordingly.
With SIM, Personal Mobility becomes possible, where each user can make/receive calls
independent of the point of attachment to the network as well as of a particular terminal.
This implies that the services to which a user has subscribed (stored in that user's service

profile) are available to him even if he moves or changes terminal equipment, To do this
each user is given a unique Universal Personal Telecommunication (UPT) number. So
when a user is called, it is his UPT that is dialed, and not the number of the terminal.
Thus, whatever equipment the user is actually using, calls will always be directed to him,
as long as he inserts his SIM into it.
There are radio transceivers called Base Stations (BS) in each. A number of BS in each
location area are under a Mobile Services Switching Center (MSC), which is responsible
for call handling of subscribers in its domain, generation of charging records and
supplementary services. Each MSC has a database called the Visitor Location Register
(VLR) which stores (on a temporary basis) the information needed to handle calls set up
or received by a local MS registered with it. e.g. identities, service profiles, authentication
data, etc.
The entire network has a master database called the Home Location Register (HLR),
which holds subscription details and location information for routing incoming calls to
the relevant MSC/VLR.

Registration
When an MS is activated it sends a registration signal to the cell BS. This information is
then sent to the area MSC which records it in the area VLR. It is also sent to the network
HLR which records the new location of the MS according to the VLR that is now dealing
with it. If the new VLR is different from the one previously recorded, a message is sent to
that previous VLR to cancel its entry. Now the network is ready to provide services to the
MS.

Incoming Calls
When a call is made to the MS, the HLR is first examined to find the current location
area of the MS. The appropriate MSC is the prompted, and its VLR is searched to
confirm the presence of the MS in that area. If the MS is registered there, then the MSC
instructs all the BS in its area to page the desired MS. Paging is a process of broadcasting
a message throughout a cell, which alerts a specific MS to take some action. The call can
then be established if a free voice channel is available.

Location Updating
As the call proceeds, the MS may keep moving. When it comes close to a cell boundary
the BS will monitor the decreasing signal power, and examine all adjacent BS for their
signal strengths. A complex algorithm is then used to decide to which BS the call will be
handed over. If the MS enters the area of another MSC then a location update must also
occur. The BS on a control channel continuously transmits the current location area. The
MS compares this with the last known Location Area stored in its SIM to determine if a

new area has been entered. If so, it will request the new area MSC/VLR for a location
update. The new VLR will record the arrival of the MS and instruct the network HLR of
the change. The HLR will pass down various security parameters for use in ciphering and
the service profile of the MS. It will also send a cancellation message to the previous
VLR.
In this way the MS can move through a GSM network while maintaining a call. Also any
new incoming calls will be correctly directed to the new location area by referencing the
updated area code in the HLR.

Roaming
The different countries implementing the GSM system will have their own networks with
their own billing systems, and so GSM provides a means of moving between networks this is known as roaming.