GSM infrastructure

MSC, BSC, BTS, VLR, HLR, GSGN, GSSN

Johan Montelius
jm@sics.se
Compared to a fixed network
Gateway MSC
MSC
BSC
MS
Local switches
Transit exchang
Subscriber stage
Fixed phone
Whats new?
Radio access network
Encryption
Voice coding
Locate a mobile station
Identify and authenticate
Handle mobility during a call
A bird eyes view
BTS
MS
BSC
MSC
BSC
BSC
BTS
BTS
GMSC
Access Network
databases
Typical Mobile operator
One to ten MSC per 1 M subscribers
Ten to one hundred BSC per MSC
Thousands of BTS per 1 M subscribers
Base Transceiver Station
Controls the radio link
encryption
error control
signal strength
1 - 6 duplex carriers, for
example:
two layers
120
o
sectors
(6+8)*3 = 42 voice calls
Cost ~ 100 200 k$
Base Station Controller
communication with the mobile
terminal
local hand-over
voice codecs
carrier allocation
paging to terminals
talks to the MSC
serves up to 40 BTSs
could be co-located with MSC

Mobile Swicthing Center
Mobility management
identifies and authenticates
locates
switches between BSCs
Handover to other MSCs
64 kbps regular voice channels
Radio Access network
A carrier is divided into logical channels
traffic channels TCH
control channels CCH
The first carrier holds 2 controll channels and
6 traffic channels. Additional carriers holds only
traffic channels.
Control Channels
Broadcast
Frequency correction: to synchronize (FCCH)
Broadcast control: this is me, these are my neighbours (BCCH)
Common control
Paging: to notify a mobile station (PCH)
Random access: for the mobile to request service (RACH)
Access grant: reply with assigned dedicated control channel (AGCH)
Dedicated control
Standalone dedicated control: used during call set-up, SMS etc (SDCCH)
Slow associated control: power, time etc (SACCH)
Fast associated control: handover etc, uses the TCH (FACCH)
Cell broadcast: cell broadcast


Traffic Channels
Duplex
Error control
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
retransmission (ARQ)
Full rate (TCH/F)
13 Kbps speech
9,6 or 14,4 Kpbs data
Half rate (TCH/H)
6,5 Kbps speech
7,2 or 4,8 Kbps data
Logical channels
8 time-slot TDMA frame 4.143 ms
Multiframe: 26 or 51 TDMA frames
Superframe: 26 or 51 multiframes 6.12 s
Hyperframe: 2048 superframes 3h28m
CCH
CCH CCH
TCH
One TDMA frame
Normal burst
57 b 57 b 26 b
tail
tail guard
user data user data
training
3 3
8.25
stealing flags
Frequency correction burst
Synchronization burst
Dummy burst
Access burst
148 b 0.577 ms
Keeping track of a mobile
station
VLR
visiting location register
Location area
Location area
update the VLR with new
location area
Moving to a new MSC
Location area
Location area
VLR
which LA which MSC ?
update the VLR with new
location area and new MSC
but also.
VLR
HLR
home location register
update the home location register!
Home Location Register
MSC
GMSC
PSTN
incomming call
where is the mobile?
HLR
How do we reach him?
VLR
Mobile station numbers
MSC
GMSC
PSTN
mobile subscriber ISDN number
(MSISDN) i.e. the phone number
HLR
Mobile Station Roaming
Number (MSRN).
VLR
Temporary Mobile
Subscriber Identity
International Mobile
Subscriber Identity
GPRS
BTS
MS
BSC
BTS
BTS
Access Network
Packet Control Unit
Gateway GPRS Support Node
GGSN
UDP/TCP tunnel
Serving GPRS Support Node
SGSN
Internet