Mobile Radio

Cellular Mobile
Communications
Definition
– A cellular mobile comms. system uses a large number of
low-power wireless transmitters to create cells
– Variable power levels allow cells to be sized according to
subscriber density and demand within a particular region
– As mobile users travel from cell to cell, their conversations
are handed off between cells
– Channels (frequencies) used in one cell can be reused in
another cell some distance away
Mobile Comms. Principles
– Mobile uses a separate, temporary radio channel to
talk to the cell site
– Cell site talks to many mobiles at once, using one
channel per mobile
– Channels use a pair of frequencies for communication
• The forward link for transmitting from the cell site
• The reverse link for the cell site to receive calls from the
users
Mobile Comms. Principles

• Radio energy dissipates over distance, so

mobiles must stay near the base station to
maintain communications
• Basic structure of mobile networks
includes telephone systems and radio
services
Mobile Systems Using Cells
• The cellular concept employs variable low-
power levels
– cells are sized according to the subscriber
density and demand in a given area
• Cells can be added to accommodate
population growth
Cellular System Architecture

• In modern cellular telephony, rural and

urban regions are divided into areas
according to specific provisioning
guidelines
• Deployment parameters, such as amount
of cell-splitting and cell sizes, are
determined by engineers experienced in
cellular system architecture
Cells
• A cell is the basic geographic unit of a
cellular system
– The term cellular comes from the honeycomb shape
of the areas into which a coverage region is divided
– Cells are base stations transmitting over small
geographic areas that are represented as hexagons
– Size varies depending on the landscape
Clusters
• A cluster is a group of cells
– No channels are reused within a cluster

A seven Cell Cluster

Cell Splitting
• Allows urban centres to be split into as many
areas as necessary for acceptable service levels
in heavy-traffic regions, while larger, less
expensive cells can be used to cover remote
rural regions
GSM NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
GSM System Architecture-I
• Mobile Station (MS)
Mobile Equipment (ME)
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
• Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
Base Transceiver Station (BTS)
Base Station Controller (BSC)
• Network Switching Subsystem(NSS)
Mobile Switching Center (MSC)
Home Location Register (HLR)
Visitor Location Register (VLR)
Authentication Center (AUC)
Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
System Architecture
Mobile Station (MS)

The Mobile Station is made up of two entities:

1. Mobile Equipment (ME)

2. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
System Architecture
Mobile Station (MS)

Mobile Equipment

• Portable,vehicle mounted, hand held device

• Uniquely identified by an IMEI (International
Mobile Equipment Identity)
• Voice and data transmission
• Monitoring power and signal quality of surrounding
cells for optimum handover
• Power level : 0.8W – 20 W
• 160 character long SMS.
 System Architecture
Mobile Station (MS) contd.

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)

• Smart card contains the International Mobile

Subscriber Identity (IMSI)
• Allows user to send and receive calls and receive other
subscribed services
• Encoded network identification details
- Key Ki,Kc and A3,A5 and A8 algorithms
• Protected by a password or PIN
• Can be moved from phone to phone – contains key
information to activate the phone
 System Architecture
Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

Base Station Subsystem is composed of two parts that

communicate across the standardized Abis interface
allowing operation between components made by different
suppliers

1. Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

2. Base Station Controller (BSC)
System Architecture
Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

Base Transceiver Station (BTS):

• Encodes,encrypts,multiplexes,modulates and feeds

the RF signals to the antenna.
• Frequency hopping
• Communicates with Mobile station and BSC
• Consists of Transceivers (TRX) units
System Architecture
Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

Base Station Controller (BSC)

• Manages Radio resources for BTS

• Assigns Frequency and time slots for all MS’s in its
area
• Handles call set up
• Transcoding and rate adaptation functionality
• Handover for each MS
• Radio Power control
• It communicates with MSC and BTS
System Architecture
Network Switching Subsystem(NSS)

Mobile Switching Center (MSC)

• Heart of the network

• Manages communication between GSM and other networks
• Call setup function and basic switching
• Call routing
• Billing information and collection
• Mobility management
- Registration
- Location Updating
- Inter BSS and inter MSC call handoff
• MSC does gateway function while its customer roams to other
network by using HLR/VLR.
 System Architecture
Network Switching Subsystem
• Home Location Registers (HLR)
- permanent database about mobile subscribers in a large service
area(generally one per GSM network operator)
- database contains IMSI,MSISDN,prepaid/postpaid,roaming
restrictions,supplementary services.

• Visitor Location Registers (VLR)

- Temporary database which updates whenever new MS enters its

area, by HLR database
- Controls those mobiles roaming in its area
- Reduces number of queries to HLR
- Database contains IMSI,TMSI,MSISDN,MSRN,Location
Area,authentication key
 System Architecture
Network Switching Subsystem
• Authentication Center (AUC)
- Protects against intruders in air interface
- Maintains authentication keys and algorithms and
provides security triplets ( RAND,SRES,Kc)
- Generally associated with HLR

• Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

- Database that is used to track handsets using the
IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
- Made up of three sub-classes: The White List, The
Black List and the Gray List
- Only one EIR per PLMN
GSM Specifications-1
• RF Spectrum
GSM 900
Mobile to BTS (uplink): 890-915 Mhz
BTS to Mobile(downlink):935-960 Mhz
Bandwidth : 2* 25 Mhz

GSM 1800
Mobile to BTS (uplink): 1710-1785 Mhz
BTS to Mobile(downlink) 1805-1880 Mhz
Bandwidth : 2* 75 Mhz
GSM Specification-II

• Carrier Separation : 200 Khz

• Duplex Distance : 45 Mhz
• No. of RF carriers : 124
• Access Method : TDMA/FDMA
• Modulation Method : GMSK
• Modulation data rate : 270.833 Kbps
HANDOVER

• TWO REASON
• When The Radio Signal’s quality and
power decreases to necessary scores, the
connection deliver to more powerful cell
• When The Trraffic Capacity approaches to
maximum , the connection deliver to less
density of traffic cell
Frequency Reuse

• Frequency reuse is the process of using

the same radio frequencies on radio
transmitter sites within a geographic area
that are separated by sufficient distance to
cause minimal interference with each
other.
Pbm:
•
 GPRS

• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is an overlay on

top of the GSM physical layer and network entities.
• Advantages:
– Short access time to the network for independent
short packets (500-1000 bytes).
– No hardware changes to the BTS/BSC
– Easy to scale
– Support for voice/data and data only terminals
– High throughput (up to 21.4 kbps)
– User friendly billing

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GPRS
• It uses exactly the same physical radio channels as
GSM, only logical GPRS radio channels are defined.
• Allocation of the channels is flexible: from one to
eight radio interface timeslots can be allocated per
TDMA frame.
• The active users SHARE timeslots, and uplink and
downlink are allocated separately.
• The capacity allocation for GPRS is based on the actual
need for packet transfer.
• GPRS does not require permanently allocated physical
channels.
• GPRS offers permanent connections to the Internet
with volume based charging.
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 GPRS Mobile Terminal Types

– Class A Terminals
operate GPRS and other GSM services
simultaneously.
– Class B Terminals
can monitor all services, but operate either
GPRS or another service, such as GSM, one at a
time.
– Class C Terminals
operate only GPRS service.

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 GPRS Network Services

• Point-to-Multipoint (PTM-M):
Multicast service to all subscribers in a given area.
• Point-to-multipoint (PTM-G):
Multicast service to pre-determined group that may be
dispersed over a geographic area.
• Point-to-Point (PTP): Packet data transfer:
– Connectionless based on IP and CLNS called PTP-CLNS.
– Connection-oriented based on X.25 (PTP-CONS).
• Also provides a bearer service for GSM’s SMS.

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Reference Architecture in GPRS

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 Reference Architecture in GPRS

• There are a few new network entities called GPRS Support Nodes (GSN)
– Responsible for delivery and routing of data packets between the
mobile terminals and the external packet network.

• Two types of GSN:

– Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN):
• Router similar to the foreign agent in Mobile IP.
• It controls access to the mobile terminals that may be attached to
a group of BSCs. This is called a routing area or a service area of
the SGSN.
• Responsible for delivery of packets to the mobile terminal in the
service area and from the mobile terminal to the Internet.
• It also performs logical link management, authentication, and
charging functions.

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 Reference Architecture in GPRS

– Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN):

• Acts as a logical interface to the Internet.

• It maintains routing information so that it can route
the packets to the SGSN servicing the mobile terminal.

• It analyzes the PDN address of the mobile terminal

and converts it to the corresponding IMSI and is
equivalent to the HA in Mobile IP.

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GATE WAY

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ENHANCED DATA RATES FOR
GSM EVOLUTION
EDGE