Communications & Computer Engineering 1

Mobile Communications
Prepared by:
Yazen Saifuldeen
Lecture 3: GSM overview
 Communications & Computer Engineering 2

Mobile Telephony
• Mobile systems have evolved over time. When discussing
different developments we speak of system generations.

We can divide mobile generation in several periods

• The first generation (1G)

• The second generation (2G)
• The third generation (3G)
• The forth generation (4G)
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1G networks
• 1G networks are considered to be the first cellular systems, which started
early 1980s.

Features:
Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
Analog signal
Designed purely for voice calls with almost no consideration of data
services
Main mode: AMPS TACS NMT

Weakness:
There is no common interface between systems.
Fails to meet the large-capacity demand due to low frequency occupancy.
Can be wire tapped easily due to low security and no encryption of data.
The sound quality is poor
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2G networks
• 2G networks are the first digital cellular systems launched early 1990s.

Features:
Combination of (TDMA) and (FDMA)or narrowband code division multiple
access (N –CDMA)
Digital signal.
 Introduced data services for mobile, starting with SMS text messages.
Offering improved sound quality, better security and higher total capacity.
Emits less radio power from the handsets. This meant that cells had to be
smaller.
Main mode: (GSM, CDMAOne, D-AMPS)

Weakness:
With too narrow frequency band, it fails to offer kinds of wideband information
services such as high-speed data, low-speed image and television image
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GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications,

originally Groupe Spécial Mobile), is a standard set developed by
the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to
describe protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular
networks used by mobile phones.
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Duplexing schemes in cellular networks

• Cellular communications is full
duplex
• Communication from MS to BS -> uplink
• Communications from BS to MS -> downlink

• Two ways for full duplex

• Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD)
• Time Division Duplexing (TDD) Time Division Duplexing (TDD)
 Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) • Uses same spectrum for UL and DL
• Spectrum access is divided in time
o More common between UL and DL
o Uses paired spectrum allocation
• Allocation of time slots may be
o One part (usually lower in frequency) – uplink
managed in a dynamic manner –
o Second pert (usually higher in frequency) –
accommodates shift in traffic patterns
downlink
o Lower frequencies used for UL due to slightly
better propagation
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The Frequency Spectrum

Uplink Downlink

EGSM GSM900 EGSM GSM900

880 890 915 925 935 960

Channel Bandwidth: 200KHz
MHz
The bandwidth for the GSM system is 25 MHz
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Frequency Spectrum in Iraq

Frequency Channel
System Bandwidth ARFCN
UpLink DownLink Number
EGSM 880 - 890 925 - 935 10 MHz 50 975 - 1023
GSM 900 890 - 915 935 - 960 25 MHz 125 0 - 124
GSM 1800 1710 - 1785 1805 - 1880 75 MHz 375 512 - 886
GSM 1900 1850 - 1910 1930 - 1990 60 MHz 300 512 - 811

Atheer 880.2 - 891.8 925.2 - 936.8 11.6 MHz 58 976 - 1023 and 0 - 8
IraqNa 891.8 - 903.4 936.8 - 948.4 11.6 MHz 58 9 - 66
Asiacell 903.4 - 915 948.4 - 960 11.6 MHz 58 67 - 124

ARFCN: Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number

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Frequency allocation for GSM 900 system

• In GSM-900, 124 duplex channels (124 for transmission and 124 for
reception) each 200 KHz wide are used for communication. Uplink
frequency from mobile to base station is 890 MHz to 915 MHz.
Downlink frequency from base station to mobile is 935 MHz to 960 MHz.
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GSM900 and GSM1800 MHz

• GSM900 and GSM1800 are similar

GSM 900 GSM 1800

Uplink: 890 -915 MHz (25 MHz) 1710 -1785 MHz (75 MHz)
Downlink: 935 -960 MHz (25 MHz) 1805 -1880 MHz (75 MHz)
Number of channels 125 375
Channel spacing 200 kHz 200 kHz
Access technique FDMA/TDMA FDMA/TDMA
Mobile power 0.8 / 2 / 5 W 0.25 / 1 W
Modulation: GMSK GMSK

There are no major differences between GSM 900 and GSM 1800
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GSM Architecture OMC

Air Abis
Interface Interface Data-base
Sub-system

BTS A VLR
Interface
MS Abis MSC
Interface
AuC
BSC
Air HLR
Interface

GMSC EIR
MS BTS

SS7

ISDN PSTN
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Base Station Controller

• Two implementations
• Multiple BSCs
• BSC within MSC
BSC

PSTN
MSC

BSC

PSTN

MSC
BSC
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GSM Network Main Parts

The Mobile Station (MS)

The Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

The Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)

(Core Network(CN))
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GSM System Interfaces

Interface between MS & BTS is called Air interface.

Transmission rate on Air interface is 13 Kbps.

BTS is connected to BSC via A’bis interface.

Transmission rate on A’bis is 2 Mbps.

BSC is connected to MSC via A interface.

Transmission rate on A interface is 2 Mbps.
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Number or resources in FDMA

• Two types of channels
Bt is the total spectrum allocation (total system BW)
• Control channels
• Always on Bguard is guard band allocated at the edge of the
• Carry signaling allocated spectrum
• Traffic channels
Bchannel is channel BW
• On only on demand
• Carry user information and in-band
Bspace is space between channels (guard band
signaling
between channels)
• Control channels carry
broadcast information

Bt  2 Bguard
N ch 
Bchannel  BSpace
Note: there are very few pure FDMA systems in operation today. However, FDMA
Is part of all access schemes.
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Guard band – prevents

FDMA Example interference with adjacent bands
• Example: GSM deployment in A block
• A block: 1850-1865 –UL; 1930-1945 – DL
• A block: 2 times 15MHz (15MHz UL, 15 MHz DL)
• Guard bands: 100KHz on each side of the band
• GSM channel is 200KHz wide
• Assume that there is no guard band between channels
• Find the total number of available channels
.

Number of channels

15MHz  2 100KHz
NC   74
200KHz
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Number of FDMA resources per cell

• The number of resources • GSM deployment with S/I =
depends on 12dB and n = 4 in A block
• Reuse cluster size
• Reuse cluster size:
• Type of the cells
• Reuse cluster size depends
• Ability of technology to tolerate
N
1
3 3

6  S I 2 / n  1 6 101.2 
2/ n
 3.25  4
interference
N=4
• Propagation (environment and
frequency) • Number of channels per sector:
• Cells may be
N ch 74
• Sectored (majority of cells) N ch / sec    6.17
• Omni directional N  N sec/ cell 4  3

Number of channels per sector is integer.

Note: Majority of deployed cells are in tri-
Some sectors would have 6 and some
sector configuration
would have 7.
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• Channel is shared
TDMA in GSM between eight users
• User does not transmit
and receive at the same
time
• Transmission occurs in
“accumulate and burst”
fashion
• Has to be digital
• Chanel bandwidth
larger than the single
user rate

Note: for good portion of time phone

does not transmit or receive
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Near-far problem in TDMA systems

• In TDMA synchronization between
users – vital
• Delay of the burst for the further
mobiles is larger
• Due to different delays – burst may
collide
• To remedy the problem, mobiles
advance their transmission
• The amount of time advancement is
determined by base station and
communicated to the mobiles
 Communications & Computer Engineering
Number of resources in TDMA
• No pure TDMA systems
• It is always combination of
FDMA/TDMA
• FDMA – channelization
• TDMA – time slots on channels
• Time slots organized in frames
• Users may get different number
of slots per frame
• Most basic – one time slot per user
• Lower – less than one slot per frame
(ex. one slot every other frame)
• Higher – more slots per frame
20
• GSM deployment with S/I = 9dB
and n = 4 in A block of PCS
• So Reuse cluster size N = 3
• Number of FDMA channels per
sector in three sector deployment is
N ch 74
N ch / sec    8.22
N  N sec/ cell 3  3
• Average number of time slots per
sector is
N slots/ sec  N ch / sec  8  65.77
Note: if users use one slot per frame there
can be on average ~ 66 users per sector
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Example
• The global system for mobile communications (GSM) utilizes the
frequency band (890-915 ) MHz for the up link and the frequency range
(935 – 960) MHz for the Down link. Each band is broken into radio
channels of 200 KHz. Each radio channel consists of 8 time slots. If 0.2
guard band is assumed between channels and if their is no guard band is
assumed at the edge of allocated spectrum.
• Find the number of simultaneous channels that can be accommodated in
in one cluster and draw the allocated spectrum of the GSM.
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Example
• The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) utilizes the frequency band
(825-835 ) MHz for the up link and the frequency range (870– 880) MHz
for the Down link. Each band is broken into radio channels of 30 KHz.
One channel per sector is used for control. If 17 dB S/I is required and 10
KHz guard band is assumed at one side of the edge of allocated
spectrum. Assuming that 120° sectoring is used.
• Find the minimum number of control and voice channel per each cluster.
• Draw the cellular reuse cluster.
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Solution
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Solution