UNIT III

Mobile Telecommunication System-Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) – General

Packet Radio Service (GPRS) – Universal Mobile Tele communication System (UMTS).

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM

GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION (GSM)

 GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is at present being used in India.
 It is possibly the most successful digital mobile system to have ever been used till now.
 An important characteristic of the GSM system is that it provides data services in addition to
voice services, and yet is compatible to 1G systems.
 GSM networks operate in four different radio frequencies.
 Most GSM networks operate either in the 900 MHz or in the 1800 MHz frequency bands.
 Some countries in the American continent (especially the USA and Canada) use the 850 MHz
and 1900 MHz bands because the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequency bands are already
allocated for other purposes.
 The relatively rarely used 400 MHz and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some
countries, notably Scandinavia where these frequencies were previously used for the first-
generation systems.
 In the 900 MHz band, the uplink frequency band is 890–915 MHz, and the downlink frequency
band is 935–960 MHz.

GSM Services:

 GSM provides three main categories of services.

 These are:
(i) Bearer services
(ii) Teleservices
(iii) Supplementary services

i) Bearer services:

 Bearer services give the subscribers the capability to send and receive data to/from remote
computers or mobile phones.
 For this reason, bearer services are also known as data services.
 These services also enable the transparent transmission of data between GSM and other
networks like PSTN, ISDN, etc. at rates from 300 bps to 9600 bps.
 These services are implemented on the lower-three layers of the OSI reference model.
 Besides supporting SMS, e-mail, voice mailbox, and Internet access, this service provides the
users with the capability to execute remote applications.
 GSM supports data transfer rates of up to 9.6 kbps.
 Bearer services permit either transparent or non-transparent, and either synchronous or
asynchronous modes of data transmission.
 We elaborate these in the following.
 The transparent bearer services use the functions of the physical layer of transmission of
data leading to constant delay and throughput if no transmission errors occur. There is a
 mechanism called FEC (Forward Error Correction) to increase the quality of data
transmission.
 The non-transparent bearer services use protocols of the second and third layers to
implement error correction and flow control. They use transparent bearer services in
addition to a Radio Link Protocol (RLP). This protocol comprises mechanisms of high
level data link control.

ii) Teleservices:

 GSM provides both the voice-oriented teleservices and the non-voice teleservices.
Telephony:
 The main goal of GSM was to provide high quality digital voice transmission, offering
the bandwidth of 3.1 kHz of analog phone systems.
 Special codecs are used for voice transmission, while other codecs are used for the
transmission of analog data for communication with traditional computer modems used
in fax machines.
Emergency number:
 The same number is used throughout an area.
 This service is free of cost and mandatorily provided by all service providers.
 This connection will automatically be set up with the closest emergency centre.
Short message services:
 This service offers transmission of text messages of sizes up to 160 characters.
 SMS services use the signalling channels, making possible the duplex system of the
sending and receiving the SMSs messages.
Fax:
 In this service, using modems fax data is transmitted as digital data over the analog
telephone network according to the ITU-T Standards T.4 and T.30.

iii) Supplementary services:

 GSM provides certain supplementary services such as user identification, call redirection, and
forwarding of ongoing calls.
 In addition, standard ISDN features such as ‘close user groups’ and ‘multiparty’ communication
are available.

System Architecture of GSM:

 A GSM system consists of three main subsystems:

(i) Radio Subsystem (RSS)
(ii) Networking and Switching Subsystem (NSS)
(iii) Operation Subsystem (OSS)
 Functional architecture of a GSM system
1. Radio Subsystem (RSS)

 This subsystem comprises all the radio specific entities.

 That is, the mobile stations, the base station subsystems, the base transceiver station and the base
station controller.

Components of RSS:

i) Mobile Station (MS):

 A mobile station (MS) or cell phone contains two major components:
 the subscriber identity module (SIM) and
 the mobile device.
 The SIM is a removable smart card.
 Each mobile device has a unique identifier that is known as its IMEI (International Mobile
Equipment Identity).
 Apart from the telephone interface, an MS also offers other types of interfaces to the users
such as USB, Bluetooth, etc.
 Despite its small size, a SIM card is a very important component of a GSM network.
 It contains all the subscription information of a subscriber and holds the key information that
activates the phone after it is powered on.
 It contains a microcontroller to primarily store and retrieve data from the flash storage on the
SIM.
 Identification information is stored in the SIM card’s protected memory (ROM) that is not
accessible or modifiable by the customer.
 Additional flash memory is included in the mobile device to allow storage of other information
such as addresses, pictures, audio and video clips, and short messages.
  The SIM card contains many other identifiers and tables such as card type, serial number, a
list of subscribed services, and a Personal Identity Number (PIN).
ii) Base Station Subsystem (BSS):
 A GSM network comprises many BSSs.
 Each BSS consists of a Base Station Controller (BSC) and several Base Transceiver Stations
(BTSs).
 A BSS performs all functions necessary to maintain radio connections to an MS, as well as does
coding/decoding of voice.
iii) Base Transceiver Station (BTS):
 A BTS comprises all radio equipment such as antenna, signal processors and amplifiers that are
necessary for radio transmission.
 It encodes the received signal, modulates it on a carrier wave, and feeds the RF signals to the
antenna.
 It communicates with both the mobile station and the BSC.
iv) Base Station Controller (BSC):
 A BSC manages the radio resource of the BTSs in the sense that it assigns frequency and time
slots for all MSs in the area.
 It also manages the handoff from one BTS to another within the BSS.
 The BSC also multiplexes the radio channels onto the fixed network connection to the Mobile
Switching Centre (MSC).
2. Networking and Switching Subsystem (NSS)

 This subsystem forms the heart of the GSM system.

 It connects the wireless networks to the standard public networks and carries out usage-based
charging, accounting, and also handles roaming.
 NSS consists of a switching centre and several databases as described below.

Mobile Switching Centre (MSC):

 An MSC can be considered to form the heart of a GSM network.
 An MSC sets up connections to other MSCs and to other networks such as Public Data Network
(PDN).
 An MSC is responsible for the connection setup, connection release, and call handoff to other
MSCs. A Gateway MSC (GMSC) is responsible for gateway functions, while a customer roams
to other networks.
 It also performs certain other supplementary services such as call forwarding, multiparty calls,
etc.
Home Location Registers (HLRs):
 A HLR stores in a database important information that is specific to each subscriber.
 The information contains subscriber’s IMSI, pre/post-paid, user’s current location, etc.
Visitor Location Register (VLR):
 It is essentially a temporary database that is updated whenever a new MS enters its area by
roaming.
 The information is obtained from the corresponding HLR database.
 The function of the VLR is to reduce the number of queries to the HLR and make the user feel
as if he were in his home network.
3. Operation Subsystem (OSS)
 The operation subsystem contains all the functions necessary for network operation and
maintenance.
 It consists of the following:
Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC):
 It supervises all other network entities.
 Its functions are traffic monitoring, subscribers, security management and accounting billing.
Authentication Centre (AuC):
 It protects against intruders targeting the air interface.
 The AuC stores information concerned with security features such as user authentication and
encryption.
 The AuC is related to the HLR.
Equipment Identity Register (EIR):
 It is essentially a database that is used to track handsets using the IMEI.
 It helps to block calls from stolen, unauthorized, or defective mobiles.

GSM Security:

 Security in GSM is broadly supported at three levels:

i) operator’s level
ii) customer’s level
iii) system level.
 These three levels help oversee aspects such as correct billing to the customer, avoiding fraud,
protecting services, and ensuring anonymity.
 The following are a few important features associated with providing security in GSM
networks.

Authentication:
 The purpose of authentication is to protect the network against unauthorized use.
 In the GSM context, it helps protect the GSM subscribers by denying the possibility for intruders
to impersonate authorized users.
 A GSM network operator can verify the identity of the subscriber, making it highly improbable
to clone someone else’s mobile phone identity.
 Authentication can be achieved in a simple way by using a password such as Personal
Identification Number (PIN).
 This method is not very secure in GSM networks as an attacker can “listen” the PIN and easily
break the code.
Confidentiality:
 A GSM network protects voice, data and sensitive signalling information (e.g. dialed digits)
against eavesdropping on the radio path.
 Confidentiality of subscriber-dialled information in the GSM network is achieved by using
encryption techniques prescribed by the GSM designers.
 Data on the radio path is encrypted between the Mobile Equipment (ME) and the BTS which
protects user traffic and sensitive signalling data against eavesdropping.
Anonymity:
 A GSM network protects against someone tracking the location of a user or identifying calls
made to (or from) the user by eavesdropping on the radio path.
 The anonymity of the subscriber on the radio access link in the GSM network is achieved by
allocating Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSIs) instead of permanent identities.
 This helps to protect against tracking a user’s location and obtaining information about a user’s
calling pattern.

GENERAL PACKET RADIO SERVICE (GPRS)

 GPRS when integrated with GSM, significantly improves and simplifies Internet access.
 It transfers data packets from GSM mobile stations to external packet data networks (PDNs).
 Packets can be directly routed from the GPRS mobile stations to packet switched networks making
it easy to connect to the Internet.
 GSM uses a billing system based on the time (duration) of connection, whereas GPRS uses a
billing system based on the amount of transmitted data rather than the duration of the connection.
 So, users can remain continuously connected to the system, and yet get charged only for the
amount of transmitted data.

GPRS Services:

 GPRS offers end-to-end packet-switched data transfer services which can be categorized into
the following two types:
(i) Point-to-Point (PTP) service
(ii) Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) service.
 The PTP service is between two users and can either be connectionless or connection-oriented.
 The PTM is a data transfer service from one user to multiple users.
 Again, there are two types of PTM services.
 One is multicast PTM where the data packets are broadcast in a certain area and the other is
group call PTM where the data packets are addressed to a group of users.

GPRS Architecture:

 GPRS architecture introduces two new network elements, called

i) GPRS Support Node (GSN) and
ii) Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).
 A GSN is essentially a router.
 All GSNs are integrated into a standard GSM architecture.
 The GGSN is the interworking unit between the GPRS network and the external packet data
network (PDN).
 The GGSN contains routing information for GPRS users, performs address connection and
tunnells data to a user through encapsulation.
 In the below figure, the GGSN is connected to an external network and it transfers packets to
the SGSN through an IP-based GPRS backbone network.
 GPRS architecture reference model

 SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) helps support MS.

 The SGSN is connected to BSC through frame relay and it is at the same hierarchy level as the
MSC.
 The GPRS Register (GR) is a part of HLR which stores all the relevant GPRS data.
 In a part of HLR which stores all the relevant data of GPRS in a mobile IP network, GGSN and
SGSNs can be compared with home agent and foreign agent respectively.
 The data packets are transmitted to the BSS and finally to the MS through the GGSN and SGSN.
 The MSC as we have already discussed is responsible for data transport in the traditional circuit-
switched GSM.

UNIVERSAL MOBILE TELE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM (UMTS)

 The UMTS was developed mainly for countries with GSM networks, and it is expected that all
GSM networks will be upgraded to UMTS networks.
 Because it is a new technology, a whole new radio access network has to be built.
 An important advantage of UMTS is that it gives significantly enhanced capacities to operators.
 The UMTS specification has been designed so that the UMTS systems are compatible with
GSM networks.
 Therefore, the UMTS networks can easily work with any existing GSM/GPRS network.
 The UMTS systems use different frequency bands, so the BTSs do not interfere with each other.
 The UMTS networks are different from the 2G networks in the following respects:

Higher speech quality:

 In addition to speech traffic, the UMTS supports the advanced data and information services
and can be called a true multimedia network.
Higher data rate:
 The UMTS supports 2 Mbps data rate, which is much higher than that supported by the 2G
mobile systems.
Virtual home environment (VHE):
 A user roaming from his network to other UMTS networks will not feel any discontinuity or
service difference, thus giving a “feeling” of being in the home network.
  In contrast, in a 2G network, a user is registered to a visitor location and is also charged a
roaming overhead.

UMTS Network Architecture:

 The UMTS network architecture can be divided into three main elements:

User Equipment (UE):

 The User Equipment (UE) is the name by which a cell phone is referred to.
 The new name was chosen because of the considerably greater functionality that the UE
incorporates compared to a cell phone.
 It can be thought of as both a mobile phone used for talking and a data terminal attached to a
computer with no voice capability.
Radio Network Subsystem (RNS):
 The RNS is the equivalent of the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) in GSM.
 It provides and manages the wireless interface for the overall network.
Core Network:
 The core network is the equivalent of the GSM Network Switching Subsystem (NSS).

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

1. Explain the architecture of GSM.

2. Write a short note on GSM services.
3. Write a short note on GSM security.
4. Explain GPRS in detail.
5. Explain UMTS in detail.