1
Global System for Mobile
Communication (GSM)
Li-Hsing Yen
Assistant Prof.
Dept. of CSIE, Chung Hua Univ.
GSM System Architecture
BSC
HLR VLR
EIR
BTS
VLR
MSC
MS
(ME/SIM)
MS
(ME/SIM)
A-bis
A-bis
Um
Um
C
B
G
D
F
MSC
PSTN, ISDN, PSPDN,
CSPDN
E
A
NSS
BSS
AuC
2
Nomenclature
• MS (Mobile Station) =
MT (Mobile Terminal ) +
TE (Terminal Equipment)
•
BSS (Base Station Subsystem) =
BTS (Base Transceiver Station) +
BSC (Base Station Controller)
• NSS (Network Switching Subsystem)
• MSC (Mobile Switching Center): telephony
switching function and authentication of user
HLR and VLR
• HLR (Home Location Register)
– a database to store and management
permanent data of subscribers
• VLR (Visitor Location Register)
– a database to store temporary information
about subscribers
– needed by MSC in order to service visiting
subscribers
3
AuC and EIR
• Authentication Center (AuC)
– used in the security data management for
the authentication of subscribers.
•
Equipment Identity Register (
EIR)
– used to maintain a list of legitimate,
fraudulent, or faulty MSs.
– optional in GSM network, and is not used
generally.
GSM Interfaces
• U
m
– Radio interface between MS and BTS
– each physical channel supports a number of
logical channels
• A
bis
– between BTS and BSC (vender specific)
– primary functions: traffic channel transmission,
terrestrial channel management, and radio
channel management
4
time slot
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0
200kHz
. . . 7
890.0 MHz
914.8 MHz
890.2 MHz
890.4 MHz
burst
Guard band
Uplink
Downlink
0
.
57
7
ms
n:
Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN). 1 ≤
n
≤ 124
935.0 MHz
959.8 MHz
935.2 MHz
935.4 MHz
Guard band
. . . .. . . .
(contents of time slot)
F
ul
(
n
)=890+ 0.2
*n
MHz
F
dl
(
n
)=
F
ul
(n)+45
MHz
Frequency Division Duplex
Uplink
Downlink
Time Division Duplex
7 0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7
0
15 6
7 0 1 2 3 4 5 62 3 4 5 6 7
2
MS and BTS do not transmit simultaneously
(MS transmits 3 time slots after the BTS)
Timing advance: MS transmits its data a little earlier as
demanded by the
“three time slots delay rule”.
5
Timing Advance
Base station
Mobile station
send
recv
Propagation delay
send
recv
send
Original timing
Timing advance
~ Propagation delay * 2
GSM Frame Structure
• 1
hyperframe
= 2048 superframes (~3.5hr)
• For speech
– 1 superframe = 51 multiframes = 6.12s
– 1 multiframe = 26 frames = 120ms
• For Signaling
– 1 superframe = 26 multiframes
– 1 multiframe = 51 frames
• 1 frame = 8 time slots = 4.615 ms
• 1 time slot = 156.25 bit duration = 0.577ms