INITIAL STEPS INVOLVED WHEN A MOBILE IS SWITCHED ON

· When a mobile station is first switched on it is necessary to read the BCCH in order to determine its orientation within
the network.

· The mobile must first synchronize in frequency and then in time.

· The FCCH, SCH and BCCH are all transmitted on the same carrier frequency which has a higher power density than
any of the other channels in a cell because steps are taken to ensure that it is transmitted information at all times.

· The mobile scans around the available frequencies, picks the strongest and then selects the FCCH.

GSM MOBILE ORIGINATING CALL

The below Description is a mobile-originated call that terminates outside the PLMN.

Request Access
The MS sends a Channel Request (CHAN_REQ) message on the RACH.
The BSS responds with a radio resource assignment (IMM_ASS_CMD) on the AGCH.
The MS sends a Service Request (CM_SERV_REQ) message to the BSS on the SDCCH.

Authentication
Before the network will provide any services to the MS, the network will require the MS to authenticate itself. The BSS
sends an Authentication Request (AUTH_REQ) message to the MS. The RAND serves as the "challenge" for
authentication.

The MS calculates the proper SRES based on the RAND that was given and sends the SRES to the BSS in
anAuthentication Response (AUTH_RESP) message.

The BSS verifies the SRES. If the SRES is correct then the MS is authenticated and allowed access to the network.
The BSS will send a Service Accept (CM_SERV_ACC) message letting the MS know that the service request was
received and processed.

Once authenticated, the BSS orders the MS to switch to cipher mode with the CIPH_MOD_CMD message.

Initial Call Setup

The MS will immediately switch to cipher mode and send a Cipher Mode Complete (CIPH_MOD_COM) message.

The MS then sends a Call Setup (SETUP) message to the BSS. The message includes the address information
(MSISDN) of the called party.

The BSS assigns a TCH to the MS by sending an Assignment Command (ASS_CMD) message. This message
includes which Transceiver (TRX) and which Time Slot (TS) to use.

The BSS does not actually assign a TCH to the MS until the MSC sends a Call Proceeding (CALL_PROC) message
to the BSS indicating that the IAM has been sent.

The MS immediately switches to the assigned TCH. The MS sends an Assignment Complete (ASS_COM) message
back to the BTS on the FACCH.

Remember that a FACCH is not a separate channel; it is simply a stolen time slot from the TCH that is used for
signaling data instead of voice traffic.

Call Setup
The MSC sends an Initial Address Message (IAM) to the GMSC. The IAM contains the MSISDN of the called party as
the MS dialed it.

The MSC will also send a Call Proceeding (CALL_PROC) message down to the BSS and this is when the BSS would
assign a TCH to the MS, as described in step 10 above.

Based on the dialed number, the GMSC decides where to route the IAM within the PSTN.

The PSTN will continue to route the IAM until it reaches the correct Switching Center and the call routing is complete.
The PSTN will then establish the call circuit and send an Address Complete Message (ACM) back to the GMSC.

The GMSC then forwards the ACM back to the responsible MSC indicating that the call circuit has been established

Call Establishment
Once the MSC receives the ACM, it sends an ALERT message to the MS indicating that the call is going through.
The BSS sends the ALERT message on the FACCH. Once the MS receives the ALERT, it will generate the ringing
sound in the earpiece. The BSS sends an alerting message the subscriber will hear the line ringing.
Once the called party answers the phone, the PSTN will send an Answer message to the MSC. The MSC forwards
this to the MS in a Connection (CON) message.

Once the MS receives the CON message, it switches over to voice and begins the call. All voice traffic occurs on the
assigned TCH.

Call Termination
When either the caller or the called party hangs up, the call will be disconnected. Either party can initiate the
disconnect. In this example, the MS initiates the disconnect. The MS sends a Disconnect (DISC) message to the BTS
on the FACCH.

The BSS forwards the DISC to the MSC. Once the MSC receives the DISC message, it sends a Release (REL)
message through the GMSC to the PSTN as well as down through the BSS to the MS.

The MS responds by sending a Release Complete (REL_COM) message to the BSS on the FACCH. The BSS
forwards the REL_COM message up to the MSC. Once the MSC receives the REL_COM message the call is
considered ended from the call control perspective.

Although the call has ended, the BSS still has a TCH allocated to the MS. The MSC sends a Channel Release
(CHAN_REL) message to the BSS. The BSS forwards the CHAN_REL message to the MS.

The MS responds with a DISC (LAPDm) message and returns to an idle mode. The BSS reallocates the channel for
other call or releases the TRX.

GSM MOBILE TERMINATING VOICE CALL

Mobile Terminated Call
In this example, the call is originating from outside the PLMN.
Route Establishment to find the MSC/VLR
The calling party dials the MSISDN for the mobile subscriber. The PSTN identifies the network (PLMN) that the dialed
MSISDN belongs to and will locate a GMSC for that network. The PSTN sends an Initial Address message to the
GMSC.

The GMSC forwards the MSISDN to the HLR and requests routing information for it. The HLR looks up the MSISDN
and determines the IMSI and the SS7 address for the MSC/VLR that is servicing the MS.

The HLR then contacts the servicing MSC/VLR and asks it to assign a Mobile Station Routing Number (MSRN) to the
call.

The MSC/VLR allocates the MSRN and forwards it to the HLR.

Note: It is important to remember that the MSC/VLR assigns a MSRN to the call not to the MS itself.

The HLR forwards the MSRN as well as routing information for the servicing MSC/VLR to the GMSC.

The GMSC sends an Initial Addressing message to the servicing MSC/VLR and uses the MSRN to route the call to
the MSC/VLR. Once the servicing MSC/VLR receives the call, the MSRN can be released and may be made
available for reassignment.

Paging the Mobile Station

The MSC/VLR then orders all of its BSCs and BTSs to page the MS. Since the MSC/VLR does not know exactly
which BSC and BTS the MS is monitoring, the page will be sent out across the entire Location Area.
Initial Setup
The MS receives the Page Request (PAG_REQ) on the PCH. The MS recognizes that the page is intended for it,
based on a TMSI or an IMSI.

The MS sends a Channel Request (CHAN_REQ) message on the RACH.

The BSS responds on the AGCH by sending an Immediate Assignment (IMM ASS) message which assigns an
SDCCH to the MS. At this point, the network does not know that the MS is the one that it is paging, it only knows that
this MS wants access to the network.

The MS immediately switches to the assigned SDCCH and sends a Paging Response (PAG_RES) message on the
SDCCH. This lets the network know that the MS is responding to its page.

Authentication
Before the network will provide any services to the MS, the network will require the MS to authenticate itself. The BSS
sends an Authentication Request (AUTH_REQ) message to the MS. The RAND serves as the "challenge" for
authentication.

The MS calculates the proper SRES based on the RAND that was given and sends the SRES to the BSS in
anAuthentication Response (AUTH_RESP) message.

The BSS verifies the SRES. If the SRES is correct then the MS is authenticated and allowed access to the network.

Once the MSC/VLR has authenticated the MS, it will order the BSS and MS to switch to cipher mode using the
CIPH_MOD_CMD message. Once the MS in encryption mode, the VLR will normally assign a new TMSI to the MS.

Establishing a Channel
Once the MS is authenticated and in encryption mode, The MSC sends a Setup Message to the BSS, the BSS
forwards the SETUP message to the MS on the assigned SDCCH.the assigned SDCCH. The SETUP message may
include the Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP), which is essentially caller ID.

The MS responds by sending a Call Confirmed (CALL_CON) message; which indicates that the MS is able to
establish the requested connection. The BSS relays the message up to the MSC.

Call Setup
The BSS then sends an Assignment Command (ASS_CMD) message to the MS on the assigned SDCCH. The
ASS_CMD message assigns a Traffic Channel (TCH) to the MS.

The MS immediately switches to the TCH and responds with an Assignment Complete (ASS_COM) message on the
FACCH. The MS begins ringing once it has established the TCH.
Remember that all signaling that occurs on the traffic channel actually occurs on a FACCH, which is a time slot that is
stolen from the TCH and used for signaling.

The MS sends an ALERT message to the MSC on the FACCH. The BSS forwards the ALERT message through the
PSTN to the calling party and the caller hears the line ringing.

Call Establishment
Once the user answers the call (by pressing the send button), the MS will send a Connect CON message to the
MSC. The Connect message is forwarded back to the caller's switch to activate the call.

The MSC sends a Connect Acknowledge CON_ACK message to the MS and the call is established.
Call Disconnect
Disconnect happens the same way as for any other call. In this example, the calling party initiates the disconnect.

When the calling party hangs up, the calling party's switch initiates a Release (REL) message. The message is
forwarded to the serving MSC, which is then forwarded to the BSS.

The BSS will send a Disconnect (DISC) message to the MS on the FACCH.

The MS confirms release of the call by sending a Release (REL) message on the FACCH, which is forwarded to the
MSC.

The MSC sends e Release Complete (REL_COM) message through the BSS to the MS. As far as call control (CC) is
concerned, the connection has been terminated.

The MS still has a TCH assigned to it, so the BSS sends a Channel Release (CHAN_REL) message to the MS. This
releases the radio resource on the Air Interface.

The MS responds be sending a final Disconnect message and returns to idle.

Physical Channel: Each timeslot on a TDMA frame is called a physical channel. Therefore, there are
8 physical channels per carrier frequency in GSM. Physical channels can be used to transmit speech, data or

signaling information.
LOGICAL CHANNELS
BCH (Broadcast Channels)
BCCH(Broadcast Control Channels)
 Downlink Only.

 Broadcast information of the serving cell (System Information).

 Transmitted on timeslot zero of BCCH carrier.
 Read only by idle mobile at least once every 30 secs.

SCH (Synchronization Channels)

 Downlink Only

 Carries information for frame synchronization.

 Contains frame number and BSIC (Base Station Identity Code).

FCCH (Frequency Correction Channels)

 Downlink Only.

 Enable MS to synchronize to the frequency.

 CCCH (Common Control Channel)
RACH(Random Access Channel)
 Uplink only.

 Used by the MS when making its first access to the Network.

 The reason for access could be initiation of a call or a page response.

AGCH (Access Grant Channel)

 Downlink only.

 Used for acknowledgement of the access attempt sent on RACH.

 Used by the network to assign a signaling channel upon successful decoding of
access bursts.

PCH (Paging Channel)

 Downlink only.

 The network will page the MS ,if there is a incoming call or a short Message.
 It contains the MS identity number, the IMSI or TMSI.

DCCH (Dedicated Control Channel)

SDCCH (Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel)
 Uplink and Downlink.

 Used for call setup, authentication, ciphering location update and SMS.

SACCH (Slow Associated Control Channel)

 Downlink and Uplink.

 Used to transfer signal while MS have ongoing conversation on traffic or while

SDCCH is being used.
 On the forward link, the SACCH is used to send slow but regularly changing control
information to each mobile on that ARFCN, such as power control instructions and
specific timing advance instructions
 The reverse SACCH carries information about the received signal strength and
quality of the TCH, as well as BCH measurement results from neighboring cells.

FACCH (Fast Associated Control Channel)

 Downlink and uplink.

 Associate with TCH only.

 It is used to send fast message like hand over message.
 Work by stealing traffic bursts.
TRAFFIC CHANNELS
Once call set-up procedures have been completed on the control physical channel, the MS tunes to a traffic
physical channel. It uses the Traffic CHannel (TCH) logical channel. There are two types of TCH:
• Full rate (TCH): transmits full rate speech (13 kbits/s). A full rate TCH occupies one physical channel.
• Half rate (TCH/2): transmits half rate speech (6.5 kbits/s). Two half rate TCH's can share one physical
channel, thus doubling the capacity of a cell.
WHY DO WE NEED FREQUECY HOPPING ?
Frequency hopping serves three major purpose in GSM
1) FREQUECY RESUSE AND TO AVOID CO-CHANNEL INTERFERENCE

2) INCREASES THE CHANNEL CAPACITY OF LIMITED GSM CHANNELS

3) DECREASES MULTIPATH INTERFERENCE OF RADIO SIGNAL.

GSM MOBILE ORIGINATING CALL

FREQUENCY HOPPING
There are two types of frequency hopping: Baseband and Syntherizer.

The main technique for frequency hopping is that 1 carrier atleast uses more than one predefined frequecy to serve their
purpose.

In Baseband hopping, the transmitter will change its frequency on frame basis.

All TRX can hop, but the list of frequencies is limited to the number of TRX in the cell. For instance, if you have 4 TRX,
the amount of frequencies will be 4. It uses a round robin mechanism, for each TDMA frame, one of those four frequencies
are used in round robin pattern.

Base band hopping

In syntherizer hopping, the transmitter will change its frequency on time slot basis. That is why they also said it is fast hopping.

All TRX except BCCH TRX will hop over a list of frequencies (= frequency hopping sequence). You can put as many frequencies
as you want in the list (up to more than 30 usually).
Only the BCCH TRX requires a fixed frequency (bcch frequency that shouldn't be included in the FHS !).
The frequency hopping sequences are orthogonal inside one cell (i.e. no collisions occur between communications of the
same cell), and independent from one cell to an homologue cell (i.e. using the same set of RF channels, or cell allocation).

The hopping sequence is derived by the mobile from parameters broadcast at the channel assignment, namely,

The mobile allocation (set of frequencies on which to hop),

MA: Mobile allocation of radio frequency channels, defines the set of radio frequency channels to be used in the
mobiles hopping sequence.

The index offset (to distinguish the different mobiles of the cell using the same mobile
allocation).

MAIO: Mobile allocation index offset.(0 to N 1, 6 bits).

MAIO is applied to same timeslot of different TRX (belonging to a same cell). For instance,
each timeslot #3 will have a different MAIO, because they're using the same HSN.

The hopping sequence number of the cell (which allows different sequences on homologue cells)
HSN: Hopping sequence (generator) number (0 to 63, 6 bits).
HSN =0, means cyclic hopping (no hopping, generally BCCH carrier)

NOTE:
 Only the 1st timeslot of the BCCH TRX cannot hop.
 There is no real need for The broadcast channel (BCCH) to hop(Bcoz no tarffic is carried on this channel so no error or
interference).
 Remaining 7 full rate channels or 14 half rate channels may use frequency hopping.
 Everytime a timeslot uses the BCCH frequency, it cannot use downlink power control.
 Synthesized Frequency Hopping

GSM Interview Question -Answer

1. What is the function of SDCCH & SACCH?

Ans. (a) SDCCH---- Slow Dedicated Control Channel.

Function----
a) Location updates
b) SMS
c) Ciphering Initiation
d) Equipment Validation
e) Subscriber authentation
f) Call set up signaling

(b) SACCH---Slow Associated Control Channel.

Function:
(a) Timing advance data
(b) Transmit power control
(c) transmission of signaling data
(d) radio link supervision measurements
2. What are the reasons for Hand Overs?
(Ans) . (a) Signal Strength (RX LEVEL)
(b) Signal Quality (RX Qual)
(c) Power Budget
(d)Timing Advance.
(e) Interference
2. What are the shortcomings in handovers?

a) Call Dropping.
b) Ping- Pong handover
c) Far- Away cell effect
4. What is intelligent hand over?

Ans)Fuzzy logic
 a) Neutral networks

5. What are internal & external hand over?

Ans
(1)INTERNAL HANDOVER
a) ( INTER BTS) ---- Transfer between two channels (time slot) in same
cell.
b) ( INTRA BSC ( BTS –BTS)-----1 . transfer between BTS under control of same Bsc
2 Measuring the quality of radio connection
3 Power levels

2. EXTERNAL HANDOVER.

( a) INTER BSC (BSC_ BSC)---- 1. Transfer between BTS under

the control of diff
BSC
2. BSC TO BSC
3 . NSS to attends the hand over
4. MSC controls.

( b) INTER MSC ( MSC- MSC) ----1. transfer between cell under the control
of diff MSC

.What is the frequency Hopping its imp?

(Ans)
 It is defined as sequential change of carrier frequency on the radio link between
mobile & base station.
 Two types of freq hopping----- 1. Base band freq hopping.
2. synthesized frequency hopping.

7. Explain the major diff between BBH & SFH?

Ans
 In BBH the no of hopping freq is same as no of TRX.
 In SFH the no of Hoping freq can be in the range of 1to 63.

8. what are the advantages of Frequency Hopping?

1. Frequency Diversity
2. Interference Averaging
3. capacity

9. How in frequency hopping there is enhancement of network capacity?

 Freq hopping implement will enable more aggressive freq reuse pattern, that leads
to better spectrum efficiency.
 It can add more transceiver in the existing sites , while maintaing the net work
quality/
 Freq hopping compressing the available spectrum to make room for extra capacity
.
10. Define the freq. hopping parameters?

Frequency Hopping Parameters

GSM defines the following set of parameters:

Mobile Allocation (MA): Set of frequencies the mobile is allowed to hop over. Maximum of
63 frequencies can be defined in the MA list.
 Hopping Sequence Number (HSN): Determines the hopping order used in the cell. It is
possible to assign 64 different HSNs. Setting HSN = 0 provides cyclic hopping sequence and HSN = 1
to 63 provide various pseudo-random hopping sequences.

Mobile Allocation Index Offset (MAIO): Determines inside the hopping sequence, which
frequency the mobile starts do transmit on. The value of MAIO ranges between 0 to (N-1) where N is
the number of frequencies defined in the MA list. Presently MAIO is set on per carrier basis.

Motorola has defined an additional parameter, FHI.

Hopping Indicator (FHI): Defines a hopping system, made up by an associated set of
frequencies (MA) to hop over and sequence of hopping (HSN). The value of FHI varies between 0 to
3. It is possible to define all 4 FHIs in a single cell.

Motorola system allows to define the hopping system on a per timeslot basis. So different
hopping configurations are allowed for different timeslots. This is very useful for interference
averaging and to randomize the distribution of errors.

11. What are the effects of freq hopping?

(Ans)

1 Handovers:

2 Call setup:

3 Frame Erasure Rate (FER):

12 .Explain in brief what is FER.

 Ans FER= Number of erased blocks\ total no of blocks *100
 It is the right measure of voice quality.
 FER is performed on speech& signaling frames
 FER------- 0 to 4%, GOOD.
4 to 15% , slightly degraded
Greater than 15%, useless

13. What happens when speech frames discarded in FER?

 System will interpolate.

14. What happens when signaling frames discarded in FER?

 MS is instructed to resend.

15. What is TCH_ TCH Interference? How it is measured.

 When TCH carries are reused that leads to co-channel interference.

 When TCH carrier have call activity.

 This is measured by delta measurement. --- 1. BCCH carries are diff

2. TCH carriers in both cell 1& cell2 are same AFRCN TCH

16. Define the terms?

 BER--- The number of erroneous bits received

Total no of bits received.
 RBER---1 Residual bit error rate
2 It is performed on demodulated speech frames that are not mark corrupt
.BFI -- Bad frame indication.
17. Explain the parameters in TEMS POCKET mobile.

L BC BS RXLEV
L TC TS TX
C/I RQ FE

TA DSC CHM

RH CiMd
MCC MNC LAC

RA CI

1.
2. Llcell BCCH ARFCN
3.

4.

5.
 L1. Logical channel.----- BCCH

 L2. Logical channel ----- TCH

 BC-- serving cell BCCH AFRCN.

 BS-- base station identity code.

 RXLEV- recieved signal strength

 TC-- traffic channel

 TS - time slot number.

 TX - transmit power

 C/I -- Carrier to interference ratio in db

 RQ -- Receive bit error rate

 FE –frame erasure rate.

 TA -- Timing advance

 CHM --C hannel Mode

 RH -- cell reselction Hystresis

 CiMd—Ciphering mode
  RAC – Routing area code.

 LAC—Location area code.

18. Explain the analysis behind RX Qual.?

 RX Qual is the basic measure. It reflects the average BER over the certain period of
time(0.5s)

 RX QUAL done over 104 TDMA frames.

 Limitation of RXQUAL---- 1. The distributions of bit error over time.

2. Frame erasure
3. Hand over.
19. What are type of interference occur?
1. Co- channel interference.
2. Adj-channel interference.
3. Near end- Far end interference.

20. What is ERLANG?

 Unit of telephone traffic intensity is called Erlang.

 One ERLANG is one channel occupied continuously for one hour.
 1E = 64Kbps.

21. what do you mean by GOS?

 It is the probabity of having a call blocked during busiest hour.

 Ex GOS=0.05 means one call in 20 will be blocked call during busiest hour because of
insufficient capacity.

22. What are the technique GSM offers which combat Multipath fading?

 Equalization
 Diversity
 Freq Hopping
 Interleaving
 Channel coding

23. What are control &traffic channels?

 CONTROL CHANNEL.----1 BCH

2. CCCH
3. DCCH.

 TRAFFIC CHANNEL-- Half rate

Full rate

EFR == Enhanced full rate.

24. What are BCH, CCH, DCCH channels?

  BCH-- 1. BCCH
2 .FCCH
3. SCH

 CCCH. --- 1.PCH

2. AGCH
3. RACH

 DCCH---- 1.SDCCH.
2. SACCH
3. FACCH
25. What are types of bursts?

 Normal Burst
 Frequency Correction Burst
 Synchronization Burst.
 Dummy Burst
 Access Burst.
26. What is adjacent channel separation in GSM?
 Urban Environment-------- 200khz
 Sub Urban Environment ---- 400khz
 Open environment ----- 800khz

27. What is the watt to dBm conversions?

 Power in dBm = 10 log( watts *100)
 0 dBm= 1mili watt
 1watt = 30dbm
 28. What are the optimizations you have done during Drive Test?

 What are samples in gsm?

 Which modulation take place in GSM

 In one TRU how many frames are there?

 What is the value RXLEV of neighboring cell?

 What do you mean by VAD?

 What is BFI, where it is use?

2929. Define the hopping parameters in detail?

The MA is a list of hopping frequencies transmitted to a mobile every time it is assigned to a

hopping physical channel. The MA-list is a subset of the CA list. The MA-list is automatically
generated if the baseband hopping is used. If the network utilises the RF hopping, the MA-lists have
to be generated for each cell by the network planner. The MA-list is able to point to 64 of the
frequencies defined in the CA list. However, the BCCH frequency is also included in the CA list, so the
practical maximum number of frequencies in the MA-list is 63. The frequencies in the MA-list are
required to be in increasing order because of the type of signaling used to transfer the MA-list.
1.1 Hopping Sequence Number

The Hopping Sequence Number (HSN) indicates which hopping sequence of the 64 available
is selected. The hopping sequence determines the order in which the frequencies in the MA-list are to
be used. The HSNs 1 - 63 are pseudo random sequences used in the random hopping while the HSN 0
is reserved for a sequential sequence used in the cyclic hopping. The hopping sequence algorithm
takes HSN and FN as an input and the output of the hopping sequence generation is a Mobile
Allocation Index (MAI) which is a number ranging from 0 to the number of frequencies in the MA-
list subtracted by one. The HSN is a cell specific parameter. For the baseband hopping two HSNs
exists. The zero time slots in a BB hopping cell use the HSN1 and the rest of the time slots follow the
HSN2 as presented in Error! Reference source not found.. All the time slots in RF hopping cell follow
the HSN1 as presented in Error! Reference source not found..
1.2 Mobile Allocation Index Offset

When there is more than one TRX in the BTS using the same MA-list the Mobile Allocation
Index Offset (MAIO) is used to ensure that each TRX uses always an unique frequency. Each hopping
TRX is allocated a different MAIO. MAIO is added to MAI when the frequency to be used is
determined from the MA-list. Example of the hopping sequence generation is presented in Error!
Reference source not found.. MAIO and HSN are transmitted to a mobile together with the MA-list.
In Nokia solution the MAIOoffsetis a cell specific parameter defining the MAIOTRX for the first hopping
TRX in a cell. The MAIOs for the other hopping TRXs are automatically allocated according to the
MAIOstep -parameter introduced in the following section.
30. What is the effect of frequency hopping in RXQual?
Frequency hopping causes some changes in the RXQUAL distribution. Also, there are some
differences in a way the RXQUAL distribution should be interpreted.
The Frame Erasure Ratio (FER) is a ratio of discarded speech frames compared to all the
received speech frames. A speech frame is generally discarded if after the decoding and error
correction process any of the category 1a bits is found to be changed based on the three parity bits
following them in a speech frame.
FER is a measure of how successfully the speech frame was received after the error
correction process and it is thus a better indication of the subjective speech quality compared to the
RXQUAL which gives an estimate of the link quality in terms of BER. The RXQUAL doesn’t indicate
how the bit errors were distributed in a speech frame. The bit error distribution affects the ability of
the channel decoding to correct the errors.

The following table gives an idea of the correlation between RXQUAL and FER and between
subjective speech quality and different FER classes.

31. What is the relation link between RXQUAL& FER?

Table 1. RXQUAL vs. FER comparison according to the laboratory tests.

The relation of downlink FER and RXQUAL was measured during a FH trial. The relation is
clearly different in the hopping case compared to the non-hopping case. The distributions of FER in
each RXQUAL class are presented in Error! Reference source not found. and Error! Reference source
not found.. One clear observation can be made; in the non-hopping case there are significant amount
of samples indicating deteriorated quality (FER>10%) in RXQUAL class 5 while in the hopping case
the significant quality deterioration (FER>10%) happens in RXQUAL class 6. Thus, it may be
concluded that in the frequency hopping networks significant quality deterioration starts at RXQUAL
class 6 while in non-hopping network this happens at RXQUAL class 5.
 This improvement of FER means that the higher RXQUAL values may be allowed in a
frequency hopping network. RXQUAL thresholds are used in the handover and power control
decisions. Because of the improvement in the relative reception performance on the RXQUAL classes
4-6, the RXQUAL thresholds affecting handover and power control decisions should be set higher in
a network using frequency hopping network. In a frequency hopping network RXQUAL classes 0-5
are indicating good quality.

Typically, the share of the RXQUAL classes 6 and 7 may increase after FH is switched on, even
if no other changes have been made. This may seem to be surprising since it is expected that
frequency hopping improves the network quality. However, in most cases the quality is actually
improved, but the improvement is more visible in the call success ratio. The improved tolerance
against interference and low field strength in FH network means that it is less likely that the
decoding of SACCH frames fails causing increment in the radio link timeout counter. Thus, it is less
likely that a call is dropped because of the radio link timeout. Instead, the calls generating high
RXQUAL samples tend to stay on. This may lead to increase in the share of RXQUAL 6-7. However, at
the same time the call success rate is significantly improved.

In the Error! Reference source not found., there are presented some trial results of a DL
RXQUAL distribution with different frequency allocation reuse patterns. As can be seen from the
figures, the tighter the reuse becomes, the less samples fall in quality class 0 and more samples fall in
quality classes 1-6. There’s bigger difference in downlink than in uplink direction.

This difference is a consequence of interference and frequency diversities that affect the
frequency hopping network. Because of these effects, the interference or low signal strength tend to
occur randomly, while in a non-hopping network it is probable that interference or low field strength
will affect several consecutive bursts making it harder for the error correction to actually correct
errors. The successful error correction leads to less erased frames and thus improves the FER.
32. What do you understand by idle channel measurement?

 When a new call is established or a handover is performed, the BSC selects the TRX
and the time slot for the traffic channel based on the idle channel interference measurements. The
frequency hopping has a significant effect on the idle channel interference measurement results.

When the frequency hopping is used, the frequency of a hopping logical channel is changed
about 217 times in a second. The frequency of the idle time slots changes according to the same
sequence.

In a case of the random hopping, this means that the measured idle channel interference is
likely to be the same for all the TRXs that use the same MA-list. If the interference is averaged over
more than one SACCH frame, the averaging effect is even stronger. However, normally the
interferers are mobiles located in interfering cells. In this case, there are probably differences in the
measured idle channel interferences between different time slots in the cell. This happens, because
the interfering mobiles are only transmitting during the time slot that has been allocated to them.
This is illustrated in Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-1.

If the cyclic hopping sequence is used, there might occur differences on the measured idle
channel interference levels between the TRXs on the same time slot as explained in the following
section.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-1. Idle channel interference in a case of
the random RF hopping

33 .what are types of handover?

There are four different types of handover in the GSM system, which involve transferring a
call between:
 Channels (time slots) in the same cell
 Cells (Base Transceiver Stations) under the control of the same Base Station
Controller (BSC),
  Cells under the control of different BSCs, but belonging to the same Mobile services
Switching Center (MSC), and
 Cells under the control of different MSCs.
34. what are important parameter of power saving in GSM
Discontinuous transmission
Minimizing co-channel interference is a goal in any cellular system, since it allows better
service for a given cell size, or the use of smaller cells, thus increasing the overall capacity of the
system. Discontinuous transmission (DTX) is a method that takes advantage of the fact that a person
speaks less that 40 percent of the time in normal conversation [22], by turning the transmitter off
during silence periods. An added benefit of DTX is that power is conserved at the mobile unit.
The most important component of DTX is, of course, Voice Activity Detection. It must
distinguish between voice and noise inputs, a task that is not as trivial as it appears, considering
background noise. If a voice signal is misinterpreted as noise, the transmitter is turned off and a very
annoying effect called clipping is heard at the receiving end. If, on the other hand, noise is
misinterpreted as a voice signal too often, the efficiency of DTX is dramatically decreased. Another
factor to consider is that when the transmitter is turned off, there is total silence heard at the
receiving end, due to the digital nature of GSM. To assure the receiver that the connection is not
dead,comfort noise is created at the receiving end by trying to match the characteristics of the
transmitting end's background noise.

Discontinuous reception
Another method used to conserve power at the mobile station is discontinuous reception.
The paging channel, used by the base station to signal an incoming call, is structured into sub-
channels. Each mobile station needs to listen only to its own sub-channel. In the time between
successive paging sub-channels, the mobile can go into sleep mode, when almost no power is used.
All of this increases battery life considerably when compared to analog
: What is Tri-band and Dual-band?

A: A tri-band phone operates at three supported frequencies, such as 900/1800/1900 MHz or 850/1800/1900 MHz. A dual-
band phone operates at two frequencies, such as 850/1900 MHz or 900/1800