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Communication Systems Mobile Communication Systems Lecture (2-2) :-GSM System

GSM was a revolutionary mobile communication system that enabled over 1.5 billion subscribers worldwide by 2005. The document discusses the architecture of the GSM system in detail, including the mobile station consisting of the mobile equipment and SIM card, the base station system, and network subsystem. It describes the components and functions of the mobile equipment such as the baseband processor, memory, and chipset. It also explains the components and role of the SIM card in identifying subscribers and securely generating authentication keys.

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60 views8 pages

Communication Systems Mobile Communication Systems Lecture (2-2) :-GSM System

GSM was a revolutionary mobile communication system that enabled over 1.5 billion subscribers worldwide by 2005. The document discusses the architecture of the GSM system in detail, including the mobile station consisting of the mobile equipment and SIM card, the base station system, and network subsystem. It describes the components and functions of the mobile equipment such as the baseband processor, memory, and chipset. It also explains the components and role of the SIM card in identifying subscribers and securely generating authentication keys.

Uploaded by

miro jasim
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Communication Systems

Mobile Communication Systems


Lecture (2-2) :- GSM System
At the beginning of the 1990s, GSM, the Global System for Mobile
Communications triggered a novel change in the way people communicate with
each other. While earlier analog wireless systems were used by only a few
people, GSM was used by over 1.5 billion subscribers worldwide at the end of
2005. This has mostly been achieved by the steady improvements in all areas of
telecommunication technology and due to the steady price reductions for both
infrastructure equipment and mobile phones.
in this topic we shall study the architecture of this system in details, ( starting
from the mobile station and ending to the network sub system), the air interface
link ( between the mobile station and the base station), the mobility of the
signaling for this system, and the modified versions of this system( HSCSD,
GPRS, and DEGE).

A- GSM structure
- The block diagram for the simplified GSM system are shown in figure (1)
below.
From figure (1) above we can see that the GSM system consist of the
following :-
1 – Mobile station which consist of mobile equipment (ME) and
Subscriber Identity Model card (SIM card)
2 – Base station system (BSS) consist of Base Transceiver system (BTS),
Base station Control (BSC), antennas, Power supply and other
component.
3 – Network sub system (NSS) consist of
* - Mobile switching system (MSC)
* - Home Location Register (HLR)
* - Visitor Location Register (VLR)
*- Equipment Identity register (EIR)
*- Authentication Center (AUC)
4 - Operation and maintenance center (OMC)
1) – The Mobile Station.
The mobile station consist of two parts, the Mobile Equipment (ME) and
the an electronic smart card called a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM card), the
mobile equipment is the hardware used by the subscriber to access the network ,
this may be a telephone, Fax machine,, etc. The hardware has an identity number
which is unique for that device and permanently stored in it. this identity number
is called an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI).
The SIM is a card which plug into the mobile equipment. This card identified the
mobile subscriber, the subscriber is identified by an identity number called the
International Mobile Subscribe Identity (IMSI).

The IMSI and the IMEI format are as shown :-

MCC :- Mobile Country Code (for example (964) for Iraq


MNC :- Mobile Network Code (for example (77) for Asia Cell
MSIN :- Mobile Subscriber Identification Number.
TAC :- Type Approval Code
FAC:- Final Assembly Manufacturer Code
SNR :- Serial Number
SP :- spare digit.
A ) – Mobile Equipment (ME)
Due to the progress of miniaturization of electronic components during the mid-
1980s, it was possible to integrate all components of a mobile phone into a single
portable device.
Independent of the size and variety of different functionalities for the
Mobile Equipment , the basic architecture of all mobile phones are shown in
Figure (2) bellow.
The core of the mobile phone is the base band processor which contains a RISC
(reduced instruction set) CPU and a digital signal processor (DSP). The RISC
processor is responsible for the following tasks:
• Handling of information that is received via the different signaling channels
(BCCH, PCH, AGCH, PCH, etc.).
• Call establishment (DTAP).
• GPRS management and GPRS data flow.
• Parts of the transmission chain: channel coder, interleaver, cipherer (dedicated
hardware component in some designs).
• Mobility management (network search, cell reselection, location update,
handover, timing advance, etc.).
• Connections via external interfaces like Bluetooth, RS-232, IrDA, USB.
• User interface control (keypad, display, graphical user interface).
The processor capacity (speed and cash Ram) of the RISC processor is the main
factor when deciding which applications and features to implement in a mobile
phone. For applications like recording and displaying digital pictures or videos
for example, fast processing capabilities are required.
One of the RISC architectures that is used for high-end GSM and UMTS mobile
phones is the (ARM-9) architecture. This processor architecture allows CPU
speeds of over 200 MHz and provides sufficient computing power for calculation
intensive applications.
The downside of fast processors, however, is higher power consumption, which
forces designers to increase battery capacity while trying at the same time to
maintain the physical dimensions of a small mobile phone. Therefore, intelligent
power-saving mechanisms are required in order be able to reduce power
consumption during times of inactivity. The DSP is another important component
of a GSM and UMTS chipset. Its main task is FR, EFR, HR, or AMR speech
compression. Furthermore, the DSP is used in the receiver chain to help decode
the incoming signal. This is done by the DSP analyzing the training
sequence of a burst (we shall explain next lecture). As the DSP is aware of the
composition of the training sequence of a frame, the DSP can calculate a filter
which is then used to decode the data part of the burst. This increases the
probability that the data can be correctly reconstructed. The DSP (56600 )
architecture with a processor speed of 104 MHz is often used for these tasks.
As millions of mobile phones are sold every year, there is a great variety of
chipsets available on the market. The chipset is in many cases not designed by the
manufacturer of the mobile phone. While Motorola design its own chipsets, Nokia
relies on chipsets of STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. Other GSM
chipset developers include Infineon, Analog Devices, and Philips, as well as many
Asian companies.
The mobile equipment contain three types of memory, RAM , Flash ROM
and internal ROM, the job of the internal ROM is store the IMEI and a part from
the operating system and this can not editing by the subscriber, while the flash
ROM store the operating system, the subscribers number, message, video, sound
and other. The third type (RAM) used by the CPU in order to achieve the tasks,
this type can not keeping the information when the device power off.

B ) – Subscriber Identity Module Card (SIM Card)


The SIM card is one of the most important parts of a GSM network
because it contains all the subscription information of a subscriber. Since it is
standardized, a subscriber can use any GSM or UMTS phone by simply inserting
the SIM card. The block diagram of SIM card components are shown in figure (3)
below.
The most important parameters on the SIM card are the IMSI and the secret key
(Ki), which is used for authentication and the generation of ciphering keys (Kc).
With a number of tools, it is possible to read out most parameters from the SIM
card, except for sensitive parameters that are read protected.
Protected parameters (like Ki) can only be accessed with a special unlock code
that is not available to the end user.
The SIM card is much more than just a simple memory card as it contains a
complete microcontroller system that can be used for a number of additional
purposes. The typical properties of a SIM card are shown in Table (1).
The mobile phone cannot access the information on the EEPROM directly, but
has to request the information from the SIM’s CPU. Therefore, direct access to
sensitive information is prohibited. The CPU is also used to generate the SRES
during the network authentication procedure based on the RAND which is
supplied by the authentication center (we shall explain in next lecture). It is
imperative that the calculation of the SRES is done on the SIM card itself and not
in the mobile phone in order to protect the secret Ki key.
From table (1) above we can see that the SIM card work on 10 MHz clock
supplied by the mobile equipment through the connection point between them,
also we can see that three type of memory lies in the SIM card (RAM, ROM, and
EEPROM) , the EEPROME used to store limited subscribers numbers and names
( with limited characters) , some massages and notes, this can be edited by the
subscriber in opposite of the ROM which contain the protected parameters and the
authentication algorithms. While the RAM used by the microprocessor to
calculate the KC and other tasks.

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