CHAPTER: THREE

GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILE

COMMUNICATION
 Objectives
• To understand the concept of GSM
• To understand the architecture of GSM
 CONTENTS
• Introduction of GSM
• History of GSM
• Features of GSM
• Architecture of GSM
• Functions of GSM
• Network Management System
 GLOBAL SYTEM FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION

If you are in Europe or Asia and Africa and using a

mobile phone, then most probably you are using is
GSM technology in your mobile phone.
It is a digital cellular technology used for transmitting
mobile voice and data services.
GSM is the name of a standardization group established
in 1982 to create a common European mobile
telephone standard. Which is called Groupe Special
Mobile
GSM is the most widely accepted standard in
telecommunications and it is implemented globally.
 Contin..
• GSM operates on the mobile communication bands 900 MHz
and 1800 MHz in most parts of the world. In the US, GSM
operates in the bands 850 MHz and 1900 MHz
• GSM owns a market share of more than 70 percent of the
world's digital cellular subscribers.
• GSM provides basic to advanced voice and data services
including roaming service.
• Roaming: is the ability to use your GSM phone number in
another GSM network.
 GSM History

• Commercial service was started in mid-1991, and by

1993 there were 36 GSM networks in 22 countries, with
25 additional countries having already selected or
considering GSM . Although standardized in Europe,
GSM is not only a European standard.
• GSM networks are operational or planned in almost 60
countries in Europe, the Middle East, the Far East,
Africa, South America, and Australia.
• In the beginning of 1994, there were 1.3 million
subscribers worldwide. By the beginning of 1995, there
were over 5 million subscribers.
• The acronym GSM now aptly stands for Global System
for Mobile communications
 features of GSM
• Improved spectrum efficiency
• International roaming
• Low-cost mobile sets and base stations (BSs)
• High-quality speech
• Compatibility with Integrated Services Digital
Network (ISDN) and other telephone company
services
• Support for new service
 GSM - Architecture
A connection between two people - a caller and the called
person - is the basic service of all telephone networks. To
provide this service, the network must be able to set up
and maintain a call,
which involves a number of tasks: identifying the called
person, determining the location, routing the call, and
ensuring that the connection is sustained as long as the
conversation lasts.
In a fixed telephone network, providing and managing
connections is a relatively easy process, because
telephones are connected by wires to the network and
their location is permanent from the networks' point of
view.
 Con…
• In a mobile network, however, the
establishment of a call is a far more complex
task, as the wireless (radio) connection
enables the users to move at their own free
will - providing they stay within the network's
service area.
 GSM - Architecture
• A GSM network comprises of many functional units. These
functions and interfaces are explained in the following.
The GSM network can be broadly divided into four basic
subsystems:
✔ The Mobile Station (MS)
✔ The Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
✔ The Network Switching Subsystem (NSS)
✔ The Operation Support Subsystem (OSS)
 GSM-architecture
Given below is a simple pictorial view of the GSM architecture .
The
 Interfaces
• The MS and the BSS communicate across the Um
interface. It is also known as the air interface or
the radio link.
• The BSS communicates with the Network Service
Switching (NSS) center across the A interface.
 The additional components of the GSM architecture
comprise of databases and messaging systems functions:
• Home Location Register (HLR)
• Visitor Location Register (VLR)
• Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
• Authentication Center (AuC)
• SMS Serving Center (SMS SC)
• Gateway MSC (GMSC)
• Chargeback Center (CBC)
• Trancoder and Adaptation Unit (TRAU)
 Functional units of GSM
Mobile Station (MS)
• The MS (Mobile Station) is a combination of terminal
equipment and subscriber data. The terminal equipment
as such is called ME (Mobile Equipment) and the
subscriber’s data is stored in a separate module called
SIM (Subscriber Identity Module). Therefore,
• ME + SIM = MS.
 Network Switching Subsystem (NSS)

• The Network Switching Subsystem (NSS) contains the network

elements MSC, VLR, HLR, AC and EIR.
The main functions of NSS are:
• Call control: This identifies the subscriber, establishes a call, and
clears the connection after the conversation is over.
• Charging: This collects the charging information about a call (the
numbers of the caller and the called subscriber, the time and
type of the transaction, etc.) and transfers it to the Billing
Centre.
• Mobility management: This maintains information about the
subscriber's location.
• Subscriber data handling: This is the permanent data storage in
the HLR and temporary storage of relevant data in the VLR.
 Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC)

• The MSC is responsible for controlling calls in

the mobile network. It identifies the origin and
destination of a call (mobile station or fixed
telephone), as well as the type of a call. An MSC
acting as a bridge between a mobile network and
a fixed network is called a Gateway MSC.
Visitor Location Register (VLR)
Visitor Location Register (VLR) is integrated with the MSC. VLR is
a database which contains information about subscribers currently
being in the service area of the network;
such as: Identification numbers of the subscribers, Services that the
subscriber can use.
Home Location Register (HLR)
• HLR maintains a permanent register of the subscribers, for
instance subscriber identity numbers and the subscribed services.
In addition to the fixed data, the HLR also keeps track of the
current location of its customers. As you will see later, the MSC
asks for routing information from the HLR if a call is to be set up
to a mobile station (mobile terminated call).
 Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

The EIR is responsible for IMEI checking (checking the validity

of the mobile equipment).
Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
The Base Station Subsystem is responsible for managing the radio
network, and it is controlled by an MSC. Typically, one MSC contains
several BSSs. A BSS itself may cover a considerably large geographical
area consisting of many cells (a cell refers to an area covered by one or
more frequency resources).
Air(UM)- and A-interface signaling support.
The BSS consists of the following elements:
BSC Base Station Controller
BTS Base Transceiver Station
TC Transcoder
 BSS
•.
 Base Station Controller (BSC)

• The BSC is the central network element of the BSS and it

controls the radio network. It has several important tasks,
✔ Connection establishment between the MS and the NSS
✔ Mobility management
✔ Statistical raw data collection: Information from the Base
Transceiver Stations, Transcoders, and BSC are collected in the
BSC and forwarded via the DCN.
✔ BTS and TC control: Inside the BSS, all the BTSs and TCs are
connected to the BSC(s).
 Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

• The BTS is the network element responsible for maintaining the air
interface and minimizing the transmission problems.
• Air interface signaling
• Speech processing
• The base station can contain several TRXs (Transceivers), each
supporting one pair of frequencies for transmitting and receiving
information. The BTS also has one or more antennas, which are
capable of transmitting and receiving information to/from one or
more TRXs. The antennas are either omnidirectional or sectorized.
transcoder
The Transcoder (TC) thus takes care of the change from one bit rate to
another.
 Network Management Subsystem (NMS)
• The Network Management Subsystem (NMS) is the third
subsystem of the GSM network.
• The purpose of the NMS is to monitor various functions and
elements of the network. In the Nokia implementation, these tasks
are carried out by the NMS/2000, which consists of a number of
workstations, servers, and a router, which connects to a Data
Communications Network (DCN).
The functions of the NMS can be divided into three categories

✔ Fault management
✔ Configuration management
✔ Performance management

These functions cover the whole of the GSM network

elements from the level of individual BTSs, up to MSCs
and HLRs.
 .

END