AN OUTLINE

• PAKET SWITCHING RATHER THAN CIRCUIT SWITCHING (VOICE).

• UPGRADATION REQUIRED IN BTS,BSC AND CORE NETWORK.
• GGSN-
– CONNECTS TO EXTERNAL DATA NETWORK,
– ACTS LIKE A ROUTER
– ENCAPSULATES DATA PACKETS
– FORWARDS PACKETS TO RIGHT SGSN
– ROUTING OF MS ORIGINATING PACKETS TO RIGHT DESTINATION
– COLLECTING CHARGING INFO ETC.
• SGSN-
– AUTHENTICATION,CIPHERING,COMPRESSION,MOBILITY
MANAGEMENT,SESSION MANAGEMENT
– INTERACTION WITH HLR,MSC/VLR:JUST LIKE AN MSC FUNCTIONS
IN VOICE CALL
– CHARGING
 GPRS ENABLED MOBILES
• CLASS A: SIMULTANEOUS VOICE & DATA.
• CLASS B: SIMULTANEOUS SIGNALLING FOR VOICE & DATA:
DATA COMMUNICATION SUSPENDED IF A CALL ARRIVES:
MOST COMMON.
• CLASS C: VOICE/DATA: ONE AT A TIME THROUGH
SELECTION.
• GPRS ENABLED MOBILES SUPPORT FOLLOWING CODING
SCHEMES & DATA RATES PER TIME SLOT:

–CS1: 9 KBPS : MOST ROBUST AGAINST ERROR.

–CS2: 13.4 KBPS :GOOD ERROR PERFORMANCE.
–CS3:15.6 KBPS: GOOD ERROR PERFORMANCE.
–CS4: 21.4 KBPS:VERY LESS PROTECTION AGAINST
ERROR.
• HIGHER DATA RATES ACHIEVED BY ALLOCATING MULIPLE TS
TO ONE MOBILE.
 UPGRADATION IN BTS & BSC
• BTS TO BE EQUIPPED WITH
» CAPABILITY TO SUPPORT CODING SCHEMES.
» ADDITIONAL CHANNELS TO DEAL WITH PACKET TRAFFIC.
» SPECIAL TIMING ADVANCE SCHEME.
• BSC TO BE EQUIPPED WITH
» CAPABILITY TO MANAGE PACKET DATA, PACKET CONTROL
& PACKET BROADCAST CHANNELS: GRANTING
ACCESS,SCHEDULING OF DATA BLOCKS, POWER
CONTROL, CONGESTION CONTROL ETC AS IN NORMAL
CHANNELS IN VOICE.
» SEGMENTATION OF PACKET DATA TOWARDS BTS INTO
RADIO BLOCKS,ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & RETRANSMISSION.
» MANAGING INTERFACE WITH SGSN,SENDING DATA IN
BLOCKS.
 GPRS CHANNELS
• PBCCH: BROADCASTS PACKET SPECIFIC SYSTEM
INFO;
– FOR LIGHT DATA TRAFFIC,FUNCTION IS PERFORMED BY
BCCH.
• PCCH: COMMON CONTROL CHANNEL:
» PPCH:PAGING;
» PRACH:ACCESS,
» PAGCH:ACCESS GRANT
• PDCH:DATA CHANNEL:
» PDTCH:CARRIES USER DATA.
» PACCH: SHARES TS WITH PDTCH,DEDICATED
CHANNEL FOR PACKET ACK/NACK
» PTCCH:USED FOR CONTINOUS TIMING ADVANCE.
MULTIPLEXING MSs ON THE SAME TIME SLOT

• DNLINK:
» TFI FIELD IN PDCH IS UNIQUE FOR AN MS.
» IF TFI MATCHES, MS ACCEPTS THE DATA.
» 16 MS CAN BE MULTIPLEXED IN ONE TS:
» EFFICIENT UTILISATION OF RESOURCES WHEN TRAFFIC IS
LIGHT.
• UPLINK:
» USF FIELD IN DNLINK PDCH:
» MSs WHICH ARE SHARING THE PDCH READ USF VALUE TO
CHECK WHICH MS CAN TRANSMIT ON CORRESPONDING
UPLINK PDCH.
» 7 MS CAN BE MULIPLEXED IN UPLINK.
» TOTAL 16 MS IN UPLINK+DOWNLINK.
» RESTRICTION IMPOSED BY TIMIMNG ADVANCE.
 GPRS MULTISLOT CLASS
• IT IS POSSIBLE TO ALLOCATE MORE THAN ONE TS TO A PARTICULAR MS TO
INCREASE DATA SPEED.

• DEPENDS ON TRAFFIC & BTS RESOURCE(CHANNELS) & CAPABILITY OF MS.

• VOICE CALLS GENERALLY GET PRIORITY IN RESOURCE ALLOTTMENT.

• CAPABILITY OF MS : MULTISLOT CLASS.

• MOST COMMON: CLASS 10: 4 TS IN DN LINK,2 TS IN UPLINK,TOTAL NOT

EXCEEDING 5.
 MULTIFRAME FOR GPRS AIR INTERFACE

• 1 MULTIFRAME = 52 TDMA FRAMES

• 12 BLOCKS EACH OF 4 FRAMES
• 2 IDLE FRAMES FOR MEASUREMENT
• 2 FRAMES FOR TIMING ADVANCE
• EACH TS IN A FRAME CARRIES 114 DATA BITS.
• FOR CS1 181 USERBITS---AFTER CODING 456 BITS--
-SENT OVER 4 FRAMES (18.464 ms)
• EFFECTIVE DATA RATE
= (181/18.464) x 48/52 = 9.046 KBPS PER TS
• SIMILARLY EFFECTIVE DATA RATES FOR
CS2/CS3/CS4 MAY BE CALCULATED.
GPRS MOBILITY MANAGEMENT STATES
• EACH LA (LOCATION AREA) IS FURTHER DIVIDED INTO
SEVERAL RA (ROUTING AREA)
• RAI = MCC+MNC+LAC+RAC
• IN PACKET IDLE MODE MS LISTENS TO PBCCH FOR
PAGING.
• MS REGISTERS WITH SGSN AND IS ALLOCATED P-TMSI.
• THIS IS KNOWN AS GPRS ATTACH STATE.
• SGSN KNOWS RA OF MS, AND MS MULTISLOT CLASS &
CAPABILITY . MS MAKES REGULAR RA UPDATE.
• IN ATTACH MODE MS ANSWERS THE PAGING THROUGH
PRACH.
• RADIO RESOURCES ARE ALLOCATED & DATAPATH IS
ESTABLISHED BETWEEN MS & SGSN.
• THIS IS CALLED ACTIVATION OF PDP (PACKET DATA
PROTOCOL) CONTEXT.
• PDP CONTEXT CONTAINS MAPPING & ROUTING INFO
FOR TRANSFERRING DATA.
• ON PDP CONTEXT ACTIVATION MS OBTAINS IP
ADDRESS FROM THE NETWORK(GGSN).
• SERVICE PARAMETERS LIKE QOS ARE NEGOTIATED.
• QOS IS ENSURED BY ALLOCATING DIFFERENT LEVELS
OF RADIO PRIORITY (4 LEVELS) TO DETERMINE RADIO
ACCESS & SERVICE PRECEDENCE.
• TBF:TEMPORARY BLOCK FLOW: IS A PHYSICAL
CONNECTION BETWEEN MS & THE NETWORK TO
SUPPORT UNIDIRECTIONAL DATA ON ONE OR MORE
PDCH.
• TBF SPECIFIES TIMESLOTS,TFI,USF & ARFCN TO BE
USED BY MS & ALSO CODING SCHEME.
• TBF IS TEMPORARY AND IS MAINTAINED ONLY FOR THE
DURATION OF DATA TRANSFER.
GPRS PROTOCOL STACK
• GSM RF : PHYSICAL RADIO CHANNEL
• MAC: ALLOCATION OF CHANNEL.
• RLC:
– ALLOTMENT OF TBF
– SUBMULTIPLEXING OF MULTIPLE MS IN ONE TS
– TS COMBINING FOR ONE MS
– SEGMENTATION & REASSEMBLY OF LLC FRAMES TOWARDS SGSN.
• LLC:LOGICAL COONECTION BETWEEN MS & SGSN EVEN WHEN NO
PHYSICAL CONNECTION EXISTS.

• BSSGP: TRANSFERS LLC FRAMES WITH RELATED INFO LIKE QOS &
ROUTING INFO FROM BSC TO SGSN.
• SNDCF:
» ENCRYPTION,COMPRESSION
» SEGMENTATION/REASSEMBLY
» MULTIPLEXING OF SIGNALLING INFO & DATA TO FORM LLC FRAMES
• GTP: GPRS TUNNELING PROTOCOL: ENCAPSULATION OF IP
PACKETS INTO DATA UNITS THAT ARE TRANSPORTED
TRANSPARENTLY ACROSS GPRS SYSTEM FROM SGSN TO MS.
ENCAPSULATION & SEGMENTATION OF DATA
 MOVEMENT OF PACKETS IN GPRS NETWORK

• THE ISP SENDS IP DATA PACKETS INTO GPRS NETWORK

USING THE IP ADDRESS ASSIGNED TO MS.

• GGSN SEARCHES FOR THE RELEVANT PDP CONTEXT &

FORWARDS TOWARDS RIGHT SGSN.IP DATA UNITS ARE
ENCAPSULATED INTO NEW DATA UNTIS OF GTP & THE NEW
IP ADDRESS IS THE IP ADDRESS OF THE SGSN.

• SGSN ENCAPSULATES THE GTP DATA UNITS & BY SNDCF

PROTOCOL SUBDIVIDES IT INTO A CERTAIN NO. OF LLC
FRAMES.DATA IS ALSO ENCRYPTED & COMPRESSED.

• SGSN FINDS OUT THE LOCATION OF THE MS & SENDS LLC

FRAMES TO THE RIGHT BSC.PAGING PROCEDURE IS USED
AS IN VOICE CALLS.
 MOVEMENT OF PACKETS IN GPRS NETWORK
(CONTD)

• LLC FRAMES ARE SEGMENTED INTO MAC/RLC BLOCKS SUITABLE FOR

TRANSMISSION ON AIR.

• RLC BLOCKS ARE SENT ACROSS A-bis INTERFACE TO THE RIGHT BTS

• BTS PERFORMES BLOCK CODING,CONVOLUTION

CODING,PUNCTURING,INTERLEAVING:GIVING RADIO BLOCKS-456 BITS.

• EACH RADIO BLOCK IS SENT ON AIR INTERFACE IN 4 NORMAL BURSTS

EACH CONTAINING 114 BITS.

• ACK/NACK SENT BY MS ON UPLINK PDCH.

PACKET DATA TRANSPORT
 SOME FEATURES OF GPRS
• CONTINUOUS TIMING ADVANCE UPDATE:
» MS SENDS ACCESS BURST IN U/L PTCCH
» BSS ACCESSES REQUIRED TA AND TRANSMITS THE
INFO IN D/L PTCCH.
• NO HANDOVER:
» MS PERFORMS NORMAL CELL RE-SELECTION
» DURING RESELECTION MS GOES TO IDLEMODE.

• LINK ADAPTATION:
» DURING DATA TRANSMISSION CODING SCHEME IS
CHANGED BY THE NETWORK TO SUIT RADIO-
ENVIRONMENT.
» AUTOMATIC SWITCHOVER FROM CS1-CS2-CS3-CS4 &
VICE-VERSA.
• EGPRS USES 8-PSK MODULATION TO INCREASE
DATARATE 3 FOLD.
• BSS NEEDS UPGRADATION.
• STILL HIGHER DATARATE----UMTS/3G
• UMTS USES WCDMA WHICH SUPPORTS FLEXIBLE
& HIGH DATA RATE.
• UMTS:SMOOTH INTEGRATION OF VOICE & DATA
SERVICE.
• STILL HIGHER DATA RATE:OFDM
• IN ANY SYSTEM HIGHER THE DATARATE,LESS IS
THE COVERAGE AREA.
• MORE SUBSCRIBERS ---- LESS PEAK DATARATE.