Report May31

Contents
1 Subject Presentation and Problem Delimitation 3

1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Problem shaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Solution steps and Time Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Introduction of GSM and GPRS 9

2.1 Cellular Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 Cellular Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.2 Effects of Propagation Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.3 Access Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 GSM Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.2 Protocols Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.3 Channel Coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.4 Logical Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Circuit switch Versus Packet switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 GPRS Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.4.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.2 Protocols Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4.3 Coding Schemes and Data Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.4 Logical Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.5 Comparison Between GSM and GPRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Radio Resource Management 30

3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.1 Dedicated channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.2 GSM transmission establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.3 GPRS transmission establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1.4 GSM call maintaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1.5 GPRS call maintaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2 ”Best effort” strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1
CONTENTS
3.2.1 Resource allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

3.2.2 Resource reassignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2.3 Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Proposed optimized RRM strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.1 Resource Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.2 Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4 RRM assumptions and parameters used in Simulation . . . . . . . 38
4 Simulation Model of RRM 39

4.1 Cellular Network Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 Radio Channel Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2.1 C/I Generation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.3 Traffic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.1 GSM Voice Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.2 GPRS Data Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.3 Mapping of the traffic load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.4 RLC/MAC Functionalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4.1 TBF establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4.2 ARQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4.3 MAC layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.5 Simulator structure and basic description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.5.1 Description of the different objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.5.2 Simulation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5 Performance Evaluation 58
5.1 Performance Metrics and Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.1.1 Performance Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.1.2 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2 Performance Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Summary of output results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6 Conclusion and prospect 67
A Simulator validation 68
A.1 Propagation model and air interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
A.2 Traffic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
A.3 RRM strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
B Confidence Intervals 69
B.1 About confidence intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
B.2 Output curves with computed confidence interval . . . . . . . . . 69
2
Chapter 1
Subject Presentation and Problem

Delimitation
The radio resource allocation in GSM/GPRS network is the focus in this project.
Beginning with the study of GSM/GPRS network, the scope of RRM strategies is
investigated. The delimitation of the project is described in the problem shaping.
In addition, the time plan is carried out in order to organize and arrange the project
work during the semester.
1.1 Background
The wireless communication has been possible due to the electromagnetic wave
propagation through the air interface and its fast development achieves a global
communication available from one person to another at any place and any time.
The impressive growth of the cellular mobile telephony as well as the number
of the Internet users poses an exciting potential for market that combines both
innovations: cellular wireless data services. It is predicted that there will be higher
demand for wireless data services and in particular high-performance wireless
Internet access.
The overview of mobile communication system starts with several mobile radio
networks with low capacity, quality and small mobility range. These limitations
were not solved until the appearance of cellular concept used in mobile commu-
nication systems.
The main idea of cellular concept is to divide a large area into small cells in
order to reuse the frequency in the distant cell without interference. Basic on
3
CHAPTER 1. SUBJECT PRESENTATION AND PROBLEM DELIMITATION
this purpose, the first analog cellular communication system came into being.
Although the analog cellular communication system invokes the revolution of
reusing frequency for the aim of saving limited spectrum resources, a series of
problems still exist, such as only basic voice telephony, limited coverage and non-
compatibility among different networks. Instead of analog, the second generation
of digital cellular communication system has been applied. Global System for
Mobile Communications(GSM) is a typical representative among this stage and
has been very stable and widely accepted standard for mobile communication.
GSM uses circuit switched technology to transmit both voice and data.
It inherently supports other technologies at its branches. In addition to voice

communication, GSM provides mobile services based on digital data interchange
at up to 9.6kbps. Each GSM carrier band is 200 kHz wide and divided into eight
time slots. To provide a single voice channel, one time slot is used. It is also
used to provide a single 9.6kbps data circuit. However, all eight slots are used
to provide one 64kbps full rate-circuit voice user using time division multiple
access (TDMA) bearer slots. In addition, some other applications, such as Small
Message Service(SMS), have been added.
The cellular data services do not fulfill the needs of users and providers. From
the user point of view, these data rates are too slow and the connection setup takes
too long. Moreover, the service is so expensive for most users. While from the
provider point of view, the radio resource is not utilized optimally, neither the
offer of data services.
However, the fast growth of Internet requires a wireless data access which GSM
is inefficient to support because of the fixed data service. The General Packet
Radio Service(GPRS), which is the extension of GSM, is implemented to provide
packet data service over the GSM infrastructure. The channel capacity is highly
increased and the amount of users is enlarged. The major new third generation,
called the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), is definitely
designed to achieve universal speech services and local multimedia systems and
is in process of development worldwide.
When considering the wireless communication system, the channel effects should
not be ignored. The performance of a wireless system is strongly affected by its
environment. In the characterization of fading channels, different components are
distinguished, such as a large-scale path loss,a medium-scale slow-varying with
lognormal distribution, and a small-scale fast varying component modelled with
a Rician or Rayleigh distribution according to the presence or absence of Line Of
4
1.2. PROBLEM SHAPING
Sight(LOS), respectively. In this way phenomenons like multipath fading, shad-

owing, near-far effects are taken into account.
1.2 Problem shaping

The importance of GPRS lies in the increasing traffic, mainly data over voice,
providing a packet switched extension for the access of IP orientated services.
Even though GPRS can supply many new data services as well as higher effi-
ciency in utilizing the capability of transmission network, it has to share the same
radio resources with GSM (voice) services. That means the air interface becomes
a bottleneck and the GSM/GPRS operators have to balance the quality of existing
voice service and that of newly introduced data services.
As far as radio resource allocation is concerned, European Telecommunications

Standards Institute (ETSI) proposes the fixed and on-demand channel allocation
mechanisms.
• Fixed Resource Allocation (FRA)
• Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA)
• Fixed Resource Allocation with Queue capability (FRAQ)
• Dynamic Resource Allocation with Queue capability (DRAQ)
The purpose of this project is to develop a method/algorithm to optimally as-

sign radio resources to GPRS services and avoid decreasing the quality of voice
services.
Some key issues in this project include:
1. Set criterion for evaluating the service quality of GPRS, i.e, blocking rate
or throughput. GSM voice service quality is also in consideration though
its criterion has already been set in industry standard (blocking rate).
2. A certain GPRS data traffic model should be built.
3. An optimal algorithm will be designed to assign radio resources for packet-

switched data to achieve the criterion in item 1 under the traffic model in
item 2.
5
4. All above will be implemented in a simplified simulation model to evaluate

the optimal RRM algorithm.
Since this project is designed to deal with a problem in real engineering world,
and considering the time, human resource and facility limitations the design group
has, the working scope of this project will be delimited as follows:
• Possible algorithm input and analysis model will be built on the basis of
some current existing GPRS architectures and radio resource management
strategies. That is, the developing methodology is not allowed to change the
network structure.
• Input data and traffic model will be based on the network of current GSM/GPRS
operator.
• The radio resources in this project refer to all the GSM time slots and fre-
quency bands inside one cell cluster.
1.3 Solution steps and Time Schedule

First, a background of the GSM/GPRS system is analyzed, and concretely the
GPRS air interface of this infrastructure. Next to this introduction, the quality
of the voice and data in GSM/ GPRS operators is matter of study. In this way
the assignment of radio resources to packet switched services is evaluated from
different operator strategies, defining scenarios, input parameters and algorithms,
and finding out optimal criterions by means of simulation methods. In order to
get efficient radio resources utilization, some strategies on the dynamic channel
allocation for data packets as the reservation of some time-slots in each TDMA
to GPRS traffic will be study. The analytical results will be compared with those
obtained from the simulations. Finally, in order to apply it to a real situation, a
particular operator strategy is included as an example.
In order to achieve the goal of the project, the group work has been organized
in the following phases( 1.1)
1. Problem Delimitation:Feb 9 - Mar 4, Week 7 - Week 10

Problem shaping. Understand the basic concepts of GSM and GPRS tech-
nique and analyze the work scope of the project.
Milestone:Introduction chapter.
6
1.3. SOLUTION STEPS AND TIME SCHEDULE
2. GPRS Technical issues:Mar 5 - Mar 17, Week 10 - Week 12

Understand and describe the GPRS air interface and the existing radio re-
source management (RRM) strategies, especially those currently operating
on the network of a local operator, Sonofon.
Milestone:Technique background chapter.
3. Scenario Definition and Parameter Configuration:Mar 11th - 24th, Week 11

- Week 13
(3.1) Model Division

The following objects are investigated during this time of period be-
cause they are considered the key issues in the model building and
scenario definition.
3.1.1 Propagation Model
3.1.2 Traffic Model/Generator
3.1.3 Radio Resource Management Model(including ARQ)
(3.2) Flowchart and Parameters Definition
Define scenarios, input parameters and evaluation criterions, for which
an optimal algorithm for radio resource allocation in GPRS can be de-
veloped. These definitions will be modified a couple of times accord-
ing to the updating work.
Milestone: Modelling foundation and parameter definition
4. Solution Development:Mar 25th - May 19th, Week 13 - Week 21
(4.1) Algorithm and RRM Strategy Design

Develop an optimal RRM solution and evaluate it in simplified simu-
lation models or with the help of analytic models.
(4.2) Simulation
4.2.1 Best Effort Strategy Validation
4.2.2 Proposed RRM Model Simulation
(4.3) Report Writing In Parallel.
Milestone: Design and simulation chapter
5. Conclusion and Finalizing Report:May 20th - Jun 3rd, Week 21 - Week 23
(5.1) Finish the simulation part and Performance Evaluation.
7
(5.2) Finalize the last version of report.
Milestone: Performance Evaluation and Conclusion
Figure 1.1: Time Plan
8
Chapter 2
Introduction of GSM and GPRS
To introduce GSM and GPRS, first there is a need to talk about the cellular
concept on which those networks are based and then GSM and GPRS networks
will be presented to get an overview of the networks on which RRM is carried
out.
2.1 Cellular Introduction

Because of the very limited frequency bands, a mobile radio network has only
a small number of speech channels available. In order to serve millions of sub-
scribers, frequency must be spatially and temporally reused. That’s why the cel-
lular concept has been developed, as well as a multiple access method.
2.1.1 Cellular Concept

The cellular concept has first been proposed by Bell Labs in 1971. It is sup-
posed to increase the system capacity.
The main idea of cellular concept is the division of the area to be covered into
cells that receive a subset of the frequencies from the total set assigned to the
network. Two neighboring cells will not use the same set of frequencies to prevent
interference. The same set of frequencies can be reused at a sufficiently large
distance. When moving from one cell to another during an ongoing conversation,
an automatic channel/frequency change occurs (handover).
The coverage area of a cell is modelled by an hexagon in order to simplify

analysis but the propagation model tends to represent a cell by a circle.
9
CHAPTER 2. INTRODUCTION OF GSM AND GPRS
A group of adjacent cells which uses all of the frequencies is called a cluster.
As in Figure 2.1, 7 cells make up a cluster. All the cells labelled ”1” use the same
frequencies, but no frequency can be reused within a cluster.
Figure 2.1: Clusters of 7 cells
Generally the signal strength is sufficient in nowadays cellular systems, hence

the interferences from neighbor cells with the same frequency(Co-channel Inter-
ferences)are above the noise floor. This means we can consider the cellular system
as interference limited rather than noise limited.
Moreover, the sectoring is applied in the cellular network. Instead of having

omnidirectional antennas either in the center or the boundary of the cell, direc-
tional antennas are used in order to decrease the interference, so that the cell can
be divided in 3 (for example for a 120 degree sectoring) equally sized sectors that
share the frequencies of the cell. This method allows to reduce the number of cells
causing interference but increases the complexity of the network.
2.1.2 Effects of Propagation Channel

The signal being transmitted via electromagnetic waves through the air inter-
face, many problems could arise either due to noise, interferences, attenuation of
the wave with distance and obstacles (path loss and slow fading), or due to the nu-
merous paths the wave can take from the transmitter to the receiver (fast fading).
10
2.1. CELLULAR INTRODUCTION
Two types of interference can cause trouble to an air born communication. Ad-
jacent interferences are caused by some other user transmitting on neighboring
channels, and guard-bands are used to fix this problem. Co-channel interferences
are caused by the use of the same channel by another customer (in a different clus-
ter). The cell shaping and power control are very important tools to help prevent
these problems. Noise can have numerous causes, but the most important ones are
the transceiver’s electronics, the background radiation, or man-made. Transmit-
ting sufficient power is necessary to have a good SNR on the receiver’s side.
Path loss means the strength of the electromagnetic wave gets weaker as it gets
further away from the transmitter. This effect not only limits the coverage of a cell
but also reduces the interferences from other cells far away. The decrease of signal
strength is proportional to the power of the distance. This power factor is usually
between 2 and 5, from free space to strong obstacle attenuation, and typically 3.5
in an urban environment.
Shadowing is affected by prominent terrain contours (hills, forests, billboards,

buildings, etc.) between the transmitter and receiver; it is likely that the line of
sight path in the transmission link is ’shadowed’ and the radio waves are diffracted
and reflected around the obstacles. In cellular mobile communication, shadowing
causes a relative slow fluctuation in the local mean of the received signal power,
where the local mean represents an average over a few tenth of wavelength.
Another phenomenon is the multipath propagation caused by reflection, diffrac-

tion and scattering as well as the relative movement between the transmitter and
the receiver. Thus all the reflected radio wave components of one signal with dif-
ferent amplitudes and phases will arrive at the receiver and the combination of
these components can cause a very fast fluctuation according to the moving speed
of a mobile user.
These different types of fading will also cause temporal effects on the transmit-
ted signal, which can usually be fixed using hardware implementations or proto-
cols.
Temporal Effects
The relative delay is due to multiple echoes corresponding to all the paths the
signal can take (multipath) which all arrive with their own delays. To correct
this delay problems that could cause inter symbol interference, GSM receivers
use equalizers that are updated with a training sequence used to learn about the
11
channel and add up all the echoes. The use of this method makes an assumption
that the movement is slow compared to the equalizer update.
The absolute delay is a delay caused by the distance separating both ends of
the transmission. Electromagnetic waves are transmitted at the speed of light, so
the distance can have an influence if the received signals has a delay of bit times.
Two solutions are used to prevent this problem which are the use of guard bands
between each block of transmitted data, and the use of a timing advance protocol
to calculate the delay and send data at the right time.
In order to optimally share resources on the limited frequency band allocated to

GSM through this interface, a multiple access method is used.
2.1.3 Access Method

Since radio spectrum is a limited resource shared by all users, a method must
be devised to divide up the bandwidth among as many users as possible. The
method chosen by GSM is a combination of Time and Frequency Division Mul-
tiple Access (TDMA/FDMA) as shown in Figure 2.2. The FDMA part involves
the division by frequency of the (maximum) 25MHz bandwidth into 124 carrier
frequencies spaced 200kHz apart. One or more carrier frequencies are assigned
to each cell.
Each of these carrier frequencies is then divided in time, using a TDMA scheme.
The fundamental unit of time in this TDMA scheme is called a Time Slot(TS) or
burst and it lasts 15/26 ms(or approximately 0.577ms). Eight TS are grouped into
a TDMA frame 120/26 (ms) (or approximately 4.615ms), which forms the basic
unit for the definition of logical channels. One physical channel is one TS per
TDMA frame.
Channels are defined by the number and position of their corresponding burst
periods. All these definitions are cyclical. Channels can be divided into dedicated
channels, which are allocated to a mobile station, and common channels, which
are used by mobile stations in idle mode.
TDMA realizes several users can share the same frequency in different time
duration.
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2.2. GSM NETWORK
Figure 2.2: Access Method
2.2 GSM Network

The digital communication system described was originally used by GSM as
a circuit switched system. CS networks are based on regular cabled telephony
networks (ISDN) where a physical connection is assigned by switches between
each end of the Point to Point communication. In GSM, circuit switched is phys-
ically made by assigning a fixed time slot in every frame which is used for the
entire connection. GSM was mainly developed for voice usage, but it provides
slow rate circuit switched data services (9.6Kbps) and a pager-like service called
Short Message Service (SMS). The following sections will briefly describe the
functional entities, the protocol stack, the radio interface signalling protocol, and
the logical channel structure based on GSM.
2.2.1 Architecture
The network architecture of GSM consists of three main entities called the Mo-
bile Station (MS), the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) and the Network and Switch-
ing Subsystem (NSS), each containing one or several components as shown in
Figure 2.3.
13
Figure 2.3: GSM Network
14
2.2. GSM NETWORK
The MS contains the physical equipment used by a subscriber such as a portable

handset or a vehicle mounted unit, which is identified by International Mobile
Equipment Identity(IMEI). In addition to that, a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
is attached to the mobile equipment and provides the subscriber information called
International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) used to distinguish the different
users.
The BSS, handling the radio link with the MS, has two components which are
the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and the Base Station Controller (BSC). The
BTS comprises the radio transmission and reception devices, and also manages
the signal processing related to the air interface. The BSC manages the radio
interface, mainly through the allocation, release and handover of radio channels.
The Network Switching Systems(NSS) handles the switching between both

ends of the connection, and can connect to other networks such as the regular
cabled telephony network. The main component is the Mobile Switching Cen-
ter(MSC) which is basically an ISDN-switch, coordinating and setting up calls
to and from MSs. It is connected to four databases which are the Visitor Loca-
tion Register (VLR), the Home Location Register (HLR), the Equipment Identity
Register (EIR), and the Authentication Centre (AuC). The VLR contains all the
subscriber data, both permanent and temporary, which is necessary to control a
MS in the MSCs coverage area. The VLR is commonly realized as an integral
part of the MSC, rather than a separate entity. The HLR database is used to store
permanent and semi-permanent subscriber data such as the location area (assum-
ing the MS is in a coverage area), and this data is used to locate an MS in the
event of a MS terminating call set-up. The AuC database contains the subscriber
authentication keys and the algorithm required to calculate the authentication pa-
rameters to be transferred to the HLR. The Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
database contains information on the MS and its capabilities. The IMSI (Interna-
tional Mobile Subscriber Identity) is used to interrogate the EIR.
These network components are interconnected through interfaces named by let-

ters from A to I with an exception for the air interface called Um. The three most
important interfaces are the Um interface, the interface between the BSC and BTS
(Abis) and the one between the BSS and the MSC (A). They use different signal-
ing protocols to convey information between the MS and the MSC.
15
2.2.2 Protocols Stack

The GSM protocols stack corresponds to the OSI reference model. Layers 1
and 2 of the GSM model correspond to the physical and link layers as defined by
the OSI model. Figure 2.4 shows the different protocol layers in the Um, A and
Abis interfaces.
Figure 2.4: GSM Protocols
The stacks in Figure 2.4 are implemented in hardware or software, depending

on the nature of the entity which resides on them. In order for different proto-
col developers to write inter-operable code, the European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI) has produced a set of specifications to follow when
implementing GSM protocols.
The physical layer (GSM-RF) specifies how data is transmitted from one entity
to another across the physical transport medium.
The link layer (LL) provides a link between the networking layers above it, and
the physical layer below it. It provides error detection and correction of packets
received from the physical layer. A modified LAPD (Link Access Protocol for the
ISDN D-channel) protocol, called LAPDm, is used over the Um interface. The
MTP (Message Transport Part) level 2 protocol of the SS7 protocol suite is used
over the A-interface.
16
2.2. GSM NETWORK
The similarity between the GSM protocol stack and the OSI model ends at the
link layer. Layer 3 of the GSM protocol stack does not correspond to the net-
work layer of the OSI model. GSM layer 3 is composed of 3 parts, which is
known as the message or signaling layer. It is used to set up and maintain voice
circuits between users of a mobile cellular network. It does this by managing ra-
dio resources, information about user whereabouts, and voice circuit information.
These operations are all specific to cellular radio networks because other networks
do not have to keep track of user whereabouts or movement of users from one cell
to another. The message layer in GSM is composed of three sub-layers. The Radio
Resource (RR) Management layer is in charge of establishing and maintaining a
stable uninterrupted communications path between the MSC and MS over which
signalling and user data can be conveyed. Handovers are part of the RR layers
responsibility. Most of the functions are controlled by the BSC, BTS, and MS,
though some are performed by the MSC (in particular for inter-MSC handovers.).
The RR’ layer is the part of the radio resource functionality which is managed
by the BTS. The Mobility Management (MM) layer is in charge of maintaining
the location data, in addition to the authentication and ciphering procedures. The
Communication Management (CM) layer consists of setting up calls at the users’
request. Its functions are divided in three: Call control, which manages the cir-
cuit oriented services, Supplementary services management, which allows mod-
ifications and checking of the supplementary services configuration, and Short
Message Services, which provides Point to Point short message services.
In order for these signaling protocols to be implemented over the air interface
in GSM, we will introduce the logical channels which represent the information
carried by the physical channels.
2.2.3 Channel Coding

To protect the signal from interferences we must add a number of bits for error
control. These bits are called redundancy bits. The GSM system uses convolu-
tional encoding to achieve this protection. The exact algorithms used differ for
speech and data services. The method used for speech blocks will be described
below.
Bit Composition of the Speech Signal Recall that the RPE-LPC Encoder pro-
duces a block of 260 bits every 20 ms. It was found (though testing) that some of
the 260 bits were more important when compared to others. Below is the compo-
sition of these 260 bits.
• Class Ia:50 bits (most sensitive to bit errors)
17
• Class Ib:132 bits (moderately sensitive to bit errors)
• Class II:78 bits (least sensitive to error)
Channel Coding As a result of some bits being more important than others,
GSM adds redundancy bits to each of the three Classes differently. The 50 Class
IA bits are encoded in a cyclic encoder (that adds 3 parity bits). The 132 Class
Ib bits (together with the 53 encoded Class IA bits and 4 trailing zero bits) are
encoded using convolutional encoding with rate 1/2 (that produce a new sequence
of 378 bits). Finally, the Class II bits are merely added to the result of the convolu-
tional encoder. The channel encoded bit sequence is now 456 bits long. Therefore,
each 20 ms burst produces 456 bits at a bit rate of 22.8 kbps. To further protect
against bit errors, the 456 bit sequence is then diagonally interleaved.
Interleaving Interleaving is the processes of rearranging the bits. Interleaving

allows the error correction algorithms to correct more of the errors that could have
occurred during transmission. By interleaving the code, there is less possibility
that a whole chuck of code can be lost.
The 456 bits output by the convolutional encoder are divided into 8 blocks of
57 bits.These eight blocks are shuffled to form eight new blocks. One shuffled
block of the current speech packet and another from the previous speech packet
are written into a normal burst.
2.2.4 Logical Channels

GSM distinguishes between physical channels (the time slot) and logical chan-
nels (the information carried by the physical channels). Several recurring time
slots on a carrier constitute a physical channel, which are used by different logical
channels to transfer information - both user data and signalling.
Traffic Channels
The GSM traffic channels are used to transfer information such as voice or data
at rates depending on the channel coding, and the type of traffic channel used.
The Full rate traffic channel (TCH/F) in GSM is used to convey voice or data
information in a circuit switched manner. A TCH/F is mapped on a time slot
every frame, thus allowing to transfer 114 bits of coded information every time
slot. The voice rate is about 13Kbps, as only the most important data is highly
coded, but circuit switched data information has a stronger channel coding which
allows a data rate of only 9.6Kbps. The Half rate traffic channel(TCH/H) can be
18
2.3. CIRCUIT SWITCH VERSUS PACKET SWITCH
used to transfer data information. It is mapped on a time slot every other frame,
and has half the data rate of TCH/F(4.8Kbps).
Control Channels
Control channels(Table 2.1) deal with network management messages and chan-
nel maintenance task. Any non-traffic communication between the BS and the MS
uses these channels. Three types of control channels exist which are either one or
two-way communication channels.
Table 2.1: GSM Control Channels

Type Control Channel
Frequency correction
Broadcast FCCH
Synchronisation
SCH
System information
BCCH
Paging
Common PCH
Random Access
RACH
Ressource Assignement
AGCH
Signalling procedure
Dedicated SDCCH
Measurements
SACCH
Time Critical msgs
FACCH
This table is just to give a general picture of GSM control channel but the details
inside is none of our interests in this RRM project thus it will not be discussed
further more.
2.3 Circuit switch Versus Packet switch

GSM is based on circuit switched system, where an end to end connection is
built by occupying a fixed channel during the whole call session, even during idle
19
periods. Circuit switch is suitable for constant bandwidth data flows, while it has
low efficiency in conveying data services with a bursting nature. Besides GSM
can only support a low data rate service like SMS.
In packet switched system, channels are allocated dynamically on demand, usu-

ally not end to end. Several users therefore can share one channel in time, and the
channel efficiency can be high when users send data in a burst behavior. The pur-
pose of GPRS is to provide compatibility to packet switched network like Internet
and supply advanced data services on existing GSM infrastructure.
In order to establish a comparison between GSM and GPRS, we will now focus
on the GPRS network, which uses the same physical layer and has many similar-
ities with GSM.
2.4 GPRS Network

With the rapid growth of wireless users, new data services and higher transmission
speed are on demand, which can not be satisfied by GSM network. Thus, GPRS,
which is based on GSM, came into being.
General Packet Radio Service(GPRS) is an enhancement of GSM system and

established on the platform of GSM. It is also known as the 2.5 Generation and
a step toward the 3rd Generation (3G). Furthermore interworking specifications
have been developed between ANSI/ISA-136 and GSM platforms to get a logical
extension of the overall scheme.
Unlike GSM that was designed for voice services and requires a circuit switch-
ing transmission mode, GPRS provides a packet switching transmission mode.
This feature allows an easy adoption to the bursty traffic generated by Internet
applications like e-mail, WWW and FTP. In comparison with 9.6kbps data trans-
mission rate of GSM, GPRS offers a maximum theoretical data transmission rate
of 172.4kbps. Another important goal of the technology is to make it possible
for GSM license holders to share physical resources on a dynamic, flexible basis
between packet data services and other GSM services.
As a consequence, GPRS shares GSM frequency bands with telephone and

circuit-switched data traffic, and makes use of many properties of the physical
layer of the original GSM system most importantly the TDMA frame structure,
modulation technique(GMSK) and structure of GSM time slots. GPRS provides
20
2.4. GPRS NETWORK
synchronous and asynchronous interworking with X.25 networks, IP networks

and other GPRS networks. The different types of bearer services described within
GPRS are Point-To-Point (PTP) and Point-To-Multipoint (PTM). An example of
PTP is the access to the Internet, whereas, PTM caters Traffic Information.
The increase of speed provided by Packet Switched (PS) networks as GPRS

enlarged the amount of data services on mobile phones. The dynamic use of
multiple time slots provided a way of not wasting resources and the packet archi-
tecture allowed users to connect to IP services such as the web (e-mail, ftp and
http protocols). The possibility of having a PTM connection also allowed more
services such as multiuser video-conferences or chatting.
2.4.1 Architecture
GPRS attempts to reuse the existing GSM platform as much as possible, but
in order to build a packet based mobile network, some network elements, inter-
faces and protocols that handle packet data are required. Figure 2.5 describes the
GSM/GPRS network which will more detailed in the following.
21
Figure 2.5: GPRS Network
22
2.4. GPRS NETWORK
GPRS introduces a minimum impact on the BSS infrastructure and no new

physical radio interface. The following elements are implemented on the net-
work: on the BSS side, Packet Control Unit Support Nodes (PCUSN), on the core
network side, Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN), Gateway GPRS Support
Nodes (GGSN) and SS7/IP Gateways (SIG).
PCUSN The PCUSN is a stand-alone node in the BSS whose main purpose is
to complement BSCs with the specific packet processing of GPRS. It is respon-
sible for the capacity on demand feature. It decides which radio resources are
dynamically allocated to packet switched and circuit switched use. The BSC then
manages the radio resources allocated for circuit switched use, while the PCUSN
manages radio resources for the GPRS traffic itself. Its primary function is to
provide the interworking function between the radio interface (synchronous con-
nection) and the packet network Gb interface (asynchronous and connectionless).
SGSN/SIG The main functions of the SGSN are to detect GPRS MSs in its
service area, to perform mobility management, to implement authentication pro-
cedures and to send/receive data packets to/from the MS. It requests location in-
formation from the HLR through the Gr interface. These messages are routed
through the SIG, which provides the interworking between GPRS nodes in an IP
network and GSM nodes in a signalling system 7 (SS7) network.
GGSN The GGSN provides the point of interconnection with external Pub-
lic Data Networks (PDN) through the Gi interface. It stores routing informa-
tion for attached GPRS users and requests location information for mobile ter-
minated data packet from the HLR (this is accomplished transparently through
the SGSN). Its primary functions are Packet Routing and Transfer (Routing, Tun-
nelling,Encapsulation, Compression, etc.).
In order to allow those elements to communicate, some specific protocols are

implemented.
2.4.2 Protocols Stack

In the GPRS Protocol Stack, the focus will be in the air interface and lower
layers, which can be observed on Figure 2.6.
23
Figure 2.6: GPRS Protocols Stack
LLC (Logical Link Control) The LLC layer is responsible for handling the
virtual connection between the SGSN and the GPRS MS and exists even when
no physical resources are available between the two. It supports peer-to-peer data
transfer between the SGSN and the MS.
When the LLC packet arrives at the BSS (PCUSN), it is forwarded to the MS.
There the Radio Link Control (RLC) is responsible for efficient use of the physi-
cal link on the air interface and the MAC(Medium Access Control) for handling
access to the physical link.
RLC (Radio Link Control) The RLC is responsible for segmentation and re-
assembly of the LLC packets. The segmentation results in RLC blocks. Con-
trol information is added to each RLC block to allow Backward Error Correction
(BEC). The size of these segments is such that when applying the coding schemes,
they precisely fit on four normal bursts (= radio block). With BEC, both acknowl-
edge and unacknowledged mode are possible.
As several subscribers can be multiplexed on one physical channel, each con-

nection has to be (temporarily) uniquely identified. These connections are referred
to as Temporary Block Flows (TBF). A TBF is a physical connection between the
mobile station and the PCUSN. The TBF is maintained only for the duration of
the data transfer. The TBF is identified by a Temporary Flow Identifier (TFI). The
TFI is added to the RLC block.
24
2.4. GPRS NETWORK
MAC (Medium Access Control) The MAC layer handles procedures related
to common transmission resource management. The layer allows point-to-point
transfer of signaling and user data within a cell. The medium access can be real-
ized by fixed and dynamic allocation. In MAC header, Uplink State Flag(USF) is
used as identifier.
GSM-RF This layer is based on the GSM specification, which describes the
physical characteristics of the air interface. While the RLC/MAC layer is imple-
mented in the PCUSN, the GSM-RF layer is located in the BTS.
BSSGP (BSS GPRS Protocol) This layer is responsible for the transport of
routing and QoS information between PCUSN and SGSN. It provides a connec-
tionless link with unconfirmed data transfer between BSS and SGSN. It acts as an
interface between LLC frames and the RLC/MAC blocks in the BSS, and as an
interface between the RLC/MAC derived information and the LLC frames in the
SGSN.
Frame Relay/Network Service This layer provides a packet type commutation

between SGSN and BSS.
2.4.3 Coding Schemes and Data Unit

An important feature of GPRS is the presence of four coding schemes (CS-x)
with different levels of resistance to transmission problems. So the throughput
will be determined by the choice among the four coding schemes according to the
changes in the channel conditions.The most important variables that affect this
choice are the channel quality as measured by carrier to interference ratio(C/I)
and the packet size.
Among the 4 coding schemes, CS-1 has the lowest coding rate, it is also the
most robust coding scheme. Therefore, CS-1 is used for all control messages.
CS-2 and CS-3 have higher code rate and more information bits. CS-4 is the most
data efficient coding scheme and is the most vulnerable to channel impairment.
The characteristics of each type are in the following Table 2.2:
25
Table 2.2: GPRS Coding Schemes

CHANNEL CODING CS-1 CS-2 CS-3 CS-4
SCHEMES
Code Rate 1/2 2/3 3/4 1
Data Rate (kb/s) 9.05 13.4 15.6 21.4
Maximum Data Speed 72.4(kb/s) 107.2(kb/s) 124.8(kb/s) 171.2(kb/s)
with 8 TS
Now we can depicted the whole GPRS data unit mapping process from PDU to
time slot in Fig2.7.
26
2.4. GPRS NETWORK
Figure 2.7: GPRS Data Unit
27
2.4.4 Logical Channels

Traffic Channels
Packet Data Traffic Channel (PDTCH) This channel is allocated for user data
transfer. It is temporarily dedicated to one mobile station. In the multislot oper-
ation, a MS may use multiple PDTCHs in parallel for individual packet transfer.
All PDTCHs are uni-directional: PDTCH/U for UpLink Transfers and PDTCH/D
for DownLink. One PDTCH is mapped onto one physical channel. Up to eight
PDTCHs with different time slots but with the same frequency parameters may be
allocated to one MS at the same time.
Control Channels
Packet Common Control Channel(PCCCH) This channel is used for a com-
mon control signalling required to initiate packet transfer. PCCCH is mapped on
one or several physical channels according to a 51 or 52 multi frame.
Four different channels are defined: PRACH (random access used by the MS to
access the network), PPCH (paging used to page a MS belonging to a given paging
group), PAGCH (Access Grant used to assign resources to a MS during the packet
transfer establishment phase) and PNCH (used to send a PTM-M notification to a
group of MSs).
Packet Broadcast Control Channel (PBCCH) This channel is used to broad-

cast System Information. Alternatively, the BCCH of GSM can be used. The
PBCCH is mapped on one or several physical channels.
Packet Associated Control Channel (PACCH) This channel conveys signal-

ing information related to a given MS. It is used to send signaling associated to a
packet transfer and resource assignment. PACCH shares resources with PDTCHs
that are currently assigned to a MS. Moreover a MS that is currently involved in
packet transfer can be paged for circuit switched services on this channel. PACCH
is a bi-directional nature, it is dynamically allocated (on the block basis of the
same physical channel as carrying PDTCHs or both on the UpLink and the Down-
Link regardless on whether the corresponding PDTCH assignment is for UpLink
or DownLink).
Packet Timing advance Control Channel (PTCCH) PTCCH/U (UpLink) is

used to transmit access burst to allow estimation of the timing advance for a MS.
28
2.5. COMPARISON BETWEEN GSM AND GPRS
PTCCH/D (DownLink) is used to transmit timing advance updates for several

MSs.
2.5 Comparison Between GSM and GPRS

The differences between GSM and GPRS in the fields of architecture, proto-
col stack, coding scheme and logical channel have been analyzed in the previous
section. The general overview of comparison is shown in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3: Comparison of GSM and GPRS

GSM GPRS
Transmission Circuit Switch Packet Switch
Maximum Trans- 9.6kbps 172.4kbps(data)
mission Rate
Coding Scheme unique CS-x(x=1,2,3,4)
Access Time Long Short
Charging duration-based volume-
based(always
”On” mode)
Application Sup- Limited(Large Robust(Small
port volumes) volumes)
• GSM
- Circuit switched transmission.
- Transmission rate per user: 13.6kbps or 9.6kbps.
- Duration-based charging.
• GPRS
- Packet switched transmission.
- Transmission rate per user: up to 172.4kbps
(Multiple time-slot can be integrated)
- Different coding schemes with GSM.
- Volume-based charging(always ”On” mode).
Although the way of transmission in GSM(CS) and GPRS(PS) are different,

they use the same air interface to transmit information, which brings about the
problem of how to assign the limited radio resource between GSM and GPRS
without decreasing the quality of voice. In the next chapter, the Radio Resource
Management(RRM) will be analyzed in detail.
29
Chapter 3
Radio Resource Management
In this chapter we present the play scenarios of existing RRM strategies first,
and then describe in more detail the Best Effort policy and our proposed RRM
strategy, to investigate how we can improve the GSM/GPRS system performance
comparing to Best Effort.
3.1 Introduction
Radio Resource Management is the function responsible for the establishment,
the maintaining, and the release of voice calls (CS) or data transmission (PS). The
establishment of connections is about allocating resources or blocking the incom-
ing CS or PS calls if necessary. Maintaining a connection requires dealing with
handovers and power control, but also reassignment of resources and transmission
scheduling for GPRS.
3.1.1 Dedicated channels

It is possible to dedicate resources either for GSM or GPRS. Dedicated PDCH
for example will only be used for GPRS transfers, thus allowing a smaller GPRS
blocking rate in case the voice has the highest priority.
3.1.2 GSM transmission establishment

Concerning GSM voice calls, resource allocation is quite simple as a CS con-
nection only requires one TS in both uplink and downlink. In the case of unavail-
able resources, the GSM call is simply blocked, meaning that the call will not
succeed. In a network that support GPRS, and in the case no free time slots are
30
3.1. INTRODUCTION
available, resources can be taken from existing GPRS transmissions. This process
is called preemption.
3.1.3 GPRS transmission establishment

For GPRS connections, the procedure of resource allocation is more compli-
cated as multiple time slots can be allocated to the same call, and a time slot
can be used by more than one GPRS user. This allocation process is called TBF
(Temporary Block Flow) assignment.
A TBF, associated with one GPRS transmission, corresponds to a certain amount

of time slots that this transmission will be able to use. The TBF for uplink and
downlink are different and independent, and different identifiers are used to com-
municate to the mobile in which frames it is allowed to upload or download its
blocks.
Downlink: In downlink, a TBF is assigned a Temporary Flow Identity number

(TFI), and at the establishment of a connection, the TBF is communicated to the
mobile with its TFI. During the connection, the mobile will check for its TFI in the
assigned TS to be able to download the corresponding blocks. The TFI is a 5 bit
number, thus 32 different TFI numbers can be assigned. If more than one session
have the same TFI, in the case where there are more than 32 active sessions, they
cannot share the same TS.
Uplink: Two different strategies can be used to assign resources in uplink. The
Fixed Resource Allocation (FRA) strategy will send the TBF to the mobile at the
establishment of a connection with directions on when it is able to send blocks
on the given time slots. The Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA) strategy will
send the TBF information to the mobile with an identifier called Uplink State Flag
(USF). The mobile will then listen to its allocated downlink TS and checks there
for its USF to know when it is allowed to send its uplink blocks.
3.1.4 GSM call maintaining

In addition to handovers which is the RRM part handled by the MSC, GSM
calls can be dropped during a communication, given certain conditions such as a
bad propagation leading to loss of frames and unacceptable voice communication.
It is also possible to reassign GSM resources if we want to free a particular time
slot (intra-cell handover). The policy for dropping and intra-cell handover is part
of the RRM strategy.
31
CHAPTER 3. RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
3.1.5 GPRS call maintaining

For GPRS, the equivalent of handovers are routing area update, when mov-
ing from an SGSN region to another or from a BSS to another. The part of call
maintaining that interest us and happens in the BSS is the scheduling procedure.
Scheduling is the part of RRM which chooses how to share multiplexed TS and
when to transmit the blocks in the TBF. TBF reassignment can also take place, (if
we want to upgrade or downgrade a GPRS session) as well as dropping according
to criteria that are also defined in the RRM strategy.
3.2 ”Best effort” strategy

The RRM strategy called ”best effort” for GPRS is the one currently used by
mobile operators and does not take QoS or propagation conditions into account
for either choosing the resources to allocate or schedule the transmission of RLC
blocks. It then considers all GPRS users equally and try to share the available
bandwith fairly between all sessions. Voice GSM users have the absolute priority,
and when no resources are available, GPRS users can be downgraded to free a
time slot used by the voice user (preemption). As we only consider downlink in
the simulation, we will describe the downlink strategy assumed to be ”best effort”.
3.2.1 Resource allocation

GSM users are allocated the first available time slot starting from the first TRX.
If no time slot is available at the time of an incoming voice call, this call will be
allowed to preempt a GPRS time slot, thus downgrading all GPRS users multi-
plexed in this TS. The TS selected for preemption will be the first GPRS time slot
starting from the first TRX. In the extreme case where all TS are already taken by
voice calls, the incoming GSM call will be blocked.
For GPRS users requiring K channels (depending only on the capacity of the
mobile as QoS is not considered), a TRX will be chosen which will be the last
least-loaded one in terms of number of TBF and GSM calls assigned. In this
TRX, the K least loaded time slots will be selected and if less than K TS are
available, the maximum amount possible will be allocated. The selection of Time
Slots to be allocated for the TBF is illustrated in Figure 3.1.
32
3.2. ”BEST EFFORT” STRATEGY
Figure 3.1: Time Slot selection in best effort
If no TS is available (taken by voice or filled by TBFs), the GPRS request will

be queued in the access queue, which is a First In First Out (FIFO). If the queue
is filled, the incoming GPRS request will be blocked. The resource allocation
strategies described above for ”best effort” are shown in figure 3.2.
33
Figure 3.2: Resource request
3.2.2 Resource reassignment

During transmission, if a TBF possesses less than K channels due to voice
preemption or lack of resources, a TBF assignment can be done to reassign some
TS and upgrade the throughput.
When resources become free after a congestion period, the priority of TBF
assignment goes first to the TBFs having the least resources to improve the user
throughput and release resources more rapidly and then to the access queue to
decrease access delay and GPRS blocking rate.
3.2.3 Scheduling
Once a GPRS call has been allocated resources, a scheduling technique is used
to choose blocks that has to be sent in TS holding multiple TBF (multiplexed time
slots). In the ”best effort” strategy, in order to send blocks fairly in multiplexed
time slots, the queue used is a Round Robin queue as illustrated in Figure 3.3,
meaning that blocks will be sent from a different TBF every block period.
34
3.3. PROPOSED OPTIMIZED RRM STRATEGY
Figure 3.3: Round-Robin scheduling
3.3 Proposed optimized RRM strategy

The proposed RRM strategy is based on a grading system which differentiate
GPRS transmissions based on parameters that are chosen according to the de-
sired performance value to be optimized, such as throughput or access delay. It
then does not consider GPRS sessions equally as in best effort, but give access
priority and share the available resources according to the assigned grade. GSM
voice calls still have the priority over GPRS transmissions, and preemption is thus
considered on all shared TS.
In the simulated scenario, the grading is based on the Carrier to Interference ra-
tio (C/I). The main purpose to choose C/I is to try to improve the system through-
put. Since the link adaptation is employed, the throughput is always considered
optimized for a chosen CS-x, which is elected according to C/I. In the case we
give priority to high C/I values, the throughput per cell should increase and re-
sources should be released more rapidly, thus decreasing the access delay and the
blocking rate.
The grading could be based on other parameters such as QoS. The QoS prece-
dence and required access delay could be used for grading a request in the access
queue, thus giving access priority corresponding to the requirements. Moreover,
35
the QoS mean and peak throughput classes (in addition of precedence and C/I)
could be used to compute grades for resource allocation and scheduling.
3.3.1 Resource Allocation

The access of resources is the same as Best Effort for GSM voice, whereas the
difference lies in GPRS strategy. The GPRS data is assigned a grade that equals
to C/I in our simulation (which is obtained according to the propagation channel)
but that could be based on any parameters as described above.
Access Queue If no free TS is available for GPRS data, the incoming request
will be put into the access queue. The principle for the resource allocation is
FIFO with priority, where the priority is based on the grading(G) of GPRS data
mentioned before. If the grades of the requests are different in the access queue,
the highest one will get the available TS first. When several requests have the
same grade, FIFO strategy will be applied. Moreover, when the access queue is
filled, the request with smallest grade is blocked instead of blocking the incoming
request.
Allocation As the scheduling is based on allocating a certain percentage of TS

according to the grade, optimizing the allocation means choosing the TRX and TS
giving the best possible throughput.
Below a significant example is explained. The next request waiting in the queue
can be allocated in one of the two TRXs that are occupied as in the figure:
36
3.3. PROPOSED OPTIMIZED RRM STRATEGY
Figure 3.4: RRM Allocation Strategy
Each TS has a grade(T SG ) calculated as the sum of all the TBF grades assigned
to this TS. The possible % of a TS utilization for an incoming TBF is calculated
by the following expression:
GincomingT BF
T Savailable = P (3.1)
T SG + GincomingT BF
In this example, the grade of the first request waiting in the access queue is
12. For the first TRX, there are 6 TSs allocated for GSM, and only one is free.
The TS utilization of this TRX by this TBF would be 1TS. In the second TRX,
the TS utilization would be 0.93TS. The calculation of the T SG is shown in the
picture. Although the second TRX has more TSs available to be used, the actual
TS utilization would only be 0.93TS, which is less than for the first TRX. In this
case, the first TRX is selected.
3.3.2 Scheduling
In the case of multiple TBFs occupying one TS, as mentioned before, the
scheduling of the optimized RRM strategy is also based on the grading which,
in our simulation, depends on the C/I in the propagation channel. The probability
for each TBF in the same TS to use the assigned resource is calculated from its
37
grade(G) divided by the sum of all TBFs grades in this TS(T SG ).

G
G= P (3.2)
T SG
For example, there are 3 TBFs in one TS. The grades are 3,1 and 6 respectively.
Therefore, the possibility for the three TBFs to obtain the TS is 30%, 10% and
60%, which guarantees the highest graded TBF will have most time to get TS to
transmit data.
3.4 RRM assumptions and parameters used in Sim-

ulation
Several assumptions were taken in the simulation regarding to the RRM strate-
gies. In order to simplify the TBF assignment process, it is considered that each
TS can be occupied by 32 different TBFs regardless of their TFI. The access queue
size has been chosen to be of 7 sessions, which is a compromise in high loading
conditions between the access delay and the blocking probability. We considered
a GPRS dropping criteria on the number of consecutive retransmission of an RLC
block. When this number reaches a certain threshold of 5, the GPRS session will
be dropped (which would correspond to a packet drop in real networks). Further-
more, as we simplified the propagation model (only one Carrier to Interference
ratio per session), and do not consider GSM errors, no GSM dropping criteria has
been used for the simulation.
In the next chapter the simulation platform used to test and compare the two
explained RRM strategies is described. The output results will be analyzed and
compared to validate the proposed optimized algorithm.
38
Chapter 4
Simulation Model of RRM
In this section, the network simulator and simulation assumptions are presented.
The simulator is a time-driven network level simulator based on events,where the
basic simulation time step is 20ms (1 RLC block time of GPRS), but if events
come between two time steps the simulation will jump at that time before going
to the next block (event-based simulation). Only the downlink traffic of 1 cell is
investigated and simulated. Hence the simulation scenario was limited to Base-
Station and Mobile-Stations and up till RLC layer.
Since the purpose of this RRM algorithm is to improve GPRS performance and
only take GSM voice call parameters as its limitation, the role of GSM voice call
was limited to occupy some radio resources. In this case, blocking rate was the
only service quality identifier of GSM voice and call dropping and handover was
not in our consideration. Therefore the transmission time step was fixed to 20ms
(1 RLC block time of GPRS, made up of 4 TDMA frames).
4.1 Cellular Network Assumptions

The simulations were made in a typical hexagonal micro cell environment. The
cell was assigned 4 TRXs with 32 TSs, four of which are for signaling (one in each
TRX) and the rest 28 traffic channels are shared between voice and data traffic.
Since control channels are not implemented and the signaling delay is considered
insignificant compared to the delay caused by access queuing, the access delay, as
a GPRS performance indicator, is considered the same as access queuing delay.
Figure4.1 shows the channel with the radio resources available in a medium
capacity cell without applying any partition for dedicated channels for voice or
data.
39
CHAPTER 4. SIMULATION MODEL OF RRM
Figure 4.1: Radio Resources
According to the mobility, a Typical Urban scenario with mobile user speed
of 3Km/h (TU3)[?] was assumed, since it is a typical case for pedestrian user.
The simulated mobiles are uniformly distributed in the cell and their movement is
reduced to a small area around their initial position when setting up a voice call
or data transmission session, so no mobility tracking was simulated.
All the mobiles are capable of using at most 4 TSs in one frame. Also all the
mobiles are in the active state to receive a GPRS data transmission.
The parameters from general cellular assumptions are presented in Table 4.1.
40
4.2. RADIO CHANNEL MODEL
Table 4.1: General Cellular Assumptions

Parameter Name VALUE
Simulation Duration 4 hours
Simulation Time Step 20ms
RADIO CELL
Power Control No
Mobility Tracking No
Hand-Over No
Frequency Hopping Ideal Random Hopping
Reuse Pattern 1/3
TRXs 4 (32 TSs)
Number of signaling channels 4
Number of traffic channels 28
Number of Mobile Nodes 30
PARAMETERS FOR GPRS TERMINAL
Multi-slot capacity of Mobile 4TSs
4.2 Radio Channel Model

In a GPRS system, block error rate(BLER) in its air interface is a key param-
eter to evaluate transmission quality and directly effects on RRM strategies(e.g.
retransmission in upper layers). Given a certain GPRS coding scheme, BLER
mainly depends on the C/I ratio(The ratio between a desired signal and the in-
terference signal is described as C/I), which is decided by several aspects in the
propagation channel. These aspects are path loss, shadowing effect, multi-path
fading (fast fading), and co-channel interference, as described in Chapter 2.
Due to the complexity of a cellular system, in most case link level and net-
work level simulators make up of a entire simulator but are studied and operated
separately. A link level simulator generate a point-to-point MS-BSS transmission
process and the result (BER, BLER, etc) will be included in the network level
simulator. Since the mapping curves from C/I to BLER in given coding schemes
and propagation models have already been validated in the link level simulation in
[?], we propose a C/I generation model that includes the mapping process in our
network level simulator. An overall picture of our radio channel model is depicted
in Figure 4.2.
41
Figure 4.2: Radio Channel Model
4.2.1 C/I Generation Model

We propose a TU3 (Typical Urban, 3 km/h) model as the propagation environ-
ment to generate C/I.
Path Loss
In free space, the path loss is proportional to the distance square [?]. In an urban
area, it is typically proportional to r−3.5 . The detailed locations and movements
of each mobile were not modelled, instead each user was assigned a random ini-
tial distance from BTS according to their spatial distribution function. Assume
MS were evenly distributed in the hexagonal cell, we got the distance Probability
Density Function(PDF):
f (r) = kr, 15m < r < 500m (4.1)
where r is the distance between MS and BTS and k is a coefficient after normal-
ization.
Shadowing
Shadowing or slow fading can be seen as the gradual changes of the local mean
received power for a MS, where the local mean power represent the average over
a few tens of wavelengths [?]. The shadowing effect can be described by a log-
42
normal distribution(Equation 4.2) [?].

1 (ln a − µ)2
f (a) = √ exp[− ] (4.2)
2πδ 2 a 2δ 2
a: fading coefficient, with E(ln a) = µ and V ar(ln a) = δ
In the situation of TU3, where the speed of the mobile is slow (3km/h), the
effect of shadowing causes the signal attenuation nearly flat during approximate
1000 RLC blocks, where the wavelength equals to 30cm and 1 RLC block lasts
20ms. In this case the fading level of shadowing was fixed to one value during
one session in the proposed simulator.
Multi-path fading
In corresponding to the slow fading, the multi-path fading is defined as fast
fading. It can be described as a Rician or Rayleigh distribution [?]. In the former
case, there is a significant Line of Sight(LOS) between BS and MN; while if no
LOS exists, it is referred to the latter case. The Probability Density Function(PDF)
of Rayleigh distribution is expressed as:
r r2
f (r) = exp(− ) (4.3)
σ2 2σ 2
The fast fading characterizes the fast variation of the signal envelop over a short
distance of a few wavelengths or over short time durations of seconds [?]. In
TU3 situation, the variation of the signal changes relatively slow, nearly 50 RLC
blocks unchanged . Detailed analysis on the time correlation and frequency cor-
relation of multipath fading is presented in Appendix A. It was proposed that
given a frequency hopping distance greater than 500kHz every TDMA frame [Ref
Marco](separations of 600to 800 KHz are reported to be adequate [?]), the mul-
tipath fading levels for consecutive RLC blocks will be fully uncorrelated, that
means only random block error need to be simulated.
In reference [?], fast fading effect has been included in the proposed CIR-BLER
mapping tables and mean BLERs during one session were given. Hereby only
pathloss and shadowing need to be implemented in proposed simulator.
Co-channel Interference
We consider Co-channel interference as the predominant aspect of C/I, which
includes the 6 interferes from the first tier(6 adjacent cells with the same fre-
quency), and neglects all other interferers. This model is depicted in Fig 4.3.
43
Figure 4.3: Radio Channel Model
Assume the same transmitted power for both desired and interference signal,
based on pathloss, the CIR is
1
CIR =
2(Ru − 1)−3.5
+ (Ru − 0.5)−3.5
+ (Ru + 0.5)−3.5 + (Ru + 1)−3.5 + Ru−3.5
(4.4)
[?] Where Ru=D/r, D: reuse distance, r: MS-BTS distance.
Conclusion
The situation of propagation simulation is under TU3 model, where the fast
fading plays a dominant role in the effect of propagation channel, given the slow
speed of the mobile. Since the values of BLER are taken from the mapping ta-
ble in [?], where the multi-path fading has already been applied, and shadowing
level during one session will keep almost constant, the path loss effect will play a
predominant role in deciding the C/I value for each session.
When considering different users with the same distance from BTS, with the
same path-loss effects, log-normal fading can be considered as a spatial variation
among different users with the same distance from the BTS. Assumed the received
desired signal and the interferers (which have experienced path-loss) face to in-
dependent log-normal distributed stochastic variations, which can be presented in
dB as Equation 4.5.
X
C/I = DesiredSignal − Interf eres (4.5)
44
and both of the components on right side follow normal distribution, C/I follows
a normal distribution N (µ, δ)(since the sum of independent normal distribution is
still a normal distribution), so the C/I is also a log-normal distribution. The mean
value was calculated from path-loss and the standard deviation was set to 7dB.
Finally, the whole propagation model can be presented as the diagram in Figure
4.4, in which the average BLER of a user can be calculated.
Figure 4.4: Propagation Model Diagram
When we link the user distribution and the corresponding CIR mean value from
path-loss(before imposing log-normal fading), the PDF of mean CIR in a cell can
be shown in Fig 4.5.
45
Figure 4.5: Distribution of CIR in a cell
In actual implementation, we accumulated this PDF on 1 dB step, and the prob-

abilities above 30 dB were merged since form 30 dB all the coding schemes have
already achieved their maximum throughput and the increase of C/I will not bring
further beneficial, as shown in Fig ??.
All the assumed propagation settings are listed in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2: Propagation Channel Parameters

Reuse Pattern 1/3
Co-channel Interferers 6, first tier
Cell Radius 500m
Path-loss exponent 3.5
Minimum MS-BTS distance 15m
Log-normal fading STD 7dB
Frequency Hopping Ideal Random Hopping
After C/I for each session was generated, the next step is to map it to BLER
according to the mapping table[?] under a selected coding scheme. The process
46
to select the most appropriate coding scheme is referred to as link adaption (LA).
We have assumed an ideal case where we can measure or estimate the C/I of
each user before the real data transmission start, so we are able to select a coding
scheme to achieve the maximum session throughput based on figure 4.6 [?] .
Figure 4.6: Throughput of Different Codes
Finally, the proposed LA policy is presented in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3: Proposed Coding Selection

CIR Selected Code
≤ 5dB CS1
6∼ 9dB CS2
10∼ 16dB CS3
≥ 17dB CS4
47
4.3 Traffic Model

The GSM/GPRS network serving both circuit-switched voice and packet-switched
data is the focus of attention.
The Traffic Models are defined to characterize the behavior of the users in a
cellular system. So the time variation of traffic is studied, both for voice and
GPRS data. Although GPRS has a wide range of applications and its usage is
increasing, currently the presence of GSM voice service is much higher than data,
so their representative probabilities are assumed over the global traffic load, e.g.
the 70% voice traffic and 30% data load [?]. This values can be varied later on in
the simulation to evaluate the results with different traffic load probabilities.
The term of session is referred to both voice and data transmission. The session
is defined from the moment when an event arrives to the BSS until the transmis-
sion is finished, such as for voice the end time is reached or for GPRS all the
RLC blocks have been sent to a specific Mobile Node or in the worse case when
this event has been blocked or dropped. For GPRS data, a session consists of a
number of information bits,corresponding to 1 TBF, simplifying the hierarchical
layers for GPRS data.
The arrival and duration of sessions are statistically distributed depending on

specific parameters for each type of service. These events are represented in a
simple way in the following figure (Fig.4.7)
Moreover each generation session is associated with one MN using uniform dis-
tribution. One MN representing only a propagation condition at a specific distance
from the BS, it is considered to be able to accept as many sessions as possible. It
can correspond to the situation with some real mobiles being at the same distance
but with different shadowing factor, which is calculated at the beginning of the
session.
48
4.3. TRAFFIC MODEL
Figure 4.7: Mixture of Voice and Data Traffic
4.3.1 GSM Voice Call

The voice service is delimited by means of the following parameters[?]:
• arrival time. The number of events arriving in one radio cell is described
as a Poisson distribution and it requires the definition of the mean arrival
rate,λGSM . It models the number of random occurrences of voice calls
(N(t))in a specified unit of time. The probability that the variable N(t)
reaches a value n is given by the formula:
(λGSM t)n e−λGSM t

f (N (t) = n) = (4.6)
n!
It is assumed that the inter-arrival times are independent and identically

distributed according to an exponential distribution[?].
• holding time, call average duration. It is defined as an exponential distribu-

tion, and represented with the mean holding time, 1/µGSM .
The probability density function of the exponential distribution is (parame-
ter µv >0):
f (t) = µGSM e−µGSM t , t >= 0 (4.7)
4.3.2 GPRS Data Session

Unlike the GSM voice, the data traffic is more difficult to model due to the
application and the bursty nature. According to the application, the traffic data
can be mainly WWW-browsing and e-mail, FTP, WAP, and other applications[?].
49
However, this aproach to the higher level is not necessary since the session
is assumed to be composed by a number of bits whose size can be calculated
according to a certain distribution function.
As it was seen for GSM calls, a traffic model consists of two parts: the arrival
process and the activity phase.
• The arrival process is described most frequently with the Poisson function
which counts the number of events coming within a certain time period.
The mean arrival rate per session,λGP RS is specified and assigned a value.
As it was defined for GSM calls, an exponential distribution for the inter-
arrival time process is used to determine the exact time when an GPRS event
arrives within the simulation time.
• For the activity phase, the duration of the session is characterized with
the number of bits transmitted and calculated by means of the geometric
process specified below. Then, according to the number of bits obtained
and the coding scheme specified, the number of RLC blocks is carried out
(Fig.4.8). The testing of the following distribution function will be carried
out in Chapter 5.
The Geometric distribution is characterized as follows (parameter 0<p<1)[?]:
The probability density function:
p(x) = p(1 − p)x−1 , x = 1, 2, .. (4.8)
The variable x is referred to the number of bits, and this distribution is used
first because it is simpler to model.
50
4.3. TRAFFIC MODEL
Figure 4.8: GPRS Session
Under those traffic conditions, the simulator is implemented, and the values
of these parameters will be specified.This traffic generation for voice and data is
shown in Fig.4.9.
Figure 4.9: Traffic Generation
4.3.3 Mapping of the traffic load

In the analysis of the results, the view of the traffic load is useful to mea-
sure the capacity of the network. For GSM voice call, the traffic load is defined
as the measurement of channel time utilization, i.e. the average channel occu-
pancy (Erlang=call-hour/hour).It is expressed by means of the average arrival rate
51
(λGSM ) and the average holding time (1/µGSM ), where Aof f −GSM is called the
offered traffic for voice.
1
Aof f −GSM = λGSM ∗ (4.9)
µGSM
For GPRS, the offered load (Aof f −GP RS ) is calculated with the arrival rate
(λGP RS ), and the mean holding time (1/µGP RS ), which is estimated by means
of average values of the session size and the data rate in coding scheme . The
session size (number of bits per session) is obtained with the previous distribution
function and together with the coding scheme selected in the propagation model,
the number of RLC blocks is determined. The mean holding time is calculated in
the following equation:
meansessionsize
1/µGP RS = (4.10)
meandatarate
The overall offered load is simply carried out by adding the voice offered load
to the data offered load [?] :
Aof f = Aof f −GSM + Aof f −GP RS (4.11)
This mapping from the traffic load to the traffic parameters (λGSM , 1/µGSM ,
λGP RS , session size) is shown as follows in Fig.4.10:
Figure 4.10: TrafficBlock
52
4.4. RLC/MAC FUNCTIONALITIES
Table 4.4: Traffic Model Parameters

TRAFFIC MODEL IDENTIFIERS VALUES
VOICE TRAFFIC
arrival rate,λGSM λGSM =Aof f −GSM *µGSM )
mean holding time, 1/µGSM 120 s
PACKET TRAFFIC
arrival rate,λGP RS λGP RS =Aof f −GP RS *µGP RS )
session size
Geometric:p 0<p<1
Therefore, in the simulation the input parameters the user can introduce linked
to the traffic model are the traffic load for both voice and data, the mean holding
time for call voice, and the probability for the distribution function in the session
size (See Table 4.4):
4.4 RLC/MAC Functionalities

4.4.1 TBF establishment
TBF establishment’s signaling process is not simulated in the model as nor
Uplink nor Control Channels are simulated. As soon as the BSS has decided to
assign a TBF, the first data block is being transmitted at the following time step.
4.4.2 ARQ
In order to ensure reliable, verified, error-free delivery of data in the presence
of different propagation conditions, the simulated RLC layer is working in the
acknowledged mode so that automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes can be used
to synchronize and acknowledge the transmission of data between the base station
and the mobile node.
As an ARQ protocol, Selective Repeat protocol is used in the simulation. We

assume ACKs/NACKs are sent by the MS on the control channel PACCH (thus
correctly received by the BTS) for each correct/erroneous block. The reception
of a NACK triggers the retransmission of the erroneously received block and the
reception of an ACK updates the transmitter window. Because we assume the
signalling channels are error free, the choice of the window has no importance.
53
This ARQ protocol insures a good use of the channel capacity as only erroneous
blocks are retransmitted.
4.4.3 MAC layer

As uplink is not simulated in this model, the MAC functionalities against con-
tention are not to be taken into account.
4.5 Simulator structure and basic description

Figure 4.11 is a basic picture of the object oriented simulator we developed in
order to compare the two different RRM strategies (”best effort” and optimized
RRM). It is an event based simulation, which means that the time step is not fixed
as incoming sessions can be arriving anytime. Below are described the different
objects and how they are used in the simulation process.
Figure 4.11: Overview of the simulator’s objects
4.5.1 Description of the different objects

The MS object is the description of a propagation condition associated with
a certain location. The propagation values (CIR,BLER) are generated initially
according to the earlier described propagation model. We consider that it can
accept more than one session, as it only represents a propagation condition (uplink
is not considered).
54
4.5. SIMULATOR STRUCTURE AND BASIC DESCRIPTION
The traffic model object generates all traffic before the simulation start accord-
ing to the earlier described model. It links a generated session with a mobile in a
uniformly distributed manner and communicates the events to the BSS object at
the right time.
The air interface object contains the actual transmission process and links the
scheduler of the BSS with the different MS to compute how blocks are transmitted
and return the different acknowledgment to the BSS (simplified uplink part).
The BSS object contains the RRM (channel allocation, scheduling, and channel
release process), and the handling of acknowledgments. It’s divided into 3 parts,
an access part, handling the arrival of a session from the traffic model object, a re-
source update part dealing with updating active session queues and (re)assignment
of resources when necessary, and a scheduling part, linked with the air interface
object and preparing the next transmission.
The trace object is linked with most of the other objects and keeps track of the
sessions to be able to output the results at the end of the simulation in a matlab
compatible file. Outputs are then plotted with some matlab functions using the
data traced from this object.
4.5.2 Simulation process

Figure 4.12 describes the simulation process linked with the above design, from
the initialization part where traffic is generated and propagation values from the
MS are computed, to the actual simulation part.
55
Figure 4.12: Simulation Process
56
4.5. SIMULATOR STRUCTURE AND BASIC DESCRIPTION
Initialization Before starting the simulation, all the MS objects are initialized
(propagation condition), and traffic for all the simulation is generated according
to the specified traffic load parameters.
Incoming event When an event is incoming, which corresponds to a GPRS

session or GSM call arrival, the simulator calls the access part of the BSS object
with all the session parameters taken from the traffic model object.
Next block time step When a block time is reached, first the transmission of
all blocks is simulated using the air interface object. The resource update part
of the BSS is then called with earlier acknowledgments to update the active ses-
sion queues and release if a session or GSM call has ended, assign or reassign
resources if necessary. Finally, the scheduler of the BSS is called to compute the
next transmission.
57
Chapter 5
Performance Evaluation
This chapter mainly aims at analyzing the simulation result of the proposed
RRM strategy. Validation of the simulator can be found in Annexe 1. First of all,
the choice of the performance metrics used to evaluate the proposed strategy in
comparison with the Best Effort are described, as well as the simulations parame-
ters. Then the simulation results are analyzed for each considered metric in order
to validate the expected improvements of this strategy.
5.1 Performance Metrics and Simulation Parame-

ters
In order to compare the two strategies, several performance metrics have been
considered. In addition simulation parameters have been defined to output signif-
icant results.
5.1.1 Performance Metrics

The performance evaluation was based on the following indicators.
• Mean Access Delay

Since the incoming data which can not obtain a TS will be put into an ac-
cess queue, an access delay referring to the waiting time in the queue is
introduced. The mean value of this parameter for an entire simulation mea-
sures the average waiting time for GPRS sessions before they are allocated
resources.
• Throughput per Cell/User
58
5.1. PERFORMANCE METRICS AND SIMULATION PARAMETERS
Throughput is the measurement of the data transmission speed. Two dif-

ferent types of throughput have been considered. The throughput per cell
(Equation (5.1) ) measures the overall system performance. It is computed
using the total number of bits transmitted and the simulation duration. The
mean throughput per session (Equation (5.2) ) describes the mean transmis-
sion speed offered to GPRS users. It is computed using the number of bits
transmitted in all non-blocked/non-dropped sessions with the duration of
the corresponding sessions (not including access delay).
P
transmitted data
µthroughput/cell = (5.1)
simulation duration
P
throughputs of successf ull sessions
µthroughput/session = (5.2)
number of successf ull sessions
• Blocking Rate
When resources cannot be allocated to an incoming session, a session may
be blocked (the criteria used depends on the RRM strategy). Therefore, the
average blocking rate for the simulation is described with this metric.
GSM blocking rate is not used. Indeed voice calls have the priority over
GPRS sessions and no TS are dedicated to GPRS for both strategies, there-
fore the resource available for GSM is the same for both strategies. Thus
the GSM blocking rate is not influenced by the choice of the strategy.
5.1.2 Simulation Parameters

The input parameters used for all outputs are described in Table 5.1. They are
the same for the two different BSS, in order to have a fair comparison. The moving
parameter chosen to compare the efficiency of both RRM strategies is the traffic
load. It shows the effect of the two policies in different traffic conditions.
59
CHAPTER 5. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Table 5.1: Simulation Parameter

Simulated Duration 4 hours
Traffic Load (TL) from 5 to 29 ”Erlangs”
Number of simulations (per TL) 15
TRXS 4 (32 TSs)
Number of signaling channels 4
Number of traffic channels 28
Maximum number of multiplexed sessions per 32
TS
Number of Mobile Nodes 30
Multi-slot capacity of Mobile 4TSs
Mean GSM call duration 120s
Mean GPRS session size 100kB
Access queue size 7 sessions
Maximum number of block retransmission 25
5.2 Performance Evaluation

This section will present and analyze the results obtained using the parameters
defined in previous section according to the performance indicators.
Confidence Intervals In order to analyze the validity of our results, 95% confi-
dence intervals of the shown output figures have been observed in Annexe 2.
Throughput Per Cell Figure 5.1 shows the throughput per cell of both strate-
gies.
60
5.2. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Figure 5.1: Throughput Per Cell Vs. Traffic Load
61
It can be observed that up to a certain traffic load, the throughput per cell in-
creases with the traffic load. Until higher traffic loads, the system throughput is
equivalent for both strategies. That can be explained by the fact that for low traffic
loads, there are not many GPRS users in the cell, whereas this number increases
with the traffic load.
The enhancement provided by the proposed RRM appears as traffic load in-
creases. It can be observed that the maximum throughput is higher for the pro-
posed RRM than for the Best Effort. This performance enhancement is due to
the fact that our grading system prioritizes the GPRS users with higher CIR in
the scheduler and the access queue, thus users that are using Coding Scheme with
higher throughput.
After a certain point is reached, the throughput decreases as the number of GSM
calls increases and voice has the priority. We can notice that this point appears for
a higher traffic load on the proposed strategy.
Mean throughput per user Figure 5.2 shows the mean throughput per user of
both strategies.
62
Figure 5.2: Throughput Per User Vs. Traffic Load
63
The mean throughput per user decreases with the traffic load as fewer resources
are available. For low traffic load, the result is equivalent for both strategies but it
can be seen that the trend is sharper for the Best Effort. The mean throughput per
user is thus better with the proposed strategy for high traffic loads. The reason for
that result is the same as for the throughput per cell.
Mean access delay Figure 5.3 shows the mean access delay of both strategies.
Figure 5.3: Best Effort: Access Delay Vs. Traffic Load
The access delay for both strategies is increasing with the traffic. As the more
users there are, the more filled is the access queue. The performance result is much
better for the proposed algorithm because it prioritizes the better CIR sessions thus
the average data transmission time is less and resource are released faster allowing
other sessions to get out of the access queue.
GPRS Blocking Rate Figure 5.4 shows the GPRS Blocking Rate of both strate-
gies.
64
Figure 5.4: Best Effort: GPRS Blocking Rate Vs. Traffic Load
The GPRS blocking rate is much higher for best effort for the same reasons as
for the delay. Indeed blocking a session happens as the access queue gets filled.
Throughput according to CIR A possible drawback of the CIR grading sys-

tem could have been that GPRS users with high CIR would have had a better
throughput than with the best effort whereas the users with lower CIR would have
had a worse one. This could be explained by the fact that users with high CIR are
prioritized for the use of resource. From this point of view, the grading system
according to CIR does not seem fair as users under bad radio conditions are not
advantaged.
In order to check this hypothesis, the throughput according to CIR was output
in Figure 5.5. It is a mean for all simulated traffic loads.
65
Figure 5.5: Best Effort: Throughput Vs. CIR
This figure shows that the hypothesis that users with bad CIR have a less
throughput with our strategy than with the best effort is wrong. In average, every
GPRS user should be more satisfied with this algorithm.
5.3 Summary of output results

The chosen outputs show better results for the proposed strategy compared to
the best effort. By prioritizing high CIR values for resource access and use, it
has been shown that the user and system throughput increases and resources are
released faster, thus affecting access delay and blocking rate. Many other metrics
and parameters could have been investigated such as the mean number of retrans-
missions, the mean throughput per TS, the use of dedicated PDTCH and TCH, but
we focused on the most relevant ones from our point of view and tried to make a
fair comparison between the two different RRM.
66
Chapter 6
Conclusion and prospect
This project mainly aimed at investigating an optimized RRM strategy for GSM/GPRS
like networks in order to improve the system performance. Based on this purpose,
the principle of GSM and GPRS network has been studied first. A simulation
platform has then been implemented with basic propagation and traffic model as-
sumptions. The currently used RRM strategy (Best Effort) has been implemented
as well as a newly designed optimized RRM strategy. Both strategies have then
been compared and analyzed to conclude that RRM schemes are a very important
feature of wireless networks and could be enhanced in the future especially for
UMTS like networks.
The simulation results of the proposed optimized RRM strategy is compared

with the Best Effort method in order to verify the improvement of the system per-
formance. From the simulation results, it can be concluded that the throughput
increased and the access delay decreased for the proposed optimized RRM strat-
egy, which certifies the conformity between the practical simulation scenario and
the theoretical description.
Due to the time limitation, the RRM strategy developed is very simple and
could be improved in future work by considering a more optimized grading crite-
ria that could take into account QoS for example. In addition to that, the effect of
dedicating GPRS or GSM channels would also have to be investigated.
67
Appendix A
Simulator validation
A.1 Propagation model and air interface

In order to validate the behavior of the air interface model and transmission part
of our simulator, a simple way was to output the throughput of one session using
an entire time slot (no multiplexing) according to its CIR. This curve has been
compared to the one used in the mapping model between CIR, CS, and BLER,
as the best Coding Scheme is used for each transmission. The transmission part
is also verified with the values of the throughput obtained. Figure ?? shows the
comparison between the two curves.
A.2 Traffic model

The traffic model validation has been carried out by checking the generated ses-
sionsṕarameters such as the mean number of GSM/GPRS sessions per hour, mean
call duration/mean session size compared to the input parameters.
A.3 RRM strategies

In order to make sure the simulation of proposed RRM strategy was under the
designed scenario, simple simulations has carried out, and debugging information
has been checked to compare the simulator behavior with the expected one.
68
Appendix B
Confidence Intervals
B.1 About confidence intervals

Confidence interval is used in order to estimate a range of values of an unknown
output parameter for given samples. This technique is used because a mean value
can vary from sample to sample. Instead of having an estimate of a mean value, a
lower and upper limit are obtained. It gives an idea on how much uncertainty there
is in the estimate of the ”true” mean. The wider the interval is, the less precise the
estimate is.
The confidence level is the percentage of the intervals (computed for each in-
dependent sample) that are likely to include the searched mean value. The confi-
dence level considered in the following section is 95% (most used value).
B.2 Output curves with computed confidence inter-

val
This section shows the different curves resulting from the simulations with the
lower and upper limit (dotted curves).
69

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Contents

1 Subject Presentation and Problem Delimitation 3

2 Introduction of GSM and GPRS 9

3 Radio Resource Management 30

3.2.1 Resource allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4 Simulation Model of RRM 39

6 Conclusion and prospect 67

Subject Presentation and Problem

It inherently supports other technologies at its branches. In addition to voice

Sight(LOS), respectively. In this way phenomenons like multipath fading, shad-

1.2 Problem shaping

As far as radio resource allocation is concerned, European Telecommunications

• Fixed Resource Allocation (FRA)

• Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA)

• Fixed Resource Allocation with Queue capability (FRAQ)

• Dynamic Resource Allocation with Queue capability (DRAQ)

The purpose of this project is to develop a method/algorithm to optimally as-

Some key issues in this project include:

2. A certain GPRS data traffic model should be built.

3. An optimal algorithm will be designed to assign radio resources for packet-

4. All above will be implemented in a simplified simulation model to evaluate

1.3 Solution steps and Time Schedule

1. Problem Delimitation:Feb 9 - Mar 4, Week 7 - Week 10

2. GPRS Technical issues:Mar 5 - Mar 17, Week 10 - Week 12

3. Scenario Definition and Parameter Configuration:Mar 11th - 24th, Week 11

(3.1) Model Division

Milestone: Modelling foundation and parameter definition

4. Solution Development:Mar 25th - May 19th, Week 13 - Week 21

(4.1) Algorithm and RRM Strategy Design

Milestone: Design and simulation chapter

5. Conclusion and Finalizing Report:May 20th - Jun 3rd, Week 21 - Week 23

(5.1) Finish the simulation part and Performance Evaluation.

(5.2) Finalize the last version of report.

Milestone: Performance Evaluation and Conclusion

Figure 1.1: Time Plan

Introduction of GSM and GPRS

2.1 Cellular Introduction

2.1.1 Cellular Concept

The coverage area of a cell is modelled by an hexagon in order to simplify

Figure 2.1: Clusters of 7 cells

Generally the signal strength is sufficient in nowadays cellular systems, hence

Moreover, the sectoring is applied in the cellular network. Instead of having

2.1.2 Effects of Propagation Channel

Shadowing is affected by prominent terrain contours (hills, forests, billboards,

Another phenomenon is the multipath propagation caused by reflection, diffrac-

In order to optimally share resources on the limited frequency band allocated to

2.1.3 Access Method

Figure 2.2: Access Method

2.2 GSM Network

Figure 2.3: GSM Network

The MS contains the physical equipment used by a subscriber such as a portable

The Network Switching Systems(NSS) handles the switching between both

These network components are interconnected through interfaces named by let-

2.2.2 Protocols Stack

Figure 2.4: GSM Protocols

The stacks in Figure 2.4 are implemented in hardware or software, depending

2.2.3 Channel Coding

• Class Ib:132 bits (moderately sensitive to bit errors)

• Class II:78 bits (least sensitive to error)

Interleaving Interleaving is the processes of rearranging the bits. Interleaving

2.2.4 Logical Channels

Table 2.1: GSM Control Channels

2.3 Circuit switch Versus Packet switch

In packet switched system, channels are allocated dynamically on demand, usu-