GSM Fundamentals

• GSM Architecture
Objectives

•At the end of this learning element, the student should be able to:

– Name the three subsystems of GSM.

– List eight different network elements (generic architecture) and
name at least one task per element.
– Describe the benefits of a Release 4 core network.
Mobile Subscriber

•Where is the subscriber

•Who is the subscriber

•What does the subscriber

want

•
Information
about the
subscriber
The Mobile Station MS
GSM Mobile Station
GSM PLMN Organization

Network Switching
Subsystem
• Switching
Air A • Mobility Management
• Connection Management
• Charging

MS BSS NSS
O&M

Base Station Subsystem

• Radio Resource Management
NMS Network Management
System
• Radio Link Management • Fault Management
• Configuration Management
• Performance Management
Network Switching Subsystem

MSC Mobile services Switching Centre

GMSC Gateway MSC
VLR Visitor Location Register
HLR Home Location Register
AC EIR Equipment Identity Register
AC Authentication Centre
EIR HLR

HLR

VLR

GMSC MSC
Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC)
MSC
• Call control
• Mobility management
• Initiation of paging
• Collection of changing information
• Often associated with VLR
GMSC
• Call control
• Interrogation of HLR
• Collection of changing information
• Often used for interworking with
external networks
Registers in the NSS

VLR HLR
• Identification numbers of subscribers • Subscriber Profile
• Security information • Routing Information
• Services that the subscriber can use

EIR AC
• Lists for Mobile Equipment (ME) • Data for authentication (SIM)
checks and ciphering
Mobile Number Portability Solution - SRR

M SIS DN 1 - rero ut ing inf o

1

M SIS DN 2… - rero ut ing inf o H LR H LR

…

. …

O th e r
n etw or k s
D ataba se SRR i

SGSN MSC
MSC Server + MGW Concept (Separation of control and user
plane traffic)

User plane is optimized within MSC Server

the same access network site

Site 1 Only control plane is routed to

the core network site

POI PSTN
RNC2
RNC2

RNC4
RNC4
Inter-Site

MGW
MGW

Transport
Network
Site 2 Site 4

User plane is optimized

between access network sites
RNC3
RNC3

User plane is
MGW

optimized for PSTN

calls

Site 3
Rel-04 Architecture

CSE

CAP CAP
HLR
D C
MSC- GMSC-
Server Nc Server
A
GERAN Mc Mc
Iu (H.248) (H.248)
UTRAN
A CS- Nb CS- PSTN, ISDN,
MGW MGW PLMN, etc.
Iu
Base Station Subsystem

BSC
TC

BTS BSC
TC
BTS

BTS
• Elements:
– Base Station Controller (BSC), Base Transceiver Station (BTS), and
Transcoder and Rate Adaptation Unit (TRAU, TC)
• Functions:
– Radio path control, BTS and TC control, synchronisation with MSC
– Air and A interface signaling, connection establishment MS-NSS
– Mobility management, speech transcoding
– Collection of statistical data
Base Station Controller (BSC)

BSC

– Connection establishment between MS and NSS

– Mobility management
– Statistical raw data collection
– Air- and A-interface signaling support
– BTS and TRAU Control
Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

– Air interface signaling

– Ciphering
– Speech processing (channel coding, interleaving, and burst formatting)
– Generation of alarms and statistics
– Baseband/Radio frequency transformation
Omnidirectional and Sectorized Cells

f1,f2, f3
BTS
BTS BTS

f1 f2

Omnidirectional BTS f1, f2

2 sectorized BTS

f5, f6 BTS

BTS
BTS

f3, f4

3 sectorized BTS f = carrier frequency band

Position of the Transcoder

Transcoder and
Submultiplexer (TCSM)
BSC
MSC
TC

TC
SM2M
TC

TC

A ter Interface

A ter’ Interface
A Interface
Network Management Subsystem

NMS/2000

BTS

Data Communications
Network

DN2

BTS

BSC HLR
AC
EIR
MSC
VLR
BTS

BTS SMSC
Functions of NMS (1)

•Fault management
– Collection of alarm reports from network elements.
– One point for managing all fault situations.
Functions of NMS (2)

•Configuration management
– Management of radio network configuration.
– Maintain up to date information on the network element
status.
Functions of NMS (3)

•Performance management
– Collection of measurement data from network elements.
– Produce performance result from raw data.
Interfaces
VLR
VLR
G

BSS NSS D
VLR
VLR HLR
HLR AC
AC
EIR
EIR

B F C
Um
BSC
Abis
TC
Ater
BT A
S

BT
S (G)MSC E

(G)MSC
 GSM Architecture & Interfaces
BSS NSS
Air Abis Ater’ A
Interface Interface Interface Interface

BSC
BTS
HLR/
TC AC/
MSC/VLR EIR

TCSM

Ater
Interface

O&M NMS
Interface