Lecture overview

History of cellular systems (1G)

GSM introduction
Basic architecture of GSM system
Basic radio transmission parameters of GSM

Analogue cellular systems 70s

In the early 70s radio frequencies were a scarce resource
Used by police, taxis, etc.
Thus optimisation was essential
In 1971, the Bell telephone company proposed a new
cellular network to meet the limited frequency bands.
Bell proposed the Advanced Mobile Phone System
(AMPS) which was a cellular system
This was first demonstrated in Chicago, where it has been
in operation since 1978

Analogue cellular systems 80s

AMPS was standardised in 1982 by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)
This became the single radio telephony standard in North
America
cellular
analogue

At the same time around the world, several different

cellular radio networks came into operation.
Like AMPS these were analogue

Analogue cellular systems 80s

Ireland

TACS (Total Access Communication System)

Britain

TACS

Italy

TACS

Germany

C450

Spain

NMT (Nodrdic Mobile Telephony)

France

Radiocom 2000, NMT

Analogue
System
AMPS

cellular systems 80s

Began
operation
1983

Channel
Frequency No.
width (kHz) (MhZ)
Channels
825-845 m-b
30
660

NMT-450

1981

25

C-450

1985

25

TACS plus

1985

25

NMT-900

1986

12.5

870-890 b-m
453-457.5 m-b
463-467.5 b-m
451-455.7 m-b
461-465.7 b-m
890-915 m-b
935-960 b-m
890-915 m-b
935-960 b-m

Downlink from BS to MS
Uplink from MS to BS

180
1000
1000
1999

Analogue cellular systems 80s

The standards named on the previous slides were all
independent and thus
The equipment was limited to operate within the
boundaries of one country
The market for mobile equipment was limited
Lack of competition for components
Being analogue meant small
subscriber capacity
traffic capacity

Towards GSM
A new approach was necessary to overcome the shortfalls
of the analogue system
initially it was proposed to use a greater part of the radio
spectrum - this would only have been temporary
measure
The new approach centred on two advances in technology:
The development of time division multiplexing and
Changing form analogue transmission to digital
transmission

Towards GSM
In 1982 the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs
(CEPT) created the Group Special Mobile (GSM).
This group was charged with the responsibility for the
creation of a mobile radio telecommunication standard
for Europe
Firstly the bandwidths for mobile communication were
established
890-915MHz for uplink transmission
935-960MHz for downlink transmission

Objectives of GSM
The GSM Standards aims include:
Large Subscriber base and wide availability
World wide compatibility
Efficient use of the radio spectrum
QoS comparable to that of the fixed network
The ability to access the network from either mobile or
portable handsets

GSMs Technical objectives

By 1987 the standard had decided on the various technical
aspects of the standard.
Digital transmission
Time Division Multiplexing of radio channels
Encryption of radio channel transmission
New compression algorithms for reduced data rate
compared to the coding laws used in telecommunications.
Compatibility with ISDN networks

Global System for Mobile Communications

Basic architecture

 The area of GSM operation is divided into subareas managed

by different Mobile Switching Centers (MSC)
Each MSC is connected to a Visitors Location Register
(VLR) data base containing necessary information on all
MS temporarily located in the area served by particular MSC
GSM system has 3 additional databases:
Home Location Register (HLR) database of all MS
permanently registered in the system
Authentication Center (AC) allows checking if the user is
allowed to perform a call
Equipment Identification Register (EIR) contains serial no of
mobile phones used in the system. Lost or stolen phones are
placed on the black, which prevents them form being used in
the system

 HLR is central database storing information on:

Current location of the MS and all the parameters of the
permanently registered users that allows the system to establish
a connection with the user, even if the user is temporarily in a
different GSM network
The address of the VLR which is associated with the current
location of the user
List of additional booked services
Encryption keys for digital signal transmission and user
authentication
Other

 HLR and VLR exchange information regarding the users

currently located in the area served by the VLR
This allows to establish a current location of the called user by
reading information from users HLR and routing the call to
MSC serving the area in which the MS is located
VLR stores the information necessary for initiation of mobileoriginated call
MSC are connected with each other
One or more MSC are called Gateway MSC and connect the
GSM system with external networks (PSTN, ISDN etc.)
Each MSC controls at least one Base Station System (BSS)
BSS consists of:
BS Controller (BSC)
Base Transceiver Station (BTS) or Base Station (BS)

 BS performs:
Basic signal transmission
Signal reception
Simple control functions
GSM-specific speech coding/decoding and data rate adaptation

Main task of MSC is to coordinate the call set-up between 2

GSM users of GSM user and a user of an external network
Some of the function performed by MSC:
Calling user, setting-up and maintaining the connection
Dynamic resources management
Rerouting of a call between different BSC during hand off
Interface operation with external networks (GMSC)
Encrypting users data
Reassigning the carriers in order to redistribute networks resources

 Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC) supervises

operation of particular GSM system blocks
OMC is connected to all switching blocks and performs
management functions:
Traffic accounting
Traffic monitoring
Management in case of failure
HLR management

Communications between OMC and network blocks is

implemented by leased telephone links or other fixed
networks and is performed using the SS7 signalling protocol
of X.25 protocol

Basic Radio Transmission Parameters of GSM System

Two 25 MHz wide bands
Uplink 890-915 MHz
Downlink 935-960 MHz
Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) is used separate frequency
band for opposite direction of communication
Both bands divided into 124 frequency intervals of 200 kHz
For each carrier time is divided into 8 slots
Multiple access is realised by assigning the connection a
particular carrier frequency and a selected time slot
Thus GSM uses TDMA/FDMA scheme (Time/Frequency
Division Multiple Access)

 In TDMA/FDMA a physical channel is a sequence of time

slots (denoted by the assigned slot no.) which are placed on
a selected carrier
Physical channels are arranged in pairs one physical
channel in each direction they are marked with the same
time slot no and they frequency differs by 45 MHz
The time slots numbering in the downlink direction is
delayed by 3
Thus mobile station never transmits and receives signals to
and from BS at the same time.
This reduces requirement for RF and DSP blocks
Computation power can be shared between transmitter and
receiver

Summary
History of cellular system
Introduction to GSM
Objectives of GSM
Technological changes

Basic architecture
MSC
Databases (HLR, VLR etc.)
BSS

Basic radio transmission parameters

TDMA/FDMA
Physical channel