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GSMNetworkArchitecture

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ArchitectureofGSMnetwork

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AGSMnetworkiscomposedofseveralfunctionalentities,BelowdiagramillustratesthelayoutofagenericGSM

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network.TheGSMnetworkcanbedividedintothreebroadparts.

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TheMobileStation
Performstheswitchingofcallsbetweenthemobileusers,andbetweenmobileandfixednetworkusers

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TheBaseStationSubsystem
GSMTERMINOLOGY
BSSControlstheradiolinkwiththeMobileStation.
VLRVisitorLocation
Register
HLRHomeLocation
Register
AUCAuthenticationcenter
EIREquipment
Identification
MSCMobileSwitching
center
BTSBaseTransceiver
Station
BSCBaseStation
Controller
SCPServicecontrolpoint
SDPServiceDataPoint
SSFServiceSwitching
Functionality
SMSCShortMessage
SwitchingCenter
MMSCMultimedia
MessagingService
USSDUnstructured
SupplementaryService
Data
GPRSGeneralPacket
RadioService
EDGEEnhancedData
RatesforGSMEvolution
SGSNServingGPRS
SupportNode
GGSNGatewayGPRS
SupportNode
HSCSDHighSpeed
CircuitSwitchedData
IVRInteractivevoice
response

TheNetworkSubsystem
NetworksubsystemincludestheMSC,VLR,HLR

CONTENTS

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interfaceorradiolink.TheBaseStationSubsystemcommunicateswiththeMobileservicesSwitchingCenteracross

800MHzfrequency
bandforLTEand
WiMAX

theAinterface.

more

TheMobileStationandtheBaseStationSubsystemcommunicateacrosstheUminterface,alsoknownastheair

MobileStation
The mobile station (MS) consists of the mobile equipment (the terminal) and a smart card called the Subscriber
IdentityModule(SIM).TheSIMprovidespersonalmobility,sothattheusercanhaveaccesstosubscribedservices

GSMSIGNALING
aprojectbasedon
telecom

irrespectiveofaspecificterminal.ByinsertingtheSIMcardintoanotherGSMterminal,theuserisabletoreceive

AnydocumentonNGN
protocol?

callsatthatterminal,makecallsfromthatterminal,andreceiveothersubscribedservices.

NGNPROTOCOL

The mobile equipment is uniquely identified by the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). The SIM card

SettingUPSMS
gatewayusingKANNEL

for authentication, and other information. The IMEI and the IMSI are independent, thereby allowing personal

kannelSMSgateway
configurationand
troubleshootingguide
required

mobility.TheSIMcardmaybeprotectedagainstunauthorizedusebyapasswordorpersonalidentitynumber.

more

containstheInternationalMobileSubscriberIdentity(IMSI)usedtoidentifythesubscribertothesystem,asecretkey

BaseStationSubsystem
TheBaseStationSubsystemiscomposedoftwoparts,theBaseTransceiverStation(BTS)andtheBaseStation
Controller(BSC).ThesecommunicateacrossthestandardizedAbisinterface,allowing(asintherestofthesystem)
operationbetweencomponentsmadebydifferentsuppliers.

GSM
Adsby Google

GSMNetwork
GSMTelecom
GSMBTS

TheBaseTransceiverStationhousestheradiotranceiversthatdefineacellandhandlestheradiolinkprotocols
withtheMobileStation.Inalargeurbanarea,therewillpotentiallybealargenumberofBTSsdeployed,thusthe

WHO'SNEW

requirementsforaBTSareruggedness,reliability,portability,andminimumcost.
sagar
TheBaseStationControllermanagestheradioresourcesforoneormoreBTSs.Ithandlesradiochannelsetup,

anilvish11

frequencyhopping,andhandovers,asdescribedbelow.TheBSCistheconnectionbetweenthemobilestationand

Kowalski

theMobileserviceSwitchingCenter(MSC).

SanjaySingh
raghusharma8

NetworkSubsystem
The central component of the Network Subsystem is the Mobile services Switching Center (MSC). It acts like a
normal switching node of the PSTN or ISDN, and additionally provides all the functionality needed to handle a
mobilesubscriber,suchasregistration,authentication,locationupdating,handovers,andcallroutingtoaroaming
subscriber. These services are provided in conjuction with several functional entities, which together form the
NetworkSubsystem.TheMSCprovidestheconnectiontothefixednetworks(suchasthePSTNorISDN).Signalling
between functional entities in the Network Subsystem uses Signalling System Number 7 (SS7), used for trunk
signalinginISDNandwidelyusedincurrentpublicnetworks.
TheHomeLocationRegister(HLR)andVisitorLocationRegister(VLR),togetherwiththeMSC,providethecall
routing and roaming capabilities of GSM. The HLR contains all the administrative information of each subscriber
registered in the corresponding GSM network, along with the current location of the mobile. The location of the
mobileistypicallyintheformofthesignallingaddressoftheVLRassociatedwiththemobilestation.Theactual
routing procedure will be described later. There is logically one HLR per GSM network, although it may be
implementedasadistributeddatabase.
TheVisitorLocationRegister(VLR)containsselectedadministrativeinformationfromtheHLR,necessaryforcall
control and provision of the subscribed services, for each mobile currently located in the geographical area
controlled by the VLR. Although each functional entity can be implemented as an independent unit, all
manufacturersofswitchingequipmenttodateimplementtheVLRtogetherwiththeMSC,sothatthegeographical
areacontrolledbytheMSCcorrespondstothatcontrolledbytheVLR,thussimplifyingthesignallingrequired.Note
thattheMSCcontainsnoinformationaboutparticularmobilestationsthisinformationisstoredinthelocation
registers.
Theothertworegistersareusedforauthenticationandsecuritypurposes.TheEquipmentIdentityRegister(EIR)isa
databasethatcontainsalistofallvalidmobileequipmentonthenetwork,whereeachmobilestationisidentifiedby
itsInternationalMobileEquipmentIdentity(IMEI).AnIMEIismarkedasinvalidifithasbeenreportedstolenorisnot
typeapproved.TheAuthenticationCenter(AuC)isaprotecteddatabasethatstoresacopyofthesecretkeystored
ineachsubscriber'sSIMcard,whichisusedforauthenticationandencryptionovertheradiochannel.

NetworkAspects
AGSMmobilecanseamlesslyroamnationallyandinternationally,whichrequiresthatregistration,authentication,

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callroutingandlocationupdatingfunctionsexistandarestandardizedinGSMnetworks.Inaddition,thefactthatthe
geographical area covered by the network is divided into cells necessitates the implementation of a handover
mechanism. These functions are performed by the Network Subsystem, mainly using the Mobile Application Part
(MAP)builtontopoftheSignallingSystemNo.7protocol(SS7orC7)
The signalling protocol in GSM is structured into three general layers, depending on the interface, as shown in
Figure.Layer1isthephysicallayer,whichusesthechannelstructuresdiscussedaboveovertheairinterface.Layer
2isthedatalinklayer.AcrosstheUminterface,thedatalinklayerisamodifiedversionoftheLAPDprotocolusedin
ISDN,calledLAPDm.AcrosstheAinterface,theMessageTransferPartlayer2ofSignallingSystemNumber7is
used.Layer3oftheGSMsignallingprotocolisitselfdividedinto3sublayers.

RadioResourcesManagement
Controlsthesetup,maintenance,andterminationofradioandfixedchannels,includinghandovers.

MobilityManagement
Managesthelocationupdatingandregistrationprocedures,aswellassecurityandauthentication.

ConnectionManagement

HandlesgeneralcallcontrolandmanagesSupplementaryServicesandtheShortMessageService.
Signalling between the different entities in the fixed part of the network, such as between the HLR and VLR, is
accomplished throught the Mobile Application Part (MAP). MAP is built on top of the Transaction Capabilities
ApplicationPart(TCAP,thetoplayerofSignalingSystemNumber7.ThespecificationoftheMAPisquitecomplex,
andatover500pages,itisoneofthelongestdocumentsintheGSMrecommendations.

RadioResourceManagement
Theradioresourcesmanagement(RR)layeroverseestheestablishmentofalink,bothradioandfixed,betweenthe
mobilestationandtheMSC.Themainfunctionalcomponentsinvolvedarethemobilestation,andtheBaseStation
Subsystem,aswellastheMSC.TheRRlayerisconcernedwiththemanagementofanRRsession,whichisthe
timethatamobileisindedicatedmode,aswellastheconfigurationofradiochannelsincludingtheallocationof
dedicatedchannels.
AnRRsessionisalwaysinitiatedbyamobilestationthroughtheaccessprocedure,eitherforanoutgoingcall,orin
response to a paging message. The details of the access and paging procedures, such as when a dedicated
channelisactuallyassignedtothemobile,andthepagingsubchannelstructure,arehandledintheRRlayer.In
addition, it handles the management of radio features such as power control, discontinuous transmission and
reception,andtimingadvance.

Handover
In a cellular network, the radio and fixed links required are not permanently allocated for the duration of a call.
Handover,orhandoffasitiscalledinNorthAmerica,istheswitchingofanongoingcalltoadifferentchannelor
cell.TheexecutionandmeasurementsrequiredforhandoverformoneofbasicfunctionsoftheRRlayer.
TherearefourdifferenttypesofhandoverintheGSMsystem,whichinvolvetransferringacallbetween:

oChannels(timeslots)inthesamecell
oCells(BaseTransceiverStations)underthecontrolofthesameBaseStationController(BSC),
o CellsunderthecontrolofdifferentBSCs,butbelongingtothesameMobileservicesSwitchingCenter(MSC),
and

oCellsunderthecontrolofdifferentMSCs.
Thefirsttwotypesofhandover,calledinternalhandovers,involveonlyoneBaseStationController(BSC).Tosave
signallingbandwidth,theyaremanagedbytheBSCwithoutinvolvingtheMobileservicesSwitchingCenter(MSC),
excepttonotifyitatthecompletionofthehandover.Thelasttwotypesofhandover,calledexternalhandovers,are
handled by the MSCs involved. An important aspect of GSM is that the original MSC, the anchor MSC, remains
responsibleformostcallrelatedfunctions,withtheexceptionofsubsequentinterBSChandoversunderthecontrol
ofthenewMSC,calledtherelayMSC.
HandoverscanbeinitiatedbyeitherthemobileortheMSC(asameansoftrafficloadbalancing).Duringitsidle

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timeslots,themobilescanstheBroadcastControlChannelofupto16neighboringcells,andformsalistofthesix
bestcandidatesforpossiblehandover,basedonthereceivedsignalstrength.ThisinformationispassedtotheBSC
andMSC,atleastoncepersecond,andisusedbythehandoveralgorithm.
ThealgorithmforwhenahandoverdecisionshouldbetakenisnotspecifiedintheGSMrecommendations.There
aretwobasicalgorithmsused,bothcloselytiedinwithpowercontrol.ThisisbecausetheBSCusuallydoesnot
knowwhetherthepoorsignalqualityisduetomultipathfadingortothemobilehavingmovedtoanothercell.Thisis
especiallytrueinsmallurbancells.
The'minimumacceptableperformance'algorithmgivesprecedencetopowercontroloverhandover,sothatwhen
thesignaldegradesbeyondacertainpoint,thepowerlevelofthemobileisincreased.Iffurtherpowerincreasesdo
notimprovethesignal,thenahandoverisconsidered.Thisisthesimplerandmorecommonmethod,butitcreates
'smeared'cellboundarieswhenamobiletransmittingatpeakpowergoessomedistancebeyonditsoriginalcell
boundariesintoanothercell.
The'powerbudget'methoduseshandovertotrytomaintainorimproveacertainlevelofsignalqualityatthesameor
lowerpowerlevel.Itthusgivesprecedencetohandoveroverpowercontrol.Itavoidsthe'smeared'cellboundary
problemandreducescochannelinterference,butitisquitecomplicated.

MobilityManagement
TheMobilityManagementlayer(MM)isbuiltontopoftheRRlayer,andhandlesthefunctionsthatarisefromthe
mobilityofthesubscriber,aswellastheauthenticationandsecurityaspects.Locationmanagementisconcerned
with the procedures that enable the system to know the current location of a poweredon mobile station so that
incomingcallroutingcanbecompleted.

Locationupdate
ApoweredonmobileisinformedofanincomingcallbyapagingmessagesentoverthePAGCHchannelofacell.
Oneextremewouldbetopageeverycellinthenetworkforeachcall,whichisobviouslyawasteofradiobandwidth.
The other extreme would be for the mobile to notify the system, via location updating messages, of its current
locationattheindividualcelllevel.Thiswouldrequirepagingmessagestobesenttoexactlyonecell,butwouldbe
verywastefulduetothelargenumberoflocationupdatingmessages.AcompromisesolutionusedinGSMisto
groupcellsintolocationareas.Updatingmessagesarerequiredwhenmovingbetweenlocationareas,andmobile
stationsarepagedinthecellsoftheircurrentlocationarea.
Thelocationupdatingprocedures,andsubsequentcallrouting,usetheMSCandtwolocationregisters:theHome
LocationRegister(HLR)andtheVisitorLocationRegister(VLR).Whenamobilestationisswitchedoninanew
locationarea,oritmovestoanewlocationareaordifferentoperator'sPLMN,itmustregisterwiththenetworkto
indicate its current location. In the normal case, a location update message is sent to the new MSC/VLR, which
records the location area information, and then sends the location information to the subscriber's HLR. The
informationsenttotheHLRisnormallytheSS7addressofthenewVLR,althoughitmaybearoutingnumber.The
reasonaroutingnumberisnotnormallyassigned,eventhoughitwouldreducesignalling,isthatthereisonlya
limitednumberofroutingnumbersavailableinthenewMSC/VLRandtheyareallocatedondemandforincoming
calls.Ifthesubscriberisentitledtoservice,theHLRsendsasubsetofthesubscriberinformation,neededforcall
control,tothenewMSC/VLR,andsendsamessagetotheoldMSC/VLRtocanceltheoldregistration.
Forreliabilityreasons,GSMalsohasaperiodiclocationupdatingprocedure.IfanHLRorMSC/VLRfails,tohave
each mobile register simultaneously to bring the database up to date would cause overloading. Therefore, the
database is updated as location updating events occur. The enabling of periodic updating, and the time period
betweenperiodicupdates,iscontrolledbytheoperator,andisatradeoffbetweensignallingtrafficandspeedof
recovery.Ifamobiledoesnotregisteraftertheupdatingtimeperiod,itisderegistered.
A procedure related to location updating is the IMSI attach and detach. A detach lets the network know that the
mobilestationisunreachable,andavoidshavingtoneedlesslyallocatechannelsandsendpagingmessages.An
attachissimilartoalocationupdate,andinformsthesystemthatthemobileisreachableagain.Theactivationof
IMSIattach/detachisuptotheoperatoronanindividualcellbasis.

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Authenticationandsecurity
Sincetheradiomediumcanbeaccessedbyanyone,authenticationofuserstoprovethattheyarewhotheyclaimto
be,isaveryimportantelementofamobilenetwork.Authenticationinvolvestwofunctionalentities,theSIMcardin
themobile,andtheAuthenticationCenter(AuC).Eachsubscriberisgivenasecretkey,onecopyofwhichisstored
intheSIMcardandtheotherintheAuC.Duringauthentication,theAuCgeneratesarandomnumberthatitsendsto
themobile.BoththemobileandtheAuCthenusetherandomnumber,inconjuctionwiththesubscriber'ssecretkey
and a ciphering algorithm called A3, to generate a signed response (SRES) that is sent back to the AuC. If the
numbersentbythemobileisthesameastheonecalculatedbytheAuC,thesubscriberisauthenticated.
Thesameinitialrandomnumberandsubscriberkeyarealsousedtocomputethecipheringkeyusinganalgorithm
called A8. This ciphering key, together with the TDMA frame number, use the A5 algorithm to create a 114 bit
sequencethatisXORedwiththe114bitsofaburst(thetwo57bitblocks).Encipheringisanoptionforthefairly
paranoid, since the signal is already coded, interleaved, and transmitted in a TDMA manner, thus providing
protectionfromallbutthemostpersistentanddedicatedeavesdroppers.
Another level of security is performed on the mobile equipment itself, as opposed to the mobile subscriber. As
mentioned earlier, each GSM terminal is identified by a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)
number. A list of IMEIs in the network is stored in the Equipment Identity Register (EIR). The status returned in
responsetoanIMEIquerytotheEIRisoneofthefollowing:
Whitelisted:Theterminalisallowedtoconnecttothenetwork.
Greylisted:Theterminalisunderobservationfromthenetworkforpossibleproblems.
Blacklisted:Theterminalhaseitherbeenreportedstolen,orisnottypeapproved(thecorrecttypeofterminalfora
GSMnetwork).Theterminalisnotallowedtoconnecttothenetwork.

Communicationmanagement
The Communication Management layer (CM) is responsible for Call Control (CC), supplementary service
management,andshortmessageservicemanagement.Eachofthesemaybeconsideredasaseparatesublayer
withintheCMlayer.CallcontrolattemptstofollowtheISDNproceduresspecifiedinQ.931,althoughroutingtoa
roaming mobile subscriber is obviously unique to GSM. Other functions of the CC sublayer include call
establishment, selection of the type of service (including alternating between services during a call), and call
release.

Callrouting
Unlikeroutinginthefixednetwork,whereaterminalissemipermanentlywiredtoacentraloffice,aGSMusercan

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roam nationally and even internationally. The directory number dialed to reach a mobile subscriber is called the
MobileSubscriberISDN(MSISDN),whichisdefinedbytheE.164numberingplan.Thisnumberincludesacountry
codeandaNationalDestinationCodewhichidentifiesthesubscriber'soperator.Thefirstfewdigitsoftheremaining
subscribernumbermayidentifythesubscriber'sHLRwithinthehomePLMN.
An incoming mobile terminating call is directed to the Gateway MSC (GMSC) function. The GMSC is basically a
switch which is able to interrogate the subscriber's HLR to obtain routing information, and thus contains a table
linking MSISDNs to their corresponding HLR. A simplification is to have a GSMC handle one specific PLMN. It
shouldbenotedthattheGMSCfunctionisdistinctfromtheMSCfunction,butisusuallyimplementedinanMSC.
TheroutinginformationthatisreturnedtotheGMSCistheMobileStationRoamingNumber(MSRN),whichisalso
definedbytheE.164numberingplan.MSRNsarerelatedtothegeographicalnumberingplan,andnotassignedto
subscribers,noraretheyvisibletosubscribers.
ThemostgeneralroutingprocedurebeginswiththeGMSCqueryingthecalledsubscriber'sHLRforanMSRN.The
HLRtypicallystoresonlytheSS7addressofthesubscriber'scurrentVLR,anddoesnothavetheMSRN(seethe
location updating section). The HLR must therefore query the subscriber's current VLR, which will temporarily
allocateanMSRNfromitspoolforthecall.ThisMSRNisreturnedtotheHLRandbacktotheGMSC,whichcan
thenroutethecalltothenewMSC.AtthenewMSC,theIMSIcorrespondingtotheMSRNislookedup,andthe
mobileispagedinitscurrentlocationarea.

Reference:
Overview of the Global System for Mobile Communications by :John
Scourias

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