GPRS Basic

OSTILL - Fotolia

Cigale GPRS

Objectives

At the end of the lesson the student will be able to:

-

Describe the GPRS architecture

Describe the main GPRS network elements and functionalities
Describe the Gb-Interface protocol
Understand the different basic procedures

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GPRS architecture
HLR
EIR
GGSN

Gi

Ga

Gp

Gc

VLR

Packet
PacketData
Data
Network
Network
(IP/X25)
(IP/X25)

Gr
Gf
Gs

Gn

SGSN

CG

Ga
Air
Interface

PCU
BSC

Gb

Gn

Ga

SGSN

Gd

BG

BG

Foreign
Foreign
PLMN
PLMN

Abis

BTS
SMS-G-MSC /
SMS-IW-MSC

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GPRS : GSM Network update

GPRS : General Packet Radio Service

HW and SW update for Packet Switched services :

-

No changes of the architecture for voice part and circuit switched services
Integration of PCU (Packet Control Unit) on BSS side (co-located with BSC)
Integration of 2 new GPRS nodes (SGSN and GGSN) and associated interfaces
(Gb, Gn, Gp, Gi, Gr, Gd,)

Opening and Merge toward Internet world for data traffic

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GPRS Nodes
SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) :
- Packet routing and transfer to and from MS within a geographical area
- Mobility management of subscribers
- Users profile and location storage

GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) :

- Logical point of one or more Packet Data Networks
- IP allocation management and IP routing function
- Charging data collection

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Mobile Station
GPRS Mobile Station :
-

29 Multi-slots Class in GPRS and EGPRS (GPRS over 8-PSK

modulation) according to radio TS capabilities of transfer

3 types of mobiles :
Class A : allows to lay out one GPRS service and one GSM communication
simultaneously.
Class B : listens to GSM and GPRS Paging channels, but can activate only
one type of service.
Class C : MS works either in traditional GSM mode or in GPRS mode.

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Location Subsets for mobility

Location Area : With identifier LAC (Location Area Code as in GSM)

Routing Area : With identifier RAC (Routing Area Code)
-

Subset lower or equal to LAC

Cells : With identifier CI (Cell Id as in GSM)

-

Only one CI per LAC/RAC

Possibility to have the same CI in two different RAC

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Mobility on GPRS network

MS States & Transitions

3 mobility states for MS (to limit signalization)

- Idle : MS off or detached
- Standby : Routing Area localization of MS
- Ready : Cell localization of MS

Transitions between mobile states

- ATTACH procedure : IDLE
READY
- Uplink Transfer : STANDBY
READY
- DETACH procedure : READY / STANDBY
IDLE
- Expiry of Ready Timer : READY
STANDBY
(Default value : 44s)

IDLE
GPRS
Detach
GPRS
Detach

GPRS
Attach

UL Transfer

READY

STANDBY
Expiry of Ready Timer (44s)

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Packet switched mode over the air

Data Transmission in packet mode
-

Mobile stations able to receive and transmit on several Time Slots

(ex : 4 TS Rx / 1TS Tx for class 8 MS)
Load share on Packet Data channels
(Idle periods of MS1 allocated to MS2 or radio bandwidth share between MS1
and MS2 in case of transfer)
User throughput increase compared to Circuit Switched mode

Several Coding Schemes used

-

Acts on the compression of the data

4 types for GPRS (CS1 to CS4) and 9 types for EGPRS (MCS1 to MCS9)
- CS1 offers the best data protection and a lower throughput,
- MCS9 offers less protection but a higher throughput.

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GPRS Throughput

GPRS

EDGE

Coding Scheme

Modulation

Throughput
(kbits/s)

CS-1

GMSK

9,06

CS-2

GMSK

13,4

CS-3

GMSK

15,6

CS-4

GMSK

21,4

MCS-5

8-PSK

22,4

MCS-6

8-PSK

29,6

MCS-7

8-PSK

44,8

MCS-8

8-PSK

54,4

MCS-9

8-PSK

59,2

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PDP Context
PDP : Packet Data Protocol

Information stored in MS, SGSN, GGSN to allow data exchanged with

PDP network
-

Type of PDP network (IP/X25)

Address of user mobile (IP/X25)
IP address of current SGSN
Network Service Access Point Identifier (NSAPI)
LLC Service Access Point Identifier (SAPI)
Access Point Name (APN) : logical name of a PDP network
(ex : www.internet.com)
- Quality of service

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PDP Context
Quality of Service parameters
-

Reliability : defines 5 level of data protection and acknowledgment

Precedence (3 classes) : defines priorities between sessions (low, normal & high).
In case of overload, service commitments of sessions with high priority shall be
maintained ahead of other ones
Delay (4 classes) : indicates the transmission duration of one packet through
GPRS network. Best effort is often used.
Peak Throughput : max throughput in octets/s
Mean Throughput : in octets/h
Release99 introduces additional parameters as Traffic class

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Possible Applications

Web browsing
Mail access
WAP
File transfer via FTP
MMS
Streaming
Push To Talk
Others

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Signaling/transmission plane

Gb Interface
(capture)
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Signaling Plane
GMM/SM

GMM/SM

LLC

LLC
Relay

RLC

BSSGP

RLC

BSSGP

MAC

MAC

Network
Service

Network
Service

GSM RF

GSM RF

L1 bis

L1 bis

MS

BSS

SGSN

Several layers of protocols for the management of the exchanges between mobile and
network on the Gb interface:
-

L1 :
NS :
BSSGP :
LLC :
GMM :
SM :

Physical Layer
Network Service
Base Station System GPRS Protocol
Logical Link Control
GPRS Mobility Management
Session Management

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol NS (Network Service)
-

This protocol is divided into 2 entities

The control entity
The protocol Frame Relay

Communication between 2 entities NS is made over a Virtual Connection (NS-VC)

Generally carried by N*64Kbits transmission resources FR
Optimizes the distribution of the traffic with load sharing function
Logical link management is made by:
Blocking and Unblocking of the logical link :
NS BLOCK and NS UNBLOCK procedures
Testing the link state : NS ALIVE procedure
Reseting the equipments : NS RESET procedures
Packet information is carried out in a NS UNITDATA message

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol NS

End-to-end NS-VC
Intermediate

BSS

Transmission

SGSN

network

NS-VL at the SGSN side

NS-VL at the BSS side

DLCI : Data Link Connection Identifier

NS-VL : Network Service Virtual Link

- A NS-VC is an end-to-end connection between SGSN and BSS

- One NS-VC group gathers all NS-VCs between the same PCU and SGSN

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol NS : MultiPoint FR
FR

BSS
NSVL1
DLCI

NSVL2
DLCI

NSVL4

NSVL3
DLCI

SGSN

DLCI

DLCI

NSVC

A NS-VL is a FR DLCI on one physical link

Each NS-VC is made of several NS-VL identifying the different links and DLCI used
across the FR network
At each side, a NS-VC is identified by the first NS-VL (port-DLCI)
In case of Point To Point : 1 NSVC = 1 NSVL = DLCI

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP (BSS GPRS Protocol)
-

Provides a logical link without connection between the SGSN and the BSS to
ensure the data transfer with layer LLC

BVC (BSSGP Virtual Connection)

1 BVC per cell of the BSS (identified by a BVCI)
1 BVC 0 for non dedicated signalling information for a particular BVC
(As Paging PS, Suspend, Flush LL ACK messages)

Contains routing information and quality of service mandatory for data transfer

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP
- One group of NS-VCs supports one or several BVCs for data transfer
- Each BVC is supported by one group of NS-VCs
Group of NS-VCs

BVCs, 1 per cell

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP
- Manages BVC connections by :
Blocking or unblocking link with BVC BLOCK and BVC UNBLOCK
messages
Reseting link with BVC RESET message

- Manages BVC traffic thanks to :

Flow control procedure including BVC FLOW CONTROL messages

- Manages MS traffic thanks to :

Flow control procedure including MS FLOW CONTROL messages
FLUSH mechanism in case of Cell Update procedure detected by SGSN in
order to transfer (or not) data from the old BVC to the current one
LLC DISCARDED message due to packet time expiry
SUSPEND & RESUME procedures to stop and restart ongoing data
transfer
RADIO STATUS message if the BSS can't send frames to MS

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP
BTS
MS

128 kbit/s

PCU

User
Throughput

SGSN
2 Mbit/s

1 Gbit/s

GP_FL_C_MS (or _BVC)

GP_FL_C_MS_ACK (or _BVC_ACK)

Bytes

kbits/s
User Throughput = LeakRate

Leak Rate

Bucket Size
Full
Empty

PCU Buffer

Flow Control message information :

- Leak Rate : Throughput requested by the PCU to the SGSN
- Bucket Size : Size of the buffer inside the PCU (for one MS)
Beginning of transfer : the PCU buffer is empty, the SGSN sends data
When PCU buffer is full, the leak rate is equal to the user throughput
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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP: Flush procedure
-

Intra-PCU Cell Reselection

MS from Cell A to Cell B
Transfered data

1st UL data frame from Cell B

PCU

SGSN

Flush Message (Old BVCI, New BVCI)

Erased data
BvcB

r
sfe
an

Da
ta

Tr

Cell A

Flush Ack Message (Erased or Transferred, bytes affected)

ta
Da

Tr
an
sfe
r

BvcA

BvcA

BvcB

Cell B

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP: Flush procedure
-

Inter-PCU Cell Reselection

MS from Cell A (PCU 1) to Cell B (PCU 2)

PCU 1

PCU 2

1st UL data frame from Cell B

SGSN

Flush Message (Old BVCI, New BVCI)

Data Tra
ns

er
sf
an
Tr

Cell A

ta
Da

fer

Flush Ack Message (Deleted, bytes affected)

Cell B

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol BSSGP: Discard procedure
SGSN

PCU 1
DL Data Frames

ta
Da

r
fe
s
an
r
T
Radio Problem
or Congestion

Buffer

Discard Message (Bytes affected)

Cell A
-

Because of radio problems or cell congestion, the PCU cant send the DL data frames to
the MS
When PCU buffer is full, if the SGSN is sending data frames to PCU, it is forced to
discard oldest data stored in buffer
In this case a BSSGP discard message is sent to inform SGSN that some frames were
not sent to MS
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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol LLC (Logical Link Control)
-

Provides a end-to end connection between the MS and the SGSN for
data or signalling transfer

- One LLC connection is identified by :

SAPI (Service Access Point Identifier) : Access point identifier at the SGSN
side and always associated to a QoS (4 choices: 3, 5, 9, 11).
SAPI1 is dedicated to Signalling data.
SAPI7 is reserved for SMS traffic.
SAPI2 & SAPI8 are reserved for TOM message
TLLI (Temporary Logical Link Identity) :
Temporary Identifier of a mobile in Routing Area
Derived from P-TMSI (Packet Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity)
A new TLLI is allocated at each change of Routing Area

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol LLC
-

Use of TLLI Temporary Logical Link Identity (derived from P-TMSI)

Local: (TLLI=P-TMSI, for a mobile always under the same RA, the same TLLI is
always used)
Foreign: (in case of RA mobility, the MS takes one foreign TLLI, if a valid PTMSI
is already present)
Random: (in case of no valid PTMSI, a specific range of TLLI is used for example
a first GPRS Attach a TLLI random is used)
Auxiliary: the SGSN provides a TLLI (not implemented)

31

30

29

28

27

26 to 0

TLLI

Local

Foreign

Random

Auxiliary

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol LLC

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol LLC
- 4 types of messages :

LLC_UI : Unconfirmed Information transfer between layer-3 entities

LLC_I : Information transfer between Layer-3 entities
LLC_S : Logical link Supervisory control functions (acknowledge I frames)
LLC_U : Unnumbered additional logical link control functions

- 3 options :
Acknowledged or not
Protected or Unprotected according to data protection used with FCS (Frame
Check Sequence)
Ciphered or Unciphered according to operator choice

- Information : In case of ciphering, Astellia proposes a Gb deciphering

solution to decipher Gb frames

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol GMM (GPRS Mobility Management)
- Manages the GPRS users mobility thanks to main procedures:

GPRS Attach procedure

GPRS Detach procedure
Routing Area Update procedure in case of RAI mobility
Periodic Routing Area Update
Security procedure (Authentication, Ciphering)
P-TMSI Reallocation procedure to update temporary identity
(at least at each RAI change)
Identity Request (IMSI or IMEI)

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol SM (Session Management)
- Manages the session activity thanks to:

PDP Context Activation procedure (to open session)

PDP Context Deactivation procedure (to close session)
PDP Context Modification procedure (to change QoS) (3G 2G)
Secondary PDP Context procedures associated with a main one
(same PDP address, APName, different QoS)

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol SNDCP (SubNetwork Dependant Convergence Protocol)
- Dedicated to user plane, manages the exchanges between MS and SGSN
- Segmentation and re-assembly of IP frames
- Provides compression algorithms applicable to upper layer
- SNDCP packet header is made of :
Network Service Access Point Identifier (NSAPI) (to identify a PDP Context)
Segmented, First, Last packet indicators
Compression algorithm reference if used

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol SNDCP : example for 1 user with 3 PDP Contexts
Packet Data
Protocol

Packet Data
Protocol

Packet Data
Protocol
N-PDU

NSAPI

7 ...

SNDCP
SN-PDU
SAPI

7
LLC

The NSAPI identifies the PDP context using the services of the SNDCP layer
NSAPI 5 is associated with SAPI 3
(QoS negotiated at SM layer during the session activation)
NSAPI 6 and NSAPI 7 are associated with the same SAPI 5 (same QoS)
11 possible NSAPI values (5-15) and only 4 available QoS (SAPI 3,5,9,11)

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Interface Gb protocols
Protocol IP (Internet Protocol)
MMS

WSP

RTCP

WTP

RTP

HTTP

DNS

RTSP

FTP

SMTP

POP3

TCP

UDP

IP

ICMP

SNDCP
LLC
BSSGP
NS/FR
L1

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Recommendations

Rec.
Rec.
Rec.
Rec.
Rec.
Rec.
Rec.

23.060
24.008
04.65
04.64
08.18
08.16
08.14

GPRS Service Description, Stage 2

MS-SGSN, Specification Core Network Protocols
MS-SGSN, Sub Network Convergence Dependant Protocol : SNDCP
MS-SGSN, Logical Link Control layer : LLC
BSS-SGSN, BSS GPRS Protocol : BSSGP
BSS-SGSN, Network Service : NS
BSS-SGSN, Gb layer 1

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Main GPRS procedures

GPRS Attach procedure

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Main GPRS procedures

Routing Area Update procedure (with authentication)

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Main GPRS procedures

Routing Area Update procedure (without authentication)

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Main GPRS procedures

Routing Area Update procedure (inter-SGSN mobility)

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Main GPRS procedures

PDP Context procedure

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