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BasestationsubsystemWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Basestationsubsystem
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Thebasestationsubsystem(BSS)isthesectionofatraditionalcellular
telephonenetworkwhichisresponsibleforhandlingtrafficandsignaling
betweenamobilephoneandthenetworkswitchingsubsystem.TheBSS
carriesouttranscodingofspeechchannels,allocationofradiochannelsto
mobilephones,paging,transmissionandreceptionovertheairinterface
andmanyothertasksrelatedtotheradionetwork.

Contents
1 Basetransceiverstation
1.1 Sectorization
2 Basestationcontroller
2.1 Transcoder
3 Packetcontrolunit
4 BSSinterfaces
5 Seealso
6 References
7 Externallinks

ThehardwareofGSMbasestation
displayedinDeutschesMuseum

Basetransceiverstation
Thebasetransceiverstation,orBTS,containstheequipmentfor
transmittingandreceivingradiosignals(transceivers),antennas,and
equipmentforencryptinganddecryptingcommunicationswiththebase
stationcontroller(BSC).TypicallyaBTSforanythingotherthanapicocell
willhaveseveraltransceivers(TRXs)whichallowittoserveseveral
differentfrequenciesanddifferentsectorsofthecell(inthecaseof
sectorisedbasestations).
ABTSiscontrolledbyaparentBSCviathe"basestationcontrolfunction"
TwoGSMbasestationantennas
(BCF).TheBCFisimplementedasadiscreteunitorevenincorporatedina
disguisedastreesinDublin,Ireland.
TRXincompactbasestations.TheBCFprovidesanoperationsand
maintenance(O&M)connectiontothenetworkmanagementsystem
(NMS),andmanagesoperationalstatesofeachTRX,aswellassoftwarehandlingandalarmcollection.
ThefunctionsofaBTSvarydependingonthecellulartechnologyusedandthecellulartelephoneprovider.There
arevendorsinwhichtheBTSisaplaintransceiverwhichreceivesinformationfromtheMS(mobilestation)
throughtheUmairinterfaceandthenconvertsittoaTDM(PCM)basedinterface,theAbisinterface,andsendsit
towardstheBSC.TherearevendorswhichbuildtheirBTSssotheinformationispreprocessed,targetcelllistsare
generatedandevenintracellhandover(HO)canbefullyhandled.Theadvantageinthiscaseislessloadonthe
expensiveAbisinterface.
TheBTSsareequippedwithradiosthatareabletomodulatelayer1ofinterfaceUmforGSM2G+the
modulationtypeisGaussianminimumshiftkeying(GMSK),whileforEDGEenablednetworksitisGMSKand
8PSK.Thismodulationisakindofcontinuousphasefrequencyshiftkeying.InGMSK,thesignaltobe
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modulatedontothecarrierisfirstsmoothedwithaGaussian
lowpassfilterpriortobeingfedtoafrequencymodulator,
whichgreatlyreducestheinterferencetoneighboringchannels
(adjacentchannelinterference).
Antennacombinersareimplementedtousethesameantenna
forseveralTRXs(carriers),themoreTRXsarecombinedthe
greaterthecombinerlosswillbe.Upto8:1combinersare
foundinmicroandpicocellsonly.
FrequencyhoppingisoftenusedtoincreaseoverallBTS
performancethisinvolvestherapidswitchingofvoicetraffic
betweenTRXsinasector.Ahoppingsequenceisfollowedby
theTRXsandhandsetsusingthesector.Severalhopping
sequencesareavailable,andthesequenceinusefora
particularcelliscontinuallybroadcastbythatcellsothatitis
knowntothehandsets.

AsolarpoweredGSMbasestationontopofa
mountaininthewildernessofLapland

ATRXtransmitsandreceivesaccordingtotheGSMstandards,whichspecifyeightTDMAtimeslotsperradio
frequency.ATRXmaylosesomeofthiscapacityassomeinformationisrequiredtobebroadcasttohandsetsin
theareathattheBTSserves.Thisinformationallowsthehandsetstoidentifythenetworkandgainaccesstoit.
ThissignallingmakesuseofachannelknownastheBroadcastControlChannel(BCCH).

Sectorization
Byusingdirectionalantennasonabasestation,eachpointingindifferentdirections,itispossibletosectorisethe
basestationsothatseveraldifferentcellsareservedfromthesamelocation.Typicallythesedirectionalantennas
haveabeamwidthof65to85degrees.Thisincreasesthetrafficcapacityofthebasestation(eachfrequencycan
carryeightvoicechannels)whilstnotgreatlyincreasingtheinterferencecausedtoneighboringcells(inanygiven
direction,onlyasmallnumberoffrequenciesarebeingbroadcast).Typicallytwoantennasareusedpersector,at
spacingoftenormorewavelengthsapart.Thisallowstheoperatortoovercometheeffectsoffadingdueto
physicalphenomenasuchasmultipathreception.Someamplificationofthereceivedsignalasitleavestheantenna
isoftenusedtopreservethebalancebetweenuplinkanddownlinksignal.

Basestationcontroller
Thebasestationcontroller(BSC)provides,classically,theintelligencebehindtheBTSs.TypicallyaBSChastens
orevenhundredsofBTSsunderitscontrol.TheBSChandlesallocationofradiochannels,receivesmeasurements
fromthemobilephones,andcontrolshandoversfromBTStoBTS(exceptinthecaseofaninterBSChandoverin
whichcasecontrolisinparttheresponsibilityoftheanchorMSC).AkeyfunctionoftheBSCistoactasa
concentratorwheremanydifferentlowcapacityconnectionstoBTSs(withrelativelylowutilisation)become
reducedtoasmallernumberofconnectionstowardsthemobileswitchingcenter(MSC)(withahighlevelof
utilisation).Overall,thismeansthatnetworksareoftenstructuredtohavemanyBSCsdistributedintoregionsnear
theirBTSswhicharethenconnectedtolargecentralisedMSCsites.
TheBSCisundoubtedlythemostrobustelementintheBSSasitisnotonlyaBTScontrollerbut,forsome
vendors,afullswitchingcenter,aswellasanSS7nodewithconnectionstotheMSCandservingGPRSsupport
node(SGSN)(whenusingGPRS).Italsoprovidesalltherequireddatatotheoperationsupportsubsystem(OSS)
aswellastotheperformancemeasuringcenters.

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ABSCisoftenbasedonadistributedcomputingarchitecture,withredundancyappliedtocriticalfunctionalunits
toensureavailabilityintheeventoffaultconditions.RedundancyoftenextendsbeyondtheBSCequipmentitself
andiscommonlyusedinthepowersuppliesandinthetransmissionequipmentprovidingtheAterinterfaceto
PCU.
Thedatabasesforallthesites,includinginformationsuchascarrierfrequencies,frequencyhoppinglists,power
reductionlevels,receivinglevelsforcellbordercalculation,arestoredintheBSC.Thisdataisobtaineddirectly
fromradioplanningengineeringwhichinvolvesmodellingofthesignalpropagationaswellastrafficprojections.

Transcoder
Thetranscoderisresponsiblefortranscodingthevoicechannelcodingbetweenthecodingusedinthemobile
network,andthecodingusedbytheworld'sterrestrialcircuitswitchednetwork,thePublicSwitchedTelephone
Network.Specifically,GSMusesaregularpulseexcitedlongtermprediction(RPELTP)coderforvoicedata
betweenthemobiledeviceandtheBSS,butpulsecodemodulation(AlaworlawstandardizedinITUG.711)
upstreamoftheBSS.RPELPCcodingresultsinadatarateforvoiceof13kbit/swherestandardPCMcoding
resultsin64kbit/s.Becauseofthischangeindatarateforthesamevoicecall,thetranscoderalsohasabuffering
functionsothatPCM8bitwordscanberecodedtoconstructGSM20mstrafficblocks.
Althoughtranscoding(compressing/decompressing)functionalityisdefinedasabasestationfunctionbythe
relevantstandards,thereareseveralvendorswhichhaveimplementedthesolutionoutsideoftheBSC.Some
vendorshaveimplementeditinastandalonerackusingaproprietaryinterface.InSiemens'andNokia's
architecture,thetranscoderisanidentifiableseparatesubsystemwhichwillnormallybecolocatedwiththeMSC.
InsomeofEricsson'ssystemsitisintegratedtotheMSCratherthantheBSC.Thereasonforthesedesignsisthat
ifthecompressionofvoicechannelsisdoneatthesiteoftheMSC,thenumberoffixedtransmissionlinks
betweentheBSSandMSCcanbereduced,decreasingnetworkinfrastructurecosts.
Thissubsystemisalsoreferredtoasthetranscoderandrateadaptationunit(TRAU).Somenetworksuse
32kbit/sADPCMontheterrestrialsideofthenetworkinsteadof64kbit/sPCMandtheTRAUconverts
accordingly.Whenthetrafficisnotvoicebutdatasuchasfaxoremail,theTRAUenablesitsrateadaptationunit
functiontogivecompatibilitybetweentheBSSandMSCdatarates.

Packetcontrolunit
Thepacketcontrolunit(PCU)isalateadditiontotheGSMstandard.Itperformssomeoftheprocessingtasksof
theBSC,butforpacketdata.Theallocationofchannelsbetweenvoiceanddataiscontrolledbythebasestation,
butonceachannelisallocatedtothePCU,thePCUtakesfullcontroloverthatchannel.
ThePCUcanbebuiltintothebasestation,builtintotheBSCoreven,insomeproposedarchitectures,itcanbeat
theSGSNsite.Inmostofthecases,thePCUisaseparatenodecommunicatingextensivelywiththeBSConthe
radiosideandtheSGSNontheGbside.

BSSinterfaces
Um
Theairinterfacebetweenthemobilestation(MS)andtheBTS.ThisinterfaceusesLAPDmprotocolfor
signaling,toconductcallcontrol,measurementreporting,handover,powercontrol,authentication,
authorization,locationupdateandsoon.Trafficandsignalingaresentinburstsof0.577msatintervalsof
4.615ms,toformdatablockseach20ms.
Abis
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TheinterfacebetweentheBTSandBSC.
GenerallycarriedbyaDS1,ES1,orE1
TDMcircuit.UsesTDMsubchannelsfor
traffic(TCH),LAPDprotocolforBTS
supervisionandtelecomsignaling,and
carriessynchronizationfromtheBSCto
theBTSandMS.
A
TheinterfacebetweentheBSCand
MSC.Itisusedforcarryingtraffic
channelsandtheBSSAPuserpartofthe
SS7stack.Althoughthereareusually
transcodingunitsbetweenBSCand
MSC,thesignalingcommunicationtakes
placebetweenthesetwoendingpoints
andthetranscoderunitdoesn'ttouchthe
SS7information,onlythevoiceorCS
dataaretranscodedorrateadapted.

ImageoftheGSMnetwork,showingtheBSSinterfacestotheMS,
NSSandGPRSCoreNetwork

Ater
TheinterfacebetweentheBSCandtranscoder.Itisaproprietaryinterfacewhosenamedependsonthe
vendor(forexampleAterbyNokia),itcarriestheAinterfaceinformationfromtheBSCleavingit
untouched.
Gb
ConnectstheBSStotheSGSNintheGPRScorenetwork.

Seealso
Networkswitchingsubsystem
GPRScorenetwork
Cellsite
U.S.FederalCommunicationsCommission(FCC)
Basestation
Cellularrepeater
Telecominfrastructuresharing
OpenBTS

References
Externallinks
OsmocomOpenBSC(http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OpenBSC)opensourceBaseStation
Controllerimplementation
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