Glosario de TCS

BCCH - Broadcast Control CHannel: Broadcast, difusin en espaol, es un modo de transmisin de informacin donde un nodo emisor enva informacin a una multitud de nodos receptores de manera simultnea, sin necesidad de reproducir la misma transmisin nodo por nodo.

GSM: The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), es un standard inalambrico de telecomunicaciones para serivicios digitales de telefonia celular.
GPRS

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a technology for the support of packet switching traffic in a GSM network. GPRS enables high-speed wireless Internet and other data communications in GSM. The data speed of GPRS is more than four times greater speed than conventional GSM systems. Using a packet data service, subscribers are always connected and always on line so services will be easy and quick to access. In GPRS, the GSM time slots are dynamically allocated to various users according to their instantaneous demand. Users can alternately transmit data in the same slot. All data is packetized and send instantaneously through available resources. This gives the user the experience of being permanently linked to the network.

Data rates
In GSM the maximum data rate is 9.6 kbps per time slot. In GPRS the data is packetized which gives in principle an even lower data rate of 9.05 kbps of which 8 kbps is available for the user. However, in GPRS there are two technologies introduced to increase this data rate. Firstly, the error correction that is used can be adapted to the quality of the radio channel. Secondly, it is possible to use more than one time slot. In theory all 8 time slots can be used. In GPRS there are four different channel codes introduced. These are given in the table below.

Coding Scheme
CS-1 CS-2 CS-3 CS-4

Gross bit rate (kbps)

9.05 13.4 15.6 21.4

User bit rate (kbps)

8 12 14.4 20

In theory GPRS will allow a maximum of 160 kbps netto. In practice, typical values are currently slightly over 40 kbit/s.

New network elements

GPRS requires the introducton of two new network elements in the GSM network:

Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).

The SGSN handles all packet switched data within the network and is respnosible for the authentication and tracking of the users. The SGSN performs the same functions as the MSC for voice traffic. The SGSN and the MSC are often co-located.

The GGSN is the interface from the GSM/GPRS network to external networks. The GGSN is also responsible for the allocation of IP-addresses.

Mobile terminal classes

In GPRS there are three different classes of mobile terminals defined: Class A: Capable of GPRS and circuit switched services (voice) simultaneously; Class B: Can operate on only GPRS services or voice service at a time. However it is capable of listening to incoming calls of both GPRS and voice; Claas C: Only capable of GPRS or circuit switched services. The terminal is either capable of only voice or GPRS or it can only listen to one of these services when it is on.

2G: 2nd Generation system for mobile communications. The 2nd generation is based on digital technology. 2G systems offer increased voice quality and capacity over 1G systems. Historically, 2G systems provided voice and a limited data capacity of 9.6 to 14.4 Kbps. The 2G systems are regional standardized offering the possibility of regional (not worldwide) roaming. The terminals are smaller, have a longer standby time, and are cheaper. 2G systems have made mobile communications a commodity. The most important 2G standards are: 1. 2. 3. 4. GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), D-AMPS (Digital AMPS)/IS-136, PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) and cdmaOne/IS-95.

2G systems are circuit switched. Later enhancements made higher speed packet switched data possible. These possibilities, like GPRS for GSM, are often referred to as 2.5G.

2.5G: 2,5th Generation system for mobile communications. 2.5G refers to technology that made 2G systems capable of packet-data services and data rates that range from 20 to 40 Kbps, such as GPRS in GSM and the data capabilities in cdmaOne. The capabilities are not high enough to meet the requirements for 3G systems.

3G: 3G is short for 3rd Generation system for mobile communications. The 3rdgeneration consists of a family of standards under the framework of IMT-2000. Under this framework, a number of standards is developed. The European version is known as UMTS. The main other standards areCDMA2000 and Mobile WiMax. The third generation is typified by the convergence of voice and data with mobile Internet access, multimedia applications and high data transmission rates. The 3rd generation must make worldwide roaming possible.

Tx and Rx Levels The Tx level is the power in decibels per milliwatt (dBm) at which a modem transmits its signal. The Rx level is the power in dBm of the received signal. The server modems normally transmit at -13 dBm by default. Ideally, the Rx level should be in the range of -18 to -25 dBm. If the Rx level is under -25 dBm, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is likely to decrease, meaning that the speed also decreases. If the Rx level is too high, you may see signal distortion or the receiver's Digital Signal Processor (DSP) being overdriven, and erratic connections are possible. In some modulation standards, such as V.34, a receiver can tell its peer that the signal level is too high and the transmitter then reduces the level at which it transmits. (If this behavior is widespread, try configuring the transmitter to transmit at a lower level.) Modems that use other modulation standards (such as K56 Flex) may not be able to do this, resulting in problems. Therefore, an effective Rx level is a function of the peer's initial Tx level, the negotiated dBm reduction (if any), and the attenuation in the voice circuit. The voice circuit attenuation is, in turn, a function of link attenuation and of analog or digital pads, which are telephone company circuitry designed to insert attenuation into the voice circuits. If you need to reduce or increase your Tx level, this is attainable with the following modems and modulation standards: Microcom through T51???For details, refer to the AT Command Set and Register Summary for V.34, 56K, and V.90 12-Port Module. Modem ISDN Channel Aggregation (MICA) through S39 or S59???For details, refer to the AT Command Set and Register Summary for Cisco MICA Six-Port Modules. NextPort through S39 or S59???For details, refer to the NextPort AT Commands and S Registers Reference.

If you need to reduce or increase your Rx level, you need to do this either at the peer transmitter (although this is not feasible if there are thousands of peers) or within the telephone company (more likely), by increasing or decreasing the padding. On a live connection, you can see or infer the Rx and Tx levels as follows: Microcom modems???Initiate a reverse telnet session and issue the AT@E1 command. MICA modems???Issue the show modem operational-status command. NextPort modems???Issue the show port operational-status command.

Some MICA modem examples are as follows: router#show modem operational-status 1/0 Parameter #8 Connected Standard: V.34+ Parameter #20 TX,RX Xmit Level Reduction: 0, 0 dBm Parameter #22 Receive Level: -22 dBm In this case the Rx level is -22, which is fine. The peer has not requested that the modem attenuate its Tx, so you can infer that it is transmitting at the default output level of -13 dBm. You can also infer that the signal level is not too high for the peer's receiver, because the peer has not requested a reduction in signal strength (though it could still possibly be too high???you cannot be certain without directly interrogating the peer). Another example is as follows:

router#show modem operational-status 2/14 Parameter #8 Connected Standard: V.34 Parameter #20 TX,RX Xmit Level Reduction: 0, 3 dBm Parameter #22 Receive Level: -19 dBm In this case there is a good Rx level of -19, but the peer has asked this modem to reduce its Tx level by 3 dBm. Therefore, it starts to transmit at -16 dBm instead. This modem's signal is arriving with excessive strength at the peer. If this occurrence is widespread, you might want to cut back on your configured Tx level globally through S39. In this case, the problem appears to be an issue with this particular peer, so there is no need to do so. You can also check the output of the show modem operational-status command for other potential issues and fixes with theOutput Interpreter (registered customers only) tool. Padding Telephone companies can insert a digital or analog pad, which is circuitry designed to add attenuation on a per-channel basis. Padding ensures that end-to-end circuits that take various paths through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) end up with comparable signal levels. For instance, if a modem transmits at -13 dBm, the receivers see a signal at the right level. For purely analog carriers (V.34 and earlier standards), pads are useful if they result in the desired levels being received. If the Rx levels being observed are too high on a widespread basis, then pad insertion can make analog carriers perform better. However, the effect of pads on a digital (Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)) carrier (K56 Flex and V.90) can be problematic. An analog pad (line pad), which merely attenuates the signal, is not a problem for a PCM carrier. However, a pad in the Network Access Server's (NAS's) T1 line to trunk, or within the telephone company's trunk-to-trunk connection, can have implications for PCM connects. Digital pads remap the PCM data, which can disrupt communication. The general rule is that zero-dB digital pads are optimal for PCM connects. However, zero-level padding is less than optimal in other cases; for example, K56 Flex modems are less tolerant of Rx levels that are too high. Different kinds of PCM modems can adapt to different flavors of digital pads. Rockwell K56 Flex modems (as well as Microcom and MICA modems) can handle zero-, three-, or six-dB pads. Lucent modems have a finer granularity of pad handling, and can cope with one-, four-, five-, and sevendB pads as well. V.90 modems can handle zero to seven dB of padding in one-dB increments. If you see good V.34 connections, but poor or no K56 Flex connections, and if you know that there is no extra A-to-D conversion in the circuit path, then you may have a digital padding issue. In that case you need to contact your telephone company to resolve the problem. In such a case it may be helpful to conduct circuit traces of the suboptimal connections.