GSM Introduction For Engineers - 3 days

This course is designed for engineers experienced in telecommunications who require an introduction to GSM before attending detailed courses on the GSM system. The course takes a conceptual approach to the system, covering the growth of GSM in Europe and worldwide, the services available in phase 2 and phase 2+, including the notification channel, enhanced rate speech and enhanced data rates.

The GSM PLMN, MSC Service Area, Location Area and architecture and functions of the network elements are included; the HLR, AUC, EIR, MSC/VLR, BSC, BTS, TRAU and mobile station.

The 4/12 cell cluster and allocation of frequencies to this pattern is covered. An exercise to calculate the number of cells required to meet a customer base with Erlang/customer, GofS as the parameters is included. The problems of co and adjacent channel interference, multi path Rayleigh fading, ISI, Rician fading are considered. The GSM measures to minimise C/I degradations, including frequency planning, power control, DTX, frequency hopping, FEC, and equalisation are explained.

An elementary explanation of the air interface is given which includes the physical and logical channels and the framing structures. This is reinforced with the procedures used by the network and mobile station for cell selection, location updating, authentication and encryption, IMSI attach/detach, and call set up (MO and MT telephone, SMS). The procedures for international roaming are also covered.

Typical handover decision parameters for internal and external, interference, quality, level and TA are covered. The concepts of radio resource, mobility management, connection management and call control for telephone, data, SMS and SS are given. DTAP and BSSMAP are included as is the function of SCCP in routing signalling messages between the MS-BSC-MSC.

GSM worldwide - GSM growth around the world - the phenomenal expansion of GSM

GSM Services - Tele services, Telephony , Emergency Calls, Facsimile Group 3 Bearer services Data- Alternate voice /data. Near future data - 14 kb/s rate and GPRS. Supplementary services SS available for phase 1, phase 2 and phase 2 +

GSM Network Architecture The PLMN. The MSC Service Area. The Location Area. How a network operator sizes location areas. The functions and interrelationships of the following network elements: HLR, AUC, EIR, MSC, VLR, BSC, TRAU, BTS, MS. The PLMN interface to the outside world (PSTN, ISDN, CSPDN, PSDN.) The GMSC. The IWF

Cell Planning - Spectrum and ARFCN - The GSM 900 spectrum and ARFCN available - The EGSM spectrum and ARFCN available - The GSM 1800 spectrum and ARFCN available - The PCS 1900 spectrum and channels available - Typical PLMN operator allocation of ARFCN - The 4/12 repeat pattern - Cluster shapes, cluster cell numbering - Allocation of ARFCN to the 4/12 pattern - Adjacent and co-channel interference considerations. Busy Hour traffic capacities - Target C/I - Target Q of S - Cost of improving C/I - Increasing capacity - Cell splitting - Frequency hopping - tighter reuse patterns. - Costs of increasing capacity - BSIC considerations.

The Air interface - Air Bursts - period, ramp up and down - the 13kb/s Um channel - RPE/LTP encoding - FEC - Interleaving - GMSK. The normal, S, F, Access and dummy bursts. The eight burst Frame and TN¹s. The 51 and 26 multiframe. Multiframes, Superframes and Hyperframes. The FN and its uses. The Um physical and logical channels. The BCCH carrier - CCH and CCCH's within the 51 frame multi - frame - F, S, BCCH and CCCH¹s function and information content - System Information. The AGCH, PCH and RACH channels structure and function. The NCH - Notification channel- its structure and function. The importance of and permitted configurations of the BCCH carrier. The SDCCH channel - its structure and function. Permitted configurations of the SDCCH channel. The SMSCB channel - its structure and functions. The SACCH channel - its structure and functions. The TCH/F channel - its structure within the 26 frame multiframe. The TCH/H - its structure within the 26 frame multiframe. The 26/51 frame MF structure - measurement periods.

Communication procedures - The MS Oidle¹ condition - PLMN and cell selection. The MS Oactive¹ condition: the access burst, immediate assign - allocation of SDCCH (and SACCH). Measurement reports and radio resource control on the SACCH. Encryption. RACH Congestion Control. MM - CM service request - Authentication - triplets - Location Updating - Periodic Location Updating - IMSI attach /detach - TMSI allocation - Roaming. CC - MO & MT telephone call - MO & MT SMS call. Enabling SS. Call modification. Congestion Control

Handovers. The use of measurement reports for uplink and downlink power control. Criteria for UL & DL power control. Interference, Quality, Level. Commands and responses. Criteria for Handovers - Imperative Handovers Interference, Quality, Timing Advance, Power Budget Handovers. Handover Margin - Congestion Control Handovers, Directed Retry. Handover Types -External and Internal. Roaming handovers - Constraints

GSM Interfaces. The A-bis interface - typical message types and flow. The A interface - typical message types and flow- DTAP, BSSMAP and SCCP. Arrow diagrams for RR, MM procedures and CM and CC - MO & MT call set up over the Um, A-bis, A interfaces.

The future for GSM? CDMA structure operation and comparison. UMTS - anticipated structure, operation and comparison. GPRS operation.