Introduction

This article covers mobile terminated call flow between Mobile(UE) and network. It covers messages exchanged between Layer 3 entities(RR,MM,CC) at both side. It include channels(PCH,RACH,AGCH,SDCCH,FACCH,TCH) used at layer 1 to carry these messages over the air. This article assumes that initial frequency and time synchronization is done between UE and Network as described in GSM tutorial in tutorial section.

As described in the figure, PCH will be sent by network to alert mobile with ring tone if someone dials. This is called mobile terminated call. After PCH is received, mobile will transmit RACH and obtain SDCCH and other resources for further process. As described in GSM protocol stack, messages flow between both mobile and network at various layers(layer 3,layer 2,layer 1(physical layer). The message flow is self explanatory to establish the circuit switched mobile terminated(MT) call in GSM.

Mobile Terminated Call Release

The figure above mentions messages exchanged between mobile and network for call release.

This article covers mobile originated call flow between Mobile(UE) and network. It covers messages exchanged between Layer 3 entities(RR,MM,CC) at both side. It include channels(RACH,AGCH,SDCCH,FACCH,TCH) used at layer 1 to carry these messages over the air. This article assumes that initial frequency and time synchronization is done between UE and Network as described in GSM tutorial in tutorial section.

As described in the figure, before RACH is sent by mobile(UE) mobile is synchronized with network(BTS) both time and frequency wise. It means it has tuned frequency as per FCCH and time as per SCH burst. It has received and decoded SIs as per BCCH. Once BCCH is decoded mobile station comes to know where it has to transmit CCCH(RACH) and where it has to listen for CCCH(carrying PCH,AGCH). RACH is used in mobile originated call while PCH is used in mobile terminated call at the start. As described in GSM protocol stack, messages flow between both mobile and network at various layers(layer 3,layer 2,layer 1(physical layer). The message flow is self explanatory to establish the circuit switched mobile originated(MO) call in GSM.

Mobile Originated Call Release

The figure above mentions messages exchanged between mobile and network for call release.

GSM mobile phone network entry procedure or Power ON procedure

Fig.6 GSM Call Setup, it depicts basic flow of logical frames between BTS and MS to establish voice/data connection. Following steps are followed at GSM Mobile phone before you actually start talking or using it for data operations. These are called initial mobile phone procedures when you power ON the phone. Step-1 : Mobile phone scans for carriers and determine RSSI of all and pass them to upper layer, upper layer decide which carrier/channel has the highest RSSI and mobile will lock on to that carrier. There are two modes here first mode where mobile has prior knowledge of broadcast carriers and the other mode where mobile has no prior knowledge. In the second case mobile has to search for entire band while in the first case as mobile has broadcast carriers known and it will determine RSSI of those carriers only, hence it will complete cell search operation in less time. Step-2: Once carrier is known it will detect FB(Frequency correction Burst) on that carrier/channel which is a pure sine wave as mentioned above of value 67.7 KHz. Any deviation from this value is

determined and this much frequency offset is corrected on LO module by controlling through VCTCXO/VCO/OCXO used in the handset design. Step-3: After correcting for Frequency offset, now mobile need to lock on to particular time slot on that carrier frequency in the the GSM time domain frame structure. This is done using SB decoding. 25 bits of decoded data of SCH gives reduced frame number(19 bits) and BSIC(6 bits). Reduced frame number will provide very useful information of mobile's physical slot in the entire hyperframe. BSIC is made of BCC(Base Station Color code- 3 bits) and NCC(Network Color code-3 bits). BCC field directly provide training sequence details(26 bits in size).The correlation is performed with known training sequence to determine peak and hence timing offset is determined on the received frame. channel estimation is also performed using this training sequence. Remember SB comes on the same time slot as FB but after 8 time slots duration. This means time multiplexing of logical channels(FB,SB,BCCH,CCCH...) is used on the dedicated physical time slot(TS0 at Broadcast Freq). Step-4: Once SB is decoded now BCCH will appear on the same allocated physical time slot but after 8 time slot duration. BCCH is decoded which gives useful system informations(SI). Now mobile is camped on the network and it is ready to use voice services by exchanging useful frames/channels based on mobile initiated or mobile terminated call. If GPRS is enabled on the mobile phone, it can use data services provided by operator.

Fig.4 GSM Physical Layer These modules are speech coding, channel coding, interleaving, ciphering, burst assembly, modulation. Speech coding block uses 13kbps RELP (Residually Excited Linear Predictive coder). Channel coding block uses convolution coding of rate 1/2 with constraint length of 5. Interleaving block does diagonal interleaving, after 456 encoded bits in 20ms duration are broken into 57 bits sub-blocks. There will be about total 8 sub blocks of 57 bits each. Ciphering block uses A3 and A5 encryption algorithms. Encryption is changed call by call to enhance privacy. Burst assembly block frames the burst as required by GSM frame structure. The same is modulated and Gaussian filtered. Modulation block minimizes the occupied BW using GMSK modulation with BT of 0.3. For more details on GSM Physical layer refer our page in articles section.