UNDERSTANDING GSM AND GPRS TECHNOLOGIES

Introduction
Mobile networks have seen a tremendous growth from 1G(AMPS, NMT, TACS),
2G(GSM, D-AMPS, cdmaOne/IS-95), 2.5G(GPRS), 2.75G(EDGE),
3G(CDMA2000/EV-DO, WCDMA/HSPA+, TD-SCDMA), 4G(LTE, LTE Advanced),
and now 5G. One can easily guess where we are heading to, and thus of course 6G.
It all started with 1st generation(1G), an analog voice communication which involved one
subscriber per channel and needed a very large gap between subscribers to avoid the
signals interfering with each other. Scaling-up therefore involves using up the limited
radio spectrum. This, with the high-power consumption of analog devices made
innovators and inventors to rethink, and that brought us to digital 2G(GSM and
subsequently GPRS), which we are going to discuss here.

GSM
Developed by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Global System
for Mobile communications (GSM) is a protocol for second-generation cellular networks
for mobile devices that is a TDMA standard-based. It became the global standard for
mobile communications in 2014. It was first deployed in Finland in 1991, and as at now it
has over 90% market penetration globally.
Figure 1 below shows the frequency allocation to GSM900 communications. We have
890-915 MHz for uplink (MS-BTS) and 935-960 MHz for downlink (BTS-MS). A band
gap of 200kHz is allocated at the beginning and at the end of the uplink and downlink
respectively. These band guards help to avoid interference with the next band of
frequencies. 200kHz is allocated per channel, and so we have 124 channels each for
uplink and downlink.

45MHz
25MHz 25MHz

890MHz 915MHz 935MHz 960MHz

Uplink (MS-BTS) Downlink (BTS-MS)

200kHz 200kHz

124 x 200kHz 124 x 200kHz

Figure 1: Frequency band for GSM 900

 TDMA AND GMSK TECHNIQUES IN GSM
The transmission medium between the Mobile Station(MS) and the Base Transceiver
Station(BTS) is the air-interface or Um interface. As mentioned before, GSM900 radio
spectrum is divided into channels of 200kHz carrier frequencies and uses duplex
frequency separation of 45-MHz for uplink and downlink pair. TDMA technique is used
to allow eight subscribers to share one channel simultaneously without causing any
unmanageable interference in the detection process. Thus, the time is segmented into
intervals called frames. Each frame is then partitioned into eight called timeslots which is
numbered 0 to 7. These timeslots carry the voice or data signals the user wants to
transmit. Gaussian Minimum Shift-Keying (GMSK) is the modulation technique use in
GSM900. GMSK is a continuous-phase digital frequency modulation with modulation
index equal to 0.5. The data rate of GMSK is 270.8-kbit/s. The duration of one timeslot is
0.5769ms which is called a burst. So, the duration of a TDMA frame can be calculated
as:
TTDMA= 8 x 0.5769ms = 4.6152ms
Figure 2 shown below is an eight timeslot per frame of GSM TDMA signal showing
uplink and downlink channel pairs.

4.6152ms (1248 bits)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1

0.5769ms

156.25 bits per user

Figure 2: GSM TDMA frame showing uplink and downlink channel pair.
 GSM ARCHITECTURE.
Cellular networks architectures provide all specifications needed for the user terminal, the
fixed hardware forming network backbone and the software databases that help
operationalize and get the systems to interact and provide the functions we need, in this
case to transmit and receive voice and data services. GSM architecture can be grouped
into three major components:
• Mobile Station (MS)
• Base Station Subsystem (BSS)
• Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)
Figure 3 below shows the three main parts and the components they possess. We take
these components one by one and discuss them in details.

• Mobile station (MS): The MS is made up of the Mobile Equipment (ME) and
the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). The ME interfaces with the user to pick-up
the information the subscriber wishes to transmit through a microphone and
speakers in the case of voice signals, keypads in the case of Short Message Service
(SMS) or cables in the case of other data forms. The MS then communicate the
information to the BSS through the air-interface by following the necessary
protocols. The SIM card helps to specifies subscriber’s identity such as their
address and the kind of services they have been subscribed to, as well as stores
SMS messages. So, when we make a call, the call is directed to the SIM card and
rather not the mobile device. The MS also converts the analog voice signal to a
13kps-digitized voice signals using speech coders in the ME for transmission
through the air interface.

Network & Switching Subsystem

(NSS)
Mobile station Base Station Subsystem
(MS) (BSS) VRL HLR

SIM

USER ME BTS BSC PSTN

MSC

PDN EIR
AUC

Figure 3: General architecture of GSM network Other MSCs

• Base Station Subsystem (BSS): The BSS has two elements: The Base
Transceiver Station (BTS) and the Base Switching Center (BSC). A single BSS
can contain one to several BTS. The BSS is connected to the MS through wireless
interface and to the NSS through a wired interface. The BTS, which is made up of
transmitter, receiver, and signaling equipment, provides a translation between the
wireless protocol and the wired protocol since the two interfaces have different
protocols. After receiving the 13kps-digitized voice from MS, the BTS converts
these into 64kps digital codes. The BSC supervises the BTSs in the BSS and is
responsible for the allocation of radio resources for the BTSs it controls, and
handles handovers between these BTSs.

• Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS): The NSS is the core of GSM
network. It handles GSM services such as voice calls, SMS services, circuit-
switched data calls, and handles mobility management such as roaming services.
This was extended to handle packet-switched data services in GPRS. NSS
interconnects to other switches in the PSTN through ISDN protocol that facilitates
communications with other wired and wireless networks. The NSS is made up of
five elements: Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Home Location Register (HLR),
Visitor Location Register (VLR), Equipment Identification Register (EIR) and
Authentication Center (AUC). The MSC is the hardware part of NSS that
communicates with other switches in the PSTN using SS-7 protocol, and the other
MSCs that belongs to the same service provider. It also serves as the gateway of
the network, and this part of the MSC is called Gateway Mobile Switching Center
(GMSC). Other role is the management of the status of the mobile terminals. The
HLR is the database that stores the subscriber’s addresses, billing information, the
type of services they are subscribed too, their current locations, their forwarding
addresses for incoming calls and their authentication keys for security. The VLR is
a different database from the HLR that is used to store temporarily information of
a user that is visiting the network by assigning a Temporary Mobile Subscriber
Identity (TMSI) number. This information is deleted after the user leaves the
network. The EIR is responsible for identifying all the mobile equipment in the
network by storing the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), which
carries information of the manufacturer, the country of production, and the kind of
mobile terminal it is. The AUC stores the algorithms that are used for encrypting
and authenticating the subscribers.
Figure 3 below shows in details the interconnection of all these different elements of
GSM network.
Figure 3: Detailed GSM architecture

GPRS AND ITS SERVICES

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet-oriented mobile data service that is an
overlay of GSM physical layer. In GPRS, new logical radio channels are defined while
using the same physical radio channels as GSM. It uses unused TDMA channels in GSM
for data transfer, which is the best part of GPRS because there are no changes in the
hardware such as BTS/BSC. GPRS is referred to as 2.5G because it falls within 2G and
3G. GPRS data rate can reach between 56kbps to 114kbps. GPRS provides point-to-point
(PTP) services, point-to-multipoint (PTM-M) which is a multicast services for all the
subscribers and point-to-multipoint (PTM-G) which is a multicast services for a specified
group of subscribers.
 GPRS ARCHITECTURE
There is no a great change in the GSM architecture for GPRS. In fact, GPRS uses GSM
architecture, and we only need to add what is called GPRS Support Nodes (GSNs). These
nodes help in the routing of packets from the MS to external networks. The GSNs are of
two type: Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS Support Nodes
(GGSN). SGSN controls the access to the MS that is attached to the BSCs, in what is
known as the Routing Area (RA) of the SGSN. It is responsible for delivering packets to
the MS from the internet, logical link management, and charging and authenticating
users. GGSN acts as a logical link interworking between the SGSN and the internet. The
GGSN is also responsible for mapping the Packet Data Network (PDN) address of the
MS to the IMSI address. Just like in GSM, the interface between the MS and the BSS is
the air-interface or simply Um-interface. The interface between the BSS and SGSN is
named the Gn interface and that between SGSN and the GGSN is named the Gb
interface.
Figure 4 below shows the architecture of a GPRS networks.

Figure 3: Architecture of a GPRS network

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Meaning of Some abbreviation
AMPS: Advanced Mobile Phone System; NMT: Nordic Mobile Telephone;
TACS: Total Access Communication System; D-AMPS: Digital-Advanced Mobile Phone Service;
cdmaOne/IS-95 : Code Division Multiple Access One/ International Standard – 95;
EDGE : Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution; EV-DO: Evolution Data-Optimized;
WCDMA/HSPA+: Wideband Code Division Multiplexing Access/Evolved High Speed Packet Access;
TD-SCDMA: Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access; LTE: Long Time Evolution;
PDN: Public Data Network; PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network;
ISDN: Integrated Service Digital Network; SS-7: Signaling System N0.7;
IMSI: International Mobile Subscriber Identity

Reference

[1] Kaveh Pahlavan, Prashant Krishnamurthy-Principles of Wireless Networks_ A Unified Approach

[2] QUALCOMM-the-evolution-of-mobile-technologies-1g-to-2g-to-3g-to-4g-lte

[3] Martin Sauter-From GSM to LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G_ An Introduction to Mobile Networks and Mobile
Broadband