GSM Bursts & Frames

Bursts and time slots in the Air

Interface TDMA Time Slot

... TDMA Frame

...
BTS

Bursts from Mobile Stations 2Mbit/s to BSC

 Burst:
 It is defined as the information present
in a particular time slot
 Each GSM RF carrier supports eight
timeslots and the data are transmitted
in the form of bursts that are designed
to fit within these slots.
 GSM burst types
TDMA FRAME ~ 4.615 ms

576.9 µs

tail S training S tail guard

encrypted bits encrypted bits
bits B sequence B bits period
57 57 8,25 bits
3 1 26 1 3
NORMAL BURST

tail tail guard

fixed bits ("0")
bits bits period
142 8,25 bits
3 3
FREQUENCY CORRECTION BURST
GSM burst types (2)
tail extended training tail guard
encrypted bits encrypted bits period
bits sequence bits
39 39 8,25
3 64 3 bits

SYNCHRONISATION BURST

tail tail guard

mixed bits
bits bits period
142 8,25 bits
3 3
DUMMY BURST

ext. tail synchronisation tail

encrypted bits extended guard period
bits sequence bits
8 36 68,25 bits
41 3
ACCESS BURST
 Burst types

The information contained in one time slot is a burst. 5 types of bursts are available

 Norm al bu rs t
Used to send all other logical channel information.
 Freq uency cor re cti on bur st
Used to transmit the FCCH channel.
 Syn chr onisat ion b urs t
Used to transmit synchronisation information.
 Acces s bu rs t
Used to send RACH information.
It has a long guard period to allow the BTS to calculate the MS distance
from the BTS and to provide timing advance information to the MS.
 Dumm y burs t
Used to fill up unused timeslots, which transmits the BCCH channel.
No real information.
 Normal Burst

T3 Coded Data S1 Training S1 Coded T3 GP

57 Sequence 26 Data 57 8.25

148 bits = 0.54612 msec

This burst is used to carry information on TCH and on the control channels
BCCH, PCH, AGCH, SACCH and FACCH.

Note: GP (Guard Period)

 Normal burst
 The tail bi ts (T) are a group of 3 bits set to zero and placed at
the beginning and the end of a burst.
 The coded data bits corresponds to two groups, of 57 bi ts
each, containing signaling or user data.
 The stea ling fl ag s (S) indicate, to the receiver, whether block
contains data or is "stolen"
 The train ing sequ ence has a length of 26 bits . It is used to
adapt parameters of receiver to the current path propagation
characteristics. It synchronizes the receiver, thus masking out
multipath propagation effects.
 Strongest signal selected in case of multipath propagation
 The guard peri od (GP), with a length of 8.25 bits , is used to
avoid a possible overlap of two mobiles information. Z
 Frequency Correction Burst
 The most simple format of all the bursts is
used for the frequency correction burst,
which is transmitted only in the frequency
correction channel (FCCH).
 The frequency correction burst is also used
by MSs as a frequency reference for their
internal timebase s.
 All 148 bits (142 bits + 6 tail bits) are coded
with 0 and frequency a pure sinewave is
transmitted which is the frequency with which
MS has to tune with.
Synchronization Burst
 The synchronization burst is used to transmit
synchronization channel information (SCH).
 As its name suggests, this burst carries
details of the GSM frame structure and allows
an MS to fully synchronize with the BTS.
 The synchronization burst is the first burst
that the MS has to demodulate and, for this
reason, the training sequence is extended to
64 bits. It also allows larger multipath delay
spreads to be resolved.
Access Burst
 In contrast to the bursts described so far, the access
burst comes in a rather unique format because of its
special tasks.
 A mobile station uses the access burst only for the
initial access to a BTS.
 MS does not know the current distance to the BTS it
generally is uncertain if the access burst arrives with
in specified time frame and there exists chances of
overlapping with other bursts.
 To ensure that an access burst arrives at the BTS
during the proper time period the number of bits for
the access burst was set to only 88 bits along with
increased guard band bits of 68.25.
 The purpose of this extra free space is
to measure the distance between MS
and BTS at the beginning of a
connection.