PROCEDURE IN GSM

-POWER CONTROL

-HANDOVER
-DISCONTINUOUS TRANSMISSION-DTX
RTTC Guwahati

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Procedure In GSM
The Radio Resource management Key
Procedure in GSM are as: -Power Control in GSM Network
-Handover & type of Handover
-Discontinuous transmission DTX Mode

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Procedure In GSM
Role of Different Procedure in GSM as follow:-

Establish stable connections between the mobile stations

and the BSC (Base Station Controller)
Maintain them despite user movement for the duration
of a call.
Release the connections between the mobile stations
and the BSC.

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Procedure In GSM-Power control

POWER CONTROL
Power control enables the mobile station and/or the BTS to
increase or decrease the transmission power on a per-radio
link basis.
Power Control is separately performed for the uplink and
downlink.
In both cases the BSC is responsible for initiating Power
Control; the mobile station and the BTS adopt transmit

power according to the BSC Power Control commands.

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The maximum nominal output power of a

GSM 900 Class 4 MS is 33 dbm (2W)
Simple calculation:0 dbm =1 mw, 3 dbm=2 mw, 6 dbm= 4 mw, 9 dbm=8mw,
12 dbm=16mw, 15 dbm=32mw, 18 dbm=64mw,
21 dbm=128mw, 24 dbm=256mw, 27 dbm=512mw,

30 dbm=1024mw, 33 dbm=2W.

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Procedure In GSM-Power control

PERIODICAL MEASURING

The mobile station measures periodically the performance of

the downlink, and sends the Measurements in the SACCH
(Slow Associated Control Channel) via the serving BTS to the

BSC.
it transfers the measurements in the SACCH to the BSC every
480ms i.e.2 Hz. This is also the power control rate in GSM

Network.

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Procedure In GSM-Power control

MEASUREMENTS- mobile station is active on a call

DOWNLINK/UPLINK MEASUREMENTS- Strength of the

signal being receiving from its serving BTS & MS (in
dBm)
Quality of the signal being received from its serving BTS
& MS (in bit error rate).

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Procedure In GSM-Power control

REASONS FOR POWER CONTROL

Power Control is to save mobile station battery power.

Power Control is improving the carrier-to-interference
ratio within the cellular network
It also decrease interference caused on the other calls in
the surrounding area.

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
HANDOVER- NEUTRALISE MS MOBILITY EFFECT
It is process of automatically switching a call in progress
from one traffic channel to another to neutralize the
adverse effects of user movements.

Handover process will normally only be started if power

control is not helpful anymore.
Handover measurements done on SAACH but final trigger
of Handover done on FACCH.

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
HANDOVER TRIGGERS OBJECTIVE
1. Maintain a good speech quality
2. Minimize the number of calls dropped
3. Maximize the amount of time the mobile station is in

the best cell

4. Minimize the number of handovers.
5. Neutralize the effect of user mobility

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
HANDOVER PROCESS
As a mobile station moves away from its serving BTS towards the

coverage area of neighboring BTSs(candidate )

The mobile station measurement reports will show a gradual

decrease in signal strength from its serving BTS while showing an
increase in measured signal strength from one or more neighboring
BTSs.

serving BSC to analyze the measurement reports from the mobile

station and to decide when a handover should be performed as per
defined Handover Margin (Default HO Margin 5 dbm, can be
increase or decrease)
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 The hand-over process may be of as consisting of three

phases Recognition that handover is required.

Decision of a target cell.

Execution of the handover.

Allocation and connection of new channel.

Reallocation and release of old channel.

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Procedure In GSM-Handover

BSC receives measurements data about the performance of

the air interface from its serving BTSs and mobile stations and
than decide when to trigger the handover.

DOWNLINK MEASUREMENTS

Quality of the signal being received from its serving BTS (in
bit error rate)
Signal strength of the 6 best neighboring BTS downlink

control channels (candidate list). In 7 cell cluster N/W.

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
UPLINK MEASUREMENTS

The BTS measures and reports the following measurements

to the BSC regarding the performance of the uplink:
Strength of the signal being receiving from the mobile station

Quality of the signal being received from the mobile station.

Distance between the serving BTS and the mobile station (in
meters)

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
Conditions that trigger the Handovers:1.

Distance (or propagation delay) between the mobile

station and the BTS becomes too big:-If the timing advance
for the mobile station becomes too big, because it is too far away
from the base station, handover has to take place to a cell that is
closer to the mobile station

2.

Received signal level (or signal strength) on the downlink or uplink

becomes too bad

3.

Received signal quality on the downlink or uplink becomes too bad

4.

Path loss situation for the mobile station to another cell is better
i.e. less path loss in neighbour cell

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
HANDOVER TYPES: four types of handovers: -

1. Internal or intra-BSS handover, which can be:

Intra BTS handover
Inter-BTS handover.
2. External or inter-BSS handover, which can be:
Intra-MSC handover.
Inter-MSC handover.

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
INTRA-BSS INTRA BTS HANDOVER

mobile station

is handed over to a different radio

channel within the same BTS area i.e. handover in sector

of same BTS.
A probably cause for this type of handover would be
poor signal strength, possibly due to co-channel
interference.

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Procedure In GSM-Handover
Intra BSS, Inter cell Handover process: The MS is continuously listening to the broadcast
channel, measuring the strength of currently used
radio channel and neighboring channels and
reporting the result to the BSS.

The BSC allocates a new radio channel and instructs

the MS to re-tune to it
The MS tunes to the new radio channel and sends
Handover Complete to the BSS
The BSS informs the MSC about the new location of
the MS
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18

Intra BSS, Inter cell Handover

BSS

MS

MSC/
VLR

Signal Strength Measurements

1

SACCH

Handover
Command FACCH

Handover Access
FACCH

Handover
Complete
4

FACCH

Handover
Performed
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19

Procedure In GSM-Handover
INTRA-BSS, INTER BTS HANDOVER

The mobile station moves from one BTS towards another

BTS area both are connected to same BSC.
BSC will determine from the signal strength
measurement reports to trigger the handover ,without
the involvement of MSC .
BSC is responsible for such type of Handover.

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Procedure In GSM-RRM
INTER-BSS INTRA- MSC HANDOVER
The mobile station moves from one cell area to another cell &
both cell belong to different BSC ,but both BSC connected to
same MSC.
MSC will trigger the handover to the candidate base station
from serving base station.
MSC will switch voice paths from the old BSC to the new
BSC.

The decision of Handover is taken by MSC.

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Procedure In GSM-RRM
INTER BSS, INTER-MSC HANDOVER

The mobile station moves from two different cell ,both

cell connected to different BSC & both BSC are
connected to different MSC.
Different MSCs are controlled by GMSC of same PLMN.
The decision of handover based on signal strength is
here taken by GMSC.

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Procedure In GSM-RRM
DISCONTINUOUS TRANSMISSION PROCESS
In the DTX mode:- speech is encoded at 13kbit/s when the user is
effectively speaking, but in a speech pause information is
transmitted at a bit rate around 500 bit/s.
REASONS FOR DTX
When DTX is applied, actual transmission on the radio path is

reduced i.e. less bit transmission on air interface.

This will cause a decrease of the interference level in co-channel

cells (using the same frequency) i.e. improve C/I (Carrier to
interference)

when using DTX in the uplink mode:- it saves battery power for the
mobile station.
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Procedure In GSM-DTX
DTX can be enabled or disabled for the uplink and/or
downlink mode on a per-cell basis.
DTX mode does not save the radio channel, but
definitely , improve the networks quality of service.

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Procedure In GSM-DTX
figure shows Discontinuous Transmission (DTX).

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Procedure In GSM-DTX
comfort noise:- The low rate flow is sufficient to

encode the background noise, which is re-generated to

ensure that the listener does not think that the
connection is broken .

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Procedure In GSM-DTX
VAD (Voice Activity Detector):-At the transmission side,

the voice activity detection function detects whether speech

will be transmitted on a particular radio link or not.

When it detects that no speech has to be transmitted,

transmission will cease after a defined period of time after

speech activity has stopped
Bit rate reduced from 13 Kbps to 500 kbps during pause or

silence condition.

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Procedure In GSM-DTX
SID(Silence Indicator Descriptor ):-The transmitter

will periodically send a signal called a Silence Indicator

Descriptor frame every certain period of time.
The Silence Indicator Block provides the comfort noise
level information to the mobile station or BTS.
Note that transmitting in DTX mode does not save
timeslots on the air-interface.

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Procedure In GSM-Call Re-establishment

CALL RE-ESTABLISHMENT
Call re-establishment enables the mobile station to resume
the contact with the cellular network when the connection to
a particular BTS is suddenly broken.

This may happen because of a brutal propagation loss, due

to obstacles such as bridges and tunnels big high rise building
etc.

Call re-establishment is a GSM feature that can be enabled or

disabled on a per cell basis.

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Procedure In GSM-Call Re-establishment

CALL RE-ESTABLISHMENT PROCESS

After the communication has been lost, the mobile

station selects the cell with the highest signal strength
from the neighbor cell list.
The neighbor cell list contains the cell identifiers to
which a handover is allowed. It is kept in the BSC of a
particular cell. The list is transferred to the mobile
station in the BCCH during the registration phase of a
wireless call
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Procedure In GSM-Call Re-establishment

The mobile station uses the neighbor cell list by only
measuring the signals from the BTSs located in the cells that
are on the list.
The selected cell identifier is used to re-establish the
connection to that particular cell by following the normal

access procedures.
At the moment of time the communication is lost, a timer is
initiated in the serving MSC.

When the timer expires, it is not possible anymore for the

mobile station to re-establish the call.

A typical value for the timer is 4 seconds.

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For circulation to Trainees only