GSM: Global System for Mobile

Communications Tutorial
- tutorial about the basics of GSM - Global System for Mobile communications
(originally Groupe Special Mobile) the first global digital cellular
telecommunicatiosn system.
GSM TUTORIAL INCLUDES

The GSM system is the most widely used cellular technology in use in the world today. It has been a
particularly successful cellular phone technology for a variety of reasons including the ability to roam
worldwide with the certainty of being able to be able to operate on GSM networks in exactly the
same way - provided billing agreements are in place.

The letters GSM originally stood for the words Groupe Speciale Mobile, but as it became clear this
cellular technology was being used world wide the meaning of GSM was changed to Global System
for Mobile Communications. Since this cellular technology was first deployed in 1991, the use of
GSM has grown steadily, and it is now the most widely cell phone system in the world. GSM reached
the 1 billion subscriber point in February 2004, and is now well over the 3 billion subscriber mark and
still steadily increasing.

What is GSM - system overview

The GSM system was designed as a second generation (2G) cellular phone technology. One of the
basic aims was to provide a system that would enable greater capacity to be achieved than the
previous first generation analogue systems. GSM achieved this by using a digital TDMA (time
division multiple access approach). By adopting this technique more users could be accommodated
within the available bandwidth. In addition to this, ciphering of the digitally encoded speech was
adopted to retain privacy. Using the earlier analogue cellular technologies it was possible for anyone
with a scanner receiver to listen to calls and a number of famous personalities had been
"eavesdropped" with embarrassing consequences.
GSM services
Speech or voice calls are obviously the primary function for the GSM cellular system. To achieve this
the speech is digitally encoded and later decoded using a vocoder. A variety of vocoders are
available for use, being aimed at different scenarios.

In addition to the voice services, GSM cellular technology supports a variety of other data services.
Although their performance is nowhere near the level of those provided by 3G, they are nevertheless
still important and useful. A variety of data services are supported with user data rates up to 9.6
kbps. Services including Group 3 facsimile, videotext and teletex can be supported.

One service that has grown enormously is the short message service. Developed as part of the
GSM specification, it has also been incorporated into other cellular technologies. It can be thought of
as being similar to the paging service but is far more comprehensive allowing bi-directional
messaging, store and forward delivery, and it also allows alphanumeric messages of a reasonable
length. This service has become particularly popular, initially with the young as it provided a simple,
low fixed cost.

GSM basics
The GSM cellular technology had a number of design aims when the development started:

 It should offer good subjective speech quality

 It should have a low phone or terminal cost

 Terminals should be able to be handheld

 The system should support international roaming

 It should offer good spectral efficiency

 The system should offer ISDN compatibility

The resulting GSM cellular technology that was developed provided for all of these. The overall
system definition for GSM describes not only the air interface but also the network or infrastructure
technology. By adopting this approach it is possible to define the operation of the whole network to
enable international roaming as well as enabling network elements from different manufacturers to
operate alongside each other, although this last feature is not completely true, especially with older
items.

GSM cellular technology uses 200 kHz RF channels. These are time division multiplexed to enable
up to eight users to access each carrier. In this way it is a TDMA / FDMA system.

The base transceiver stations (BTS) are organised into small groups, controlled by a base station
controller (BSC) which is typically co-located with one of the BTSs. The BSC with its associated
BTSs is termed the base station subsystem (BSS).
Further into the core network is the main switching area. This is known as the mobile switching
centre (MSC). Associated with it is the location registers, namely the home location register (HLR)
and the visitor location register (VLR) which track the location of mobiles and enable calls to be
routed to them. Additionally there is the Authentication Centre (AuC), and the Equipment Identify
Register (EIR) that are used in authenticating the mobile before it is allowed onto the network and for
billing. The operation of these are explained in the following pages.

Last but not least is the mobile itself. Often termed the ME or mobile equipment, this is the item that
the end user sees. One important feature that was first implemented on GSM was the use of a
Subscriber Identity Module. This card carried with it the users identity and other information to allow
the user to upgrade a phone very easily, while retaining the same identity on the network. It was also
used to store other information such as "phone book" and other items. This item alone has allowed
people to change phones very easily, and this has fuelled the phone manufacturing industry and
enabled new phones with additional features to be launched. This has allowed mobile operators to
increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) by ensuring that users are able to access any new
features that may be launched on the network requiring more sophisticated phones.

GSM system overview

The table below summarises the main points of the GSM system specification, showing some of the
highlight features of technical interest.
SPECIFICATION SUMMARY FOR GSM CELLULAR SYSTEM
Multiple access technology FDMA / TDMA
Duplex technique FDD
Uplink frequency band 890 - 915 MHz
(basic 900 MHz band only)
Downlink frequency band 933 -960 MHz
(basic 900 MHz band only)
Channel spacing 200 kHz
Modulation GMSK
Speech coding Various - original was
RPE-LTP/13
Speech channels per RF 8
channel
Channel data rate 270.833 kbps
Frame duration 4.615 ms

Further developments of GSM

GSM was a particularly successful mobile telecommunications system. Initially it had been intended
for use within Europe, but within a relatively short while the system was being used well beyond the
borders of Europe, becoming an internationally accepted system.
In addition to its success as a voice communications system, it was developed beyond the basic
voice capability to be able to carry data. With the Internet becoming more widely used, GSM was
developed to provide a packet data capability. The first major development was in the form of GPRS.

In its time, the GSM cell or mobile phone system became the most popular cellular
telecommunications system in the world.

GSM handsets became available at affordable and the networks offered a robust and reliable
service.

Along with this, the GSM system provided a feature-rich suite of capabilities for its time with
applications such as SMS text messaging, international roaming, SIM cards and the like. It was also
enhanced with technologies including GPRS and EDGE. To achieve this level of success took many
years and was the result of both technical development and international cooperation. The GSM
history can be seen to be a story of cooperation across Europe, and one that nobody thought would
lead to the success that GSM is today.

GSM history beginnings

Although now well in the past, the first cellular telecommunications systems represented a huge leap
in capabilities. The first cell phone systems that were developed used analogue technology.
Typically they used frequency-modulated carriers for the voice channels and data was carried on a
separate shared control channel. Two of the major systems that were in existence were the AMPS
(Advanced Mobile Phone System) that was used in the USA and many other countries and TACS
(Total Access Communications System) that was used in the UK as well as many other countries
around the world.

Another system that was employed, and achieved the milestone of being the first system to be
commercially deployed. It was the Nordic Mobile Telephone system (NMT). This was developed by a
consortium of companies in Scandinavia and proved that international cooperation was possible.

The success of these systems proved to be their downfall. The use of all the systems installed
around the globe increased dramatically and the effects of the limited frequency allocations were
soon noticed. To overcome these a number of actions were taken. A system known as E-TACS or
Extended-TACS was introduced giving the TACS system further channels. In the USA another
system known as Narrowband AMPS (NAMPS) was developed.
Development story progresses
It soon became obvious that cellular technology needed to be more efficient. With the experience
gained from the NMT system, showing that it was possible to develop a system across national
boundaries, and with the political situation in Europe lending itself to international cooperation it was
decided to develop a new Pan-European System. Furthermore it was realized that economies of
scale would bring significant benefits. This was the beginnings of the GSM system.

To achieve the basic definition of a new system a meeting was held in 1982 under the auspices of
the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT). They formed a study group called the
Groupe Special Mobile ( GSM ) to study and develop a pan-European public land mobile system.
Several basic criteria that the new cellular technology would have to meet were set down for the new
GSM system to meet. These included: good subjective speech quality, low terminal and service cost,
support for international roaming, ability to support handheld terminals, support for range of new
services and facilities, spectral efficiency, and finally ISDN compatibility.

With the levels of under-capacity being projected for the analogue systems, this gave a real sense of
urgency to the GSM development. Although decisions about the exact nature of the cellular
technology were not taken at an early stage, all parties involved had been working toward a digital
system. This decision was finally made in February 1987. This gave a variety of advantages. Greater
levels of spectral efficiency could be gained, and in addition to this the use of digital circuitry would
allow for higher levels of integration in the circuitry. This in turn would result in cheaper handsets
with more features. Nevertheless significant hurdles still needed to be overcome. For example, many
of the methods for encoding the speech within a sufficiently narrow bandwidth needed to be
developed, and this posed a significant risk to the project. Nevertheless the GSM system had been
started.