IP OVER CELLULAR NETWORKS

Packet Mode in Wireless Networks:

Overview of Transition to
Third Generation
Behcet Sarikaya, University of Aizu

ABSTRACT (TDMA), and CDMA are the most widely used

physical-layer multiple access techniques.
This article presents an overview of packet T h e infrastructure of cellular networks
mode data transfer in cellular networks. Leading includes mobile switching centers (MSCs), which
2G + cellular networks of GSM GPRS and IS- control one or more BSs and interface them to
95B are introduced. Architecture and protocol the wired public switched telephone network,
layers in two leading third-generation cellular and a central home location register (HLR) and
network proposals, cdma2000 and WCDMA, are visiting location register (VLR) for each MSC.
presented. Mobile IP support in various cellular The HLR and VLR are databases that keep the
networks is discussed next. With efficient sup- registered and present locations of MSs to be
port of Mobile IP in cellular networks, seamless used in handoffs (the process of handing a call
integration of cellular networks with the Internet over to the new cell when an MS moves).
is expected to be reached at a rapid pace. The article continues by introducing 2G +
systems. We then discuss third-generation (3G)
INTRODUCTION wireless cellular networks, which are expected to
be deployed beginning this year. We also have a
Existing wireless networks are mostly digital section on Mobile IP support. Finally, we pre-
and support voice communication at a low bit sent some concluding remarks.
rate of 9.6-32 kbis. Fueled by the explosive
growth of the Internet, applications a r e
demanding that higher capacity, higher data
2G + SYSTEMS
rates, and advanced multimedia services be sup- Two examples of the macrocellular packet mode
ported in the near future. The evolution to standards are GSM’s General Packet Radio Sys-
higher data rates and more advanced services tem (GPRS), a TDMA-based system, and IS-
occurs in two steps. The first step is the emer- 9SA’s IS-9SB, a CDMA-based system.
gence of 2G + systems in which second-genera- Higher-capacity transmission is achieved with
tion (2G) systems such as Global System for multislot mode in TDMA and multiple codes in
Mobile Communications (GSM) and IS-95 arc CDMA-based systems. In some cases, a higher-
extended to provide high-speed data communi- level modulation format is used to increase the
cations eithcr without changing the air interface rate of transmission.
or by using improved coding techniques. The
second step is to provide higher capacity, data THE EVOLUTION OF GSM PACKETMODE
rates, and multimedia services. Wideband code- GPRS - GPRS is the packet mode extension to
division multiple access (WCDMA) standard GSM. It uses the same air interface but with a
proposals such as the cdma2000 system include new physical channel called a 52-multiframe,
a greatly enhanced air interface to support which is made of two 26 control multiframes of
wider bandwidths for improved capacity and voice mode GSM. Packet mode control and data
higher data rates. channels are mapped into different slots of the
In a ccllular network, therc are radio ports with 52-multiframe, which takes 240 ms. 52-multiframe
antennas connected to base stations (BSs) serving consists of 12 blocks (BO-B11) of four frames to
the user equipment, the mobile stations (MSs). which several packet mode logical channels can
The communication from the MS to the BS is the be mapped, and four additional frames.
uplink, and from the BS to the MS the downlink. The architecture of GPRS is shown in Fig. 1.
The downlink is contentionless, but the uplink is The serving GPRS support node (SGSN) is in
accessed by several MSs; therefore, another impor- charge of one or more GPRS BSs. The base sta-
tant characteristic is the multiple access technique tion controller (BSC) monitors and controls sev-
Editorial liaison: M. used for its uplink. Frequency- division multiple eral BSs or base transceiver stations (BTSs).
Ulema access (FDMA), time-division multiple access The BSC and its BTSs form a base station sub-

164 0163-6804/00/$10.00 0 2000 IEEE IEEE CommunicationsMagazinc * September 2000

system (BSS). A BTS and the MSs in its control
form a cell. The gateway GPRS support node
(GGSN) is for interconnection with the Inter-
net. The registration of packet mode MSs is
done with the architectural entities, the
MSCNLR and HLR.
Logical channels of GPRS are the packet
common control channel (PCCCH), which com-
prises logical channels for common control sig-
naling used for packet data; packet random
access channel (PRACH) - uplink only, which
is used by an MS to initiate uplink transfer for
sending data or signaling information; packet
paging channel (PPCH) - downlink only, which
is used to page an MS prior to downlink packet Figure 1. GPRS architecture.
transfer; packet access grant channel (PAGCH)
- downlink only, which is used in the packet-
transfer establishment phase to send resource resource (RR) entities to support the unidirec-
assignment to an MS prior to packet transfer; tional transfer of LLC PDUs on packet data
and packet broadcast control channel (PBCCH) physical channels. The TBF is allocated some
- downlink only, which is used to broadcast radio resources on one or more PDCHs and
packet-data-specific system information. The comprises a number of RLC/MAC blocks car-
packet data traffic channel (PDTCH) is a chan- rying one or more LLC PDUs. A radio block
nel allocated for data transfer. It is temporarily consists of a 1-byte MAC header, followed by
dedicated to one MS. In multislot operation, one RLC data or an RLC/MAC control block and
MS may use multiple PDTCHs in parallel for terminated by a 16-bit block check sequence
individual packet transfer. All PDTCHs are uni- (BCS). It is carried by four normal bursts (i.e.,
directional, either uplink (PDTCHIU) for a it is 57 bytes long). A TBF is temporary and is
mobile-originated packet transfer or downlink maintained only for the duration of the data
(PDTCH/D) for a mobile-terminated packet transfer. Each T B F is assigned a temporary
transfer. A packet associated control channel flow identity (TFI) by the network which is
(PACCH) conveys signaling information related unique in both directions.
to a given MS. The PACCH also carries resource The GRPS allows a maximum of eight slots
assignment and reassignment messages, assign- per frame to be allocated to the PDTCH on
ing a capacity for PDTCH(s) and for further the downlink and uplink on all radio blocks
occurrences of the PACCH. BO-B11. On the downlink, an IP datagram of
A multislot MS can be assigned up to eight 1500 bytes, to be transmitted as an LLC PDU,
slots in any frame of any of 12 blocks. In a given is fragmented into 29 RLC blocks. These blocks
cell up to four downlink/uplink pairs of 52-multi- can be transmitted using a total of 116 consec-
frames can be generated on four different pairs utive bursts. During one 52-multiframe with an
of frequencies. 8 slots/frame dynamic allocation scheme, 3.3
Protocol layering in GRPS is as follows. The such IP datagrams can be transmitted, yielding
Subnetwork Dependent Convergence Protocol a maximum data rate of 165.5 kb/s for GPRS
(SNDCP) does the convergence. Logical link downlink.
control (LLC) is the upper layer of medium On the uplink, an IP datagram of 1500 bytes,
access control. Radio link control (RLC) and the to be transmitted as an LLC PDU, is fragmented
medium access control (MAC) protocol provide into 31 RLC blocks which can be transmitted in
reliable access to the radio link. 124 slots. During one 52-multiframe with an 8
Transmission/reception data flow is shown slots/frame dynamic allocation scheme, three
in Fig. 2. A temporary block flow (TBF) is a such IP datagrams can be transmitted, yielding a
physical connection used by the two radio maximum data rate of 154 kb/s for GPRS uplink.

IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000 165

 THE EVOLUTIONOF IS-95 TO An IP datagram of 1500 bytes will be seg-
Wideband CDMA mented into 79 RLP format A data frames at 9.6
PACKETMODE DATA kb/s and 49 frames at 14.4 kb/s. Assuming one
is being FCC and seven SCCs are to be used, it takes 10
IS-95B - IS-9SB is the packet mode version of frames for 9.6 and seven slots for 14.4 rate sets
standardized by direct sequence CDMA standard IS-95A. IS-9SB to completely transmit this datagram. The result-
a consortium supports multiple codes per MS on both the ing maximum downlink data rates are 60 and 86
downlink and uplink. kbis for rates sets 1 and 2, respectively.
of leading Physical channels on the downlink are the In the uplink, the MS sends an access probe
standardization pilot channel, paging channels, and traffic chan- in one R-ACH. An R-ACH is organized in slots
nels; and on the uplink, access and traffic chan- of a multiple number of 20 ms frames (e.g., five
organization nels. The BS always generates the pilot channel. frames or 100 ms slots). After transmitting the
One synchronization channel and up to seven access probe, the MS waits a specified period,
the United Sta paging channels can be generated, in which case TA, which has a minimum value of 160 ms to
Europe, and Asia, SS code channels to be used as traffic channels receive an acknowledgment. If an acknowledg-
are generated. Up to 63 traffic channels can be ment is received, packet transmission can start
and the resulting generated at the downlink. Each traffic channel on the FCC and SCCs. The resulting maximum
standards are contains one fundamental code channel (FCC) uplink data rates are 26 and 30 kbis for rates
and up to seven supplemental code channels sets 1 and 2, respectively. These rates are
being harmonized (SCCs). The pilot channel provides CDMA extremely low compared to downlink rates.
infrastructural support such as demodulation However, if the MS continues to send subse-
by /TU-R in its and power control measurements. The sync quent IP datagrams after the access probe, data
IMT-2000 channel provides synchronization information rates close to the downlink rates of 60 and 86
such as paging channel data rate and system kb/s can be achieved.
harmonization time. It operates at 1.2 kbis rate. During packet data communication between
initiative. On the uplink, the access channel, like the an MS and an Internet node, an interworking
PACCH of GPRS, is used by an MS to initiate a function (IWF) acts as a gateway, and the layer-
call, to respond to a paging channel message ing shown in Fig. 3 is in effect. The Internet’s
from the BS, and for location update. Each Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is used as the link
access control channel is associated with a down- layer. The network layer employs the Internet
link paging channel; therefore, there can be up Protocol (IP).
to seven access channels. Access channels sup-
port 4.8 kb/s data rate only. Traffic channels
consist of a single FCC and u p to seven SCCs THIRD- GE NERATION
per user. A total of 64 uplink physical channels
can be generated in a cell on a given frequency. WIRELESS SYSTEMS
Downlink/uplink SCCs can use only the full Many 3G wireless systems are expected to be
rates of 9.6 or 14.4 kbis. based on WCDMA technology. Wideband
The data link layer in IS-9SB is organized as CDMA is being standardized by a consortium of
the multiplexing sublayer, layer 2 for primary traf- leading standardization organization of the Unit-
fic, for example, the radio link control protocol ed States, Europe, and Asia, and the resulting
(RLP) and upper layers for primary traffic con- standards are being harmonized by the Interna-
taining the LLC protocol. RLC provides reliable tional Telecommunication Union - Radiocom-
data link control and stream-oriented delivery of munication Standardization Sector (ITU-R) in
LLC data. The radio link is divided into 20 ms its International Mobile Telecommunications in
time slots. During a time slot an MS can trans- 2000 (IMT-2000) harmonization initiative. We
mitlreceive packets containing 192 bits, of which will discuss two leading proposals: cdma2000,
172 arc information bits at full rate of 9.6 kb/s, or which is an extension of IS-9SB, and WCDMA,
288 bits, of which 267 arc information bits at 14.4 proposed by several European institutions.
kb/s using one FCC and up to seven SCCs.
Packet mode message exchange is originated CDMA2000
by an MS using fundamental code channels. A Main parameters of cdma2000 arc a) chip rates
BS may decide to assign some supplemental (Mchips/s) of N x 1.2288 ( N = 1, 3, 6, 9, 12),
code channels during packet mode communica- each corresponding to R F channel bandwidths
tion. In this case the BS sends a supplemental (MHz) of N x 1.25; b) 0 or 1 SCCiservice at 9.6
channel assignment message and then begins kb/s to 2 Mb/s; and c) a frame length of 5, 10,
transmitting on the downlink SCCs. If the MS 20, 40, and 80 ms [3].
requires more bandwidth, it sends a supplemen- Several reverse and forward link physical
tal channel request message to the BS on the channels are supported. The reverse pilot chan-
reverse FCC. The BS replies with a supplemen- nel (R-PICH) is an unmodulated spread spec-
tal channel assignment message which is for- trum signal used to assist the BS in detecting MS
warded to the FCC. The MS then begins transmission. The MS also inserts a reverse
transmitting on the assigned reverse SCCs. power control subchannel in the R-PICH. The
In IS-95B the segmentation and reassembly reverse power control subchannel is used to
of packet data are done at the RLP layer. For transmit forward power control commands. The
rate set 1 (9.6 kbis) the maximum length is 19 access channel (R-ACH) is used by the MS to
bytes, and for rate set 2 the maximum length is initiate communication with the BS and to
31 bytes. Format B data frames have a sequence respond to paging channel messages. The
field of 8 bits and 20 octets of data for rate 1, enhanced access channel (R-EACH) is used by
and 32 octets of data for rate 2. the MS to initiate communication with the BS or

166 IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000

 Different state
machines are
kept for each
active packet or
circuit data at the
MAC layer. Link
access protocol
sublayer supports
highly reliable
point-to-point
over the air
transmission of
signaling and
circuit mode data
traffic using
automatic repeat
to respond to an MS-directed message. The overhead information. The quick paging chan- request
reverse common control channel (R-CCCH) is nel ( F - Q P C H ) is used by the BS t o inform
used for the transmission of user and signaling MSs. The common power control channel (F- techniques.
information to the BS when reverse traffic chan- CPCCH) is used by the BS to transmit com-
nels are not in use. mon power control subchannels (1
The radio configurations (RCs) specify the bitisubchannel) for the power control of multi-
data rates, channel encoding, and modulation ple reverse common control channels and
parameters supported on the traffic channel. enhanced access channels. The common assign-
For spreading rates 1 and 3, there are six RCs ment channel (F-CACH) is used by the BS to
for the reverse link and nine RCs for the for- provide quick assignment of the reverse com-
ward link. RCs 1 and 2 are specified to provide mon control channel. The forward common
backward compatibility with Telecommunica- control channel (F-CCCH) is used by the BS to
tionsiElectronics Industries Association transmit MS-specific messages. For RCs 1 and
(TIA/EIA)-95-B systems. RCs provide different 2, the forward traffic channels include the for-
rate sets obtained from the basic rates of 9600 ward fundamental channel (F-FCH) and for-
and 14,400 bis. The reverse traffic channels with ward supplemental code channel (F-SCCH).
RCs 1 and 2 include the reverse fundamental For RCs-9, the forward traffic channels include
channel (R-FCH) and reverse supplemental t h e forward dedicated control channel (F-
code channel (R-SCCH). The reverse traffic D C C H ) , forward fundamental channel (F-
channels with radio configurations 3-6 include F C H ) , and forward supplemental channel
the reverse dedicated control channel ( R - (F-SCH). Up to seven F-SCCHs and up to two
DCCH), R-FCH, and reverse supplemental F-SCHs are generated.
channel (R-SCH). The R-DCCH and R-FCH Different state machines are kept for each
are used for the transmission of user and signal- active packet or circuit data at the MAC layer.
ing information to the BS during a call. The The link access protocol (LAC) sublayer sup-
RSCCH and R-SCH are used for the transmis- ports highly reliable point-to-point over-the-air
sion of user information to the BS during a call. transmission of signaling and circuit mode data
U p to seven R-SCCHs and up to two R-SCHs traffic using automatic repeat request (ARQ)
can be generated for each MS. techniques. The logical channel structure of
The forward pilot channel (F-PICH), trans- cdma2000 is based on the packet service state
mit diversity pilot channel (F-TDPICH), auxil- transitions. A forwardireverse dedicated MAC
iary pilot channels (F-APICHs), and auxiliary logical channel (fir-dmch control) carries MAC
transmit diversity pilot channels (F-ATD- messages. This channel is allocated in active and
PICHs) are unmodulated spread spectrum sig- control hold states. A forwardireverse dedicated
nals used f o r synchronization by a mobile traffic logical channel (fir-dtch) is used to carry
station operating within the coverage area of user data. It is allocated throughout the active
the BS. The sync channel (F-SYNCH) is used state. A forwardireverse common signaling
by MSs operating within the coverage area of channel (fir-csch) and a forwardireverse dedicat-
the BS to acquire initial time synchronization. ed signaling channel (fir-dsch) are used to carry
The paging channel (F-PCH) is used by the BS signaling information.
to transmit system overhead information and Forward and reverse physical channels may
MS-specific messages. The broadcast channel support 5 ms frames, 20 ms frames, or both 5 and
(F-BCH) is used by the BS to transmit system 20 ms frames. 5 ms frames are used to carry MAC

IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000 167

 messages, whereas 20 ms frames carry upper laycr adds a header of 8 octets [5]. The resulting
signaling and RLP frames. In the downlink, the packets are transmitted by RLP in several frag-
forward common logical channels of f-csch are ments with each frame carrying 256 octets of
mapped to F-CCCH or F-PCH. The forward link user data, each fragment to fit into 2592 octets,
logical channels f-dsch, f-dtch, and f-dmch are which is transmitted during one frame of 20
mapped to F-FCH. The forward link logical chan- ms. This yields a maximum d a t a rate of
nel f-dtch is mapped to F-SCH, and f-dsch, f-dtch, 1,020,800 b/s without considering retransmis-
and f-dmch are mapped to F-DCCH. sions. On a reverse link logical channel the
The reverse link logical channels r-dsch, r- same datagram takes at least 20 ms longer to
dtch, and r-dmch are mapped to R-FCH; r-dtch transmit due to multiple access on R - A C H
can also be mapped to R-SCH or R-DCCH. r- which reduces the maximum data rate. The
dsch and r-dmch are mapped to R-DCCH. The reverse link rate increases if the MS continues
reverse link logical channels r-csch, r-ctch, r- to transmit without waiting for another access
cmvch, r-cmsch, and r-cmdch are mapped to R- procedure while it approaches the rate of the
CCCH or R-ACH. downlink.
In order to gain access to one or more of the
limited number of traffic channels, MSs use the WCDMA
multiple access channels of R-CCCH or R-ACH Support for high-data-rate transmission (384
to make access probes or packet access requests. kbls with wide-area coverage, 2 Mb/s with local
A 20 ms frame is divided into 5 ms access probe coverage), asynchronous BS operation, high ser-
slots in which a short access request message can vice flexibility with support of multiple parallel
be transmitted by an MS. A traffic channel variable-rate services on each connection and a
assignment should normally be received during 10 ms frame length, and a chip rate of 3.84
the next frame. Failing that, the MS enters into Mchipsls are the key features of WCDMA, which
an exponential backoff procedure in which the has two versions: frequency-division duplex
access probe is retransmitted after exponentially (FDD) and time-division duplex (TDD). The
increasing the number of frame times. FDD version is designed to operate in either of
Access probes are made by MSs on R-ACH the following paired bands:
in order to send either a response to transac- 1920-1980MHz: uplink, 2110-2170 MHz:
tions initiated by the BS o r channel access downlink
requests autonomously. R-ACH is slotted and 1850-1910 MHz: uplink, 1930-1990MHz:
there is an offset between the slots of different downlink
parallel R-ACHs. After an initial backoff, the The European version of IMT-2000, the Uni-
MS sends a short message called an access versal Mobile Telecommunications System
probe. If no acknowledgment is received due to (UMTS), is composed of a core network (CN),
a collision, the MS waits for an exponentially connected with interface I , to the radio access
increasing backoff period before sending the network, called the UMTS Terrestrial Radio
access probe again. Access Network (UTRAN) which is connected
to the user equipment (UE) with interface U ,
High-speed Data Transfer - We take RC 6 (Fig. 4). The UTRAN consists of a set of radio
on the reverse link and R C 9 on the forward network subsystems (RNSs) connected to the
link, which provide 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 72 times CN through the I,. An RNS consists of a radio
14,400 b/s (i.e., with the maximum rate of network controller (RNC) and one o r more
1,036,800 b/s) as an example. This maximum rate node Bs. A node B is connected to the RNC
is possible at spreading rate 3 on a supplemen- through the Iub interface. The RNC is responsi-
tary channel (SCH). ble for the handover decisions that require sig-
High-speed packet data communication is naling to the UE. Inside UTRAN, the RNCs of
possible on the links between an MS and the the RNSs can be interconnected through the Zur.
packet data serving node (PDSN), using PPP as ILlrcan be conveyed over a physical direct con-
the link layer and IP as the network layer. The nection between RNCs or via any suitable trans-
MS is connected to the BS over the U , inter- port network. Each RNS is responsible for the
face. The BS with packet control function (PCF) resources of its set of cells, and each node B has
is connected to the PDSN over the Aqunter inter- one or more cells.
face. Once a PPP connection is established Protocol layer 2 of WCDMA is split into the
between the MS and the PDSN, the bandwidth following sublayers: MAC, RLC, Packet Data
(traffic channels) is allocated to the connection Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and broadcast/
on a dynamic basis. multicast control (BMC). Layer 3 and RLC are
On the U, interface the link layer protocol divided into control (C-) and user (U-) planes.
used is R L P type 3 [4], which uses negative PDCP and BMC exist in the U-plane only. In
acknowledgments to provide a reliable link layer the C-plane, layer 3 is partitioned into sublayers
packet mode transfer. Twelve-bit sequence num- where the lowest sublayer, denoted radio
bers are used, and the packet data is segmented resource control (RRC), interfaces with layer 2
into a maximum of 4096 octet segments, further and terminates in the UTRAN. The next sublay-
divided into frames as units of transmission. er provides “duplication avoidance” functionali-
Each frame can carry up to 256 octets of user ty, which prevents loss of data in case handovers
data and a 4-octet header. Each 20 ms RLP can terminate in the CN. In case of no change to the
receive, at most, 17 RLP frames. I , connection point, the RLC sublayer’s ARQ
Consider IP datagrams of 1500 octets to be functionality, which is closely coupled with the
transmitted on a forward link logical channel f- radio transmission technique used, prevents all
dtch at the rate of 1,036,800 b/s. The PPP layer loss of data.

168 IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000

 Figure 4.3GPP architecture (61.

LogicalITransport and Physical Channels - TFCI by the transmitter. The receiver derives
The characteristics of a transport channel are this information from TFCI without signaling
defined by its transport format (or format set), over the radio interface [7].
specifying the physical layer processing to be WCDMA in F D D mode supports several
applied to the transport channel in question, physical channels which transmit the data in thc
such as convolutional channel coding and inter- transport channels. Physical channels typically
leaving, and any service-specific rate matching as consist of a three-layer structure of superframes,
needed. Random access channel(s) (RACH) radio frames, and time slots. A superframe has a
(uplink), forward access channel(s) (FACH) duration of 720 ms and consists of 72 radio
(downlink), broadcast channel (BCH) (down- frames. A radio frame has a duration of 10 ms
link), paging channel (PCH) (downlink), syn- and consists of 15 time slots. Physical channels
chronization channel (SCH) (TDD downlink), are the uplink dedicated physical data channel
downlink shared channel(s) (DSCH), common (uplink DPDCH) and uplink dedicated physical
packet channel (CPCH) (FDD downlink), and control channel (uplink DPCCH). The uplink
uplink shared channel (USCH) (TDD) are com- DPDCH is used to carry dedicated data generat-
mon transport channels. The dedicated channel ed at layer 2 and above (i.e., the dedicated trans-
(DCH) (uplinkidownlink) and fast uplink signal- port channel, DCH). The uplink DPCCH is used
ing channel (FAUSCH) are dedicated transport t o carry control information (pilot symbols,
channels, power control commands, TFCI) generated at
Variable bit rate transmission in layer 1 is layer 1. The physical random access channel
achieved by associating a transport format or (PRACH) is used to carry the RACH. The phys-
format set to a transport channel. A transport ical common packet channel (PCPCH) is used to
block is a basic unit exchanged between layer 1 carry the CPCH. There is only one type of down-
and MAC entities and typically corresponds to link dedicated physical channel, the downlink
an RLC PDU. A transport block may be 20 bits dedicated physical channel (downlink DPCH).
of coded speech or 320 bits of RLC PDU. Layer The primary common pilot channel (CPICH)
1 adds cyclic redundancy check (CRC) into a serves as the phase reference; the primary com-
transport block. A transport block is transmitted mon control physical channel (P-CCPCH) is
during a transmission time interval which is 10 used to carry the BCH. The secondary CCPCH
ms or a multiple of 10 ms. A set of transport is used to carry the FACH and PCH. The SCH
blocks may be transferred during a transmission is a downlink signal used for cell search. The
time interval. The Transport Format Combina- physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH),
tion Indication field (TFCI) uniquely identifies used to carry the downlink shared channel
the transport format used by each transport (DSCH), is shared by users based on code multi-
channel within the current radio frame. The plexing. Depending on the symbol rate of the
multiplexing and exact rate matching patterns physical channel, the configuration of radio
follow predefined rules and are encoded in frames or time slots varies.

IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000 169

-
support for

procedures.

according to the
destination IP
address.
Figure 5.Mobile IPin cdma2000 [9].

The random access transmission is based on a ical channels. CCCH uses unacknowledged
Slotted ALOHA approach with fast acquisition mode (segmentation/reassembly with sequence
indication. U E can start transmitting at access number checking), but only for the downlink,
slots where there are 15 access slots per two and transparent mode (only segmentation/
frames. The random access transmission consists reassembly is performed) only for the uplink.
of one or several preambles of length 4096 chips, 320-bit frames are used for segmentation/
and a message of length 10 ms. The message has reassembly. In acknowledged mode the first two
a data part to transmit layer 2 data, and a con- octets contain the header fields such as 12-bit
trol part to transmit pilot bits and TFCI. The sequence number, and the rest is used for user
data and control parts are transmitted in paral- data. In order to transmit at higher rates, the
lel. The highest RACH data transmission rate is header compression procedure enables placing
120 kb/s. four 80-bit PUS with only the first PU having a
The MAC layer provides data transfer ser- header.
vices on logical channels which are divided into In WCDMA each slot carries 2560 chips. At
control channels (for the transfer of control a spreading factor of 4, each slot carries 640 bits
plane information) and traffic channels (for the and, with 15 slots in 10 ms, yields an uplink bit
transfer of user plane information). The syn- rate of 960 kb/s. The downlink rate is twice the
chronization control channel (SCCH), broadcast uplink bit rate because the symbol bit rate is half
control channel (BCCH), paging control channel the channel bit rate. If burst type 1 is used, each
(PCCH), common control channel (CCCH), slot can carry 488 data bits, which yields a data
dedicated control channel (DCCH), and shared bit rate of 732 kb/s for the uplink and 1464 kb/s
channel control channel (SHCCH) are the con- for the downlink. Higher rates can be obtained if
trol channels. A dedicated traffic channel multiple codes are used.
(DTCH) is a point-to-point channel, dedicated Consider IP datagrams of 1500 octets to be
to one UE, for the transfer of user information. transmitted on the uplink. The RLC layer seg-
A DTCH can exist in both uplink and downlink; ments the datagram into 27 RLC PDUs and
it is a point-to-multipoint unidirectional channel adds a 2-octet header into each. The MAC layer
for transfer of dedicated user information for all adds a 3-octet header if 16-bit UE-id fields are
or a group of specified UEs. used and forms MAC PDUs. Each such PDU
can be transmitted in one slot. This yields an
High-speed Data Transfer - The RLC layer uplink data rate of 672 kb/s. The downlink data
performs segmentation/reassembly of variable- rate is 1344 kb/s.
length higher-layer PDUs intoifrom smaller
RLC payload units (PUS). The RLC PDU size INTEGRATION WITH THE INTERNET
is adjustable to the actual set of transport for- Efficient support of Mobile IP in wireless net-
mats. RLC transfers user data, and the transfer works is important for the integration of wireless
may be unacknowledged on the control plane networks with the Internet.
logical channels of BCCH, PCCH, CCCH, In the wired Internet, when a node moves from
SHCCH, and SCCH (downlink only) and on the one network to another, Mobile IP [8] is used to
U-plane logical channel of DTCH, or reliable correctly deliver the datagrams into the new net-
delivery with flow control on DCCH/DTCH log- work. Operation of Mobile IP is as follows. A

170 IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000

 FA functionality
with common
deployed
extensions such
~~
as identifying
Figure 6.Mobile IP in 3GPP (91. clients by using
network access
router called the home agent (HA) in the home new PDSN, and the packet endpoint to the old identifiers.
network tunnels the datagrams to either another PDSN is closed. Using the session I D , the
router, the foreign agent (FA), in the visited net- PDSN realizes that this is a new R-P link and
work or directly to the mobile host. The new loca- not an existing link. If Mobile IP route opti-
tion of the mobile host is made known to the HA mization is supported, binding update messages
using registration signaling. The HA and FA send are sent to the corresponding hosts, and the
periodic agent advertisements. The mobile sends a corresponding hosts start to tunnel their data-
registration request to the FA which is relayed to grams to the new PDSN.
the HA. Registration terminates with a registra- The Third Generation Partnership Project
tion reply sent to the mobile by the FA. (3GPP) approach to integrating Mobile IP is
Cellular networks have built-in support for based on CN nodes called Internet GPRS support
mobility in terms of registration, VLRIHLR, and nodes (IGSNs) to provide FA functionality with
handover procedures. The problem arises for commonly deployed extensions such as identify-
incoming datagrams from thc Internet which are ing clients by using network access identifiers
routed according to the destination IP address. (NAIs). During PPP session establishment, the
These datagrams will arrive at the BS in the MS gets a care-of address (temporary I P
home cell of the MS. If the MS is not at its home address) from the IGSN and uses this address
cell, Mobile IP support is needed in order to instead of its home IP address (Fig. 6).
route the datagrams to the destination cell. Sup- The MS first performs the International
porting Mobile IP requires HA and FA func- Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) attach and
tionality in the cellular network infrastructure PDP context setup procedures which establish a
(PDSN, SGSN, GGSN, etc.). link layer connection to start using 3GPP services
Integration of Mobile I P in cdma2000 is for packet data. Over this connection the IGSN
based on the PDSN supporting Mobile IP FA sends an agent advertisement message; the MS
functionality (Fig. 5). The PDSN is connected to gets its care-of address and then registers with its
the radio network via an R-P interface. A link HA. The HA intercepts the datagrams arriving in
layer connection is established between the MS the home network and tunnels them to the care-
and the PDSN after the MS connects to the of address, in this case the FA (IGSN). Before
CDMA network using PPP. After PPP initializa- the IGSN can deliver the datagram to the mobile
tion, the PDSN sends agcnt advertisements to node, paging and other functions need to be per-
the MS. The MS generates a Mobile IP registra- formed according to general UMTS/GPRS proce-
tion request, and the PDSN sends this to the dures. During handoff, the MS may go to an area
HA using an authentication, authorization, and served by a different IGSN; then the MS, after
accounting (AAA) protocol. The PDSN extracts establishing a link layer connection with the new
the Mobile IP registration reply from the H A IGSN, gocs through a new Mobile IP registration
and forwards it to the MS. process. After registering its new care-of address
Handoff between the R N within the same with the HA, the HA tunnels the datagrams from
PDSN is handled by transferring the existing R- correspondent hosts to the new IGSN, which
P link to the new RN and terminating the end- delivers them to the MS.
point with the old RN. In case of handoff The model shown in Fig. 6 assumes that the
between PDSNs, the traffic channel is trans- CN has native Mobile IP support. The IGSN
ferred to the new RN, and a new packet service nodes support route optimization in which the
session ID is created between the new RN and correspondent nodes are notified of the ncw

IEEE Communications Magazinc September 2000 171

 care-of address of the MS, and the correspon- [21 TIA/EIA, "Data Services Option Standard for Spread
Spectrum Systems: High Speed Packet Data Services,"
dent nodes start tunneling the datagrams to the 15-707.9, July 1998.
MS directly at its new care-of address. [3] TINEIA, "Physical Layer Standard for cdma2000 Spread
Spectrum Systems," IS-2000-2, Aug. 1999.
[41 TINEIA, "Data Service Options for Spread Spectrum Sys-
CONCLUSIONS tems: Radio Link Protocol Type 3," IS-707.A.1
(3GPP2/C.SOOl7-0-2.10), Jan. 2000.
Present cellular systems are based on TDMA [5] W. Simpson, "The Point t o Point Protocol (PPP)." IETF
and CDMA technologies, and provide packet RFC 1661, July 1994.
data transmission at low rates. We present 2G+ [61 3GPP, "Stage 2 Functional Specification of Location Ser-
vices in UTRAN," 3G TS 25.305, Dec. 1999.
systems GSM GPRS and IS-95B. GPRS is a [71 3GPP, "Physical Channels and Mapping o f Transport
TDMA- and IS-95B a CDMA-based system. Channels onto Physical Channels (FDD)," 3G TS 25.21 1,
wireless network. Packet mode data capabilities of these networks Oct. 1999.
represent several improvements over 2G cellular [81 C. Perkins, "IP Mobility Support," IETF RFC 2002, Oct.1996.
[9] TINEIA, "Wireless IP Network Architecture based on
networks. IETF Protocols," PN-4286, Feb. 2000.
Wideband CDMA is presently accepted as [IO]3GPP, "Combined GSM and MobilelP Mobility Han-
the technology for third-generation cellular net- dling in UMTS IP CN," 3G TS 23.923, Oct. 1999.
works. We discuss two proposals: cdma2000 and
approaches WCDMA. Both standards offer higher packet BIOGRAPHY
data rates and facilitate interconnection with the BEHCETSAHIKAYA [SM] (sarikaya@u-aizu.ac.jp) obtained his
indicate that such Internet. Ph.D. in computer science from McGill University's School
It seems a challenge to reach world-wide con- of Computer Science i n 1984. He worked at Universite de
a consensus can sensus on a standard for 3G wireless network. Sherbrooke (1 984-1 985) and Concordia University
(1985-1 990) as assistant professor, Universite de Montreal
be reached. Similarities in the cdma2000 and WCDMA (1 990-1991) as visiting professor, Bilkent University,
approaches indicate that such a consensus can Ankara, Turkey (1991 -1 993) as associate professor, and
be reached. University of Aizu, Japan (1993-present) as professor. His
research interests lie in personal communication systems,
REFERENCES mobile computing and multimedia in PCS. He has had sev-
eral publications on multimedia networking; in his recent
[ l ] ETSI, "General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); Mobile Sta- publications he is concentrating on cellular networks, mul-
tion (MS)-Base Station System (BSS) Interface; Radio timedia communication in cellular networks, and integra-
Link Control/Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) Proto- tion of cellular networks with the Internet. He serves o n
col (GSM 04.60)," tech. spec. V8.1, Sophia Antipolis, the editorial board of Cluster Computing Journal published
France, Nov. 1999. by Baltzer Science.

172 IEEE Communications Magazine September 2000