Professional Documents
Culture Documents
GSM Timers
GSM Timers
Call Failure for mobile calls can be caused by many reasons. Some can be an expired range of
Timers. For example we can see that timer T3216 (below) in essence relates to the failure of a
Immediate Assignment Request, but the "root cause" of the failure is due to SDCCH congestion or
poor radio link, such as: interference, coverage restriction or radio path imbalance. Understanding
the "Causes for the cessation or loss of mobile communication" requires more than knowing the
Cause Code or Timer but all the "root cause" behind them.
The Timer table below provides a useful but not exhaustive list. It important to keep monitors the
GSM and 3GPP standards. Finally, it is important to recognize that Timers have different durations
dependent upon when the timer is applicable. For instance, for radio resources management the
durations are often denoted in seconds and some timers are in milliseconds.
However, other timer durations (expiration) are used for internal operation for devices such as
mobile telephone or SIM and can be in minutes and in some instances hours. An example of the
latter can be the elementary file EFHPLMN (7F206F31) - see GSM11.11. The Timer is set in
decimal-digit increments e.g. 01, 02, 03 and so on. Each increment represents a value of nminutes which the standard GSM0211 refers to as 6 minutes, but commonly rapid updates can
cause drain on the mobile telephone's battery it is understood that n-minutes can be 30-minutes.
The maximum the timer can be set for is 8-hours. The timer value is network operator dependent,
which means either timer method may be used.
T3146:This timer is started either after sending the maximum allowed number of CHANNEL
REQUEST messages during a packet access procedure. Or on receipt of an IMMEDIATE
ASSIGNMENT REJECT message during a packet access procedure, whichever occurs first. It is
stopped at receipt of an IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT message, or an IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT
EXTENDED message. At its expiry, the packet access procedure is aborted. The minimum value of
this timer is equal to the time taken by T+2S slots of the mobile station's RACH. S and T are
defined in section 3.3.1.2. The maximum value of this timer is 5 seconds.
T3164: This timer is used during packet access using CCCH. It is started at the receipt of an
IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT message. It is stopped at the transmission of a RLC/MAC block on the
assigned temporary block flow, see GSM 04.60. At expire, the mobile station returns to the packet
idle mode. The value of the timer is 5 seconds.
T3190: The timer is used during packet downlink assignment on CCCH. It is started at the receipt
of an IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT message or of an PDCH ASSIGNMENT COMMAND message
when in dedicated mode. It is stopped at the receipt of a RLC/MAC block on the assigned
temporary block flow, see GSM 04.60. At expiry, the mobile station returns to the packet idle mode.
The value of the timer is 5 seconds.
T3117: This timer is started by the sending of a PDCH ASSIGNMENT COMMAND message and is
normally stopped when the MS has correctly accessed the target TBF. Its purpose is to keep the
old channel sufficiently long for the MS to be able to return to the old channels, and to release the
channels if the MS is lost. Its value is network dependent. NOTE: It could be higher than the
maximum transmission time of the PDCH ASSIGNMENT COMMAND message plus T3132 plus
the maximum duration of an attempt to establish a data link in multiframe mode.
T3119: This timer is started by the sending of a RR-CELL CHANGE ORDER message and is
normally stopped when the MS has correctly accessed the new cell. Its purpose is to keep the old
channels sufficiently long for the MS to be able to return to the old channels, and to release the
channels if the MS is lost. Its value is network dependent. NOTE: It could be higher than the
maximum transmission time of the RR_CELL CHANGE ORDER, plus T3134, plus the maximum
duration of an attempt to establish a data link in multiframe mode.
T3141: This timer is started when a temporary block flow is allocated with an IMMEDIATE
ASSIGNMENT message during a packet access procedure. It is stopped when the mobile station
has correctly seized the temporary block flow. Its value is network dependent.