Key Technologies

Used in GSM
Key Technologies used in GSM are:-

1. Frequency Reuse.
2. Discontinuous Transmission.(DTX)
3. Frequency hopping.
4. Timing advance (TA)
5. Location Update.
6. Handover.
7. Antenna Diversity .

Frequency Reuse:-

Each company with a license to operate a mobile network is allocated a limited number of
frequencies. These are distributed throughout the cells in their network. Depending on the traffic
load and the availability of frequencies, a cell may have one or more frequencies allocated to it.
It is important when allocating frequencies that interference is avoided. Interference can be
caused by a variety of factors. A common factor is the use of similar frequencies close to each
other. The higher interference, the lower call quality.

To cover an entire country, for example, frequencies must be reused many times at different
geographical locations in order to provide a network with sufficient capacity. The same
frequencies can not be re-used in neighboring cells as they would interfere with each other so
special patterns of frequency usage are determined during the planning of the network.
 Fig.- Neighboring cells cannot have the same frequency

These frequency re-use patterns ensure that any frequencies being re-used are located at a
sufficient distance apart to ensure that there is little interference between them. The term
“frequency re-use distance” is used to describe the distance between two identical frequencies
in a re-use pattern. The lower frequency re-use distance, the more capacity will be available in
the network.

Discontinuous Transmisson( DTX ):-

If nothing is said into the mobile station (MS) microphone, there is no point sending anything at
all in the air. When the Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) feature is used, the system only
transmits when speech is detected over the connection. This decreases the power consumption in
the MS and in the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and reduces the amount of energy emitted into
the air.

Discontinuous transmission is a mechanism that allows the radio transmitter to be switched off
during speech pauses. During a normal conversation, the participants alternate so that each is
silent for about 50% of the time. If the transmitter is silent while there is nothing to be sent, the
power consumption in the mobile station is decreased as well as the amount of emitted radio
power. Less radio power generates less interference. Since the power level used when
transmitting is unaffected, the C/I will be raised for all connections when using DTX.

The primary functions of DTX in the uplink and downlink are:

• uplink
 to save battery in the mobile station,
 to reduce the interference in the system.
• downlink
 to reduce the interference in the system,
 to decrease BTS power consumption, especially during periods when the
BTS is battery operated due to malfunction in the power supply,
 to reduce the transmitter intermodulation
 Fig. – For every 480 ms BTS sends one comfortable noise frames to save the power and to
reduce the interference in the system.

FREQUENCY HOPPING :-
Rayleigh fading is frequency dependent. This means that the fading dips occur at different places
for different frequencies. To benefit from this fact, it is possible for the BTS and MS to hop from
frequency to frequency during a call. The frequency hopping of the BTS and MS is synchronized.

Frequency hopping means that multiple frequencies are used for the transmission of speech,
signalling or data in a single connection. Each burst for the connection is transmitted on a fixed
frequency, but the frequency can be changed between bursts. A burst can easily be lost when the
mobile station happens to be located in a fading dip for that particular frequency, or if it is
subjected to interference. The next burst, if on a different frequency, has a good chance to come
through. The coding and interleaving scheme in GSM is constructed so that loss of a single burst
have minimal influence on the speech quality. A predefined set of frequencies is used in each
cell. The mobile station and the base station can change frequency between every burst, i.e. 217
times per second.

The Frequency Hopping feature is implemented in the Base Station Controller (BSC).

Frequency hopping in the base stations can be implemented in two basic ways, baseband
hopping or Radio Frequency hopping .

The Broadcast Control CHannel (BCCH) channel can never hop, since it is a broadcast
channel. The Traffic Channels (TCHs) and the Stand alone Dedicated Control CHannels
(SDCCHs), however, can hop.
Baseband hopping:-
At baseband hopping each transmitter operates on a fixed frequency. At transmission, all bursts,
irrespective of which connection they belong to, are routed to the transmitter of the proper
frequency.

The advantage with this mode is that narrow-band tuneable filter combiners can be used. These
combiners have up to twelve inputs for BTS2000 and 16 inputs for BTS200. This makes it
possible to use many transceivers without having to connect several combiners in cascade.

The disadvantage is that it is not possible to use a larger number of frequencies in the hopping
sequence than there are transmitters.

Baseband Freq. Hopping

Radio Frequency hopping:-

Radio Frequency hopping means that one transmitter handles all bursts that belong to a
specific connection. The bursts are sent “straight on forward” and not routed by the bus, in
contrast to baseband hopping. The transmitter tunes to the correct frequency at transmission of
each burst,
The advantage is that the number of frequencies that can be used for hopping is not dependent
on the number of transmitters.
The disadvantage is that wide-band hybrid combiners have to be used. This type of combiner has
approximately three dB loss making more than two combiners in cascade impractical.

Parameters of Frequency Hopping :-

Frequency Hopping is done based on three parameters:-

1. HSN.(Hopping Sequence Number)

2. MA LIST.( Mobile Allocation)
3. MAIO.(Mobile Allocation Index Offset)

HSN is the hopping sequence number, defined per channel group. This
parameter specifies which hopping sequence to be used. All timeslots in
one channel group are configured with the same HSN. HSN = 0 yields
a cyclic sequence. HSN =1 to 63 yields pseudo-random sequences.

MA LIST - Total no. of frequency available in the BTS.

MAIO :- Offset value is used to starting frequency of hopping.

Example:-
For one BTS
HSN=3,
MA= 23, 24,25,26,27,28,29,30, 31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39
MAIO= 0,2,4

So, hopping sequence will be-

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
TRX1- 23 26 29 32 35 23 26 29 32 35 ……..
TRX2- 25 28 31 34 37 25 28 31 34 37……..
TRX3- 27 30 33 36 39 27 30 33 36 39…….

Timing Advance:-

Signals sent by a base station on the broadcasting channel help mobile stations to synchronize
with the base station. After connection is set up between a mobile station and the base station,
the base station will make continuous tests, and provide the time advance(TA) on the SACCH
channel to all mobile stations twice every second according to the BTS-MS-BTS broadcasting
delay. Mobile stations will make self-adaptive frame adjustment according to time advance so
that the time of mobile station transmission to the base station matches that of base station
reception.

Timing advance is a solution specifically designed to counteract the problem of time alignment.
It works by instructing the misaligned MS to transmit its burst earlier or later than it normally
would. In GSM, the timing advance information relates to bittimes. Thus, an MS may be
instructed to do its transmission by a
certain number of bittimes earlier or later related to previous position, to reach its timeslot at
the BTS in right time.
Location Update:-
Location update is nothing but to update the present location of a Mobile Station(MS) into
VLR(Visitor Location Register ) of MSC .

When an MS is first switched on it requests a control channel from the BSC. The BTS decodes
the CHAN_REQ, calculates the distance MS«BTS (timing advance), and forwards all this
information to the BSC. Please note that the CHAN_REQ already indicates the location of the
MS. Then BSC informs VLR (in MSC) that the IMSI (Internation Mobile SuBSCriber Identity )
is registered in the network and attached with the location area.This procedure is called “ IMSI
attach ” .

And when an MS is going to switched off, it sends the present location area information BSC.
Then BSC informs VLR about the present location area and it detached from VLR.This
procedure is called “ IMSI detach ”.

An MS performs Location update on several occasions: every time it changes the

location area, periodically, when a periodic location update is active, or with IMSI
attach/detach switched on at the time when it is suBTSequently turned on again.

Handover :-
Hand-over is a process that transfers a MS that is in setting up or busy status to a new traffic
channel.

Generally, hand-over will occur under the following two conditions:

1. A busy MS which is moving from a cell into another;

2. A MS is making a call at overlapping area of two cells, one of which is very busy in traffic.
BSC notify MS to measure signal strength and channel quality of adjacent cells. This call will be
handed over to the cell which is not busy in traffic. This kind of hand-over is occurred to balance
inter-cell traffics.

GSM provides handover processes for the following:

1. Quality (uplink/downlink).
2. Interference (uplink/downlink).
3. RF Level (uplink / downlink ).
4. MS distance from BTS.
5. Power budget.
Purpose of Hand-over :-

1. Save the calls in progress（bad quality).

2. Cell-boundary handing over to improve ongoing calls (weak signal).
3. Intra-cell hand-over reducing interference within a cell (severe interference)-Concentric.
4. Compelled hand-over to balance traffic distribution of inter-cells.

Types of Hand-over :-

1. Intra cell -Intra BSC Handover.

2. Inter cell -Intra BSC Handover.
3. Inter cell -Inter BSC Handover.
4. Inter MSC Handover.

Intra cell -Intra BSC Handover :-

Handover takes place when one MS is moving from one sector to another sector of same BTS
under same BSC.This type of handover is done by BSC only.

Example:-
One mobile subscriber in a busy mode is in sector A of one BTS under one BSC. While talking,
the SM enters the coverage area of sector C.Then BSC compares the signal strength of sector A
with signal strength of sector C.If the MS gets stronger signal from sector C then BSC assign a
new traffic channel(TCH ) from sector C to that MS if TCH is available in sector C. This
function is performed by BSC only.

Inter cell -Intra BSC Handover :-

Handover takes place when one MS is moving from one sectors to another sector of same BTS
under same BSC.This type of handover is done by BSC only.

Fig:- before handover

Fig:- after handover

Inter cell -Inter BSC Handover :-Handover takes place between two BSCs under same MSC.
This type of handover is done by MSC.
 Fig:- before handover

Fig:- after handover

Inter MSC Handover :- Handover takes place between two BSCs undertow different MSC. This
type of handover is done by MSC.
 Fig:- before handover

Fig:-
after handover

Basically two types of handover are there :-

 Soft Handover.
  Hard Handover.

Soft Handover :- This type of handover is used in CDMA technology. In this type of handover,
one mobile station is conneted with nearest two BTSs. But call flows through the MS with one
BTS which give the MS the stronger signal.

Example:- One MS is connected with BTS A and BTS B, but MS is making call with
BTS A. If in busy mode, the MS is moving from BTS A towards BTS B then also it is connected
with two BTS but call is traneferred from BTS A to BTS B. In this type of handover, the MS first
make one link with BTS then break the present link with BTS. So, “make before break”
technology is used in soft handover.

Fig.- Soft handover

Hard Handover :- Hard handover is implemented in GSM. In this handover, one MS is

connected with one BTS. It continiously measures the signal strength coming from six
neighbouring cells. If it gets a stronger signal from another BTS then BSC break the present
connectivity with BTS and assign a new channel in the new BTS.In this type of handover, the MS
first make break link with BTS A then make the present link with BTS B. So, “break before
make” technology is used in hard handover.The chances of call drop is more in hard handover
than soft handover.

Differences between soft handover and hard handover :-

 Antenna Diversity :-

Antenna diversity increases the received signal strength by taking advantage of the natural
properties of radio waves. There are two primary diverstiy methods:
space diversity and polarization diversity.

Space Diversity :-

An increased received signal strength at the BTS may be achieved by mounting two receiver
antennae instead of one. If the two Rx antennae are physically separated, the probability that
both of them are affected by a deep fading dip at the same time is low. At 900 MHz, it is possible
to gain about 3 dB with a distance of five to six meters between the antennae. At 1800 MHz the
distance can be shortened because of its decreased wavelength.

By choosing the best of each signal, the impact of fading can be reduced. Space diversity offers
slightly better antenna gain than polarization diversity, but requires more space.
 Fig. Space Diversity

Polarization Diversity :-

With polarisation diversity the two space diversity antennae are replaced by one dual polarized
antenna. This antenna has normal size but contains two differently polarized antenna arrays.
The most common types are vertical/horizontal arrays and arrays in + 45 & -45 degree slant
orientation. The two arrays are connected to the respective Rx branches in the BTS. The two
arrays can also be used as combined Tx/Rx antennas. For most applications, the difference
between the diversity gain for space diversity and polarization diversity is negligible, but
polarization diversity reduces the space required for antennae.

Basically two types of polarized diversity techniques are used in GSM :-

1. Horizontal Polarization .
2. Vertical Polarization.