G.S.

M MODEM/MOBILE

GSM, which stands for Global System for Mobile communications, reigns
(important) as the world’s most widely used cell phone technology. Cell phones
use a cell phone service carrier’s GSM network by searching for cell phone
towers in the nearby area. Global system for mobile communication (GSM) is a
globally accepted standard for digital cellular communication.

The Europeans realized this early on, and in 1982 the Conference of
European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) formed a study group called the Group
Special Mobile (GSM) to study and develop a pan-European public land mobile
system. The proposed system had to meet certain criteria:

 Good subjective speech quality

 Low terminal and service cost

 Low terminal and service cost

 Ability to support handheld terminals

 Support for range of new services and facilities

Need of GSM

The GSM study group aimed to provide the followings through the GSM:

 Improved spectrum efficiency.

 International roaming.
 Low-cost mobile sets and base stations (BS)
 High-quality speech
 Support for new services.
Services provided by GSM

From the beginning, the planners of GSM wanted ISDN compatibility in

terms of the services offered and the control signaling used. However, radio
transmission limitations, in terms of bandwidth and cost, do not allow the
standard ISDN B-channel bit rate of 64 kbps to be practically achieved.

Telecommunication services can be divided into bearer services,

teleservices, and supplementary services. The most basic tele service supported
by GSM is telephony. As with all other communications, speech is digitally
encoded and transmitted through the GSM network as a digital stream. There is
also an emergency service, where the nearest emergency-service provider is
notified by dialing three digits.

Bearer services: Typically data transmission instead of voice. Fax and SMS are
examples.

Teleservices: Voice oriented traffic.

Supplementary services: Call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting and the like.

The GSM networks parts are explained as follows

1) Mobile Station

The mobile station (MS) consists of the physical equipment, such as the
radio transceiver, display and digital signal processors, and a smart card called
the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). The SIM provides personal mobility, so
that the user can have access to all subscribed services irrespective of both the
location of the terminal and the use of a specific terminal. By inserting the SIM
card into another GSM cellular phone, the user is able to receive calls at that
phone, make calls from that phone, or receive other subscribed services.

2) Base Station Subsystem

The Base Station Subsystem is composed of two parts, the Base Transceiver
Station (BTS) and the Base Station Controller (BSC). These communicate across
the specified Abis interface, allowing (as in the rest of the system) operation
between components made by different suppliers.

The Base Transceiver Station houses the radio transceivers that define a cell
and handles the radio link protocols with the Mobile Station. In a large urban
area, there will potentially be a large number of BTSs deployed. The
requirements for a BTS are ruggedness, reliability, portability, and minimum
cost.

The Base Station Controller manages the radio resources for one or more
BTSs. It handles radio channel setup, frequency hopping, and handovers, as
described below. The BSC is the connection between the mobile and the Mobile
service Switching Center (MSC). The BSC also translates the 13 kbps voice
channel used over the radio link to the standard 64 kbps channel used by the
Public Switched Telephone Network or ISDN.

3) Network Subsystem

The central component of the Network Subsystem is the Mobile services

Switching Center (MSC). It acts like a normal switching node of the PSTN or
ISDN, and in addition provides all the functionality needed to handle a mobile
subscriber, such as registration, authentication, location updating, handovers,
and call routing to a roaming subscriber. 

The Home Location Register (HLR) and Visitor Location Register (VLR),
together with the MSC, provide the call routing and (possibly international)
roaming capabilities of GSM. The HLR contains all the administrative
information of each subscriber registered in the corresponding GSM network,
along with the current location of the mobile. The current location of the mobile
is in the form of a Mobile Station Roaming Number (MSRN) which is a regular
ISDN number used to route a call to the MSC where the mobile is currently
located. There is logically one HLR per GSM network, although it may be
implemented as a distributed database.

The GSM Specifications

Specifications for different Personal Communication Services (PCS) systems

vary among the different PCS networks. The GSM specification is listed below
with important characteristics.

Modulation

Modulation is a form of change process where we change the input

information into a suitable format for the transmission medium. We also
changed the information by demodulating the signal at the receiving end.The
GSM uses Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) modulation method

GSM - Addresses and Identifiers

GSM distinguishes explicitly between user and equipment and deals with
them separately. Besides phone numbers and subscriber and equipment
identifiers, several other identifiers have been defined; they are needed for the
management of subscriber mobility and for addressing of all the remaining
network elements.

GSM – Operations

The operation of the GSM system can be understood by studying the

sequence of events that takes place when a call is initiated from the Mobile
Station.

GSM - User Services

GSM has much more to offer than voice telephony. Additional services
allow us greater flexibility in where and when we use our phone. We should
contact our local GSM network operator for information on the specific services
available to us.

But there are three basic types of services offered through GSM which we
can ask for

1. Telephony (also referred to as teleservices) Services

2. Data (also referred to as bearer services) Services.

3. Supplementary Services

Teleservices or Telephony Services

 A Teleservice utilizes the capabilities of a Bearer Service to transport data,
defining which capabilities are required and how they should be set up.

Voice Calls

The most basic Teleservice supported by GSM is telephony. This includes

Full-rate speech at 13 Kbps and emergency calls, where the nearest emergency
service provider is notified by dialing three digits. A very basic example of
emergency service is 911 services available in USA.

Short Text Messages

SMS (Short Messaging Service) service is a text messaging which allow us

to send and receive text messages on our GSM Mobile phone. Services available
from many of the world's GSM networks today - in addition to simple user
generated text message services - include news, sport; financial, language and
location based services, as well as many early examples of mobile commerce
such as stocks and share prices, mobile banking facilities and leisure booking
services.

Bearer Services or Data Services

Using our GSM phone to receive and send data is the essential building
block leading to widespread mobile Internet access and mobile data transfer.
GSM currently has a data transfer rate of 9.6k. New developments that will push
up data transfer rates for GSM users are HSCSD (high speed circuit switched
data) and GPRS (general packet radio service) are now available.

SMS Service
 Till the time this tutorial is written, most of the service providers are
charging their customer's SMS services based on number of text messages sent
from their mobile phone. There are other prime SMS services available where
service providers are charging more than normal SMS charge. These services are
being used in collaboration of Television Networks or Radio Networks to
demand SMS from the audiences.

Most of time charges are paid by the SMS sender but for some services like
stocks and share prices, mobile banking facilities and leisure booking services
etc. recipient of the SMS has to pay for the service.

GSM - Mobile Phones

The SIM provides personal mobility so that the user can have access to all
subscribed services irrespective of both the location of the terminal and the use
of a specific terminal. We need to insert the SIM card into another GSM cellular
phone to receive calls at that phone, make calls from that phone, or receive other
subscribed services.

Advantages of GSM

 GSM is already used worldwide with over 450 million subscribers.

 International roaming permits subscribers to use one phone throughout

Western Europe. CDMA will work in Asia, but not France, Germany, the U.K.
and other popular European destinations.

 GSM is mature, having started in the mid-80s. This maturity means a

more stable network with robust features. CDMA is still building its network.
 GSM's maturity means engineers cut their teeth on the technology,
creating an unconscious preference.

GSM phones use SIM cards, or Subscriber information or identity modules.

They're the biggest difference a user sees between a GSM phone or handset and
a conventional cellular telephone. With the SIM card and its memory the GSM
handset is a smart phone, doing many things a conventional cellular telephone
cannot. Like keeping a built in phone book or allowing different ring tones to be
downloaded and then stored. Conventional cellular telephones either lack the
features GSM phones have built in, or they must rely on resources from the
cellular system itself to provide them. Let me make another, important point.

Fig.4 Mobile station SIM port

On the left above: Front of a Pacific Bell GSM phone. In the middle above:
Same phone, showing the back. The SIM card is the white plastic square. It fits
into the grey colored holder next to it. On the right above.A new and different
idea, a holder for two SIM cards, allowing one phone to access either of two
wireless carriers. Provided you have an account with both.TheSim card is to the
left of the body.