GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 In the Public Land Mobile communication Network (PLMN), the MS is connected with the
network via the radio channel. In this way, the subscribers can access the network and obtain
communication services. To achieve the interworking between MS and BTS, a set of
standards are needed for signal transmission through the radio channel. This set of
specifications which are related to the radio channel signal transmission, aim at Um interface.
 The Um interface is a kind of radio interface. It is responsible for the communication
between the mobile station and the BTS and provides the interworking link between the
mobile station and GSM system. Its physical connection is achieved via the radio waves. The
Um interface is the most important interface among all the interfaces in GSM system. First of
all, the complete and normative Um interface realizes full compatibility between MS of
different venders and different networks. That is fundamental conditions needed in global
roaming of the GSM system; second, the radio interface determines the rate of frequency
spectrum utilization of GSM system. The name “Um” is derived from the name of the
interface between the client terminal and the network in ISDN , in which the “m” means
“mobile”.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 The first layer is the physical layer, which is marked as L1 and is the lowest layer. This layer
provides the radio link needed in transmission of bit stream. It defines the radio access
capability of the GSM system and provides the most fundamental radio channel (logical
channel) for the information transmission of higher-layer , including the traffic channel and
control channel. For detailed description of logical channel, please refer to relevant
documents.
 The second layer, marked as L2, is the data link layers and it is the middle layer. It applies the
LAPDm protocol. This layer includes various types of data transmission structures. It controls
the data transmission so as to ensure the reliable dedicated data links which are set up
between the mobile station and base station. The LAPDm protocol is based on the D channel
link access protocol (LAPD) in ISDN. For LAPDm, the radio transmission and control
characteristics are suitable to the signal transmission at the Um interface.
 The third layer is the network application layer, which is marked as L3 and is the top layer. It
includes various types of messages and programs for control and management of the services.
That is to say, in this layer, specific messages of the mobile station and the system control
processes are packed into different protocols and mapped to logical channels. L3 includes
three sub-layers: the Radio Resources management (RR), Mobility Management (MM) and
Communication Management (CM). These are the major contents of the messages
transmitted via the Um interface. The CM sub-layer includes three major parts: CC (call
control service), SS (supplementary service) and SMS (short message service).

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 The GSM Um interface applies the multiple access technology. With this technology, multiple
subscribers can share the same p public communication connection. Basically, y, there are three
modes of channelization for multiple access, the frequency, time and code division multiple
access connections respectively. They are frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time
division multiple access (TDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA)
 FDMA-frequency division multiple access:
 The frequency division is also called channelization sometimes. In this mode, the
whole assignable frequency spectrum is divided into many single radio channels.
Under the control of the system,
system each subscriber can be served by any one of these
channels.
 The analogue cell system, AMPS, is a typical example that uses the FDMA technology.
The digital cell system can also use the FDMA. The difference is that it only uses the
frequency division mode, but the GSM system uses the FDMA also.
 TDMA-time division multiple access:
 The time division multiple access refers to dividing a broadband radio channel into
several timeslot, so that every subscriber seizes one of the timeslots; and the signal is
received (or transmitted) only in that specific timeslot. That is the reason why it is
called time division multiple access. This multiple access mode is used in digital cell
systems and GSM as well.
 CDMA-Code division multiple access:
 It is a multiple access mode in which the spread spectrum technique is used to form
different code sequences. It is quite different from FDMA and TDMA. In FDMA and
TDMA, the subscriber information is divided or separated based on the frequency and
time, but CDMA mode can transmit information of multiple subscribers via the same
radio channel at the same time.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 The radio channel is quite different from the wired channel. First, the radio channel has a
distinct time-change characteristic. The radio channel is exposed to the air, so it is vulnerable
to the interferences in the air. The signal is influenced by various interferences, multi-path
fading and shadow fading, so the error bit ratio is rather high. To solve the problems
mentioned above, a series of forward and backward(uplink & downlink) transmission
techniques are applied. The original subscriber data or signaling data are transformed before
being carried by the radio waves. And at the other end of the transmission, a reverse
transforming will be done. This can provide necessary protection to the transmitting signal.
Th transformation
The t f ti methods
th d roughly
hl include
i l d the
th channel
h l coding/decoding,
di /d di i t l i /d
interleaving/de-
interleaving, burst formatting, encryption/decryption, and modulation/demodulation. For the
voice, to pass an analog-to-digital converter is actually a sampling process in the rate of
8KHz,after quantification each 125μs contains 13bit of code stream; then speech coding is
performed with every 20ms as a segment and the code transmission rate is reduced to
13Kbit/s, which becomes 22.8Kbit/s after the channel coding; then the voice becomes a code
stream at 33.8kbit/s after code interleaving, encryption and burst formatting and is
transmitted finally.
finally The processing at the terminal is just the reverse of the above procedures.
procedures

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 The voice compression coding technique is widely used in the modern digital communication
systems. In this technique, a voice coder is used to set up a model to simulate the voice and
noise produced by human vocal organs. The parameters to form the model will be
transmitted through the TCH channels.
 The voice coder is based on the residual excited linear prediction (REIP) coder. Moreover, the
long term predictor (LTP) is used to enhance the compression effect. LTP can make the
coding of residual data more advantageous by removing the vowels from the voice. With
20ms as the unit, the voice coder outputs 260bits after compressed coding. Therefore, the
code rate is 13kbps. According to the different classes of the importance of the information,
the output bits can be classified into three categories: 50 very important bits,132 important
bits and 78 ordinary bits.
 Comparing with the traditional PCM line on which the voice is coded directly and transmitted
(64kbps), the 13kbps voice rate of the GSM system is much lower. The more advanced voice
coder in the future can further reduce the rate to 6.5kbps (half-rate voice coding).

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 To check and correct errors during the transmission, redundancy data and the information
calculated from the source data are added to the stream so as to increase the bit rate. For the
voice, the length of these codes is 456 bits every 20ms.
 The bit rate of code stream output from the voice coder is 13Kbit/s, which is divided into
many 20ms continuous segments with each segment containing 260 bits. They can be
classified as:
 50 very important bits;
 132 important bits;
 78 ordinary bits,

 Redundancy processing is conducted, as shown in the above diagram.

 The block coder is applied with 3 bits of redundancy code; while the excited coder applies
with 2 times redundancy and then adds 4 tail bits into the data stream.
 There are three channel coding modes in the GSM system: convolution coding,
coding block coding
and parity coding. For detailed information, please refer to related documents.

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 If the voice signal is modulated and transmitted directly after channel coding, due to the
condition changes in mobile communication channel, a deep of the fading will influence a
successive string of bits and cause high bit error rate.
 If the bits of a successive string are interfered or lost, the other end of the communication
can not decode the interfered or lost bits. To solve this problem, some technique or method
to separate the successive bits are required. Thus the successive bits in a message can be
transmitted dispersedly so that the bit error should be discrete. In this way, even if errors
occur, the errors are only concerned with a single or very short bit stream, which will not lead
to that the whole burst or the whole message block cannot be decoded. In this case, the
channel coding will take effect and recover the bit errors. This method is called interleaving
technique. The interleaving method is the most effective coding method for dispersion of bit
errors.
 The key point of interleaving is to disperse some bits( suppose there are “b” bits) of the code
into some ( suppose to be “n” bursts) burst sequences so as to change the adjacent
relationship between bits. The higher the value of “n” is, the better the transmitting works.
However, the transmission delay is higher too. Therefore, a balanced consideration is needed,
the interleaving is related to the purpose of the channel. In the GSM system, the second
interleaving is applied.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 After channel coding, the extracted 456 bits are distributed into 8 groups with each group
containing 57 bits. That is the first interleaving, also called internal interleaving as shown in
the above diagram. Through the first interleaving, the successive messages in the groups are
dispersed. One burst carries two segments of voice information composed of 57 bits.
Obviously, if the two groups of 57 bits information from the first interleaving of a successive
20ms voice blocks are inserted to the same burst sequence, the loss of the burst will lead to
loss 25% bits in the 20ms voice block. Therefore, one more interleaving is needed between
two voice blocks, which is called the inter-block interleaving or second interleaving.
 Suppose that voice block B is divided into 8 groups: perform inter-block interleaving to the
first four groups (B0, B1, B2 and B3) of block B and the last four groups (A4, A5, A6 and A7)
of the previous voice block A ; thus, four bursts are constituted: (B0, A4), (B1, A5), (B2, A6)
and (B3, A7); to break the adjacency relationship between successive bits, bits of block A
occupy the even position of the burst while bits of block B occupy the odd position of the
burst. For example, B0 occupies the odd bit of the burst while A4 occupies the even bit.
Similarly, perform interleaving to the last four groups of block B and the first four groups of
the
h next block
bl k C.
C After
Af the h secondd interleaving,
i l i a 20ms
20 voice i block
bl k is
i inserted
i d into
i 8 different
diff
burst sequences respectively and then transmitted one by one. Even if a whole burst is lost
during transmission process, only 12.5% of each voice block is influenced and the errors can
be corrected through channel coding at the other end. In addition, the second interleaving
for the control information is different. The interleaving mode is (B0, B4), (B1, B5), (B2, B6)
and (B3, B7).

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 As shown in the diagram, the front and end 3 tail bits delimit the burst; the 26 bits are
training sequence bits; and the bit at both sides of the training bits are used as “bit stealing
flags”.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 Transmission delay is unavoidable in the radio interface. If the mobile station moves away from the
base station during a call, the further distance the more delay. The uplink is as the same.
 If the delay is too high, the timeslots of the signal from a certain mobile station and that of the next
signal from another mobile station received by the base station will overlap each other, thus causing
inter-code interference. To avoid this, during a call, the measurement report sent from the mobile
station to the base station carries a delay value. Moreover, the base station should monitor the time
when the call arrives and send an instruction to the mobile station via the downlink channel every
480ms so as to inform the mobile station the time of advance transmission. This time is the TA
(timing advance), which ranges between 0~63 (0~233μs ). The TA value is limited by the timing
advance code 0~63bit of the GSM system.y Therefore, the maximum coverage g distance of the GSM is
35km. Its calculation is as follows:
 1/2*3.7 μs /bit*63bit*c=35km
 {In the formula, 3.7μs /bit is the duration per bit (156/577); 63bit is the maximum bit number of the
time adjustment; c is the light speed (transmission speed of the signal); and ½ indicates that the go
and return trip of the signal.}
 According to the above description, the distance corresponding to 1bit period is 554m. Influenced
by the multi-path propagation and MS synchronization precision, the TA error may reach up to
about
b 3bit
b (1.6km).
( k )
 When the MS is in idle mode, the time sequence within the MS can be adjusted via the SCH channel.
However, the mobile station does not know how far it is away from the base station. If the distance
between the MS and the base station is 30km, the time sequence of the MS will be 100μs slower
than that of the base station. When the mobile phone sends its first RACH signal, it is already 100μs
later. For there is still another 100μs of transmission delay, when the signal reaches the base station,
the total delay is 200μs . It is very possible that the signal collides with the pulse of the adjacent
timeslot around the base station. Therefore,, RACH and some other channel access p pulses will be
shorter than other pulses. Only after receiving the time sequence adjustment signal (TA) from the
base station, MS can send pulses of normal length. In this case, the MS needs to send signals by
200μs in advance.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 When the voice signal is transmitted after being processed and modulated, the frequency
h
hopping
i technique
t h i will
ill be
b usedd too,
t i the
i.e. th transmission
t i i carrier
i varies
i constantly
t tl att different
diff t
timeslots (of course, the variation should comply with the frequency planning principles).
 The following two factors are considered in introduction of the frequency hopping
technology:
 1. For the fading process is related to the frequency band, the application of the frequency
hopping in the system may reduce the effects of the rayleigh fading.
 2. Due to the interference diversity, in areas with dense traffic, the cell capacity is restricted
by the interference caused by the frequency multiplexing.
multiplexing In addition,
addition the system is designed
to meet the demands of subscribers, the maximum capacity of the system is calculated on the
assumption that the quality of a certain number of calls is reduced distinctly due to
interference. The lower the diversity measured around the specified C/I value, the larger the
system capacity. The interference on a call is the average value of the interference level
caused by many other calls. Thus, for a specified interference intensity, the more the
interference sources, the better the system performance.
 The radio interface of the GSM system is designed with the slow frequency hopping (SFH)
technique.
h i Th difference
The diff b
between SFH and d the
h fast
f f
frequency h
hopping
i (FFH) is
i that
h the h
frequency change of the latter is faster than the modulating frequency. During the whole
burst sequence transmission period of the GSM system, the transmitting frequency remains
unchanged. Therefore, it belongs to slow frequency hopping, as shown in the above diagram.
 The GSM system allows 64 types of different frequency hopping sequences. There are mainly
two parameters involved in description of them: mobile allocation index offset (MAIO) and
hopping sequence number (HSN). The values for MAIO can be as many as the frequencies in
aggroup;
p; and there are 64 different values available for HSN.

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 Actually, during the communication process, the mobile subscriber talks only 40% of the time
and there is not much useful information transmitted during rest of the time. If all the
information is transmitted to the network, it will not only be a waste of the system resources
but also add more interference to the system. In order to overcome this problem, the DTX
technique is used in the GSM system, i.e. the transmission of radio signals is prohibited when
there is no voice signal being transmitted. This is to reduce the interference level and increase
the system efficiency. In addition, this mechanism can also save the battery of the mobile
station and prolong the standby time of the mobile station. Note that, the DTX function is not
usedd for
f data
d t transmission.
t i i
 There are two transmission modes for the GSM system: one is the normal mode. In this case,
the noise obtains the same transmission quality as the voice; the other is the discontinuous
transmission mode. In this case, the mobile station only transmits the voice signals. The noise
at the receiving end is artificial.
 The artificial noise is used to inform the hearer that communication connection is ok when
none of the subscribers are speaking. And the noise is designed as a comfortable noise which
will not make the hearer uncomfortable.
 The comfortable noise transmission also meets the requirements of the system measurement.
In DTX mode, only 260bit codes are transmitted per 480ms; while in normal mode, 260bit
codes are transmitted per 20ms. In the DTX mode, these 260 bits will generate SID (Silence
Descriptor) frames. These frames, like the voice frames, will be processed via channel coding,
interleaving, encryption and modulation, and then be transmitted in 8 continuous bursts. In
other time, there is no message g transmitted.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 The DTX mode is optional. However, the transmission quality will be reduced a bit in the DTX
mode. Especially when both ends of the communication are mobile subscribers, the influence
on the
th transmission
t i i qualitylit will
ill be
b more severe because
b th DTX will
the ill be
b usedd twice
t i on the th
same path. In addition, to implement the DTX function, the system should be able to indicate
when to start the discontinuous transmission and when to stop it; and when the DTX is active
the coder should be able to detect whether the signal is a voice signal or a noise signal. Thus,
the VAD technique has to be used. The VAD algorithm determines whether each output
frame contains voice or background noise by comparing the measured signal energy with the
threshold defined for it. The principle of the determination is that the noise energy should
always be lower than the voice energy.
energy

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 During the process of radio transmission of signals, to reduce the interference, to increase the
utilization efficiency of the frequency spectrum, and to prolong the battery life, the
transmission power can be adjusted, that is called power control. More specifically, the
power control refers to adjust the transmission power of the mobile station or base station in
the radio mode within a certain range. Its objective is the same as that of the DTX. When the
receiving level and quality is rather strong, the transmission power at the TX terminal can be
reduced appropriately so that the communication can be kept at a certain level. In this way,
the interference on other calls around can be reduced. The specific process will be described
i the
in th subsequent
b t content
t t together
t th withith Huawei
H i power control
t l algorithm.
l ith

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 The major basic concept concerned with the radio path transmission of the GSM system is the
burst sequence (simplified as Burst). It is a string of transmission units including more than
100 modulation bits. The burst sequence has a restricted duration and seizes a restricted
radio frequency spectrum. They can be described as output from the time and frequency
window. This window is called Slot. In other words, within the system frequency band, the
central frequency of the slot is set every 200KHz (observed from the opinion of FDMA); while
the slot occurs cyclically as the time evolves, which seizes 15/26ms (i.e. approximately
0.577ms) each time (observed from the opinion of TDMA). The intervals of these slots are
called
ll d Time
Ti Sl t and
Slots d the
th duration
d ti off them th i called
is ll d the
th time
ti unit
it (marked
( k d as BP,
BP indicating
i di ti
the Burst Period).
 We can use the time/frequency chart to draw the slot as a small rectangle with the length of
15/26ms and width as 200KHz, as shown in the above diagram. Similarly, we can call the
200KHz bandwidth specified in GSM as Frequency Slot, which is equivalent to the Radio
Frequency Channel (i.e. RF channel) in the GSM specifications.
 The two terms: timeslot and burst sequence are different to a degree in actual application.
For example, the burst sequence is sometimes related to the time-frequency “rectangular”
unit and sometimes to its content. Similarly, the timeslot has the meaning of time value or
indicates that a slot in every 8 slots is used periodically.
 To use a specified channel means to transmit the burst sequence at the specified moment
and frequency, i.e. the specified slot. Generally, the time of slots in a channel is discontinuous.

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 The physical channel is the medium over which the information is carried.
 The logical channel consists of the information carried over the physical channels.

 A Physical Channel (a TS, defined by a fixed position (0-7) on a given TDMA frame) may be
used to broadcast messages containing different kinds of information:
 traffic messages for speech and data,
 signaling messages for different procedures and supplementary services,
 synchronization messages for temporal and logical synchronization between the mobile
stations and the BTS,
 measurements messages for uplink report of the downlink measurements,
 control messages to manage the access to the network.
 All these kinds of messages are classified in Logical Channels. Depending on the quantity of
information to transmit and on their consistency, several logical channels may be mapped
onto one physical channel,
channel in order to use its successive Time Slots as much as possible
(optimization of the resources number by maximizing the occupancy duration of each).

 As a conclusion:
 Physical Channel = information container
 Logical Channel = specification of the information global content

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 The Logical Channel is used in time multiplex in a physical channel, which is categorized
according to the types of messages transmitted in the physical channel. Different logical
channels are used in transmission of different types of information between BS and MS, such
as the signaling or traffic data. In GSM system, five different types of burst sequences are
specified for different logical channels, which have different time-amplitude diagrams as
shown in the above diagrams.
 The training sequence helps to discriminate radio channels with same frequency so as to help
to demodulate the signals. However, there is no training sequence for FB and DB; for SB and
AB, the training sequence is constant, i.e. the synchronous bit; for NB, there are 8 different
training sequences specified in the specifications. These 8 different training sequences of NB
are numbered from 0 to 7, which are called training sequence numbers. By allocating training
sequences with distinct differences to channels of the same frequency used in cells that are
close to and may interfere with each other, the co-frequency interference can be avoided
efficiently during modulation.

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 GSM Um Interface and Radio Channels

 As we know, every cell has several TRX and every TRX includes 8 timeslots (i.e. providing 8
basic physical channels). In the radio subsystem, the physical channel supports the logical
channel based on the type of message transmitted . In this way, the physical channels are
mapped as different logical channels. In the GSM system, the logical channel is classified as
the dedicated channel (DCH) and the common channel (CCH). Sometimes, it can also be
classified as the traffic channel and control channel.
 The traffic channel (TCH) carries voice or data, which are the full-rate traffic channel (TCH/F)
and half-rate traffic channel (TCH/H). These two types of channels carry information at the
rates of 13 kbit/s and 6.5 kbit/s respectively. The channel using half of the time slots of a full-
rate channel is the half-rate channel. Therefore, a carrier can provide 8 full-rate or 16 half-rate
traffic channels.
 The frequency correction channel (FCCH) carries the information for frequency correction of
MS and BTS.
 The control channel (CCH) is used to transmit signaling or synchronous data. There are mainly
3 types of control channels: Broadcast Channel (BCCH), Common Control Channel (CCCH)
and Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH).

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 1. Frequency correction channel (FCCH)

 It carries the information for frequency correction for the mobile station. The MS can
communicate with a cell and demodulate other information of the same cell just via FCCH.
Moreover, the MS can also know whether the carrier is a BCCH carrier via FCCH.
 2. Synchronous channel (SCH)
 After FCCH decoding, the MS will continue to decode the SCH channel message. This
message includes the information for MS frame synchronization and BS identification: Base
Station Identifying Code (BSIC).
(BSIC) It seizes 6 bits,
bits in which 3 bits are PLMN color codes ranging
between 0~7; while the remaining 3 bits are Base Station Color Codes (BCC) ranging between
0~7.
 The simplified TDMA frame number (RFN) seizes 22 bits.
 3. Broadcast control channel (BCCH)
 Generally, there is always a BCCH channel in every cell , which is responsible for broadcasting
system information to the mobile station. These system information enable the MS to identify
and access network at the idle mode.
 4. Paging channel (PCH)
 This is a downlink channel which is used to Page mobile stations. When the network is to set
up communication with a certain MS, it will send paging messages via the PCH channel to all
cells in the LAC area in which the certain MS has currently registered, and indicates TMSI or
IMSI of the certain mobile.
 5 Access granted channel (AGCH)
5.
 This is a downlink channel used in answering a network access request by the mobile station,
i.e. allocation of an SDCCH or a TCH directly.

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 1. Random access channel (RACH)

 It is an uplink channel used for MS randomly access to network by requesting for an SDCCH. The request
includes a 3bit setup reason (call request, paging response, location update request and short message
request etc.) and a 5bit random reference number for MS to differentiate the access granted messages.
 2. Stand-Alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH)
 It is a bi-directional dedicated channel used in transmission of signaling messages concerned with
connection setup, location update message, short message, authentication message, encryption command,
channel allocation message and various kinds of additional services etc.
etc It can be divided into the Stand
Stand-
Alone Dedicated Control Channel (SD/8) and the Dedicated Control Channel in combination with CCCH
(SD/4).
 3. Slow associated control channel (SACCH)
 It is used together with the traffic channel or SDCCH. It carries some specific information while
transmitting the subscriber information. At the uplink, it mainly transmits the measurement report ; while
at the downlink, it mainly transmits some system information. These messages include the quality of
communication,
i ti LAI CELL ID,
LAI, ID BCCH signal
i l strength
t th off the
th adjacent
dj t cell,
ll NCC permit,
it cellll option,
ti TA andd
power control level etc.
 4. Fast associated control channel (FACCH)
 It is used together with TCH for providing signaling messages whose speed and timeliness are much
higher than the slow associated control channel (SACCH) for the system during the transmission process.
This channel uses frames borrowed from the traffic channel for its connection and transmits such
instruction messages as “handover”. For the voice decoder can repeat the voice of the last 20ms, this kind
of interruption due to frame stealing will not be detected by the subscriber. Besides the three types of
control channels described above, there is a cell broadcast control channel (CBCH). It is used at the
downlink and carries the short message service cell broadcast (SMSCB) information. This kind of control
channel uses the same physical channel as that used in SDCCH.
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 As shown above, CCCH=PCH+RACH+AGCH; downlink CCCH=PCH+AGCH; and uplink

CCCH=RACH. In the above combinations, combination 3 and 4 must be allocated to slot 0 of
the BCCH carrier configured for the cell; while combination 5 must be allocated to timeslots 2,
4 and 6 of the BCCH carrier. The FACCH works in the frame stealing mode, for which no
fixed time sequence will be allocated. In addition, the cyclic multiframe period of SACCH/C4
and SACCH/C8 is 102 frames.

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 The TDMA/FDMA multiplexing is used in GSM, the information needed in the synchronization
between MS and BTS is provided by FCCH+SCH.
 The MS determines the frequency of the BCCH carrier by searching for the frequency
correction Burst transmitted via FCCH; then it finds the SCH (synchronization channel)
according to the relationship between SCH and FCCH and decodes the current frame number
and BSIC for synchronization with BTS. Furthermore, it determines whether the cell is barred
or not and decodes the system information on BCCH.
 In the structure diagram
g of extended BCCH,, except p that the F and S timeslots are replaced
p byy
Idle timeslots, the rest of the structures are the same as that of the main BCCH.

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 It is used in the configuration of cells of low traffic density and small capacity. The Combined
BCCH is only configured at timeslot 0.
 Channel combination: FCCH＋SCH＋BCCH＋CCCH+SDCCH/4+SACCH/4
 SDCCH/4: Stand-alone dedicated control channel. Each TDMA multiframe with 51 frames has
4 SDCCH;
 SACCH/4: Slow SDCCH/4 associated control channel;
 Compared with the main BCCH channel, 4 signaling channels are added to the 51 frames.
The functions of these 4 signaling channels are the same as those of the SDCCH8 channel. channel
Therefore, this channel combination can be taken as a combination of the functions of the
above two channels. This combination take effect on two aspects: first, this reduced the
quantity of AGCH+PCH on CCCH and only a small-capacity system is provided; second, this
combination provides a certain quantity of signaling channels in timeslot 0. Thus, it is
unnecessary to assign SDCCH8 channels in a small-capacity system. This channel suitable for
small-capacity systems. And it is also an example of the flexible GSM network configuration.

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 Channel combination: SDCCH/8+ SACCH/C8

 SDCCH/8: Stand-alone dedicated control channel. Each TDMA multiframe with 102 frames
has 8 SDCCH.
 SACCH/C8: Slow SDCCH/8 associated control channel.

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 Channel combination: TCH/F + FACCH/F + SACCH/F

 TCH/F: Full-rate voice channel;
 FACCH/F: Full-rate fast associated control channel;
 SACCH/F: Fast TCH/F associated control channel.

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 One TDMA frame includes 8 basic timeslots, and each timeslot is a basic physical channel.
 The Physical Channel is a combination of FDMA and TDMA, which is composed of the
timeslot streams between the base station (BS) and the mobile station (MS). The positions of
these timeslots do not change in different TDMA frames. The above diagram shows the
complete structure of the TDMA frame, including the timeslot and burst sequence. It should
be remembered that the TDMA frame is the “physical” frame repeated on the radio link.
 Every TDMA frame includes 8 timeslots, which seize 60/13≈4.615ms altogether. Every
timeslot contains 156.25 bit duration, which seize is 15/26≈0.557ms. Multiple TDMA frames
constitute a Multi
Multi-frame,
frame, which has two types of structures including 26 or 51 coherent
TDMA frames respectively. These multiframes should be used when different logical channels
are mapping to one physical channel.
 The period of the multiframe containing 26 frames is 120ms, which is used in the traffic
channel and the associated control channel. In these frames, 24 bursts are used for the traffic
and the remaining two are used for the signaling.
 The period of the multiframe containing 51 frames is 3060/13≈235.385ms, which is used
especially in the control channel.
 Multiple multi-frames constitute a Super frame, which is a coherent 51×26TDMA frames.
That is to say, one super frame can contain either 51 26TDMA multi-frames or 26 51TDMA
multi-frames. The period of all super frames is 1326 TDMA frames, i.e. 6.12 seconds.
 Furthermore, multiple super frames constitute a Hyper frame, which contains 2048 super
frames and its period is 12533.76 seconds, i.e. 3 hours, 28 minutes, 53 seconds and 760
milliseconds. The hyper frame is used in encrypted voice and data. Each period of the hyper
frame contains 2715648 TDMA frames, which are numbered in sequence from 0 to 2715647
successively The frame number is transmitted in the synchronous channel,
successively. channel which is also a
necessary parameter in the frequency hopping algorithm.

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 The common control channel includes PCH, AGCH and RACH, in which AGCH and PCH are
downlink while RACH is uplink. Its purpose is to send the access granted (immediate
assignment) message, paging message and random access message. Based on the
configuration of traffic channels in the cell and the traffic model of the cell, the CCCH channel
can be borne by one or more physical channels. Moreover, the CCCH can share the same
physical channel with the SDCCH channel. The combination mode for the common channel in
the cell depends on the configuration parameter of the common channel.
 As a way for load control, the MS may be distributed to several different sub-groups by
operators for access or other operation purposes. The CCCH grouping and paging grouping
are two examples.

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