Introduction:

The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is the world’s dominant wireless technology. It’s no exaggeration to state that all wireless technologies that have come since GSM have been impacted by it, at least in a conceptual way. How does GSM solve the multitude of problems that need to be solved to provide simultaneous services to a large number of mobiles over a large geographical area? This question, simply stated, forms the agenda of this intensive five-day course.

Audience:

Those with some prior GSM experience who wish to study GSM in depth. The standard presentation of this course assumes a bachelor of science in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related subject along with an appropriate background in communications engineering. Knowledge of the wireless network structure and operation, RF propagation and fading issues, and link budget analysis.

Customize it:

This 4-5-day GSM: Network Architecture, Operation, and Design course will be customized to your needs and specifications. Enowireless will assist you in identifying those needs and specifications. A word to the wise, there are many vendors of wireless training. They will typically have a broad and general course, one size fits all, already developed and just put your organization’s name on the title slide. This minimizes their effort and time investment. At Enowireless, every course is made to your exact and exacting specifications. We help you ensure what you are getting is what you really need even if at the beginning you weren’t too sure of what that was. We fit the class to your needs. We never fit you into our “standard”, one size fits all, class.

Course Aim:

Upon course completion, you will be able to identify the components of a GSM network and the protocols that allow them to communicate with each other. You will be in a position to critically evaluate and compare solutions to specific problems within the rules set forth by GSM. While GSM is a complex system, rich in details, the course will allow you to understand the GSM structures and articulate their interactions. This, in turn, will enable you to identify good design and optimization strategies as well as performance problems and solution approaches.

Course Outline

GSM Network Architecture and System Overview GSM architecture: Original, current, and evolving Key core network features of GSM, incuding Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) GSM core network evolutionary path Key aspects of GSM’s air interface GSM TDMA Structures on the RF Carrier Time slots and their structure within the frame Frame structures and framing hierarchy: Frames, multiframes, superframes, and hyperframe Physical channels and their properties Uplink versus downlink timing alignment Logical Channels and Their Relationship to the RF Carriers and Resource Allocation/Logical Channel Optimization Issues Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) Frequency Correction Channel (FCCH) Synchronization Channel (SCH) Common Control Channels (CCCH) Stand-alone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) Traffic Channels (TCH), full rate, half rate, and other data-carrying traffic channels Associated Control Channels (ACCH) Mapping of Logical Channels to Physical Channels, Burst Structures, and Optimization of Mapping Schemes The 26-frame multiframe and its structure: Optimization options The 51-frame multiframe and its structure: Optimization options Burst structures, usage, and operation ---Normal burst: Structure and usage ---Frequency correction burst: Structure and usage ---Synchronization burst: Structure and usage ---Random access burst: Structure and usage ---Dummy burst: Structure and usage The End-to-End Digital Path: An Overview before the GSM Specifics Can Be Discussed Overview of speech coding Overview of error control coding, including error correction and error detection Overview of modulation techniques, leading up to the GSM modulation technique GSM Speech Coding Full rate vocoder Enhanced full rate vocoder Half rate vocoder Adaptive, multirate codec and voice quality performance optimization GSM Error Control Coding Voice traffic channel coding (error correction and error detection) Data traffic channel coding options and optimization issues/limitations Summary of strengths and weaknesses of the error control strategies used in GSM Gaussian, Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK): The Digital Modulation Scheme Used in GSM Why not BPSK, or QPSK, or something similar What’s unique about GMSK and its properties GMSK versus frequency correction burst Call Establishment Procedures and Algorithms Idle mode procedures, including details, parameters, etc of the camping algorithm Cell selection/reselection procedures and parameters, including C1 and C2 Random Access channel (RACH) procedures and parameters Dedicated mode procedures, including measurements, BSIC identification, handovers, and system optimization considerations SDCCH structures, parameters, and resource allocation optimization Layer 2 and Layer 3 Message Structures Information Elements (IE) and their functionality Layer 3 message structures and issues Layer 3 to layer 2 interfaces Layer 2 messages, associated structures, and mapping to layer 1 Evolutionary Path of GSM Overview and motivation for HSCSD Overview and motivation for GPRS Overview and motivation for EDGE Overview and motivation for CAMEL Overview and motivation for 3G/WCDMA/UMTS/UTRA Course Recap and Conclusions