Monday, May 9, 2011

GSM Protocols - Part 1

GSM protocol stack

In any telecommunication system, signaling is required to coordinate the necessarily distributed functional entities of the network. In GSM networks signaling information transforms according to the OSI model.

Layer 1:Physical Layer

Radio Transmission

Layer 2:Data Link Layer(DLL)

Provides error-free transmission between adjacent entities, based on the ISDN’s LAPD protocol for the Um and Abis interfaces, and on SS7’s Message Transfer Protocol (MTP) for the other Layer interfaces

Layer 3: Networking or Messaging Layer

Responsible for the communication of network resources, mobility, code format and call-related management messages between various network entities




Figure: Simplified ISDN reference model

Logical channels are at the Service Access Point of Layer 1 (physical layer), where they are visible to the upper layers as transmission channels of the physical layer

User Plane - User data are transmitted in GSM across the air interface over traffic channels (TCH) from a subscriber or a data channel.

Controlling/ Signaling Plane - Handles subscriber access to the network and the control of the user plane

…To be continued

Reference :

1. J .Eberspächer et. al., GSM-Architecture, Protocols and Services (3rd Ed.)

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