Syllabus

This is an introductory course in the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The topics covered by this course are the following:

  • A brief overview of mobile communication systems and major standards.
  • An introduction of GSM: key features, mobility concepts, services and technical characteristics.
  • The architecture of a GSM network, the GSM functional entities: the mobile station, the base station subsystem (BSS), the network and switching subsystem (NSS), and the operations and management subsystem (OMS), the GSM interfaces, and the GSM geographical distribution.
  • The GSM addresses and identifiers: mobile subscriber identity numbers, mobile equipment identity numbers, and network identifiers.
  • Call routing in GSM: mobile terminating calls, mobile originating calls, and calls between mobile subscribers.
  • Data services in GSM: circuit switched data (CSD) and high-speed circuit switched data (HSCSD).
  • General Packet Radio Service (GPRS): overview and key features.
  • The architecture of a GPRS network and GPRS functional entities.
  • Data transfer in a GPRS network.
  • Enhanced Rates for GSM/Global Evolution (EDGE): key features and data rates.
  • Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS): the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and mobility features.

Resources

Last updated: February 20, 2013