GSM Architecture
How a GSM network is engineered beneath the block diagram: the interfaces and their protocol stacks, the signalling that crosses them, and the procedures each network element runs. A message-level follow-on from GSM Fundamentals for engineers who need to read traces, specifications and operator designs.
GSM Architecture goes deeper than GSM Fundamentals into how the network is built and how its parts talk. It opens with the architecture read as a protocol map: the lettered reference points of 3GPP TS 23.002, the protocol each carries, and why the functional split between the mobile station, base station subsystem and network and switching subsystem is drawn where it is. It then works through the air interface protocol stack and the Radio Resource procedures, the Abis and A interfaces with their LAPD and BSSAP layers, mobility and connection management at message level, the network core and the Mobile Application Part carried over the Transaction Capabilities Application Part and the Signalling System No. 7 stack, roaming and the home and visitor location register dialogue, the GPRS packet domain with its Gb, Gn and Gp interfaces, and dimensioning and real operator deployments. The course ends with an interactive signalling walkthrough of one end-to-end procedure across the Um, Abis, A and core interfaces.
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View plansGSM Architecture Badge
Passing the final exam earns the GSM Network Architect achievement. It shows you can read the GSM reference architecture as a protocol map, follow its procedures at message level across the Um, Abis, A and core interfaces, and reason about how BSSAP, MAP and the Signalling System No. 7 stack carry GSM signalling.