GSM Fundamentals
How the first digital mobile network works: cells and frequency reuse, the radio interface, the network that keeps every phone reachable, and the procedures that set up calls and messages. You will learn how GSM radio, network elements and signalling work together so that a phone can be found, reached and kept connected as it moves.
GSM Fundamentals is the fourth of five courses in the Telecom Foundations path, followed by SIM Cards Fundamentals, and builds on Telecom Fundamentals, PSTN Fundamentals and ADSL Fundamentals. It starts with the cellular idea itself: cells, clusters, frequency reuse and why a moving phone must be located and handed over. It then follows the network architecture from the mobile station and base station to the switching and database elements, the radio interface with its bands, carriers, TDMA frames and bursts, and the logical channels and multiframes carried on it. Later modules cover the identities held in the SIM and the authentication and ciphering procedures, mobility management, mobile-originated and mobile-terminated call set-up, handover and radio resource management, and SMS and supplementary services. The last module traces GPRS, EDGE and the road to 3G, 4G and 5G. The course ends with an interactive review, "Switch-on to receiving a call", that follows a phone from power-on to answering its first incoming call, then a text and a first data session.
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Passing the final exam earns the GSM Network Engineer achievement and counts towards the TelcoSec Telecom Foundations certification, which needs the final exams of all five Foundations courses: Telecom, PSTN, ADSL, GSM and SIM Cards Fundamentals. It shows you can explain how cells and frequency reuse, the radio interface, the network elements and their procedures let a GSM network find, reach and keep a moving phone connected.