Core Network Planning

Planning the UMTS core network consist of GSN (GPRS Service Node) system design, MSC
and registers dimensioning, OMC dimensioning, Core network interface dimensioning.

The Core Network has several interfaces, which need to be configured and dimensioned. This
dimensioning is out of the scope of this page, but these are the interfaces that need to be
configured:

Gn: Interface between SGSN and GGSN

 Gi: Interface between GGSN and external packet data network

Other interfaces are between MSCs, to PSTN, HLR, AUC, EIR, SMS, Billing Centre, Voice
Mail, OMC, WAP & Multi Media Servers and other network elements.

The main inputs to dimensioning of GSN system are similar to what is required in air interface
design. Hardware configuration is vendor specific, but here is a general list of things that need to
be considered when configuring GSN System:

 Number of Subscribers
 Number of PDP Contexts
 Service Activation Rate
 Peak Traffic amount and overheads (bits/s or packets/s)
 Number of required links
 Number of RNC in served area

The Core Network hardware configuration is also vendor specific. Network vendors have very
extensive documentation how to design all aspects of core network starting from the room
environmental requirements up to the post integration system quality audit. Here is a general list
of things that need to be considered when dimensioning MSCs:

 Number of Subscribers
 Average call lengths
 Call mix
 Total CS traffic (Erlangs)
 System features
 Interconnection to other equipment
 MSC software features
 Required redundancies (e.g. 2N, N+1)
 Total traffic and signaling loads
 Iu-cs and other interface dimensioning
 Type of transmission interfaces
 Expansion possibilities
 MSC capacity and configuration options
 Most cost effective deployment method
 Number of RNC in served area

All other network equipment will be designed in a similar way. Once the main components are
designed, the rest is easy!

Other core network plans:

 Numbering plan
 Traffic and interconnectivity routing plan
 Signalling network plan
 Synchronisation plan
 Expansion plan
 Logical and physical node dimentioning
 PS and CS network plan
 Network security plan
 Redundancy and QoS plan

Overview of The Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

(DRAFT, July 2002)

Table of Contents

1. 3G Systems
2. UMTS Services
3. UMTS Architecture
4. Core Network
5. Radio Access
6. User Equipment

1. 3G Systems

3G Systems are intended to provide a global mobility with wide range of services including
telephony, paging, messaging, Internet and broadband data. International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) started the process of defining the standard for third generation systems, referred to
as International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). In Europe European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was responsible of UMTS standardisation
process. In 1998 Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed to continue the
technical specification work. 3GPP has five main UMTS standardisation areas: Radio Access
Network, Core Network, Terminals, Services and System Aspects and GERAN.

3GPP Radio Access group is responsible of:

 Radio Layer 1, 2 and 3 RR specification

 Iub, Iur and Iu Interfaces
 UTRAN Operation and Maintenance requirements
 BTS radio performance specification
 Conformance test specification for testing of radio aspects of base stations
 Specifications for radio performance aspects from the system point of view

3GPP Core Network group is responsible of:

 Mobility management, call connection control signalling between the user equipment and the
core network.
 Core network signalling between the core network nodes.
 Definition of interworking functions between the core network and external networks.
 Packet related issues.
 Core network aspects of the lu interface and Operation and Maintenance requirements

3GPP Terminal group is responsible of:

 Service capability protocols

 Messaging
 Services end-to-end interworking
 USIM to Mobile Terminal interface
 Model/framework for terminal interfaces and services (application) execution
 Conformance test specifications of terminals, including radio aspects

3GPP Services and System Aspects group is responsible of:

 Definition of services and feature requirements.

 Development of service capabilities and service architecture for cellular, fixed and cordless
applications.
 Charging and Accounting
 Network Management and Security Aspects
 Definition, evolution, and maintenance of overall architecture.

Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP) was formed for technical development of
cdma2000 technology which is a member of IMT-2000 family.

In February 1992 World Radio Conference allocated frequencies for UMTS use. Frequencies
1885 - 2025 and 2110 - 2200 MHz were identified for IMT-2000 use. See the UMTS Frequency
page for more details. All 3G standards are still under constant development. In 1999 ETSI
Standardisation finished for UMTS Phase 1 (Release '99, version 3) and next release is due
December 2001. UMTS History page has a list of all major 3G and UMTS milestones. Most of
the European countries and some countries round the world have already issued UMTS licenses
either by beauty contest or auctions.

2. UMTS Services
UMTS offers teleservices (like speech or SMS) and bearer services, which provide the capability
for information transfer between access points. It is possible to negotiate and renegotiate the
characteristics of a bearer service at session or connection establishment and during ongoing
session or connection. Both connection oriented and connectionless services are offered for
Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint communication.

Bearer services have different QoS parameters for maximum transfer delay, delay variation and
bit error rate. Offered data rate targets are:

 144 kbits/s satellite and rural outdoor

 384 kbits/s urban outdoor
 2048 kbits/s indoor and low range outdoor

UMTS network services have different QoS classes for four types of traffic:

 Conversational class (voice, video telephony, video gaming)

 Streaming class (multimedia, video on demand, webcast)
 Interactive class (web browsing, network gaming, database access)
 Background class (email, SMS, downloading)

UMTS will also have a Virtual Home Environment (VHE). It is a concept for personal service
environment portability across network boundaries and between terminals. Personal service
environment means that users are consistently presented with the same personalised features,
User Interface customisation and services in whatever network or terminal, wherever the user
may be located. UMTS also has improved network security and location based services.

3. UMTS Architecture

A UMTS network consist of three interacting domains; Core Network (CN), UMTS Terrestrial
Radio Access Network (UTRAN) and User Equipment (UE). The main function of the core
network is to provide switching, routing and transit for user traffic. Core network also contains
the databases and network management functions.

The basic Core Network architecture for UMTS is based on GSM network with GPRS. All
equipment has to be modified for UMTS operation and services. The UTRAN provides the air
interface access method for User Equipment. Base Station is referred as Node-B and control
equipment for Node-B's is called Radio Network Controller (RNC). UMTS system page has an
example, how UMTS network could be build.

It is necessary for a network to know the approximate location in order to be able to page user
equipment. Here is the list of system areas from largest to smallest.

 UMTS systems (including satellite)

 Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)
 MSC/VLR or SGSN
 Location Area
 Routing Area (PS domain)
 UTRAN Registration Area (PS domain)
 Cell
 Sub cell

4. Core Network

The Core Network is divided in circuit switched and packet switched domains. Some of the
circuit switched elements are Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC), Visitor location register
(VLR) and Gateway MSC. Packet switched elements are Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)
and Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Some network elements, like EIR, HLR, VLR and
AUC are shared by both domains.

The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is defined for UMTS core transmission. ATM
Adaptation Layer type 2 (AAL2) handles circuit switched connection and packet connection
protocol AAL5 is designed for data delivery.

The architecture of the Core Network may change when new services and features are
introduced. Number Portability DataBase (NPDB) will be used to enable user to change the
network while keeping their old phone number. Gateway Location Register (GLR) may be used
to optimise the subscriber handling between network boundaries. MSC, VLR and SGSN can
merge to become a UMTS MSC.

5. Radio Access

Wide band CDMA technology was selected to for UTRAN air interface. UMTS WCDMA is a
Direct Sequence CDMA system where user data is multiplied with quasi-random bits derived
from WCDMA Spreading codes. In UMTS, in addition to channelisation, Codes are used for
synchronisation and scrambling. WCDMA has two basic modes of operation: Frequency
Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). UTRAN interfaces are shown on
UMTS Network page.

The functions of Node-B are:

 Air interface Transmission / Reception

 Modulation / Demodulation
 CDMA Physical Channel coding
 Micro Diversity
 Error Handing
 Closed loop power control

The functions of RNC are:

 Radio Resource Control
 Admission Control
 Channel Allocation
 Power Control Settings
 Handover Control
 Macro Diversity
 Ciphering
 Segmentation / Reassembly
 Broadcast Signalling
 Open Loop Power Control

6. User Equipment

The UMTS standard does not restrict the functionality of the User Equipment in any way.
Terminals work as an air interface counter part for Node-B and have many different types of
identities. Most of these UMTS identity types are taken directly from GSM specifications.

 International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)

 Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI)
 Packet Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (P-TMSI)
 Temporary Logical Link Identity (TLLI)
 Mobile station ISDN (MSISDN)
 International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI)
 International Mobile Station Equipment Identity and Software Number (IMEISV)

UMTS mobile station can operate in one of three modes of operation:

 PS/CS mode of operation: The MS is attached to both the PS domain and CS domain, and
the MS is capable of simultaneously operating PS services and CS services.
 PS mode of operation: The MS is attached to the PS domain only and may only operate
services of the PS domain. However, this does not prevent CS-like services to be offered over the
PS domain (like VoIP).
 CS mode of operation: The MS is attached to the CS domain only and may only operate
services of the CS domain.

UMTS IC card has same physical characteristics as GSM SIM card. It has several functions:

 Support of one User Service Identity Module (USIM) application (optionally more that one)
 Support of one or more user profile on the USIM
 Update USIM specific information over the air
 Security functions
 User authentication
 Optional inclusion of payment methods
 Optional secure downloading of new applications
UMTS Requirements and Features

UMTS requirements are driven by market needs and anticipation of new services that make it possible
to create a mobile information society. The requirements can be categorized into the following primary
drivers:

• Access to information and content on the Internet: As the Internet has grown, so has the
dependence of its users for information, entertainment, and business. The Internet has
become an integral aspect of many people's lives. Since packet data access in 2G wireless
networks is limited by slow speeds and inefficient spectral use, 3G networks are expected to
alleviate this problem by addressing the shortcomings and thereby enabling the creation of the
wireless Internet.
• Global roaming: With the wide disparity in types of networks deployed globally, roaming
across networks has become an issue. UMTS requires that a common core network be able to
support different types of access networks. With this, roaming across heterogeneous access
types becomes easier since the core and the protocols to access the network and services
remain the same.
• New services: UMTS networks are also intended to provide new types of services in addition to
traditional voice. Multimedia services such as audio and video streaming, video telephony, and
integration of voice and data to provide a rich user experience are expected to be possible
with these networks.
• Convergence of datacom and telecom: With wired networks moving in the direction of
convergence, wireless networks are set to follow suit, and hence a network that is essentially
moving in the direction of being a packet based network is another trend.

The 3G networks are feature rich. UMTS networks increase data rates in the radio interface, improve
subscriber security, and clarify the functional split between the access and core networks. The
achievable data rates with the new WCDMA interface can be as high as 2 Mbps in the hotspots (at
pedestrian speeds) and up to 10 Mbps with HSDPA. The WCDMA technology provides flexibility in radio
resource allocation. High-bit-rate users consume capacity and leave lower speeds for other users. The
radio resource optimization is a complex issue, whose goal is to optimize the number of users, their
access speed, and access network coverage in the best possible way. The UMTS packet core inherits
many of the GPRS architectural decisions and features but moves all radio-related functionality into
the access network.

From the IP networking perspective, the high access data rate alone is a huge improvement over
GPRS. How the improvements are achieved—the radio protocols and so on—is irrelevant to IP. The
bandwidth increase enables new IP services in addition to the "basic" ones GPRS can provide; real-
time services like voice over IP (VoIP) and streaming video will be among the driving applications for
UMTS. In order to support such real-time services, the networks will have to support quality of service
(QoS).

Subscriber security improvement comes from the stronger cryptography and the two-way
authentication UMTS deploys. In GSM and GPRS only the subscriber authenticates himself or herself to
the network; in UMTS the network also authenticates toward the user. With the basic GSM voice
service the difference is not that significant, but with monetary transactions in UMTS the subscriber
really wants to be sure whose network he or she is using.

Core and service network access independence is clearly an essential enabling feature to make a
session handover possible, in addition to the radio access handover in place today.