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GPRS ,General Packet Radio Serice, is used as a data serices upgrade to

any GSM network. It allows GSM networks to be truly compatible with the
Internet. GPRS uses a packet-mode technique to transer bursty traic in an
eicient manner. It allows transmission bit rates rom 9.6 Kbps to more
than 150 Kbps per user.
1he two key beneits o GPRS are a better use o radio and network
resources and completely transparent IP support. GPRS optimizes the use
o network and radio resources. It uses radio resources only when there is
data to be sent or receied. As a true packet technology it allows end user
applications to only occupy the network when a payload is being transerred
and so is well adapted to the ery bursty nature o data applications.
Another important eature o the GPRS is that it proides immediate
connectiity and high throughput. Applications based on standard data
protocols such as IP and X.25 are supported. In GPRS our dierent quality
o serice leels are supported. 1o support data applications GPRS utilizes
seeral new network nodes, in addition to the network nodes in the GSM
PLMN. 1hose nodes are responsible or traic routing and other
interworking unctions with external packet-switched data networks,
204 GPRS Protoco|s
subscriber location, cell selection, roaming and many other unctions that
any cellular network needs or it's operation. Apart rom these protocols,
GPRS uses the GSM SMS protocol and the GSM MM protocol ,which it
calls GMM,.
Relay
GTP
MOBILE STATION
(MS)
GTP
LLC
GSM RF
Um Gb Gi
L1bis GSM RF
Network
Service
Relay
BSSGP
LLC
TCP
UDP /
SCCP
IP
TCP
UDP /
IP / X.25
SNDCP
(GGSN) (BSS) (SGSN)
Application
Relay
RLC
MAC
RLC
MAC
SNDCP
BSSGP IP
Network
Service
Network
Service
L2
L1bis L1
IP / X.25
L1
L2
Gn
Relay
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1his chapter describes the ollowing GPRS protocols:
NS: Network Serice.
BSSGP: Base Station System GPRS Protocol.
G1P: GPRS 1unnelling Protocol.
LLC: Logical Link Control layer protocol or GPRS.
SNDCP: Sub-Network Dependant Conergence Protocol.
GPRS Protoco|s 205
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WHOHSKRQ\SURWRFROVDQGWKH26,PRGHO
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Transport
Network
Data Link
GPRS
GMS/CDMA
Application
INAP
Session
Presentation
VLR
IS41/MAP
HLR
AUC
EIR
DTAP
B-ISUP
ISUP
DUP
SS
MM
RR
CM/CC
SMS
SNDCP
BSSMAP
SMS
GMM
Physical
TCAP TUP
BTSM BSSAP
SCCP
NM
V5
GTP
BSSGP
MTP1
MTP2
MTP3
NS-Network
LAPv5
From LAPD
From UDP
To IP
To X.25
From
Frame Relay
V5 Link Control
V5 PSTN
V5 Control
V5 Protection
LLC
20 GPRS Protoco|s
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GSM 08.16 ersion 6.1.0 http:,,www.etsi.r
1he Network Serice ,NS, perorms the transport o NS SDUs between the
SGSN ,sering GPRS support node, and BSS ,base station system,. Serices
proided to the NS user include:
Network Serice SDU transer. 1he Network Serice proides network
serice primities allowing or transmission and reception o upper layer
protocol data units between the BSS and SGSN. 1he NS SDUs are
transerred in order by the Network Serice, but under exceptional
circumstances order may not be maintained.
Network congestion indication. Congestion recoery control actions may
be perormed by the Sub-Network Serice ,e.g., lrame Relay,.
Congestion reporting mechanisms aailable in the Sub-Network Serice
implementation are used by NS to report congestion.
Status indication. Status indication is used to inorm the NS user o the
NS aecting eents, e.g., change in the aailable transmission capabilities.
1he structure o the NS PDU is shown in the ollowing illustration:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
PDU type 1
Information elements 2-n
10KHDGHUVWUXFWXUH
3'8W\SH
PDU type may be:
NS-ALIVL.
NS-ALIVL-ACK.
NS-BLOCK.
NS-BLOCK-ACK.
NS-RLSL1.
NS-RLSL1-ACK.
NS-S1A1US.
NS-UNBLOCK.
NS-UNBLOCK-ACK.
NS-UNI1DA1A.
16
,QIRUPDWLRQHOHPHQWV
1he particular ILs present in a PDU depend on the PDU type. 1he
structure o ILs is as shown in the ollowing illustration:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
Information element ID (IEI) 1
Length indicator 2
Information element value 3
,(VWUXFWXUH
,QIRUPDWLRQHOHPHQW,'
1he irst octet o an inormation element haing the 1LV ormat contains
the ILI o the inormation element. I this octet does not correspond to an
ILI known in the PDU, the receier assumes that the next octet is the irst
octet o the length indicator ield. 1his rule allows the receier to skip
unknown inormation elements and to analyze any subsequent inormation
elements.
1he ollowing ILs may be present depending on the PDU type:
Cause.
NS-VCI.
NS PDU.
BVCI.
NSLI.
/HQJWKLQGLFDWRU
Inormation elements may be ariable in length. 1he length indicator is one
or two octets long, the second octet may be absent. 1his ield consists o the
ield extension bit, 0,1 ext, and the length o the alue ield which ollows,
expressed in octets. 1he ield extension bit enables extension o the length
indicator to two octets. Bit 8 o the irst octet is resered or the ield
extension bit. I the ield extension bit is set to 0 ,zero,, then the second
octet o the length indicator is present. I the ield extension bit is set to 1
,one,, then the irst octet is the inal octet o the length indicator.
208 GPRS Protoco|s
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1he NS transports BSS ,base station system, GPRS protocol PDUs between
a BSS and an SGSN ,sering GPRS support node,. 1he primary unctions
o the BSSGP include:
Proision by an SGSN to a BSS o radio related inormation used by the
RLC,MAC unction ,in the downlink,.
Proision by a BSS to an SGSN o radio related inormation deried
rom the RLC,MAC unction ,in the uplink,.
Proision o unctionality to enable two physically distinct nodes, an
SGSN and a BSS, to operate node management control unctions.
1he structure o BSSGP PDUs is shown in the ollowing illustration:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
PDU type 1
Information elements 2
%66*3KHDGHUVWUXFWXUH
3'8W\SH
PDU type may be:
UL-UNI1DA1A.
RA-CAPABILI1\.
P1M-UNI1DA1A.
PAGING PS.
PAGING CS.
RA-CAPABILI1\-UPDA1L.
RA-CAPABILI1\-UPDA1L-ACK.
RADIO-S1A1US.
SUSPLND.
SUSPLND-ACK.
SUSPLND-NACK.
RLSUML.
RLSUML-ACK.
RLSUML-NACK.
lLUSH-LL.
8SSGP 209
lLUSH-LL-ACK.
LLC-DISCARDLD.
lLO\-CON1ROL-BVC.
lLO\-CON1ROL-BVC-ACK.
lLO\-CON1ROL-MS.
lLO\-CON1ROL-MS-ACK.
BVC-BLOCK.
BVC-BLOCK-ACK.
BVC-UNBLOCK.
BVC-UNBLOCK-ACK.
BVC-RLSL1.
BVC-RLSL1-ACK.
S1A1US.
SGSN-INVOKL-1RACL.
,QIRUPDWLRQHOHPHQWV
1he ollowing IL types may be present. 1he hex coding is the alue o the
ILI ield.
0x00 Alignment Octets
0x01 Bmax deault MS
0x02 BSS Area Indication
0x03 Bucket Leak Rate
0x04 BVCI
0x05 BVC Bucket Size
0x06 BVC Measurement
0x0 Cause
0x08 Cell Identiier
0x09 Channel needed
0x0a DRX Parameters
0x0b eMLPP-Priority
0x0c llush Action
0x0d IMSI
0x0e LLC-SDU
0x0 LLC lrames Discarded
0x10 Location Area
0x11 Mobile Id
0x12 MS Bucket Size
0x13 MS Radio Access Capability
0x14 OMC Id
0x15 PDU In Lrror
0x16 PDU Lietime
210 GPRS Protoco|s
0x1 Priority
0x18 QoS Proile
0x19 Radio Cause
0x1a RA-Cap-UPD-Cause
0x1b Routing Area
0x1c R_deault_MS
0x1d Suspend Reerence Number
0x1e 1ag
0x1 1LLI
0x20 1MSI
0x21 1race Reerence
0x22 1race 1ype
0x23 1ransaction Id
0x24 1rigger Id
0x25 Number o octets eected
All alues not explicitly shown are resered or uture use and are treated by
the recipient as an unknown ILI.
GTP 211
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GPRS 1unnelling Protocol ,G1P, is the protocol between GSN nodes in
the GPRS backbone network. G1P is deined both or the Gn interace, i.e.
the interace between GSNs within a PLMN, and the Gp interace between
GSNs in dierent PLMNs. G1P is encapsulated within UDP.
G1P allows multiprotocol packets to be tunnelled through the GPRS
Backbone between GPRS Support Nodes ,GSNs,. In the signalling plane,
G1P speciies a tunnel control and management protocol which allows the
SGSN to proide GPRS network access or an MS. Signalling is used to
create, modiy and delete tunnels. In the transmission plane, G1P uses a
tunnelling mechanism to proide a serice or carrying user data packets.
1he choice o path is dependent on whether the user data to be tunnelled
requires a reliable link or not.
1he G1P protocol is implemented only by SGSNs and GGSNs. No other
systems need to be aware o G1P. GPRS MSs are connected to a SGSN
without being aware o G1P. It is assumed that there will be a many-to-
many relationship between SGSNs and GGSNs. An SGSN may proide
serice to many GGSNs. A single GGSN may associate with many SGSNs
to delier traic to a large number o geographically dierse mobile stations.
1he G1P header is a ixed ormat 16 octet header used or all G1P
messages.
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
Version Reserved LFN
Message type 1
Length 2
Sequence number 3
Flow label 4
LLC frame number 5
x x x x x x x FN 6
Reserved
TID
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9HUVLRQ
Set to 0 to indicate the irst ersion o G1P.
5HVHUYHG
Resered bits or uture use, set to 1.
/)1
LLC rame number. llag indicating whether the LLC rame number is
included or not, set to 0 in signalling messages.
0HVVDJHW\SH
Indicates the type o G1P message. In signalling messages it is set to the
unique alue that is used or each type o signalling message.
/HQJWK
Indicates the length in octets o the G1P message ,G-PDU,. In signalling
messages this is the length, in octets, o the signalling message including the
G1P header.
6HTXHQFHQXPEHU
A transaction identity or signalling messages and an increasing sequence
number or tunneled 1-PDUs.
)ORZODEHO
Identiies unambiguously a G1P low. In signalling Path Management
messages and Location Management messages, the llow label is not used
and is set to 0.
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Used at the inter-SGSN routing update procedure to co-ordinate the data
transmission on the link layer between the MS and SGSN. Not used or
signalling, set to 225 by the sender and ignored by the receier.
7,'
1he tunnel identiier that points out MM and PDP contexts in the
destination GSN. In signalling messages, it is set to 0 in all V Management
messages, Location Management messages and Mobility Management
messages. 1he ormat o the 1ID is as ollows:
*73
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
MCC digit 2 MCC digit 1 1
MNC digit 1 MCC digit 3 2
MSIN digit 1 MNC digit 2 3
MSIN digit 3 MSIN digit 2 4
MSIN digit 5 MSIN digit 4 5
MSIN digit 7 MSIN digit 6 6
MSIN digit 9 MSIN digit 8 7
NSAPI MSIN digit 10 8
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0&&01&06,1GLJLWV
Parts o the IMSI ,deined in GMS 04.08,.
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Network serice access point identiier.
214 GPRS Protoco|s
//&
GSM 04.65 ersion 6.1.0 http:,,www.etsi.r
LLC deines the logical link control layer protocol to be used or packet data
transer between the mobile station ,MS, and a sering GPRS support node
,SGSN,. LLC spans rom the MS to the SGSN and is intended or use with
both acknowledged and unacknowledged data transer.
1he rame ormats deined or LLC are based on those deined or LAPD
and RLP. Howeer, there are important dierences between LLC and other
protocols, in particular with regard to rame delimitation methods and
transparency mechanisms. 1hese dierences are necessary or independence
rom the radio path.
LLC supports two modes o operation:
Unacknowledged peer-to-peer operation.
Acknowledged peer-to-peer operation.
All LLC layer peer-to-peer exchanges are in rames o the ollowing ormat:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
Address 1
Control 2
Information
FCS
//&KHDGHUVWUXFWXUH
$GGUHVVILHOG
1he address ield contains the SAPI and identiies the DLCI or which a
downlink rame is intended and the DLCI transmitting an uplink rame. 1he
length o the address ield is 1 byte and it has the ollowing ormat:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
PD C/R XX SAPI 1
//&DGGUHVVILHOGVWUXFWXUH
3'
Protocol discriminator bit indicates whether a rame is an LLC rame or
belongs to a dierent protocol. LLC rames hae the PD bit set to 0. I a
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rame with the PD bit set to 1 is receied, then it is treated as an inalid
rame.
&5
Identiies a rame as either a command or a response. 1he MS side sends
commands with the C,R bit set to 0, and responses with the C,R bit set to
1. 1he SGSN side does the opposite, i.e., commands are sent with C,R set
to 1 and responses are sent with C,R set to 0. 1he combinations or the
SGSN side and MS side are as ollows.
7\SH 'LUHFWLRQ &5YDOXH
Command SGSN side to MS side 1
Command MS side to SGSN side 0
Response SGSN side to MS side 0
Response MS side to SGSN side 1
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Resered ,2 bits,.
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Serice Access Point Identiier identiies a point at which LLC serices are
proided by an LLL to a layer-3 entity.
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Identiies the type o rame. lour types o control ield ormats are
speciied:
Conirmed inormation transer ,I ormat,
Superisory unctions ,S ormat,
Unconirmed inormation transer ,UI ormat,
Control unctions ,U ormat,
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Contains the arious commands and responses.
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lrame check sequence consists o a 24 bit CRC code which is used to detect
bit errors in the rame header and inormation ields.
21 GPRS Protoco|s
61'&3
GSM 04.65 ersion 6.1.0 http:,,www.etsi.r
Sub-Network Dependant Conergence Protocol ,SNDCP, uses the serices
proided by the Logical Link Control ,LLC, layer and the Session
Management ,SM, sub-layer. SNDCP splits into either IP or X.25.
1he main unctions o SNDCP are:
Multiplexing o seeral PDPs ,packet data protocol,.
Compression,decompression o user data.
Compression,decompression o protocol control inormation.
Segmentation o a network protocol data unit ,N-PDU, into Logical
Link Control Protocol Data Units ,LL-PDUs, and re-assembly o LL-
PDUs into a N-PDU.
1he SN-DA1A PDU is used or acknowledged data transer. Its ormat is
as ollows:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
X C T M NSAPI 1
DCOMP PCOMP 2
Data 3-n
61'$7$3'8VWUXFWXUH
1he SN-UNI1DA1A PDU is used or unacknowledged data transer. Its
ormat is as ollows:
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Octet
X C T M NSAPI 1
DCOMP PCOMP 2
Segment offset N-PDU number 3
E N-PDU number (continued) 4
N-PDU number (extended) 5
Data 6-n
6181,7'$7$3'8VWUXFWXUH
SNDCP 217
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Network serice access point identiier. Values may be:
0 Lscape mechanisms or uture extensions.
1 Point-to-mutlipoint multicast ,P1M-M, inormation.
2-4 Resered or uture use.
5-15 Dynamically allocated NSAPI alue.
0
More bit. Values may be:
0 Last segment o N-PDU.
1 Not the last segment o N-PDU, more segments to ollow.
7
SN-PDU type speciies whether the PDU is SN-DA1A ,0, or SN-
UNI1DA1A ,1,.
&
Compression indicator. A alue o 0 indicates that compression ields,
DCOMP and PCOMP, are not included. A alue o 1 indicates that these
ields are included.
;
Spare bit is set to 0.
'&203
Data compression coding, included i C-bit set. Values are as ollows:
0 No compression.
1-14 Points to the data compression identiier negotiated dynamically.
15 Resered or uture extensions.
3&203
Protocol control inormation compression coding, included i C-bit set.
Values are as ollows:
0 No compression.
1-14 Points to the protocol control inormation compression identiier
negotiated dynamically.
15 Resered or uture extensions.
6HJPHQWRIIVHW
Segment oset rom the beginning o the N-PDU in units o 128 octets.
218 GPRS Protoco|s
13'8QXPEHU
0-204 when the extension bit is set to 0.
2048-52428 i the extension bit is set to 1.
(
Lxtension bit or N-PDU number.
0 Next octet is used or data.
1 Next octet is used or N-PDU number extensions.