GSM protocol stack | MS GSM Protocol Layer 3
This page on GSM protocol stack covers Layer 3 of GSM protocol architecture. It describes layer 3 of GSM protocol stack which covers RRM, MM, CM, SCCP, BSSMAP and BTSM.
Refer GSM protocol >> for layer-1 and layer-2 of GSM stack.
GSM protocol Layer 3
• At layer 3 there are many protocols involved as mentioned below with their respective functions.
• RRM- Stands for Radio Resource Management, takes care of radio channel and handover functionalities. Assign,
maintain and release radio frequency carriers/channels.
• MM- Stands for Mobility management, takes care of location update,registration,security and authentication functionalities
of mobile station with the GSM network.
• CM- Stands for Connection Management, takes care of call setup, call maintenance and call termination funtions of end devices.
• BTSM- stands for BTS Management, takes care of BTS admin and management functions under BSC control.
• MAP(Mobile Application Part),takes care of signaling between various network entities. MAP works above SCCP and MTP modules.
A layer 3 message consists of three fields,Type ID,Message Type and Data field.The Type ID consists of a 4 bit
Protocol Discriminator or PD.
This PD differentiates between CC,MM,RR,SMS(Short Message Service) and SS (Supplementary Services)
management by having different values in the GSM system.
Protocol Discriminator values are unique and specified below for GSM Layer-3 modules.
Call control(CC) messages - 0011 (0x3)
Mobility Management(MM) messages- 0101 (0x5)
Radio Resource management messages- 0110 (0x6)
Message Type is 8 bit that identifies the type of message sent for
example channel request,paging request or response etc.
GSM protocol references
For GSM Layer 1 Protocols, Refer 3GPP Technical Specifications document TS 44.004 version.
For GSM Layer 2 Protocols, Refer 3GPP Technical Specifications document TS 44.005 & 44.006
For GSM Layer 3 Protocols, Refer 3GPP Technical Specifications document TS 24.007 & 44.018
Resources on GSM Protocol basics
This GSM tutorial covers following sub topics in order to understand gsm basics.
Frame
Burst types
PHY
gsm stack
speech processing
ARFCN
Channel types
GSM Security
Network Entry
Mobile basics
GSM Mobile originated call flow
GSM Mobile Terminated call flow
GSM downlink packet switched data call/a>
GSM uplink packet switched data call