Indoor Radio Planning: A Practical Guide for GSM, DCS, UMTS, HSPA and LTE, Second Edition

2.2 Introduction to GSM

To perform indoor GSM radio planning, the radio planner needs some basic information about the network, signaling, etc. This section is not intended as a complete GSM training session, but rather to highlight the general parameters and network functions in GSM networks. For more details on the GSM please refer to [1].

2.2.1 GSM

GSM was launched in the early 1990s, as one of the first truly digital systems for mobile telephony. It was specified by ETSI and originally intended to be used only in Europe. However, GSM proved to be a very attractive technology for mobile communications, and since the launch in Europe, GSM has evolved to be more or less the first truly global standard for mobile communication. Even though GSM is relatively old (most mobile network generations last about 7–10 years), it is still being rolled out all over the world, and in particular, the focus on high indoor usage of mobile telephony has motivated a need for dedicated indoor coverage solutions.

DCS

GSM was originally specified as a 900 MHz system. Since then the same radio structure and signaling have been used for DCS1800. The GSM basic has also been applied to various spectra around 800–900 and 1800–1900 MHz across the world, the only difference being the frequencies.

Security Features

All GSM communication is data; essentially voice is converted from analog to data and back again. Compared with the analog mobile telephony, the GSM system is much more secure and is impossible ...