Location Update (GSM Location Update Procedure)

Highway Virginia GSM Maryland

GSM Mobiles Virginia Virginia GSM GSM Maryland Location Area Maryland EventHelix.com/EventStudio 2.5
Location Equipment Databases GSM
Area Equipment
Other GSM GSM Vienna Cell Virginia Virginia HLR Rockville Bethesda Maryland 31-Aug-04 22:04 (Page 1)
Mobile Mobile BSC MSC VLR Cell Cell MSC VLR

Have you ever wondered how your cellular provider is able to route calls to you virtually anywhere? How does the cellular provider know where
you are?

The short answer to these questions is that your cell phone keeps the cellular operator informed about your location. This sequence diagram
we will examine how a mobile phones keep selecting the best cell to service your call and also keeps the cellular provider informed about your
location.

We will be tracing the journey of a mobile phone from Rockville, Maryland to Vienna, Virginia. The path taken by the mobile phone is described
in the following article:

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Before we go any further, let us discuss a few important terms.

Location Area (LA)

A GSM network is divided into cells. A group of cells is considered a location area. A mobile phone in motion keeps the network informed
about changes in the location area. If the mobile moves from a cell in one location area to a cell in another location area, the mobile phone
should perform a location area update to inform the network about the exact location of the mobile phone.

Home Location Register (HLR)

The HLR maintains a database for the mobile subscribers. At any point of time, the HLR knows the address of the MSC VLR that control the
current location area of the mobile. The HLR is informed about a location area update only if the location area change has resulted in a change
of the MSC VLR.

Mobile Switching Center - Visitor Location Register (MSC VLR)

The MSC VLR is responsible to switching voice calls and it also keeps track of the exact location area where the mobile user is present. Note
that a typical MSC VLR will service several location areas.

Rockville is the primary The mobile phone is currently in

cell the Rockville cell.
GSM Mobile reaches Rockville Cell-Bethesda Cell boundary

Monitor the BCCH from When idle, the GSM mobile

the current cell and the phone keeps monitoring the
neighboring cells beacon frequency for its current
cell(Rockville) and its neighbors.
The GSM mobile measures the
cell strength to see if it should
change its primary cell. The
signal strength of the Broadcast
Control CHannel (BCCH) will be
monitored to select the best cell.
BCCH The BCCH on the primary cell is
Location Area = Maryland, monitored for signal strength.
Signal Strength = Good

BCCH The BCCH of the neighboring

Location Area = Maryland, cells is monitored to determine
Signal Strength = Great if any of the neighbors have a
better signal strength. In this
case, the cell has reached the
boundary between Rockville and
Bethesda cells and it finds that
the signal quality of the
Bethesda cell is better.
Bethesda is the primary The mobile phone marks the
cell Bethesda cell as the primary
Location Update (GSM Location Update Procedure)
Highway Virginia GSM Maryland
GSM Mobiles Virginia Virginia GSM GSM Maryland Location Area Maryland EventHelix.com/EventStudio 2.5
Location Equipment Databases GSM
Area Equipment
Other GSM GSM Vienna Cell Virginia Virginia HLR Rockville Bethesda Maryland 31-Aug-04 22:04 (Page 2)
Mobile Mobile BSC MSC VLR Cell Cell MSC VLR
cell.
Skip Location update as Whenever the primary cell
the location area for the changes, the mobile checks if
old cell (Rockville) and the the Location area of the old cell
new cell (Bethesda) is the
same (Maryland) and the new cell are different. In
this case, the mobile finds that
the location areas are same so
no location area update is
needed.
GSM Mobile reaches Bethesda Cell-Vienna Cell boundary

BCCH The BCCH on the beacon

Location Area = Maryland, frequencies is monitored.
Signal Strength = Good

BCCH Now the Vienna cell is being

Location Area = Vienna, received with better signal
Signal Strength = Great strength, so cell will be picked
as primary.
Vienna is the primary cell

Location area update is This time, the old and new

needed as the location location areas are different. The
area has changed from mobile initiates the Location
Maryland to Virginia
Area Update procedure.
RR Connection Setup

RR CHANNEL REQUEST The mobile establishes a RR

connection to send the location
update to the network.
RR CHANNEL REQUEST
RR IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT
RR IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT A radio channel has been
assigned to the GSM mobile.
GSM Location Update Procedure

RR SABM + MM LOCATION UPDATING REQUEST The mobile tunes to the

Maryland TMSI, assigned radio channel and
Maryland LAI sends the SABM to initiate the
radio connection. The location
update is also piggybacked on
the message.
SABM + MM LOCATION UPDATING REQUEST The BSC receives the location
Maryland TMSI, update with the SABM.
Maryland LAI

MM LOCATION UPDATING REQUEST The location updating request is

Maryland TMSI, forwarded to the MSC in the
Maryland LAI "BSSMAP COMPLETE LAYER 3
INFORMATION" message.
RR UA The RR connection setup is
completed by responding with
UA for the received SABM.
RR UA
LEG: Inter MSC-VLR location
update
Location Update (GSM Location Update Procedure)
Highway Virginia GSM Maryland
GSM Mobiles Virginia Virginia GSM GSM Maryland Location Area Maryland EventHelix.com/EventStudio 2.5
Location Equipment Databases GSM
Area Equipment
Other GSM GSM Vienna Cell Virginia Virginia HLR Rockville Bethesda Maryland 31-Aug-04 22:04 (Page 3)
Mobile Mobile BSC MSC VLR Cell Cell MSC VLR
Compare the old location The MSC finds that the old
area with the new location location area was handled by a
area different MSC. Thus the MSC
needs to contact the HLR.
MAP/G SEND PARAMETERS The Virginia MSC VLR does not
Maryland TMSI find the TMSI in its database. It
uses the old Location Area
Indicator (LAI) to obtain the
address of the old MSC VLR. A
request is sent to the old MSC
VLR, requesting the IMSI
(International Mobile Subscriber
Identity) of the subscriber.
MAP/G SEND PARAMETERS RESULT The Maryland MSC VLR
IMSI provides the IMSI
corresponding to the TMSI. Note
that the IMSI could have been
obtained from the mobile. That
is not a preferred option as the
Location Updating Request is
sent in clear so it could be used
to determine the association
between the IMSI and TMSI.
MAP/D UPDATE LOCATION The MSC sends an update
location message to the MSC.
This message is needed for two
reasons: (1) The HLR needs to
update its record to point to the
new MSC when queried for
location. (2) The new MSC does
not have information about this
subscriber.
Update the currently At this point, the HLR updates
serving MSC address to its records to indicate that the
the new MSC subscriber is now present in a
location area served by the
Virginia MSC VLR.
MAP/D INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA Pass information about the new
Kc, subscriber to the new MSC. The
RAND, message contains the a 64-bit
SRES ciphering key used as a Session
Key (Kc), a 128-bit random
challenge (RAND) and a 32-bit
Signed Response (SRES). These
parameters will be used in the
authentication process.
Create a record for the Subscriber information is
new visiting subscriber updated in the new MSC.
and store the (Kc, RAND,
SRES) tuples

MAP/D INSERT SUBSCRIBER DATA RESULT The new MSC replies back.
MAP/D CANCEL LOCATION Ask the Old MSC to delete the
record for this subscriber.
Delete the record The old subscriber's record is
for the old deleted. The TMSI assigned to
subscriber. the mobile is also released.
MAP/D CANCEL LOCATION RESULT The Old MSC replies back to the
HLR.
MAP/D UPDATE LOCATION RESULT The HLR has updated all
records, so it replies back to the
new MSC.
Location Update (GSM Location Update Procedure)
Highway Virginia GSM Maryland
GSM Mobiles Virginia Virginia GSM GSM Maryland Location Area Maryland EventHelix.com/EventStudio 2.5
Location Equipment Databases GSM
Area Equipment
Other GSM GSM Vienna Cell Virginia Virginia HLR Rockville Bethesda Maryland 31-Aug-04 22:04 (Page 4)
Mobile Mobile BSC MSC VLR Cell Cell MSC VLR
Authenticate subscriber

MM AUTHENTICATION REQUEST The MSC VLR decides to

RAND authenticate the subscriber. The
RAND value received from the
HLR is sent to the mobile.
Pass the RAND value to The SIM applies secret GSM
the SIM and obtain the Kc algorithms on the RAND and the
and SRES values secret key Ki to obtain the
session key Kc and SRES.
MM AUTHENTICATION RESPONSE The mobile passes the
SRES computed SRES value in the
response.
Compare the SRES If the SRES obtained from the
reported by the mobile mobile matches the SRES value
with the SRES obtained obtained from the HLR, the
from HLR
subscriber authentication
procedure completes
successfully.
Enable Ciphering

BSSMAP CIPHER MODE COMMAND The MSC initiates ciphering of

the data being sent on the
channel.
RR CIPHERING MODE COMMAND The BSC sends the CIPHERING
mode = CLEAR MODE COMMAND to the mobile.

RR CIPHERING MODE COMPLETE Ciphering has already been

mode = CIPHERED enabled, so this message is
transmitted with ciphering.
BSSMAP CIPHER MODE COMPLETE The BSC replies back to the
MSC, indicating that ciphering
has been successfully enabled.
MM LOCATION UPDATING ACCEPT The new MSC replies back to the
Virginia TMSI mobile via the Virginia BSC. The
message also assigns a new
Temporary Mobile Subscriber Id
(TMSI) to the terminal. Since the
TMSI assignment is being sent
after ciphering is enabled, the
relationship between TMSI and
the subscriber cannot be
obtained by unauthorized users.
Start using the new TMSI

MM TMSI REALLOCATION COMPLETE The GSM mobile replies back

indicating that the new TMSI
allocation has been completed.
RR Connection Release

BSSMAP CLEAR COMMAND The RR connection is released

by the MSC.
RR CHANNEL RELEASE The BSC initiates RR release
with the mobile.
BSSMAP CLEAR COMPLETE The BSC informs the MSC that
the RR connection has been
released.
RR DISC The mobile sends a disconnect
message to release the LAPm
Location Update (GSM Location Update Procedure)
Highway Virginia GSM Maryland
GSM Mobiles Virginia Virginia GSM GSM Maryland Location Area Maryland EventHelix.com/EventStudio 2.5
Location Equipment Databases GSM
Area Equipment
Other GSM GSM Vienna Cell Virginia Virginia HLR Rockville Bethesda Maryland 31-Aug-04 22:04 (Page 5)
Mobile Mobile BSC MSC VLR Cell Cell MSC VLR
connection.
RR UA The BSC replies with an
Unnumbered Acknowledge
message.