Background:

4G/3G Mobile Networks

Outline
• Evolution of mobile networks

• Network architecture

• Network operations and protocol stack

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Ubiquitous Mobile Network Services

In-building Outdoor Walking

Driving Subway High-speed train

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 Ubiquitous Mobile Network Services
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• Global Mobile Data Traffic

– 7.2 exabytes/month in 2016 (63% growth)
– 18 fold growth in the past five years
– 7 fold growth by 2021 (49 exabytes/month)

Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index, 2017: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2016–
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2021 White Paper
Ubiquitous Mobile Network Services
• Smartphones: primary internet access points
– By 2021, 98% traffic and 75% connections from
“smart” devices
– 4G: 75% traffic and 53% connections
– 5G: 1.5% traffic and 0.2% connections

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 Empowered by Mobile Networks

Internet

… ...
Mobile Network
Client Infrastructure
• the only large-scale, wide-area wireless network
system in par with the Internet
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Empowered by Mobile Networks

… ...
Mobile Wireless Network
(radio access
Client technology) Infrastructure

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 Mobile Network Evolution
1G 2G 3G 4G
AMPS, NMT GSM/GPRS/ WCDMA/HSPA+ LTE
TACS EDGE CDMA2000/EVDO LTE-A
cdmaOne TD-SCDMA
1G 2G 3G 4G 5G
Mid 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
analog Digital voice Mobile Mobile Internet
voice + Simple data broadband More & faster

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 Standards Body: 3GPP
• An international standards body
• Evolves and standardizes GSM, UMTS, LTE
among others

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites

[Six] telecommunications standard development
organizations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TTA, TTC), known
as “Organizational Partners” and provides their members
with a stable environment to produce the highly
successful Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP
technologies

• We will primarily discuss 3GPP standards

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 Cellular Network Standards
3GPP 3GPP 3GPP2 Wimax
Generation Circuit Switched Packet Switched
Forum

2G GSM cdmaOne

2.5G
GPRS

2.75G EDGE
3G UMTS CDMA2000

3.5G HSPA/+ CDMA EV-DO

4G
LTE UMB WiMAX

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What is LTE?
• LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”
• Fourth-generation (4G) cellular technology
from 3GPP
• Deployed worldwide
• 4G LTE: First global standard
– Increased speed
– IP-based network (All circuits are gone/fried!)
– New air interface: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-
Division Multiple Access), MIMO (multiple antennas)
• Also includes duplexing, timing, carrier spacing, coding...
– New service paradigm (e.g., VoLTE)
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What is LTE?
• LTE is always evolving and 3GPP often has new
“releases”
– First release: Rel-8
– Current: Rel-11, Rel-12
– Toward LTE-Advanced (4.5G)

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 Network Architecture Evolution

2G 3G 4G

• Circuit- • Circuit-switching • Packet-

switching for voice switching for
for voice • Packet-switching everything
for data • IP-based

Telecomm
IP-based Internet
Infrastructure
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Inter-Generation Technologies
• CS networks need to be able to connect with PS
networks and other distinct cellular networks
– The internet is a good example of PS network

• GPRS (General packet radio service)

– 2.5G packet switched technology
• EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution)
– 2.75G packet switched technology
• HSPA (High Speed Packet Access)
– 3.5/3.75 packet switched data technology
– There were a few quick iterations on this technology,
thus “variants”
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2G Network Architecture (GSM)
Operations and Support
Subsystem

BTS

UE
MSC

HLR/AuC
BSC

Base Station Network

Subsystem Subsystem
16 16
2G Based on Circuit Switching (CS)
End-end resources
reserved for “call”
• link bandwidth, switch
capacity
• dedicated resources: no
sharing
• circuit-like (guaranteed)
performance
• call setup required
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CS Signaling
• used to setup, maintain teardown VC
• used in 2G, as well as in 3G
• not used in today’s Internet

application
transport 5. Data flow begins 6. Receive data application
network 4. Call connected 3. Accept call transport
network
data link 1. Initiate call 2. incoming call data link
physical
physical

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 4G Network Architecture (LTE)
4G Packet-Switched

4G P S Ga te wa ys Inte rne t

MME 4G Core Ne twork

P hone 4G BS
Da ta pa th
S igna ling pa th

MME: Mobility Management Entity

BS: Base Station (4G: eNodeB) 19
Packet Switching (PS)
A statistical multiplexing C

B
queue of packets
waiting for output link

D
• Sequence of A & B packets does not have Efixed pattern,
bandwidth shared on demand  statistical multiplexing
• Store-and-forward at intermediate routers
• Used by the Internet
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PS Signaling
• no call setup at network layer
• routers: no state about end-to-end connections
– no network-level concept of “connection”
• packets forwarded using destination host address
– packets btw same source-dest pair may take different paths

application
application
transport
transport
network
network
data link 1. Send data 2. Receive data data link
physical
physical

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 3G/4G Network Architecture
4G Packet-Switched

4G P S Ga te wa ys Inte rne t

MME 4G Core Ne twork

P hone 4G BS

3G P S Ga te wa ys Inte rne t

3G Packet-Switched
3G CS
P hone 3G BS Ga te wa ys Te le phony
Da ta pa th
S igna ling pa th 3G Core Ne twork
3G Circuit-Switched

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 So far, Our Focus
• We mainly focus on current 3G/4G systems,
particularly 4G LTE network

… ...
Mobile Wireless Network
(radio access
Client technology) Infrastructure
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Outline
 Evolution of mobile networks

 Network architecture

• Network operations and protocol stack

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Operations
Two main planes in operation in parallel:
•Data plane (also called User plane): content
delivery
•Control plane: signaling functions

There is an additional plane that works with the

above two planes:
•Management plane: configurations, monitoring

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Illustration of Data and Control Planes

Network
Infrastructure

Application

Transport

IP IP

Control- Control-
Data-plane Data-plane
Plane Plane

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 Illustration of Data and Control Planes
27

Data Control Data

Plane Plane Plane CS Domain PS Domain PS Domain

Connectivity Mangement Session EPS Session

Call Control Connectivity
Management Management
L3 (CM/CC) Management
IP Mobility Management IP (SM) (ESM)

Radio Resource Contol

Mobility Mobility Mobility
Mobility
Management Management Management
PDCP PDCP Management
(MM) (GMM) (EMM)
L2 4G-RLC
RLC
Radio Radio
MAC 4G-MAC Radio Resource Control Resource Resource
(3G-RRC) Control Control
L1 PHY 4G-PHY (4G-RRC)

3G 4G LTE 3G 4G LTE

EPS: Evolved Packet System

PDCP: Packet Data Convergence Protocol
RLC: Radio Link Control
MAC: Medium Access Control 27
Data-Plane Protocols: IP + lower layers
@UE (IP) @eNB (IP)
PDCP PDCP

RLC RLC

MAC MAC

PHY PHY

• Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) – header

compression, radio encryption
• Radio Link Control (RLC) – Readies packets to be transferred
over the air interface
• Medium Access Control (MAC) – Multiplexing, QoS
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Control-Plane Protocols
• Control utilities: mobile network specific
– Different from Internet counterparts

Data-plane
Control-plane Internet

P3: Conn.
context
(QoS)
Connectivity Management

P2: Location Mobility Management (MM)

update
Radio Resource Control (RRC)
P1: Radio conn. setup
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 Control-Plane Protocols in 4G/3G
• Variants for same/similar control functions
– Hybrid 4G/3G systems
– Domains separated for voice (CS) and data (PS)
Data Control Data
Plane Plane Plane CS Domain PS Domain PS Domain

Connectivity Mangement Session EPS Session

Call Control Connectivity
Management Management
L3 (CM/CC) Management
IP Mobility Management IP (SM) (ESM)

Radio Resource Contol

Mobility Mobility Mobility
Mobility
Management Management Management
PDCP PDCP Management
(MM) (GMM) (EMM)
L2 4G-RLC
RLC
Radio Radio
MAC 4G-MAC Radio Resource Control Resource Resource
(3G-RRC) Control Control
L1 PHY 4G-PHY (4G-RRC)

3G 4G LTE 3G 4G LTE
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 Distributed Operations: Device, base
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station, core networks
3G 4G
PS CS
CM CM CM
User
MM
Device
MM MM

Base 4G-RRC
Station 3G-RRC

Core 3G CS Gateway
MME
Network 3G PS Gateway

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Put Them Together
• Setting up data service in 4G
Data-plane
Control-plane Internet

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 Data and Control Planes in LTE

Control Plane
• eNodeB, S-GW
Home
Subscriber and P-GW are
Data Plane
Server (HSS) involved in
session setup,
Mobility handoff, routing
Management
Entity (MME)

Base Packet Data

User Serving
\Station
Station Network
Equipment Gateway
(eNodeB) Gateway
(UE) (S-GW) (P-GW)

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Setting Up Data Service in 4G
34 (1) Setup radio connection
User Others
4G BS MME
Equipment RRC Connection Request (HSS, GWs)

4G- RRC Connection Setup 4G-

RRC RRC Connection Complete RRC

(2) Registration (attach)

(3) Authentication
Attach Request
Authentication Request
4G- Authentication Response 4G-
MM Attach Accept MM HSS
Attach Complete
(4) Setup Connectivity Context
(e.g., IP, routing path, QoS)
Public Data Network Connectivity Request
4G- Activate Bearer Context Request (192.168.0.199) 4G-
P-Gw
CM Activate Bearer Context Accept CM
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PDN: Public Data Network EPS: Evolved Packet System
Setting Up Data Service in 4G
Control-Plane Functions
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User Others
4G BS MME
Equipment (HSS, GWs)
(1) Setup radio
4G- 4G-
RRC connection RRC

4G- (2) Registration (attach) 4G-

HSS
MM MM
(3) Authentication
4G- (4) Setup Connectivity Context 4G-
P-Gw
CM (e.g., IP, routing path, QoS) CM

(5) data-plane delivery

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Summary and Discussion
• Primer on mobile network: architecture,
protocols, operations
– And its evolution
– And its complexity

• Difference from wired Internet and WiFi

– What?
– Why?

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After-class Reading (Optional)
• Learn more about control plane protocols and
their interactions: SIGCOMM’14
• Learn more about radio connection setup:
check RRC papers

• LTE tutorial and reference:

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/lte/

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Action Items
• Work on your course project early
– Topic and team

• Check the reference and reading list

– Updates shortly

• Next Chapter: 5G apps

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