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GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spécial Mobile), is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones.
The GSM standard was developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular networks, and originally described a digital, circuit switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony. This was expanded over time to include data communications, first by circuit switched transport, then packet data transport via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS).
Further improvements were made when the 3GPP developed third generation (3G) UMTS standards followed by fourth generation (4G) LTE Advanced standards.
"GSM" is a trademark owned by the GSM Association.
Most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100 MHz frequency band.
In some countries (e.g., Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore) all phones are sold unlocked. In others (e.g., Singapore) it is unlawful for operators to offer any form of subsidy on a phone's price.
The original GSM implementations from 1991 may now be entirely free of patent encumbrances, however patent freedom is not certain due to the US "first to invent" system that was in place until 2012. The "first to invent" system, coupled with "patent term adjustment" can extend the life of a US patent far beyond 20 years from its priority date. It is unclear at this time whether OpenBTS will be able to implement features of that initial specification without limit. However, as patents subsequently expire, those features can be added into the open source version. As of 2011, there have been no law suits against users of OpenBTS over GSM use.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spécial Mobile), is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones.
The GSM standard was developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular networks, and originally described a digital, circuit switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony. This was expanded over time to include data communications, first by circuit switched transport, then packet data transport via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS).
Further improvements were made when the 3GPP developed third generation (3G) UMTS standards followed by fourth generation (4G) LTE Advanced standards.
"GSM" is a trademark owned by the GSM Association.
History
Early European analog cellular networks consisted of a mix of technologies and protocols that varied from country to country, meaning that phones
did not necessarily work on different networks. In addition,
manufacturers had to produce different equipment to meet various
standards across the markets.
In 1982, work began to develop a European standard for digital cellular voice telephony when the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations
(CEPT) created the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee and provided a
permanent group of technical support personnel, based in Paris. Five
years later in 1987, 15 representatives from 13 European countries
signed a memorandum of understanding in Copenhagen
to develop and deploy a common cellular telephone system across Europe,
and European Union rules were passed to make GSM a mandatory standard.
The decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a
unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the
United States. In 1989, the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
In parallel, France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986 the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM.
Phase I of the GSM specifications were published in 1990. The world's first GSM call was made by the Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri to Kaarina Suonio (mayor in city of Tampere) on 1 July 1991 on a network built by Telenokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja. The following year in 1992, the first short messaging service (SMS or "text message") message was sent and Vodafone UK and Telecom Finland signed the first international roaming agreement.
Work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz
frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in the
UK by 1993. Also that year, Telecom Australia became the first network
operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical
hand-held GSM mobile phone became available.
In 1995, fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched
commercially, the first 1900 MHz GSM network became operational in the
United States and GSM subscribers worldwide exceeded 10 million. Also
this year, the GSM Association was formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998.
In 2000, the first commercial GPRS
services were launched and the first GPRS compatible handsets became
available for sale. In 2001 the first UMTS (W-CDMA) network was launched
and worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002 the first
multimedia messaging services (MMS) were introduced and the first GSM
network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational. EDGE services first became operational in a network in 2003 and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004.
By 2005, GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the worldwide
cellular network market, serving 1.5 billion subscribers. In 2005, the
first HSDPA capable network also became operational. The first HSUPA network was launched in 2007 and worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded two billion in 2008.
The GSM Association
estimates that technologies defined in the GSM standard serve 80% of
the global mobile market, encompassing more than 5 billion people across
more than 212 countries and territories, making GSM the most ubiquitous
of the many standards for cellular networks.
Macau planned to phase out their GSM networks on June 4, 2015, making it the first region to decommission a GSM network.
Technical details
Network structure
The network is structured into a number of discrete sections:- The Base Station Subsystem (the base stations and their controllers).
- The Network and Switching Subsystem (the part of the network most similar to a fixed network). This is sometimes also just called the core network.
- The GPRS Core Network (the optional part which allows packet based Internet connections).
- The Operations support system (OSS) for maintenance of the network.
Base Station subsystem
GSM is a cellular network, which means that cell phones connect to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. There are five different cell sizes in a GSM network—macro, micro, pico, femto and umbrella cells.
The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation
environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base station antenna
is installed on a mast or a building above average roof top level.
Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average roof top
level; they are typically used in urban areas. Picocells are small cells
whose coverage diameter is a few dozen metres; they are mainly used
indoors. Femtocells are cells designed for use in residential or small
business environments and connect to the service provider’s network via a
broadband internet connection. Umbrella cells are used to cover
shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage between
those cells.
Cell horizontal radius varies depending on antenna height, antenna
gain and propagation conditions from a couple of hundred metres to
several tens of kilometres. The longest distance the GSM specification
supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi). There are also
several implementations of the concept of an extended cell, where the cell radius could be double or even more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain and the timing advance.
Indoor coverage is also supported by GSM and may be achieved by using an indoor picocell base station, or an indoor repeater
with distributed indoor antennas fed through power splitters, to
deliver the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate
indoor distributed antenna system. These are typically deployed when a
lot of call capacity is needed indoors; for example, in shopping centers
or airports. However, this is not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage
is also provided by in-building penetration of the radio signals from
any nearby cell.
GSM carrier frequencies
GSM networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency ranges (separated into GSM frequency ranges for 2G and UMTS frequency bands for 3G), with most 2G
GSM networks operating in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Where these
bands were already allocated, the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands were used
instead (for example in Canada and the United States). In rare cases the
400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries because
they were previously used for first-generation systems.
Most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100 MHz frequency band.
Regardless of the frequency selected by an operator, it is divided into timeslots for individual phones to use. This allows eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency. These eight radio timeslots (or eight burst periods) are grouped into a TDMA frame. Half rate channels use alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel data rate for all 8 channels is 270.833 kbit/s, and the frame duration is 4.615 ms.
The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in GSM 850/900 and 1 watt in GSM 1800/1900.
Voice codecs
GSM has used a variety of voice codecs
to squeeze 3.1 kHz audio into between 6.5 and 13 kbit/s. Originally,
two codecs, named after the types of data channel they were allocated,
were used, called Half Rate (6.5 kbit/s) and Full Rate (13 kbit/s). These used a system based upon linear predictive coding
(LPC). In addition to being efficient with bitrates, these codecs also
made it easier to identify more important parts of the audio, allowing
the air interface layer to prioritize and better protect these parts of
the signal.
GSM was further enhanced in 1997 with the Enhanced Full Rate (EFR) codec, a 12.2 kbit/s codec that uses a full rate channel. Finally, with the development of UMTS, EFR was refactored into a variable-rate codec called AMR-Narrowband,
which is high quality and robust against interference when used on full
rate channels, or less robust but still relatively high quality when
used in good radio conditions on half-rate channels.
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
One of the key features of GSM is the Subscriber Identity Module, commonly known as a SIM card. The SIM is a detachable smart card
containing the user's subscription information and phone book. This
allows the user to retain his or her information after switching
handsets. Alternatively, the user can also change operators while
retaining the handset simply by changing the SIM. Some operators will
block this by allowing the phone to use only a single SIM, or only a SIM
issued by them; this practice is known as SIM locking.
Phone locking
Sometimes mobile network operators restrict handsets that they sell for use with their own network. This is called locking and is implemented by a software feature of the phone. Because the purchase price of the mobile phone to the consumer may be subsidized with revenue from subscriptions, operators must recoup this investment before a subscriber terminates service. A subscriber may usually contact the provider to remove the lock for a fee, utilize private services to remove the lock, or make use of free or fee-based software and websites to unlock the handset themselves. Unlocking a phone without an operator's consent is illegal in many countries and may carry severe penalties.In some countries (e.g., Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore) all phones are sold unlocked. In others (e.g., Singapore) it is unlawful for operators to offer any form of subsidy on a phone's price.
GSM service security
GSM was designed with a moderate level of service security. The system was designed to authenticate the subscriber using a pre-shared key and challenge-response. Communications between the subscriber and the base station can be encrypted. The development of UMTS introduces an optional Universal Subscriber Identity Module
(USIM), that uses a longer authentication key to give greater security,
as well as mutually authenticating the network and the user – whereas
GSM only authenticates the user to the network (and not vice versa). The
security model therefore offers confidentiality and authentication, but
limited authorization capabilities, and no non-repudiation.
GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security. The A5/1, A5/2 and A5/3 stream ciphers
are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy. A5/1 was developed
first and is a stronger algorithm used within Europe and the United
States; A5/2 is weaker and used in other countries. Serious weaknesses
have been found in both algorithms: it is possible to break A5/2 in
real-time with a ciphertext-only attack, and in January 2007, The Hacker's Choice started the A5/1 cracking project with plans to use FPGAs that allow A5/1 to be broken with a rainbow table attack. The system supports multiple algorithms so operators may replace that cipher with a stronger one.
On 28 December 2009 German computer engineer Karsten Nohl announced that he had cracked the A5/1 cipher. According to Nohl, he developed a number of rainbow tables (static values which reduce the time needed to carry out an attack) and have found new sources for known plaintext attacks.
He also said that it is possible to build "a full GSM interceptor ...
from open source components" but that they had not done so because of
legal concerns.
Nohl claimed that he was able to intercept voice and text conversations
by impersonating another user to listen to their voice mails, make
calls or send text messages using a seven-year-old Motorola cellphone
and decryption software available free off the Internet.
New attacks have been observed that take advantage of poor security
implementations, architecture and development for smart phone
applications. Some wiretapping and eavesdropping techniques hijack the audio input and output providing an opportunity for a 3rd party to listen in to the conversation.
GSM uses General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) for data transmissions like browsing the web. The most commonly deployed GPRS ciphers were publicly broken in 2011.
The researchers revealed flaws in the commonly used GEA/1 and GEA/2
ciphers and published the open source "gprsdecode" software for sniffing
GPRS networks. They also noted that some carriers don't encrypt the
data at all (i.e. using GEA/0) in order to detect the use of traffic or
protocols they don't like, e.g. Skype,
leaving their customers unprotected. GEA/3 seems to remain relatively
hard to break and is said to be in use on some more modern networks. If
used with USIM
to prevent connections to fake base stations and downgrade attacks,
users will be protected in the medium term, though migration to 128-bit
GEA/4 is still recommended.
Since GEA/0, GEA/1 and GEA/2 are widely deployed, applications should use SSL/TLS for sensitive data, as they would on Wi-Fi networks.
Standards information
The GSM systems and services are described in a set of standards governed by ETSI, where a full list is maintained.GSM open-source software
Several open-source software projects exist that provide certain GSM features:- gsmd daemon by Openmoko
- OpenBTS develops a Base transceiver station
- The GSM Software Project aims to build a GSM analyzer for less than $1000
- OsmocomBB developers intend to replace the proprietary baseband GSM stack with a free software implementation
Issues with patents and open source
Patents remain a problem for any open-source GSM implementation, because it is not possible for GNU or any other free software distributor to guarantee immunity from all lawsuits by the patent holders against the users. Furthermore new features are being added to the standard all the time which means they have patent protection for a number of years.The original GSM implementations from 1991 may now be entirely free of patent encumbrances, however patent freedom is not certain due to the US "first to invent" system that was in place until 2012. The "first to invent" system, coupled with "patent term adjustment" can extend the life of a US patent far beyond 20 years from its priority date. It is unclear at this time whether OpenBTS will be able to implement features of that initial specification without limit. However, as patents subsequently expire, those features can be added into the open source version. As of 2011, there have been no law suits against users of OpenBTS over GSM use.