Cellular network overview

- a summary or tutorial about the basics of a cellular telecommunications network, detailing the main elements within it - BTS, BSC, HLR, VLR, etc.

The network forms the heart of any cellular telephone system. The cellular network fulfils many requirements. Not only does the network enable calls to be routed to and from the mobile phones as well as enabling calls to be maintained as the cell phone moves from one cell to another, but it also enables other essential operations such as access to the network, billing, security and much more. To fulfil all these requirements the cellular network comprises many elements, each having its own function to complete.

The most obvious part of the cellular network is the base station. The antennas and the associated equipment often located in a container below are seen dotted around the country, and especially at the side of highways and motorways. However there is more to the network behind this, as the system needs to have elements of central control and it also needs to link in with the PSTN landline system to enable calls to be made to and from the wire based phones, or between networks.

Different cellular standards often take slightly different approaches for the cellular network required. Despite the differences between the different cellular systems, the basic concepts are very similar. Additionally cellular systems such as GSM have a well defined structure, and this means that manufacturers products can be standardised.

Basic cellular network structure
An overall cellular network contains a number of different elements from the base transceiver station (BTS) itself with its antenna back through a base station controller (BSC), and a mobile switching centre (MSC) to the location registers (HLR and VLR) and the link to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Of the units within the cellular network, the BTS provides the direct communication with the mobile phones. There may be a small number of base stations then linked to a base station controller. This unit acts as a small centre to route calls to the required base station, and it also makes some decisions about which of the base station is best suited to a particular call. The links between the BTS and the BSC may use either land lines of even microwave links. Often the BTS antenna towers also support a small microwave dish antenna used for the link to the BSC. The BSC is often co-located with a BTS.

The BSC interfaces with the mobile switching centre. This makes more widespread choices about the routing of calls and interfaces to the land line based PSTN as well as the HLR and VLR.

Base transceiver station, BTS
The base transceiver station or system, BTS consists of a number of different elements. The first is the electronics section normally located in a container at the base of the antenna tower. This contains the electronics for communicating with the mobile handsets and includes radio frequency amplifiers, radio transceivers, radio frequency combiners, control, communication links to the BSC, and power supplies with back up.

The second part of the BTS is the antenna and the feeder to connect the antenna to the base transceiver station itself. These antennas are visible on top of masts and tall buildings enabling them to cover the required area. Finally there is the interface between the base station and its controller further up the network. This consists of control logic and software as well as the cable link to the controller.

BTSs are set up in a variety of places. In towns and cities the characteristic antennas are often seen on the top of buildings, whereas in the country separate masts are used. It is important that the location, height, and orientation are all correct to ensure the required coverage is achieved. If the antenna is too low or in a poor location, there will be insufficient coverage and there will be a coverage "hole". Conversely if the antenna is too high and directed incorrectly, then the signal will be heard well beyond the boundaries of the cell. This may result in interference with another cell using the same frequencies.

The antennas systems used with base stations often have two sets of receive antennas. These provide what is often termed diversity reception, enabling the best signal to be chosen to minimise the effects of multipath propagation. The receiver antennas are connected to low loss cable that routes the signals down to a multicoupler in the base station container. Here a multicoupler splits the signals out to feed the various receivers required for all the RF channels. Similarly the transmitted signal from the combiner is routed up to the transmitting antenna using low loss cable to ensure the optimum transmitted signal.

Mobile switching centre (MSC)
The MSC is the control centre for the cellular system, coordinating the actions of the BSCs, providing overall control, and acting as the switch and connection into the public telephone network. As such it has a variety of communication links into it which will include fibre optic links as well as some microwave links and some copper wire cables. These enable it to communicate with the BSCs, routing calls to them and controlling them as required. It also contains the Home and Visitor Location Registers, the databases detailing the last known locations of the mobiles. It also contains the facilities for the Authentication Centre, allowing mobiles onto the network. In addition to this it will also contain the facilities to generate the billing information for the individual accounts.

In view of the importance of the MSC, it contains many backup and duplicate circuits to ensure that it does not fail. Obviously backup power systems are an essential element of this to guard against the possibility of a major power failure, because if the MSC became inoperative then the whole network would collapse.