GSM System (2G) Overview

Global system for mobile communications (GSM) is the world’s first cellular system to specify digital modulation, network level architectures and services. The GSM network can be broadly divided into three parts: the mobile station (MS); the base station subsystem (BSS); the network subsystem (NSS). The GSM system is divided into a number of separate operational networks, each being operated independently to a large extent from the others. Each of these networks is called a public land mobile network (PLMN). The GSM system distinguishes explicitly the user and the devices and deals with these accordingly. The user and mobile equipment in the system separately get their own internally unique identifiers. The user identity is associated with a subscriber identity module (for example, international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI)) and the device identity is associated with the equipment number (for example, international mobile equipment identity (IMEI)). These are described in the chapter. Controlled Vocabulary Terms GSM; land mobile radio