GPRS System Architecture

The GPRS is an enhancement over the GSM and adds some nodes in the network to provide the packet switched services. These network nodes are called GSNs (GPRS Support Nodes) and are responsible for the routing and delivery of the data packets to and form the MS and external packet data networks (PDN). The figure 2.2 below shows the architecture of the GPRS system.

Figure 2.2: GPRS Architecture (Source: Bettstetter et. all)

The most important network nodes added to the existing GSM networks are:

• SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node).
• GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node).

The serving GPRS support node (SGSN) is responsible for routing the packet switched data to and from the mobile stations (MS) within its area of responsibility. The main functions of SGSN are packet routing and transfer, mobile attach and detach procedure (Mobility Management (MM)), location management, assigning channels and time slots (Logical Link Management (LLM)), authentication and charging for calls. It stores the location information of the user (like the current location, current VLR) and user profile (like IMSI addresses used in packet data networks) of registered users in its location register.

The gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) acts as interface between the GPRS backbone and the external packet data network (PDN). It converts the GPRS packet coming from the SGSN into proper packet data protocol (PDP) format (i.e. X.25 or IP) before sending to the outside data network. Similarly it converts the external PDP addresses to the GSM address of the destination user. It sends these packets to proper SGSN. For this purpose the GGSN stores the current SGSN address of the user and his profile in its location register.The GGSN also performs the authentication and charging functions. In general there may be a many to many relationship between the SGSN and GGSN. However a service provider may have only one GGSN and few SGSNs due to cost constraints. A GGSN proved the interface to several SGSNs to the external PDN.