TABLE OF CONTENTS To begin to understand the ANSI-41 signaling protocol, it is necessary to understand some basics about wireless telecommunications. This chapter provides a general overview of the most important concepts in wireless cellular telecommunications that apply to ANSI-41. For some readers, this will be a high-level review; for others, it may clarify some misconceptions and provide an overall understanding of cellular wireless technology that will be useful in understanding ANSI-41.
The concept of wireless telecommunications can be viewed from two perspectives: the wireless subscriber s and the wireless network s. From the subscriber s perspective, wireless telecommunications is a service that allows telephone calls to be made or received while the telephone equipment moved from place to place or while it is in motion. From this perspective, the telephone handset (known as the mobile station) is wireless and affords the ability to be mobile.
From the network s perspective, wireless telecommunications is a service provided to end-users. Wireless telecommunications, within the context of ANSI-41, is a service based on a set of functions internal to the network known as mobility management. Mobility management functions enable the network to maintain location and subscriber status information so that end-users can make and receive calls while they move from place to place.
Wireless telecommunications...
