AW: layer3 work / issues

[Dieter Spaar]

Hello Andreas,

On Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:39:21 +0200, "Andreas.Eversberg" <Andreas.Eversberg at versatel.de> wrote:
> 
> from the specs it is quite clear that every access burst has different
> random number when resending. but how does the network know if the burst
> is from the same phone but retransmitted? in case of poor uplink many
> bursts may be resent. will the network allocate a channel for every
> burst received and waits for timeout? (if this is the case, emergency
> calls could quickly 'evacuate' the cell.)

It does not even need a poor uplink. I experience this behaviour for example
with OpenBSC and the nanoBTS. If the "Immediate Assignment" is not sent
fast enough, a retransmitted RACH burst will allocate another channel
(the timeout for releasing an unused channel is around 2 to 5 seconds in
"real" GSM networks). The maximum number of the retransmitted RACH burst 
is controlled by a parameter in the SYSTEM INFORMATION messages (there 
are several parameters which control the RACH transmission behaviour).

Of course a "bad phone" can ignore those parameters and a DoS attack
with continuous RACH bursts works quite well because the BTS or
network does not know from which phone the burst come from.

Best regards,
  Dieter
-- 
Dieter Spaar, Germany                           spaar at mirider.augusta.de