- GSM is a standard for 2G digital cellular networks that uses narrowband TDMA. It describes protocols for features like GPRS, EDGE, authentication, encryption, and more.
- The GSM architecture consists of mobile equipment (handsets), a base station subsystem for radio network management, a network switching subsystem for call routing, and a network management subsystem.
- Key aspects include the SIM card for user identification, base transceiver stations for radio signals, transcoding between speech formats, home and visitor location registers for subscriber data, and authentication centers for security.