Hello Harald,
On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 23:24:50 +0200, "Harald Welte" laforge@gnumonks.org wrote:
The BS-11 has 3W max output.
I think we have 2 Watt maximum, 3 Watt is the maximum for the 1800/1900 variant of the BS-11.
That's quite obvious if you understand the details of the cell selection algorithm. If you've been registered to an actual cell of the operator before, then that ARFCN/LAC is stored on the SIM card even when you shut off the phone.
Let me add a few more detail (I sent this to the list a while ago). There are two EFs (Elementary Files) on the SIM which contain this information:
- EF_BCCH contains the cell allocation information from "SYSTEM INFORMATION 2".
- EF_LOCI contains the TMSI, Location Update Timer, LAI and the status of the location update.
If those EFs are set to the correct values used by the test cell, the phone will immediately look for the test cell when powered on and also consider to be "registered" if no "IMSI Attach" is required.
So yes, typically the translation of mcc/mnc happens in a table on the SIM card, and if that fails in a table that is included at compile time into the GSM firmware of the handset.
It seems that the mapping of MCC/MNC to names on the SIM was introduced with GSM 31.102 (USIM for UMTS), GSM 11.11 did not have it. So it depends on the SIM if it has this mapping. I looked at some phone firmware, in this special case the mapping is done by looking at the SIM first (if it is an USIM), than at an optional table in the phone filesystem and finally at the table in the firmware.
Best regards, Dieter