Core Mobile Management
image ©nokia.com

image ©IPLook



At the edge of a mobile network is the base station or eNodeB or gNodeB. In essence these systems manage the wireless data, and send it to the core. But what receives this from the core. In a 2G network it is the Mobile Switching Centre and in 4G (and 5GNR) it is the Managing Mobile Entity [MME]

The Network Switching System in a 2G has to manage phone calls and even data is trancferred via the 2G phone network. It has at it's core the Mobile Switching Centre (MSC). This takes the communication from the BSS and dependent on the destination, will switch to another part of it's home network for an intra network call; to another mobile network for a inter mobile call or to the PSTN.

But in a 4G network it is a data only network. The data is sent from the eNodeB to the managing Mobile Entity. This uses the HSS to check the details and then sends the request to the Serving Gateway (S-GW)