GPRS & EDGE

General Packet Radio Service / 
Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution

GSM™ is a circuit-switched network; ideal for the delivery of voice but with limitations for sending data. The standard for GSM was designed to evolve. In 2000 the introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) added packet-switched functionality and ‘kick started’ the delivery of the Internet on mobile handsets.

GPRS adds packet-switched functionality to GSM networks

Based on specifications in Release 97, GPRS typically reached speeds of 40Kbps in the downlink and 14Kbps in the uplink by aggregating GSM time slots into one bearer. Enhancements in Releases R’98 and R’99 meant that GPRS could theoretically reach downlink speeds of up to 171Kbps.

The next advance in GSM radio access technology was EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) or Enhanced GRPS.

With a new modulation technique yielding a three-fold increase in bit rate (8PSK replacing GMSK) and new channel coding for spectral efficiency, EDGE was successfully introduced without disrupting the frequency re-use plans of existing GSM deployments.

EDGE… almost 3G

The increase in data speeds to 384Kbps placed EDGE as an early pre-taste of 3G, although it was labeled 2.75G by industry watchers.

Ongoing standards work in 3GPP has delivered EDGE Evolution as part of Release 7, designed to complement high-speed packet access (HSPA).

EDGE Evolution, resulting from the HUGE and RED HOT work items, hasImproved spectral efficiency with reduced latencies down to 100msIncreased throughput speeds to 1.3Mbps in the downlink and 653Kbps in the uplink

GPRS (Release 97) and EDGE (Release 98) are largely specified in the GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN)group of 3GPP;

HSPA

High-Speed Packet Access

Parity between DSL-type broadband speeds and mobile broadband moved a step closer with HSDPA delivering up to 14Mbps in the downlink and HSUPA returning 5.8Mbps in the uplink.

Specifications for HSPA are included in Release 5 (Downlink) and Release 6 (Uplink) of 3GPP specifications.

HSPA improvements in UMTS spectrum efficiency are achieved through:

• New modulation (16QAM) techniques
• Reduced radio frame lengths
• New functionalities within radio networks (including re-transmissions between NodeB and the Radio Network Controller)

Consequently, throughput is increased and latency is reduced (down to 100ms and 50ms for HSDPA and HSUPA respectively).

By the end of 2007, there were 166 commercial HSDPA networks in 75 countries with a further 38 networks committed to deployment.

The first commercial launch of HSUPA was in early 2007 and 24 networks had launched by the end of the year. According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA); over 45 networks have launched, are testing or plan to deploy HSUPA.

HSPA+ introduces New functionalities

An evolution of HSPA was specified resulting from studies in Release 7 which added multiple input/ multiple output (MIMO) antenna capability and 16QAM (Uplink)/ 64QAM (Downlink) modulation.

Coupled with improvements in the radio access network for continuous packet connectivity, HSPA+ will allow Uplink speeds of 11Mbps and Downlink speeds of 42Mbps within the Release 8 time frame.

The 25 series of the 3GPP specifications contain the major HSPA work on Uplink and Downlink access;

Frozen in Release 5, HSPA work is largely covered by the Radio Access Network (RAN) group of 3GPP

Dual-Cell HSPA

Dual cell or Dual carrier HSPA was defined in 3GPP Release 8, specifying carrier aggregation for increased spectrum efficiency and load balancing across the carriers.

The 3GPP study item was completed in June 2008 as TR 25.825.

According to Wikipedia, DC HSPA delivers the following;

• Release 7, MIMO deployments can benefit from the DC-HSDPA functionality as defined in Release 8.
• Release 8, DC-HSPDA operates on adjacent carriers
• Release 9, paired cells can operate on two different frequency bands, possible to use DC-HSDPA in combination with MIMO.

Internet/Web-Based Multimedia Applications

With the advent of the World Wide Web and the release of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser in 1993, the last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed great advances in multimedia technology and application. The boom relies heavily on the radical technical breakthrough in the fields of video data compression, high-quality, real-time encoding and decoding, networks, and the Internet. Today’s industries are seeking the following applications in order to increase revenues and profits:
• Desktop videoconferences with collaboration
• Multimedia storage and mail forwarding
• Consumer edutainment, infotainment, and sociotainment
• Shopping and advertising
• Digital libraries
• Video on demand
• Educational and health applications
• Hybrid applications
Very recently, a project entitled THRO at the University of Cincinnati used case studies to simulate realworld human rights problems and present ethical decision-making opportunities to students on-line via web-based multimedia. As the new millennium approaches, the use of audio clips and video manipulation enable inexpensive and creative expression using multimedia technology in applications readily available to any users with a computer and the desire to express themselves visually. Streaming multimedia is starting to find its way into mainstream industry. Hewlett-Packard uses streaming video to broadcast live events and promotional videos of product launches. Recently, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has used streaming media technology for group collaboration on complex, three-dimensional diagrams of chemical, petroleum, and pharmaceutical semiconductor facilities. Benefits expected are reduced cycle time of projects and improved client input.

5G Network

5G network is assumed as the perfection level of wireless communication in mobile technology. Cable network is now become the memory of past. Mobiles are not only a communication tool but also serve many other purposes. All the previous wireless technologies are entertaining the ease of telephone and data sharing but 5G is bringing a new touch and making the life real mobile life. The new 5G network is expected to improve the services and applications offered by it.

  
5G network is very fast and reliable. The concept of handheld devices is going to be revolutionized with the advent of 5G. Now all the services and applications are going to be accessed by single IP as telephony, gaming and many other multimedia applications. As it is not a new thing or gadget in market and there are millions of thousands users all over the world who have experienced the wireless services and till now they are addicted to this wireless technology. It is not easy for them to shrink from using this new 5G network technology. There is only need to make it accessible so that a common man can easily afford the economic packs offered by the companies so that 5G network could hold the authentic place. There is need to win the customer trust to build fair long term relation to make a reliable position in the telecommunication field.

To compete with the preceding wireless technologies in the market 5G network has to offer something reliable something more innovative. All the features like telephony, camera, mp3 player, are coming in new mobile phone models. 4G is providing all these utility in mobile phone. By seeing the features of 4G one can gets a rough idea about what could be a 5g Network offer. There is messenger, photo gallery, and multimedia applications that are also going to be the part of 5G. There would be no difference between a PC and a mobile phone rather both would act vice versa

4G Technology

When talking about 4G, question comes to our mind is what is 4G Technology. 4G is short for Fourth (4th) Generation Technology. 4G Technology is basically the extension in the 3G technology with more bandwidth and services offers in the 3G. But at this time nobody exactly knows the true 4G definition. Some people say that 4G technology is the future technologies that are mostly in their maturity period. The expectation for the 4G technology is basically the high quality audio/video streaming over end to end Internet Protocol. If the Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia sub-system movement achieves what it going to do, nothing of this possibly will matter. WiMAX or mobile structural design will become progressively more translucent, and therefore the acceptance of several architectures by a particular network operator ever more common.

  
Many Technologies appear in many different flavours and have many diverse tags attached to them, but that does not really indicate that they are moving in dissimilar tracks. The technologies that fall in the 4G categories are UMTS, OFDM, SDR, TD-SCDMA, MIMO and WiMAX to the some extent.

4G Technology offers high data rates that will generate new trends for the market and prospects for established as well as for new telecommunication businesses. 4G networks, when tied together with mobile phones with in-built higher resolution digital cameras and also High Definition capabilities will facilitate video blogs.

  
After successful implementation, 4G technology is likely to enable ubiquitous computing, that will simultaneously connects to numerous high date speed networks offers faultless handoffs all over the geographical regions. Many network operators possibly utilize technologies for example; wireless mesh networks and cognitive radio network to guarantee secure connection & competently allocates equally network traffic and bandwidth.

Some of the companies trying 4G mobile communication at 100 Mbps for mobile users and up to 1 Gbps over fixed stations. They planned on publicly launching their first commercial wireless network around 2010. As far as other competitor’s mobile communication companies working on 4G technology even more quickly. Sprint Nextel was planned to launch WiMAX over 4G broadband mobile network in United States. Some of the other developed countries like United Kingdom stated a plan to sale via auction of 4G mobile frequencies couple of years back. The word “MAGIC” also refers to 4G technology which stands for Mobile multimedia, Any-where, Global mobility solutions over, Integrated wireless and Customized services.

3G Technology

3G (Third Generation) is the latest wireless technology. It is also known as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), an improvement over 2G (Second Generation) providing wireless access to the data and information to the users from any where and anytime. It is the latest mobile technology and in fact it is describe by Cellular (2004) as being a generic name for the host of mobile technologies.
3G cellular phones were first launched in Japan in October 2001. This 3G phone was designed so users would be able to surf the Internet, view pictures of the people they are talking to, watch movies and listen to music on their handsets .

What are the benefits of 3G?
You can perform all those functions that you perform at present with your mobile devices but at much higher speed than before. It provides you with faster connectivity, faster internet access, and music entertainment with improved quality. The benefits are immense. You can avail the benefits of video calling. You can call you friend and have a video call facility. The clarity is better and the facility can be enjoyed as long as both of you are using the 3G technology.

With 3G technology it is possible to access any site on the Internet by using your phone as a modem for your computer or laptop and mail the important documents. Downloading games and songs is much faster with this technology. You can download your favorite games into your mobile and start playing. You can also download the music videos or simply the songs. The technology enable for much faster download. Hence it will take only few minutes to download movie clips or albums.

You can use your favourite search engines to find information on news headlines, get information about the evening weather so that you can plan your party. You can find out the latest baseball score and any latest news about your favorite sport. The 3G phones with their advanced feature will also enable you to watch exciting highlights of your favorite sport. With the increased speed and improved quality of the services provided in the 3G phones, you can view the multimedia data applications like movie clips and the music videos with more clear picture than with the 2.5G technology mobiles.

The 3G technology provide you with the data transmission speed of up to 2Mbps when you are using the phone on stationary mode. It also provides significantly faster data transfer rates of connectivity and increased networking and most importantly the resistance to noise.

The technology has in fact increased the bit rate thus enabling the service providers to provide high speed internet facilities, increased call volumes and host of the multimedia applications to their customers. All these services can be provided to the customers on the basis of the amount of data they transmit and not on the time for which they use the service thus making the services cheaper for us.

A great deal of potential exists for new applications in the future as 3G packet based networks will allow users to be on line all the time. The capabilities of wireless networks in terms of bandwidth must still, however, be improved upon (3GNewsroom.com, n.d.).

3G is an exciting new technology that is being incorporated into mobile devices across the globe. Users are now able to make person-to-person calls, download data and do a variety of other tasks they never imagined possible all via their 3G cell phones.