GPRS CHANNELS

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 GPRS Channels
 The GPRS system uses the physical radio
channels as defined for GSM.
 A physical channel used by GPRS is called a
Packet Data Channel (PDCH).
 The PDCHs can either be allocated for GPRS
(dedicated PDCH) or used by GPRS only if no
circuit-switched connection requires them (on-
demand).
 The PDCHs are taken from the common pool of
all channels available in the cell
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 GPRS Channels contd..,
 The radio resources of a cell are shared by
all GPRS and all non-GPRS mobiles in the
cell.
 The mapping of physical channels to either
GPRS or GSM usage can be performed
dynamically, based on:
 Capacity on demand principle
 Depending on the current traffic load, priority
of service, and the multislot class 3
 GPRS Channels contd..,
 The number of channels allocated to GPRS can
be changed according to current demand.
 Physical channels not currently in use by
conventional GSM can be allocated as PDCHs
to increase the GPRS quality of service.
 When there is a resource demand for services
with higher priority, PDCHs can be de-
allocated.

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 GPRS Channels contd..,
 EDGE can carry data speeds up to 236.8 kbit/s for
4 timeslots (theoretical maximum is 473.6 kbit/s
for 8 timeslots) in packet mode
 4 possible channel coding schemes (CS1….CS4).
depending on the quality of the radio link.
 Data rates supported per timeslot are 9.06, 13.4,
15.6, and 21.4 kb/s.
 When all 8 timeslots are available, throughput can
reach 8 x 21.4 kb/s = 171.2 kb/s.
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GPRS Logical Channels

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 GPR S CH ANNE LS
Pa cket Broad cast Co ntro l Ch ann el (PB CCH )
 The packet broadcast control channel (PBCCH) is a
unidirectional point to-multipoint signaling channel from
the BSS to mobile stations.
 Used by the BSS to broadcast configuration data about the
GPRS network to all GPRS mobile stations.
Pa cket Commo n C ontrol Chan nel (PCC CH )
 A control channel service for signaling for the
packet data:
 Packet Random Access Channel (PRACH)
 Packet Paging Channel (PPCH)
 Packet Access Grant Channel (PAGCH)
 Packet Notification Channel (PNCH) 7
 GPRS Channels contd.,
 PRACH (P acket Ra ndom Acc es s Ch annel) :
MS uses this channel whenever they need to
access the network to initiate an uplink packet
transfer or to respond to paging messages in
order to initiate a downlink packet transfer.
 Packet Acc ess Gr an t Ch ann el ( PA GCH):
This channel is used in the packet transfer
establishment phase to send channel reservation
acknowledgements to a MS prior to packet
transfer.
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 GPRS Channels contd.,
 PPCH (Pa cket Pagin g Cha nnel) :
PPCH is used by BSS to find out the location of a
MS (paging) prior to down-link packet transfer.

 PNCH ( Pa cket N oti fi cati on Cont rol

Ch ann el) :
PNCH is used to inform the MS of incoming PTM
message (multicast or group call).

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 GPRS Channels contd.,
Pack et D ata Tra ffi c Channe l (PD TCH)
 The traffic channel is an up and downlink
function used for user data traffic transfer.
 PDTCH is temporarily dedicated to a user or
group of users.
 PDTCH for uplink and PDTCH for downlink are
unidirectional and assigned separately to
support asymmetric user traffic flow.

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 GPRS Channels contd.,
Pa cket -Ded ica te d Contr ol Cha nn el (PDC CH)
Pa cket Asso ci at ed Co ntrol C han nel (PAC CH )
 An uplink and downlink function used to carry signaling
information to and from the mobile station

Pa cket Timin g Advan ce Contr ol Cha nne l/Up lin k

(P TCCH/U L)
 Used for estimation of timing advance of one mobile
station

Pa cket Timin g Advan ce Contr ol Cha nne l/DL

(PTCC H/DL )
 Used to transmit timing advance information to several
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GPRS Logical Channels
Group Channel Function Direction

Packet data PDTCH Data Traffic MS BSS

Traffic channel

Packet broadcast PBCCH Broadcast Control MS BSS

control channel

PRACH Random Access MS BSS

Packet common PAGCH Access Grant MS BSS
Control Channel
(PCCCH) PPCH Paging MS BSS

PNCH Notification MS BSS

Packet Dedicated PACCH Associated Control MS BSS

Control Channels
PTCCH Timing Advance Control MS BSS

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Factors which affect practical GPRS
performance
 Available network resources
 Concurrent usage - user population
 Type of application
 Mobile movement (fading)

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How do reduced bandwidth and increased
delay affect applications?

 Some applications will work fine.

 Some applications will be very slow

 Some applications will not work at all

(“unfortunate” timers).

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The impact of low bandwidth
 Transfers of larger amounts of data
takes a long time.
 Certain kinds of applications do not
work well or at all.

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What can be done to overcome
GPRS’s limitations?
 Actions that increase actual performance
 Avoid Small Talk
 Data Compression
 Pipelining
 Local Caching of Info.

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Small Talk
 Since GPRS has a high latency (according to
specification, up to 500ms), the number of
requests/replies should be kept as low as
possible
 e.g. loading web page containing 10 small

images could waste up to 5 seconds just

waiting for replies from the server.
 To overcome such an overhead, data should
be collected into one packet and transmitted
within one single operation
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Data Compression
 With GPRS limited bandwidth, compression of
data can improve the achieved bandwidth for
data transfers.
 Compression & decompression depend on the
mobile stations processing capability and
memory storage.

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Local caching of frequently used
information
 What can be cached ?
 e.g. files, databases, web pages, IP

addresses.
 What communication applications could
benefit from caching information?
 Browsers

 Any software using information on a server.

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