Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution

"EDGE" redirects here. For other uses, see Edge.
EDGE sign shown in notification bar on an Android-based smartphone.

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) (also known as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), or Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM. EDGE is considered a pre-3G radio technology and is part of ITU's 3G definition.[1] EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003 – initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States.[2]

EDGE is standardized also by 3GPP as part of the GSM family. A variant, so called Compact-EDGE, was developed for use in a portion of Digital AMPS network spectrum.[3]

Through the introduction of sophisticated methods of coding and transmitting data, EDGE delivers higher bit-rates per radio channel, resulting in a threefold increase in capacity and performance compared with an ordinary GSM/GPRS connection.

EDGE can be used for any packet switched application, such as an Internet connection.

Evolved EDGE continues in Release 7 of the 3GPP standard providing reduced latency and more than doubled performance e.g. to complement High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Peak bit-rates of up to 1 Mbit/s and typical bit-rates of 400 kbit/s can be expected.

Technology

EDGE/EGPRS is implemented as a bolt-on enhancement for 2.5G GSM/GPRS networks, making it easier for existing GSM carriers to upgrade to it. EDGE is a superset to GPRS and can function on any network with GPRS deployed on it, provided the carrier implements the necessary upgrade. EDGE requires no hardware or software changes to be made in GSM core networks. EDGE-compatible transceiver units must be installed and the base station subsystem needs to be upgraded to support EDGE. If the operator already has this in place, which is often the case today, the network can be upgraded to EDGE by activating an optional software feature. Today EDGE is supported by all major chip vendors for both GSM and WCDMA/HSPA.

Transmission techniques

In addition to Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK), EDGE uses higher-order PSK/8 phase shift keying (8PSK) for the upper five of its nine modulation and coding schemes. EDGE produces a 3-bit word for every change in carrier phase. This effectively triples the gross data rate offered by GSM. EDGE, like GPRS, uses a rate adaptation algorithm that adapts the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) according to the quality of the radio channel, and thus the bit rate and robustness of data transmission. It introduces a new technology not found in GPRS, Incremental Redundancy, which, instead of retransmitting disturbed packets, sends more redundancy information to be combined in the receiver. This increases the probability of correct decoding.

EDGE can carry a bandwidth up to 500  kbit/s (with end-to-end latency of less than 150 ms) for 4 timeslots (theoretical maximum is 473.6 kbit/s for 8 timeslots) in packet mode. This means it can handle four times as much traffic as standard GPRS. EDGE meets the International Telecommunications Union's requirement for a 3G network, and has been accepted by the ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards.[1] It also enhances the circuit data mode called HSCSD, increasing the data rate of this service.

EDGE modulation and coding scheme (MCS)

The channel encoding process in GPRS as well as EGPRS/EDGE consists of two steps: first, a cyclic code is used to add parity bits, which are also referred to as the Block Check Sequence, followed by coding with a possibly punctured convolutional code.[4] In GPRS, the Coding Schemes CS-1 to CS-4 specify the number of parity bits generated by the cyclic code and the puncturing rate of the convolutional code.[4] In GPRS Coding Schemes CS-1 through CS-3, the convolutional code is of rate 1/2, i.e. each input bit is converted into two coded bits.[4] In Coding Schemes CS-2 and CS-3, the output of the convolutional code is punctured to achieve the desired code rate.[4] In GPRS Coding Scheme CS-4, no convolutional coding is applied.[4]

In EGPRS/EDGE, the Modulation and Coding Schemes MCS-1 to MCS-9 take the place of the Coding Schemes of GPRS, and additionally specify which modulation scheme is used, GMSK or 8PSK.[4] MCS-1 through MCS-4 use GMSK and have performance similar (but not equal) to GPRS, while MCS-5 through MCS-9 use 8PSK.[4] In all EGPRS Modulation and Coding Schemes, a convolutional code of rate 1/3 is used, and puncturing is used to achieve the desired code rate.[4] In contrast to GRPS, the Radio Link Control (RLC) and Media Access Control (MAC) headers and the payload data are coded separately in EGPRS.[4] The headers are coded more robustly than the data.[4]

GPRS
Coding scheme		 Bitrate including RLC/MAC overhead[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]
(kbit/s/slot)		 Bitrate excluding RLC/MAC overhead[lower-alpha 3]
(kbit/s/slot)		 Modulation Code rate
CS-1 9.20 8.00 GMSK 1/2
CS-2 13.55 12.00 GMSK ≈2/3
CS-3 15.75 14.40 GMSK ≈3/4
CS-4 21.55 20.00 GMSK 1
EDGE Modulation and Coding
Scheme (MCS)		 Bitrate including RLC/MAC overhead[lower-alpha 1]
(kbit/s/slot)		 Bitrate excluding RLC/MAC overhead[lower-alpha 3]
(kbit/s/slot)		 Modulation Data
code rate		 Header
code rate
MCS-1 9.20 8.00 GMSK ≈0.53 ≈0.53
MCS-2 11.60 10.40 GMSK ≈0.66 ≈0.53
MCS-3 15.20 14.80 GMSK ≈0.85 ≈0.53
MCS-4 18.00 16.80 GMSK 1 ≈0.53
MCS-5 22.80 21.60 8PSK ≈0.37 1/3
MCS-6 30.00 28.80 8PSK ≈0.49 1/3
MCS-7 45.20 44.00 8PSK ≈0.76 ≈0.39
MCS-8 54.80 53.60 8PSK ≈0.92 ≈0.39
MCS-9 59.60 58.40 8PSK 1 ≈0.39
  1. 1 2 This is rate at which the RLC/MAC layer protocol data unit (PDU) (called a radio block) is transmitted. As shown in TS 44.060 section 10.0a.1,[5] a radio block consists of MAC header, RLC header, RLC data unit and spare bits. The RLC data unit represents the payload, the rest is overhead. The radio block is coded by the convolutional code specified for a particular Coding Scheme, which yields the same PHY layer data rate for all Coding Schemes.
  2. ↑ Cited in various sources, e.g. in TS 45.001 table 1.[4] is the bitrate including the RLC/MAC headers, but excluding the uplink state flag (USF), which is part of the MAC header,[6] yielding a bitrate that is 0.15 kbit/s lower.
  3. 1 2 The net bitrate here is the rate at which the RLC/MAC layer payload (the RLC data unit) is transmitted. As such, this bit rate excludes the header overhead from the RLC/MAC layers.

Evolved EDGE

Evolved EDGE improves on EDGE in a number of ways. Latencies are reduced by lowering the Transmission Time Interval by half (from 20 ms to 10 ms). Bit rates are increased up to 1 Mbit/s peak bandwidth and latencies down to 80 ms using dual carrier, higher symbol rate and higher-order modulation (32QAM and 16QAM instead of 8PSK), and turbo codes to improve error correction. And finally signal quality is improved using dual antennas improving average bit-rates and spectrum efficiency. EDGE Evolution can be gradually introduced as software upgrades, taking advantage of the installed base. With EDGE Evolution, end-users will be able to experience mobile internet connections corresponding to a 500 kbit/s ADSL service.[7]

Networks

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) states that,[8] as of May 2013, there were 604 GSM/EDGE networks in 213 countries, from a total of 606 mobile network operator commitments in 213 countries.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/DocumentsIMT2000/IMT-2000.pdf
  2. ↑ http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/MiscDocuments/IMT-Deployments-Rev3.pdf[]
  3. ↑ ETSI SMG2 99/872
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 3rd Generation Partnership Project (September 2012). "3GGP TS45.001: Technical Specification Group GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network; Physical layer on the radio path; General description". Retrieved 2013-07-20.
  5. ↑ 3rd Generation Partnership Project (June 2015). "3GGP TS45.001: Technical Specification Group GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network; Mobile Station (MS) - Base Station System (BSS) interface; Radio Link Control / Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol; section 10.0a.1 - GPRS RLC/MAC block for data transfer". 12.5.0. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
  6. ↑ 3rd Generation Partnership Project (June 2015). "3GGP TS45.001: Technical Specification Group GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network; Mobile Station (MS) - Base Station System (BSS) interface; Radio Link Control / Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol; section 10.2.1 - Downlink RLC data block". 12.5.0. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
  7. ↑ "EDGE, HSPA and LTE: The Mobile Broadband Advantage" (PDF). Rysavy Research and 3G Americas. 2007-09-01. pp. 58–65. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
  8. ↑ "GSA – The Global mobile Suppliers Association EDGE Databank". Gsacom.com. Retrieved 2013-03-05.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.