This document provides an overview of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) in 3 paragraphs. GPRS allows mobile phones to send and receive data across mobile networks. It supplements existing circuit-switched data and SMS with a packet-switched service that is faster and less costly. GPRS provides packet switching for internet applications like web browsing and file transfer on mobile phones. The document describes user features of GPRS including speed, immediacy, new applications, and service access. It then covers technical aspects such as network elements, mobility management, and GPRS processes to establish user sessions.

1. SEMINAR
ON
GPRS(General Packet Radio Service)
Submitted By
Mustahid Ali

2. GPRS(General Packet Radio Service)
1. It
is a new non voice value added service that allows information to
be sent and received across a mobile telephone network.
2. It supplements today's Circuit Switched Data and Short Message
Service

3. User Feature Of GPRS
1. SPEED
2. IMMEDIACY
3. NEW APPLICATION, BETTER APPLICATION
4. SERVICE ACCESS

4. SPEED
1. Theoretical Maximum Speed Of up to 172.2 kbps.
2. It is about ten times as fast as current Circuit Switched Data services
on GSM networks
3. It is less costly mobile data service compared to SMS and Circuit
Switched Data
IMMEDIACY
1. It facilitates instant connections.
2. It is also referred as "always connected".
3. It is a very important feature for time critical applications such as remote
credit card authorization

5. New Application & Better Application
1. Fully Internet application such as web browsing and chatting.
2. File Transfer.
3. Home Automation (the ability to remotely access and control in-house
appliances and machines).
Service Access
1. To use GPRS, users specifically need’s mobile phone or terminal that
supports GPRS.
2. A subscription to a mobile telephone network that supports GPRS, use of
GPRS must be enabled for that user.
3. Automatic access to the GPRS may be allowed by some mobile network
operators, others will require a specific opt-in knowledge of how to send and/ or
receive GPRS information using their specific model of mobile phone.
4. GPRS users can access any web page or other Internet applications

6. Network features
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•
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Packet switching
Spectrum efficiency
Internet aware
Support TDMA & GSM

7. Packet Switching
1. GPRS involves overlaying a packet based air interface on the existing circuit
switched GSM network.
2. In GPRS, the information is split into separate but related "packets" before being
transmitted and reassembled at the receiving end
Spectrum Efficiency
1. Packet switching means that GPRS radio resources are used only when users
are actually sending or receiving data. Rather than dedicating a radio channel to a
mobile data user for a fixed period of time, the available radio resource can be
concurrently shared between several users.
2. This efficient use of scarce radio resources means that large numbers of GPRS
users can potentially share the bandwidth and be served from a single cell..

8. Internet Aware
1. GPRS fully enables Mobile Internet functionality by allowing inter-working
between the existing Internet and the new GPRS network.
2. It Provide any service that is used over the fixed Internet today- File Transfer
Protocol (FTP), web browsing, chat, email, telnet, etc.
Supports TDMA & GSM
1. It Support both GSM and TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) standard
popular in North and South America.

9. GPRS Terminal
The term terminal equipment is generally used to refer to the variety of mobile phones
and mobile stations that can be used in a GPRS environment. The equipment is defined
by terminal classes and types
1.Class A Terminals: Class A terminals support GPRS and other GSM services (such as SMS and
voice) simultaneously. This support includes simultaneous attach, activation, monitor, and traffic.
Class A terminals can make or receive calls on two services simultaneously
2. Class B Terminals: Class B terminals can monitor GSM and GPRS channels simultaneously but
can support only one of these services at a time. Therefore, a Class B terminal can support
simultaneous attach, activation, and monitor, but not simultaneous traffic
3. Class C Terminals: Class C terminals support only sequential attaches. The user must select
which service to connect to. Therefore, a Class C terminal can make or receive calls from only the
manually selected (or default) service

10. Mobility Management
An MS(Mobile Station) has three states in the GPRS system
• Active
• Standby
• Idle

11. Active
•
•
•
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Data is transmitted between an MS and the GPRS network only when the MS
is in the active state. In the active state, the SGSN knows the cell location of
the MS.
Packet transmission to an active MS is initiated by packet paging.
When an MS has a packet to transmit, it must access the uplink channel .The
uplink channel is shared by a number of MSs.
The MS requests use of the channel in a random access message. The BSS
allocates an unused channel to the MS and sends an access grant message in
reply to the random access message.

12. Standby State
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In the standby state, only the routing area of the MS is known.
When the SGSN sends a packet to an MS that is in the standby state,
the MS must be paged because the SGSN knows the routing area of
the MS.
On receiving the packet-paging message, the MS relays its cell location
to the SGSN to establish the active state.
The main reason for the standby state is to reduce the load in the
GPRS network caused by cell-based routing update messages and to
conserve the MS battery.

13. Idle State
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•
In the idle state, the MS does not have a logical GPRS context
activated.
In this state, the MS can receive only those multicast messages that
can be received by any GPRS MS. Because the GPRS network
infrastructure does not know the location of the MS, it is not possible to
send messages to the MS from external data networks

14. GPRS Access Mode
The GPRS access modes specify whether or not the GGSN requests user
authentication at the access point to a PDN (Public Data Network).
•
Transparent: No security authorization/authentication is requested by
the GGSN
•
Non-Transparent: GGSN acts as a proxy for authenticating. It uses the
Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) or Challenge Handshake
Authentication Protocol (CHAP) message issued by the mobile terminal

15. GPRS Process
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1. Attach process—Process by which the MS attaches (i.e, connects) to the
SGSN in a GPRS network
2. Authentication process—Process by which the SGSN authenticates the
mobile subscriber
3. PDP activation process—Process by which a user session is
established between the MS and the destination network
4. Detach process—Process by which the MS detaches (i.e., disconnects)
from the SGSN in the GPRS network
5. Network-initiated PDP request for static IP address—Process by
which a call from the packet data network reaches the MS using a static IP
address
6. Network-initiated PDP request for dynamic IP address—Process
by which a call from the packet data network reaches the MS using a dynamic
IP address

16. GSM Network Elements
∀ • Mobile station (MS)
∀
∀
∀
∀
∀
∀
∀
• Base transceiver station (BTS)
• Base station controller (BSC)
• Base station subsystem (BSS)
• Mobile switching center (MSC)
• Authentication center (AuC)
• Home location register (HLR)
• Visitor location register (VLR)

17. 1. Mobile Station (MS): The MS can contain the following components:
• Mobile terminal (MT)—GSM cellular handset
• Terminal equipment (TE)—PC or personal digital assistant (PDA)
The MS can be two interconnected physical devices (MT and TE) with a point-to-point
interface or a single device with both functions integrated.
2. Base Transceiver Station (BTS):
a) When a subscriber uses the MS to make a call in the network, the MS transmits the call
request to the base transceiver station (BTS).
b) The BTS includes all the radio equipment (i.e., antennas, signal processing devices, and
amplifiers) necessary for radio transmission within a geographical area called a cell.
c) The BTS is responsible for establishing the link to the MS and for modulating and
demodulating radio signals between the MS and the BTS.

18. 3. Base Station Controller:
a) The base station controller (BSC) is the controlling component of the radio network, and it
manages the BTSs.
b) The BSC reserves radio frequencies for communications and handles the handoff
between BTSs when an MS roams from one cell to another.
c) The BSC is responsible for paging the MS for incoming calls.
4. Base Station Subsystem
a) A GSM network is comprised of many base station subsystems (BSSs), each controlled
by a BSC.
b) The BSS performs the necessary functions for monitoring radio connections to the MS,
coding and decoding voice, and rate adaptation to and from the wireless network.

19. 5. Mobile Switching Center:
a) The mobile switching center (MSC) is a digital ISDN switch that sets up connections to other
MSCs and to the BSCs.
b) The MSCs form the wired (fixed) backbone of a GSM network and can switch calls to the
public switched telecommunications network (PSTN).
c) An MSC can connect to a large number of BSCs.
6. Equipment Identity Register:
a) The equipment identity register (EIR) is a database that stores the international mobile
equipment identities (IMEIs) of all the mobile stations in the network.
b) The IMEI is an equipment identifier assigned by the manufacturer of the mobile station.
c) The EIR provides security features such as blocking calls from handsets that have been
stolen.

20. 7. Home Location Register (HLR):
a) The home location register (HLR) is the central database for all users to register to the
GSM network.
b) It stores static information about the subscribers such as the international mobile
subscriber identity (IMSI), subscribed services, and a key for authenticating the subscriber.
c) The HLR also stores dynamic subscriber information (i.e., the current location of the
mobile subscriber).
8. Authentication Center (AuC):
Associated with the HLR is the authentication center (AuC); this database contains the
algorithms for authenticating subscribers.
9. Visitor Location Register (VLR):
It is a distributed database that temporarily stores the information about the subscriber roam into a
location area

22. GPRS Network Elements
Terminal Equipment: It require new equipment that support GPRS and that is also
backward compatible with GSM for voice calls
BTS: A software upgrade is required in the existing base transceiver site.
BSC: The base station controller (BSC) requires a software upgrade and the
installation of new hardware called the packet control unit (PCU).
Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) : The SGSN delivers packets to mobile
stations within its service area.
Maintain the profile register of the GPRs subscriber.
The SGSN is connected to the base station subsystem to the PCU in the BSC.
Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN): GGSNs are used as interfaces to external
IP networks such as the public Internet, other mobile service providers' GPRS
services, or enterprise intranets.

23. GPRS Applications
The mobile services have unique characteristics which are:
1. Mobility—The ability to maintain constant voice and data communications while on the
move
2. Immediacy—Allows subscribers to obtain connectivity when needed, regardless of
location and without a lengthy login session
3. Localization—Allows subscribers to obtain information relevant to their current location
The combination of these characteristics provides a wide spectrum of possible applications
that can be offered to mobile subscribers. These include:
a) Communications—E-mail; fax; unified messaging; intranet/Internet access
b) Value-added services—Information services; games
c) E-commerce—Retail; ticket purchasing; banking; financial trading
d) Location-based applications—Navigation; traffic conditions; airline/rail schedules;
location finder
e) Vertical applications—Sales Support, Parcel Delivery,Dispatching.

24. Limitation of The GPRS
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Limited Cell Capacity: There are limited radio resources and voice and GPRS
both uses same network resources hence they impact the existing cell capacity.
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Speeds Much Lower In Reality: The total bandwidth is divided among different
user. Hence a single user cannot get the transmission speed up to 172.1 kbps.
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Sub-optimal Modulation:GPRS is based on a modulation technique known as
Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK). EDGE is based on a new modulation
scheme that allows a much higher bit rate across the air interface.
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Transit Delays: GPRS packets are sent in all different directions to reach the
same destination. Hence one or some of those packets to be lost or corrupted
during the data transmission over the radio link.
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No Store And Forward: There is no storage mechanism incorporated into the
GPRS standard as compare to SMS.

25. THANK YOU