Overview and Comparison of the Architecture and Protocols of the Global System for Mobile Communications and the General Packet Radio Service George C. Hadjichristofi 04/25/001 Abstract... 2 Introduction 3 3 Overview of Wireless Wide Area Network. 4 8.1 Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) 4 3.2 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). 5 4 Architecture Comparison 6 4.1 Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) 6 4.2 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). 9 5 Protocol Comparison .... 5.1 Physical Layer....... 5.2 Data Link Layer....... 5.3 Network Layer. 5.2 Signaling. 6 Conelusion......... 16 7 Works cited... 17 8 Appendix 19The goal of this paper is to be an in-depth tutorial which will offer a brief overview and a critical comparison of the architecture and protocol stack of the Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM) and the General packet radio service(GPRS). The paper starts by describing the need for the creation of both Systems. It then gives a brief overview of each system. The architecture comparison is done by first describing one system and then analyzing the second system while stating any differences and/or similarities. This way redundancy is avoided, as there is no need to restate the particular characteristics of each system. The protocol stack comparison is carried out by showing the protocol stack for each system, and then stating the major differences between each one. The results of this research showed that GPRS is an extension of GSM. Additional nodes and interfaces were needed to implement the extended services of packet, switching required by GPRS. Since additional nodes were used, existing protocol were enhanced to cover for higher data rates, while at the same time preventing higher error rates. 2 Introduction Analog cellular telephone systems were experiencing rapid growth in Europe during the early 1980s. Each country developed its own system, but it was incompatible with everyone else's in equipment and operation. The mobile equipment were limited to operation within national boundaries, and there was also a very limited market for each type of equipment. The Europeans realized this early on, and in 1982 the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) formed a study group to study and develop a pan-European public land mobile system[12}. The proposed system called the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) had to meet certain criteria: * Good subjective speech quality Low terminal and service cost Support for international roaming Support for range of new services and facilities Spectral efficiency Ability to support handheld terminals ISDN compatibility In 1989, GSM responsibility was transferred to the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). Currently GSM is one of the world's most widely deployed and fastest growing digital cellular standard. It is one of the most successful digital mobile telecommunication systems. There are over 250 million GSM subscribers world-wide -two thirds of the world's digital mobile population - and this figure is increasing by nearly four new users per second. GSM covers every continent, being the technology of choice for 357 operators in 142 countries. The industry predicts that there will be nearly 600 million GSM customers by 2003,