Number of available PDCHs(timeslots)

Phone multislot class

Interference

TBF reallocations

Network Hand-off

Network traffic

CS-1 for RLC/MAC signaling

Number of available PDCHs(timeslots)
a packet data channel(PDCH) is one timeslot
which is reserved for GPRS traffic. PDCH can
be shared among multiple users. PDCHs are
not permanently reserved for data services
and can be “stolen” to serve speech users
when the need arises. Each timeslot on a
GPRS is capable of 14.4kbit/s. Additional
timeslots provide additional bandwidth
capacity.
Phone multislot class
Mobile phone users differ as to the number
of downlink and uplink timeslots they can
handle
There are a total of 29 speed classes. Class
one mobiles are able to send and receive in
one slot in either direction, i.e. uplink and
downlink, and class 29 mobiles are able to
send and receive in all eight slots. The classes
within these two limits are able to support
sending and receiving in different
combinations of uplink and downlink slots.
GPRS CLASS SLOTS USED MAX UPLOAD SPEED MAX
Kbps DOWNLOAD
SPEE Kbps
2 3 8-12 16-24

4 4 8-12 24-36

6 4 24-36 24-36

8 5 8-12 32-40

10 5 16-24 32-48

12 5 32-48 32-48
Interference
Interference with other GPRS users is
naturally inescapable. Coding schemes CS-3
and CS-4 ,with the least error protection ,are
most sensitive to interference. CS-2 requires
no remarkable carrier-to-interference ratio to
give acceptable quality ,provided the GPRS
network is suitably dimensioned for voice.
TBF reallocations
Every data transmission in GPRS requires
setting up a temporary block flow(TBF).The
TBF has a predetermined life span, and when
it times out a new one must be allocated. If
the TBF is too short-lived, throughput
performance will be severely impacted.
Network Hand-off
Hand-offs from cell-site to cell-site occur
when changing locations while connected to
the network. During these transitions transfer
speed may be reduced if packets are lost
during the hand-off process.

Network traffic
In densely populated areas, multiple mobile
users can increase the amount of network
traffic which may adversely affect speed. As
more users access data services, fewer time
slots become available.
CS-1 for RLC/MAC signaling
RLC/MAC control signaling, such as packet
assignments or packet acks/nacks always
uses coding scheme CS-1 to minimize the
risk of non-correctable channel errors. Large
amounts of such signaling will keep the
throughput down hence speed is lowered.