Search Wikipedia

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution

Article Talk

"EDGE" redirects here. For other uses, see EDGE (disambiguation).

"Edge network" redirects here. For devices at the edge of a network, see Edge device.

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), also known as 2.75G, Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), IMT
Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and 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 sign shown in
EDGE delivers higher bit-rates per radio channel, resulting in a threefold increase in notification bar on an
capacity and performance compared with an ordinary GSM/GPRS connection. Android-based
smartphone.
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.

Contents

Technology
Transmission techniques

EDGE modulation and coding scheme (MCS)

Evolved EDGE
Technology
Reduced Latency

Higher modulation schemes

Networks

See also

References

External links

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
Cellular network standards and
upgraded to EDGE by activating an optional software feature. Today generation timeline.
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 236 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 Telecommunication 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 GPRS, the Radio Link Control
(RLC) and medium 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 Bitrate including RLC/MAC Bitrate excluding RLC/MAC

Code
coding overhead[a][b] overhead[c] Modulation
rate
scheme (kbit/s/slot) (kbit/s/slot)

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 Bitrate including Bitrate excluding Data Header

and coding RLC/MAC overhead[a] RLC/MAC overhead[c] Modulation code code
scheme (MCS) (kbit/s/slot) (kbit/s/slot) rate 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

a. ^ a b
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.

b. ^ 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.

c. ^ a b
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, also called EDGE Evolution and 2.875G, is a bolt-on extension to the GSM mobile
telephony standard, which 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. This results in real
world downlink speeds of up to 600kbit/s.[7] Further the signal quality is improved using dual antennas
improving average bit-rates and spectrum efficiency.

The main intention of increasing the existing EDGE throughput is that many operators would like to upgrade
their existing infrastructure rather than invest on new network infrastructure. Mobile operators have
invested billions in GSM networks, many of which are already capable of supporting EDGE data speeds up
to 236.8 kbit/s. With a software upgrade and a new device compliant with Evolved EDGE (like an Evolved
EDGE smartphone) for the user, these data rates can be boosted to speeds approaching 1 Mbit/s (i.e. 98.6
kbit/s per timeslot for 32QAM). Many service providers may not invest in a completely new technology like
3G networks.[8]

Considerable research and development happened throughout the world for this new technology. A
successful trial by Nokia Siemens and "one of China's leading operators" has been achieved in a live
environment.[8] With the introduction for more advanced wireless technologies like UMTS and LTE, which
also focus on a network coverage layer on low frequencies and the upcoming phase-out and shutdown of
2G mobile networks, it is very unlikely that Evolved EDGE will ever see any deployment on live networks. Up
to now (as of 2016) there are no commercial networks which support the Evolved EDGE standard (3GPP
Rel-7).

Technology

Reduced Latency

With Evolved EDGE come three major features designed to reduce latency over the air interface.

In EDGE, a single RLC data block (ranging from 23 to 148 bytes of data) is transmitted over four frames,
using a single time slot. On average, this requires 20 ms for one way transmission. Under the RTTI scheme,
one data block is transmitted over two frames in two timeslots, reducing the latency of the air interface to
10 ms.

In addition, Reduced Latency also implies support of Piggy-backed ACK/NACK (PAN), in which a bitmap of
blocks not received is included in normal data blocks. Using the PAN field, the receiver may report missing
data blocks immediately, rather than waiting to send a dedicated PAN message.

A final enhancement is RLC-non persistent mode. With EDGE, the RLC interface could operate in either
acknowledged mode, or unacknowledged mode. In unacknowledged mode, there is no retransmission of
missing data blocks, so a single corrupt block would cause an entire upper-layer IP packet to be lost. With
non-persistent mode, an RLC data block may be retransmitted if it is less than a certain age. Once this time
expires, it is considered lost, and subsequent data blocks may then be forwarded to upper layers.

Higher modulation schemes

Both uplink and downlink throughput is improved by using 16 or 32 QAM (quadrature amplitude
modulation), along with turbo codes and higher symbol rates.

Networks

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) states that,[9] 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

Broadband Internet access Telecommunication

portal
CDMA2000

Evolution-Data Optimized

List of device bandwidths

Mobile broadband

Spectral efficiency comparison table

UMTS

WiDEN

Wi-Fi

Comparison of mobile phone standards including LTE

Comparison of wireless data standards including WiMAX and HSPA+

References

1. ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2011-05-10.

2. ^ (PDF) http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/MiscDocuments/IMT-Deployments-Rev3.pdf . Retrieved April 16,

[dead link]
2008. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

3. ^ ETSI SMG2 99/872

4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2010-09-27.

8. ^ a b "Yahoo!" . www.engadgetmobile.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-17. Retrieved 2016-03-14.

9. ^ "GSA – The Global mobile Suppliers Association EDGE Databank" . Gsacom.com. Retrieved 2013-03-05.

External links

The Global mobile Suppliers Association

Evolved EDGE as an alternative to 3G

A technical document by the 3G Americas association

An opinion on evolved EDGE by Martin Sauter

An EDGE Evolution report by Visant Strategies

Last edited on 19 November 2023, at 04:56

Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.

Terms of Use • Privacy policy • Desktop

: