15 Devon Street, Bury, BL9 9BN, UK

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GPRS Tutorial
Contents
1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 3
2 Simple GPRS Technical Overview.......................................................................................... 4
2.1 SGSN.............................................................................................................................. 4
2.2 GGSN ............................................................................................................................. 5
2.3 Connectivity Between the SGSN & GGSN ..................................................................... 5
2.4 HLR................................................................................................................................. 5
3 IP addressing........................................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Allocating Addresses ...................................................................................................... 6
3.2 How Does the SGSN know which GGSN to direct you to? ............................................ 7
3.3 IP Version 6 .................................................................................................................... 7
4 GPRS Handset Classes .......................................................................................................... 8
4.1 Class A ........................................................................................................................... 8
4.2 Class B ........................................................................................................................... 8
4.3 Class C ........................................................................................................................... 8
5 GPRS QoS .............................................................................................................................. 9
5.1 Network Architecture ...................................................................................................... 9
5.2 Radio Interface ............................................................................................................... 9
5.3 Classes of GPRS services ............................................................................................. 9
6 Problems with GPRS............................................................................................................. 10
7 GPRS European Coverage ................................................................................................... 11
8 Contact Details ...................................................................................................................... 13
1 Introduction
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a packet based communication service for mobile
devices that allows data to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. GPRS is a
step towards 3G and is often referred to as 2.5G. Here are some key benefits of GPRS:

Speed
GPRS is packet switched. Higher connection speeds are attainable at around 56–118
kbps, a vast improvement on circuit switched networks of 9.6 kbps. By combining
standard GSM time slots theoretical speeds of 171.2 kbps are attainable. However in the
very short term, speeds of 20-50 kbps are more realistic.

Always on connectivity
GPRS is an always-on service. There is no need to dial up like you have to on a home PC
for instance. This feature is not unique to GPRS but is an important standard that will no
doubt be a key feature for migration to 3G. It makes services instantaneously available to
a device.

New and Better applications

Due to its high-speed connection and always-on connectivity GPRS enables full Internet
applications and services such as video conferencing straight to your desktop or mobile
device. Users are able to explore the Internet or their own corporate networks more
efficiently than they could when using GSM. There is often no need to redevelop existing
applications.

GSM operator Costs

GSM network providers do not have to start from scratch to deploy GPRS. GPRS is an
upgrade to the existing network that sits along side the GSM network. This makes it
easier to deploy, there is little or no downtime of the existing GSM network whilst
implementation takes place, most updates are software so they can be administered
remotely and it allows GSM providers to add value to their business at relatively small
costs.

The GSM network still provides voice and the GPRS network handles data, because of
this voice and data can be sent and received at the same time.
2 Simple GPRS Technical Overview

MSC
Telephony
PCU BSC Network
Base
HLR
Station
and
Tower

SGSN GGSN WWW

GTP

Corportate
LAN

As mentioned earlier GPRS is not a completely separate network to GSM. Many of the devices
such as the base transceiver stations and base transceiver station controllers are still used. Often
devices need to be upgraded be it software, hardware or both. When deploying GPRS many of
the software changes can be made remotely.

There are however two new functional elements which play a major role in how GPRS works.
The Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and the Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). These
2 nodes are new to the network with the other changes being small if any.

Before explaining what these 2 new members of our network do it is important to ask how does
the network differentiate between GSM (circuit) and GPRS (packet)?

In simple terms there are in practice two different networks working in parallel, GSM and GPRS.
In any GSM network there will be several BSC’s (Base Station Controllers). When implementing
GPRS a software and hardware upgrade of this unit is required. The hardware upgrade consists
of adding a Packet Control Unit (PCU). This extra piece of hardware differentiates data destined
for the standard GSM network or Circuit Switched Data and data destined for the GPRS network
or Packet Switched Data. In some cases a PCU can be a separate entity.

From the upgraded BSC there is a fast frame relay connection that connects directly to the newly
introduced SGSN.

2.1 SGSN
The Serving GPRS Support Node, or SGSN for short, takes care of some important tasks,
including routing, handover and IP address assignment.

The SGSN has a logical connection to the GPRS device. As an example, if you where in a car
travelling up the M1 on a long journey and were browsing the Internet on a GPRS device, you will
pass through many different cells. One job of the SGSN is to make sure the connection is not
interrupted as you make your journey passing from cell to cell. The SGSN works out which BSC
to “route” your connection through.

If the user moves into a segment of the network that is managed by a different SGSN it will
perform a handoff of to the new SGSN, this is done extremely quickly and generally the user will
not notice this has happened. Any packets that are lost during this process are retransmitted.
The SGSN converts mobile data into IP and is connected to the GGSN via a tunnelling protocol.

2.2 GGSN
The Gateway GPRS Support Node is the “last port of call” in the GPRS network before a
connection between an ISP or corporate network’s router occurs. The GGSN is basically a
gateway, router and firewall rolled into one. It also confirms user details with RADIUS servers for
security, which are usually situated in the IP network and outside of the GPRS network.

2.3 Connectivity Between the SGSN & GGSN

The connection between the two GPRS Support Nodes is made with a protocol called GPRS
Tunnelling Protocol (GTP). GTP sits on top of TCP/IP and is also responsible for the collection of
mediation and billing information. GPRS is billed on per megabyte basis unlike GSM. In practice
the two GSN devices may be a single unit.

2.4 HLR
The HLR or Home Location Register is a database that contains subscriber information, when a
device connects to the network their MSISDN number is associated with services, account status
information, preferences and sometimes IP addresses.
3 IP addressing
3.1 Allocating Addresses
There are 3 different ways in which a device can be assigned an IP address.

Fixed IP addressing:
Fixed IP addresses for mobile devices are not widely used due to shortages of Ipv4
addresses (see below). This information is stored in the HLR.

HLR

BSC SGSN

Base
GPRS device Station
and
Tower

Dynamic IP addressing:
The second means of addressing is dynamic addressing. This is where a mobile device
does not have its own IP address stored in the HLR. Instead the IP address is assigned
to the GGSN domain.

The third method is also a type of dynamic IP addressing in which the IP address is
assigned by RADIUS servers normally situated inside an IP network outside the mobile
network, an example of this being when you dial up to an ISP from your home PC.

HLR

BSC SGSN GGSN ISP

Base
GPRS device Station RADIUS
and SERVER
Tower

Corportate
LAN
3.2 How Does the SGSN know which GGSN to direct you to?
A mobile device is programmed with one or more Access Point Names which are commonly
referred to as the APN’s. An APN consists of a fully qualified DNS name e.g. morgandoyle.co.uk.
When a GPRS device wants to talk to morgandoyle.co.uk’s network, the SGSN does a DNS
lookup and resolves the name to the correct GGSN. You could have multiple APN’s programmed
into your phone so you are not limited to a single service or GGSN.

3.3 IP Version 6
This new version of IP corrects unanticipated Ipv4 design issues that have come about because
of the popularity of the Internet. In short we are running out of addresses.

IP version 4 is a 32-bit address that allows a maximum of around 4 billion IP addresses. It is

estimated that by 2005 all the addresses in IP 4 will run out. Some say this will happen sooner -
introduce millions of handheld devices all requiring IP addresses and suddenly there are none left.

To truly enable the Internet to such devices there has to be more addresses. This is where IP
version 6 comes in. Instead of a 32-bit address, IP6 is 128 bit with a maximum number of:

340,232,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

possible IP addresses. This amount of address space is ample for future foreseeable growth.

At the moment there are around 1 billion addresses left for IP v 4 but many manufacturers of
mobile devices especially in Asia are involving themselves heavily in IP v 6. This is mainly due to
places like Japan having a fraction of the addresses allocated in comparison with other places like
America.
4 GPRS Handset Classes
GPRS devices are not as straightforward as you may think. There are in fact 3 different classes
of device.

4.1 Class A
Class A terminals have 2 transceivers which allow them to send / receive data and voice at the
same time. This class of device takes full advantage of GPRS and GSM. You can be taking a
call and receiving data all at the same time.

4.2 Class B
Class B devices can send / receive data or voice but not both at the same time. Generally if you
are using GPRS and you receive a voice call you will get an option to answer the call or carry on.

4.3 Class C
This device only allows one means of connectivity. An example would be a GPRS PCMCIA card
in a laptop.
5 GPRS QoS
Just because GPRS uses many of the components of a standard GSM network it would be
foolhardy to assume that the same standards should apply. Things to be taken into account
include provider general network architecture, radio interface and throughput. Here are some of
the key elements briefly explained.

5.1 Network Architecture

Provider networks have to be upgraded. As mentioned earlier the GSN’s are new to the standard
GSM network. If GPRS is to stand-up to customer expectations network performance will be vital.

5.2 Radio Interface

The ETSI (European Telecommunications Standard Institute) has defined 3 new coding schemes
for Radio Interface. When the GPRS device talks to the base station they can use 1 of the 4
schemes. The schemes are CS – 1 through CS – 3 where CS – 1 is the same as standard GSM.
In simple terms CS – 1 is highly redundant but because of this is slow, 2 and 3 have less
redundancy, whilst 4 has the least - removing all forward error control - but is capable of
maximum throughput. If radio quality is bad then coding scheme 1 is used, as the quality
improves less error control is needed.

5.3 Classes of GPRS services

Mobile devices can request different types of traffic to be prioritised in an attempt to give the user
their desired level of connectivity. There are 4 types of class:

Precedence Class
An application can be assigned a Precedence Class 1, 2 or 3. If an application has a
higher precedence (1) than another (3) then its traffic will be given a higher priority.

Delay Class
Applications can request predictive delay classes which guarantee an average and 95-
percentile delay. There are 4 classes, 1 being the fastest.

Reliability class
Applications can request differing levels of reliability for its data depending on its
tolerance to data loss.

Throughput Class
Applications can choose different profiles for throughput. There are 2 distinctions in
class, peak and mean. Peak throughput class is used mainly for bursty transmissions
with a variable in octets per second describing the throughput required for burst of
specified size. Mean is the average data transfer rate over a period of time measured in
octets per hour.

Other factors can affect QoS. Things like Radio quality, basic LAN / WAN and Internet
congestion, faults on GSM and GPRS network’ etc.
6 Problems with GPRS
Although GPRS has many benefits there have been a few problems. Connection speeds until the
end of last year performed badly on some networks running at around 12Kbps, a far cry from the
expected. This year however there do not seem to be as many problems, probably due to the fact
that operators are improving due to trial and error. GPRS is after all a pretty new technology.

Another problem sometimes encountered is customer expectation. Many companies have

applications running on a 10 megabyte LAN and expect the same performance from their GPRS
devices. Although the connection speeds these days are pretty good it still is not as fast as ISDN
or Local Area Networks. To a certain extent operators have themselves to blame for this, since in
the past their marketing has tended to promote the speed aspects of 2.5 and 3G. Today, they are
working hard to reduce expectation in this respect.

Earlier problems with things like mail servers not sending mail because of latency problems to
GPRS devices have all been pretty much eradicated through optimisation programs. People
running Citrix Thin Client have also encountered problems with latency although a few Thin Client
forums suggest that Citrix are addressing the issue.

Deployment on some networks has been slow. There still is a major UK network provider who
does not offer the service.

GPRS roaming has not been implemented in many countries on a lot of networks as yet. This is
where a user can use the GPRS service from any network operator. At the moment although your
GSM mobile will work, GPRS may not work at all. Accesses by third party application providers
are having a lot of difficulty obtaining an APN from providers to offer their own GPRS services.
This somewhat limits services to that provided by the GPRS operator.
7 GPRS European Coverage
This table shows when countries and networks are planning to deploy GPRS.

Country Operator Launch Network Supplier

Aus Maxmobil Apr 6 2001 Siemens
Aus Mobilkom Aug 2 2000 Motorola-Cisco, Nortel
Aus Connect Austria Feb 26 2001 Nokia
Aus Tele.ring Jan 18 2001 Alcatel
Bel Belgacom Mobile Jul 5 2001 Nokia
Bel Mobistar Mar 1 2001 Noia, Nortel
Bel KPN Orange Q1 2002 Ericsson
Den Orange Jan 2001 Nokia
Den Sonofon Dec 5 2000 Nokia
Den Tele Danmark Mobil Jan 24 2001 Ericsson, Nokia
Den Telia Feb 2002 Ericsson
Fin Radiolinja Sept 26 2001 Nokia
Fin Sonera Nov 29 2000 Ericsson, Nokia
Fin Telia Oct 1 2001 Nokia
Fra Bouygues Telecom Q1 2002 Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Nortel
Fra Orange Q1 2002 Alcatel, Ericsson, Mot-Cisco, Nortel
Fra SFR Jun 15 2001 Alcatel, Nokia, Siemens
Ger E-Plus Mar 22 2001 Nokia
Ger Mannesmann Jan 28 2001 Ericsson, Siemens
Ger T-Mobil Jun 25 2000 Alcatel, Lucent, Motorola-Cisco
Ger Viag Interkom Jan 24 2001 Nokia, Nortel
Gre Cosmote Jan 18 2001 Nokia
Gre Panafon Mar 23 2001 Ericsson
Gre Stet Hellas Jul 3 2001 Ericsson
Ita Blu Dec 11 2000 Nokia, Nortel
Ita Omnitel Nov 24 2000 Nokia
Ita TIM Oct 5 2000 Ericsson, Siemens
Ita Wind Nov 2000 Alcatel, Ericsson, Siemens
Neth Ben Dec 3 2001 Nokia
Neth Dutchtone Q2/Q3 2002 Nokia, Nortel
Neth KPN Mobile Dec 11 2000 Nokia
Neth Libertel Apr 19 2001 Cisco, Ericsson
Neth Telfort Mar 30 2001 Ericsson
Nor Netcom Jan 31 2001 Nokia, Siemens
Nor Telenor Mobil Feb 1 2001 Ericsson, Nokia
Por Optimus Jul 9 2001 Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia
Por Telecel Apr 10 2001 Ericsson
Por TMN Nov 8 2000 Alcatel
Spa Airtel Nov 23 2001 Ericsson, Siemens
Spa Amena Jul 26 2001 Ericsson
Spa Telefonica Moviles Jan 15 2001 Motorola-Cisco, Nokia, Nortel
Swe Europolitan Dec 1 2000 Nokia
Swe Tele2 Oct 9 2001 Motorola-Cisco, Siemens
Swe Telia Sept 11 2001 Ericsson
Swit Diax Sept 29 2000 Nokia
Swit Orange Communications Sept 13 2001 Nokia
Swit Swiiscom Feb 1 2002 Ericsson
UK BT Cellnet Jun 22 2000 Motorola-Cisco
UK One2One Q1 2002 Ericsson, Nortel
UK Orange Q2 2002 Ericsson
UK Vodafone Apr 2 2001 Ericsson
8 Contact Details

For further information or advice contact MorganDoyle Limited:

Tel: 07736 609469

E-mail mailto:info@morgandoyle.co.uk
Web: http://www.morgandoyle.co.uk/

15 Devon Street,
Bury,
BL9 9BN,
UK