What is GPRS and How Does it Work?

In this tutorial, we are going to see What is GPRS and how does it work?

The GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) standard is an evolution of the GSM standard, which is sometimes called GSM++ (or GMS 2+). As it is a second-generation telephony standard allowing the transition to the third generation (3G), it is generally referred to as 2.5G to classify the GPRS standard.

GPRS extends the architecture of the GSM standard, to allow the transfer of data by packets, with maximum theoretical speeds of 171.2 kbit/s (in practice up to 114 kbit/s). Thanks to the packet transfer mode, data transmissions only use the network when necessary. The GPRS standard, therefore, allows the user to be charged by the volume exchanged rather than by the duration of the connection, so the user can stay connected without additional cost.
 

 
Thus, the GPRS standard uses the GSM network architecture for the transport of voice and offers access to data networks (especially the Internet) using the IP protocol or the X.25 protocol.
 

^{Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geolocalisation_GPS_GPRS.png}
 
GPRS provides new features that were not possible with the GSM standard, generally categorized by the following classes of services:

• Point to point services (PTP), which means the ability to connect in client-server mode to a machine in an IP network,
• Point to multipoint services (PTMP), the ability to send a packet to a group of recipients (Multicast).
• Short message services (SMS)

 

 

GPRS network architecture

The integration of GPRS in a GSM architecture requires the addition of new network nodes called GSN (GPRS support nodes) located on a backbone network:

• the SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node), a router that manages the coordinates of the terminals in the area and provides the packet transit interface with the GGSN gateway.
• the GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node), a gateway interfacing with other data networks (Internet). The GGSN is in charge of providing an IP address to the mobile terminals during the whole connection.

 

Quality of Service:

GPRS integrates the concept of Quality of Service (QoS), which means the ability to adapt the service to the needs of an application. The QoS criteria are the following:

• Priority
• Reliability
• Delay
• Throughput

 
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