Talk:General Packet Radio Service/Archive 1

Untitled
I've moved this from General packet radio service, to General Packet Radio Service, to be consistent with the naming from the standards body and what is widely accepted in the industry and the media. See EDGE and GSM for consistency. Fuzheado 11:27, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

External Link for consideration

 * GPRS Discussion Forum - Experts opinion

"Moderate" speed data transfer?
"...It provides moderate speed data transfer..."

If GPRS gives you moderate speed, then what is "low" speed? :)


 * I guess, an ordinary GSM CSD is a bit slower. Analog GSM dialup must be much slower. --Yyy 12:39, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Voice over GPRS? Why is GPRS so expensive?
CAN VOICE TRAVEL BY USING GPRS INTERNET ?

I MEAN TO SAY THAT CAN PC TO PC VOICE CALLS OR VOICE CHAT BE POSSIBLE ? HOW ?

I USE NOKIA 6270 AND AIRTEL GPRS SERVICE, INDIA.


 * Yes. Some advanced cell phone communicators and PDAs support Skype and other VoIP software. However, in my country (Sweden) the cost would be more expensive with GPRS than circuit switched communication. If the IP telephony software can utilize that we normally are silent 60% of the time it would be slightly cheaper. I.m.o., the only reason to have VoIP in a cell phone today is to utilize free access to Internet via WLAN or Bluetooth.


 * In theory, I think GPRS should be cheaper than circuit switching, because it is using free capacity. No spare capacity is necessary to avoid blocking, since no QoS guarantees are given. But the price is not only affected by the price, but also by market demand. Most users don't care about the GPRS price when they choose operators. Perhaps the high GPRS price is also caused by that the network providers had to invest in new GSM base station equipment a few years ago to make HSCSD and GPRS possible.


 * In a few years, VoIP might be standard in cellular phones. All-IP based infrastructure was suggested in early 3G discussions, but since telephony was expected to be the dominant service for several years, and the companies wanted to reuse GSM infrastructure, 3G today is based on circuit switched infrastructure in parallel with packet radio nodes, just like GSM/GPRS. 3.5G and 3.75G are optimized for packet data communication. Then perhaps the pricing can be changed, and VoIP can become a realistic option.


 * Mange01 13:08, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Current usage
Could we get a list of current cell phone carriers that use GPRS? Mathiastck 21:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Slang
I give up. What does "milk-mac" mean? Maybe this doesn't conform to a global perspective.
 * I removed that.Mange01 23:39, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Questions
I wonder:

1. Should GPRS also be described as a 3G/UMTS service? GPRS nodes are used in at least UMTS, perhaps other 3G systems as well, and it is nowadays standardized by 3GPP.

- Yes. It is a service of 3G networks as well.

2. Are the data rates mentioned in this article gross bitrates (raw bitrates) rather than net bit rate? I though the net bit rate was betwenn 9,100 and 13,200 bit/s per time slot. I suggest that the net bit rate should be used.

- Net bitrate varies based on radio conditions and retransmissions etc. Not reasonable

3. Does GPRS use PPP over the air interface (IP_over-PPP-over-GPRS), or is PPP only used over the serial connection between the computer and the cell phone?

- Both. PPP can be used over the air if so desired and offered by the provider (none apparently do). In practise it's PPP to phone, IPv4 over GPRS/4G after that.

4. What protocol overhead am I billed for? At what "reference point" in the protocol stack is the throughput measured? Am I billed for PPP overhead? GPRS frame overhead? ARQ retransmissions? Slotted aloha reservation requests, perhaps with retransmissions? Roaming signalling?

- None. Payload is measured.

5. Does GPRS have roaming but no handover? In that case, is a large file transfer interrupted due to mobility? Please explain these terms in GPRS context.

- GPRS has both. No interruprions when moving from one cell, BSC or even SGSN to another.

6. Could someone please add details on the scheduling/MAC algorithm. I have not found any good source.

Mange01 23:39, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Dual Transfer Mode and Class A GPRS
I wonder if those two are the same thing.

Since the day that GPRS was invented there were three GPRS classes. Class A (simulatenous data and voice), Class B (data and voice, but not simulatenously) and Class C (data or voice). I also try to maintain the list of Class A GPRS phones. But now i'm bit confused with the "Dual Transfer Mode" (DTM) what some manufacturers mention. Is that a fancy name for Class A GPRS or is it completely different technology? Caus' if it's the latter then i need to rename my list to "List of phones capable of Dual Transfer Mode" or something like that, to keep it relevant.

Ideas, anyone? Robert 13:33, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

- They are not the same thing. DTM though in practise is needed as it is the only way to guarantee that timeslot allocations don't conflict with each other in CS and PS sides. This is important since the terminals are usually half duplex. That means that the uplink and downlink timeslots cannot overlap. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.230.65.2 (talk) 14:12, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Terminology question (time period)
In the "GPRS in practice" section, GPRS' heyday is referred to as "the mid 2000's". That seems like it refers to the time around the year 2050 in the same way that "the mid-1900s" refers to a time near 1950. Since that can't be a valid conclusion, that phrase should be either removed or clarified by someone who knows its author's intent.

New GPRS/EGPRS Class 32
it seems that exist new GPRS class 32


 * 1) Dual Transfer Mode (DTM) support for simultaneous voice and packet data connection in GSM/EDGE networks. Simple class A, multi slot class 11, max speed DL/UL: 118.4/118.4 kbits/s
 * 2) EGPRS class B, multi slot class 32, (5 Rx + 3 Tx / Max Sum 6 ), max speed DL/UL= 296 / 177.6 kbits/s.
 * 3) GPRS class B, multi slot class 32 (5 Rx + 3 Tx / Max Sum 6), max speed DL/UL= 107 / 64.2 kbits/s. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tex23 (talk • contribs) 10:56, 23 March 2007 (UTC).


 * Link

[http://web.nseries.com/nseries/v3/media/sections/products/tech_specs/en-R1/tech_specs_n76_en_R1.html Nokia N76 Technical Specifications]

--Tex 13:43, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Ambiguous multislot classes in equipment specifications?
A number of device specifications (such as GPRS modems) mention some "GPRS multi-slot class 10/8". From this article, it seems that there is either a class 10 or a class 8, any ideas what that may mean? I also think that it could be useful to explain these slashed classes in the main article.

80.82.80.242 06:29, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

It is a bit confusing. As you can see multislot 10 is a 4:2:5 DL:UL:Sum so although it can support 4 DL or 2 UL is can't do both at once since they must sum to 5. You have to choose between 4 1 and 3 2. Which is what class 9 and 8 are. So technically the device IS class 10, but they give you the option to choose a combo by calling it class 8 (4 1) or class 10 (3 2). Oddly, the one labeled class 8 will probably be quicker for you as web traffic is mainly DL. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.90.152.89 (talk) 15:33, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

GPRS Billing
The article header states that "GPRS data transfer is typically charged per megabyte of transferred data," while in the Basics section, billing is cited "per kilobyte." Which is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.183.63.33 (talk) 14:44, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear ChrisUK, could you please elaborate a bit more reasonable explanation for destroying my true contribution on subject of billing? The text before my edit simply is not true, and after your 'revert' it is not true again. I know my English is not perfect, but that should be no excuse for deleting the information. Seikku Kaita (talk) 21:39, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I corrected the english in the contribution but did not substantially change the meaning (I don't think). I agree that the text before your change was untrue and the main thrust of your contribution was to highlight that data can be charged in different ways, e.g. bundles, per Mb etc which contrasts with circuit switch data that is usually per second.  What is written in the article at the moment is correct as far as I can see.  My suggestion is that if you want to expand more details on billing then start a new section - the opening paragraphs should just be a summary.  It's great to have non-native english speaking editors on wikipedia, but please don't be offended if the english in your contribution gets edited to read more naturally. ChrisUK (talk) 21:17, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

GPRS is used in 3G/UMTS networks - GPRS is not exclusive to GSM
When was this standardised? When did it become widely availible? Plugwash (talk) 09:53, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

GPRS tracking
This question maybe sounds odd, but I've heard of somebody who tracked another person's mobile phone by using it's GPRS signals. This is likely false, or it could be done with some (illegal) device? --Rev L. Snowfox (talk) 18:08, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Layering
This article needs a section on Radio Link Control (RLC) sub layer of the data link layer, and other layering issues. Or RLC deserves a separate article. Mange01 (talk) 13:30, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Can't Understand
Article containts technical terms which are too hard to be understand by an individual. PLEASE SIMPLIFIE IT.

Coercorash (talk) 18:35, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

Completely concur. The article fails to mention in the first few sentences what and why GPRS does in layman's terms. The article assumes that the reader has some understanding of the subject.

195.69.214.12 (talk) 22:43, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Protocols supported?
I couldn't figure what is meant by this section. Is it saying that GPRS can work in 3 modes? Does it say that a device uses a PPP to connect to a GPRS network?

I just obtained the GPRS spec from 3gpp.org, and it does NOT say anything about PPP or PPTP in the protocol.

Also in the talk page it is said that PPP is used to connect a computer to a GPRS modem. These all led me to wonder what is meant by the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.162.197.61 (talk) 12:32, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Original 3GPP Spec (R97/98) has user's network layer support for IPv4, IPv6, PPP and X.25. From R99, X.25 was removed. PPP is in the specification (See spec 23.060, Release 8, chapter 5.6.2: "PDCP provides protocol transparency for higher-layer protocols. PDCP supports e.g. IPv4, PPP and IPv6", but no vendor supports it as it is not really needed since the main benefir of PPP would have been multiprotocol support. Since all services are in practice IPv4 based, PPP is not implemented.

PPP is however used in two places: 1) Between the mobile and user's terminal (laptop) and b) between the mobile and the GGSN for additional authentication purposes if the user is to be authenticated against an external source (for example corporate RADIUS server) before being granted access. Nasula (talk) 16:46, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Validation, introduction and roll-out dates missing
This article doesn't appear to include any historical information on the technology, such as when it was validated, introduced and when it was deployed. David Bailey (talk) 10:58, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Wreck of an article
This article is terrible. It is full of extremely technical items, lack of any detailed history, corporate marketing speak from some company's products, and it has slang and terrible sourcing. "According to a Google search..." is not a source... Someone needs to scrap this article and rewrite it from scratch. 107.4.58.162 (talk) 03:03, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Source tag removed
8 years on there are many sources that were not there in 2007. I removed the outdated source tag. Sinbad Barron (talk) 11:51, 17 November 2015 (UTC)