Performance enhancements for the GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network

The GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN) denotes the common evolution of GSM, TDMA/136 and EDGE towards providing full third generation services and is currently being standardized in ETSI. In its first phase, EDGE provides high data rates for non-real-time services using high level modulation. In the second phase of the standardization, EDGE will provide real-time services over an all-IP core network. Also, performance enhancements will increase the capacity far beyond that of current second generation systems. This paper describes a number of such performance enhancements that can be implemented based on different versions of the GERAN standard.