Novel GPRS simulator for testing MAC protocols

A simple, effective model of a GPRS/GSM cell is developed that can give a clear insight into the behaviour of MAC layer scheduling algorithms for a definable cohort of users. Users are defined in terms of their QoS class, their mobility characteristics and their traffic characteristics. The channel model is a C/I statistical model that has a variable mean value that is generated from a two state Markov model for each user. As an example, a weighted round robin scheduling algorithm is analysed within this simulated environment to predict its effect on traffic flow and user perceived network performance. Results presented show that the scheduling algorithm can simply and effectively implement QoS differentiation and reduce the perceived delay for real time streaming users, thereby improving the user perceived performance of the network.