Full-rate speech quality on half-rate performance comparison of GMSK and 8-PSK modulated AMR-NB codec modes in GERAN mobile radio networks

Growing traffic load in today's wireless networks brings up new challenges with respect to capacity. Simultaneously the demands for high quality voice services are rising. AMR half-rate in 8-PSK modulation combines both aspects and provides doubling the GERAN capacity just at a slight degradation of the perceived speech quality. A detailed performance study of 8-PSK modulated AMR half-rate codec modes is presented based on network planning studies and profound system level simulations. In addition a performance comparison to GMSK modulated AMR half-rate and full-rate codec modes has been provided. This analysis is focused on speech quality, coverage and capacity by AMR-NB in GERAN networks applying different frequency re-use patterns ranging from relaxed 4times3 to tight 1times1. The trade-off between quality and capacity has been demonstrated as well as the gain provided by 8-PSK modulated AMR half-rate. Network configurations offering full-rate quality by the allocation of half-rate channels have been identified. The capacity gain can be used to serve additional subscribers and/or to increase the quality and capacity of GPRS/EDGE data services