Performance of a multi-service GSM/GPRS-capable network under various loading conditions

The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of the air-interface of a GPRS-capable network, under various loading conditions and various data services, taking into account environmental conditions, user behavior, services QoS requirements (i.e., data session dropping and blocking probabilities, required slots for data transfer). For this reason, a GSM/GPRS simulation platform has been developed which takes into account both, environmental (e.g., propagation conditions, service characteristics) and network configuration aspects (network elements, interconnections, element capabilities, etc.). Results have shown that in general, the maximum load of a certain service that the system can withstand, depends on the circuit-switched traffic load, the specific service's characteristics (e.g., requested slots in uplink and downlink) and the characteristics of the data services that coexist.