GPRS network there are four coding schemes:Channel Coding Scheme Pre-cod.

USF Infobits without USF Parity bits BC Tail bits Output conv encoder Punctured bits Code rate Data rate kbit/s Maximum data speed with 8 time-slots CS-1 3 181 40 4 456 0 1/2 9.05 72.4 kb/s CS-2 6 268 16 4 588 132 ~2/3 13.4 107.2 kb/s CS-3 6 312 16 4 676 220 ~3/4 15.6 124.8 kb/s CS-4 12 428 16 456 1 21.4 171.2 kb/s

The choice of coding scheme depends on the condition of the channel provided by the cellular network (quality of the radio link between cell phone and base station). If the channel is very noisy, the network may use CS-1 to ensure higher reliability; in this case the data transfer rate is only 9.05 kbit/s per GSM time slot used. If the channel is providing a good condition, the network could use CS-3 or CS-4 to obtain optimum speed, and would then have up to 21.4 kbit/s per GSM time slot.

GPRS
GPRS or General Packet Radio Service is a packet switched technology, based on GSM. The radio and network resources of GPRS are only accessed when data actually needs to be transmitted between the GPRS mobile user and the GPRS network. This data is divided into packets and is then transferred via the radio and core GPRS network. Between alternating transmissions, no GPRS network resources need to be allocated. GPRS offers up to 115 kbps, depending on the network availability, channel coding scheme and terminal capability. This increase in speed in GPRS with respect to GSM is achieved by using more than one timeslot of the TDMA frame. Due to the packet switched characteristics of GPRS the allocation of the available timeslots may vary from one instant to the next (e.g. it may have 8 timeslots at one time and 4 later on).

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a new value added service that allows information to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. It supplements today's Circuit wireless Switched Data and Short Message Service. Timeslot building requires new functionality on the mobile side. GPRS needs a Serving GPRS support node (SGSN), a Gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) and a charging gateway function to support packet switched transactions. The packet switched traffic is separated from the circuit switched traffic at the BSC/PCU and diverted to the GPRS core network. To support point-to-multipoint features, a point-to-multipoint Service Center (PTM-SC) needs also to be added. Depending on the environmental radio conditions, one of the four coding schemes (CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4) can be selected. CS1 and CS2 offer good error detection and correction with low throughput; in the first step of GPRS only these two techniques may be used. CS3 and CS4 provide higher throughputs but have little or no error correction capabilities. Table 1 shows the different data rates that can be achieved with the different coding techniques. Table 1. Data Rate for GPRS
User Data Rate 1 Timeslot 8 Timeslot CS1 9.05 kbps 72.4 kbps CS2 13.4 kbps 107.2 kbps CS3 15.6 kbps 124.8 kbps CS4 21.4 kbps 171.2 kbps

Because GPRS is packet switched traffic, new protocols and channel types are required. In GPRS the mobile device is permanently attached to the network, providing a virtual connection without cost and data transfer (GPRS-Attach). GPRS-Attach procedure is executed whenever a GPRS enabled mobile station is switched on and needs to inform the network about its presence. The two peers of a GPRS attach procedure are the mobile station (MS) and the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). Depending on the availability of the packet Common Control Channel (PCCCH), the GPRSAttach procedure may be executed on Circuit Common Control Channel (CCCCH). Figure 1 shows the GPRS system architecture, indicating new functionality required for phase2+ operation.

Figure 1. GPRS system architecture Configurations: Layer 1. Radio GPRS. This layer includes the following GSM phase2+ ETSI standards: ?GSM 05.02 Access & Multiple Multiplexing. ?GSM 05.03 Interleaving Code/Decoder Channel. ?GSM 05.04 Demodulator and Modulator. ?GSM 05.05 Receiver and Transmitter. ?GSM 05.10 Synchronization. Layer 1.Vocoders GPRS. This layer includes the following GSM phase2+ ETSI standards: ?GSM 06.10 Full rate speech transcoding. ?GSM 06.20 Half rate speech transcoding. ?GSM 06.60 Enhanced Full rate speech transcoding. ?GSM 06.90 Adaptive multi-rate speech transcoding. ?GSM 06.93 Discontinuous transmission for Adaptive Multi-rate. Layer 2 & 3 GSM phase 2+ ETSI standards: ?GSM 03.09 Hand-over. ?GSM 03.22 Link control. ?GSM 04.04 PROTOCOLS Layer 1. ?GSM 04.05 PROTOCOLS Layer 2. ?GSM 04.06 PROTOCOLS Layer 2. ?GSM 04.07 PROTOCOLS Layer 3. ?GSM 04.08 PROTOCOLS Layer 3. ?GSM 05.08 Power control. EGPRS (also call EDGE) is an enhanced version of GPRS, that uses a different modulation technique, 8 PSK, that has a spectral efficiency of 3 bits/s/Hz. GPRS uses GMSK, with a spectral efficiency of 1 bit/s/Hz. GPRS will provide an important boost to mobile data usage, because of its flexible feature set, its latency, efficiency and speed. The following text, in the links below, provides VOCAL datasheet as a source of background information about GPRS.