Introducing 3rd generation mobile communication services on evolved GSM platforms

Today, with IMT 2000 and UMTS the global standards for 3rd generation mobile services have been created, field trials have been started, and network installations are currently being prepared. In parallel, nearly unnoticed by the public, the evolution of 2nd generation networks proceeds, enabling the support of 3rd generation services on the existing infrastructure. Therefore, we suggest to consider an evolved GSM platform to complement the transition to 3rd generation mobile systems. In this paper the development path of GSM from 2nd to 3rd generation will be sketched, and an extensive treatment of E-GPRS, the next GSM stage to be introduced, will be given. This includes a system overview and a simulation-based performance analysis showing the ability of GSM to provide 3rd generation services as well.