EDGE and UMTS at the exhibition "Transport and communications capital,"

September 3 BeeLine demonstrated at the exhibition of technology high speed data transmission: an upgraded GPRS systems for generation 2 + (also known as EGPRS, it is also EDGE) and a fragment of the third generation UMTS. Something radically new and hitherto unseen demonstrated was not, however, complain, too, no: It was recalled soon start commercial operation EDGE and showed once again the work of EDGE and UMTS networks in action.

Generation Next

Fragment of a network of third-generation UMTS worked at the base station Alcatel, videos rotated on the phone display smoothly and with very decent quality. Video telephony also worked fine, the image is not twitching. Questioned the reliability of such video voice connection in the deteriorating quality of reception and data transmission rate. It turns out, the bandwidth allocated to a data channel changes dynamically (in steps), depending on reception conditions and the priority is still for voice. Ie even in conditions of sharply deteriorating reception will be gone "picture", and his voice will be transmitted.

EDGE - "bridge" between the generations

Will look like (and looks), the deployment of next generation networks? The ideal scenario - the new operators and building new networks - 90% of cases seems a distant dream: very few people can afford to spend billions of dollars to build, and then slowly and painfully to entice subscribers from existing operators. Looks realistic evolutionary way of development of existing networks for GSM. It is assumed that the existing operators will begin deploying third-generation networks with the central parts of major cities, gradually expanding the coverage, and new third-generation phones at the exit from the 3G will be automatically "hang" for a classic network GSM. In the traditional GSM network it is desirable to provide at least a decent (by the standards of 3G) data transfer rate, as otherwise calculated on the new 3G applications will not be able to function at all. Using new technologies - in particular, technologies EDGE - allows you to start designing and implementing new third generation services today. The operators do not have to rebuild the topology of the network or buy extra license "issue price" - some hardware upgrades and network software.

Testing of EDGE technology VimpelCom successfully completed in August, and on different portions of the federal network was tested equipment from different vendors: Ericsson in Yekaterinburg, Alcatel and Nokia in Moscow in Voronezh. Maximum speed (116 kbit / s) was reached at the terminal, the Nokia 6220. The figure is impressive, but let us look at things soberly: even in ideal conditions, the data rate is not too high, and when real operating in quite a busy network, God forbid, if EDGE is to pump data from at least two to three times quicker and smarter than a good analog modem .

So how much faster?

Technology EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution - Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) in the case of GSM makes use of existing network equipment, while upgrading GPRS system in most cases is still needed. The principal difference between "update» GPRS (EGPRS) - ability to offer multimedia services in real time, for example - a mobile video-conferencing. With regard to already familiar services (wireless Internet connection), here users especially appreciate the greatly increased speed. EDGE system is not a separate entity, but a modernized version of the packet data network GPRS. System with support for packet EDGE (variant names - EGPRS) use new coding and modulation scheme, which allows much more efficient (compared with the networks GPRS) utilize the available bandwidth. EDGE technology provides many other improvements - for example, the retransmission packet to another encoding scheme. Reception conditions for moving the unit is constantly changing, the encoding scheme is selected, including and based on data on the conditions of reception. In the GPRS system in the event nepriema / receive errors packet is retransmitted in the same encoding scheme, an adaptive mechanism EDGE allows you to change the encoding scheme nonlifted package, improving the reliability of data transmission. At the same time increases and the rate of transmission, as no longer required to lay the excess reliability in the selection of the coding scheme. Theoretically, when using EDGE technology with the operator the option to choose: to use for voice traffic of the vacated time slot (to increase the voice capacity of the network with the same traffic data) or significantly (three times) increase the speed of the packet.

Change the handset will not have to

We all remember the recent times, when for the sake of familiarizing with GPRS, many changed their handset to a more modern with the support of packet data. With EDGE this should not happen, because just for the sake of accelerating access to significant additional costs will go relatively few technologically "advanced" enthusiasts. However, the pace of renovation of terminals are constantly growing, and EDGE support is already in the very foreseeable future it will be in most new vehicles. In terms of subscriber EDGE is an absolute boon - the introduction of this technology will not affect the performance has already purchased and connected to networks GPRS-tubes, and wishing to take advantage of high speed data transmission can do it without any problems. From an operator perspective, EDGE - extra costs and extra "headache", but a necessary step to ensure that at least the relative compatibility of the existing GSM network with the future "hot spots" systems-generation 3G.