A Detailed Comparison of GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS Air Interfaces

This report provides a detailed comparison of the GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS air interfaces, exploring their properties, components, and evolution. It begins with an introduction to wireless technology and its advancements, highlighting the benefits of wireless networks. The report then delves into each technology, starting with GSM and its components like the Base Station System (BSS), Mobile Station (MS), Base Transceiver Station (BTS), and Mobile Switching Center (MSC), along with a discussion of its limitations such as lack of visibility, user anonymity protection, and DoS vulnerabilities. The report then explores GPRS, its advantages, and its role in the evolution of mobile networks, including its security features. EDGE is then analyzed, discussing its development, implementation, and underlying technology. Finally, the report examines UMTS, focusing on its user equipment and core network. The conclusion summarizes the key differences and advancements of each technology, offering a comprehensive overview of the evolution of mobile communication interfaces.

Running head: A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
A Detailed Comparison of the GSM,GPRS,EDGE and UMTS Air
Interfaces
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
Abstract
The purpose of this report is to identify and analyze the properties and components of GSM,
GPRS, EDGE and UMTS AIR interfaces. The GSM or global system of mobile
communication is a digital mobile telephony system that is widely used across the globe. It
makes use of different variation of Time division multiple access and is forms the base of
different telephony technologies such as TDMA, GSM and CDMA. The GPRS is another
standard technology that extends GSM with the support of data features. However, EDGE or
enhanced data GSM environment is the fastest version of the GSM. UMTS or universal
mobile telecommunication provides third generation or 3G broadband service. Therefore, the
interfaces of these systems have some unique characteristics, which are quite different from
each other. The report evaluates the different characteristics of their interfaces and draws a
comparison among them. The detailed comparison of the interfaces is elaborated in this
report.

2A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
GSM...............................................................................................................................3
Issues with GSM........................................................................................................6
Possible solutions.......................................................................................................7
GPRS..............................................................................................................................8
Issues with GPRS.......................................................................................................9
EDGE...........................................................................................................................11
Development of the EDGE......................................................................................13
Implementation of the EDGE...................................................................................13
Technology behind EDGE.......................................................................................14
UMTS...........................................................................................................................15
User Equipment (UE)...............................................................................................15
UMTS Core Network...............................................................................................16
Conclusion....................................................................................................................19
References....................................................................................................................19

3A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
Introduction
From its inception in the 1970’s the wireless technology has evolved at an
exponential rate till date. In the last few decades the number of users also have increased
throughout the world. The main reasons for which the wireless technology is popular in the
tele-communication sector are its efficiency, availability, flexibility and reduced amount of
cost (Stüber 2017). With the improved and advanced communication systems the wireless
technology leads to faster information transfer within the wireless networks. In addition to
that, the users do not have to carry the adapters or connecting cables in order to connect and
communicate with the other users in the Networks (Gupta and Jha 2015). Most of the
equipment’s required for setting up wireless networks comparatively cheaper to install as
well as maintain. Therefore, in long term the use of the wireless networks reduces the overall
the cost.
The GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), GPRS (General Packet
Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution), UMTS (Universal
Mobile Telecommunication System) are the different generations of which the
UMTS is the latest one. For every next generation listed above additional features are added
compared to the previous one. Due to this additional features to each generation the QoS
improved with every next generation.
GSM
The GSM is the abbreviation of Global System for Mobile Communications. GSM
gives mobile communication depending on the transmission of digital data which is
transmitted at the speed up to 9.6 kbps, notwithstanding the audio communication (Durkop,

4A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
Czybik and Jasperneite 2015). A large portion of the GSM benchmarks were outlined with
the interest of the service providers or the operators and to prevent the network abuse; the
obligation regarding the implementation of the features for the security of end user’s privacy
is designated to the service providers or the operators.
The GSM is helpful in providing high quality and secure portable voice as well as
data services. For example, fax and messaging services alongside the roaming abilities
throughout the world. As the GSM could initially give just a 9.6-Kbps data rate (Mulla et
al.2015). Henceforth the advancements were made to redesign 2G or the GSM systems
without supplanting the systems in order to address the poor transmission rates of these
systems.
The main components of the GSM networks are listed as,Base station system (BSS),
Base transceiver station (BTS), Mobile station (MS), Base station controller (BSC), Base
station subsystem (BSS),Authentication center (AuC), Mobile switching center (MSC),
Home location register (HLR), Visitor location register (VLR) (ElNashar, El-Saidny and
Sherif 2014).
MS (Mobile station): It is considered as the starting point for the network. Usually it
contains two subcomponents which are Mobile terminal and Terminal equipment (which may
be a computer or a PDA (Personal digital assistant)).
Base station controller: It is the controlling component of the entire radio network.
The BSC’s reserves the radio frequencies and controls the flow of data whenever a MS roams
in different network cells (Parvez et al.2017). Paging of the incoming calls or data is mainly
controlled by the BSC.

5A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
Base Transceiver Station: BTS or the Base Transceiver Station is responsible for
transmission of the radio signals sent by the mobile stations used by the users. The data is
transmitted with in some specific geographical regions which are called cells. This stations
incorporates radio signal processing equipment’s, amplifiers and antennas).
Base station subsystem: Any GSM network can comprise of several base station
subsystems. Each of these BSS’s are controlled by the Base station controllers. The BSS
plays out the essential functionalities for ensuring the radio connectivity with the mobile
stations (MS), signal rate adaptions, coding and decoding of the voice over the transmission
medium, coming from the remote mobile stations (Alonso, Alejos and Sánchez 2015).
Multiple BTS can be controlled under one Base Station Subsystem.
Mobile Switching Center: The MSC is an integrated services digital network switch
that helps in establishing the connection between the other MSC’s. A single MSC is capable
of connecting to multiple numbers BSC or Base station controllers.
Authentication Center: The AuC is s Related with the HLR. This is the database that
is important for verifications of the users; this database contains different algorithms for
verifying users or the subscribers and the vital keys for encryption of the transmitted data to
protect the inputs by the users required for authentication in the network (Miraz et al. 2017).
Visitor Location Register: The VLR or the Visitor Location Register is considered
as a distributed database that briefly stores data about the MS’s that are dynamic in the
geographic locations for which the VLR is mainly responsible (George et al. 2015). A VLR
is related with every MSC in a particular network. At the point when a newuser or subscriber
enters inside the particular network area or zone, the VLR is in charge of replicating user data
from the HLR to its nearby database.

6A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
This relationship between the VLR and HLR avoids the frequent update in the HLR
database. In addition to that it also avoids long distance motioning of the user data, enabling
speedier access to the required data.
Home Location Register: The HLR or the home location register is the database for
all clients to register to a particular GSM network. It stores static data about the users or the
subscribers, for example, the IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity), services, and a
key for the authentication of the users or the subscribers (Mahmood, Javaid and Razzaq
2015). The HLR additionally stores dynamic data (such as, present area of the user).
Any GSM network can easily route the data flow or the voice calls to the base station
for the appropriate MS. At the point when a user switches on their PDA or MS, it registers
with the system and from this it is conceivable to figure out which BTS it speaks with so
approaching calls can be routed appropriately (Tadayoni, Henten and Sørensen 2017).
Notwithstanding this scenario, when the MS of the user is not active it re-establishes
intermittently to guarantee that the system (HLR) knows about its most recent position. There
is one HLR available for every network, in spite of the fact that it might be circulated
crosswise over different sub stations for operational reasons.
Issues with GSM
lack of visibility: The process of ciphering of the transmitted data is controlled by the
BTS. The subscribers or the users are not informed or cautioned when the ciphering mode is
not active (Miraz et al. 2017). A BTS can likewise deactivate the mode and enforces the MS
to transmit the data without any encryption.
Lack of protection for user anonymity: whenever a user/subscriber enters a
network at a certain geographical location for the first time and at the time the mappingg

7A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
table between the users Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity(TMSI) and International
mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) isnot available, then the network explicitly request for to
proclaim the IMSI (Sauter 2014). This can be abused to come up short the user’s obscurity
and can be achieved by sending an IDENTITY REQUEST command from a false BTS to the
MS.
DoS attack vulnerability: due to the lack of security measures it is possible for single
DoS attacker to exploit a complete network.The attacker can send the CHANNEL REQUEST
command to BSC for a few times however while does not finishing the protocol, the attacker
again demands another channel. Since the number of channels is restricted, this prompts a
DoS attacks (Chen et al. 2014). It is considered as a feasible way to attack the network since
the call setup protocol completes the resources allocation process without any authentication
process.
Lack of integrity checks: In spite of the fact, that architecture ofGSM keeps in mind
the securityaspects (such as confidentiality of the transmitted data as well as authentication of
the different requests), but there is no mechanism in place for checking the integrity of the
transmitted or received data at the receiving end.
Increased redundancy: The FEC or the Forward Error Correcting mechanism is
performed prior to the ciphering of the transmitted data (Miraz et al. 2015). Therefore, it is
evident that there is a redundant process that is responsible for increasing the vulnerabilities
of cryptographic algorithms used for ciphering of the data.
Possible solutions
For most of the security vulnerabilities the easiest and best security arrangement is to
implement the end- to-end security mechanism or implementing the security mechanisms at
the application layer of the network. A larger part of the security vulnerabilities related to the

8A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
GSM (except the DoS attacks and SIM cloning) are not intended to affect the individual
customers or individuals, and their objectives are generally limited to unique group of
people(Medudula, Sagar and Gandhi 2016). Therefore, it is sensible and practical that such
groups make their communication channel more secure by utilizing the end -to-end security.
As the encryption and security mechanisms are implemented at the end points, thus
any change to the GSM network architecture would not be required. Along these lines,
regardless of whether the communication channel is eavesdropped by attackers or any legal
authorities, they would not be able to decrypt the transmitted information without having the
actual cipher key used by the communicating parties (given that secure cryptographic
algorithm is in place) (Kaur 2016).
GPRS
GPRS reuses the existing infrastructures used for GSM in order to provide end-to-end
packet switching services. Advantages of GPRS incorporates efficient usage of the resources
of the existing GSM network infrastructure, quick set-up as well as access time and high data
transmission rates compared to the GSM by utilizing multiple time slots for data transmission
(Pavithra and Srinath 2014). GPRS also provides a smooth way to GSM advancement to the
third generation mobile network evolution. Particularly it can be said that, third
generationmobile networks are still utilizing the GPRS IP as their backbone.
On the contrary of GSM, GPRS gives a more efficient security function. GPRS is
responsible for the validation of the service requests andauthentication. This in turn helps in
the unauthorized usage of the services (Mehmood et al. 2017). User data confidentiality is
likewise ensured utilizing the temporary identification while establishing connections inside a

9A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
network using the GPRS interface. In GPRS, the client data is secured by using the cipher
technique from any unauthorized access.
In wireless telecommunication GPRS emerged as one of the noteworthy
improvement in the GSM standard. The GPRS benefits the user from the data packet
switching technique toprovide the high data transfer rates that are required for bulky
transmissions of the data packets (Gupta and Garg 2015). It is conceivable for users to utilize
multiple time slots or data transmission channels all the at the same time.
MMS (Multimedia Messaging System) is the distinguishing feature of GPRS that
makes it better from its predecessor GSM. GPRS allowed users to sendpictures, videos,
sound clips or other multimedia files to the other users similar to the text messages in GSM.
Using the GPRS also helped the users to use their mobile handset to surf the web or
Internet at the speed of dial-up connections (Al-Sultan et al. 2014). This speed is achieved
through WAP enabled websites. Compared to the GSM, GPRS offered higher data transfer
rate whichis Up to 171kb/s in the ideal situations while using the packet-linked technology
over the architecture of GSM.
Issues with GPRS
GSM was mainly intended for voice based services. It likewise utilizes cells which
empowers it utilize the diverse frequencies. The GSM mainly works in three
differentfrequency ranges. These are described below,
GSM 1900 (often denoted as PCS or the Personal Communication Services) – Mainly
used in theCanada andUnited States for GSM.
GSM 1800 (likewise called PCN or the Personal Communication Network): functions
at 1800 MHz. mainly used in the nations including France, Germany, UK, and Russia.

10A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
GSM 900 (additionally called GSM) - works in the 900 MHz n and is the
mostcommon in Europe and in the rest of world.
In practical scenario the GPRS transmission rates are much lower than proposed in
the different theories. In order to reach the hypothetical speed described in the theories most
extreme of around 170 kbit/s possibly requires assigning eight slots for a single user which is
not a feasible and likely for the operators (Emmanuel and Marvis 2014). Regardless of
whether this most extreme portion was permitted, the GPRS terminals might be compelled by
the number of slots they can deal with for each of the users.
GPRS mainly depends on the data packet switching techniques which implies that
data packets can navigate different routes inside a networkand afterward the data packets can
be again reassembledwhen all the data packets reach to the destination (Zayas et al. 2018).
This results into potential travel delays affecting the QoS of the GPRS.
GPRSdepends likewise on the re-transmission and the protocols that are responsible
for checking the integrity of the data packets. This integrity checking is important in order to
ensure and guaranteethat the data packetstransmitted over the networks are not corrupted or
lost when they reach the destination (Campos 2017). In case the data packets are lost or
corrupted they may lead to further packet transmission delay issues.
GPRS permits the specification of QoS profiles utilizing priority of the services,
delay, quality of the service as well as reliability, mean and peak throughputin the service. In
spite of the fact that these properties are motioned in the protocols and are arranged between
the system and the mobile station using these protocol, no methods are defined to give QoS
differentiation between different services (Brandolini et al.2017). Lack of differentiation
causes an absence of consistency for QoS amongst service operators and the manufacturers of
the devices.

11A DETAILED COMPARISON OF THE GSM, GPRS, EDGE AND UMTS AIR INTERFACES
It is conceivable hypothetically to indicate a high QoS profile for GPRS protocol
considering an ideal environment, traffic over the transmission medium serious imperatives
on the quality or performance of the protocol.
Differences between the different services and standards mostly supports
asynchronous data transfer between the applications making it more complex toexecute
interactivetraffic in real time.
The GSM is utilized for circuit switched traffic in order to fundamentally transmit the
voice data. On the other hand, the GPRS is utilized for data packet switching traffic mainly
used for the web and MMS. Because of this in case of GPRS interface PDTCH (Packet Data
Traffic Channel) is used (Shahabuddin et al. 2018). This is helpful inallocating the channels
on demand of the user opposite to the static channel allocation nature in GSM.
EDGE
Enhanced data rate for GSM evolution is an enhancement of the GPRS and the GSM
such that the technology is enhanced. It can be used for sending and receiving large emails or
browsing complex webpages at a faster speed than the GSM networks. The EDGE are based
on the radio signals and that is utilized for transferring of data at a high speed. It is a
technology that is used for handling the services of the third generation mobile network
(Parmar and Pattani 2017). The EDGE was developed for the mobile network operators who
are unable to win the UMTS spectrum. The EDGE offers the GSM operators to provide data
service at a speed near to the UMTS network. There are different services that are embedded
with the EDGE such as multimedia email, video conferencing, web infotainment and it can
be easily accessed using the wireless terminals installed in the network architecture. There are
five terms used for the high speed transmission of wireless data such as first generation,