white paper

285 23-3107 Uen Rev B | September 2009

The evolution
of EDGE
EDGE Evolution will introduce higher data rates
and improved coverage, further strengthening
GSM/EDGE as an attractive mobile broadband
solution and complement to 3G/LTE.
 Contents
1 Executive summary 3
2 The GSM/EDGE advantage 4
2.1 Mobile internet for everyone 5
2.2 EDGE complementing 3G 5
2.3 Mobile broadband using EDGE 6
3 EDGE performance today and tomorrow 7
3.1 Network performance of today 7
3.2 Enhanced applications performance over EDGE 8
3.3 EDGE Evolution performance boost 8
3.4 Implementing EDGE Evolution 9
4 The evolution of EDGE technology 11
4.1 Introducing EDGE 11
4.2 EDGE Evolution enhancements 12
5 Conclusion 15
6 Glossary 16

2 The evolution of EDGE Contents

1 Executive summary
Since its standardization was finalized by the
3GPP in 2000, EDGE – Enhanced Data rates
for Global Evolution – has achieved market
maturity in terms of networks, terminals and
business models. Upgrading to EDGE has
become a natural step for operators who
want to offer high-performance mobile data
services over GSM. EDGE gives them a cost-
effective way to reach the mass market and
boost the uptake of mobile data services. The
common view from GSM/WCDMA operators
is that GSM will be used beyond 2020,
providing nationwide coverage for voice and
data for many years to come.
EDGE combines efficient technology, a
simple upgrade path and support for many
GSM and WCDMA terminals
to create a compelling business case.
Three-quarters of all GSM and UMTS
terminals sold now support EDGE, from
low to high-end. EDGE is a viable alternative
for providing fast internet access in markets
where fixed network infrastructure is yet to
be established.
The performance of EDGE has improved
steadily since its introduction: today it offers
user bit rates up to 250kbps, with end-to-end
latency of less than 150ms. This performance
is sufficient to make any data service
available today attractive to users.
EDGE is an important complement to
mobile broadband services presently
delivered over WCDMA/HSPA and in future
LTE networks. EDGE provides both a fast
way to achieve good indoor and outdoor
coverage, and to meet increasing demand for
mobile internet services through optimal use
of available radio spectrum.
To build on the global success of EDGE,
the GSM community has standardized EDGE
Evolution, which further improves
performance and capacity. EDGE Evolution
more than doubles end-user bit rates and
reduces latency significantly. What is more, all
this can be done using existing infrastructure,
protecting current GSM and EDGE
investments for many years to come.
The evolution of EDGE Executive summary 3
 2 The GSM/EDGE advantage
In the mid-1990s, GSM deployment gathered
pace around the world, and this growth
continues today. More than 80 percent of all
mobile users in the world are served by GSM,
and every month approximately 40 million new
users join the GSM community. As a mobile
technology, GSM has unmatched coverage,
economies of scale, simplicity and maturity,
and these are all benefits that EDGE
shares too.
The common view from the GSM/WCDMA
operators is that GSM will be used beyond
2020, meaning that GSM and EDGE will
provide the fundamental coverage for voice
and data for many years to come.
Standardized in 3GPP as part of the GSM/
WCDMA family, EDGE is a simple and cost-
effective upgrade that provides a more than
three-fold increase in both the capacity and
performance of GSM/GPRS networks. It
does this by introducing sophisticated
methods of coding and transmitting data,
delivering higher bit rates per radio channel,
as illustrated in Figure 1.
Introducing EDGE normally only requires a
software upgrade of the existing GSM/GPRS
network. It does not require any new sites or
new spectrum, and has no impact on existing
cell or frequency plans.
With EDGE, GSM operators can extend their
service offering to include high-performance
mobile data. They can rapidly target all
potential data users thanks to EDGE’s ability to
achieve high geographic and population
coverage in a short period of time. This is one
of the main reasons that several hundred GSM
networks have already upgraded to EDGE.
EDGE is not launched as a service; it is an
enabler of new services and faster internet
access – an almost mandatory upgrade, with a
clear and compelling business case.

User data rate in the air

Kbps 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

8.0 CS1
GPRS CS2
12.0 CS2
Normal 10kbps per TS
Max 12kbps per TS
GPRS
14.4 CS3

20.0 CS4

8.4 MCS1

11.2 MCS2

14.8 MCS3

17.6 MCS4
EDGE
Normal 40–50kbps per TS 22.4 MCS5 EDGE
Max 59kbps per TS
29.6 MCS6

44.8 MCS7

54.4 MCS8

59.2 MCS9

Figure 1: EDGE is four times as efficient as GPRS. GPRS uses four coding schemes (CS-1 to 4) while EDGE uses
nine Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS -1 to 9). Bit rates stated are per time slot; today’s terminals receive data
on up to five time slots.

4 The evolution of EDGE The GSM/EDGE advantage

2.1 Mobile internet for everyone
Mobile phones and the internet are an
important part of many people’s day-to-day
lives. Now, thanks to the advances being
made in mobile networks and terminals,
these two invaluable technologies have
merged. Mobile data rates have improved
in recent years, prices are low, and services
and content have been adapted to
mobile consumers.
EDGE-delivered data services create a
broadband internet-like experience on a
mobile phone. And the signs are that users
like it. Figures from many markets show that
users with EDGE-enabled services consume
up to three times more data than standard
2.2 EDGE complementing 3G
Mobile broadband is very successful in most
3G markets. The number of users with a
bucket-plan data subscription has increased
significantly since the introduction of HSPA in
the 3G networks. The mobile broadband
service contributes positively to the operators’
revenue and enables new business segments.
Almost all HSPA-enabled terminals have
EDGE capability, and the trend is that WCDMA/
Global handset sales
1 600 Million units
1 400
WCDMA
1 200
1 000
800
600
400
GSM/GPRS
Other
200
CDMA
0
2006 2007 2008 2009
Figure 2: New sales by technology (Source: Strategy Analytics, 2009)
GPRS users, resulting in higher Average
Margin Per User (AMPU) contribution.
There are still many markets where 3G
networks have not been deployed, or where
licensing regulations have not even been
settled. In these markets, EDGE has been
deployed offering sufficient bandwidth to
deliver fast internet access over the existing
GSM infrastructure. The combination of
mobile broadband capability and low-priced
EDGE-capable GSM phones has made
EDGE a viable option for markets where
fixed network infrastructure has not yet
been established.
HSPA/EDGE handsets will dominate the
market, as shown in Figure 2. Therefore EDGE
helps operators to adopt a more flexible
approach to the 3G/HSPA roll out. In many
networks EDGE has been deployed nationwide
to complement 3G/HSPA, enabling operators
to focus the investments on most needed in 3G
from a revenue perspective.
TD–SCDMA
LTE
WCDMA/EDGE (incl. HSPA)
EDGE
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
The evolution of EDGE The GSM/EDGE advantage 5
 With combined HSPA and EDGE
deployment, the operator can truly offer a full-
coverage mobile broadband service to end
users and still keep investments at a reasonable
level. While many 3G networks today have
good population coverage, it still typically lags
the geographical coverage of GSM/EDGE,
illustrated in Figure 3. One main reason for the
coverage difference is that GSM is typically
Population coverage
GSM/EDGE
Geographical coverage
GSM/EDGE
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 3: Example of population and geographical coverage for GSM and WCDMA in a country
2.3 Mobile broadband using EDGE
Where 3G networks have yet not been
deployed, EDGE and EDGE Evolution enable
operators to provide a profitable mobile
broadband service, contributing to growth in
ARPU. Given that most GSM networks are
already well established and that voice and
data typically do not peak at the same time, it
is possible to deploy such mobile broadband
services with limited investment. With EDGE
Evolution, end-user performance is good
6 The evolution of EDGE The GSM/EDGE advantage
deployed on the 900MHz frequency band while
3G is deployed on 2100MHz. As an example, at
90 percent geographical GSM coverage, the
same number of RBS sites provides
approximately 30-40 percent geographical 3G
coverage. Naturally, extending 3G coverage to
90 percent implies a huge investment due to
the large number of RBS sites needed.
Population coverage
WCDMA/HSPA
Geographical coverage
WCDMA/HSPA
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
enough to allow competitive offerings for most
markets, and analysis shows that the
investment can be recouped within two years.
With EDGE and EDGE Evolution, therefore, it is
possible to grab the 3G/LTE market now,
irrespective of whether the operator has a 3G
license. The service is then in place and once
3G/LTE is deployed the operator can
concentrate on improving mobile broadband
performance and capacity where it is needed.
3 EDGE performance today and
tomorrow
Today’s EDGE technology offers greatly
improved performance compared with
standard GPRS and the first implementations
of EDGE. The increased user bit-rates and
reduced latency offered by EDGE enhance
existing applications and make new services –
like music downloads, mobile broadband and
messaging services – more attractive.

3.1 Network performance of today

The performance of EDGE, as experienced by
the end-user, is dependent on a variety of
system characteristics. For example, a web
download consists of multiple requests and
downloads of objects and, consequently, the
time it takes to download a page depends
on the end-to-end round-trip time and user
bit-rates in the system – which are the
main performance indicators for any packet
data system. Performance is normally
evaluated across a common set of
subscriber applications.
Today’s state-of-the-art EDGE networks
typically offer user speeds of 200kbps, with
end-to-end round-trip time (latency) of 150ms
700 250
(as shown in Figure 4). Features like advanced
link quality control and persistent scheduling
have improved performance significantly over
standard GPRS and the first implementations
of EDGE. For example, the time it takes to
download a web page is about one-quarter of
that taken with standard GPRS.
Network efficiency also impacts end-user
performance. Compared with basic
implementations, the latest EDGE systems
have greatly improved resource utilization,
multiplexing capabilities for several
users and other capabilities that maximize
network efficiency.
60

600
50
200
500
40
400 150
30
300
100
20
200
50
100 10

0 0 0
System round User bit rate Web download
trip time (ms) (kbps) time (sec)

GPRS EDGE first release EDGE state-of-the-art

Figure 4: Typical live network performance indicators and application performance

The evolution of EDGE EDGE performance today and tomorrow 7

 3.2 Enhanced application performance over EDGE
EDGE enhances services provided by GSM
systems with higher user bit rates and
multimedia capabilities. EDGE is also an
evolutionary path towards providing third-
generation services.
The perceived end-user performance
enabled by EDGE is good enough to make any
service available today more attractive (Table 1).
This includes e-mail, web browsing, music
downloads and mobile TV.

Application Benefit with EDGE

Web browsing Significantly faster browsing for all data users

Messaging Much faster interaction – good for chat environment

E-mail Synchronization of mail accounts significantly faster

Push-to-Talk Improved end-user quality and higher capacity

Gaming Real-time gaming is enabled

Mobile TV Good TV quality is enabled

Music download Good experience with EDGE and progressive download

Mobile broadband Possibility to deploy mobile broadband services in

the GSM network

Table 1: Services enhanced over GSM/EDGE

3.3 EDGE Evolution performance boost

To improve service performance in general, and
facilitate conversational multimedia services, a
number of enhancements to EDGE have been
standardized by the 3GPP. Known collectively
as EDGE Evolution, these were included in
Release 7 of the 3GPP standard. Peak bit rates
of up to 1Mbps and typical bit rates of 400kbps
can be expected. Round-trip times will be less
than 80ms and spectrum efficiency will be
more than twice as good as today. EDGE
Evolution can be gradually introduced as
software upgrades, taking advantage of the
installed base. With EDGE Evolution, end users
will be able to experience mobile internet
connections corresponding to a 500kbps
ADSL service.
EDGE Evolution will improve service
performance and enable more efficient radio
bearers. Different services may have varying
performance requirements in different areas,
but EDGE Evolution is expected to improve the
perceived performance across all services by:
✒ Reducing latency to improve the user
experience of interactive services and also
to enhance support for conversational
services such as multimedia telephony.
✒ Increasing peak and mean bit rates, to
improve best-effort services such as web
browsing or music downloads.
✒ Improving spectrum efficiency, which will
particularly benefit operators in urban
areas where existing frequency spectrum is
used to its maximum extent – traffic
volume can be increased without
compromising service performance or
degrading perceived user quality.
✒ Boosting service coverage, for example by
reducing interference or allowing more
robust services. Increased terminal
sensitivity improves coverage in the noise-
limited scenario.

8 The evolution of EDGE EDGE performance today and tomorrow

3.4 Implementing EDGE Evolution
The installed base of GSM/EDGE equipment is modifications, but are replaced at a much
very large, so great care has been taken to higher rate. A large number of handset vendors
ensure that the impact of EDGE Evolution on are foreseen to adhere to EDGE Evolution, and
base station hardware is minimized. The handsets with increasing levels of EDGE
different enhancements may be gradually – and Evolution functionality are expected to be
to some extent independently – introduced in available from 2010.
the network, most of them as software Figures 5 and 6 show examples of the
upgrades. Current network architecture increased peak bit rates and spectrum efficiency
remains unchanged. provided by GPRS, EDGE and different stages of
Handsets will require more extensive EDGE Evolution implementation.
1000
900
800
Peak bit-rates (kbps)

700
600
500
400
300
200
100

0
GPRS, EDGE, 5TS EDGE EDGE
4TS, CS2 Evolution, Evolution,
10TS, dual 10TS, dual
carrier carrier,
32QAM

Figure 5: Peak bit rates in downlink for GPRS, EDGE and different stages of EDGE Evolution

6
Relative spectrum efficiency

GPRS EDGE EDGE Evolution, EDGE Evolution,

dual antenna dual antenna
terminals terminals, 32QAM,
turbo codes

Figure 6: Relative spectrum efficiency for GPRS, EDGE and different stages of EDGE Evolution

The evolution of EDGE EDGE performance today and tomorrow 9

 Performance in a live network has been
measured in order to ensure that EDGE Evolution
provides benefits in real situations. Quality
measurements have been collected in a number
of typical cells in operators’ networks and the
results show that EDGE Evolution will
significantly improve bit rates in the whole cell.
Figure 7 shows the cumulative distribution of the
time slot bit rate in an urban cell with medium
quality. EDGE Evolution increases the average bit
rate by 86 percent (from 42 to 78kbps) compared
with EDGE.

Predicted radio link bit rate: cumulative distribution

100%

75% EDGE

50%
EGDE Evolution

25%

0%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Radio link bit rate (kbps/TS)

Figure 7: Bit rate distribution per time slot in a rural cell for EDGE and EDGE Evolution

10 The evolution of EDGE EDGE performance today and tomorrow

4 The evolution of EDGE
technology
EDGE and EDGE Evolution are designed with
both backwards compatibility and efficiency in
mind. Both steps of the technology
substantially improve performance and
efficiency in the GSM network while protecting
4.1 Introducing EDGE
EDGE is an improvement to the GPRS air
interface that enables higher user bit rates and
greater system capacity by enhancing the
physical layer. The higher bit rates place extra
demands on parts of the GPRS network (as
shown in Figure 8). The core GPRS nodes,
SGSN and GGSN, are more or less
independent of user bit rates and no new
hardware is required. In the radio network, base
station transceivers need to be EDGE-capable,
and base station and BSC/PCU software needs
to be updated.
One fundamental characteristic of cellular
systems is that different users experience
MSC/
VLR
BSC
SGSN
Backbone
IP network
Affected by EDGE introduction
Figure 8: GSM/GPRS network architecture
the architecture and keeping as much existing
equipment as possible in use. These benefits
make upgrades more cost efficient for
operators with existing GSM infrastructure.
different channel quality, as a result of
differences in the distance to the serving base
station, fading and interference. Radio network
planning ensures that only a fraction of users
ever experience poor channel quality, but also
means that many users have “excessive”
channel quality.
EDGE improves the situation by employing a
new modulation method and link quality
control. 8-PSK is a high-level linear modulation
method that carries three times more
information through an extended signal
constellation. GMSK modulation, as defined in
GSM/GPRS, is also part of EDGE.
GMSC PSTN
HLR
GPRS
register
External
GGSN IP network
The evolution of EDGE The evolution of EDGE technology 11
 Nine modulation and coding schemes are
defined in EDGE. Link quality control
dynamically selects the modulation and coding
scheme for transmission of data over the air
interface. The protection of the data is adapted
to the channel quality to ensure optimal bit rate.
A standard GPRS bit rate saturates at relatively
low channel quality, whereas EDGE user bit
rates increase with better channel quality. Link
quality control in EDGE uses both link
adaptation and incremental redundancy where
the initial coding is selected based on
measurement of radio quality and additional
redundancy is sent if decoding fails. As
illustrated in Figure 9, incremental redundancy
gives a higher bit rate and higher robustness
compared to link adaptation.

GPRS, LA EDGE, LA EDGE, IR

60
50
Throughput (kbps)

40
30
20
10
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
C/I (dB)

Figure 9: Bit rate per time slot as a function of radio quality for GPRS, EDGE Link Adaptation
and EDGE Incremental Redundancy

4.2 EDGE Evolution enhancements

4.2.1 Latency reduction

EDGE Evolution makes substantial
improvements in latency and perceived delay
through reduced Transmission Time Interval
(TTI) and additional protocol enhancements.
Radio blocks are currently transmitted over four
consecutive bursts on one time slot using a TTI
of 20ms. Reducing the TTI to 10ms improves
latency substantially, to below 80ms. The four
bursts are then transmitted on more than one
time slot (parallel time slots on two carriers or
dual time slots on one carrier).

10ms

Core network
BSC and internet
s
m
10

BTS 10ms
s
m
10

Figure 10: Lower latency with reduced TTI

12 The evolution of EDGE The evolution of EDGE technology

4.2.2 Increased bit rates and improved efficiency
Dual carriers
The most obvious improvement to peak bit
rates is through the introduction of dual carriers
in the downlink, increasing the carrier bandwidth
available above 200kHz. EDGE terminals
already use multiple time slots for transmission
and reception. Today’s terminals receive on up
Higher-order modulation, turbo codes and increased symbol rate
Higher average and peak bit-rates and
improved spectrum efficiency are achieved
through more advanced modulation, more
efficient channel coding and an increased
symbol rate (in practice, increasing the
carrier bandwidth).
Using 16QAM instead of 8-PSK modulation
for some of the current modulation and coding
schemes (MCS) improves robustness against
interference and, as a result, increases the
average bit rates. In this case, the higher
number of bits per symbol, is used to increase
the channel coding. Using “turbo codes,” which
Dual-antenna terminals
Dual-antenna terminals enable efficient
interference rejection techniques, similar to
those used in base station receivers. By
combining signals from the two antennas, a
large proportion of the interference can be
cancelled out, significantly improving average
bit rates and spectrum efficiency.
Mbps
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.5Mbps
0.4
EDGE Evolution
0.2
EDGE
14dB
Figure 11: Examples of bit rate improvements in different parts of a cell
to five time slots. The introduction of dual
carriers doubles the available bandwidth (to
400kHz) as well as the practical peak bit rate.
Using dual carriers and five timeslots on each
carrier provides bitrates of almost 600kbps, with
no other changes to EDGE.
handle error correction more efficiently than
current convolutional codes, improves average
bit rates even further.
With 12 MCSs – three more than with regular
EDGE – enabled by higher-order modulations
(16QAM and 32QAM in addition to GMSK and
8-PSK), the peak bit rate is boosted to
98.4kbps per time slot, equating to user
bitrates of almost 1Mbps if dual carriers are
used. The higher symbol rate enables higher bit
rates in the uplink, since dual carriers are only
standardized for the downlink.
Figure 11 shows an example of different bit
rates in a cell, as different features are
introduced. It shows how higher-order
modulation and dual carriers improve peak bit
rates, while higher-order modulation, turbo
codes and interference cancellation with dual
antennas increase bit rates at the cell border.
Dual-carrier downlink 2 x TS
Dual-antenna terminals 3 – 8dB
Higher-order modulation
and turbo codes 1 – 5dB
EDGE today
14dB
The evolution of EDGE The evolution of EDGE technology 13
 4.2.3 Service coverage

Dual antenna terminals can also improve less (roughly 50 percent) signal power is
service coverage. With two antennas and needed to provide service, enabling larger cells
efficient combination methods, weaker signal or lower output power.
transmissions can be captured. Around 3dB

14 The evolution of EDGE The evolution of EDGE technology

5 Conclusion
EDGE is delivering high bit rates and spectrum
efficiency for GSM operators around the world,
and is a standard capability for GSM and
WCDMA phones. In effect, EDGE enables 3G
applications such as mobile broadband over
current GSM networks, and provides seamless
services with 3G.
Today, EDGE enables user bit rates up to
250kbps and a latency of 150ms. This means
it can handle four times as much traffic as
standard GPRS, increasing the usability of
mobile data services, enhancing customer
satisfaction and boosting data revenues.
EDGE Evolution, standardized in 3GPP,
improves performance and coverage even
further, with bit rates of up to 1Mbps and
latency of less than 80ms.
For GSM operators around the world, this
makes the business case for EDGE even
stronger than it is today – regardless of whether
they have access to 3G spectrum.
The evolution of EDGE Conclusion 15
 6 Glossary
3G third generation radio technology for mobile networks. Narrowband digital
radio is the second generation of technology (2G).
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
8-PSK Octonary-Phase-Shift Keying
16QAM 16-point quadrature amplitude modulation
32QAM 32-point quadrature amplitude modulation
BSC base station controller
CDMA code division multiple access
EDGE Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution
GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node
GMSC Gateway Mobile Switching Center
GMSK Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile communications
HLR Home Location Register
HSPA High Speed Packet Access
LTE Long Term Evolution
MCS modulation and coding scheme
MSC mobile switching center
PCU packet control unit
PSTN public switched telephone network
SGSN serving GPRS support node
TD-SCDMA Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access
TTI transmission time interval
VLR visitor location register
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol technology enables users to transmit
voice calls via the internet using packet-linked routes. VoIP is also called
IP telephony.
WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

16 The evolution of EDGE Glossary