Submitted to IEEE International Conference on Communications,

June 2004

Theoretical Analysis of GPRS Throughput and Delay

Xiaohua Chen* David J. Goodman*

Wireless Internet Center for Advanced
Lucent Technologies Technology,
67 Whippany Rd, Polytechnic University,
Whippany, NJ, 07981 Brooklyn, NY, 11201
xiaohuac@lucent.com dgoodman@poly.edu

*The research reported here began when the authors were at WINLAB, Rutgers

University.

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of the radio link control layer and media access control

layer of the General Packet Radio Service, a packet data overlay of GSM. The analysis

focuses on the effects of retransmissions on the throughput of an uplink Packet Data

Traffic Channel. We are especially interested in the relative throughput of the four GPRS

coding schemes. We find in addition to channel quality, throughput and the choice of

optimum coding scheme depend on packet size and channel fading characteristics. We

also present a retransmission protocol that can increase throughput at the expense of

additional network control messages.

1.0 Introduction

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a packet data overlay to GSM (Global System

for Mobile communications), which has the largest number of subscribers in the world

among all wireless systems. In contrast to the original circuit switched transmission of

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GSM, GPRS is designed to accommodate the bursty nature of data traffic. Due to its

packet orientation, GPRS performance differs significantly from the performance of

GSM circuit switched traffic. It also differs significantly from the performance of packet

data transmission on wirelines, because GPRS packets travel over the “unreliable” media

of air.

To a first approximation, the throughput of a packet data system that employs error

detection and retransmission is

Throughput = (1 − BLER ) × code _ data _ rate b/s (1)

where BLER is the Block Error Rate or Block Erasure Rate, and code_data_rate is the

raw data rate in b/s of the physical channel. This is also referred to as the throughput of

ideal selective repeat retransmission [9].

However, Equation (1) does not take into account the complex control and error

correction procedures that take place in the RLC/MAC (Radio Link Control/Media

Access Control) layer of the GPRS air- interface. As a result, it is not a good measure of

the system throughput.

For the most part, prior work on GPRS performance relies on simulations [2][6][7]. This

paper presents a theoretical analysis of GPRS throughput and delay taking into account

the details of the RLC/MAC protocols, radio channel conditions and properties of the

information transmitted by a GPRS mobile station (MS). An important feature of GPRS

is the presence of four coding schemes (CS) with different levels of resistance to

transmission impairments. The analysis presented in this paper can be used to derive rate

adaptation algorithms that maximize throughput by switching among the four coding

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schemes as channel conditions change. As in other data transmission systems, the most

important variable that affects the choice of a coding scheme is the channel quality as

measured by carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I). Our analysis illustrates that in addition to

channel C/I, packet size and channel fading characteristics play important roles in coding

scheme selection.

While we focus on uplink packet transfer scenario in this article, the same analytical

methods can be applied to downlink performance. The following section of the paper is

an overview of the RLC/MAC protocol, including the details of SR-ARQ (Selective

Repeat - Automatic Retransmission Request) mechanism. Section 3 presents the

modeling assumptions, followed by the packet transfer delay and throughput analysis. In

this analysis, we characterize the GPRS physical layer by Block Error Rates with respect

to carrier-to- interference ratio and coding scheme, denoted bler(cs,ci). Section 4

introduces a new acknowledgement scheme and evaluates its performance.

2 GPRS Protocols

GPRS is a packet data communication system that makes use of GSM physical channels.

Its protocol stack is similar to those of other data systems.

2.1 Protocol architecture and Packet flow

The GPRS protocol stack consists of application layer, network layer (IP or X.25),

SNDCP (Subnet Dependent Convergence Protocol), Logical Link Control (LLC) layer,

RLC/MAC layer and physical layer. The LLC layer provides a logical link between the

network side and the MS. The RLC/MAC is responsible for multiplexing users onto the

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physical channels, and Backward Error Control (BEC) of the data transmission over the

radio link. BEC is achieved by means of Selective Repeat Automatic Retransmission

Request (SR-ARQ). Forward Error Control (FEC) – error detection/correction coding is

done at the physical layer. Four coding schemes (CS) are defined in adaptation to various

channel quality.

Packets from higher protocol layers are segmented and passed down to the LLC layer as

the payload of LLC frames. The maximum frame length is 1520 Bytes. The LLC frames

are then segmented and passed down to RLC layer as RLC block payload with variable

length depending on the coding scheme. Every coded RLC block has a fixed length of

456 bits. Each block is segmented into four bursts of length 114 bits and transmitted in 4

consecutive frames in the physical layer. With the RLC/MAC layers as the focus of this

paper, the only property of the higher layers that we consider is the length of LLC frames.

Our analysis shows that the frame length has a significant effect on RLC/MAC

performance.

2.2 Coding schemes

Properties of the four GPRS coding schemes are summarized in Table 1.

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 Table 1 Coding Schemes
RLC data
Coding block Service data
Code rate
Scheme payload rate (kb/s)
(Bytes)
CS-1 1/2 22 8.8
CS-2 ~2/3 32 12.8
CS-3 ~3/4 38 15.2
CS-4 1 52 20.8

The payload of each RLC block is added with RLC/MAC header and a block check

sequence. For CS1, CS2 andCS3, the radio block is convolutional coded with code_

rate=½, then punctured to the desired code rate. CS4 does not contain forward error

correction. The service data rate is calculated from the 240 ms duration of a GPRS

superframe. The superframe consists of 52 GSM frames including 48 traffic frames and 4

control frames. The 48 traffic frames carry 12 RLC blocks. Therefore the data rate is

Payload _ bytes / block ×12 blocks / superframe

× 8 bits / byte = 0.4 × Payload _ bytes ( kb / s)
240 ms / superframe

Among the 4 coding schemes, CS1 has the lowest coding rate, it is also the most robust

coding scheme. Therefore, CS1 is used for all control messages. CS2 and CS3 have lower

code rate and more information bits. CS4 is the most data efficie nt coding scheme and is

the most vulnerable to channel impairment. The Base Station Subsystem can choose any

of the coding schemes to optimize throughput and delay performance.

2.3 RLC/MAC control of uplink packet transfer

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The GPRS system uses logical cha nnels that are mapped onto physical channels to

manage media access. Each physical channel occupies one timeslot in a 200kHz carrier.

The PRACH (Packet Random Access Channel) is the GPRS counterpart of RACH

(Random Access Channel) in GSM. The PAGCH (Packet Access Grant Channel) is the

counterpart of AGCH (Access Grant Channel) in GSM. Both PRACH and PAGCH

belong to the channel group PCCCH (Packet Common Control Channel). The PDTCH

(Packet Data Traffic Channel) is the logical channel dedicated to a user for data

transmission. Several PDTCHs can be mapped onto a single physical PDCH (Packet Data

Channel) on a time-multiplexed basis. Using time multiplexing with traffic channels, the

PACCH (Packet Associated Control Channel) conveys signaling information, such as

channel resource assignment and acknowledgements to a given MS. The PACCH shares

the physical channel method with the associated PDTCH that is assigned to the same MS.

The Packet Channel Request message takes one burst to transmit. All other messages

occupy one entire RLC block.

While the GPRS MAC protocol resembles that of GSM, it is enhanced to enable faster

packet access and dynamic resource allocation. Since packet data traffic can usually

tolerate more delay than voice traffic, for the case if no resource is available when the

network receives a Random Access Request from a MS, the system can send a Packet

Queuing Notification to indicate the receipt of the request and allocate resources later.

Another feature GPRS feature is the use of Uplink State Flag (USF), which is used to

enable multiplexing of several users onto the same physical channel. When a user is

assigned to a PDTCH, it is also given an USF. The USF indicates which user can transmit

6
in the next RLC block in the corresponding uplink channel. USF=FREE means that the

corresponding uplink RLC block contains PRACH.

MS side Network side

Packet Channel Request
PRACH (or RACH )
Packet Queuing Notification
PAGCH (or AGCH)

Packet Uplink Assignment PAGCH (or AGCH)

USF PDTCH
Data Block
PDTCH
... ...
Data Block
PDTCH
(Packet Uplink Nack)
PACCH
(Data Block)
PDTCH
Packet Uplink Final Ack
PACCH
Packet Control Ack
PACCH

Figure 1 Message sequence

Figure 1 is an example of a MAC message sequence in uplink packet transfer. The uplink

packet data transfer starts with the MS sending a Packet Channel Request on PRACH. If

the access burst is correctly received, but channel resource is not available, the BS

acknowledges with a Packet Queuing Notification. When the channel resource becomes

available, the BS sends Packet Uplink Assignment message and allocated the USF for the

MS. Then the MS tunes to the assigned channel and listens to the corresponding

downlink channel. The system inserts the corresponding USF in the downlink blocks to

indicate which uplink RLC blocks are allocated to the MS, and the MS transmits its data

blocks accordingly. After the BS decoded the received data blocks, it acknowledges the

MS in the PACCH. If the MS receives a NACK message, it will retransmit the erroneous

RLC blocks. When the BS detects end of transmission through a countdown value

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encoded in the uplink data block, it acknowledges with a Packet Uplink Final ACK, and

the MS sends a Packet Control ACK. At this point, the transmission is complete, and the

USF and channel allocation are released. Acknowledgements follow the sliding window

ARQ protocol, where the maximum window size is 64 RLC blocks.

2.4 Selective Repeat ARQ

GPRS uses Selective Repeat ARQ for retransmission of erroneous RLC blocks. The

general concept is that the receiving side detects blocks with errors and then requests the

transmitting side to repeat transmission of the erroneous blocks. In principle, Selective

Repeat ARQ can achieve a data throughput as high as Equation (1). However, our

analysis in Section 3 shows that ARQ overheads can cause significantly lower

throughput.

In common with other systems, GPRS uses a Sequence Number (SN) and a Request

Number (RN) to control the data flow. The GPRS transmitting window size is 64 RLC

blocks. When the RN lags behind the SN by a transmission window length, the window

stalls. This occurs when the duration of the transmission window is smaller than the

round-trip delay for the acknowledgement, is which case the transmitter has to wait for

the acknowledgement before it can proceed.

The error control overhead in case of window stalling includes the retransmission of error

block and the delay introduced by window stalling. However, if the window is not

stalled, the overhead is only the block retransmission itself.

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3. RLC/MAC performance Analysis

The performance measures studied here are delay and throughput, where the delay is

defined as the time it takes for a user packet to be transmitted successfully in the system,

excluding the Common Control Channel signaling. It equals the traffic channel

occupation time of the packet transmission. The throughput is defined as the amount of

data that can be correctly transferred per second in each traffic channel, which

corresponds to one timeslot in a 200KHz GSM carrier.

3.1 Assumptions for modeling

Our study focuses on uplink traffic channel performance. The analysis model conforms to

the GPRS standard protocols. The physical layer model consists of a representation of the

block error rate as a function of channel C/I for each of the GPRS coding schemes. This

function summarizes all of the relevant properties of the modem, equalizer, channel

decoder, antennas, and other transceiver details as well as the radio propagation

properties of the channel. In the numerical examples presented in this paper, we have

used the functions in Figure 2 to represent a slowly fading channel TU3 (Typical Urban,

3 km/h), and similar functions to represent a fast fading channel TU50 (Typical Urban,

50 km/h). We obtained these results from colleagues at Ericsson and Lucent

Technologies, respectively. The analysis methods described in this paper can be used

with any functions for block error rate vs. C/I. In our work, we have developed detailed

models of the RLC/MAC layer protocol as described in the remainder of this section. We

have used a simplified model of the higher layers (LLC and above). The essential

property of this model is an input traffic source that generates packets of constant length,

where the packet length is an analysis parameter.

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 Figure 2 Block Error Rate for TU3 channel

Although GPRS allows terminals to use more that one PDTCH simultaneously, we have

analyzed a terminal that uses a single PDTCH. The analysis can be extended to terminals

that use more than one PDTCH at any time. We also assume that MSs are served one at a

time for their data traffic. There is no multiplexing of simultaneous data transmission

from several MSs on the same physical channel.

Based on the RLC/MAC protocol, the packet transmission procedure is modeled as

follows:

1. The MS sends a Random Access message to the BS on a Common Control Channel

(CCCH).

2. The BS allocates a downlink PDTCH to the MS and uses the CCCH to send an Uplink

Channel Assignment message to MS.

3. The BS sends the corresponding USF in the downlink PDTCH.

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4. The MS sends in the uplink PDTCH all the RLC blocks belonging to the packet.

5. If any of the received RLC blocks resulted in decoding error, the BS asks for selective

retransmission of those blocks in a negative acknowledgement message (NACK). We

assume perfect error detection.

6. If the MS receives a NACK, it resends the blocks that had errors, and goes back to 5.

7. After the BS receives all blocks in the packet correctly, it acknowledges the MS with

the “Final” bit set.

8. The MS acknowledges it with a Control Acknowledgement message.

9. The BS releases the uplink channel for the MS.

As mentioned before, we consider a packet to be identical to an LLC frame.

In this procedure, steps 2-9 are accounted for in the delay analysis. Step 1 does not

consume traffic channel resources and is not included in the delay analysis. Step 2 uses

the CCCH, but since the traffic channel is already reserved for the packet at this stage,

this step is included in the transfer delay.

The analysis includes the following assumptions:

• CCCH signaling in steps 2 and 3 is congestion- free and error- free.

. • Uplink and downlink channels associated with one MS have the same C/I. As a result,

the acknowledgement packet from the BS to a MS experiences the same channel C/I as

the corresponding uplink data packet from the MS.

• Processing time between the receipt of the last block and the response is 1 RLC block

for both MS and BS.

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• There is no blocking or dropping of packets.

• The input queue of the system is never empty. Consequently, the system throughput

analysis does not need to consider vacancy.

• A constant packet length is used in each set of delay and throughput computations. The

packet length is a variable parameter setting in the performance evaluation.

3.2 Throughput and delay modeling

Based on the above assumptions, we can calculate delay as a function of packet length

and BLER. Then, based on the mapping from channel C/I to BLER (for example Figure

5), we can find throughput for each coding scheme as a function of C/I and packet length,

as described in the next paragraph.

Relationship between throughput and delay

The expected throughput of the system is defined as the amount of data transferred in a

time interval t, divided by the duration t, when t approaches infinity.

N (t ) × packet _ length
E[throughput ] = lim (kb / s ) (1)
t →∞ t

where N(t) is the number of packets transmitted in the system, and packet_length is the

length of the packets, assuming they are all equal- length. Notice that the number of

packets N(t) divided by t is equal to the inverse of expected packet service time, when t

approaches infinity. Therefore,

packet _ length
E[throughput ] = ( kb / s ) (2)
T

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where T is the average transfer delay excluding the random access phase that takes place

before the Uplink Channel Assignment.

Delay Modeling

To compute the packet transmission delay, we segment the total delay into several

components starting from the channel assignment till the final acknowledgement:

T = Tassig + Ttx + Terror _ correction + T final_ acks (3)

Where Tassig is the duration of the channel assignment procedure transmission and

processing time, Ttx is the data block’s first-time transmission period based on the packet

length and coding scheme. Terror_ correction is the handling time for backward error control

including retransmission. Tack is the final ACK (Acknowledgement) message and control

ACK message processing and transmission time.

In this model, Tassig = 2 (blocks), Tfinal_acks = 4 (blocks).

Ttx = n (blocks) (4)

where

 22 bytes, CS1

 packet _ length   32 bytes, CS 2
n= , block _ length = 
 block _ length  
38 bytes, CS 3
 52 bytes, CS 4

Terror_ correction can be split into 2 parts,

Terror _ correction = Tretx + Tnack _ signaling (5)

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Where Tretx is the retransmission time of the erroneous data blocks, and Tnack_signaling is the

NACK (Negative Acknowledgement) message processing and transmission time.

bler (cs , ci ) × n
Tretx = (blocks) (6)
(1 − bler (cs , ci ))

M(n) is a random variable that represents the number of a NACK messages successfully

sent during the transmission of a packet consisting of n RLC blocks which is equivalent

to the number of retransmission cycles for the frame. Tone_nack is the transmission time for

one NACK message [1].

Tnack _ signaling = Tone _ nack × E[ M ( n)] (7)

To account for errors in the downlink ACK/NACK messages, we note that the process of

sending one NACK message consists of 2 parts: initial transmission and retransmissions

of the message. Here Tinitial_ nack = 3 .

The initial after- frame NACK message is transmitted with CS1. It is correctly received

with probability (1-bler(cs1,ci)). If the NACK is not received by the MS, the MS will

resend the oldest block with errors or the oldest unacknowledged block, expecting the BS

to send the ACK/NACK message again. Our model assumes that if the data block is in

error again, the whole process is repeated. Only if both the resent data block and the

NACK are successful will the NACK transmission process be complete. The round trip

delay is 4 blocks. Assume no limit on the number of retransmissions allowed for one

NACK message.

4bler (cs1, ci )
Tone _ nack = Tinitial_ nack + (8)
(1 − bler (cs1, ci )) × (1 − bler (cs , ci ))

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Similarly Tfinal_acks can be determined taking account of transmission errors.

4
T final_ acks = (9)
(1 − bler (cs1, ci )) 2

From [1], the expected number of retransmission cycles occurring for one packet is:

∞
E[ M (n )] = ∑ mPM ( n) ( m) (10)
m =1

PM ( n) (0 ) = (1 − bler ) n (11)

n
n
PM ( n) (1) = ∑  bler i (1 − bler ) n−i PM ( i) (0) (12)
i =1  i 

n
 n
PM ( n) (m) = ∑  bler i (1 − bler ) n−i PM ( i) (m − 1) ∀ m > 1
i =1  i 
(13)

3.3 Numerical results and interpretations

Delay results for TU3

For channel model TU3, the average packet transfer delay is shown in Figure 3, where

packet_length=400 Bytes.

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 Figure 3 Average delay of packet with length 400 Bytes

As expected, packet transfer delay increases with block error rate. At low BLER, the

delay is close to the initial transmission delay Ttx . Whereas when BLER exceeds 10%, it

increases dramatically because of overwhelming control overhead caused by transmission

errors. In addition, under the same BLER, packets with a coding scheme of higher code

rate meet shorter delays, simply because when coded with a coding scheme of higher

information rate, the packet occupies a smaller number of RLC blocks. However, for a

given channel C/I, coding scheme with a higher coding rate does not necessarily

correspond to shorter delay, which will be discussed in the next section.

Throughput results on TU3

Throughputs are computed and depicted in Figure 4 through Figure 5. Each is plotted

against channel C/I for the four schemes. Packet lengths are 100 and 1600 Bytes

respectively. The channel model is TU3.

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 Figure 4 Throughput of 100 bytes packets

Figure 5 Throughput of 1600 bytes packets

Comparing throughputs of various packet lengths, it is obvious that packet length has

dominant effect on system throughput. The throughputs for shorter packets are

substantially lower than that of the longer packets. Similar observations have been found

17
in simulation study [6], where the traffic types with longer expected packet length have

much higher throughput than those with shorter expected length.

All throughputs are lower than the information rate of the applied coding schemes as

specified in Table 1, due to RLC/MAC control procedure overhead. We define the

control efficiency as expected throughput under optimum channel C/I for certain packet

length, normalized by the information rate of its coding scheme. Table 2 shows that

control efficiency varies a lot with packet length, and longer packets correspond to higher

control efficiency. The reason is that the amount of RLC/MAC control overhead under

optimum C/I is constant (6 blocks) for any packet length, which is a relatively small

fraction of trans mission time for longer packets.

Table 2 Control efficiency of various packet length

Packet length CS4 throughput Control Packet length

(Bytes) at 30dB (kb/s) efficiency (blocks)
100 4.86 23% 2
1600 16.82 81% 31

Figure 4 through Figure 5show that CS1 has the best throughput under low channel C/I

values, CS2 and CS3 have better throughputs at higher C/Is, and CS4 is the best choice at

high channel C/Is. The choice of coding scheme has a stronger influence on throughput

for long packets than for short packets. For packets of length 100 bytes, CS1 suffices for

transmission under all channel conditions, while for packets of length 1600 bytes, it is

critical to select a coding scheme best suited for the channel condition.

In applications, link adaptation is widely used to maximize throughput performance

under varying channel conditions. It dynamically switches among coding schemes to

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achieve the highest throughput [7]. The operation is based on the knowledge of which

coding scheme is optimum at any situation. To perform effective link adaptation it is

necessary to identify the coding scheme that produces the best performance under any

condition.

We define a decision region as the C/I range within which a coding scheme has the

highest throughput among all coding schemes. For packet of length 1600 bytes, the

decision region is C/I>12dB for CS4, 5dB ~ 12dB for CS3, and C/I <5dB for CS1. Note

that CS2 doesn’t significantly outperform other coding schemes under any channel C/I,

which leads to the conclusion that CS2 doesn’t have much practical use under TU3

channel model.

Figure 6 contains the systematic results of decision regions for packet length from 50

bytes to 1600 bytes in 10 byte increments. It shows that, decision regions generally shift

to lower C/Is for longer packets. In other words, longer packets have stronger preference

for higher rate coding scheme under the same channel condition. Agreeing results can be

found in [8] on performance of MCS5~MCS7 -- enhanced Modulation and Coding

Schemes defined for EDGE [7]. The “noise” on the curves in Figure 6 comes from the

quantization effect of segmenting packets into RLC blocks, which is especially prominent

for short packets.

The above conclusions generally agree with the simulation results discussed in [2].

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 Figure 6 TU3 Coding Scheme decision regions

The reason that packet length affects decision regions of coding schemes can be traced to

E[M(n)], the expected number of NACK messages transmitted for a packet of length n

RLC blocks. Figure 7 shows that E[M(n)], normalized by packet length, decreases when

packet length increases. As a result, the longer the packet is, the less normalized error

control overhead it experiences. Therefore, the decision regions shift towards lower

channel C/Is.

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 Figure 7 Expected number of retransmission cycles of TU3 for CS3, 16dB

TU50 results

Channel model TU50 introduces a new dimension of variability. Because the mapping of

channel C/I to BLER of TU50 is different from that of TU3, the throughputs change and

so do the coding scheme decision regions.

Under TU50, the BLER of CS1, CS2 and CS3 are lower compared to TU3, while the

BLER of CS4 is higher. As a result, throughput of CS1~CS3 reaches saturation level at

lower C/Is, but throughput of CS4 saturates at higher C/I.

Consequently coding scheme decision regions vary from that of TU3. It can be shown

that, compared to TU3, CS1, CS2 and CS3 have larger decision regions on C/I scale,

while CS4 is favored at a higher C/I.

4. Analysis for frequent acknowledgement scheme

In the GPRS standard, it is possible to send the RLC block acknowledgement before the

LLC frame ends. The GPRS system can schedule acknowledgements over intervals

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shorter than the LLC frame length. When the transmitting side receives

acknowledgement on transmitted RLC blocks before the LLC frame ends, it can schedule

the retransmission blocks together with the on- going data stream. This corresponds to the

scenario of transmission window not stalled in section 2. Because some transmission

errors are corrected before the frame ends, there are less error blocks to correct after the

initial transmission of the frame. We call this mechanism the frequent acknowledgement

scheme.

Before analyzing performance of the frequent acknowledgement scheme, we define a

couple of terms. The acknowledgement messages transmitted before the end of the initial

transmission of the frame are referred to as in- frame acknowledgements, others are

referred to as after- frame acknowledgements. Similarly, retransmissions of error blocks

are categorized into in- frame retransmission and after- frame retransmission.

First we partition the packet of length L (in RLC blocks) into N segments plus some

leftover blocks. The length of each segment S (in RLC blocks) is equal to the interval

between acknowledgements. After the kth segment is transmitted, any error block within

the segment has r k chances to be retransmitted using in- frame acknowledgements and

retransmissions, where r1 =N, r2 =N-1, …rN=1.

Assuming in- frame acknowledgements are error-free, the probability of the packet having

up to m after- frame retransmission cycles is the probability that each segment of blocks

needs at most m + rk retransmission cycles.

m+ N m + N −1 m +1 m
P{M ( L) ≤ m } = ∑ PM ( s) (i ) × ∑ PM ( s ) (i ) × L × ∑ PM ( s) (i ) × ∑ PM ( L − N × s) (i ) (14)
i= 0 i= 0 i= 0 i= 0

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where m≥0, and M is the number of after- frame retransmission cycles. The last factor

denotes the probability of having up to m after- frame retransmission cycles for the last

few blocks that do not belong to any segment. Note that, the number of leftover blocks at

the end of the packet has to be greater than the acknowledgement roundtrip delay (RTD),

so that there is enough time left for in-frame retransmission for the last segment.

Otherwise the leftover blocks are grouped into the last segment. Therefore, the number of

segments is

 L − Cack _ rtd 
N =  (15)
 S 

where C ack _ rtd is the acknowledgement RTD in number of RLC blocks. Here C ack _ rtd =3.

Since P{M ( L) ≤ m} is the CDF of M(L), the PDF of M(L) can be derived:

PM ( L ) (m ) = P{M ( L) ≤ m}− P{M ( L ) ≤ m − 1} (16)

The expected number of after- frame retransmission cycles E[M(L)] can be obtained as in

(10).

The GSM standard specifies that loss of one ACK/NACK is not critical because later

acknowledgement messages can convey the same information to the MS. As long as the

transmission window is not stalled, loss of in- frame ACK/NACK does not affect the

delay. Accordingly, in- frame acknowledgement errors are introduced into the calculation.

Given that there are m (after-frame) retransmission cycles, each segment of blocks that

have i retransmission cycles use at least i- m in- frame retransmissions, which requires at

least i- m of in- frame ACK messages to be correct. Therefore (14) is replaced with:

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  N m+ n
( ) × ∑ P
m
P{M ( L) ≤ m} =  ∏∑ PM ( s) (i ) × (1 − bler (cs1, ci ) )max{ 0, i− m} M ( L − N × s) (i ) (17)
 n=1 i= 0  i= 0

Figure 8 E[M] for ack-interval 8 blocks, TU3, CS3, 16dB

Figure 8 displays E[M(L)] under the “new scheme” -- frequent acknowledgement scheme

in contrast to the one modeled in previous section. The acknowledgement interval is

chosen as 8 blocks. E[M(L)] rises and drops periodically, but always remains under 0.6

even when the packet length is large. Each increase and decrease cycle is over packet

length offset of 300 Bytes, which is equal to the acknowledgement interval - 8 RLC

blocks under CS3.

Fewer acknowledgement cycles leads to smaller retransmission overhead and higher

transmission efficiency. However, it is achieved at the expense of extra signaling on the

downlink. In practice, if downlink transmission is the bottleneck of the system

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performance, it may be beneficial to let the MS send acknowledgement frequently. If the

channel capacity is only limited in one direction between the uplink and the downlink, it

is recommended to use different acknowledgement schemes for uplink and downlink

transmissions that would optimize the overall system performance.

5. Conclusions

This article introduces a method of analytically computing packet delay and system

throughput across the air- interface of GPRS system, based on channel condition, coding

scheme and packet length. It models in detail the GPRS RLC/MAC protocols for uplink

data transmission. The results reflect the effect of RLC/MAC control overhead as well as

transmission errors on system throughput.

The results from this calculation show that:

• Longer packets have much better throughput and delay performance than short packets.

The channel control efficiency can vary from 20% ~ 80%.

• The performance difference among coding schemes is larger for longer packets.

Therefore, when transmitting long packets, it is crucial to choose the right coding

scheme, while for short packet, CS1 is adequate under all channel conditions.

• The coding scheme that maximizes throughput depends on channel C/I, channel model

as well as packet length. Longer packets tend to have coding scheme decision regions at

lower C/Is. CS2 is of little use under the slow fading channel model TU3.

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• Compared to TU3, TU50 corresponds to wider decision regions for CS1-CS3, while

higher C/I threshold for choosing CS4.

The analysis also shows that by acknowledging transmitted blocks at intervals shorter

than the transmission window or packet length, we can improve error correction

efficiency because the expected number of after-frame acknowledgements is drastically

reduced. The cost of this scheme is greater error control signaling overhead on the

opposite link. One should use the knowledge of load balance between the uplink and

downlink traffic in designing the optimum acknowledgement scheme for each direction.

Reference

[1] D.Turina, R. Ludwig, “Link Layer Analysis of the General Packet Radio Service for GSM,”

ICUPC, San Diego, Oct 1997.

[2] Xiaohua Chen, David Goodman, “Performance Analysis of Radio Link / Media Access Control of

General Packet Radio Service System”, thesis/WINLAB TR 209, May 2001

[3] Roy Yates, David Goodman, “Probability and Stochastic Processes,” New York: John Wiley &

sons, 1999.

[4] ETSI, “GSM 03.64 Overall Description of the GPRS Radio Interface, stage 2,” v6.1.0, release 97.

[5] ETSI, “GSM 04.60 Radio Link Control/Media Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol,” v6.3.0,

release 97.

[6] Jian Cai, David Goodman, “General Packet Radio Service in GSM”, IEEE Communications

Magazine, Oct 1997

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[7] A.Furuskar, S.Mazur, F. Muller and H. Olofsson, “EDGE: Enhanced Data Rates for GSM and

TDMA/136 Evolution,” IEEE Personal Communications, June 1999.

[8] W. Luo, K. Balachandran, S. Nanda, K. Chang, “Packet Size Dependent Link Adaptation for

Wireless Packet Data,” Global Telecommunications conference, 2000.

[9] Dimitri Bertsekas/Robert Gallager, “ Data Networks”, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992, cited on

p. 82.

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