Radio Resource Management Performance for the GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network

This chapter presents a broad study on the potential of applying RRM techniques to the global system for mobile communication (GSM)/enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) system. Even though the presented results are focused on the GSM/EDGE system, the principles employed by most of the considered RRM techniques can be applied to other radio access networks (RANs). We thus hope that the reader will also learn about RRM strategies and adapt these concepts to the RAN of his/her own interest. The provision of multiple services is one of the key features of GSM/EDGE, which has been the focus of several studies, such as [22, 24, 25, 37]. Additionally, some of the themes that have been covered by recent research include power control [36, 41, 45], dynamic channel allocation [20, 46, 47, 49, 60], multi-antenna techniques [18, 19, 34, 48, 50, 51], among others. In this chapter, the RRM techniques are placed within the context of GSM/EDGE and results are presented, which indicate the achievable gains in terms of capacity and/or quality of service (QoS). The results demonstrate that, by using appropriate RRM techniques, the GSM/EDGE radio access network capacity remains competitive with other emerging access technologies, thus allowing for substantial operational cost reductions for the already deployed infrastructure. The remaining of this chapter is organized as follows: Section 2.2 briefly describes the architecture of the GSM/EDGE radio access network, along with its protocol stack and standard RRM functionalities. Section 2.3 presents the RRM techniques considered in the scope of this chapter, which are power control, dynamic channel allocation, management of multiple services, and multi-antenna techniques. Next, in Section 2.4, some aspects concerning the simulation and modeling of GSM/EDGE networks are discussed. The achieved simulation results are presented in Section 2.5 for the studied RRM techniques. Finally, trends and directions for the further evolution of RRM in GSM/EDGE networks are discussed in Section 2.6.