EDGE

Enhance Data Rate GSM http://www.vocal.com

VOCAL Technologies, Ltd. modem software libraries include a complete range of ETSI / ITU / IEEE compliant
modulations, optimized for execution on ANSI C and leading DSP architectures (ADI, AMD-Alchemy, ARM, DSP
Group, LSI Logic ZSP, MIPS and TI). This software is modular and can be executed as a single task under a
variety of operating systems or it can execute standalone with its own kernel.

EDGE is a new modulation scheme that is more bandwidth efficient than the Gaussian pre-filtered minimum shift
keying (GMSK) modulation scheme used in the GSM standard. It provides a promising migration strategy for
GPRS. The technology defines a new physical layer of an 8 Phase Shift Keying modulation (8PSK), instead of
GMSK. 8PSK enables each pulse to carry 3 bits of information versus GPRS/GMSK’s 1 bit per pulse rate. Thus,
has the potential to increase the data rate of existing GSM systems by a factor of three. For this reason requires
a hardware upgrade of the RF part in the base sta tions.

A traditional 8PSK system uses raised-cosine filtering to remove intersymbol interference (ISI). With this
approach, a one-to-one correlation exists between the required bandwidth and the target symbol rate with no
intersymbol interference. For example, a minimum of 270.833 kHz RF bandwidth is required to deploy a system
that uses GSM’s 270.833 kHz symbol rate. Although ISI is eliminated using raised-cosine filtering, (200 kHz of
channel spacing results in a symbol rate less than 200 kHz) the 8PSK s ignal with raised cosine filtering does not
fit within 200 kHz of bandwidth. In order to achieve the desired symbol rate, a more severe filtering approach is
required. EDGE makes this trade-off, resulting in a conservation of bandwidth at the expense of ISI. This also
necessitates a more complex design for the receiver.

In the EDGE modulation system the serial bit stream is converted into 3 bits words and mapped to the 8PSK
constellation using Gray encoding. The symbols are then rotated by 3π/8 radians to ensure that the envelope of
the signal does not go to zero. Next, the symbols are up-sampled and filtered using a linearized Gaussian filter
(similar to, but different than the method used for GSM). In this manner, the spectrum of the 8PSK signal can be
restricted to 200 kHz. Linearized Gaussian filtering allows the 8PSK signal spectrum to occupy the same
bandwidth as a GPRS signal. It also introduces a considerable ISI component. The spectrum of the 8PSK signal
occupies the same bandwidth as a GMSK signal with degradation in performance with regard to ISI.

EDGE Terminology:

• Because of the severe ISI introduced by the linearized Gaussian filters, a receiver includes an equalizer.
• EDGE provides nine different coding schemes and it is possible to switch a connection between different
schemes. The choice of the coding scheme is dynamic and depends on the Carrier to Interference ratio
(C/I). As the signal quality deteriorates, switches to a more robust coding scheme with lower throughput.
Delivers between 30 kbps to 200 kbps downstream and between 30 kbps and 60 kbps in the upstream.
Table 1 shows the bit rate per time slot for each coding scheme.

Table 1. Data rates for EDGE

User Data Rate MSC 1 MSC 2 MSC 3 MSC 4 MSC 5 MSC 6 MSC 7 MSC 8 MSC 9
(in kbps)
1 Timeslot 8.4 11.2 14.8 16.8 22.4 29.6 44.8 54.4 59.2
8 Timeslot 67.2 89.6 118.4 134.4 179.2 236.8 358.4 435.2 473.6

EDGE Features:

• Compliant with Layer 1 radio GPRS.

• Compliant with Layer 1 vocoder GPRS.
• Compliant with Layer 2 & 3 ETSI GSM phase 2+.

Technologies, Ltd.
© 2001 VOCAL Technologies, Ltd. Custom Product Design Division
200 John James Audubon Parkway
http://www.vocal.com Buffalo, New York 14228
716-688-4675
EDGE-0004A-1
EDGE Configurations:

Layer 1. Radio GPRS. This layer includes the following GSM phase2+ ETSI standards:

• GSM 05.02 Access & Multiple Multiplexing.

• GSM 05.03 Interleaving Code/Decoder Channel.
• GSM 05.04 Demodulator and Modulator.
• GSM 05.05 Receiver and Transmitter.
• GSM 05.10 Synchronization.

Layer 1.Vocoders GPRS. This layer includes the following GSM phase2+ ETSI standards:

• GSM 06.10 Full rate speech transcoding.

• GSM 06.20 Half rate speech transcoding.
• GSM 06.60 Enhanced Full rate speech transcoding.
• GSM 06.90 Adaptive multi-rate speech transcoding.
• GSM 06.93 Discontinuous transmission for Adaptive Multi-rate.

Layer 2 & 3 GSM phase 2+ ETSI standards:

• GSM 03.09 Hand-over.

• GSM 03.22 Link control.
• GSM 04.04 PROTOCOLS Layer 1.
• GSM 04.05 PROTOCOLS Layer 2.
• GSM 04.06 PROTOCOLS Layer 2.
• GSM 04.07 PROTOCOLS Layer 3.
• GSM 04.08 PROTOCOLS Layer 3.
• GSM 05.08 Power control.

Technologies, Ltd.
© 2001 VOCAL Technologies, Ltd. Custom Product Design Division
200 John James Audubon Parkway
http://www.vocal.com Buffalo, New York 14228
716-688-4675
EDGE-0004A-2