Multi-slot capability increases GPRS network performance

In this paper, we analyze the performance of GSM/GPRS networks with the emphasis on the study of the adaptive characteristics implied by multi-slot capability. Previous work employing the multi-slot service commonly assume that one or two channels are required by a GPRS data request for the sake of analytical simplicity. In this paper, we remove this assumption and generalize the GPRS data channel requirement (M channels). In addition, we propose a channel re-allocation schemes (RAS) upon channel release by re-allocating the released channels to the GPRS data which is currently using less than M channels with the potential to fully utilize the available resources. The result shows that RAS can significantly decrease the voice call blocking probability and the GPRS packet transmission time, and simultaneously increase the channel utilization with negligible penalty on GPRS packet blocking probability. Small M (e.g. M = 2) underestimates the performance achievements of the prior channel allocation scheme as well as RAS, which shows that the multi-slot capability in GPRS network is able to increase the system performance.