© GPRShelp 2004 An Introduction To GPRS

© GPRShelp 2004 Contents What is GPRS? GPRS Applications GPRS Myths GPRS Services – the killer application Accessing your company LAN

© GPRShelp 2004 Contents What is GPRS? How the GPRS network works What devices you can use How does it perform What are your connectivity options

© GPRShelp 2004 What is GPRS - Overview GPRS provides mobile data services such as Internet and WAP access It is also used to provide other commercial services such as MMS (Multi-Media-Messaging). GPRS is an upgrade to a GSM network to enable mobile data and hence coverage is similar to it’s host GSM network. GPRS is also a packet network - “Packet” means that, rather than have a continuous circuit assigned for the duration of a data call, small blocks (packets) of data are transmitted as required.

© GPRShelp 2004 What Can GPRS be used for? All the common Internet service including: Web browsing Internet File Transfer (FTP) Instant Messaging Best for non-time sensitive data!

© GPRShelp 2004 GPRS – A “packet” network The advantage of being a packet network is that you can have a permanent ‘always on’ connection, sending and receiving data when required. Voice customers keep their channel for the duration of the call GPRS customers’ data is broken down into small “packets”, sent when there is a free timeslot, and then re-assembled to recreate the original data Time

© GPRShelp 2004 GPRS – A “packet” network Other advantages are that you can use more or less channels as your data requirements vary. Voice customers keep their channel for the duration of the call If there is a lot of data – more channels can be used – three in this case. For small amounts of data “occasional” packets of data are sent. Time

© GPRShelp 2004 What is GPRS overview Your GPRS device will contain the name of a physical connection (the APN) to the GPRS network e.g. It could be the word “Internet” for the Internet connection. All your data is then routed to/from this connection. GPRS Network Internet Firewall

© GPRShelp 2004 What Devices Can You Use? Mobile Phones Laptop computers, Data Cards Telemetry Smartphones

© GPRShelp 2004 Mobile Phones Many phone users are using GPRS everyday for WAP – Here the user should experience faster connections and page display – charged only for data transfer – not for length of time connected. MMS – Multi-media messaging or Picture messaging is charged by the message – if messages are sent as s then they are charged at the Internet access rates. Internet – Many GPRS phones may be used with a PC or PDA to provide Internet access.

© GPRShelp 2004 Data Cards Data Cards are GPRS modems that can plug into a PC or PDA to provide GPRS connectivity. They have their own GSM SIM card and their own account. They can be purchased in PC-card format for laptops or CF-card format for compatible PDAs. GPRS cards usually have voice capability but it is often disabled.

© GPRShelp 2004 Telemetry Telemetry refers to unattended computerised equipment communicating using GPS – e.g. an ATM machine connecting with a bank or a whether station regularly reporting temperatures etc. Telemetry users have a choice of using either a PC card. mobile phone with cable or a special ruggedised GPRS modem. These have a serial or USB data connection, a power connection and an external aerial connection.

© GPRShelp 2004 Smartphones Smartphones combine the functionality of a PDA and a Mobile phone in a single device. Many smartphones compromise the specification of either device or both to fit in one unit. i.e. they are physically too large compared with a phone and the display is too small compared with a PDA.

© GPRShelp 2004 How fast is GPRS? How fast will a GPRS network be? What is “Optimisation” What is “Latency” and how it affects you Can I Rely on GPRS for critical services?

© GPRShelp 2004 How Fast? The speed quoted on GPRS devices is usually their maximum theoretical speed and will NEVER be achieved in real life. The actual speed of a GPRS connection will vary depending on many factors such as device capability, signal strength, congestion. Typical speeds with recent devices will be around 30Kbps on an un-congested network. At times data flow may seem to stop or be limited to a few kbps.

© GPRShelp 2004 Optimisation To speed up internet access, many GPRS networks compress web pages to reduce data flow. If you compare a GPRS loaded web page to a standard web page you may notice that the graphics are worse quality where they have been further compressed – both resolution and colour depth. The speed to load an ‘optimised’ page may be 4-5 less than a standard page. If you use encryption to access your company data – the optimisation will not work!

© GPRShelp 2004 Latency GPRS networks delay data more than many other forms of data networks. The round trip delay may be anything from ms – not a problem for POP or web browsing but may disrupt LAN access or audio/video conferencing.

© GPRShelp 2004 Reliability GPRS availability is not guaranteed – especially as voice traffic often takes precedence over data users. As with GSM speech calls you should be able to use GPRS whilst moving – but this can often be problematical.

© GPRShelp 2004 Services for Business Accessing Company LANs Internet and Corporate Private APN – dedicated, private connections to a GPRS network

© GPRShelp 2004 LAN access VPN – Setting up a “Virtual Private Network” using secure encryption software is possible over GPRS. Performance is poor because of the “latency” of the GPRS connection and relatively slow data speeds. Redirection to Internet server WAP/Webmail Proprietary secure Internet services

© GPRShelp 2004 Security Virtual Private Networking provides a method for businesses to utilise encryption to form a secure connection to their LAN across the Internet. VPN can be used over many different bearers (dial-up, broadband and GPRS). Once authenticated users can use their standard office applications to view and browse their Intranet. Corporate Network VPN Firewall Secure “tunnel” through Internet GPRS Network Internet

© GPRShelp 2004 International Roaming GPRS users may roam to other GPRS networks who have a roaming agreement with their “home” network. Their data is securely routed back to their “home” network before being connected to the Internet or company LAN. No re-configuration should be required. Data is usually charged at a much higher “MB” rate Server Roaming network GRX network Home network

© GPRShelp 2004 GPRS Applications Internet (POP) Web Browsing VPN Telemetry

© GPRShelp 2004 WAP WAP phones can connect using GPRS This provides a quicker/better user experience than dialling up using GSM data. WAP may be a good device to view s when travelling – either from a WAP capable Internet platform or a company system. Connections may be encrypted for high security applications.

© GPRShelp 2004 Internet Access

© GPRShelp The killer application on the move

© GPRShelp 2004

Internet (POP) To get good performance for mobile consider the following: The POP protocol is often used to download s to you PC – downloaded s are then The device used to send s is an SMTP server – your ISPs SMTP server may not work over GPRS in which case use your mobile operators SMTP server.

© GPRShelp 2004 Web Browsing

© GPRShelp 2004 GPRS Services WAP, Web browsing, Instant messaging, VPN, Telemetry

© GPRShelp 2004 Internet Private APN Customer Network GPRS Network Large mobile users benefit from having a private connection (leased line) to a GPRS network. Some operators allow voice + data traffic + SMS to share the leased line