Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
It is a subset of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) on the GSM network and improves upon it offering speeds close to 3G technology, hence the name 2.75G.
[1] Through the introduction of sophisticated methods of coding and transmitting data, EDGE delivers higher bit-rates per radio channel, resulting in a threefold increase in capacity and performance compared with an ordinary GSM/GPRS connection - originally a max speed of 384 kbit/s.
[4] Evolved EDGE continues in release 7 of the 3GPP standard providing reduced latency and more than doubled performance e.g. to complement High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA).
EDGE-compatible transceiver units must be installed and the base station subsystem needs to be upgraded to support EDGE.
If the operator already has this in place, which is often the case today, the network can be upgraded to EDGE by activating an optional software feature.
EDGE meets the International Telecommunication Union's requirement for a 3G network, and has been accepted by the ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards.
Mobile operators have invested billions in GSM networks, many of which are already capable of supporting EDGE data speeds up to 236.8 kbit/s.
A successful trial by Nokia Siemens and "one of China's leading operators" was achieved in a live environment.
This timing significantly limited its relevance and practical application, as operators prioritized investment in more advanced wireless technologies like UMTS and LTE.
Moreover, these newer technologies also targeted network coverage layers on low frequencies, further diminishing the potential advantages of Evolved EDGE.
Under the RTTI scheme, one data block is transmitted over two frames in two timeslots, reducing the latency of the air interface to 10 ms.
Once this time expires, it is considered lost, and subsequent data blocks may then be forwarded to upper layers.
Both uplink and downlink throughput is improved by using 16 or 32 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), along with turbo codes and higher symbol rates.
