EGPRS2 Uplink Performance for GERAN Evolution

This paper presents a higher performance uplink concept for the evolution of GSM/EDGE radio access network (GERAN). The EGPRS2 UL concept can operate at 1.2 times the current GERAN symbol rate, and employ 4-, 16- and 32-QAM constellations, concatenated with convolutional codes. The interference introduced by the higher transmit signal bandwidth is mitigated by the use of interference rejection combining (IRC) receivers. We explore both noise and interference limited scenarios, in link and system level simulations. The simulation study shows that the user peak data rates can be increased up to 100%, and that the average throughput over practical signal to noise ratio (SNR) conditions can gain up to 50%. Therefore, coverage and user bit rates can be significantly improved without requiring additional radio frequency spectrum.