Performance of streaming services in GERAN A/Gb mode

The ongoing growth of GSM users as well as the increasing availability of IP based real-time services leads to the necessity for enabling real-time services in GSM/EDGE radio access network (GERAN) A/Gb mode. In this paper, the performance of real-time services, specifically streaming services in GERAN A/Gb mode is evaluated by means of simulation and live network measurements. The most critical GERAN A/Gb mode procedures for the performance of streaming services are cell and routing area changes. This is due to data transfer interruptions, which cause delay variation and packet losses. The presented results show that streaming services are feasible in GERAN A/Gb mode and that the performance can be improved further with sizing of the client buffers according to the delay introduced by the cell/routing area change taking into account the effect of reduced radio quality at the cell border.