Variable Bandwidth for GERAN Evolution with Regular Frequency Planning

The further evolution of GSM/EDGE radio access network (GERAN) is currently a subject to standardization in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The objectives include significant improvements on user data rates, spectral efficiency and coverage by avoiding concurrent impacts to the existing GSM networks. A variable bandwidth concept, a.k.a. dual symbol rate (DSR) is proposed to meet the demand for uplink enhancements, e.g. settled by camera phones. DSR doubles the modulation rate and user bit rate per radio time slot. It has overlapping transmission bands with regular GSM channel spacing. Numerical results are given to demonstrate possible DSR deployment to the existing networks. Spectral efficiency, coverage and user bit rates are shown to be significantly improved