GPRS Full Form

The commonly known GPRS full form is General Packet Radio System. Alternatively, GPRS also stands for General Packet Radio Services. It is a third-generation step towards internet access. GPRS is also known as GSM-IP that is a GPRS abbreviation for  Global System Mobile Communication Internet Protocol. It is a wireless data communication service for mobiles that is generated in the form of packets in order to enable communications for 2G, 3G and 4G cellular networks. It is non-voice in nature that has high-speed packets and often switching technologies that are suited for the GSM network. This has enabled the users of this system to present online on the go and enables them to make calls and track the locations while travelling to any part of the world.  

As GPRS stands for General Packet Radio System, it enables the time-division multiple access users to benefit from this service as it provides the packets of radio access. It is based on a modulation technique known as the Gaussian minimum shift key (GMSK). It provides the two core modules, namely, the gateway GPRS service notes (GGSN) and Serving GPRS service notes (SGSN) in order to enable the GPRS on the GSM and TDA network.

Function of GPRS

General Packet Radio System (GPRS full form) enables the connection on the basis of internet protocol that supports a wide variety of commercial applications as well as a variety of services. GPRS also permits the network operator to generate an internet protocol (IP) for integrated voice and data application based on the core architecture that will be continued to be used and expanded to 3G and now for 3G as well as 4G services as well. As GPRS also stands for General Packet Radio Services, it does not use any wired system as it acquires the network connection through packets of data as there on the internet. Thus the simple GPRS meaning suggests the packet radio principle that transports the user data packet of the GPRS system in a structural way between the GSM mobile station and external packet data network. The data packets are directly routed to the GPRS mobile stations that possess the packet-switched network. The current version of GPRS that is based on internet protocol supports X.25 networks.

Who Owns GPRS?

The simple GPRS meaning is General Packet Radio System that was suggested and written by a European Telecommunication Standard Institute. It is a European counterpart of the American National Standard Institute. 

Key Features of GPRS

There are three key features that describe the functionality of the wireless packet data:

1. The always-online feature has enabled everyone to access the internet at any point in time and on the go as it completely eradicates the dial-up system.

2. It is an upgrade to the existing system and thus the operators do not have to change the entire system with the upgradation of the infrastructure. In fact, GPRS automatically adds itself on top of the upgraded infrastructure of the network.

3.  It is an integral part of future 4G systems at present. It is basically a core data-packed network for CDMA and EDGE of 3G as well as 4G systems.

Goals of GPRS

GPRS is the first attempt towards end-to-end wireless networking that has incorporated the following goals:-

1. Consisting IP address

2. Open and secured architecture

3. The same infrastructure that supports different air interfaces

4. Integrated internet infrastructure that supports the telephony feature.

5. Ensure liberty for the industries that are investing in Internet protocol.

6. It allows service innovations that are independent of infrastructure.

Benefits of GPRS

1. High Data Rates: GPRS benefits the users by providing high data rates in a very less span of time. In a usual GSM system, the setup time of the network is itself a very lengthy process and the rate for the transmission of data is permitted to 9.6 Kbits/s. The session establishment time taken by the GPRS in practice is less than a second and the ISDN- line data transfer is ten times more than permitted by GSM and is few tens kilobytes per second.

Easy billing: the pack data transferred in GPRS offers a more easy billing method than that offered by circuit switch services. In the circuit switch services, the billing is based on the time duration of the connection established. This became unsuitable with the applications that witnessed an increase in the busty traffic of the network. Thus the users end up paying for the entire duration that the connection was established even if there were no packets of data transferred which is referred to as the idle time of the connection. In contrast to this with the establishment of the GPRS system, the new billing method is based on the amount of data transmission happening end-to-end. It has enabled the users to be online for a prolonged period of time and still pay for only the data that is transmitted.