A frequency-hopping scheme for interference control in a GSM/GPRS network

The access time perceived by GPRS users in a GSM/GPRS network is severely affected by the interference condition of the radio channels. In this paper we propose and analyze a frequency-hopping scheme for interference control in GPRS channels. This scheme allows GPRS packets to overflow from interference-limited carrier channels to carrier channels with less or no interference. We have shown via numerical results that the overflow mechanism is efficient in reducing access time at interference-limited channels, with little adverse effect on the access time at interference-free channels, hence improving overall system performance.