Analyzing quality of service of GPRS network systems from a user's perspective

With reference to the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), an extension of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) addressing packet-oriented traffic, this paper contributes to the analysis of the service accomplishment level perceived by GPRS users. The proposed modeling approach builds separately the GPRS and user models; the focus is on the GPRS random access procedure on the one side, and different classes of user behavior on the other side. The overall model is composed of the basic submodels. Quantitative analysis, performed using a simulation approach, is carried out, showing the impact of users' characteristics and network load on identified indicators expressing the QoS as perceived by users.