Link Layer Simulation for 3G EDGE Air Interface
Neil McDonald, Monica Casado-Fernandez, Sen Lin Zhang · 2000
The prospect of a new generation of a high bit rate mobile technology without excessive additional expense on existing infrastructure has made network operators consider the possibility of technologies other than WCDMA. EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) is one of such technologies that provides an increased data rate over GSM by changing primarily the modulation scheme from GMSK to 8-PSK. However, this modulation scheme is more susceptible to noise and distortion due to the operating environments. This paper presents simulation results of the 3G EDGE air interface and shows its performance in various environmental conditions, ranging from 3GPP prescribed channel models to custom-designed worst case scenarios. The simulated curves for Bit Error Rate (BER) vs Carrier to Noise Ratio (CNR) show that EDGE is able to operate under most channel conditions specified in the 3GPP standards but suffers too high a BER when worst case models are used.