On the feasibility of video streaming applications over GPRS/EGPRS

Abstract

We present our investigation into the potential of the general packet radio service (GPRS) and enhanced GPRS (EGPRS) with respect to video streaming. Taking real video sequences as the basis for a video streaming load generator, the simulation tool GPRSim that comprises a prototypical implementation of the standardized GPRS/EDGE protocols has been extended. Results have been obtained for simulations of actual as well as future scenarios. Both fixed and on-demand packet data channel (PDCH) allocation techniques have been considered to carry the generated traffic which contains video streaming as part of a traffic mix additionally comprising e-mail and World Wide Web (WWW) traffic. The analysis of the traffic performance measurements shows the limited capacities of GPRS networks to carry real-time data. However, the simulation results also indicate that EGPRS, as the enhanced system, is able to be a bearer, on a limited scale, for real-time traffic.