Full Form of GPRS

What is GPRS Full Form?

GPRS full form is General Packet Radio Service.

What is General Packet Radio Service?

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet-switched cellular technologies. It is now maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).[1][2]

GPRS is typically sold according to the total volume of data transferred during the billing cycle, in contrast with circuit switched data, which is usually billed per minute of connection time, or sometimes by one-third minute increments. Usage above the GPRS bundled data cap may be charged per MB of data, speed limited, or disallowed.

GPRS is a best-effort service, implying variable throughput and latency that depend on the number of other users sharing the service concurrently, as opposed to circuit switching, where a certain quality of service (QoS) is guaranteed during the connection. In 2G systems, GPRS provides data rates of 56–114 kbit/sec.[3] 2G cellular technology combined with GPRS is sometimes described as 2.5G, that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile telephony.[4] It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time-division multiple access (TDMA) channels in, for example, the GSM system. GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases.

The general packet radio service(GPRS) allows packet data to be sent and received across a mobile network (GSM). GPRS can be considered an extension to the GSM network to provide 3G services. GPRS has been designed to allow users to connect to the Internet, and as such is an essential first step toward 3G networks for all mobile operations. In GPRS, TMSI is replaced by P-TMSI and P-TMSI signature as alternative identities. The HLR GPRS register maps between internet protocol (IP) addresses and IMSI.

GPRS security functionality is equivalent to the existing GSM security. Authentication and encryption setting procedures are based on the same algorithms, keys, and criteria as in GSM systems.

GPRS provides identity confidentiality to make it difficult to identify the user. This is achieved by using a temporary identity where possible. When possible, confidentiality also protects dialed digits and addresses. As in GSM, the device is authenticated by a challenge-response mechanism. This only verifies that the smart card within the device contains the correct key.

GPRS does not provide end-to-end security so there is a point where the data is vulnerable to eavesdropping or attack. If this point can be protected, e.g., in a physically secure location, this is not a problem. However, if end-to-end security is required, there are other standards that can be used over GPRS; such as the wireless application protocol (WAP) and Internet protocol security (IPSec).

In GPRS authentication is performed by serving GPRS support node (SGSN) instead of VLR. The encryption is not limited to radio part, but it is up to SGSN. An IP address is assigned after authentication and ciphering algorithm negotiation.