elements will continue to emerge that will expand services, fea- tures, and operations for our bursty data applications. GPRS also provides an added step toward third-generation (3G) net- works. GPRS will enable the network operators to implement IP-based core architecture for data applications. This will continue to proliferate new services and mark the steps to 3G services for integrated voice and data applications. What Is GPRS? As stated previously, GPRS stands for General (or generic) Packet Radio Service. GPRS extends the packet data capabilities of the GSM networks Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. GPRS Introduction GPRS Introduction from Packet Data on Signaling-channel Service (PDSS) to higher data rates and longer messages. For now, the use of GPRS shall be in the context of GPRS-GSM to distinguish it from the GPRS-136, the North American adop- tion of GPRS by the IS-136-based systems. GPRS is designed to coexist with the existing GSM Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN). It may be deployed as an overlay onto the existing GSM radio network. GPRS may also be implemented incrementally in specific geographic areas. An example of this GPRS radio access may be deployed in some cells of a GSM network, but perhaps not all. As the demand grows, coverage can be expanded. A net- work view of GPRS is shown generically in Figure 2-5. The GPRS network fits in with the existing GSM PLMN as well as the existing packet data networks. GPRS PLMN provides the wireless access to the wired packet data networks. GPRS shares resources between packet data services and other services on the GSM PLMN. GPRS PLMN also interworks with the Short Message Service (SMS) components to provide SMS over GPRS. The intent is to provide a seamless network infrastructure for operations and maintenance of the network. GPRS is a packet-based data bearer service 