2.1 Use of GPRS

The GPRS provides a set of GSM services for data transmission in packet mode within a PLMN. In packet-switched mode, no permanent connection is established between the mobile and the external network during data transfer. Instead, in circuit-switched mode, a connection is established during the transfer duration between the calling entity and the called entity. In packet-switched mode, data is transferred in data blocks, called packets. When the transmission of packets is needed, a channel is allocated, but it is released immediately after. This method increases the network capacity. Indeed, several users can share a given channel, since it is not allocated to a single user during an entire call period.

One of the main purposes of GPRS is to facilitate the interconnection between a mobile and the other packet-switched networks, which opens the doors to the world of the Internet. With the introduction of packet mode, mobile telephony and Internet converge to become mobile Internet technology. This technology introduced in mobile phones allows users to have access to new value-added services, including:

• Client-server services, which enable access to data stored in databases. The most famous example of this is access to the World Wide Web (WWW) through a browser.

• Messaging services, intended for user-to-user communication between individual users via storage servers for message handling. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is an example of a well-known messaging application.

• Real-time conversational services, which provide bidirectional communication in real-time. A number of Internet and multimedia applications...