An Information Theoretic Framework for Predictive Channel Reservation in GPRS Push-to-Talk Service

The wireless telecommunication industry is now slowly shifting the paradigm from circuit-switched voice-alone network to an integrated packet switched architecture. This will facilitate variety of new multimedia applications, in the same infrastructure, in a cost-efficient way. However, it is important to use the legacy 2.5G access systems as much as possible, to make the transition smooth. The recent industry-wide trend for push-totalk services in GPRS networks is a direct consequence of this emerging packet-switch services. In this paper, we propose such a packet-switched based architectural framework for efficient push-to-talk and data services in GPRS using low-bit-rate coding. The prime novelty and advantage of the framework lies in proposing new intelligent, advanced channel reservation techniques to reduce the voice packet delay. Subsequent use of packet-classification and packet assembly scheme aids in reducing the overhead associated with the media packet transfer. Our proposed framework results in more than 50% capacity gain over current GSM system using a silent detection mechanism.