Some of the discussions concerning the 8700 and data connection has peaked my curiousity. I'm having a hard time just trying out how to pose my questions so please bear with me.

My questions concern EDGE, edge, GPRS, gprs and GSM; redundancy; and how the blackberry reacts to changes. I understand tha GSM indicates No data connection with the Tower, gprs/edge indicates data connection with tower but no handshake with the RIM service, and EDGE/GPRS indicates complete service.

I guess the first question is, for a given tower, do edge and gprs use the same equipment, I.E. no data redundancy and if not, at what point in the backbone network does the data link merge. I also understand about switching between an edge Tower and a gprs tower when moving between Cells, but my concern is more about equipment problems.

Is it posible for a given tower to lose EDGE/edge and still have GPRS/gprs? If I'm on the border of the edge capable, connected to an edge tower (have EDGE indication) but within range of a gprs tower and the edge tower drops to GSM only, will my BB switch to the gprs tower and get a GPRS connection?

Does any of this make sense? You need to understand, I am a Reliability Engineer so redundancy problems interest me.

Thanks for your Help.
Rcbjr

Bumping back to first page once.

Thanks for your Help.
Rcbjr

One last bump, then I'll let I drop due to lack of interest.

Rcbjr

Here is some information: http://www.ericsson.com/technology/t...les/EDGE.shtml
A technology that gives GSM the capacity to handle services for the third generation of mobile telephony. EDGE provides three times the data capacity of GPRS. Using EDGE, operators can handle three times more subscribers than GPRS; triple their data rate per subscriber, or add extra capacity to their voice communications. EDGE uses the same TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) frame structure, logic channel and 200kHz carrier bandwidth as today's GSM networks, which allows existing cell plans to remain intact.

GPRS allows data rates of 115 kbps and,
theoretically, of up to 160 kbps on the physical layer.
EGPRS is capable of offering data rates of 384 kbps
and, theoretically, of up to 473.6 kbps. A new
modulation technique and error-tolerant transmission
methods, combined with improved link adaptation
mechanisms, make these EGPRS rates possible.
EDGE has. By adding the new modulation and coding
to GPRS and by making adjustments to the radio link
protocols, EGPRS offers significantly higher
throughput and capacity.


And here is a link to a 16 page white paper on it: http://www.ericsson.com/technology/w..._technical.pdf

As you can see they share the same base station equipment and it is also compatible with WCDMA so when people are experiencing loss of data it CAN have something to do with upgrade work being performed on the tower.

Enjoy!

Thanks John,

That's pretty much what I thought. Lose EDGE at the Tower, No GPRS either. At least that's the way I read this. Now, if we can determine the roll-over priorities, my curiousity will be satisfied, at least temporarily.

Thanks for your Help.
Rcbjr