One of the major limitations of second generation cellular communications
systems is that data can only be transferred after a
connection has been established. This is inefficient if only small
amount of data is transferred, and in situations where data
is transferred in bursts. 2.5G cellular systems allow
a mobile station to be "always-online" for sending and receiving
packet data. This allows efficient transfer of small amounts of
data, without the overhead of establishing a connection for each
transfer. It also efficiently supports bursty data transfers, avoiding the
need to allocate capacity to a connection that cannot be
reallocated by the network if the connection chooses not to
use it. The two major forms of 2.5G
enhancements to second-generation cellular systems are the General Packet Radio
Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE).
Other topics in our resources on CDMA related to 2.5G include: