6. Mobility management

Mobility management in a GPRS network [12] includes functions for registering and updating the mobile's location in the mobile network. To reduce signaling exchanges, mobility management procedures are combined between the GSM network and the GPRS part. Compared with basic GSM, the most important difference is the existence of routing area change procedures for the GPRS service, in addition to the traditional cell or location area changes.

What's more, the handover decision is made much more by the handset than in a GSM network, where the handset simply sends measurements back to the network, which makes the decision on its own.