"EDGE" redirects here. For other uses, see Edge (disambiguation).

Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) (also known as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS),
or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), or Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) is a digital mobile
phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension
of GSM. EDGE is considered a pre-3G radio technology and is part of ITU's 3G definition.
[1]
EDGE
was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003 initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United
States.
[2]

EDGE is standardized also by 3GPP as part of the GSM family. A variant, so called Compact-EDGE,
was developed for use in a portion of Digital AMPS network spectrum.
[3]

Through the introduction of sophisticated methods of coding and transmitting data, EDGE delivers
higher bit-rates per radio channel, resulting in a threefold increase in capacity and performance
compared with an ordinary GSM/GPRS connection.
EDGE can be used for any packet switched application, such as an Internet connection.
Evolved EDGE continues in Release 7 of the 3GPP standard providing reduced latency and more
than doubled performance e.g. to complement High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Peak bit-rates of
up to 1Mbit/s and typical bit-rates of 400kbit/s can be expected.
Contents
[hide]
1 Technology
o 1.1 Transmission techniques
o 1.2 EDGE modulation and coding scheme (MCS)
o 1.3 Evolved EDGE
2 Networks
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
Technology[edit]
EDGE/EGPRS is implemented as a bolt-on enhancement for 2.5G GSM/GPRS networks, making it
easier for existing GSM carriers to upgrade to it. EDGE is a superset to GPRS and can function on
any network with GPRS deployed on it, provided the carrier implements the necessary upgrade.
EDGE requires no hardware or software changes to be made in GSM core networks. EDGE-
compatible transceiver units must be installed and the base station subsystem needs to be upgraded
to support EDGE. If the operator already has this in place, which is often the case today, the network
can be upgraded to EDGE by activating an optional software feature. Today EDGE is supported by
all major chip vendors for both GSM and WCDMA/HSPA.
Transmission techniques[edit]
In addition to Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK), EDGE uses higher-order PSK/8 phase shift
keying (8PSK) for the upper five of its nine modulation and coding schemes. EDGE produces a 3-bit
word for every change in carrier phase. This effectively triples the gross data rate offered by GSM.
EDGE, like GPRS, uses a rate adaptation algorithm that adapts the modulation and coding scheme
(MCS) according to the quality of the radio channel, and thus the bit rate and robustness of data
transmission. It introduces a new technology not found in GPRS, Incremental Redundancy, which,
instead of retransmitting disturbed packets, sends more redundancy information to be combined in
the receiver. This increases the probability of correct decoding.
EDGE can carry a bandwidth up to 236 kbit/s (with end-to-end latency of less than 150 ms) for
4 timeslots (theoretical maximum is 473.6 kbit/s for 8 timeslots) in packet mode. This means it can
handle four times as much traffic as standard GPRS. EDGE meets the International
Telecommunications Union's requirement for a 3G network, and has been accepted by the ITU as
part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards.
[1]
It also enhances the circuit data mode called HSCSD,
increasing the data rate of this service.
EDGE modulation and coding scheme (MCS)[edit]
The channel encoding process in GPRS as well as EGPRS/EDGE consists of two steps: first, a
cyclic code is used to add parity bits, which are also referred to as the Block Check Sequence,
followed by coding with a possibly punctured convolutional code.
[4]
In GPRS, the Coding Schemes
CS-1 to CS-4 specify the number of parity bits generated by the cyclic code and the puncturing rate
of the convolutional code.
[4]
In GPRS Coding Schemes CS-1 through CS-3, the convolutional code is
of rate 1/2, i.e. each input bit is converted into two coded bits.
[4]
In Coding Schemes CS-2 and CS-3,
the output of the convolutional code is punctured to achieve the desired code rate.
[4]
In GPRS
Coding Scheme CS-4, no convolutional coding is applied.
[4]

In EGPRS/EDGE, the Modulation and Coding Schemes MCS-1 to MCS-9 take the place of the
Coding Schemes of GPRS, and additionally specify which modulation scheme is used, GMSK or
8PSK.
[4]
MCS-1 through MCS-4 use GMSK and have performance similar (but not equal) to GPRS,
while MCS-5 through MCS-9 use 8PSK.
[4]
In all EGPRS Modulation and Coding Schemes, a
convolutional code of rate 1/3 is used, and puncturing is used to achieve the desired code rate.
[4]
In
contrast to GRPS, the Radio Link Control(RLC) and Media Access Control (MAC) headers and the
payload data are coded separately in EGPRS.
[4]
The headers are coded more robustly than the
data.
[4]
The coding schemes are summarized in the tables below. Note that the bit rates do not
include the overhead incurred by channel coding and the RLC and MAC headers.
GPRS
Coding Scheme
Bit Rate
(kbit/s/slot)
Modulation Code Rate
CS-1 8.0 GMSK 1/2
CS-2 12.0 GMSK 2/3
CS-3 14.4 GMSK 3/4
CS-4 20.0 GMSK 1
EDGE Modulation and Coding
Scheme (MCS)
Bit Rate
(kbit/s/slot)
Modulation
Data
Code Rate
Header
Code Rate
MCS-1 8.8 GMSK 0.53 0.53
MCS-2 11.2 GMSK 0.66 0.53
MCS-3 14.8 GMSK 0.85 0.53
MCS-4 17.6 GMSK 1 0.53
MCS-5 22.4 8PSK 0.37 1/3
MCS-6 29.6 8PSK 0.49 1/3
MCS-7 44.8 8PSK 0.76 0.39
MCS-8 57.05 8PSK 0.92 0.39
MCS-9 61.85 8PSK 1 0.39
Evolved EDGE[edit]
Evolved EDGE improves on EDGE in a number of ways. Latencies are reduced by lowering
the Transmission Time Interval by half (from 20 ms to 10 ms). Bit rates are increased up to 1 Mbit/s
peak bandwidth and latencies down to 80 ms using dual carrier, higher symbol rate and higher-order
modulation (32QAM and 16QAM instead of 8PSK), and turbo codes to improve error correction. And
finally signal quality is improved using dual antennas improving average bit-rates and spectrum
efficiency. EDGE Evolution can be gradually introduced as software upgrades, taking advantage of
the installed base. With EDGE Evolution, end-users will be able to experience mobile internet
connections corresponding to a 500 kbit/s ADSL service.
[5]

Networks[edit]
See also: List of EDGE networks
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) states that,
[6]
as of May 2013, there were 604
GSM/EDGE networks in 213 countries, from a total of 606 mobile network operator commitments in
213 countries.

GSM
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see GSM (disambiguation).


The GSM logo is used to identify compatible handsets and equipment. The dots symbolize three clients in the home
network and one roaming client.
[1]

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spcial Mobile), is a
standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe
protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones. It is the de
facto global standard for mobile communications with over 90% market share, and is available in
over 219 countries and territories.
[2]

The GSM standard was developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular
networks, and originally described a digital, circuit-switched network optimized for full
duplex voice telephony. This was expanded over time to include data communications, first by
circuit-switched transport, then packet data transport via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services)
and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS).
Subsequently, the 3GPP developed third generation (3G) UMTS standards followed by fourth
generation (4G) LTE Advanced standards, which are not part of the ETSI GSM standard.
"GSM" is a trademark owned by the GSM Association. It may also refer to the initially most common
voice codec used, Full Rate.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Technical details
o 2.1 Network structure
o 2.2 Base station subsystem
2.2.1 GSM carrier frequencies
2.2.2 Voice codecs
o 2.3 Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
o 2.4 Phone locking
o 2.5 GSM service security
3 Standards information
4 GSM open-source software
o 4.1 Issues with patents and open source
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
History[edit]
In 1981, work began to develop a European standard for digital cellular voice telephony when
the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations(CEPT) created the
Groupe Spcial Mobile committee and later provided a permanent technical support group based
in Paris. Five years later, in 1987, 15 representatives from 13 European countries signed
a memorandum of understanding in Copenhagen to develop and deploy a common cellular
telephone system across Europe, and EU rules were passed to make GSM a mandatory
standard.
[3]
The decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open,
standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States.
[4][5][6][7]
In 1989, the Groupe
Spcial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications
Standards Institute(ETSI).
[5][6][6][7]

In 1987 Europe produced the very first agreed GSM Technical Specification in February. Ministers
from the four big EU countries cemented their political support for GSM with the Bonn Declaration on
Global Information Networks in May and the GSM MoU was tabled for signature in September. The
MoU drew-in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an
ambitious common date. It got GSM up and running fast.
In this short 37-week period the whole of Europe (countries and industries) had been brought behind
GSM in a rare unity and speed guided by four public officials Armin Silberhorn (Germany), Stephen
Temple (UK), Philippe Dupuis (France), and Renzo Failli (Italy).
[8]
In 1989 the Groupe Spcial Mobile
committee was transferred from CEPT to theEuropean Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI).
[6]

In parallel, France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined
by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986 the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz
spectrum band for GSM.
Phase I of the GSM specifications were published in 1990. The world's first GSM call was made by
the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri to Kaarina Suonio (mayor in city of Tampere) on July
1, 1991, on a network built by Telenokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja.
[9]
The following
year in 1992, the first short messaging service (SMS or "text message") message was sent
and Vodafone UK and Telecom Finland signed the first international roaming agreement.
Work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first
1800 MHz network became operational in the UK by 1993. Also that year, Telecom
Australia became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first
practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available.
In 1995, fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, the first 1900 MHz
GSM network became operational in the United States and GSM subscribers worldwide exceeded
10 million. Also this year, the GSM Association was formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were
launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998.
[6]

In 2000, the first commercial GPRS services were launched and the first GPRS compatible handsets
became available for sale. In 2001 the first UMTS (W-CDMA) network was launched, a 3G
technology that is not part of GSM. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002 the
first Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) were introduced and the first GSM network in the
800 MHz frequency band became operational. EDGE services first became operational in a network
in 2003 and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004.
[6]

By 2005, GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the worldwide cellular network market,
serving 1.5 billion subscribers. In 2005 the first HSDPA capable network also became operational.
The first HSUPA network was launched in 2007. High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and its uplink
and downlink versions are 3G technologies, not part of GSM. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded
three billion in 2008.
[6]

The GSM Association estimated in 2010 that technologies defined in the GSM standard serve 80%
of the global mobile market, encompassing more than 5 billion people across more than 212
countries and territories, making GSM the most ubiquitous of the many standards for cellular
networks.
[10]

It is important to note that GSM is a second-generation (2G) standard employing Time-Division
Multiple-Access (TDMA) spectrum-sharing, issued by the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI). The GSM standard does not include the 3G UMTS CDMA-based technology nor the
4G LTE OFDMA-based technology standards issued by the 3GPP.
[11]

Macau planned to phase out its 2G GSM networks as of June 4, 2015, making it the first region to
decommission a GSM network.
[12]

Technical details[edit]


The structure of a GSM network
Main article: GSM services
Network structure[edit]
The network is structured into a number of discrete sections:
Base Station Subsystem the base stations and their controllers explained
Network and Switching Subsystem the part of the network most similar to a fixed network,
sometimes just called the "core network"
GPRS Core Network the optional part which allows packet-based Internet connections
Operations support system (OSS) network maintenance
Base station subsystem[edit]
Main article: Base Station subsystem


GSM cell site antennas in theDeutsches Museum, Munich, Germany
GSM is a cellular network, which means that cell phones connect to it by searching for cells in the
immediate vicinity. There are five different cell sizes in a GSM networkmacro, micro, pico, femto,
and umbrella cells. The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation
environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base station antenna is installed on a
mast or a building above average rooftop level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under
average rooftop level; they are typically used in urban areas. Picocells are small cells whose
coverage diameter is a few dozen metres; they are mainly used indoors. Femtocells are cells
designed for use in residential or small business environments and connect to the service providers
network via a broadband internet connection. Umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of
smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage between those cells.
Cell horizontal radius varies depending on antenna height, antenna gain, and propagation conditions
from a couple of hundred metres to several tens of kilometres. The longest distance the GSM
specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi). There are also several
implementations of the concept of an extended cell,
[13]
where the cell radius could be double or even
more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain, and the timing advance.
Indoor coverage is also supported by GSM and may be achieved by using an indoor picocell base
station, or an indoor repeater with distributed indoor antennas fed through power splitters, to deliver
the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate indoor distributed antenna system.
These are typically deployed when significant call capacity is needed indoors, like in shopping
centers or airports. However, this is not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage is also provided by in-
building penetration of the radio signals from any nearby cell.
GSM carrier frequencies[edit]
Main article: GSM frequency bands
GSM networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency ranges (separated into GSM
frequency ranges for 2G and UMTS frequency bands for 3G), with most 2G GSM networks
operating in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Where these bands were already allocated, the
850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands were used instead (for example in Canada and the United States). In
rare cases the 400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries because they
were previously used for first-generation systems.
Most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100 MHz frequency band. For more information on
worldwide GSM frequency usage, see GSM frequency bands.
Regardless of the frequency selected by an operator, it is divided into timeslots for individual
phones. This allows eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency. These
eight radio timeslots (or burst periods) are grouped into a TDMA frame. Half-rate channels use
alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel data rate for all 8 channels is 270.833 kbit/s, and
the frame duration is 4.615 ms.
The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in GSM 850/900 and 1
watt in GSM 1800/1900.
Voice codecs[edit]
GSM has used a variety of voice codecs to squeeze 3.1 kHz audio into between 6.5 and 13 kbit/s.
Originally, two codecs, named after the types of data channel they were allocated, were used,
called Half Rate (6.5 kbit/s) and Full Rate (13 kbit/s). These used a system based on linear
predictive coding (LPC). In addition to being efficient withbitrates, these codecs also made it easier
to identify more important parts of the audio, allowing the air interface layer to prioritize and better
protect these parts of the signal.
As GSM was further enhanced in 1997
[14]
with the Enhanced Full Rate (EFR) codec, a 12.2 kbit/s
codec that uses a full-rate channel. Finally, with the development of UMTS, EFR was refactored into
a variable-rate codec called AMR-Narrowband, which is high quality and robust against interference
when used on full-rate channels, or less robust but still relatively high quality when used in good
radio conditions on half-rate channel.
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)[edit]
Main article: Subscriber Identity Module
One of the key features of GSM is the Subscriber Identity Module, commonly known as a SIM card.
The SIM is a detachable smart card containing the user's subscription information and phone book.
This allows the user to retain his or her information after switching handsets. Alternatively, the user
can also change operators while retaining the handset simply by changing the SIM. Some operators
will block this by allowing the phone to use only a single SIM, or only a SIM issued by them; this
practice is known as SIM locking.
Phone locking[edit]
Main article: SIM lock
Sometimes mobile network operators restrict handsets that they sell for use with their own network.
This is called locking and is implemented by a software feature of the phone. A subscriber may
usually contact the provider to remove the lock for a fee, utilize private services to remove the lock,
or use software and websites to unlock the handset themselves.
In some countries (e.g., Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Hong
Kong, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa) all phones are sold
unlocked. In others (e.g., Singapore) it is unlawful for operators to offer any form of subsidy on a
phone's price.
[15]

GSM service security[edit]
See also: UMTS security
GSM was designed with a moderate level of service security. The system was designed to
authenticate the subscriber using a pre-shared key and challenge-response. Communications
between the subscriber and the base station can be encrypted. The development
of UMTS introduces an optional Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), that uses a longer
authentication key to give greater security, as well as mutually authenticating the network and the
user, whereas GSM only authenticates the user to the network (and not vice versa). The security
model therefore offers confidentiality and authentication, but limited authorization capabilities, and
no non-repudiation.
GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security. The A5/1, A5/2, and A5/3 stream
ciphers are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy. A5/1 was developed first and is a stronger
algorithm used within Europe and the United States; A5/2 is weaker and used in other countries.
Serious weaknesses have been found in both algorithms: it is possible to break A5/2 in real-time
with a ciphertext-only attack, and in January 2007, The Hacker's Choice started the A5/1 cracking
project with plans to use FPGAs that allow A5/1 to be broken with a rainbow table attack.
[16]
The
system supports multiple algorithms so operators may replace that cipher with a stronger one.
On 28 December 2009 German computer engineer Karsten Nohl announced that he had cracked
the A5/1 cipher.
[17]
According to Nohl, he developed a number of rainbow tables(static values which
reduce the time needed to carry out an attack) and have found new sources for known plaintext
attacks. He also said that it is possible to build "a full GSM interceptor...from open-source
components" but that they had not done so because of legal concerns.
[18]
Nohl claimed that he was
able to intercept voice and text conversations by impersonating another user to listen to voicemail,
make calls, or send text messages using a seven-year-old Motorola cellphone and decryption
software available for free online.
[19]

New attacks have been observed that take advantage of poor security implementations,
architecture, and development for smartphone applications. Some wiretapping and eavesdropping
techniques hijack the audio input and output providing an opportunity for a third party to listen in to
the conversation.
[20]

GSM uses General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) for data transmissions like browsing the web. The
most commonly deployed GPRS ciphers were publicly broken in 2011.
[21]

The researchers revealed flaws in the commonly used GEA/1 and GEA/2 ciphers and published the
open-source "gprsdecode" software for sniffing GPRS networks. They also noted that some carriers
do not encrypt the data (i.e., using GEA/0) in order to detect the use of traffic or protocols they do
not like (e.g., Skype), leaving customers unprotected. GEA/3 seems to remain relatively hard to
break and is said to be in use on some more modern networks. If used with USIM to prevent
connections to fake base stations and downgrade attacks, users will be protected in the medium
term, though migration to 128-bit GEA/4 is still recommended.
Standards information[edit]
The GSM systems and services are described in a set of standards governed by ETSI, where a full
list is maintained.
[22]

GSM open-source software[edit]
Several open-source software projects exist that provide certain GSM features:
gsmd daemon by Openmoko
[23]

OpenBTS develops a Base transceiver station
The GSM Software Project aims to build a GSM analyzer for less than $1,000
[24]

OsmocomBB developers intend to replace the proprietary baseband GSM stack with a free
software implementation
[25]

Issues with patents and open source[edit]
Patents remain a problem for any open-source GSM implementation, because it is not possible for
GNU or any other free software distributor to guarantee immunity from all lawsuits by the patent
holders against the users. Furthermore new features are being added to the standard all the time
which means they have patent protection for a number of years.
[citation needed]

The original GSM implementations from 1991 may now be entirely free of patent encumbrances,
however patent freedom is not certain due to the United States' "first to invent" system that was in
place until 2012. The "first to invent" system, coupled with "patent term adjustment" can extend the
life of a U.S. patent far beyond 20 years from its priority date. It is unclear at this time
whether OpenBTS will be able to implement features of that initial specification without limit. As
patents subsequently expire, however, those features can be added into the open-source version.
As of 2011, there have been no lawsuits against users of OpenBTS over GSM use.
[citation needed]




Microwave
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the electromagnetic wave. For the cooking appliance, see Microwave oven. For
other uses, see Microwaves (disambiguation).


A telecommunications tower with a variety of dish antennas formicrowave relay links on Frazier Peak, Ventura
County, California.


The atmospheric attenuation of microwaves in dry air with a precipitable water vapor level of 0.001 mm. The
downward spikes in the graph correspond to frequencies at which microwaves are absorbed more strongly. The right
half of this graph includes the lower ranges of infrared by some standards
Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from as long as one
meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz (0.3 GHz)
and 300 GHz.
[1][2]
This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF (millimeter waves), and various
sources use different boundaries. In all cases, microwave includes the entire SHF band (3 to
30 GHz, or 10 to 1 cm) at minimum, with RF engineering often putting the lower boundary at 1 GHz
(30 cm), and the upper around 100 GHz (3 mm).
The prefix "micro-" in "microwave" is not meant to suggest a wavelength in the micrometer range. It
indicates that microwaves are "small" compared to waves used in typical radio broadcasting, in that
they have shorter wavelengths. The boundaries between far infrared light,terahertz radiation,
microwaves, and ultra-high-frequency radio waves are fairly arbitrary and are used variously
between different fields of study.
Microwave technology is extensively used for point-to-point telecommunications (i.e., non broadcast
uses). Microwaves are especially suitable for this use since they are more easily focused into
narrower beams than radio waves, allowing frequency reuse; their comparatively higher frequencies
allow broad bandwidth and high data transmission rates, and antenna sizes are smaller than at
lower frequencies because antenna size is inversely proportional to transmitted frequency.
Microwaves are used in spacecraft communication, and much of the world's data, TV, and telephone
communications are transmitted long distances by microwaves between ground stations
and communications satellites. Microwaves are also employed in microwave ovens and
in radar technology.
Beginning at about 40 GHz, the atmosphere becomes less transparent to microwaves, due at lower
frequencies to absorption from water vapor and at higher frequencies from oxygen. A spectral band
structure causes absorption peaks at specific frequencies (see graph at right). Above 100 GHz, the
absorption of electromagnetic radiation by Earth's atmosphere is so great that it is in effect opaque,
until the atmosphere becomes transparent again in the so-called infrared and optical
window frequency ranges.
The term microwave also has a more technical meaning in electromagnetics and circuit theory.
Apparatus and techniques may be described qualitatively as "microwave" when the frequencies
used are high enough that wavelengths of signals are roughly the same as the dimensions of the
equipment, so that lumped-element circuit theory is inaccurate. As a consequence, practical
microwave technique tends to move away from the discrete resistors, capacitors, and inductors used
with lower-frequency radio waves. Instead, distributed circuit elements and transmission-line theory
are more useful methods for design and analysis. Open-wire and coaxial transmission lines used at
lower frequencies are replaced by waveguides and stripline, and lumped-element tuned circuits are
replaced by cavity resonators or resonant lines. In turn, at even higher frequencies, where the
wavelength of the electromagnetic waves becomes small in comparison to the size of the structures
used to process them, microwave techniques become inadequate, and the methods of optics are
used.
Light comparison
Name Wavelength Frequency (Hz) Photon energy (eV)
Gamma ray less than 0.02 nm more than 15 EHz more than 62.1 keV
X-ray 0.01 nm 10 nm 30 EHz 30 PHz 124 keV 124 eV
Ultraviolet 10 nm 400 nm 30 PHz 750 THz 124 eV 3 eV
Visible 390 nm 750 nm 770 THz 400 THz 3.2 eV 1.7 eV
Infrared 750 nm 1 mm 400 THz 300 GHz 1.7 eV 1.24 meV
Microwave 1 mm 1 meter 300 GHz 300 MHz 1.24 meV 1.24 eV
Radio 1 m 100,000 km 300 MHz 3 Hz 1.24 eV 12.4 feV
Contents
[hide]
1 Microwave sources
2 Uses
o 2.1 Communication
o 2.2 Radar
o 2.3 Radio astronomy
o 2.4 Navigation
o 2.5 Heating and power application
o 2.6 Spectroscopy
3 Microwave frequency bands
4 Microwave frequency measurement
5 Effects on health
6 History and research
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Microwave sources[edit]


Stripline techniques become increasingly necessary at higher frequencies, as in this antenna splitter.
High-power microwave sources use specialized vacuum tubes to generate microwaves. These
devices operate on different principles from low-frequency vacuum tubes, using the ballistic motion
of electrons in a vacuum under the influence of controlling electric or magnetic fields, and include
the magnetron (used in microwave ovens), klystron, traveling-wave tube (TWT), and gyrotron. These
devices work in the density modulated mode, rather than the current modulated mode. This means
that they work on the basis of clumps of electrons flying ballistically through them, rather than using
a continuous stream of electrons.


Cutaway view inside a cavity magnetron as used in a microwave oven
Low-power microwave sources use solid-state devices such as the field-effect transistor (at least at
lower frequencies), tunnel diodes,Gunn diodes, and IMPATT diodes.
[3]
Low-power sources are
available as benchtop instruments, rackmount instruments, embeddable modules and in card-level
formats. A maser is a solid state device which amplifies microwaves using similar principles to
the laser, which amplifies higher frequency light waves.
All warm objects emit low level microwave black body radiation, depending on their temperature, so
in meteorology and remote sensingmicrowave radiometers are used to measure the temperature of
objects or terrain .
[4]
The sun
[5]
and other astronomical radio sources such as Cassiopeia A emit low
level microwave radiation which carries information about their makeup, which is studied by radio
astronomers using receivers called radio telescopes.
[4]
The cosmic microwave background
radiation (CMBR), for example, is a weak microwave noise filling empty space which is a major
source of information on cosmology's Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe.
Uses[edit]
Communication[edit]
Main articles: Point-to-point (telecommunications), Microwave transmission and Satellite
communications
Before the advent of fiber-optic transmission, most long-distance telephone calls were carried via
networks of microwave radio relay links run by carriers such as AT&T Long Lines. Starting in the
early 1950s, frequency division multiplex was used to send up to 5,400 telephone channels on each
microwave radio channel, with as many as ten radio channels combined into one antenna for
the hop to the next site, up to 70 km away.
Wireless LAN protocols, such as Bluetooth and the IEEE 802.11 specifications, also use microwaves
in the 2.4 GHz ISM band, although802.11a uses ISM band and U-NII frequencies in the 5 GHz
range. Licensed long-range (up to about 25 km) Wireless Internet Access services have been used
for almost a decade in many countries in the 3.54.0 GHz range. The FCC recently
[when?]
carved out
spectrum for carriers that wish to offer services in this range in the U.S. with emphasis on
3.65 GHz. Dozens of service providers across the country are securing or have already received
licenses from the FCC to operate in this band. The WIMAX service offerings that can be carried on
the 3.65 GHz band will give business customers another option for connectivity.
Metropolitan area network (MAN) protocols, such as WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access) are based on standards such as IEEE 802.16, designed to operate between 2 to
11 GHz. Commercial implementations are in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz ranges.
Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) protocols based on standards specifications such
as IEEE 802.20 or ATIS/ANSI HC-SDMA (such as iBurst) operate between 1.6 and 2.3 GHz to give
mobility and in-building penetration characteristics similar to mobile phones but with vastly greater
spectral efficiency.
[6]

Some mobile phone networks, like GSM, use the low-microwave/high-UHF frequencies around 1.8
and 1.9 GHz in the Americas and elsewhere, respectively. DVB-SH and S-DMBuse 1.452 to
1.492 GHz, while proprietary/incompatible satellite radio in the U.S. uses around 2.3 GHz for DARS.
Microwave radio is used in broadcasting and telecommunication transmissions because, due to their
short wavelength, highly directional antennas are smaller and therefore more practical than they
would be at longer wavelengths (lower frequencies). There is also more bandwidth in the microwave
spectrum than in the rest of the radio spectrum; the usable bandwidth below 300 MHz is less than
300 MHz while many GHz can be used above 300 MHz. Typically, microwaves are used in television
news to transmit a signal from a remote location to a television station from a specially equipped
van. See broadcast auxiliary service (BAS), remote pickup unit (RPU), and studio/transmitter
link (STL).
Most satellite communications systems operate in the C, X, Ka, or Ku bands of the microwave
spectrum. These frequencies allow large bandwidth while avoiding the crowded UHF frequencies
and staying below the atmospheric absorption of EHF frequencies. Satellite TV either operates in the
C band for the traditional large dish fixed satellite service or Kuband for direct-broadcast satellite.
Military communications run primarily over X or Ku-band links, with Ka band being used for Milstar.
Radar[edit]


Microwaves cannot be carried in ordinary transmission lines but requirewaveguide (metal pipe), like this example
from an air traffic control radar.
Radar uses microwave radiation to detect the range, speed, and other characteristics of remote
objects. Development of radar was accelerated during World War II due to its great military utility.
Now radar is widely used for applications such as air traffic control, weather forecasting, navigation
of ships, and speed limit enforcement.
A Gunn diode oscillator and waveguide are used as a motion detector for automatic door openers.
Radio astronomy[edit]


Atacama Large Millimeter Arrayuses microwaves to create images of the universe beyond clouds of dust and gas.
Most radio astronomy uses microwaves. Usually the naturally-occurring microwave radiation is
observed, but active radar experiments have also been done with objects in the solar system, such
as determining the distance to the Moon or mapping the invisible surface of Venus through cloud
cover.


Cosmic background radiation of theBig Bang mapped with increasing resolution
90)
Navigation[edit]
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) including the Chinese Beidou, the American Global
Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian GLONASS broadcast navigational signals in various
bands between about 1.2 GHz and 1.6 GHz.
Heating and power application[edit]
A microwave oven passes (non-ionizing) microwave radiation (at a frequency near 2.45 GHz)
through food, causing dielectric heatingprimarily by absorption of the energy in water. Microwave
ovens became common kitchen appliances in Western countries in the late 1970s, following
development of inexpensive cavity magnetrons. Water in the liquid state possesses many molecular
interactions that broaden the absorption peak. In the vapor phase, isolated water molecules absorb
at around 22 GHz, almost ten times the frequency of the microwave oven.
Microwave heating is used in industrial processes for drying and curing products.
Many semiconductor processing techniques use microwaves to generate plasma for such purposes
as reactive ion etching and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).
Microwave frequencies typically ranging from 110 140 GHz are used in stellarators and more
notably in tokamak experimental fusion reactors to help heat the fuel into a plasma state. The
upcoming ITER Thermonuclear Reactor
[7]
is expected to range from 110170 GHz and will employ
Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH).
[8]

Microwaves can be used to transmit power over long distances, and post-World War II research was
done to examine possibilities. NASA worked in the 1970s and early 1980s to research the
possibilities of using solar power satellite (SPS) systems with large solar arrays that would beam
power down to the Earth's surface via microwaves.
Less-than-lethal weaponry exists that uses millimeter waves to heat a thin layer of human skin to an
intolerable temperature so as to make the targeted person move away. A two-second burst of the
95 GHz focused beam heats the skin to a temperature of 130 F (54 C) at a depth of 1/64th of an
inch (0.4 mm). The United States Air Force and Marines are currently using this type of active denial
system.
[9]

Spectroscopy[edit]
Microwave radiation is used in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR or ESR) spectroscopy,
typically in the X-band region (~9 GHz) in conjunction typically with magnetic fields of 0.3 T. This
technique provides information on unpaired electrons in chemical systems, such as free
radicals or transition metal ions such as Cu(II). Microwave radiation is also used to perform rotational
spectroscopy and can be combined with electrochemistry as in microwave enhanced
electrochemistry.
Microwave frequency bands[edit]


Rough plot of Earth's atmospheric transmittance (or opacity) to various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
Microwaves are strongly absorbed at wavelengths shorter than about 1.5 cm (above 20 GHz) by water and other
molecules in the air.
The microwave spectrum is usually defined as electromagnetic energy ranging from approximately
1 GHz to 100 GHz in frequency, but older usage includes lower frequencies. Most common
applications are within the 1 to 40 GHz range. One set of microwave frequency bands designations
by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), is tabulated below:
ITU Radio Band Numbers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
ITU Radio Band Symbols
ELF SLF ULF VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF THF
NATO Radio bands
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
IEEE Radar bands
HF VHF UHF L S C X Ku K Ka V W mm
Television and radio bands
I II III IV V VI
v d e

Microwave frequency bands
Letter
Designation
Frequency range Wavelength range Typical uses
L band 1 to 2 GHz 15 cm to 30 cm
military telemetry, GPS, mobile phones (GSM),
amateur radio
S band 2 to 4 GHz 7.5 cm to 15 cm
weather radar, surface ship radar, and some
communications satellites (microwave ovens,
microwave devices/communications, radio
astronomy, mobile phones, wireless LAN,
Bluetooth, ZigBee, GPS, amateur radio)
C band 4 to 8 GHz 3.75 cm to 7.5 cm long-distance radio telecommunications
X band 8 to 12 GHz 25 mm to 37.5 mm
satellite communications, radar, terrestrial
broadband, space communications, amateur radio
Ku band 12 to 18 GHz 16.7 mm to 25 mm satellite communications
K band 18 to 26.5 GHz 11.3 mm to 16.7 mm
radar, satellite communications, astronomical
observations, automotive radar
Ka band 26.5 to 40 GHz 5.0 mm to 11.3 mm satellite communications
Q band 33 to 50 GHz 6.0 mm to 9.0 mm
satellite communications, terrestrial microwave
communications, radio astronomy, automotive
radar
40 to 60 GHz 5.0 mm to 7.5 mm
V band 50 to 75 GHz 4.0 mm to 6.0 mm
millimeter wave radar research and other kinds of
scientific research
W band 75 to 110 GHz 2.7 mm to 4.0 mm
satellite communications, millimeter-wave radar
research, military radar targeting and tracking
applications, and some non-military applications,
automotive radar
F band 90 to 140 GHz 2.1 mm to 3.3 mm
SHF transmissions: Radio astronomy, microwave
devices/communications, wireless LAN, most
modern radars, communications satellites, satellite
television broadcasting, DBS, amateur radio
D band 110 to 170 GHz 1.8 mm to 2.7 mm EHF transmissions: Radio astronomy, high-
frequency microwave radio relay, microwave
remote sensing, amateur radio, directed-energy
weapon, millimeter wave scanner
P band is sometimes used for Ku Band. "P" for "previous" was a radar band used in the UK ranging
from 250 to 500 MHz and now obsolete per IEEE Std 521, see
[10]
and.
[11][12]

When radars were first developed at K band during World War II, it was not realized that there was a
nearby absorption band (due to water vapor and oxygen at the atmosphere). to avoid this problem,
the original K band was split into a lower band, Ku, and upper band, Ka see.
[13]

Microwave frequency measurement[edit]


Wavemeter for measuring in the Kuband
Microwave frequency can be measured by either electronic or mechanical techniques.
Frequency counters or high frequency heterodyne systems can be used. Here the unknown
frequency is compared with harmonics of a known lower frequency by use of a low frequency
generator, a harmonic generator and a mixer. Accuracy of the measurement is limited by the
accuracy and stability of the reference source.
Mechanical methods require a tunable resonator such as an absorption wavemeter, which has a
known relation between a physical dimension and frequency.
In a laboratory setting, Lecher lines can be used to directly measure the wavelength on a
transmission line made of parallel wires, the frequency can then be calculated. A similar technique is
to use a slotted waveguide or slotted coaxial line to directly measure the wavelength. These devices
consist of a probe introduced into the line through a longitudinal slot, so that the probe is free to
travel up and down the line. Slotted lines are primarily intended for measurement of the voltage
standing wave ratio on the line. However, provided astanding wave is present, they may also be
used to measure the distance between the nodes, which is equal to half the wavelength. Precision of
this method is limited by the determination of the nodal locations.
Effects on health[edit]
Further information: Electromagnetic radiation and health and Microwave burn

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may
be challenged and removed. (March 2014)
Microwaves do not contain sufficient energy to chemically change substances by ionization, and so
are an example of non-ionizing radiation. The word "radiation" refers to energy radiating from a
source and not to radioactivity. It has not been shown conclusively that microwaves (or other non-
ionizing electromagnetic radiation) have significant adverse biological effects at low levels. Some,
but not all, studies suggest that long-term exposure may have a carcinogenic effect.
[14]
This is
separate from the risks associated with very high intensity exposure, which can cause heating and
burns like any heat source, and not a unique property of microwaves specifically.
During World War II, it was observed that individuals in the radiation path of radar installations
experienced clicks and buzzing sounds in response to microwave radiation. Thismicrowave auditory
effect was thought to be caused by the microwaves inducing an electric current in the hearing
centers of the brain.
[15]
Research by NASA in the 1970s has shown this to be caused by thermal
expansion in parts of the inner ear. In 1955 Dr. James Lovelock was able to reanimate rats frozen at
0 C using microwave diathermy.
[16]

When injury from exposure to microwaves occurs, it usually results from dielectric heating induced in
the body. Exposure to microwave radiation can produce cataracts by this mechanism, because the
microwave heating denatures proteins in the crystalline lens of the eye (in the same way that heat
turns egg whites white and opaque). The lens andcornea of the eye are especially vulnerable
because they contain no blood vessels that can carry away heat. Exposure to heavy doses of
microwave radiation (as from an oven that has been tampered with to allow operation even with the
door open) can produce heat damage in other tissues as well, up to and including serious burns that
may not be immediately evident because of the tendency for microwaves to heat deeper tissues with
higher moisture content.
History and research[edit]


Electromagnetic spectrum with visible light highlighted
The existence of radio waves was predicted by James Clerk Maxwell in 1864 from his equations. In
1888, Heinrich Hertz was the first to demonstrate the existence of radio waves by building a spark
gap radio transmitter that produced 450 MHz microwaves, in the UHF region. The equipment he
used was primitive, including a horse trough, a wrought iron point spark, and Leyden jars. He also
built the first parabolic antenna, using a zinc gutter sheet. In 1894 Indian radio pioneer Jagdish
Chandra Bose publicly demonstrated radio control of a bell using millimeter wavelengths, and
conducted research into the propagation of microwaves.
[17]

Perhaps the first, documented, formal use of the term microwave occurred in 1931:
"When trials with wavelengths as low as 18 cm were made known, there was undisguised
surprise that the problem of the micro-wave had been solved so soon." Telegraph &
Telephone Journal XVII. 179/1
In 1943, the Hungarian engineer Zoltn Bay sent ultra-short radio waves to the moon, which,
reflected from there, worked as a radar, and could be used to measure distance, as well as to
study the moon.
Perhaps the first use of the word microwave in an astronomical context occurred in 1946 in an
article "Microwave Radiation from the Sun and Moon" by Robert Dicke and Robert Beringer.
This same article also made a showing in the New York Times issued in 1951.
In the history of electromagnetic theory, significant work specifically in the area of microwaves
and their applications was carried out by researchers including:
Specific work on microwaves
Work carried out by Area of work
Barkhausen and Kurz Positive grid oscillators
Hull Smooth bore magnetron
Varian Brothers Velocity modulated electron beam klystron tube
Randall and Boot Cavity magnetron


1G
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see 1G (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may
be challenged and removed. (December 2006)
1G (or 1-G) refers to the first generation
of wireless telephone technology (mobile telecommunications). These are
the analog telecommunications standards that were introduced in the 1980s and continued until
being replaced by 2G digital telecommunications. The main difference between the two mobile
telephone systems (1G and 2G), is that the radio signals used by 1G networks are analog, while 2G
networks are digital.
Although both systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the
handsets) to the rest of the telephone system, the voice itself during a call is encoded to digital
signals in 2G whereas 1G is only modulated to higher frequency, typically 150 MHz and up. The
inherent advantages of digital technology over that of analog meant that 2G networks eventually
replaced them almost everywhere.
One such standard is NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone), used in Nordic
countries, Switzerland, Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Russia. Others include AMPS (Advanced
Mobile Phone System) used in the North America and Australia,
[1]
TACS (Total Access
Communications System) in the United Kingdom, C-450 in West Germany, Portugal and South
Africa, Radiocom 2000
[2]
in France, and RTMI in Italy. In Japan there were multiple systems. Three
standards, TZ-801, TZ-802, and TZ-803 were developed by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
Corporation
[3]
), while a competing system operated by DDI (Daini Denden Planning, Inc.
[4]
) used the
JTACS (Japan Total Access Communications System) standard.
1G speeds vary from that of a 28k modem (28kbit/s) to a 56k modem (56kbit/s).
[5]

Antecedent to 1G technology is the mobile radio telephone, or 0G.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
History[edit]
1G was an analog system, and was developed in the 70s, 1G had two major improvements, this
was the invention of the microprocessor, and the digital transform of the control link between the
phone and the cell site. 1G analog system for mobile communications saw two key improvements
during the 1970s: the invention of the microprocessor and the digitization of the control link between
the mobile phone and the cell site. Advance mobile phone system (AMPS) was first launched by the
US and is a 1G mobile system. Based on FDMA, it allows users to make voice calls in 1 country



2G
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from 2g)
For other uses, see 2G (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please
help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011)
2G (or 2-G) is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation 2G
cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard
inFinland by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Oyj) in 1991.
[1]
Three primary benefits of 2G networks over
their predecessors were that phone conversations were digitally encrypted; 2G systems were
significantly more efficient on the spectrum allowing for far greater mobile phone penetration levels;
and 2G introduced data services for mobile, starting with SMStext messages. 2G technologies
enabled the various mobile phone networks to provide the services such as text messages, picture
messages and MMS (multi media messages). All text messages sent over 2G are digitally
encrypted, allowing for the transfer of data in such a way that only the intended receiver can receive
and read it.
After 2G was launched, the previous mobile telephone systems were retrospectively dubbed 1G.
While radio signals on 1G networks are analog, radio signals on 2G networks aredigital. Both
systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of
the telephone system.
2G has been superseded by newer technologies such as 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G, and 4G; however, 2G
networks are still used in many parts of the world.
Contents
[hide]
1 2G technologies
2 Capacities, advantages, and disadvantages
o 2.1 Capacity
o 2.2 Disadvantages
o 2.3 Advantage
3 Evolution
o 3.1 2.5G (GPRS)
o 3.2 2.75G (EDGE)
4 See also
5 References
2G technologies[edit]
2G technologies can be divided into Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)-based and Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based standards depending on the type ofmultiplexing used. The
main 2G standards are:
GSM (TDMA-based), originally from Europe but used in almost all countries on all six inhabited
continents. Today accounts for over 80% of all subscribers around the world. Over 60 GSM
operators are also using CDMA2000 in the 450 MHz frequency band (CDMA450).
[2]

IS-95 aka cdmaOne (CDMA-based, commonly referred as simply CDMA in the US), used in the
Americas and parts of Asia. Today accounts for about 17% of all subscribers globally. Over a
dozen CDMA operators have migrated to GSM including operators in Mexico, India, Australia
and South Korea.
PDC (TDMA-based), used exclusively in Japan
iDEN (TDMA-based), proprietary network used by Nextel in the United States and Telus
Mobility in Canada
IS-136 a.k.a. D-AMPS (TDMA-based, commonly referred as simply 'TDMA' in the US), was once
prevalent in the Americas but most have migrated to GSM.
2G services are frequently referred as Personal Communications Service, or PCS, in the United
States.
Capacities, advantages, and disadvantages[edit]
Capacity[edit]
Using digital signals between the handsets and the towers increases system capacity in two key
ways:
Digital voice data can be compressed and multiplexed much more effectively than analog voice
encodings through the use of various codecs, allowing more calls to be transmitted in same
amount of radio bandwidth.
The digital systems were designed to emit less radio power from the handsets. This meant
that cells had to be smaller, so more cells had to be placed in the same amount of space. This
was possible because cell towers and related equipment had become less expensive.
2G Data Transmission Capacity:
[3]

With GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), you have a theoretical transfer speed of max. 50
kbit/s (40 kbit/s in practice).
With EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), you have a theoretical transfer speed of
max. 250 kbit/s (150 kbit/s in practice).
Disadvantages[edit]
In less populous areas, the weaker digital signal transmitted by a cellular phone may not be
sufficient to reach a cell tower. This tends to be a particular problem on 2G systems deployed on
higher frequencies, but is mostly not a problem on 2G systems deployed on lower frequencies.
National regulations differ greatly among countries which dictate where 2G can be deployed.
Analog has a smooth decay curve, but digital has a jagged steppy one. This can be both an
advantage and a disadvantage. Under good conditions, digital will sound better. Under slightly
worse conditions, analog will experience static, while digital has occasional dropouts. As
conditions worsen, though, digital will start to completely fail, by dropping calls or being
unintelligible, while analog slowly gets worse, generally holding a call longer and allowing at
least some of the audio transmitted to be understood.
Advantage[edit]
While digital calls tend to be free of static and background noise, the lossy compression they
use reduces their quality, meaning that the range of sound that they convey is reduced. Talking
on a digital cell phone, a caller hears less of the tonality of someone's voice.
[citation needed]

Evolution[edit]
2G networks were built mainly for voice services and slow data transmission (defined in IMT-
2000 specification documents), but are considered by the general public to be 2.5G or 2.75G
services because they are several times slower than present-day 3G service.
2.5G (GPRS)[edit]
2.5G ("second and a half generation") is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a
packet-switched domain in addition to the circuit-switched domain. It does not necessarily provide
faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit-switched data services (HSCSD) as
well. The first major step in the evolution of GSM networks to 3G occurred with the introduction of
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). CDMA2000 networks similarly evolved through the intro
2.75G (EDGE)[edit]
GPRS1 networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced
Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC)
is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission
rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in
2003initially by AT&T in the United States.
EDGE is standardized by 3GPP as part of the GSM family and it is an upgrade that provides a
potential three-fold increase in capacity of GSM/GPRS network

3G
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see 3G (disambiguation).

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please
help improve this article to make it understandable to non-experts, without
removing the technical details. The talk page may contain suggestions. (October
2011)
3G, short form of third Generation, is the third generation of mobile telecommunications
technology.
[1]
This is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile
telecommunications use services and networks that comply with the International Mobile
Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication
Union.
[2]
3G finds application in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed
wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV.
3G telecommunication networks support services that provide an information transfer rate of at least
200 kbit/s. Later 3G releases, often denoted 3.5G and 3.75G, also providemobile broadband access
of several Mbit/s to smartphones and mobile modems in laptop computers. This ensures it can be
applied to wireless voice telephony, mobile Internetaccess, fixed wireless Internet access, video
calls and mobile TV technologies.
A new generation of cellular standards has appeared approximately every tenth year
since 1G systems were introduced in 1981/1982. Each generation is characterized by new
frequency bands, higher data rates and nonbackward-compatible transmission technology. The first
release of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard does not completely fulfill the ITU 4G
requirements called IMT-Advanced. First release LTE is not backward-compatible with 3G, but is a
pre-4G or 3.9G technology,
[citation needed]
however sometimes branded 4G by the service providers. Its
evolution LTE Advanced is a 4G technology. WiMAX is another technology verging on or marketed
as 4G.
Contents
[hide]
1 Overview
o 1.1 Break-up of 3G systems
2 History
3 Adoption
o 3.1 Market penetration
4 Patents
5 Features
o 5.1 Data rates
o 5.2 Security
o 5.3 Applications of 3G
6 Evolution
7 See also
8 References
Overview[edit]
Several telecommunications companies market wireless mobile Internet services as 3G, indicating
that the advertised service is provided over a 3G wireless network. Services advertised as 3G are
required to meet IMT-2000 technical standards, including standards for reliability and speed (data
transfer rates). To meet the IMT-2000 standards, a system is required to provide peak data rates of
at least 200 kbit/s (about 0.2 Mbit/s). However, many services advertised as 3G provide higher
speed than the minimum technical requirements for a 3G service. Recent 3G releases, often
denoted 3.5G and 3.75G, also provide mobile broadband access of
several Mbit/s to smartphones and mobile modemsin laptop computers.
The following standards are typically branded 3G:
the UMTS system, first offered in 2001, standardized by 3GPP, used primarily in Europe, Japan,
China (however with a different radio interface) and other regions predominated
by GSM 2G system infrastructure. The cell phones are typically UMTS and GSM hybrids.
Several radio interfaces are offered, sharing the same infrastructure:
The original and most widespread radio interface is called W-CDMA.
The TD-SCDMA radio interface was commercialized in 2009 and is only offered in China.
The latest UMTS release, HSPA+, can provide peak data rates up to 56 Mbit/s in the
downlink in theory (28 Mbit/s in existing services) and 22 Mbit/s in the uplink.
the CDMA2000 system, first offered in 2002, standardized by 3GPP2, used especially in North
America and South Korea, sharing infrastructure with the IS-95 2G standard. The cell phones
are typically CDMA2000 and IS-95 hybrids. The latest release EVDO Rev B offers peak rates of
14.7 Mbit/s downstream.
The above systems and radio interfaces are based on spread spectrum radio transmission
technology. While the GSM EDGE standard ("2.9G"), DECT cordless phones andMobile
WiMAX standards formally also fulfill the IMT-2000 requirements and are approved as 3G standards
by ITU, these are typically not branded 3G, and are based on completely different technologies.
The following common standards comply with the IMT2000/3G standard:
EDGE, a revision by the 3GPP organization to the older 2G GSM based transmission methods,
utilizing the same switching nodes, base station sites and frequencies as GPRS, but new base
station and cellphone RF circuits. It is based on the three times as efficient 8PSK modulation
scheme as supplement to the original GMSK modulation scheme. EDGE is still used extensively
due to its ease of upgrade from existing 2G GSM infrastructure and cell-phones.
EDGE combined with the GPRS 2.5G technology is called EGPRS, and allows peak data
rates in the order of 200 kbit/s, just as the original UMTS WCDMA versions, and thus
formally fulfills the IMT2000 requirements on 3G systems. However, in practice EDGE is
seldom marketed as a 3G system, but a 2.9G system. EDGE shows slightly better system
spectral efficiency than the original UMTS and CDMA2000 systems, but it is difficult to reach
much higher peak data rates due to the limited GSM spectral bandwidth of 200 kHz, and it is
thus a dead end.
EDGE was also a mode in the IS-135 TDMA system, today ceased.
Evolved EDGE, the latest revision, has peaks of 1 Mbit/s downstream and 400 kbit/s
upstream, but is not commercially used.
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, created and revised by the 3GPP. The
family is a full revision from GSM in terms of encoding methods and hardware, although some
GSM sites can be retrofitted to broadcast in the UMTS/W-CDMA format.
W-CDMA is the most common deployment, commonly operated on the 2,100 MHz band. A
few others use the 850, 900 and 1,900 MHz bands.
HSPA is an amalgamation of several upgrades to the original W-CDMA standard and
offers speeds of 14.4 Mbit/s down and 5.76 MBit/s up. HSPA is backward-compatible
with and uses the same frequencies as W-CDMA.
HSPA+, a further revision and upgrade of HSPA, can provide theoretical peak data
rates up to 168 Mbit/s in the downlink and 22 Mbit/s in the uplink, using a combination of
air interface improvements as well as multi-carrier HSPA and MIMO. Technically
though, MIMO and DC-HSPA can be used without the "+" enhancements of HSPA+
The CDMA2000 system, or IS-2000, including CDMA2000 1x and CDMA2000 High Rate Packet
Data (or EVDO), standardized by 3GPP2 (differing from the 3GPP), evolving from the original
IS-95 CDMA system, is used especially in North America, China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South
Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.
[3]

CDMA2000 1x Rev. E has an increased voice capacity (in excess of three times) compared
to Rev. 0 EVDO Rev. B offers downstream peak rates of 14.7 Mbit/s while Rev. C enhanced
existing and new terminal user experience.
While DECT cordless phones and Mobile WiMAX standards formally also fulfill the IMT-2000
requirements, they are not usually considered due to their rarity and unsuitability for usage with
mobile phones.
Break-up of 3G systems[edit]
The 3G (UMTS and CDMA2000) research and development projects started in 1992. In 1999, ITU
approved five radio interfaces for IMT-2000 as a part of the ITU-R M.1457
Recommendation; WiMAX was added in 2007.
[4]

There are evolutionary standards (EDGE and CDMA) that are backward-compatible extensions to
pre-existing 2G networks as well as revolutionary standards that require all-new network hardware
and frequency allocations. The cell phones utilise UMTS in combination with 2G GSM standards and
bandwidths, but do not support EDGE.
[5]
The latter group is the UMTS family, which consists of
standards developed for IMT-2000, as well as the independently developed standards DECT and
WiMAX, which were included because they fit the IMT-2000 definition.
Overview of 3G/IMT-2000 standards
[6]

ITU IMT-2000 compliant
standards
common name(s)
bandwidth of
data
pre-4Gupgrade duplex channel description historical areas
TDMA Single-Carrier (IMT-SC) EDGE (UWC-136) EDGE Evolution
likely
discontinued
FDD
TDMA evolutionary upgrade toGSM/GPRS
[nb 1]

worldwide, except Japan and
South Korea
CDMA Multi-Carrier (IMT-MC) CDMA2000 EV-DO UMB
[nb 2]

CDMA
evolutionary upgrade to cdmaOne(IS-95) Americas, Asia, some others
CDMA Direct Spread (IMT-DS) UMTS
[nb 3]
W-CDMA
[nb 4]
HSPA LTE worldwide
CDMA TDD (IMT-TC)
TD-CDMA
[nb 5]

TDD
family of revolutionary upgrades to
earlier GSM family.
Europe
TD-SCDMA
[nb 6]
Mainland China only
FDMA/TDMA (IMT-FT) DECT none FDMA/TDMA short-range; standard for cordless phones Europe, US, Canada
IP-OFDMA WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) OFDMA
worldwide, except mainland
China
1. Jump up^ Can also be used as an upgrade to PDC or D-AMPS.
2. Jump up^ development halted in favour of LTE.
[7]

3. Jump up^ also known as FOMA;
[8]
UMTS is the common name for a standard that encompasses
multiple air interfaces.
4. Jump up^ also known as UTRA-FDD; W-CDMA is sometimes used as a synonym for UMTS,
ignoring the other air interface options.
[8]

5. Jump up^ also known as UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps high chip rate (HCR)
6. Jump up^ also known as UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate (LCR)
While EDGE fulfills the 3G specifications, most GSM/UMTS phones report EDGE ("2.75G") and
UMTS ("3G") functionality.
History[edit]
3G technology is the result of research and development work carried out by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) in the early 1980s. 3G specifications and standards were developed
in fifteen years. The technical specifications were made available to the public under the name IMT-
2000. The communication spectrum between 400 MHz to 3 GHz was allocated for 3G. Both the
government and communication companies approved the 3G standard.
[9]
The first pre-commercial
3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1998,
[10]
branded as FOMA. It was first
available in May 2001 as a pre-release (test) of W-CDMA technology.
[11]
The first commercial launch
of 3G was also by NTT DoCoMo in Japan on 1 October 2001, although it was initially somewhat
limited in scope;
[12][13]
broader availability of the system was delayed by apparent concerns over its
reliability.
[14]

The first European pre-commercial network was an UMTS network on the Isle of Man by Manx
Telecom, the operator then owned by British Telecom, and the first commercial network (also UMTS
based W-CDMA) in Europe was opened for business by Telenor in December 2001 with no
commercial handsets and thus no paying customers.
The first network to go commercially live was by SK Telecom in South Korea on the CDMA-
based 1xEV-DO technology in January 2002. By May 2002 the second South Korean 3G network
was by KT on EV-DO and thus the South Koreans were the first to see competition among 3G
operators.
The first commercial United States 3G network was by Monet Mobile Networks, on CDMA2000 1x
EV-DO technology, but this network provider later shut down operations. The second 3G network
operator in the USA was Verizon Wireless in July 2002 also on CDMA2000 1x EV-DO.
[15]
AT&T
Mobility is also a true 3G UMTS network, having completed its upgrade of the 3G network
to HSUPA.
The first pre-commercial demonstration network in the southern hemisphere was built in Adelaide,
South Australia by m.Net Corporation in February 2002 using UMTS on 2,100 MHz. This was a
demonstration network for the 2002 IT World Congress. The first commercial 3G network was
launched by Hutchison Telecommunications branded asThree or "3" in June 2003.
[16]

Emtel launched the first 3G network in Africa.
Adoption[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may
be challenged and removed. (March 2012)
See also: 3G adoption
3G was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same
radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely
new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to
the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required
the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment,
many carriers were not able to or delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.
In December 2007, 190 3G networks were operating in 40 countries and 154 HSDPA networks were
operating in 71 countries, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). In Asia,
Europe, Canada and the USA, telecommunication companies use W-CDMA technology with the
support of around 100 terminal designs to operate 3G mobile networks.
Roll-out of 3G networks was delayed in some countries by the enormous costs of additional
spectrum licensing fees. (See Telecoms crash.) The license fees in some European countries
were particularly high, bolstered by government auctions of a limited number of licenses and sealed
bid auctions, and initial excitement over 3G's potential.
The 3G standard is perhaps well known because of a massive expansion of the mobile
communications market post-2G and advances of the consumer mophone. An especially notable
development during this time is the smartphone (for example, the iPhone, and the Android family),
combining the abilities of a PDA with a mobile phone, leading to widespread demand for mobile
internet connectivity. 3G has also introduced the term "mobile broadband" because its speed and
capability make it a viable alternative for internet browsing, and USB Modems connecting to 3G
networks are becoming increasingly common.
Market penetration[edit]
By June 2007, the 200 millionth 3G subscriber had been connected. This is only 6.7% of the 3 billion
mobile phone subscriptions worldwide. (When counting CDMA2000 1x RTT customersmax bitrate
72% of the 200kbit/s which defines 3Gthe total size of the nearly-3G subscriber base was 475
million as of June 2007, which was 15.8% of all subscribers worldwide.) In the countries where 3G
was launched first Japan and South Korea 3G penetration is over 70%.
[17]
In Europe the leading
country
[when?]
for 3G penetration is Italy with a third of its subscribers migrated to 3G. Other leading
countries
[when?]
for 3G use include UK, Austria, Australia and Singapore at the 20% migration level.
According to ITU estimates,
[18]
as of Q4 2012 there were 2096 million active mobile-
broadband
[vague]
subscribers worldwide out of a total of 6835 million subscribersthis is just over
30%. About half the mobile-broadband subscriptions are for subscribers in developed nations, 934
million out of 1600 million total, well over 50%. Note however that there is a distinction between a
phone with mobile-broadband connectivity and a smart phone with a large display and so on
although according
[19]
to the ITU and informatandm.com the USA has 321 million mobile
subscriptions, including 256 million that are 3G or 4G, which is both 80% of the subscriber base and
80% of the USA population, according
[18]
to ComScore just a year earlier in Q4 2011 only about
42% of people surveyed in the USA reported they owned a smart phone. In Japan, 3G penetration
was similar at about 81%, but smart phone ownership was lower at about 17%.
[18]

Patents[edit]
It has been estimated that there are almost 8,000 patents declared essential (FRAND) related to the
483 technical specifications which form the 3GPP and 3GPP2standards.
[20][21]
Twelve companies
accounted in 2004 for 90% of the patents (Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Philips, NTT
DoCoMo, Siemens, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, Hitachi,InterDigital, and Matsushita).
Even then, some patents essential to 3G might have not been declared by their patent holders. It is
believed that Nortel and Lucent have undisclosed patents essential to these standards.
[21]

Furthermore, the existing 3G Patent Platform Partnership pool has little impact
on FRAND protection, because it excludes the four largest patents owners for 3G.
[22][23]

Features[edit]
Data rates[edit]
ITU has not provided a clear
[citation needed][vague]
definition of the data rate users can expect from 3G
equipment or providers. Thus users sold 3G service may not be able to point to a standard and say
that the rates it specifies are not being met. While stating in commentary that "it is expected that
IMT-2000 will provide higher transmission rates: a minimum data rate of 2 Mbit/s for stationary or
walking users, and 384 kbit/s in a moving vehicle,"
[24]
the ITU does not actually clearly specify
minimum required rates, nor required average rates, nor what modes
[clarification needed]
of the interfaces
qualify as 3G, so various
[vague]
data rates are sold as '3G' in the market. Compare with 3.5G and 4G.
In India, 3G is defined by telecom service providers as minimum 2 Mbit/s to maximum 28 Mbit/s.
[25]

Security[edit]
See also: Mobile_security Attacks_based_on_the_GSM_networks
3G networks offer greater security than their 2G predecessors. By allowing the UE (User Equipment)
to authenticate the network it is attaching to, the user can be sure the network is the intended one
and not an impersonator. 3G networks use the KASUMI block cipher instead of the
older A5/1 stream cipher. However, a number of serious weaknesses in the KASUMI cipher have
been identified.
[26]

In addition to the 3G network infrastructure security, end-to-end security is offered when application
frameworks such as IMS are accessed, although this is not strictly a 3G property.
Applications of 3G[edit]
The bandwidth and location information available to 3G devices gives rise to applications not
previously available to mobile phone users. Some of the applications are:
Mobile TV
Video on demand
Video Conferencing
Telemedicine
Location-based services
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Evolution[edit]
Both 3GPP and 3GPP2 are working on extensions to 3G standard that are based on an all-IP
network infrastructure and using advanced wireless technologies such as MIMO. These
specifications already display features characteristic for IMT-Advanced (4G), the successor of 3G.
However, falling short of the bandwidth requirements for 4G (which is 1 Gbit/s for stationary and 100
Mbit/s for mobile operation), these standards are classified as 3.9G or Pre-4G.
3GPP plans to meet the 4G goals with LTE Advanced, whereas Qualcomm has halted development
of UMB in favour of the LTE family.
[7]

On 14 December 2009, Telia Sonera announced in an official press release that "We are very proud
to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services."
[27]
With the launch of their
LTE network, initially they are offering pre-4G (or beyond 3G) services in Stockholm, Sweden and
Oslo, Norway.


4G
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the mobile telecommunications standard. For other uses, see 4G
(disambiguation).

[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
The lead section of this article may need to be rewritten. (March 2013)
This article is outdated. (March 2013)
This article needs attention from an expert on the subject. (March 2013)


4G, short for fourth generation, is the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology,
succeeding 3G and preceding 5G. A 4G system, in addition to the usual voice and other services of
3G, provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless
modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices. Even though 4G is a successor technology
of 3G, there can be signification issues on 3G network to upgrade to 4G as many of them were not
built on forward compatibility. Conceivable applications include amended mobile web access, IP
telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D television, and cloud
computing.
Two 4G candidate systems are commercially deployed: the Mobile WiMAX standard (first used in
South Korea in 2006), and the first-release Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard (in Oslo, Norway
and Stockholm, Sweden since 2009). It has however been debated if these first-release versions
should be considered to be 4G or not, as discussed in thetechnical definition section below.
In the United States, Sprint (previously Clearwire) has deployed Mobile WiMAX networks since
2008, and MetroPCS was the first operator to offer LTE service in 2010. USB wireless modems have
been available since the start, while WiMAX smartphones have been available since 2010, and LTE
smartphones since 2011. Equipment made for different continents is not always compatible,
because of different frequency bands. Mobile WiMAX is currently (April 2012) not available for the
European market.
Contents
[hide]
1 Technical understanding
2 Background
3 IMT-Advanced requirements
4 System standards
o 4.1 IMT-2000 compliant 4G standards
4.1.1 LTE Advanced
4.1.2 IEEE 802.16m or WirelessMAN-Advanced
o 4.2 Forerunner versions
4.2.1 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)
4.2.2 Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e)
4.2.3 TD-LTE for China market
o 4.3 Discontinued candidate systems
4.3.1 UMB (formerly EV-DO Rev. C)
4.3.2 Flash-OFDM
4.3.3 iBurst and MBWA (IEEE 802.20) systems
5 Data rate comparison
6 Principal technologies in all candidate systems
o 6.1 Key features
o 6.2 Multiplexing and access schemes
o 6.3 IPv6 support
o 6.4 Advanced antenna systems
o 6.5 Open-wireless Architecture and Software-defined radio (SDR)
7 History of 4G and pre-4G technologies
o 7.1 Deployment plans
7.1.1 Afghanistan
7.1.2 Africa
7.1.3 Australia
7.1.4 Austria
7.1.5 Belgium
7.1.6 Brazil
7.1.7 Canada
7.1.8 Fiji
7.1.9 France
7.1.10 Germany
7.1.11 Greenland
7.1.12 India
7.1.13 Indonesia
7.1.14 Ireland
7.1.15 Italy
7.1.16 Kazakhstan
7.1.17 Malta
7.1.18 Middle East
7.1.19 The Netherlands
7.1.20 New Zealand
7.1.21 Norway
7.1.22 Pakistan
7.1.23 Philippines
7.1.24 Poland
7.1.25 Romania
7.1.26 Russian Federation
7.1.27 Scandinavia
7.1.28 Slovakia
7.1.29 Slovenia
7.1.30 Spain
7.1.31 South Korea
7.1.32 Sri Lanka
7.1.33 Switzerland
7.1.34 Thailand
7.1.35 Turkmenistan
7.1.36 United Kingdom
7.1.37 United States
8 Beyond 4G research
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
Technical understanding[edit]
In March 2008, the International Telecommunications Union-Radio communications sector (ITU-R)
specified a set of requirements for 4G standards, named the International Mobile
Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) specification, setting peak speed requirements for
4G service at 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s) for high mobility communication (such as from trains
and cars) and 1 gigabit per second (Gbit/s) for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and
stationary users).
Since the first-release versions of Mobile WiMAX and LTE support much less than 1 Gbit/s peak bit
rate, they are not fully IMT-Advanced compliant, but are often branded 4G by service providers. On
December 6, 2010, ITU-R recognized that these two technologies, as well as other beyond-3G
technologies that do not fulfill the IMT-Advanced requirements, could nevertheless be considered
"4G", provided they represent forerunners to IMT-Advanced compliant versions and "a substantial
level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation
systems now deployed".
Mobile WiMAX Release 2 (also known as WirelessMAN-Advanced or IEEE 802.16m') and LTE
Advanced (LTE-A) are IMT-Advanced compliant backwards compatible versions of the above two
systems, standardized during the spring 2011,
[citation needed]
and promising speeds in the order of
1 Gbit/s. Services are expected in 2013.
As opposed to earlier generations, a 4G system does not support traditional circuit-
switched telephony service, but all-Internet Protocol (IP) based communication such as IP
telephony. As seen below, the spread spectrum radio technology used in 3G systems, is abandoned
in all 4G candidate systems and replaced by OFDMA multi-carriertransmission and other frequency-
domain equalization (FDE) schemes, making it possible to transfer very high bit rates despite
extensive multi-path radio propagation (echoes). The peak bit rate is further improved by smart
antenna arrays for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications.
The term "generation" used to name successive evolutions of radio networks in general is arbitrary.
There are several interpretations, and no official definition has been made despite the consensus
behind ITU-R's labels. From ITU-R's point of view, 4G is equivalent to IMT-Advanced which has
specific performance requirements as explained below. According to operators, a generation of
network refers to the deployment of a new non-backward-compatible technology. The end user
expects the next generation of network to provide better performance and connectivity than the
previous generation. Meanwhile, GSM, UMTS and LTE networks coexist; and end-users will only
receive the benefit of the new generation architecture when they simultaneously: use an access
device compatible with the new infrastructure, are within range of the new infrastructure, and pay the
provider for access to that new infrastructure.
Background[edit]
The nomenclature of the generations generally refers to a change in the fundamental nature of the
service, non-backwards-compatible transmission technology, higher peak bit rates, new frequency
bands, wider channel frequency bandwidth in Hertz, and higher capacity for many simultaneous data
transfers (higher system spectral efficiency inbit/second/Hertz/site).
New mobile generations have appeared about every ten years since the first move from 1981 analog
(1G) to digital (2G) transmission in 1992. This was followed, in 2001, by 3G multi-media
support, spread spectrum transmission and at least 200 kbit/s peak bit rate, in 2011/2012 expected
to be followed by "real" 4G, which refers to all-Internet Protocol (IP)packet-switched networks giving
mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access.
While the ITU has adopted recommendations for technologies that would be used for future global
communications, they do not actually perform the standardization or development work themselves,
instead relying on the work of other standards bodies such as IEEE, The WiMAX Forum and 3GPP.
In mid-1990s, the ITU-R standardization organization released the IMT-2000 requirements as a
framework for what standards should be considered 3G systems, requiring 200 kbit/s peak bit rate.
In 2008, ITU-R specified the IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced)
requirements for 4G systems.
The fastest 3G-based standard in the UMTS family is the HSPA+ standard, which is commercially
available since 2009 and offers 28 Mbit/s downstream (22 Mbit/s upstream) without MIMO, i.e. only
with one antenna, and in 2011 accelerated up to 42 Mbit/s peak bit rate downstream using
either DC-HSPA+ (simultaneous use of two 5 MHz UMTS carriers)
[1]
or 2x2 MIMO. In theory speeds
up to 672 Mbit/s is possible, but has not been deployed yet. The fastest 3G-based standard in
the CDMA2000 family is the EV-DO Rev. B, which is available since 2010 and offers 15.67 Mbit/s
downstream.
[citation needed]

IMT-Advanced requirements[edit]
This article uses 4G to refer to IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced),
as defined by ITU-R. An IMT-Advanced cellular system must fulfill the following requirements:
[2]

Be based on an all-IP packet switched network.
Have peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access
and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access.
Be able to dynamically share and use the network resources to support more simultaneous
users per cell.
Using scalable channel bandwidths of 520 MHz, optionally up to 40 MHz.
[3][4]

Have peak link spectral efficiency of 15 bit/s/Hz in the downlink, and 6.75 bit/s/Hz in the uplink
(meaning that 1 Gbit/s in the downlink should be possible over less than 67 MHz bandwidth).
System spectral efficiency of up to 3 bit/s/Hz/cell in the downlink and 2.25 bit/s/Hz/cell for indoor
usage.
[3]

Smooth handovers across heterogeneous networks.
The ability to offer high quality of service for next generation multimedia support.
In September 2009, the technology proposals were submitted to the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) as 4G candidates.
[5]
Basically all proposals are based on two
technologies:
LTE Advanced standardized by the 3GPP
802.16m standardized by the IEEE (i.e. WiMAX)
Implementations of Mobile WiMAX and first-release LTE are largely considered a stopgap solution
that will offer a considerable boost until WiMAX 2 (based on the 802.16m spec) and LTE Advanced
are deployed. The latter's standard versions were ratified in spring 2011, but are still far from being
implemented.
[2]

The first set of 3GPP requirements on LTE Advanced was approved in June 2008.
[6]
LTE Advanced
was to be standardized in 2010 as part of Release 10 of the 3GPP specification. LTE Advanced will
be based on the existing LTE specification Release 10 and will not be defined as a new specification
series. A summary of the technologies that have been studied as the basis for LTE Advanced is
included in a technical report.
[7]

Some sources consider first-release LTE and Mobile WiMAX implementations as pre-4G or near-4G,
as they do not fully comply with the planned requirements of 1 Gbit/s for stationary reception and
100 Mbit/s for mobile.
[citation needed]

Confusion has been caused by some mobile carriers who have launched products advertised as 4G
but which according to some sources are pre-4G versions,
[citation needed]
commonly referred to as
'3.9G',
[citation needed]
which do not follow the ITU-R defined principles for 4G standards,
[citation needed]
but
today can be called 4G according to ITU-R.
[citation needed]
A common argument for branding 3.9G
systems as new-generation is that they use different frequency bands from 3G technologies ;
[citation
needed]
that they are based on a new radio-interface paradigm ;
[citation needed]
and that the standards are
not backwards compatible with 3G,
[citation needed]
whilst some of the standards are forwards compatible
with IMT-2000 compliant versions of the same standards.
[citation needed]

System standards[edit]
IMT-2000 compliant 4G standards[edit]
As of October 2010, ITU-R Working Party 5D approved two industry-developed technologies (LTE
Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced)
[8]
for inclusion in the ITUs International Mobile
Telecommunications Advanced program (IMT-Advanced program), which is focused on global
communication systems that would be available several years from now.
LTE Advanced[edit]
See also: 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) below
LTE Advanced (Long Term Evolution Advanced) is a candidate for IMT-Advanced standard,
formally submitted by the 3GPP organization to ITU-T in the fall 2009, and expected to be
released in 2013. The target of 3GPP LTE Advanced is to reach and surpass the ITU
requirements.
[9]
LTE Advanced is essentially an enhancement to LTE. It is not a new technology,
but rather an improvement on the existing LTE network. This upgrade path makes it more cost
effective for vendors to offer LTE and then upgrade to LTE Advanced which is similar to the
upgrade from WCDMA to HSPA. LTE and LTE Advanced will also make use of additional
spectrums and multiplexing to allow it to achieve higher data speeds. Coordinated Multi-point
Transmission will also allow more system capacity to help handle the enhanced data speeds.
Release 10 of LTE is expected to achieve the IMT Advanced speeds. Release 8 currently
supports up to 300 Mbit/s of download speeds which is still short of the IMT-Advanced
standards.
[10]

Data speeds of LTE Advanced
LTE Advanced
Peak download 1 Gbit/s
Peak upload 500 Mbit/s
IEEE 802.16m or WirelessMAN-Advanced[edit]
The IEEE 802.16m or WirelessMAN-Advanced evolution of 802.16e is under development, with
the objective to fulfill the IMT-Advanced criteria of 1 Gbit/s for stationary reception and
100 Mbit/s for mobile reception.
[11]

Forerunner versions[edit]
3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)[edit]
See also: LTE Advanced above


Telia-branded Samsung LTE modem
The pre-4G 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is often branded "4G-LTE", but
the first LTE release does not fully comply with the IMT-Advanced requirements. LTE has a
theoretical net bit rate capacity of up to 100 Mbit/s in the downlink and 50 Mbit/s in the uplink
if a 20 MHz channel is used and more if multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), i.e.
antenna arrays, are used.
The physical radio interface was at an early stage named High Speed OFDM Packet
Access (HSOPA), now named Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA). The
first LTE USB dongles do not support any other radio interface.
The world's first publicly available LTE service was opened in the two Scandinavian
capitals, Stockholm (Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks systems)
and Oslo (a Huawei system) on December 14, 2009, and branded 4G. The user terminals
were manufactured by Samsung.
[12]
As of Nov 2012, the five publicly available LTE services
in the United States are provided by MetroPCS,
[13]
Verizon Wireless,
[14]
AT&T Mobility, U.S.
Cellular,
[15]
Sprint,
[16]
and T-Mobile US.
[17]

T-Mobile Hungary launched a public beta test (called friendly user test) on 7 October 2011,
and has offered commercial 4G LTE services since 1 January 2012.
[citation needed]

In South Korea, SK Telecom and LG U+ have enabled access to LTE service since 1 July
2011 for data devices, slated to go nationwide by 2012.
[18]
KT Telecom closed its 2G service
by March 2012, and complete the nationwide LTE service in the same frequency around
1.8 GHz by June 2012.
In the United Kingdom, LTE services were launched by EE in October 2012,
[19]
and
by O2 and Vodafone in August 2013.
[20]

Data speeds of LTE
LTE
Peak download 100 Mbit/s
Peak upload 50 Mbit/s
Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e)[edit]
The Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005) mobile wireless broadband access (MWBA)
standard (also known as WiBro in South Korea) is sometimes branded 4G, and offers peak
data rates of 128 Mbit/s downlink and 56 Mbit/s uplink over 20 MHz wide channels.
[citation
needed]

In June 2006, the world's first commercial mobile WiMAX service was opened
by KT in Seoul, South Korea.
[21]

Sprint has begun using Mobile WiMAX, as of 29 September 2008, branding it as a "4G"
network even though the current version does not fulfil the IMT Advanced requirements on
4G systems.
[22]

In Russia, Belarus and Nicaragua WiMax broadband internet access is offered by a Russian
company Scartel, and is also branded 4G, Yota.
Data speeds of WiMAX
WiMAX
Peak download 128 Mbit/s
Peak upload 56 Mbit/s
TD-LTE for China market[edit]
Just when Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax are vigorously promoting in the global
telecommunications industry, the former (LTE) is also the most powerful 4G mobile
communications leading technology, and quickly occupied the Chinese market. TD-LTE, one
of the two variants of the LTE air interface technologies, is not yet mature, but many
domestic and international wireless carriers one after another turn to TD-LTE.
IBM's data show that 67% of the operators are considering LTE, because this is the main
source of their future market. The above news also confirmed this statement of IBM. While
only 8% of the operators are considering the use of WiMAX. WiMax can provide the fastest
network transmission to its customers on the market, but still could challenge LTE.
TD-LTE is not the first 4G wireless mobile broadband network data standard, but it is
China's 4G standard that was amended and published by China's largest telecom operator -
China Mobile. After a series of field trials, is expected to be released into the commercial
phase in the next two years. Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson's vice president said: "the Chinese
Ministry of Industry and China Mobile in the fourth quarter of this year will hold a large-scale
field test, by then, Ericsson will help the hand." But viewing from the current development
trend, whether this standard advocated by China Mobile will be widely recognized by the
international market is still debatable.
Discontinued candidate systems[edit]
UMB (formerly EV-DO Rev. C)[edit]
Main article: Ultra Mobile Broadband
UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) was the brand name for a discontinued 4G project within
the 3GPP2 standardization group to improve the CDMA2000 mobile phone standard for next
generation applications and requirements. In November 2008, Qualcomm, UMB's lead
sponsor, announced it was ending development of the technology, favouring LTE
instead.
[23]
The objective was to achieve data speeds over 275 Mbit/s downstream and over
75 Mbit/s upstream.
Flash-OFDM[edit]
At an early stage the Flash-OFDM system was expected to be further developed into a 4G
standard.
iBurst and MBWA (IEEE 802.20) systems[edit]
The iBurst system (or HC-SDMA, High Capacity Spatial Division Multiple Access) was at an
early stage considered to be a 4G predecessor. It was later further developed into theMobile
Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) system, also known as IEEE 802.20.
Data rate comparison[edit]
The following table shows a comparison of the 4G candidate systems as well as other
competing technologies.
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstr
eam
(Mbit/s)
Upstre
am
(Mbit/
s)
Notes
HSPA+ 3GPP 3G Data
CDMA/FDD
MIMO
21
42
84
672
5.8
11.5
22
168
HSPA+ is
widely
deployed.
Revision 11 of
the 3GPP
states
that HSPA+ is
expected to
have a
throughput
capacity of
672 Mbit/s.
LTE 3GPP General 4G
OFDMA/MIM
O/SC-FDMA
100 Cat3
150 Cat4
300 Cat5
(in 20 MHz
FDD)
[24]

50 Cat3/4
75 Cat5
(in
20 MHz
FDD)
[24]

LTE-
Advanced upd
ate expected
to offer peak
rates up to
1 Gbit/s fixed
speeds and
100 Mb/s to
mobile users.
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstr
eam
(Mbit/s)
Upstre
am
(Mbit/
s)
Notes
WiMax rel 1 802.16
WirelessMA
N
MIMO-
SOFDMA
37 (10 MHz
TDD)
17
(10 MHz
TDD)
With 2x2
MIMO.
[25]

WiMax rel 1.5
802.16-
2009
WirelessMA
N
MIMO-
SOFDMA
83 (20 MHz
TDD)
141
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
46
(20 MHz
TDD)
138
(2x20 MH
z FDD)
With 2x2
MIMO.Enhanc
ed with
20 MHz
channels in
802.16-
2009
[25]

WiMAX rel 2 802.16m
WirelessMA
N
MIMO-
SOFDMA
2x2 MIMO
110
(20 MHz
TDD)
183
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
4x4 MIMO
219
(20 MHz
TDD)
365
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
2x2
MIMO
70
(20 MHz
TDD)
188
(2x20 MH
z FDD)
4x4
MIMO
140
(20 MHz
TDD)
376
(2x20 MH
z FDD)
Also, low
mobility users
can aggregate
multiple
channels to
get a
download
throughput of
up to
1 Gbit/s
[25]

Flash-OFDM
Flash-
OFDM
Mobile
Internet
mobility up
Flash-OFDM
5.3
10.6
15.9
1.8
3.6
5.4
Mobile range
30 km (18
miles)
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstr
eam
(Mbit/s)
Upstre
am
(Mbit/
s)
Notes
to 200 mph
(350 km/h)
extended
range 55 km
(34 miles)
HIPERMAN
HIPERMA
N
Mobile
Internet
OFDM 56.9
Wi-Fi
802.11
(11n)
Mobile Inte
rnet
OFDM/MIMO
288.8 (using 4x4
configuration in 20 MHz
bandwidth) or 600
(using 4x4 configuration
in 40 MHz bandwidth)
Antenna, RF
front
end enhancem
ents and minor
protocol timer
tweaks have
helped deploy
long
range P2P net
works
compromising
on radial
coverage,
throughput
and/or spectra
efficiency
(310 km & 38
2 km)
iBurst 802.20
Mobile Inte
rnet
HC-
SDMA/TDD/M
IMO
95 36
Cell Radius: 3
12 km
Speed:
250 km/h
Spectral
Efficiency: 13
bits/s/Hz/cell
Spectrum
Reuse Factor:
"1"
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstr
eam
(Mbit/s)
Upstre
am
(Mbit/
s)
Notes
EDGE Evolution GSM
Mobile Inte
rnet
TDMA/FDD 1.6 0.5
3GPP Release
7
UMTS W-CDMA
HSPA(HSDPA+H
SUPA)
UMTS/3G
SM
General 3G
CDMA/FDD

CDMA/FDD/M
IMO
0.384
14.4
0.384
5.76
HSDPA is
widely
deployed.
Typical
downlink rates
today
2 Mbit/s,
~200 kbit/s
uplink; HSPA+
downlink up to
56 Mbit/s.
UMTS-TDD
UMTS/3G
SM
Mobile
Internet
CDMA/TDD 16
Reported
speeds
according
to IPWireless u
sing 16QAM
modulation
similar
to HSDPA+HSU
PA
EV-DO Rel. 0
EV-DO Rev.A
EV-DO Rev.B
CDMA200
0
Mobile
Internet
CDMA/FDD
2.45
3.1
4.9xN
0.15
1.8
1.8xN
Rev B note: N
is the number
of 1.25 MHz
carriers used.
EV-DO is not
designed for
voice, and
requires a
fallback to
1xRTT when a
voice call is
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstr
eam
(Mbit/s)
Upstre
am
(Mbit/
s)
Notes
placed or
received.
Notes: All speeds are theoretical maximums and will vary by a number of factors, including
the use of external antennas, distance from the tower and the ground speed (e.g.
communications on a train may be poorer than when standing still). Usually the bandwidth is
shared between several terminals. The performance of each technology is determined by a
number of constraints, including the spectral efficiency of the technology, the cell sizes used,
and the amount of spectrum available. For more information, see Comparison of wireless
data standards.
For more comparison tables, see bit rate progress trends, comparison of mobile phone
standards, spectral efficiency comparison table and OFDM system comparison table.
Principal technologies in all candidate systems[edit]
Key features[edit]
The following key features can be observed in all suggested 4G technologies:
Physical layer transmission techniques are as follows:
[26]

MIMO: To attain ultra high spectral efficiency by means of spatial processing
including multi-antenna and multi-user MIMO
Frequency-domain-equalization, for example multi-carrier modulation (OFDM) in the
downlink or single-carrier frequency-domain-equalization (SC-FDE) in the uplink: To
exploit the frequency selective channel property without complex equalization
Frequency-domain statistical multiplexing, for example (OFDMA) or (single-carrier
FDMA) (SC-FDMA, a.k.a. linearly precoded OFDMA, LP-OFDMA) in the uplink:
Variable bit rate by assigning different sub-channels to different users based on the
channel conditions
Turbo principle error-correcting codes: To minimize the required SNR at the
reception side
Channel-dependent scheduling: To use the time-varying channel
Link adaptation: Adaptive modulation and error-correcting codes
Mobile-IP utilized for mobility
IP-based femtocells (home nodes connected to fixed Internet broadband infrastructure)
As opposed to earlier generations, 4G systems do not support circuit switched telephony.
IEEE 802.20, UMB and OFDM standards
[27]
lack soft-handover support, also known
ascooperative relaying.
Multiplexing and access schemes[edit]

This section contains information of unclear or
questionable importance or relevance to the article's subject
matter. Please help improve this article by clarifying or
removing superfluous information. (May 2010)
Recently, new access schemes like Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), Single Carrier FDMA (SC-
FDMA), Interleaved FDMA, and Multi-carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) are gaining more
importance for the next generation systems. These are based on efficient FFT algorithms
and frequency domain equalization, resulting in a lower number of multiplications per
second. They also make it possible to control the bandwidth and form the spectrum in a
flexible way. However, they require advanced dynamic channel allocation and adaptive
traffic scheduling.
WiMax is using OFDMA in the downlink and in the uplink. For the LTE (telecommunication),
OFDMA is used for the downlink; by contrast, Single-carrier FDMA is used for the uplink
since OFDMA contributes more to the PAPR related issues and results in nonlinear
operation of amplifiers. IFDMA provides less power fluctuation and thus requires energy-
inefficient linear amplifiers. Similarly, MC-CDMA is in the proposal for the IEEE
802.20 standard. These access schemes offer the same efficiencies as older technologies
like CDMA. Apart from this, scalability and higher data rates can be achieved.
The other important advantage of the above-mentioned access techniques is that they
require less complexity for equalization at the receiver. This is an added advantage
especially in the MIMO environments since the spatial multiplexing transmission of MIMO
systems inherently require high complexity equalization at the receiver.
In addition to improvements in these multiplexing systems, improved modulation techniques
are being used. Whereas earlier standards largely used Phase-shift keying, more efficient
systems such as 64QAM are being proposed for use with the 3GPP Long Term
Evolution standards.
IPv6 support[edit]
Main articles: Network layer, Internet protocol and IPv6
Unlike 3G, which is based on two parallel infrastructures consisting of circuit
switched and packet switched network nodes, 4G will be based on packet switching only.
This will require low-latency data transmission.
By the time that 4G was deployed, the process of IPv4 address exhaustion was expected to
be in its final stages. Therefore, in the context of 4G, IPv6 is essential to support a large
number of wireless-enabled devices. By increasing the number of IP addresses available,
IPv6 removes the need for network address translation (NAT), a method of sharing a limited
number of addresses among a larger group of devices, although NAT will still be required to
communicate with devices that are on existing IPv4 networks.
As of June 2009, Verizon has posted specifications that require any 4G devices on its
network to support IPv6.
[28]

Advanced antenna systems[edit]
Main articles: MIMO and MU-MIMO
The performance of radio communications depends on an antenna system,
termed smart or intelligent antenna. Recently, multiple antenna technologies are emerging
to achieve the goal of 4G systems such as high rate, high reliability, and long range
communications. In the early 1990s, to cater for the growing data rate needs of data
communication, many transmission schemes were proposed. One technology, spatial
multiplexing, gained importance for its bandwidth conservation and power efficiency. Spatial
multiplexing involves deploying multiple antennas at the transmitter and at the receiver.
Independent streams can then be transmitted simultaneously from all the antennas. This
technology, called MIMO (as a branch of intelligent antenna), multiplies the base data rate
by (the smaller of) the number of transmit antennas or the number of receive antennas.
Apart from this, the reliability in transmitting high speed data in the fading channel can be
improved by using more antennas at the transmitter or at the receiver. This is
called transmit orreceive diversity. Both transmit/receive diversity and transmit spatial
multiplexing are categorized into the space-time coding techniques, which does not
necessarily require the channel knowledge at the transmitter. The other category is closed-
loop multiple antenna technologies, which require channel knowledge at the transmitter.
Open-wireless Architecture and Software-defined radio (SDR)[edit]
One of the key technologies for 4G and beyond is called Open Wireless Architecture (OWA),
supporting multiple wireless air interfaces in an open architecture platform.
SDR is one form of open wireless architecture (OWA). Since 4G is a collection of wireless
standards, the final form of a 4G device will constitute various standards. This can be
efficiently realized using SDR technology, which is categorized to the area of the radio
convergence.
History of 4G and pre-4G technologies[edit]
The 4G system was originally envisioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA).
[citation needed]
The DARPA selected the distributed architecture and end-to-
end Internet protocol (IP), and believed at an early stage in peer-to-peer networking in which
every mobile device would be both a transceiver and a router for other devices in the
network, eliminating the spoke-and-hub weakness of 2G and 3G cellular
systems.
[29][page needed]
Since the 2.5G GPRS system, cellular systems have provided dual
infrastructures: packet switched nodes for data services, and circuit switched nodes for
voice calls. In 4G systems, the circuit-switched infrastructure is abandoned and only
apacket-switched network is provided, while 2.5G and 3G systems require both packet-
switched and circuit-switched network nodes, i.e. two infrastructures in parallel. This means
that in 4G, traditional voice calls are replaced by IP telephony.
In 2002, the strategic vision for 4Gwhich ITU designated as IMT-Advancedwas laid
out.
In 2005, OFDMA transmission technology is chosen as candidate for
the HSOPA downlink, later renamed 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) air interface E-
UTRA.
In November 2005, KT demonstrated mobile WiMAX service in Busan, South Korea.
[30]

In April 2006, KT started the world's first commercial mobile WiMAX service in Seoul,
South Korea.
[31]

In mid-2006, Sprint announced that it would invest about US$5 billion in
a WiMAX technology buildout over the next few years
[32]
($5.85 billion in real terms
[33]
).
Since that time Sprint has faced many setbacks that have resulted in steep quarterly
losses. On 7 May 2008, Sprint, Imagine, Google, Intel, Comcast, Bright House,
and Time Warnerannounced a pooling of an average of 120 MHz of spectrum; Sprint
merged its Xohm WiMAX division with Clearwire to form a company which will take the
name "Clear".
In February 2007, the Japanese company NTT DoCoMo tested a 4G communication
system prototype with 44 MIMO called VSF-OFCDM at 100 Mbit/s while moving, and
1Gbit/s while stationary. NTT DoCoMo completed a trial in which they reached a
maximum packet transmission rate of approximately 5 Gbit/s in the downlink with 1212
MIMO using a 100 MHz frequency bandwidth while moving at 10 km/h,
[34]
and is
planning on releasing the first commercial network in 2010.
In September 2007, NTT Docomo demonstrated e-UTRA data rates of 200 Mbit/s with
power consumption below 100 mW during the test.
[35]

In January 2008, a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum
auction for the 700 MHz former analog TV frequencies began. As a result, the biggest
share of the spectrum went to Verizon Wireless and the next biggest to AT&T.
[36]
Both of
these companies have stated their intention of supporting LTE.
In January 2008, EU commissioner Viviane Reding suggested re-allocation of 500
800 MHz spectrum for wireless communication, including WiMAX.
[37]

On 15 February 2008, Skyworks Solutions released a front-end module for e-
UTRAN.
[38][39][40]

In November 2008, ITU-R established the detailed performance requirements of IMT-
Advanced, by issuing a Circular Letter calling for candidate Radio Access Technologies
(RATs) for IMT-Advanced.
[41]

In April 2008, just after receiving the circular letter, the 3GPP organized a workshop on
IMT-Advanced where it was decided that LTE Advanced, an evolution of current LTE
standard, will meet or even exceed IMT-Advanced requirements following the ITU-R
agenda.
In April 2008, LG and Nortel demonstrated e-UTRA data rates of 50 Mbit/s while
travelling at 110 km/h.
[42]

On 12 November 2008, HTC announced the first WiMAX-enabled mobile phone,
the Max 4G
[43]

In 15 December 2008, San Miguel Corporation, the largest food and beverage
conglomerate in southeast Asia, has signed a memorandum of understanding with
Qatar Telecom QSC (Qtel) to build wireless broadband and mobile communications
projects in the Philippines. The joint-venture formed wi-tribe Philippines, which offers 4G
in the country.
[44]
Around the same time Globe Telecom rolled out the first WiMAX
service in the Philippines.
On 3 March 2009, Lithuania's LRTC announcing the first operational "4G" mobile
WiMAX network in Baltic states.
[45]

In December 2009, Sprint began advertising "4G" service in selected cities in the United
States, despite average download speeds of only 36 Mbit/s with peak speeds of
10 Mbit/s (not available in all markets).
[46]

On 14 December 2009, the first commercial LTE deployment was in the Scandinavian
capitals Stockholm and Oslo by the Swedish-Finnish network operator TeliaSonera and
its Norwegian brandname NetCom (Norway). TeliaSonera branded the network "4G".
The modem devices on offer were manufactured by Samsung (dongle GT-B3710), and
the network infrastructure created by Huawei (in Oslo) and Ericsson (in Stockholm).
TeliaSonera plans to roll out nationwide LTE across Sweden, Norway and
Finland.
[47][48]
TeliaSonera used spectral bandwidth of 10 MHz, and single-in-single-out,
which should provide physical layer net bitrates of up to 50 Mbit/s downlink and
25 Mbit/s in the uplink. Introductory tests showed a TCP throughput of 42.8 Mbit/s
downlink and 5.3 Mbit/s uplink in Stockholm.
[49]

On 25 February 2010, Estonia's EMT opened LTE "4G" network working in test
regime.
[50]

On 4 June 2010, Sprint released the first WiMAX smartphone in the US, the HTC Evo
4G.
[51]

In July 2010, Uzbekistan's MTS deployed LTE in Tashkent.
[52]

On 25 August 2010, Latvia's LMT opened LTE "4G" network working in test regime 50%
of territory.
On November 4, 2010, the Samsung Galaxy Craft offered by MetroPCS is the first
commercially available LTE smartphone
[53]

On 6 December 2010, at the ITU World Radiocommunication Seminar 2010,
the ITU stated that LTE, WiMax and similar "evolved 3G technologies" could be
considered "4G".
[54]

On 12 December 2010, VivaCell-MTS launches in Armenia a 4G/LTE commercial test
network with a live demo conducted in Yerevan.
[55]

On 28 April 2011, Lithuania's Omnitel opened a LTE "4G" network working in the 5
largest cities.
[56]

In September 2011, all three Saudi telecom
companies STC, Mobily and Zain announced that they will offer 4G LTE for USB
modem dongles, with further development for phones by 2013.
[57]

In 2011, Argentina's Claro launched a 4G HSPA+ network in the country.
In 2011, Thailand's Truemove-H launched a 4G HSPA+ network with nation-wide
availability.
On March 17, 2011, the HTC Thunderbolt offered by Verizon in the U.S. was the second
LTE smartphone to be sold commercially.
[58][59]

On 31 January 2012, Thailand's AIS and its subsidiaries DPC under cooperation
with CAT Telecom for 1800 MHz frequency band and TOT for 2300 MHz frequency
band launched the first field trial LTE in Thailand with authorization from NBTC.
[60]

In February 2012, Ericsson demonstrated mobile-TV over LTE, utilizing the new eMBMS
service (enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service).
[61]

On 10 April 2012, Bharti Airtel launched 4G LTE in Kolkata, first in India.
[62]

On 20 May 2012, Azerbaijan's biggest mobile operator Azercell launched 4G LTE.
[63]

On 10 October 2012, Vodacom (Vodafone South Africa) became the first operator in
South Africa to launch a commercial LTE service.
In December 2012, Telcel launches in Mexico the 4G LTE network in 9 major cities
In Kazakhstan, 4G LTE was launched on December 26, 2012 in the entire territory in the
frequency bands 18651885/17601780 MHz for the urban population and in 794-
799/835-840 MHz for those sparsely populated
Deployment plans[edit]
Afghanistan[edit]
Telecom giant Etisalat Afghanistan, the first telecom company to launch 3.75G services in
Afghanistan on 19th Feb, 2013 announced the commencement of test of its Long-term
Evolution (LTE) 4G mobile network.
Africa[edit]
Safaricom, a telecommunication company in Kenya, began its setup of a 4G network in
October 2010 after the now retired Kenya Tourist Board Chairman, Michael Joseph,
regarded their 3G network as a white elephant. Huawei was given the contract and the
network is set to go fully commercial by the end of Q1 of 2011 but was yet to establish the
network by the end of 2012.
Australia[edit]
Telstra announced on 15 February 2011, that it intends to upgrade its current Next G
network to 4G with Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in the central business districts of
all Australian capital cities and selected regional centers by the end of 2011.
[64]

Telstra launched the country's first 4G network (FD-LTE) in September 2011 claiming "2
100 Mbps" speeds and announced an "aggressive" expansion of that network in 2012.
[65][66]

Telstra will use a mixture of 10 MHz and 15 MHz bandwidth in the 1800 MHz band.
Optus have established a 4G (FD-LTE) network using 10 MHz (out of 15 MHz available)
bandwidth in the 1800 MHz band and added the 2.3 GHz band for 4G TD-LTE after
acquiring Vivid Wireless in 2012.
[67]

Vodafone Australia have indicated their roll out of 4G FD-LTE will use 20 MHz bandwidth
and initially support Cat 3 devices at launch, then quickly move to support Cat 4 devices.
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will auction 700 MHz "digital
dividend" and 2600 MHz spectrum for the provision of 4G FD-LTE services in April 2013.
Telstra and Optus are expected to participate in both, while Vodafone has stated it will only
participate in the 2600 MHz auction.
On 19 December 2013 Optus claims to set up the world's first TD-LTE Advanced carrier
aggregation network. The company achieved a throughput of 520 Mbit/s, by combining four
20 MHz channels of the 2300 MHz spectrum band into 80 MHz.
[68][69]

Austria[edit]
In August, 2009 Huawei and T-Mobile introduced Europe's largest trial LTE network. Both
companies set up 60 cells in Innsbruck which are since July 2009 in service.
[70]

In June, 2010 A1 Telekom Austria tested LTE with its partner Huawei in Vienna.
[71]

On October 18, 2010, the allocation procedure for 2600 MHz frequency band was
completed.
[72]
The following figure shows the current allocation for this frequency band:
[73][74]

Frequency
E-UTRA
Band
Bandwidth
Type of
LTE
A1 Telekom
Austria
T-Mobile
Austria
Orange
Austria*
Hutchison
3
2600 MHz
VII (7)
XXXVIII
(38)
270 MHz
150 MHz
FDD
TDD
2x20 MHz
1x25 MHz
2x20 MHz
-
2x10 MHz
-
2x20 MHz
1x25 MHz
*License holder formerly Orange Austria, now Hutchison Drei Austria GmbH
A1 Telekom Austria started the first commercial (FDD-)LTE service in Austria on 19 October
2010. Iniatially A1 Telekom Austria covered Vienna with 49 eNodeB's and St. Pltenwith 3
eNodeB's.
[75]

On 28 July 2011, T-Mobile Austria launched commercial LTE service in
Vienna, Linz, Graz and Innsbruck.
[76]

After A1 Telekom Austria and T-Mobile Austria started their LTE service Austria's smallest
operator 3 introduced LTE commercially on the 18th of November 2011.
[77]

In March, 2012, A1 Telekom Austria integrated Circuit-switched fallback (CSFB) and
launched the first LTE Smartphone (HTC Velocity 4G) for the Austrian market.
[75]

At the end of November, 2012, A1 Telekom Austria claims to reach 30% of the Austrian
population with its LTE network. At this time, according to a press release, 800 EnodeB's
were used.
[78]

At the beginning of July, 2013, A1 Telekom Austria announced that the company has
switched on their 1000th eNodeB.
[79]

At the beginning of September, 2013, Bregenz, Dornbirn and Lustenau are covered by A1
Telekom Austria LTE.
[80]

On 7 October 2013, T-Mobile Austria started LTE service for Smartphones. The company
also announced plans for further LTE coverage. Until the end of 2013 parts of the city
Bregenz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and St. Plten will be covered with LTE.
[81]

On October 21, 2013, the multiband spectrum auction was completed. The following figure
shows the current allocation for this frequency band:
[82]

Frequency
E-UTRA
Band
Bandwidth
Type of
LTE
A1 Telekom
Austria
T-Mobile
Austria
Hutchison
3
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x20 MHz 2x10 MHz -
900 MHz VIII (8) 235 MHz FDD 2x15 MHz 2x15 MHz 2x5 MHz
1800 MHz III (3) 275 MHz FDD 2x35 MHz 2x20 MHz 2x20 MHz
At the end of November, 2013, Huchtison 3 and T-Mobile Austria intent to appeal auction
results.
[83][84]

On 4 December 2013, according to A1 Telekom Austria Klosterneuburg is covered with
LTE.
[85]

International LTE Roaming: 19. December, 2013, A1 Telekom Austria is the first Austrian
operator which introduced LTE Roaming. The company signed a roaming agreement with
Swisscom following by further countries (planned: Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Italy,
The Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain,
United Kingdom, United States) in 2014. If Customers of A1 Telekom Austria want use LTE
abroad they need either a LTE package or one of their new A1 Go! contract plans, launched
in December 2013.
[86]

On 28 January 2014, A1 announced commercial service for LTE 800 MHz on more than 200
sites. Austrians largest mobile operator covers currently 45% of the population with LTE.
The company plans to cover more than 50% of the population until the end of 2014.
[87][88]

On 11 March 2014, T-Mobile announced top LTE transmission speed raises to 150
Mbit/s.
[89]

On 6 May 2014, Austrian Media announced that Hutchison 3 is waiting for approval to
refarm 1800 MHz frequency to go further with LTE deployment.
[90]

Belgium[edit]
On 28 June 2011, Belgium's largest telecom operator Belgacom announced the roll out of
the country's first 4G network.
[91]
On 3 July 2012 it confirmed the outroll in 5 major cities and
announced the commercial launch to take place before the end of 2012.
[92]

Brazil[edit]
On 27 April 2012, Brazils telecoms regulator Agncia Nacional de Telecomunicaes
(Anatel) announced that the 6 host cities for the 2013 Confederations Cup to be held there
will be the first to have their networks upgraded to 4G.
[93]

Canada[edit]
Telus and Bell Canada, the major Canadian cdmaOne and EV-DO carriers, have
announced that they will be cooperating towards building a fourth generation (4G) LTE
wireless broadband network in Canada. As a transitional measure, they are implementing
3G UMTS network that went live in November 2009.
[94]
Bell Canada's 4G network now
covers 97% of the population as of December 2013.
[95]

Fiji[edit]
Vodafone Fiji started category 3 LTE service (1800 MHz - Band 3) at the beginning of
December 2013.
[96][97]

France[edit]
On 22 November 2012, Orange launched the first 4G business plan
in Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Nantes. Then, on 29 November 2012, SFR launched 4G
in Lyon, extending toMontpellier. It was the first 4G commercial launch in France.
Germany[edit]
After the multiband spectrum auction (12.04. - 20.05.2010
[98]
) the frequency allocation in
Germany is as follows:
Frequency
E-UTRA
Band
Bandwidth
Type of
LTE
Telekom Vodafone
Telefnica
O2
E-Plus
Gruppe
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz -
1800 MHz III (3) 225 MHz FDD 2x15 MHz - - 2x10 MHz
2600 MHz
VII (7)
XXXVIII (38)
270 MHz
150 MHz
FDD
TDD
2x20 MHz
1x5 MHz
2x20 MHz
1x25 MHz
2x20 MHz
1x10 MHz
2x10 MHz
1x10 MHz
30 August 2010, Deutsche Telekom trialed LTE by using the 800 MHz frequency.
[99]

1 December 2010, Vodafone started LTE by using 800 MHz frequency.
[100]

5 April 2011, Deutsche Telekom launched LTE service on 800 MHz.
[101]

1 June 2011, Deutsche Telekom started LTE service on 1800 MHz in Cologne.
[101]

1 July 2011, o2 offers LTE on 800 MHz which is available in several rural communities,
including Oberreichenbach in the Black Forest or Zscherben in Saxony-Anhalt.
[102]

24 April 2012, Deutsche Telekom announced LTE
for Bonn, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich.
[103]

3 July 2012, Deutsche Telekom announced LTE service for the following cities in Baden-
Wrttemberg: Freiburg, Friedrichshafen, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Karlsruhe, Mannheim,
Pforzheim. Berlin. Bremen. Hesse: Darmstadt, Hanau, Ludwigshafen. Lower Saxony:
Braunschweig, Celle, Hildesheim, Oldenburg. North Rhine-Westphalia: Gtersloh,
Paderborn, Velbert. Rhineland-Palatinate: Kaiserslautern, Mainz. Saxony: Halle
(Saale). Schleswig-Holstein: Neumnster. Thuringia: Erfurt and Gera.
[104]

7 February 2013, o2 claimed to do the world's first handovers of voice calls from LTE to
UMTS under realistic conditions.
[105]

2 July 2013, o2 added LTE service in Duisburg, Essen and Hamburg.
[106]

5 September 2013, Deutsche Telekom announced LTE category 4 with download speed of
150 Mbit/s at the IFA. LTE category 4 or LTE+, so called by Deutsche Telekom, is available
in areas which are covered by the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz frequency.
[107]

15 November 2013, Telefnica and Vodafone have announced that they are testing LTE-
Advanced in the German cities of Munich and Dresden.
[108]

20 February 2014, Deutsche Telekom announced 580 Mbit/s data speed during LTE-A trials
in Alzey.
[109]

5 March 2014, E-Plus started commercial LTE service in Berlin, Nuremberg and Leipzig by
using the 1800 MHz frequency.
[110]

10 March 2014, at the CeBIT in Hannover Deutsche Telekom announced the launch of LTE-
A with 300 Mbit/s for Q3 in 2014.
[111]

International LTE Roaming: 22 May 2014, Vodafone added LTE Roaming within the
Vodafone Group in the following six European countries. Greece, Italy, The Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain and UK. Vodafone also plans to launch LTE Roaming in other countries and
on other networks.
[112]

Greenland[edit]
TELE Greenland started LTE service (800 MHz - Band 20) at the beginning of December
2013.
[113]

India[edit]
Bharti Airtel launched India's first 4G service, using TD-LTE technology, in Kolkata on April
10, 2012.
[114]
Fourteen months prior to the official launch in Kolkata, a group consisting
of China Mobile, Bharti Airtel and SoftBank Mobile came together, called Global TD-LTE
Initiative (GTI) in Barcelona, Spain and they signed the commitment towards TD-LTE
standards for the Asian region. It must be noted that Bharti Airtel's 4G network does not
support mainstream 4G phones
[115]
such as Apple iPhone 4s/5, Samsung Galaxy Note 3,
Samsung Galaxy S4 and others.
Bharti Airtel 4G services are available
in Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh region (The Tricity or Chandigarh region
consists of a major city Chandigarh, Mohali andPanchkula).
RIL is launching 4G services through its subsidiary, Jio Infocomm. RIL 4G services are
currently available only in Jamnagar, where it is testing the new TD-LTE technology. RIL
4G rollout is planned to start in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and expand to cover 700
cities, including 100 high-priority markets.
Bharti Airtel is launching 4G services in Delhi by Jan 2014
[116]

Bharti Airtel launched 4G on mobiles in Bangalore, thus becoming the first in India to
offer such a service on 14th Feb, 2014
India uses the TD LTE frequency #40 (2.3 GHz), Apple iPhone 5S/5C supports the TD LTE
#40 (2.3 GHz) band.
Indonesia[edit]
During APEC meeting on October 18, 2013 in Bali, Telkomsel will conduct 4G LTE network
trial. Telkomsel 4G LTE network will operate at 1800 MHz frequency. As part of the program
it will sell "simPATI LTE Trial Edition" prepaid SIM card.
[117]

Since November 2013, PT Internux, with brand Bolt 4G, has commercialized LTE 4G
service using TDD-LTE. Initially, Bolt 4G is only available on 2300 MHz covering Jakarta
and the surrounding cities.
[118]

Ireland[edit]
In May 2005, Digiweb, an Irish wired and wireless broadband company, announced that
they had received a mobile communications license from the Irish telecoms
regulatorComReg. This service will be issued the mobile code 088 in Ireland and will be
used for the provision of 4G mobile communications.
[119][120]
Digiweb launched a mobile
broadband network using FLASH-OFDM technology at 872 MHz.
On November 15, 2012 the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)
announced the results of its multi-band spectrum auction.
[121]
This auction awarded
spectrum rights of use in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands in Ireland from 2013
to 2030. The winners of spectrum were Three Ireland, Meteor, O2 Ireland and Vodafone. All
of the winning bidders in the auction have indicated that they intend to move rapidly to
deploy advanced services.
[122]

Frequency
E-UTRA
Band
Bandwidth
Type of
LTE
Vodafone
Ireland
Telefnica
Ireland
Meteor
Hutchison
3
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
2x10
MHz
-
900 MHz VIII (8) 235 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
2x10
MHz
2x5 MHz
1800 MHz III (3) 275 MHz FDD 2x25 MHz 2x15 MHz
2x15
MHz
2x20 MHz
Eircom launched their 4G network through Meteor and eMobile on 26 September 2013.
[123]

On 14 October, Vodafone started their 4G offer (mobile broadband only) in six cities (Dublin,
Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Kilkenny) and 23 towns (Carlow, Tralee, Wexford,
Middleton, Carrigaline, Mallow, Killarney, Enniscorthy, Dungarvan, New Ross, Kenmare,
Tullow, Kanturk, Bagnelstown, Thomastown, Millstreet, Bunclody, Newmarket, Dunmanway,
Lismore, Rosslare Harbour, Rosslare Strand and Killorglin) across the country.
[124]

On 9 December, Vodafone switches on 4G for Smartphones and turned 4G service in eight
additional towns (Ballincollig, Carrigtohill, Cloyne, Cobh, Enniscorthy, Fermoy, Gorey,
Kinsale) on.
[125]

On 27 January 2014, Three launched their 4G network in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick,
Wexford and Waterford.
Italy[edit]
Since the first half of December 2012, all of Italy's ISP have been offering or have plans to
offer 4G services in some cities:
TIM: Rome, Milan, Torino, Naples, Ancona, Brindisi, Baldissero Torinese, Bari, Bormio,
Catanzaro, Cortina D'Ampezzo, Courmayeur, Canazei, Carano, Casavatore, Cavalese,
Como, Crispano, Forl, Frattamaggiore, Frattaminore, Genoa, Madonna Di Campiglio,
Montoggio, Novate Milanese, Noventa Padovana, Orbassano, Padova, Palermo,
Perugia, Pisa, Pozzuoli, Prato, Predazzo, San Mauro Torinese, Selva Di Val Gardena,
Sesto San Giovanni, Taranto, Trento, Tesero, Treviso, Udine, Vicenza, Villabate.
Vodafone: Rome, Milan, Torino, Naples, Alassio, Alghero, Barano d'Ischia, Bergamo,
Bologna, Cagliari, Capri, Catania, Cervia, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Forte dei Marmi, Gallipoli,
Genoa, Giardini di Naxos, Golfo Aranci, Ischia, Ivrea, La Maddalena, Livorno, Milazzo,
Modena, Padova, Palermo, Palau, Pietra Ligure, Pietrasanta, Pisa, Porto Cervo -
Arzachena, Porto Pollo, Reggio Calabria, Riccione, San Teodoro, Santa Margherita
Ligure, Scalea, Serrara Fontana, Sorrento, Taranto, Trento, Venice, Verona, Vieste,
Villasimius.
3 Italia: Rome, Milan, Acuto.
WIND: 4G services will be available in 2014.
International LTE Roaming: From 5 May 2014 customers of TIM are able to use 4G while
roame in Switzerland on Swisscom and from 14 May 2014 on Orange in Spain.
[126]
TIM
added new roaming partners in Germany (Telekom) and Hong Kong (CSL) in June
2014.
[127]

Kazakhstan[edit]
By the end of 2012, the national telecommunication operator JSC Kazakhtelecom launched
4G services in both Astana and Almaty. It is expected that by the end of 2013 the service
will be available across the whole country.
[citation needed]

Malta[edit]
4G technology was introduced in Malta by Vodafone on the 9th of October 2013.
[128]

Middle East[edit]
In mid September 2011, [2] Mobily of Saudi Arabia, announced their 4G LTE networks to be
ready after months of testing and evaluations.
In July 2012, Oman's Omantel launched 4G LTE commercially.
[129]

In December 2012, UAE's Etisalat announced the commercial launch of 4G LTE services
covering over 70% of country's urban areas.
[citation needed]
As of May, 2013 only few areas
have been covered.
[citation needed]

In 2012, Alfa and Touch in Lebanon, announced their 4G LTE networks to be ready after
months of testing and evaluations. And 4G LTE was officially launched in April 2013.
[citation
needed]

In February 2013, Oman's Nawras launched 4G LTE commercially.
[130][131]

In April 2013, Qtel, (now called Ooredoo) is set to launch its 4G LTE commercially in
Qatar.
[132]

The Netherlands[edit]
After the multiband spectrum auction in Q4-2012 KPN announced that the deployment of 4G
services would start in February 2013 and that nationwide coverage will be available in Q1
2014.
[133]

Vodafone has launched the 4G network in August 2013,
[134]
while T-Mobile announced only
a roll-out in Q4 of 2013.
[135]
Tele2 will launch their network probably in the same time as T-
Mobile, because they are using site/antenna-sharing.
As of Q1 2014, KPN will be the first network provider that has deployed a nationwide 4G
network in the Netherlands.
[136]
Expectations are that both KPN and Vodafone will reach
nationwide coverage in 2014. T-Mobile and Tele2, being lower-budget providers, will
probably never reach a nationwide coverage, as is the case with their existing 2G and 3G
networks. Tele2 will stay a MVNO (i.e., Tele2 will buy network capacity) on the T-Mobile
network for 2G/3G Services and a MVNO on the KPN network for 2G/3G Business Services
(previously Versatel).
[137]

Network operator ZUM's plans remain unknown; only a small 2.6 GHz LTE network would
be required to meet regulatory requirements.
[citation needed]

After the multiband spectrum auction the frequency allocation in the Netherlands is as
follows:
[138]

Frequency
E-UTRA
Band
Bandwidth
Type of
LTE
KPN Vodafone T-Mobile Tele2 ZUM
800 MHz XX (20) 2x30 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
2x10
MHz

900 MHz VIII (8) 2x35 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x15 MHz
1800 MHz III (3) 2x70 MHz FDD 2x20 MHz 2x20 MHz 2x30 MHz
1900 MHz
XXXIII
(33)
1x35 MHz TDD 1x5 MHz 1x5.4 MHz 1x24.6 MHz
2100 MHz I (1) 2x59,4 MHz FDD 2x19.8 MHz 2x19.6 MHz 2x20 MHz
2600 MHz
VII (7)
XXXVIII
(38)
2x65 MHz
2x65 MHz
FDD
TDD
210 MHz
130 MHz
2x10 MHz
-
2x5 MHz
1x25 MHz
2x20
MHz
1x5
MHz
2x20
MHz
-
International LTE Roaming: On 16 February 2014 KPN announced LTE Roaming
agreement with Orange in France and Telenor in Norway. Following by operators in the US,
the UK, Russia, Japan, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Saudi Arabia later this
month. Brazil and China are scheduled to be included in March, Germany, Hong Kong,
Croatia and Slovenia will be added in April, and Denmark, Canada and Finland will be
included in June.
[139][140]

New Zealand[edit]
In New Zealand, the first 4G network was introduced in parts of Auckland by Vodafone
NZ on 28 February 2013. Coverage has since expanded to parts of Palmerston North,
Wellington, Wanaka, Queenstown, Christchurch, Taupo, and New Plymouth.
[141]

A small village by Lake Brunner on the West Coast with only 250 people, Moana, got 4G
broadband in May 2013. This is part of a test of rural broadband services in the 700 MHz
range.
[142]

Both Vodafone and Telecom NZ's 4G Network operate on 1800 bandwidth.
As of 15 January 2014, Telecom has 4G coverage in Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland,
Whitianga and Whangamata.
[citation needed]

2degrees has also announced its plans to launch a 4G service in 2014 after securing an
overdraft of NZD165million from the Bank of New Zealand in June 2013.
[143]

Norway[edit]
After the multiband spectrum auction in December 2013.
[144]

Frequency E-UTRA Band Bandwidth Type of LTE Telco Data Telenor TeliaSonera
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
900 MHz VIII (8) 2? MHz FDD 2x5 MHz 2x5 MHz 2x5 MHz
1800 MHz III (3) 2? MHz FDD 2x20 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
In April, 2014, Netcom launched LTE 800 MHz.
[145]

In May, 2014, Tele2 launched LTE.
[146]

Pakistan[edit]
Main article: Pakistani Telecom Spectrum Auction
On July 7, 2013, the Government of Pakistan announced the auction of 3G/4G operators
in Pakistan
[147]

On 23 April 2014, the government auctioned of 3G and 4G licenses to cellular service
providers raising $1.182 billion in revenues. Zong became the country's first and only
company to win a 4G license. Mobilink and Zong bid for the superior 10 MHz band,
while Telenor and Ufone preferred to bid on the cheaper 5 MHz band. Although Mobilink,
having acquired the 10 MHz band, qualified for a 4G licence too, they opted not to go all the
way.
On May 2, 2014, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority allowed Warid Telecom to go public
with 4G LTE services. Warid has planned to launch the service. If sources are to be believed
then Warid is aiming to run the test on 4G LTE in last week of May 2014, while its already in
process of deploying 4G LTE network in 5 cities, which it will announce after successful
tests accordingly.
[148]

Philippines[edit]
As part of its massive network upgrade, Globe
[149]
has launched its 4th Generation Long-
Term Evolution (4G LTE) network for mobile and broadband. To date, Globe has completed
over 2,700 4G LTE network sites, with the number expected to rise to over 4000 by the end
of 2012.
In September, Globe launched its 4G LTE network covering key commercial as well as
residential areas in Makati, with more sites following shortly in Manila, Cebu, Davao, and
other select regions. As more key activations are completed in the coming months, Globe
subscribers will soon enjoy best-in-class mobile and broadband services across the
Philippines.
[citation needed]

SMART Communications was the first to roll out the fastest 4G LTE in the country
(Philippines). Over 900 sites served nationwide with partner establishments.
[citation needed]

Poland[edit]
On 31 August 2011, Plus (Polkomtel) launched 4G commercially in Poland. The download
speed was up to 100 Mbit/s, while upload speed was up to 50 Mbit/s. On 25 October 2012,
download speed was increased to 150 Mbit/s. It uses 1800 MHz spectrum.
[citation needed]

Romania[edit]
On 31 October 2012, Vodafone has launched 4G tests.
[150]
Now 4G connectivity is available
in several cities: Otopeni, Constana, Galai, Craiova, Braov, Bacu, Iai, Cluj-
Napoca, Arad and Timioara.
[151]

International LTE Roaming: Since mid-May 2014 Orange offers LTE Roaming service
which is currently available in the networks of Orange in Moldova, Poland and Spain and will
also be extended to other networks during 2014.
[152]

Russian Federation[edit]
Several national cell operators have launched LTE networks in 2012.
Scandinavia[edit]
TeliaSonera started deploying LTE (branded "4G") in Stockholm and Oslo November 2009
(as seen above), and in several Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish cities during 2010. In
June 2010, Swedish television companies used 4G to broadcast live television from
the Swedish Crown Princesss wedding.
[153]

Slovakia[edit]
After the multiband spectrum auction
[154]
the frequency allocation in Slovakia is as follows:
Frequency
E-UTRA
Band
Bandwidth
Type of
LTE
Orange
Slovak
Telekom
Telefnica
Slovakia
SWAN
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz -
1800 MHz III (3) 220.4 MHz FDD 2x4.8 MHz - 2x0.6 MHz
2x15
MHz
2600 MHz
VII (7)
XXXVIII
(38)
270 MHz
150 MHz
FDD
TDD
2x30 MHz
-
2x40 MHz
1x50 MHz
-
-
-
-
Slovenia[edit]
After the multiband spectrum auction in April 2014.
[155]

Frequency E-UTRA Band Bandwidth Type of LTE Si.Mobil Telekom Slovenije Tusmobil
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
900 MHz VIII (8) 235 MHz FDD 2x15 MHz 2x15 MHz 2x5 MHz
1800 MHz III (3) 275 MHz FDD 2x30 MHz 2x25 MHz 2x10 MHz
2100 MHz XXXIV (34) 1? MHz TDD 2x20 MHz - -
2600 MHz
VII (7)
XXXVIII (38)
270 MHz
150 MHz
FDD
TDD
2x35 MHz
1x25 MHz
2x35 MHz
1x25 MHz
-
-
Spain[edit]
On May 9, 2013, Yoigo announced its service, which will use the 1800 MHz band and offer
speeds up to 100Mbit/s, and will first be launched in Madrid on July 19.
[156]

On May 13, Orange Espana announced it will launch its 4G network on 8 July,
simultaneously in six of the country's largest cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville,
Malaga and Murcia. A further nine cities Bilbao, Zaragoza, Alicante, Cordoba, La Corua,
Valladolid and Vigo on the mainland, Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands and Las
Palmas in the Canary Islands will be live by the end of 2013.
[157]

Since 30 May 2013, 4G is available in Spain thanks to Vodafone 4G. According to the
company, services will use 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz spectrum and will offer download
speeds of up to 150Mbit/s and upload speeds of 50Mbit/s.
[158]

On week 9, 2014, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Vodafone tested LTE-A
with speed of 540 Mbit/s.
[159]

On 7 March 2014, Vodafone announced LTE service for Burgos.
[160]

On 11 March 2012, Vodafone announced LTE service for Castilla La Mancha.
[161]

On 12 March 2014, Vodafone announced LTE service for Logroo.
[162][163]

South Korea[edit]
On July 7, 2008, South Korea announced plans to spend 60 billion won, or US$58,000,000,
on developing 4G and even 5G technologies, with the goal of having the highest mobile
phone market share by 2012, and the hope of becoming an international standard.
[164]

Sri Lanka[edit]
On December 30, 2012, Dialog Broadband Networks launched Sri Lanka's first fixed TD-
LTE service.
[165]

On April 2, 2013, Dialog Axiata launched South Asia's first FD-LTE service in Sri Lanka.
[166]

On June 2, 2013, Mobitel launched FD-LTE service in Sri Lanka.
[167]

On January 19, 2014, Sri Lanka Telecom successfully demonstrated & launched its 4G LTE
service.
[168]

Switzerland[edit]
In September 2010, Swisscom tested LTE in Grenchen by using the 2.6 GHz frequency (E-
UTRA Band 7).
[169]
In December 2011 after the LTE field experiment in Grenchen has
become a success the company used the 1.8 GHz frequency (E-UTRA Band 3) for further
testing in Grindelwald, Gstaad, Leukerbad, Montana, Saas-Fee and St. Moritz/Celerina.
[170]

After the multiband spectrum auction (06.02. - 22.02.2012
[171]
) the frequency allocation in
Switzerland is as follows:
Frequency E-UTRA Band Bandwidth Type of LTE Swisscom Sunrise Orange
800 MHz XX (20) 230 MHz FDD 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz
900 MHz VIII (8) 235 MHz FDD 2x15 MHz 2x15 MHz 2x5 MHz
1800 MHz III (3) 275 MHz FDD 2x30 MHz 2x20 MHz 2x25 MHz
2100 MHz I (1) 260 MHz FDD 2x30 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x20 MHz
2600 MHz
VII (7)
XXXVIII (38)
270 MHz
150 MHz
FDD
TDD
2x20 MHz
1x45 MHz
2x25 MHz
-
2x20 MHz
-
Swisscom announced on 29 November 2012, commercial service of its category 3
LTE network with maximum speed of 100 Mbit/s.
[172]
The following frequency range is in
service for LTE. 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz. (E-UTRA Bands 20, 3 und 7) In May
2013 Swisscom upgraded its LTE network from category 3 to category 4. As of the upgrade
the maximum speed has become 150 Mbit/s.
[173]

Orange started LTE on 28 May 2013. The second largest operator was the first who
introduced prepaid LTE in Switzerland. The following frequency range is in service for LTE.
800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz. (E-UTRA Bands 20, 3 und 7) Orange LTE offers up to
100 Mbit/s. The company will upgrade the maximum speed up to 150 Mbit/s at the end of
2013.
[174]

International LTE Roaming: Swisscom is the first European operator which offers
international LTE Roaming. Since the 21 of June 2013 customers of Swisscom are able to
use LTE network of the South Korean operators SK Telecom and KT. According to
Swisscom Canada (Rogers) and Hong Kong (SmarTone) are the next countries where
customers of the former state-owned company will be able to use LTE roaming.
[175]

Sunrise was the last operator in Switzerland who introduced LTE. Commercial service is
available as of 19 June 2013. The smallest operator in Switzerland offers speed up to
100 Mbit/s. In 2013 Sunrise is using only the 1800 MHz frequency for LTE service. (E-UTRA
Band 3) The operator will use other frequency bands (800 MHz and 2600 MHz - E-UTRA
Bands 7 and 20) in the future as well.
[176]
Prepaid customers of Sunrise are able to use LTE
with maximum network speed - even MVNO customer.
[177]

Since the beginning of July 2013 Swisscom prepaid customers are able to enter the LTE
network. Maximum speed depends on the subscribed plan.
[173]

On 19 November 2013, Orange and UPC Cablecom announced a new partnership. Over
the next two years, UPC Cablecom will connect more than 1,000 4G masts with top
bandwidths of between 1 and 10 Gbit/s.
[178][179]

At the end of November 2013, Swisscom added new LTE Roaming partners in Asia
(Japan: Softbank, Philippines: Globe Telecom, Singapore: M1), Europe (France: Bouygues
Telecom) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia: Mobily).
[180][181]

On 19 December 2013, Swisscom added new LTE Roaming partners in Asia (Hong
Kong: China Mobile HK and PCCW) and Europe (Austria: A1). At this time Swisscom covers
nine countries and twelve foreign LTE networks.
[181][182]

On 22 January 2014, Swisscom added new LTE Roaming partner in Russia
(MegaFon).
[181][183]

On 29 January 2014, Sunrise announced 300 Mbit/s LTE trials by using LTE-A carrier
aggregation. Commercial service is planned for Q3 2014.
[184]

On 17 Februar 2014, Swisscom added new roaming partners (Canada: Telus, France: SFR,
Hong Kong: Huchison 3, Norway: Telenor, USA: AT&T) to their LTE roaming list. The
company also mentioned an upcoming Russia operator (MTS) for 3. March 2014.
[181]

Thailand[edit]
Thailand National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has earmarked
1.8 GHz and 2.3 GHz spectrum for 4G services. The 1.8 GHz will be available for auction
around the 4th quarter of 2014 when the license for GSM service on the spectrum will
expire. The 2.3 GHz spectrum is currently held by TOT Corp, a state enterprise. Negotiation
on refarming part of the band is ongoing.
[citation needed]

Truemove-H has launched Thailand's first commercial 4G LTE service on 8 May 2013 using
2100 MHz Band I.
[185]

Turkmenistan[edit]
On 18 September 2013, the national telecommunication operator TM Cell launched 4G
services in Turkmenistan.
[186]

United Kingdom[edit]
In 2009 O2 (a subsidiary of Telefnica Europe) used Slough for testing the 4G network,
with Huawei installing LTE technology in six masts across the town to allow testing of HD
video conferencing and mobile PlayStation games.
[187]
On 29 February 2012, UK Broadband
launched the first commercial 4G LTE service in the UK in the London Borough
ofSouthwark.
[188]
In October 2012, MVNO, Abica Limited, announced they were to trial 4G
LTE services for high speed M2M applications.
On 21 August 2012, the United Kingdom's regulator Ofcom allowed EE, the owner of the
Orange and T-Mobile networks, to use its existing spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band to
launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile services.
[189]
As part of Ofcom's approval of the
company's roll-out of 4G it was announced on 22 August that 3 had acquired part of EE's
1,800 MHz spectrum for part of their own 4G network.
[190]
The 4G service from EE was
announced on 11 September 2012 and launched on 30 October initially in 11
cities.
[191][192]
The network aims to cover 70% of the UK by 2013 and 98% by 2014.
[193]

On 12 November 2012 Ofcom published final regulations and a timetable
[194]
for the 4G
mobile spectrum auction. It also launched a new 4G consumer page,
[195]
providing
information on the upcoming auction and the consumer benefits that new services will
deliver. Ofcom auctioned off the UK-wide 4G spectrum previously used by the country's
analogue television signals in the 800 MHz band as well as in the 2,600 MHz band.
[196]
On
20 February 2013, the winners of the 4G spectrum auction were announced by
Ofcom.
[197]
The four major networks, EE, O2, Vodafone and 3, were awarded spectrum
along with Niche Spectrum Ventures Ltd (a subsidiary of BT Group plc).
On 9 July 2013, Ofcom announced that mobile network operators would be allowed to
repurpose their existing 2G and 3G spectrum, specifically in the 900, 1,800 and 2,100 MHz
bands, for 4G services.
[198]

Both O2 and Vodafone launched their 4G networks on 29 August 2013.
[199][200]
The 3
network launched their 4G service in December 2013, initially it was only available to a
selected few thousand customers in London preceding a nationwide rollout in 2014.
[201][202]

LTE MVNE: On 1 April 2014, Plintron World's largest Multi-Country MVNE Enables
LYCAMOBILE to be in the 4G League in UK. Plintron have completed it's LTE core
interoperability with O2 UK, to enable LYCAMOBILE 4G data services.
International LTE Roaming: AT&T signed LTE roaming agreement with EE on the 17th of
December 2013.
[203]
EE announced further LTE roaming agreements with Orange in France
and Spain on March 2014. Customers of EE will access the LTE networks of both operators
immediately. The company also announced in a press release that it will extend its 4G
coverage across major roaming destination including the USA, Italy, Germany, Switzerland
and the Netherlands by the Summer.
[204][205]

At the beginning of May 2014, Vodafone added 4G roaming for their Red 4G customers in
Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
[206]

United States[edit]
Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint Corporation all use 4G LTE. None of them
use WiMAX.
On September 20, 2007, Verizon Wireless announced plans for a joint effort with
the Vodafone Group to transition its networks to the 4G standard LTE. On December 9,
2008, Verizon Wireless announced their intentions to build and roll out an LTE network by
the end of 2009. Since then, Verizon Wireless has said that they will start their roll out by the
end of 2010.
Sprint offers a 3G/4G connection plan, currently
[when?]
available in select cities in the United
States.
[46]
It delivers rates up to 10 Mbit/s. Sprint has also launched an LTE network in early
2012.
[207]

Verizon Wireless has announced
[when?]
that it plans to augment its CDMA2000-based EV-DO
3G network in the United States with LTE, and is supposed to complete a rollout of 175
cities by the end of 2011, two thirds of the US population by mid-2012, and cover
[citation
needed]
the existing 3G network by the end of 2013.
[208]
AT&T, along with Verizon Wireless,
has chosen to migrate toward LTE from 2G/GSM and 3G/HSPA by 2011.
[209]

Sprint had deployed WiMAX technology which it has labeled 4G as of October 2008. It was
the first US carrier to offer a WiMAX phone.
[210]

The U.S. FCC is exploring
[when?]
the possibility of deployment and operation of a nationwide
4G public safety network which would allow first responders to seamlessly communicate
between agencies and across geographies, regardless of devices. In June 2010 the FCC
released a comprehensive white paper which indicates that the 10 MHz of dedicated
spectrum currently allocated from the 1700 MHz spectrum for public safety will provide
adequate capacity and performance necessary for normal communications as well as
serious emergency situations.
[211]

International LTE Roaming: AT&T signed LTE roaming agreement with EE on the 17th of
December 2013.
[203]

Beyond 4G research[edit]
Main article: 5G
A major issue in 4G systems is to make the high bit rates available in a larger portion of the
cell, especially to users in an exposed position in between several base stations. In current
research, this issue is addressed by macro-diversity techniques, also known as group
cooperative relay, and also by Beam-Division Multiple Access (BDMA).
[212]

Pervasive networks are an amorphous and at present entirely hypothetical concept where
the user can be simultaneously connected to several wireless access technologies and can
seamlessly move between them (See vertical handoff, IEEE 802.21). These access
technologies can be Wi-Fi, UMTS, EDGE, or any other future access technology. Included in
this concept is also smart-radio (also known as cognitive radio) technology to efficiently
manage spectrum use and transmission power as well as the use of mesh routingprotocols
to create a pervasive network.


5G (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems) denotes the next
major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the current4G/IMT-
Advanced standards. 5G is also referred to as beyond 2020 mobile communications technologies.
5G does not describe any particular specification in any official document published by any
telecommunication standardization body.
Although updated standards that define capabilities beyond those defined in the current 4G
standards are under consideration, those new capabilities are still being grouped under the current
ITU-T 4G standards.
Contents
[hide]
1 Background of 5G
2 Debate
3 R&D projects
4 Research
5 History
6 See also
7 References
Background of 5G[edit]
A new mobile generation has appeared approximately every 10th year since the
first 1G system, Nordic Mobile Telephone, was introduced in 1981. The first 2G system started to roll
out in 1991, the first 3G system first appeared in 2001 and 4G systems fully compliant with IMT
Advanced were standardised in 2012. The development of the 2G (GSM) and3G (IMT-2000 and
UMTS) standards took about 10 years from the official start of the R&D projects, and development
of 4G systems started in 2001 or 2002.
[1][2]
Predecessor technologies have occurred on the market a
few years before the new mobile generation, for example the pre-3G system CdmaOne/IS95 in the
US in 1995, and the pre-4G systems Mobile WiMAX in South-Korea 2006, and first release-LTE in
Scandinavia 2009.
Mobile generations typically refer to nonbackwards-compatible cellular standards following
requirements stated by ITU-R, such as IMT-2000 for 3G and IMT-Advanced for 4G. In parallel with
the development of the ITU-R mobile generations, IEEE and other standardisation bodies also
develop wireless communication technologies, often for higher data rates and higher frequencies but
shorter transmission ranges. The first gigabit IEEE standard was WiGig or IEEE 802.11ac,
commercially available since 2013, soon to be followed by the multi gigabit standard IEEE 802.11ad
Debate[edit]
Based on the above observations, some sources suggest that a new generation of 5G standards
may be introduced approximately in the early 2020s.
[3][4]
However, still no international 5G
development projects have officially been launched, and there is still a large extent of debate on
what 5G is exactly about. Prior to 2012, some industry representatives have expressed skepticism
towards 5G
[5]
but later took a positive stand.
[citation needed]

New mobile generations are typically assigned new frequency bands and wider spectral bandwidth
per frequency channel (1G up to 30 kHz, 2G up to 200 kHz, 3G up to 20 MHz, and 4G up to
100 MHz), but skeptics argue that there is little room for larger channel bandwidths and new
frequency bands suitable for land-mobile radio.
[5]
From users' point of view, previous mobile
generations have implied substantial increase in peak bitrate (i.e. physical layer net bitrates for
short-distance communication), up to 1 Gbit/s to be offered by 4G.
If 5G appears, and reflects these prognoses, the major difference from a user point of view between
4G and 5G techniques must be something else than increased peak bit rate; for example higher
number of simultaneously connected devices, higher system spectral efficiency (data volume per
area unit), lower battery consumption, lower outage probability (better coverage), high bit rates in
larger portions of the coverage area, lower latencies, higher number of supported devices, lower
infrastructure deployment costs, higher versatility and scalability or higher reliability of
communications. Those are the objectives in several of the research papers and projects below.
GSMHistory.com
[6]
has recorded three very distinct 5G network visions having emerged by 2014:
A super-efficient mobile network that delivers a better performing network for lower investment
cost. It addresses the mobile network operators pressing need to see the unit cost of data transport
falling at roughly the same rate as the volume of data demand is rising. It would be a leap forward in
efficiency based on the IET Demand Attentive Network (DAN)philosophy
[7]

A super-fast mobile network comprising the next generation of small cells densely clustered
together to give a contiguous coverage over at least urban areas and gets the world to the final
frontier for true wide area mobility. It would require access to spectrum under 4 GHz perhaps via
the world's first global implementation of Dynamic Spectrum Access.
A converged fiber-wireless network that uses, for the first time for wireless Internet access, the
millimeter wave bands (20 60 GHz) so as to allow very wide bandwidth radio channels able to
support data access speeds of up to 10 Gb/s. The connection essentially comprises short wireless
links on the end of local fiber optic cable.It would be more a nomadic service (like WiFi) rather than
a wide area mobile service.
R&D projects[edit]
In 2008, the South Korean IT R&D program of "5G mobile communication systems based on beam-
division multiple access and relays with group cooperation" was formed.
[8]

In 2012 the UK Government announced the setting up of a 5G Innovation Centre at the University of
Surrey the worlds first research centre set up specifically for 5G mobile research
[9]

In Europe, Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner, committed in 2013 50 million euros for
research to deliver 5G mobile technology by 2020.
[10]
In particular, The METIS 2020 Project is driven
by a car manufacturer and several telecommunicaitons companies, and aims at reaching world-wide
consensus on the future global mobile and wireless communications system. The METIS overall
technical goal is to provide a system concept that supports 1000 times higher mobile system
spectral efficiency as compared with current LTE deployments.
[4]
In addition, in 2013 another project
has started, called 5GrEEn,
[11]
linked to project METIS and focusing on the design of Green 5G
Mobile networks. Here the goal is to develop guidelines for the definition of new generation network
with particular care of energy efficiency, sustainability and affordability aspects.
Research[edit]
Key concepts suggested in scientific papers discussing 5G and beyond 4G wireless communications
are:
Massive Dense Networks also known as Massive Distributed MIMO providing green flexible
small cells 5G Green Dense Small Cells. A transmission point equipped with a very large
number of antennas that simultaneously serve multiple users. With massive MIMO multiple
messages for several terminals can be transmitted on the same time-frequency resource,
maximising beamforming gain while minimising interference.
[12][13][14][15]

Advanced interference and mobility management, achieved with the cooperation of different
transmission points with overlapped coverage, and encompassing the option of a flexible usage
of resources for uplink and downlink transmission in each cell, the option of direct device-to-
device transmission and advanced interference cancellation techniques.
[16][17][18]

Efficient support of machine-type devices to enable the Internet of Things with potentially higher
numbers of connected devices, as well as novel applications such as mission critical control or
traffic safety, requiring reduced latency and enhanced reliability.
[citation needed]

The usage of millimetre wave frequencies (e.g. up to 90 GHz) for wireless backhaul and/or
access (IEEE rather than ITU generations)
[citation needed]

Pervasive networks providing Internet of things, wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous
computing: The user can simultaneously be connected to several wireless access technologies
and seamlessly move between them (See Media independent handover or vertical
handover, IEEE 802.21, also expected to be provided by future 4G releases. See
also multihoming.). These access technologies can be 2.5G, 3G, 4G, or 5G mobile
networks, Wi-Fi, WPAN, or any other future access technology. In 5G, the concept may be
further developed into multiple concurrent data transfer paths.
[19]

Multi-hop networks: A major issue in beyond 4G systems is to make the high bit rates available
in a larger portion of the cell, especially to users in an exposed position in between several base
stations. In current research, this issue is addressed by cellular repeaters and macro-
diversity techniques, also known as group cooperative relay, where also users could be potential
cooperative nodes thanks to the use of direct device-to-device (D2D) communications.
[8]

Cognitive radio technology, also known as smart-radio: allowing different radio technologies to
share the same spectrum efficiently by adaptively finding unused spectrum and adapting the
transmission scheme to the requirements of the technologies currently sharing the spectrum.
This dynamic radio resource management is achieved in a distributed fashion, and relies
on software-defined radio.
[20][21]
See also the IEEE 802.22 standard for Wireless Regional Area
Networks.
Dynamic Adhoc Wireless Networks (DAWN),
[1]
essentially identical to Mobile ad hoc
network (MANET), Wireless mesh network (WMN) or wireless grids, combined with smart
antennas, cooperative diversity and flexible modulation.
Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (VFDM): a modulation scheme to allow
the co-existence of macro-cells and cognitive radio small-cells in a two-tiered LTE/4G
network.
[22]

IPv6, where a visiting care-of mobile IP address is assigned according to location and connected
network.
[19]

Wearable devices with AI capabilities.
[1]
such as smartwatches and optical head-mounted
displays for augmented reality
One unified global standard.
[1]

Real wireless world with no more limitation with access and zone issues.
[19]

User centric (or cell phone developer initiated) network concept instead of operator-initiated (as
in 1G) or system developer initiated (as in 2G, 3G and 4G) standards
[23]

Li-Fi (a portmanteau of light and Wi-Fi) is a massive MIMO visible light communication network
to advance 5G. Li-Fi uses light-emitting diodes to transmit data, rather than radio waves like Wi-
Fi.
[24]

World wide wireless web (WWWW), i.e. comprehensive wireless-based web applications that
include full multimedia capability beyond 4G speeds.
[1]

History[edit]
In 2008, the South Korean IT R&D program of "5G mobile communication systems based on
beam-division multiple access and relays with group cooperation" was formed.
[8]

On 8 October 2012, the UK's University of Surrey secured 35M for new 5G research centre,
joint funded between the British government's UK Research Partnership Investment Fund
(UKRPIF) and a consortium of key international mobile operators and infrastructure providers
including Huawei, Samsung, Telefonica Europe, FujitsuLaboratories Europe, Rohde & Schwarz,
and Aircom International it will offer testing facilities to mobile operators keen to develop a
mobile standard that uses less energy and radio spectrum whilst delivering faster than current
4G speeds, with aspirations for the new technology to be ready within a decade.
[25][26][27][28]

On 1 November 2012, the EU project "Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the
Twenty-twenty Information Society" (METIS) starts its activity towards the definition of 5G.
METIS intends to ensure an early global consensus on these systems. In this sense, METIS will
play an important role of building consensus among other external major stakeholders prior to
global standardisation activities. This will be done by initiating and addressing work in relevant
global fora (e.g. ITU-R), as well as in national and regional regulatory bodies.
[29]

In February 2013, ITU-R Working Party 5D (WP 5D) started two study items: (1) Study on IMT
Vision for 2020 and beyond, and; (2) Study on future technology trends for terrestrial IMT
systems. Both aiming at having a better understanding of future technical aspects of mobile
communications towards the definition of the next generation mobile.
[citation needed]

On 12 May 2013, Samsung Electronics stated that they have developed the world's first "5G"
system. The core technology has a maximum speed of tens of Gbit/s (gigabits per second). In
testing, the transfer speeds for the 5G network sent data at 1.056 Gbit/s to a distance of up to
2 kilometres.with the use of an 8*8 MIMO.
[30][31]

In July 2013, India and Israel have agreed to work jointly on development of fifth generation (5G)
telecom technologies.
[32]

On 1 October 2013, NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone), the same company to launch
world first 5G network in Japan, wins Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award
at CEATEC for 5G R&D efforts
[33]

On 6 November 2013, Huawei announced plans to invest a minimum of $600 million into R&D
for next generation 5G networks capable of speeds 100 times faster than modern LTE
networks.
[34]

On 8 May 2014, NTT DoCoMo start testing 5G mobile networks with Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson,
Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia and Samsung.
[35]



Duplex (telecommunications)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Time-division duplex)

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links,
but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline
citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise
citations. (July 2012)
A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two connected parties or
devices that can communicate with one another in both directions, simultaneously. An example of a
duplex device is a telephone. The people at both ends of a telephone call can speak at the same
time and simultaneously each be heard by the other at the same time. The earphone reproduces the
speech of the other person as the microphone transmits the speech of the local person, because
there is a two-way communication channel between them.
Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow for a
communication "two-way street" between two connected parties or to provide a "reverse path" for the
monitoring and remote adjustment of equipment in the field.
Systems that do not need the duplex capability use instead simplex communication in which one
device transmits and the others can only "listen" and can not be heard while in the moment of
"listening" (one transmits/talks and the other can only receive/listen at a time). Examples
are broadcast radio and television, garage door openers, baby monitors,wireless microphones, radio
controlled models, surveillance cameras, and missile telemetry.
Contents
[hide]
1 Half-duplex
2 Full-duplex
3 Full-duplex emulation
o 3.1 Time-division duplexing
o 3.2 Frequency-division duplexing
o 3.3 Echo cancellation
4 Examples
5 Summary
6 See also
7 References
Half-duplex[edit]


A simple illustration of a half-duplex communication system
A half-duplex (HDX) system provides communication in both directions, but only one direction at a
time (not simultaneously). Typically, once a party begins receiving a signal, it must wait for the
transmitter to stop transmitting, before replying (antennas are of trans-receiver type in these devices,
so as to transmit and receive the signal as well).
An example of a half-duplex system is a two-party system such as a walkie-talkie, wherein one must
use "Over" or another previously designated command to indicate the end of transmission, and
ensure that only one party transmits at a time, because both parties transmit and receive on the
same frequency.
A good analogy for a half-duplex system would be a one-lane road with traffic controllers at each
end, such as a two-lane bridge under re-construction. Traffic can flow in both directions, but only one
direction at a time, regulated by the traffic controllers.
In automatically run communications systems, such as two-way data-links, the time allocations for
communications in a half-duplex system can be firmly controlled by the hardware. Thus, there is no
waste of the channel for switching. For example, station A on one end of the data link could be
allowed to transmit for exactly one second, then station B on the other end could be allowed to
transmit for exactly one second, and then the cycle repeats.
Full-duplex[edit]


A simple illustration of a full-duplex communication system. Full-duplex is not common in handheld radios as shown
here due to the cost and complexity of common duplexing methods, but is used in telephones, cellphones,
and cordless phones.
A full-duplex (FDX) system, or sometimes called double-duplex, allows communication in both
directions, and, unlike half-duplex, allows this to happen simultaneously. Land-
line telephone networks are full-duplex, since they allow both callers to speak and be heard at the
same time, with the transition from four to two wires being achieved by a hybrid coil in a telephone
hybrid.
A good analogy for a full-duplex system would be a two-lane road with one lane for each direction. In
full-duplex mode, transmitted data does not appear to be sent until it has been actually received and
an acknowledgment was sent back by the other party.
Two-way radios can be designed as full-duplex systems, transmitting on one frequency and
receiving on another. This is also called frequency-division duplex. Frequency-division duplex
systems can be extended to farther distances using pairs of simple repeater stations, because the
communications transmitted on any one frequency always travel in the same direction.
Full-duplex Ethernet connections work by making simultaneous use of two physical pairs of twisted
cable (which are inside the jacket), where one pair is used for receiving packets and one pair is used
for sending packets (two pairs per direction for some types of Ethernet), to a directly connected
device. This effectively makes the cable itself a collision-free environment and doubles the maximum
data capacity that can be supported by the connection.
There are several benefits to using full-duplex over half-duplex. Firstly, time is not wasted, since no
frames need to be retransmitted, as there are no collisions. Secondly, the full data capacity is
available in both directions because the send and receive functions are separated. Thirdly, stations
(or nodes) do not have to wait until others complete their transmission, since there is only one
transmitter for each twisted pair.
Historically, some computer-based systems of the 1960s and 1970s required full-duplex facilities
even for half-duplex operation, because their poll-and-response schemes could not tolerate the
slight delays in reversing the direction of transmission in a half-duplex line.
Full-duplex emulation[edit]
Where channel access methods are used in point-to-multipoint networks (such as cellular networks)
for dividing forward and reverse communication channels on the same physical communications
medium, they are known as duplexing methods, such as time-division duplexing and frequency-
division duplexing.
Time-division duplexing[edit]
Time-division duplexing (TDD) is the application of time-division multiplexing to separate outward
and return signals. It emulates full duplex communication over a half duplex communication link.
Time-division duplexing has a strong advantage in the case where there is asymmetry of
the uplink and downlink data rates. As the amount of uplink data increases, more communication
capacity can be dynamically allocated, and as the traffic load becomes lighter, capacity can be taken
away. The same applies in the downlink direction.
For radio systems that aren't moving quickly, another advantage is that the uplink and downlink radio
paths are likely to be very similar. This means that techniques such asbeamforming work well with
TDD systems.
Examples of time-division duplexing systems are:
UMTS 3G supplementary air interfaces TD-CDMA for indoor mobile telecommunications.
The Chinese TD-LTE 4-G, TD-SCDMA 3-G mobile communications air interface.
DECT wireless telephony
Half-duplex packet mode networks based on carrier sense multiple access, for example 2-wire
or hubbed Ethernet, Wireless local area networks and Bluetooth, can be considered as Time
Division Duplexing systems, albeit not TDMA with fixed frame-lengths.
IEEE 802.16 WiMAX
PACTOR
ISDN BRI U interface, variants using the Time Compression Multiplex (TCM) line system
G.fast, a digital subscriber line (DSL) standard under development by the ITU-T
Frequency-division duplexing[edit]
Frequency-division duplexing (FDD) means that the transmitter and receiver operate at
different carrier frequencies. The term is frequently used in ham radio operation, where an operator
is attempting to contact a repeater station. The station must be able to send and receive a
transmission at the same time, and does so by slightly altering the frequency at which it sends and
receives. This mode of operation is referred to as duplex mode or offset mode.
Uplink and downlink sub-bands are said to be separated by the frequency offset. Frequency-division
duplexing can be efficient in the case of symmetric traffic. In this case time-division duplexing tends
to waste bandwidth during the switch-over from transmitting to receiving, has greater
inherent latency, and may require more complex circuitry.
Another advantage of frequency-division duplexing is that it makes radio planning easier and more
efficient, since base stations do not "hear" each other (as they transmit and receive in different sub-
bands) and therefore will normally not interfere with each other. On the converse, with time-division
duplexing systems, care must be taken to keep guard times between neighboring base stations
(which decreases spectral efficiency) or to synchronize base stations, so that they will transmit and
receive at the same time (which increases network complexity and therefore cost, and reduces
bandwidth allocation flexibility as all base stations and sectors will be forced to use the same
uplink/downlink ratio)
Examples of Frequency Division Duplexing systems are:
ADSL and VDSL
Most cellular systems, including the UMTS/WCDMA use Frequency Division Duplexing mode
and the cdma2000 system.
IEEE 802.16 WiMax also uses Frequency Division Duplexing mode
Echo cancellation[edit]
Full-duplex audio systems like telephones can create echo, which needs to be removed. Echo
occurs when the sound coming out of the speaker, originating from the far end, re-enters the
microphone and is sent back to the far end. The sound then reappears at the original source end,
but delayed. This feedback path may be acoustic, through the air, or it may be mechanically
coupled, for example in a telephone handset. Echo cancellation is a signal-processing operation that
subtracts the far-end signal from the microphone signal before it is sent back over the network.
Echo cancellation is important to the V.32, V.34, V.56, and V.90 modem standards
[how?]
.
Echo cancelers are available as both software and hardware implementations. They can be
independent components in a communications system or integrated into the communication
system's central processing unit. Devices that do not eliminate echo sometimes will not produce
good full-duplex performance.
Examples[edit]
Telephone networks
Mobile phone
CB radio (half-duplex)
A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two connected parties or
devices that can communicate with one another in both directions, simultaneously. An example of a
duplex device is a telephone. The people at both ends of a telephone call can speak at the same
time and simultaneously each be heard by the other at the same time. The earphone reproduces the
speech of the other person as the microphone transmits the speech of the local person, because
there is a two-way communication channel between them.
Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow for a
communication "two-way street" between two connected parties or to provide a "reverse path" for the
monitoring and remote adjustment of equipment in the field.
Systems that do not need the duplex capability use instead simplex communication in which one
device transmits and the others can only "listen" and can not be heard while in the moment of
"listening" (one transmits/talks and the other can only receive/listen at a time). Examples
are broadcast radio and television, garage door openers, baby monitors,wireless microphones, radio
controlled models, surveillance cameras, and missile telemetry.
Contents
[hide]
1 Half-duplex
2 Full-duplex
3 Full-duplex emulation
o 3.1 Time-division duplexing
o 3.2 Frequency-division duplexing
o 3.3 Echo cancellation
4 Examples
5 Summary
6 See also
7 References
Half-duplex[edit]


A simple illustration of a half-duplex communication system
A half-duplex (HDX) system provides communication in both directions, but only one direction at a
time (not simultaneously). Typically, once a party begins receiving a signal, it must wait for the
transmitter to stop transmitting, before replying (antennas are of trans-receiver type in these devices,
so as to transmit and receive the signal as well).
An example of a half-duplex system is a two-party system such as a walkie-talkie, wherein one must
use "Over" or another previously designated command to indicate the end of transmission, and
ensure that only one party transmits at a time, because both parties transmit and receive on the
same frequency.
A good analogy for a half-duplex system would be a one-lane road with traffic controllers at each
end, such as a two-lane bridge under re-construction. Traffic can flow in both directions, but only one
direction at a time, regulated by the traffic controllers.
In automatically run communications systems, such as two-way data-links, the time allocations for
communications in a half-duplex system can be firmly controlled by the hardware. Thus, there is no
waste of the channel for switching. For example, station A on one end of the data link could be
allowed to transmit for exactly one second, then station B on the other end could be allowed to
transmit for exactly one second, and then the cycle repeats.
Full-duplex[edit]


A simple illustration of a full-duplex communication system. Full-duplex is not common in handheld radios as shown
here due to the cost and complexity of common duplexing methods, but is used in telephones, cellphones,
and cordless phones.
A full-duplex (FDX) system, or sometimes called double-duplex, allows communication in both
directions, and, unlike half-duplex, allows this to happen simultaneously. Land-
line telephone networks are full-duplex, since they allow both callers to speak and be heard at the
same time, with the transition from four to two wires being achieved by a hybrid coil in a telephone
hybrid.
A good analogy for a full-duplex system would be a two-lane road with one lane for each direction. In
full-duplex mode, transmitted data does not appear to be sent until it has been actually received and
an acknowledgment was sent back by the other party.
Two-way radios can be designed as full-duplex systems, transmitting on one frequency and
receiving on another. This is also called frequency-division duplex. Frequency-division duplex
systems can be extended to farther distances using pairs of simple repeater stations, because the
communications transmitted on any one frequency always travel in the same direction.
Full-duplex Ethernet connections work by making simultaneous use of two physical pairs of twisted
cable (which are inside the jacket), where one pair is used for receiving packets and one pair is used
for sending packets (two pairs per direction for some types of Ethernet), to a directly connected
device. This effectively makes the cable itself a collision-free environment and doubles the maximum
data capacity that can be supported by the connection.
There are several benefits to using full-duplex over half-duplex. Firstly, time is not wasted, since no
frames need to be retransmitted, as there are no collisions. Secondly, the full data capacity is
available in both directions because the send and receive functions are separated. Thirdly, stations
(or nodes) do not have to wait until others complete their transmission, since there is only one
transmitter for each twisted pair.
Historically, some computer-based systems of the 1960s and 1970s required full-duplex facilities
even for half-duplex operation, because their poll-and-response schemes could not tolerate the
slight delays in reversing the direction of transmission in a half-duplex line.
Full-duplex emulation[edit]
Where channel access methods are used in point-to-multipoint networks (such as cellular networks)
for dividing forward and reverse communication channels on the same physical communications
medium, they are known as duplexing methods, such as time-division duplexing and frequency-
division duplexing.
Time-division duplexing[edit]
Time-division duplexing (TDD) is the application of time-division multiplexing to separate outward
and return signals. It emulates full duplex communication over a half duplex communication link.
Time-division duplexing has a strong advantage in the case where there is asymmetry of
the uplink and downlink data rates. As the amount of uplink data increases, more communication
capacity can be dynamically allocated, and as the traffic load becomes lighter, capacity can be taken
away. The same applies in the downlink direction.
For radio systems that aren't moving quickly, another advantage is that the uplink and downlink radio
paths are likely to be very similar. This means that techniques such asbeamforming work well with
TDD systems.
Examples of time-division duplexing systems are:
UMTS 3G supplementary air interfaces TD-CDMA for indoor mobile telecommunications.
The Chinese TD-LTE 4-G, TD-SCDMA 3-G mobile communications air interface.
DECT wireless telephony
Half-duplex packet mode networks based on carrier sense multiple access, for example 2-wire
or hubbed Ethernet, Wireless local area networks and Bluetooth, can be considered as Time
Division Duplexing systems, albeit not TDMA with fixed frame-lengths.
IEEE 802.16 WiMAX
PACTOR
ISDN BRI U interface, variants using the Time Compression Multiplex (TCM) line system
G.fast, a digital subscriber line (DSL) standard under development by the ITU-T
Frequency-division duplexing[edit]
Frequency-division duplexing (FDD) means that the transmitter and receiver operate at
different carrier frequencies. The term is frequently used in ham radio operation, where an operator
is attempting to contact a repeater station. The station must be able to send and receive a
transmission at the same time, and does so by slightly altering the frequency at which it sends and
receives. This mode of operation is referred to as duplex mode or offset mode.
Uplink and downlink sub-bands are said to be separated by the frequency offset. Frequency-division
duplexing can be efficient in the case of symmetric traffic. In this case time-division duplexing tends
to waste bandwidth during the switch-over from transmitting to receiving, has greater
inherent latency, and may require more complex circuitry.
Another advantage of frequency-division duplexing is that it makes radio planning easier and more
efficient, since base stations do not "hear" each other (as they transmit and receive in different sub-
bands) and therefore will normally not interfere with each other. On the converse, with time-division
duplexing systems, care must be taken to keep guard times between neighboring base stations
(which decreases spectral efficiency) or to synchronize base stations, so that they will transmit and
receive at the same time (which increases network complexity and therefore cost, and reduces
bandwidth allocation flexibility as all base stations and sectors will be forced to use the same
uplink/downlink ratio)
Examples of Frequency Division Duplexing systems are:
ADSL and VDSL
Most cellular systems, including the UMTS/WCDMA use Frequency Division Duplexing mode
and the cdma2000 system.
IEEE 802.16 WiMax also uses Frequency Division Duplexing mode
Echo cancellation[edit]
Full-duplex audio systems like telephones can create echo, which needs to be removed. Echo
occurs when the sound coming out of the speaker, originating from the far end, re-enters the
microphone and is sent back to the far end. The sound then reappears at the original source end,
but delayed. This feedback path may be acoustic, through the air, or it may be mechanically
coupled, for example in a telephone handset. Echo cancellation is a signal-processing operation that
subtracts the far-end signal from the microphone signal before it is sent back over the network.
Echo cancellation is important to the V.32, V.34, V.56, and V.90 modem standards
[how?]
.
Echo cancelers are available as both software and hardware implementations. They can be
independent components in a communications system or integrated into the communication
system's central processing unit. Devices that do not eliminate echo sometimes will not produce
good full-duplex performance.
Examples[edit]
Telephone networks
Mobile phone
CB radio (half-duplex)
Summary[edit]
Simplex - Communication in one direction only, e.g. TV or radio broadcasts.
Half-duplex - Communication in both directions, one direction at a time, e.g. Two-way radio.
Full-duplex - Communication in both directions simultaneously, e.g. telephone calls.
W-CDMA (UMTS)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from W-CDMA)

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please
help improve this article to make it understandable to non-experts, without
removing the technical details. The talk page may contain
suggestions. (February 2012)
W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-
2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface standard found in 3G mobile
telecommunications networks. It is the basis of Japan's NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service and the most-
commonly used member of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS) family and
sometimes used as a synonym for UMTS.
[1]
It uses the DS-CDMA channel access method and
the FDD duplexing method to achieve higher speeds and support more users compared to
most time division multiple access (TDMA) and time division duplex (TDD) schemes used before.
While not an evolutionary upgrade on the airside, it uses the same core network as
the 2G GSM networks deployed worldwide, allowing dual mode mobile operation along with
GSM/EDGE; a feature it shares with other members of the UMTS family.
Contents
[hide]
1 Development
o 1.1 Rationale for W-CDMA
2 Deployment
3 See also
4 References
o 4.1 Documentation
Development[edit]
In the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G
network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-
2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an
alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, and the short range DECT system. Later, W-CDMA was selected
as an air interface for UMTS.
As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification, their network
was initially incompatible with UMTS.
[2]
However, this has been resolved by NTT DoCoMo updating
their network.
Code Division Multiple Access communication networks have been developed by a number of
companies over the years, but development of cell-phone networks based on CDMA (prior to W-
CDMA) was dominated by Qualcomm. Qualcomm was the first company to succeed in developing a
practical and cost-effective CDMA implementation for consumer cell phones and its early IS-95 air
interface standard has evolved into the current CDMA2000 (IS-856/IS-2000) standard. Qualcomm
created an experimental wideband CDMA system called CDMA2000 3x which unified the W-CDMA
(3GPP) and CDMA2000 (3GPP2) network technologies into a single design for a worldwide
standard air interface. Compatibility with CDMA2000 would have beneficially enabled roaming on
existing networks beyond Japan, since Qualcomm CDMA2000 networks are widely deployed,
especially in the Americas, with coverage in 58 countries as of 2006. However, divergent
requirements resulted in the W-CDMA standard being retained and deployed globally. W-CDMA has
then become the dominant technology with 457 commercial networks in 178 countries as of April
2012.
[3]
Several cdma2000 operators have even converted their networks to W-CDMA for
international roaming compatibility and smooth upgrade path to LTE.
Despite incompatibility with existing air-interface standards, late introduction and the high upgrade
cost of deploying an all-new transmitter technology, W-CDMA has become the dominant standard.
Rationale for W-CDMA[edit]
W-CDMA transmits on a pair of 5 MHz-wide radio channels, while CDMA2000 transmits on one or
several pairs of 1.25 MHz radio channels. Though W-CDMA does use a direct sequence CDMA
transmission technique like CDMA2000, W-CDMA is not simply a wideband version of CDMA2000.
The W-CDMA system is a new design by NTT DoCoMo, and it differs in many aspects from
CDMA2000. From an engineering point of view, W-CDMA provides a different balance of trade-offs
between cost, capacity, performance, and density
[citation needed]
; it also promises to achieve a benefit of
reduced cost for video phone handsets. W-CDMA may also be better suited for deployment in the
very dense cities of Europe and Asia. However, hurdles remain, and cross-
licensing of patents between Qualcomm and W-CDMA vendors has not eliminated possible patent
issues due to the features of W-CDMA which remain covered by Qualcomm patents.
[4]

W-CDMA has been developed into a complete set of specifications, a detailed protocol that defines
how a mobile phone communicates with the tower, how signals are modulated, how datagrams are
structured, and system interfaces are specified allowing free competition on technology elements.
Deployment[edit]
The world's first commercial W-CDMA service, FOMA, was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in
2001.
Elsewhere, W-CDMA deployments are usually marketed under the UMTS brand. See the
main UMTS article for more information.
W-CDMA has also been adapted for use in satellite communications on the U.S. Mobile User
Objective System using geosynchronous satellites in place of cell towers.
TD-SCDMA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) or UTRA/UMTS-TDD
1.28 Mcps Low Chip Rate (LCR),
[1][2]
is an air interface
[1]
found in UMTSmobile
telecommunications networks in China as an alternative to W-CDMA. Together with TD-CDMA, it is
also known as UMTS-TDD or IMT 2000 Time-Division (IMT-TD).
[1]

The term "TD-SCDMA" is misleading. While it suggests covering only a channel access method
based on CDMA, it is actually the common name for the whole air interface specification.
[2]

TD-SCDMA uses the S-CDMA channel access method across multiple time slots.
[3]

Contents
[hide]
1 Objectives
2 Deployment and usage
3 Technical highlights
4 See also
5 References
6 Documentation
7 External links
Objectives[edit]
TD-SCDMA was developed in the People's Republic of China by the Chinese Academy of
Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Datang Telecom, and Siemens AG in an attempt to avoid
dependence on Western technology. This is likely primarily for practical reasons, since
other 3G formats require the payment of patent fees to a large number of Western patent holders.
[4]

TD-SCDMA proponents also claim it is better suited for densely populated areas.
[1]
Further, it is
supposed to cover all usage scenarios, whereas W-CDMA is optimised for symmetric traffic and
macro cells, while TD-CDMA is best used in low mobility scenarios within micro or pico cells.
[1]

TD-SCDMA is based on spread spectrum technology which makes it unlikely that it will be able to
completely escape the payment of license fees to western patent holders. The launch of a national
TD-SCDMA network was initially projected by 2005
[5]
but only reached large scale commercial trials
with 60,000 users across eight cities in 2008.
[6]

On January 7, 2009, China granted a TD-SCDMA 3G licence to China Mobile.
[7]

On September 21, 2009, China Mobile officially announced that it had 1,327,000 TD-SCDMA
subscribers as of the end of August, 2009.
[8]

While TD is primarily a China-only system, it may well be exported to developing countries. It is likely
to be replaced with a newer TD-LTE system over the next 5 years.
Deployment and usage[edit]
On January 20, 2006, Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China formally
announced that TD-SCDMA is the country's standard of 3G mobile telecommunication. On February
15, 2006, a timeline for deployment of the network in China was announced, stating pre-commercial
trials would take place starting after completion of a number of test networks in select cities. These
trials ran from March to October, 2006, but the results were apparently unsatisfactory. In early 2007,
the Chinese government instructed the dominant cellular carrier, China Mobile, to build commercial
trial networks in eight cities, and the two fixed-line carriers, China Telecom and China Netcom, to
build one each in two other cities. Construction of these trial networks was scheduled to finish during
the fourth quarter of 2007, but delays meant that construction was not complete until early 2008.
The standard has been adopted by 3GPP since Rel-4, known as "UTRA TDD 1.28Mbps Option".
[1]

On March 28, 2008, China Mobile Group announced TD-SCDMA "commercial trials" for 60,000 test
users in eight cities from April 1, 2008. Networks using other 3G standards (WCDMA and
CDMA2000 EV/DO) had still not been launched in China, as these were delayed until TD-SCDMA
was ready for commercial launch.
In January 2009 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in China took the
unusual step of assigning licences for 3 different third-generation mobile phone standards to three
carriers in a long-awaited step that is expected to prompt $41 billion in spending on new equipment.
The Chinese-developed standard, TD-SCDMA, was assigned to China Mobile, the world's biggest
phone carrier by subscribers. That appeared to be an effort to make sure the new system has the
financial and technical backing to succeed. Licences for two existing 3G standards, W-
CDMA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, were assigned to China Unicom and China Telecom,
respectively. Third-generation, or 3G, technology supports Web surfing, wireless video and other
services and the start of service is expected to spur new revenue growth.
Technical highlights[edit]
TD-SCDMA uses TDD, in contrast to the FDD scheme used by W-CDMA. By dynamically adjusting
the number of timeslots used for downlink and uplink, the system can more easily accommodate
asymmetric traffic with different data rate requirements on downlink and uplink than FDD schemes.
Since it does not require paired spectrum for downlink and uplink, spectrum allocation flexibility is
also increased. Using the same carrier frequency for uplink and downlink also means that the
channel condition is the same on both directions, and the base station can deduce the downlink
channel information from uplink channel estimates, which is helpful to the application
of beamforming techniques.
TD-SCDMA also uses TDMA in addition to the CDMA used in WCDMA. This reduces the number of
users in each timeslot, which reduces the implementation complexity ofmultiuser
detection and beamforming schemes, but the non-continuous transmission also
reduces coverage (because of the higher peak power needed), mobility (because of lower power
control frequency) and complicates radio resource management algorithms.
The "S" in TD-SCDMA stands for "synchronous", which means that uplink signals are synchronized
at the base station receiver, achieved by continuous timing adjustments. This reduces
the interference between users of the same timeslot using different codes by improving
the orthogonality between the codes, therefore increasing system capacity, at the cost of some
hardware complexity in achieving uplink synchronization.
Orthogonal frequency-division multiple
access
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Multiplex techniques
Analog modulation
AM
FM
PM
QAM
SM
SSB
Circuit mode (constant bandwidth)
TDM
FDM / WDM
SDM
Polarization multiplexing
Spatial multiplexing
OAM multiplexing
Statistical multiplexing (variable bandwidth)
Packet switching
Dynamic TDM
FHSS
DSSS
OFDMA
SC-FDM
MC-SS
Related topics
Channel access methods
Media access control
V
T
E
Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is a multi-user version of the
popular orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme. Multiple
access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of subcarriers to individual users as shown in
the illustration below. This allows simultaneous low data rate transmission from several users.
Contents
[hide]
1 Key features
o 1.1 Claimed advantages over OFDM with time-domain statistical multiplexing
o 1.2 Claimed OFDMA Advantages
o 1.3 Recognised disadvantages of OFDMA
2 Characteristics and principles of operation
3 Usage
4 Trademark and patents
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Key features[edit]
The advantages and disadvantages summarized below are further discussed in the Characteristics
and principles of operation section. See also the list of OFDM Key features.
Claimed advantages over OFDM with time-domain statistical multiplexing[edit]
Allows simultaneous low-data-rate transmission from several users.
Pulsed carrier can be avoided.
Lower maximum transmission power for low data rate users.
Shorter delay, and constant delay.
Contention-based multiple access (collision avoidance) is simplified.
Further improves OFDM robustness to fading and interference.
Combat narrow-band interference.
Claimed OFDMA Advantages[edit]
Flexibility of deployment across various frequency bands with little needed modification to the air
interface.
[1]

Averaging interferences from neighboring cells, by using different basic carrier permutations
between users in different cells.
Interferences within the cell are averaged by using allocation with cyclic permutations.
Enables Single Frequency Network coverage, where coverage problem exists and gives
excellent coverage.
Offers Frequency diversity by spreading the carriers all over the used spectrum.
Allows per channel or per subchannel power
Recognised disadvantages of OFDMA[edit]
Higher sensitivity to frequency offsets and phase noise.
[1]

Asynchronous data communication services such as web access are characterised by short
communication bursts at high data rate. Few users in a base station cell are transferring data
simultaneously at low constant data rate.
The complex OFDM electronics, including the FFT algorithm and forward error correction, are
constantly active independent of the data rate, which is inefficient from power consumption point
of view, while OFDM combined with data packet scheduling may allow FFT algorithm to
hibernate during certain time intervals.
The OFDM diversity gain, and resistance to frequency-selective fading, may partly be lost if very
few sub-carriers are assigned to each user, and if the same carrier is used in every OFDM
symbol. Adaptive sub-carrier assignment based on fast feedback information about the channel,
or sub-carrier frequency hopping, is therefore desirable.
Dealing with co-channel interference from nearby cells is more complex in OFDM than in CDMA.
It would require dynamic channel allocation with advanced coordination among adjacent base
stations.
The fast channel feedback information and adaptive sub-carrier assignment is more complex
than CDMA fast power control.
Characteristics and principles of operation[edit]
Based on feedback information about the channel conditions, adaptive user-to-subcarrier
assignment can be achieved. If the assignment is done sufficiently fast, this further improves the
OFDM robustness to fast fading and narrow-band cochannel interference, and makes it possible to
achieve even better system spectral efficiency.
Different numbers of sub-carriers can be assigned to different users, in view to support
differentiated Quality of Service (QoS), i.e. to control the data rate and error probability individually
for each user.
OFDMA can be seen as an alternative to combining OFDM with time division multiple
access (TDMA) or time-domain statistical multiplexing, i.e. packet mode communication. Low-data-
rate users can send continuously with low transmission power instead of using a "pulsed" high-
power carrier. Constant delay, and shorter delay, can be achieved.
OFDMA can also be described as a combination of frequency domain and time domain multiple
access, where the resources are partitioned in the time-frequency space, and slots are assigned
along the OFDM symbol index as well as OFDM sub-carrier index.
OFDMA is considered as highly suitable for broadband wireless networks, due to advantages
including scalability and use of multiple antennas (MIMO)-friendliness, and ability to take advantage
of channel frequency selectivity.
[1]

In spectrum sensing cognitive radio, OFDMA is a possible approach to filling free radio
frequency bands adaptively. Timo A. Weiss and Friedrich K. Jondral of the University of Karlsruhe
proposed a spectrum pooling system in which free bands sensed by nodes were immediately filled
by OFDMA subbands.

Usage[edit]
OFDMA is used in:
the mobility mode of the IEEE 802.16 Wireless MAN standard, commonly referred to as WiMAX,
the IEEE 802.20 mobile Wireless MAN standard, commonly referred to as MBWA,
MoCA 2.0,
the downlink of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) fourth generation mobile broadband
standard. The radio interface was formerly named High Speed OFDM Packet Access (HSOPA),
now named Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA).
the Qualcomm Flarion Technologies Mobile Flash-OFDM
the now defunct Qualcomm/3GPP2 Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) project, intended as a
successor of CDMA2000, but replaced by LTE.
OFDMA is also a candidate access method for the IEEE 802.22 Wireless Regional Area
Networks (WRAN). The project aims at designing the first cognitive radio based standard operating
in the VHF-low UHF spectrum (TV spectrum).


OFDMA subcarriers
Trademark and patents[edit]
The term "OFDMA" is claimed to be a registered trademark by Runcom Technologies Ltd.[1], with
various other claimants to the underlying technologies through patents.

WiMAX
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WiMAX Forum logo


WiMAX base station equipment with a sector antenna and wireless modemon top
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communications
standard designed to provide 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates,
[1]
with the 2011 update
providing up to 1 Gbit/s
[1]
for fixed stations. The name "WiMAX" was created by the WiMAX Forum,
which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The
forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless
broadband access as an alternative tocable and DSL".
[2]

Contents
[hide]
1 Terminology
2 Uses
o 2.1 Internet access
o 2.2 Middle-mile backhaul to fibre networks
o 2.3 Triple-play
o 2.4 Deployment
3 Connecting
o 3.1 Gateways
o 3.2 External modems
o 3.3 Mobile phones
4 Technical information
o 4.1 The IEEE 802.16 Standard
o 4.2 Physical layer
o 4.3 Media access control layer
o 4.4 Specifications
o 4.5 Integration with an IP-based network
o 4.6 Spectrum allocation
o 4.7 Spectral efficiency
o 4.8 Inherent limitations
o 4.9 Silicon implementations
o 4.10 Comparison
5 Conformance testing
6 Associations
o 6.1 WiMAX Forum
o 6.2 WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance
o 6.3 Telecommunications Industry Association
7 Competing technologies
o 7.1 Harmonization
o 7.2 Comparison with other mobile Internet standards
8 Development
9 Interference
10 Deployments
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links
Terminology[edit]
WiMAX refers to interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.16 family of wireless-networks
standards ratified by the WiMAX Forum. (Similarly, Wi-Fi refers to interoperable implementations of
the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standards certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance.) WiMAX Forum certification
allows vendors to sell fixed or mobile products as WiMAX certified, thus ensuring a level of
interoperability with other certified products, as long as they fit the same profile.
The original IEEE 802.16 standard (now called "Fixed WiMAX") was published in 2001. WiMAX
adopted some of its technology from WiBro, a service marketed in Korea.
[3]

Mobile WiMAX (originally based on 802.16e-2005) is the revision that was deployed in many
countries, and basis of future revisions such as 802.16m-2011.
WiMAX is sometimes referred to as "Wi-Fi on steroids"
[4]
and can be used for a number of
applications including broadband connections, cellular backhaul, hotspots, etc. It is similar to Wi-Fi,
but it can enable usage at much greater distances.
[5]

Uses[edit]
The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential applications:
Providing portable mobile broadband connectivity across cities and countries through a variety
of devices.
Providing a wireless alternative to cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) for "last mile"
broadband access.
Providing data, telecommunications (VoIP) and IPTV services (triple play).
Providing a source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan.
Smart grids and metering
Internet access[edit]
WiMAX can provide at-home or mobile Internet access across whole cities or countries. In many
cases this has resulted in competition in markets which typically only had access through an existing
incumbent DSL (or similar) operator.
Additionally, given the relatively low costs associated with the deployment of a WiMAX network (in
comparison with 3G, HSDPA, xDSL, HFC or FTTx), it is now economically viable to provide last-mile
broadband Internet access in remote locations.
Middle-mile backhaul to fibre networks[edit]
Mobile WiMAX was a replacement candidate for cellular phone technologies such
as GSM and CDMA, or can be used as an overlay to increase capacity. Fixed WiMAX is also
considered as a wireless backhaul technology for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in both developed and
developing nations.
[6][7]

In North America, backhaul for urban operations is typically provided via one or more copper
wire line connections, whereas remote cellular operations are sometimes backhauled via satellite. In
other regions, urban and rural backhaul is usually provided by microwave links. (The exception to
this is where the network is operated by an incumbent with ready access to the copper network.)
WiMAX has more substantial backhaul bandwidth requirements than legacy cellular applications.
Consequently the use of wireless microwave backhaul is on the rise in North America and existing
microwave backhaul links in all regions are being upgraded.
[8]
Capacities of between 34 Mbit/s and
1 Gbit/s
[9]
are routinely being deployed with latencies in the order of 1 ms.
In many cases, operators are aggregating sites using wireless technology and then presenting traffic
on to fiber networks where convenient. WiMAX in this application competes with microwave, E-
line and simple extension of the fiber network itself.
Triple-play[edit]
WiMAX directly supports the technologies that make triple-play service offerings possible (such
as Quality of Service and Multicasting). These are inherent to the WiMAX standard rather than being
added on as Carrier Ethernet is to Ethernet.
On May 7, 2008 in the United States, Sprint Nextel, Google, Intel, Comcast, Bright House, and Time
Warner announced a pooling of an average of 120 MHz of spectrum and merged with Clearwire to
market the service. The new company hopes to benefit from combined services offerings and
network resources as a springboard past its competitors. The cable companies will provide media
services to other partners while gaining access to the wireless network as a Mobile virtual network
operator to provide triple-play services.
Some analysts
[who?]
questioned how the deal will work out: Although fixed-mobile convergence has
been a recognized factor in the industry, prior attempts to form partnerships among wireless and
cable companies have generally failed to lead to significant benefits to the participants. Other
analysts point out that as wireless progresses to higher bandwidth, it inevitably competes more
directly with cable and DSL, inspiring competitors into collaboration. Also, as wireless broadband
networks grow denser and usage habits shift, the need for increased backhaul and media service
will accelerate, therefore the opportunity to leverage cable assets is expected to increase.
Deployment[edit]
WiMAX access was used to assist with communications
[10]
in Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami
in December 2004. All communication infrastructure in the area, other thanamateur radio, was
destroyed
[citation needed]
, making the survivors unable to communicate with people outside the
disaster area and vice versa. WiMAX provided broadband access that helped regenerate
communication to and from Aceh.
[citation needed]

WiMAX hardware was donated by Intel Corporation to assist the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and FEMA in their communications efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane
Katrina.
[10][11]
In practice, volunteers used mainly self-healing mesh, Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP), and a satellite uplink combined with Wi-Fi on the local link.
[12]

Connecting[edit]


A WiMAX USB modem for mobile internet
Devices that provide connectivity to a WiMAX network are known as subscriber stations (SS).
Portable units include handsets (similar to cellular smartphones); PC peripherals (PC Cards or USB
dongles); and embedded devices in laptops, which are now available for Wi-Fi services. In addition,
there is much emphasis by operators on consumer electronics devices such as Gaming consoles,
MP3 players and similar devices. WiMAX is more similar to Wi-Fi than to other 3G cellular
technologies.
The WiMAX Forum website provides a list of certified devices. However, this is not a complete list of
devices available as certified modules are embedded into laptops, MIDs (Mobile Internet devices),
and other private labeled devices.
Gateways[edit]
WiMAX gateway devices are available as both indoor and outdoor versions from several
manufacturers including Vecima Networks, Alvarion, Airspan, ZyXEL, Huawei, andMotorola. The list
of deployed WiMAX networks and WiMAX Forum membership list
[13]
provide more links to specific
vendors, products and installations. The list of vendors and networks is not comprehensive and is
not intended as an endorsement of these companies above others.
Many of the WiMAX gateways that are offered by manufactures such as these are stand-alone self-
install indoor units. Such devices typically sit near the customer's window with the best signal, and
provide:
An integrated Wi-Fi access point to provide the WiMAX Internet connectivity to multiple devices
throughout the home or business.
Ethernet ports to connect directly to a computer, router, printer or DVR on a local wired network.
One or two analog telephone jacks to connect a land-line phone and take advantage of VoIP.
Indoor gateways are convenient, but radio losses mean that the subscriber may need to be
significantly closer to the WiMAX base station than with professionally installed external units.
Outdoor units are roughly the size of a laptop PC, and their installation is comparable to the
installation of a residential satellite dish. A higher-gain directional outdoor unit will generally result in
greatly increased range and throughput but with the obvious loss of practical mobility of the unit.
External modems[edit]
USB can provide connectivity to a WiMAX network through what is called a dongle.
[14]
Generally
these devices are connected to a notebook or net book computer. Dongles typically have
omnidirectional antennas which are of lower gain compared to other devices, as such these devices
are best used in areas of good coverage.
Mobile phones[edit]
HTC announced the first WiMAX enabled mobile phone, the Max 4G, on November 12, 2008.
[15]
The
device was only available to certain markets in Russia on the Yota network.
HTC and Sprint Nextel released the second WiMAX enabled mobile phone, the EVO 4G, March 23,
2010 at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas. The device, made available on June 4, 2010,
[16]
is
capable of both EV-DO(3G) and WiMAX(pre-4G) as well as simultaneous data & voice sessions.
Sprint Nextel announced at CES 2012 that it will no longer be offering devices using the WiMAX
technology due to financial circumstances, instead, along with its network partner Clearwire, Sprint
Nextel will roll out a 4G network deciding to shift and utilize LTE 4G technology instead.
Technical information[edit]

It has been suggested that this article be merged into IEEE 802.16.
(Discuss) Proposed since August 2011.
The IEEE 802.16 Standard[edit]
WiMAX is based upon IEEE Std 802.16e-2005,
[17]
approved in December 2005. It is a supplement to
the IEEE Std 802.16-2004,
[18]
and so the actual standard is 802.16-2004 as amended by 802.16e-
2005. Thus, these specifications need to be considered together.
IEEE 802.16e-2005 improves upon IEEE 802.16-2004 by:
Adding support for mobility (soft and hard handover between base stations). This is seen as one
of the most important aspects of 802.16e-2005, and is the very basis of Mobile WiMAX.
Scaling of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the channel bandwidth in order to keep the carrier
spacing constant across different channel bandwidths (typically 1.25 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz or
20 MHz). Constant carrier spacing results in a higher spectrum efficiency in wide channels, and
a cost reduction in narrow channels. Also known as scalable OFDMA (SOFDMA). Other bands
not multiples of 1.25 MHz are defined in the standard, but because the allowed FFT subcarrier
numbers are only 128, 512, 1024 and 2048, other frequency bands will not have exactly the
same carrier spacing, which might not be optimal for implementations. Carrier spacing is
10.94 kHz.
Advanced antenna diversity schemes, and hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)
Adaptive antenna systems (AAS) and MIMO technology
Denser sub-channelization, thereby improving indoor penetration
Intro and low-density parity check (LDPC)
Introducing downlink sub-channelization, allowing administrators to trade coverage for capacity
or vice versa
Adding an extra quality of service (QoS) class for VoIP applications.
SOFDMA (used in 802.16e-2005) and OFDM256 (802.16d) are not compatible thus equipment will
have to be replaced if an operator is to move to the later standard (e.g., Fixed WiMAX to Mobile
WiMAX).
Physical layer[edit]
The original version of the standard on which WiMAX is based (IEEE 802.16) specified a physical
layer operating in the 10 to 66 GHz range. 802.16a, updated in 2004 to 802.16-2004, added
specifications for the 2 to 11 GHz range. 802.16-2004 was updated by 802.16e-2005 in 2005 and
uses scalable orthogonal frequency-division multiple access
[19]
(SOFDMA), as opposed to the
fixed orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) version with 256 sub-carriers (of which 200
are used) in 802.16d. More advanced versions, including 802.16e, also bring multiple antenna
support through MIMO. (See WiMAX MIMO) This brings potential benefits in terms of coverage, self
installation, power consumption, frequency re-use and bandwidth efficiency. WiMax is the most
energy-efficient pre-4G technique among LTE and HSPA+.
[20]

Media access control layer[edit]
The WiMAX MAC uses a scheduling algorithm for which the subscriber station needs to compete
only once for initial entry into the network. After network entry is allowed, the subscriber station is
allocated an access slot by the base station. The time slot can enlarge and contract, but remains
assigned to the subscriber station, which means that other subscribers cannot use it. In addition to
being stable under overload and over-subscription, the scheduling algorithm can also be
more bandwidth efficient. The scheduling algorithm also allows the base station to control Quality of
Service (QoS) parameters by balancing the time-slot assignments among the application needs of
the subscriber station.
Specifications[edit]
As a standard intended to satisfy needs of next-generation data networks (4G), WiMAX is
distinguished by its dynamic burst algorithm modulation adaptive to the physical environment the RF
signal travels through. Modulation is chosen to be more spectrally efficient (more bits
per OFDM/SOFDMA symbol). That is, when the bursts have a highsignal strength and a high carrier
to noise plus interference ratio (CINR), they can be more easily decoded using digital signal
processing (DSP). In contrast, operating in less favorable environments for RF communication, the
system automatically steps down to a more robust mode (burst profile) which means fewer bits per
OFDM/SOFDMA symbol; with the advantage that power per bit is higher and therefore simpler
accurate signal processing can be performed.
Burst profiles are used inverse (algorithmically dynamic) to low signal attenuation; meaning
throughput between clients and the base station is determined largely by distance. Maximum
distance is achieved by the use of the most robust burst setting; that is, the profile with the largest
MAC frame allocation trade-off requiring more symbols (a larger portion of the MAC frame) to be
allocated in transmitting a given amount of data than if the client were closer to the base station.
The client's MAC frame and their individual burst profiles are defined as well as the specific time
allocation. However, even if this is done automatically then the practical deployment should avoid
high interference and multipath environments. The reason for which is obviously that too much
interference causes the network to function poorly and can also misrepresent the capability of the
network.
The system is complex to deploy as it is necessary to track not only the signal strength and CINR
(as in systems like GSM) but also how the available frequencies will be dynamically assigned
(resulting in dynamic changes to the available bandwidth.) This could lead to cluttered frequencies
with slow response times or lost frames.
As a result the system has to be initially designed in consensus with the base station product team
to accurately project frequency use, interference, and general product functionality.
The Asia-Pacific region has surpassed the North American region in terms of 4G broadband wireless
subscribers. There were around 1.7 million pre-WIMAX and WIMAX customers in Asia - 29% of the
overall market - compared to 1.4 million in the USA and Canada.
[21]

Integration with an IP-based network[edit]


The WiMAX Forum architecture
The WiMAX Forum has proposed an architecture that defines how a WiMAX network can be
connected with an IP based core network, which is typically chosen by operators that serve as
Internet Service Providers (ISP); Nevertheless the WiMAX BS provide seamless integration
capabilities with other types of architectures as with packet switched Mobile Networks.
The WiMAX forum proposal defines a number of components, plus some of the interconnections (or
reference points) between these, labeled R1 to R5 and R8:
SS/MS: the Subscriber Station/Mobile Station
ASN: the Access Service Network
[22]

BS: Base station, part of the ASN
ASN-GW: the ASN Gateway, part of the ASN
CSN: the Connectivity Service Network
HA: Home Agent, part of the CSN
AAA: Authentication, Authorization and Accounting Server, part of the CSN
NAP: a Network Access Provider
NSP: a Network Service Provider
It is important to note that the functional architecture can be designed into various hardware
configurations rather than fixed configurations. For example, the architecture is flexible enough to
allow remote/mobile stations of varying scale and functionality and Base Stations of varying size -
e.g. femto, pico, and mini BS as well as macros.
Spectrum allocation[edit]
There is no uniform global licensed spectrum for WiMAX, however the WiMAX Forum has published
three licensed spectrum profiles: 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz, in an effort to drive standardisation
and decrease cost.
In the USA, the biggest segment available is around 2.5 GHz,
[23]
and is already assigned, primarily
to Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. Elsewhere in the world, the most-likely bands used will be the Forum
approved ones, with 2.3 GHz probably being most important in Asia. Some countries in Asia
like India and Indonesia will use a mix of 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and other
frequencies. Pakistan's Wateen Telecom uses 3.5 GHz.
Analog TV bands (700 MHz) may become available for WiMAX usage, but await the complete roll
out of digital TV, and there will be other uses suggested for that spectrum. In the USA the
FCC auction for this spectrum began in January 2008 and, as a result, the biggest share of the
spectrum went to Verizon Wireless and the next biggest to AT&T.
[24]
Both of these companies have
stated their intention of supporting LTE, a technology which competes directly with WiMAX. EU
commissioner Viviane Reding has suggested re-allocation of 500800 MHz spectrum for wireless
communication, including WiMAX.
[25]

WiMAX profiles define channel size, TDD/FDD and other necessary attributes in order to have inter-
operating products. The current fixed profiles are defined for both TDD and FDD profiles. At this
point, all of the mobile profiles are TDD only. The fixed profiles have channel sizes of 3.5 MHz,
5 MHz, 7 MHz and 10 MHz. The mobile profiles are 5 MHz, 8.75 MHz and 10 MHz. (Note: the
802.16 standard allows a far wider variety of channels, but only the above subsets are supported as
WiMAX profiles.)
Since October 2007, the Radio communication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU-R) has decided to include WiMAX technology in the IMT-2000 set of standards.
[26]
This enables
spectrum owners (specifically in the 2.5-2.69 GHz band at this stage) to use WiMAX equipment in
any country that recognizes the IMT-2000.
Spectral efficiency[edit]
One of the significant advantages of advanced wireless systems such as WiMAX is spectral
efficiency. For example, 802.16-2004 (fixed) has a spectral efficiency of 3.7(bit/s)/Hertz, and other
3.54G wireless systems offer spectral efficiencies that are similar to within a few tenths of a
percent. The notable advantage of WiMAX comes from combining SOFDMA with smart
antenna technologies. This multiplies the effective spectral efficiency through multiple reuse and
smart network deployment topologies. The direct use of frequency domain organization simplifies
designs using MIMO-AAS compared to CDMA/WCDMA methods, resulting in more effective
systems.
Inherent limitations[edit]
WiMAX cannot deliver 70 Mbit/s over 50 km (31 mi). Like all wireless technologies, WiMAX can
operate at higher bitrates or over longer distances but not both. Operating at the maximum range of
50 km (31 mi) increases bit error rate and thus results in a much lower bitrate. Conversely, reducing
the range (to under 1 km) allows a device to operate at higher bitrates.
A city-wide deployment of WiMAX in Perth, Australia demonstrated that customers at the cell-edge
with an indoor Customer-premises equipment (CPE) typically obtain speeds of around 14 Mbit/s,
with users closer to the cell site obtaining speeds of up to 30 Mbit/s.
[citation needed]

Like all wireless systems, available bandwidth is shared between users in a given radio sector, so
performance could deteriorate in the case of many active users in a single sector. However, with
adequate capacity planning and the use of WiMAX's Quality of Service, a minimum guaranteed
throughput for each subscriber can be put in place. In practice, most users will have a range of 4-
8 Mbit/s services and additional radio cards will be added to the base station to increase the number
of users that may be served as required.
Silicon implementations[edit]


Picture of a WiMAX MIMO board
A number of specialized companies produced baseband ICs and integrated RFICs for WiMAX
Subscriber Stations in the 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz bands (refer to 'Spectrum allocation' above). These
companies include, but are not limited to, Beceem, Sequans, and PicoChip.
Comparison[edit]
Comparisons and confusion between WiMAX and Wi-Fi are frequent, because both are related to
wireless connectivity and Internet access.
[27]

WiMAX is a long range system, covering many kilometres, that uses licensed or unlicensed
spectrum to deliver connection to a network, in most cases the Internet.
Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum to provide access to a local network.
Wi-Fi is more popular in end user devices.
Wi-Fi runs on the Media Access Control's CSMA/CA protocol, which is connectionless and
contention based, whereas WiMAX runs a connection-oriented MAC.
WiMAX and Wi-Fi have quite different quality of service (QoS) mechanisms:
WiMAX uses a QoS mechanism based on connections between the base station and the
user device. Each connection is based on specific scheduling algorithms.
Wi-Fi uses contention access all subscriber stations that wish to pass data through
a wireless access point (AP) are competing for the AP's attention on a random interrupt
basis. This can cause subscriber stations distant from the AP to be repeatedly interrupted by
closer stations, greatly reducing their throughput.
Both IEEE 802.11, which includes Wi-Fi, and IEEE 802.16, which includes WiMAX, define Peer-
to-Peer (P2P) and wireless ad hoc networks, where an end user communicates to users or
servers on another Local Area Network (LAN) using its access point or base station. However,
802.11 supports also direct ad hoc or peer to peer networking between end user devices without
an access point while 802.16 end user devices must be in range of the base station.
Although Wi-Fi and WiMAX are designed for different situations, they are complementary. WiMAX
network operators typically provide a WiMAX Subscriber Unit that connects to the metropolitan
WiMAX network and provides Wi-Fi connectivity within the home or business for local devices, e.g.,
computers, Wi-Fi handsets and smartphones. This enables the user to place the WiMAX Subscriber
Unit in the best reception area, such as a window, and still be able to use the WiMAX network from
any place within their residence.
The local area network inside one's house or business would operate as with any other wired or
wireless network. If one were to connect the WiMAX Subscriber Unit directly to a WiMAX-enabled
computer, that would limit access to a single device. As an alternative for a LAN, one could purchase
a WiMAX modem with a built-in wireless Wi-Fi router, allowing one to connect multiple devices to
create a LAN.
Using WiMAX could be an advantage, since it is typically faster than most cable modems with
download speeds between 3 and 6 Mbit/s, and generally costs less than cable.
Conformance testing[edit]
TTCN-3 test specification language is used for the purposes of specifying conformance tests for
WiMAX implementations. The WiMAX test suite is being developed by a Specialist Task Force
at ETSI (STF 252).
[28]

Associations[edit]
WiMAX Forum[edit]
The WiMAX Forum is a non profit organization formed to promote the adoption of WiMAX
compatible products and services.
[29]

A major role for the organization is to certify the interoperability of WiMAX products.
[30]
Those that
pass conformance and interoperability testing achieve the "WiMAX Forum Certified" designation,
and can display this mark on their products and marketing materials. Some vendors claim that their
equipment is "WiMAX-ready", "WiMAX-compliant", or "pre-WiMAX", if they are not officially WiMAX
Forum Certified.
Another role of the WiMAX Forum is to promote the spread of knowledge about WiMAX. In order to
do so, it has a certified training program that is currently offered in English and French. It also offers
a series of member events and endorses some industry events.


WiSOA logo
WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance[edit]
WiSOA was the first global organization composed exclusively of owners of WiMAX spectrum with
plans to deploy WiMAX technology in those bands. WiSOA focused on the regulation,
commercialisation, and deployment of WiMAX spectrum in the 2.32.5 GHz and the 3.43.5 GHz
ranges. WiSOA merged with the Wireless Broadband Alliance in April 2008.
[31]

Telecommunications Industry Association[edit]
In 2011, the Telecommunications Industry Association released three technical standards (TIA-1164,
TIA-1143, and TIA-1140) that cover the air interface and core networking aspects of Wi-Max High-
Rate Packet Data (HRPD) systems using a Mobile Station/Access Terminal (MS/AT) with a single
transmitter.
[32]

Competing technologies[edit]
Within the marketplace, WiMAX's main competition came from existing, widely deployed wireless
systems such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS),CDMA2000, existing Wi-Fi
and mesh networking.


Speed vs. mobility of wireless systems: Wi-Fi, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS), GSM
In the future, competition will be from the evolution of the major cellular standards to 4G, high-
bandwidth, low-latency, all-IP networks with voice services built on top. The worldwide move to 4G
for GSM/UMTS and AMPS/TIA (including CDMA2000) is the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)
effort.
The LTE Standard was finalized in December 2008, with the first commercial deployment of LTE
carried out by TeliaSonera in Oslo and Stockholm in December, 2009. Since then, LTE has seen
increasing adoption by mobile carriers around the world.
In some areas of the world, the wide availability of UMTS and a general desire for standardization
has meant spectrum has not been allocated for WiMAX: in July 2005, the EU-wide frequency
allocation for WiMAX was blocked.
[citation needed]

Harmonization[edit]
Early WirelessMAN standards, The European standard HiperMAN and Korean standard WiBro were
harmonized as part of WiMAX and are no longer seen as competition but as complementary. All
networks now being deployed in South Korea, the home of the WiBro standard, are now WiMAX.
Comparison with other mobile Internet standards[edit]
Main article: Comparison of wireless data standards
The following table only shows peak rates which are potentially very misleading. In addition, the
comparisons listed are not normalized by physical channel size (i.e., spectrum used to achieve the
listed peak rates); this obfuscates spectral efficiency and net through-put capabilities of the different
wireless technologies listed below.
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstre
am
(Mbit/s)
Upstrea
m
(Mbit/s
)
Notes
HSPA+ 3GPP 3G Data
CDMA/FDD
MIMO
21
42
84
672
5.8
11.5
22
168
HSPA+ is widely
deployed.
Revision 11 of
the 3GPP states
that HSPA+ is
expected to
have a
throughput
capacity of
672 Mbit/s.
LTE 3GPP General 4G
OFDMA/MIMO/
SC-FDMA
100 Cat3
150 Cat4
300 Cat5
(in 20 MHz
FDD)
[33]

50 Cat3/4
75 Cat5
(in 20 MHz
FDD)
[33]

LTE-
Advanced updat
e expected to
offer peak rates
up to 1 Gbit/s
fixed speeds
and 100 Mb/s
to mobile users.
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstre
am
(Mbit/s)
Upstrea
m
(Mbit/s
)
Notes
WiMax rel 1 802.16
WirelessMA
N
MIMO-SOFDMA
37 (10 MHz
TDD)
17
(10 MHz
TDD)
With 2x2
MIMO.
[34]

WiMax rel 1.5
802.16-
2009
WirelessMA
N
MIMO-SOFDMA
83 (20 MHz
TDD)
141
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
46
(20 MHz
TDD)
138
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
With 2x2
MIMO.Enhance
d with 20 MHz
channels in
802.16-2009
[34]

WiMAX rel 2 802.16m
WirelessMA
N
MIMO-SOFDMA
2x2 MIMO
110 (20 MHz
TDD)
183
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
4x4 MIMO
219 (20 MHz
TDD)
365
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
2x2 MIMO
70
(20 MHz
TDD)
188
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
4x4 MIMO
140
(20 MHz
TDD)
376
(2x20 MHz
FDD)
Also, low
mobility users
can aggregate
multiple
channels to get
a download
throughput of
up to 1 Gbit/s
[34]

Flash-OFDM
Flash-
OFDM
Mobile
Internet
mobility up
to 200 mph
(350 km/h)
Flash-OFDM
5.3
10.6
15.9
1.8
3.6
5.4
Mobile range
30 km (18 miles)
extended range
55 km (34 miles)
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstre
am
(Mbit/s)
Upstrea
m
(Mbit/s
)
Notes
HIPERMAN HIPERMAN
Mobile
Internet
OFDM 56.9
Wi-Fi
802.11
(11n)
Mobile Inter
net
OFDM/MIMO
288.8 (using 4x4
configuration in 20 MHz
bandwidth) or 600 (using
4x4 configuration in
40 MHz bandwidth)
Antenna, RF
front
end enhancemen
ts and minor
protocol timer
tweaks have
helped deploy
long
range P2P netw
orks
compromising
on radial
coverage,
throughput
and/or spectra
efficiency
(310 km & 382
km)
iBurst 802.20
Mobile Inter
net
HC-
SDMA/TDD/MI
MO
95 36
Cell Radius: 3
12 km
Speed:
250 km/h
Spectral
Efficiency: 13
bits/s/Hz/cell
Spectrum Reuse
Factor: "1"
EDGE Evolution GSM
Mobile Inter
net
TDMA/FDD 1.6 0.5 3GPP Release 7
Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
Name
Family
Primary
Use
Radio Tech
Downstre
am
(Mbit/s)
Upstrea
m
(Mbit/s
)
Notes
UMTS W-CDMA
HSPA(HSDPA+HS
UPA)
UMTS/3GS
M
General 3G
CDMA/FDD

CDMA/FDD/MI
MO
0.384
14.4
0.384
5.76
HSDPA is widely
deployed.
Typical
downlink rates
today 2 Mbit/s,
~200 kbit/s
uplink; HSPA+
downlink up to
56 Mbit/s.
UMTS-TDD
UMTS/3GS
M
Mobile
Internet
CDMA/TDD 16
Reported
speeds
according
to IPWireless usi
ng 16QAM
modulation
similar
to HSDPA+HSUP
A
EV-DO Rel. 0
EV-DO Rev.A
EV-DO Rev.B
CDMA200
0
Mobile
Internet
CDMA/FDD
2.45
3.1
4.9xN
0.15
1.8
1.8xN
Rev B note: N is
the number of
1.25 MHz
carriers used.
EV-DO is not
designed for
voice, and
requires a
fallback to
1xRTT when a
voice call is
placed or
received.
Notes: All speeds are theoretical maximums and will vary by a number of factors, including the use
of external antennas, distance from the tower and the ground speed (e.g. communications on a train
may be poorer than when standing still). Usually the bandwidth is shared between several terminals.
The performance of each technology is determined by a number of constraints, including
the spectral efficiency of the technology, the cell sizes used, and the amount of spectrum available.
For more information, see Comparison of wireless data standards.
For more comparison tables, see bit rate progress trends, comparison of mobile phone
standards, spectral efficiency comparison table and OFDM system comparison table.
Development[edit]
The IEEE 802.16m-2011 standard
[35]
was the core technology for WiMAX 2. The IEEE 802.16m
standard was submitted to the ITU for IMT-Advanced standardization.
[36]
IEEE 802.16m is one of the
major candidates for IMT-Advanced technologies by ITU. Among many enhancements, IEEE
802.16m systems can provide four times faster
[clarification needed]
data speed than the WiMAX Release
1.
WiMAX Release 2 provided backward compatibility with Release 1. WiMAX operators could migrate
from release 1 to release 2 by upgrading channel cards or software. The WiMAX 2 Collaboration
Initiative was formed to help this transition.
[37]

It was anticipated that using 4X2 MIMO in the urban microcell scenario with only a single
20 MHz TDD channel available system wide, the 802.16m system can support both 120 Mbit/s
downlink and 60 Mbit/s uplink per site simultaneously. It was expected that the WiMAX Release 2
would be available commercially in the 20112012 timeframe.
[38]

Interference[edit]
A field test conducted in 2007 by SUIRG (Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group) with support
from the U.S. Navy, the Global VSAT Forum, and several member organizations yielded results
showing interference at 12 km when using the same channels for both the WiMAX systems and
satellites in C-band.
[39]

Deployments[edit]
Main article: List of deployed WiMAX networks
As of October 2010, the WiMAX Forum claimed over 592 WiMAX (fixed and mobile) networks
deployed in over 148 countries, covering over 621 million subscribers.
[40]
By February 2011, the
WiMAX Forum cited coverage of over 823 million people, and estimate over 1 billion subscribers by
the end of the year.
[41]

South Korea launched a WiMAX network in the 2nd quarter of 2006. By the end of 2008 there were
350,000 WiMAX subscribers in Korea.
[42]

Worldwide, by early 2010 WiMAX seemed to be ramping quickly relative to other available
technologies, though access in North America lagged.
[43]
Yota, the largest WiMAX network operator
in the world in 4Q 2009,
[44]
announced in May 2010 that it will move new network deployments to
LTE and, subsequently, change its existing networks as well.
[45]

A study published September 2010 by Blycroft Publishing estimated 800 management contracts
from 364 WiMAX operations worldwide offering active services (launched or still trading as opposed
to just licensed and still to launch).
[46]

See also[edit]
List of deployed WiMAX networks
Mobile broadband
WiBro (mobile WiMax in Korea)
Super Wi-Fi
Municipal broadband
Mobile VoIP
Evolved HSPA
High-Speed Packet Access
Packet Burst Broadband
Switched mesh
Wireless bridge
Wireless local loop
Cognitive radio
LTE Advanced
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LTE Advanced is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term
Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G system toITU-T in late 2009
as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standard, and was standardized by the 3rd
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in March 2011 as 3GPP Release 10.
[1]

Contents
[hide]
1 Background
2 Proposals
3 Timeframe and introduction of additional features
4 Technology demonstrations
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links
o 7.1 Resources (white papers, technical papers, application notes)
Background[edit]
The LTE format was first proposed by NTT DoCoMo of Japan and has been adopted as the
international standard.
[2]
LTE standardization has matured to a state where changes in the
specification are limited to corrections and bug fixes. The first commercial services were launched
in Sweden and Norway in December 2009
[3]
followed by the United States and Japan in 2010. More
LTE networks were deployed globally during 2010 as a natural evolution of several 2G and 3G
systems, including Global system for mobile communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS) (3GPP as well as 3GPP2).
The work by 3GPP to define a 4G candidate radio interface technology started in Release 9 with the
study phase for LTE-Advanced. Being described as a 3.9G (beyond 3G but pre-4G), the first release
of LTE did not meet the requirements for 4G (also called IMT Advanced as defined by
the International Telecommunication Union) such as peak data rates up to 1 Gb/s. The ITU has
invited the submission of candidate Radio Interface Technologies (RITs) following their requirements
in a circular letter, 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 36.913, "Requirements for Further Advancements
for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced)."
[4]
These are based on ITU's requirements for 4G and on operators
own requirements for advanced LTE. Major technical considerations include the following:
Continual improvement to the LTE radio technology and architecture
Scenarios and performance requirements for working with legacy radio technologies
Backward compatibility of LTE-Advanced with LTE. An LTE terminal should be able to work in
an LTE-Advanced network and vice versa. Any exceptions will be considered by3GPP.
Consideration of recent World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) decisions regarding
frequency bands to ensure that LTE-Advanced accommodates the geographically available
spectrum for channels above 20 MHz. Also, specifications must recognize those parts of the
world in which wideband channels are not available.
Likewise, 'WiMAX 2', 802.16m, has been approved by ITU as the IMT Advanced family. WiMAX 2 is
designed to be backward compatible with WiMAX 1 devices. Most vendors now support conversion
of 'pre-4G', pre-advanced versions and some support software upgrades of base station equipment
from 3G.
The mobile communication industry and standards organizations have therefore started work on 4G
access technologies, such as LTE Advanced. At a workshop in April 2008 in China, 3GPP agreed
the plans for work on Long Term Evolution (LTE).
[5]
A first set of specifications were approved in
June 2008.
[6]
Besides the peak data rate 1 Gb/s as defined by the ITU-R, it also targets faster
switching between power states and improved performance at the cell edge. Detailed proposals are
being studied within the working groups.
Proposals[edit]
The target of 3GPP LTE Advanced is to reach and surpass the ITU requirements. LTE Advanced
should be compatible with first release LTE equipment, and should share frequency bands with first
release LTE. In the feasibility study for LTE Advanced, 3GPP determined that LTE Advanced would
meet the ITU-R requirements for 4G. The results of the study are published in 3GPP Technical
Report (TR) 36.912.
[7]

One of the important LTE Advanced benefits is the ability to take advantage of advanced topology
networks; optimized heterogeneous networks with a mix of macrocells with low power nodes such
as picocells, femtocells and new relay nodes. The next significant performance leap in wireless
networks will come from making the most of topology, and brings the network closer to the user by
adding many of these low power nodes LTE Advanced further improves the capacity and
coverage, and ensures user fairness. LTE Advanced also introduces multicarrier to be able to use
ultra wide bandwidth, up to 100 MHz of spectrum supporting very high data rates.
In the research phase many proposals have been studied as candidates for LTE Advanced (LTE-A)
technologies. The proposals could roughly be categorized into:
[8]

Support for relay node base stations
Coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission and reception
UE Dual TX antenna solutions for SU-MIMO and diversity MIMO, commonly referred to as 2x2
MIMO
Scalable system bandwidth exceeding 20 MHz, up to 100 MHz
Carrier aggregation of contiguous and non-contiguous spectrum allocations
Local area optimization of air interface
Nomadic / Local Area network and mobility solutions
Flexible spectrum usage
Cognitive radio
Automatic and autonomous network configuration and operation
Support of autonomous network and device test, measurement tied to network management and
optimization
Enhanced precoding and forward error correction
Interference management and suppression
Asymmetric bandwidth assignment for FDD
Hybrid OFDMA and SC-FDMA in uplink
UL/DL inter eNB coordinated MIMO
SONs, Self Organizing Networks methodologies
Within the range of system development, LTE-Advanced and WiMAX 2, can use up to 8x8 MIMO
and 128 QAM in downlink direction. Example performance: 100 MHz aggregated bandwidth, LTE-
Advanced provides almost 3.3 Gbit peak download rates per sector of the base station under ideal
conditions. Advanced network architectures combined with distributed and collaborative smart
antenna technologies provide several years road map of commercial enhancements.
A summary of a study carried out in 3GPP can be found in TR36.912.
[9]

Timeframe and introduction of additional features[edit]
Original standardization work for LTE-Advanced was done as part of 3GPP Release 10, which was
frozen in April 2011. Trials were based on pre-release equipment. Major vendors support software
upgrades to later versions and ongoing improvements.
In order to improve the quality of service for users in hotspots and on cell edges, heterogenous
networks (HetNet) are formed of a mixture of macro-, pico- and femto base stations serving
corresponding-size areas. Frozen in December 2012, 3GPP Release 11
[10]
concentrates on better
support of HetNet. Coordinated Multi-Point operation (CoMP) is a key feature of Release 11 in order
to support such network structures. Whereas users located at a cell edge in homogenous networks
suffer from decreasing signal strength compounded by neighbor cell interference, CoMP is designed
to enable use of a neighboring cell to also transmit the same signal as the serving cell, enhancing
quality of service on the perimeter of a serving cell. In-device Co-existence (IDC) is another topic
addressed in Release 11. IDC features are designed to ameliorate disturbances within the user
equipment caused between LTE/LTE-A and the various other radio subsystems such as WiFi,
Bluetooth, and the GPS receiver. Further enhancements for MIMO such as 4x4 configuration for the
uplink were standardized.
The higher number of cells in HetNet results in user equipment changing the serving cell more
frequently when in motion. The ongoing work on LTE-Advanced
[11]
in Release 12, amongst other
areas, concentrates on addressing issues that come about when users move through HetNet, such
as frequent hand-overs between cells.
Technology demonstrations[edit]
Company Country Date Note
NTT DoCoMo
Japan
February
2007
[12]
The operator announced the completion of a 4G trial
where it achieved a maximum packet transmission rate of
approximately 5 Gbit/s in the downlink
using 12 transmit and 12 receive antennas and 100 MHz
frequency bandwidth to a mobile station moving at 10 km/h.
Company Country Date Note
TeliaSonera
Norway
December
2009
[3]
The operator launched the first commercial LTE services in
Norway.
TeliaSonera Sweden
December
2009
[3]
The operator launched the first commercial LTE services in
Sweden.
Agilent
Technologies
-
February
2011
[13]
The vendor demonstrated at Mobile World Congress the
industry's first test solutions for LTE-Advanced
with both signal generation and signal analysis solutions.
Yota
Russia
February
2011
[14]
The operator launched the first-ever commercial mobile
implementation of the technology, at 11 of its base-stations
around Moscow.
However compatible handsets weren't available until the
first-half of 2013.
A1
Austria
June 2013
[15]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced
with Ericsson and NSN using 4x4 MIMO. A1 achieved 580
Mbit/s.
SK Telecom
South Korea
June 2013
[16]
The operator announced the launching of LTE-Advanced
services.
Samsung
South Korea
June 2013
[17]
The vendor released an LTE-Advanced version of
the Galaxy S4.
LG U+
South Korea
July 2013
[18]
The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network built by
the Swedish vendor Ericsson. LG U+ combine 850 MHz
spectrum and 2.1 GHz spectrum.
LG U+ provides up to 150 Mbit/s which is equal to category 4
LTE.
Company Country Date Note
Telstra Australia
August
2013
[19]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish vendor
Ericsson and combined 900 MHz spectrum and 1.8 GHz
spectrum.
SMART Philippines
August
2013
[20]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced.
KT
South Korea
September
2013
[21]
The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network. KT uses
1.8 GHz spectrum. KT provides up to 150 Mbit/s which is
equal to category 4 LTE.
SFR
France
October
2013
[22]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Marseille and
combined 800 MHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum. SFR
achieved 174 Mbit/s.
EE
United
Kingdom
November
2013
[23]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in London with
Chinese vendor Huawei and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz
spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
EE achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
O2 Germany
November
2013
[24]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Munich with
Chinese vendor Huawei and combined 10 MHz of 800 GHz
spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
O2 achieved 225 Mbit/s.
SK Telecom
South Korea
November
2013
[25]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced and combined
10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz
spectrum.
SK Telecom achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Vodafone Germany
November
2013
[26]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Dresden with
Swedish vendor Ericsson and combined 10 MHz of 800 GHz
Company Country Date Note
spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Vodafone achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Netgear -
December
2013
[27]
The vendor unveiled a mobile LTE-Advanced hotspot
through Telstra in Australia.
Telstra Australia
December
2013
[28]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish vendor
Ericsson and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and
20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Telstra achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
Optus Australia
December
2013
[29]
The operator trialed TD-LTE-Advanced with Chinese
vendor Huawei and combined two 20 MHz channels of
2.3 GHz spectrum.
Optus achieved over 160 Mbit/s.
Sunrise
Switzerland
January
2014
[30]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor
Huawei. Commercial service is planned for Q3 2014.
Telstra Australia
January
2014
[31]
The Swedish vendor Ericsson trialed LTE-Advanced with
American supplier Qualcomm on the Telstra network.
NSN -
February
2014
[32]
The vendor demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 450
Mbit/s data speeds for individual users by using LTE-
Advanced.
Elisa Finland
February
2014
[33]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with American
supplier Broadcom and Finish vendor Nokia Solutions and
Networks.
Elisa combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of
2.6 GHz spectrum. Elisa achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal
to category 6 LTE.
Company Country Date Note
Deutsche
Telekom
Germany
February
2014
[34][35]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Alzey using 4x4
MIMO. Deutsche Telekom achieved 580 Mbit/s. Commercial
service is planned for summer 2014.
Huawei -
February
2014
[36]
The vendor introduced at Mobile World Congress the
LTE-Advanced mobile broadband router Huawei E5186 and
the mobile hotspot Huawei E5786.
CSL
Hong Kong
February
2014
[37]
The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network built by
the Chinese vendor ZTE.
CSL combine 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of
2.6 GHz spectrum.
CSL provides up to 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6
LTE.
MegaFon
Russia
February
2014
[38]
The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network
in Moscow and Sochi built by the Chinese vendor Huawei.
MegaFon combine two 20 MHz channels of 2.6 GHz
spectrum.
MegaFon provides up to 300 Mbit/s which is equal to
category 6 LTE.
ZTE -
February
2014
[39]
The vendor introduced at Mobile World Congress the
mobile LTE-Advanced hotspot ZTE Flare.
Vodafone
Italy
February
2014
[40]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Naples and
combined 1.8 MHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Vodafone achieved 253 Mbit/s.
Vodafone
Spain
February
2014
[41]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Barcelona using 4x4
MIMO. Vodafone achieved 580 Mbit/s.
Company Country Date Note
Eta Devices -
February
2014
[42]
The supplier demonstrated at the Mobile World
Congress Envelope Tracking Advanced (ETAdvanced) for LTE-
A over 80 MHz channels.
Base
Belgium
February
2014
[43]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Hasselt with
Chinese vendor ZTE. Base achieved over 250 Mbit/s.
Orange
Spain
March 2014
[44]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Valencia and
combined 10 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of
2.6 GHz spectrum.
Orange achieved 222 Mbit/s.
Etisalat UAE April 2014
[45]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Abu Dhabi with
French vendor Alcatel-Lucent.
Etisalat combined 20 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz
of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Etisalat achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6
LTE.
China Mobile
China
April 2014
[46]
The operator trialed TD-LTE-Advanced in Chengdu with
Chinese vendor Huawei.
Magyar
Telekom
Hungary April 2014
[47]
The operator demonstrated LTE-Advanced
in Budapest with Swedish vendor Ericsson. Magyar Telekom
achieved 250 Mbit/s.
Huawei - April 2014
[48]
The Chinese vendor Huawei trialed LTE-Advanced with
Qualcomm. Huawei achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to
category 6 LTE.
Telstra Australia April 2014
[49]
The operator unveiled another mobile LTE-Advanced
hotspot from Huawei.
Company Country Date Note
Mobistar
Belgium
January
2014 -
April 2014
[50]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Mechelen with
Chinese vendor Huawei.
Mobistar combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and
20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Mobistar achieved 213 Mbit/s.
Hrvatski
Telekom
Croatia May 2014
[51]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Varadin. Hrvatski
Telekom combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and
10 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Hrvatski Telekom achieved 136 Mbit/s.
Telstra Australia May 2014
[52][53]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish
vendor Ericsson and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum
and 40 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Telstra achieved 450 Mbit/s.
Orange
Spain
May 2014
[54]
The operator trialed LTE-Advanced again in Valencia and
combined 10 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of
2.6 GHz spectrum.
Orange achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Telecom New
Zealand
New
Zealand
May 2014
[55]
The operator trials LTE-Advanced in Auckland with
Chinese vendor Huawei.
Telecom New Zealand combined 20 MHz of 1.8 MHz
spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Telecom New
Zealand achieved up to 260 Mbit/s.
SingTel
Singapore
May 2014
[56]
The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network. SingTel
combine 20 MHz of 1.8 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of
2.6 GHz spectrum.
SingTel provides up to 300 Mbit/s which is equal category 6
LTE. A compatible device (Huawei E5786) will be available
from mid-July 2014.
Company Country Date Note
M1
Singapore
May 2014
[57]
The operator is upgrading their network to 300 Mbit/s
LTE-Advanced at some cell sites as of date of publish, with
planned nationwide coverage by end-2014, 1 year before
rival SingTel.
CDMA2000
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Huawei CDMA2000 EVDO USBwireless modem
CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi-Carrier (IMT-MC)) is a family of 3G
[1]
mobile
technology standards, which use CDMAchannel access, to send voice, data, and signaling data
between mobile phones and cell sites. The name CDMA2000 actually denotes a family of standards
that represent the successive, evolutionary stages of the underlying technology. These are, in order
of evolution:
CDMA2000 1xRTT
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO: Release 0, Revision A, Revision B
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision C or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB)
CDMA2000 1xEVDV
All are approved radio interfaces for the ITU's IMT-2000. CDMA2000 has a relatively long technical
history and is backward-compatible with its previous 2G iteration IS-95 (cdmaOne). In the United
States, CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA-
USA).
[2]

Contents
[hide]
1 1X
2 1xEV-DO
3 1X Advanced
4 Networks
5 History
6 References
7 External links
1X[edit]
CDMA2000 1X (IS-2000), also known as 1x and 1xRTT, is the core CDMA2000 wireless air
interface standard. The designation "1x", meaning 1 times Radio Transmission Technology,
indicates the same radio frequency (RF) bandwidth as IS-95: a duplex pair of 1.25 MHz radio
channels. 1xRTT almost doubles the capacity of IS-95 by adding 64 more traffic channels to
the forward link, orthogonal to (in quadrature with) the original set of 64. The 1X standard supports
packet data speeds of up to 153 kbit/s with real world data transmission averaging 80100 kbit/s in
most commercial applications.
[3]
IMT-2000 also made changes to the data link layer for greater use
of data services, including medium and link access control protocols and QoS. The IS-95 data link
layer only provided "best efforts delivery" for data and circuit switched channel for voice (i.e., a voice
frame once every 20 ms).
1xEV-DO[edit]
Main article: Evolution-Data Only


BlackBerry smartphone displaying '1XEV' as the service status in the upper right corner.
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only), often abbreviated as EV-DO or EV, is
a telecommunications standard for the wirelesstransmission of data through radio signals, typically
for broadband Internet access. It uses multiplexing techniques including code division multiple
access (CDMA) as well as time division multiple access (TDMA) to maximize both individual user's
throughput and the overall system throughput. It is standardized by 3rd Generation Partnership
Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and has been adopted by
many mobile phone service providers around the world particularly those previously employing
CDMA networks. It is also used on the Globalstar satellite phone network.
[4]

1X Advanced[edit]
1X Advanced is the evolution of CDMA2000 1X. It provides up to four times the capacity and 70%
more coverage compared to 1X.
[5]

Networks[edit]
See also: List of CDMA2000 networks
The CDMA Development Group states that, as of May 2012, there are 329 operators in 121
countries offering CDMA2000 1X and/or 1xEV-DO service.
[6]

History[edit]
The intended 4G successor to CDMA2000 was UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband); however, in
November 2008, Qualcomm announced it was ending development of the technology,
favoring LTE instead.
[7]

W-CDMA (UMTS)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Wideband code division multiple access)

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please
help improve this article to make it understandable to non-experts, without
removing the technical details. The talk page may contain
suggestions. (February 2012)
W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-
2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface standard found in 3G mobile
telecommunications networks. It is the basis of Japan's NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service and the most-
commonly used member of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS) family and
sometimes used as a synonym for UMTS.
[1]
It uses the DS-CDMA channel access method and
the FDD duplexing method to achieve higher speeds and support more users compared to
most time division multiple access (TDMA) and time division duplex (TDD) schemes used before.
While not an evolutionary upgrade on the airside, it uses the same core network as
the 2G GSM networks deployed worldwide, allowing dual mode mobile operation along with
GSM/EDGE; a feature it shares with other members of the UMTS family.
Contents
[hide]
1 Development
o 1.1 Rationale for W-CDMA
2 Deployment
3 See also
4 References
o 4.1 Documentation
Development[edit]
In the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G
network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-
2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an
alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, and the short range DECT system. Later, W-CDMA was selected
as an air interface for UMTS.
As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification, their network
was initially incompatible with UMTS.
[2]
However, this has been resolved by NTT DoCoMo updating
their network.
Code Division Multiple Access communication networks have been developed by a number of
companies over the years, but development of cell-phone networks based on CDMA (prior to W-
CDMA) was dominated by Qualcomm. Qualcomm was the first company to succeed in developing a
practical and cost-effective CDMA implementation for consumer cell phones and its early IS-95 air
interface standard has evolved into the current CDMA2000 (IS-856/IS-2000) standard. Qualcomm
created an experimental wideband CDMA system called CDMA2000 3x which unified the W-CDMA
(3GPP) and CDMA2000 (3GPP2) network technologies into a single design for a worldwide
standard air interface. Compatibility with CDMA2000 would have beneficially enabled roaming on
existing networks beyond Japan, since Qualcomm CDMA2000 networks are widely deployed,
especially in the Americas, with coverage in 58 countries as of 2006. However, divergent
requirements resulted in the W-CDMA standard being retained and deployed globally. W-CDMA has
then become the dominant technology with 457 commercial networks in 178 countries as of April
2012.
[3]
Several cdma2000 operators have even converted their networks to W-CDMA for
international roaming compatibility and smooth upgrade path to LTE.
Despite incompatibility with existing air-interface standards, late introduction and the high upgrade
cost of deploying an all-new transmitter technology, W-CDMA has become the dominant standard.
Rationale for W-CDMA[edit]
W-CDMA transmits on a pair of 5 MHz-wide radio channels, while CDMA2000 transmits on one or
several pairs of 1.25 MHz radio channels. Though W-CDMA does use a direct sequence CDMA
transmission technique like CDMA2000, W-CDMA is not simply a wideband version of CDMA2000.
The W-CDMA system is a new design by NTT DoCoMo, and it differs in many aspects from
CDMA2000. From an engineering point of view, W-CDMA provides a different balance of trade-offs
between cost, capacity, performance, and density
[citation needed]
; it also promises to achieve a benefit of
reduced cost for video phone handsets. W-CDMA may also be better suited for deployment in the
very dense cities of Europe and Asia. However, hurdles remain, and cross-
licensing of patents between Qualcomm and W-CDMA vendors has not eliminated possible patent
issues due to the features of W-CDMA which remain covered by Qualcomm patents.
[4]

W-CDMA has been developed into a complete set of specifications, a detailed protocol that defines
how a mobile phone communicates with the tower, how signals are modulated, how datagrams are
structured, and system interfaces are specified allowing free competition on technology elements.
Deployment[edit]
The world's first commercial W-CDMA service, FOMA, was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in
2001.
Elsewhere, W-CDMA deployments are usually marketed under the UMTS brand. See the
main UMTS article for more information.
W-CDMA has also been adapted for use in satellite communications on the U.S. Mobile User
Objective System using geosynchronous satellites in place of cell towers.
Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from UMTS)
"3GSM" redirects here. For the mobile exhibition, see Mobile World Congress.

[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. (December 2012)
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2012)
This article is outdated. (October 2013)


The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular
system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd
Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunications
Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based
on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access (W-
CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network
operators.
UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network (UMTS
Terrestrial Radio Access Network, or UTRAN), the core network (Mobile Application Part, or MAP)
and the authentication of users via SIM (subscriber identity module) cards.
The technology described in UMTS is sometimes also referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia
Access (FOMA)
[1]
or 3GSM.
Unlike EDGE (IMT Single-Carrier, based on GSM) and CDMA2000 (IMT Multi-Carrier), UMTS
requires new base stations and new frequency allocations.
Contents
[hide]
1 Features
2 Technology
o 2.1 Air interfaces
2.1.1 W-CDMA (UTRA-FDD)
2.1.2 TD-CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate)
2.1.3 TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate)
o 2.2 Radio access network
o 2.3 Core network
3 Spectrum allocation
4 Interoperability and global roaming
o 4.1 Handsets and modems
5 Other competing standards
6 Migrating from GSM/GPRS to UMTS
7 Problems and issues
8 Releases
o 8.1 Release '99
o 8.2 Release 4
o 8.3 Release 5
o 8.4 Release 6
o 8.5 Release 7
o 8.6 Release 8
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
o 11.1 Citations
o 11.2 Bibliography
12 External links
Features[edit]
UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when HSPA+ is implemented
in the network.
[2]
Users in deployed networks can expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for
Release '99 (R99) handsets (the original UMTS release), and 7.2 Mbit/s for HSDPA handsets in the
downlink connection. These speeds are significantly faster than the 9.6 kbit/s of a single GSM error-
corrected circuit switched data channel, multiple 9.6 kbit/s channels in HSCSD and 14.4 kbit/s for
CDMAOne channels.
Since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded
with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), sometimes known as 3.5G. Currently, HSDPA
enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s. Work is also progressing on improving the
uplink transfer speed with the High-Speed Uplink Packet Access(HSUPA). Longer term, the 3GPP
Long Term Evolution (LTE) project plans to move UMTS to 4G speeds of 100 Mbit/s down and 50
Mbit/s up, using a next generation air interface technology based upon orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing.
The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a heavy emphasis on telco-
provided mobile applications such as mobile TV and video calling. The high data speeds of UMTS
are now most often utilised for Internet access: experience in Japan and elsewhere has shown that
user demand for video calls is not high, and telco-provided audio/video content has declined in
popularity in favour of high-speed access to the World Wide Webeither directly on a handset or
connected to a computer via Wi-Fi,Bluetooth or USB.
Technology[edit]


UMTS Network Architecture
UMTS combines three different air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application Part (MAP) core, and the
GSM family of speech codecs.
Air interfaces[edit]
UMTS provides several different terrestrial air interfaces, called UMTS Terrestrial Radio
Access (UTRA).
[3]
All air interface options are part of ITU's IMT-2000. In the currently most popular
variant for cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA (IMT Direct Spread) is used.
Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading. While they
suggest covering just a channel access method (namely a variant of CDMA), they are actually the
common names for the whole air interface standards.
[4]

W-CDMA (UTRA-FDD)[edit]
Main article: W-CDMA (UMTS)


UMTS base station on the roof of a building
W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide channels. In
contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available 1.25 MHz channels for each
direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are widely criticized for their large spectrum usage,
which has delayed deployment in countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies
specifically for 3G services (such as the United States).
The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 18852025 MHz for the
mobile-to-base (uplink) and 21102200 MHz for the base-to-mobile (downlink). In the US, 1710
1755 MHz and 21102155 MHz are used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used.
[5]
While
UMTS2100 is the most widely deployed UMTS band, some countries' UMTS operators use the
850 MHz and/or 1900 MHz bands (independently, meaning uplink and downlink are within the same
band), notably in the US by AT&T Mobility, New Zealand by Telecom New Zealand on the XT Mobile
Network and in Australia by Telstra on the Next G network. Some carriers such as T-Mobile use
band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies. For example, Band I (2100 MHz), Band IV
(1700/2100 MHz), and Band V (850 MHz).
W-CDMA is a part of IMT-2000 as IMT Direct Spread.
TD-CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate)[edit]
Main article: UTRA-TDD HCR
UMTS-TDD's air interfaces that use the TD-CDMA channel access technique are standardized
as UTRA-TDD HCR, which uses increments of 5 MHz of spectrum, each slice divided into 10ms
frames containing fifteen time slots (1500 per second).
[6]
The time slots (TS) are allocated in fixed
percentage for downlink and uplink. TD-CDMA is used to multiplex streams from or to multiple
transceivers. Unlike W-CDMA, it does not need separate frequency bands for up- and downstream,
allowing deployment in tight frequency bands.
TD-CDMA is a part of IMT-2000 as IMT CDMA TDD.
TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate)[edit]
Main article: TD-SCDMA
TD-SCDMA uses the TDMA channel access method combined with an adaptive synchronous
CDMA component
[7]
on 1.6 MHz slices of spectrum, allowing deployment in even tighter frequency
bands than TD-CDMA. However, the main incentive for development of this Chinese-developed
standard was avoiding or reducing the license fees that have to be paid to non-Chinese patent
owners. Unlike the other air interfaces, TD-SCDMA was not part of UMTS from the beginning but
has been added in Release 4 of the specification.
Like TD-CDMA, TD-SCDMA is known as IMT CDMA TDD within IMT-2000.
Radio access network[edit]
Main article: UTRAN
UMTS also specifies the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), which is
composed of multiple base stations, possibly using different terrestrial air interface standards and
frequency bands.
UMTS and GSM/EDGE can share a Core Network (CN), making UTRAN an alternative radio access
network to GERAN (GSM/EDGE RAN), and allowing (mostly) transparent switching between the
RANs according to available coverage and service needs. Because of that, UMTS's and
GSM/EDGE's radio access networks are sometimes collectively referred to as UTRAN/GERAN.
UMTS networks are often combined with GSM/EDGE, the latter of which is also a part of IMT-2000.
The UE (User Equipment) interface of the RAN (Radio Access Network) primarily consists of RRC
(Radio Resource Control), RLC (Radio Link Control) and MAC (Media Access Control) protocols.
RRC protocol handles connection establishment, measurements, radio bearer services, security and
handover decisions. RLC protocol primarily divides into three ModesTransparent Mode (TM),
Unacknowledge Mode (UM), Acknowledge Mode (AM). The functionality of AM entity resembles
TCP operation whereas UM operation resembles UDP operation. In TM mode, data will be sent to
lower layers without adding any header to SDU of higher layers. MAC handles the scheduling of
data on air interface depending on higher layer (RRC) configured parameters.
The set of properties related to data transmission is called Radio Bearer (RB). This set of properties
decides the maximum allowed data in a TTI (Transmission Time Interval). RB includes RLC
information and RB mapping. RB mapping decides the mapping between RB<->logical channel<-
>transport channel. Signaling messages are sent on Signaling Radio Bearers (SRBs) and data
packets (either CS or PS) are sent on data RBs. RRC and NAS messages go on SRBs.
Security includes two procedures: integrity and ciphering. Integrity validates the resource of
messages and also makes sure that no one (third/unknown party) on the radio interface has
modified the messages. Ciphering ensures that no one listens to your data on the air interface. Both
integrity and ciphering are applied for SRBs whereas only ciphering is applied for data RBs.
Core network[edit]
Main article: Mobile Application Part
With Mobile Application Part, UMTS uses the same core network standard as GSM/EDGE. This
allows a simple migration for existing GSM operators. However, the migration path to UMTS is still
costly: while much of the core infrastructure is shared with GSM, the cost of obtaining new spectrum
licenses and overlaying UMTS at existing towers is high.
The CN can be connected to various backbone networks, such as the Internet or an Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) telephone network. UMTS (and GERAN) include the three lowest
layers of OSI model. The network layer (OSI 3) includes the Radio Resource Management protocol
(RRM) that manages the bearer channels between the mobile terminals and the fixed network,
including the handovers.
Spectrum allocation[edit]

This section is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or
newly available information. (October 2013)
Main article: UMTS frequency bands
Over 130 licenses have already been awarded to operators worldwide (as of December 2004),
specifying W-CDMA radio access technology that builds on GSM. In Europe, the license process
occurred at the tail end of the technology bubble, and the auction mechanisms for allocation set up
in some countries resulted in some extremely high prices being paid for the original 2100 MHz
licenses, notably in the UK and Germany. In Germany, bidders paid a total 50.8 billion for six
licenses, two of which were subsequently abandoned and written off by their purchasers
(Mobilcom and the Sonera/Telefonica consortium). It has been suggested that these huge license
fees have the character of a very large tax paid on future income expected many years down the
road. In any event, the high prices paid put some European telecom operators close to bankruptcy
(most notably KPN). Over the last few years some operators have written off some or all of the
license costs. Between 2007 and 2009, all three Finnish carriers begun to use 900 MHz UMTS in a
shared arrangement with its surrounding 2G GSM base stations for rural area coverage, a trend that
is expected to expand over Europe in the next 13 years.
[dated info]

The 2100 MHz band (downlink around 2100 MHz and uplink around 1900 MHz) allocated for UMTS
in Europe and most of Asia is already used in North America. The 1900 MHz range is used
for 2G (PCS) services, and 2100 MHz range is used for satellite communications. Regulators have,
however, freed up some of the 2100 MHz range for 3G services, together with a different range
around 1700 MHz for the uplink.
AT&T Wireless launched UMTS services in the United States by the end of 2004 strictly using the
existing 1900 MHz spectrum allocated for 2G PCS services. Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless in
2004 and has since then launched UMTS in select US cities. Cingular renamed itself AT&T
Mobility and is rolling out
[citation needed]
some cities with a UMTS network at 850 MHz to enhance its
existing UMTS network at 1900 MHz and now offers subscribers a number of dual-band UMTS
850/1900 phones.
T-Mobile's rollout of UMTS in the US focused on the 1700 MHz band.
In Canada, UMTS coverage is being provided on the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands on the Rogers
and Bell-Telus networks. Bell and Telus share the network. Recently, new providers Wind
Mobile, Mobilicity and Videotron have begun operations in the 1700 MHz band.
In 2008, Australian telco Telstra replaced its existing CDMA network with a national UMTS-based
3G network, branded as NextG, operating in the 850 MHz band. Telstra currently provides UMTS
service on this network, and also on the 2100 MHz UMTS network, through a co-ownership of the
owning and administrating company 3GIS. This company is also co-owned by Hutchison 3G
Australia, and this is the primary network used by their customers. Optus is currently rolling out a 3G
network operating on the 2100 MHz band in cities and most large towns, and the 900 MHz band in
regional areas. Vodafone is also building a 3G network using the 900 MHz band.
In India, BSNL has started its 3G services since October 2009, beginning with the larger cities and
then expanding over to smaller cities. The 850 MHz and 900 MHz bands provide greater coverage
compared to equivalent 1700/1900/2100 MHz networks, and are best suited to regional areas where
greater distances separate base station and subscriber.
Carriers in South America are now also rolling out 850 MHz networks.
Interoperability and global roaming[edit]
UMTS phones (and data cards) are highly portablethey have been designed to roam easily onto
other UMTS networks (if the providers have roaming agreements in place). In addition, almost all
UMTS phones are UMTS/GSM dual-mode devices, so if a UMTS phone travels outside of UMTS
coverage during a call the call may be transparently handed off to available GSM coverage.
Roaming charges are usually significantly higher than regular usage charges.
Most UMTS licensees consider ubiquitous, transparent global roaming an important issue. To enable
a high degree of interoperability, UMTS phones usually support several different frequencies in
addition to their GSM fallback. Different countries support different UMTS frequency bands Europe
initially used 2100 MHz while the most carriers in the USA use 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. T-Mobile
has launched a network in the US operating at 1700 MHz (uplink) /2100 MHz (downlink), and these
bands are also being adopted elsewhere in the Americas. A UMTS phone and network must support
a common frequency to work together. Because of the frequencies used, early models of UMTS
phones designated for the United States will likely not be operable elsewhere and vice versa. There
are now 11 different frequency combinations used around the worldincluding frequencies formerly
used solely for 2G services.
UMTS phones can use a Universal Subscriber Identity Module, USIM (based on GSM's SIM) and
also work (including UMTS services) with GSM SIM cards. This is a global standard of identification,
and enables a network to identify and authenticate the (U)SIM in the phone. Roaming agreements
between networks allow for calls to a customer to be redirected to them while roaming and
determine the services (and prices) available to the user. In addition to user subscriber information
and authentication information, the (U)SIM provides storage space for phone book contact.
Handsets can store their data on their own memory or on the (U)SIM card (which is usually more
limited in its phone book contact information). A (U)SIM can be moved to another UMTS or GSM
phone, and the phone will take on the user details of the (U)SIM, meaning it is the (U)SIM (not the
phone) which determines the phone number of the phone and the billing for calls made from the
phone.
Japan was the first country to adopt 3G technologies, and since they had not used GSM previously
they had no need to build GSM compatibility into their handsets and their 3G handsets were smaller
than those available elsewhere. In 2002, NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G network was the first
commercial UMTS networkusing a pre-release specification,
[8]
it was initially incompatible with the
UMTS standard at the radio level but used standard USIM cards, meaning USIM card based
roaming was possible (transferring the USIM card into a UMTS or GSM phone when travelling). Both
NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank Mobile (which launched 3G in December 2002) now use standard
UMTS.
Handsets and modems[edit]


The Nokia 6650, an early UMTS handset
All of the major 2G phone manufacturers (that are still in business) are now manufacturers of 3G
phones. The early 3G handsets and modems were specific to the frequencies required in their
country, which meant they could only roam to other countries on the same 3G frequency (though
they can fall back to the older GSM standard). Canada and USA have a common share of
frequencies, as do most European countries. The article UMTS frequency bands is an overview of
UMTS network frequencies around the world.
Using a cellular router, PCMCIA or USB card, customers are able to access 3G broadband services,
regardless of their choice of computer (such as a tablet PC or a PDA). Some software installs
itself from the modem, so that in some cases absolutely no knowledge of technology is required to
get online in moments. Using a phone that supports 3G and Bluetooth 2.0, multiple Bluetooth-
capable laptops can be connected to the Internet. Some smartphones can also act as a
mobile WLAN access point.
There are very few 3G phones or modems available supporting all 3G frequencies
(UMTS850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz). Nokia has recently released a range of phones that
have Pentaband 3G coverage, including the N8 and E7. Many other phones are offering more than
one band which still enables extensive roaming. For example, Apple's iPhone 4 contains a
quadband chipset operating on 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, allowing usage in the majority of countries
where UMTS-FDD is deployed.
Other competing standards[edit]
The main competitor to UMTS is CDMA2000 (IMT-MC), which is developed by the 3GPP2. Unlike
UMTS, CDMA2000 is an evolutionary upgrade to an existing 2G standard,cdmaOne, and is able to
operate within the same frequency allocations. This and CDMA2000's narrower bandwidth
requirements make it easier to deploy in existing spectra. In some, but not all, cases, existing GSM
operators only have enough spectrum to implement either UMTS or GSM, not both. For example, in
the US D, E, and F PCS spectrum blocks, the amount of spectrum available is 5 MHz in each
direction. A standard UMTS system would saturate that spectrum. Where CDMA2000 is deployed, it
usually co-exists with UMTS. In many markets however, the co-existence issue is of little relevance,
as legislative hurdles exist to co-deploying two standards in the same licensed slice of spectrum.
Another competitor to UMTS is EDGE (IMT-SC), which is an evolutionary upgrade to the 2G GSM
system, leveraging existing GSM spectrums. It is also much easier, quicker, and considerably
cheaper for wireless carriers to "bolt-on" EDGE functionality by upgrading their existing GSM
transmission hardware to support EDGE rather than having to install almost all brand-new
equipment to deliver UMTS. However, being developed by 3GPP just as UMTS, EDGE is not a true
competitor. Instead, it is used as a temporary solution preceding UMTS roll-out or as a complement
for rural areas. This is facilitated by the fact that GSM/EDGE and UMTS specification are jointly
developed and rely on the same core network, allowing dual-mode operation including vertical
handovers.
China's TD-SCDMA standard is often seen as a competitor, too. TD-SCDMA has been added to
UMTS' Release 4 as UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps Low Chip Rate (UTRA-TDD LCR). Unlike TD-
CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate, UTRA-TDD HCR) which complements W-
CDMA (UTRA-FDD), it is suitable for both micro and macro cells. However, the lack of vendors'
support is preventing it from being a real competitor.
While DECT is technically capable of competing with UMTS and other cellular networks in densely
populated, urban areas, it has only been deployed for domestic cordless phones and private in-
house networks.
All of these competitors have been accepted by ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards,
along with UMTS-FDD.
On the Internet access side, competing systems include WiMAX and Flash-OFDM.
Migrating from GSM/GPRS to UMTS[edit]
From a GSM/GPRS network, the following network elements can be reused:
Home Location Register (HLR)
Visitor Location Register (VLR)
Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
Mobile Switching Center (MSC) (vendor dependent)
Authentication Center (AUC)
Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) (vendor dependent)
Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)
From a GSM/GPRS communication radio network, the following elements cannot be reused:
Base station controller (BSC)
Base transceiver station (BTS)
They can remain in the network and be used in dual network operation where 2G and 3G networks
co-exist while network migration and new 3G terminals become available for use in the network.
The UMTS network introduces new network elements that function as specified by 3GPP:
Node B (base transceiver station)
Radio Network Controller (RNC)
Media Gateway (MGW)
The functionality of MSC and SGSN changes when going to UMTS. In a GSM system the MSC
handles all the circuit switched operations like connecting A- and B-subscriber through the network.
SGSN handles all the packet switched operations and transfers all the data in the network. In UMTS
the Media gateway (MGW) take care of all data transfer in both circuit and packet switched
networks. MSC and SGSN control MGW operations. The nodes are renamed to MSC-server and
GSN-server.
Problems and issues[edit]
Some countries, including the United States, have allocated spectrum differently from
the ITU recommendations, so that the standard bands most commonly used for UMTS (UMTS-2100)
have not been available. In those countries, alternative bands are used, preventing the
interoperability of existing UMTS-2100 equipment, and requiring the design and manufacture of
different equipment for the use in these markets. As is the case with GSM900 today, standard UMTS
2100 MHz equipment will not work in those markets. However, it appears as though UMTS is not
suffering as much from handset band compatibility issues as GSM did, as many UMTS handsets are
multi-band in both UMTS and GSM modes. Penta-band (850, 900, 1700 / 2100, and 1900 MHz
bands), quad-band GSM (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz bands) and tri-band UMTS (850, 1900,
and 2100 MHz bands) handsets are becoming more commonplace.
The early days of UMTS saw problems in many countries. Overweight handsets with poor battery life
were first to arrive on a market highly sensitive to weight and form factor. The Motorola A830, a
debut handset on Hutchison's 3 network, weighed more than 200 grams and even featured a
detachable camera to reduce handset weight. Another significant issue involved call reliability,
related to problems with handover from UMTS to GSM. Customers found their connections being
dropped as handovers were possible only in one direction (UMTS GSM), with the handset only
changing back to UMTS after hanging up. In most networks around the world this is no longer an
issue.
Compared to GSM, UMTS networks initially required a higher base station density. For fully-fledged
UMTS incorporating video on demand features, one base station needed to be set up every 1
1.5 km (0.620.93 mi). This was the case when only the 2100 MHz band was being used, however
with the growing use of lower-frequency bands (such as 850 and 900 MHz) this is no longer so. This
has led to increasing rollout of the lower-band networks by operators since 2006.
Even with current technologies and low-band UMTS, telephony and data over UMTS is still more
power intensive than on comparable GSM networks. Apple Inc. cited
[9]
UMTS power consumption as
the reason that the first generation iPhone only supported EDGE. Their release of the iPhone 3G
quotes talk time on UMTS as half that available when the handset is set to use GSM. Other
manufacturers indicate different battery lifetime for UMTS mode compared to GSM mode as well. As
battery and network technology improves, this issue is diminishing.
Releases[edit]
The evolution of UMTS progresses according to planned releases. Each release is designed to
introduce new features and improve upon existing ones.
Release '99[edit]
Bearer services
64 kbit/s circuit switch
384 kbit/s packet switched
Location services
Call service: compatible with Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), based
on Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM)
Voice quality features Tandem Free Operation
Release 4[edit]
Edge radio
Multimedia messaging
MExE (Mobile Execution Environment)
Improved location services
IP Multimedia Services (IMS)
TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate)
Release 5[edit]
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
IPv6, IP transport in UTRAN
Improvements in GERAN, MExE, etc.
HSDPA
Release 6[edit]
WLAN integration
Multimedia broadcast and multicast
Improvements in IMS
HSUPA
Fractional DPCH
Release 7[edit]
Enhanced L2
64 QAM, MIMO
Voice over HSPA
CPC continuous packet connectivity
FRLC Flexible RLC
Release 8[edit]
Dual-Cell HSDPA
Dual-Cell HSUPA
Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from UMTS)
"3GSM" redirects here. For the mobile exhibition, see Mobile World Congress.

[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
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This article is outdated. (October 2013)


The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular
system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd
Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunications
Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based
on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access (W-
CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network
operators.
UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network (UMTS
Terrestrial Radio Access Network, or UTRAN), the core network (Mobile Application Part, or MAP)
and the authentication of users via SIM (subscriber identity module) cards.
The technology described in UMTS is sometimes also referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia
Access (FOMA)
[1]
or 3GSM.
Unlike EDGE (IMT Single-Carrier, based on GSM) and CDMA2000 (IMT Multi-Carrier), UMTS
requires new base stations and new frequency allocations.
Contents
[hide]
1 Features
2 Technology
o 2.1 Air interfaces
2.1.1 W-CDMA (UTRA-FDD)
2.1.2 TD-CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate)
2.1.3 TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate)
o 2.2 Radio access network
o 2.3 Core network
3 Spectrum allocation
4 Interoperability and global roaming
o 4.1 Handsets and modems
5 Other competing standards
6 Migrating from GSM/GPRS to UMTS
7 Problems and issues
8 Releases
o 8.1 Release '99
o 8.2 Release 4
o 8.3 Release 5
o 8.4 Release 6
o 8.5 Release 7
o 8.6 Release 8
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
o 11.1 Citations
o 11.2 Bibliography
12 External links
Features[edit]
UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when HSPA+ is implemented
in the network.
[2]
Users in deployed networks can expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for
Release '99 (R99) handsets (the original UMTS release), and 7.2 Mbit/s for HSDPA handsets in the
downlink connection. These speeds are significantly faster than the 9.6 kbit/s of a single GSM error-
corrected circuit switched data channel, multiple 9.6 kbit/s channels in HSCSD and 14.4 kbit/s for
CDMAOne channels.
Since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded
with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), sometimes known as 3.5G. Currently, HSDPA
enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s. Work is also progressing on improving the
uplink transfer speed with the High-Speed Uplink Packet Access(HSUPA). Longer term, the 3GPP
Long Term Evolution (LTE) project plans to move UMTS to 4G speeds of 100 Mbit/s down and 50
Mbit/s up, using a next generation air interface technology based upon orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing.
The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a heavy emphasis on telco-
provided mobile applications such as mobile TV and video calling. The high data speeds of UMTS
are now most often utilised for Internet access: experience in Japan and elsewhere has shown that
user demand for video calls is not high, and telco-provided audio/video content has declined in
popularity in favour of high-speed access to the World Wide Webeither directly on a handset or
connected to a computer via Wi-Fi,Bluetooth or USB.
Technology[edit]


UMTS Network Architecture
UMTS combines three different air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application Part (MAP) core, and the
GSM family of speech codecs.
Air interfaces[edit]
UMTS provides several different terrestrial air interfaces, called UMTS Terrestrial Radio
Access (UTRA).
[3]
All air interface options are part of ITU's IMT-2000. In the currently most popular
variant for cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA (IMT Direct Spread) is used.
Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading. While they
suggest covering just a channel access method (namely a variant of CDMA), they are actually the
common names for the whole air interface standards.
[4]

W-CDMA (UTRA-FDD)[edit]
Main article: W-CDMA (UMTS)


UMTS base station on the roof of a building
W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide channels. In
contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available 1.25 MHz channels for each
direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are widely criticized for their large spectrum usage,
which has delayed deployment in countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies
specifically for 3G services (such as the United States).
The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 18852025 MHz for the
mobile-to-base (uplink) and 21102200 MHz for the base-to-mobile (downlink). In the US, 1710
1755 MHz and 21102155 MHz are used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used.
[5]
While
UMTS2100 is the most widely deployed UMTS band, some countries' UMTS operators use the
850 MHz and/or 1900 MHz bands (independently, meaning uplink and downlink are within the same
band), notably in the US by AT&T Mobility, New Zealand by Telecom New Zealand on the XT Mobile
Network and in Australia by Telstra on the Next G network. Some carriers such as T-Mobile use
band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies. For example, Band I (2100 MHz), Band IV
(1700/2100 MHz), and Band V (850 MHz).
W-CDMA is a part of IMT-2000 as IMT Direct Spread.
TD-CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate)[edit]
Main article: UTRA-TDD HCR
UMTS-TDD's air interfaces that use the TD-CDMA channel access technique are standardized
as UTRA-TDD HCR, which uses increments of 5 MHz of spectrum, each slice divided into 10ms
frames containing fifteen time slots (1500 per second).
[6]
The time slots (TS) are allocated in fixed
percentage for downlink and uplink. TD-CDMA is used to multiplex streams from or to multiple
transceivers. Unlike W-CDMA, it does not need separate frequency bands for up- and downstream,
allowing deployment in tight frequency bands.
TD-CDMA is a part of IMT-2000 as IMT CDMA TDD.
TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate)[edit]
Main article: TD-SCDMA
TD-SCDMA uses the TDMA channel access method combined with an adaptive synchronous
CDMA component
[7]
on 1.6 MHz slices of spectrum, allowing deployment in even tighter frequency
bands than TD-CDMA. However, the main incentive for development of this Chinese-developed
standard was avoiding or reducing the license fees that have to be paid to non-Chinese patent
owners. Unlike the other air interfaces, TD-SCDMA was not part of UMTS from the beginning but
has been added in Release 4 of the specification.
Like TD-CDMA, TD-SCDMA is known as IMT CDMA TDD within IMT-2000.
Radio access network[edit]
Main article: UTRAN
UMTS also specifies the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), which is
composed of multiple base stations, possibly using different terrestrial air interface standards and
frequency bands.
UMTS and GSM/EDGE can share a Core Network (CN), making UTRAN an alternative radio access
network to GERAN (GSM/EDGE RAN), and allowing (mostly) transparent switching between the
RANs according to available coverage and service needs. Because of that, UMTS's and
GSM/EDGE's radio access networks are sometimes collectively referred to as UTRAN/GERAN.
UMTS networks are often combined with GSM/EDGE, the latter of which is also a part of IMT-2000.
The UE (User Equipment) interface of the RAN (Radio Access Network) primarily consists of RRC
(Radio Resource Control), RLC (Radio Link Control) and MAC (Media Access Control) protocols.
RRC protocol handles connection establishment, measurements, radio bearer services, security and
handover decisions. RLC protocol primarily divides into three ModesTransparent Mode (TM),
Unacknowledge Mode (UM), Acknowledge Mode (AM). The functionality of AM entity resembles
TCP operation whereas UM operation resembles UDP operation. In TM mode, data will be sent to
lower layers without adding any header to SDU of higher layers. MAC handles the scheduling of
data on air interface depending on higher layer (RRC) configured parameters.
The set of properties related to data transmission is called Radio Bearer (RB). This set of properties
decides the maximum allowed data in a TTI (Transmission Time Interval). RB includes RLC
information and RB mapping. RB mapping decides the mapping between RB<->logical channel<-
>transport channel. Signaling messages are sent on Signaling Radio Bearers (SRBs) and data
packets (either CS or PS) are sent on data RBs. RRC and NAS messages go on SRBs.
Security includes two procedures: integrity and ciphering. Integrity validates the resource of
messages and also makes sure that no one (third/unknown party) on the radio interface has
modified the messages. Ciphering ensures that no one listens to your data on the air interface. Both
integrity and ciphering are applied for SRBs whereas only ciphering is applied for data RBs.
Core network[edit]
Main article: Mobile Application Part
With Mobile Application Part, UMTS uses the same core network standard as GSM/EDGE. This
allows a simple migration for existing GSM operators. However, the migration path to UMTS is still
costly: while much of the core infrastructure is shared with GSM, the cost of obtaining new spectrum
licenses and overlaying UMTS at existing towers is high.
The CN can be connected to various backbone networks, such as the Internet or an Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) telephone network. UMTS (and GERAN) include the three lowest
layers of OSI model. The network layer (OSI 3) includes the Radio Resource Management protocol
(RRM) that manages the bearer channels between the mobile terminals and the fixed network,
including the handovers.
Spectrum allocation[edit]

This section is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or
newly available information. (October 2013)
Main article: UMTS frequency bands
Over 130 licenses have already been awarded to operators worldwide (as of December 2004),
specifying W-CDMA radio access technology that builds on GSM. In Europe, the license process
occurred at the tail end of the technology bubble, and the auction mechanisms for allocation set up
in some countries resulted in some extremely high prices being paid for the original 2100 MHz
licenses, notably in the UK and Germany. In Germany, bidders paid a total 50.8 billion for six
licenses, two of which were subsequently abandoned and written off by their purchasers
(Mobilcom and the Sonera/Telefonica consortium). It has been suggested that these huge license
fees have the character of a very large tax paid on future income expected many years down the
road. In any event, the high prices paid put some European telecom operators close to bankruptcy
(most notably KPN). Over the last few years some operators have written off some or all of the
license costs. Between 2007 and 2009, all three Finnish carriers begun to use 900 MHz UMTS in a
shared arrangement with its surrounding 2G GSM base stations for rural area coverage, a trend that
is expected to expand over Europe in the next 13 years.
[dated info]

The 2100 MHz band (downlink around 2100 MHz and uplink around 1900 MHz) allocated for UMTS
in Europe and most of Asia is already used in North America. The 1900 MHz range is used
for 2G (PCS) services, and 2100 MHz range is used for satellite communications. Regulators have,
however, freed up some of the 2100 MHz range for 3G services, together with a different range
around 1700 MHz for the uplink.
AT&T Wireless launched UMTS services in the United States by the end of 2004 strictly using the
existing 1900 MHz spectrum allocated for 2G PCS services. Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless in
2004 and has since then launched UMTS in select US cities. Cingular renamed itself AT&T
Mobility and is rolling out
[citation needed]
some cities with a UMTS network at 850 MHz to enhance its
existing UMTS network at 1900 MHz and now offers subscribers a number of dual-band UMTS
850/1900 phones.
T-Mobile's rollout of UMTS in the US focused on the 1700 MHz band.
In Canada, UMTS coverage is being provided on the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands on the Rogers
and Bell-Telus networks. Bell and Telus share the network. Recently, new providers Wind
Mobile, Mobilicity and Videotron have begun operations in the 1700 MHz band.
In 2008, Australian telco Telstra replaced its existing CDMA network with a national UMTS-based
3G network, branded as NextG, operating in the 850 MHz band. Telstra currently provides UMTS
service on this network, and also on the 2100 MHz UMTS network, through a co-ownership of the
owning and administrating company 3GIS. This company is also co-owned by Hutchison 3G
Australia, and this is the primary network used by their customers. Optus is currently rolling out a 3G
network operating on the 2100 MHz band in cities and most large towns, and the 900 MHz band in
regional areas. Vodafone is also building a 3G network using the 900 MHz band.
In India, BSNL has started its 3G services since October 2009, beginning with the larger cities and
then expanding over to smaller cities. The 850 MHz and 900 MHz bands provide greater coverage
compared to equivalent 1700/1900/2100 MHz networks, and are best suited to regional areas where
greater distances separate base station and subscriber.
Carriers in South America are now also rolling out 850 MHz networks.
Interoperability and global roaming[edit]
UMTS phones (and data cards) are highly portablethey have been designed to roam easily onto
other UMTS networks (if the providers have roaming agreements in place). In addition, almost all
UMTS phones are UMTS/GSM dual-mode devices, so if a UMTS phone travels outside of UMTS
coverage during a call the call may be transparently handed off to available GSM coverage.
Roaming charges are usually significantly higher than regular usage charges.
Most UMTS licensees consider ubiquitous, transparent global roaming an important issue. To enable
a high degree of interoperability, UMTS phones usually support several different frequencies in
addition to their GSM fallback. Different countries support different UMTS frequency bands Europe
initially used 2100 MHz while the most carriers in the USA use 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. T-Mobile
has launched a network in the US operating at 1700 MHz (uplink) /2100 MHz (downlink), and these
bands are also being adopted elsewhere in the Americas. A UMTS phone and network must support
a common frequency to work together. Because of the frequencies used, early models of UMTS
phones designated for the United States will likely not be operable elsewhere and vice versa. There
are now 11 different frequency combinations used around the worldincluding frequencies formerly
used solely for 2G services.
UMTS phones can use a Universal Subscriber Identity Module, USIM (based on GSM's SIM) and
also work (including UMTS services) with GSM SIM cards. This is a global standard of identification,
and enables a network to identify and authenticate the (U)SIM in the phone. Roaming agreements
between networks allow for calls to a customer to be redirected to them while roaming and
determine the services (and prices) available to the user. In addition to user subscriber information
and authentication information, the (U)SIM provides storage space for phone book contact.
Handsets can store their data on their own memory or on the (U)SIM card (which is usually more
limited in its phone book contact information). A (U)SIM can be moved to another UMTS or GSM
phone, and the phone will take on the user details of the (U)SIM, meaning it is the (U)SIM (not the
phone) which determines the phone number of the phone and the billing for calls made from the
phone.
Japan was the first country to adopt 3G technologies, and since they had not used GSM previously
they had no need to build GSM compatibility into their handsets and their 3G handsets were smaller
than those available elsewhere. In 2002, NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G network was the first
commercial UMTS networkusing a pre-release specification,
[8]
it was initially incompatible with the
UMTS standard at the radio level but used standard USIM cards, meaning USIM card based
roaming was possible (transferring the USIM card into a UMTS or GSM phone when travelling). Both
NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank Mobile (which launched 3G in December 2002) now use standard
UMTS.
Handsets and modems[edit]


The Nokia 6650, an early UMTS handset
All of the major 2G phone manufacturers (that are still in business) are now manufacturers of 3G
phones. The early 3G handsets and modems were specific to the frequencies required in their
country, which meant they could only roam to other countries on the same 3G frequency (though
they can fall back to the older GSM standard). Canada and USA have a common share of
frequencies, as do most European countries. The article UMTS frequency bands is an overview of
UMTS network frequencies around the world.
Using a cellular router, PCMCIA or USB card, customers are able to access 3G broadband services,
regardless of their choice of computer (such as a tablet PC or a PDA). Some software installs
itself from the modem, so that in some cases absolutely no knowledge of technology is required to
get online in moments. Using a phone that supports 3G and Bluetooth 2.0, multiple Bluetooth-
capable laptops can be connected to the Internet. Some smartphones can also act as a
mobile WLAN access point.
There are very few 3G phones or modems available supporting all 3G frequencies
(UMTS850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz). Nokia has recently released a range of phones that
have Pentaband 3G coverage, including the N8 and E7. Many other phones are offering more than
one band which still enables extensive roaming. For example, Apple's iPhone 4 contains a
quadband chipset operating on 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, allowing usage in the majority of countries
where UMTS-FDD is deployed.
Other competing standards[edit]
The main competitor to UMTS is CDMA2000 (IMT-MC), which is developed by the 3GPP2. Unlike
UMTS, CDMA2000 is an evolutionary upgrade to an existing 2G standard,cdmaOne, and is able to
operate within the same frequency allocations. This and CDMA2000's narrower bandwidth
requirements make it easier to deploy in existing spectra. In some, but not all, cases, existing GSM
operators only have enough spectrum to implement either UMTS or GSM, not both. For example, in
the US D, E, and F PCS spectrum blocks, the amount of spectrum available is 5 MHz in each
direction. A standard UMTS system would saturate that spectrum. Where CDMA2000 is deployed, it
usually co-exists with UMTS. In many markets however, the co-existence issue is of little relevance,
as legislative hurdles exist to co-deploying two standards in the same licensed slice of spectrum.
Another competitor to UMTS is EDGE (IMT-SC), which is an evolutionary upgrade to the 2G GSM
system, leveraging existing GSM spectrums. It is also much easier, quicker, and considerably
cheaper for wireless carriers to "bolt-on" EDGE functionality by upgrading their existing GSM
transmission hardware to support EDGE rather than having to install almost all brand-new
equipment to deliver UMTS. However, being developed by 3GPP just as UMTS, EDGE is not a true
competitor. Instead, it is used as a temporary solution preceding UMTS roll-out or as a complement
for rural areas. This is facilitated by the fact that GSM/EDGE and UMTS specification are jointly
developed and rely on the same core network, allowing dual-mode operation including vertical
handovers.
China's TD-SCDMA standard is often seen as a competitor, too. TD-SCDMA has been added to
UMTS' Release 4 as UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps Low Chip Rate (UTRA-TDD LCR). Unlike TD-
CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate, UTRA-TDD HCR) which complements W-
CDMA (UTRA-FDD), it is suitable for both micro and macro cells. However, the lack of vendors'
support is preventing it from being a real competitor.
While DECT is technically capable of competing with UMTS and other cellular networks in densely
populated, urban areas, it has only been deployed for domestic cordless phones and private in-
house networks.
All of these competitors have been accepted by ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards,
along with UMTS-FDD.
On the Internet access side, competing systems include WiMAX and Flash-OFDM.
Migrating from GSM/GPRS to UMTS[edit]
From a GSM/GPRS network, the following network elements can be reused:
Home Location Register (HLR)
Visitor Location Register (VLR)
Equipment Identity Register (EIR)
Mobile Switching Center (MSC) (vendor dependent)
Authentication Center (AUC)
Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) (vendor dependent)
Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)
From a GSM/GPRS communication radio network, the following elements cannot be reused:
Base station controller (BSC)
Base transceiver station (BTS)
They can remain in the network and be used in dual network operation where 2G and 3G networks
co-exist while network migration and new 3G terminals become available for use in the network.
The UMTS network introduces new network elements that function as specified by 3GPP:
Node B (base transceiver station)
Radio Network Controller (RNC)
Media Gateway (MGW)
The functionality of MSC and SGSN changes when going to UMTS. In a GSM system the MSC
handles all the circuit switched operations like connecting A- and B-subscriber through the network.
SGSN handles all the packet switched operations and transfers all the data in the network. In UMTS
the Media gateway (MGW) take care of all data transfer in both circuit and packet switched
networks. MSC and SGSN control MGW operations. The nodes are renamed to MSC-server and
GSN-server.
Problems and issues[edit]
Some countries, including the United States, have allocated spectrum differently from
the ITU recommendations, so that the standard bands most commonly used for UMTS (UMTS-2100)
have not been available. In those countries, alternative bands are used, preventing the
interoperability of existing UMTS-2100 equipment, and requiring the design and manufacture of
different equipment for the use in these markets. As is the case with GSM900 today, standard UMTS
2100 MHz equipment will not work in those markets. However, it appears as though UMTS is not
suffering as much from handset band compatibility issues as GSM did, as many UMTS handsets are
multi-band in both UMTS and GSM modes. Penta-band (850, 900, 1700 / 2100, and 1900 MHz
bands), quad-band GSM (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz bands) and tri-band UMTS (850, 1900,
and 2100 MHz bands) handsets are becoming more commonplace.
The early days of UMTS saw problems in many countries. Overweight handsets with poor battery life
were first to arrive on a market highly sensitive to weight and form factor. The Motorola A830, a
debut handset on Hutchison's 3 network, weighed more than 200 grams and even featured a
detachable camera to reduce handset weight. Another significant issue involved call reliability,
related to problems with handover from UMTS to GSM. Customers found their connections being
dropped as handovers were possible only in one direction (UMTS GSM), with the handset only
changing back to UMTS after hanging up. In most networks around the world this is no longer an
issue.
Compared to GSM, UMTS networks initially required a higher base station density. For fully-fledged
UMTS incorporating video on demand features, one base station needed to be set up every 1
1.5 km (0.620.93 mi). This was the case when only the 2100 MHz band was being used, however
with the growing use of lower-frequency bands (such as 850 and 900 MHz) this is no longer so. This
has led to increasing rollout of the lower-band networks by operators since 2006.
Even with current technologies and low-band UMTS, telephony and data over UMTS is still more
power intensive than on comparable GSM networks. Apple Inc. cited
[9]
UMTS power consumption as
the reason that the first generation iPhone only supported EDGE. Their release of the iPhone 3G
quotes talk time on UMTS as half that available when the handset is set to use GSM. Other
manufacturers indicate different battery lifetime for UMTS mode compared to GSM mode as well. As
battery and network technology improves, this issue is diminishing.
Releases[edit]
The evolution of UMTS progresses according to planned releases. Each release is designed to
introduce new features and improve upon existing ones.
Release '99[edit]
Bearer services
64 kbit/s circuit switch
384 kbit/s packet switched
Location services
Call service: compatible with Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), based
on Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM)
Voice quality features Tandem Free Operation
Release 4[edit]
Edge radio
Multimedia messaging
MExE (Mobile Execution Environment)
Improved location services
IP Multimedia Services (IMS)
TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps low chip rate)
Release 5[edit]
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
IPv6, IP transport in UTRAN
Improvements in GERAN, MExE, etc.
HSDPA
Release 6[edit]
WLAN integration
Multimedia broadcast and multicast
Improvements in IMS
HSUPA
Fractional DPCH
Release 7[edit]
Enhanced L2
64 QAM, MIMO
Voice over HSPA
CPC continuous packet connectivity
FRLC Flexible RLC
Release 8[edit]
Dual-Cell HSDPA
Dual-Cell HSUPA
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from HSDPA)
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is an enhanced 3G (third-generation) mobile-
telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also dubbed
3.5G, 3G+, or Turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS) to have higher data-transfer speeds and capacity. As of 2013 HSDPA deployments
can support down-link speeds of up to 42.3 Mbit/s. HSPA+ offers further speed increases, providing
speeds of up to 337.5 Mbit/s with Release 11 of the 3GPP standards.
[1]

Contents
[hide]
1 Technology
o 1.1 High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel
o 1.2 Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)
o 1.3 Fast packet scheduling
o 1.4 Adaptive modulation and coding
o 1.5 Dual-Cell
o 1.6 Other improvements
2 User Equipment (UE) categories
3 Roadmap
4 Adoption
o 4.1 Marketing as mobile broadband
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Technology[edit]
High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel[edit]
For HSDPA, a new transport layer channel, High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH), has
been added to 3GPP release 5 and further specification. It is implemented by introducing three
new physical layer channels: HS-SCCH, HS-DPCCH and HS-PDSCH. The High Speed-Shared
Control Channel (HS-SCCH) informs the user that data will be sent on the HS-DSCH, 2 slots ahead.
The Uplink High Speed-Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) carries acknowledgment
information and current channel quality indicator (CQI) of the user. This value is then used by the
base station to calculate how much data to send to the user devices on the next transmission. The
High Speed-Physical Downlink Shared Channel (HS-PDSCH) is the channel to which the above HS-
DSCH transport channel is mapped that carries actual user data.
Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)[edit]
Data is transmitted together with error correction bits. Minor errors can thus be corrected without
retransmission; see forward error correction.
If retransmission is needed, the user device saves the packet and later combines it with
retransmitted packet to recover the error-free packet as efficiently as possible. Even if the
retransmitted packets are corrupted, their combination can yield an error-free packet. Retransmitted
packet may be either identical (chase combining) or different from the first transmission (incremental
redundancy).
Since HARQ retransmissions are processed at the physical layer, their 12 ms round-trip time is
much lower compared to higher layer retransmissions.
Fast packet scheduling[edit]
The HS-DSCH downlink channel is shared between users using channel-dependent scheduling to
make the best use of available radio conditions. Each user device continually transmits an indication
of the downlink signal quality, as often as 500 times per second. Using this information from all
devices, the base station decides which users will be sent data in the next 2 ms frame and how
much data should be sent for each user. More data can be sent to users which report high downlink
signal quality.
The amount of the channelisation code tree, and thus network bandwidth, allocated to HSDPA users
is determined by the network. The allocation is "semi-static" in that it can be modified while the
network is operating, but not on a frame-by-frame basis. This allocation represents a trade-off
between bandwidth allocated for HSDPA users, versus that for voice and non-HSDPA data users.
The allocation is in units of channelisation codes for Spreading Factor 16, of which 16 exist and up
to 15 can be allocated to the HS-DSCH. When the base station decides which users will receive
data in the next frame, it also decides which channelisation codes will be used for each user. This
information is sent to the user on one of up to 4 HS-SCCHs, which are not part of the HS-DSCH
allocation previously mentioned, but are allocated separately. Thus, for a given 2 ms frame, data
may be sent to a number of users simultaneously, using different channelisation codes.
Adaptive modulation and coding[edit]
The modulation scheme and coding are changed on a per-user basis, depending on signal quality
and cell usage. The initial scheme is quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), but in good radio
conditions 16QAM and 64QAM can significantly increase data throughput rates. With 5 Code
allocation, QPSK typically offers up to 1.8 Mbit/s peak data rates, while 16QAM offers up to
3.6 Mbit/s. Additional codes (e.g. 10, 15) can also be used to improve these data rates or extend the
network capacity throughput significantly.
Dual-Cell[edit]
Dual Cell HSDPA (DC-HSDPA), known also as Dual Carrier, is the natural evolution of HSPA by
means of carrier aggregation in the downlink.
[2]
UMTS licenses are often issued as 10 or 15 MHz
paired spectrum allocations. The basic idea of the multicarrier feature is to achieve better resource
utilization and spectrum efficiency by means of joint resource allocation and load balancing across
the downlink carriers.
An advanced HSPA network can theoretically support up to 28 Mbit/s and 42.2 Mbit/s with a single
5 MHz carrier for Rel7 (MIMO with 16QAM) and Rel8 (64-QAM + MIMO), in good channel conditions
with low correlation between transmit antennas. An alternative method to double the data rates is to
double the bandwidth to 10 MHz (i.e. 25 MHz) by using DC-HSDPA. Additionally, some diversity
and joint scheduling gains can also be expected
[3]
with improved QoS for end users in poor
environment conditions where existing techniques such as MIMO spatial multiplexing cannot be
used to increase data rates. In 3GPP a study item was completed in June 2008. The outcome can
be found in technical report 25.825.
[4]
New HSDPA User Equipment categories 21-24 have been
introduced that support DC-HSDPA. DC-HSDPA can support up to 42.2 Mbit/s, but unlike HSPA, it
does not need to rely on MIMO transmission.
From Release 9 onwards it will be possible to use DC-HSDPA in combination with MIMO used on
both carriers.
[5]
This will allow theoretical speed of up to 84.4 Mbit/s.
The support of MIMO in combination with DC-HSDPA will allow operators deploying Release 7
MIMO to benefit from the DC-HSDPA functionality as defined in Release 8. While in Release 8 DC-
HSDPA can only operate on adjacent carriers, Release 9 also allows that the paired cells can
operate on two different frequency bands. Future releases will allow the use of up to four carriers
simultaneously.
Other improvements[edit]
HSDPA is part of the UMTS standards since release 5, which also accompanies an improvement on
the uplink providing a new bearer of 384 kbit/s. The previous maximum bearer was 128 kbit/s.
As well as improving data rates, HSDPA also decreases latency and so the round trip time for
applications.
In later 3GPP specification releases HSPA+ increases data rates further by adding 64QAM
modulation, MIMO and Dual-Cell HSDPA operation, i.e. two 5 MHz carriers are used simultaneously.
User Equipment (UE) categories[edit]
HSDPA comprises various versions with different data speeds.
The following table is derived from table 5.1a of the release 11 of 3GPP TS 25.306
[6]
and shows
maximum data rates of different device classes and by what combination of features they are
achieved. The per-cell per-stream data rate is limited by the Maximum number of bits of an HS-
DSCH transport block received within an HS-DSCH TTI and theMinimum inter-TTI interval. The TTI
is 2 ms. So for example Cat 10 can decode 27952 bits/2 ms = 13.976 MBit/s (and not 14.4 MBit/s as
often claimed incorrectly). Categories 1-4 and 11 have inter-TTI intervals of 2 or 3, which reduces
the maximum data rate by that factor. Dual-Cell and MIMO 2x2 each multiply the maximum data rate
by 2, because multiple independent transport blocks are transmitted over different carriers or spatial
streams, respectively. The data rates given in the table are rounded to one decimal point.
3GPP
Release
Category
Max.
number of
HS-DSCH
codes
Modulation
[note
1]

MIMO, Multi-Cell
Code rate at
max. data
rate
[note 2]

Max. data
rate
[Mbit/s]
[note 3]

Release 5 1 5 16-QAM .76 1.2
Release 5 2 5 16-QAM .76 1.2
Release 5 3 5 16-QAM .76 1.8
Release 5 4 5 16-QAM .76 1.8
Release 5 5 5 16-QAM .76 3.6
Release 5 6 5 16-QAM .76 3.6
Release 5 7 10 16-QAM .75 7.2
Release 5 8 10 16-QAM .76 7.2
Release 5 9 15 16-QAM .70 10.1
Release 5 10 15 16-QAM .97 14.0
Release 5 11 5 QPSK .76 0.9
Release 5 12 5 QPSK .76 1.8
Release 7 13 15 64-QAM .82 17.6
Release 7 14 15 64-QAM .98 21.1
Release 7 15 15 16-QAM MIMO 2x2 .81 23.4
Release 7 16 15 16-QAM MIMO 2x2 .97 28.0
Release 7 17
15 64-QAM .82 17.6
15 16-QAM MIMO 2x2 .81 23.4
Release 7 18
15 64-QAM .98 21.1
15 16-QAM MIMO 2x2 .97 28.0
Release
8
[note 4]

19 15 64-QAM MIMO 2x2 .82 35.3
Release
8
[note 5]

20 15 64-QAM MIMO 2x2 .98 42.2
Release 8 21 15 16-QAM Dual-Cell .81 23.4
Release 8 22 15 16-QAM Dual-Cell .97 28.0
Release 8 23 15 64-QAM Dual-Cell .82 35.3
Release 8 24 15 64-QAM Dual-Cell .98 42.2
Release 9 25 15 16-QAM
Dual-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.81 46.7
Release 9 26 15 16-QAM
Dual-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.97 55.9
Release 9 27 15 64-QAM
Dual-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.82 70.6
Release 9 28 15 64-QAM
Dual-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.98 84.4
Release 10 29 15 64-QAM Triple-Cell .98 63.3
Release 10 30 15 64-QAM
Triple-Cell +
MIMO 2x2
.98 126.6
Release 10 31 15 64-QAM Quad-Cell .98 84.4
Release 10 32 15 64-QAM
Quad-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.98 168.8
Release 11 33 15 64-QAM Hexa-Cell .98 126.6
Release 11 34 15 64-QAM
Hexa-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.98 253.2
Release 11 35 15 64-QAM Octa-Cell .98 168.8
Release 11 36 15 64-QAM
Octa-Cell + MIMO
2x2
.98 337.5
Release 11 37 15 64-QAM
Dual-Cell + MIMO
4x4
.98 168.8
Release 11 38 15 64-QAM
Quad-Cell + MIMO
4x4
.98 337.5
Notes:
1. Jump up^ 16-QAM implies QPSK support, 64-QAM implies 16-QAM and QPSK support.
2. Jump up^ The maximal code rate is not limited. A value close to 1 in this column indicates
that the maximum data rate can be achieved only in ideal conditions. The device is therefore
connected directly to the transmitter to demonstrate these data rates.
3. Jump up^ The maximum data rates given in the table are physical layer data rates.
Application layer data rate is approximately 85% of that, due to the inclusion of IP headers
(overhead information) etc.
4. Jump up^ Category 19 was specified in Release 7 as "For further use". Not until Release 8
simultaneous use of 64QAM and MIMO were allowed to obtain the specified max. data rate.
5. Jump up^ Category 20 was specified in Release 7 as "For further use". Not until Release 8
simultaneous use of 64QAM and MIMO were allowed to obtain the specified max. data rate.
Roadmap[edit]
The first phase of HSDPA has been specified in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
release 5. Phase one introduces new basic functions and is aimed to achieve peak data rates of
14.0 Mbit/s (see above). Newly introduced are the High Speed Downlink Shared Channels (HS-
DSCH), the adaptive modulation QPSK and 16QAM and the High Speed Medium Access
protocol (MAC-hs) in base station.
The second phase of HSDPA is specified in the 3GPP release 7 and has been named HSPA
Evolved. It can achieve data rates of up to 42.2 Mbit/s.
[1]
It introduces antenna array
technologies such as beamforming and Multiple-input multiple-output communications (MIMO).
Beam forming focuses the transmitted power of an antenna in a beam towards the users
direction. MIMO uses multiple antennas at the sending and receiving side. Deployments were
scheduled to begin in the second half of 2008.
Further releases of the standard have introduced dual carrier operation, i.e. the simultaneous
use of two 5 MHz carriers. By combining this with MIMO transmission, peak data rates of
84.4 Mbit/s can be reached under ideal signal conditions.
After HSPA Evolved, the roadmap leads to E-UTRA (Previously "HSOPA"), the technology
specified in 3GPP Releases 8 and 10. This project is called the Long Term Evolutioninitiative.
Different LTE user equipment categories offer data rates up to 3 Gbit/s for downlink and 1.5
Gbit/s for uplink using OFDMA modulation.
Adoption[edit]
As of 28 August 2009, 250 HSDPA networks have commercially launched mobile broadband
services in 109 countries. 169 HSDPA networks support 3.6 Mbit/s peak downlink data
throughput. A growing number are delivering 21 Mbit/s peak data downlink and 28 Mbit/s.
Several others will have this capability by end 2009 and the first 42 Mbit/s network came online
in Australia in February 2010. Telstra switches on 42 Mbit/s Next G, plans 84 Mbit/s through the
implementation of HSPA+ Dual Carrier plus MIMO technology upgrade in 2011.
[7]
This protocol
is a relatively simple upgrade where UMTS is already deployed.
[1]
First week in May 2010,
Second-ranked Indonesian cellular operator Indosat launched the first DC-HSPA+ 42 Mbit/s
network, beating Australia's Telstra, Singapore's StarHub and Hong Kong's CSL to stake its
claim as the first operator in Asia-Pacific to offer theoretical download speeds of 42 Mbit/s via
HSPA+.
[8][9]

CDMA2000-EVDO networks had the early lead on performance, and Japanese providers were
highly successful benchmarks for it. But lately this seems to be changing in favour of HSDPA as
an increasing number of providers worldwide are adopting it. In Australia, Telstra announced
that its CDMA-EVDO network would be replaced with a HSDPA network (since named NextG),
offering high speed internet, mobile television and traditional telephony and video
calling. Rogers Wireless deployed HSDPA system 850/1900 in Canada on April 1, 2007. In July
2008, Bell Canada and Telus announced a joint plan to expand their current shared
EVDO/CDMA network to include HSDPA.
[10]
Bell Canada launched their joint network November
4, 2009, while Telus launched November 5, 2009.
[11]
In January 2010, T-Mobile USA adopted
HSDPA.
[12]

Telstra in Australia announced they had implemented Dual-Cell HSDPA in their live NextG
network on 18 January 2010. On 15 February 2010 they announced that the upgrade had been
completed to section of their network in capital cities and major regional centers. As of July
2010, two devices were available; a USB device manufactured by Sierra Wireless, the AirCard
312U, and a portable WiFi hot spot device.
In October 2010, Vodafone in Portugal announced
[13]
a commercial offer of 43.2 Mbit/s
download and 11.4 Mbit/s upload. The service is currently available in Lisbon.
On Nov 18 2010, Bell Canada announced it would begin doubling its network speeds to
42 Mbit/s beginning Nov 23 2010 using HSPA+ Dual Cell technology.
[14]

On December 3, 2010, E Mobile in Japan announced the availability of 42 Mbit/s service based
upon DC-HSDPA.
[15]

On March 10, 2011, SaskTel announced that Dual-Cell HSPA+ will be available in Saskatoon
and Regina by the summer.
[16]
SaskTel also announced that the first device to take advantage of
this new technology will be the Novatel Wireless MC547 Mobile Internet Stick.
On August 23, 2011, Telenor Hungary started Dual-Cell HSPA+ service in Budapest and its
surroundings.
[17]

In 2011, Viva Telecom Kuwait started offering Dual-Cell HSPA+ to its customers.
[18]

In 2011, Personal; a Telecom Argentina / Telecom Italia subsidiary in Paraguay, started offering
Dual-Cell HSPA+ to its customers.
[19]

Also in 2011 two carriers in Finland, Elisa and DNA started offering "4G" backed up by Dual-Cell
HSPA+ whereas LTE coverage is merely spotty in nature.
[20][21]

In February 2012, Personal from Paraguay started offering Dual-Carrier HSPA+ to its
customers.
[22]

In February 2012, Three UK announced the start of its trials of DC-HSDPA. Full rollout will begin
in Summer 2012. As of November 2012 50 cities have been chosen for the initial roll out to be
completed by the end of 2012 - with Belfast joining in January 2013. They plan to cover 50% of
the UK population by the end of 2012.
[23]

By mid 2012, 3 in Italy had deployed DC-HSDPA 42Mbit/s all over its network.
In August 2012, Etisalat Sri Lanka announced the start of its DC-HSPA+ network. First
operator in a South Asian country to do so.
[24]

In August 2012, Cellcom Liberia started Dual-Cell HSPA+ service in Liberia and its
surroundings.
[25]

In August 2012, Gmobile Mongolia announced the start of its DC-HSPA+ network. It is the first
operator in Mongolia to do so.
[26]

In December 2012 Vodafone NZ announced the start of its DC-HSPA network roll-out, ahead of
other carriers.
[27][28]

In October 2013, NOVAFONE Liberia started Dual-Cell HSPA+ service in Liberia and its
surroundings.
[29]

Marketing as mobile broadband[edit]
During 2007, an increasing number of telcos worldwide began selling HSDPA USB modems to
provide mobile broadband connections. In addition, the popularity of HSDPA landline
replacement boxes grewproviding HSDPA for data via Ethernet and WiFi, and ports for
connecting traditional landline telephones. Some are marketed with connection speeds of "up to
7.2 Mbit/s",
[30]
which is only attained under ideal conditions. As a result these services can be
slower than expected, when in fringe coverage indoors.
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from HSUPA)
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family
with up-link speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/s. The name HSUPA was created byNokia. The
official 3GPP name for 'HSUPA' is Enhanced Uplink (EUL).
[1]

The specifications for HSUPA are included in Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System Release 6 standard published by 3GPP. "The technical purpose of the Enhanced Uplink
feature is to improve the performance of uplink dedicated transport channels, i.e. to increase
capacity and throughput and reduce delay."
Contents
[hide]
1 Description
2 Versions
3 Roadmap
4 Dual-Cell HSUPA
5 See also
6 References
7 Bibliography
Description[edit]
HSUPA uses an uplink enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) on which it employs link adaptation
methods similar to those employed by High-Speed Downlink Packet AccessHSDPA, namely:
shorter Transmission Time Interval enabling faster link adaptation;
HARQ (hybrid ARQ) with incremental redundancy making retransmissions more effective.
Similarly to HSDPA, HSUPA uses a packet scheduler, but it operates on a request-grant principle
where the UEs request a permission to send data and the scheduler decides when and how many
UEs will be allowed to do so. A request for transmission contains data about the state of the
transmission buffer and the queue at the UE and its available power margin. However, unlike
HSDPA, uplink transmissions are not orthogonal to each other.
In addition to this scheduled mode of transmission the standards also allows a self-initiated
transmission mode from the UEs, denoted non-scheduled. The non-scheduled mode can, for
example, be used for VoIP services for which even the reduced TTI and the Node B based
scheduler will not be able to provide the very short delay time and constant bandwidth required.
Each MAC-d flow (i.e. QoS flow) is configured to use either scheduled or non-scheduled modes; the
UE adjusts the data rate for scheduled and non-scheduled flows independently. The maximum data
rate of each non-scheduled flow is configured at call setup, and typically not changed frequently. The
power used by the scheduled flows is controlled dynamically by the Node B through absolute grant
(consisting of an actual value) and relative grant (consisting of a single up/down bit) messages.
At the Physical Layer, HSUPA introduces new channels E-AGCH (Absolute Grant Channel), E-
RGCH (Relative Grant Channel), F-DPCH (Fractional-DPCH), E-HICH (E-DCH Hybrid ARQ
Indicator Channel), E-DPCCH (E-DCH Dedicated Physical Control Channel) and E-DPDCH (E-DCH
Dedicated Physical Data Channel).
E-DPDCH is used to carry the E-DCH Transport Channel; and E-DPCCH is used to carry the control
information associated with the E-DCH.
Versions[edit]
The following table shows uplink speed for the different categories of HSUPA.
HSUPA
Category
Max
Uplink
Speed
Examples
Category 1
0.73
Mbit/s

Category 2
1.46
Mbit/s

Category 3
1.46
Mbit/s
Samsung Galaxy S3 International
Category 4
2.93
Mbit/s
Qualcomm 6290
Category 5
2.00
Mbit/s
Nokia: Nokia Asha 311, X3-02, X3-01, N8, C7,
[2]
C5,
[3]
C3-01, E52, E72, E55, 6700
Classic, N900, 5630 XpressMusic; BlackBerry: Storm 9500, 9530; HTC: Dream, Passion
(Nexus One);
[4]
Sony Ericsson C510, Sony Ericsson C903, Sony Ericsson W705, Sony
Ericsson T715, Samsung Wave, Samsung Wave II
Category 6
5.76
Mbit/s
Nokia CS-15, Nokia CS-17, Option GlobeTrotter Express 441/442, Option iCON
505/505M, Samsung i8910, Apple iPhone 4,
[5]
Huawei
E180/E182E/E1820/E5832/EM770W/E392u-12/E392u-21, Micromax A60, ST-Ericsson
M5730, Motorola Atrix 4G (enabled by software update), Samsung Galaxy S 4G, Sony
Ericsson W995, Apple iPhone 5
Category 7
(3GPP
Rel7)
11.5
Mbit/s
QPSK & 16QAM
Category 8
(3GPP
Rel9)
11.5
Mbit/s
2 ms, dual cell E-DCH operation, QPSK only; see 3GPP Rel 9 TS 25.306 table 5.1g
Category 9
(3GPP
Rel9)
22.9
Mbit/s
2 ms, dual cell E-DCH operation, QPSK and 16QAM; see 3GPP Rel 9 TS 25.306 table
5.1g
Category
10 (3GPP
Rel11)
17.25
Mbit/s
2 ms, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM; see 3GPP Rel 11 TS 25.306 table 5.1g
Category
11 (3GPP
Rel11)
22.9
Mbit/s
2 ms, uplink MIMO, QPSK and 16QAM; see 3GPP Rel 11 TS 25.306 table 5.1g
Category
12 (3GPP
Rel11)
34.5
Mbit/s
2 ms, uplink MIMO, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM; see 3GPP Rel 11 TS 25.306 table 5.1g
Roadmap[edit]
After HSUPA the 3GPP is working on further advancing transfer rates. LTE provides up to
300 Mbit/s for downlink and 75 Mbit/s for uplink. Its evolution LTE Advanced supports maximum
downlink rates of over 1 Gbit/s.
Dual-Cell HSUPA[edit]
Dual-Cell HSUPA (also known as: Dual-Carrier HSPA or Dual-Cell HSPA) is a wireless broadband
standard based on HSPA that is defined in 3GPP UMTS release 9. Dual Cell (DC-)HSUPA is the
natural evolution of HSPA by means of carrier aggregation in the uplink.
[6]
Downlink carrier
aggregation named Dual-Cell HSDPA was already standardized in UMTS Release 8.
[7]
UMTS
licenses are often issued as 10 or 15 MHz paired spectrum allocations. The basic idea of the
multicarrier feature is to achieve better resource utilization and spectrum efficiency by means of joint
resource allocation and load balancing across the uplink carriers.
General Packet Radio Service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from GPRS)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may
be challenged and removed. (November 2007)
General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service on
the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications(GSM).
GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in
response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet-switched cellular technologies. It is now maintained
by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
[1][2]

GPRS usage is typically charged based on volume of data transferred, contrasting with circuit
switched data, which is usually billed per minute of connection time. Usage above the bundle cap is
either charged per megabyte or disallowed.
GPRS is a best-effort service, implying variable throughput and latency that depend on the number
of other users sharing the service concurrently, as opposed to circuit switching, where a
certain quality of service (QoS) is guaranteed during the connection. In 2G systems, GPRS provides
data rates of 56114 kbit/second.
[3]
2G cellular technology combined with GPRS is sometimes
described as 2.5G, that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of
mobile telephony.
[4]
It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple
access (TDMA) channels in, for example, the GSM system. GPRS is integrated into GSM Release
97 and newer releases.
Contents
[hide]
1 Technical overview
o 1.1 Services offered
o 1.2 Protocols supported
o 1.3 Hardware
o 1.4 Addressing
2 Coding schemes and speeds
o 2.1 Multiple access schemes
o 2.2 Channel encoding
o 2.3 Multislot Class
2.3.1 Multislot Classes for GPRS/EGPRS
2.3.2 Attributes of a multislot class
3 Usability
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Technical overview[edit]
See also: GPRS Core Network
The GPRS core network allows 2G, 3G and WCDMA mobile networks to transmit IP packets to
external networks such as the Internet. The GPRS system is an integrated part of the GSM network
switching subsystem.
Services offered[edit]
GPRS extends the GSM Packet circuit switched data capabilities and makes the following services
possible:
SMS messaging and broadcasting
"Always on" internet access
Multimedia messaging service (MMS)
Push to talk over cellular (PoC)
Instant messaging and presencewireless village
Internet applications for smart devices through wireless application protocol (WAP)
Point-to-point (P2P) service: inter-networking with the Internet (IP)
Point-to-Multipoint (P2M) service
[citation needed]
: point-to-multipoint multicast and point-to-multipoint
group calls
If SMS over GPRS is used, an SMS transmission speed of about 30 SMS messages per minute may
be achieved. This is much faster than using the ordinary SMS over GSM, whose SMS transmission
speed is about 6 to 10 SMS messages per minute.
Protocols supported[edit]
GPRS supports the following protocols:
Internet protocol (IP). In practice, built-in mobile browsers use IPv4 since IPv6 was not yet
popular.
Point-to-point protocol (PPP). In this mode PPP is often not supported by the mobile phone
operator but if the mobile is used as a modem to the connected computer, PPP is used to tunnel
IP to the phone. This allows an IP address to be assigned dynamically (IPCP not DHCP) to the
mobile equipment.
X.25 connections. This is typically used for applications like wireless payment terminals,
although it has been removed from the standard. X.25 can still be supported over PPP, or even
over IP, but doing this requires either a network-based router to perform encapsulation or
intelligence built into the end-device/terminal; e.g., user equipment (UE).
When TCP/IP is used, each phone can have one or more IP addresses allocated. GPRS will store
and forward the IP packets to the phone even during handover. The TCP handles any packet loss
(e.g. due to a radio noise induced pause).
Hardware[edit]
Devices supporting GPRS are divided into three classes:
Class A
Can be connected to GPRS service and GSM service (voice, SMS), using both at the same
time. Such devices are known to be available today.
Class B
Can be connected to GPRS service and GSM service (voice, SMS), but using only one or
the other at a given time. During GSM service (voice call or SMS), GPRS service is
suspended, and then resumed automatically after the GSM service (voice call or SMS) has
concluded. Most GPRS mobile devices are Class B.
Class C
Are connected to either GPRS service or GSM service (voice, SMS). Must be switched
manually between one or the other service.
A true Class A device may be required to transmit on two different frequencies at the
same time, and thus will need two radios. To get around this expensive requirement, a
GPRS mobile may implement the dual transfer mode (DTM) feature. A DTM-capable
mobile may use simultaneous voice and packet data, with the network coordinating to
ensure that it is not required to transmit on two different frequencies at the same time.
Such mobiles are considered pseudo-Class A, sometimes referred to as "simple class
A". Some networks support DTM since 2007.


Huawei E2203G/GPRS Modem
USB 3G/GPRS modems use a terminal-like interface over USB 1.1, 2.0 and later, data
formats V.42bis, and RFC 1144 and some models have connector for external antenna.
Modems can be added as cards (for laptops) or external USB devices which are similar
in shape and size to a computer mouse, or nowadays more like a pendrive.
Addressing[edit]
A GPRS connection is established by reference to its access point name (APN). The
APN defines the services such as wireless application protocol (WAP) access, short
message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), and
for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Webaccess.
In order to set up a GPRS connection for a wireless modem, a user must specify an
APN, optionally a user name and password, and very rarely an IP address, all provided
by the network operator.
Coding schemes and speeds[edit]
The upload and download speeds that can be achieved in GPRS depend on a number
of factors such as:
the number of BTS TDMA time slots assigned by the operator
the channel encoding is used.
the maximum capability of the mobile device expressed as a GPRS multislot class
Multiple access schemes[edit]
The multiple access methods used in GSM with GPRS are based on frequency division
duplex (FDD) and TDMA. During a session, a user is assigned to one pair of up-link and
down-link frequency channels. This is combined with time domain statistical
multiplexing; i.e., packet mode communication, which makes it possible for several
users to share the same frequency channel. The packets have constant length,
corresponding to a GSM time slot. The down-link uses first-come first-served packet
scheduling, while the up-link uses a scheme very similar to reservation ALOHA (R-
ALOHA). This means that slotted ALOHA (S-ALOHA) is used for reservation inquiries
during a contention phase, and then the actual data is transferred using dynamic
TDMA with first-come first-served.
Channel encoding[edit]
The channel encoding process in GPRS consists of two steps: first, a cyclic code is
used to add parity bits, which are also referred to as the Block Check Sequence,
followed by coding with a possibly punctured convolutional code.
[5]
The Coding
Schemes CS-1 to CS-4 specify the number of parity bits generated by the cyclic code
and the puncturing rate of the convolutional code.
[5]
In Coding Schemes CS-1 through
CS-3, the convolutional code is of rate 1/2, i.e. each input bit is converted into two coded
bits.
[5]
In Coding Schemes CS-2 and CS-3, the output of the convolutional code
is punctured to achieve the desired code rate.
[5]
In Coding Scheme CS-4, no
convolutional coding is applied.
[5]
The following table summarises the options. Note that
the bit rates do not include the overhead incurred by channel coding and the RLC and
MAC headers.
GPRS
Coding Scheme
Bit Rate
(kbit/s/slot)
Modulation Code Rate
CS-1 8.0 GMSK 1/2
CS-2 12.0 GMSK 2/3
CS-3 14.4 GMSK 3/4
CS-4 20.0 GMSK 1
The least robust, but fastest, coding scheme (CS-4) is available near a base
transceiver station (BTS), while the most robust coding scheme (CS-1) is used
when the mobile station (MS) is further away from a BTS.
Using the CS-4 it is possible to achieve a user speed of 20.0 kbit/s per time slot.
However, using this scheme the cell coverage is 25% of normal. CS-1 can achieve
a user speed of only 8.0 kbit/s per time slot, but has 98% of normal coverage.
Newer network equipment can adapt the transfer speed automatically depending on
the mobile location.
In addition to GPRS, there are two other GSM technologies which deliver data
services: circuit-switched data (CSD) and high-speed circuit-switched
data (HSCSD). In contrast to the shared nature of GPRS, these instead establish a
dedicated circuit (usually billed per minute). Some applications such as video
calling may prefer HSCSD, especially when there is a continuous flow of data
between the endpoints.
The following table summarises some possible configurations of GPRS and circuit
switched data services.
Technology Download (kbit/s) Upload (kbit/s) TDMA Timeslots allocated (DL+UL)
CSD 9.6 9.6 1+1
HSCSD 28.8 14.4 2+1
HSCSD 43.2 14.4 3+1
GPRS 80.0 20.0 (Class 8 & 10 and CS-4) 4+1
GPRS 60.0 40.0 (Class 10 and CS-4) 3+2
EGPRS (EDGE) 236.8 59.2 (Class 8, 10 and MCS-9) 4+1
EGPRS (EDGE) 177.6 118.4 (Class 10 and MCS-9) 3+2
Multislot Class[edit]
The multislot class determines the speed of data transfer available in
the Uplink and Downlink directions. It is a value between 1 to 45 which the
network uses to allocate radio channels in the uplink and downlink direction.
Multislot class with values greater than 31 are referred to as high multislot
classes.
A multislot allocation is represented as, for example, 5+2. The first number is
the number of downlink timeslots and the second is the number of uplink
timeslots allocated for use by the mobile station. A commonly used value is
class 10 for many GPRS/EGPRS mobiles which uses a maximum of 4 timeslots
in downlink direction and 2 timeslots in uplink direction. However simultaneously
a maximum number of 5 simultaneous timeslots can be used in both uplink and
downlink. The network will automatically configure the for either 3+2 or 4+1
operation depending on the nature of data transfer.
Some high end mobiles, usually also supporting UMTS, also support
GPRS/EDGE multislot class 32. According to 3GPP TS 45.002 (Release 6),
Table B.2, mobile stations of this class support 5 timeslots in downlink and 3
timeslots in uplink with a maximum number of 6 simultaneously used timeslots.
If data traffic is concentrated in downlink direction the network will configure the
connection for 5+1 operation. When more data is transferred in the uplink the
network can at any time change the constellation to 4+2 or 3+3. Under the best
reception conditions, i.e. when the best EDGE modulation and coding
scheme can be used, 5 timeslots can carry a bandwidth of 5*59.2 kbit/s = 296
kbit/s. In uplink direction, 3 timeslots can carry a bandwidth of 3*59.2 kbit/s =
177.6 kbit/s.
[6]

Multislot Classes for GPRS/EGPRS[edit]
Multislot Class Downlink TS Uplink TS Active TS
1 1 1 2
2 2 1 3
3 2 2 3
4 3 1 4
5 2 2 4
6 3 2 4
7 3 3 4
8 4 1 5
9 3 2 5
10 4 2 5
11 4 3 5
12 4 4 5
30 5 1 6
31 5 2 6
32 5 3 6
33 5 4 6
34 5 5 6
Attributes of a multislot class[edit]
Each multislot class identifies the following:
the maximum number of Timeslots that can be allocated on uplink
the maximum number of Timeslots that can be allocated on downlink
the total number of timeslots which can be allocated by the network to
the mobile
the time needed for the MS to perform adjacent cell signal level
measurement and get ready to transmit
the time needed for the MS to get ready to transmit
the time needed for the MS to perform adjacent cell signal level
measurement and get ready to receive
the time needed for the MS to get ready to receive.
The different multislot class specification is detailed in the Annex B of the
3GPP Technical Specification 45.002 (Multiplexing and multiple access on
the radio path)
Usability[edit]
The maximum speed of a GPRS connection offered in 2003 was similar to
a modem connection in an analog wire telephone network, about 3240
kbit/s, depending on the phone used. Latency is very high; round-trip time
(RTT) is typically about 600700 ms and often reaches 1s. GPRS is
typically prioritized lower than speech, and thus the quality of connection
varies greatly.
Devices with latency/RTT improvements (via, for example, the extended UL
TBF mode feature) are generally available. Also, network upgrades of
features are available with certain operators. With these enhancements the
active round-trip time can be reduced, resulting in significant increase in
application-level throughput speeds.