AWT 3GPP

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites 7 telecommunications standard

development organizations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC) to provide their
members with a stable environment to produce the Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP
technologies.
The project covers cellular telecommunications network technologies, including radio
access, the core transport network, and service capabilities - including work on codecs, security,
and quality of service - and thus provides complete system specifications. The specifications also
provide hooks for non-radio access to the core network, and for interworking with Wi-Fi
networks.
ETSI
ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, produces globallyapplicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed,
mobile, radio, converged, broadcast and Internet technologies. Its standards enable the
technologies on which business and society rely. For example, its standards for GSM,
DECT, Smart Cards and electronic signatures have helped to revolutionize modern life all
over the world. It is officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards
Organization.
It is a non-profit organization with more than 800 member organizations worldwide,
drawn from 64 countries and five continents. Members include the worlds leading companies
and innovative R&D organizations.
It is at the forefront of emerging technologies, address the technical issues which will
drive the economy of the future and improve life for the next generation.
GSM (2G)
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.
2G networks developed as a replacement for first generation (1G) analog cellular
networks, and the GSM standard originally described a digital, circuit-switched network
optimized for full duplex voice telephony. This expanded over time to include data
communications, first by circuit-switched transport, then by packet data transport via GPRS
(General Packet Radio Services) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution or
EGPRS).
GSM supports voice calls and data transfer speeds of up to 9.6 kbps, together with the
transmission of SMS (Short Message Service).

UMTS (3G)
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.
UMTS is above 2G mobile systems for its potential to support 2 Mbps data rates.
HSPA
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony
protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access
(HSUPA), which extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile
telecommunication networks utilizing the WCDMA protocols.
HSPA specifications support increased peak data rates of up to 14 Mbps in the downlink
and 5.76 Mbps in the uplink.
High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)
The first step required to upgrade WCDMA to HSPA is to improve the downlink by
introducing HSDPA. The improved downlink provides up to 14 Mbit/s with significantly reduced
latency. The improvement in speed and latency reduces the cost per bit and enhances support for
high-performance packet data applications. HSDPA is based on shared channel transmission and
its key features are shared channel and multi-code transmission, higher-order modulation, short
transmission time interval (TTI), fast link adaptation and scheduling along with fast hybrid
automatic repeat request (HARQ). The upgrade to HSDPA is often just a software update for
most WCDMA networks, and as of May 2008 90 percent of WCDMA networks had been
upgraded to HSDPA. Voice calls are usually prioritized over data transfer.
HSDPA is a packet-based data service in W-CDMA downlink with data transmission up
to 8-10 Mbps (and 20 Mbps for MIMO systems) over a 5MHz bandwidth in WCDMA downlink.
High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)

The second major step in the WCDMA upgrade process is to upgrade the uplink, which is
introduced in 3GPP Release 6. Upgrading to HSUPA is usually only a software update. Enhanced
Uplink adds a new transport channel to WCDMA, called the Enhanced Dedicated Channel (EDCH). An enhanced uplink creates opportunities for a number of new applications including
VoIP, uploading pictures and sending large e-mail messages. The enhanced uplink increases the
data rate (up to 5.8 Mbit/s), the capacity, and also reduces latency. The enhanced uplink features
several improvements similar to those of HSDPA, including multi-code transmission, short
Transmission Time Interval (TTI), fast scheduling and fast Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest
(HARQ).

LTE
LTE (Long-Term Evolution), commonly marketed as 4G LTE, is a standard for wireless
communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the
GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using a
different radio interface together with core network improvements. The standard is developed by
the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and is specified in its Release 8 document series,
with minor enhancements described in Release 9.
LTE is the natural upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and
CDMA2000 networks. The different LTE frequencies and bands used in different countries will
mean that only multi-band phones will be able to use LTE in all countries where it is supported.
LTE-A
LTE-A (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 to
ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standard, and was
standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
Focus of LTE-Advanced is on higher capacity, the driving force to further develop LTE
towards LTEAdvanced. LTE Release10 was to provide higher bitrates in a cost efficient way
and, at the same time, completely fulfil the requirements set by ITU for IMT Advanced, also
referred to as 4G.

Increased peak data rate, DL 3 Gbps, UL 1.5 Gbps

Higher spectral efficiency, from a maximum of 16bps/Hz in R8 to 30 bps/Hz in R10

Increased number of simultaneously active subscribers

Improved performance at cell edges, e.g. for DL 2x2 MIMO at least 2.40 bps/Hz/cell.

The main new functionalities introduced in LTE-Advanced are Carrier Aggregation (CA),
enhanced use of multi-antenna techniques and support for Relay Nodes (RN).