People in India are looking forward to more information, faster data access and

multimedia services through their mobile phones. 3G technology is here to turn this dream
into reality. Its a technology anxiously awaited by telecom operations and subscribers in
India.
How long do we have to wait?
Not very long! India is all set to launch 3G mobile telephone services by october 2008 first
in four indian metros.
According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Nripendra Misra, a total of
32.5 MHz is available for allocation within the next 6-9 months.

Trai has also recommended auctioning 200 MHz for broadband wireless access services like
Wimax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) and has proposed a national
frequency management board to oversee spectrum availability and its efficient use.
He hopes that the allocated spectrum would be enough for the next two years and said Trai
would recommend freeing up more spectrum for those who lose out in this auction.
So what is 3G spectrum all about?
What is spectrum?
Radio frequency (RF) is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to
300 GHz. This range corresponds to frequency of alternating current electrical signals used
to produce and detect radio waves. Since most of this range is beyond the vibration rate
that most mechanical systems can respond to, RF usually refers to oscillations in electrical
circuits or electromagnetic radiation.
How is 3G different from 2G and 4G?
While 2G stands for second-generation wireless telephone technology, 1G networks used
are analog, 2G networks are digital and 3G (third-generation) technology is used to
enhance mobile phone standards.
3G helps to simultaneously transfer both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data
(such as downloading information, exchanging e-mail, and instant messaging. The highlight
of 3G is video telephony. 4G technology stands to be the future standard of wireless devices.
Currently, Japanese company NTT DoCoMo and Samsung are testing 4G communication.

How will 3G services help you?

3G services will enable video broadcast and data-intensive services such as stock
transactions, e-learning and telemedicine through wireless communications
All telecom operators are waiting to launch 3G in India to cash in on revenues by providing
high-end services to customers, which are voice data and video enabled. India lags behind
many Asian countries in introducing 3G services.
What is Trais recommendation on 3G pricing?
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended auctioning radio frequencies
for 3G telecom services at a reserve price of Rs 1,050 crore (Rs 10.50 billion) to companies
seeking to offer nationwide high-speed Internet and streaming video.
The base price for spectrum in cities like Mumbai and Delhi and Category A telecom circles
is Rs 120 crore (Rs 1200 million); in cities like Chennai and Kolkata and Category B circles
Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million); and in all other cities Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million).
What are the frequency bands and quota for CDMA?
Trai has recommended three sets of frequency bands 450 mhz, 800 mhz and 2.1 ghz. For
CDMA players like Reliance [Get Quote] and Tata Teleservices 1.25 MHz each is offered.
CDMA operators are free to bid both in the 2.1 GHz and the 450 MHz bands, but they will
be allocated spectrum only in one. The pricing of these two bands is linked to the auction in
the 2.1 GHz band.
CDMA operators will pay the same as the second-highest GSM bidder. And if there is more
than one claimant in the 450 MHz band, the reserve price will be half of that arrived at in
the 2.1 GHz band. Another rider is that if the highest bid is a quarter more than the lowest,
the lowest bidder has to raise its bid to 75 per cent of the winning bid.
But CDMA operators are likely to face problems. Operating 3G services on 450 MHz is a
problem because we they do not have dual-band phones that work both in 450 MHz and in
800 MHz (the band in which CDMA operates in India).
What are the issues regarding 3G for providers and users?
3G has successfully been introduced in Europe. But several issues continue to hamper its
growth.
High spectrum licensing fees for the 3G services

Huge capital required to build infrastructure for 3G services.

Health impact of electromagnetic waves.
Prices are very high for 3G mobile services.
Will 2G users switch to 3G services.
Takes time to catch up as the service is new.
What are the issues regarding 3G pricing?
Pricing has been a cause of concern. Spectrum auctions ran into billions of euros in Europe.
In Europe, spectrum licensing fees were collected years before the 3G service was
developed and it required huge investments to build 3G networks, hitting mobile operators
margins.
However, in Japan and South Korea, spectrum licensing fees were not applicable as the
focus of these countries were national IT infrastructure development.
Which companies have applied for 3G license?
3G spectrum has been provided to GSM players like BSNL, MTNL, Bharti, and Vodafone
and some international companies have also shown intrest to carry out an interface check
on a non-commercial basis ahead of the start of 3G mobile services.
Trial spectrum has been given for a period of one month. This will be only 1/1000th of the
actual 3G spectrum capability. Apart frm PSU majors, spectrum for carrying out 3G trials
has been given to all those who have applied under the National Frequency Allocation Plan
on the 2.1 GHz band. GSM players operate on 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz, while CDMA
players operate on 800 MHz.
What is the pricing issue in India?
While Tatas have welcomed Trais Rs 1,400-crore (Rs 14 billion) base price for a
nationwide rollout of 3G services, the rest of the players find the price too exorbitant.
Bharti-Airtel is disappointed with the pricing as they were expecting it to be Rs 300-400
crore (Rs 3-4 billion). The reserve price is a disincentive for telecom companies in India.
Bharti has appealed to lower the prices specially for rural penetration.

The Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Service
Providers of India are studying TRAIs recommendations and have not given their
comments.
However, Trai chairman Nripendra Misra has said that there is no reason to worry as
players will not bid exorbitantly and derail the auction. Misra said telecom operators had
matured from their experiences and global developments, and would bid sincerely.
What about the security in a 3G network?
3G networks offer a greater degree of security than 2G predecessors. By allowing the UE 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 crypto instead of the
older A5/1 stream cipher. However, a number of serious weaknesses in the KASUMI cipher
have been identified.
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.
Where was 3G spectrum first introduced?
Japan was the first country to introduce 3G on a large commercial scale. In 2005, about 40
per cent of subscribers used only 3G networks. It is expected that during 2006 the
subscribers would move from 2G to 3G and upgrade to the next 3.5 G level.
The success of 3G in Japan also shows that video telephony was the killer application for
3G networks. Downloading music was the biggest draw in 3G services.
In how many countries does 3G exist?
There are about 60 3G networks across 25 countries . In Asia, Europe and the USA,
telecom firms use WCDMA technology. The WCDMA standard provides seamless global
evolution from todays GSM with support of the worlds largest mobile operators.
WCDMA technology is built on open standards, wide ranging mobile multimedia
possibility, and vast potential economies of scale with the support of around 100 terminal
designs to operate 3G mobile networks.
3G services were introduced in Europe in 2003.
What speed we can expect?

It is often suggested by industry sources that 3G can be expected to provide 384 kbit/s at or
below pedestrian speeds, but only 128 kbit/s in a moving car

1. 3G Systems
3G Systems are intended to provide a global mobility with wide range of services including
telephony, paging, messaging, Internet and broadband data. International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) started the process of defining the standard for third generation systems, referred to
as International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). In Europe European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was responsible of UMTS standardisation
process. In 1998 Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed to continue the
technical specification work. 3GPP has five main UMTS standardisation areas: Radio Access
Network, Core Network, Terminals, Services and System Aspects and GERAN.
3GPP Radio Access group is responsible of:

Radio Layer 1, 2 and 3 RR specification

Iub, Iur and Iu Interfaces
UTRAN Operation and Maintenance requirements
BTS radio performance specification
Conformance test specification for testing of radio aspects of base stations
Specifications for radio performance aspects from the system point of view

3GPP Core Network group is responsible of:

Mobility management, call connection control signalling between the user equipment and the
core network.
Core network signalling between the core network nodes.
Definition of interworking functions between the core network and external networks.
Packet related issues.
Core network aspects of the lu interface and Operation and Maintenance requirements
3GPP Terminal group is responsible of:

Service capability protocols

Messaging
Services end-to-end interworking
USIM to Mobile Terminal interface
Model/framework for terminal interfaces and services (application) execution
Conformance test specifications of terminals, including radio aspects

3GPP Services and System Aspects group is responsible of:

Definition of services and feature requirements.
Development of service capabilities and service architecture for cellular, fixed and cordless
applications.
Charging and Accounting

 Network Management and Security Aspects

Definition, evolution, and maintenance of overall architecture.
Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP) was formed for technical development of
cdma2000 technology which is a member of IMT-2000 family.
In February 1992 World Radio Conference allocated frequencies for UMTS use. Frequencies
1885 - 2025 and 2110 - 2200 MHz were identified for IMT-2000 use. See the UMTS Frequency
page for more details. All 3G standards are still under constant development. In 1999 ETSI
Standardisation finished for UMTS Phase 1 (Release '99, version 3) and next release is due
December 2001. UMTS History page has a list of all major 3G and UMTS milestones. Most of
the European countries and some countries round the world have already issued UMTS licenses
either by beauty contest or auctions.

2. UMTS Services
UMTS offers teleservices (like speech or SMS) and bearer services, which provide the capability
for information transfer between access points. It is possible to negotiate and renegotiate the
characteristics of a bearer service at session or connection establishment and during ongoing
session or connection. Both connection oriented and connectionless services are offered for
Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint communication.
Bearer services have different QoS parameters for maximum transfer delay, delay variation and
bit error rate. Offered data rate targets are:
144 kbits/s satellite and rural outdoor
384 kbits/s urban outdoor
2048 kbits/s indoor and low range outdoor
UMTS network services have different QoS classes for four types of traffic:

Conversational class (voice, video telephony, video gaming)

Streaming class (multimedia, video on demand, webcast)
Interactive class (web browsing, network gaming, database access)
Background class (email, SMS, downloading)

UMTS will also have a Virtual Home Environment (VHE). It is a concept for personal service
environment portability across network boundaries and between terminals. Personal service
environment means that users are consistently presented with the same personalised features,
User Interface customisation and services in whatever network or terminal, wherever the user
may be located. UMTS also has improved network security and location based services.

3. UMTS Architecture

A UMTS network consist of three interacting domains; Core Network (CN), UMTS Terrestrial
Radio Access Network (UTRAN) and User Equipment (UE). The main function of the core
network is to provide switching, routing and transit for user traffic. Core network also contains
the databases and network management functions.
The basic Core Network architecture for UMTS is based on GSM network with GPRS. All
equipment has to be modified for UMTS operation and services. The UTRAN provides the air
interface access method for User Equipment. Base Station is referred as Node-B and control
equipment for Node-B's is called Radio Network Controller (RNC). UMTS system page has an
example, how UMTS network could be build.
It is necessary for a network to know the approximate location in order to be able to page user
equipment. Here is the list of system areas from largest to smallest.

UMTS systems (including satellite)

Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)
MSC/VLR or SGSN
Location Area
Routing Area (PS domain)
UTRAN Registration Area (PS domain)
Cell
Sub cell

4. Core Network
The Core Network is divided in circuit switched and packet switched domains. Some of the
circuit switched elements are Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC), Visitor location register
(VLR) and Gateway MSC. Packet switched elements are Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)
and Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Some network elements, like EIR, HLR, VLR and
AUC are shared by both domains.
The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is defined for UMTS core transmission. ATM
Adaptation Layer type 2 (AAL2) handles circuit switched connection and packet connection
protocol AAL5 is designed for data delivery.
The architecture of the Core Network may change when new services and features are
introduced. Number Portability DataBase (NPDB) will be used to enable user to change the
network while keeping their old phone number. Gateway Location Register (GLR) may be used
to optimise the subscriber handling between network boundaries. MSC, VLR and SGSN can
merge to become a UMTS MSC.

5. Radio Access

Wide band CDMA technology was selected to for UTRAN air interface. UMTS WCDMA is a
Direct Sequence CDMA system where user data is multiplied with quasi-random bits derived
from WCDMA Spreading codes. In UMTS, in addition to channelisation, Codes are used for
synchronisation and scrambling. WCDMA has two basic modes of operation: Frequency
Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). UTRAN interfaces are shown on
UMTS Network page.
The functions of Node-B are:

Air interface Transmission / Reception

Modulation / Demodulation
CDMA Physical Channel coding
Micro Diversity
Error Handing
Closed loop power control

The functions of RNC are:

Radio Resource Control

Admission Control
Channel Allocation
Power Control Settings
Handover Control
Macro Diversity
Ciphering
Segmentation / Reassembly
Broadcast Signalling
Open Loop Power Control

6. User Equipment
The UMTS standard does not restrict the functionality of the User Equipment in any way.
Terminals work as an air interface counter part for Node-B and have many different types of
identities. Most of these UMTS identity types are taken directly from GSM specifications.

International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)

Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI)
Packet Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (P-TMSI)
Temporary Logical Link Identity (TLLI)
Mobile station ISDN (MSISDN)
International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI)
International Mobile Station Equipment Identity and Software Number (IMEISV)

UMTS mobile station can operate in one of three modes of operation:

 PS/CS mode of operation: The MS is attached to both the PS domain and CS domain, and
the MS is capable of simultaneously operating PS services and CS services.
PS mode of operation: The MS is attached to the PS domain only and may only operate
services of the PS domain. However, this does not prevent CS-like services to be offered over the
PS domain (like VoIP).
CS mode of operation: The MS is attached to the CS domain only and may only operate
services of the CS domain.
UMTS IC card has same physical characteristics as GSM SIM card. It has several functions:

Support of one User Service Identity Module (USIM) application (optionally more that one)
Support of one or more user profile on the USIM
Update USIM specific information over the air
Security functions
User authentication
Optional inclusion of payment methods
Optional secure downloading of new applications

here are the most important parameters... and my recommendations. Feel free to
challenge them, or to discuss them, because I can't be certain those will work in
your particular network.
EN_2G_TO_3G_CELL_RESELECTION = 1: Enabled with 3G search activated while the
UE/MS is in GMM ready state
* to allow the 3G reselection *
EN_COMPRESSED_INTER_RAT_INFO = 1 : enable
* to reduce signalling load *
EN_CPICH_2G_3G_RESELECTION = 1: CPICH Ec/No and RSCP measurements must
be used
* to ensure both level and C/I of the 3G are good *
EN_FAST_3G_RESELECTION = 1:only fast 3G cell reselection at 2G CS call release is
used.
* up to you, use it (1) or don't (0) *
FDD_GPRS_Qoffset = 10dB
* when the MS is in GPRS PTM, it can reselect 3G cells which are 10dB better than
2G serving cell only. With such setting, the 3G reselection must be very difficult * *
default = -32dB*
FDD_Qoffset = -10dB

* when the MS is in idle mode, it can reselect 3G cells with level(3G) > level(2G) 10dB. With such setting, the 3G reselection must be more difficult than before * *
default = -32dB*
FDD_Qmin = -6dB
FDD_Qmin_Offset = -4dB
* reselection only to 3G cells where Ec/No > -6dB (for pre R5 MS) or where Ec/No >
-10dB (for post R5 MS) * (default = -12dB for all MS)
FDD_RSCPmin = -95dBm
* reselection only to 3G cells with RSCP > -95dBm * (default = -102dBm)
Qsearch_I (Idle mode / not GPRS attached) = Always (value 7)
Qsearch_P (GPRS PIM) = Always (value 7)
Qsearch_P_PTM (GPRS PTM) = Always (value 7)
* when would the MS start looking for 3G cells... this is very special, I'll let you look
it up by yourself.. I recommend the value "always" in your case, to avoid a roblem.
But you can optimize this value. When the MS stops looking for 3G cell, it saves
battery !! So you could for example force the MS to search for 3G cell only when the
2G level is less than -74dBm (value 6), or only when the 2G level is better than
-70dBm (value 10. It so strongly depends on your network design that I can't
recommend anything else than "always" :) *