Notes on GSM

Network Overview
From a customer perpective, there are really only 2 parts to
the GSM network, a cell phone and the "other end". The
GSM standard defines much more than that. The high level
description of the network is as follows, starting from your
end.
1. Mobile Station - Your phone. It's a wireless telephone
and a data terminal which can send and recieve
messages from the network.
2. Base Transceiver Station (BTS) - the stuff that
interfaces directly with your phone. This consists of
fixed location transmitters and recievers for the cell
which it is in charge of. Different radio types are used
for different things, such as subscriber-to-network and
network-to-subscriber, different data types, and
signaling. This is "the tower" in your backyard.
3. Base Station Controller (BSC) - handles 1 or more
BTS. Gateways to the network.
4. Mobile Switching Centers (MSC) connect the GSM
network to the public switched telephone networks.
Also provide a way to access the databases for who's
where and who can do what.
5. Home Locator Register (HLR) and Authentication
Center (AUC) - the databases. These things have stuff
for users on the network, guests/visitors on the
network, subscriber information - particularly profile.
 Permananent user info is in the KLR, and the VLR
stores temporary info about a mobile phone.
6. PSTN/ISDN - The switched network backbones.

Signals and RF Stuff

Overview
GSM uses Frequency Division Multiplexing AND Time
Division Multiplexing. FDMA divides the frequency ranges
for GSM, which are 890-915, 935-960 and some others that
the book didn't have. Each is divided into 200kHz wide
channels. As far as TDMA goes, each time slot is 577
micro seconds long, 8 time slices is a frame, lasting for a
grand total of 4.615ms. A multiframe consists of 51 frames,
51 multiframes make up a Superframe, and 2048
Superframes make a Hyperframe which is 2715648 frames.

RF Specifics
Parameter Value
Downstream Frequencies 935-960MHz, 1805-1880MHz
Upstream Frequency 890-915MHz, 1710-1785MHz
Channel Spacing 200kHz
Duplex Spacing 45MHz
Radio Power 13-39dBm, 2dB steps
Data Rise/Fall Time 28 microseconds
Emissions < -36dBm
Phase Error 5 deg RMS
Freq Error 95Hz
Recv Sensitivity 104dBm
Co-channel Rejection 96dBm below signal
Intermodulation Rejection 100dBm below signal
Signal Blocking Level 100dBm
Packets and data
During a single time slot is your phone transmitting, and
the contents of the time slot is called a packet. Packets are
made of bits, and bits are made of magic.
A packet can be 4 different things:
• random access burst - shorter than the normal burst.
• synchronization burst - same length as the normal
burst but a different structure
• normal burst - carries speech or data information. lasts
approximately 0.577 ms and has a length of 156.25
bits
• frequency correction burst - same length as the normal
burst but a different structure
Each type has a different packet structure, and is visible here:

The Network Subsystem

The main component here is the MSC. The MSC contains
the Home Locator Register (HLR), Visitor Locator Register
(VLR), and Authentication Center (AUC). These are the
most interesting non-RF related parts of the system back
end.
HLR
The HLR contains a lot of interesting information. The
HLR is responsible for subscription details, and
supplementary services. It also maintains information on
the last know location and status of a particular phone.
Since a user can use any phone with his or her SIM card,
there's a protocol necessary to manage accessing the
network. Information contained on the SIM card is
transmitted to the HLR to verify the identity of the
subscriber. Location and status are continually updated in
the HLR based on the base station reports and cell phone
status. Any messages to be sent to the subscriber are
queued in the HLR. All call setup queries ask the HLR for
information before doing anything else.
VLR
Like the HLR, the VLR keeps track of users but only
within the area thet the VLR is assigned. The VLR
communicates with the HLR to figure out where to route
calls, and to keep track of peple as they move around.
AUC
The AUC is basically just a database full onf confidential
subscriber information attached to the back of the HLR. Its
located in a "secure place" and the data is stored in "coded"
form (sounds like encryption to me). The AUC is
responsible for controlling the rights of usage of the
network services, i.e. phone calls, data, internet, etc... The
AUC allows the Network Operator (Cingular, AT&T) to
know "unambiguiusly" who is on the network for billing
purposes. The AUC also protects the user from fraud
(somehow ...) and contains the secret information necessary
to handle authentication and encryption.
Authentication with the network
Authentication on the network works as follows. First the
mobile terminal is asked to perform a computation on a
random number supplied by the system using a secret key
stored on the SIM card. The system does this calculation
internally, and compares the outputs. Both the algorithm
and key are stored in secure formats.
More detailed authentication ... When a terminal connects
to the network, a RNG gives it a number N which is
encrypted with a secret personal key Kp. The resulting
number is encrypted with an algorithm called A3 and
transmitted back to the network and compared. The
subscriber then generates a session key for encrpytion using
the algorithm A8. The encryption algorithm A5 is used to
encrypt each packet.
After the subscriber is verified, the encryption of radio
packets is handled by a different algorithm, called A5 (A3
is used during subscriber verification). The encryption key
is supplied during authentication, using some key
agreement scheme and each packet is also encrypted using
a changing IV of some variety, which appears to be a
packet number. I do not think either of these algorithms are
officially public (LINKS?).
Encryption and Security
There are 3 main algorithms used in GSM. Each of these
algorithms is a trade secret and only released to people who
the GSM committee determines has a need-to-know.
Name Use Basics
A3 Authentication None
Encryption/Decryption 3 Sparsely loopedback
A5 Algorithm for packet LFSRs in the original
encryption version, lots of variants
Basically a one way
A8 Cipher Key Generator
function
A5 is a stream algorithm and is reset for each packet with
the orignal key plus some key frame number. Ross
Anderson in [1] suggests that A5/1 has about an equivalent
key strength of about 40 bits. Code-

typedef struct
{
unsigned long rl,r2,r3;
}
a5 ctx;
static int threshold(rl, r2, r3)
unsigned int rl;
unsigned int r2.
unsigned int r
{
int total;
total = (((r1 >> 9) & 0x1) == 1) +
(((r2 >> 11) & 0x1) == 1) +
 (((r3 >> 11) & 0x1) == 1);
if (total > 1)
return (0);
else
return (1):
}
unsigned long clock_r1(ctl, r1)
int ctl
unsigned lonq r1:
{
unsigned long feedback;
ctl ^= ((rl >> 9) & Oxl);
if (ctl)
{
feedback = (r1 >> 18) ^ (r1 >> 17)
^ (r1 >> 16) ^ (r1 >> 13);
r1 = (r1 << 1) & Ox7ffff;
if (feedback & 0x01)
r1 ^= 0x01:
}
return (r1);
}
unsigned long clock_r2(ctl, r2)
int ctl;
unsigned long r2;
{
unsigned long feedback;
ctl ^= ((r2 >> 11) & 0x1);
if (ctl)
{
feedback = (r2 >> 21) ^ (r2 >> 20)
^ (r2 >> 16) ^ (r2 >> 12);
r2 = (r2 << 1) & 0x3fffff;
if (feedback & 0x01)
r2 ^= 0x01;
}
return (r2):
}
unsigned long clock_r3(ctl, r3)
int ctl
unsigned long r3;
{
unsigned long feedback;
ctl ^= ((r3 >> 11) & 0x1,
if (ctl)
{
feedback = (r3 >> 22) ^ (r3 >> 21)
^ (r3 >> 18) ^ (r3 >> 17);
r3 = (r3 << 1) & 0x7fffff;
if (feedback & 0x01)
r3 ^= 0x01:
}
return (r3);
}
int keystream(key, frame, alice, bob)
unsigned char *key; /* 64 bit
session key */
unsigned long frame; /* 22 bit frame
sequence number */
unsigned char *alice; /* 114 bit
Alice to Bob key stream */
unsigned char *bob; /* 114 bit Bob
to Alice key stream */
{
unsigned long rl; /* 19 bit shift
register */
unsigned long r2; /* 22 bit shift
register */
unsigned long r3; /* 23 bit shift
register */
int i; /* counter for
loops */
int clock_ctl; /* xored with
clock enable on each shift register
unsigned char *ptr; /* current
position in keystream */
unsigned char byte; /* byte of
keystream being assembled */
unsigned int bits; /* number of bits
of keystream in byte */
unsigned int bit; /* bit output
from keystream generator */
/* Initialise shift registers from
session key */
r1 = (key[0] I (key[1] << 8) 1
(key[2] << 16) ) & 0x7ffff;
r2 = ((key[2] >> 3) 1 (key[3] << 5)
1 (key[4] << 13) 1 (key[5] << 21)) &
0x3fffff;
r3 = ((key[5] >> 1) 1 (key[6] << 7)
1 (key[7] << 15) ) & 0x7fffff;
/* Merge frame sequence number into
shift register state, by xor'ing it
 * into the feedback path
*/
for (i=0;i<22;i++)
{
clock_ctl = threshold(r1, r2, r2);
r1 = clock r1(clock_ctl, r1);
r2 = clock_r2(clock_ctl, r2);
r3 = clock_r3(clock_ctl, r3);
if (frame & 1)
{
r1 ^= 1;
r2 ^= 1;
r3 ^= 1;
frame = frame >> 1;
}
/* Run shift registers for 100
clock ticks to allow frame number to
* be diffused into all the bits of
the shift registers
*/
for (i=0;i<100;i++)
{
clock_ctl = threshold(r1, r2, r2);
r1 = clock r1(clock_ctl, r1);
r2 = clock_r2(clock ctl, r2);
r3 = clock r3(clock_ctl, r3);
}
/* Produce 114 bits of Alice->Bob
key stream */
ptr = alice;
bits = 0;
 byte = 0;
for (i=0;i<114;i++)
{
clock_ctl = threshold(r1, r2, r2);
r1 = clock rl(clock_ctl, r1);
r2 = clock_r2(clock ctl, r2);
r3 = clock_r3(clock_ctl, r3);
bit = ((rl >> 18) ^ (r2 >> 21) ^
(r3 >> 22)) & 0x01;
byte = (byte << 1) | bit;
bits++;
if (bits == 8)
{
*ptr = byte;
ptr++;
bits = 0;
byte = 0;
}
}
if (bits)
*ptr = byte;
/* Run shift registers for another 100
bits to hide relationship between
* Alice->Bob key stream and Bob->Alice
key stream.
for (i=0;i<100;i++)
{
clock_ctl = threshold(r1, r2, r2);
r1 = clock_r1(clock_ctl, r1);
r2 = clock r2(clock_ctl, r2);
r3 = clock r3(clock ctl, r3);
}
/* Produce 114 bits of Bob->Alice key
stream
ptr = bob;
bits = 0:
byte = 0;
for (i=U;i<114;i++)
{
clock_ctl = threshold(r1, r2, r2);
r1 = clock r1(clock_ctl, r1);
r2 = clock_r2(clock ctl, r2);
r3 = clock_r3(clock ctl, r3);
bit = ((r1 >> 18) ^ (r2 >> 21) ^ (r3
>> 22)) & 0x01;
byte = (byte << 1) | bit;
bits++;
if (bits == 8)
{
*ptr = byte;
ptr++
bits = 0;
byte = 0;
}
}
if (bits)
*ptr = byte;
return (0);
}
void a5_key(a5_ctx *c, char *k)(
c->rl = k[0]<<11|k[1]<<3 |
k[2]>>5 ; /* 19 */
 c->r2 = k[2]<<17|k[3]<<9 |
k[4]<<1 I k[5]>>7; /* 22 */
c->r3 = k[5]<<15|k[6]<<8 | k[7]
; /* 23 */
}
/* Step one bit in A5, return 0 or 1 as
output bit. */
int a5_step(a5 ctx *c){
int control;
control = threshold(c->r1,c-
>r2,c->r3);
c->r1 = clock_r1(control,c->r1);
c->r2 = clock_r2(control,c->r2);
c->r3 = clock_r3(control,c->r3);
return( (c->r1^c >r2^c->r3)&1);
}
/* Encrypts a buffer of len bytes. */
void a5_encrypt(a5_ctx *c, char *data,
int len)l
int i,j;
char t;
for(i=0:i<len i++)
for(j=0;j<8;j++) t =
t<<1 | a5_step(c)
data[i]^=t;
}
}
void a5_decrypt(a5_ctx *c, char *data,
int len){
a5_encrypt(c,data,len);
}
void main(void){
a5_ctx c;
char data[100];
char key[] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};
int i,flag;
for(i=0;i<100;i++) data[i] = i;
a5_key(&c,key);
a5_encrypt(&c,data,100);
a5_key(&c,key);
a5_decrypt(&c,data,1);
a5_decrypt(&c,data+1,99);
flag = 0;
for(i=0;i<100;i++)
if(data[i]!=i)flag = 1;
if(flag)printf("Decrypt
failed\n"); else printf("Decrypt
succeeded\n");
}

Unique User Identification

Each mobile radio has a couple security features to keept it
from being stolen. Each phone is built with a International
Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), and this is done in the
factory beofore the phone is even activated. Each time the
mobile radio is used, the network checks the IMEI against
some list of authorized and banned numbers to verify that
the phone is allowed to be on the network.

Code division multiple access (CDMA)

It is a channel access method utilized by various radio
communication technologies. It should not be confused
with the mobile phone standards called cdma One and
CDMA2000 (which are often referred to as simply
"CDMA"), this uses CDMA as an underlying channel
access method.
One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea
of allowing several transmitters to send information
simultaneously over a single communication channel. This
allows several users to share a bandwidth of frequencies.
This concept is called multiplexing. CDMA employs
spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme
(where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow
multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical
channel. By contrast, time division multiple access
(TDMA) divides access by time, while frequency-division
multiple access (FDMA) divides it by frequency. CDMA is
a form of "spread-spectrum" signaling, since the modulated
coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than the
data being communicated.
An analogy to the problem of multiple access is a room
(channel) in which people wish to communicate with each
other. To avoid confusion, people could take turns speaking
(time division), speak at different pitches (frequency
division), or speak in different languages (code division).
CDMA is analogous to the last example where people
speaking the same language can understand each other, but
not other people. Similarly, in radio CDMA, each group of
users is given a shared code. Many codes occupy the same
channel, but only users associated with a particular code
can understand each other.
Uses
• One of the early applications for code division
multiplexing—predating, and distinct from cdmaOne
—is in GPS.
• The Qualcomm standard IS-95, marketed as cdmaOne.
• The Qualcomm standard IS-2000, known as
CDMA2000. This standard is used by several mobile
phone companies, including the Globalstar satellite
phone network.
• CDMA has been used in the OmniTRACS satellite
system for transportation logistics.

Technical details
CDMA is a spread spectrum multiple access technique. In
CDMA a locally generated code runs at a much higher rate
than the data to be transmitted. Data for transmission is
simply logically XOR (exclusive OR) added with the faster
code. The figure shows how spread spectrum signal is
generated. The data signal with pulse duration of Tb is XOR
added with the code signal with pulse duration of Tc. (Note:
bandwidth is proportional to 1 / T where T = bit time)
Therefore, the bandwidth of the data signal is 1 / Tb and the
bandwidth of the spread spectrum signal is 1 / Tc. Since Tc
is much smaller than Tb, the bandwidth of the spread
spectrum signal is much larger than the bandwidth of the
original signal.

Each user in a CDMA system uses a different code to modulate

their signal. Choosing the codes used to modulate the signal is
very important in the performance of CDMA systems. The best
performance will occur when there is good separation between
the signal of a desired user and the signals of other users. The
separation of the signals is made by correlating the received
signal with the locally generated code of the desired user. If the
signal matches the desired user's code then the correlation
function will be high and the system can extract that signal. If the
desired user's code has nothing in common with the signal the
correlation should be as close to zero as possible (thus eliminating
the signal); this is referred to as cross correlation. If the code is
correlated with the signal at any time offset other than zero, the
correlation should be as close to zero as possible. This is referred
to as auto-correlation and is used to reject multi-path interference.
In general, CDMA belongs to two basic categories:
synchronous (orthogonal codes) and asynchronous
(pseudorandom codes).
Code Division Multiplexing (Synchronous CDMA)
Synchronous CDMA exploits mathematical properties of
orthogonality between vectors representing the data strings.
For example, binary string "1011" is represented by the
vector (1, 0, 1, 1). Vectors can be multiplied by taking their
dot product, by summing the products of their respective
components. If the dot product is zero, the two vectors are
said to be orthogonal to each other. (Note: If u=(a,b) and
v=(c,d), the dot product u.v = a*c + b*d) Some properties
of the dot product help to understand how W-CDMA
works. If vectors a and b are orthogonal, then

Each user in synchronous CDMA uses an orthogonal codes

to modulate their signal. An example of four mutually
orthogonal digital signals is shown in the figure.
Orthogonal codes have a cross-correlation equal to zero; in
other words, they do not interfere with each other. In the
case of IS-95 64 bit Walsh codes are used to encode the
signal to separate different users. Since each of the 64
Walsh codes are orthogonal to one another, the signals are
channelized into 64 orthogonal signals. The following
example demonstrates how each users signal can be
encoded and decoded.
Example
Start with a set of vectors that are mutually orthogonal.
(Although mutual orthogonality is the only condition, these
vectors are usually constructed for ease of decoding, for
example columns or rows from Walsh matrices.) An
example of orthogonal functions is shown in the picture on
the left. These vectors will be assigned to individual users
and are called the "code", "chipping code" or "chip code".
In the interest of brevity, the rest of this example uses codes
(v) with only 2 digits.
An example of four mutually orthogonal digital signals.
Each user is associated with a different code, say v. If the
data to be transmitted is a digital zero, then the actual bits
transmitted will be –v, and if the data to be transmitted is a
digital one, then the actual bits transmitted will be v. For
example, if v=(1,–1), and the data that the user wishes to
transmit is (1, 0, 1, 1) this would correspond to (v, –v, v, v)
which is then constructed in binary as ((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,–
1),(1,–1)). For the purposes of this article, we call this
constructed vector the transmitted vector.
Each sender has a different, unique vector v chosen from
that set, but the construction method of the transmitted
vector is identical.
Now, due to physical properties of interference, if two
signals at a point are in phase, they add to give twice the
amplitude of each signal, but if they are out of phase, they
"subtract" and give a signal that is the difference of the
amplitudes. Digitally, this behaviour can be modelled by
the addition of the transmission vectors, component by
component.
If sender0 has code (1,–1) and data (1,0,1,1), and sender1
has code (1,1) and data (0,0,1,1), and both senders transmit
simultaneously, then this table describes the coding steps:

Step Encode sender0 Encode sender1

vector0=(1,–1), vector1=(1,1),
0
data0=(1,0,1,1)=(1,–1,1,1) data1=(0,0,1,1)=(–1,–1,1,1)
1 encode0=vector0.data0 encode1=vector1.data1
2 encode0=(1,–1).(1,–1,1,1) encode1=(1,1).(–1,–1,1,1)
encode0=((1,–1),(– encode1=((–1,–1),(–1,–
3
1,1),(1,–1),(1,–1)) 1),(1,1),(1,1))
signal0=(1,–1,–1,1,1,– signal1=(–1,–1,–1,–
4
1,1,–1) 1,1,1,1,1)
Because signal0 and signal1 are transmitted at the same
time into the air, they add to produce the raw signal:
(1,–1,–1,1,1,–1,1,–1) + (–1,–1,–1,–1,1,1,1,1) = (0,–2,–
2,0,2,0,2,0)
This raw signal is called an interference pattern. The
receiver then extracts an intelligible signal for any known
sender by combining the sender's code with the interference
pattern, the receiver combines it with the codes of the
senders. The following table explains how this works and
shows that the signals do not interfer with one another:

Step Decode sender0 Decode sender1

vector0=(1,–1), vector1=(1,1), pattern=(0,–
0
pattern=(0,–2,–2,0,2,0,2,0)2,–2,0,2,0,2,0)
1 decode0=pattern.vector0 decode1=pattern.vector1
decode0=((0,–2),(– decode1=((0,–2),(–
2
2,0),(2,0),(2,0)).(1,–1) 2,0),(2,0),(2,0)).(1,1)
decode0=((0+2),(– decode1=((0–2),(–
3
2+0),(2+0),(2+0)) 2+0),(2+0),(2+0))
data1=(–2,–
4 data0=(2,–2,2,2)=(1,0,1,1)
2,2,2)=(0,0,1,1)
Further, after decoding, all values greater than 0 are
interpreted as 1 while all values less than zero are
interpreted as 0. For example, after decoding, data0 is (2,–
2,2,2), but the receiver interprets this as (1,0,1,1).

We can also consider what would happen if a receiver tries

to decode a signal when the user has not sent any
information. Assume signal0=(1,-1,-1,1,1,-1,1,-1) is
transmitted alone. The following table shows the decode at
the receiver:

Step Decode sender0 Decode sender1

vector0=(1,–1),
vector1=(1,1), pattern=(1,-
0 pattern=(1,-1,-1,1,1,-1,1,-
1,-1,1,1,-1,1,-1)
1)
1 decode0=pattern.vector0 decode1=pattern.vector1
decode0=((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,- decode1=((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,-
2
1),(1,-1)).(1,–1) 1),(1,-1)).(1,1)
decode0=((1+1),(–1- decode1=((1–1),(–1+1),(1-
3
1),(1+1),(1+1)) 1),(1-1))
4 data0=(2,–2,2,2)=(1,0,1,1) data1=(0,0,0,0)
When the receiver attempts to decode the signal using
sender1’s code, the data is all zeros, therefore the cross
correlation is equal to zero and it is clear that sender1 did
not transmit any data.
Asynchronous CDMA
The previous example of orthogonal Walsh sequences
describes how 2 users can be multiplexed together in a
synchronous system, a technique that is commonly referred
to as Code Division Multiplexing (CDM). The set of 4
Walsh sequences shown in the figure will afford up to 4
users, and in general, an NxN Walsh matrix can be used to
multiplex N users. Multiplexing requires all of the users to
be coordinated so that each transmits their assigned
sequence v (or the complement, -v) starting at exactly the
same time. Thus, this technique finds use in base-to-mobile
links, where all of the transmissions originate from the
same transmitter and can be perfectly coordinated.
On the other hand, the mobile-to-base links cannot be
precisely coordinated, particularly due to the mobility of
the handsets, and require a somewhat different approach.
Since it is not mathematically possible to create signature
sequences that are orthogonal for arbitrarily random
starting points, unique "pseudo-random" or "pseudo-noise"
(PN) sequences are used in Asynchronous CDMA systems.
A PN code is a binary sequence that appears random but
can be reproduced in a deterministic manner by intended
receivers. These PN codes are used to encode and decode a
users signal in Asynchronous CDMA in the same manner
as the orthogonal codes in synchrous CDMA (shown in the
example above). These PN sequences are statistically
uncorrelated, and the sum of a large number of PN
sequences results in Multiple Access Interference (MAI)
that is approximated by a Gaussian noise process
(following the "central limit theorem" in statistics). If all of
the users are received with the same power level, then the
variance (e.g., the noise power) of the MAI increases in
direct proportion to the number of users. In other words,
unlike synchronous CDMA, the signals of other users will
appear as noise to the signal of interest and interfere
slightly with the desired signal in proportion to number of
users.
All forms of CDMA use spread spectrum process gain to
allow receivers to partially discriminate against unwanted
signals. Signals encoded with the specified PN sequence
(code) are received, while signals with different codes (or
the same code but a different timing offset) appear as
wideband noise reduced by the process gain.
Since each user generates MAI, controlling the signal
strength is an important issue with CDMA transmitters. A
CDM (Synchronous CDMA), TDMA or FDMA receiver
can in theory completely reject arbitrarily strong signals
using different codes, time slots or frequency channels due
to the orthogonality of these systems. This is not true for
Asynchronous CDMA; rejection of unwanted signals is
only partial. If any or all of the unwanted signals are much
stronger than the desired signal, they will overwhelm it.
This leads to a general requirement in any Asynchronous
CDMA system to approximately match the various signal
power levels as seen at the receiver. In CDMA cellular, the
base station uses a fast closed-loop power control scheme
to tightly control each mobile's transmit power. See Near-
far problem for further information on this problem.
Advantages of Asynchronous CDMA over other
techniques
Asynchronous CDMA's main advantage over CDM
(Synchronous CDMA), TDMA and FDMA is that it can use
the spectrum more efficiently in mobile telephony
applications. (In theory, CDMA, TDMA and FDMA have
exactly the same spectral efficiency but practically, each
has its own challenges - power control in the case of
CDMA, timing in the case of TDMA, and frequency
generation/filtering in the case of FDMA.) TDMA systems
must carefully synchronize the transmission times of all the
users to ensure that they are received in the correct timeslot
and do not cause interference. Since this cannot be
perfectly controlled in a mobile environment, each timeslot
must have a guard-time, which reduces the probability that
users will interfere, but decreases the spectral efficiency.
Similarly, FDMA systems must use a guard-band between
adjacent channels, due to the random doppler shift of the
signal spectrum which occurs due to the user's mobility.
The guard-bands will reduce the probability that adjacent
channels will interfere, but decrease the utilization of the
spectrum.
Most importantly, Asynchronous CDMA offers a key
advantage in the flexible allocation of resources. There are
a fixed number of orthogonal codes, timeslots or frequency
bands that can be allocated for CDM, TDMA and FDMA
systems, which remain underutilized due to the bursty
nature of telephony and packetized data transmissions.
There is no strict limit to the number of users that can be
supported in an Asynchronous CDMA system, only a
practical limit governed by the desired bit error probability,
since the SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) varies inversely
with the number of users. In a bursty traffic environment
like mobile telephony, the advantage afforded by
Asynchronous CDMA is that the performance (bit error
rate) is allowed to fluctuate randomly, with an average
value determined by the number of users times the
percentage of utilization. Suppose there are 2N users that
only talk half of the time, then 2N users can be
accommodated with the same average bit error probability
as N users that talk all of the time. The key difference here
is that the bit error probability for N users talking all of the
time is constant, whereas it is a random quantity (with the
same mean) for 2N users talking half of the time.
In other words, Asynchronous CDMA is ideally suited to a
mobile network where large numbers of transmitters each
generate a relatively small amount of traffic at irregular
intervals. CDM (Synchronous CDMA), TDMA and FDMA
systems cannot recover the underutilized resources inherent
to bursty traffic due to the fixed number of orthogonal
codes, time slots or frequency channels that can be assigned
to individual transmitters. For instance, if there are N time
slots in a TDMA system and 2N users that talk half of the
time, then half of the time there will be more than N users
needing to use more than N timeslots. Furthermore, it
would require significant overhead to continually allocate
and deallocate the orthogonal code, time-slot or frequency
channel resources. By comparison, Asynchronous CDMA
transmitters simply send when they have something to say,
and go off the air when they don't, keeping the same PN
signature sequence as long as they are connected to the
system.
Spread Spectrum Characteristics of CDMA
Most modulation schemes try to minimize the bandwidth of
this signal since bandwidth is a limited resource. However,
spread spectrum techniques use a transmission bandwidth
that is several orders of magnitude greater then the
minimum required signal bandwidth. One of the initial
reasons for doing this was military applications including
guidance and communication systems. These systems were
designed using spread spectrum because of its security and
resistance to jamming. Asynchronous CDMA has some
level of privacy built in because the signal is spread using a
pseudorandom code; this code makes the spread spectrum
signals appear random or have noise-like properties. A
receiver cannot demodulate this transmission without
knowledge of the pseudorandom sequence used to encode
the data. CDMA is also resistant to jamming. A jamming
signal only has a finite amount of power available to jam
the signal. The jammer can either spread its energy over the
entire bandwidth of the signal or jam only part of the entire
signal. [3]
CDMA can also effectively reject narrowband interference.
Since narrowband interference affects only a small portion
of the spread spectrum signal, it can easily be removed
through notch filtering without much loss of information.
Convolution encoding and interleaving can be used to assist
in recovering this lost data. CDMA signals are also resistant
to multipath fading. Since the spread spectrum signal
occupies a large bandwidth only a small portion of this will
undergo fading due to multipath at any given time. Like the
narrowband interference this will result in only a small loss
of data and can be overcome.
Another reason CDMA is resistant to multipath interference
is because the delayed versions of the transmitted
pseudorandom codes will have poor correlation with the
original pseudorandom code, and will thus appear as
another user, which is ignored at the receiver. In other
words, as long as the multipath channel induces at least one
chip of delay, the multipath signals will arrive at the
receiver such that they are shifted in time by at least one
chip from the intended signal. The correlation properties of
the pseudorandom codes are such that this slight delay
causes the multipath to appear uncorrelated with the
intended signal, and it is thus ignored.
Some CDMA devices use a rake receiver, which exploits
multipath delay components to improve the performance of
the system. A rake receiver combines the information from
several correlators, each one tuned to a different path delay,
producing a stronger version of the signal than a simple
receiver with a single correlator tuned to the path delay of
the strongest signal.
Frequency reuse is the ability to reuse the same radio
channel frequency at other cell sites within a cellular
system. In the FDMA and TDMA systems frequency
planning is an important consideration. The frequencies
used in different cells need to be planned carefully in order
to ensure that the signals from different cells do not
interfere with each other. In a CDMA system the same
frequency can be used in every cell because channelization
is done using the pseudorandom codes. Reusing the same
frequency in every cell eliminates the need for frequency
planning in a CDMA system; however, planning of the
different pseudorandom sequences must be done to ensure
that the received signal from one cell does not correlate
with the signal from a nearby cell.
Since adjacent cells use the same frequencies, CDMA
systems have the ability to perform soft handoffs. Soft
handoffs allow the mobile telephone to communicate
simultaneously with two or more cells. The best signal
quality is selected until the handoff is complete. This is
different than hard handoffs utilized in other cellular
systems. In a hard handoff situation, as the mobile
telephone approaches a handoff, signal strength may vary
abruptly. In contrast, CDMA systems use the soft handoff,
which is undetectable and provides a more reliable and
higher quality signal.
Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is
one of the third-generation (3G) cell phone technologies,
which is also being developed into a 4G technology.
Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-
CDMA as the underlying air interface. It is standardized by
the 3GPP, and is the European answer to the ITU IMT-
2000 requirements for 3G cellular radio systems.
To differentiate UMTS from competing network
technologies, UMTS is sometimes marketed as 3GSM,
emphasizing the combination of the 3G nature of the
technology and the GSM standard .
Features
UMTS, using W-CDMA, supports up to 21 Mbit/s data
transfer rates in theory[1] (with HSDPA), although at the
moment users in deployed networks can expect a transfer
rate of up to 384 kbit/s for R99 handsets, and 7.2 Mbit/s for
HSDPA handsets in the downlink connection. This is still
much greater than the 9.6 kbit/s of a single GSM error-
corrected circuit switched data channel or multiple 9.6
kbit/s channels in HSCSD (14.4 kbit/s for CDMAOne), and
—in competition to other network technologies such as
CDMA2000, PHS or WLAN—offers access to the World
Wide Web and other data services on mobile devices.
Precursors to 3G are 2G mobile telephony systems, such as
GSM, IS-95, PDC, CDMA PHS and other 2G technologies
deployed in different countries. In the case of GSM, there is
an evolution path from 2G, to GPRS, also known as 2.5G.
GPRS supports a much better data rate (up to a theoretical
maximum of 140.8 kbit/s, though typical rates are closer to
56 kbit/s) and is packet switched rather than connection
oriented (circuit switched). It is deployed in many places
where GSM is used. E-GPRS, or EDGE, is a further
evolution of GPRS and is based on more modern coding
schemes. With EDGE the actual packet data rates can reach
around 180 kbit/s (effective). EDGE systems are often
referred as "2.75G Systems".
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 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 Web - either directly on a handset or connected to a
computer via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared or USB.
Technology
UMTS combines the W-CDMA, TD-CDMA, or TD-
SCDMA air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application Part
(MAP) core, and the GSM family of speech codecs. In the
most popular cellular mobile telephone variant of UMTS,
W-CDMA is currently used. Note that other wireless
standards use W-CDMA as their air interface, including
FOMA.
UMTS over W-CDMA
UMTS over W-CDMA uses a pair of 5 MHz channels. In
contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or
more arbitrary 1.25 MHz channels for each direction of
communication. UMTS and other 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 1885–2025 MHz for the mobile-to-
base (uplink) and 2110–2200 MHz for the base-to-mobile
(downlink). In the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–
2155 MHz will be used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was
already utilized.[2] 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, and in Australia by
Telstra on the Next G network.
For existing GSM operators, it is a simple but costly
migration path to UMTS: much of the infrastructure is
shared with GSM, but the cost of obtaining new spectrum
licenses and overlaying UMTS at existing towers is high.
UMTS is an alternative Radio Access Network (RAN) to
GERAN (which is the 2G GSM air interface including
GSM/EDGE). UMTS and GERAN can share a Core
Network (CN), allowing (mostly) transparent switching
between the RANs according to available coverage and
service needs. The CN can be connected to various
backbone networks like the Internet, ISDN. 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.
UMTS 3G handsets and modems
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.
There are almost no 3G phones or modems available
supporting all 3G frequencies
(UMTS850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz). However, many
phones are offering more than one band which still enables
extensive roaming. For example, a tri-band chipset
operating on 850/1900/2100MHz, such as that found in
Apple's iPhone, allows usage in the majority of countries
where UMTS is deployed.
PDAs and smartphones
• Symbian: 65% market share. Nokia owns Symbian
and licenses it to other phone vendors including Sony
Ericsson, LG, Samsung, & Sanyo. There is a lot of
SymbianOS software available but often only
applicable to specific phones. Furthermore,
 development of Symbian applications has been
hindered by a certification process imposed by
Symbian on developers. Market observers anticipate
that Nokia will make adjustments to lure 3rd party
developers by adopting a more "open" approach and
reduce the barriers to application deployment (These
adjustments would be in response to Google's Android
& Apple's iPhone efforts which take a much more
"open" approach).
• Windows Mobile: with 12% of the current market.
Windows Mobile 6.1 offers a range of features for
UMTS. Tethering is available using USB, bluetooth,
or Wifi (with WMWifiRouter: convert your Windows
Mobile unit into a router)[3] Windows Mobile is used
by many manufacturers including Sony, Samsung,
Palm, Motorola, and several manufacturers familiar
with the PC market.
• RIM OS: with 11% of the market (mostly in the USA).
Most BlackBerry smartphones are not currently 3G
capable, with the exception of certain models such as
model 8707v, EVDO capable models and the
upcoming BlackBerry 9000 series. One reason is that
BlackBerry, typically known for long battery life,
would have shorter battery life with 3G. The
emergence of greatly improved multimedia and
tethering capabilities on recent BlackBerry models, is
currently pressuring RIM to include 3G in future
BlackBerry models.
• Mac OS X-like iPhone OS: with 7% of the market
(and growing quickly). Apple's first generation iPhone
did not support 3G and is restricted to using the EDGE
standard. Apple stated this was to maintain a
reasonable battery life on the telephone. As power
consumption of 3G chipsets improved, Apple released
a UMTS (3G) iPhone on July 11, 2008.
• Palm OS (also known as "Garnet OS") was initially
developed by Palm Computing, Inc. for personal
digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996 and was later also
used on some mobile phones. It is provided with a
suite of basic applications for personal information
management. Palm OS has been used in Sony Clié
handsets (Sony now uses Windows Mobile &
Symbian) and by Samsung (which now use Windows
Mobile). Palm used to be a dominant OS for smart
phones but is being increasingly marginalized by other
operating systems.
• Android is a software platform and operating system
for mobile devices based on the Linux operating
system and developed by Google and the Open
Handset Alliance.[4] It allows developers to write
managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes
Google-developed Java libraries,[5] but does not
support programs developed in native code. When
released in 2008, most of the Android platform was
made available under the Apache free-software and
open-source license.[6] The first phone to use the
Android platform is the HTC Dream.
External modems
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.
The phone acts as gateway and router, but via Bluetooth
rather than wireless networking (802.11) or a USB
connection.
Interoperability and global roaming
UMTS phones (and data cards) are highly portable—they
have been designed to roam easily onto other UMTS
networks (assuming your provider has a roaming
agreement). In addition, almost all UMTS phones (except
in Japan) 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 2100MHz while the most
carriers in the USA use 850Mhz and 1900Mhz. T-mobile
has plans to launch their upcoming network at 1700Mhz. 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 world—including 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 phone user (actually only the
(U)SIM, not the user is authenticated). 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 W-CDMA network—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 and
SoftBank Mobile (which launched 3G in December 2002)
now use the standard UMTS, and their PDC 2G networks
run in parallel.
Spectrum allocation
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. More recently, a carrier in Finland has begun using
900 MHz UMTS in a shared arrangement with its
surrounding 2G GSM base stations, a trend that is expected
to expand over Europe in the next 1–3 years.
The 2100 MHz UMTS spectrum allocated in Europe 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 the 1700 MHz for the uplink. UMTS
operators in North America who want to implement a
European style 2100/1900 MHz system will have to share
spectrum with existing 2G services in the 1900 MHz band.
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 and is rolling out 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 UMTS 850/1900 phones.
T-Mobile's rollout of UMTS in the US will focus on the
2100/1700 MHz bands, whereas UMTS coverage in
Canada is being provided on the 850 MHz band of the
Rogers Wirless network. In 2008, Australian telco Telstra
replaced its existing CDMA network with a national 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. 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 subscriber and base station.
Carriers in South America are now also rolling out
850 MHz networks.
[edit] Other competing standards
There are other competing 3G standards, such as
CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA, though UMTS can use the
latter's air interface standard.
On the Internet access side, competing systems include
WiMAX and Flash-OFDM. Different variants of UMTS
compete with different standards. While this article has
largely discussed UMTS-FDD, a form oriented for use in
conventional cellular-type spectrum, UMTS-TDD, a
system based upon a TD-CDMA air interface, is used to
provide UMTS service where the uplink and downlink
share the same spectrum, and is very efficient at providing
asymmetric access. It provides more direct competition
with WiMAX and similar Internet-access oriented systems
than conventional UMTS.
Both the CDMA2000 and W-CDMA air interface systems
are accepted by ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G
standards, in addition to UMTS-TDD's TD-CDMA,
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) and
China's own 3G standard, TD-SCDMA.
CDMA2000's narrower bandwidth requirements make it
easier than UMTS to deploy in existing spectrum along
with legacy standards. 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.
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.
Most GSM operators in North America as well as others
around the world have accepted EDGE as a temporary 3G
solution. AT&T Wireless launched EDGE nationwide in
2003, AT&T launched EDGE in most markets and T-
Mobile USA has launched EDGE nationwide as of October
2005. Rogers Wireless launched nation-wide EDGE service
in late 2003 for the Canadian market. Bitė Lietuva
(Lithuania) was one of the first operators in Europe to
launch EDGE in December 2003. TIM (Italy) launched
EDGE in 2004. The benefit of EDGE is that it leverages
existing GSM spectrums and is compatible with existing
GSM handsets. 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 than having to
install almost all brand-new equipment to deliver UMTS.
EDGE provides a short-term upgrade path for GSM
operators and directly competes with CDMA2000.
[edit] Problems and issues
Some countries, including the United States and Japan,
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. 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 rollout hitches 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 (0.62–0.93 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[7] 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. As battery
and network technology improves, this issue is lessening in
severity.
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is
one of the third-generation (3G) cell phone technologies,
which is also being developed into a 4G technology.
Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-
CDMA as the underlying air interface. It is standardized by
the 3GPP, and is the European answer to the ITU IMT-
2000 requirements for 3G cellular radio systems.
To differentiate UMTS from competing network
technologies, UMTS is sometimes marketed as 3GSM,
emphasizing the combination of the 3G nature of the
technology and the GSM standard which it was designed to
succeed.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Preface
• 2 Features
• 3 Deployment
• 4 Technology
• 5 UMTS 3G handsets and modems
o 5.1 PDAs and smartphones

o 5.2 External modems

• 6 Interoperability and global roaming

• 7 Spectrum allocation
• 8 Other competing standards
• 9 Problems and issues
• 10 See also
• 11 Literature
 • 12 References
• 13 External links
[edit] Preface
This article discusses the technology, business, usage and
other aspects encompassing and surrounding UMTS, the
3G successor to GSM which utilizes the W-CDMA air
interface and GSM infrastructures. Any issues relating
strictly to the W-CDMA interface itself may be better
described in the W-CDMA page.
[edit] Features
UMTS, using W-CDMA, supports up to 21 Mbit/s data
transfer rates in theory[1] (with HSDPA), although at the
moment users in deployed networks can expect a transfer
rate of up to 384 kbit/s for R99 handsets, and 7.2 Mbit/s for
HSDPA handsets in the downlink connection. This is still
much greater than the 9.6 kbit/s of a single GSM error-
corrected circuit switched data channel or multiple 9.6
kbit/s channels in HSCSD (14.4 kbit/s for CDMAOne), and
—in competition to other network technologies such as
CDMA2000, PHS or WLAN—offers access to the World
Wide Web and other data services on mobile devices.
Precursors to 3G are 2G mobile telephony systems, such as
GSM, IS-95, PDC, CDMA PHS and other 2G technologies
deployed in different countries. In the case of GSM, there is
an evolution path from 2G, to GPRS, also known as 2.5G.
GPRS supports a much better data rate (up to a theoretical
maximum of 140.8 kbit/s, though typical rates are closer to
56 kbit/s) and is packet switched rather than connection
oriented (circuit switched). It is deployed in many places
where GSM is used. E-GPRS, or EDGE, is a further
evolution of GPRS and is based on more modern coding
schemes. With EDGE the actual packet data rates can reach
around 180 kbit/s (effective). EDGE systems are often
referred as "2.75G Systems".
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 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 Web - either directly on a handset or connected to a
computer via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared or USB.
[edit] Deployment
 See also: List of Deployed UMTS networks
[edit] Technology
UMTS combines the W-CDMA, TD-CDMA, or TD-
SCDMA air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application Part
(MAP) core, and the GSM family of speech codecs. In the
most popular cellular mobile telephone variant of UMTS,
W-CDMA is currently used. Note that other wireless
standards use W-CDMA as their air interface, including
FOMA.
UMTS over W-CDMA uses a pair of 5 MHz channels. In
contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or
more arbitrary 1.25 MHz channels for each direction of
communication. UMTS and other 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 1885–2025 MHz for the mobile-to-
base (uplink) and 2110–2200 MHz for the base-to-mobile
(downlink). In the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–
2155 MHz will be used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was
already utilized.[2] 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, and in Australia by
Telstra on the Next G network.
For existing GSM operators, it is a simple but costly
migration path to UMTS: much of the infrastructure is
shared with GSM, but the cost of obtaining new spectrum
licenses and overlaying UMTS at existing towers is high.
UMTS is an alternative Radio Access Network (RAN) to
GERAN (which is the 2G GSM air interface including
GSM/EDGE). UMTS and GERAN can share a Core
Network (CN), allowing (mostly) transparent switching
between the RANs according to available coverage and
service needs. The CN can be connected to various
backbone networks like the Internet, ISDN. 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.
[edit] UMTS 3G handsets and modems
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.
There are almost no 3G phones or modems available
supporting all 3G frequencies
(UMTS850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz). However, many
phones are offering more than one band which still enables
extensive roaming. For example, a tri-band chipset
operating on 850/1900/2100MHz, such as that found in
Apple's iPhone, allows usage in the majority of countries
where UMTS is deployed.
[edit] PDAs and smartphones
• Symbian: 65% market share. Nokia owns Symbian
and licenses it to other phone vendors including Sony
Ericsson, LG, Samsung, & Sanyo. There is a lot of
SymbianOS software available but often only
applicable to specific phones. Furthermore,
development of Symbian applications has been
hindered by a certification process imposed by
Symbian on developers. Market observers anticipate
that Nokia will make adjustments to lure 3rd party
developers by adopting a more "open" approach and
reduce the barriers to application deployment (These
adjustments would be in response to Google's Android
& Apple's iPhone efforts which take a much more
"open" approach).
• Windows Mobile: with 12% of the current market.
Windows Mobile 6.1 offers a range of features for
UMTS. Tethering is available using USB, bluetooth,
or Wifi (with WMWifiRouter: convert your Windows
Mobile unit into a router)[3] Windows Mobile is used
by many manufacturers including Sony, Samsung,
 Palm, Motorola, and several manufacturers familiar
with the PC market.
• RIM OS: with 11% of the market (mostly in the USA).
Most BlackBerry smartphones are not currently 3G
capable, with the exception of certain models such as
model 8707v, EVDO capable models and the
upcoming BlackBerry 9000 series. One reason is that
BlackBerry, typically known for long battery life,
would have shorter battery life with 3G. The
emergence of greatly improved multimedia and
tethering capabilities on recent BlackBerry models, is
currently pressuring RIM to include 3G in future
BlackBerry models.
• Mac OS X-like iPhone OS: with 7% of the market
(and growing quickly). Apple's first generation iPhone
did not support 3G and is restricted to using the EDGE
standard. Apple stated this was to maintain a
reasonable battery life on the telephone. As power
consumption of 3G chipsets improved, Apple released
a UMTS (3G) iPhone on July 11, 2008.
• Palm OS (also known as "Garnet OS") was initially
developed by Palm Computing, Inc. for personal
digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996 and was later also
used on some mobile phones. It is provided with a
suite of basic applications for personal information
management. Palm OS has been used in Sony Clié
handsets (Sony now uses Windows Mobile &
Symbian) and by Samsung (which now use Windows
Mobile). Palm used to be a dominant OS for smart
 phones but is being increasingly marginalized by other
operating systems.
• Android is a software platform and operating system
for mobile devices based on the Linux operating
system and developed by Google and the Open
Handset Alliance.[4] It allows developers to write
managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes
Google-developed Java libraries,[5] but does not
support programs developed in native code. When
released in 2008, most of the Android platform was
made available under the Apache free-software and
open-source license.[6] The first phone to use the
Android platform is the HTC Dream.
External modems
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.
The phone acts as gateway and router, but via Bluetooth
rather than wireless networking (802.11) or a USB
connection.
Interoperability and global roaming
UMTS phones (and data cards) are highly portable—they
have been designed to roam easily onto other UMTS
networks (assuming your provider has a roaming
agreement). In addition, almost all UMTS phones (except
in Japan) 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 2100MHz while the most
carriers in the USA use 850Mhz and 1900Mhz. T-mobile
has plans to launch their upcoming network at 1700Mhz. 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 world—including 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 phone user (actually only the
(U)SIM, not the user is authenticated). 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 W-CDMA network—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 and
SoftBank Mobile (which launched 3G in December 2002)
now use the standard UMTS, and their PDC 2G networks
run in parallel.
Spectrum allocation
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. More recently, a carrier in Finland has begun using
900 MHz UMTS in a shared arrangement with its
surrounding 2G GSM base stations, a trend that is expected
to expand over Europe in the next 1–3 years.
The 2100 MHz UMTS spectrum allocated in Europe 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 the 1700 MHz for the uplink. UMTS
operators in North America who want to implement a
European style 2100/1900 MHz system will have to share
spectrum with existing 2G services in the 1900 MHz band.
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 and is rolling out 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 UMTS 850/1900 phones.
T-Mobile's rollout of UMTS in the US will focus on the
2100/1700 MHz bands, whereas UMTS coverage in
Canada is being provided on the 850 MHz band of the
Rogers Wirless network. In 2008, Australian telco Telstra
replaced its existing CDMA network with a national 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. 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 subscriber and base station.
Carriers in South America are now also rolling out 850 MHz networks.
Other competing standards
There are other competing 3G standards, such as
CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA, though UMTS can use the
latter's air interface standard.
On the Internet access side, competing systems include
WiMAX and Flash-OFDM. Different variants of UMTS
compete with different standards. While this article has
largely discussed UMTS-FDD, a form oriented for use in
conventional cellular-type spectrum, UMTS-TDD, a
system based upon a TD-CDMA air interface, is used to
provide UMTS service where the uplink and downlink
share the same spectrum, and is very efficient at providing
asymmetric access. It provides more direct competition
with WiMAX and similar Internet-access oriented systems
than conventional UMTS.
Both the CDMA2000 and W-CDMA air interface systems
are accepted by ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G
standards, in addition to UMTS-TDD's TD-CDMA,
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) and
China's own 3G standard, TD-SCDMA.
CDMA2000's narrower bandwidth requirements make it
easier than UMTS to deploy in existing spectrum along
with legacy standards. 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.
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.
Most GSM operators in North America as well as others
around the world have accepted EDGE as a temporary 3G
solution. AT&T Wireless launched EDGE nationwide in
2003, AT&T launched EDGE in most markets and T-
Mobile USA has launched EDGE nationwide as of October
2005. Rogers Wireless launched nation-wide EDGE service
in late 2003 for the Canadian market. Bitė Lietuva
(Lithuania) was one of the first operators in Europe to
launch EDGE in December 2003. TIM (Italy) launched
EDGE in 2004. The benefit of EDGE is that it leverages
existing GSM spectrums and is compatible with existing
GSM handsets. 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 than having to
install almost all brand-new equipment to deliver UMTS.
EDGE provides a short-term upgrade path for GSM
operators and directly competes with CDMA2000.
[edit] Problems and issues
Some countries, including the United States and Japan,
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. 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 rollout hitches 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 (0.62–0.93 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[7] 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. As battery
and network technology improves, this issue is lessening in
severity.
[edit] See also
(disambiguation).
4G (also known as Beyond 3G), an abbreviation for Fourth-
Generation, is a term used to describe the next complete
evolution in wireless communications. A 4G system will be
able to provide a comprehensive IP solution where voice,
data and streamed multimedia can be given to users on an
"Anytime, Anywhere" basis, and at higher data rates than
previous generations.
As the second generation was a total replacement of the
first generation networks and handsets, and the third
generation was a total replacement of second generation
networks and handsets, so too the fourth generation cannot
be an incremental evolution of current 3G technologies, but
rather the total replacement of the current 3G networks and
handsets. The international telecommunications regulatory
and standardization bodies are working for commercial
deployment of 4G networks roughly in the 2012-2015 time
scale. At that point it is predicted that even with current
evolutions of third generation 3G networks, these will tend
to be congested.
There is no formal definition for what 4G is; however, there
are certain objectives that are projected for 4G. These
objectives include: that 4G will be a fully IP-based
integrated system. 4G will be capable of providing between
100 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s speeds both indoors and outdoors,
with premium quality and high security. [1]
Many companies have taken self-serving definitions and
distortions about 4G to suggest they have 4G already in
existence today, such as several early trials and launches of
WiMAX. Other companies have made prototype systems
calling those 4G. While it is possible that some currently
demonstrated technologies may become part of 4G, until
the 4G standard or standards have been defined, it is
impossible for any company currently to provide with any
certainty wireless solutions that could be called 4G cellular
networks that would conform to the eventual international
standards for 4G. These confusing statements around
"existing" 4G have served to confuse investors and analysts
about the wireless industry.
Objective and approach
Objectives
4G is being developed to accommodate the quality of
service (QoS) and rate requirements set by forthcoming
applications like wireless broadband access, Multimedia
Messaging Service (MMS), video chat, mobile TV, HDTV
content, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), minimal
service like voice and data, and other streaming services for
"anytime-anywhere". The 4G working group has defined
the following as objectives of the 4G wireless
communication standard:
 • A spectrally efficient system (in bits/s/Hz and
bits/s/Hz/site),[2]
• High network capacity: more simultaneous users per
cell,[3]
• A nominal data rate of 100 Mbit/s while the client
physically moves at high speeds relative to the station,
and 1 Gbit/s while client and station are in relatively
fixed positions as defined by the ITU-R,[1]
• A data rate of at least 100 Mbit/s between any two
points in the world,[1]
• Smooth handoff across heterogeneous networks,[4]
• Seamless connectivity and global roaming across
multiple networks,[5]
• High quality of service for next generation multimedia
support (real time audio, high speed data, HDTV
video content, mobile TV, etc)[5]
• Interoperability with existing wireless standards,[6] and
• An all IP, packet switched network.[5]
In summary, the 4G system should dynamically share and
utilise network resources to meet the minimal requirements
of all the 4G enabled users.
Approaches
As described in 4G consortia including WINNER,
WINNER - Towards Ubiquitous Wireless Access, and
WWRF, a key technology based approach is summarized
as follows, where Wireless-World-Initiative-New-Radio
(WINNER) is a consortium to enhance mobile
communication systems.[7][8]
[edit] Consideration points
• Coverage, radio environment, spectrum, services,
business models and deployment types, users
[edit] Principal technologies
• Baseband techniques[9]
o OFDM: To exploit the frequency selective

channel property
o MIMO: To attain ultra high spectral efficiency

o Turbo principle: To minimize the required SNR

at the reception side

• Adaptive radio interface
• Modulation, spatial processing including multi-
antenna and multi-user MIMO
• Relaying, including fixed relay networks (FRNs), and
the cooperative relaying concept, known as multi-
mode protocol
[edit] 4G features
According to the 4G working groups, the infrastructure and
the terminals of 4G will have almost all the standards from
2G to 4G implemented. Although legacy systems are in
place to adopt existing users, the infrastructure for 4G will
be only packet-based (all-IP). Some proposals suggest
having an open platform where the new innovations and
evolutions can fit. The technologies considered to be "pre-
4G" include Flash-OFDM, WiMax, WiBro, iBurst, and
3GPP Long Term Evolution. One of the first technology
really fulfilling the 4G requirements as set by the ITU-R
will be LTE Advanced as currently standardized by 3GPP.
LTE Advanced will be an evolution of the 3GPP Long Term
Evolution. Higher data rates are for instance achieved by
the aggregation of multiple LTE carriers that are currently
limited to 20MHz bandwidth[10].
[edit] Components
[edit] Access schemes
As the wireless standards evolved, the access techniques
used also exhibited increase in efficiency, capacity and
scalability. The first generation wireless standards used
plain TDMA and FDMA. In the wireless channels, TDMA
proved to be less efficient in handling the high data rate
channels as it requires large guard periods to alleviate the
multipath impact. Similarly, FDMA consumed more
bandwidth for guard to avoid inter carrier interference. So
in second generation systems, one set of standard used the
combination of FDMA and TDMA and the other set
introduced a new access scheme called CDMA. Usage of
CDMA increased the system capacity and also placed a soft
limit on it rather than the hard limit. Data rate is also
increased as this access scheme is efficient enough to
handle the multipath channel. This enabled the third
generation systems to used CDMA as the access scheme
IS-2000, UMTS, HSXPA, 1xEV-DO, TD-CDMA and TD-
SCDMA. The only issue with CDMA is that it suffers from
poor spectrum flexibility and scalability.
Recently, new access schemes like Orthogonal FDMA
(OFDMA), Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), Interleaved
FDMA and Multi-carrier code division multiple access
(MC-CDMA) are gaining more importance for the next
generation systems. WiMax is using OFDMA in the
downlink and in the uplink. For the next generation UMTS,
OFDMA is being considered for the downlink. By contrast,
IFDMA is being considered 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 avoids amplifier issues.
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
requires 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
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 respectively, 4G will be based on packet switching
only. This will require low-latency data transmission.
By the time that 4G is deployed, the process of IPv4
address exhaustion is expected to be in its final stages.
Therefore, in the context of 4G, IPv6 support is essential in
order to support a large number of wireless-enabled
devices. By increasing the number of IP addresses, IPv6
removes the need for Network Address Translation (NAT),
a method of sharing a limited number of addresses among a
larger group of devices.
In the context of 4G, IPv6 also enables a number of
applications with better multicast, security, and route
optimization capabilities. With the available address space
and number of addressing bits in IPv6, many innovative
coding schemes can be developed for 4G devices and
applications that could aid deployment of 4G networks and
services.
[edit] Advanced Antenna Systems
Main articles: MIMO and MU-MIMO
The performance of radio communications obviously
depends on the advances of an antenna system, refer to
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 90s, to cater 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 increases the
data rate into multiple folds with the number equal to
minimum of the number of transmit and receive antennas.
This is called MIMO (as a branch of intelligent antenna).
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 or receive 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 transmit.
The other category is closed-loop multiple antenna
technologies which use the channel knowledge at the
transmitter.
[edit] Software-Defined Radio (SDR)
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.
[edit] Developments
The Japanese company NTT DoCoMo has been testing a
4G communication system prototype with 4x4 MIMO
called VSF-OFCDM at 100 Mbit/s while moving, and 1
Gbit/s while stationary. In February 2007, NTT DoCoMo
completed a trial in which they reached a maximum packet
transmission rate of approximately 5 Gbit/s in the downlink
with 12x12 MIMO using a 100MHz frequency bandwidth
while moving at 10 km/h,[11] and is planning on releasing
the first commercial network in 2010.
Digiweb, an Irish fixed and wireless broadband company,
has announced that they have received a mobile
communications license from the Irish Telecoms regulator,
ComReg. This service will be issued the mobile code 088
in Ireland and will be used for the provision of 4G Mobile
communications.[12][13]. Digiweb launched a mobile
broadband network using FLASH-OFDM technology at
872 MHz.
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
handover, 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 routing protocols to create a pervasive
network.
Sprint plans to launch 4G services in trial markets by the
end of 2007 with plans to deploy a network that reaches as
many as 100 million people in 2008 and has also
announced WiMax service called Xohm. Tested in Chicago,
this speed was clocked at 100 Mbit/s.
Verizon Wireless announced on September 20, 2007 that it
plans a joint effort with the Vodafone Group to transition its
networks to the 4G standard LTE. The time of this
transition has yet to be announced.
Canadian Wireless Provider TELUS announced that they
will be cooperating with BELL CANADA to the next step
in its evolution towards building a fourth generation (4G)
wireless broadband network, the most advanced mobile
broadband network in Canada. This new wireless network,
based on the latest generation of High Speed Packet Access
(HSPA) technology, will enable TELUS to easily transition
to long term evolution (LTE) technology, the emerging
worldwide LTE technology standard. The new network will
'futureproof' our technology and position TELUS for an
easy transition to LTE/4G technology. Building will begin
immediately and is expected to be complete by early 2010.
When up and running, it will be one of the leading
networks in the world.[14]
Applications
At the present rates of 15-30 Mbit/s, 4G is capable of
providing users with streaming high-definition television,
but the typical cellphone's or smartphone's 2" to 3" screen
is a far cry from the big-screen televisions and video
monitors that got high-definition resolutions first and which
suffer from noticeable pixelation much more than the
typical 2" to 3" screen. A cellphone may transmit video to a
larger monitor, however. At rates of 100 Mbit/s, the content
of a DVD-5 (for example a movie), can be downloaded
within about 5 minutes for offline access.
4G wireless standards
3GPP is currently standardizing LTE Advanced as future
4G standard. A first set of 3GPP requiremens on LTE
Advanced has been approved in June 2008[15]. The working
groups are currently evaluating various proposals for
standardization. LTE Advanced will be standardized as part
of the Release 10 of the 3GPP specification.
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented
Mobile Data Service available to users of the 2G cellular
communication systems Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM), as well as in the 3G systems. In
the 2G systems, GPRS provides data rates from 56 up to
114 kbit/s.
GPRS data transfer is typically charged per megabyte of
traffic transferred, while data communication via traditional
circuit switching is billed per minute of connection time,
independent of whether the user actually is using the
capacity or is in an idle state. GPRS is a best-effort packet
switched service, as opposed to circuit switching, where a
certain Quality of Service (QoS) is guaranteed during the
connection for non-mobile users.
2G cellular systems combined with GPRS are often
described as "2.5G", that is, a technology between the
second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile
telephony. It provides moderate speed data transfer, by
using unused Time division multiple access (TDMA)
channels in, for example, the GSM system. Originally there
was some thought to extend GPRS to cover other standards,
but instead those networks are being converted to use the
GSM standard, so that GSM is the only kind of network
where GPRS is in use. GPRS is integrated into GSM
Release 97 and newer releases. It was originally
standardized by European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI), but now by the 3rd Generation Partnership
Project (3GPP).
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 Web access.
•

Basics
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. 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 scheduling.
GPRS originally supported (in theory) Internet Protocol
(IP), Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and X.25 connections.
The last has been 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 router to
perform encapsulation or intelligence built in to the end-
device/terminal e.g. UE(User Equipment). In practice, the
mobile built-in browser uses IPv4. In this mode PPP is
often not supported by the mobile phone operator, while
IPv6 is not yet popular. But if the mobile is used as a
modem to the connected computer, PPP is used to tunnel IP
to the phone. This allows DHCP to assign an IP Address
and then the use of IPv4 since IP addresses used by mobile
equipment tend to be dynamic.
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 are expected to support
DTM in 2007.
GPRS is new technology in which speed is a direct function
of the number of TDMA time slots assigned, which is the
lesser of (a) what the particular cell supports and (b) the
maximum capability of the mobile device expressed as a
GPRS Multislot Class
[edit] Coding scheme
 Coding Speed
scheme (kbit/s)
CS-1 8.0
CS-2 12.0
CS-3 14.4
CS-4 20.0
Transfer speed depends also on the channel encoding used.
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.
Like CSD, HSCSD establishes a circuit and is usually
billed per minute. For an application such as downloading,
HSCSD may be preferred, since circuit-switched data are
usually given priority over packet-switched data on a
mobile network, and there are relatively few seconds when
no data are being transferred.
Download Upload
Technology Configuration
(kbit/s) (kbit/s)
CSD 9.6 9.6 1+1
HSCSD 28.8 14.4 2+1
 HSCSD 43.2 14.4 3+1
20.0 (Class
GPRS 80.0 8 & 10 and 4+1
CS-4)
40.0 (Class
GPRS 60.0 10 and CS- 3+2
4)
59.2 (Class
EGPRS
236.8 8, 10 and 4+1
(EDGE)
MCS-9)
118.4
EGPRS (Class 10
177.6 3+2
(EDGE) and MCS-
9)
GPRS is packet based. 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 during cell
handover (when you move from one cell to another). A
radio noise induced pause can be interpreted by TCP as
packet loss, and cause a temporary throttling in
transmission speed.
Services and hardware
GPRS upgrades GSM data services providing:
• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
• Push to talk over Cellular PoC / PTT
• Instant Messaging and Presence -- Wireless Village
• Internet Applications for Smart Devices through
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
 • Point-to-point (PTP) service: internetworking with the
Internet (IP protocols)
• Short Message Service (SMS)
• Future enhancements: flexible to add new functions,
such as more capacity, more users, new accesses, new
protocols, new radio networks.

SMS
GPRS can be used as the bearer of SMS. 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
Availability
In many areas, such as France, telephone operators have
priced GPRS relatively cheaply (compared to older GSM
data transfer, CSD and HSCSD). Some mobile phone
operators offer flat rate access to the Internet, while others
charge based on data transferred, usually rounded up to 100
kilobytes.
During the heyday of GPRS in the developed countries,
around 2005, typical prices varied from EUR €0,24 per
megabyte to over €20 per megabyte. In developing
countries, prices vary widely, and change. Some operators
gave free access while they decided pricing, for example in
Togocel.tg in Togo, West Africa, others were over-priced,
such as Tigo of Ghana at one US dollar per megabyte or
Indonesia at $3 per megabyte. AirTel of India charges
$0.025 per megabyte. As of 2008, data access in Canada is
still prohibitively expensive. For example, Fido charges
$0.05 per kilobyte, or roughly $50 per megabyte.[1]. In
Venezuela, Digitel charges about $20 per 100 Mb or $25
for unlimited access.
Pre-Paid SIM Cards allow travelers to buy short term
internet access. The maximum speed of a GPRS connection
offered in 2003 was similar to a modem connection in an
analog wire telephone network, about 32 to 40 kbit/s,
depending on the phone used. Latency is very high; a
round-trip ping is typically about 600 to 700 ms and often
reaches 1s. GPRS is typically prioritized lower than speech,
and thus the quality of connection varies greatly.
In order to set up a GPRS connection for a wireless
modem, a user must specify an access point name (APN),
optionally a user name and password, and very rarely an IP
address, all provided by the network operator.
Devices with latency/RTT improvements (via e.g. 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.

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 in Finland by
Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Oyj) in 1991. 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 SMS text
messages.
After 2G was launched, the previous mobile telephone
systems were retrospectively dubbed 1G. While radio
signals on 1G networks are analog, and on 2G networks are
digital, both systems use digital signaling to connect the
radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the
telephone system.
o

[edit] 2G technologies
2G technologies can be divided into TDMA-based and
CDMA-based standards depending on the type of
multiplexing used. The main 2G standards are:
• GSM (TDMA-based), originally from Europe but used
in almost all countries on all six inhabited continents
(Time Division Multiple Access). Today accounts for
over 80% of all subscribers around the world.
• 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 aka 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.
2.5G services enable high-speed data transfer over
upgraded existing 2G networks. Beyond 2G, there's 3G,
with higher data speeds, and even evolutions beyond 3G,
often called 3.5G. Sprint deployed the first 4G network in
USA in Baltimore.
[edit] Capacities, advantages, and disadvantages
[edit] Capacity
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 packed into the same amount of radio bandwidth.
• The digital systems were designed to emit less radio
power from the handsets. This meant that cells could
be smaller, so more cells could be placed in the same
amount of space. This was also made possible by cell
towers and related equipment getting less expensive.
[edit] Advantages
Digital systems were embraced by consumers for several
reasons.
• The lower powered radio signals require less battery
power, so phones last much longer between charges,
and batteries can be smaller.
• The digital voice encoding allowed digital error
checking which could increase sound quality by
reducing dynamic and lowering the noise floor.
 • The lower power emissions helped address health
concerns.
• Going all-digital allowed for the introduction of digital
data services, such as SMS and email.
• Greatly reduced fraud. With analog systems it was
possible to have two or more "cloned" handsets that
had the same phone number.
• Enhanced privacy. A key digital advantage not often
mentioned is that digital cellular calls are much harder
to eavesdrop on by use of radio scanners. While the
security algorithms used have proved not to be as
secure as initially advertised, 2G phones are
immensely more private than 1G phones, which have
no protection against eavesdropping.
[edit] Disadvantages
The downsides of 2G systems, not often well publicized,
are:
• In less populous areas, the weaker digital signal 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, digital 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 a
few words to get through.
• While digital calls tend to be free of static and
background noise, the lossy compression used by the
codecs takes a toll; the range of sound that they
convey is reduced. You'll hear less of the tonality of
someone's voice talking on a digital cellphone, but you
will hear it more clearly.

1G (or 1-G) is short for first-generation wireless telephone

technology, cellphones. These are the analog cellphone
standards that were introduced in the 1980s and continued
until being replaced by 2G digital cellphones. The main
difference between two succeeding mobile telephone
systems, 1G and 2G, is that the radio signals that 1G
networks use 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 150MHz and up.
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 United States and
Australia[1], TACS (Total Access Communications System)
in the United Kingdom, C-450 in West Germany, Portugal
and South Africa, Radiocom 2000 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, while a competing system operated by DDI used the
JTACS (Japan Total Access Communications System)
standard.