Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

3G UMTS Motivation and

Specification Process for
UMTS

3.1

UMTS Development

The European Telecommunication Standard Institute (ETSI) Global Multimedia

Mobility (GMM) Report from 1996 pointed the way for the development not only
of UMTS, but also of GSM. GSM was to be further evolved in the GSM Phase 2+
in such a manner that its capabilities progressed toward UMTS.
The GSM network and protocol structures were developed so that they can be
used as a platform not only for high level GSM services, but also for UMTS.
UMTS will continue the GSM success story. The existing infrastructure of the
GSM operators will be more intensively used, and also for UMTS. This reduces
the financial risks involved in the introduction of UMTS. In other words, the 2G
investments will continue to be utilized.
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The experience gained by GSM with regard to the core network and the
Protocols and procedures (for example, the MAP protocol, call control, mobility
management, handover, etc.) will also be used either directly or in a modified
form. Using these Protocols and procedures will also reduce the risks involved in
the 3G implementation.
The introduction of dual and multimode terminals is of great importance. It will
use the entire area serviced by GSM from the very beginning by handover
between UMTS and GSM, thereby paving the way for UMTS (reduction of 3G
risks). This new evolutionary plan gives 2G operators a chance to reconfigure
their networks for upward compatibility, and UMTS operators can avail of the
downward compatibility to assure successful UMTS launching. In this way GSM
will slowly evolve along a migration path toward the original objectives of UMTS
to obtain the smoothest possible transition from the 2nd to the 3rd generation of
mobile communications.

3.2

Mobile Communication Market: Medium

and Long Term Forecasts

The mobile communications market will continue to grow in the first decade of the
21st century and beyond. Unlike the fixed network sector, which over the last
decades only developed slowly and which is only recently gaining momentum
again, many market studies indicate unrestricted expansion of the mobile
communications sector even well beyond the year 2010. This growth is only likely
to be overtaken by the forecasts for the Internet market.

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Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

It is generally expected that the number of mobile communications subscribers

will exceed those in fixed networks in the next years. This is already the case in
particular in regions with a poorly developed fixed network infrastructure.
About 2.7 billion subscribers are predicted for the mobile communications market
by the year 2015 according to the UMTS Forum Report #1. This growth is being
experienced to a large extent in the current developing and threshold nations in
the Asian/Pacific region. Forecasts indicate a 50% share of the global mobile
communications market for this region by 2015. Similar growth rates are expected
for Eastern Europe and Central and South America.
The "classical industrial countries" in North America and Europe (EU15) will only
have a slight increase in subscriber numbers from 2005 because, with
penetration rates of more than 80%, saturation will be approached. North America
and EU15 will only have shares of the world's subscribers of about 7% and 11%
respectively by 2015 according to forecasts.
One result of the immense growth rates will be a steep rise in the demand for
additional radio resources the necessity for very efficient usage of the radio
resources.
There is constant increase in global demand for data transfer, record growth in
Internet links and access together. With the requirement to make these services
in the fixed network sector as well in the mobile sector, all forecasts are
predicting a steep rise in the volume of data transfers using mobile
communication systems.
Although the demand for mobile computing, Internet and intranet access already
exists, expansion in these sectors was greatly hindered by cumbersome
equipment, very low data transfer rates and overly expensive costs for the mobile
transfer of data. All of these barriers are set to be overcome in GSM Phase 2+
and by the 3G systems. Against this background, the expert studies (for example,
UMTS Forum) are predicting a considerably greater increase in the volume of
data for transfer than for speech transmissions.
While annual growth in speech transmission in industrialized nations in the
coming years is predicated to be between 20% 60%, a significant growth rate
of more than 100% is expected for the volume of data to be transferred. Between
the years 2005 and 2007, the data transfers are predicted to make up about 50%
of the total traffic with an upward trend in the years thereafter. This means that
all forecasts envisage data transfers taking the lion's share in the medium term.
Current Market Demands Regarding Mobile Communications
The demands currently made by the mobile communications market are varied
and include the following:
1.
2.
3.

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Improved speech quality

User friendliness
Global accessibility

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Trend: Speech to Data Transmission

Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Special services for particular user groups (for example, Closed User
Groups)
Flexible Service Creation
Everywhere the same services as in HPLMN
Fast transfer of large data volumes
Mobile Internet / Intranet Access
Multi Media capabilities

3.3

3G end-to-end IP Solutions

With UMTS Release 99, a radio interface solution was introduced to allow the
transport of a wide range of multimedia services. The transmission network
solution of the UMTS radio access network is based on ATM (and an alternative
specification of IP transport partly exists), which guarantees flexible bearer
establishment in the radio access network.

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However, the UMTS CN solution is still rooted in GSM, and this may impose
limitations for multimedia applications. In UMTS Rel. 4 and 5, call-processing
server solutions combined with media gateways were specified for circuit and
packet switched services to allow flexible bearer establishment also in the core
network. The specifications explicitly mention IP and ATM as potential
transmission solutions for the core network. This means a core network evolution.
The following diagram illustrates the use of IP for the network traffic:

Fig. 9 3G IP Majority of the traffic over IP

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Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

The majority of the traffic is expected to be packet switched data transfer over IP.
The IP is expected to fully support mobility management provided, if expressed in
telecommunication terms. Additionally, in this kind of environment the IP must
fully support QoS thinking. These two conditions are essential if cellular IP
terminals are going to be used.
3G Services & Required Data Rates
Different services have different requirements regarding the appropriate data rate.
Only a few kbit/s are required for conventional voice transmission with the use of
efficient speech data compression functions. Data rates to the order of several 10
kbit/s are helpful and meaningful for convenient e-mail transfers. Greater
bandwidth ranging from several kbit/s to more than 100 kbit/s is required for
efficient general data transmissions, Internet access, mobile banking, shopping,
etc.

UMTS will be able to dynamically and flexibly provide these data rates ranging
from 8 kbit/s to a maximum of 2 Mbit/s.
The following diagram illustrates the services provided by the 3G:

Fig. 10 The services provided by the 3G

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Even greater data rates from several 10 kbit/s to several 100 kbit/s are necessary
for high-quality image transmission and video telephony. The highest
requirements for data rates from 100 kbit/s to more than 1 Mbit/s are demanded
by video conferences and video-on-demand applications, in addition to different
multimedia applications.

Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

3.4

Specification Process for UMTS

As the 3G system is expected to be global, world-wide, and generic, the

specification bodies related are also global ones as discussed following section.
In addition to the specification bodies, the specification process includes
co-operation of operators and manufacturers.
The following international standardisation bodies are acting as generators for
3G specification work:
International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T)
This organisation provides in practise all the telecommunication branch
specifications that are official in nature. Hence, these form all the guidelines
required by the manufacturers and country-specific authorities. ITU-T has finished
its development process for, International Mobile Telephone 2000 (IMT2000).
IMT-2000 represents a framework on how the network evolution from a second to
a third generation mobile communication system shall take place. Even more
important, different radio interface scenarios were outlined for 3G systems.
European Telecommunication Standard Institute (ETSI)
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This organisational body has had a very strong role when GSM Specifications
were developed and enhanced. ETSI is divided into workgroups named SMG
(number), and every workgroup has a specific area to develop. Because of the
GSM background, ETSI is in a relatively dominant role in this specification work.
Alliance of Radio Industries and Business (ARIB)
ARIB conducts studies and R&D, establishes standards, provides consultation
services for radio spectrum coordination, cooperates with other overseas
organizations and provides frequency change support services for the smooth
introduction of digital terrestrial television broadcasting. These activities are
conducted in cooperation with and/or with participation by telecommunication
operators, broadcasters, and radio equipment manufacturers.
American National Standard Institute (ANSI)
ANSI is the American specification body that has issued a license for a subgroup
to define telecommunication-related issues in that part of the world. Because of
some political points of view, ANSIs role is relatively small as far as UMTS
concerned. The ANSI subgroup is mainly concentrating on a competing 3G air
interface technology selection called cdma2000.
In order to maintain globalisation and complete control of the UMTS
specifications, a separate specification body called 3GPP (3rd Generation
Partnership Project) was established to take care of the specification work in
co-operation with the previously listed institutes. The outcome of the 3GPP work
is a complete set of specifications defining the 3G network functionality,
procedures, and service aspects.

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Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

The following diagram illustrates 3GPP:

As there are some political desires involved, the issue is not as simple as
described; global system means global business and this is why there has been a
lot of pressure to select or emphasise certain solutions more than others. This
political debate actually delayed the specification work remarkably, and finally an
organisation was established to take care of the harmonisation issues.
This organisation, Operator Harmonisation Group (OHG) aims to find a common
understanding concerning the global issues. The results of this organisation are
used as inputs in 3GPP work as well as in 3G future implementations. The OHG
made its may be the most remarkable decision in April-May 1999, when it
decided the common-for-all-variants code word (chip) rate in the 3G WCDMA air
interface.
This issue has a direct effect on the system capacity and implementation and it
was maybe the biggest delaying factor concerning the UMTS specifications. The
aim of the OHG work is to affect the specifications so that all radio access
variants are compatible with all the variants meant for switching, this will ensure
true globalisation for 3G systems.
The first UMTS release was frozen in December 1999. This release is called
UMTS Release 99. In UMTS Release 99, the specification body 3GPP
concentrated on following two main aspects: Inauguration of a new radio interface
solution. A new 3G radio interface solution must use the radio interface resources
more efficient than it is the case with 2G radio interface solution. In addition to
that, it must be very flexible in terms of data rates to allow a wide range of
applications to be served.

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Fig. 11 3GPP standardisation body for UMTS

Overview of UMTS Technology and its Evolution

The UMTS radio interface solutions are based on the multiple access principle
CDMA. CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access.
In UMTS Release 99, CDMA is applied on 5 MHz carrier frequency bands. This
is the reason, why in some areas of the world, UMTS is called Wideband CDMA
(WCDMA).
Following radio interface solutions were specified with UMTS Release 99:
1.

The FDD-mode combines CDMA with frequency division duplex, i.e. uplink
and downlink transmission are realised on separate 5 MHz frequency
carriers.

2.

The TDD-mode combines CDMA with time division duplex, i.e. uplink and
downlink are made available of the same 5 MHz frequency carrier, separated
in time.

The next version of the 3GPP Specifications is Release 4, which was frozen
March 2001, and Release 5, which was frozen in March/June 2002. In Release 4
and 5, the upgrades in the radio access and radio access network were minor.
The main focus lay on the core network and the service infrastructure.

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UMTS Release 4 included a specification of the Multimedia Messaging Service

(MMS), a new radio interface solution for China called low chip rate TDD mode
(or TD-SCDMA). While in UMTS Release 4 the first steps toward a 3G All IP
could be found, this was fully specified in UMTS Release 5, including the IP
Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

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