3G Technology
3G Technology
3G Technology
What is 3G Technology?
3G is the next generation of technology which has revolutionized the
telecommunication industry. Apart from increasing the speed of communication,
the objective of this technology is to provide various value added services like
video calling, live streaming, mobile internet access, IPTV, etc on the mobile
phones. These services are possible because the 3G spectrum provides the
necessary bandwidth.
Birth of IMT-2000
The concept of IMT came into existence in the mid-1980s at ITU. It took more
than ten years for the approval of standards for the next generation systems.
These standards are branded as IMT-2000. Under the technical specifications
the spectrum between 400 MHz and 3 GHz was dictated technically suitable for
the third generation. IMT-2000 is the result of collaboration of many entities,
inside the ITU (ITU-R and ITU-T), and outside the ITU (3GPP, 3GPP2, UWCC
and so on). This approval has made possible the full interoperability and
interworking of mobile systems.
Contributor Technologies of 3G
The 3G technology is comprised of basically three technologies, but it is not the
reason for its nomenclature as 3G. The technologies are:
CDMA2000 - Code Division Multiple Access.
CDMA2000
Maximum user data rate (Offered): 384 kbps (year 2002), higher rates ( ~
2 Mbps) in the near future. HSPDA will offer data speeds up to 8-10 Mbps
(and 20 Mbps for MIMO systems)
Channel bit rate: 5.76Mbps
Frame length: 10ms (38400 chips)
Number of slots / frame: 15
Number of chips / slot: 2560 chips
Handovers: Soft, Softer, (interfrequency: Hard)
Power control period: Time slot = 1500 Hz rate
Power control step size: 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 dB (Variable)
Power control range: UL 80dB, DL 30dB
Mobile peak power: Power class 1: +33 dBm (+1dB/-3dB) = 2W; class 2
+27 dBm, class 3 +24 dBm, class 4 +21 dBm
Number of unique base station identification codes: 512 / frequency
Physical layer spreading factors: 4 ... 256 UL, 4 ... 512 DL
History and evolution of 3G
NTT DoCoMo launched the first 3G network in Japan, in the year 2001. It
was branded as FOMA(Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access) and was
based on W-CDMA technology. SK Telecom, a South Korean telecom
company launched the second 3G network based on CDMA 1xEV-DO
technology. In Europe, 3G entered via UMTS technology introduced by
Manx Telecom. Then, Telenor launched the first commercial 3G network in
Europe. The first commercial United States 3G network was by Monet
Mobile Networks, on CDMA2000 1x EV-DO technology.