Week 1 Intro UMTS Service
Week 1 Intro UMTS Service
TCS 321
Wireless systems and cellular
mobile communication II
Indoor/
Low Range 2,084 kbit/s 10 km/h
Outdoor
Migration paths from 1G to 3G
Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS)
UMTS is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard.
Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project)
UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunications Union IMT-
2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the
competing cdmaOne technology.
UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access
technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.
UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes
the radio access network (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, or UTRAN),
the core network (Mobile Application Part, or MAP) and
the authentication of users via SIM (subscriber identity module) cards.
The technology described in UMTS is sometimes also referred to as Freedom of Mobile
Multimedia Access (FOMA) or 3GSM.
Unlike EDGE (IMT Single-Carrier, based on GSM) and CDMA2000 (IMT Multi-Carrier),
UMTS requires new base stations and new frequency allocations.
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Problems and Issues (I)
Some countries, including the US, 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.
UMTS is not suffering as much from handset band compatibility issues as
GSM did, as many UMTS handsets are multi-bands.
o Tri-band UMTS (850, 1900, and 2100 MHz bands) ,commonplace!
o Quad-band GSM (850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz bands)
o Penta-band (850, 900, 1700 / 2100, and 1900 MHz bands)
In its early days, UMTS had problems in many countries:
o Overweight handsets with poor battery life were first to arrive on a market
Problems and Issues (II)
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.
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 requires more power than on comparable GSM networks.
3GPP Releases (R99-R6)
Release 4
Release '99 Introduces all IP in the core and allowing
Same Implementation as GSM Phase 2 separation of call control and signal from
(GPRS/EDGE) actual connection.
Bearer services, Teleservice Edge radio [Media Gateways
Video Call (MGW)]
Location services Soft switching: Performed switching
Call service: compatible function when required. Release 5
with GSM, based on Universal Scalable: One MSC server handles Introduces new element called IP
Subscriber Identity numerous MGWs, Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for
Module (USIM) Multimedia messaging unifying the method to perform IP based
Frozen in December 1999 Improved location services multimedia service.
Frozen March 2001 Multiservice Support
IPv6, IP transport in UTRAN
Release 6 Improvements in GERAN (GSM
•WLAN/UMTS EDGE)
internetworking High Speed Downlink Packet
•Improvements in IMS Access (HSDPA)
•High Speed Uplink Packet Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband
(AMR)
Access (HSUPA)
Frozen June 2002
•Multimedia broadcast and
multicast Service (MBMS)
What has Changed?
Users terminal point of view:
the network is basically the same in the releases
will require new capabilities in the terminal to access HSPA
Network Perspectives:
Major changes introduced are in the network core (transport
technologies and flexibilities and efficiencies)
E.g. R99 uses ATM as the transport technology where as, R4
and R5 uses IP
Basic properties of 2G and 3G
systems
GSM VS WCDMA
INTERNATIONAL FREQ ALLOCATION
NCC 1900MHz-3G BAND ALLOCATION