3G - Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

What is 3GPP?

“The original scope of 3GPP (1998) was to produce Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for a 3G Mobile System based on evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies that they support (i.e., Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes). The scope was subsequently amended to include the maintenance and development of the Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for evolved 3GPP technologies, beyond 3G.”

Structure

3GPP/TISPAN Telecom Model

Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks is a standardization body of ETSI, specializing in fixed networks and Internet convergence.

UMTS

Universal Mobile Telecommunication System – 3G system.

Oriented towards generalized service diffusion, and future user trends: combines “cellular, “wireless”, “internet”, etc...

“multimedia everywhere”.

Developed in order to have an evolutionary path from 2.5G systems; progressive evolution (GPRS-EDGE-UMTS).

Specification

• Flexible.

• Handles multiple multimedia flows in a single connection.

• Support to packet transport.

• Flexible coding mechanisms (FDD/TDD WCDMA).

• Variable transmission rates.

• Max. 384 Kbps for global coverage (initially).

• Max. 2Mbps for local coverage (initially)

Evolution

Services evolution in UMTS R99/R4/R5/R6 networks

3G Releases

Air interface

UTRA-FDD:

• uplink: 1920 – 1980 MHz (60 MHz).

• downlink: 2110 – 2170 MHz (60 MHz).

UTRA-TDD:

• 1900 – 1920 MHz (20 MHz).

• 2010 – 2025 MHz (15 MHz).

In Portugal:

• 2x15 MHZ for UTRA-FDD.

• 1x5 MHz for UTRA-TDD.