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UMTS and GSM

24 August, 2010

Copyright 1998 AirCom International Ltd.


Proprietary and Confidential
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................2

2 IMT2000 (UMTS/FPLMTS)...................................................................3
2.1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................3
2.2 IMT-2000 MARKET....................................................................................................................3
2.3 SPECTRUM DEMAND......................................................................................................................4
3 EVOLUTION OF GSM TO UMTS............................................................5
3.1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................5
3.2 GSM AS A WORLDWIDE STANDARD................................................................................................5
3.3 GSM GLOBAL SUCCESS ................................................................................................................5
3.4 THE EVOLVING MARKET...............................................................................................................6
3.5 WIDEBAND RADIO ACCESS ............................................................................................................7
3.6 INTELLIGENT ROAMING..................................................................................................................7
3.7 SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS...............................................................................................................8
3.8 ENHANCING CAPACITY..................................................................................................................8

COPYRIGHT 1998 AIRCOM INTERNATIONAL LTD. PAGE 1


PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
1 I NTRODUCTION

The mobile communications industry has experienced unprecedented growth in order to meet
ever-increasing commercial demands. The following sections provide a brief history of the
growth of the industry.
Second generation digital systems such as GSM Phase 2+ will further advance the cellular
radio industry around the world. Great improvements in data transfer speeds of nearly
170kbps can be expected with the introduction of General Packet Reservation System
(GPRS). True global mobility with the introduction of dual mode/band and multi-mode/band
systems where individuals can roam through multiple networks and even satellite networks.
Total mobility and flexibility is envisioned by IMT2000 with the concept of having one
handset and a single phone number reaching the user anywhere providing users with a
multimedia communications service including voice calls and data transfer.

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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
2 IMT2000 (UMTS/FPLMTS)
2.1 Introduction
The vision of IMT2000 (formerly known as
FPLMTS/UMTS) is one of a next-generation wireless
technology offering total mobility, total flexibility, just one
handset and a single phone number that reaches you whether
you are in the office or at home or on the move. It will be
able to deliver more than just voice calls, and low to medium
data. It will become a multimedia communications service.
The markets for mobility and for fixed multimedia are already large and growing rapidly.
Customers will want to combine mobility with multimedia, resulting in higher demand for
bandwidth and creating a significant shift towards new data services. For Europe alone, this
new market is estimated to be as large in the year 2005 as the whole mobile market is today.
From a physical point of view, IMT2000 will comprise a new air interface and new radio
components. The aim is to combine these in a modular way with new network components
and components from pre-UMTS fixed and mobile networks, provided these have undergone
the necessary evolutionary preparation. This approach will allow new entrants to establish
UMTS networks and enable existing operators a smooth migration by re-using parts of their
existing infrastructure to the maximum possible extent.
For the user IMT-2000 will provide adaptive multi-mode/multi-band terminals or terminals
with a flexible air interface to enable worldwide roaming across locations and with second
generation systems.
One of the key features of IMT200 is that it will be comprised of a terrestrial wireless
component and a satellite-based wireless component – potentially co-existing within the same
spectrum allocation.

2.2 IMT-2000 Market

2.2.1 Terrestrial Mobile Users

Recent market forecasts have predicted that the European mobile multimedia market could
grow to 20 million users by 2005, providing annual revenues (services and terminals) of 27
billion ECU. These estimates are considered by many to be conservative.
Growth in the use of computer-based communications, commerce and entertainment services;
increasing demand for rapid and remote access to information; growing demand for seamless
and personalised services across fixed and mobile networks; and explosive demand for
bandwidth-hungry services, comparable to the ever increasing storage and processing
capacities of computers, are all factors which UMTS is intended to meet.

2.2.2 Additional Market Areas

The demand for mobile multimedia services and cellular type mobile services is not the
whole market for services and spectrum. In particular, there are three other areas where IMT-
2000 services are likely to be used:
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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
1. Systems with limited mobility, primarily used as replacement for wired access. This will
be the case especially in areas with low population density or difficult topography, or
where low mobility is required.
2. Private markets, ranging from wireless PBXs, to emergency wide area systems and even
cordless systems with local mobility. The overlap between these services and more
traditional wide area mobile services may increase over the next five years with, for
instance, dual-mode and multi-mode handsets, pico-cells and changes to tariffing
systems. The impact of these changes will need further study.
3. Satellite-based services, both narrowband and wideband. These will have a place in the
market in their own right, and in providing both early and temporary coverage before and
as terrestrial networks are rolled out. Additionally, satellite IMT-2000 is likely to have an
enhancing impact on the early years of terrestrial UMTS forecasts, since the former
provides global coverage from launch, thereby enabling users full roaming and access
capabilities from the start of UMTS.

2.3 Spectrum Demand


The “available” spectrum for both evolved second generation systems (such as GSM 900,
GSM 1800 and DECT) today consist of 2*35 MHz for GSM 900, 2*75 MHz for GSM1800
and 20 MHz for DECT.
At present the ITU is predicting a spectrum requirement for the terrestrial component of
IMT2000 of around 155 MHz. The exact band in which this will be accommodated is not yet
settled but it is likely to be in the 2-3GHz range.

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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
3 E VOLUTION OF GSM TO UMTS
3.1 Introduction
Given the huge investments already made in digital cellular networks, their large subscriber
base, and the mass-market appeal that UMTS must offer, the creation of an independent
standard for UMTS would appear to be hard to justify. It would be far better to ensure that
UMTS standards and technology can be integrated as an add-on to evolving GSM networks.
UMTS will need to be introduced in a market-wise, credible way and, ideally, should build
on the success of today's digital cellular systems in terms of subscriber growth and
sophistication of technology.

3.2 GSM as a Worldwide Standard


The intention of UMTS has always been to provide a worldwide standard for personal mobile
communications with the mass-market appeal and quality of wireline services. Over recent
years, digital cellular technologies, such as GSM, have led the way towards personal
communications, making mobile communications available to millions of users all around
the world at reasonable cost. But to match the UMTS vision, a communications system must
include support for:
• flexible bearer and bandwidth on demand services up to 2Mbit/s for local (indoor)
environments and at least 144kbit/s for wide area coverage
• a variety of mixed traffic types and relevant charging capability for mobile multimedia
applications
• customized services, service creation environments and service flexibility using, for
example, Intelligent Network (IN) tools
• wideband wireless local loop (WLL) enhancement to the fixed network.
GSM has already come a long way towards meeting many of these requirements. The
evolution of GSM over the coming years will help establish it as the platform on which
UMTS can be built when the market is ready for it.

3.3 GSM Global Success


One overriding factor that makes GSM such a strong platform for UMTS is its global
success. There are 153 GSM 900, DCS 1800 and PCS 1900 networks in service in 91
countries around the world, serving over 21 million subscribers. Currently, new GSM
subscriptions are being taken out at a rate of around 50,000 every day, or 1.5 million per
month. Total infrastructure investments in GSM networks top $50 billion, and are forecast to
reach $80 billion by the turn of the century. The predictions are that there will be over 100
million GSM subscribers by this time.
Because of its open architecture, GSM has allowed operators to 'mix and match' equipment
from several vendors and this, combined with economies of scale in manufacturing, has kept
down the overall cost of - and accelerated - the implementation of GSM. Given the
continuing high investments in current digital mobile systems, it is likely these networks will
provide a massive and highly competitive platform for mobile services well into the future.
On current growth rates, GSM will have penetrated the entire mass market, with GSM
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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
subscribers numbering several hundred million, by the scheduled introduction date for full
UMTS of 2005.
It is also apparent that the soon-to-be-launched Mobile Satellite Systems (MSSs) will all use
standard GSM roaming. Satellite networks will, therefore, become an inherent part of the
GSM world, and provide the universal access demanded by UMTS.
Of course, wide deployment of a technology in itself doesn't necessarily translate into
technological superiority. But, ten years since the standard's development, GSM is still
unrivalled in terms of the range of services, performance, security, and international roaming
capability that it offers.
Some parts of the world - notably Scandinavia and the Asia Pacific region, where penetration
rates of over 25% are common - are rapidly approaching the "personal phone" vision. Here,
GSM suppliers and operators are already starting to gain an understanding of some of the
issues that UMTS providers will face in the future.

3.4 The Evolving Market


The introduction of any mobile multimedia services will be driven by actual user needs. For
personal communications services to reach the hoped-for penetration rates of 70-80%,
services must have mass-market appeal: they need to be easy to use and cost-justifiable. This
will require strong innovation in products, services and multimedia applications; short
product lifecycles; low-cost transmission standards (especially for the radio access network);
and strong branding, probably through collaborations between service providers, consumer
electronics manufacturers and retail outlets.
These are all characteristics of the current standardisation effort and sophisticated mass-
marketing that is already taking place within the GSM community. GSM users are currently
limited to 9.6kbit/s access to data communications services such as fax, email and
Internet/Intranet. Slow scan video and picture transfer are also feasible at this rate, as long as
demands on quality are not too high.
With the fantastic growth in Internet usage, however, demand is already growing for higher
speeds in order to surf the net while on the move - with fast access to text, images and sound.
This type of multimedia application demands high peak bit-rates in short bursts, while the
information is downloaded, in one direction.
Another potential "multimedia" application is simultaneous voice and data, for example, for
PC application sharing or shared whiteboard. Although this type of application does not
require particularly high bit-rates, it does require real-time, continuous operation because of
its voice content.
One circuit-oriented application that does, however, require relatively high bit-rates is
videoconferencing. In order for mobile videoconferencing to become financially attractive for
wide-area applications the amount of user bandwidth required must be reduced to a
minimum, without sacrificing image quality.
When discussing wideband service requirements, it is important to distinguish between what
will be required for wide area coverage, and what will be needed in the local area only.
Indoor coverage could be provided by wireless LANs, for example, operating in a completely
new frequency band with extremely high bit-rates.
It is also much more interesting, and easier, for a mobile terminal to receive than to send high
bit-rates. So in order to maintain high spectrum efficiency, and to keep user costs low, service
developers should look for high bit-rate, bursty, asymmetric applications.

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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
3.5 Wideband Radio Access
As stated earlier, UMTS requires that bandwidth-on-demand services of up to 2Mbit/s are
provided in the local (indoor), movable environment, while bit-rates of at least 144kbit/s will
probably be needed for highly mobile users in the wide area.
GSM already meets many of the requirements for UMTS, with the key exception of
wideband radio access. However, two new service classes under development for GSM will
expand the current user data rate of 9.6kbit/s to 100kbit/s and beyond: high speed circuit
switched data (HSCSD) and general packet radio service (GPRS). Both techniques are
designed to integrate with current GSM infrastructure.
Various manufacturers have already demonstrated HSCSD bearer services up to 64kbit/s in
GSM using multi-slot transmission. This technique bundles up to eight TDMA slots within
the 200kHz GSM carrier to create a higher bandwidth channel - a 64kbit/s circuit switched
bearer channel uses all eight available TDMA slots. HSCSD is also being developed to
provide bandwidth on demand at variable data rates.
GPRS is a packet-switching technique that uses reduced channel coding to achieve a net bit-
rate of 14.4kbit/s per timeslot, leading to a maximum throughput rate of 115kbit/s. It is more
suited to handling "bursty" traffic, such as the infrequent transmission of messages, Internet
information and other data. It has the capability to deliver data direct to the user terminal,
even when the phone is turned off or out of coverage. GPRS will operate in a similar way to
GSM's current short message service (SMS), so that users will not have to dial up to check
their message boxes. Instead, each time a user logs on to the network, the system will
automatically flag any waiting data messages and upload the text and images to his terminal.
GPRS services will help improve network utilisation. As a packet switching technique,
GPRS only requires a channel when data is being sent, enabling spectrum to be more
efficiently allocated across voice and data calls and allowing channels to be shared between
several users simultaneously.
A new radio access system will be needed to provide wireless local access at up to 2Mbit/s
and support enhanced bearer services. Such an air interface may evolve through the
development of current GSM technology - for example, by multicarrier aggregation or high-
level modulation methods - or may have to be completely new. Research to find the optimum
solution continues although it seems certain that it will be based on the potentially more
spectrally efficient Wideband-CDMA technology.

3.6 Intelligent Roaming


Network intelligence will be fundamental to the success of UMTS, especially for the
advanced mobility management that UMTS demands.
GSM networks have always included intelligent network (IN) functions. This has allowed the
creation, control and portability of services, and has undoubtedly contributed to the success
of GSM. GSM subscribers already enjoy the ability to roam between 125 networks in 70
countries, and the use of SIM cards means inter-standard roaming is increasingly available.
Roaming subscribers will have access to their full portfolio of IN services through the
CAMEL (Customized Applications for Mobile Enhanced Logic) mechanism in GSM Phase
2+. Standardisation work is currently under way to ensure not only that service providers can
create and deploy services using standard network building blocks, but also that roaming
subscribers' home networks can control services in the visited network remotely.

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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
In the UMTS concept, service creation, control and portability will be provided by the Virtual
Home Environment (VHE). This concept demands that the roaming user enjoy the same
speech quality, data transport capability, basic and supplementary services, proprietary and
customised services and security and account management facilities.

3.7 Service Enhancements


An extended GSM specification is currently being standardised, and is expected to be ready
later this year. Known as the GSM Phase 2+ specification, it will include:
• High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD)
• Enhanced full rate codec
• CAMEL Intelligent Network facilities
• ASCI services
• SIM application toolkit
• Support for optimal routing
• Call interception
The GSM Phase 2+ specification will increase the range of services in GSM and enhance
their usefulness and user-friendliness. These will include services based on Calling Line
Identity Presentation (CLIP), which can be used to create a whole range of new applications.
There will also be new supplementary services for private numbering plans, multiple
subscriber profile, mobile access hunting, completion of calls to busy subscribers, call
transfer and call deflection.
Facilities are also being added to GSM that make it more attractive to a wider group of users.
For example, the ASCI (Advanced Speech Call Items) feature set in GSM Phase 2+ would
make GSM suitable for a great many of today's Private Mobile Radio (PMR) users:
transportation companies, utilities, local government, port and airport authorities. GSM could
provide all of the features offered on a traditional PMR system, such as broadcast calls, group
calls with fast call set-up, call priority levels, emergency calls and push-to-talk button.

3.8 Enhancing Capacity


If wideband services are to become a mass market, more network capacity will certainly be
needed. One obvious way of adding capacity is to have access to more frequencies. As this is
not necessarily going to be possible on an international scale, alternative ways of increasing
capacity must be found.
One technique is tighter frequency reuse, based on GSM's frequency hopping, discontinuous
transmission (DTX) and new frequency allocation techniques. Most GSM operators today use
a twelve frequency reuse scheme, referred to as a 4/12 reuse pattern. Through a combination
of frequency hopping and new power control techniques in the base transceiver station a
tighter frequency reuse factor, as low as eight or nine, has been achieved.
The traditional way of adding capacity to a GSM network is through macro cell
"densification", that is, creating ever-smaller cells at the macro level. However, at a certain
point this becomes difficult because of interference and site access problems. By introducing
a new micro cell layer, with antennas typically below the rooftops to provide a more
"contained" cell, additional capacity gains can be made.
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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
It seems clear that a combination of a number of these capacity enhancement techniques will
be required in UMTS. Certainly tighter frequency reuse and microcells (even picocells) will
be necessary to achieve the high-bandwidth services discussed). The use of a more spectrally
efficient air-interface technology such as WCDMA will also provide greater system capacity.
Whatever the future holds for UMTS, services must be evolved and gradually enhanced in a
backwards-compatible way so that subscribers do not need to sacrifice existing services and
functionality in order to enjoy the new ones.
GSM is not yet the complete answer to the requirements of UMTS, but given GSM's wide
acceptance and rapid pace of evolution, it is likely to form the basis for any future UMTS
system.

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PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

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