Overview

UMTS, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, is the third-generation (3G) successor to the second-generation GSM-based technologies, including GPRS, and EDGE. Although UMTS uses a totally different air interface, the core network elements have been migrating towards the UMTS requirements with the introduction of GPRS and EDGE. In this way, the transition from GSM to UMTS does not require such a large instantaneous investment.

UMTS, which uses wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), has had a long history. Even as the first 2G systems were first being rolled out, it was clear that these would not cater for the demand forever. New technologies capable of providing new services and facilities would be required. With this in mind, the World Administrative Radio Conference started to reserve spectrum allocations for a new service at its meetings in 1992.

The next stage in the development arose when the International Telecommunications Union began defining a system, and the International Mobile Telecommunications System 2000 (IMT2000) started to take shape. In order to manage the new standard, a group known as the Third Generation Partnership Programme (3GPP) was formed. In fact, 3GPP is a global co-operation between six Organizational Partners (ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA and TTC) who are recognized as being the world s major standardization bodies from Japan, China, Europe, the USA and Korea. The establishment of 3GPP was formalized in December 1998 by the signing of The Third Generation Partnership Project Agreement.

The original scope of 3GPP was to produce globally applicable technical specifications and technical reports...