Overview

As mentioned in Chapter 1, "Introduction," first-generation (1G) mobile telecommunication systems in the 1980s were analog, and consisted of cellular system TIA/EIA-553 in the United States operating around 850 MHz, and Total Access Communication System (TACS), and Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) in Europe operating at 450 and 900 MHz bands. The second-generation (2G) systems are based on IS-136, IS-95A, IS-95B, and GSM, and have the data transport capability, but only to a limited extent. For example, GSM supports short messaging services (SMS) and user data at rates only up to 9.6 kb/s. With IS-95B, it's possible to provide data rates in the range of 64 to 115 kb/s in increments of 8 kb/s over a 1.25 MHz RF bandwidth.

To overcome this limitation and, particularly, to be able to provide multimedia services, the International Telecommunications Union-Radio Communication Sector (ITU-R) published in 1999 a set of standards for third-generation (3G) wireless systems [1], [2], [5], [7]. These systems include cdma2000, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) FDD, UMTS WCDMA TDD, and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system known as Universal Wireless Communication-136 (UWC-136).

The purpose of this chapter is to describe cdma2000. One of the fundamental requirements of 3G standards is to allow for the graceful evolution of current, 2G wireless networks. In fact, cdma2000 is an evolution of the present North American CDMA system called cdmaOne. Thus, we shall begin with a brief description of...