Eric,
I always enjoy your posts, especially your knowledge of the standards process, but this most recent response to Cax left me with some questions / confusion.
Your response to best technology choice today.
<<Technology platform - not even close in my mind - UMTS (which increasingly is called WCDMA) because of its concentration on services, its focus on internetworking and interoperability with the GSM core, evolved or not evolved, voice and data roaming, - and where it currently stands in standards development looking forward to the all IP core.
Now as for the air interface ... the blend of 1xRTT and 1xEV is very promising ... but we are back to the world of vaporware. Not even commenced standardization on the 1xEV portion for GSM/MAP so worse than vaporware.>>
What services are concentrated on in WCDMA standard that are missing in CDMA2000?
I was under the impression that the data portion of WCDMA rides an IP backbone just like 1XEV. What does this have to do with a GSM core? Thought 1xEV has a dedicated carrier and gets routed IP core. Where does GSM/MAP come in?
<<Right now, WCDMA (which itself is vaporware) looks better in spec than 1xRTT, and its a darned shame that GSMers have to go through GPRS for network reuse. At best it will indeed be "adequate" for mobile data.
For 3G licensees, with wide chunks of contiguous bandwidth the 1.25 Mhz carrier story, just isn't selling. Didn't sell day one, isn't selling now.>>
Saying WCDMA looks better in spec. than 1XRTT is a broad generalization, but if you are talking data rates it's apples to oranges. If you want to compare vaporeware compare WCDMA to 1Xevdv implemented in 5Mhz bandwidth or compare 1XRTT to GPRS. The performance of 1X initial deployments will exceed the NTT DoCoMo launch of WCDMA, even though WCDMA is using 3 times the bandwidth. The idea that if you have lots of contiguous bandwdith it's ok to use a less efficient air interface doesn't make sense.
I believe that GPRS is a stall tactic used by GSM folks to claim an interim high speed data solution while installing the IP backbone and waiting for UMTS. GPRS hype far exceeds anything the CDG has ever produced.
Pete |
