US Lobbies Plough Two Furrows to 3G
Sorry if this has been posted. Caxton
By Jeremy Scott-Joynt
16-MAR-98
The US position on 3G systems is firming up, with both the two major homegrown lobbies readying proposals to go to the International Telecommunication Union midway through this year.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Both are lining up to fit into the ITU's "family of systems" concept for a global third generation system, of a pattern of different core networks, perhaps with different air interfaces too, but optimized for easy roaming where possible through multi-mode phones.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ And both, strangely, are stressing their similarity, and readiness to converge with, GSM.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ On one side is the CDMAOne community, led by Qualcomm and the CDMA Development Group. The CDG is espousing "wideband CDMAOne", its own evolution of existing CDMAOne.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ This, it should be stressed, is not the same as the wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) backed by both Europe, for its universal mobile telecoms system (UMTS) intended to evolve out of GSM, and Japan as well as the North American GSM operators.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ But the CDG would like it to be, and is pushing hard for a convergence - even if ETSI, Europe's standards body, says that to do so along the lines that Qualcomm and the CDG suggest runs the risk of handicapping GSM-based networks in comparison to ones built on a CDMAOne, or IS-41, backbone.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Europe's scepticism is reflected, up to a point, in Japan. But ARIB, the main Japanese trade body covering standards, believes a compromise is findable - a position thrown into sharp relief by the imminent launch of two CDMAOne networks in Japan by carriers DDI and Ido Tsushin.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ According to the CDG, there is an alternative. For two years, Qualcomm has been working with UK GSM operator Vodafone to meld a GSM network architecture with a CDMAOne air interface. In this it has now succeeded, and so the further suggestion is simply to overlay the new wideband CDMAOne air interface.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ For the CDG, the benefits of finding a coexistence with the GSM community are obvious, with most studies indicating that the digital mobile world is likely to be carved up between them and them alone.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ For the US TDMA community - the standard known as IS-136 - the interoperability issue is a sharper one. Fewer members and a much lower public profile has meant the lobby group, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium led by dominant carrier AT&T Wireless, has to work much harder to get its point across.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ As a result, the UWCC is stressing that its upgrade path is software-only - leading to lightning-fast speeds of 144 kpbs for high-speed mobility, 384kbps for reduced mobility and 2Mbps for stationary terminals without any new equipment at all.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Along the way, the UWCC stresses, there is the opportunity for GSM and IS-136 - both based on a time division multiple access air interface - to come together.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ This would be academic, given that the GSM community has managed to agree to port over to W-CDMA, or at least a hybrid involving some TDMA traffic for asymmetric data transfer.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ But the UWCC also insists that its technology is designed for existing frequency allocations, rather than the band around 2GHZ that both the ITU, and Europe, has set aside. This way, it hopes, operators left behind by the shift to UMTS in Europe and without a new spectrum allocation might rally to their banner. |
