Standards Watch : CDMA Moves One Step Closer to 3G Wireless

CDMA2000, which defines the 3G migration path for CDMA technology, is expected to move wireless QoS closer to that of wireline standards. The air interface for CDMA2000 (TIA/EIA/IS-2000) details the fundamental operation of handsets and infrastructure, including basic circuit and packet data services.

Under CDMA2000, specifications for minimum performance standards will directly affect what subscribers get in terms of call connections and QoS. For service providers, the technology and its subsequent testing standards will bear on what they can sell to mobile users who wish to browse the Web and check e-mail with IP-based mobile phones and devices at significantly faster speeds than were possible with 2G data services.

3G mobile wireless technology will support data at 144 Kbps to 2 Mbps. Deployment of services at the higher rate is under development by Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel Networks and Qualcomm.

“The CDMA2000 family of standards opens the door to 3G packet data and features like fast-forward power control and quick paging channels,” says John Fessler, senior planner at the Sprint PCS lab and vice chair of a 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) sub-working group on 3G infrastructure for cellular products.

“The quick paging channel should provide significant improvements in operating time between battery charges,” he says. Sprint’s 3G data service will allow “easily five times our average 2G speeds (about a 10 Kbps payload), with bursts beyond 10 times faster.”

Steppingstone

An important step in the deployment of CDMA2000 is the standardization of mobile handsets and data device performance through published specifications for testing.

The recently published interim test standard 98D marks a quantum leap in the evolution of mobile handsets, as it will galvanize manufacturers to meet performance standards for higher data rates with more packet delivery options and QoS-based services.

The spec was developed by members of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), including equipment manufacturers Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nokia and Nortel Networks, as well as service providers Verizon, Alltel, Bell Mobility, Qwest and Sprint PCS.

These companies are working on developing performance standards that benchmark what features to include in 3G mobile phones, such as radio frequency, transit power and sensitivity of radio receivers. “It guarantees that a minimum level of performance will be met by all mobile handsets and wireless devices supporting CDMA2000,” says Jason Losh, chair of a 3GPP2 technical specification group and TIA’s TR45.5 Working Group-III. “This spec spells out what level of performance needs to be met in terms of dropped call rates, data quality and interference protection from other services, which are essential to service providers planning deployment of the system.”

That translates into “what the subscriber sees in terms of call connections and quality,” according to Fessler. “That is important to service providers, since that is what they sell to subscribers.”

Another important feature of 98D will be its international support, which will go toward globalization of the CDMA2000 protocol. “98D offers standards for mobile station operation that works in 11 frequency bands globally,” says Losh. He notes that TIA, along with other 3GPP2 partners—ARIB (Japan), CWTS (China), TTA (Korea) and TTC (Japan)—have submitted the CDMA2000 standards to the International Telecommunication Union as part of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 initiative.

For manufacturers and providers not yet immersed in 3G, it is important to note that 98D supports not only CDMA2000 spread-spectrum mobile stations and handsets, but also the installed base of IS95 revisions, which targeted minimum performance standards for 2G mobile applications.