3G Technology

3G TECHNOLOGY
International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), better known as 3G or 3rd Generation, is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union which includes GSM EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000 as well as DECT and WiMAX. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Compared to 2G and 2.5G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates (up to 14.0 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink with HSPA+). Thus, 3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined the third generation (3G) of mobile telephony standards – IMT-2000 – to facilitate growth, increase bandwidth, and support more diverse applications. For example, GSM (the current most popular cellular phone standard) could deliver not only voice, but also circuit-switched data at download rates up to 14.4 kbps. But to support mobile multimedia applications, 3G had to deliver packet-switched data with better spectral efficiency, at far greater bandwidths
Overview:-
In 1999, ITU approved five radio interfaces for IMT-2000 as a part of the ITU-R M.1457 Recommendation, WiMAX was added in 2007,There are evolutionary standarads that are backwards-compatible extensions to pre-existing 2G networks as well as revolutionary standarads that require all-new networks and frequency allocations. The later group is the UMTS family, which consists of standards developed for IMT-2000, as well as the independently-developed standards DECT and WiMAX, which were included because they fit the IMT-2000 definition.
While EDGE is part of the 3G standard, most GSM/UMTS phones report EDGE (“2.75G”) and UMTS (“3G”) network availability as separate functionalit
HISTORY-     The first pre-commercial 3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan branded FOMA, in May 2001 on a pre-release of W-CDMA technology The first commercial launch of 3G was also by NTT DoCoMo in Japan on October 1, 2001, although it was initially somewhat limited in scope; broader availability was delayed by apparent concerns over reliability.The second network to go commercially live was by SK Telecom in South Korea on the 1xEV-DO technology in January 2002. By May 2002 the second South Korean 3G network was by KTF on EV-DO and thus the Koreans were the first to see competition among 3G operators.
The first European pre-commercial network was at the Isle of Man by Manx Telecom, the operator then owned by British Telecom, and the first commercial network in Europe was opened for business by Telenor in December 2001 with no commercial handsets and thus no paying customers. These were both on the W-CDMA technology.
The first commercial United States 3G network was by Monet Mobile Networks, on CDMA2000 1x EV-DO technology, but this network provider later shut down operations. The second 3G network operator in the USA was Verizon Wireless in October 2003 also on CDMA2000 1x EV-DO, and this network has grown strongly since then.
The first pre-commercial demonstration network in the southern hemisphere was built in Adelaide, South Australia by m.Net Corporation in February 2002 using UMTS on 2100 MHz. This was a demonstration network for the 2002 IT World Congress. The first commercial 3G network was launched by Hutchison Telecommunications branded as THREE in March 2003.
In Europe, mass market commercial 3G services were introduced starting in March 2003 by 3 (Part of Hutchison Whampoa) in the UK and Italy. The European Union Council suggested that the 3G operators should cover 80% of the European national populations by the end of 2005.
Roll-out of 3G networks was delayed in some countries by the enormous costs of additional spectrum licensing fees. In many countries, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G, so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies; an exception is the United States where carriers operate 3G service in the same frequencies as other services. The license fees in some European countries were particularly high, bolstered by government auctions of a limited number of licenses and sealed bid auctions, and initial excitement over 3G’s potential. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading equipment for the new systems.
By June 2007 the 200 millionth 3G subscriber had been connected. Out of 3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide this is only 6.7%. In the countries where 3G was launched first - Japan and South Korea - 3G penetration is over 70%.In Europe the leading country is Italy with a third of its subscribers migrated to 3G. Other leading countries by 3G migration include UK, Austria, Australia and Singapore at the 20% migration level. A confusing statistic is counting CDMA 2000 1x RTT customers as if they were 3G customers. If using this definition, then the total 3G subscriber base would be 475 million at June 2007 and 15.8% of all subscribers worldwide.
China announced in May 2008, that the telecoms sector was re-organized and three 3G networks would be allocated so that the largest mobile operator, China Mobile, would retain its GSM customer base. China Unicom would retain its GSM customer base but relinquish its CDMA2000 customer base, and launch 3G on the globally leading WCDMA (UMTS) standard finally on January 2009, Ministry of industry and Information Technology of China has awarded licenses of all three standards，TD-SCDMA to China Mobile, WCDMA to China Unicom and CDMA2000 to China Telecom.
Still, several developing countries have not awarded 3G licenses and customers await 3G services. China delayed its decisions on 3G for many years, mainly because of their Government’s delay in establishing well defined standards. The first African use of 3G technology was a 3G videocall made in Johannesburg on the Vodacom network in November 2004. The first commercial launch of 3G in Africa was by EMTEL in Mauritius on the W-CDMA standard. In north African Morocco in late March 2006, a 3G service was provided by the new company Wana.
T-Mobile, a major Telecommunication services provider has recently rolled out a list of over 120 U.S. cities which will be provided with 3G Network coverage in the year 2009. In 2008, India entered into 3G Mobile arena with the launch of 3G enabled Mobile services by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). MTNL is the first Mobile operator in India to launch 3G services.
Data rates:-
ITU has not provided a clear definition of the data rate users can expect from 3G equipment or providers. Thus users sold 3G service may not be able to point to a standard and say that the rates it specifies are not being met. While stating in commentary that “it is expected that IMT-2000 will provide higher transmission rates: a minimum data rate of 2 Mbit/s for stationary or walking users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle the ITU does not actually clearly specify minimum or average rates or what modes of the interfaces qualify as 3G, so various rates are sold as 3G intended to meet customers expectations of broadband data.
Security:-
3G networks offer a greater degree of security than 2G predecessors. By allowing the UE to authenticate the network it is attaching to, the user can be sure the network is the intended one and not an impersonator. 3G networks use the KASUMI block crypto instead of the older A5/1 stream cipher. However, a number of serious weaknesses in the KASUMI cipher have been identified.In addition to the 3G network infrastructure security, end to end security is offered when application frameworks such as IMS are accessed, although this is not strictly a 3G property.
Evolution from 2G:-
2G networks were built mainly for voice services and slow data transmission.
From 2G to 2.5G:-
The first major step in the evolution to 3G occurred with the introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). So the cellular services combined with GPRS became ‘2.5G.’
GPRS could provide data rates from 56 kbit/s up to 114 kbit/s. It can be used for services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access. GPRS data transfer is typically charged per megabyte of traffic transferred, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is billed per minute of connection time, independent of whether the user actually is utilizing the capacity or is in an idle state.
From 2.5G to 2.75G (EDGE):-
GPRS networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE can be considered a 3G radio technology and is part of ITU’s 3G definition, but is most frequently referred to as 2.75G. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003—initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States.
EDGE is standardized by 3GPP as part of the GSM family, and it is an upgrade that provides a potential three-fold increase in capacity of GSM/GPRS networks. The specification achieves higher data-rates by switching to more sophisticated methods of coding (8PSK), within existing GSM timeslots.
Evolution towards 4G:-
Both 3GPP and 3GPP2 are currently working on further extensions to 3G standards, named Long Term Evolution and Ultra Mobile Broadband, respectively. Being based on an all-IP network infrastructure and using advanced wireless technologies such as MIMO, these specifications already display features characteristic for IMT-Advanced (4G), the successor of 3G. However, falling short of the bandwidth requirements for 4G (which is 1 Gbit/s for stationary and 100 Mbit/s for mobile operation), these standards are classified as 3.9G or Pre-4G.
3GPP plans to meet the 4G goals with LTE Advanced, whereas Qualcomm has halted development of UMB in favour of the LTE family.
ISSUES:-
Although 3G was successfully introduced to users across the world, some issues are debated by 3G providers and users:
•    Expensive input fees for the 3G service licenses in some jurisdictions
•    Differences in licensing terms between states
•    Level of debt incurred by some telecommunication companies, which makes investment in 3G difficult
•    Lack of state support for financially troubled operators
•    Cost of 3G phones
•    Lack of coverage in some areas
•    Demand for broadband services in a hand-held device
•    Battery life of 3G phones
Symmetric Transmission vs. Asymmetric Transmission
Data transmission is symmetric if the data in the downlink and the data in the uplink is transmitted at the same data rate. This will probably be the case for voice transmission - the same amount of data is sent both ways. However, for internet connections or broadcast data (e.g., streaming video), it is likely that more data will be sent from the server to the mobile device .

FDD transmission is not so well suited for asymmetric applications as it uses equal frequency bands for the uplink and the downlink (a waste of valuable spectrum). On the other hand, TDD does not have this fixed structure, and its flexible bandwidth allocation is well-suited to asymmetric applications, e.g., the internet For example, TDD can be configured to provide 384kbps for the downlink (the direction of the major data transfer), and 64kbps for the uplink (where the traffic largely comprises requests for information and acknowledgements)..
3G TECHNOLOGY & HUMAN RESOURCES 
              Not only the media and entertainment but the business sector too has started utilizing the 3G applications worldwide. Video conferencing allows two individuals at a distance to interact in the same way as they could have done in person. The technology is being implemented at various functional level of the business such as, marketing, human resources, etc.
EXISTENCE OF 3G TECHNOLOGY 
             3G Technology was implemented in Japan for the first time in the world. Today the technology is serving 25 countries over more than 60 networks having its existence in Asia, Europe and USA. Video conferencing has been a major factor in the success of the technology. 
Mobile Interview 
             The 3G technology will enable organizations and qualified candidates to have a telephonic interview in a modern way through video conferencing. Traditional telephonic interview and personal interviews may be replaced by 3G voice and video conferencing. This will reduce the cost and save the time of both the organizations and the candidates.    
 
Conferences 
              3G technology provides for video conferencing which can help the Human Resource Department interact with their seniors at the time of urgency without wasting other resources. This can be very much helpful when the concerned person is out of state or country. 
 
File Transfer 
               With the advent of video and audio multimedia and a faster rate of downloading e-mail attachments, employees in an organization can request any urgent file or report they need to present to the clients. This will again reduce the burden on organization’s resources and increase employee effectiveness.  
 
e-learning & m-learning 
            3G technology provides for internet browsing that will help the employees to surf and learn using their 3G cell phones while traveling (m-learning) or from home. The organizations can schedule training modules for the employees of other branches through video conferences.
Thus 3g technology is playing an importat role among the present and upcoming generations to a great extent.3G is the future of communication and it is here to stay and transform communication in a unforeseen manner.

October, 2009