Introduction to UMTS Air Interface and RF Engineering

Third generation (3G) communication systems are showing their strength around the world. Some service providers have already deployed 3G systems while others are preparing to deploy. 3G systems arguably can provide a global mobility with wide range of services including tele-services and bearer services. Tele-services include speech and short message services. Bearer services can provide the capability of information transfer between access points. It can negotiate and renegotiate the characteristics of a bearer service at session or connection establishment and during ongoing session or connection. Both connection-oriented and connectionless services are offered for point-to-point and point-multi-point communication. Typical examples of bearer services include video, video telephony, video on demand, multimedia, movies, and Internet applications such as web browsing and web cast. UMTS and CDMA2000 are the two major 3G technologies currently being considered as the leading contenders for deployment worldwide. Another potential 3G contender is TD-SCDMA currently being developed by a number of equipment vendors and research institutes in China. This book will cover UMTS systems in great detail. CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA are beyond the scope of this book and will not be discussed.