3G

BY AJANI A A

OUTLINE
3G History, definition and wireless standards
3G Architecture
Call processing and SMS services
Roaming and Mobility Management

3G HISTORY, DEFINITION AND WIRELESS

STANDARDS
Universal Mobile Telecom System, UMTS is a 3G telecommunication system which
offers advanced data services (broadband internet) in addition to the primary
telephony service. This advanced data capabilities support various multimedia
applications which can be broadly classified based on QoS parameters.

3G internet access is classified as broadband (Tanguturi & Harmantzis 2006) has it

uses WCDMA which involves wider bandwidth. The WCDMA has two
implementable modes, FDD and TDD (Vtj et al 2000). In FDD, frequency slots
are allocated to different users while in TDD several users use the same frequency
but at different time slot. In terms of implementation, FDD uses the same
frequency for its uplink and downlink channel while TDD uses different frequency.
The implication of this is that users can transmit simultaneously using same RF
carriers which are based in Node B.

WCDMA is compatible with the previous narrow band (200 KHz) used in GSM as
well as the 5MHZ WCDMA channel radio (Halonen et al 2004).

3G HISTORY, DEFINITION AND WIRELESS

STANDARDS

In 1990s GSM deployments were occurring in Europe and elsewhere

In the mid 1990s ETSI was investigating several technologies that would meet
the requirements specified by ITU as part of IMT-2000

One of the critical roles was the evaluation of radio access system to be used
for UMTS

Among the several proposals for the air interface, WCDMA was selected by ETSI
as the technology of choice

In 1998 the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was created

The scope of 3GPP was to produce a globally applicable standard for 3G mobile
system based on the evolution of GSM networks and the radio access
technologies they support

In 1999, 3GPP released its first version of specification for UMTS referred to as
Release 99

3G HISTORY, DEFINITION AND WIRELESS

STANDARDS

The access network in Release 99 include GPRS, EDGE, and WCDMAbased UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network)

In 2001Release 4, which included minor enhancement and corrections

was completed

In 2002, Release 5 was concluded. It includes a new subsystem called the

IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), which is based on IPv6 and supports new
services and support for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). It also
enhances the WCDMA radio technology with high-peed down link packet
access where data rates up to 10 Mbps can be achieved on the down link

Work on Release 6 was completed toward the end of 2003. Release 6 has
many items for standardisation that span the radio interface, radio
network packet core and IMS

3G HISTORY, DEFINITION AND WIRELESS

STANDARDS

Figure 1: 3G Evolution Trend (3GPP, 2010)

3G STANDARDS
The IMT-2000 recommendation highlights five distinct mobile/terrestrial radio interface standards:
1. IMT-MC: CDMA Multi-Carrier (known as cdma2000 or IS-2000).
2. IMT-DS: CDMA Direct Spread (known as Wideband CMDA or WCDMA-FDD). This standard is
intended for applications in public macro-cell and micro-cell environments. The Frequency Division
Duplex (FDD) mode is used for symmetrical applications, i.e., those requiring the same amount of
radio resources in the uplink as in the downlink. This standard is well supported by Japans ARIB
and GSM network operators and vendors.
3. IMT-TC: CDMA TDD (WCDMA-TDD). Time Division Duplex (TDD) targets public micro-cell and
pico-cell environments, and, due to severe interference-related considerations, is intended
primarily for indoor use. This standard is optimized for symmetrical and asymmetrical
applications, with high data rates.
4. IMT-SC: TDMA Single Carrier (known as UWC-136 and EDGE). UWC-136 (Universal Wireless
Communications) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) will provide extended data
services, with no changes to channel structure, frequency, or bandwidth. IMT-SC is the
evolutionary path for GSM and TDMA-136, achieved by building upon enhanced versions of GSM
and TDMA-136 technology. EDGE is a radio-based high-speed mobile data standard with aggregate
transmission speeds of up to 384kbps when all eight timeslots are used.
5. IMT-FT: TDMA Multi-Carrier (well known as DECT, Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telecommunication).

3G REQUIRMENT
Access to information and contents on the internet:

The internet has become an integral aspect of many peoples lives. 3G

networks are expected to address the limitation in speed and spectral use in
2/2.5G networks

Global roaming

UMTS requires that common core network be able to support different types
of access networks

New services:

Multimedia services such as audio and video streaming, video telephony, and
integration of voice and data

Convergence of datacom and telecom:

Wireless networks are following the example of wired networks moving in the
direction of being packet based networks

3G FEATURES
Increase data rates and bandwidth in the radio interface

Achievable data rates with the new WCDMA up to 2Mbs

Increase of bandwidth allows real time services like VoIP and video
streaming
channel bandwidth of 5MHz
Improve subscriber security
Improved cryptography
Two-way authentication
Clarify the functional split between the access and core networks
enabling session handover in addition to the radio access handover
in place today

3G ARCHITECTURE

Figure 2: 3G network architecture

3G ARCHITECTURE CONTD

Figure 3: 3G network design by 3GPP (Source: 3GPP, 2014)

3G ARCHITECTURE CONTD

Figure 4: 3G network architecture

3G ARCHITECTURE CONTD
The UMTS network consists of a radio access network (RAN) that is attached to circuit switched
(CS) and packet switches (PS) core networks. In principle, either the CS or PS core networks is
capable of carrying the subscriber IP traffic. A packet switched core is better suited for the task
since it does not reserve transport capacity during the idle period of the bursty data traffic.

3GPP Release 5 and later standards define a new IP multimedia subsystem, IMS. The session
initiation protocol that has been specified by IETF will be used for both subscriber and network
internal signalling. The trend towards IP transport is again invisible to the subscriber although it
is an important internal property. Since IP traffic can be carried over any physical transmission
medium, the operator has much more freedom in the network implementation. UMTS standards
define four different traffic classes: conversational, streaming, interactive and background. The
network implementations map these classes to actual user plane bearers in the radio interface
and the transport domain. The standard does not dictate any specific mapping to avoid binding
to specific transport technologies. The standard defines a language with which the subscribers
can request the needed service level, and the network must implement the QoS support
consistently over the whole end-to-end user plane path. Thus conversational class traffic makes
use of certain queuing priorities in the radio and transport protocols while the other classes
utilise some other combination.

3G CALL PROCESSING
To locate and address an MS several numbers are required:
MSISDN (Mobile station international ISDN number:
Associated with the SIM and not the device
Follows ITU-T standard (E.164), it is also used in fixed ISDN networks.
It consists of : Country code (CC), 44 UK, 49 Germany, national destination code (NDC)
i.e. the address of the network provider and subscriber number (SN)
International mobile subscriber identity (IMSI):
Consists of : Mobile country code (MCC), mobile network code (MNC) code of network
provider and the mobile subscriber identification number (MSIN)
Temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI)
Selected by the current VLR only valid temporarily within the location area of the VLR
Mobile station roaming number (MSRN):
Contains the current visitor country code (VCC), the visitor national destination code
(VNDC), identification of the current MSC together with the subscriber number
It helps the HLR to find a subscriber for an incoming call

Both the TMSI and the MSRN are used to hide the IMSI which could give away the exact identity of
the user signalling over the air interface.

The MSRN is generated by the VLR on request from the MSC and is stored in the HLR.

3G CALL PROCESSING
Registration

Registration is the process by which the network knows where the

mobile phone is.

Whenever the mobile is switched on it searches for these channels

and extracts the relevant location information. The mobile then
informs the network, Here I am! and the HLR is updated.

If during the travels the mobile determines that the location area
has changed, then an updating request is sent from the mobile to
the network and the HLR is again updated.

3G CALL PROCESSING

Figure 5 : Message flow for UE to Node B

3G MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
In order to track the MSs, the cells (i.e., BTSs/Node Bs) in the GPRS/UMTS
service area are partitioned into several groups.
To deliver services to an MS, the cells in the group covering the MS will
page the MS to establish the radio link.
Location change of an MS is detected as follows.

The cells broadcast their cell identities.

The MS periodically listens to the broadcast cell identity, and compares it
with the cell identity stored in the MSs buffer.

If the comparison indicates that the location has been changed, then the
MS sends the location update message to the network.
In the CS domain, cells are partitioned into Location Areas (LAs). The LA of
an MS is tracked by the VLR.
In the PS domain, the cells are partitioned into Routing Areas (RAs). An RA
is typically a subset of an LA. The RA of an MS is tracked by the SGSN.

3G MOBILITY MANAGEMENT CONTD

Figure 4 : Flow of 3G mobility management

3G MOBILITY MANAGEMENT EXPLANATION

Iu mode mobility management (MM) handles the terminal mobility
for packet communication. The mobility management state
machines are in the terminal and 3G-SGSN. The PDU transmission
and reception are not visible in the state machine. Only signalling
events cause transition in the Iu mode MM.

The states relate to terminal mobility management only. They are

independent of the PDP context and the number of IP addresses
allocated to the mobile terminal.

PS Attach: the mobile terminal initiates communication with the

GPRS attach procedure and transition to the PMM-Connected state

PS Signalling Release moves the state to PMM-IDLE.

The Signalling connection can be established after paging the
mobile.

3G MOBILITY MANAGEMENT EXPLANATION

CONTD

Attach Detach Procedure

The UMTS attach procedure moves the MM state to PMMconnected. In the connected state the mobile station (MS) can
activate the PDP contexts.

The key features are:

The MS and the visited network authenticate each other

The air interface ciphering takes place in the RNC for security

The signalling integrity protection possibility

prevents forged
control messages between the base station and MS