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UMTS Description

Universal Mobile Telecommunication System is the 3rd Generation mobile telephony standard.

• Voice and SMS
• New service like internet, VOD, MOD..
• Higher speed and spectrum efficiency
• high Capacity
• A cellular network
• Composed of three domain
• User Equipment
• Access Network
• Core Network
• Connected to external networks

Here are will describe detail: The first generation cellular network were developed in the 1960s and 1970 and used the FM analog modulation, using FDMA as its only multiple access technique. The most popular Ex is the USA AMPS system, introduced  in 1983. 

The second generation could benefit from the hardware, software and digital signal processing enhancements. There is a wide range of 2G system type over the world, making the terminals only compatible in a limited region of the world. There is for Ex the IS95-CDMA one system in the USA, or the GSM system in Europe.

The third generation cellular network are less diversified. Indeed, the most common system is UMTS, present all around the work, and we can also mention the CDMA2000 system, used in the US, SK, JP, CH.

The 3G network, and hence the UMTS network, must feature:

• High speed service and up to 2Mbps in special condition.
• Asymmetric and symmetric data transfer.
• CS and PS service
• Voice quality as good as in cable network.
• Higher capacity and spectral efficiency
• Ability to offer multimedia service with specific quality of service
• 2G systems interoperability
• Roaming with other 3G system. In a mobile radio system such as GSM or UMTS, the objective of a radio access network is to convey information over the air interface between MS and the CN.

The CN manage the communication and enables to connect to another phone of the public switched telephone network via the CS network, or to internet via the packet core network. Access network domain plus the CN domain constitute the infrastructure domain.

The MS is standardized as a UE. The UE is made up of a ME, and a UMTS integrated circuit card that  stores the identity of the subsciber. This card contains a UMTS SIM part to access the 3G network, but also a GSM SIM module that enables a 3G phone to access 2G networks.

UTRAN stand for UMTS terrestrial Radio access network. As the access network of the UMTS, the UTRAN is responsible for the transfer of information over the air interface between the core network and the UE using terrestrial items of equipment. all those domain have been defined precisely by the 3GPP standard in order to allow full compatibility between manufacturers. Therefore, the UTRAN is interconnected with the CS domain and the PS domain respectively via the IuCS an IuPS interface.

The UTRAN is of course connected to the UE via a radio interface named Uu interface. And inside the UE, the Cu interface defines the standardized interface between the ME and the UMTS SIM card.

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