High Speed Packet Access and evolved HSPA with VoIP comparison

HSPA and evolved HSPA with VoIP over HSPA as compared to the R99 CS referring to 3GAmericas.com for R7 and R8.

High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Evolved HSPA with VoIP over HSPA Compared to the R99 CS referring to 3GAmericas.com for R7 and R8

One of the more interesting trends in the telecommunications industry in recent years has been the move to use existing resources to their best advantage while planning for the implementation of future innovations, some of which remain better described than developed. While Moore's law continues to hold true and computer processing speeds continue to double roughly every 18 months, it is reasonable to expect quantum advantages in technology in coming years that will make ubiquitous computing a reality. In the interim, a number of initiatives have been advanced by the telecommunications industry to use their existing resources to their maximum advantage while establishing the infrastructure needed for future innovations. One such initiative has been the evolution of the R99 to the Release 7 and 8 for high speed packet access. This paper provides an overview of high speed packet access and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service, followed by a discussion of evolved HSPA with VoIP over HSPA. Finally, an analysis of R99 CS referring to 3GAmericas.com for R7 and R8 is followed by a summary of the research and salient findings in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview.

Today, the broad telecommunications industry remains in a dynamic state of flux, characterized by a number of failed companies, several former giants that continue to struggle (at&T, MCI/WorldCom), an environment of uncertain regulation, and enormous opportunities in an increasingly globalized marketplace. Despite some profound failures in recent years, there have been some success stories as well. In this regard, Kennedy and Purcell (2004) advise, "Important lessons have been learned by those who have managed to survive, and potentially vibrant CMRS, wireless fidelity ('Wi-Fi') and voice over Internet protocol ('VoIP') innovators stand poised on wireless, cable, and telecommunications platforms for the final assault on the status quo of the last century's communications models" (Kennedy & Purcell, 2004, p. 489). Indeed, as of year-end 2004, the Yankee Group estimated that more than one million Americans already subscribed to VoIP service, of which 500,000 subscribed to VoIP delivered by their cable operator with all signs suggesting these trends will continue to accelerate in the future (Hazlett, 2006). As Herman (2006) advises, there are a number of reasons for these expectations, with many of them relating to the sheer economics involved: "VoIP allows one to make and receive phone calls over a broadband connection without paying interstate long distance fees. Vonage, for instance, offers a VoIP package that includes free long distance to the U.S. And Canada for $24.99 per month" (p. 103).

Given these trends, it would be reasonable to expect that designers and manufacturers would be seeking superior approaches to using their existing resources to their maximum advantage, but even this is no longer enough. Indeed, identifying opportunities to improve performance while reducing energy requirements represents a truly patriotic initiative today as well. According to one authority, "In this age when being green is in, the less power a computer consumes while performing its tasks the less its overall environmental footprint would be. Then again, sometimes it is a question of managing well the resources that there are in the first place" (Watching it, 2007, p. 3). For instance, in a typical personal computer's microprocessor, some designers and engineers believe it is inappropriate to allocate all the microprocessor's computing resources to performing certain types of tasks at all times. As this source notes, "After all, using that state-of-the-art chip's processing power when playing an online game might be justifiable. Employing that same chip, however, when playing an arcade-type game, such as PacMan or Space Invaders, seems like a foolish waste of limited resources" (Watching it, p. 3).

A recent technology developed by University of California-Riverside professor and engineer Frank Vahid, known as "warp processing," is expected to make computers highly flexible when it comes to allocating computing power and resources. "Warp processing," the authors point out, "which is available for licensing via the university's funding source, Semiconductor Research Corp., enables a computer chip to determine which parts of a computer program are most frequently executed. The microprocessor then assigns those parts to be performed by a field-programmable gate array, or FPGA" (Watching it, p. 3).

Warp processing combined with an FPGA, which can execute some computer programs by as much as 10 times, 100 times, or even 1,000 times faster than a computer chip can, can find applications in a wide range of computing tasks, especially those requiring high levels of computing prowess. Based on Qualcomm Inc.'s recent introduction of its Gobi chip, manufacturers of laptops designed for cellular broadband connection are not forced to select between High-Speed Packet Access and Evolution-Data Optimized wireless broadband technologies: "The Gobi chip can flirt with both technologies with equal ease. The only problem is, Gobi chips do not support WiMax, the long-range wireless standard that most industry analysts expect to soon become more popular than either HSPA or EV-DO" (Watching it, 2007, p. 3).

In his recent essay, "Rivalrous Telecommunications Networks with and without Mandatory Sharing," Hazlett (2006) reports that, "Additional allocations of licensed, flexible use spectrum also advance deployment of wireless broadband networks, broadening the cable modern vs. DSL rivalry. Each national wireless network would offer high-speed Interact access were spectrum more widely available. Indeed, recent mergers have made this clear. After acquiring at&T Wireless, Cingular announced that it would be upgrading its network to provide 400-700 kbps Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service ("UMTS") service and attributed its new strategy directly to the fact that the merger gave it the bandwidth to offer broadband data in addition to voice and narrowband data" (p. 477).

Likewise, Sprint, having acquired Nextel, and Verizon, having acquired numerous Nextwave licenses, are building national EV-DO networks, providing 300-700 kbps data service (Hazlett). T-Mobile, left without spectrum rights to acquire, has declared that it has been unable to upgrade its network to provide broadband service due to its spectrum constraint; for instance, a recent industry Web site post provided a useful overview of T-Mobile's data strategy in this regard: "Continue with EDGE [narrowband data] rollout until enough spectrum is found for W-CDMA [broadband] technology" (quoted in Hazlett at p. 478).

The primary advantages of UMTS for the user include the benefits shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1.

Key user benefits associated with UMTS.

Benefit

Description

Speed

UMTS supports user achievable peak data rates of 350 Kbps, theoretical peak data rates of up to 2 Mbps, with average speeds of 200-300 Kbps when the user is walking or driving. That throughput is fast enough to support bandwidth-intensive applications such as streaming multimedia, large file transfers and videoconferencing

An "always-on" connection

Like cable broadband and DSL, UMTS provides a constant Internet connection, so users do not have to log on each time they want access, and they can receive "pushed" services, such as stock alerts.

Value

UMTS is packet-based, which is a more efficient way for operators to provide service. That savings can be passed on to users in the form of lower rates. Packetized services also mean that users pay only for the data that they send and receive instead of additionally paying for the airtime used when setting up a connection and waiting for a server to respond.

Availability

UMTS is available from 142 operators in 61 countries, as of October 2006. Nearly 300 operators worldwide have committed to deploying UMTS.

Compatibility

UMTS is backward-compatible with EDGE and GPRS. When users move out of an area with UMTS coverage, their device automatically switches to an EDGE or GPRS network, depending on factors such as network availability and how much bandwidth their application requires. As a result, UMTS users are always assured of having some level of packet-data service at home and when traveling.

Roaming

As mentioned above, UMTS was commercially available in 61 countries as of October 2006. Nearly 300 operators in 112 countries worldwide have committed to deploying UMTS. This adoption means that UMTS provides the most roaming options of any 3G technology; where UMTS is not available, customers will fall back to EDGE or GPRS services.

LTE will provide an extremely efficient OFDMA-based platform for future networks

EDGE/HSPA/LTE is one of the most robust portfolios of mobile broadband technologies and is an optimum framework for realizing the potential of the wireless-data market (Khanna).

Conclusion

The jury is in and the vote was not even close. The research showed that high speed packet access was shown to be evolving in important ways, with a number of innovations having already been implemented and other planned for deployment in the next few years. In addition, the research showed that the next-generation wireless systems such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) will increasingly depend on VoIP and an IMS network for voice without supporting circuit-switched services. The research also showed that HSPA+ enables operators to offer these same high-capacity VoIP services to the end users without relying on the circuit-switched core network. In the final analysis, these innovations represent interim technological advances that bridge the gap between existing investments in telecommunications resources and infrastructure and the reality of ubiquitous computing envisioned by many authorities today.