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3G (Third Generation) Wireless System Stuff

What is 3G? It's a standard for 3rd generation mobile telephone systems -- analog cellular was the first generation, digital PCS was the second. Along with W-CDMA, 3G was the big rage in the late 90's, with proponents announcing that it was the Killer Wireless Application because of its ability to simultaneously transfer voice data (the phone call) and other non-voice data such as music, photographs, video, email, instant messaging, and information downloads. 3G networks can use a variety of present and future wireless network technologies, including GSM, CDMA, TDMA, WCDMA, CDMA2000, UMTS and EDGE, and this flexibility seemed to make it's future as the primary mobile standard assured.

3G implementation has been slower than anticipated, however, because of the cost of upgrading equipment and licensing fees for additional spectrum. The earlier, 2G networks don't typically use the same frequencies as 3G (except in the United States), and licensing fees, particularly in Europe, were extremely expensive. Only Japan and South Korea were able to implement this technology quickly, largely because of the high level of government support for new infrastructure advances. In Japan, by the end of 2006 the majority of customers were on 3G and upgrades to the next stage, 3.5G (with 3 Mbit/s data rates), were underway. Implementation in the rest of the world is now coming along, but at a slower pace.

You may also see terms like 2.5G (almost there!), 3.5G (moving forward) and 4G (the step beyond!). For ease of reference, we've combined them all on this page.

The articles, resources, references and links below may help you through this maze of alphabet soup, jargon, acronyms and confusing standards!

Contents of This Page
2.5/3G/4G in the News
SSS Online 3G Resources
SSS Online Technical Briefings Archive
Other Online 3G Resources
Reference Books on 3G Available for Purchase

3G (and 2.5G, 3.5G, and 4G) in the News

3G Newsroom -- good site for recent and archived news.
Cellular News.com -- another good source for recent and not-so-recent 3G news.
UMTS Forum's 3G News Page
Comms Design.com, An EE Times community, news & analysis on communications matters
Mobile Africa: GSA Reports Huge Progress in 2006 on 3G Evolution with WCDMA-HSDPA and GSM/EDGE for New Era of Mobile Broadband -- February 7, 2007
"Why 3G won't fry your brain just yet", by Jan Libbenga in the Register, October 3, 2003
"Getting an Early Handle on 4G", Craig Mathias for EE Times, 11/15/01

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SSS Online 3G Resources

Wireless Glossary

CDMA Stuff Page

W-CDMA Stuff Page

Cellular Emergency 911 Info Page

Read ICUCOM's ACOLADE IS-95 CDMA Library Description
(with a Great intro to IS-95 in the first few pages).

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3G Articles from SSS Online's Technical Briefings Archive

ADOBE Acrobat (.pdf) Files Relating to Wireless, Cellular Telecomm and 3G:
1cdpd.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD)" -- (~529K).	1tmacdma.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Media Access -- TDMA and CDMA" -- (~682K).
1cellular.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Cellular Telephony" -- (~489K).	1dsss_intro.pdf Paul Flikkema's (USF) Briefing -- "Introduction to Spread Spectrum" -- (~110K).
1eel6593_intro.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Mobile and Personal Communications" -- (~106K).	1fading.pdf Paul Flikkema's (USF) Briefing -- "Narrowband Multipath Fading: A Simple Model" -- (~73K).
1mod_intro.pdf Paul Flikkema's (USF) Briefing -- "Overview of Modulation Techniques for Wireless" -- (~99K).	1modulation.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Digital Modulation" -- (~499K).
1mediaaccess.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Media Access -- Aloha and CSMA" -- (~479K).	1mobicomp.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Challenges of Mobile Computing" -- (~622K).
1xmobiledata.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Wide-Area Mobile Data Systems" -- (~501K).	1mss.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Mobile Satellite Systems" -- (~283K).
1prnet_intro.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Introduction to Packet Radio Networks" -- (~264K).	1propagation.pdf Prof. Randy H. Katz' (UCB) Briefing -- "CS294-7: Radio Propagation" -- (~402K).
fivepts.pdf *"The Technical Case For Convergence Of Third Generation Wireless Systems Based On CDMA -- Five Key Technical Principles To Consider" -- (~107K) -- Thanks Qualcomm*.	fivexsum.pdf "The GSM-CDMA Economic Study (Exectutive Summary)" by Anderson Consulting, et al -- (~74K) -- Thanks Qualcomm.

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OTHER 3G Resources:

Wikipedia's excellent tutorial on 3G

FCC's Third Generation Wireless Systems Site -- A "MUST SEE" site, but last updated in November 2002.

NTIA's 3G site -- Another "MUST SEE" site!

White Papers on 3G Wireless

The 3G Portal (since 2000)

3G World -- a very interesting 3G news and information portal
covering USA, Europe, ASIA and other key countries around the globe.

UMTS World -- news, articles, applications, and more

3GPP Home Page -- the 3rd Generation Partnership Project

3G Today -- dedicated to commercial Third-Generation (3G) wireless applications, services and devices.

Design Center: 2.5/3G Wireless, from Communications Design, an EE Times Community.

www.3G-Generation.com -- interesting site with tutorials, marketing information, more.

Excellent Ericsson section on 3G

3G Americas -- News, white papers, report, coverage maps, and more

Mobility World Congress and Exhibition (formerly 3G Congress) -- read reports white papers from past conferences, and find out about the upcoming conference here.

QUALCOMM -- "The Home of CDMA"

Deidra Ritcherson's 1998 UCB Briefing, "The Effects of Forward Error Correction Coding and Hybrid-ARQ on Throughput and Delay in CDMA and W-CDMA Systems"

The Principles of Spread Spectrum Communications
-- Interesting 1996 article from Professor Jack Glas, University of Delft

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Reference Books on 3G Available for Purchase

Click on a Title Below for a Direct Link to Purchase

Buy This Book	*Fundamentals of Cellular Network Planning and Optimisation: 2G/2.5G/3G... Evolution to 4G* , by Ajay R. Mishra. Hardcover: 304 pages (May 28, 2004). Our Price: Click title for price	Buy This Book	*UMTS Signaling: UMTS Interfaces, Protocols, Message Flows and Procedures Analyzed and Explained* , by Ralf Kreher and Torsten Ruedebusch. Hardcover: 454 pages (April 1, 2005). Our Price: Click title for price
Buy This Book	*3G Handset and Network Design, by Geoff Varrall & Roger Belcher. Paperback: 576 pages (February 2003). Our Price: Click title for price*	Buy This Book	*IP for 3G: Networking Technologies for Mobile Communications*, by Dave Wisely, Philip Eardley, & Louise Burness (Authors). Hardcover: 304 pages (August 2, 2002). Our Price: Click title for price
Click title for price	*Software Defined Radio for 3G: Designing for 3G Cellular Mobile Systems (Artech House Mobile Communications Series)* , Paul Burns. Hardcover: 240 pages (November 2002). Our Price: Click title for price	Buy This Book	*M-Profits: Making Money from 3G Services*, by Tomi Ahonen. Hardback - 328 pages 1st edition (October 15, 2002). Our Price: Click title for price
Buy This Book	*GSM, GPRS and EDGE Performance: Evolution Toward 3G/UMTS* , by Timo Halonen, Juan Melero, Javier Romero Garcia. Hardcover: 352 pages; (May 13, 2002) Our Price: Click title for price	Buy This Book	*Wireless Broadband Networks Handbook :3G, Lmds & Wireless Internet (Networking)*, by John Vacca. Paperback - 816 pages 1st edition (January 2001). Our Price: Click title for price
Buy This Book	*QoS in Integrated 3G Networks, by Robert Lloyd-Evans. Hardcover: 346 pages 1st edition (July 15, 2002). Our Price: Click title for price*	Buy This Book	*Advances in 3G Enhanced Technologies for Wireless Communications (Artech House Mobile Communications Series)*, by Jiangzhou Wang and Tung-Sang Ng (Editors). Hardcover - 376 pages (March 2002). Our Price: Click title for price
Buy This Book	*3G Wireless Demystified*, by Lawrence Harte, Romm Kikta, & Richard Levine. Paperback - 500 pages; (August 27, 2001). Our Price: Click title for price	Buy This Book	*Towards a Global 3G System : Advanced Mobil Communications in Europe, Volume 1*, by Ramjee Prasad (Editor). Hardcover - 424 pages 1st edition (July 2001). Our Price: Click title for price
Buy This Book	*GSM, cdmaOne and 3G Systems, by Raymond Steele, Lee Chin-Chun, Peter Gould. Hardcover - 522 pages 1st edition (March 1, 2001). Our Price: Click title for Price*	Buy This Book	*GPRS and 3G Wireless Applications: Professional Developer's Guide, by Christoffer Andersson. Paperback - 352 pages, 1st edition (May 17, 2001). Also available on CD-Rom. Our Price: Click title for price*
Cover not Available	*Introduction to 3G Mobile Communications (Artech House), by Juha Korhonen. Hardcover - 568 pages 2nd edition (February 2003). Our Price: Click title for price*	Buy This Book	*Wireless Network Evolution: 2G to 3G, by Vijay K. Garg. Hardcover - 600 pages 1 edition (July 26, 2001). Our Price: Click title for price*
Cover not Available	*Broadband Wireless Communications - 3G, 4G and Wireless LAN (The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, Volume 620), by Jiangzhou Wang. Hardcover - 360 pages (July 2001). Our Price: Click title for price*	Buy This Book	*3G Wireless Networks, by Daniel Collins, Clint Smith. Paperback - 500 pages; (September 18, 2001). Our Price: Click title for price*

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