3G Radio Access Evolution -- HSPA and LTE for Mobile Broadband --

Roughly eight years have passed since the first commercial deployment of 3G mobile communication based on the WCDMA radio-access technology developed by 3GPP∗. Since then, the 3GPP radio-access technologies have gone through several steps of evolution and improvements, further boosting their capabilities in terms of the services that can be provided as well as the basic system performance. In parallel to the direct evolution of WCDMA into HSPA and its continuing evolution, there has also in 3GPP been a development of a new radio-access technology, the Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is now further evolving, an evolution often referred to as LTE-Advanced and aiming, among other things, at full compliance with all the capabilities and expectations for so-called IMT-Advanced radio access [5]. This paper provides an overview of the 3GPP radioaccess technologies for broadband mobile communication including HSPA and its evolution, and LTE. The paper also discusses the current stage of the 3GPP activities on evolving LTE towards LTE-Advanced. For more detailed information about HSPA and its evolution as well as LTE, the reader is referred to [1]. The full specifications for HSPA and LTE can be found at www.3gpp.org (the 25.xxx and 36.xxx series of specifications respectively).