BELLEVUE, WA--(Marketwire - May 10, 2011) - 4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, today announced that it has published an educational white paper, titled, Coexistence of GSM, HSPA and LTE, that explains the end-to-end considerations for the successful coexistence of GSM, HSPA and LTE technologies and migratory aspects from 3GPP Rel-7 to Rel-8 and beyond.
The objective of the white paper is to identify and explain all relevant technology facets from the 3GPP standards specifications, including the Radio Access Network (RAN), Core and Service layer to ensure a seamless migration for the end-user.
As the world of wireless moves towards the next generation of voice and data services, it is likely that strong convergence trends toward all-IP based services and networks will one day drive traditional wireless voice services to be delivered with Voice over IP (VoIP) protocols over broadband technologies such as LTE and LTE-Advanced. However, given that today's wireless circuit-based voice networks deliver highly efficient, secure voice with strong quality, it will take some time before circuit-based voice networks disappear.
The 3GPP ecosystem has been designed for seamless interworking and transitioning of its technologies enabling the coexistence of GSM, HSPA and LTE technologies for many years. This new white paper and reference document addresses the intricate issues and tremendous technical solutions related to making the migration successful. This will provide operators with the continued advantage of the economies of scale of the 3GPP family of technologies for years to come. Analysts predict that by the end of 2015, the 3GPP family of mobile broadband technologies will have 3.3 billion UMTS-HSPA+ subscribers and an additional 325 million LTE subscribers.
"The 3GPP technology family standards continue to innovate and provide robust technical solutions that, in the end, serve society's needs for billions of people," said Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas. "The seamless interworking solutions of the 3GPP standard are essential, elegant, detailed and practical for operators to flawlessly implement and deliver to their customers. It is clear that the specifications work at 3GPP has resulted in a global standard that may be adopted by nearly all operators and consumers worldwide."
Ninety percent of the world will follow the 3GPP evolution for mobile broadband and GSM-HSPA will comprise the overwhelming majority of subscribers over the next decade, even as new wireless technologies are adopted. Globally, there are currently 404 UMTS-HSPA networks in 153 countries with 135 of those networks already upgraded to HSPA+. Additionally, there are 21 LTE deployments in 15 countries throughout the world. The deployment of LTE and its coexistence with HSPA will be analogous to the deployment of HSPA and its coexistence with GSM. The move to LTE will be an evolution as existing mobile networks will remain operational for years to come.
The following key topics are covered in the white paper:
- RAN aspects of the coexistence
- Core network considerations
- Quality of Service (QoS) requirements
- The future of voice/messaging services on LTE including CSFB, SRVCC, VoLTE and IMS
- Regulatory aspects of technology integration
- Multimode and multiband devices and Machine Type Communications (MTC) for coexisting networks
Today, HSPA+ and LTE mobile broadband are delivering the best mobile broadband experience for customers. With the largest growth percentages being seen in the movement to HSPA+ and LTE for mobile broadband connectivity, 3GPP mobile broadband technologies offer the best choice for the growing ecosystem of connected devices as the wireless industry continues to move beyond voice and data to always-on mobile broadband connectivity.