W-CDMA (UMTS)

W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or

IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface standard found in 3G mobile
telecommunications networks. It is the basis of Japan's NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service
and the most-commonly used member of the UMTS family and sometimes used as a
synonym for UMTS.[1] It utilizes the DS-CDMA channel access method and the FDD
duplexing method to achieve higher speeds and support more users compared to most
time division multiple access (TDMA) schemes used today.

While not an evolutionary upgrade on the airside, it uses the same core network as the 2G
GSM networks deployed worldwide, allowing dual-mode operation along with
GSM/EDGE; a feat it shares with other members of the UMTS family.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Technical features
• 2 Development
o 2.1 Rationale for W-CDMA
• 3 Deployment
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 Documentation

• 7 External links

[edit] Technical features

Only key features are cited below.

• Radio channels are 5 MHz wide.

• Chip rate of 3.84 MHz
• Supported mode of duplex: frequency division (FDD), Time Division (TDD)
• Employs coherent detection on both the uplink and downlink based on the use of
pilot symbols and channels[2].
• Supports inter-cell asynchronous operation.
• Variable mission on a 10 ms frame basis.
• Multicode transmission.
• Adaptive power control based on SIR (Signal-to-Interference Ratio).
• Multiuser detection and smart antennas can be used to increase capacity and
coverage.
• Multiple types of handoff (or handover) between different cells including soft
handoff, softer handoff and hard handoff.
 • 1:1 frequency reuse scheme

[edit] Development

In the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for
their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the international 3G
standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the
IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, and the short
range DECT system. Later, W-CDMA was selected as an air interface for UMTS.

As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification,
their network was initially incompatible with UMTS.[3] However,this has been resolved
by NTT DoCoMo updating their network.

Code Division Multiple Access communication networks have been developed by a

number of companies over the years, but development of cell-phone networks based on
CDMA (prior to W-CDMA) was dominated by Qualcomm. Qualcomm was the first
company to succeed in developing a practical and cost-effective CDMA implementation
for consumer cell phones: its early IS-95 air interface standard, which has since evolved
into the current CDMA2000 (IS-856/IS-2000) standard. Qualcomm created an
experimental wideband CDMA system called CDMA2000 3x which unified the W-
CDMA (3GPP) and CDMA2000 (3GPP2) network technologies into a single design for a
worldwide standard air interface. Compatibility with CDMA2000 would have
beneficially enabled roaming on existing networks beyond Japan, since Qualcomm
CDMA2000 networks are widely deployed, especially in the Americas, with coverage in
58 countries as of 2006. However, divergent requirements resulted in the W-CDMA
standard being retained and deployed.

Despite incompatibilities with existing air-interface standards, the late introduction of this
3G system, and despite the high upgrade cost of deploying an all-new transmitter
technology, W-CDMA has been adopted and deployed rapidly, especially in Japan,
Europe and Asia, and is already deployed in over 55 countries as of 2006.[4]

[edit] Rationale for W-CDMA

W-CDMA transmits on a pair of 5 MHz-wide radio channels, while CDMA2000

transmits on one or several pairs of 1.25 MHz radio channels. Though W-CDMA does
use a direct sequence CDMA transmission technique like CDMA2000, W-CDMA is not
simply a wideband version of CDMA2000. The W-CDMA system is a new design by
NTT DoCoMo, and it differs in many aspects from CDMA2000. From an engineering
point of view, W-CDMA provides a different balance of trade-offs between cost,
capacity, performance, and density; it also promises to achieve a benefit of reduced cost
for video phone handsets. W-CDMA may also be better suited for deployment in the very
dense cities of Europe and Asia. However, hurdles remain, and cross-licencing of patents
between Qualcomm and W-CDMA vendors has not eliminated possible patent issues due
to the features of W-CDMA which remain covered by Qualcomm patents.[5]

W-CDMA has been developed into a complete set of specifications, a detailed protocol
that defines how a mobile phone communicates with the tower, how signals are
modulated, how datagrams are structured, and system interfaces are specified allowing
free competition on technology elements.

[edit] Deployment

The world's first commercial W-CDMA service, FOMA, was launched by NTT DoCoMo
in Japan in 2001.

Elsewhere, W-CDMA deployments are usually marketed under the UMTS brand. See the
main UMTS article for more information.

CDMA is a spread spectrum multiple access technique. In CDMA a locally generated

code runs at a much higher rate than the data to be transmitted. Data for transmission is
simply logically XOR (exclusive OR) added with the faster code.

W-CDMA is a wideband spread-spectrum mobile air interface that utilizes the direct-
sequence spread spectrum method of asynchronous code division multiple access to
achieve higher speeds and support more users compared to the implementation of time
division multiplexing (TDMA) used by 2G GSM networks.

Re: What is difference between CDMA and WCDMA

WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is the radio access scheme used
for third generation cellular systems that are being rolled out in various parts of the globe.
The 3G systems to support wideband services like high-speed Internet access, video and
high quality image transmission with the same quality as the fixed networks. In WCDMA
systems the CDMA air interface is combined with GSM based networks. The WCDMA
standard was evolved through the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) which
aims to ensure interoperability between different 3G networks.

WCDMA Technical features

• Radio channels are 5MHz wide.
• Chip rate of 3.84 Mcps
• Supports two basic modes of duplex: frequency division and time division.
Current systems use frequency division, one frequency for uplink and one for
downlink. For time division, FOMA uses sixteen slots per radio frame, whereas
UMTS uses fifteen slots per radio frame.
• Employs coherent detection on both the uplink and downlink based on the use of
pilot symbols and channels.
• Supports inter-cell asynchronous operation.
• Variable mission on a 10 ms frame basis.
• Multicode transmission.
• Adaptive power control based on SIR (Signal-to-Interference Ratio).
• Multiuser detection and smart antennas can be used to increase capacity and
coverage.
• Multiple types of handoff (or handover) between different cells including soft
handoff, softer handoff and hard handoff.