Third Generation Wireless Communication Technologies

The debate on the third generation wireless system is not about the selection of the core technologies, such as CDMA versus TDMA. Rather, it is on whether the design objectives properly address the market needs and whether there are sufficient technical innovations to achieve these objectives. This chapter discusses the essential design objectives for a successful third generation wireless system. A number of key innovations intended to meet these objectives are presented. We will briefly describe the cdma2000 forward and reverse link design. In the forward link an alternative approach for the 3X mode that exhibits advantages of two approaches currently included in the cdma2000 standard is outlined. In the reverse link, we will present a media access scheme that combines PRMA for large packets and ISMA with capture message for short packets to significantly improve the efficiency of channel utilisation for high-speed data transmission. In both the forward and reverse links, Turbo FEC codes further increase the underlying channel capacity by 50–60 percent. By combining an efficient reverse link multiple access architecture, and optimised FEC coding techniques, third generation wireless systems can reach an unprecedented level of performance in high-speed packet data delivery and improved voice capacity with minimum impact on implementation complexity.