Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) and High‐Speed Packet Access (HSPA)
Martin Sauter · 2010
Universal mobile telecommunications systems (UMTS) combines the properties of the circuit-switched voice network with the properties of the packet-switched data network and offers a multitude of new possibilities compared to the earlier systems. This chapter provides an overview of the advantages and enhancements of UMTS compared to its predecessors. It then focuses on the functionality of the UMTS radio access network. New concepts like the radio resource control (RRC) mechanisms as well as changes in mobility, call control (CC) and session management are also described in detail. Finally, the chapter analysis the performance of high-speed packet access (HSPA) in deployed networks today, and how the functionalities are used in practice. Controlled Vocabulary Terms 3G mobile communication; access protocols; packet switching