3GPP

3GPP

(3rd Generation Partnership Project) A cooperation of international standards bodies for the promotion of cellular systems that support high-speed data, known as "3rd-Generation" (3G) systems. Established in 1998, 3GPP comprises North American, European, Japanese, Korean and Chinese standards organizations. See cellular generations.

3GPP for GSM Carriers

UMTS: WCDMA, HSPA and SAE/EPS/LTE
The 3GPP project is responsible for the 3G specifications for GSM systems known as the "Universal Mobile Telecommunications System" (UMTS). Initially using the WCDMA air interface, it supports AAC music, AMR speech and MPEG-4 and H.264 video using the .3GP file extension. WCDMA was followed by HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) technologies that have been deployed in the U.S. starting with HSDPA in 2005 (see HSPA).

Based on Release 8 of HSPA, future UMTS implementations include (1) a new IP core network that goes by two names: "System Architecture Evolution" (SAE) and "Evolved Packet System" (EPS), and (2) an air interface based on an OFDMA downlink and FDMA uplink, called "Long Term Evolution" (LTE). The SAE/EPS and LTE implementations are expected in the 2010 time frame with LTE known as a 4G technology. For more information, visit www.3gpp.org. See WCDMA, HSPA and GSM.

3GPP2 for CDMA Carriers

CDMA2000 and UMB
The 3GPP2 project is responsible for the 3G specifications for CDMA2000 systems. It supports the same audio and video formats as 3GPP plus the addition of QCELP speech in files with the .3G2 extension. For more information, visit www.3gpp2.org.

Expected in 2009, "Ultra Mobile Broadband" (UMB) is the next-generation (4G) data transmission for CDMA2000. With download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, UMB uses the OFDMA air interface and is expected to be compatible with CDMA2000 1X and EV-DO networks. See CDMA2000, IMT-2000 and IP Multimedia Subsystem.