The technical advantages of 3G are far more than that of 2G and its enhancements such as GPRS and EDGE. GSM was originally deployed as a circuit switched network for voice services. However, when it was deduced that data services will bring in more revenue, it led to operators upgrading their circuit switched networks with a packet switched data network on top of it. Although 3G was already conceived, the enhanced GSM network would provide data and voice services in the meantime. Circuit switched networks have always been used for voice services in organizations and the most obvious advantage is that of higher access speeds. When networks introduce UMTS, users will be able to experience a maximum speed of 2Mbps indoors and 384Kbps outdoors. Although these numbers are only theoretical maximums achievable, practically, the average should be around 300Kbps, and this would allow users to experience multimedia type services.
The big advantage of 3G is that it introduces entirely packet based networks. As compared to early GSM which was a circuit switched based network. Enhancement to GSM had introduced packet switching with GPRS and EDGE. However, with a fully IP based network such as UMTS, a lot more advantages are possible.
Quality of service, which was not fully addressed by GSM and its enhancements, is another advantage of UMTS. With UMTS, quality of service measures has been incorporated in to the technology to make sure that spectrum allocation is optimized. This means that for a particular type of data service, e.g. multimedia video streaming, the appropriate amount of bandwidth will be allocated by the network for that particular service to ensure that the user experience is maximized.
Because of the employment of WCDMA and direct sequence spread spectrum techniques, spectral efficiency is also increased for UMTS, as compared to GSM. Because of the nature of WCDMA, the spectrum available is translated into high data rates and this is ideal for high bandwidth data requirements.
The security aspects of UMTS are also an improvement over that of GSM, although what security functions found in UMTS are generally improved versions of GSM security functions. In GSM, security for users was found in the SIM and the radio interface was encrypted. In UMTS, encryption in the air interface is now broadened to include the base stations and radio network controller connections as well. Other security features have also been included in the base stations and in data authentication. 6 Therefore, in terms of security, UMTS does show and improvement over GSM. However, like every other system, it is not a fully secure one and is vulnerable to misuse and abuse.
The big advantage of 3G is that it introduces entirely packet based networks. As compared to early GSM which was a circuit switched based network. Enhancement to GSM had introduced packet switching with GPRS and EDGE. However, with a fully IP based network such as UMTS, a lot more advantages are possible.
Quality of service, which was not fully addressed by GSM and its enhancements, is another advantage of UMTS. With UMTS, quality of service measures has been incorporated in to the technology to make sure that spectrum allocation is optimized. This means that for a particular type of data service, e.g. multimedia video streaming, the appropriate amount of bandwidth will be allocated by the network for that particular service to ensure that the user experience is maximized.
Because of the employment of WCDMA and direct sequence spread spectrum techniques, spectral efficiency is also increased for UMTS, as compared to GSM. Because of the nature of WCDMA, the spectrum available is translated into high data rates and this is ideal for high bandwidth data requirements.
The security aspects of UMTS are also an improvement over that of GSM, although what security functions found in UMTS are generally improved versions of GSM security functions. In GSM, security for users was found in the SIM and the radio interface was encrypted. In UMTS, encryption in the air interface is now broadened to include the base stations and radio network controller connections as well. Other security features have also been included in the base stations and in data authentication. 6 Therefore, in terms of security, UMTS does show and improvement over GSM. However, like every other system, it is not a fully secure one and is vulnerable to misuse and abuse.
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