High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) HSDPA, short for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, is a new protocol

for mobile telephone data transmission. It is known as a 3.5G (G stands for generation) technology. Essentially, the standard will provide download speeds on a mobile phone equivalent to an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) line in a home, removing any limitations placed on the use of your phone by a slow connection. It is an evolution and improvement on W-CDMA, or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, a 3G protocol. HSDPA improves the data transfer rate by a factor of at least five over W-CDMA. HSDPA can achieve theoretical data transmission speeds of 8-10 Mbps (megabits per second). Though any data can be transmitted, applications with high data demands such as video and streaming music are the focus of HSDPA (2006).

High speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a packet based technology for W-CDMA downlink with data transmission rates of 4 to 5 times that of the 3G networks (UMTS) and 15 times faster than GPRS. The latest release boosts downlink speeds from the current end-user rate of 384 kbps (up to 2 Mbps according to standards) to a maximum value according to standards of 14.4 Mbps. Real life end-user speeds will be in the range of 2 to 3 Mbps HSDPA provides a smooth evolutionary path for universal Mobile Telecommunications systems (UMTS) and higher capacities, in the same way as Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) does in the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) world. The introduction of shared channels for different users will guarantee that channel resources are used efficiently in the packet domain and will be less expensive for users than dedicated channels HSPDA was introduced in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) release 5 standards. Assuming comparable cell sizes, it is anticipated that by using multicode transmission it will be possible to achieve peak data rates of about 10 Mbits/s (the maximum theoretical rate is 14.4 Mbits/s). This will result in a sixseven-fold throughput increase during an average downlink packet session

compared with the Downlink Shared Channel (DSCH) standards of 3GPP release 99 3GPP standards beyond release 5 will aim to achieve further throughput increases, say peak data rates in the range 20 to 30 Mbit/s, by using Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) or other antenna array techniques, and possibly asymmetric allocation of frequency spectrum in multi-carrier cells (e.g. a further 100% downlink packet session throughput increase by allocating an additional 5 MHz unpaired band). HSDPA achieves its performance gains from the following radio features:

High speed channels shared both in the code and time domains Adaptive modulation and coding schemes: Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) and 16QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation). Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) retransmission protocol. Short transmission time interval (TTI) Fast packet scheduling controlled by the Medium Access Control - high speed (MAC-hs) protocol in Node B. Fast scheduling

HSDPA will make life easy for 3G customers, providing vastly better service for both corporate users and individuals, with data delivered at speeds comparable to or better than fixed-line broadband access systems.

Corporate users will have easy and secure mobile access to corporate networks, with rapid retrieval and downloading of confidential corporate information. Consumers will enjoy superior quality for video services, including video streaming and gaming.

All customers will enjoy fast Web browsing, with rapid access to graphicsheavy Internet sites.

With the availability of HSDPA notebook cards (and a deployed network), the question will be, with ubiquitous HSDPA coverage, will anyone pay for a hotspot service available at only selected locations? There are two possible scenarios where they might. Bandwidth at Wi-Fi hotspots may be hugely price competitive, or even free; and Wi-Fi will come pre-installed on many notebooks. The success of the Intel Centrino platform will saw the majority of notebooks shipped with inbuilt WLAN support by the end of 2005, and slotting in an additional wireless card overkilled some users. However, with Intel planned and added W-CDMA the following year, HSDPA may also be on its wireless technology checklist. As HSDPA settles more into mainstream awareness, we should expect the usual levels of hype to start flying. Already, the technology is being flagged as a potential competitor to DSL, placing a lucrative portion of fixed-line operator customers in the hands of the cellular providers. WiMAX is another opponent being lined-up for a bout with HSDPA. How effectively the 3G upgrade can compete in these arenas will depend on infrastructure cost and coverage density. Regardless, we must admit that the introduction of this new cellular standard has made things a little more interesting. HSDPA, the Mobile Access Turbocharger What's the latest and the greatest? It's high-speed access for 3G/UMTS mobile networks, called HSDPA (for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). The name may be a mouthful, but the technology pioneered in Japan is hot, hot, hot. HSDPA acts like a turbocharger for 3G phones and 3G-enabled laptops and PDAs, boosting download speeds between 5 and 8 times and doubling network capacity, putting 3G users in the fast lane. With HSDPA, everybody benefits:

Corporate 3G users can retrieve e-mails with bulky attachments in a flash, Individual users can enjoy superb quality-video streaming and fast downloading of video clips. Alcatel's partner Fujitsu installed one of the first HSDPA in Japan for the world's leading 3G operator, NTT DoCoMo.

Making Life Easy HSDPA will make life easy for 3G customers, providing vastly better service for both corporate users and individuals, with data delivered at speeds comparable to or better than fixed-line broadband access systems.

Corporate users will have easy and secure mobile access to corporate networks, with rapid retrieval and downloading of confidential corporate information. Consumers will enjoy superior quality for video services, including video streaming and gaming. All customers will enjoy fast Web browsing, with rapid access to graphicsheavy Internet sites. HSDPA also offers significantly improved indoor mobile service coverage, making 3G services fully available in large buildings, shopping centers, metros and other hard-to-cover areas. Indeed, an absolute must!

ISSUES EVOLVING FROM OPERATION (Operator Issues) Experience is a vital issue. Has it been done before? Can it be deployed successfully? For these answers one can look at the Japanese (Alcatel) experience of Fujitsu, its partner in the Evolium SAS joint venture. The major supplier to NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu is a world leader in 3G and the most advanced in HSDPA deployments. Indoor coverage is essential to the success of 3G. has Extensive expertise in this area has been shown by Alcatel through its partnership with DoCoMo Engineering, which has installed more than thousand 3G sites inside office buildings, shopping centers and metros in Japan. Cost is clearly crucial. Here, Alcatel's Evolium radio infrastructure, with its multi-standard architecture, has a definite advantage. The Evolium 3G/UMTS requires only a software upgrade to add HSDPA to existing equipment, for enormous cost savings and a rapid time to market. Handset interoperability is also key. This is the ability of different handsets and networks to work together, regardless of the manufacturers involved.

Alcatel is very active, running interoperability tests on chipsets and handsets as they appear. Boosting Customer Demand

By dramatically improving access speeds and quality of service, HSDPA will boost customer demand for 3G/UMTS mobile services and+ will give operators a cost-effective way to deliver those services.

One key point, is the fact that HSDPA won't require any new infrastructure as it will use cellular infrastructure which already exists today. High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a packet-based data service in WCDMA downlink with data transmission up to 8-10 Mbps (and 20 Mbps for MIMO systems) over a 5MHz bandwidth in WCDMA downlink. HSDPA implementations includes Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Hybrid Automatic Request (HARQ), fast cell search, and advanced receiver design. In 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standards, Release 4 specifications provide efficient IP support enabling provision of services through an all-IP core network and Release 5 specifications focus on HSDPA to provide data rates up to approximately 10 Mbps to support packet-based multimedia services. MIMO systems are the work item in Release 6 specifications, which will support even higher data transmission rates up to 20 Mbps. HSDPA is evolved from and backward compatible with Release 99 WCDMA systems. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) Mobile Broadband Key Data Downlink frame size 2ms TTI (3 slots) Channel feedback Channel quality reported at 2ms rate or 500Hz Data user multiplexing

TDM/CDM Adaptive modulation and coding QPSK and 16 QAM Mandatory Hybrid-ARQ Chase or Incremental Redundancy (IR) Spreading factor SF=16 using UTRA OVSF Channelization codes Control channel approach Dedicated channel pointing to shared channel Full specifications High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a new mobile telecommunications protocol, which has also been called 3.5G. The standard is a packet-based data service in W-CDMA downlink with data transmission up to 8Mbps to 10Mbps (and 20Mbps for MIMO systems) over a 5MHz bandwidth in WCDMA downlink. HSDPA implementations include Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Hybrid Automatic Request (HARQ), fast cell search, and advanced receiver design.

In 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standards, Release 4 specifications provide efficient IP support enabling provision of services through an all-IP core network; Release 5 specifications focus on HSDPA to provide data rates up to approximately 10Mbps to support packet-based multimedia services. MIMO systems are the work item in Release 6 specifications, which will support even higher data transmission, rates up to 20Mbps. HSDPA is evolved from, and backward compatible with, Release 99 WCDMA systems. HSDPA marks a similar boost for WCDMA that EDGE does for GSM. It provides a two-fold increase in air interface capacity and a five-fold increase in data speeds in the downlink direction. HSDPA also shortens the round-trip time between the network and terminals and reduces variance in downlink transmission delay. HSDPA IMPROVEMENTS

The standard combines some key functions, such as scheduling of data packet transmission and processing of retransmissions (in case of transmission errors) into the base station (closer to the air interface). The system utilizes a short frame length to further accelerate packet scheduling for transmission and employs incremental redundancy for minimizing the air-interface load caused by retransmissions. The standard also incorporates a new transport channel type, known as High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) to facilitate air interface channel sharing between several users. The system can also adapt the modulation scheme and coding according to the quality of the radio link. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING (AMC) AND MULTICODE TRANSMISSION Traditionally, WCDMA has used fast power control for link adaptation, but HSDPA holds the transmission power constant over the TTI and uses Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) as an alternative link adaptation method to power control in order to improve the spectral efficiency. The Node-B determines the transmission data rate based on CQI reports as well as power measurements on the associated channels. The data rate is adjusted by modifying the modulation scheme, the effective code rate as well as the number of HS-PDSCH codes. In a system with AMC, users close to the Node-B are typically assigned higher order modulation with higher code rates (e.g. 16 QAM with a 3/4 code rate), and the modulation-order and/or code rate generally decreases as the distance to the Node-B increases. H-ARQ (HYBRID AUTOMATIC REQUEST) When operating HSDPA near the highest possible spectral efficiency the Block Error Rate (BLER) after first transmission is in the order of 10% to 20%. With the HSDPA concept, an H-ARQ mechanism has been introduced to reduce the delay and increase the efficiency of retransmitting data. The H-ARQ protocol used for HSDPA is Stop And Wait (SAW). With SAW, the transmitting side persists on the transmission of the current block until it has successfully been received by the user equipment. In order to utilise the time when the Node-B awaits acknowledgements, N parallel SAW-ARQ processes may

be set for the user equipment, so different processes transmit in separate TTIs. The value of N may maximally be 8, but in practice N will be around 4 to 6. The minimum delay between the original and the first retransmission is 12ms for HSDPA. The control of the L1 H-ARQ is located in the Node-B, so that storage of unacknowledged data packets and the following scheduling of retransmissions do not involve the RNC. Hence, the Iub delay is avoided and the resulting retransmission delay is significantly lower than the delay caused by conventional RLC retransmissions. The HSDPA concept supports both the Incremental Redundancy (IR) and Chase Combing (CC) retransmission strategies. PACKET SCHEDULING The packet scheduling for HSDPA is located in the medium access layer, MAC-hs. The MAC-hs is located in the Node-B, which means that the packet scheduling decisions are almost instantaneously executed. In addition to this, the TTI length has been shortened to 2ms. A typically considered packet scheduling strategy is the Round-Robin in time scheduler where users are served in sequential order so they all get the same average allocation time. However, the high scheduling rate combined with the large AMC dynamic range available with the HSDPA concept also facilitates advanced scheduling methods where channel allocation is conducted according to the current radio conditions. A popular packet scheduling method is the proportional fair packet scheduler. With this type of scheduler, the serve order is determined by the highest instantaneous relative channel quality, i.e. it attempts to track the fast fading behaviour of the radio channel. Since the selection is based on relative conditions, every user still gets approximately the same amount of allocation time but the increase in system capacity easily exceeds 50%. HSDPA PERFORMANCE The HSDPA concept facilitates peak data rates exceeding 2Mbps (theoretically up to and exceeding 10Mbps) and the cell throughput gain over previous UTRA-FDD releases has been evaluated to be in the order of 50% to 100% or even more,

highly dependent on factors such as the radio environment and the service provision strategy of the network operator. Practical HSDPA user bit rates, even in large macro cells, can be similar to broadband home DSL lines. As HSDPA enables more bits to be transferred with the same radio frequency, it also enables lower cost per bit than Release 99 based WCDMA. TAKE-UP OF HSDPA HSDPA is beginning to reach deployment status in North America. Cingular has announced that they will begin to deploy UMTS with expansion to HSDPA in 2005. Cingular faces competitive pressure from operators such as Verizon who use a competing 3G technology, CDMA-2000 1x-EvDO, and who have already deployed a similar high speed data service. In Japan, KDDI has been commercially deploying 3.5G services based on a nationwide CDMA-2000 1x-EvDO network since December 2003. Docomo announced in 2005 that it will introduce HSDPA from 2006. In Germany, T-Mobile will officially introduce its HSDPA service at the CeBIT 2006 exhibition. There is much talk about the competition between HSDPA and WiMax (a new wireless broadband standard). However although superficially the two standards will be in competition they are fundametally different. In the early stages, HSDPA will still be about mobility and data and voice from a mobile telecoms platform and WiMax will be about wireless broadband data to underserved areas. For WiMax, HSDPA serves as a form of competition that's not as fast. WiMax promises speeds of up to 70Mbps, but much more mobile. One key difference between the two technologies is the fact that HSDPA won't require any new infrastructure, just new software, but brand new infrastructure is needed for WiMax.

HSDPA refers to a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access. It is also called 3.5G or super 3G in mobile phone terminology. It offers a high speed method of

downloading data across a 3G mobile phone network. HSDPA networks support download speeds of 1.8 Mbps. The uplink speed for HSDPA is 384Kbps. HSDPA handles transmission from the network to the user equipment. With HSDPA, you can download the full music album instead of individual songs. It will also improve the quality of streaming video, while making video downloads much faster. A quick look at 3G 3G is a technology for transferring data, be it voice data like phone calls or nonvoice data like email, video calls or downloadable music and videos. The maximum speed on 3G is 384kbps which lets you download a 3MB file in a minute. HSDPA is an improvement over 3G and it provides more bandwidth, making it faster to get content, whether it is video / audio streaming, or downloading movies, music or games. HSDPA is a more advanced technology that allows data to be transferred at a much faster rate. With HSDPA, download speeds of 1.8 Mbps, 3.6 Mbps, 7.2 Mbps and 14.4 Mbps are possible. An overview of HSDPA Even though, today's smartphone subscribers are not satisfied with just the basic services. They are demanding more, in terms of video chat, network TV, highspeed internet access and so on. The introduction of HSDPA technology enables to meet the requirements of mobile multimedia much better. HSDPA is a technology for improving the downlink speed of WCDMA networks. Data service is the motivating factor behind the development of HSDPA. It is considered to be the most important technology of mobile broadband operation. HSDPA makes use of three key technologies - Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ), Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) and fast invoke. Its Importance With HSDPA the data transmission rate of the radio network can be increased and subsequently the transmission delay and transmission cost can be reduced to a great extent. Large number of subscribers can access high-speed data service at the same time with the help of HSDPA.

With HSDPA you can enjoy broadband service any time, any where. Owing to increased data rates, the operators can now launch an array of new and value-added services. Business users can benefit by way of rapid download of emails with attachments and high-speed internet access. It facilitates easy download of DVD quality music, full length movies, advanced games and highresolution images. As you may already know from our previous articles, mobile telecommunication technologies have suffered some qualitative changes for almost thirty years of their development, which resulted in their division into generations: 1G, 2G, and 3G. The first generation (1G) had analog standards. The first break-through was made at the upgrade to digital standards of the second generation. We should single out two main trends TDMA and CDMA. The most popular GSM format belongs to the first group. According to analytic forecasts, this format was to play the main role in the world for another several years. This standard was initially designed for high-quality voice transmissions. And it still copes well with this task. But as there appeared global demand for Internet access from notebooks, and later on, from PDAs or smart phones and mobile handsets (WAP), it turned out that the GSM standard in pure form does not do it very well (maximum throughput is 9600 bit/s). Then there were invented data transfer technologies (GPRS and EDGE) for this standard. They are sometimes called 2.5G technologies. The CDMA standard became the most suitable for data transfer. But there were added 1x RTT, EVDO and EV-DV technologies to prevent the damage on voice transmission quality. The baseline modification of CDMA2000 belongs to the third generation according to IMT-2000 specifications, its data throughput is no less than 384 Kbit/s, which is sufficient for bidirectional video communications (320x240). Having split in the second generation, cellular communication technologies were reduced to a common denominator WCDMA. It's a 3G standard, which underlies UMTS networks. It's not surprising, later high data transfer rates required the same technologies. That's why the GSM-GPRS-EDGE-UMTS "tree"

has grown "branches" for encoding and multiplexing channels, and the AMPSCDMA-CDMA2000-WCDMA "tree" division into subbands and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing). At the same time, wireless technologies that had been initially created solely for data exchange used code division of bands and OFDM. As we have already said, it's inevitable. But while data transfer technologies in cellular communication networks and wireless networks couldn't compete with each other and supplemented each other at the previous stage, when the market was dominated by 2G and 2.5G standards; now, with the increased Internet access rates in cellular communication networks on one hand and with the enlarged coverage of wireless networks on the other hand, different "worlds" started to compete with each other. We have a unique opportunity to see which approach will survive: cellular communication networks designed for voice transmission and offering broadband access to digital networks (Internet in particular); or wireless networks designed for data transfers, which successfully mastered VoIP technologies (Voice-over-IP). HSDPA specifications were published in 3GPP Release 5. This technology is fully backward compatible with UMTS Release 99 and allows voice communication and data transmission services UMTS and HSDPA simultaneously. Its maximum theoretical bandwidth is 14.4 Mbit/s. Such high spectral efficiency required reorganization of the channel structure, usage of both code and time division of channels, increase of the modulation scheme level, as well as usage of faster algorithms for sending packets and retranslating them in case of errors. HSDPA uses HS-PDSCH channels (High-Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channels). One 5 MHz HSDPA uses WCDMA QPSK (Quadrature Phase-Shifting Keying) and 16-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation). The first modulation scheme transmits two data bits in a character, the second four bits. But the latter modulation scheme can be used only if the signal level permits it, to be more exact signal/noise ratio. Regardless of what modulation scheme is currently used, data are

transmitted as redundant code that contains the data proper and additional bits (the simplest example of redundant code is a number plus a one-bit checksum), which may number up to a quarter of a packet length. Now what concerns is the improvements of algorithms to resend packets that were received incorrectly. Unlike GPRS/EDGE, the new Fast Hybrid ARQ technology (Fast Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) has both a base station and a terminal (handset) to make sure packets are received correctly. Resent packets take turns with successfully sent packets (the engineers designed the hybrid algorithm to raise the chance of successful reception due to "similarity" of such packet groups). Communication range Despite all our tricks, there are certain things, which are impossible to get. All technologies have fortes and drawbacks Distance The farther a terminal is from a base station, the weaker the signal (the worse signal/noise ratio). So a modulation level is reduced, enabling fewer bits to be transmitted in a single symbol. We should also take into account that a higherfrequency signal is better absorbed by the air. According to some estimates, the HSDPA is at its maximum bandwidth (14.4 Mbit/s) at less than a kilometer from a base station. At 6 km, the data rate drops to less than 1 Mbit/s. Here is the principal difference of HSDPA: where a user cannot get the highest bandwidth, the technology still allows the use of data transmission services, but with lower bandwidth (on the level of WCDMA or GPRS/EDGE) dozens of Kbit per second. Thus, we cannot say that the communication range is a forte of this or that technology. A number of users The true forte of HSDPA is the fact that this technology is initially intended for lots of simultaneous users. If all users suddenly decide to download a large file from Internet, it will certainly affect data rates. But in case of HSDPA (this feature is inherited from CDMA); all users will just have lower data rates. Bandwidth

The gain in WiMAX versus HSDPA bandwidth at the same distance from a base station is not that evident so far. First of all it's because WiMAX does not have many frequency ranges yet. But if HSDPA, being an evolutional step in the development of WCDMA, is getting close to the threshold of spectral efficiency, while WiMAX has much more possible ways of development new frequency ranges (from 10 GHz to 66 GHz, remember?), new modulation schemes (as well as combinations with the old ones), and MIMO (multiple-input-multiple output). Multimedia This technology has QoS and traffic prioritizing. The choice between voice communications in WCDMA/HSDPA is a matter of taste from the technical point of view. But not in economic terms VoIP traffic is much cheaper than WCDMA traffic. Security HSDPA does not provide any additional security functions. Users are authenticated by their SIM (or R-UIM) cards. Data encoding for different users, typical of all CDMA standards, works better than any cryptographic algorithm, but not if an intruder is in a base station or somehow gets its channels code (like special agents).

CONCLUSION The success of this technology as a GSM-replacement, vis-a-vis other contenders like CDMA2000 EvDO and cellular data communication standards like WiMax (802.16), is still unclear. This is especially true considering that KDDI's CDMA2000 is generally considered as being much more successful and smooth than DoCoMo's and Vodafone's UMTS/WCDMA introduction in Japan, which are slower than initially hoped.