Qualcomm demonstrates 3G 1x wireless data transmissions
The company demonstrated a number of applications, including live two-way video conferencing, simultaneous streaming video, chat, web browsing and file transfer protocol (FTP) operations. The video conference demonstration was conducted between a stationary laptop and an in-vehicle laptop while driving. Both systems used Qualcomm's 3G CDMA 1x trial handsets to establish Over-The-Air (OTA) packet data connections running at greater than 144 kb/s in both directions simultaneously.
During an FTP data transfer transmission, the QCT 3G 1x system transferred a one Megabyte file in 59 seconds—compared with an estimated 4.8 minutes required for a 28.8 kb/s landline modem (and 2.5 minutes, 2.2 minutes, and 65 seconds, respectively, for 56 kb/s, 64 kb/s and 128 kb/s landline modems).
The test transmissions, measured on Qualcomm's private system, are part of an ongoing effort to ensure compliance with IS-2000 and exhibit gains in voice capacity and coverage, data throughput and coverage, and talk and standby time. Additional tests in operational networks are currently in progress. Commercial 3G 1x service is expected to be deployed in Korea by the end of 2000, with 3G 1x service expected in the United States and Japan in 2001.
Currently ramping for production shipment, the MSM5000 solution gives operators up to twice the overall capacity over IS-95A and IS-95B systems by providing features such as fast 800 Hz forward power control and new modulation and coding schemes. Significant standby time improvements in MSM5000-based handsets will also be achieved through the use of the new Quick Paging Channel. The MSM5000 chipset and system software is fully backward compatible with existing IS-95A and IS-95B networks, providing a seamless migration path to 3G while maintaining existing wide-area coverage for all subscribers. The MSM5000 system software will also include support for packet data, a full Internet protocol suite and many other features.
The CSM5000 solution, compliant with IS-2000 1x, provides operators with up to twice the overall voice capacity over IS-95A and IS-95B systems. It exceeds the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) 144 kb/s requirement for data rates in full wide-area mobility by enabling data rates of up to 307.2 kb/s on both forward and reverse links.
The CSM5000 chip integrates an ARM7 microprocessor for reverse link processing and provides a PowerPC-compatible synchronous interface. The flexible architecture of the CSM5000 solution provides resource mapping of up to 64 forward link channels and 32 reverse link channels and provides base station manufacturers with a four-fold increase in the number of simultaneous calls per channel card. In addition, the channel card power consumption per call is greatly reduced, enabling design of very compact base stations and picocells. Each channel element performs CDMA searching, CDMA modulation and demodulation, and Viterbi and Turbo decoding. The CSM5000 solution is now sampling, and production shipping is expected in the fourth calendar quarter of 2000.
Edited by Ellen Jensen
Managing Editor, Wireless Networks Online