3G - The Future of Mobile Telephony?
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This website aims to discuss
generally, the technologies of mobile telephony and looks into the future
of mobile communications in 3rd generation mobile phones.
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Site map
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GSM
The second generation of mobile phones incorporate
the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) standard. This represented
the step where a digital system was employed for mobile communications.
Most GSM phones have Short Messaging Service (SMS) capabilities, but low
data transfer rates and circuit-switched connections meant that access
to the Internet and data services would be a slow and costly procedure.
Therefore not all GSM phones are WAP-enabled.
GPRS
The General Packet Radio System (GPRS) sometimes
known as 2.5G, is an add-on data network to GSM which has a high bandwidth
and offers a high speed mobile data service. This is possible because of
a packet switched network used for data transfers, meaning that radio resources
are used only during the actual sending and receiving of data ensuring
efficient use of available bandwidth. The existing circuit switched GSM
network is still used for voice and SMS services. Faster connections facilitates
the transfer of large blocks of data, permitting Internet browsing, FTP,
as well as multimedia services. Subscribers are not charged for the length
of the call but for the amount of data transferred.
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WAP
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is
simply a protocol linking the Internet to mobile devices. WAP-enabled mobile
devices makes it easier to use the Internet and allows users to send email
as well as browse the Web in WML format. The two features of WAP are that
it specifies a transport protocol for sending packets between mobile devices
and the Internet, and a Wireless Mark-up language which prepares Web pages
for display on a small screen and reduces the amount of data needed to
transfer.
WML
WML is the Wireless Mark-up Language, derived
from HTML, and is used to prepare Web pages for viewing on small
display screens such as those found in PDAs and mobile phones. It is impossible
to include all contents from HTML web pages on smaller screens, so pages
specially written in WML are used instead. WAP-enabled devices contains
micro-browsers enabling users to decode pages written in WML.
Combining WML and WAP with either
a GPRS or 3G system will enable high speed access to multimedia and mobile
Internet services.
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Table 1. Feature comparison
table for GSM, GPRS, and 3G phones
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Third generation systems
Whereas the GSM system was designed to handle
voice services primarily and data services secondarily, the 3G "third-generation"
phones are designed to handle voice as data and will operate on a packet-switched
network. So what can 3G offer to us that 2G phones cannot?
Figure 1. Spider diagram
showing important aspects of 3G
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Future for 3G
As with all new technologies the success depends
on the consumer and at this time, it is too early to tell whether 3G will
be a success. The signs are looking good however as many media and Internet
companies have shown interest in using 3G as a channel to distribute their
content. 3G licenses have also been sold around the world and this provides
a strong support for 3G as the future for wireless communication.
Bibliography
3G Web site [online].
Available from:
http://www.3g.co.uk/ [Accessed March 15th 2003]
3G.net, 3G Technology and 3G Standards
[online].
Available from: http://www.three-g.net/
[Accessed March 15th 2003]
The GSM Association, GSM - The Wireless
Evolution [online].
Available from: http://www.gsmworld.com
[Accessed March 15th 2003]
UMTS Forum [online].
Available from: http://www.umts-forum.org/servlet/dycon/ztumts/umts/Live/en/umts/Home
[Accessed March 15th 2003]
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Links/ Contact
Link
to my Insomnia and Sleeping Disorders Site
Link to 1st4PhoneCards.com
