NEW ORLEANS-Standards bodies met with the International Telecommunication Union last week to prepare the detailed specifications of third-generation mobile-phone technology.
The ITU is trying to find the best way to work with all standards bodies developing 3G specifications. This follows a recent ITU meeting in Beijing where participants agreed to make the ITU the “one-stop shop” for 3G global standards to ensure the radio recommendations for 3G, or IMT-2000, meet industry needs worldwide and make use of the work carried out by other team members where appropriate.
The process calls for proponents of the different IMT-2000 radio interfaces to submit to the ITU information about the detailed specifications in time for final consideration at the next relevant ITU meeting, which starts Oct. 25 in Helsinki, Finland.
Senior representatives from the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses and the Telecommunication Technology committee of Japan, the Telecommunications Technology Association of the Republic of Korea, the U.S. Telecommunication Industry Association and Committee TI, as well as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, participated in the discussions. “The most important things is to all agree on something workable as early as possible to meet the market requirements and to safeguard interoperability between all major core networks irrespective of the access method chosen,” said Karl-Heinz Rosenbrock, director-general of ETSI.
“The various paths that will lead operators and consumers to IMT-2000 networks and services have been agreed upon and full convergence should be achieved in the longer term if all players abide by the blueprint agreed within the general framework of the ITU,” said Akio Sasaki from ARIB.
The ITU already has received the generic description parts of the submissions by the Sept. 1 deadline concerning the following IMT-2000 radio interface specifications:
W-CDMA (wideband Code Division Multiple Access) by the 3G Partnership Project, (where ETSI is doing all of its standards work);
cdma2000 by TIA TR-45.5 (prepared by 3GPP2);
UWC-136 by TIA TR-45.3;
TD-SCDMA by CWTS in China;
and DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone) by ETSI Project DECT.
Specification parts are due Oct. 15.
In related news, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium, an association representing Time Division Multiple Access operators and vendors, joined the 3GPP organization.
“This was the right time for UWCC to step up from our previous level of engagement on 3G standards development,” said Sheila Mickool, president of UWCC.
The UWCC wants to share technical work on convergence of TDMA and Global System for Mobile communications systems to achieve a common global solution for next-generation high-speed packet data.
“The UWCC will be an active contributor to developing a common global vision for full wireless Internet capability based on evolution of ANSI-41 and GSM MAP core networks,” said Greg Williams, chairman of the UWCC.
