WHY 3GPP2?

3GPP2 stands for Third Generation Partnership Project 2. This project was started in the year 1998 when the then-new standard IMT2000 or the CDMA2000 was under development. The standards for this technology and its future were found to be really vast, resulting in the need for collaboration among the different standard making bodies around the world. The name 3GPP2 was derived from the 3GPP, and the supervising organization for the 3GPP2 was the ITU or the International Telecommunications Union.

The main motto of 3 GPP2 was to form a collaborative third generation (3G) telecommunications specifications for global mobile communication. Because the Europeans were involved in 3GPP, they were not that interested in 3GPP2, so the 3GPP2 project is comprised of North American and Asian leaders of CDMA 2000. They are developing global specifications for ANSI/TIA/EIA-41 Cellular Radio telecommunication Intersystem Operations network evolution to 3G and beyond. The aim is also to develop and set the complete global specifications for the radio transmission technologies (RTTs) supported by ANSI/TIA/EIA-41.

3GPP2 was born out of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) International Mobile Telecommunications IMT-2000 initiative, covering high speed, broadband, and Internet Protocol (IP)-based mobile systems featuring network-to-network interconnection, feature/service transparency, global roaming and seamless services independent of location and mobility. The main idea behind this project is to bring high-quality mobile multimedia telecommunications to a worldwide mass market by achieving the goals of increasing the speed and ease of wireless communications. This is in response to the problems faced by the increased demand to pass data via telecommunications, and providing "anytime, anywhere" services.

As we have mentioned above, the concept of a "Partnership Project" was given by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) early in 1997 with the proposal to create a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) using the Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology and its future versions. Although discussions took place between ETSI and the ANSI-41 community with a view to consolidating collaboration efforts for all ITU members, in the end it was deemed appropriate that a parallel Partnership Project be established − 3GPP2 which, like its sister project 3GPP, embodies the benefits of a collaborative effort (timely delivery of output, speedy working methods etc.). At the same time there was a need of recognition as a specifications-developing body, providing easier access of the outputs into the ITU after transposition of the specifications in a Standards Development Organization (SDO) into a standard.

Members of 3GPP2

The primary members of the 3GPP2 project are the Standard Development Organizations of both the east and west. In the west the leading players are the European and American standard development organizations, and in the east the front runners of mobile communication include countries like Japan, Korea and China. These countries’ standard development organizations are participating in this project, whose five main members are:

• TIA - Telecommunications Industry Association (North America)
• TTA - Telecommunications Technology Association (Korea)
• TTC - Telecommunications Technology Committee (Japan)
• ARIB - Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (Japan)
• CCSA - China Communications Standards Association (China)

The project is a not only a collaboration of standard making organizations, but also an opportunity for experts of the technology creating organizations, like the IPv6 Forum, to share their advice. Besides the above SDO organizations, the technology building partners are also active players of this project. They are:

• The CDMA Development Group (CDG)
• IPv6 Forum
• Mobilelgnite
• Femto Forum

The 3GPP2 recommended 3G systems are:

1. IMT-2000 CDMA Multi-carrier, also known as CDMA2000 (3X) developed by 3GPP2. (IMT-2000 CDMA2000 includes 1X components, like CDMA2000 1X EV-DO.)
2. IMT-2000 CDMA TDD, also known as UTRA TDD and TD-SCDMA. TD-SCDMA is developed in China and supported by TD-SCDMA Forum.
3. IMT-2000 TDMA Single Carrier, also known as UWC-136 (Edge) supported by UWCC.
4. IMT-2000 DECT supported by DECT Forum.

WHAT IS 3GPP?

The development of the GSM technology unified the Europe with a bond and realized a true European Union. Following the success of GSM, there was a need for a broadband system based on the GSM framework. This led to European countries looking forward to an advanced personal broadband service, which they called the 3G. So overall, the 3G standard is nothing more than personal broadband services on the GSM core network. Of course, the technology behind the 3G system is an advanced version known as the UMTS or the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System. Its main competitor is the IMT 2000, supervised by ITU.

Members of 3GPP

There are six organizational members of the 3GPP project. These members are the regional standard development organizations of different countries or continents. They are:

• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI, Europe)
• Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB, Japan)
• Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC, Japan)
• China Communications Standards Association (CCSA, China)
• Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS, North America)
• Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA, South Korea)

The project was planned in 1997 and work started in December 1998. This 3GPP project started their work for the future of GSM. First the GPRS came in 2000, then the EDGE or the 2.7G (also the EGPRS) came in the year 2003. Later in the same year 3G came to the market commercially. Of course, the experimental versions of these technologies had come much before their public use. NTT DoCoMo first tried the experimental version of 3G in October 2001. Then in the US, the IMT 2000 based CDMA2000 lx EV-DO came into existence in 2003.

So overall, we can say that 3GPP is a European project in collaboration with the other leading members of the world, which seeks to create post-GSM networks on the GSM framework with the goal of meeting future mobile needs. The main contribution in the post-3G era which is coming to the public is 4G.