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.