5
HSPA and LTE
5.1 HSPA (High Speed Packet Access)
5.1.1 Introduction to HSPA
HSPA is also called 3.5G technology (beyond 3G) that increases the capability of the UMTS system and the performance of the network becomes better in terms of end user experience such as file download/upload streaming services, VoIP, etc. The peak data rates increase to 14 Mbps (downlink) and 5.8 Mbps (uplink), thus providing five time more capacity in downlink and double capacity in the uplink direction. HSPA is the 3G release 5 solutions for expanding the throughput of the system (release 99 provides data rates up to 384 kbps).The increase in data rate is done through an additional downlink transport channel called the High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH). This improves latency and increase the throughput.
5.1.2 Standardization of HSPA
HSPA constitutes two major advancements, in the downlink and uplink directions. In the downlink direction, it is called HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access while in the uplink it is called HSUPA or High Speed Uplink Packet Access. HSDPA was a part of release 5 and HSUPA was a part of release 6 specifications. The HSPA is deployed on the WCDMA network and the network elements are the same as in the WCDMA network. With some hardware upgrades in the base station and RNC and software upgrades, a WCDMA network is ready to function as a HSPA network. The data rates in the HSDPA networks range from 1.8 Mbps to 10 Mbps (and 20 Mbps for MIMO systems) while in the ...
