The IMS: IP Multimedia Concepts And Services, Second Edition

1.3. Where did it come from?

1.3.1. From GSM to 3GPP Release 7

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was the standardization organization that defined the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) during the late 1980s and 1990s. ETSI also defined the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network architecture. The last GSM-only standard was produced in 1998, and in the same year the 3GPP was founded by standardization bodies from Europe, Japan, South Korea, the USA and China to specify a 3G mobile system comprising Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and Time Division/Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA) radio access and an evolved GSM core network (www.3gpp.org/About/3gppagre.pdf). Most of the work and cornerstone specifications were inherited from the ETSI Special Mobile Group (SMG). The 3GPP originally decided to prepare specifications on a yearly basis, the first specification release being Release 99.

1.3.2. 3GPP Release 99 (3GPP R99)

It took barely a year to produce the first release – Release 1999. The functionality of the release was frozen in December 1999 although some base specifications were frozen afterward – in March 2001. Fast completion was possible because the actual work was divided between two organizations: 3GPP and ETSI SMG. 3GPP developed the services, system architecture, WCDMA and TD-CDMA radio accesses, and the common core network. ETSI SMG developed the GSM/Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) radio access. ...