Telecom: Overview

Chen Weixiang @ Mar 06, 2016 | TAG: Telecom

This article introduce the overview of Telecommunication.

Organizations

ITU

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), originally the International Telegraph Union formed in 1865, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. ITU became a United Nations specialized agency in 1947.

The ITU coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards. The ITU is active in areas including broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks.

ITU also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.

ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group. ITU has been an intergovernmental public-private partnership organization since its inception. Its membership includes 193 Member States and around 700 public and private sector companies as well as international and regional telecommunication entities, known as Sector Members and Associates, which undertake most of the work of each Sector.

The ITU comprises three sectors, each managing a different aspect of the matters handled by the Union, as well as ITU TELECOM. The sectors were created during the restructuring of ITU at its 1992 Plenipotentiary Conference.

ITU sectors Description
Radiocommunication (ITU-R) Established in 1927 as the International Radio Consultative Committee or CCIR (from its French name “Comité consultatif international pour la radio”), this sector manages the international radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbit resources. In 1992, the CCIR became the ITU-R.
Standardization (ITU-T) Standardization was the original purpose of ITU since its inception. Established in 1956 as the International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee or CCITT (from its French name “Comité consultatif international téléphonique et télégraphique”), this sector standardizes global telecommunications (except for radio). In 1993, the CCITT became the ITU-T.
Development (ITU-D) Established in 1992, this sector helps spread equitable, sustainable and affordable access to information and communication technologies (ICT).
ITU TELECOM ITU TELECOM organizes major events for the world’s ICT community. ITU Telecom World 2011 is ITU Telecom’s 40th Anniversary with the first event in 1971.

A permanent General Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General, manages the day-to-day work of the Union and its sectors.

WRC

The World radiocommunication conferences (WRC) are held every three to four years. It is the job of WRC to review, and, if necessary, revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits. Revisions are made on the basis of an agenda determined by the ITU Council, which takes into account recommendations made by previous world radiocommunication conferences.

The general scope of the agenda of world radiocommunication conferences (WRC) is established four to six years in advance, with the final agenda set by the ITU Council two years before the conference, with the concurrence of a majority of Member States.

Under the terms of the ITU Constitution, a WRC can:

On the basis of contributions from administrations, the Special Committee, the Radiocommunication Study Groups, and other sources (see Article 19 of the Convention (Geneva, 1992)) concerning the regulatory, technical, operational and procedural matters to be considered by World and Regional Radiocommunication Conferences, the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) shall prepare a consolidated report to be used in support of the work of such conferences.

Refer to Complete List of Radio Conferences and Calendar of Events for a list of World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) in the past and in the future.

Radio Regulations

The Radio Regulations contains the complete texts as adopted by the World Radiocommunication Conference (Geneva, 1995) (WRC-95) and subsequently revised and adopted by World Radiocommunication Conferences, including all Appendices, Resolutions, Recommendations and ITU-R Recommendations incorporated by reference.

The Radio Regulations can be downloaded from here. The Radio Regulations edition 2016, which contains the complete texts of the Radio Regulations as adopted by the WRC-95, subsequently revised and approved by the WRC-97, WRC-2000, WRC-03, WRC-07, WRC-12 and WRC-15, including all Appendices, Resolutions, Recommendations and ITU-R Recommendations incorporated by reference. The assignment and use of frequencies can be found in Chapter II.

WRC-12

Refer to WRC-12 and Final Acts of WRC-12 in English or Chinese.

WRC-15

Refer to WRC-15 and Final Acts of WRC-15 in English or Chinese.

ETSI

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the telecommunications industry (equipment makers and network operators) in Europe, headquartered in Sophia-Antipolis, France, with worldwide projection. ETSI produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, broadcast and internet technologies.

ETSI was created by European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) in 1988 and is officially recognized by the European Commission (EC) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) secretariat. Based in Sophia Antipolis (France), ETSI is officially responsible for standardization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within Europe.

ETSI publishes between 2,000 and 2,500 standards every year. Since its establishment in 1988, it produced over 30,000. These include the standards that enable key global technologies such as GSM cell phone system, 3G, 4G, DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication), TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) professional mobile radio system, and Short Range Device requirements including LPD radio, smart cards and many more standards success stories.

Significant ETSI technical committees and Industry Specification Groups (ISGs) include SmartM2M (for machine-to-machine communications), Intelligent Transport Systems, Network Functions Virtualisation, Cyber Security, Electronic Signatures and Infrastructures etc. ETSI inspired the creation of, and is a partner in, 3GPP and oneM2M. All technical committees, working and industry specification groups are accessible via the ETSI Portal.

ETSI technology clusters provide a simple, easy to grasp overview of ETSI’s activities in ICT standardization. Each technology cluster represents a major component of a global ICT architecture and covers the work of a number of ETSI technical committees and working groups that share a common technological scope and vision. The work of a single Technical Committee may be represented in several clusters. Clusters facilitate easy identification of an area of interest based on business relevance or application domain rather than purely on specific technical work areas.

ETSI is a founding partner organization of the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) initiative.

3GPP

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, known as the Organizational Partners. The initial scope of 3GPP was to make a globally applicable third-generation (3G) mobile phone system specification based on evolved Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specifications within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The scope was later enlarged to include the development and maintenance of:

  • GSM and related 2G and 2.5G standards including GPRS and EDGE
  • UMTS and related 3G standards including HSPA
  • LTE and related 4G standards
  • An evolved IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) developed in an access independent manner

3GPP standardization encompasses Radio, Core Network and Service architecture. The project was established in December 1998 and should not be confused with 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), which specifies standards for another 3G technology based on IS-95 (CDMA), commonly known as CDMA2000. The 3GPP support team (also known as the Mobile Competence Centre) is located at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) headquarters in Sophia-Antipolis (France).

3GPP2

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) is a collaboration between telecommunications associations to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU’s IMT-2000 project. In practice, 3GPP2 is the standardization group for CDMA2000, the set of 3G standards based on the earlier cdmaOne 2G CDMA technology.

The participating associations are ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China Communications Standards Association, China), TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association, North America) and TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association, South Korea).

The agreement was established in December 1998.

Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) was a 3GPP2 project to develop a fourth-generation successor to CDMA2000. In November 2008, Qualcomm, UMB’s lead sponsor, announced it was ending development of the technology, favoring LTE instead, refer to Qualcomm halts UMB project.

3GPP2 should not be confused with 3GPP; 3GPP is the standard body behind the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) that is the 3G upgrade to GSM networks, while 3GPP2 is the standard body behind the competing 3G standard CDMA2000 that is the 3G upgrade to cdmaOne networks used mostly in the United States (and to some extent also in Japan, China, Canada, South Korea and India).

GSM/GPRS/EDGE/W-CDMA is the most widespread wireless standard in the world. A few countries (such as China, the United States, Canada, India, South Korea and Japan) use both sets of standards, but most countries use only the GSM family.

Generations

0G (Mobile Radio Telephones)

Mobile radio telephone (or 0G) systems preceded modern cellular mobile telephony technology. Since they were the predecessors of the first generation of cellular telephones, these systems are sometimes retroactively referred to as pre cellular (or sometimes zero generation) systems. Technologies used in pre cellular systems included the Push to Talk (PTT or manual), Mobile Telephone System (MTS), Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS), and Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS) systems. These early mobile telephone systems can be distinguished from earlier closed radiotelephone systems in that they were available as a commercial service that was part of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), with their own telephone numbers, rather than part of a closed network such as a police radio or taxi dispatch system.

These mobile telephones were usually mounted in cars or trucks, though briefcase models were also made. Typically, the transceiver (transmitter-receiver) was mounted in the vehicle trunk and attached to the “head” (dial, display, and handset) mounted near the driver seat.

Early examples for this technology:

Systems Description
MTS (Mobile Telephone System) Motorola in conjunction with the Bell System operated the first commercial mobile telephone service Mobile Telephone System (MTS) in the US in 1946, as a service of the wireline telephone company. MTS was replaced by Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS), introduced in 1964.
A-Netz The A-Netz launched 1952 in West Germany as the country’s first public commercial mobile phone network.
MTA (Mobiltelefonisystem A) In Sweden, the first mobile phone system was MTA (Mobiltelefonisystem A), which was introduced in 1956, and lasted until 1967. It was a 160 MHz system available in Stockholm and Gothenburg, with 125 total subscribers.
MTB (Mobiltelefonisystem B) In Sweden， the second system MTB (Mobiltelefonisystem B), had transistorized mobile sets, was introduced in 1962, and lasted until 1983. It operated in the 76-77.5 and 81-82.5 MHz bands, was also available in Malmö, and had around 600 subscribers.
MTD (Mobiltelefonisystem D) MTD (Mobiltelefonisystem D) was a manual mobile phone system for the 450 MHz frequency band. It was introduced in 1971 in Sweden, and lasted until 1987, when it was made obsolete by the NMT automatic service. The MTD network had 20,000 users at its peak, with 700 people employed as phone operators.
System 1 System 1 launch in 1959 in the UK, the ‘Post Office South Lancashire Radiophone Service’, covering South Lancashire and operated from a telephone exchange in Manchester is cited as the country’s first mobile phone network. However it was manual (needed to be connected via an operator) and with very little coverage for several decades.
IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service) First automatic system was the Bell System’s IMTS which became available in 1962, offering automatic dialing to and from the mobile.
Altai Altai mobile telephone system was launched into the experimental service in 1963 in USSR, becoming fully operational in 1965, a first automatic mobile phone system in Europe.
OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni) The Televerket opened its first manual mobile telephone system in Norway in 1966. Norway was later the first country in Europe to get an automatic mobile telephone system.
ARP (Autoradiopuhelin) The Autoradiopuhelin (ARP) launched in 1971 in Finland as the country’s first public commercial mobile phone network
AMR (Automatizovaný městský radiotelefon) The Automatizovaný městský radiotelefon (AMR) launched in 1978, fully operational in 1983, in Czechoslovakia as the first analog mobile radio telephone in the whole Eastern Bloc.
B-Netz The B-Netz launched 1972 in West Germany as the country’s second public commercial mobile phone network (but the first one that did not require human operators to connect calls).

1G

1G refers to the first generation of wireless telephone technology (mobile telecommunications). These are the analog telecommunications standards that were introduced in the 1980s and continued until being replaced by 2G digital telecommunications. The main difference between the two mobile telephone systems (1G and 2G), is that the radio signals used by 1G networks are analog, while 2G networks are digital.

Although both systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the telephone system, the voice itself during a call is encoded to digital signals in 2G whereas 1G is only modulated to higher frequency, typically 150 MHz and up. The inherent advantages of digital technology over that of analog meant that 2G networks eventually replaced them almost everywhere.

Examples for this technology:

Systems Organization Standardization Family
AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) ANSI TIA/EIA/IS-3
ANSI/TIA/EIA-553		 AMPS
N-AMPS ANSI TIA/EIA/IS-91 AMPS
TACS (Total Access Communication System)     AMPS
ETACS (Evolved Total Access Communication System)     AMPS
NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone)     Other
C-450     Other
Hicap     Other
Mobitex     Other
DataTAC     Other

2G (pre-IMT-2000)

Refer to Pre-IMT-2000 (2G) for ITU-R Recommendations.

2G is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation cellular telecommunication networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991. Three primary benefits of 2G networks over their predecessors were that:

  • phone conversations were digitally encrypted;
  • 2G systems were significantly more efficient on the spectrum allowing for far greater mobile phone penetration levels; and
  • 2G introduced data services for mobile, starting with Short Message Service (SMS) text messages.

2G technologies enabled the various mobile phone networks to provide the services such as text messages, picture messages and MMS (Multi-Media Messages). All text messages sent over 2G are digitally encrypted, allowing for the transfer of data in such a way that only the intended receiver can receive and read it.

After 2G was launched, the previous mobile telephone systems were retroactively dubbed 1G. While radio signals on 1G networks are analog, radio signals on 2G networks are digital. Both systems use digital signalling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the telephone system.

2G has been superseded by newer technologies such as 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G, and 4G; however, 2G networks are still used in many parts of the world.

3G (IMT-2000)

Refer to IMT-2000 (3G) for ITU-R Recommendations.

4G (IMT-Advanced)

Refer to IMT-Advanced (4G) for ITU-R Recommendations.

5G (IMT-2020)

Refer to IMT-2020 (5G) for ITU-R Recommendations.

Horizon 2020

Refer to Horizon 2020.

IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group

In February 2013, three ministries of China - that’s, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT, 中国工业和信息化部), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC, 国家发展和改革委员会) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST, 科学技术部) - jointly established IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion group based on the original IMT-Advanced promotion group. It is the major platform to promote the research of 5G in China. Its members include the leading operators, vendors, universities, and research institutes in the field of mobile communications.

IMT-2020-5G-Promotion-Group-Structure

  • 5G愿景与需求白皮书
  • 5G概念白皮书
  • 5G无线技术架构白皮书
  • 5G网络技术架构白皮书
  • 5G网络架构设计白皮书

FuTURE Forum

Refer to FuTURE Forum

Deployment

Refer to Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).

Abbreviation

  • Broadband Wireless Access System (BWA): 宽带无线系统
  • Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT): 数字增强无线通信
  • Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM): 全球移动通信系统

  • Personal Digital Cellular (PDC): 个人数字蜂窝电话

  • Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA): 频分多址
  • Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA): 时分多址
  • Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA): 码分多址
  • Universal Terrestrial Radio Access FDD (UTRA FDD): 通用陆地无线接入 频分双工
  • Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE): 增强型数据速率GSM演进技术
  • Universal Wireless Communication-136 (UWC-136): 通用无线通信-136

References