This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the current status and possible future steps of the evolution of the 3GPP WCDMA standard. As a first step in this evolution HSDPA, High Speed Packet Data Access (HSDPA) has already been approved by 3GPP....
This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the current status and possible future steps of the evolution of the 3GPP WCDMA standard. As a first step in this evolution HSDPA, High Speed Packet Data Access (HSDPA) has already been approved by 3GPP. HSDPA allows for significant enhancements in capacity and user quality for packetdata access, as well as the support for very high peak data rates. This paper also discusses a second step of the WCDMA evolution, enhancements to the uplink packet data access, and a more long-term evolutionary step such as the introduction of Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) processing to reach extremely high data rates within the WCDMA air-interface technology.