2. UMTS standard evolution

2.1 Versions

• First release, Release 99: UMTS Release 99 features a new radio interface based on CDMA code-division multiple access, compared with GSM/GPRS. This multiple access technique was inherited from the American IS-95 system developed by Qualcomm in the mid-1990s.

  UMTS comprises two types of access network (UTRAN TDD and FDD), whose radio interface implements broadband multiple access (W-CDMA), enabling 3.84 million chips per second to be transmitted in 5 MHz of bandwidth. The terrestrial interfaces of the access network are supported by ATM for both types of access network.

  The quality of service offered is conversational and streaming to the circuit domain of the core network, and interactive and background...