HSDPA: Speeding-Up Wireless Data in Practice

Abstract:
The evolution of digital mobile communications to third generation (3G) systems opens the possibility of accessing new rich services via wireless connections. In this regard, a special focus is put on Packet Switched (PS) data services, where the superior performance of the WCDMA air interface enables broadband access to wireless terminals. Recently, the introduction of HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) has dramatically improved the system performance and the user perception, especially in conjunction with advanced receiver techniques. In this paper, we present some practical experience and performance assessment of HSDPA with and without advanced receiver techniques, based on investigations of several deployed networks. After shortly introducing HSDPA concepts, we derive the expected performance for different UE categories and show how this translates into practical experience while testing real Release 5 UMTS systems. Both, throughput and latency aspects of HSDPA are measured and analyzed in detail, and contrasted with the theoretical performance. We conclude the paper with a look into the near future of 3G technology, with the introduction of HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access), the uplink counter part of HSDPA. HSUPA is enabling high peak data rates also in the uplink and is further reducing the latency for packet switched connections.