3GPP specifications cover cellular telecommunications technologies, including radio access, core network, and service capabilities, which provide a complete system description for mobile telecommunications.
In general, there are many wireless technologies categorized as 3GPP technologies and non-3GPP technologies as below:
If we studied the 3GPP releases from 2G to 4G, we’ll see different releases from Rel 99 till Release 10 which is 4G, there’ll be many differences in the features as below:
- Release ’99
- The basis for early 3G deployment.
- Release 4
- First steps towards IP-based operation.
- Also defines the low chip rate TDD mode (TD-SCDMA).
- Release 5
- IMS -IP-based Multimedia Services.
- HSDPA -High-Speed Downlink Packet Access.
- Release 6
- 2nd phase of IMS–High-Speed Uplink
- Release 7
- Enhanced uplink–Other spectra–
- Multiple input multiple output antennas (MIMO).
- Release 8
- Long Term Evolution (LTE) and System Architecture Evolution (SAE)
- Release 9
- Enhancement of Release 8 features–Refinement of LTE–Preliminary studies into LTE Advanced
- Release 10
- LTE Advanced