The 3GPP and 3GPP2 movements toward an all-IP mobile network

Wireless telecommunications started as an offshoot of wireline telephony and with the absence of global standards resulted in regional standardization. Two major mobile telecommunication standards have dominated the global wireless market, namely, TDMA/CDMA developed by TIA in North America and GSM developed by ETSI in Europe. As we move toward 3 generation wireless, there is a need to develop standards, which are more global and collaborative. Recently, the global wireless industry has created two new partnership projects to address this issue: • 3 Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) [1] ,which is developing 3G standards for GSM based systems. The consortium includes ETSI, T1 (North America.), ARIB/TTC (Japan), TTA (Korea) and CWTS (China). The North American TDMA community is participating and contributing in 3GPP as ANSI-41 based TDMA systems evolve towards 3G architecture based on EDGE and GPRS. • 3 Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) [2], which is developing 3G standards for IS-95 based CDMA systems. The consortium includes TIA (N.A.), ARIB/TTC, TTA and CWTS.