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Evolved High Speed Packet Access

Technical standard

Evolved High Speed Packet Access
Summary

Technical standard

An HSPA+ indicator in the notification bar of an Android smartphone.

Evolved High Speed Packet Access, better known as HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is an evolution of the earlier HSPA standard. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a mobile telecommunications standards organization, specified HSPA+ in its Release 7 and later versions. HSPA+ provides higher data rates than the original HSPA, with theoretical speeds of up to 42.2 Mbit/s on the downlink.

HSPA+ is considered an evolution of 3G technology, sometimes denoted as 3.75G. It allows an upgrade to existing 3G networks to provide speeds closer to newer 4G networks without requiring a completely new radio interface. For this reason, HSPA+ should not be confused with Long Term Evolution (LTE), a true 4G technology which uses a different air interface based on OFDMA and follows a separate technological evolution path.

To achieve higher data rates, HSPA+ introduces advanced antenna technologies like beamforming and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). Beamforming is a signal processing technique that focuses the wireless signal from a base station towards a specific receiving device, rather than spreading it in all directions. This signal concentration results in better reception and improved data speeds. MIMO increases throughput by using multiple antennas on both the transmitting (base station) and receiving (user's device) ends to send and receive multiple data streams at once. Further releases of the standard introduced dual carrier operation, which allows a device to communicate over two separate 5 MHz frequency bands simultaneously, effectively doubling the bandwidth.

Advanced HSPA+ is a further evolution that provides theoretical peak download speeds up to 168 Mbit/s and upload speeds up to 22 Mbit/s. This performance is achieved through techniques like using a more complex modulation method (such as 64-QAM), which encodes more data into each transmission, or by combining multiple radio carriers with features like Dual-Cell HSDPA.

Multi-carrier HSPA (MC-HSPA)

The aggregation of more than two carriers has been standardized in later 3GPP releases. Release 11, finalized in Q3 2012, specifies 8-carrier HSPA (aggregating eight 5 MHz carriers), allowed in non-contiguous bands. When combined with 4 × 4 MIMO, this offers theoretical peak transfer rates up to 672 Mbit/s.

The speeds mentioned, such as 168 Mbit/s, represent theoretical peaks. The actual speed experienced by a user will be lower and depends on many factors, including radio conditions. HSPA+ typically offers its highest bitrates only in very good radio conditions (i.e., very close to the cell tower) or when the user's device and the network both support either MIMO or multi-carrier operation, which use different technical methods to create parallel data channels.

All-IP architecture

An optional network design for HSPA+ is the flattened all-IP architecture. This design simplifies the network and reduces latency by streamlining the path that user data travels. In this architecture, the base stations (Node B) connect to the core network via the IP, using modern, cost-effective link technologies like xDSL or Ethernet.

Specifically, the user's data traffic flows directly from the base station to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), which is the gateway to external packet data networks like the Internet. This bypasses the Radio Network Controller (RNC) and the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) that were part of the original UMTS architecture. This simplification reduces equipment costs for operators and lowers the latency of data connections. The definition can be found in 3GPP technical report TR25.999. While the data path (the 'user plane') is flattened, the 'control plane', which handles functions like connection management, remains unchanged.

Nokia Siemens Networks' Internet HSPA (I-HSPA) was the first commercial solution to implement the Evolved HSPA flattened all-IP architecture.

References

References

  1. "HSPA". About Us.
  2. (27 January 2009). "Ericsson Review #1 2009 - Continued HSPA Evolution of mobile broadband". Ericsson.com.
  3. R1-081546, “Initial multi-carrier HSPA performance evaluation”, Ericsson, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG1 #52bis, April, 2008
  4. (2010-10-10). "Dual-Cell HSPA and its Future Evolution - Nomor Research". nomor.
  5. (2010-10-10). "2009-03: Standardisation updates on HSPA Evolution - Nomor Research". nomor.
  6. "Dual carrier HSPA: DC-HSPA, DC-HSPDA".
  7. 3GPP TS 25.306 v11.0.0 http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/25306.htm
  8. "Nomor 3GPP Newsletter 2009-03: Standardisation updates on HSPA Evolution".
  9. [http://www.3gpp.org/releases 3GPP releases]
  10. [http://www.nomor.de/home/technology/3gpp-newsletter/2009-03-standardisation-updates-on-hspa-evolution Nomor 3GPP Newsletter 2009-03: Standardisation updates on HSPA Evolution] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-02-01 , nomor.de)
  11. "Nomor Research White Paper: Dual-Cell HSDPA and its Evolution".
  12. (28 January 2009). "Multi-Carrier HSPA Evolution". Ericsson.com.
  13. (14 December 2010). "White paper Long Term HSPA Evolution Mobile broadband evolution beyond 3GPP Release 10". Nokiaslemensnetworks.com.
  14. [http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/products/mobile-broadband/internet-hspa] {{webarchive. link. (January 2, 2011)
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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