Drowning in wireless spaghetti

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• Wireless

Rupert Goodwins ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 01 Nov 2005 13:00 GMT

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Wireless glossary

GSM — Another name for W-CDMA, belatedly adopted at the height of the CDMA confusion

802.16a — The original WiMax. Includes mesh, doesn't include mobility between base stations, supports multiple tens of megabits-per-second over tens of kilometres, shared between users.

802.16-2004 — The latest version of 802.16a

802.16e — WiMax with mobility

802.20 — Mobile data networking at 1.5Mbps in stations moving at up to 120km/h.

EDGE — Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (or Enhanced Data GSM Environment), a 2.5G enhancement for GSM with a theoretical top speed of 384Kbps, although real-world speeds are closer to 90Kbps.

Flash-ODFM — Flarion's proprietary wideband data system, now bought by Qualcomm and looking to become 802.20.

FDMA — Frequency Division Multiple Access. Near-synonym for FDD.

GPRS — An upgrade for GSM networks, General Packet Radio Service is a 2.5G technology that bumps data speeds up to 50Kbps, although real-world speeds are closer to 30Kbps and 40Kbps.

HSDPA — High Speed Packet Downlink Access. This increases the speed of the amount of data a base station can send to handsets to around 12Mbps, under ideal conditions. Runs alongside voice services, much as EDGE and GPRS can be used at the same time as GSM voice.

HSUPA — High Speed Uplink Packet Access. Increases the amount of data a base station can receive to around 4Mbps, under ideal conditions.

TDMA — Time Domain Multiple Access. Near-synonym for TDD.

UMTS — Another name for 3GSM (apart from UMTS TDD, which isn't).

UMTS TDD — Time Domain Division. Has the mobile attributes of W-CDMA, in that you can use it mobile and switch from cell to cell. More flexible and efficient for data, but unlike HSPDA can't be used on the same carrier as existing 3G voice phones.

Currently being deployed for data-only networks as a direct competitor to ADSL, with telephony sometimes provided through voice over IP. Is much closer conceptually to WiMax with added voice than GSM, although somewhat slower than WiMax promises. One licence holder in the UK — PCCW or One Broadband — who paid £14m for their national 3G licence compared to the £5bn the telcos shelled out.

WiBRO — Korean wideband mobile data service, compatible with — and possibly to become — 802.16e.

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