An advanced TDMA mobile access system for UMTS

It is now clear that the most successful digital cellular system at present is the European developed TDMA (time division multiple access) based, Global System for Mobiles (GSM) and its DCS-1800 and DCS-1900 derivatives to service European PCN and American PCS concepts, respectively. The GSM system has been designed to evolve, with current standardization work within ETSI addressing a new derivative to service the needs of European railways along with other GSM phase 2+ extensions, such as General Packet Data Service, repeaters, and GSM/DCS roaming, which will keep GSM up to date through to the year 2000 and beyond. But how long can this evolution last? Is GSM the very best possible TDMA-based system? Can it evolve to provide the service needs of third generation mobile? What is the real potential of TDMA techniques? To answer some of these questions, an example TDMA-based radio access system has been developed within the European Advanced TDMA Mobile Access (ATDMA) project, with a specific focus on the terrestrial aspects of the third generation mobile system known in Europe as the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). In this article our baseline assumptions are first described and then a discussion on the transport and control requirements provide details of the ATDMA system concept in terms of the project´s overall system model