Evolution of wireless data services: IS-95 to cdma2000

Existing IS-95-based CDMA systems support circuit-mode and packet-mode data services at a data rate limited to 9.6-14.4 kb/s. Fueled by the explosive growth of the Internet, applications and market opportunities are demanding that higher capacity, higher data rates, and advanced multimedia services be supported in the near future. The evolution of the IS-95 CDMA standard to higher data rates and more advanced services occurs in two steps. The first step, IS-95-B, is an enhancement to the IS-95-A standard and offers the highest possible performance without breaking current IS-95-A air interface design characteristics, thereby maintaining strict compatibility with existing base station hardware. The proposed standard will support a high data rate (64 kb/s) in both directions, to and from the mobile device. A new burst mode packet data service is defined to allow better interference management and capacity utilization. The second evolution step, cdma2000, provides next-generation capacity, data rates, and services. The cdma2000 system includes a greatly enhanced air interface supporting CDMA over wider bandwidths for improved capacity and higher data rates while also maintaining backward compatibility with existing IS-95 CDMA end-user devices. The cdma2000 system also includes a sophisticated MAC feature to effectively support very-high-data-rate services (up to 2 Mb/s) and multiple concurrent data and voice services. This article describes the design and performance of the high-data-rate service provided by second- and third-generation CDMA systems