According to abbreviationfinder, 3G mobile telephony is a wireless communications service that allows you to be permanently connected to the Internet through your mobile phone, pocket computer and laptop. 3G technology offers better quality and reliability, higher data transmission speed and higher bandwidth. With data speeds of up to 384 Kbps, it’s nearly seven times faster than a standard dial-up connection. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined the demands of 3G networks with the IMT2000 standard. This standard was developed through a mobile system called UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System), this in turn is developed from WCDMA, which is a wireless mobile technology that increases the data transmission rates of GSM systems by using the CDMA air interface instead of TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), which is why 3G offers much higher data speeds in portable wireless devices. UMTS is also defined as a layered system. The layer above is the services layer and as its name indicates, it is in charge of the services, of their rapid deployment; in the center is the control layer that is concerned with helping to improve procedures and allows the capacity of the network to be dynamic; In the lowest area is the connectivity layer, which has the task of transmitting data and voice traffic. The first country to implement a large-scale commercial 3G network was Japan. Currently, there are 164 commercial networks in 73 countries using WCDMA technology.
3G evolution
3G evolves from the second generation of mobile wireless system (2G). 2G networks were built primarily for voice data and slow transmissions, due to high user expectations rapid changes were taking place. In North America the evolution is from TDMA, which will change to EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and then to UMTS. According to how Erasmo Rojas (director for Latin America and the Caribbean of 3G Americas, an organization that promotes the smooth deployment of GSM and its evolution to 3G) explained to the newspaper La Nacion in 2007 when this issue was just beginning in Chile, he said “This network mobile that at some point was thought to be just for talking, today can help reduce the information gap. The advantage of the mobile network is that people often need to process information when they are on the move. They can’t wait In Japan, two 3G standards are used: W-CDMA used by NTT DoCoMo (FOMA, compatible with UMTS) and SoftBank Mobile (UMTS), and CDMA2000, used by KDDI. The transition for market reasons to 3G was completed in Japan during 2006. The first introduction of 3G technology in the Caribbean (2008) was made by América Móvil, which was previously MIPHONE in Jamaica. The implementation phase of this network was carried out by Huawei in conjunction with other subcontractors such as TSF from Canada.
Security
3G networks offer a higher degree of security compared to their 2G predecessors. By allowing the UE to authenticate the network it is connecting to, the user can ensure that the network is the intended one and not a fake. At the BlackHat 2010 conference a hacker demonstrated that he could obtain cell numbers and even listen to calls from nearby GSM phones, this was achieved by posing as a base (receiving / transmitting antenna) of the AT & T telephone company in this case. 3G networks use the KASUMI block cipher instead of the older A5/1 stream cipher. Still, some weaknesses in the KASUMI code have been identified. In addition to the security infrastructure of 3G networks, end-to-end security is offered when accessing framework applications such as IMS, although this is not something that is only done in 3G.
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
- The IP protocol is based on packets, since you only pay based on the download, which means, relatively, a lower cost. Although depending on the type of user, it could also be classified as a disadvantage.
- High transmission speed: as a result of the evolution of technology, today speeds of over 3 Mbit/s per mobile user can be achieved.
- More access speed.
- UMTS, added to Internet Protocol (IP) support, are combined to provide multimedia services and new broadband applications, such as video-telephony and video-conference services.
- Voice transmission with quality comparable to that of fixed networks.
- Greater connection speed, in case of signal drops.
All this makes this technology ideal for providing various mobile multimedia services.
Disadvantages
- Limited coverage. Depending on the location, the transfer speed can drop dramatically (or even have no coverage at all).
- Decrease in speed if the device from which we connect is in motion (for example, if we are driving in a car).
- Not connection oriented. Each of the packets can follow different routes between the source and the destination, so they can arrive out of order or duplicated. However, the fact that it is not connection-oriented has the advantage that the network is not saturated. In addition to choosing the route there are algorithms that “choose” which route is better, these algorithms are based on the quality of the channel, its speed and, in some, the opportunity of up to 4 factors (all of them configurable) so that a packet “pick” a route.
- High latency compared to what is normally obtained with ADSL services. Latency can be decisive for the correct operation of some client-server type applications such as online games.
- High Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)