The experimental WCDMA from Ericsson

Background Information

The Experimental WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) System is intended as a facilitator for the IMT-2000 standardization. It provides the necessary means to demonstrate and evaluate new advanced third generation services and technical solutions. It offers an excellent opportunity to evaluate WCDMA characteristics such as studies of radio propagation and network management aspects. It is developed to meet the demands of wireless mobile communication in a true multimedia environment, where high speed packet data and the Internet bearer service play major roles.

WCDMA Experimental System was delivered to Telecom Italia Mobile at the end of 1998. It has been installed at CSELT premises in Turin, the Telecom Italia research center.
Official launch date was 10^th February 1999, with a demo held for CSELT and TIM representatives. The services shown included speech calls to/from fixed line at CSELT and to/from GSM mobile as well as videoconference to/from a conference room at CSELT.
On November 16^th the first UMTS phone call in urban environment in Italy and Europe was made from downtown Turin to the central at CSELT.
On December 17^th, a videoconference was made from the mobile van driving around in Turin centre to the central at CSELT. The videoconference was made using best effort packet switched data technique.

Test BED Configuration

The WCDMA ES in Turin consists of one MSC (Mobile Switching Centre), one RNC (Radio Network Controller), several RBS (Radio Base Station) and Mobile Stations.
The MSC provides connection to ISDN, and to Internet/Intranets via an ATM router. A connection to the TIM GSM PLMN is provided for allowing GSM roaming in the Experimental System Network.

Applications
The feasibility of some possible applications has been checked. Quantitative parameters (e.g. bandwidth, bit error rate) and qualitative parameters (quality of service) have been collected.