o2 has announced that it is to roll out HSDPA by Q3 next year (2006). Woahoa! Stop. What is HSPDA ? Well, I had a look on the internet and found this explanation..
“HSPDA works by moving important processing functions closer to the air interface. Although current UMTS networks perform network scheduling and retransmission in the radio network controller, HSDPA moves these functions to the base station (called Node B in UMTS systems), allowing scheduling priority to take account of channel quality and terminal capabilities. Retransmission also benefits from hybrid automatic retransmission request in which retransmissions are combined with prior signal transmissions to improve overall reception. HSDPA adds a channel-sharing mechanism that allows several users to share the high-speed air interface channel and other technological advances such as adaptive modulation and coding, quadrature amplitude modulation and channel quality feedback. These enhancements allow HSDPA to roughly double the total throughput capacity of a network.”
Wahhhhhhh? Adaptive modulation? Quadrature amplitude modulation ? Fudge that, basically you just need to read the last part, which says, “roughly double the total throughput capacity of a network”. Imagine 3G, but on drugs. Excellent stuff. Let’s hope it won’t cost the earth to use it! This Register story states..
“HSDPA upgrades 3G to improve the network’s data performance, taking downloads speeds up to 1.4Mbps in its current form, though O2 is looking to improved data rates that should push 3.6Mbps by the time the technology goes live outside the Isle of Man. Upload speeds should hit 384Kbps from today’s 128Kbps.”
All good!
Source – TheRegister.co.uk