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Michael Hua
2004 is the most important year in TD-SCDMA developing history. In this year, TD-SCDMA industrialization has made great progress. Its industry chain has preliminarily come into being including radio, core, terminal chip, commercial phone and testing instrument etc. At all the links of the chain multi-suppliers environment has been built. The cooperation based on division of labor among domestic and foreign vendors has strongly accelerated TD-SCDMA product commercialization. TD-SCDMA large-scale commercial usage can be expected soon. ¡°PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2004¡± is solemnly held in Beijing on Oct. 26th.
2004. On behalf of TD-SCDM family, TD-SCDMA Alliance shows itself for
the first time in large-scale telecommunication exhibition. At the same
time, ¡°2004 International TD-SCDMA Summit¡± was successfully held. Government
officers, telecommunications experts and carriers all give a high evaluation
to the remarkable achievements of TD-SCDMA industrialization. All these
indicate TD-SCDMA development is arriving at a new milestone. Strong supports for Chinese government Vice- Chairman Mr. Zeng Qinghong, Primer Mr. Wen Jiabao, vice-Premier Mr. Huang Ju, Commissary of State Ms. Chen Zhili, Pre vice-Chairman of NPC Standing Committee Mr. Zou Jiahua and Mister of MII Mr. Wang Xudong visited TD-SCDMA booth in exhibition on Oct. 27th. 2004. National leaders give a positive evaluation to TD-SCDMA fast development and hope to improve the performance of system and terminals. TD-SCDMA industrialization should be accelerated to guarantee commercial equipment availability in next year and to get the supports from carriers. Cooperation among all the enterprises should be enhanced, by which we can improve industry chain to achieve international multi-suppliers environment. Director of Department of High and New Technology and Industrialization, MST Mr. Feng Jichun, vice-director of Department of Science, NDRC Mr. Zhang Xinsheng, vice-president of CATT Ms. Cao Shumin and other leaders from China Mobile, China Unicom, China Railcom, China Satcom participated ¡°2004 International TD-SCDMA Summit¡± and presented important speeches. Director of Department of High and New Technology and Industrialization, Mr. Feng Jichun point out that TD-SCDMA industry has achieved fast development in recent years. TD-SCDMA family¡¯s collective pose in exhibition and related product show give us a signal of its preliminarily successful commercialization. Now TD-SCDMA standard has got wide supports and MST will give more in future. Vice-director of Department of Science, NDRC Mr. Zhang Xinsheng thinks the most important task for TD-SCDMA industry is to perfect specification and to improve the performance of system and terminals to guarantee commercial product availability in the middle of next year. Mr. Zhang points out that an integral industry chain has come into being and is on the way to perfect ness. Result of the second 3G field-testing indicates TD-SCDMA has made remarkable progress at all links in its industry chain. Mr. Zhang reveals the latest status of TD-SCDMA specification research. R 4 version has been finished and R5, 6 is ongoing. Compared with other two standards, TD-SCDMA specification version is more stable. Additionally, TD-SCDMA terminal conformance testing standard development has also made remarkable progress. By the end of this Aug, we have submitted 62 articles and all of them were accepted by 3GPP. Two groups of engineers have gone to 3GPP for coding development. So far the coding for 101 testing classes has been finished. Personnel of the third group have started their journey in succession. Total 152 testing classes will be finished at the end of 2004. If this work goes on the wheels, terminal development will be markedly accelerated. Meanwhile, domestic TD-SCDMA standard research and definition also made remarkable progress. Draft version of the whole trade standards including equipment, interfaces, services has been finalized, which will bring instructive significance for national TD-SCDMA industrialization. Mr. Zhang thinks the primary task is to enhance the performance and maturity of TD-SCDMA system and terminal as soon as possible. Only by reaching this target, commercial product can be available in the middle of next year and get accept from market in time. Then the whole TD-SCDMA industry can get a group breakthrough. Successful TD-SCDMA field-testing Ms. Cao Shumin, vice-president of CATT, summarizes the status of preceding TD-SCDMA field testing and gives a expectation on its industrialization and commercialization prospects. In the TD-SCDMA field trial of Beijing and Shanghai, Expert Group has finished total radio subsystem testing and part of terminal and network performance testing. RAN and terminal are based on R4 version of 2003. Mar. Core network is based on R99 and R4. The testing result shows that TD-SCDMA radio subsystem can support basic 3G services, all the handovers, location based services. The stability should be further improved. Current TD-SCDMA RAN can support AMR, videophone, PS64kbps/64kbps, PS384kbps/64kbps, AMR/PS64kbps/64kbps, AMR/PS384kbps/64kbps services. Two types of terminal have been finished functional testing, RF performance testing and power consumption testing. From the testing result, we can see current terminals can support voice call, PS64kbps/64kbps services, basic mobile management, inter-frequency hard handover etc. Compared with system functions, PS384kbps service has not been supported. This feature should be realized as soon as possible. Two types of terminals, Sparrow (phone) and Hummer (data card) both are provided by Datang Mobile, which are realized based on customized chip. No terminal based ASIC joins this testing. Regarding interoperability topic, Iu interface between core and radio from different vendors has been verified in the field trials. Iub interface between RNC and NodeB also has been preliminarily tested. All kinds of hard handovers and baton handover also have been tested. Additionally TD-SCDMA specific location method has been tested. RAN can support location-based services. Testing results show the precision is better than that based on CELL ID. From the testing result in field trial, Ms. Cao thinks TD-SCDMA basic functions are available. More and more suppliers join TD-SCDMA family. The development process is going faster and faster. Its total industrialization will come soon. It is reported that four terminal chip suppliers will launch commercial core chips and multiple system suppliers will launch total commercial system in this year or middle of next year. All above can give us a signal that TD-SCDMA industrialization and commercialization in on the fast lane and multi-suppliers industry chain has been formed. On the other hand, Ms. Cao points out that some deficiencies have been exposed in field-testing. For example, coding mode of videophone doesn¡¯t comply with standard; the stability of RAN system and terminal should be further improved; terminal should perfect the supports of multi-services, more efficient packet data, baton handover, other more functions support etc; the performance of smart antenna should be further verified. In Q4 of this year, TD-SCDMA field- testing will be continued. MII will assign new expert group before the end of this year. New expert group will define new field-testing proposal. Its members include technical experts from carriers and ten 3G technical authorities. Before next March, TD-SCDMA commercial trial will be launched and start its services in small scale. There are 101 TDD licenses among total 120 3G licenses all over the world. If mature TD-SCDMA system and equipment are available, carriers from many countries will adopt this technology. We can expect TD-SCDMA will have a bright marketing future. Carriers offer advices actively Vice-director of CMCC R&D Center, Ms. Wang Xiaoyun thinks if TD-SCDMA wants to be adopted by carriers, it has to face and resolve technical and operational challenges together with carriers. China Mobile very cares TD-SCDMA field-testing and suggests further fast and in-depth testing should be focusing on operation with large-scale network. Single system testing, multiple system testing, network management and charging all are important for carriers. The interoperability with 2G is not included in current TD-SCDMA testing. We should face following operational questions: how to maintain high-quality handover with 2G systems? How to control cell reselection between 2G and 3G? How to configure network database to achieve seamless service support? How to realize hybrid network with TDD and FDD systems? How about TD-SCDMA network planning? Ms. Wang hopes TD-SCDMA industry to accelerate terminal and chip R&D process. Multi-styles, multi-modes terminals are the basis for international TD-SCDMA usage. TD-SCDMA can become a leader in future mobile data market. It can be not only 3G but future technology, such as 4G. Standard is the link between technology and market. If a standard suits market it can get dominating marketing share. VGM of Technical Department from China Unicom, Ms. Qi Lihuan suggests we should transform TD-SCDMA technical advantages to marketing advantages. TD-SCDMA needs integral industry chain and multi-suppliers environment. TD-SCDMA terminals should be divided into high, middle, low ends and low end should be given more attention. GM of Wireless Department from China Railcom, Mr. Jiang Chunsheng thinks TD-SCDMA can promote the strength of China telecommunication industry and national economic development. It can help national enterprise to participate and win international competition with standard advantages. Meanwhile TD-SCDMA can help us to resolve 3G IPR problems. Mr. Jiang suggests government to release independent TD-SCDMA license. It can encourage domestic and foreign enterprise to invest more on TD-SCDMA R&D because of clear marketing prospect. Terminal enterprises should accelerate the development of specific application targeted terminals. All functions in one box are not public preference. The most important is basic functions perfect ness, reliability, stability and specific application targeted. GM of Technical Department from China Satcom, Mr. Zhu Longshuang points out: if TD-SCDMA wants to survive and develop (1) it must go along a differentiation path. (2) There must be a TD-SCDMA only network. (3) Government should encourage carriers to adopt TD-SCDMA standard. (4) To converge trunk technology in TD-SCDMA standard will bring new competing advantages, which can help TD-SCDMA to achieve internationalization. TD-SCDMA R&D family strike poses on the stage collectively Currently TD-SCDMA industrialization is going well. Multi-suppliers environment has come into being. Equipments from Datang, ZTE, Putian have past field testing in Beijing and Shanghai. Datang and CYIT can provide testing terminals used in field trials. RAN subsystems from Datang, Putian, ZTE and Huawei are doing combined adjusting work. The performance has got remarkable enhancement. During the summit, many TD-SCDMA suppliers show their TD-SCDMA products and solutions. Vice-president of Putian, Dr. Tao xiongqiang introduces that Putian will provide end-to-end TD-SCDMA solution: system (own UTRAN, cooperation with Nortel on core network), chip (COMMIT), terminal (Bird), network planning and mobile applications. COMMIT¡¯s TD-SCDMA terminal chip will be launched at the end of this year. In 2005, Putian will provide pre-commercial products that can be used in field trials. ZTE has more than 400 full time TD-SCDMA R&D engineers. Its NodeB achieved first successful voice call in this October and finished Phase 1 V1.0 field-testing in November. Because TD-SCDMA has no cell breathing effect, ZTE thinks it has remarkable advantages on network planning. Regarding this point, related theoretic analysis will be finished before this October. ZTE is doing field trial in Shanghai together with China Telecom and China Satcom. During the summit, it exhibits its TD-SCDMA solution and gives real demos together with the terminals based COMMIT¡¯s chip. Huawei declares more investment to the JV with Siemens. Its TD-SCDMA is doing integrated testing and development will be finished before the end of this year. Commercial product will be available in the middle of 2005. Spreadtrum, T3G, COMMIT, Anyka have launched their core chips. Commercial chips will be available in Q1 or 2 in next year. Terminal enterprises also have achieved great progresses. Commercial terminal will be available in next June. TD-SCDMA terminals from Datang Mobile, CYIT have realized successful call. Bird, Lenovo and Hisense have involved in TD-SCDMA terminal activities. In the exhibition, Debtel shows its own TD-SCDMA phone 2906.This phone is the first one that can be manufactured with large quantities in China. Chairman of TD-SCDMA Forum Mr. Zhou Huan thinks TD-SCDMA belongs to the entire world. TDD frequency band has been released in most of countries including China 155Mhz. This frequency band is TD-SCDMA only and can¡¯t be used for others 3G standards. TD-SCDMA can be downwards compatible with GPRS system. Because there are so many GPRS networks are on operation, TD-SCDMA has huge international market. Mr. Zhou reveals that Simulative 3G-launch Project has been started by CATT of MII which is supported by government with a investment of RMB 1986 millions Yuans. It also is used for TD-SCDMA R&D and industrialization. When this TD-SCDMA testing center is setup, it includes system integration, co-testing, combined adjusting, IOT testing and roaming testing with 2G and other 3G systems. It also provides an application platform for mobile services and terminal R&D and verifications. All these will benefit TD-SCDMA industrialization with better R&D and testing environment. Anyway, TD-SCDMA is the brightest star in this exhibition. From technology
point of view, China is the leader of TD-SCDMA industry. National enterprises
have built up integral TD-SCDMA industry chain. It indicates the level
of national telecommunications industry is getting higher and higher.
Now government officers, experts and carriers give a high evaluation
to TD-SCDMA progress with one voice. TD-SCDMA industrialization is going
into a new phase. |
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