The telecommunications industry is undoubtedly in a period of radical change with
the advent of mobile broadband radio access and the rapid convergence of Internet
and mobile services. Some of these changes have been enabled by a fundamental
shift in the underlying technologies; mobile networks are now increasingly based
on a pure Internet Protocol (IP) network architecture. Since the first edition of this
book was published in 2009, a multitude of connected devices from eBook readers
to smartphones and even Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies have all started
to benefit from mobile broadband. The sea change over the last few years is only the
beginning of a wave of new services that will fundamentally change our economy, our
society, and even our environment. The evolution towards mobile broadband is one of
the core underlying parts of this revolution and is the focus of this book.
The next-generation wireless broadband technology is changing the way
we work, live, learn, and communicate through effective use of state-
of-the-art mobile broadband technology. The Packet-data-based revolu-
tion started around 2000 with the introduction of 1x Evolved Data Only
(1xEV-DO) and 1x Evolved Data Voice (1xEV-DV) in 3GPP2 and High
Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in 3GPP. The wireless broad-
band fourth-generation technology (4G) is an evolution of the Packet-
based 3G system and provides a comprehensive evolution of the
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System specifications so as to
remain competitive with other broadband systems such as 802.16e
(WiMAX)
This book addresses two aspects of network operation quality; namely, resource
management and fault management.
Network operation quality is among the functions to be fulfilled in order to offer
quality of service, QoS, to the end user. It is characterized by four parameters:
– Packet loss;
– delay;
– jitter, or the variation of delay over time;
– availability.
Resource management employs mechanisms that enable the first three parameters
to be guaranteed or optimized. Fault management aims to ensure continuity of service.
Your Cisco Networking Academy Course Booklet is designed as a study resource you can easily read, high-
light, and review on the go, wherever the Internet is not available or practical:
■ The text is extracted directly, word-for-word, from the online course so you can highlight important
points and take notes in the “Your Chapter Notes” section.
■ Headings with the exact page correlations provide a quick reference to the online course for your class-
room discussions and exam preparation.
■ An icon system directs you to the online curriculum to take full advantage of the images, labs, Packet
Tracer activities, and dynamic Flash-based activities embedded within the Networking Academy online
course interface.
Soon after Samuel Morse’s telegraphing device led to a deployed electri-
cal telecommunications system in 1843, waiting lines began to form by those
wanting to use the system. At this writing queueing is still a significant factor in
designing and operating communications services, whether they are provided
over the Internet or by other means, such as circuit switched networks.
It is more than a decade since GSM was first commercially available. After some unexpected delay, it
seems that finally UMTS is here to stay as a 3G system standardised by 3GPP, at least for another ten
years. UMTS will enable multi-service, multi-rate and flexible IP native-based mobile technologies to be
used in wide area scenarios and also pave the way for a smooth transition from circuit switched voice
networks to mobile Packet services.
