From GSM toward UMTS: a radio interface for multimedia services transmission

This paper analyzes the feasibility of multimedia service transmission in wireless communications networks. There is a special interest that these services can be introduced into the second-generation mobile communications systems, so a smooth evolution toward the third-generation can be achieved. The principal challenges are concerned with the radio interface, where the packet reservation multiple access (PRMA) scheme operating under different digital modulation techniques is introduced. The feasibility analysis is realized through simulation. A comparison with the GSM system (a second-generation system) in terms of user capacity, bit error rate and channel access delay is accomplished. The same traffic load was used for all the systems, so a direct comparison can be done.