WCDMA-the radio interface for future mobile multimedia communications

This paper presents the wide-band code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) radio interface chosen by the ETSI as the basic radio-access technology for the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). A detailed description of the physical layer of ETSI WCDMA is given together with an overview UMTS of the higher layers of the WCDMA radio interface. Finally, the WCDMA performance, based on results from the ETSI evaluation of UMTS radio interface candidates, is presented.