Forewords

The emerging of mobile cellular network revolutionized the way people communicate. When the 1st generation mobile systems first introduced, wireless communication is merely a supplement of the wired-line telephone service. With the rapid growth of the Internet, consumers now demand real-time boardband access while maintaining the convenience of mobility. The next generations of mobile device aims at providing email, web browsing, network access, e-commerce, videoconferencing and multimedia on top of voice service to cellular subscribers. The seamless integration of the integration of the fixed and wireless network is one of the hottest research areas in the telecommunication industry.

Starting in late 1980s, the introduction of 2nd generation mobile systems phased out the out-of-dated 1st generation analog systems. The 2nd generation system is designed for digitized voice and low-bit rate data transmission. There is no global standard for the 2nd generation systems. There are two different major standards backed by Europe and America respectively. The European GSM/TDMA-136 standard is the widely adopted around the world except in N. America. On the other hand, the American CDMA standard is proved to have better capacity and efficiency in frequency utilization. Anyhow, the current wireless infrastructure cannot provide the technical requirement to implement future services, and new generation of wireless communication network is needed. The 3rd generation system will set a global standard as well as meet the technical challenges of providing a mobile network with adequate capacity, bandwidth, coverage, reliability and security to meet the demand of the future.