High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA+ )

HSPA+, also known as Evolved High-Speed Packet Access is a wireless broadband standard defined in 3GPP release 7.

HSPA+ provides HSPA data rates up to 56 Mbit/s on the downlink and 22 Mbit/s on the uplink withMIMO technologies and higher order modulation (64QAM). MIMO on CDMA based systems acts like virtual sectors to give extra capacity closer to the mast. The 56Mbit/s and 22Mbit/s represent theoretical peak sector speeds. The actual speed for a user will be lower. At cell edge and even at half the distance to the cell edge there may only be slight increase compared with 14.4 Mbit/s HSDPA unless a wider channel than 5 MHz is used. Future revisions of HSPA+ support up to 168Mbps using multiple carriers^[1].

HSPA+ also introduces an optional all-IP architecture for the network where base stations are directly connected to IP based backhaul and then to the ISP's edge routers. The technology also delivers significant battery life improvements and dramatically quicker wake-from-idle time - delivering a true always-on connection. HSPA+ should not be confused with LTE, which uses a new air interface.

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An all-IP architecture is an option within HSPA+. Base stations connect to the network via standard gigabit Ethernet to the ISP's edge routers connected to the internet or other ISP via peering arrangements. This makes the network faster, cheaper to deploy and operate.

However the legacy architecture is still possible with the Evolved HSPA. This 'flat architecture' communicates 'user plane' IP directly from the base station to the GGSN IP router system, using any available link technology. It is defined in 3GPP TR25.999. User IP data bypasses the Radio Network Controller (RNC) and the SGSN of the previous 3GPP UMTS architecture versions. This is a major step towards the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) flat architecture as defined in the 3GPP standard Rel-8. In essence the flat architecture turns the cellular base station into an IP router. It connects to the Internet with cost effective modern IP link layer technologies like Ethernet, and for user plane data it is not tied to the SONET/SDH infrastructure or T1/E1 lines anymore.