Features and advantages of GSM, CDMA standards

1. Mobile communication: evolution
2. Ask a question to the engineer and get a FREE consultation.
3. What is the difference between GSM and CDMA?
4. GSM vs CDMA: which is better?
5. Ask a question to the engineer and get a FREE consultation.

It is difficult to imagine the human life of the 21st century without mobile communication and the Internet. Technologies are so firmly established in our everyday life that it is not even believed that they once did not exist. GSM, CDMA, 3G - these and many other terms-words accompany us almost daily. However, how many will climb into technical “jungle” in order to understand them thoroughly? We think not. Therefore, we consider it our duty to explain the differences between GSM and CDMA.

Mobile communication: evolution

The first standard of mobile communications, relating to the generation of 1G, in fact, acted as a wireless analog of standard telephony. At that time, his appearance was a real technical revolution! However, obvious shortcomings - a negative impact on health, low capacity of base stations, insufficient noise immunity - pushed science to further searches.

In k.80-n. 90s. In the past century, the 2G generation, the first digital GSM standard, has appeared in the commercial sector. Initially, the highest data transfer rate was 9.6 kbps. The next stage of development was the technology EDGE - "add-on" over 2G. She appeared in n. 2000s and allowed to "accelerate" to a record at that time 474 kbps.

The UMTS technology, developed for the introduction of the 3rd generation (3G) communication in Europe, has become a revolution in the evolution of GSM. It uses W-CDMA technologies optimized for high-speed multimedia services (video, video calls, mobile Internet, etc.). UMTS has become the “ancestor” of HSPA + and DC-HSDPA technologies (they are used by Kyivstar, Life), allowing to obtain a theoretical speed of up to 42.2 and even 63.3 Mb / s! By the way, GSM is still the most common communication technology around the world.

CDMA technology was first used in the middle of the last century by the US military for the exchange of voice messages between aviation and ground services. 40 years later, in 1993, Qualcomm transferred this technology to commercial use. Initially, the standard provided a connection speed of just 153 kbps. The next phase of development is EV-DO technology. Today in Ukraine she works in two standards:

• Rev. A (up to 3.1 Mbit / s);
• Rev. B (up to 14.7 Mb / s).

Last available on the 3G network Intertelecom operator .

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The engineer will call you back within 5 minutes (during working hours) or call us at 0 (800) 210-295
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What is the difference between GSM and CDMA?

The main difference between these communication standards lies in the principle of their work with a frequency resource. So, in GSM data transmission channel is divided by time and frequency. In other words, the subscriber is allocated a small band in which he “communicates” with the base station through the telephone, 3g modem , router. In addition, each "session" of information exchange is recorded in time. In simple words, the connection is interrupted, but thanks to the high frequencies, the user does not notice. It is this that causes the characteristic "cracking" sound of the speakers when the phone is nearby, and a call is received or an SMS arrives.

CDMA takes a radically different approach — code division. Subscribers simultaneously use the entire frequency resource, and the BS "communicates" at once with everyone. To select a specific user from the radio, a specific code is assigned to it, that is, code modulation is performed.

For ease of understanding technical differences, we give a clear example. Imagine 2 rooms. In the first, people communicate in the same language, but in turn - this is GSM. In the other, everyone speaks at the same time, but in different languages ​​it is CDMA. It is clear that continuous conversation is more comfortable, especially when the "neighbors" simply do not understand what people are talking about.

GSM vs CDMA: which is better?

Currently, both GSM-operators (Kyivstar, MTS, Life) and CDMA-operators (PeopleNet, Intertelecom) are working on the Ukrainian mobile communication market. Each of these communication standards has its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.

If we talk about the advantages of CDMA over GSM, the following can be highlighted:

• connection quality (high resistance to breaks and interference);
• confidentiality (it is practically impossible to “wrest” a conversation of a separate subscriber from the entire radio broadcast);
• energy saving (communication devices consume battery power more slowly).

As you can see, the CDMA standard beats GSM in many ways. This thesis emphasizes the Ukrainian national operator Intertelecom, who managed to win the love and trust of many millions of subscribers. At the moment, the company provides high-speed stable mobile 3G Internet services at competitive rates and has the largest territory cover .

Ask a question to the engineer and get a FREE consultation.

The engineer will call you back within 5 minutes (during working hours) or call us at 0 (800) 210-295
(calls from all phones are free).