Advantages of HSPA | Disadvantages of HSPA
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of HSPA. It mentions HSPA advantages or benefits and HSPA disadvantages or drawbacks.
What is HSPA?
Introduction:
• HSPA stands for High Speed Packet Access.
• Both HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) falls under HSPA.
Refer HSDPA vs HSUPA >>
• Standard: 3GPP release 5 (HSDPA) and release 6 (HSUPA) of WCDMA specification
• HSPA network consists of UE (User Equipment), Node B and RNC (Radio Network Controller).
• Data rate: It offers 14.4/7.2 Mbps in downlink and 5.76 Mbps in the uplink.
• Modulation: QPSK/16QAM in HSDPA, QPSK in HSUPA
• Evolved HSPA i.e. HSPA+ follows 3GPP release 7
• Figure-1 depicts HSPA development phases.
Benefits or advantages of HSPA
Following are the benefits or advantages of HSPA:
➨It offers coherent coverage to users. Users can roam from outdoor to indoor with full mobile data service.
➨It offers lower production costs compare to EDGE/UMTS.
➨Users of HSPA service gets billed based on normal mobile subscription rates unlike WiFi service.
➨It is easy to connect with HSPA unlike wifi where in users need to scan for wifi network in order to connect.
➨HSPA service with indoor DAS provides better performance compare to WiFi service.
➨HSPA offers download speeds of 14 Mbps and upload speeds of 5.8 Mbps.
➨It offers lower latency i.e. below 50 m sec.
➨The next version of HSPA which is HSPA+ supports very high data rates
due to use of MIMO and high order modulation schemes and multi-carrier technology.
Drawbacks or disadvantages of HSPA
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of HSPA:
➨HSPA compliant UE does not get total bandwidth when it is far away from Node B (i.e. Base Station).
➨QoS (Quality of Service) in HSPA network depends on number of users.
➨It is expensive to upgrade the whole system as well as to
upgrade the UE.
Refer advantages and disadvantages of HSDPA >> and CDMA >>.
UMTS RELATED LINKS
UMTS tutorial covering UMTS Releases, UMTS frequency bands, UARFCN, UMTS multiple access, UMTS frame structure and
UMTS network architecture. Follow following links.
UMTS tutorial
Architecture
Stack
channel types
Bands
UMTS TDD and FDD
UARFCN
Frame
Timers
Advantages and Disadvantages of other wireless technologies
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difference between OFDM and OFDMA
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
FDM vs TDM