By now UMTS is a well-established technology with manifold networks running globally and competitive
terminals on the market. A significant shift from traditional circuit-switched, often constant bit-rate services
to IP packet switched services is expected in the near future. UMTS Release 99, based on dedicated
resource allocation per user, is not well suited for IP packet data traffic. Therefore High Speed Packet
Downlink Access (HSDPA) and Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) have been introduced as new
features of UMTS for Downlink and Uplink in UMTS Release 5 and Release 6, respectively. This technology
called High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) claims significant enhancements in end-to-end service provisioning
for IP based services. This introduces these future technology enhancements and assesses the
potential gains for future applications and in term user perception.
