To continue the evolution of the 3GPP system beyond HSPA and to counter the emergence of non-3GPP systems, the 3GPP is currently working on Long Term Evolution (LTE) of the UMTS Radio Access. A main requirement of UMTS evolution is to reduce the equipment cost by simplifying the number and the complexity of the nodes and interfaces.This appears to be an entirely new system, called 3.9G by some, where the functional split between RAN and CN functions may be reconsidered.This document attempts to identify the impact of architecture evolution on important functionalities of UMTS and to compare the performance of different proposals.
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