Evolution-Data Optimized

Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for

the wireless transmission of data through radiosignals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-
DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard which supports high data rates and can be
deployed alongside a wireless carrier's voice services. It uses advanced multiplexing techniques
including code division multiple access (CDMA) as well as time division multiplexing (TDM) to
maximize throughput. It is a part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and has been adopted by
many mobile phone service providers around the world particularly those previously
employing CDMA networks. It is also used on the Globalstar satellite phone network.[1]
EV-DO service has been or will be discontinued in much of Canada in 2015.[2]
An EV-DO channel has a bandwidth of 1.25 MHz, the same bandwidth size that IS-95A (IS-95) and
IS-2000 (1xRTT) use,[3] though the channel structure is very different. The back-end network is
entirely packet-based, and is not constrained by restrictions typically present on a circuit
switched network.
The EV-DO feature of CDMA2000 networks provides access to mobile devices with forward link air
interface speeds of up to 2.4 Mbit/s with Rel. 0 and up to 3.1 Mbit/s with Rev. A. The reverse
link rate for Rel. 0 can operate up to 153 kbit/s, while Rev. A can operate at up to 1.8 Mbit/s. It was
designed to be operated end-to-end as an IP based network, and can support any application which
can operate on such a network and bit rate constraints.

Contents

 1Standard revisions
o 1.1EV-DO Rel. 0 (TIA-856 Release 0)
 1.1.1Forward link channel structure
 1.1.2Reverse link structure
o 1.2EV-DO Rev. A (TIA-856 Revision A)
o 1.3EV-DO Rev. B (TIA-856 Revision B)
o 1.4EV-DO Rev. C (TIA-856 Revision C) and TIA-1121
 1.4.1Features

Standard revisions
There have been several revisions of the standard, starting with Release 0 (Rel. 0). This was later
expanded upon with Revision A (Rev. A) to support Quality of Service (to improve latency) and
higher rates on the forward and reverse link. In late 2006, Revision B (Rev. B) was published,
whose features include the ability to bundle multiple carriers to achieve even higher rates and lower
latencies (see TIA-856 Rev. Bbelow). The upgrade from EV-DO Rev. A to Rev. B involves a
software update of the cell site modem, and additional equipment for new EV-DO carriers. Existing
cdma2000 operators may have to retune some of their existing 1xRTT channels to other
frequencies, as Rev. B requires all DO carriers be within 5 MHz.
EV-DO Rel. 0 (TIA-856 Release 0)
The initial design of EV-DO was developed by Qualcomm in 1999 to meet IMT-2000 requirements
for a greater-than-2Mbit/s down link for stationary communications, as opposed to mobile
communication (i.e., moving cellular phone service). Initially, the standard was called High Data
Rate (HDR), but was renamed to 1xEV-DO after it was ratified by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) under the designation TIA-856. Originally, 1xEV-DO stood for "1x
Evolution-Data Only", referring to its being a direct evolution of the 1x (1xRTT) air interface
standard, with its channels carrying only data traffic. The title of the 1xEV-DO standard document is
"cdma2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification", as cdma2000 (lowercase) is another
name for the 1x standard, numerically designated as TIA-2000.
Later, due to possible negative connotations of the word "only", the "DO"-part of the standard's
name 1xEV-DO was changed to stand for "Data Optimized", the full name - EV-DO now stands for
"Evolution-Data Optimized." The 1x prefix has been dropped by many of the major carriers, and is
marketed simply as EV-DO.[4] This provides a more market-friendly emphasis of the technology
being data-optimized.
Forward link channel structure
The primary characteristic that differentiates an EV-DO channel from a 1xRTT channel is that it
is time multiplexed on the forward link (from the tower to the mobile). This means that a single
mobile has full use of the forward traffic channel within a particular geographic area (a sector)
during a given slot of time. Using this technique, EV-DO is able to modulate each user’s time slot
independently. This allows the service of users in favorable RF conditions with very
complex modulation techniques while also serving users in poor RF conditions with simpler (and
more redundant signals).[5]
The forward channel is divided into slots, each being 1.667 ms long. In addition to user traffic,
overhead channels are interlaced into the stream, which include the 'pilot', which helps the mobile
find and identify the channel, the Media Access Channel (MAC) which tells the mobile devices
when their data is scheduled, and the 'control channel', which contains other information the
network needs the mobile devices to know.
The modulation to be used to communicate with a given mobile unit is determined by the mobile
device itself; it listens to the traffic on the channel, and depending on the receive signal strength
along with the perceived multi-path and fading conditions, makes a best guess as to what data-rate
it can sustain while maintaining a reasonable frame error rate of 1-2%. It then communicates this
information back to the serving sector in the form of an integer between 1 and 12 on the "Digital
Rate Control" (DRC) channel. Alternatively, the mobile can select a "null" rate (DRC 0), indicating
that the mobile either cannot decode data at any rate, or that it is attempting to hand off to another
serving sector.[5]
The DRC values are as follows:[6]

DRC Data rate Slots Payload size Code

Modulation SNR Reqd.
Index (kbit/s) scheduled (bits) Rate

1 38.4 16 1024 1/5 QPSK -12

2 76.8 8 1024 1/5 QPSK -9.6

3 153.6 4 1024 1/5 QPSK -6.8

4 307.2 2 1024 1/5 QPSK -3.9

5 307.2 4 2048 1/5 QPSK -3.8

6 614.4 1 1024 1/3 QPSK -0.6

7 614.4 2 2048 1/3 QPSK -0.8

8 921.6 2 3072 1/3 8-PSK 1.8

9 1228.8 1 2048 2/3 QPSK 3.7

10 1228.8 2 4096 1/3 16-QAM 3.8

11 1843.2 1 3072 2/3 8-PSK 7.5

12 2457.6 1 4096 2/3 16-QAM 9.7

Another important aspect of the EV-DO forward link channel is the scheduler. The scheduler most
commonly used is called "proportional fair". It's designed to maximize sector throughput while also
guaranteeing each user a certain minimum level of service. The idea is to schedule mobiles
reporting higher DRC indices more often, with the hope that those reporting worse conditions will
improve in time.
The system also incorporates Incremental Redundancy Hybrid ARQ. Each sub-packet of a multi-
slot transmission is a turbo-coded replica of the original data bits. This allows mobiles to
acknowledge a packet before all of its sub-sections have been transmitted. For example, if a mobile
transmits a DRC index of 3 and is scheduled to receive data, it will expect to get data during four
time slots. If after decoding the first slot the mobile is able to determine the entire data packet, it can
send an early acknowledgement back at that time; the remaining three sub-packets will be
cancelled. If however the packet is not acknowledged, the network will proceed with the
transmission of the remaining parts until all have been transmitted or the packet is acknowledged.[5]
Reverse link structure
The reverse link (from the mobile back to the Base Transceiver Station) on EV-DO Rel. 0 operates
very similar to that of 3G1X CDMA. The channel includes a reverse link pilot (helps with decoding
the signal) along with the user data channels. Some additional channels that do not exist in 3G1X
include the DRC channel (described above) and the ACK channel (used for HARQ). Only the
reverse link has any sort of power control, because the forward link is always transmitted at full
power for use by all the mobiles.[6] The reverse link has both open loop and closed loop power
control. In the open loop, the reverse link transmission power is set based upon the received power
on the forward link. In the closed loop, the reverse link power is adjusted up or down 800 times a
second, as indicated by the serving sector (similar to 3G1X).[7]
All of the reverse link channels are combined using code division and transmitted back to the base
station using BPSK[8] where they are decoded. The maximum speed available for user data is 153.2
kbit/s, but in real-life conditions this is rarely achieved. Typical speeds achieved are between 20-50
kbit/s.
EV-DO Rev. A (TIA-856 Revision A)
Revision A of EV-DO makes several additions to the protocol while keeping it completely
backwards compatible with Release 0.
These changes included the introduction of several new forward link data rates that increase the
maximum burst rate from 2.45 Mbit/s to 3.1 Mbit/s. Also included were protocols that would
decrease connection establishment time (called enhanced access channel MAC), the ability for
more than one mobile to share the same timeslot (multi-user packets) and the introduction
of QoS flags. All of these were put in place to allow for low latency, low bit rate communications
such as VoIP.[9]
The additional forward rates for EV-DO Rev. An are:[10]

DRC Index Data rate in kbit/s Slots scheduled Payload size (bits) Code Rate Modulation

13 1536 2 5120 5/12 16-QAM

14 3072 1 5120 5/6 16-QAM

In addition to the changes on the forward link, the reverse link was enhanced to support higher
complexity modulation (and thus higher bit rates). An optional secondary pilot was added, which is
activated by the mobile when it tries to achieve enhanced data rates. To combat reverse link
congestion and noise rise, the protocol calls for each mobile to be given an interference allowance
which is replenished by the network when the reverse link conditions allow it.[10] The reverse link has
a maximum rate of 1.8 Mbit/s, but under normal conditions users experience a rate of approximately
500-1000 kbit/s but with more latency than cable and dsl.
EV-DO Rev. B (TIA-856 Revision B)
EV-DO Rev. B is a multi-carrier evolution of the Rev. A specification. It maintains the capabilities of
EV-DO Rev. A, and provides the following enhancements:

 Higher rates per carrier (up to 4.9 Mbit/s on the downlink per carrier). Typical deployments are
expected to include 2 or 3 carriers for a peak rate of 14.7 Mbit/s. Higher rates by bundling
multiple channels together enhance the user experience and enable new services such as high
definition video streaming.
 Reduced latency by using statistical multiplexing across channels—enhances the experience
for latency sensitive services such as gaming, video telephony, remote console sessions and
web browsing.
 Increased talk-time and standby time
 Reduced interference from the adjacent sectors especially to users at the edge of the cell signal
which improves the rates that can be offered by using Hybrid frequency re-use.
 Efficient support for services that have asymmetric download and upload requirements (i.e.
different data rates required in each direction) such as file transfers, web browsing, and
broadband multimedia content delivery.
EV-DO Rev. C (TIA-856 Revision C) and TIA-1121
Qualcomm early on realized that EV-DO was a stop-gap solution, and foresaw an upcoming format
war between LTE and determined that a new standard would be needed. Qualcomm originally
called this technology EV-DV (Evolution Data and Voice).[11] As EV-DO became more pervasive,
EV-DV evolved into EV-DO Rev C.
The EV-DO Rev. C standard was specified by 3GPP2 to improve the CDMA2000 mobile phone
standard for next generation applications and requirements. It was proposed by Qualcomm as the
natural evolution path for CDMA2000 and the specifications were published by 3GPP2 (C.S0084-*)
and TIA (TIA-1121) in 2007 and 2008 respectively.[12][13]
The brand name UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) was introduced in 2006 as a synonym for this
standard.[14]
UMB was intended to be a so-called fourth-generation technology. These technologies use a high
bandwidth, low latency, underlying TCP/IP network with high level services such as voice built on
top. Widespread deployment of 4G networks promises to make applications that were previously
not feasible not only possible but ubiquitous. Examples of such applications include mobile high
definition video streaming and mobile
Like LTE, the UMB system was to be based upon Internet networking technologies running over a
next generation radio system, with peak rates of up to 280 Mbit/s. Its designers intended for the
system to be more efficient and capable of providing more services than the technologies it was
intended to replace. To provide compatibility with the systems it was intended to replace, UMB was
to support handoffs with other technologies including existing CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO
systems.
UMB's use of OFDMA would have eliminated many of the disadvantages of the CDMA technology
used by its predecessor, including the "breathing" phenomenon, the difficulty of adding capacity via
microcells, the fixed bandwidth sizes that limit the total bandwidth available to handsets, and the
near complete control by one company of the required intellectual property.
While capacity of existing Rel. B networks can be increased 1.5-fold by using EVRC-B voice codec
and QLIC handset interference cancellation, 1x Advanced and EV-DO Advanced offers up to 4x
network capacity increase using BTS interference cancellation (reverse link interference
cancellation), multi-carrier links, and smart network management technologies.[15][16]
In November 2008, Qualcomm, UMB's lead sponsor, announced it was ending development of the
technology, favoring LTE instead. This followed the announcement that most CDMA carriers chose
to adopt either WiMAX or the competing 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard as their 4G
technology. In fact no carrier had announced plans to adopt UMB.[17]
However, during the ongoing development process of the 4G technology, 3GPP added some
functionalities to LTE, allowing it to become a sole upgrade path for all wireless networks.
Features[edit]

 OFDMA-based air interface

 Frequency Division Duplex
 Scalable bandwidth between 1.25–20 MHz (OFDMA systems are especially well suited for
wider bandwidths larger than 5 MHz)
 Support of mixed cell sizes, e.g., macro-cellular, micro-cellular & pico-cellular.
 IP network architecture
 Support of flat, centralized and mixed topologies
 Data speeds over 275 Mbit/s downstream and over 75 Mbit/s upstream
 Significantly higher data rates & reduced latencies using Forward Link (FL) advanced antenna
techniques
 MIMO, SDMA and Beamforming
 Higher Reverse Link (RL) sector capacity with quasi-orthogonal reverse link
 Increased cell edge user data rates using adaptive interference management
 Dynamic fractional frequency reuse
 Distributed RL power control based on other cell interference
 Real time services enabled by fast seamless L1/L2 handoffs
 Independent RL & FL handoffs provide better airlink and handoff performance
 Power optimization through use of quick paging and semi-connected state
 Low-overhead signaling using flexible airlink resource management
 Fast access and request using RL CDMA control channels
 New scalable IP architecture supports inter-technology handoffs
 New handoff mechanisms support real-time services throughout the network and across
different airlink technologies
 Fast acquisition and efficient multi-carrier operation through use of beacons
 Multi-carrier configuration supports incremental deployment & mix of low-complexity &
wideband devices