Code Division Multiple Access technology emerged as an alternative to the GSM cellular architecture and has shared in the past decade?s explosive growth in the wireless market. CDMA, like GSM, has seen incremental improvements in capacity throughout this period. Now both types of networks are making a transition to third-generation (3G) systems around the globe, offering yet more capacity and data services.
This paper will briefly describe the origins of CDMA technology and the emergence of 3G implementations such as cdma2000 1X and cdma2000 1x EV-DO. An overview of network topology is included, with a detailed explanation of the role of each element and interface in the network and of protocol testing to address the changing requirements of the network. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the technical problems that can occur in CDMA networks and some proposed solutions.