GPRS and UMTS release 2000 A11-IP option

Abstract

This article will describe to the reader the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) packet switched architecture and the UMTS release currently under specification --- Release 2000. The article will discuss the relevant features of the Release 1999 architecture in order to give the reader the background knowledge to understand the Release 2000 IP Multimedia architecture. Aspects of the Release 2000 are described in greater detail when the topic is especially interesting and revolutionary. For instance, why and how the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) ended up mandating the Internet Protocol version 6.