What is HSPA? | Differences Between HSPA and HSPA+ Technology

HSPA stands for High Speed Packet Access. The technology used in 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) networks to boost internet speed.

HSPA is a term that represents HSDPA and HSUPA. HSDPA offers peak downlink speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps. HSUPA offers peak uplink speeds up to 5.79Mbps.

HSDPA stands for High Speed Downlink Packet Access, and HSUPA stands for High Speed Uplink Packet Access.

HSPA+ High Speed Packet Access is an enhancement to HSPA which can increase the peak downlink speeds up to 42Mbps.

HSPA is shown on your mobile phone screen as H and HSPA+ are shown on your mobile phone screen as H+.

HSPA makes efficient use of the frequency spectrum through better modulation techniques and retransmission.

HSDPA is a new downlink channel shared among multiple users. It employs superior modulation and users faster retransmission of the erroneous packets.

HSUPA adds a new dedicated radio interface for uplink communication. It uses a dedicated channel and not a shared one and it also uses fast retransmission techniques.

Downlink comes with downloads and uplink comes with uploads.

HSPA+ is a technology upgrade to HSPA which makes enhancements to the spectral efficiency peak data rate latency. HSPA+ uses higher-order modulation as compared to HSPA.

In CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) which is a CDMA-based 3G network technology called EVDO is used which is equivalent to HSPA.

EVDO stands for Evolution-Data Optimized, also called Evolution Data Only. EVDO is a network standard used for wireless data communications, primarily for connecting to the internet. It is a protocol for high-speed broadband and is compared to DSL.

EVDO (Evolution-Data Optimized) is used for the data transmission between a cell phone and a transmission tower. It is used for accessing email and web browsing on the cell phone.

Here are the differences between HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) and HSPA+ Technology

1. HSPA stands for High Speed Packet Access, WHILE, HSPA+, also stands for High Speed Packet Access.
2. HSPA provides an uploading speed of 5.7 Mbps, BUT, HSPA+ provides an uploading speed of 22Mbps.
3. HSPA provides downloading speed of 1.8 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps, WHILE, HSPA+ provides downloading speed of 168 Mbps.
4. HSPA is a family of network protocols including HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSPA+ is also a family of network protocols including HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).
5. HSPA, Multiple Access Technique –WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), HSPA + it is also a Multiple Access Techniques –WCDM (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).
6. HSPA, Spectrum Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) 5MHZ, HSPA+ spectrum Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) 5MHZ.
7. Latency Round Trip 100ms for HSPA, BUT, for HSPA+ latency Round Trip 5ms.
8. Modulation 16 QAM (HSDPA), 64 QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), WHILE, HSPA+ Modulation 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) + MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output).

NB:

QAM 16 (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), is a modulation technique in which a carrier can exist in one of sixteen different states. As such each state can represent four bits 0000 through to 1111 per symbol change.

QAM 64, each symbol is represented by 6 bits.