Evolution-Data Optimized
1x Evolution-Data Optimized, abbreviated as
EV-DO or
1xEV-DO and often
EVDO, is a
wireless radio broadband data standard adopted by many
CDMA mobile phone service providers in
Japan,
Korea, the
Czech Republic,
Russia,
Latvia,
Romania,
Portugal,
Brazil,
Israel, the
United States,
Australia,
Canada,
New Zealand,
Venezuela,
Angola,
Mexico,
Norway and
Puerto Rico. It is standardized by
3GPP2, as part of the CDMA family of standards. 1xEV-DO is pronounced "Wun-Ex E-Vee-Dee-Oh." It is commonly referred in the industry as DO ("Dee-Oh").
The initial design of 1xEV-DO was developed by
Qualcomm in 1999 to meet
IMT-2000 requirements for a greater-than 2-Mbit/s downlink for stationary communications. Initially, the standard was called HDR (High Data Rate), and was renamed to 1xEV-DO after it was ratified by the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU); it was given the numerical designation
IS-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 IS-2000.) Later, likely due to the possible negative connotations of the word "only" in its marketing, the "DO" part of the standard's name 1xEV-DO was changed to stand for "Data Optimized". So 1xEV-DO now stands for "1x Evolution-Data Optimized" [
1], providing a more marketing-friendly emphasis that the technology was optimized for data transfers.
Compared to the
1x (1xRTT) networks still being used by operators, or the
GPRS and
EDGE networks employed by their
GSM competitors, 1xEV-DO is significantly faster, providing access terminals (mobile devices) with air interface speeds of up to 2.4576 Mb/s with Rev. 0 and up to 3.1 Mb/s with Rev. A. Only terminals with 1xEV-DO chipsets can take advantage of the higher speeds.
HSDPA is a competing technology for
UMTS (
W-CDMA) networks standardized in
3GPP. HSDPA has the advantage of maintaining voice and data channels simultaneously. While possible in a CDMA deployment, no operator or phone manufacturer has introduced a phone with the required chipset(s) to demodulate both the cdma2000 voice and 1xEV-DO channel.
When deployed with a voice network, 1xEV-DO requires a separate radio channel of 1.25 MHz. The successor to the first revision of the standard, 1xEV-DO Rev. 0, is called
1xEV-DO Rev. A, and is currently being commercially deployed in Japan. Rev. A will be deployed in the United States by Sprint and Verizon Wireless in 2006. Rev. A offers fast packet establishment on both the forward and reverse links along with air interface enhancements that reduce latency and improve data rates. In addition to the increase in the maximum downlink (forward link) data rate from 2.4576 Mb/s in Rev. 0 to 3.1 Mb/s, Rev. A has a 12-times improvement in the maximum uplink (reverse link) data rate, from .15 Mb/s to 1.8 Mb/s. EV-DO Rev. A supports low latency services including VoIP and Video Telephony on the same carrier with traditional Internet packet data services. EV-DO Rev. The air-interface latency specifications have not been published, however several Qualcomm documents note latency in the "low double digit" with the highest RSVP settings. This compares favorably with Release 0 air-interface latencies of 150-200 ms.
Motorola proposed a new system called 1Xtreme as an evolution of
CDMA2000 1x, but it was rejected by 3GPP2 standardization body. Later, a competing standard called 1xEV-DV (which was developed by Qualcomm, Lucent, Nokia, Motorola, etc. in 3GPP2) was proposed as an alternate evolution of CDMA. 1xEV-DV stands for Evolution-Data and Voice, since the channel structure was backwards compatible with IS-95 and IS-2000 (1xRTT), allowing an in-band network deployment. (1xEV-DO requires an overlay network when deployed in mixed mode.)
At the time, there was much debate as to the favorability of DV and DO. Traditional operators with an existing voice network preferred deploying DV, since it does not require an overlay. Other design engineers, and newer operators without a 1x voice network felt that EV-DO was a superior choice to 1xEV-DV because it did not have to be backward compatible, and thus was free to explore different pilot structures, reverse link silence periods, improved control channels, etc. In addition, since 1xEV-DO uses an IP network and does not require a SS7 network and complex network switches such as an MSC (mobile switching center), the network cost is less than that of 1xEV-DV. Another factor that affected operators' decision to use 1xEV-DO was equipment was not available for 1xEV-DV in time to meet market demands whereas the 1xEV-DO equipment and mobile ASICs were available and tested by the time the 1xEV-DV standard was completed. As a result, the 1xEV-DV standard was less attractive to operators, and has not been implemented. With the announcement by
Verizon Wireless and later
Sprint Nextel in 2004 of plans for deployment of 1xEV-DO, and similar announcements by smaller operators in 2005, Qualcomm in March 2005 suspended development of 1xEV-DV chipsets, and focused its efforts toward improving the 1xEV-DO product line.
In the U.S.,
Alltel,
Verizon Wireless and
Sprint have completed significant deployment of 1xEV-DO since 2004.
Alltel currently offers service in 11 cities, and will expand to cover more than 40 cities by January '07. Sprint currently covers a population over 153 million with plans to reach 200 million by end of 2006 and 220 million by Q3/2007. Verizon currently reaches 150 million with EVDO. Verizon Wireless has EV-DO rolled out to
181 cities and Sprint has EV-DO rolled out to
220 cities. Sprint in the US, Iusacell Mexico and Bell Canada now have EVDO roaming agreements. Sprint also signed a roaming agreement with
Alltel for both voice and (1xRTT & EV-DO) data roaming that began Q32006. The new agreement gives customers of both companies free access to each others networks.A list of US markets with EV-DO is being
maintained here.
Companies with 1xEV-DO networks in service
*
Sprint - branded as Power Vision and Mobile Broadbandâ€"
check EV-DO coverage in your area, Coverage reaches over 153 Million People, and is offered in 220 cities. Sprint has
announced aggressive plans for next generation EV-DO Rev A.
*
Verizon Wireless - branded as BroadbandAccess and V CASTâ€"
check EV-DO coverage in your area, Coverage reaches 148 Million People, and is offered in 181 cities.
*
Embarq -
check EV-DO coverage in your area follows Sprint coverage
*
Bell Mobility - coverage in Canada
*
Cellular South - coverage in
Starkville, MS and surrounding areas.
*
Centennial de Puerto Rico Instant Internet - coverage in metropolitan
San Juan,
Aguadilla,
Caguas,
Dorado,
MayagĂĽez,
Fajardo,
Humacao, and
Ponce.
*
CANTV Movilnet in Venezuela. Product name is Aba MĂłvil and is available in all major cities. More information about the product and coverage can be found
here.
*
Movistar in Venezuela. More information can be found (in Spanish)
here*
Movistar Guatemala. More information can be found (in Spanish)
here*
Iusacell - coverage in MĂ©xico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Villahermosa
*
ACS Wireless - coverage in Alaska
*
Alltel - coverage in
11 markets *
Telecom New Zealand - coverage in all major metropolitan areas and many other towns around New Zealand.
*
Telstra - coverage in major metropolitan areas of Australia
*
VIVO - limited coverage
*
Worldcall Telecom Ltd. - Pakistan
*
Telecard - limited coverage in Islamabad, Pakistan
*
TELUS Mobility launched its 1xEV-DO network in Canada in November 2005.
*
Pelephone - full rollout in Egypt and Israel finished in 2005.
* Zapp RadiomĂłvel - coverage in major cities and 90% of populated area of Portugalâ€"check coverage in your area
here (in Portuguese).
*
Zapp Mobile - coverage in major cities and 87% of the area of Romaniaâ€"check coverage in your area
here.
*
Triatel - coverage in major cities of
Latvia*
SaskTel - coverage limited to Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
*
Manitoba Telecom Services - coverage in Winnipeg and Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
*
MIO - island-wide(<--lokual ta un kaka) coverage in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
*
Eurotel in the
Czech Republic has been operating a 1xEV-DO network that runs at 450 MHz since 2004.
*
SkyLink - coverage in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia
*
SK Telecom - coverage in 84 major cities in
South Korea here(in Korean)*
KTF - in South Korea. {stub}
*
KDDI - Coverage over Japan. Currently providing a Rev. A network, the first carrier to do so
*
UTStarcom PC5220 *
Sierra Wireless AirCard 580* Novatel Wireless
Merlin V620 /
Merlin S620*
Kyocera KPC650
*
UTStarcom PC5740 (only EV-DO card without antenna port)
*
Audiovox PC5740Some phones that are 1xEV-DO-enabled are:
*
Audiovox PPC 6600 (Windows Mobile 2003, SE based) (Also known as the
i-mate PDA2k EV-DO see below)
*
Sony Ericsson W21S
*
LG LX550 Fusic*
LG VX-9800*
LG VX-8000*
LG VX-8100*
UTStarcom XV6600 (Also known as the
i-mate PDA2k EV-DO see below)
*
UTStarcom PPC6700/
XV6700 (Also known as the
HTC Apache)
*
UTStarcom CDM-8940*
Samsung SCH-A890*
Samsung SPH-A900/Mobile ESPN ACE*
Samsung SPH-a920*
Samsung SCH-a930*
Samsung SPH-A940*
Samsung SCH-A950*
Samsung SCH-i730*
Motorola E815*
Motorola Q*
Motorola RAZR V3c ([
2])
*
Motorola RAZR V3m*
i-mate PDA2k EV-DO*
Nokia 6305i*
Sanyo Sanyo MM-7500*
Sanyo MM-9000*
Palm Treo 700p ([
3]) (Palm OS 5.4.9 based)
*
Palm Treo 700w ([
4]) (Windows Mobile 5.0.2.0 based)
*
Research In Motion BlackBerry 7130e*
Research In Motion BlackBerry 7250*
Curitel TX-160c*
Axesstel*
Dell Latitude D620*
Panasonic Toughbook 74*
Panasonic Toughbook 18*
Panasonic Toughbook 29*
Lenovo Thinkpad 60p*
Omniwav Mobile makes several lines of cellular routers that are especially good in mobile environments. The
CM3 is a low-cost consumer router and the
EV1 is their secure enterprise router. They also have GPS options for these routers for fleet tracking capabilities. The routers are fully integrated and ruggedized for remote access and use in vehicles and boats.
* Kyocera/D-Link
KR1 mobile router for consumers
* Verilink
NetPath 2000 VPN router for secure enterprise customers
*
WAAV is a distributor of Omniwav Mobile's CM3 router that is geared for the
"WiFiYourRide" crowd.
*
Junxion, Inc. offers two flexible wireless WAN routers
(one with Wi-Fi LAN, one without)for large enterprise/government deployments. The two Junxion Box models are the first in this category to be certified and promoted by two of the top three US wireless carriers: Sprint
(learn more)and Cingular
(learn more) for a wide range of applications, including: landline replacement, landline back-up, telemetry, mobile/vehicle, portable networks, remote security, and public/private transit. Large-scale deployments utilize Junxion's
Field Commanderremote management tool, which was co-developed with Sprint/Cingular personnel and enterprise customers.
*
Mako Networks offers access routers and service management solutions for broadband connectivity including EV-DO. Mako provides a router with vpn, firewall, content filtering, mail sanitisation, advanced usage control, proactive accounting and management services for mobile carriers to offer as a managed service to small and medium enterprises.
The following companies are leading providers of EV-DO infrastructure equipment:
*
Lucent is the leading supplier for a majority of CDMA operators, including
Verizon Wireless,
Sprint Nextel,
*
Huawei*
Metro PCS, and
VIVO .
*
Airvana is a
Boston, MA-based startup supplying equipment to Ericsson and Nortel.
*
Ericsson has done several trials in China and has commercial deployment in
South America.
*
Nortel*
Motorola*
Samsung* AnyData
USB EVDO modems*
Qualcomm Published papers by the inventors of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
*
Great article on CDMA and GSM*
3GPP2.org Offers free access to standards documents
*
CDG 3G News Latest 3G News
*
EVDOinfo.com Latest EV-DO news, tips, products, and coverage
*
EVDOforums.com EV-DO discussion forum
