) spectrum requirements to ensure that their individual market needs are fulfilled Develops technical product specifications and certification test Technical Working Group suites for the air interface based on the OFDMA PHY, primarily for (TWG) the purpose of interoperability and certification of Mobile Stations and Base Stations conforming to the IEEE 802.16 standards FIGURE 1-6 The organization and working groups of the WiMAX Forum [14] CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Evolution (EDGE). The 3GPP organization was created in December 1998 by approval of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project Agreement. The latest 3GPP Scope and Objectives document has evolved from this original agreement [36]. Table 1-5 shows the 3GPP organization and the charter of the technical specification groups and their subcommittees. The standardization process in 3GPP is substantially different from that of the IEEE. The 3GPP standardization process starts with developing a requirement document where the targets to be ach- ieved are determined (i.e., Stage 1). The system architecture is defined where the underlying building blocks and interfaces are decided (i.e., Stage 2). Various working groups are engaged in developing the detailed specifications where every functional component, interface, and signaling protocol is speci- fied (i.e., Stage 3). The compliance and interoperability testing and verification follow upon completion of Stage 3. Note that in 3GPP standards, the data link layer is divided into four sub-layers; i.e., Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), as well as Radio Resource Control (RRC) [7]. As mentioned earlier, the growing demand for mobile Internet and wireless multimedia applica- tions has motivated development of broadband wireless access technologies in recent years. As a result, 3GPP initiated work on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) in late 2004. The 3GPP LTE will ensure 3GPP's competitive edge over other cellular technologies. The 