A radio access network (RAN) is part of a mobile telecommunication system. It implements a radio access technology. Conceptually, it resides between a device such as a mobile phone, a computer, or any remotely controlled machine and provides connection with its core network (CN). Depending on the standard, mobile phones and other wireless connected devices are varyingly known as user equipment (UE), terminal equipment, mobile station (MS), etc.. RAN functionality is typically provided by a silicon chip residing in both the core network as well as the user equipment. See the following diagram:
CN / \ / \ RAN RAN / \ / \ UE UE UE UEExamples of radio access network types are:
- GRAN: GSM radio access network
- GERAN: essentially the same as GRAN but specifying the inclusion of EDGE packet radio services
- UTRAN: UMTS radio access network
- E-UTRAN: The Long Term Evolution (LTE) high speed and low latency radio access network
It is also possible for a single handset/phone to be simultaneously connected to multiple radio access networks. Handsets capable of this are sometimes called dual-mode handsets. For instance it is common for handsets to support both GSM and UMTS (a.k.a. "3G") radio access technologies. Such devices seamlessly transfer an ongoing call between different radio access networks without the user noticing any disruption in service.
Read more about Radio Access Network: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words radio, access and/or network:
“We spend all day broadcasting on the radio and TV telling people back home what’s happening here. And we learn what’s happening here by spending all day monitoring the radio and TV broadcasts from back home.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.”
—Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)