Integrated Digital Enhanced Network

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Mobile communication standards
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For other uses of Iden/IDEN see Iden (disambiguation)

Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone. iDEN places more users in a given spectral space, compared to analog cellular and two-way radio systems, by using speech compression and time division multiple access (TDMA).

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[edit] Operating frequencies

iDEN is designed and licensed to operate on individual frequencies that may not be contiguous. iDEN operates on 25 kHz channels, but only occupies 20 kHz in order to provide interference protection via guard bands. By comparison, TDMA Cellular (Digital AMPS) is licensed in blocks of 30 kHz channels, but each emission occupies 40 kHz, and is capable of serving the same number of subscribers per channel as iDEN. iDEN uses frequency-division duplexing to separate transmit and receive signals, with transmit and receive bands separated by 39MHz, 45MHz, or 48MHz depending on the frequency band being used [1].

iDEN supports either three or six interconnect users (phone users) per channel, and six dispatch users (push-to-talk users) per channel, using time division multiple access. The transmit and receive time slots assigned to each user are deliberately offset in time so that a single user never needs to transmit and receive at the same time. This eliminates the need for a duplexer at the mobile, since time-division duplexing of RF section usage can be performed.

[edit] Hardware

The first ever iDEN handset was Motorola's L3000, which was released in 1994. Most modern iDEN handsets use SIM cards, just like GSM and compatible with GSM handsets. Early iDEN models such as the i1000plus stored all subscriber information inside the handset itself, requiring the data to be downloaded and transferred should the subscriber want to switch handsets. Newer handsets using SIM technology make upgrading or changing handsets as easy as swapping the SIM card. Four different sized SIM cards exist, "Endeavor" SIMs are used only with the i2000 without data, "Condor" SIMs are used with the two-digit models (i95cl, for example) using a SIM with less memory than the three-digit models (i730, i860), "Falcon" SIMS are used in the three-digit phones, (i530, i710) and will read the smaller SIM for backward compatibility, but some advanced features such as extra contact information and possibly GPS reception is disabled. There is also the "Falcon 128" SIM, which is the same as the original "Falcon", but doubled in memory size, which is used on new 3 digit phones (i560, i930).

iDEN Base Radio at a Cell Site
iDEN Base Radio at a Cell Site

The interconnect-side of the iDEN network uses GSM signalling for call set-up and mobility management, with the Abis protocol stack modified to support iDEN's additional features. Motorola has named this modified stack 'Mobis'.

[edit] Operators

In the United States of America there are two large public iDEN service providers: Sprint Nextel and SouthernLINC Wireless, and several small public and private iDEN service providers. Numerous private systems exist, including one run by ARINC, covering all major airports. Countries which have operating iDEN networks include Canada, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Jordan, Chile, Israel, Philippines, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, El Salvador, China and most recently India. Full Roaming is available between Sprint/Nextel in the US, Telus (Canada), and NII (Mexico and S. American markets) Data/Voice/Radio. For markets not controlled by NII Holdings, Inc., the roaming is for voice telephony only.

Motorola is committed to support of iDEN technology despite the Sprint buyout of Nextel and Sprint/Nextel's supposed eventual conversion to Sprint's CDMA system. Nextel has stated they will support iDEN until at least 2010, while other iDEN carriers have no foreseeable expiration date for their services. The speed of iDEN's Push-To-Talk (a.k.a Dispatch) feature is unparalleled, and remains the fastest in the industry.


There is a smaller subset of the iDEN network called "Harmony Wireless Communications System", With Small System Release 5.0, it supports a maximum limit of 192 sites. With the introduction of Small System Release 6.1, it gains the ability to interface with a full iDEN system. SSR7.0 is the latest Harmony Small System Release.

[edit] Countries operating iDEN networks

Company Name Country Push To Talk Name
Airtel Wireless Ltd. Flag of Canada Alberta, Canada Fleet Connect
Airpeak Flag of the United States United States Talk Direct
Airtel Flag of the United States United States cellular radio
ARINC Flag of the United States United States
Avantel Flag of Colombia Colombia
Boost Mobile Flag of the United States United States Chirp
Bravo Telecom Flag of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Push To Talk
Procall Pvt. Ltd. Flag of India India Digital Push To Talk
China Satcom Guomai Comm Co. L Flag of the People's Republic of China China
Connect Net Flag of the United States United States
GRID Communications Flag of Singapore Singapore Push To Talk
Iconnect Flag of Guam Guam iConnect PTT
Intelfon Flag of El Salvador El Salvador RED
Mirs Flag of Israel Israel
Monttcashire Flag of Ecuador Ecuador
NEXNET Flag of Japan Japan
Sprint Nextel Flag of the United States United States Direct Connect
Nextel Argentina Flag of Argentina Argentina Direct Connect
Nextel Brazil Flag of Brazil Brazil Direct Connect
Nextel Chile Flag of Chile Chile Direct Connect
Nextel Mexico Flag of Mexico Mexico Direct Connect
Nextel Peru Flag of Peru Peru Direct Connect
Next Mobile Flag of the Philippines Philippines Walkie-Talkie
Proxtel Wireless Flag of Puerto Rico Puerto Rico
Shenzhen Yunliantong Comm Service Flag of the People's Republic of China China
KT Powertel Flag of South Korea South Korea
SouthernLINC Wireless Flag of the United States United States InstantLINC
Telus Flag of Canada Canada Mike
XPress Flag of Jordan Jordan XPress Direct Connect

[edit] References

  1. ^ Motorola iDEN Technical Overview

[edit] See also

[edit] External links