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)
“In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)