In the

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency ...

(UMTS) and 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), user equipment (UE) is any device used directly by an end-user to communicate. It can be a hand-held telephone, a

laptop computer A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

equipped with a

mobile broadband Mobile broadband is the marketing term for Wireless broadband, wireless Internet access via mobile network, mobile (cell) networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, wireless modem, or a Tablet computer, tablet/smartp ...

adapter, or any other device. It connects to the

base station Base station (or base radio station, BS) is – according to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) – a " land station in the land mobile service." A base station is called '' node B'' in 3G, '' eNB'' in L ...

Node B {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) Node B is the telecommunications node for mobile communication networks, namely those that adhere to the UMTS standard. The Node B provides the connection between mobile phones (User equipme ...

/eNodeB as specified in the

ETSI The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization operating in the field of Information and communications technology, information and communications. ETSI supports the de ...

125/136-series and

3GPP The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. Its best known work is the development and maintenance of: * GSM and related 2G and ...

25/36-series of specifications. It roughly corresponds to the

mobile station A mobile station (MS) comprises all user equipment and software needed for communication with a mobile network. The term refers to the global system connected to the mobile network, i.e. a mobile phone or mobile computer connected using a mobi ...

(MS) in

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

systems. The radio interface between the UE and the Node B is called ''Uu''. In the context of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), Uu stands for the interface between UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) and the UE (User Equipment).

Functionality

UE handles the following tasks towards the

core network A backbone or core network is a part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same buildi ...

: *

Mobility management Mobility management is one of the major functions of a GSM or a UMTS network that allows mobile phones to work. The aim of mobility management is to track where the subscribers are, allowing calls, SMS and other mobile phone services to be del ...

* Call control * Session management * Identity management The corresponding protocols are transmitted transparently via a Node B, that is, Node B does not change, use or understand the information. These protocols are also referred to as '' Non Access Stratum'' protocols. The UE is a device which initiates all the calls and it is the terminal device in a network.

References

External links

3GPP 25-series of specifications

UMTS Mobile telecommunications standards 3GPP standards {{telecomm-stub