The third generation networks and services present opportunities to offer m
ultimedia applications and services that meet end-to-end quality of service
requirements. The key parts of the standards are already in place, and lim
ited 3G services have already been turned on. While the evolution to 3G occ
urs, many operators will implement 2.5G interim solutions for a good period
of time. In this article we briefly discuss the various evolution scenario
s from the present 2G networks to 3G networks. Then we present the UMTS QoS
architecture and its requirements, followed by a discussion on QoS in 3G a
ir interfaces, radio access network, and core network.