Path to 4G Wireless Technology

Amit Kumar1, Dr. Yunfei Liu2, Tanvir Singh3

1,2

College of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037 China 3 Department of ECE, I.E.T. Bhaddal, Ropar, Punjab, India
[e-mail: amitmehta66@gmail.com]

Abstract:
The emergence of new technologies in the mobile communication systems and also the ever increasing growth of user demand have triggered researchers and industries to come up with a comprehensive manifestation of the upcoming fourth generation (4G) mobile communication system. In this paper we will discuss the evolution of wireless technologies and some vital components of 4G technology to achieve the IMT-Advanced specifications from ITU. The technology components considered for the next generation wireless technology include extended spectrum flexibility to support up to 100MHz bandwidth, enhanced multi-antenna solutions with up to eight layer transmission in the downlink and up to four layer transmission in the uplink, coordinated multi-point transmission/reception, and the use of advanced relaying.

Fig.1: ICT Evolution (Source: ITU) Ericsson has recently estimated that mobile data growth rates on a global basis for the upcoming 5 year period and forecast annual global mobile data traffic volumes in excess of 40 exabytes per year by 2015 (see Fig.2).

Keywords: 4G, CoMP, Relaying, Enhanced

MIMO, Carrier Aggregation, OFDMA

Introduction

Wireless data usage continues to increase at an unprecedented pace. While smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry are now commonplace, penetration rates of tablets such as Apples iPad are also increasing rapidly. This is, consequently, driving the need for continued innovations in wireless data technologies to provide more capacity and higher quality of service [1,7]. According to ITU, The number of mobile broadband subscriptions has grown steadily and in 2008 surpassed those for fixed broadband. At the end of 2009, there were an estimated 640 million mobile and 490 million fixed broadband subscriptions. (see Fig.1) [6].

Fig.2: Mobile data traffic forecast 2008-2015 [7] According to the ITU-R, IMT-Advanced 4G standards will usher in a new era of mobile broadband communications. IMT-Advanced, which includes LTE-Advanced, provides a global platform on which to build next generations of interactive mobile services that will provide faster data access, enhanced roaming capabilities, unified messaging and broadband multimedia. In this paper we have discussed the wireless technology

evolution along with technology components of 4G. 2. Wireless Technology Evolution

mobility applications and wide range of data rates [2]. 3 Technology Components for 4G

Wireless access technologies have followed different evolutionary paths aimed at unified target: performance and efficiency in high mobile environment.1G refers to analog cellular technologies; it became available in the 1980s. 2G denotes initial digital systems, introducing services such as short messaging and lower speed data. CDMA2000 1xRTT and GSM are the primary 2G technologies, although CDMA2000 1xRTT is sometimes called a 3G technology because it meets the 144 kbps mobile throughput requirement. EDGE, however, also meets this requirement. 2G technologies became available in the 1990s. 3G requirements were specified by the ITU as part of the International Mobile Telephone 2000 (IMT2000) project, for which digital networks had to provide 144 kbps of throughput at mobile speeds, 384 kbps at pedestrian speeds, and 2 Mbps in indoor environments. UMTS-HSPA and CDMA2000 EV-DO are the primary 3G technologies, although recently WiMAX was also designated as an official 3G technology. 3G technologies began to be deployed last decade [7]. The mobile broadband technologies are reaching a commonality in the air interface and networking architecture; they are being converged to an IPbased network architecture with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) based air interface technology [2]. The fundamental reason for the transition to the All-IP is to have a common platform for all the technologies that have been developed so far, and to harmonize with user expectations of the many services to be provided. The 4G network will encompass all systems from various networks, public to private; operator-driven broadband networks to personal areas; and ad hoc networks. The 4G systems will interoperate with 2G and 3G systems, as well as with digital (broadband) broadcasting systems. The ITU has recently issued requirements for IMT-Advanced, which constitutes the official definition of 4G. Requirements include operation in up-to-40 MHz radio channels and extremely high spectral efficiency. The ITU recommends operation in up-to-100 MHz radio channels and peak spectral efficiency of 15 bps/Hz, resulting in a theoretical throughput rate of 1 Gbps [7]. In addition, 4G systems will be fully IP-based wireless Internet which will provide access to wide range of telecommunication services, including advanced mobile services, supported by mobile and fixed networks, which are increasingly packet based, along with a support for low to high

The technology components which will play vital role in making 4G wireless technology practically fissible, are discussed in the following section. A. OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Domain Multiple Access) In OFDMA systems, the multiple user signals are separated in the time and/or frequency domains. Typically, a burst in an OFDMA system will consists of several OFDM symbols. The subcarriers and the OFDM symbol period are the finest allocation units in the frequency and time domain, respectively. Hence, multiple users are allocated different slots in the time and frequency domain (i.e., different groups of subcarriers and/or OFDM symbols are used for transmitting the signals to/from multiple users). For instance, Fig. 3 illustrates an example where the subcarriers in an OFDM symbol are represented by arrows and the lines shown at different times represent the different OFDM symbols. It shows how the resources can be allocated by using the different subcarriers and OFDM symbols among 5 users. OFDMA demonstrates superior performance in non-line-of-sight (N-LOS) multi-path channels with its relatively simple transceiver structures [8].

Fig 3. Allocation of resources to users in OFDMA [3] B. Enhanced Multi-antenna Transmission: Multi-antenna technologies, including beamforming and spatial multiplexing, are key technology components already of 3GPP LTE and can safely be expected to continue to play an even more important role as part of LTE-Advanced to meet the 4G requirements. For the downlink, up to eight layers can be transmitted using an 8 x 8 antenna configuration, allowing for a peak spectral efficiency exceeding the requirement of 30 bps/Hz and implying a possibility for data rates beyond 1 Gbps in a 40 MHz bandwidth and even higher data rates with wider bandwidth .IMT-Advanced (4G)

will include spatial multiplexing of up to four layers also for the uplink. With four-layer transmission in the uplink, a peak uplink spectral efficiency exceeding 15 bps/Hz can be achieved.

Such independent operations per component carrier are especially useful in case of aggregating component carriers from different frequency bands with different radio-channel quality. D. Coordinated Multiple Point Transmission and Reception (CoMP) Coordinated Multi-Point transmission/reception (CoMP) is considered as a tool to improve coverage, cell-edge throughput, and/or system efficiency. CoMP implies that when a UE is in the cell-edge region, it may be able to receive signals from multiple cell sites and the UEs transmission may be received at multiple cell sites regardless of the system load. Given that, if the signaling transmitted from the multiple cell sites is coordinated, the DL performance can be increased significantly.

Fig 4: Block Diagram of MIMO system [9] C. Carrier Aggregation (CA) Carrier Aggregation (CA) has been identified as a key technology to meet IMT-Advanced requirements. The need for CA in 4G arises from the requirement to support bandwidths larger than those currently supported in LTE while at the same time ensuring backward compatibility with LTE (B3G Networks). CA allows 4G to exploit spectrum allocations up to 100 MHz. by aggregating multiple component carriers to provide the necessary bandwidth.

Fig.6: CoMP in Downlink E. Relaying To reduce the transmitter-to-receiver distance for achieving higher data rates, a denser infrastructure is required. The concept of Relay Node (RN) has been introduced to enable traffic/signaling forwarding between eNB and UE to improve the coverage, group mobility, cell edge coverage, and to extend coverage to heavily shadowed areas in the cell or areas beyond the cell range. It provides throughput enhancement especially for the cell edge users and offers the potential to lower the CAPEX and OPEX by keeping the cell sizes relatively large.

Fig 5: Carrier Aggregation in LTE protocol stack [5] In 4G, the data streams from the different component carriers are aggregated above the MAC layer as shown in Fig. 5. This implies that hybridARQ retransmissions are performed independently per component carrier. In principle, transmission parameters such as modulation scheme and code rate could also be selected per component carrier.

Fig 7. Relay Node Deployment [5] Layer 3 relaying is conceived to use the 4G radio access in the backhaul wireless connecting one

eNB with another eNB that behaves as a central hub. This anchor eNB routes the packets between the wired and wireless backhaul, acting like an IP router . Layer 3 relaying solution let the relay perform the same functions as normally handled by the base station, e.g. hybrid-ARQ retransmissions, scheduling, and mobility functions. In essence, the relay is, from a functional perspective, a base station and therefore there is no need to define new functions for mobility [5].

[6] 4G Americas (2011), Sustaining the Mobile Miracle: : A 4G Americas Blueprint for Securing Mobile Broadband Spectrum in this Decade , [Online] Available: www.3gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page... 334 [7] 3G Americas (2010), Transition to 4G: 3GPP Broadband Evolution to IMT-Advanced (4G) [Online] Available: www.3gamericas.org/.../Transition%20to%204GHSPA%20LTE%20Advanced%20Rysavy%202010 %20PPT.pdf [8] Amit Kumar, Jyotsna Sengupta, Yun-fei Liu, Broadband for all by WiMAX Technology, PJST, Volume 11. Number 1. May 2010 (Spring) [9] X Gu, X-H Peng, G C Zhang, MIMO systems for broadband wireless Communications, BT Technology Journal, Vol 24, No 2 , April 2006

Conclusion

This paper has provided a comprehensive overview of some technology components currently considered for 4G, to further enhance the performance beyond the IMT-Advanced requirements while maintaining backwards compatibility with previous generations of Wireless technologies. The technology components being considered for 4G include carrier aggregation, both for contiguous and non-contiguous spectrum to support bandwidths up to 100MHz as well as enhanced multiple antenna transmission with up to eight layers in the downlink and up to four layers in the uplink. In addition to relaying and repeater solutions to enhance coverage and cell edge data rates, an evolution of the inter-cell interference coordination in the form of coordinated multipoint transmission/reception is yet another technology to enhance performance.

References
[1] Amit Kumar, Yunfei Liu, Jyotsna Sengupta, Divya, Evolution of Mobile Wireless Communication Networks:1G to 4G, IJECT Vol.1 Issue. 1 December, 2010. [2] Amit Kumar, Jyotsna Sengupta, Yun-fei Liu, 3GPP LTE: The Future of Mobile Broadband, Wireless Personal Communication, Online First, July, 2010. [3] Amit Kumar, Yunfei Liu, Tanvir Singh, IMTAdvanced: The ITU standard for 4G Mobile Communication, IJCST Vol.2 Issue.1 March, 2011. [4] Rohde & Schwarz, Introduction to MIMO Application Note, [Online] Available: www2.rohdeschwarz..com/file_12364/1MA142_0e.pdf [5] Amit Kumar, Yunfei Liu, Amit Wason, LTEAdvanced: The Roadmap To 4G Mobile Wireless Networks, GJCST, Vol. 10 Issue 4 Ver. 1.0 June 2010