Visions of 4G Network

I Chunder, Non-member
This paper looks beyond 3G Networks and visualizes the network of the next generation, ie, 4G Networks. Essentially it discusses what 4G Network is and the need for 4G Networks. Also the advantages of 4G Network have been discussed. The paper also discusses how the network will be IP based and how it is different from its previous networks.Technical details from different industries who are conducting research in the field of 4G Networks have been collected. For the full deployment of a wireless network, a gestation period of five years is required. Assuming that the 3G network whose deployment has started in 2001/2002 to reach full fledged deployment by 2007, it will be the time for 4G networks to get commenced into service by 2010. From basic conception (planning) to roll-out takes a period of around ten years if at 2G and 3G networks are looked at. Going by these figures it is clear that if planning for 4G Networks is started now this network can be deployed some time in 2010. Also the importance of 4G today is that it inspires debate and visionary thinking, which are both important steps if the wireless industry is to move forward. With the above objective in mind this paper has been written.
Keywords : Mobile communication; 4G networks; TCP/IP

INTRODUCTION People for reasons unknown have always been fascinated visualizing a network that exceeds imagination. Visualization of about 4G Networks have started while 3G is yet to be deployed across the world and has only sporadically been incorporated in some selected countries with only one tenth of the actual feature deployment. Describing and predicting future services is very difficult. Assume that seven years ago a market study was conducted where people were asked if they would like to send text messages up to 160 characters through their mobile handsets. Most likely, nobody would have liked this type of service. SMS, however, currently accounts for approximately 10% of some operators' revenue. This might be the reason why the term 4G is not always welcome in the industry circle. The next 20 years in wireless could be divided into three phases as mentioned below. (i) Phase 1: Voice increasingly becomes wireless, 2000-2005. (ii) Phase 2: Development of mobile information society (the capability of users to access any information that they want wherever they are. This capability will likely lead to social changes, such as increased home working, and hence the term information society), 2006-2010.
I Chunder is with Sasken Limited, Bangalore 560 071. Communication Technologies Technologies

(iii)Phase 3: Full realization of the mobile information society, 2010-2020. During the first phase, mobile penetration reaches its final peak, which is approximately 100% in the most developed countries. The mobile phone has truly become the preferred phone, and the number of mobile users has exceeded the number of fixed phone users1. In the second phase, wireless data services will emerge in the mass market. Mobile users will be able to access all types of information whenever and wherever they want. Today's primitive and little used data services, such as wireless application protocol (WAP), iMode, and location based services have become widely used2. Mobile devices in all types of form factors emerge as the primary means to access the internet, and totally new services for mobile users are introduced. In the third phase, seamless interaction with humans and machines through wireless devices using voice, sight, and touch will become reality. Integrated mobile devices will communicate feelings and thoughts to other people or receive information about the environment, wherever the concerned person happens to be. Today's separate communication networks will evolve into one single, distributed network, spanning the whole globe and offering the same type of service set regardless of the air interface used. 4G NETWORK At first it is required to understand that 4G networks are only a concept. There are no standards under development, no real definition of what 4G will be. Current consensus indicates that 4G will be a unification 43

This paper was received on May 1, 2003. Written discussion on this paper will be entertained upto March 31, 2007.

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of different wireless networks, including wireless LAN technologies (IEEE 802.11, public cellular networks, (2.5G, 3G)3, and even personal area networks such as Bluetooth. Under this umbrella, 4G calls for a wide range of mobile devices roaming across different types of networks, some using licensed spectrum and some not. While doing so, the device would be able to interact with internet based information. In short, 4G means that 'everything works everywhere'. At its core, the 4G concept requires a fundamental change of orientation for wireless network operators away from providing discrete services which they control, and towards being a provider of access for users in parallel with other networks, such as wireless LANs4. The importance of 4G today is that it inspires debate and visionary thinking, which are both important steps if the wireless industry is to move forward. NEED FOR 4G NETWORKS The future of wireless communication will however be centered around one of the following two scenarios. Cellular dominance with further evolution A distributed network paradigm. In the first scenario, the traditional cellular paradigm dominates. Networks will be built starting from wide area coverage, and maximizing bit rates and coverage at the same time is desired. Transition from second generation to third-generation networks (from GSM, US-TDMA, and EDGE to WCDMA)5 will happen within 10 years from the launch of 3G networks. Drivers for this transition will be better service capabilities and spectrum efficiency. Second generation networks, however, will still have a significant number of cellular subscribers by 2010. Complementing technologies such as W-LANs will be integrated into cellular networks. A seamless service offering is driving this scenario. In the second scenario, new technologies such as W-LANs, wireless mesh networks, new radio technologies will emerge as separate networks and obtain massmarket scale. Gradually, the density of the network will increase and roaming capabilities will emerge. Understanding how to make a worldwide network based on this concept and be able to provide quality of service, remains a challenge. The demand for high bandwidth could drive this second scenario. Traditionally built, hierarchical networks could ultimately be too limited to support huge bandwidth requirements in all places that the users want. A more distributed network structure is required. So it can be concluded that some of the key targets which are driving the fourth generation networks are 44

higher data rates without compromising cell range(ie, coverage); increased spectrum efficiency. IP BASED 4G WIRELESS NETWORK An all IP based 4G wireless network has intrinsic advantages over its predecessors. For starters, IP is compatible with, and independent of, the actual radio access technology. With IP, one can basically get rid of the lock-in between the core networking protocol and the link layer, the radio protocol. A 4G IP wireless network enjoys a financial advantage over 3G as well. According to 4G, equipment costs are four to ten times cheaper than equivalent circuit switched equipment for 2G and 3G wireless infrastructure. An open systems IP wireless environment would probably further reduce costs for service providers by ushering in an era of real equipment interoperability. Wireless service providers would no longer be bound by single system vendors of proprietary equipment. An IP wireless network would replace the old signaling system 7 (SS7) telecommunications protocol, a task that many believe to be long overdue. The SS7 network is massively redundant. That's because SS7 signal transmission uses a heartbeat that consumes a large part of the network bandwidth even when there is no signaling traffic. IP networks use other less bandwidth expensive mechanisms to achieve reliability. Last but not least, an all IP wireless core network would enable services that are sufficiently varied for consumers. That means improved data access for mobile internet devices. Today, wireless communications are heavily biased toward voice, even though studies indicate that growth in wireless data traffic is rising exponentially, relative to demand for voice traffic. In response, the 802.11 data transfer protocol, a wireless LAN standard developed by IEEE, has attracted much interest as a distinct data access technology that can work on a variety radio of spectrums, including infrared. Because an all IP core layer is easily scalable, it is ideally suited to meet this challenge. The goal is a merged data/voice/multimedia network. The inherent advantage of 4G have some people thinking that one can leapfrog from 2.5G to 4G. Work is being done not on the next (3G) generation of telco communications, but two generations out. This means proceeding on two fronts, working the standards organizations to advance international acceptance of 4G protocols, and developing technology to support IP wireless solutions. Figure 1 illustrates a conceptual configuration of 4G systems and Table 1 shows how 1G to 4G systems are differentiated. The wireless part will become closer to a wireless LAN, but with wide area mobility management

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Multimedia

Base station LR
Service type

Narrowband era 1G 2G

Wideband era 3G

Broadband era 4G

WNC

IPbased core network

WNC : Wireless Network Controller

Voice

LR : Location Register Figure 1 systems Conceptual configuration of TCP/IP based 4G

Analog AMPS TACS NTT 24 kbps 2

Digital IS 95 IS 136 GSM PDC 64 kbps

IMT-2000

Wireless Internate Mobile System

2 Mbps 2000

20 Mbps 2010 Year

Figure

1980 1990 Evolution path

Table 1 Comparison of 1G to 4G systems Generation Wireless Access 1G Analog FDMA 2G Digital TDMA, CDMA Major Services Internet Text Only Core Network Circuit Based Circuit Based Intrnet Voice Voice Voice Voice Over IP Rich 3G CDMA 4G ?

wireless ATM. It is highly probable that cellular core network architectures will migrate to packet/cell based architectures and will converge with wireless LAN/ wireless ATM architectures in the 4G era (or inter technology mobility management will be introduced among cellular, wireless LAN and wireless ATM networks). As one may expect, TCP/IP traffic will dominate over the circuit switched type traffic in the near future, eg, voice, and thus, TCP/IP based core networks are highly desirable for 4G services. It is noted that there are also many development activities to accommodate TCP/IP traffic over ATM networks8. One advantage of the ATM network is that it can transfer efficiently different types of traffic, eg, the delay sensitive voice traffic and best effort type TCP/IP traffic, while guaranteeing their respective QoS requirements. CONCLUSION Figure 2 shows that the 4G systems should emerge around 2010. A major objective is to offer mobile users broadband multimedia services, which will soon be in full force in fixed networks based on next generation. For the 4G systems, the core network will be TCP/IP based. Since the expected frequency bands are above several GHz and data throughput over the air will be more than several Mbps, wireless links are severely power limited. A hybrid random multiple access technique using OFDM and CDMA9 may be a promising technique. Adoption of the well known and long time used cellular concept may not be a good idea. The use of wireless ad hoc networks that allow flexible installation of base stations may be a better solution. Furthermore, the receive functions can be separated from the base station and can be geographically distributed to make it possible to reduce the transmit power of portable phones. In brief, it can be said 4G is more than a cellular technology. It combines the cellular and WLANs to create the ultimate network. 4G networks are fully compatible with each other and offers truly global and local roaming. 45

(text/Images) Internet Circuit And switch Based Fully IP Based

as in the 2G and 3G systems. Mobile communication systems require many call control functions and a distributed database, and quick and stable connections between these are necessary. These will be embedded in the TCP/IP based core networks based on a virtual leased line concept. Voice traffic can be transferred as TCP/IP packets, ie, voice over IP, but how to guarantee QoS and reduce latency is a major technical problem (this may be much easier to realize if TCP/IP over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks are used). With respect to the wireless part, wireless internet access will be the core. TCP/IP packet over the air Broadband random multiple access Significantly asymmetric traffic between forward and reverse links. It is needed to develop an efficient wireless random multiple access technique. Probably, there will be demand for peak throughput of more than 2 Mbps in a vehicular environment and 10 Mbps20 Mbps in stationary-topedestrian environments6. Due to asymmetric traffic between the forward and reverse links, wireless access networks must be completely redesigned from the 3G systems. There are other approaches to provide multimedia services to mobile users with the aide of wireless technologies7, they are wireless LAN and

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Through the wireless internet, cellular users can conduct internet transactions and remotely control their offices and homes at a touch of their phones. It is always dangerous to predict too far ahead in a fast changing field like mobile technology. But the author, during his work with top telecom companies like Nortel and Lucent technologies felt that although 4G looks like a dream but it is not too far from becoming a reality. REFERENCES
1. T Barron. 'Wireless Links for PCS and Cellular Networks'. Cellular Integration, September 1995, p 20. 2. Special Issue, i-mode Service, NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal, vol 7, July 1999. 3. K Honma, et al. 'Mobile Terminal Technologies'. Proceedings of

IEICE, vol 82, February 1999, p 138.

4. B Walke. 'Mobile Radio Networks'. New York: Wiley, 1999. 5. Homa, Harri and A Toskala. 'WCDMA for UMTS'. John Wiley & Sons, 2000. 6. F Adachi and N Nakajima. 'Challenges of Wireless CommunicationsIMT2000 and Beyond'. IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals, vol E83-A, July 2000, p 1300. 7. N Morinaga, R Kohno and S Sampei, Ed. 'Wireless Communication Technologies New Multimedia Systems'. Kluwer Academic, 2000. 8. 'IEICE/IEEE Joint Special Issue, Recent Progress in ATM Technologies'. IEICE Transactions on Communication, vol E83-B, no 2, February 2000. 9. 'Special Issue, Wideband CDMA'. Magazine, vol 36, September 1998.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Institution of Engineers (India) gratefully acknowledges the valuable services rendered by the following experts which immensely helped in maintaining the technical standard of the Journal

Chairman, Electronics Agarwal, Dr R A, Communication and Computer Engineering Department, NIT Kurukshetra 136 119.
Basu, Prof P K, Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009. Chadda, Shri V K, Head, Signal Processing Image Analysis Section, Computer Division, Government of India, BARC, Mumbai 400 085. Chatterjee, Dr B N, Department of Electronics and Electrical Computer Engineering, IIT, Kharagpur 721 302. Chattopadhyay, Chattopadhyay, Prof D, Institute of Radiophysics Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009. Das Gupta, Prof A K, Department of Radiophysics and Electronics, University Calcutta, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009. Garg, Dr (Mrs) K, Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, IIT, Roorkee 247 667. Gupta, Dr H M, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016. Kalyansundaram, Dr N, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, NIT, Tiruchirapally, 620 015. Karthikeyan, S, Scientist 'G', Divisional Officer 46

EMRD, LRDE, Bangalore 560 093. Keshorey, Keshorey, Shri M R, 'Scientist, 'G', Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, DRDO, Raj Bhawan Circle, High Grounds, Bangalore 560 001. Mitra, Dr R, Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, IIT Campus, Roorkee 247 667. Mitra, Prof T K, Institute of Radiophysics Electronics, University of Calcutta, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009. Virendra, Mohan, Shri Virendra, Semiconductor Complex Ltd, Phase VIII, SAS Nagar, Pin 160 059, Punjab. V, Rao, Prof B V, 5/2, 'Mukti' Erandway of Karve Road, Pune 411 004. Rathore, Prof J S, Department of Engineering, IIT, Pawai, Mumbai 400 076. Electrical

Saha, Prof P K, Institute of Radiophysics, University of Calcutta, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009. Saxena, Dr A, Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, IIT, Roorkee 247 667. P, Shivaprasad, Shri A P, Department of Electrical Communication Engineering, IIT, Bangalore 560 012. Shivasankar, Shivasankar, Sri B M, Scientist, 'G', Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, DRDO, Raj Bhawan Circle, High Grounds, Bangalore 560 001. P, Sundersingh Dr V P, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT, Powai, Mumbai 400 076.

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