ABOUT 4G

Mobile communication and wireless networks are the most widely researched and the field of communication that is undergoing development at a much higher pace. With the emergence of advanced techniques and equipments in mobile communication, it has developed at a booming speed in the past few years. At present, most of the mobile service providers have introduced the 3G mobile communication system, while introducing the researches to the next generation of mobile communication, the 4G.

HISTORY OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION:

When we look into the history of wireless communication, it will be very clear about the pace of development in the mobile communication systems. 1. Traditional wireless systems were meant to establish communication between places where it was difficult to establish a wire line connection. 2. 1G, the first generation mobile communication services were introduced in the 1980s which was based on analog techniques. It solved many issues associated with the traditional wireless communication systems. 3. The advancements in the digital signal processing techniques have brought about a revolution in the communication systems and it brought about the 2G system of communication. The major advancement of 2G over the 1G is the use of a subscriber identification module (SIM) and large customer support capabilities.

4. 2.5G which is an enhanced version of the 2G with higher data rate and packet switching protocols was introduced which brought about internet facilities to ordinary mobile devices. 5. 3G which includes higher data rate, higher bandwidth and multimedia communication capabilities have been adopted by most of the service providers recently. Even though 3G, the latest communication standard uses intelligent DSP techniques and also provides with multimedia communication capabilities, it still leaves some problems unresolved. This include, 1. The difficulty associated with the accommodation of the continuously increasing bandwidth and high data rate to meet the multimedia service requirement. 2. Limitations associated with the spectrum and its allocation. 3. Difficulty associated with roaming across different service environments with different frequency bands.

FEATURES OF 4G:
Thus these are the major problems that the 4G systems have to resolve when migrating from 3G to 4G. Different service providers have come up with different 4G feature frame works. All these were described in the subscriber point of view. In addition to the 3G they claims more features for the 4G like, 1. High capacity and low cost per bit. 2. High data rate. 3. High portability, Global access and seamless coverage. 4. High quality multimedia streaming.

Thus it can be seen that 4G focuses mainly on personalized services. In spite of all these services it poses a number of technical issues like, 1. Higher system cost. 2. Lower battery life. 3. Higher power consumption. 4. Cell coverage area. 5. High propagation loss due to the use of higher frequencies. Etc.

Thus 4G will be a new of the communication systems, providing a number of personalized services for its user at a lower cost. In order to provide these services to the user the 4G systems key requirement will be providing data and voice over ip-based network at high speed. In order to satisfy these higher data and transmission speed requirement, the 4G systems should use high frequency carriers of the order of 2 8 GHz and bandwidth of the order of 5 20 MHz, so that data rates of up to 20Mbps 100Mbps could be achieved. The access techniques used will be Multicarrier CDMA or OFDMA, so that the security of the packets sent could be assured. Thus it could be rightly said that the 4G systems will revolutionize the world of communication in the near future.

HISTORY OF 4G AND PRE-4G TECHNOLOGIES:

As of December 2011, there are no 4G networks that fulfill the International Telecommunication Union's criteria of being able to achieve 1Gbit/s while stationary. However in December 2010, the ITU recognized that current versions of LTE, WiMax and other evolved 3G technologies that do not fulfill "IMT-Advanced" requirements could

nevertheless be considered "4G", provided they represent forerunners to IMT-Advanced and "a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed."

In 2002, the strategic vision for 4Gwhich ITU designated as IMT-Advancedwas laid out.

In

2005, OFDMA transmission

technology

is

chosen

as

candidate

for

the HSOPA downlink, later renamed 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) air interface E-UTRA.
 

In November 2005, KT demonstrated mobile WiMAX service in Busan, South Korea. In June 2006, KT started the world's first commercial mobile WiMAX service in Seoul, South Korea.

In mid-2006, Sprint Nextel announced that it would invest about US$5 billion in a WiMAX technology build out over the next few years ($5.45 billion in real terms. Since that time Sprint has faced many setbacks, that have resulted in steep quarterly losses. On May 7, 2008, Sprint, Imagine, Google, Intel ,Comcast, Bright House, and Time Warner announced a pooling of an average of 120 MHz of spectrum; Sprint merged its X ohm WiMAX division with Clear wire to form a company which will take the name "Clear".

In September 2007, NTT Docomo demonstrated e-UTRA data rates of 200 Mbit/s with power consumption below 100 mW during the test.

In January 2008, a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction for the 700 MHz former analog TV frequencies began. As a result, the biggest

share of the spectrum went to Verizon Wireless and the next biggest to AT&T. Both of these companies have stated their intention of supporting LTE.


In January 2008, EU commissioner Viviane Reding suggested re-allocation of 500 800 MHz spectrum for wireless communication, including WiMAX.

 

On 15 February 2008 - Skyworks Solutions released a front-end module for e-UTRAN. In April 2008, LG and Nortel demonstrated e-UTRA data rates of 50 Mbit/s while travelling at 110 km/h.

On 12 November 2008, HTC announced the first WiMAX-enabled mobile phone, the Max 4G.

In December 2009, Sprint began advertising "4G" service in selected cities in the United States, despite average download speeds of only 36 Mbit/s with peak speeds of 10 Mbit/s (not available in all markets).

On 14 December 2009, the first commercial LTE deployment was in the Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and Oslo by the Swedish-Finnish network operator TeliaSonera and its Norwegian brand name NetCom (Norway). TeliaSonera branded the network "4G".

On 25 February 2010, Estonia's EMT opened LTE "4G" network working in test regime.

On 4 June 2010, Sprint Nextel released the first WiMAX smart phone in the US, the HTC Evo 4G.

 

In July 2010, Uzbekistan's MTS deployed LTE in Tashkent. On 12 December 2010,VivaCell-MTS launches in Armenia 4G/LTE commercial test network with a live demo conducted in Yerevan.

In 2011, Argentinas Claro launch 4G HSPA+ network in the country.