4G Wireless System
Fourth generation wireless system is a packet switched wireless system with wide area coverage and high throughput. It is designed to be cost effective and to provide high spectral efficiency. The 4g wirelesses uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Ultra Wide Radio Band (UWB), and Millimeter wireless. Data rate of 20mbps is employed. Mobile speed will be up to 200km/hr. The high performance is achieved by the use of long term channel prediction, in both time and frequency, scheduling among users and smart antennas combined with adaptive modulation and power control. Frequency band is 2-8 GHz. it gives the ability for worldwide roaming to access cell anywhere.
In 3G systems, making their appearance in late 2002 and in 2003, are designed for voice and paging services, as well as interactive-media use such as teleconferencing, Internet access, and other services. The problem with 3G wireless systems is bandwidth—these systems provide only WAN coverage ranging from 144 kbps (for vehicle mobility applications) to 2 Mbps (for indoor static applications). Segue to 4G, the "next dimension" of wireless communication. The 4g wirelesses use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Ultra Wide Radio Band (UWB), and Millimeter wireless and smart antenna. Data rate of 20mbps is employed. Mobile speed will be up to 200km/hr. Frequency band is 2-8 GHz. it gives the ability for worldwide roaming to access cell anywhere.
During the 1990's the next, or 3G, mobile system, which would eliminate previous incompatibilities and become a truly global system. The 3G systems would have higher quality voice channels, as well as broadband data capabilities, up to 2 Mbps. An interim step is being taken between 2G and 3G, the 2.5G. It is basically an enhancement of the two major 2G technologies to provide increased capacity on the 2G RF (radio frequency) channels and to introduce higher throughput for data service, up to 384 kbps. A very important aspect of 2.5G is that the data channels are optimized for packet data, which introduces access to the Internet from mobile devices, whether telephone, PDA (personal digital assistant), or laptop. However, the demand for higher access speed multimedia communication in today's society, which greatly depends on computer communication in digital format, seems unlimited. According to the historical indication of a generation revolution occurring once a decade, the present appears to be the right time to begin the research on a 4G mobile communication system.
ABOUT 4G
This new generation of wireless is intended to complement and replace the 3G systems. Accessing information anywhere, anytime, with a seamless connection to a wide range of information and services, and receiving a large volume of information, data, pictures, video, and so on, are the keys of the 4G infrastructures. The future 4G infrastructures will consist of a set of various networks using IP (Internet protocol) as a common protocol so that users are in control because they will be able to choose every application and environment. Based on the developing trends of mobile communication, 4G will have broader bandwidth, higher data rate, and smoother and quicker handoff and will focus on ensuring seamless service across a multitude of wireless systems and networks.
The key concept is integrating the 4G capabilities with all of the existing mobile technologies through advanced technologies. Application adaptability and being highly dynamic are the main features of 4G services of interest to users. These features mean services can be delivered and be available to the personal preference of different users and support the users' traffic, air interfaces, radio environment, and quality of service. Connection with the network applications can be transferred into various forms and levels correctly and efficiently. The dominant methods of access to this pool of information will be the mobile telephone, PDA, and laptop to seamlessly access the voice communication, high-speed information services, and entertainment broadcast services.
The fourth generation 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. In addition, 4G systems will be fully IP-based wireless Internet. This all-encompassing integrated perspective shows the broad range of systems that the fourth generation intends to integrate, from satellite broadband to high altitude platform to cellular 3G and 3G systems to WLL (wireless local loop) and FWA (fixed wireless access) to WLAN (wireless local area network) and PAN (personal area network), all with IP as the integrating mechanism. With 4G, a range of new services and models will be available. These services and models need to be further examined for their interface with the design of 4G systems.
IMPLEMENTATION USING 4G
The goal of 4G is to replace the current proliferation of core mobile networks with a single worldwide core network standard, based on IP for control, video, packet data, and voice. This will provide uniform video, voice, and data services to the mobile host, based entirely on IP.
The objective is to offer seamless multimedia services to users accessing an all IP-based infrastructure through heterogeneous access technologies. IP is assumed to act as an adhesive for providing global connectivity and mobility among networks.
An all IP-based 4G wireless network has inherent advantages over its predecessors. It is compatible with, and independent of the underlying radio access technology. An IP wireless network replaces the old Signaling System 7 (SS7) telecommunications protocol, which is considered massively redundant. This is because SS7 signal transmission consumes a larger part of network bandwidth even when there is no signaling traffic for the simple reason that it uses a call setup mechanism to reserve bandwidth, rather time/frequency slots in the radio waves. IP networks, on the other hand, are connectionless and use the slots only when they have data to send. Hence there is optimum usage the available bandwidth. 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. 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 available bandwidth. 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. 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
ISSUES
The first issue deals with optimal choice of access technology, or how to be best connected. Given that a user may be offered connectivity from more than one technology at any one time, one has to consider how the terminal and an overlay network choose the radio access technology suitable for services the user is accessing.
There are several network technologies available today, which can be viewed as complementary. For example, WLAN is best suited for high data rate indoor coverage. GPRS or UMTS, on the other hand, are best suited for nation wide coverage and can be regarded as wide area networks, providing a higher degree of mobility. Thus a user of the mobile terminal or the network needs to make the optimal choice of radio access technology among all those available. A handover algorithm should both determine which network to connect to as well as when to perform a handover between the different networks. Ideally, the handover algorithm would assure that the best overall wireless link is chosen. The network selection strategy should take into consideration the type of application being run by the user at the time of handover. This ensures stability as well as optimal bandwidth for interactive and background services.
The second issue regards the design of a mobility enabled IP networking architecture, which contains the functionality to deal with mobility between access technologies. This includes fast, seamless vertical (between heterogeneous technologies) handovers (IP micro-mobility), quality of service (QoS), security and accounting. Real-time applications in the future will require fast/seamless handovers for smooth operation.