<font color=gold>What is 4G?
by Ray Hegarty / the451.com
Thu, 25 Jul 2002
With the wireless industry continuing to struggle with debt, plunging share prices and delays in the rollout of 2.5G and 3G technology, the question of what will constitute a fourth-generation wireless system might appear irrelevant. Yet the larger network providers and wireless carriers are already beginning to formulate areas for potential research.
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THE451 TAKE We expect several 4G concepts to trickle down into future 3GPP releases. While market leaders do not want wireless to move too quickly, they recognize the need to remain aware of technologies that could cannibalize their own value proposition.
BUSINESS MODEL Historically, mobile systems have tended to go through technology shifts every 10 years. In order to remain competitive, large network systems providers and wireless carriers need to plan for future trends and technologies and allocate R&D budgets now rather than later.
We think that several '4G' concepts currently under discussion could find their way into the 3G system infrastructure in the future. That's because 3G is not one release, but a series of releases offering fixes and enhancements that build upon previous versions. Involvement in so-called academic, or conceptual, R&D around 4G will enable market leaders to play a significant role in the battle between competing standards. Market leaders do not want wireless to move too quickly, but they recognize the need to remain aware of technologies that might cannibalize their own value proposition. For example, the rapid deployment of 802.11 technology in Europe and the US threatens carriers' and cellular network infrastructure providers' bottom lines. One of the key areas of 4G R&D will be enabling devices to switch between different types of networks.
COMPETITION Several industry standards groups made up of manufacturers, carriers and academic institutions - including the IPv6 Forum, SDR Forum, 3GPP and the Wireless World Research Forum - are helping to formulate a vision of a 4G wireless world. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF) are also expected to play a part in 4G development.
Manufacturers and carriers are already looking to build on existing 3G specifications. AT&T has been developing a network prototype called 4G Access that combines Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) with wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Nortel has been working on software radio power amplifier technology needed to make higher wireless speeds a reality, and the streaming media research group of HP Labs has been working on systems for delivering multimedia content over next-generation networks.
Meanwhile, Ericsson has invested over $10m to fund research of next-generation CDMA and 4G mobile technology at the University of California. NTT DoCoMo's research labs are constructing a trial 4G network based on the ITU's proposals. The system combines variable spreading factor (VSF) and OFDM technologies. Japan's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications is shelling out subsidies of over ¥2bn ($17m) through Japan's Communications Research Laboratory and Telecommunications Advancement Organization to develop core 4G technology, such as software radios.
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The third level, cellular connectivity, will reach connection speeds of up to 30Mbps by 2005, and 100Mbps by 2010, some researchers predict.
interesting-people.org
Brilliant piece from the451.com! They won't be doing 30Mbs with xcdmayyyy!
OFDM - toll gate to gsm evolution - LoL!
jmho. Rob |
