The 4G Networks

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Southwest Tennessee Community College
CPET2324, Computer Networks and Systems
April 24, 2013

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2
Letter of Transmittal 3
Abstract 4
The Origin and Definition 5
IMT – Advanced Requirements 5
Development 6
The Influence of 4G 8
The Future of 4G 8
Works Cited 10

My technical report entitled “4G Networks” is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for CPET2324, Computer Network Systems.

The 4G network was chosen for this topic because of the impact it has on wireless communications. I think the most important tool a person can carry these days is the cell phone. My essay attempts to show how critical the 4G networks is to our beloved cell phone and other wireless devices.

Abstract

The 4G Networks

In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of mobile communication technology standards. It is a successor of the third generation (3G) standard. While all 4G service is called “4G,” the underlying technology is not the same. Sprint, for example, uses WiMax technology for its 4G network, while Verizon Wireless uses a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE. No matter what technology is behind it, 4G wireless is designed to deliver speed.

The Origin and Definition of the Term The fourth generation is a promising generation of the mobile communications that is characterized by a high data rate and high-quality voice communications. Advanced technologies that make data communications at a rate, exceeding 100 megabits per second for mobile subscribers, belong to the fourth generation. As a rule, the specifications of any generation of the mobile communications refer to the change of the fundamental nature of operations, inconsistent transmission technologies, new frequency bands, and a wider channel bandwidth. The peak bitrates are higher. Moreover, these specifications relate to the greater capacity for the multiple simultaneous data transmission channels. New generations of mobile communications began to develop almost every ten years from the date of the transition from the development of the first generation of the analog cellular networks in the 70s, to the digital transmission networks 2G in the 80s. It was held enough time from the beginning of the development until the actual implementation. In the 90s, the development of 3G standard has started. It was based on the method of code division multiple access CDMA. It was introduced only in the 2000s. The 4G networks, based on the IP-protocol, were developed in 2000, and started being introduced in many countries from 2010.
IMT-Advanced
In March, 2008, the Radio communication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union has determined a number of requirements for the standard of the international portable wireless broadband communication 4G. It has got the name of specifications, known as International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced, and set the requirements to the data rates for the customer service. Therefore, the rate for highly mobile subscribers must be 100 megabits per second, and subscribers with small mobility must have 1 gigabit per second. It is in 500 and 200 times faster than IMT-2000. As the first version of mobile WiMAX and LTE support speeds much less than 1 gigabit per second, they cannot be called the technologies, corresponding IMT-Advanced. Although, they are often mentioned as service providers, such as 4G technology. In 2010, the Union ITU-R agreed that these two technologies, as well as other technologies beyond 3G, though were not subject to the requirements of IMT-Advanced, could be considered as 4G networks. Nevertheless, upon the conditions, if they represent the versions of technologies that are prior to the versions of the same technologies, which fall under the requirements of IMT-Advanced. The technologies Mobile WiMAX Release 2 and LTE Advanced got an official designation IMT-Advanced that allowed qualifying them as true 4G technologies.
IMT-Advanced Requirements Leading international mobile telecommunications systems IMT-Advanced, determined by the Radio communication Sector ITU, must meet certain requirements to be considered a network of 4G generation. They are based on packet switching, using IP-protocols. Peak data rates, in order to support advanced services and applications, should have 100 megabits per second for the subscribers with high mobility, and 1 gigabit per second for the subscribers with low mobility. Dynamically shared network resources are used in order to support a large number of concurrent connections to the same cell. Their scalable bandwidth of the channel should be 5-20 MHz, optionally up to 40 MHz. Moreover, a smooth handover must be done through the different networks and the quality of the mobile services has to be high.
Development
In 2000, when learning of the communication technology of the third generation 3G took place, one of the leading manufacturers of personal computers, Hewlett-Packard, and Japanese mobile giant, NTT DoCoMo, announced the beginning of the researches on the development of the technology of multimedia data transfer in the wireless networks of the fourth generation. Besides them, Ericsson and AT&T together with Nortel Networks, conducted the same developments. Subsequently, two really suitable standards for implementation of LTE and WiMAX appeared and opened the new era in the development of the network, according to IMT-Advanced. LTE standard was developed within the framework of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, as an extension of CDMA and UMTS, and originally did not belong to the fourth generation of the mobile communication. The tenth release LTE Advanced was chosen as a communication standard that meets all the requirements of the fourth generation of wireless communication by ITU. As this standard can be implemented on the existing networks, it has become more popular among mobile operators. In April, 2008, Nokia has received the support of a number of companies for the development of the LTE standard. In the same year, Analysys Mason predicted an increase in the growth of demand for the cellular technologies such as LTE, rather than WiMAX. On December 14, 2009, the first commercial LTE network was launched by the Swedish telecommunications company, TeliaSonera, together with Ericsson, in Stockholm and Oslo. The WiMAX standard is developed by the organization WiMAX Forum that was created in 2001, and is an extension of the wireless standard Wi-Fi, an alternative to the leased lines and DSL. The first network, based on the WiMAX technology, was built by Nortel in Canada, in 2005. Telecommunications equipment maker, Huawei, and the Ministry of Communications of Brazil signed an agreement, under which Huawei would develop a LTE solution in a range of 450 MHz. It would be used to provide the mobile broadband access to people in remote and rural areas.

The Influence of 4G In 2011, the Federal Communications Commission has received an official request from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense, which proposed to consider the effects of radiation of 4G networks on GPS equipment, which was at the disposal of the population. According to the research results, it turned out that millions of GPS receivers are not compatible with the national wireless 4G network. The network radiation has harmful interference on the majority of the GPS receivers under test. Moreover, it was mentioned that the additional studies were not required to confirm this research. At the same time, LightSquared Inc. faced the indirect pressure of the GPS equipment makers, who claimed that the radiation of 4G network would lead to the fact that the automobile and aviation navigation would be in great danger, because of the incorrect operation of the GPS receivers. The saddest fact is that this research is not still confirmed, and it is not clear whether the signal of 4G stations has an effect on GPS receivers, or it is just a question of expulsion of the potential competitor from the market.
The Future of 4G According to the researches, only 10% of mobile traffic will be based on the 4G networks in 2017. Such forecasts were made by Cisco Systems and published in the annual forecast on the mobile market. It signifies a considerable increase in the deployment of 4G in comparison with today’s 1% of other transmission technologies. Analysts and journalists often forget that no one promised the total 4G coverage on a national scale anywhere, even in the economically developed countries. At the beginning of 2013, 145 operators in 66 countries have launched LTE business networks, so their subscriber base increased 7 times from 13.2 million users in 2012, to 92.3 million users. Although, 4G networks are good in terms of network capacity and speed increase, there is no question about tens of megabits per second and even on the move in the city. 4G network is 2-3 times more powerful than the third generation, but this difference is not so great.

Works Cited

Ho, Victoria. “4G Will Make Up Just 10 Percent Of Global Connections in 2017.” TechCrunch. AOL Inc., 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 April 2013.
Kato, Tsuguo. “Next-Generation Mobile Network.” Fujitsu Scientific & Technical Journal. Jan. 2012: 11-16. Print.
Niles, Russ. “4G Broadband May Jam GPS.” AVweb. Aviation Publishing Group, 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 21 April 2013.
Parker, Tammy. “Huawei pledges to develop LTE for Brazil's 450 MHz band.” Fierce Broadband Wireless. FierceMarkets, 15 July 2012. Web. 21 April 2013.
Rumney, Moray. “IMT-Advanced: 4G Wireless Takes Shape in an Olympic Year.” Agilent Measurement Journal. Agilent Technologies, Inc., 1 Sep. 2008. Web. 21 April 2013.
Shields, Todd. “Falcone’s LightSquared Said to Disrupt 75% of GPS in Tests.” Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg L.P., 22 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 April 2013.