Wireless Future - Telenor

anywhere, anyone; Global Mobility support;
Integrated wireless solution; and Customised
personal service. However, the focus is (understandably)
solely on public systems, as 4G is
seen as an extension of 3G cellular service only
(see Figure 6).
The main issues are clearly identified as Software
Radio (a part of what we call Reconfigurable
Radio Systems and Networks [1]), adaptive
array antennas at the base station (although
we contend that they are also to be deployed at
the terminal) and the optical fibre backbone to
support true broadband multimedia.
A different system perspective has always been
proposed by the European Commission (EC),
which introduced the concept of 4G in the IST
Programme as early as 1998 [8]. Besides the
need for accommodating the accelerated growth
in the demand for broadband wireless connectivity,
the focus is on ensuring seamless services
provisioning across a multitude of wireless systems
and networks, from private to public, from
indoor to wide area, and providing for optimum
delivery via the most appropriate (i.e. efficient)
network available [2]. Particularly important is
to cope with the expected growth in machine-tomachine
(M2M) Internet-based communications:
wireless low power sensors and actuators,
Internet appliances, and a myriad of smart
devices, capable of monitoring and interacting
with the physical world.
Another initiative in this area comes from the
German VDE, which produced a position paper
covering also 4G [9]. Here the focus is not only
on public systems, and namely MBS, building
upon the ACTS (Advanced Communications
Technologies and Services) Programme project
SAMBA 2) , but also on private W-LANs and
W-CPN (customer premise networks) building
upon the ACTS projects MEDIAN 3) and The
Magic WAND 4) . Self-organising ad hoc networks
are specifically identified as the “portable
radio systems of the fourth generation”, and
embedded systems are expected to explode
and with them the need for their networking:
“Things that Think will Link”.
The EC continued to actively promote discussion
around 4G concepts. It organised, already in
June 1999, a panel discussion on 4G in the scope
of the ACTS Mobile Summit. The biggest motivation
for 4G was identified as the need to improve
the use of scarce resources through the
2) hostria.cet.pt/samba/index.htm
3) www.imst.de/mobile/median/median.html
4) www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~wand/
Telektronikk 1.2001
Information bit rate
optimisation of the combined use of communication
options [10] given the growing demand discussed
in Section II. The success, momentum
and longevity of existing wireless solutions,
together with the heavy investments, imply the
need for an evolutionary, flexible, future proof
solution, based upon open architecture concepts.
Besides current systems, and their evolution,
self-aware, self-organising as well as sensorbased
and home area networks were identified.
The use of W-LAN for hot spot extension of 2G
and 3G was also identified as promising, reflecting
work in that direction in ETSI SMG.
4G’s paradigm shift was identified as enhanced
inter-operability through simultaneous support
of several radio interfaces in a single terminal
[11], allowing transparent use of the most suitable
system. The biggest problem facing 4G is
the fact that any new spectrum is likely to be
very fragmented creating a challenge in terms of
transceiver design [2]. Moreover, it will most
likely vary in different regions of the world.
Mobility
1G
Vehicular
Pedestrian
Stationary
Voice
2G
Voice + Data
1982 1992 2002 2012 2022
IMT-2000
3G
Mobile
Multimedia
4th Generation 5G
Wireless Access
4G
Integrated
Wireless World
Figure 4 Coexistence of
Successive Generations
Figure 5 NTT DoCoMo’s
evolution perspective [6]
Wireless LAN
0.1 1 10 100
Data Rate (Mbit/s)
25