According to last year’s GSM conference held in Cape Town, the next big thing to keep an eye out for in telecommunications is without a doubt 4G or fourth generation networks.
Historically, telecommunications has been defined by the type of services delivered as well as by the technology that enables economic and social development.
First, there were basic voice services. This was then followed by a trend to enhance voice with in-band data services. The next evolution was to separate these two networks. Then mobility was added to the mix. Finally, the fourth dimension to this equation was adding video over this new network allowing voice, video and data to be delivered any time, at any place.
The two most notable growth trends in the telecommunications industry over the past decade have been mobility, as delivered by second generation networks like GSM, and fixed data services as delivered by the Internet. The freedom of mobility and the power of information are driving the telecommunications industry to a converged solution via mobile Internet services.
Although 4G has not yet been officially defined, it is expected that fourth generation networks will be able to deliver mobile broadband services such as mobile Internet.
The mobile Internet service presents several new challenges to the telecoms world such as the ability of mobile networks to deliver broadband services, the ability of mobile terminals to support broadband services, and above all for these services to be cost effective.
These challenges have led to the development of innovative new technologies such as 3.5G developed by the 3GPP (3rd generation partnership project) and mobile WiMax developed by the WiMax Forum. Unfortunately both these technologies have not yet fully met the requirements to deliver mobile Internet services.
3.5G in the form of HSPA based on CDMA still has challenges to deliver IP-based true mobile broadband services, while 802.16e mobile WiMax based on OFDMA still has not yet produced a commercial solution.
Based on the technological advantages of OFDMA, supported by advanced antenna systems (AAS) like beam forming and MIMO, mobile WiMax has all the right ingredients to be a 4G technology. The race, however, is far from won as the 3GPP has invested significant development in its next generation network, viz: long term evolution (LTE) which also boasts underlying technologies like OFDMA and AAS.
Some argue that WiMax is ahead of LTE in development due to its architecture already being based on IP from the ground up, as well as the proven success of its first release in 16d. LTE, however, has the strength of a significant existing installed base of 3G, its predecessor.
The news declaring WiMax as an IMT2000 standard brings a new dimension to the debate. This will effectively allow operators to be able to deploy mobile WiMax in 3G spectrum globally.
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