ABSTRACT The emerging technologies today have opened a lot of issues in the user oriented

service developments. Customers support technologies with cost effectiveness and easy to handle at the end of service provider are the major issues developing any system. Consequently similar effects can be seen in recent developments in cellular networks. Initially started with simply analog voice service (known as 1G), the cellular service today are expected to provide high quality smooth video interaction (known as 4G).Besides this ,

F.M.Radio, satellite communications, etc. But here the idea is new to renovate the old wireless technology in the form of small service areas (Zones) known as cells, thus the system is called cellular system. The concept of cellular was implemented initially voice Then services only to in provide analog simple domain.

the technology moved towards the

development of digital technology. Hence the older systems were analog while nowadays they are digital cellular systems. The technology evolved in steps of 1G, 2G, 2.5G, 3G and now 4G. As the user density and demands data, for services ,video, like high various speed

the high speed data transfer is also a major requirement for the same. And all these must be fulfilled anywhere, anytime whenever the user wants to access. Thus, as the demands increase, the technologies have to find a commercial way to implement the user demands with an adequate quality of service. Such develop requirements the put a Challenge to

audio

seamless connectivity,

service at any time, anywhere increases, it becomes much complex to implement in real time systems which can be treated as key problems to 4G cellular technology. People often say that it will be realized successfully but it is not so simple. We hope the reader will realize the opportunities and threats for making 4G systems operational worldwide soon

network fulfilling the

requirements of 4G cellular networks. This paper concentrates on the requirements of 4G cellular networks and what are the opportunities and threats if such networks are implemented.

after reading this paper. Brief History of Past & Present Cellular Technologies: 1G (First Generation) Cellular Systems: Initially the cellular services were started with simple analog voice based services. The
development of cellular technologies were

Introduction
The concept of cellular communication is not new in the sense that wireless technology was already in operation for TV broadcast, terrestrial microwave link,

started around 1970 and implemented in around 1984. All these systems use two separate frequency bands for (from base station to mobile) and reverse (from mobile to base station) links. Such a system is referred to as Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) scheme. The typical allocated overall bandwidth in each direction is 25MHz. The widely used spectrum for these systems is 800-

analog. The development of 2G was started in 1980 and implemented in around 1991. Like 1G, the 2G networks still use FDD cheme. The widely used spectrum for these systems is 800900MHz bands. Global System for Mobile (GSM), IS-95, Japanese Digital Cellular (JDC) and IS-54 are the major standards in this category. The

Table

1 indicates of 2G

the

important

properties

cellular

900MHz bands. The system uses analog frequency modulation scheme. There are

systems. Basic features of 2G Cellular System

are voice and basic data service at low data speeds (14.4 network for kbps), voice circuit application, for basic towards switched packet data packet

different standards adopted in different countries are simply due to lack of vision for a common universal service and opinion

switched network applications,

difference of various bodies responsible for deciding the standards for their own countries ,which led the major issues in realization and implementation of 4G networks today. Basic features of 1G cellular system are Voice Oriented Analog Cellular Service, Limited Local and Regional Coverage, Circuits

enhancement

switching networks and high data rates, etc. 2G Cellular System offered international roaming facility. Core network was PSTN.

2G+/3G System

(Third

Generation)

Cellular

Switched Network and Core Network was

2G+ Cellular System: Present Cellular Technologies are some where around 2.5G also known as 2G+. The

PSTN. 2G (Second Generation) Cellular

additional features of mixed services, increased capacity, flexible billing and personalization

Systems:
The drawbacks in 1G and growing demands for seamless connectivity led the cellular industry to design the second generation cellular systems. Further the quality of service also improved by using digital cellular technology instead of

are implemented in the 2G+ system.The

development was started in around 1985 and implemented in around 1999.Increased data rates (384kbps) allow users to communicate faster than the 2G Systems. Further the mobility

is now worldwide instead of limited regions. Still there are different standard in different countries as discussed above, which led to restrict the user General and access Packet Enhanced Data to become Radio For

cellular data services. At the same time, 3G is expected to have improved quality of voice, capacity of the network and data rates. Inter network communication either voice or data should be possible. The technology is now data oriented rather than voice as enormous data applications are in demand from the users. 3G also provides multimedia services to the users everywhere WCDMA, CDMA2000 are the technologies as options to use. Though yet not completely implemented
expected to have features in India, like digital 3G is

worldwide.

Systems(GPRS)

Global Evolution(EDGE) are the enhance the services provided and also to Basic access technologies are (TDMA & FDMA), CDMA in these types of systems. GSM Standards apply combined TDMA + FDMA technology to increase the capacity of the system while IS-95 system uses WCDMA technology for the same purpose.

voice,

data, multimedia applications. Expected data

rates are upto 2Mbps packet switched

Basic features of 2G+ cellular system are digital voice and data applications, packet & Circuit switched network, EDGE-GPRS in GSM and 1xRTT in CDMA technologies to provide data rates upto 384kbps, increased capacity and higher data rates compared to 2G systems. Core networks of PSTN and packet network User oriented services are introduced in 2G+

networks, roaming.

global

coverage

and

global

Why 4G is required?
At the first, we might have a question that why we even require 4G if 3G systems are working well. It is because of basically two reasons that one is substantial growth in overall number of subscribers and other is massive demand of new data services which can be either data , audio, image or video (interactive or

like flexible billing and personalization. 3G Cellular System: Development of 3G was started in 1990 and implemented in some countries in
2002. The purpose to of migration networks was develop around to 3G

non-interactive). These two factors are enough to cause a substantial bottle neck in cellular communication services. Though the projected data rate is around 2Mbps in 3G, the actual data rates are slower, especially in crowded areas or when network is congested. Further the data rates also depends on the users activity (moving

an international

standard that combines and gradually replaces 2G, 2G+ digital cellular networks, PCS and

or steady state) and location (indoor/outdoor)

as expected , the data services like

of

information, obtaining services, receiving a

large volume of information, data, pictures, video and so on are the key of 4G

multimedia are going to play modest role and will dominate the cellular traffic instead of

infrastructure.

voice in future. In such scenario the present 1G & 2G systems will saturate and will have no room to survive. Also the demand for increasing data rates leads to higher band width

requirement. These factors cause the cellular industry to develop a common standard for a system that can work to overcome almost all the

limitations imposed by the previous cellular technologies. The expected features of 4G

systems are much higher data rates around 100Mbps, higher bandwidth requirements of an order of hundreds of MHz, plenty of services like data, audio, video etc. Seamless

connectivity and improved quality of service

keeping in mind the all existing networks can be merged or interconnected i.e all in one. What is 4G? The figure1 (4G Cellular Network) shows the concept of 4G cellular
network. The future 4G infrastructure will consist of a set of various networks using internet protocol. As a common protocol so that the users are in control as they will be able to choose every application and environment. Accessing information anywhere, anytime

Legends: DAB: Digital Audio Broadcasting LAN: Local Area Network PAN: Personal Area Network WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network DVB: Digital Video Broadcasting MAN: Metropolitan Area N/w WAN: Wide Area Network UMTS: Universal Cellular Telecommunications Systems One of the terms popularly used to describe 4G is MAGIC stands for M : Mobile Multimedia A: Anytime anywhere G : Global mobility support I: Integrated wireless solutions C: Customized personal service

with seamless connection to a wide range

Main features of 4G cellular services are application, adaptability and dynamisms.

In this full motion video, home entertainment systems, advance location systems and many different services are expected with enhanced response time and quality of expected vehicular data rates are service. 2Mbps 10\20Mbps The for for

from one to another. This can be satisfied as the core network is IP based. While Maintaining the connectivity, the emphasis is also on quality of service, security and providing services at the cheapest rate. Although most service providers are still expanding and

improving their existing 2G+ network, research towards 4G systems is making significant progress. This research has been launched worldwide in major companies such as

applications,

pedestrian applications and 100Mbps for indoor applications. Such high data rates obviously require much high bandwidth in terms of several hundred MHz. Concentrating on access

Motorola, Qualcomm, AT&T, Nokia, Ericsson, Sun, HP, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph DoCoMo and other infrastructure vendors as

technology, ultra WCDMA and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

well as academic Institutes. NTT, DoCoMo,

Japan leads the research work of 4G and has announced that They have already made up

being spectral efficient are the two major options that can help to realize the expected features of 4G cellular networks. OFDM\COFDM allows many users to transmit in an allocate band, by subdividing the available bandwidth into many narrow

an indoor experiment of 100Mbps data rate, though the exact. Specifications of the experiment are not yet announced Within a
matter of years, the demand for cellular data services will outgrow the 3Gs advances Its commonly accepted that 4G will be a superenhanced version of 3G. Other 4G points are that 4G systems will be deployed with software defined radios, allowing the equipment

bandwidth carriers. Each user is allocated several carriers to transmit their data. The transmission is generated in such a way that the carriers used are orthogonal to each other, thus allowing them to be packed together much closer than standard Frequency this Division leads to in

upgrades for new protocols and services via software upgrades. In addition, 4G holds the promise of worldwide roaming using a single
handheld device. 4G outlook is embodied in five key elements of fully converged services,

Multiplexing (FDM). have high

Hence

spectral technology. fast

efficiency

OFDM\COFDM connectivity between

Seamless HAND OFFs

requires

different networks as the user moves

biquitous cellular access, diverse user devices,

autonomous networks and software dependency. The aim of 3G was to provide multimedia, multi rate, cellular communications any time and anywhere. It is uneconomical to meet this requirement with only cellular radio. 4G systems will extend the scenario to an IP Network that integrates broadcasts, cellular, cordless,

desired change or upgradation in the existing network. If we examine the present status in India, GSM is dominating presently and CDMA is now competing with GSM in cellular market. EDGE and GPRS are just introduced and will take sometime to work fine according to the expectation. While complete 3G services are yet not introduced. It may happen that the cellular network waiting for 3G and upgrading themselves with 2G+ may switch over directly to 4G by completely bypassing 3G as it seems

WLAN/PAN and fixed wire.4G is the network of networks with which users are in control. They will be able to decide the right system
and even the right terminal for each

applications and for each environment (mobility, coverage) providing personalized service

a better option regarding cost effectiveness in the network upgradation and replacement.
Since the expected technology for 4G is ultra WCDMA and /or OFDM, the present GSM networks must upgrade or replace the whole network to CDMA or OFDM networks, which is a big critical issue for the present GSM

irrespective of the underlying network. As a result, this makes the most efficient use of the available spectrum by directing users to the most appropriate

network. Opportunities for implementing the 4G Network:

As the matter is clear now that to meet the 4G requirements of high data rate, seamless

networks to survive. Migration of all networks

like LAN, MAN, WLAN, HIPERLAN, DVB, DAB also requires transparent protocols and smart HAND OFFs which should be able to work for maintaining the quality of service and offering such services at the lowest cost.

connectivity, cost effective services, the core network for 4G must be an IP (Internet Protocol) based network. The vision to merge all networks in one core network requires to have an intermediate layer that provides the interface between the existing network protocols and required protocols. Hence the opportunities are open if all the networks are going to update their present network architecture and allow the

The path to the final 4G may be plotted in 4 steps: Internet working of 2G+, 3G and internet (Circuit Switched Voice /Data) Integration of all networks (Circuit Switched Voice & Packet Data) IP based harmonization (Packet based

Voice/Data) and
Full convergence of the networks (All IP based Voice /Data /Multimedia /End to End quality of service /Better Security /Seamless Connectivity /Entertainment and so on) Figure 2 (4G an integration of major growing fields) illustrates the advantages of 4G cellular if the integration of all networks is possible according to the projected path. It indicates the integration of media,

Threats for Network Because

implementing of 4G

the

4G

deployment

wireless

technology is not expected until 2006 or

even later, developers will hopefully have time to resolve issues involving multiple

heterogeneous networks such as ccess, A Handoff, Location coordination, Resource coordination to add new users, Support for multicasting, Support for quality of service, Wireless security and authentication, Network failure and backup, and Pricing and billing.
Network architectures will play a key role in implementing the features required

information technology and communication fields which are the majoe growing fields in the
user applications. Merging all the services in one hand-set like Voice, non Voice, Internet,

e-Commerce, Multimedia, entertainment like News, Sports, Video on demand, Audio and so on are the attractive features for the future customer of 4G cellular industry if implemented with reliable end to end quality of service and

to address these issues. One of the most challenging problems facing deployment of 4G technology is how
to access several different mobile and wireless networks. Figure3 shows three possible architectures: using a multimode

faster data rates

device, an overlay network, or a common

access protocol. (The figure 3 is given in the next page)

(a) A multimode device lets the user, Device or network initiate handoff between networks

without the need for network modification or interworking devices

(c) A device capable of automatically switching between networks is possible if wireless

networks can support a common protocol to access a satellite-based network and another protocol for

terrestrial networks

Multimode devices
One configuration uses a single physical terminal with multiple interfaces to access services on different wireless networks. Early examples of this architecture include the

existing

Advanced
cell

Mobile
Iridiums

Phone
dual

System/Code Division Multiple Access dual-function

Global
(b) An overlay networkconsisting of several universal access points (UAPs) that store user, network, and device informationperforms a handoff as the user moves from one

phone,

function satellite-cell phone, and the emerging System for Mobile

telecommunications/Digital Enhanced Cordless Terminal dual-mode cordless phone. The

multimode device architecture may improve call completion and expand effective coverage area. It should also provide reliable wireless coverage in case of network, link, or switch failure. The user, device, or network can initiate handoff between networks. The device

UAP to another

itself incorporates most of the additional complexity without requiring wireless network modification or employing interworking

anywhere,

anytime

with

seamless

connection to a wide range of information, obtaining services, receiving a large

devices. Each network can deploy a database that keeps track of use location, device capabilities, network conditions, and user

volume of information, data, pictures, video and so on can be achieved in no time with a single handheld Device. But 4G also faces

preferences. The handling of quality-of-

some following threats as mentioned below. Connecting all networks in one common platformSeamless connectivity and smart Hand Offs Acquiring the required Data rates

service (QoS) issues remains an open research question. Overlay network In an this architecture, network a user accesses of

and Bandwidth Reference [1.] Kaveh Pahalvan & Prashant Krishnamurthy: Principles of Wireless

overlay

consisting

several universal access points. These UAPs in

turn select a wireless network based on availability, QoS specifications, and user

Networks [2.] Dr.Vijay K.Garg: Wireless Network Revolution: 2G to 3G

[3.] http://www.scirus.com, a technical search Engine which shows all technical

defined choices. A UAP performs

protocol and frequency

translation,

content adaptation, and QoS negotiationrenegotiation on behalf of users. The

overlay network, rather than the user or device, performs handoffs as the user moves from one UAP to another. A UAP stores user, network, and device information, capabilities, and preferences. Because UAPs track of the various resources can a keep caller

content on the web.

uses, this architecture supports single billing

and subscription. Conclusion

Thus from the above discussion we can see that by implementing 4G accessing information