The Magic World of 4G

A strong need exists to combine both the wireless (LAN) concept and cell or base station wide area network design. 4G is seen as the solution that will bridge that gap and thereby provide a much more robust network.
Technology is versatile and changing speedily with time. Following the evolutionary line of cell phone technology standards that has spanned from 1G, 2G, 2.5G to 3G, 4G describes the entirely brave new world beyond advanced 3G networks.
4G, which is also known as “beyond 3G” or “fourth-generation” cell phone technology, refers to the entirely new evolution and a complete 3G replacement in wireless communications. A successor to 2G and 3G aiming to provide the very high data transfer rates. This technology can provide very speedy wireless internet access to not only stationary users but also to the mobile users. This technology is expected to trounce the deficiencies of 3G technology in terms of speed and quality. 4G can be best describe as a term that stands for Mobile multimedia Anytime Anywhere Global mobility support, integrated wireless and personalized services.
But at this time nobody exactly knows the true definition for 4G technology. However it has been used often to denote a fast internet access available to mobile phone users. More over the distinguishing feature of high multimedia streaming and end to end IP configuration is judged to be its MAGIC enchantment. 3G has WiMax and WiFi as separate wireless technologies, whereas 4G is expected to combine these two technologies. The efficiency of 4G can be easily estimated, by the way it would coalesce two extremely reliable technologies. 4G can greatly anticipate in evolving and advancing the pervasive computing. The aim of pervasive computing is to attach itself to every living space possible, so that human beings remain intact with the wireless technology intentionally and unintentionally. Therefore 4G is be able to connect various high speed networks together, which would enable each one of us to carry digital devices even in dispersed locations. The network operators worldwide would be able to deploy wireless mesh networks and make use of cognitive radio technology for widespread coverage and access. Someday 4G networks may replace all existing 2.5G and 3G networks, perhaps even before a full deployment of 3G. Multiple 3G standards are springing up that would make it difficult for 3G devices to be truly global. A strong need exists to combine both the wireless (LAN) concept and cell or base station wide area network design. 4G is seen as the solution that will bridge that gap and thereby provide a much more robust network.
With these advantages there are some major challenges in realising the 4G vision. The first major concern is power consumption. This is getting critical with adding up multiple processing and communication elements to drive higher levels of MIPS (throughput) in mobile devices. All of these elements will increase current drain. Additional hardware acceleration technology is going to be required to manage power in this kind of environment and, with the emergence and use of OFDM-based technology as crucial to managing some of the process streams and power challenges in these kinds of applications and devices.
The second challenge is spectral efficiency, which is largely a matter of availability. In order for more spectrum to be made available, the option is either re-farm existing spectrum in 2G and analogue broadcast TV or open up higher-frequency bandwidths. Further improvements in spectral efficiency can be derived from the use of cognitive radio. Dramatic innovations will be required to deliver on that promise.
Third significant challenge is cost, related to infrastructure, operating or handset cost, it is also include the cost of deploying services. There are a variety of challenges in this area that come along with the network topology required for a 4G system.
First of all, to deliver the spectral efficiency and coverage required, we will have to see a dramatic growth in the number of basestations. To support the kinds of services that consumers increasingly expect, we will need as much as three times more basestations to deliver a ten-fold increase in data rate.One way to reduce basestation density is by applying advanced antenna techniques such as MIMO and space-time coding (STC). These techniques can improve spectral efficiency to reduce the number and growth rate of basestations. They can do this and still achieve the kind of coverage required to deliver the bandwidth necessary for the applications consumers want.
There are capital costs associated with growth in the number of basestations required to deliver coverage at high data rates. On the handset side, there are significant challenges in continuing to drive down the cost of integrating greater and greater processing capability in multimode RF technology. From a carrier perspective, the affordability of managing, billing and distributing content over these networks to drive revenue to recover those higher operating costs is another challenge in realising a 4G vision.
Everybody is still wondering what the 3G application is, and people are already getting into 4G technologies, mobile media players, internet access, broadcast technology and other types of corporate aggregations will become more robust and will drive average revenue per user (ARPU) in the carrier space.
Adding on to this is Miniaturisation challenges that include power reduction, cost, size and product development cycle. Multimode technology in 4G means we have to be able to hand off the different types of radio access technologies in a seamless way. There are significant software, billing, carrier interoperability and enterprise carrier interoperability challenges. On the multimedia side, it is obvious that with rich digital media content come dramatic processing challenges for mobile devices.
As its obvious that 4G is not going to be driven by a single entity or organisation. It will require a tremendous number of partnerships and a robust ecosystem, so exploitation of the capabilities that are available in wireless technologies is certain. Given the sweeping changes in the world of technology, it is going to require multiple standards bodies, corporations and government entities to come together to drive standards-based interoperability and the opportunity to deliver 4G networks. Governments will have to manage the spectrum in different parts of the world, and this will have a dramatic impact on how we can exploit the capabilities available to us in wireless technologies.
Traditional equipment vendors have historically operated at layers 1–3. Wireline internet access is increasingly being challenged to improve security. Security has multiple elements, much more than just moving encrypted traffic at faster and faster rates across the network. Security is also about denial of service attacks and digital rights management. These are all becoming carrier problems.

4G is a multi purpose and versatile technology hence it can utilize almost all of the packet switched technologies. It can use both orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). OFDM mechanism splits a digital signal into different narrowband and frequencies. 4G is also capable of using multiple input / multiple output technology (MIMO).this antenna technology is used to optimize the data speed and reduce the errors in the networks.
The flexibility of 4G technologies to be used in combination with GSM and CDMA has provided it an edge over other technologies. The reason is that the high broadband capability of 4G not only increases data streaming for stationary users but also for mobile users.4G can be efficiently combined with cellular technologies to make consistent use of smart phones. The digital cameras attached in smart phones can be used to establish video blogs in scattered geographical regions. This gives the manufactures the opportunity to produce more affordable user friendly 4G compatible devices. Famous iPod is one such device that supports the working of video blogs. Hence 4G is capable of providing new horizon of opportunity for both existing and startup telephone companies.

4G delivers true mobile broadband for the masses with a superior user experience. Nortel is boosting the adoption of mobile multimedia and the delivery of a true mobile broadband experience through our leadership in 4G-enabled technologies - LTE (Long Term Evolution) and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem).4G mobile broadband provides improved performance, lower total cost of ownership and enables a new era of personalized services. 4G networks are IP-based and flatter with fewer nodes to manage. The benefits are significant and can make 4G mobile broadband a truly disruptive technology providing service providers a cost-effective way to deploy next generation technology and services and redefining the end-user experience.