Forget everything you've read: there are no 4G wireless services

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 14 September 2010 15:29

Business IT - Technology

3G Americas has published a useful report on the evolution of mobile wireless technologies, which points out that there is no current technology that meets the requirements of 4G; and which highlights the challenges in extracting ever more bandwidth from wireless systems.

The report "Transition to 4G: 3GPP Broadband Evolution to IMT-Advanced," was authored by Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research for 3G Americas - an organisation representing US mobile network operators and vendors. It is accompanied by a very comprehensive slide pack (83 slides) summarising its key findings.

The report notes "There is some confusion in the industry as to what technology falls into which cellular generation." It explains that: "3G requirements were specified by the ITU as part of the International Mobile Telephone 2000 (IMT-2000) project, for which digital networks had to provide 144kbps of throughput at mobile speeds, 384kbps at pedestrian speeds, and 2Mbps in indoor environments."

And it notes that: "UMTS-HSPA and CDMA2000 EV-DO are the primary 3G technologies, although recently WiMAX was also designated as an official 3G technology. 3G technologies began to be deployed last decade."

Of 4G it says "The ITU has recently issued requirements for IMT-Advanced, which constitutes the official definition of 4G. Requirements include operation in up-to-40 MHz radio channels and extremely high spectral efficiency. The ITU recommends operation in up-to-100 MHz radio channels and peak spectral efficiency of 15 bps/Hz, resulting in a theoretical throughput rate of 1.5Gbps. Previous to the publication of the requirements, 1Gbps was frequently cited as a 4G goal."

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