International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science

IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015

4G Networks in Cellular Communication:

A Survey
Aashna Vijay1, Mamta Rawat2 , Deepa Yadav3
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
ITM University,
Sector 23A,Gurgaon,India

ABSTRACT: - This paper gives the glimpse
of 4G cellular networks. It presents an overall
vision of the 4G working, its framework, and
integration 4G with mobile communication.
WiMax and LTE technologies have been
discussed in the paper. OFDM and MIMO are
the key points in the working of 4G networks.
Challenges faced in 4G technology have also
been mentioned in the paper.
Keywords: - WiMax, LTE, OFDM, MIMO,
etc.
I INTRODUCTION
In today’s scenario there is a rapid growth 1Gbit/s for low mobile communication (like
of wireless communications. This growth has
moved the world into the new era of
technology where the number of subscribers
dependent on mobile phones are increasing at
an alarming rate. Mobile has become part and
parcel of everyone’s life.
Mobile phone is also known as “cell
phone “because it is based on the cellular
network concept. The service area is divided
into small sectors called “cells “that helps in
tracking of area easily. Each cell has an
antenna and is controlled by small offices
called base stations (BS) and each base station
is again controlled by switching offices called
a mobile switching center (MSC). Since the
mid 1990's the cellular communication
industry has witnessed explosive growth.
Increase in demand of wireless and advancement in the generation of cellular
communication necessitates the rapid growth
485 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav
of cellular network for fulfilling the customer
need and for the competitor service providers.
In telecommunications, 4G stands for
fourth Generation in the cellular wireless
communication. It is a successor to 3G and
2G standards. In 2008, the IMT-Advanced
(International Mobile telecommunications
Advanced) requirements for 4G standards was
specified by the ITU-R organization [1]. ITU-
R organization set the peak speed for 4G
standards i.e, 100Mbit/s for highly mobile
communication (like autos and bus) and
stationary users and pedestrians).
Fourth generation wireless system is a
packet switched network with wide area
coverage and high throughput. It has
frequency in GHz. It is expected to provide
high spectral efficiency and complies the cost
effectively. The 4G standards are designed to
provide a secure and comprehensive all IP-
based mobile broadband solutions for
smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
Though 4G is trying to establish itself in the
market, people have started thinking about the
evolution of "5G technology.
II HISTORY
The “G” stands for Generation which
relates to the next generation of wireless
technologies. There has been radical change
communications. Each generation is faster,
 International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science
IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015

more secure and more reliable than previous
technologies. The reliability factor is the
hardest to overcome.
1G was the first generation of mobile
networks. In this technology radio signals
were transmitted in “Analog” form. It was
only used in generating calls. 1G used analog
signals for voice communication. .In North
America, Advanced Mobile Phone System
(AMPS) was leading analog cellular system
[3]. FDMA technology was used to separate
channels in a link. The system uses separate
analog channels, one for forward (base station
to mobile station) communication and one for
reverse communication (mobile station to base
station)[4].The biggest disadvantage of 1G
was limited availability of network. Network
was confined within the country.
2G stands for “Second Generation” of
telecommunications. The major change that
came in the development 2G was the use of
digital signals in place of analog signals. This
concept drastically improved the quality of
calls and also reduced the complexity of data
transmission. Two major systems were
evolved in 2G were GSM and D-AMPS. The
Global System for Mobile communication
(GSM) is a European standard and is mostly
used in Europe and Asia [3]. It is a circuit
switched network that allows full duplex
communication. It was brought as a
replacement of analog cellular networks. D-
AMPS stands for Digital-AMPS. It was
Technology 1G 2G 2.5G
compatible with AMPS which means in a
network one mobile can use AMPS and the
other one can use D-AMPS [3]. It uses same
channel and band as AMPS.
3G stands for “Third Generation” of
mobile communications. 3G is based on the
Universal Mobile Telecommunication
Systems (UMTS) [4]. UMTS is a component
under a set of standards IMT-2000 issued by
ITU. UMTS was developed by the Third
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)[4]. 3G
provides data rates up to 144kbps for a
moving vehicle, 384kbps for pedestrians and
3mbps for stationary users. It allows highly
rapid access to the internet as it has the higher
capacity to carry data load. 3G has brought
various improvements over earlier generations
like global roaming, high speed transmission
and advanced multimedia access. 3G
introduced the concept of “mobile
broadband”. Mobile broadband means a
cellular technology that is mobile as well as
provides the speed of broadband
communication.
In today’s scenario, the call for rapid access
multimedia communication like streaming
videos, streaming videos, downloading
applications, gaming, etc is growing at an
alarming rate. According to the history of
generations, revolutions occur once a decade.
Therefore, cellular telephony is now in Fourth
Generation with Fifth Generation on horizon.
3G 4G 5G

Design Began 1970 1980 1985 1990 2000 Early 2020’s

Data 1.9 kbps 1.9 kbps 384 kbps 2 Mbps 200 Mbps 1 GB
Bandwidth
Implementatio 1984 1991 1999 2002 2010 2020
ns
Multiplexing FDMA TDMA, TDMA, CDMA OFDM, CDMA,

486 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav

 International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science
IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015

CDMA, CDMA CDMA BDMA(Beam

divisible
multiple
acess).
Service Analog Digital Higher Higher Higher Based on
voice, voice, capacity, capacity, capacity, IPv6, very
synchrono short packetize broadband completely high quality of
us data to messages. d data. data up to IP- oriented, service based
9.6 kbps. 2 Mbps. datarates on policy to
upto avoid errors,
hundreds of provides
Megabits. bandwidth in
Gigabits.

TABLE I: GENERATION of CELLULAR NETWORKS

III FOURTH GENERATION

TECHNOLOGY (4G):
4G standards have been laid down to
overcome the drawbacks of 3G and caters us
with the excellent quality of voice, high
definition video and high datarates. 4G aims to
offer users faster and more reliable mobile
broadband internet for devices like
smartphone, tablets and laptops. 4G grants
numerous facilities which were not supported
in 3G standards or any other standard before
3G (i.e. first generation and second
generation). It provides high speed internet
facility. Therefore it is also known as mobile
ultra-broadband internet access. 4G makes us
believe that miracle can happen. Therefore,
"MAGIC" word is used to describe 4G.
MAGIC stands for Mobile multimedia,
anytime anywhere, global mobility support,
integrated wireless solution, and customized
personal service [2]. 4G standards are
designed to provide comprehensive IP-
solution where users are facilitated to access
voice, data and streamed multimedia at
“Anytime and Anywhere”. Global mobility is
supported using global mobility protocols like
IPv6. 4G standards are developed not only to
support upcoming generations of
telecommunications but also to support fixed
wireless networks. WiMax and LTE are
renowned technologies being used with 4G
network today. Sprint and Verizon wireless
are US telecommunication companies which
are using WiMax and LTE technologies
respectively for their 4G network.
WiMax stands for "Worldwide
Interoperability for Microwave Access"[6]. It
depends on wireless MAN technology.
WiMAX is a wireless broadband technology
that conveys high speeds like WiFi to wide
areas. It relies on the IEEE 802.16 [6]. It can
also be used to provide dormitory
connectivity. It also connects WiFi and
WLAN hotspots to internet. It provide a
mobile broadband connectivity which is an
alternative to DSL and cable. WiMAX works
in similar manner as WiFi but at faster speeds
over larger distances and for larger number of

487 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav

 International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science
IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015

users. WiMAX is reachable to remote areas
which are way difficult for wired connections
to reach by overcoming the geographical
limitations of conventional wired
infrastructure. WiMAX provides wireless
broadband access to rural areas, highly
elevated areas and inside the buildings. It is
aimed to provide broadband like connectivity
to portable devices. Sprint’s 4G wireless
network uses WiMAX technology for better
connectivity. It declared that WiMAX
provides3Mbps to 6 Mbps of downloading
speeds and an average downloading speed is
above 10Mbps.
LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”. It
was developed by a telecommunication body
known as Third Group Partnership Project
(3GPP) in the year 2004.SAE(System
Architecture Evolution) is the corresponding
evolution of the GPRS/3G packet core
network evolution [5]. The word LTE includes
both LTE and SAE technology [6].4G is
aimed to provide high date rate, adjustable
bandwidth and low latency. Network
architecture of LTE has been framed to
reinforce packet switched traffic with mobility
and stupendous quality of service. Verizon
exclaims that LTE can deliver data rate
between 5 mbps to 12 mbps however, LTE
was designed to provide 15 mbps of speed.
4G technology has than introduced the
most interesting concept of Internet Protocol
Version 6(IPv6) which has led to the ejection
of parallel circuit switched and packet
switched network [3]. IPv6 gives large address
space which is 128 bits long. IPv6 is
developed to allow the expansion of the
protocol if needed by new technology. IPv6
applies encryption and authentication
techniques to maintain the integrity and
confidentiality of the information. IPv4 has
finite number of addresses that can be
assigned to the devices connected to the
internet at one time. This necessitates the need
to create duplicate IP addresses and reuse
them using NAT (network address
translation). NAT only cover up the problem
instead to solving it permanently. This leads to
the evolution of IPv6 that assigns a unique IP
address to each and every system. After
implementation of IPv6 each host can
communicate with every other host on the
network with few restrictions like institutions’
policies and firewalls. The very first release
version of 4G was not as per the standards
described by ITU but it is still publicized as
4G. This kind of 4G network is known as
3.9G.

Features WiMax LTE

Bandwidth It uses channel bandwidths up to LTE-A uses different channel
40MHz. bandwidth from 1.4MHz to
100MHz.
Compatibility It is not compatible with It is compatible with previous
previous technologies like technologies like GSM, GPRS,
GSM, GPRS, etc. etc.
Speed WiMax provides speed up to 10 LTE can deliver speed between
mbps. 5 mbps and 12 mbps.
Frame duration WiMax frame duration is 5ms. LTE frame duration is 10ms.

488 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav

 International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science
Modulation WiMax uses same modulation LTE uses SC-FDMA and
techniques techniques for both uplink and OFDMA modulation techniques
downlink - SOFDMA.
Cost Cost for building WiMax Cost for building LTE network
network is low.
TABLE II: COMPARISON BETWEEN WIMAX and LTE TECHNOLOGY
A. TECHNOLOGIES USED IN 4G:
1) Orthogonal Frequency-Division
Multiplexing (OFDM): The main reason of 4G
being faster than 3G is OFDM. It is a form of
modulation that splits high speed modulating
stream and place them onto many narrowband
close-spaced subcarriers[9]. It squeezes loads
of data onto the equal amount of radio
frequency. Data is split up and transferred via
small blocks of frequency in parallel which
boosts the capacity of the network. It
decreases latency and interference drastically.
It is the same technology used in ADSL
broadband, DVB, DAB, LTE, WiMAX and
WiFi.
OFDM similar to FDM (Frequency
division multiplexing) technology but a
technological difference is that in OFDM the
subcarriers are orthogonally spaced to each
other that reduce the interference [9]. It also
reduces the frequency selective fadding which
affects severely the transmitted signal at a
channel. The orthogonal arrangement of
subcarriers eliminates the cross-talk
between sub channels. One advantage of
OFDM is that guard bands are not necessary.
2) Multiple-input and multiple-output
(MIMO): MIMO is a technology for wireless
communication that uses multiple antennas at
both transmitter (source) and receiver
489 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav
IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015
for uplink and downlink
respectively.
is high.
(destination) ends. This leads to large amount
of data to be send without requiring more
bandwidth and power. Antennas at both ends
of the communication network are combined
to optimize data speed and minimize errors. In
traditional communication system, two
antennas were used, one at source and other at
the destination. This results into problem like
multipath effect. When electromagnetic field
meet with obstacles then wavefronts get
scattered and take various routes to arrive at
the destination. The scattered signals reach
late at the destination which leads to many
problems like fading, intermittent reception,
etc. In digital communication system, it can
lead to the rise in number of errors and
reduces data speed. The transmission of
multiple signals along with MIMO at each end
of the network (source and destination)
minimizes the trouble caused by multipath
effect.
MIMO has gained attention because of
widespread applications like wireless local are
networks (WLANs), metropolitan are
networks (MANs) and mobile
communications.
3) Software Defined Radio: Software
Defined Radio (SDR) is radio communication
technique that depends on software defined
wireless communication system instead on
 International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science
hardwired based systems [10]. Using SDR
components are implemented in software
which was previously implemented in
hardware. This causes easy modification of
protocols by simply downloading software
instead of replacing complete hardware.
SDR can be reprogrammed and
reconfigured to operate with various protocols
and waveforms. These protocols can be
security protocols, modulation techniques and
performance characteristic specified in
software as a part of waveform. The best
feature of SDR is versatility.
SDR can be easily applied to LTE as it
needs especially more processing at BST
because of its high bandwidth requirements
and low latency [10]. Software Defined Radio
(SDR) benefits to develop multi band and
multi-standard base stations and terminals.
B. CHALLENGES FACED IN 4G
TECHNOLOGY:
1) Security: Security measures need to be
followed by 4G standards are:
 It should be ensured that security
features are fulfilled and compatible with
worldwide available features.
 Security features should be
standardized to allow interoperability and
roaming all over the world.
 The level of confidentiality and
security provided to users should be better
than provided in mobile and stationary
networks [11].
 Security features should be updated
timely to prevent from new threats and
services.
In 4G networks security mechanism should be
used to make the transmission more secure
and safe.
2) Integration of IP Devices: 4G standards
unite the features of IP and non-IP devices to
490 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav
IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015
facilitate user with high bandwidth and high
datarates. This feature integrates the
architecture of current and previous networks
which will help user to easily access new
applications without worrying about the
environment will easily adapt the new
technology [11]. Multimode software permits
the user device to accommodate itself to
different wireless networks to give the
provision of high speed with constant internet
access. This is packet based, to use packet it is
required to replace all cellular hardware. The
whole communication system has to be
rebuilt. Each and every network will become
compatible when the switch is completed.
Therefore, this eradicates the need of roaming
in the areas where only one kind of device is
supported.
3) Cost Affordability and Managing User
Accounts: In 4G networks, it is very difficult
to maintain user accounts. The billing system
is not been able to manage due to the
disparateness of 4G networks and continual
interaction of service providers. Some issues
related to cost and affordability has to be taken
care. Development of 4G network has created
a mobile broadband environment that caters
high data rates, low latency and data
protection techniques.
4) Meeting Consumer Expectation: 4G
Networks create alternatives with the proper
combination of resources that excel user
expectation to exceed consumer and industry
expectations.
IV CONCLUSION
The objective of this paper is to discuss the
features, working and framework of 4G
networks. 4G technology is an IP-based
cellular network that will boost the data
transfer rates drastically. Signal will get
strengthen which will minimize the
disruptions largely and downloading will be
 International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science
IJIACS
ISSN 2347 – 8616
Volume 4, Special Issue
March 2015

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491 Aashna Vijay, Mamta Rawat , Deepa Yadav