4-G Cellular Systems

What is 4-G?
High data speed: 100 Mbps to 1Gbps anywhere,
anytime
Enable voice, data and streamed multimedia
(enough speed for streaming HDTV, digital video
broadcasting, video chat, ) with low latency
Based on TCP/IP (Internet protocol) only (3-G
systems use both circuit switched and packet
switched networks)

Technologies used in 4-G

It uses OFDMA and other new technologies
(Single Carrier FDMA, Interleaved FDMA, Multicarrier CDMA, ) instead of CDMA, which is
used by all 3-G systems. The problem with
CDMA is it cannot adjust spectrum allocated to
users (all users get the same amount of
spectrum). Also, the highest data rate is limited.
MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) antennas
New modulation techniques (64QAM:
Quadrature amplitude modulation)
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MIMO
Multiple antennas used by the transmitter
and the receiver
Parallel streams are transmitted
simultaneously by those antennas
Data rate is increased (if 4 pairs of
antennas are used, the data rate can be
increased by 4 times)
Can also increase reliability
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64QAM
The amplitude of two waves, 90 degrees
out-of-phase (in quadrature) are changed
(modulated) to represent the data signal.
Phase modulation is a special case of
QAM.

4-G Systems
WiMax
UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband)
LTE (Long Term Evolution)

UMB
To bring CDMA2000 (US standard) to 4-G
Based on Internet (TCP/IP) networking
Peak rates of up to 280 Mbps
Support handoffs with CDMA2000 and 1xEV-DO
Use OFDMA
In Novemver 2008, Qualcomm, UMBs lead
sponsor, announced it was ending development
of the technolgy, favoring LTE instead.
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LTE (Long Term Evolution)

To bring UMTS (Europe 3G) to 4-G
Uses OFDMA for downlink with a maximum of 2048 subchannels
Download rate: 326 Mbps for 4x4 antennas for every 20 MHz of
bandwidth
Uses Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA)
for uplink. A problem with OFDMA is the high peak-to-average
power ratio. SC-FDMA can provide higher power efficiency which is
crucial for mobile stations.
Uses 64QAM modulation
Uses MIMO and beam forming with up to 4 antennas
All IP Network

LTE (cont.)
Downlink peak data rates 300Mbps per
20MHz of spectrum and uplink data rates,
75 Mbps per 20 MHz
Supports at least 200 active users per cell
in 5MHz

Comparison of LTE and WiMax

Similar technologies
WiMax is already in the market in Pakistan and Sprint
Nextel and Clearwire has deployed it in the US (first in
Baltimore this year). LTE is still under standardization.
LTE is the upgrade for GSM network that accounts for over
85% of all mobile subscribers in the world. The existing
GSM/GPRS/EDGE operators can use their current
infrastructure (base station towers) with new equipment to
upgrade to LTE. A WiMax operator has to start from
scratch.
AT&T and Verizon will roll out LTE in 2011/2012.
Qualcomm supports LTE.
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