Data Communication: 4G Technologies - Essay Example

?4G Technologies: The mid 20th century was predominantly dictated by wired medium of communications. With advancements in life in general and communications in particular, the need was felt for a more robust source of keeping in touch. Hence the wired interface was replaced by wireless transmission. Wireless communication due to its large scale characteristic features has become the dominant force in the world of communications. The rapid growth was seen in late 20th century when a journey of generations started that set the foundation for next generations’ advancements. It all started with 1st generation mobile communications that were focused on analogue means of communication, this was followed by 2nd generation which resulted in a total shift of medium from analogue to digital(Palanivelu & Nakkeeran 2009). Ever since the introduction of digital sources of communication there has been no looking back, and the current standings are at 3rd, 4th generation and beyond. Furtherance and change being natural phenomena, mobile communications have seen a revolution in the manner in which they are operate today. State of the art technology exists in the field of mobile communication that has made the once impossible, possible. 4G is a generic term that represents a family of number of standards that are around in use. The family encompasses all those elements that are beyond 3G, namely Wimax, L.T.E, Wimax 2.0, HSDPA, Advanced L.T.E and all other standards that fulfill the demands and specifications being presented by International Telecommunication Union (Wang, Kondi & Luthra 2009). 4G standards provide data rates nearly ten times higher 3G (Aktas & Ismail 2004) with focus on resolving the last mile issues once for all by reaching to even the most remote of areas across the globe. The most prevalent of 4G family is Wimax. It has been around for 6 to 7 years now and has made inroads into the market on commercial scale. More promise is being shown by L.T.E which is termed as the true representation of 4th generation technologies that will set the platform for coming generations in telecommunication world. The journey towards 4th generation technologies started with Wimax in early 21st century. Wimax is an acronym for World Wide Interoperability Microwave Access. It is another name for ubiquitous internet connection, be it on the go or under the roof. Work was in place for last few years and it was first introduced on commercial scale for public use in South Korea. Many more countries have joined the caravan and have implemented 4G on commercial scale. The recently published requirements for a true 4G system specified by I.T.U, demand more than Wimax and L.T.E initial versions offered, Wimax 2.0 and L.T.E Advanced fulfill the requirements being stated by I.T.U as the just members of 4th generation(Cox 2012). Wimax has made rapid progress in last few years and has a cluster scattered in various parts of the world already. Few of the companies that have implemented Wimax include Sprint, Etisalat, and Nexter to name a few. T-Mobile is aiming at L.T.E implementation on fully commercial scale in coming days. 802.16d vs. 802.16e: Improvements have been made in the Wimax technology periodically, the initially launched version was 802.16d which provided limited or no mobility. In order to capture large scale market and attract customers to itself, a new version 802.16e was introduced later in 2005 which provided ease of movement and had focus on mobility Features of Wimax: Wimax provides large number of features compared to its predecessors and few of them are: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access): An interface aimed to overcome the short comings of OFDM, provides the feature of entertaining multiple users at the same time and brings about more stability and reliability in the network. The use of Fast Fourier Transform (F.F.T) by the incumbent allows increased number of bits being transformed from one source to another (spectral efficiency) .802.16d made use of OFDM while the later version (802.16e) uses OFDMA which enables multiple accesses. The distribution of subcarriers enables all the users to send and receive data simultaneously. MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output): The MIMO features allows usage of relatively more number of antennas hence support for increased number of customers on the link as well as increased signal strength, capacity and efficiency .In past many communication standards used single antennas for purpose of transmission hence this is one of the key features of Wimax and 4G.A characteristic feature of MIMO is the considerable percentage reduction in fading, error percentage estimation and signal strength. Other striking features of Wimax include high download and uploads speeds, improved encryption and decryption techniques, advanced algorithms used for security purpose, latest modulation techniques, and the frame format is designed in such a way that it covers all necessary aspects of a successful and fast transmission setup (Andrews, Ghosh & Muhamed 2008). The architecture of Wimax is designed in manner that allows integration of number of entities. An essential feature of the architecture is its flexibility and ability to adjust new devices into the system without major changes. Architecture is largely based on the surface of MAC layer which increases the options bank for customers. Facts and stats: In terms of data rates, Wimax provides downlink rates of approximately 46 Mbps in a 10 MHz spectrum and uplink rates of 4 Mbps. The latency roughly calculates to 20 to 25 ms. while the user capacity per sector is 20 .The user mobility freedom is in the range of 50 kilometers. (Eberle 2010) L.T.E: L.T.E is acronym for Long Term Evolution and is being termed as the next big thing in the telecommunication arena. While Wimax extended the journey from the point where 3G standards capacity ended, L.T.E is considered as the torch bearer towards 4G and beyond. It is being dubbed as the cover up for Wimax; it addresses all those areas and weaknesses that can be found in Wimax. It provides higher data rates, increased mobility, further improved encryption techniques (Ghosh et al. 2010). Wimax was introduced into the market around 2004-2005. L.T.E is relatively new in market and on industrial scale it was brought up in 2009. Though L.T.E and Wimax bear resemblance in quite a few cases, both aim at providing high speed with secure network, yet L.T.E has a slight edge over Wimax. The data rates provided are nearly around 300 Mbps in downlink stream while in uplink it provides 65 Mbps rate. L.T.E further touches the excellence by implementing SC-OFDMA which provides large number of features, the most simple being reduction in power consumption. L.T.E supports 80 users per sector (Poikselka et al. 2012). Due to their compatible nature 4G standards are the order of the day and are here to stay for a while, it focuses on almost all those areas that are of high interest for customers, thereby they are likely to dictate the proceedings in months to come. Bibliography: Aktas, A & Ismail, M (2004), “CMOS PLLs and VCOs for 4G Wireless”, Springer,page 2, Boston. Andrews, JG, Ghosh, A & Muhamed, R (2008), “Fundamentals Of Wimax: Understanding Broadband Wireless Networking”, Pearson Education,page 37, New Jersey. Cox, C (2012), “An Introduction to Lte: Lte, Lte-Advanced, Sae and 4g Mobile Communications”,page 16, John Wiley & Sons. Eberle, D,2010, 'LTE vs. WiMAX 4th generation telecommunication networks', p. 8. Ghosh, A, Zhang, J, Muhamed, R & Andrews, JG (2010),” Fundamentals of Lte”, Prentice Hall PTR, new Jersey. Poikselka, M, Holma, H, Hongisto, J, Kallio, J & Toskala, A (2012), “Voice Over Lte (Volte)”, John Wiley & Sons. Palanivelu, TG & Nakkeeran, R. (2009).“Wireless And Mobile Communication”, page 5, PHI Learning Pvt,New Delhi[India]. Wang, H, Kondi, L & Luthra, A (2009), “4G Wireless Video Communications”,page 3, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. Read More