4G TECHNOLGY

(A Perspective of Future) SHARAN JOSEPH F Mail ID: sharan2k8@gmail.com Dept of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Rajiv Gandhi college of Engineering, Sriperumbudur

Abstract
The ever-increasing growth of user demand, the limitations of the third generation of wireless mobile communication systems and the emergence of new mobile Broadband technologies on the market have brought researchers and industries to a thorough reflection on the fourth generation. Many prophetic visions have appeared in the literature presenting 4G as the ultimate boundary of wireless mobile communication without any limit to its potential, but in practical terms not giving any design rules and thus any definition of it. In this article we give a pragmatic definition of 4G derived from a new usercentric methodology that considers the user as the cornerstone of the design. In this way, we devise fundamental user scenarios that implicitly reveal the key features of 4G, which are then expressed explicitly in a new framework the user-centric system that describes the various level of interdependency among them. This approach consequently contributes to the identification of the real technical step-up of 4G with respect to 3G. Finally, an example of a potential 4G application is also given in order to demonstrate the validity of the overall methodology

1. Introduction
The second generation (2G) of wireless mobile communication systems was a huge success story because of its revolutionary technology and the services that it brought to its users. Besides high-quality speech service, global mobility was a strong and convincing reason for users to buy 2G terminals. The third generation (3G) has been launched in several parts of the world, but the success story of 2G is hard to repeat. One reason for this assertion is that the evolution from 2G towards 3G has brought only few novel additional services, which leave the business model largely unchanged and may not be enough to encourage the customers to change their equipment. It was originally expected that the fourth generation (4G) would follow sequentially after 3G and emerge between 2010 and 2015 as an ultra-high-speed broadband wireless network. There is clearly a need for a methodological change in the design of 4G. In this paper we propose a new user-centric methodology that considers users as the cornerstone in the design of 4G and identifies their functional needs and expectations, reflecting and illustrating them in everyday life situations. This approach consequently contributes to the 1

identification of the real technical step-up of 4G with respect to 3G and thus to a less prophetic and more pragmatic definition of the forthcoming technology.

2. User Scenarios
The user scenario is based on the million dollar question What do people really need that they do not already have?

Business on the Move:

Even before leaving home to reach the place of a work appointment, users would like to receive information about train schedules, personalized information, such as knowing how long it takes to walking to be on schedule in order to eventually wait for the next train. During their stay on the train, users would like to download e-mails, listen to radio, and watch TV, and so on. Finally, before they get off the last planned train, the most Timesaving exit and way to reach their final destination must be known and available in multimedia format.

Fig 1. User centric system

Mobile Tourist Guide:

Tourists walking in Paris would like to use their personal devices to receive not only directions to a sightseeing place but also lastminute alerts when alternative (e.g., less congested) routes become available, or detours to other sites of interest appear en route to the Sight seeing place. Inside the museum, instead of buying the brochure or renting an guide, all they need is to download a package in their language and enjoy their tour listening to the audio guidance. For each artifact in the exhibition, they can automatically listen to the comments and explanations, without any effort of the guide. Finally, their personal devices can also provide information about the specialties of the city/region for example, advising them about the location of a typical restaurant located nearby.

Smart Shopping:

Users would like to receive pop up advertisements informing them of an offer not only when passing shopping malls also anywhere else (e.g., while relaxing in the home environment, or while on the bus/subway), where they can start thinking about their spare time. Users can hence utilize those inputs to get more detailed information regarding the overall cost of their planned activity.

3. The User-Centric System

In this section, we list and describe all the key features derived from the previous user scenarios. To do so, we present a new framework (illustrated in Fig. 1), referred to as the user-centric system. Inspired by the Heliocentric Copernican theory, the user is located in the center of the system and the different key features defining 4G rotate around him on orbits with a distance dependent on a user-sensitive scale. Therefore, the farther the planet is from the center of the system, the less sensitive to it the user is. The decrease of user-sensitivity leads to a translation towards the techno-centric system, where network heterogeneity has a much stronger impact than user friendliness. Furthermore, this kind of representation also shows the interdependency between key features, for example, service personalization is a satellite of terminal Heterogeneity, as shown in Fig. 1. The user-centric system demonstrates that it is mandatory in the design to use (User sensitivity) before improving or Developing the lower ones. If a device is Not user friendly for example the user cannot exploit it and have to access the other features such as user personalization.

4. Key Features of 4G User Friendliness and User Personalization

User friendliness exemplifies and minimizes the interaction between applications and users thanks to a well designed transparency that allows the users and the terminals to naturally interact (e.g., the integration of new

speech interfaces is a great step for achieving this goal). For instance, in Scenario A, users can get traveling information in the most user-friendly way: text, audio, or video format. User personalization refers to the way users can configure the operational mode of their device and reselect the content of the services chosen according to their preferences. Since every new technology is designed keeping in mind the principal aim to have a strongly impact on peoples lifestyles, the new concepts introduced by 4G are based on the assumption that each user wants to be considered as a distinct. Therefore, in order to embrace a large spectrum of customers, user personalization must be provided with high granularity, so that the huge amount of information is filtered according to the users choices. This is illustrated in scenario B, where users can receive targeted pop-up advertisements. The combination between user personalization and user friendliness provides users with easy management of the overall features of their devices and maximum exploitation of all the possible applications, thus conferring the right value to their expense. Receive targeted pop-up advertisements. The combination between user personalization and user friendliness provides users with easy management of the overall features of their devices and maximum exploitation of all the possible applications, thus conferring the right value to their expense.

Fig 2 Heterogeneous terminals

Fig 3. Heterogeneous Network

(e.g., UMTS, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth). These heterogeneous wireless access networks (Fig. 3) typically differ in terms of coverage,

Fig 4 Generational evolution from 2G to 4G

Terminal Heterogeneity Network Heterogeneity

and
data rate, latency, and loss rate. Therefore, each of them is practically designed to support a different set of specific services and devices. Furthermore, the capabilities of the terminal in use will determine whether new services are to be provisioned, so as to offer the best enjoyment to the user and prevent declining interest and elimination of a service offering. This concept is referred to as service personalization (Fig. 1) and is clearly highlighted in scenario D. It implicitly constrains the number of access technologies supportable by the users

In order to be a step ahead of 3G, 4G must not only provide higher data rate but also a clear and tangible advantage in peoples everyday life. Therefore, we believe that the success of 4G will consist of a combination of terminal heterogeneity and network heterogeneity. Terminal heterogeneity refers to the different types of terminals in terms of display size, energy consumption, portability/weight, complexity, and so forth (Fig. 2). Network heterogeneity is related to the increasing heterogeneity of wireless networks due to the proliferation in the number of access technologies available

personal device. However, this limitation may be solved in the following ways:

By the development of devices with evolutionary design.

A naive example can clarify this concept: in the case where a user has a watch-phone on which he would like to see a football match, simply by pressing a button on the watchs side, a self extracting monitor with a larger display can emerge. Therefore, having the most adaptable device in terms of design can provide customers with the most complete application package, thus maximizing the number of services supported. By mean of a personalization transfer. An example extracted from scenario D can clarify this concept: in the case where the user has a watch-phone on which he would like to see a video, he does not need to possess larger display terminals, as all the publicly available terminals can be borrowed and a strong preliminary consideration of the user are a more relevant and appropriate approach to the design.

integration of already existing and new networks, services, and terminals, in order to satisfy ever-increasing user demands.

System Design Rules

Regardless of the actual technology, the forthcoming generation will be able to allow complete interoperability among heterogeneous Networks and associated technologies, thus providing clear advantages in terms of:

Coverage
In Fig. 4, we show the shift in paradigm: while 2G was focused on full coverage for cellular systems offering only one technology and 3G provides its services only in dedicated areas and introduces the concept of vertical handover through the coupling with wireless local area network (WLAN) systems, 4G will be a convergence platform extended to all the network layers. Hence, the user will be connected almost anywhere thanks to widespread coverage due to the exploitation of the various networks available. In particular, service provision will be granted with at least the same level of quality of service (QoS) when passing from one networks support to that of another one.

5. The Real Technical Step-Up of 4G: Integration of Heterogeneous Systems

The real technical step-up of 4G with respect to 3G can be summarized with the word integration seamless

Bandwidth.
Resource sharing among the various networks available will smooth the problem related

to the spectrum relative to 3G

limitations

advertisements concerning offers in shops nearby.

6. Provisioning of Heterogeneous Services

Services are heterogeneous in nature (e.g., different types of services such as audio, video, pop-up advertisements, etc.), quality, and accessibility. 1) Since 3G networks are not able to deliver multicast services efficiently or at a decent level of quality, the synergy of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) and digital audio/video broadcasting (DAB/DVB) will open the possibility to provide to mobile users interactive or on demand services so called TP data casting and audio and video streaming in a much more efficient way than using the point-to-point switch network. 2) The embedding in the user terminal of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver will offer the essential feature of location-awareness that is necessary to provide users with the most comprehensive and extensive level of information, thus bringing about real revolution in terms of personalized services. The user terminal can hence provide not only location based information, such as maps and directions to follow to reach a specific place, but also useful information relevant in time and space, such as pop-up

7. Multimode/Reconfigurable and Interworking Devices

As illustrated in Fig. 2, 4G is characterized by the support of heterogeneous terminals, ranging from pen-phones to cars. However, due to its wide acceptance and usage in the past ten years, the mobile phone is still expected to be on the next edge of the wave of the mass market. Since 4G is based on the integration of heterogeneous systems, the future trend of wireless devices will move toward:

Multimode devices:

&

reconfigurable

The user terminal is able to access the core network by choosing one of the several access networks available and to initiate the handoff between them without the need for network modification or interworking devices. This leads to the integration of different access technologies in the same device (multimodality) or to the use of the software-defined radio (SDR) (reconfigurability) For example, whereas the integration of Bluetooth in the user terminal will enable a personalizationtransfer service, a built in GPS receiver will allow users to utilize their personal devices as navigators just by plugging them in their cars and thus even lighten the number of needed devices. However, the reconfigurability of the user terminal could be a key aspect that would make the future 4G technology as highly adaptable as possible to the various worldwide markets.

Exploitation devices.

of

interworking

In order to reduce the hardware embedded in the user terminal and the software complexity, the use of interworking devices is exploited. For Example, this is the case of an integrated access point (AP) performing the interworking between a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) technology and a WLAN technology, Such as WiMAX and Wi-Fi, respectively: the WMAN is considered as the backbone and the WLAN as the distribution network; therefore, instead of integrating both technologies, the user terminal will only incorporate the Wi-Fi card. The price to be paid for this relief is hence an increased system (infrastructure) complexity.

variety of new heterogeneous services, from pop-up advertisements to location based and IP data-casting ones. All these characteristics will be supported by multimode/reconfigurable devices and the implementation of interworking ones.

References
[1] E. Bohlin et al., The Future of Mobile Communications in the EU: Assessing the Potential of 4G, ESTO Pub., Feb. 2004. [2] K. Murota, Mobile Communications Trends in Japan and DoCoMos Activities Towards 21st Century, Proc. AMOS, June 1999. [3] F. Bauer et al., Synthesis Report on Worldwide Research on 4G Systems, Del. D7.1 1ST MATRICE, Sept. 2003, [4] J.M. Pereira, Fourth Generation: Now, It Is Personal, PIMRC, vol. 2, Sept. 2000, pp. 100916. [5] B. Shneiderman, Leonardos Laptop Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies, MIT Press, Oct. 2002.

Conclusion
In this paper, we have proposed a new framework that allows designers to identify conceptual and technical pillars of 4G, so that they can elaborate their own architecture. Specifically, we have presented a new top-down methodology composed of four different steps, ranging from the sociological perspective to the technical one. Starting from user scenarios, we have extrapolated a new framework the user-centric System that illustrates the key features of 4G: user friendliness, user personalization, terminal heterogeneity, and Network heterogeneity. In particular, its structure shows the complex interdependencies among them and outlines the real technical step-up to be undertaken in 4G. As a consequence, our definition is as follows: 4G will be a convergence platform providing clear advantages in terms of coverage, bandwidth, and power consumption. Moreover, it will offer a