4G/IMT-Advanced
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“4G” or IMT-Advanced
“4G” is the term used to refer to the forthcoming "Fourth Generation" of mobile wireless services that is currently being defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Its Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is in the process of establishing an agreed and globally accepted definition of 4G wireless systems using the name IMT-Advanced. Current 3G systems were established through ITU’s previous project on International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000).
As background for this project, ITU published a document, “Recommendation ITU-R M.1645: Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT-2000.”
The IMT-Advanced project schedule shows the requirements and evaluation criteria published in 2008 with submissions to occur through 2009. In Release 10, 3GPP will address the IMT-Advanced requirements in a version of LTE, called LTE-Advanced, for which specifications could become available in 2011. WiMAX will address the IMT-Advanced requirements in a version called Mobile WiMAX 2.0, to be specified in IEEE 802.16m. Such a 4G family, in adherence to the principles defined for acceptance into this ITU process, is globally recognized to be one that can grow to include all aspects of a marketplace arriving beyond 2010, thus complementing and building upon an expanding and maturing 3G business.
 The Progression Towards 4G (simple view)
Preliminary research for IMT-Advanced is focused on technologies capable of delivering peak data speeds of 1 gigabit per second in “hotspot” locations and 100 Mbps in a mobile environment. Radio channels to support such networks are expected to be in excess of 20 MHz.
Further ideas under consideration for IMT-Advanced include:
Globally, there are a variety of wireless research and development projects, initiatives and organizations that are advancing the capabilities of wireless systems. These include the Wireless World Research Forum, Wireless World Initiatives, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), research under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), Japan Mobile IT Forum (mITF), the Electronic and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea, and the Next Generation Mobile Committee (NGMC).
It could be well toward the end of the next decade before any IMT-Advanced system has a large subscriber base. Needless to say, vendors will be looking at how to leverage and enhance current OFDMA systems such as LTE and WiMAX to meet the requirements of IMT-Advanced.
Any claim that a particular technology is a so-called “4G technology” prior to an established definition by the ITU is, in reality, simply a marketing spin, creating market confusion and deflating the importance of the telecommunications industry standards. Technologies should be verified against a set of agreed-upon requirements in order to qualify as “4G,” and this will happen in the future when the requirements are outlined by the ITU. Only then will it be understood what is, and can be rightly and credibly called, 4G.
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