Mobile Communication: From 1G to 4G

Any radio telephone capable of operating while moving at any speed, battery operated and small enough to be carried by a person comes under the mobile communication systems. These communication systems may have different facilities. The different types of mobile communication systems are mobile two-way radio, public land radio, mobile telephone and amateur (HAM) radio. Mobile two-way radios are one-to-many communication systems that operate in half-duplex mode, i.e., push to talk. The most common among this type is citizen band (CB) radio, which uses amplitude modulation (AM). It operates in the frequency range of 26-27.1 MHz having 40 channels of 10 kHz. It is a non-commercial service that uses a press-to-talk switch. It can be amplitude-modulated having double-sideband suppressed carrier or singlesideband suppressed carrier. Public land mobile radio is a twoway FM radio system, used in police, fireand municipal agencies. It is limited to small geographical areas. Mobile telephones offer full-duplex transmission. These are one-to-one systems that permit two simultaneous transmissions. For privacy, each mobile unit carries a unique telephone number. Amateur (HAM) radios cover a broad frequency band from 1.8 MHz to above 30 MHz. These include continuous wave (CW), AM, FM, radio teleprinter, HF slow-scan still picture TV, VHF or UHF slow-scan or fast-scan TV, facsimile, frequency-shift keying and amplitude-shift keying. Present and past of mobile communications Before I narrate the journey from 1G to 4G, let me explain the important technologies behind the phenomenal growth of mobile communication systems. Since the commercial introduction of advanced mobile phone system (AMPS) service in 1983, mobile communication systems have witnessed an explosive growth. The most important breakthrough was the cellular concept.

Cellular concept. The advent of cellular operation brought frequency reuse capabilities. Advances in wireless access, digital signal processing, integrated circuits, increased battery life, etc led to exponential growth of personal communication services. Cellular system works as follows: An available frequency spectrum is divided into discrete channels, which are assigned in groups to geographic cells covering a service area. The discrete channels are capable of being reused in different cells with diameters ranging from 2 to 50 km. The service area is allotted a radio frequency (RF) transmitter, whereas adjacent cells operate on different frequencies to avoid interference. Cellular telephones began as a simple two-way analogue communication system using frequency modulation for voice and frequency-shift keying for transporting control and signaling information. Other cellular systems are digital cellular system, cordless telephony, satellite mobile and paging. Analogue cellular systems fall in the first-generation(1G) category and digital cellular low-power wireless fall in the second-generation (2G) category. Analogue cellular phone. In 1970, Bell Labs in New Jersey proposed a cellular telephone concept as advanced mobile telephony system (AMPS). AMPS is a standard cellular telephone service placed into operation on October 13, 1983 by Illinois Bell. It uses narrowband FM with a usable audio frequency band of 300-3 kHz and maximum frequency deviation of 12 kHz for 100 per cent modulation. According to Carsons rule, this corresponds to 30 kHz. AMPS uses frequency-division multiple access (FDMA), where transmissions are separated in the frequency domain. Subscribers are assigned a pair of voice channels (forward and reverse) for the duration of their call. Analogue cellular channels carry both voice using FM and digital signaling information using binary FSK. Digital cellular system. It provides improvements in both capacity and performance. FDMA uses a frequency canalisation approach to spectrum management, while time-division

multiple access (TDMA) utilises a time-division approach. The entire available cellular RF spectrum is sub-divided into narrow-band radio channels to be used as a one-way communication link between cellular mobile units and base stations. Multiple access technologies for cellular systems Generally, a fxed amount of frequency spectrum is allocated to a cellular system. Multiple access techniques are deployed so that the users can share the available spectrum in an efficientmanner. For wireless communication, multiplexing can be carried out in three dimensions: Time (TDMA), frequency (FDMA and its variation OFDMA) and code (CDMA).

FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA multiple-access techniques

In TDMA the available spectrum is partitioned into narrow frequency bands or frequency channels, which, in turn, are divided into a number of time slots. In case of North American digital cellular standard IS-136, each frequency channel (30 kHz) is divided into three time slots, whereas in European digital cellular system GSM each frequency channel (200 kHz) is divided into eight time slots. Guard bands are needed both between frequency chan-nels and time slots. In FDMA, users share the available spectrum in a frequency band called trafficchannel. Different users are assigned different channels on demand basis. The users signal power is concentrated in a relatively narrow frequency band. All the analogue cellular systems used

FDMA system. OFDM is a multi-cellular transmission technique where a data stream is carried with many lower-rate subcarrier tones. It has been adopted in mobile communications to combat hostile frequency-selective fading and has been incorporated into wireless network standards.OFDM is a multi-cellular transmis-sion technique where a data stream is carried with many lower-rate sub-carrier tones. It has been adopted in mobile communications to combat hostile frequency-selective fading and has been incorporated into wireless network standards. OFDM combines the advantages of coherent detection and OFDM modulation and has many merits that are critical for future high-speed transmission systems. By using up/down conversion, electrical bandwidth requirement can be greatly reduced for the OFDM transceiver, which is extremely attractive for high-speed circuit design where electrical signal bandwidth dictates the cost. Lastly, signal processing in the OFDM transceiver can take advantage of efficient algorithm of fat Fourier transform (FFT)/inverse FFT, which suggests that OFDM has superior scalability over channel dispersion and data rate. Digital modulation keying Communication systems often involve modulation of a carrier, which results in a bandpass waveform. A digital signal can be used to modulate the amplitude, frequency or phase of a sinusoidal carrier producing three different forms of digital modulation: amplitude-shift keying (ASK), frequency-shift keying (FSK) and phase-shift keying (PSK). In addition to these basic techniques, there are some modulation schemes that employ a combination of amplitude and phase modulation. It may be noted that unlike ASK signal, PSK transmission is polar. At the same time, ASK is a linear modulation scheme, whereas PSK is a non-linear modulation scheme. PSK has a superior performance over ASK. Quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK). Digital modulation techniques mentioned above are spectrally inefficientin the sense that the available channel bandwidth is not fully used. Spectral efficiencycan be improved by using QPSK. It is a system for two message sources. In this system modulation carriers in phase quadrature are combined to form the output waveform. In QPSK the amplitude of the modulator waveform and modulator gains are made as nearly equal as possible. Differential phase-shift keying (DPSK). DPSK is a modification of PS that avoids the need to provide synchronous carrier required for detection of PSK signals. It is an ingenious technique whereby the carrier reference is derived from the received waveform in the preceding bit interval by use of a 1-bit delay. In essence, the received waveform delayed by 1-bit duration serves as its own reference. Data transmission using packet switching This is done by supplying various addressed packets, which are interconnected to have the conversation. New dedicated paths are created for sending the data. From the multiple paths to the destination, any path can be used to send data. Cellular digital packet data was designed for optimal operation with an analogue cellular system, especially AMPS. Short message service. Short message service is the most common packet service that is supported on digital cellular networks like GSM, IS-136, EDGE and PDC (packet data service). It is a store-and-forward/packet mode service that provides inter-working with the various applications and services within a fixednetwork. For message transfer between relevant network entities, control and signaling channels (instead of normal traffic channels) ar generally used for data transmission.

General packet radio service (GPRS). GPRS essentially represents add-on capabilities to the basic voice-optimised cellular network that nevertheless maintain the essential characteristics of radio-access technology. Enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE). In order to enhance the data handling capabilities of 2G service, radio-access portion had to be modifed. This modifcation was evolved in Europe in the form of EDGE. EDGE also supports a link adaptation mechanism that selects the best combination of modulation and encoding schemes based on the timevarying link quality. EDGE concept applies to both circuit-mode and packet-mode data and is sufficiently generic for appliction to other digital cellular systems. It works in the 200kHz bandwidth with one or more high-level modulation schemes and a range of efficient coding methods. Modulation schemes are offset QPSK and offset 16 QAM. Spread spectrum It is a special communication technique that purposefully uses much more RF bandwidth than necessary to transmit a signal. This helps in improving the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. The main advantages of this technique are secure communication and resistance to intentional jamming. There are 75 channels in the 2400-2483.3MHz band. There are two methods of perform-ing spread spectrum: Frequency hopping. This technique spreads the narrow-band signal as a function of time. The transmitted frequency is changed to a different pre-assigned channel several times per second (hopped). The order in which the pre-assigned channels are selected is pseudo random. In other words, the channel order is seemingly random but actually repeats itself at a definedinterval. The specificorder in which frequencies are occupied is a function of code sequence and the rate of hopping from one frequency to another is a function of information rate. Direct sequence. This technique spreads a signal by expanding the signal over a broadband portion of the radio band. It uses a locally generated pseudo noise (PN) code to encode digital data to be transmitted. The most practical all-digit version is direct sequence. Binary phase-shift keying is the simplest and most often used modulation technique. One of the most important features of spread-spectrum signals is that these contain a large number of very different signaling formats, used for communicating data symbols. It means that the receiver which detects one of these formats cannot detect any other format within a single message. The number of formats used in a spread-spectrum system is called multiplicity factor of the communication link and amounts to thousands. CDMA. CDMA is a form of direct-sequence spread-spectrum technology that allows many users to occupy the same time and frequency allocations in a given band/space. CDMA assigns each user a unique spreading code to spread the baseband data before transmission, in order to help differentiate signals from various users in the same spectrum. It is the platform on which 2G and advanced 3G services are built. After speech, the codec converts voice into digital signal. CDMA spreads the voice stream over the full 1.25MHz bandwidth of the CDMA channel, coding each stream separately. The receiver uses a correlator to despread the wanted signal, which is passed through a bandpass filter.Unwanted signals are not despread and not passed through the filter.

The rate of the spreading signal is known as the chip rate as each bit in the spreading signal is known as chip. All 2G networks support only single-user data rates of the order of 10 kbps, which is too slow for rapid e-mail and Internet browsing. CDMA provides more than ten times the capacity of the analogue AMPS and fivetimes the calling capacity of GSM and TDMA systems. It requires fewer cell sites than GSM and TDMA. Personal communication system Personal communication system (PCS) is a new class of cellular telephone system such as AMPS. PCS systems are a combination of cellular telephone network and intelligent network, which is the entity of super-simple transfer (SST) inter-office protocol tha distinguishes physical components of the switching network such as signal service point, signal control point and signal transfer point from the services provided by SST network. In essence, PCS is the North American implementation of European GSM standard. GSM utilised its own TDMA access methods and provided expanded capacity and unique services such as caller ID, call forwarding and short messaging. A critical feature was seamless roaming, which allowed subscribers to move across provider boundaries. The effort was directed towards second-generation cellular systems. In 1990, a second frequency band was specified. This band included twodomains 17101785 MHz and 1805-1880 MHz, i.e., twice 75 MHz; three times as much as the primary 900MHz band. Digital enhanced cordless telecommunication (DECT). DECT is a type of PCS system. DECT standard was developed by European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) for wireless PABX data LAN applications that represent closed environments requiring minimal open cordless access, since it was essential that products from different vendors not only coexist but interwork with each other. DECT system has a TDMA/TDD frame structure with 24 slots that are equally allocated for downlink and uplink operation. DECT specifiesboth simplex (half-slots) and duplex (full slot) operation. Higher data rates are achieved by utilising multilevel modulation. The basic modulation scheme is a two-level Gaussian filled frequency-shif keying (GFSK), which is supplemented with 8-level modulation scheme leading to as high as 2.88 Mbps per carrier. GSM Global system for mobile communications (GSM) was developed by the Groupe Special Mobile, which was an initiative of the Conference of European Post and Telecommunications (CEPT) administrations. GSM was firs devised as a cellular system in a specific 900MHz band called the primary band. This primary band includes two sub-bands of 25 MHz each, 890915 MHz and 935-960 Mhz. GSM systems like Iridium, Globalstar and ICO use constellations of low-earth orbit (LEO) or medium-earth orbit (MEO) satellites and operate as overlay networks for existing cellular and PCS networks. Using dual-mode, these extend the coverage to any and all locations on the earths surface.

GPSa reliable navigational aid anywhere on the earth

International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) is a standard developed by ITU for 3G. It ensures global mobility in terms of global seamless roaming and service delivery. An appreciation of the role of numbering and identities in mobility management, international roaming, call delivery, and billing and charging is important in understanding the operation of mobile and personal communication networks. Personal communication satellite service (PCSS) uses LEO satellite repeaters incorporating QPSK modulation and both FDMA and TDMA. The main advantages of GSM are international roaming (in harmony with ISDN principles assuring inter-working between ISDN and GSM) and features like privacy and encryption, frequency hopping, discontinuous transmission and short message service. Other facilities include call forwarding, barring, waiting, hold and teleconferencing. The basic architecture comprises a network sub-system, base station sub-system, mobile stations, and system interworking and interfaces. A subscriber identity module (SIM) is required to activate and operate a GSM terminal. The SIM may be contained within the mobile station or it may be a removable unit that can be inserted by the user in his mobile set. New developments along the way Before we proceed to evolution from 1G to 4G, let me touch upon the new developments that took place in 1G to 4G. Global positioning system (GPS). GPS is a reliable navigational aid available anywhere on the earth, operating in all weather conditions 24 hours a day. It can be used by marine, airborne and land users. GPS technology was developed in 1983.

GPS consists of three segments: Space segment. GPS consists of 24 NAVSTAR satellites along with three spare satellites orbiting at 20,200 km above the earths surface in six circular orbital planes with a 12 -hour orbital period each. These satellites operate at L1 band (1.575 GHz) continuously broadcasting navigational signals called coarse acquisition code. These codes can be received by anyone for decoding and findingnavigational parameters like longitude, latitude, velocity and time. Control segment. It consists of a master control station (MCS) and a number of smaller earth stations called monitoring stations located at different places in the world. Monitoring stations track satellites and pass on the measured data to the MCS. The MCS computes satellite parameters (called ephemeris) and sends them back to the satellite, which, in turn, broadcasts to all GPS receivers. User segment. The user segment consists of all moving and stationary objects with GPS receivers. A GPS receiver is a multi-channel satellite receiver that computes every second its own location and velocity. Bluetooth. Compared to WLAN technologies, Bluetooth technology aims at so-called ad-hoc piconets, which are local-area networks with a very limited coverage and without the need for an infrastructure. The term piconet is a collection of Bluetooth devices that are synchronised to the same hopping sequence. One device in the piconet can act as master and all other devices connected to the master act as slaves. The master determines the hopping pattern and the slaves have to synchronise to this pattern. The hopping pattern is determined by the device IDa 48-bit worldwide unique identifier.The phase in the hopping pattern is determined by the masters clock. All active devices are assigned a 3 -bit active member address. All parked devices use an 8-bit parked member address. Devices in standby mode do not need an address. The goal for Bluetooth development was to use a single-chip, low-cost, radio-based wireless network technology for laptops, notebooks, headsets, etc. Bluetooth operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band. However, MAC, physical layer and the offered services are completely different. Bluetooth transceivers use Gaussian FSK for modulation and are available in three power classes: Class 1 (max. power 100 mW), class 2 (max. power 2.5 mW) and class 3 (max. power 1 mW). Journey from 1G to 4G 1G system. 1G specifications were released in 1990 to be used in GSM. 1G systems are analogue systems such as AMPS that use FDM to divide the bandwidth into specificfrequencies that are assigned to individual calls. 2G system. These second-generation mobile systems are digital and use either TDMA or CDMA method. Digital cellular systems use digital modulation and have several advantages over analogue systems, including better utilisation of bandwidth, more privacy, and incorporation of error detection and correction. 2.5G system. It was introduced mainly to add latest bandwidth technology to the existing 2G generation. It supports higher-data-rate transmission for Web browsing and also supports a new browsing format language called wireless application protocol (WAP). The different upgrade paths include high-speed circuit-switched data (HSCSD), GPRS and EDGE. HSCSD increases the available application data rate to 14.4 kbps as compared to 9.6 kbps

of GSM. By using four consecutive time slots, HSCSD is able to provide a raw transmission rate of up to 57.6 kbps to individual users. GPRS supports multi-user network sharing of individual radio channels and time slots. Thus GPRS supports many more users than HSCSD but in a bursty manner. When all the eight time slots of a GSM radio channel are dedicated to GPRS, an individual can achieve as much as 171.2 kbps. But this has not brought any new evolution. EDGE introduces a new digital modulation format called 8-PSK (octal phase-shift keying). It allows nine different air interface formats, known as multiple modulation and coding schemes, with varying degree of error control and protection. These formats are automatically and rapidly selectable. Of course, the covering range is smaller in EDGE than in HSCSD or GRPS. 3G system. To overcome the short-comings of 2G and 2.5G, 3G has been developed. It uses a wideband wireless network that offers increased clarity in conversations. Countries throughout the world are currently determining new radio spectrum bands to accommodate 3G networks. ITU has established 2500-2690MHz, 1700-1855MHz and 806-960MHz bands. Here the target data rate is 2 Mbps. The data is sent through packet switching. Voice calls are interpreted through circuit switching. 3G W-CDMA (UMTS). Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) or W-CDMA assures backward compatibility with 2G and 2.5G TDMA technologies. W-CDMA, which is an air interface standard, has been designed for always-on packet-based wireless service, so that computers and entertainment devices may all share the same wireless network and connect to the Internet anytime, anywhere. W-CDMA supports data rates of up to 2.048 Mbps if the user is stationary, thereby allowing high-quality data, multimedia, streaming audio, streaming video and broadcast type services to consumers. With W-CDMA, data rates from as low as 8 kbps to as high as 2 Mbps can be carried simultaneously on a single W-CDMA 5MHz radio channel, with each channel supporting between 100 and 350 simultaneous voice calls at once, depending on antenna sectoring, propagation conditions, user velocity and antenna polarisation. Time slots in W-CDMA are not used for user separation but to support periodic functions. (This is in contrast to GSM where time slots are used to separate users). The bandwidth per W-CDMA channel is 4.4 to 5 MHz. Since the global standard was diffiult to evolve, three operating modes have been specified:A 3G device will be a personal, mobile, multimedia communication device (e.g., TV provider redirects a TV channel directly to the subscribers phone where it can be watched). Second, it will support video conferencing, i.e., subscribers can see as well as talk to each other. Third, it will also support location-based services, where a service provider sends localised weather or trafficconditions to the phone or the phone allows the subscriber to findnearby businesses or friends. 3.5G. It supports a higher through-put and speed at packet data rates of 14.4 Mbps, supporting higher data needs of consumers. 4G system. It offers additional features such as IP telephony, ultrabroadband Internet access, gaming services and HDTV streamed multimedia. Flash-OFDM, the 802.16e mobile version of WiMax (also known as WiBro in South Korea), can support cellular peak data rates of approx. 100 Mbps for high-mobility communications such as mobile access and up

to 1 Gbps for low-mobility communications such as nomadic/local wireless access, using scalable bandwidths of up to 40 MHz. The infrastructure for 4G is only packet-based (all-IP).

Telecom Revolution: 4G and Beyond

This year, Bharti Airtel launched a 4G service in Kolkata and Bengaluru, making India one of the first nations to adopt the newest baby in the wireless world. 4G or IMT-Advanced is the fourth generation in telecommunications, characterised by reliable lightning-speed broadband wireless access (BWA)a dream come true for not just the young and raging population but also businesses, media agencies, governments and many more stakeholders. It is hoped that 4G will catalyse national development, as it means wireless communications to the nooks and corners, even across rugged terrains and the poorest of villages. With the launch of Bharti Airtels service, umpteen questions have arisen in the minds of consumers across the countrywhat really is 4G, what sets it apart as a new generation, is Bharti Airtels service (based on the TDD-LTE standard) really 4G, what are the competing 4G standards, how is 4G doing worldwide, what are the pros and cons of this generation, and what is next in the pecking order? Here we try to answer these questions. The fourth generation has just begun Some service providers in countries like South Korea and Scandinavia started terming their service as 4G as early as 2006. Others started doing so in the US a few years later. Humbug and marketing tricks!

Customers get hands-on experience with Verizon Wireless flexible digital showcase of 4G

With the availability of chipsets that support both 3G and 4G technologies, the market is beginning to see 4G LTE smartphones (Image courtesy: www.digitaltrends.com)

4G is a very nascent technology and there are very few deployments worldwide that qualify as 4G todayeven by a very liberal definition. If we keep to the true definition of IMTAdvanced, 4G is not even here yet. In the mid 2000s, as 3G systems were being deployed, there was the initial definition of 4G as providing 100Mbps bandwidth. Subsequent to 2006, many systems which exceeded 4050 Mbps started using 4G as a marketing ploy for their networks and some providers called their advanced 3G networks as 4G Lite with Lite written in small print. This included WiMAX and HSPA+ systems. There were even legal litigations in the US courts by operators against each other for false advertising. It is interesting to note that the early versions of Long Term Evolution (LTE) were being dubbed as 3.99G in published literature. ITU finally provided a more definitive definition of 4G, explains Dr Suresh Borkar, a member of faculty at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Dr Borkar has wide consulting experience in commercial and public safety systems, telecom strategy formulation, spectrum and regulatory policies, and dynamic spectrum management. In addition to general specifications on inter-working, handovers and quality of service, the key attributes defined by the ITU included an all-IP packet core and (downlink) bandwidth of 100 Mbps for mobile applications and 1 Gbps for nomadic and quasi-stationary applications. Taking into account the estimates and techniques like carrier aggregation and wider spectrum, there is now a general consensus in the telecommunications community that 3GPPs LTE-Advanced (Release 10) and WiMAX 2.0 (IEEE 802.16m) can be classified as 4G systems. LTE vs WiMaxA no-brainer! The third generation of mobile communications is characterised mainly by HSPA+ and EV-

DO. Similarly, two technologies qualifytechnicallyto be called as 4G. These are 3GPPs LTE-Advanced and IEEEs 802.16m (WiMAX 2.0). However, the race seems to be a no brainer. With WiMAX 2.0 failing to take off, it looks like LTE is going to dominate the 4G world. WiMAX 802.16m has not been commercially successful. Hence deployment of 4G will be based on LTE-Advanced technology. These implementations are in a nascent stage worldwide. Large-scale deployment of 4G will take place only next year, says Dr Abhay Karandikar, professor and head-Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay. IIT Bombay has made several contributions to IEEE 802.16m 4G standards, including bandwidth reservations, quality of service (QoS), relay, etc.

Thumbs-up 4G
Completely Internet protocol (IP) based architecture a simpler, scalable, flatter and lowercost network architecture that eases management and service deployment, and converges cellular communications with fixed-line Internet Advanced and efficient air-interface based on OFDM, which provides a much higher spectral efficiency (in bps/Hz) Multi-carrier OFDM modulation; multiple antennae Multi-layer, multiple-input, multiple-outputdownlink and uplink Spectrum-agnostic design, which can support higher bandwidth, bandwidth aggregation, and time-division duplexing and frequency-division duplexing modes Operates on scalable spectrum bandwidths from 1.25 to 20 MHz the most prevalent ones being 5 and 10 MHz Bandwidth of 100 Mbps for mobile applications and 1 Gbps for nomadic and quasi-stationary applications Improved coverage and reliability Carrier aggregation, which allows network operators to make use of several blocks of spectrum and aggregate the usage in the mobile terminal. This results in higher data rates for consumer, and enhanced spectral efficiency and increasing capacity for operators. It enables a range of wider transmission bandwidths up to 100 MHz. Low latency due to improved radio access protocols, and more efficient support for cloudbased services and online gaming applications Self-organisation, relay and many other features to enhance spectral efficiency Experts agree that LTE-Advanced (LTE Releases 10 and 11) is the main technology on the 4G horizon. It is being standardised to use up to 100MHz channel bandwidth to achieve up to 1Gbps downlink throughput. In our opinion, it is okay to consider LTE (Releases 8 and 9) also to be 4G technology as it makes a radical breakthrough by adopting multi-carrier orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) technology. LTE has retained some level of backward compatibility to benefit from the UMTS experience and coexist with UMTS, says Harpinder S. Matharu, senior product marketing manager-Communications Division, Xilinx.

LTE technology is a completely packet-based protocol and radio access technology. Its core network, leveraging flexible bandwidth, achieves much better spectral efficiency (bps/Hz) and delivers a throughput of greater than 100 Mbps (for 20MHz FDD system using 22 spatial multiplexing) by using higher-order modulation and multiple-input multiple-output (downlink and uplink).

4G antenna (Image courtesy: www.techwireasia.com)

Matharu adds, In light of the above argument, niche deployments of 20MHz WiMAX cellular systems should also be considered 4G. However, LTE framing structure is better for achieving a higher throughput and lower latency, besides the benefits of a more power-efficient user terminal uplink technology. We expect LTE to replace majority of the WiMAX deployments in the coming years. Dr Borkar concurs, The initial LTE-Advanced systems are expected to deploy by the year-end. Whereas WiMAX may have its niche applications like backhaul, from access viewpoint, LTE will become the norm of the future. Even the current 3GPP2 US standard based 3G operators like Verizon have abandoned the CDMA2000 evolutionary path and embraced the 3GPP LTE 4G standard. The flavours of LTETDD and FDD Globally, there is one harmonised standard for LTE that encompasses two modesTDD and FDD, remarks Dr Lakshminath Dondeti, director, engineering-technical standards, Qualcomm India. LTE involves duplexing of uplink and downlink radio signals. The duplexing scheme is responsible for managing simultaneous transmission and reception without interference between the two. To handle this, signals for transmission and reception can be separated using either time or frequencythe former is called time-division duplexing (TDD), while the latter is frequency-division duplexing (FDD). FDD uses a paired set of frequency blocksone for downlink transmission and the other for uplink transmission. TDD works on only one frequency block, but uses short alternating bursts of transmission and reception.

FDD and TDD are different technologies. FDD is better suited for voice, while TDD is better suited for data. In data, there is usually more of reception or download than upload, and the system can be tweaked to allow greater download time and shorter upload time. Most deployments of cellular systems including LTE use FDD operation because of its simplicity of transceiver designs. Some countries like India (Bharti Airtel) and China (Chine Mobile) have selected TDD for the 4G LTE network because of its capabilities of dynamic adaptation of downlink and uplink bandwidths. WiMAX deployments from their early version have embra ced TDD operation, explains Dr Borkar. In India, LTE TDD has been deployed initially in the 2.3GHz spectrum band. The Global TD -LTE Initiative (GTI) has been formed to support closer network and device integration of LTE TDD and FDD. It is driven by several major wireless operators from around the world, working closely with GSMA and NGMN. Qualcomm has multimode chipsets that integrate both LTE TDD and LTE FDD, and inter-work with 3G HSPA and EV-DO, says Dr Dondeti. IP-based architecturepros and cons Circuit-switched networking is inefficient for data traffic. With Internet data constituting a significant fraction of mobile traffic, it is more efficient to deploy packet-switched IP technology. IP also enables seamless network convergence. There are really no disadvantages of IP or packet switch, except perhaps that network security issues need to be more tightly managed in an IP network, says Dr Karandikar, who is emphatically in favour of packet-switching.

4G problem areas
Higher susceptibility to inter-cell interference Higher variation in the instantaneous power (due to OFDM-based architecture) that impacts power amplifier efficiency Incompatibility with previous generations Over 40 frequency bands make global roaming difficult Poor voice support High cost of embracing LTE, including high auction costs for acquiring spectrum, lack of economy of scale to make available reasonably-priced user devices, and putting together the backhaul infrastructure Need to set up newer operations and management systems, including provisioning, performance optimisation, revenue realisation, fault handling and maintenance, security management, etc An all-IP network can very effectively handle multiple applications and services, e.g., voice, video and data. The power of a unified IP multimedia system architecture can be exploited to efficiently support the QoS requirements of such varied applications and services. Packet transport provides much better resource utilisation than circuit-switched network. However, all-IP systems have a flipside too. The primary disadvantages for all-IP systems are how to recover the huge investments in legacy 2G and 3G systems, not stranding the vast number of existing user devices in the marketplace, and inability to provide the high bar of voice reliability and quality. The VoIP alternative is primarily statistical in nature and lacks the advantages of traditional circuit-switched based voice, e.g., quality, deterministic behaviour in terms of latency and routing, and advanced supplementary services, says Dr Borkar.

Since 4G LTE has an all-IP core (enhanced packet core), it cannot directly support voice applications until voice-over-IP (VoIP) becomes the norm. Moreover, all operators have already invested heavily in 2G and 3G systems which use circuit-switching for voice support.

A quick clarification
1. Going strictly by ITUs IMT -Advanced definition, only LTE-Advanced (Releases 10 and 11) and WiMAX 2.0 (IEEE 802.16m) can be considered as 4G services. These are not yet operational anywhere in the world. We can expect to see the first deployments only by the year-end or in 2013. 2. Countries like India, China, Japan and Brazil have deployed LTE (Releases 8 and 9) in recent months. Many players in the telecom industry tend to accept this as 4G as it uses multi-carrier OFDM technology and can be considered a major jump in technology and user/operator experience. The general approach that current LTE operators are using is circuit switch fallback to a 2G or 3G network via the memory management entity in the enhanced packet core. This is transparent to the user device. In addition to the circuit switch fallback, the 4G user devices are designed to be multi-mode so that they can connect to a 2G or 3G system in case the LTE system is not present or the LTE signals are too weak. The 4G technology evolved and standardised by 3GPP has multiple options of supporting voice. O ne is circuit-switched voice. LTE supports circuit switch fallback to 3G/2G network for voice support. Advantages are definitely there for multi-service operators like Airtel, as it can offer varied services and bundle service plans to meet the requirements of the customers, says Rajiv Rajgopal, CEObroadband/data, Bharti Airtel. Looking into the future, David Maidment, mobile segment manager, ARM, comments: Moving forward, operators will want to break their dependency on circuit-switched services and move to an all-LTE deployment. As such, they are working to standardise and deploy voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), which allows voice to be carried over the packet network. VoLTE handsets are already available, and in the next one or two years we will begin to see the growth of these services. Availability of 4G devices True 4G equipment are not widely available today. LTE Release 8 systems have been deployed since 2010, but these are not 4Gmerely 3.5G. As is expected in a family of standards like LTE, device and infrastructure manufacturers will provide migration and compatibility between different releases. Current LTE smartphones and other devices will operate in future LTE networks but may not be able to exploit the advanced and new features like carrier aggregation. Real 4G devices compatible with LTE-Advanced specifications may be available by the year-end. With the current technologies, many advanced features can be effected in the devices via provisioning and software updates, points out Dr Borkar. Initially, 4G user equipment targeted notebooks and tablets for data services. With the availability of chipsets that support both 3G and 4G technologies, the market is beginning to see 4G LTE smartphones, adds Matharu of Xilinxa company that provides silicon devices, intellectual property solutions and design services for wireless infrastructure. Rajgopal notes: Bharti Airtel through its GTI, along with other partners like CMCC and Softbank, is taking

a lead in ensuring that the device ecosystem rapidly matures to the operators and consumers requirements. Currently, we have an array of compatible devices like dongles and CPE devices that support TDD-based LTE. Smartphone and tablet users can access 4G LTE services over Wi-Fi networks, from CPE devices. We are working with the OEMs in ramping up the device ecosystem in the country. That said, there is also the issue of devices made for one region not working in others. To this, Rajgopal responds, At present, 4G LTE devices available in the open market or USA are not compatible in India. We are working with OEMs and chipset vendors to ensure that this will not be an impediment. As a matter of fact, Bharti Airtel is one of the founding members of the GTI that is working on standards for TD LTE. Roaming issues Frequency bands and duplex operation are the two primary reasons why equipment used in one continent are not compatible in others. LTE as a standard can be deployed in over 40 different frequency bands. This is a benefit as it makes the standard flexible, but its also a weakness from a fragmentation and roaming point of view. We have already seen issues around band support in LTE with current-generation devices that are unable to roam outside their home networks. Multi-band support is nothing new in cellular applications. From 2G onwards equipment vendors have been producing multi-band phones. The issue with LTE has been the sheer number of bands as well as the fact that it supports two duplexing methods FDD and TDD, explains Maidment. From a signal processing point of view it is already possible to implement a world phone that can span FDD and TDD. The issue is in the radio hardware, which needs to be band-specific in order to receive and transmit at the required frequency. We expect to see innovation in this space as manufacturers work to solve this issue and produce programmable band selection in the hardware that will, in turn, allow devices to be produced that cover all the major bands worldwide, he adds. During the early stages of LTE growth, 3G HSPA or EV-DO will be the primary global roaming technologies given the global harmonisation of 3G spectrum. Over time, some common LTE bands across the world that facilitate international roaming will start to emerge. In fact, 3G and LTE will interwork and coexist for a long time, says Dr Dondeti. Facilitating international roaming is not a great problem, according to Dr Karandikar. ITU has defined band plans for various technologies and standards. Various countries do harmonise their spectrum allocation accordingly. ITU holds World Radio Communications Conference every three to four years where frequency harmonisation may be achieved, he informs. Global roaming issues have been solved in the past using multi-standard chipsets and multi-band radios. A similar solution might be helpful here too. Qualcomm has developed the worlds first multi -mode (HSPA, EV-DO, FDD/TDD LTE) chipsets that integrate both TDD and FDD. The commercial LTE TDD network launched by Bharti Airtel uses multi-mode dongles based on Qualcomms MDM 9x00. Huawei, ZTE, BandRich and Quanta have announced LTE TDD multi-mode devices based on the Qualcomm MDM9x00 chipset in August 2011, indicating commercial availability this year, adds Dr Dondeti. When will 4G phase out 3G? Standards are quick to arrive and slow to leave. We have lived with 2G services for around 20 years

now, for example. The question of when 4G will phase out 3G should instead be phrased when will 4G phase out 2G, quips Maidment.

Airtel 4G LTE USB modem

Today, in most territories, 2G and 3G services run side by side with 2G often covering less-densely populated regions and 3G services deployed in towns and cities. From a network perspective, we are seeing a growing trend towards heterogeneous network architectures which combine multiple carriers with varying access technologiessuch as small cells to deliver capacity and coverage where it is needed most, and larger, more traditional macro cells providing wide-area coverage in rural areas. As LTE is deployed both in the wide area through macro cells as well as in small cells, we expect to see operators looking to free up their existing 2G spectrum to move across to LTE services. This is a slow process which is highly dependent upon regulatory approval and will differ from region to region. While some operators might consider leapfrogging directly from 2G to 4G, those who have deployed 3G are likely to continue enhancing and using those networks for at least five to ten years to get justifiable returns on their investments. We can expect to see the continued adoption and rapid uptake of LTE services around the world. As a key part of that, we will see new low-power, multi-band capable devices that deliver the economies of scale required to make LTE commercially viable. From a standards perspective, device vendors are working to implement the first-generation LTE-Advanced terminals, which we would probably see a year or two down the line. These devices will be capable of supporting data rates up to 300 Mbps enabled by carrier aggregation and multi-layer multiple-input multiple-output. In addition to LTE-Advanced, there are plans within 3GPP to look at how LTE can be employed to enable machine-type communications. The rise of machine-to-machine communications is anticipated to be a key growth area and it is essential that we have in place the right standards to support that need. Being an all-IP based technology, LTE is well positioned to serve this emerging space during the next 20+ years, says Maidment. Beyond 4G While 4G, according to its true definition, is not even here yet, we are already talking of what is yonder, beyond the big blue mountain. Dr Borkar provides some futuristic food for thought: Consistent with the gener al historical trend of a new technology standard every ten years, it is expected that 5G specifications will likely be in place in the 2018-20 timeframe. The framework for 5G includes higher-efficiency operation with lower battery consumption, higher system reliability, more uniform, high data rates across the coverage area, low infrastructure deployment costs,

and higher spectral efficiency and capacity. Some of the features being considered include advanced multi-cell coordination for enhanced system performance and end-user service quality, efficient infrastructure for machine-to-machine communications to support the vast number of connected devices, direct user device-to-device communications especially for performance and network outage situations, and new ways of using and adapting to the available spectrum based on the use of cognitive radios.

How is Mobile Number Portability Achieved

There has been rapid growth in the penetration of telephony services in the last few years. But the growth has not been exponential in the quality of service offered or openness of business. Consumers are not satisfied with the operators services and schemes. Traditionally, consumers are required to give up their mobile number on changing service providers. As a result, they are hugely inconvenienced by having to inform everyone about the change in their number. Besides there is likelihood of important calls (from people who didnt have the new number) being missed out, and so on. The picture has now ch anged dramatically with the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP).

Fig. 1: (a) Decentralised and (b) centralised database solution

Fig. 2: Signaling relay approach

Mobile number portability Mobile number portability enables consumers to retain their mobile numbers when changing service providers, service types and/or locations. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has defined three types of number portability: service provider portability, location portability and service portability. Service provider portability. It enables a customer to retain his existing mobile number when changing from one service provider to another in the same area. Location portability. It enables a customer to retain his existing mobile number without

impairment of quality, convenience or reliability when shifting from one geographic location to another.

MNP terminology
Donor operator. Operator from whose network the customer is porting out. Recipient operator. Operator who will be providing services to the customer after porting. Number portability database. Collection/repository of all the ported numbers. Provides a unique routing number in response to a query from any network operator. Routing number. A unique number stored in the number portability database that is used to route the call to the recipient operator. Service portability. It enables a customer to retain his existing mobile number without impairment of quality, convenience or reliability when switching from one service technology to another service technologyfor example, from CDMA to GSM. A combination of different kinds of portability options can also be used, which enables customers to retain their mobile number across different service providers, service technologies, geographical regions and national boundaries. Many regulatory authorities have made number portability mandatory or are about to introduce it so as to ensure better quality of service to customers. The worlds first country to introduce mobile number portability was Singapore (1997). It was followed by the UK, Hong Kong and the Netherlands (1999), Spain (2000) and Australia (2001). As of today, there are many countries (including India) that have introduced number portability. Implementation of MNP Mobile number portability can be implemented using either decentralised database or centralised database approach (Fig. 1). Decentralised database solution requires each operator to maintain its own number portability database. It is useful if there are few operators. If there are many operators, centralised database solution is better.

Fig. 3: Signaling relay using LRN

Fig. 4: Tromboning call set-up

Signaling relay approach. This approach is based on decentralised database solution. In this implementation, the donor operator identifies the correct terminating network (recipient operator) and routes the call to that network. The originating network receives a call from the caller and routes the call to the donor operator. Upon receiving the call, the donor operator network identifies that the dialed number has been ported out. Now the donor operator routes the call to the recipient operator network. In this routing scheme, there is no need of a central database, and only the donor and recipient operators need to know about the porting of a number. Direct relay. In this approach, the originating network contacts the gateway mobile switching centre to establish a call. The gateway mobile switching centre detects that the dialed number is ported out and relays signaling information to the home location register to get the mobile station routing number. After getting the mobile station routing number, the gateway mobile switching centre sets up trunk to the serving mobile switching centre to establish the call (Fig. 2). In this routing approach, the originating, donor and recipient operators are kept busy to establish a call. So it may not be considered as an efficient mobile number portability scheme.

Relay using location routing number. In this scheme, a location routing number is used to route the call to the correct terminating network. The call flow is shown in Fig. 3. Again, in this method of number portability, all the network elements of originating, donor and recipient networks are kept busy for the entire duration of call. Further, this approach is susceptible to establishing a tromboning call set-up when the originating network is also a recipient network (Fig. 4). Basically, tromboning is where a call originates at a certain point, and follows a path out into the network and back to a destination close to where the call originated. In this way, several networks and their entities are kept busy unnecessarily. So this mobile number portability scheme is not recommended. All-call-query approach. This is a direct routing scheme that utilises a centralised ported database. In this scheme, the originating network directly queries the central ported database to determine the routing number required to transfer the call to the recipient operator. After determining the routing number, the call from the originating network is directly routed to the recipient operator network. In this way, the involvement of donor operator is eliminated.

Fig. 5: All-call-query approach for MNP

Fig. 6: MNP process

In this approach, the originating network directly queries a central portability database to get the location routing number in order to route the call to the gateway mobile switching centre of the correct terminating network. Further, the gateway mobile switching centre sets up trunk to the serving mobile switching centre to establish the call (Fig. 5). The donor network does not take part in the call process and utilises network resources most efficiently to route a call. Thus this scheme is considered to be the most efficient routing scheme for large interconnected networks and a large number of ported numbers. MNP in India On March 8, 2006, the Telecom Regularity Authority of India (TRAI) issued draft regulations to facilitate mobile number portability in India and submitted its recommendations to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT). Finally, the DoT recommended service provider number portability including service portability (portability between GSM and CDMA) for all mobile service operators. It was decided to implement the all-call-query approach for mobile number portability. The DoT has divided the whole country into two zones for MNPnorth-west zone and southeast zoneand awarded licences to two vendors to work as MNP clearing house administrators. The north-west zone comprises Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP (East), UP (West), Delhi and Mumbai. The south-east zone comprises Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kolkata.

MNP clearing house administrators manage a central mobile number portability database that keeps record of all ported-in and ported-out numbers. Further, the operators also maintain their own MNP database called local number portability database. The originating network will perform number portability database query to get the location routing number to route the call directly to the recipient network. Location routing number is a 4-digit unique number allotted by DoT to all mobile operators for each circle to identify individual networks. All ported number calls are routed on the basis of location routing number. So when the MNP database receives a query for a given mobile station international subscriber directory number (MSISDN), the database returns the MSISDN prefixed with location routing number. Mobile number portability was started as a pilot project in Haryana on November 25, 2010 and has been implemented across the nation from January 20, 2011. The detailed MNP process is shown in Fig. 6. At present, the only restriction is that mobile number portability is allowed within the same circle (intracircle operators). Recently, the government of India approved New Telecom Policy-2012 (NTP), which aims to abolish roaming charges across the country and facilitate nationwide (inter-circle) mobile number portability, i.e., one-nation-one-number with free roaming. This will allow users to change the operator without changing their mobile number even if they move from one circle to another. DoT has been asked to start nationwide MNP implementation and it is expected that the inter-circle MNP will start very soon. Network architecture for MNP Network architecture for MNP is shown in Fig. 7. The network is deployed in a redundant and synchronised way in two different geographical areasone as a production site and the other as a disaster recovery siteto avoid interruption in service due to failure of one site.

Fig. 7: Network architecture for MNP

Depending upon the requirement and network topology, the service provider can either directly connect to the central number portability database (CNPDB) or deploy separate local number portability database (LNPDB) and connect it to the CNPDB through its number portability gateway. The CNPDB and LNPDB should be syn-chronised. When a call is originated, the visited mobile switching centre interrogates an internal (LNPDB) or external database (CNPDB) to get the location routing number of the correct terminating network. The CNPDB can be integrated with the signaling transfer point and accessed via an application programming interface locally, or a query can be made to a remote CNPDB through number portability gateway using protocols like simple object access protocol and extensible markup language. Here MNP translations are performed by the signaling transfer points. The signaling transfer point receives the location routing number query from the visited mobile switching centre and routes it to the appropriate signal control point. The signal control point is a high-transaction-oriented server that receives number portability requests from the visited mobile switching centre and passes on the mobile station routing number information to the gateway mobile switching centre handling the call. The gateway mobile switching centre then routes the call to the currently serving visited mobile switching centre of the recipient operator. The road ahead About a year into its operation in India, the service provider number portability has failed to enthuse customers. It is expected to gain momentum once the National Telecom Policys

proposals of abolishing the inter-circle roaming charges and extending MNP to national level are implemented.