The road to 4G: two paradigm shifts, one enabling technology

A new wireless vision is unfolding, one in which the cellular-based handheld emerges as an increasingly integral part of our everyday lives. As we bring our wireless visions to light, it is becoming evident that the desire for information may quickly surpass the limited bandwidth capabilities of the standardized 3G network. The growing discontent with the throughput limitations of 3G is leading to the rapid development of 4G, intended to be the Nirvana of wireless communications. This work contends that two fundamental paradigm shifts must emerge if 4G is to succeed. First, the work presents a new bandwidth sharing/allocation strategy, blending the best of traditional spectral allocation strategies with the emerging concept of ultrawideband wireless. The second shift presented in the paper refers to the transformation of handhelds, presenting our vision of the transition from hardware defined to software defined radio. To enable these two paradigm shifts, the work presents an underlying multi-carrier technology capable of supporting both transformations