Beyond 3G

Beyond 3G is the official IEEE designation for the next stage of wireless technology that some people call 4G or fourth-generation radio. Over the years, every conceptual shift in wireless technology has been characterized as a generational change. Third generation includes wideband mobile multimedia networks and broadband mixed wireless systems. The mobile systems support variable data rates depending on demand and the level of mobility. Typically 144 kb/s is supported for full vehicular mobility and higher bandwidths for pedestrian levels of mobility. Switched packet radio techniques and wideband CDMA-like systems (as the physical channel is) rather than assigned physical channel schemes (referred to as circuit switched) are required to support this bandwidth-on-demand environment. There are two essential concepts beyond 3G. One of these is the provision of data transmission at rates of 100 Mb/s while mobile and 1 Gb/s while stationary. The other concept is that of pervasive networks where a handset supports many access technologies (e.g., cellular, UMTS, and WiFi) perhaps simultaneously and smoothly transitions between them