The Goal of 4G

4G must be clearly more than 3G in terms of services, applications, and technology. As a comparison, 4G is not a combination of High Speed Uplink/Downlink Packet Access (HSUPA/HSDPA) or Wireless LAN (WLAN).

3G networks are inadequate to accommodate WLANs as access networks, which offer data rates of 11 Mbps. The goal of 4G will be to replace the entire core of cellular networks with a single worldwide cellular network completely standardized based on the IP for video, Voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia services. The newly standardized networks would provide uniform video, voice, and data services to the cellular handset or handheld Internet appliance, based entirely on IP. As 4G standards are not defined so there is plenty of room for other applications to overlap into the 4G space.

The 4G providers of advanced cellular technology are adopting Concatenated Coding which has the capability of providing multiple Quality of Service (QoS) levels. forward error correction (FEC) coding adds redundancy to a transmitted coded signal through encoding prior to transmission. A major advantage of Concatenated Coding over the Convolution Coding method will be an improved network performance by the combining of two or more coding techniques, such as a Reed-Solomon and a Convolution Code into one Concatenated Code. The combination improves error correction combining with error detection. FEC using Concatenated Coding allows a wireless network to send much larger blocks of data while reducing bit-error rate, thereby increasing the overall through-put.

The primary goal of the planned 4G cellular services will include: Interactive Multimedia, Voice, Video Streaming, High Speed Global Internet Access. Virtual Private Network (VPN) Availability, Service Portability with Scalable Mobile Services, High Speed, High Capacity, Low Cost Services, Improved Information Security, QoS Enhancements, Multi-Hop Networking.

Table 1 compares here various Wireless Communication Technologies.

Table 1: Comparison of wireless communication technologies 

	1G	2G	2.5G	3G	4G
Transmission	Analog	Digital	Digital	Digital	Digital
Architecture		Circuit Switch	Packed-Switch	Circuit and Packet Switch	Packet Switch
Speeds		9.6 to 14.4 Kbits/s	64 to 144 Kbits/s	384 Kbits/s to 2 Mbits/s	100 Mbits/s to 1000 Mbits/s
Standards	AMPS	TDMA, CDMA, GSM	GPRS, EDGE, 1×RTT	WCDMA, CDMA-2000	Single unified standard
Service	Mobile telephony (voice)	Digital voice, short messaging	Higher capacity, packetized data	Integrated high quality audio, video and data	Dynamic information access, wearable devices
Multiplexing	FDMA	TDMA, CDMA	TDMA, CDMA	CDMA	CDMA
Core Network	PSTN	PSTN	PSTN and Packet network	Packet network	Internet
Handoff	Horizontal	Horizontal	Horizontal	Horizontal	Horizontal and Vertical