Background of the 4G Evolution

Currently, there is no formal definition for 4G It is a term used to describe the next step in the evolution of wireless communication. Several terms are also describing the concept, such as "Super 3G" or "Next Generation Wireless". ITU has been committed to announce a 4G definition. There is general agreement among experts that 4G is a new converged system that will provide at least 100Mbps connectivity to the broadband users. 4G is expected to offer data rates of 100 Mbps for mobile applications and 1 Gbps for nomadic applications and should be achievable between the years 2010 and 2011.

The current defined objectives for 4G include

• Fully integrated IP solution
• "Anytime, Anywhere"
• Seamless connectivity- wireless and wireline
• Global access and interconnection
• Interoperability
• Data rates of at least 100Mbps
• Spectrally efficient system

There are several applications that could be supported and leveraged in the 4G due to the advanced environment. These include mobile commerce with an emphasis on mobile banking, peer-to-peer networking and full usage of the advanced Internet services in the converged cloud. This cloud be defined as a "Communications Technology Ecosystem" (Figure 1) with a plethora of different services that will give users a more convenient and easy lifestyle.

 
Figure 1: A suggested heterogeneous digital ecosystem 

Since 4G is not well defined yet, there is no defined demand or market potential as yet. Therefore, we are lacking forecasts or predictions that could help the operators to strategically plan for the expected market with a time table. An interesting approach to this ill-defined problem is to evaluate each country's readiness to deploy 4G based on a set of criteria such as technological, business, legal, and policy considerations.

Investment in 3G in most cases and countries has not paid off yet and will not for the next 5 years. Nonetheless, operators need to decide on the best standard to invest in for the long run to provide for the future needs of their customers. Many are still debating on the WiMAX and the LTE choice.

An approach to study and evaluate the 4G readiness, using a quantitative analysis applied to a sample of two different groups of countries developedand emerging. We aim to assess the 4G predictions at a national level and answer the following research questions:

"Which countries are ahead in 4G adoption?" "Since the markets are still shaping up, how could one forecast demand from the operators perspective, and rank order the markets using the operators and vendors current trials and knowledge?"

To our knowledge, this is the first study that is trying to conduct an early assessment of the 4G status of some of the most important telecom markets. The "4G readiness" is defined as an index, building upon the literature and the e-readiness concept as well as the non-market factors.

Along the same lines, we expect that a country's 4G high ranking could be more an status and indicator of innovation, supported with an advanced digital environment rather than a natural path of technological evolution.

Also, there are two categories of factors that are considered to drive the 4G readiness of each market including the technology and the consumer/business spending. We proportionally weigh each factor to the highest value (percentage of each index). We expect to observe major differences in the spectrum law from country to country, that play a role into the index's estimation but not a significant one, since the migration from HSPA to the LTE does not require any major regulatory changes but rather investment planning. The scalable bandwidth will allow the operators to migrate their networks and users from HSPA to LTE over time.

Potential Scenarios and Drivers of the 4G Evolution

In a world of increasing technological needs, the mobile Internet can play a significant role, meeting user's capacity and connectivity needs. There is a good deal of research around the 4G concept, where vendors and operators are trying to define it based on their preferred technology and strategic planning.

At the end of 2007, the global mobile subscribers reached 3 billion, with GSM based users accounting for over 2 billion. Several research reports have been predicting that WiMAX will be commercially deployed by 2009 and LTE (Long Term Evolution) by 2011. However, the debate on the standards for 4G continues and is a major concern. International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and other similar associations and committees are working on securing a smooth transition to the new technology.

The 4G evolution as described in Figure 1, started in early 1990s transitioning into different stages, such 3.5G and 3.75G, ending to the 4G, meeting the market needs in most of the cases. The most recent transition that is expected is the migration from High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) to the 4G standard, which could be the WiMAX or the LTE or the combination of both.

 
Figure 1: 4G evolution into convergence 

In order to describe the market needs and behavior towards the 4G evolution, it deemed necessary to assess several countries' current readiness to deploy the 4G technology. Supporting the opinion that the LTE evolution will be the winning 4G, we have defined several metrics from different perspectives such as technology, business, and consumer spending to rank each market's 4G readiness in 16 countries. Our main objective is to use a ranking approach to shed light into the factors that are driving countries' progress in deployment of 4G, be able to estimate the deployment speed, and create future scenarios. We create three groups of countries ‘established leaders’, ‘rapid adopters’ and ‘late entrants’. We also want to be able to compare 4G readiness results with existing similar studies for the same countries to provide observations and derive useful conclusions.

INTRODUCTION TO IPV6 | Long Term Evolution (LTE)

IPv6 is, by far, one of the most important and significant technology and network upgrades in the communication history. This upgrade is growing slowly and will eventually terminate IPv4's network deployment at the end of the transition phase. IPv6 is designed to work with high speed network and low bandwidth networks, particularly suitable for wireless networks. The IPv6 design accommodates new technology requirements, such as QoS, security, and of course extended addressing.

Since the mid 90's many developers and researchers have been working on IPv6 and many RFCs are directly or indirectly discussing this technology. RFC 1883, released in 1995, is the first RFC in regards to IPv6. These efforts have been initiated and monitored by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

In the past several years IPv6 has deeply penetrated into the architecture of the Internet. Figure 1 (adapted from Gallaher & Rowe, 2005) presents a penetration estimates of IPv6 in the United States, which shows that by year 2010, almost 30% of ISPs and 18% of the users will be switching to IPv6.

Figure 1: IPv6 penetration in vendors, ISPs, and users

 

The main issue with IPv6 integration is its interoperability with IPv4. IPv4 is going to be around for at least a decade before all the networks are purely running over IPv6. Therefore it is essential to ensure IPv6 traffic flows are not going to have any negative impacts on IPv4 and vice versa. Dual-stack systems are considered a solution for the IPv6/IPv4 interoperability issue, which are going to be utilized in the design and implementation of systems for sustaining both IPv4 and IPv6 parallel processing to guarantee interoperability amongst the two protocol suites.

Mobility is another major features that is going to be impacted by this transition. 3G networks have been growing immensely in the past few years and IP connectivity has become an inseparable part of the 3G networks. The involvement of IP is going to increase more as 4G networks are becoming realizable. These requirements are being considered in the IPv6 applications.

This chapter will explore IPv6 features, in particular, in conjunction with LTE architecture. At first, IPv6 is going to be discussed and compared to IPv4. Following this introduction, IPv4-to-IPv6 transition, IPv6 security, Mobile-IPv6, and QoS-IPv6 are covered.