4G Standards

While most wireless operators are still struggling to understand how to properly setup and utilize their third generation wireless networks, the race for fourth generation network technologies has already begun.
This is not a contradiction as current 3G networks will be operated and enhanced for many years to come. Furthermore, specification, development, rollout and mass production of 4G devices all take their time. Thus, most 4G systems are at least five years or more away from the mass market.
So why will there be a need for 4G networks and which standards are competing on a global scale?


There are two main goals of 4G wireless systems. First of all, more bandwidth and Secondly, 4G networks will no longer have a circuit switched subsystem as current 2G and 3G networks. Instead, the network is based purely on the Internet Protocol (IP).

Currently, 3G networks are transforming into 3.5G networks as carriers add technologies such as HSDPA and HSUPA to UMTS. Staying with the UMTS example, such 3.5G systems are realistically capable of delivering about 6-7 MBit/s in a 5 MHz band. Numbers which are twice as high are circulating as well. However, these speeds can only be reached under ideal conditions (very close to the antenna, no interference, etc) which are rarely found in the real world.


Three different standards are being put together at the moment:WiMAX:
Air interface specs are already pretty well put together and the technology definitely has a technical lead over the competition as far as this is concerned. The WiMAX forum however is still working on standards for the radio access network and the core network which narrows its lead over other technologies. UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE):
This standard is developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the same standards body already responsible for the GSM, GPRS, UMTS and HSDPA standards. EVDO Rev C:
This standard is developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), the body responsible for CDMA and EVDO.