EVOLUTION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
The mobile industry is on a path that promises great innovation for the future. From the roots of the analog-based services commonly referred to as 1G, to the fourth generation known as 4G or LTE, the evolution of wireless services is astonishing.
The shift from generation to generation seeks to improve network performance improvements and increase access. A generation can be defined as a set of mobile network standards which detail the implementation of technology enhancement in the mobile phone system. This paper aims to look at the evolution of wireless technology and why it keeps moving from generation to generation. The digital network commonly known as 2G came about to overcome the issues of AMPS network; network congestion and security were the two main motivators (Baldemair, 2013).
The digital network is now referred to as the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and its technological backbone is Frequency division multiple accesses (FDMA) (Baldemair, 2013). Its radio frequency used to be 900 MHZ spectrum but later introduced 1800 MHZ band (Baldemair, 2013). The network uses 128-bit A5/3 stream cipher that has not shown any sign of a practical weakness (Baldemair, 2013). The 3G later evolved to HSPA which utilized a dual technology and a 64QAM modulation; this was aimed at delivering high speeds (Baldemair, 2013).The 3G later introduced 2100 MHZ network which utilizes a technology known as Universal Mobile Telecommunication System which is its main backbone (Bye et al, 2015).
The 3G combines with some aspects of the 2G and technology to enhance faster rate of data transfer (Bye et al, 2015). The base technology of the UMTS is known as the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) (Bye et al, 2015). Its users are able to transmit the same frequency using a code based multiplexing (Bye et al, 2015). The 4G commonly known as LTE is an upgrade of the existing UMTS technology (Rumney, 2013). The network boosts download speeds of up to 100Mbs and 50Mbs upload (Rumney, 2013).
The shift from 3G networks to LTE was aimed at supporting a fast speed and a high number of customers (Rumney, 2013). The LTE wireless connections use a technology referred to as the “Multiple in Multiple Out” (MIMO) whereby a modem uses two separate antennas to enhance high speeds (Rumney, 2013).In conclusion, the analog generation (1G) to the fourth generation (4G) paradigm has taken a new route. The new generations do not only give users an improved voice communication but they also give the user unrestricted access to global reality.
The aim of the evolution of the wireless technology is to give users communication ubiquity and provide new set of services.
References
Baldemair, R., Dahlman, E., Fodor, G., Mildh, G., Parkvall, S., Selén, Y & Balachandran, K. (2013). Evolving wireless communications: Addressing the challenges and expectations of the future. Vehicular Technology Magazine, IEEE, 8(1), 24-30.
Bye, S. J., Paczkowski, L. W., Parsel, W. M., Schlesener, M. …
