Abstract
Mobile communications systems revolutionized the way people
communicate, joining together communications and mobility. A
long way in a remarkably short time has been achieved in the
history of wireless. Evolution of wireless access technologies is
about to reach its fourth generation (4G). Looking past, wireless
access technologies have followed different evolutionary paths
aimed at unied target: performance and efciency in high
mobile environment. The rst generation (1G) has fullled
the basic mobile voice, while the second generation (2G) has
introduced capacity and coverage. This is followed by the third
generation (3G), which has quest for data at higher speeds
to open the gates for truly “mobile broadband” experience,
which will be further realized by the fourth generation (4G).
The Fourth generation (4G) will provide access to wide range
of telecommunication services, including advanced mobile
services, supported by mobile and xed networks, which are
increasingly packet based, along with a support for low to
high mobility applications and wide range of data rates, in
accordance with service demands in multiuser environment.
This paper provides a high level overview of the evolution of
Mobile Wireless Communication Networks from 1G to 4G.
Keywords
Mobile Wireless Communication Networks, 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G,
Mobile Broadband
I. Introduction
The last few years have witnessed a phenomenal growth in the
wireless industry, both in terms of mobile technology and its
subscribers. There has been a clear shift from xed to mobile
cellular telephony, especially since the turn of the century.
By the end of 2010, there were over four times more mobile
cellular subscriptions than xed telephone lines (see Fig. 1).
Both the mobile network operators and vendors have felt the
importance of efcient networks with equally efcient design.
This resulted in Network Planning and optimization related
services coming in to sharp focus [1, 7].
With all the technological advances, and the simultaneous
existence of the 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks, the impact of
services on network efciency have become even more critical.
Many more designing scenarios have developed with not only
2G networks but also with the evolution of 2G to 2.5G or even
to 3G networks. Along with this, inter-operability of the networks
has to be considered [2].
1G refers to analog cellular technologies; it became available
in the 1980s. 2G denotes initial digital systems, introducing
services such as short messaging and lower speed data.
CDMA2000 1xRTT and GSM are the primary 2G technologies,
although CDMA2000 1xRTT is sometimes called a 3G
technology because it meets the 144 kbps mobile throughput
requirement. EDGE, however, also meets this requirement. 2G
technologies became available in the 1990s. 3G requirements
were specied by the ITU as part of the International Mobile
Telephone 2000 (IMT-2000) project, for which digital networks
had to provide 144 kbps of throughput at mobile speeds, 384
kbps at pedestrian speeds, and 2 Mbps in indoor environments.
UMTS-HSPA and CDMA2000 EV-DO are the primary 3G
technologies, although recently WiMAX was also designated
as an ofcial 3G technology. 3G technologies began to be
deployed last decade.
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators
database.
Fig. 1: Global ICT Developments, 2000-2010 [1]
The ITU has recently issued requirements for IMT-Advanced,
which constitutes the ofcial denition of 4G. Requirements
include operation in up-to-40 MHz radio channels and extremely
high spectral efciency. The ITU recommends operation in up-
to-100 MHz radio channels and peak spectral efciency of
15 bps/Hz, resulting in a theoretical throughput rate of 1.5
Gbps. Previous to the publication of the requirements, 1 Gbps
was frequently cited as a 4G goal. No available technology
meets these requirements yet. It will require new technologies
such as LTE-Advanced (with work already underway) and IEEE
802.16m. Some have tried to label current versions of WiMAX
and LTE as “4G”, but this is only accurate to the extent that
such designation refers to the general approach or platform
that will be enhanced to meet the 4G requirements. With
WiMAX and HSPA signicantly outperforming 3G requirements,
calling these technologies 3G clearly does not give them full
credit, as they are a generation beyond current technologies
in capability. But calling them 4G is not correct. Unfortunately,
the generational labels do not properly capture the scope of
available technologies and have resulted in some amount of
market confusion [10].
II. Evolution of Mobile Cellular Networks
Mobile Cellular Network evolution has been categorized in to
‘generations’ as shown in Fig. 2 [3].
Evolution of Mobile Wireless Communication Networks:
1G to 4G
Amit Kumar
1
; Dr. Yunfei Liu
2
; Dr. Jyotsna Sengupta
3
; Divya
4
1,2
College of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
3
Dept. of Computer Science, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India
4
Dept. of ECE, CGC Group of Colleges, Gharuan, Mohali, Punjab, India
E-mail : amit.nfu@gmail.com
68 In t e r n a t I o n a l Jo u r n a l o f el e c t r o n I c s & co m m u n I c a t I o n te c h n o l o g y
IJECT Vo l . 1, Is s u E 1, DE C E m b E r 2010
ISSN : 2230-7109(Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543(Print)
www.iject.org