The evolution of mobile communication technologies

It is crucial to be able to foresee which technologies would emerge as leaders in a market as competitive as mobile radio telephony. In fact, the ongoing growth in users encourages the development of new technologies that enhance the ones already in use.

Such high-performance mobile devices have been made available in recent years because to the creation of compact colour screens, falling memory costs, and rising processing power. We can see how the number of services available is always growing, particularly with regard to internet services, if we add in the rising level of user awareness of the technological possibilities.

The evolution of mobile communication technologies

The integration of mobile devices contributes significantly to the success of Internet and IP-based services by expanding the user base and overall sphere of use. Due to the user’s mobility, numerous services that are tailored to mobile computing devices like smartphones may also emerge. These services may also be based on additional information offered by the IP protocol, such as geolocation.

It is helpful to give a brief overview of the structure of the first digital mobile communication network, closer in some ways to that of a landline telephone network than that of an internet network: we’re talking about GSM technology, before moving on to an analysis of the current communication technologies that allow the use of these services and also casting a glance at future prospects.

GSM

The Group Spécial Mobile was established by the CEPT (Conférence Européenne des Administrations des Postes and des Télécommunications) in 1982 to define a pan-European cellular network (Mobile Special Group, GSM ).

The first Memorandum of Understanding, which allowed for the coordination of routing and pricing, as well as the planning of the launch of new services, was signed in 1987 after the first list of standards was created in 1985.

In 1994, the capability of sending and receiving SMS was added, and in 1992, the GSM standard was made official and its abbreviation took on the meaning of Global System for Mobile Communications (global system for mobile communications).

GSM is a 200KHz carrier spacing, 8 time slots per carrier, digital TDMA/FDMA multiple access technology. Frequency hopping is not required for GMSK modulation (but almost always used). In order to conserve energy and lessen the emission of electromagnetic radiation, power is also controlled based on distance estimation and signal quality.

The Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) method is used to obtain complete duplex. This implies that up-link and down-link use distinct frequencies. In GSM 900 and GSM 1800 networks, the up-link and down-link channels are 45 MHz and 95 MHz apart, respectively.

It’s crucial to comprehend how a circuit switched communications network is essentially identified by the GSM network. It is intended for the user to seek a connection to the local antenna or, more generally, the network’s initial node when placing a call.

Following this request, there is a setup phase in which a path between the sender and the destination is found inside the GSM network. This path is kept fixed and exclusive during the communication.

This form of connection ensures that data is sent in the requested sequence and with the specified delays, making it ideal for voice traffic. However, we point out that using this type of network architecture for data exchange would actually be counterproductive given that the information flow is not always continuous but the network remains busy (i.e. the circuit remains active) even when there is no data transmission (for example, for using the aforementioned services). In actuality, the circuit is not freed until the entire transmission has ended.

GPRS

The mobile communication network starts to transition to a packet switching architecture with the help of GPRS technology, making it more like an Internet network than a traditional telephone network in terms of structure.

Since it is sandwiched between GSM, 2G, and UMTS, 3G, GPRS—also known as 2.5G—conducts communication via data packets. These packets are delivered to the network, which in accordance with its own rules sends them to the intended receiver.

Between sender and recipient, there is no virtual circuit, allowing for less limited and overall more efficient management of the communication, but at the cost of a reduction in service quality if we examine a single call.

Even the correct reception of the packet, which may need to be resent, is not guaranteed by the communication protocol, which is actually of the best effort type. GPRS is a step forward in the development of mobile data exchange networks, even though it is not ideal for voice traffic. This is because it prevents overloading the network with dependable but pricey virtual circuits even when there is no activity. UMTS represents the subsequent step.

UMTS extension

In order to provide higher efficiency in the use of the bandwidth available to mobile operators, UMTS employs the code division multiple access (W-CDMA) technique, thus providing the prospect of faster data transfer.

The access network, core network, and authentication module through SIM card, for user recognition, are the three basic components that make up the network architecture, which is thoroughly specified by the UMTS standard.

Data transfer rates can exceed 384 kbit/s, which is a considerable improvement above the 9.6 kbit/s that we may anticipate from a conventional GSM network. The intermediate evolution known as HSDPA (3.5G), which enables an additional boost in transfer speed up to a maximum of 21 Mbit/s, has also proved advantageous for UMTS.

LTE, on the other hand, is what the future will be known as, and, at least according to insiders, it will signal a significant turning point in this field.

LTE

Although it is frequently referred to as a fourth generation (4G) standard in marketing jargon, LTE was developed as a new technology for broadband mobile access systems and is positioned in an intermediate position between the current 3G standards, such as UMTS, and the so-called 4G standards still under development.

This makes sense when we consider that LTE necessitates a complete reinvention of the network itself, unlike the HSDPA standard, which is grafted onto the pre-existing UMTS network architecture.

With the adoption of this new standard, we may anticipate a number of important advancements that will spread the use of IP services on mobile devices even further. We include the following as some of the new developments:

heightened spectral efficiency (ie number of bits per second transmitted for each hertz of the carrier). Compared to HSDPA, which offers download data transfer speeds of up to 326.4 Mb/s and upload data transfer rates of up to 86.4 Mb/s, the available bandwidth is utilised three times as effectively.

flexibility in choosing a band for each user, ranging from 1.25 Mhz to 20 Mhz.

Excellent durability in terms of the user’s mobility: tests have revealed good performance up to a speed of 350 km/h, or even up to 500 km/h, depending on the frequency band used.
The only thing left to do is wait for the telephone providers to roll out the new standard, which will probably create new possibilities for mobile telephony.

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