Mobile 4G: The Revolution Is Here Now

Business is increasingly becoming a mobile activity, and, as a result, the wireless networks and services used to support that development are growing in importance. In both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer (B2B and B2C) environments, the availability of more reliable, higher-capacity wireless data networks is one of the keys to expanding the reach of business into the mobile environment. This transformation is occurring in the context of an overall enterprise shift toward all-IP communications. “IP,” or Internet Protocol, describes both the format and the switching technology that drives the core of the Internet. Originally envisioned as a general-purpose data transport, IP has now expanded to support voice and video communications over an integrated IP backbone.

Recognizing these developments, the wireless industry is now aligning itself to take advantage of these trends. The moniker that is used to identify that transition is 4th Generation or 4G, and it is used to describe two primary technologies, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Long Term Evolution (LTE). While there are some differences in the implementations, they share a number of key characteristics:

• Higher Capacity: 4G technologies will use very similar stateof-the-art radio technologies to deliver several times the transmission capacity of existing 3G wireless services.
• Reliability: Using advanced signal encoding and smart antenna technologies, 4G technologies promise to deliver a major advance in network reliability, even in the most challenging radio environments, such as densely populated urban environments.
• All-IP Communications: Whereas in the past, wireless services were divided along voice and data lines, 4G technologies such as WiMAX and LTE are based on the concept of an all-IP network. This means there exists a single IP pipe that is capable of supporting voice, data and video communications.