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Two diferent (but technically similar) 4G standards currently exist:
Mobile WiMAX
Mobile WiMAX™ (802.16e-2005) is a standards-based wireless technology, enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to wired broadband, and mobile wireless broadband connectivity without the need for direct line-of-sight with a base station.
In practice this means the delivery of the following products to Residential and Business customers, depending on specific market needs:
Voice
Mobile and fixed.
Broadband Internet
DSL and Cable replacement for Residential, T-1 for Business.
TV
Mobile TV, plus cable- and sattelite TV replacement.
WiMAX Forum
The WiMAX Forum® (www.wimaxforum.org) is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard. A WiMAX Forum goal is to accelerate the introduction of these systems into the marketplace. WiMAX Forum Certified™ products are fully interoperable and support broadband fixed, portable and mobile services. Along these lines, the WiMAX Forum works closely with service providers and regulators to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified systems meet customer and government requirements.
LTE
Initiated in 2004, the Long Term Evolution (LTE) project focused on enhancing the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and optimizing 3GPP’s radio access architecture. Targets were to have average user throughput of three- to four-times the Release 6 HSDPA levels in the Downlink (100Mbps), and two to three times the HSUPA levels in the Uplink (50Mbps).
In 2007, the LTE of the 3rd generation radio access technology – "E UTRA" – progressed from the feasibility study stage to the first issue of approved Technical Specifications. By the end of 2008, these specifications will be sufficiently stable for commercial implementation.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has been selected for the Downlink and Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) for the Uplink. The Downlink will support data modulation schemes QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM and the Uplink will support BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM.
LTE’s E UTRA will be extremely flexible, using a number of defined channel bandwidths between 1.25 and 20 MHz (contrasted with UTRA’s fixed 5 MHz channels).
3GPP
The original scope of 3GPP was to produce Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for a 3G Mobile System based on evolved GSM core networks and the radio access technologies that they support (i.e., Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) modes).
The scope was subsequently amended to include the maintenance and development of the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) Technical Specifications and Technical Reports including evolved radio access technologies, e.g. General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). |