4G and the future of mobile

Telecommunications

Hamilton Setende

Thesis supervisor: Mrs MM Maneschijn | Head

Academic: Ekurhuleni

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the

Requirements for the BTECH degree in Information Technology

In the Faculty of Applied & Computer Science

Vaal University of Technology 2012

©2012 Hamilton Setende

All Rights Reserved

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I. CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................ - 1 -

1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... - 1 -

2. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ - 3 -

3. OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH .................................................................................................. - 4 -

4. RESEARCH QUESTION .................................................................................................. - 5 -

5. HYPOTHESES ............................................................................................................... - 5 -

6. DELIMITATION OF THE TOPIC ...................................................................................... - 5 -

7. BROAD OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT .......................................................... - 5 -

8. VALUE OF THE PROJECT .............................................................................................. - 6 -

9. WORK SUBDIVISION .................................................................................................... - 6 -

10. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ - 7 -

II. CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................ - 8 -

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... - 8 -

2.1. MOBILE EVOLUTION: FROM ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G..................................... - 8 -

2.1.4. FOURTH GENERATION MOBILE TECHNOLOGY (4G) ......................................................... - 16 -

2.1.5. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... - 25 -

III. CHAPTER 3 .......................................................................................................... - 27 -

3. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... - 27 -

3.1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... - 27 -

3.2. SAMPLE POPULATION ............................................................................................. - 28 -

3.3. DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................. - 29 -

3.4. ONLINE SURVEY ..................................................................................................... - 31 -

3.5. INTERNET SEARCH ................................................................................................. - 31 -

3.6. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY .................................................................................. - 32 -

3.8. UNBIASED AND OBJECTIVE .................................................................................... - 32 -

3.9. DELAMINATION ...................................................................................................... - 32 -

3.10. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... - 32 -

IV. CHAPTER 4 .......................................................................................................... - 33 -

4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... - 33 -

4.2 ONLINE POLL ............................................................................................................ - 33 -

4.3 OPEN ENDED QUESTIONER ........................................................................................ - 42 -

4.4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. - 46 -

V. CHAPTER 5 .......................................................................................................... - 47 -

5. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. - 47 -

5.1. MOBILITY ............................................................................................................... - 47 -

5.1.1. NOT JUST VOICE ANYMORE ................................................................................. - 47 -

5.1.2. SOCIAL NETWORKING AND WEB CONTENT .......................................................... - 48 -

5.1.4. 3G ...................................................................................................................... - 49 -

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5.2 RECOMMENDATION .......................................................................................... - 49 -

5.3 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... - 50 -

VI. ANNEXES ............................................................................................................. - 52 -

ANNEX A: QUESTIONNEIR ......................................................................................... - 52 -

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. - 56 -

Abstract

Mobile communication has had a great impact on how people interact and communicate with each other allowing people to telecommunicate as well as carrying out plenty of other activities.

Mobile standards have been evolving rapidly with the aim of providing user with more services and convenience.

This paper provides a view on the 4G, the for the Fourth Generation of the cellular wireless standards, with a special focus on the trends that are influencing the adaptation of 4G, the evolution of mobile telecommunication standards and the benefits of 4G. The research methodology that was adopted in this research is the survey, questionnaires, conducted through popular social networks Facebook, LinkedIn as well as email responses.

Declaration

I Hamilton Francisco de Fatima Setende, Student Vaal university of technology, hereby declare that this report is my own unaided work except where specific acknowledgement is made by name of in the form of a reference. It is being submitted for the subject of Project 4 at the Vaal University of Technology, Ekurhuleni Campus. Furthermore I assure that this work as not been submitted before for any examination.

Hamilton Setende 16 November 2012

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CHAPTER 1

1. Introduction

For centuries Humans have been fascinated with ways to communicate with each other’s

from a distance without the need of face to face communication, whereby an individual

would not need to commute long miles in order to pass a message etc. That desire to

telecommunicate has led to numerous developments in the telecommunication field; from

the primitive inventions such as visual signals like beacons, smoke signals, and drums

etc. (WiseGeek, n.d) to more modern developments, for example: telegraphs, telephones,

printers, satellites and the internet. Humans have always been looking for better, ways to

simplify communication and bring people closer together, bridging social and digital

divide without any geographical boundaries; this aspiration has subsequently led to great

evolutions and continuous invention in the telecommunications sphere.

One such revolution is mobile telecommunication. Mobile telephony has been evolving

for many decades, from the advent of the 1st generation of mobile telephone systems,

mobile phones that used analogue transmission to send speech, and gives its users the

ability to be mobile and telecommunicate on the move, by incorporating handover and

roaming capabilities. They were launched during the early or mid-80s, and the 1st

commercially available cellular networks where: AMPS (advance mobile system), TACS

(Total access communication), and NMT (Nordic Mobile telephone), 1G brought about

cellular mobile networks and a great growth to global mobile phone market from 30 to

50% annually since it concession (Nubarrón, 2011) and although a great development

towards enhancing mobile communication and user experience, it had its downfalls, its

sound quality was poor, speed of transfer was only 9.6kbps, it was considered to be

wasteful on bandwidth, with limited capabilities for data transmission, security and

location tracking (Moxa Connection, 2007) one other limitation was that it did not

allow for interoperability between different networks from different countries, this

downfall led to greater research and developments in telecommunications standards

which lead to a new standard 2G.

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The 2nd generation mobile system where introduced in the late 80s and beginning of the

90s, it incorporated the features found on 1G as well as brand-new technological

enhancements that brought about improvements to telecommunication.

Amongst the systems to be launched as 2G standards where GSM (Global system for

mobile communication) D-AMPS (Digital- Advanced Mobile Phone service) and PDC

(Personal Digital Cellular), from this generation of telecommunication standards, GSM

turned out to be the most popular, it brought about digital communication, better data

services, furthermore it introduced sms (short messaging service) as well as greater

privacy (Gondane, 2011) one of its advantages and an improvement to the downfalls of

the previous standard was that it was a single unified standard that enabled for

interoperability between networks from different countries; this allowed for the

possibility to have seamless international roaming, the first true global mobile system

(Kumar et al, 2010), further developments in 2G (phase 2) popular referred to as 2.5G

brought about further improvements and digital communication, it was also the start of a

trend of data usage, with the introduction of GPRS (General packet Radio services)

providing data transfer rates of 56-115 Kbit/s that allowed for services like WAP

(Wireless Application Protocol) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging) and the world wide

web ( internet services), another revision to the 2G standard (phase 2+) popular referred

to as 2.75G, introduced a greater focus on improving data services by presenting an

evolution to EDGE (Enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution) or EGPRS (Enhanced

GPRS). This was facilitated by the introduction of 8PSK encoding, which enabled higher

transfer rates of up to 236.8 Kbits/s (Gondane, 2011), This changes led to great changes

on the user sides as users’ needs went from wanting to only use voice services, but to

likewise be able to use other services such as video call etc. GSM made mobile telephony

more popular, used by over a billion people, in over 200 countries; it controlled 70 % of

the world’s mobile phone market (Keon, Brewer, Carter, & Taggart, n.d)

First introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, in 2001 (Gondane, 2011) , the next

development in mobile communication was 3G or UMTS (Universal Terrestrial Mobile

system), this new standard was the greater focus in data services, as people started to be

more and more connected and the demand for data increased, 3G provided services such

as wide area wireless voice telephony, video calls as well as broadband wireless data. But

innovation was not done, coupled with the constant human desire to better themselves

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and the ever the ever increasing demand of users, it has triggered professionals in the

telecommunication industry to continuously strive for greater improvement to the

telecommunications standards.

4G is will be an All-IP network, to satisfy the ever growing demand for data by users, it

will integrate all mobile technology in existence prior to it, bringing about a new era of

mobile broadband communication, it is set to provide data rates of 100Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s ,

interactive mobile services that will provide faster data access, better roaming

capabilities, improved QoS and higher speeds that will subsequently lead to a truly

mobile broadband experience and a step towards the future of telecommunications which

is an ever data focused service.

2. Background

The current age of telecommunication is categorized by ability of individuals to be able to

have free and instant access to information; this is referred to as being the digital or

Information age (Wikipedia, n.d). This is the age of the internet and social network,

where people are constantly connected to applications that allow them to instantly

communicate to one another, through the use of data services, in this age, people want to

be able to make video calls, send multimedia messages, watch videos or TV over the

internet, send emails, carry out online research etc. and most importantly people want to

be connected anytime, anywhere and 4G is expected to provide that to the end users

4 G is the 4th generation mobile communication standard developed by the 3GPP (3rd

Generation Partnership Project), proceeded by 3G or UMTS. It viewed as the next big

step in the mobile evolution towards a future of universal broadband.

The 4G standard is specified in the International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced

(IMT-advanced) it is expected to provide a peak speed of 100 Mb second in places such

as cars and trains and 1 GB per second for stationary users.

There are currently two standards vying to become the dominant 4 G standard and

although they do not fully comply with the ITM advanced specifications (pre-4G or near

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4G), work is being done to bring them up to those specifications, but they are already

widely being implemented and advertised as 4G.

4G is Expected to be an all Internet Protocol (IP) packet switched network, it provides

gigabit speed access (ultra broadband), it will tackle problem of capacity exhaustion by

supporting more users per cell, it will also offer high quality multimedia services such as,

IP telephony, gaming services, and streamed multimedia (Meier,2010).

4G brings a possibility of a great boom in the mobile communication sphere, the fact that

it is an all broadband network, it provides the chance of spreading the internet to places

never reached before, it provides the opportunity for operators to tap into new markets

and serve to larger communities and contribute to the narrowing of the digital divide.4G

represents an evolution in the way we use the internet, and the future certainly looks

bright (Gardella, 2010).

3. Objective of Research

This study seeks to explore the 4G mobile communication standards, by looking at the

previous standards of mobile telecommunication and their advances and how is 4G an

improvement from those standards, with a special focus on the following sub-objectives:

o The economic and social benefits of 4G to operators, end-user

o The evolution in mobile telecommunications.

o The limitations of 3G that have pushed for the implementation of 4G

o 4G as the future of mobile telephony

o The different standards that make up 4G their technical speciation, advantages

and disadvantages, the factors that are pushing for the implementation of 4G.

o How 4G is being implemented in Africa and the benefits it would bring to the

continent and how it helps to bridge the digital divide.

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4. Research question

This research projects aims to deliberate or make the following questions:

o What does 4G mean for the consumers?

o What are the mobile trends that are leading to the adoption of 4G?

o What is 4G?

o Is 4 G the evolution of mobile communication from 3G?

o What will the evolution to 4 G lead to for the future of mobile

communication?

o What are the benefits of the 4 G mobile communication standard?

5. Hypotheses

I believe that the advent of 4 G is the start of great thing for the telecommunication

industry as well as the end-users, it will bring benefits that will leave a legacy for years to

come, it will signal the evolution of mobile telephony to a 100% packet switched focus

network, elevating data usage to levels never experienced before and also it will allow for

the world wide web to reach to corners of the world that have not been reached before,

bridging the digital divide.

6. Delimitation of the topic

Due to the challenge concerning project time management and project cost management,

my research project can only be done during the current second semester of this academic

year which has a duration of 4 months. Therefore I will focus on the most recent advance

in the given topic as well as the above mentioned objectives and research questions.

7. Broad overview of the Research project

This research aim to look at the evolution of mobile telephony, how it has and is shaping

world, how it has brought as to the information age, it will focus on the new mobile

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communication standard 4 G, as it is now being implemented in many parts of the world,

and what it exactly entails, how it is an evolution from its predecessors and what it will

offer to the end user, its benefits and how it will influence the future of mobile

communication.

8. Value of the project

Mobile phone, the internet this are thing that are constant part of many people’s lives, to

some this are things they can’t live without as they are the center of their professional and

social lives.

The foreseeable benefits of 4 G could enhance the experience people have in using their

cell phone and web services. As we are moving more and more towards always connected

communication environment, it’s important to have the right infrastructure and

technologies in place that will give the best possible experience to its uses and

subsequently allow for innovation and further improvements.

4 G is an important step towards the future of the internet and telecommunication, and

exciting prospect for all.

9. Work subdivision

The research project made up of 5chapter, each one delving into a particular and distinct

aspect of the research topic. Here is a breakdown off what will be covered in each

chapter:

o Chapter 1: is the introduction and background of the topic that will be covered

in the rest of the report.

o Chapter 2: Contains the Literature Review, which is an analysis into previous

research done on the particular topic of discussion.

o Chapter 3 contains the Research methodology which is: used to collect data,

from research participants.

o Chapter 4: Contains the results and findings of the research.

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o Chapter 5: serves as the conclusion of the research, a brief summary report of

the previous chapters.

10. Conclusions

Since the introduction of digital technology in telecommunications, it has been possible to

develop new services that have constantly been driving the evolution of mobile

telephony, as this service are implemented and its usage by user increases, further

development is needed to support for those trends.

4G provides an opportunity for a greater advance in the mobile telecoms sphere; it opens

the possibility to have various services to be provided to the users as well as new avenues

of revenue for the key player in the mobile industry.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

4. Literature review

This literature review serves to provide an overview of the literature that has been carried out

concerning the given topic: 4G the future of mobile telecommunication.

1. Mobile evolution: from Analogue to digital, 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G

2.1.Mobile evolution: From Analogue to digital 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G

Mobile telecommunication is the use of cellular phones or other user devices or terminals

to make calls, exchange sms, transmit data, use of multimedia service such as video call,

MMS and etc. over a distance (Pashtan, 2006). Many of this service were not available

when the 1G mobile networks where developed; as shown on the above figure 1, mobile

telecommunication evolved gradually, with the first 1G standard that was analog and

supported only voice, and as networks developed, more modern standards emerged, like

the ones currently available, 3G, 4G that support more than just voice and have

incorporated multimedia and other services.

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Figure 2: single Cell - Cellular system

An article by Nubarrón, 2011, states that mobile technology dates back as 1857 with the

derivation of the electromagnetic theory by Clark Maxwell, which subsequently led to the

invention of radio transmission in 1901 by Guglielmo Marconi. This is where the 1st steps

undertake by humans towards the development of mobile telephony.

He further states that the 1st precursor to modern mobile telephony where introduced the

1940s in the United States and 1950s in Europe.

This early mobile networks were categorized for being single cell systems: which resulted

in a limited coverage area furthermore it required an operator to manually set a call and

they required that while one user is talking the other had to listen (simplex

communication). Further disadvantages to this was the fact that services and equipment

where expensive as well as the equipment were very heavy and bulky, the services where

limited and its coverage was restricted to the area covered by a single transmitting or

receiving station and it only allowed for few simultaneous conversations, all of this

resulted in limited capacity, rapid market saturation, high equipment costs and low

service quality (Siemens AG, 2001).

Throughout the years many innovations came about that would lead to the development

of the 1G mobile networks; technological innovation such as the development of the

semiconductors, transistors, microprocessors etc. only to name a few coupled with the

reduction in the bulk of the equipment and its cost.

2.1.1. Cellular (1G generation mobile network)

Nubarrón, 2011 says that: 1st real mobile networks where developed in the 1970s, this

was to be the 1st generation of mobile network. As

shown on figure 2: it was referred to as being a

cellular system, as signals where handed off

between towers in cells.

1G was an analogue transmission system and did

not provide its users any other service apart from

voice calls. It was made of the following standards: Advance mobile phone system

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(AMPS), Total Access communication system (TACS), and the Nordic Mobile Telephone

(NMT).

Although it signalled a great boom in the mobile market worldwide, it was faced with

many limitations.

Limitations of 1st Generation mobile system:

1. Capacity: Can only handle a small number of devices connected to it.

2. Security: It was a highly insecure system, this was because it was an analog

system and it did not provide for any encryption, allowing for any individual

with an all-band radio receiver to listen to peoples conversations.

3. Quality: transmission was of bad quality and it would became worse as

mobiles moved further away of the base station.

4. Incompatibility: Standards between different countries where incompatible,

there was not provision for international Roaming.

With this limitation of the 1G network, the need to develop a new standard was

recognized.

2.1.2. Global system for mobile (The second generation of mobile telephony).

Every new telecommunication standard develops through the limitations of the previous

standard. GSM was a natural evolution from 1G, it was a significant innovation to mobile

telephony, developed in the 90s; it brought about digital modulation to improve voice

quality, and some form of data services although limited (Nubarrón, 2011).

It was established by European Telecommunication standard Institute in 1991 (ETSI),

and is was supposed to be an open standard for mobile communication for the purpose of

creating a common European mobile standard, it was mainly created to tackle the

limitations found on the previous telecommunication standard (1G), and it intended to

eradicate global roaming limitations as most countries had their own telecommunication

standards implemented which were incompatible to each other.

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GSM went on to became the most used technology worldwide in the field of mobile-

phone transmission, with about 80 % market share by 2010, which accounts to 4 billion

of cell phone users worldwide (Opam, 2010).

The following figure 3: depicts worldwide coverage of GSM service:

Figure 3: GSM world coverage map

The following Criteria where proposed by the GSM group as part of the new mobile

wireless system “GSM”: (cisco, n.d)

o Good voice quality

o Low cost devices and services

o Global roaming

o Handheld mobile terminals

o Support for introduction new services

o Spectral efficiency

o Compatibility with Integrated Digital Services Network (ISDN)

The GSM network architecture also known as the PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network),

it is divided into 3 parts and it set the standard for the future networks to come as they

used the GSM network architecture and provided enhancements to evolve them to a next

generation network. ( Harte, Bramley, & Mike, 2012)

1. Network switching subsystems (NSS)

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Also known as the core network of the GSM system, it is responsible for

carrying the witching of calls. It was made of by:

o Mobile Switching Centre (MSC): It responsible for routing voice calls and

other services, it handled hand-over and pre-paid services.

It also connected and had control over the following elements:

o HLR: Home Location Register is a database that stores permanent data

about the mobile phones or SIM cards registered in a particular MSC area

such as location, activity status and subscriber service profile.

.

o VLR: Visitor Location Register, a database that contains details of

subscribers that are temporarily visiting a particular MSC area.

o AUC: A database used for security purposes to store a secret key on every

SIM, required for authentication.

o EIR: Equipment Identity Register is database that contains a list of all the

mobile phone that is valid to be operable on the network, using the IMEI

(international Mobile equipment identity) to identify those mobiles that are

allowed to be operable and those that are invalid (stolen devices).

2. Base Station Subsystem (BSS):

This section of the network is responsible for handling of traffic between the

MS and the NSS.

It is made of the following elements:

o BSC: Base station controller, as its name Intel it is responsible for

managing the radio resources for 1 or a group of BTs that may be

connected to it, it connects the mobile to the MSC and handles radio

channel setup, location update and handovers and more.

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o BTS: (Base Station Transceiver) provides an access point to the network

for the MS; it is responsible for encryption, speech encoding, multiplexing,

transcoding and rate adaptation, uplink channel measurements etc.

o Mobile Station (MS): also referred to as the end-user terminal, this made

up of the mobile phone as well as a SIM (subscriber Identity module) card.

3. Network Management Subsystem (NMS).

These are system used to monitor and manage the network and its elements

(NEs: Network elements).

The GSM standard was first developed as a digital, circuit switched network,

and it was extended gradually in phases to include other services such data

communication etc.

a) Phases of GSM (Haug et al, 2010)

As stated inNetwork Management Subsystem (NMS)., GSM implementation was

done in phases, with certain services being operational through gradual

development through the years of its existence.

This was because the group in charge of developing the GSM standard realized that in the

given time-frame they could not complete the specifications for the entire range of GSM

(Zezo, 2011).

In each phase certain services where added that enabled subscribers to a multitude of

information.

Phase 1: This phase was closed in 1990 for GSM 900 and GSM 1800 and

contained the following specifications:

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o New radio system

o Subscriber Identity module (SIM).

o Voice telephony

Basic data transmission at the following rate: 0, 3 to 9, 6 Kbit/s

It also contained a few supplementary services such as:

o International Roaming

o Call forwarding

o Call baring

o Short message service (sms)

Phase 2: The 2nd was closed in1995 and provided services similar to those found

on ISDN (Integrated services Digital network).

It also specified the provision for certain technical services such as half rate

speech:

o Advice charge

o Calling line identification

o Call hold

o Conference calling

o Closed user groups

Phase 2 +: This was the last phase of the GSM standardization and it added new

supplementary services such as ASCI (Advance speech call items), as well as it

introduced features that provided higher data rates such as as HSCSD (High speed circuit

switched data), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced data rates

for GSM evolution).

o Private numbers

o Multiple service profiles.

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GSM became a very popular and its popularity led to great adoptions for Mobile phones

throughout the world (Audrey Selian, n.d), which subsequently led to great growth in the

mobile industry, moreover as the years passed data demand increased greatly and with the

development of UMTS, data usage and multimedia should form a big chunk of network

traffic.

As with its predecessor, 2G also had its limitations or drawbacks that have influenced the

development of a replacing standard.

2.1.3. 3rd

Generation mobile technology (3G) UMTS

3G or UMTS (Universal Terrestrial Mobile system), is the 3rd generation of mobile

communication standards and a progress from GSM standard. It focused in providing

users with broadband services such as access to information as well as the ability to surf

internet and utilizing other data services such as watch and download movies, music,

videos etc.

Initial telephony standards mainly targeted lower bandwidth services such as voice and as

they evolved and with the advent of 2G (GSM) as a digital standard an opportunity arouse

to provide users with data services in conjunction with the voice services already

provided.

The 1st data services to be available to users where text messaging (SMS) and other and

circuit-switched data services that gave the users the ability to utilise e-mail services and

other several other data applications available at the time.

Phase 2 + of GSM, GPRS and EDGE were introduced and they brought about Packet data

over cellular systems, this developments popularly referred to as 2.5 G, where the steps

being taken towards 3G with the aim to provide multimedia services to users.

UMTS provided user with Data rates of up to 144 Kbit/s in macro cellular environments,

up to 384 Kbit/s in microcellular environments and up to 2 Mbit/s in indoor or Pico

cellular environments.

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The UTMS radio access network is called the UTRAN (Universal terrestrial radio access

network) it uses W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) as its multi-

access technology, It was divided into two sides, a circuit switched side for voice and the

packet switched side for Data traffic.

I. Advantages of UMTS

o Higher data rates than GSM

o Better security for SIM cards

o Compatible with IP, offering a multitude of products and services like

internet, video call etc.

o Provided the possibility for to turn other devices equipped with

modems etc. to be used as general-purpose communication and

computing devices, eg: laptops etc. and allowing them to access

UMTS services

o Improved mobility and coverage.

o New and better services, especially IP data services.

o Access to data or packet services on demand.

o Better security over the radio access network.

o Better coverage indoor.

II. Limitations Of UMTS

o High data rates are not always reachable to users, because of limitation

through radio propagation and congestion and so users at some cases

use lower data rates depending on the Qos and other schemes used by

to manage the network traffic.

o Smaller coverage area of cells.

UMTS delivers the first possibility of global roaming, with potential access to the Internet

from any location (Nubarrón, 2011)

2.1.4. Fourth generation mobile technology (4G)

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4G is the immediate successor to 3G UMTS and bring about significant advances such as

faster connection speed, with more bandwidth and services.

4G is described as MAGIC, which stands for: Mobile multimedia, anytime anywhere,

Global mobility support, Integrated wireless solution, Customized personal service

(Clementking and venkateswaran, 2009). It is all internet-protocol (IP) based network,

that is expected to provide services such as IP telephony, ultra-broadband Internet access,

gaming services and High Definition Television (HDTV) streamed multimedia with

speeds of 100 Mbps for mobile Applications and 1 Gigabit per second for fixed networks.

(Maier, 2010)

Currently there are two technologies of 4G being deployed in networks across the world,

this are: Long term evolution (LTE) and worldwide interoperability for Microwave access

(Wimax) and although they are referred as being 4G standards, they do not actually meet

the standards set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ITM-advanced

requirement (Lawson, 2010)

Below are the requirements an ITM-advanced system must fulfill in order to become a

4G standard (ITU-R, 2010).

o It must be an all IP-based packet switching network.

o IT must provide data peak rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for mobile

access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility

o User-friendly applications, services, and equipment

o Be able to dynamically use the and share resources network to support more

simultaneous users per cell.

o Must be able to provide a scalable channel bandwidths of 5–20 MHz

o offer high quality of service that supports the next of generation multimedia

services

Etc.

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The future technologies that have been accepted as fully compliant to the IMT-A

requirements and that should be regarded as true 4G are: LTE-Advanced and Wireless

MAN-Advanced (Lawson, 2010).

In this report will give brief descriptions of LTE and Wimax the predecessors of the

above mentioned fully complaint 4G standards.

2.1.4.1. Wimax

Wimax (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave access) it is an IP based wireless

broadband telecommunication technology, it is aimed at providing high speed data, voice,

video as well as digital wireless communication to mobile, fixed users in urban areas

networks (Reardon, 2008) .

It was initially designed to provide up to 30 - 40 Mbit/s data rate which would then be

updated to 1 Gbit/s. It was developed as an alternative to DSL (digital subscriber line)

sometimes popularly referred as Wifi on steroids and provides the following services to

users: VoIP services, IPTV services and other internet based services.

There are two standards to Wimax; there is the fixed Wimax and Mobile Wimax.

1). Fixed Wimax

This is made up to the IEEE standards, IEEE 802.16-2004 or IEEE 802.16d;

fixed Wimax is a fixed wireless access technology and it is aimed at servicing

fixed and mobile applications.

The purpose of fixed Wimax is to replace the Subscriber digital line (DSL)

standard as well as to serve as backhaul for wifi access points or for mobile

networks, and subsequently provide basic voice and broadband access.

2). Mobile Wimax

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Mobile Wimax (IEEE 802.16e) a mobile wireless access standard, unlike

Fixed Wimax, mobile Wimax is only capable to work on NLOS environments.

It optimised for fixed and mobile applications with a greater indoor

penetration.

I. Features supported by Wimax

o Multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO).

o Adaptive antenna system (AAS).

o Frequencies

2.1.4.2. LTE

LTE stands for Long term evolution, it is a telecommunication standard aimed at

providing high speed data for mobile devices and other connected devices, it is developed

from the previous standards of GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA.

LTE is globally advertised as the natural successor to 3G and thought to be the next 4G

wireless service but as specified from 3GPP specifications, it does not meet the

requirements set on how a 4 G network should be.

It uses DSP (digital signal processing) to increase capacity and speed and it aims to

provide a fully IP-based network, with better performance than the previous standards 2G

and 3G.

Unlike in the transition of 2G to 3G, whereby 3G networks provide backward

compatibility with 2G networks, the transition to LTE will not be as swift. It will not

provide backward compatibility to previous standard such as 2G and 3G and so users that

would like to benefit from LTE should have to upgrade by purchasing new devices

capable of operating on the LTE network.

It provides data rates of up to 300 Mbit/s on the downlink and 75 Mbit/s on the uplink

and its network architecture is referred to as the e-UTRAN, which is a development or

improvement to the UTRAN of UMTS.

Below are some of the benefits that LTE may provide to user. (Nowroozi, 2012)

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1. Increased competition between carriers

2. Greater support for Multi-mega pixel camera trend: it has better support for

transferring feature and data rich videos, pictures as well as greater support for video

calls etc.

3. Safer than Wifi in public places

4. Low mobile wireless latency

5. Alternative to DSL at home

2.1.4.3. The future of 4G

Matt Maier, 2010, said that in mobile, a new generation has appeared every 10th year and

since 3G appeared in 2001, we should be seeing 4G networks coming up to supersede the

current 3G and 2G networks. He mentions that in most networks data traffic already

exceeds that of voice traffic and so operators are pressured to upgrade their infrastructure

in order to meet those demands and 4G should be that as it will be capable of bring super-

fast internet to mobile devices and lead to growth in applications like IP telephony, IP

multimedia, gaming services, mobile TV in High definition as well as video

conferencing, this will lead to new market trends and new telecommunication business

and so many see it as being the next step in the evolution of mobile technology (Olaf

Swantee, 2012).

4G will not be about more voice (services) or Text messaging, it will have a focus on

interactive-applications, with abundant bandwidth for video services, interactive gaming

etc. (Lynch, 2007).

2.1.4.4. Trends that have led to 4G

Fleishman, 2010, wrote an article in which he states that the reason why many operators

around the world are developing their networks is to increase their capacities and avoid

congestion; this is because there more and more bandwidth hungry devices connecting on

to those networks and so there is a need to upgrade in order to not be overwhelmed.

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One problem with the current standard 3G is that although it can handle high speeds, it

cannot handle a huge number of devices connected on to it, it has a problem of cell

breathing(cell shrinking), posing a problem for capacity (Sambandaraksa, 2012).

2.1.4.5. Internet, Applications and the Cloud

We living in the information age and data consumption are surpassing that of voice (

(Higginbotham, 2010) and the need of a telecommunications system that supports that

very same trend is needed. Today’s modern device are data hungry, they enable us to

connect to a multitude of services through the applications that users download on them

and provide users with the ability to conduct a series of activities that previously where

not possible from their mobile devices. There are also the social networks that people are

ever connected to, Dick Lynch, the CTO of American telecoms company Verizon, in an

interview with the Business Daily newspaper, stated that users utilising social networks,

will be the major users of wireless networks in the future, people are connected to

twitter, facebook Google + etc. and are sharing content on them and in special occasions

such as sports events or other world events etc. great internet traffic is driven through this

social networks as many user all over the world simultaneous update their status, there

also the chat applications, Mxit, whatsapp, BBM to name a few, used to send instant

messages and a more efficient and simpler way of communication than sms and are

greatly being adopted by users and form part of a greater network and internet traffic, all

of these applications etc.

Another driving trend towards 4G is, VoIP ( voice over IP), people don’t just want to

make simple voice calls, they want to be able to have video with it and so that’s where

VoIP comes in, its allows for users to make video calls over the internet, driving the use

of applications like Skype, face time, viber etc. and as 4G will be an all IP-wireless

network this apps and video call could see an increase in their popularity and in turn take

a centre stage in further development of mobile telecommunication networks and with IP

technology being the underlying technology in 4G, it goes further in providing similar

services with better performance and customer satisfaction (Toothman,n.d).

The internet has become ever popular and it has offered a world of possibilities for

service providers to provide value through the services they provide, in recent times, the

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Cloud has become a buzz word both in the telecoms industry and IT industry, the cloud

basically allows for service providers to deliver to their customers, hardware and software

resources as services over internet, and it has become a very popular trend as more and

more cloud based services are being offered to subscribers, services such as ITunes that

allows users to download music from the internet, i-cloud, Drop box , SkyDrive and

Google Docs that allows users to upload their files etc. and subsequently have the ability

to share those files in between any device they possess and have access to them any time

anywhere are just some of the services that are pushing the cap on the usage of data

businesses are also moving to the cloud, choosing to their hardware infrastructure instead

of having large computers to save their data and run their applications, they rather, have

them saved on to cloud services specialised in handling that kind of data and have their

applications run on the cloud as well so create a greater need for a more advance data

focused standard of telecommunication (Ryan Garner and Rob Barrish, 2011).

There is also the trend of content providers, websites or cloud services, like Spotfy, TiVo,

Hulu, and Netflix etc. that provide music, movies and other content on demand to users,

through the use of the internet. As subscribers are more connected they also would like to

consume only the content they desire, traditional radio and TV do not allow for that as

they provide scheduled programs that do not appeal to all and with the use of mobile

devices and the internet they are able to then consume only the programs they would like

on demand it also allows user to access those contents anywhere any time with a high

speed connection and high definition.

Video streaming is very popular trend in the new information age, and a study by cisco

points out that mobile video growth has been growing on an annual rate of 131 %

between 2009 until 2014 (Jeffries,2010) as people access more the service mentioned

above as well as popular video streaming site YouTube..

2.1.4.6. Devices as content delivery systems

As mobile broadband networks became more popular, many new devices have emerged

to utilize these networks. It has given a rise to new categories of devices referred to as

connected devices (Yankee Group, 2011).An example of such devices are tablet

computers; this are mobile devices that tuned towards content consuming devices, one

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example, it’s the Amazon tablet, amazon being a content provider, has developed their

own tablet computer, where they can use it to get their own products and services out to

the consumers (Enderle, 2012), majority of this content is delivered through the use of

internet and so this devices are data hungry device that requires more and more of the

network resources. Mobile broadband and the emergence of content devices coupled with

the various services that are now possible to be delivered through mobile devices, are

establishing an “internet of thing” (Yankee Group, 2011), this will lead to a multitude of

new devices being connected to mobile networks that will provide user a multitude of

applications, services. Trend of connected device is not just limited to tablets and

smartphones, household electronic are also being turned into content devices, we now

have our TV’s connected to the internet our fridges, computers etc. devices that carried

out only one function have now converged and are able to perform more than one

function and content providers and manufacturers are increasingly finding ways to make

them more convenient to the users by implementing functions that simplifies ones lives

(Ericsson,2011). This devices contain apps, that bring to people new thing to consume,

providing the ability for people to have their favourite movie, magazine, newspaper

through the internet, even cars are now being connected to telecommunication networks

and providing people with data services such as GPS services that deliver traffic updates

to its users and convenience on the road (Fitchard, 2012). The fact that they require to be

connect in order to provide us with this content they exhaust the capacity of the networks

in existence and the need of networks that are capable of handling greater capacities and

to provide those services at better quality and speed are more evident.

The advent of 3G and subsequently 4G have developed the trend of turning mobile

devices from simple devices used to make voice calls to multimedia devices, there are so

many things that a user is now capable of doing with his mobile device, one growing

trend is m-commerce (mobile commerce) or e-commerce (electronic commerce), which

allow users to conduct shopping or any other commerce related activity through the use

of mobile devices or other User end terminal devices, through the use of the internet and

telecommunication infrastructure, it offers a multitude of possibilities of what a user can

acquire without getting up from where they are (Matthews, 2012).

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In all the current networks are not capable to handle the above telecommunications

consumer trends, and in order to provide users with the best service there is a need for

infrastructure upgrade.

2.1.4.7. Benefits of 4G

4G is supposed to be a great evolution from the current mobile standards in place, unlike

the previous standards, it will have a greater focus on data, it will allow for faster and

more reliable mobile connectivity in a world where data usage is increasing 250 % on

year (Swantee, 2012).

As stated on the 2.1.82.1.4.4 above, there are trends that are driving the adaptation of the

4G standard, and as we have already established this trends will offer a multitude of

benefits to consumers. It will also offer the opportunity for telecom companies to tap into

markets never reached before, it will broaden the services they can provide to users and

create new avenues for value creation to their business.

There is also the benefit for content providers as technology firms, as we move into a

connected data hungry telecommunication environment, tech firm are required to

manufacture and provide us with the devices that will give us the possibility to connect to

these networks and can fully utilise the features and capabilities that the new standard

provides, eventually the current devices available will be rendered obsolete and so this

companies will be able to capitalise and make profits to the sale of their new devices that

can utilise the 4G networks.

An article by Emily Steves, 2012, analyses the benefits that 4G would have on the

African continent, he believes that 4G will help to improve internet penetration in Africa.

A study by the world states that a 10 % increase in broadband penetration in a country

can help increase the GDP of that nation by 1.3 %, and being that penetration is low in

Africa; definably implementation of 4G can have some great benefits to the economy of a

country and subsequently bridge the digital divide in Africa, providing broadband to

people that have lacked those services.

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In short, 4G is the end-users dream network; it offers a whole new possibility for

consumers, as it gives the opportunity to consumers to have richer communication and

content experience.

2.1.5. Conclusion

Telecommunications standards have been evolving throughout the years, every

subsequent standard came as an evolution of its predecessor and deliver on the limitation

of the standard before it.

In the early days of mobile telecommunication, voice the sole service available to user,

but as it evolved, new services have emerged. This new services allowed users not only to

make calls but to exchange sms, transmit data, use of multimedia service such as video

call, MMS and etc.

Phase 2 + of GSM, brought about a packet switched network alongside the existing

circuit switched network, this allowed for operator deliver data services to consumers

which subsequently led to the availability of the interne devices in mobile e and the

current trend of data consumption.

As data services row in popularity, operators saw them as a great vehicle for revenue and

subsequent network standards where focused at satisfying the growing trend of data

consumption.

3G brought about improved data services and a greater focus on IP as the underlying

technology of the network but still keeping circuit switched traffic.

4G eliminated completely the circuit switched side of the network as it is a full IP-based

network; this was influenced by the growing trend of data consumption, as data services

took more of the network traffic.

It also brought about increased data processing speeds and limitless possibilities and

services for user, businesses, service providers etc. This leave the question that , if

telecommunication keeps evolving as it is, and the successor of 4G, a 5th generation of

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mobile telecommunication comes into existence, how powerful will it be, how will it

improve from its predecessor and what will it be capable of doing that 4G does not do

already ?

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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3. Introduction

This chapter discusses the methods, in which the research was be conducted; this is where

we determine the data collection techniques for gathering information, which will then be

analysed in order to determine the validity of the research.

3.1. Research Methodology

A research method is an approach of enquiry, which moves from underlying assumptions

to research design, and data collection (Myers, 2009).

There are various types of research methodologies, but research is commonly classified

either as Qualitative and Quantitative Methods.

This project makes use of a combination of qualitative and quantitative (mixed method

research) where necessary as to attain the best results to satisfy the purpose of the

research.

3.1.1. Qualitative research

In qualitative research, a researcher produces his findings without the use of any type of

quantification such as statistics. This is a type of scientific research that aims to collect

data in order to answers a questions based on peoples experience, opinions, beliefs and

emotions concerning a specific issue with the use of predefined set of procedures.

This type of research can often be contradictory and can end up providing participants

biased opinions that do not always reflect the true nature of the problem in question.

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4.1.2. Quantitative Research

It is a formal objective, organized process to describe and test relationships and study

cause and effect relations among variables (Burns and Groves, 1993). Unlike Qualitative

research, it utilizes statistical analysis to obtain its findings.

I. Comparison between Quantitative and Qualitative Methods

The table below contain a comparison of qualitative methods and Quantitative methods.

Orientation Qualitative Method Qualitative Method

Approach Objective Subjective

Research purpose

Establishes relationships

between measured variables

Analysing and understanding of

social situations form the

participants’ perspective.

Concern

Concerned with quantifying

data, collecting and analysing

data in numeric form.

Concerned with understanding

the experience of the participants

as they live it and feel it.

Reliability

Not that reliable as it is

subjective in nature.

It is requires the research to be

replicable, or the data can be

considered unreliable.

Data collection technique

Questioner

Interviews, observation

Table 1: Qualitative vs. Qualitative

Online surveys were used in order to obtain information regarding the research project;

see below 3.3.1 for explanation on questionnaires. One of the questionnaires that seek to

obtain information regarding user mobile trends was conducted in a form of an opinion

poll and will have to be quantified, making it a forma of quantitative research.

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4.2. Sample Population

These are all the components, eg: could be people, objects or events that meet the sample

criteria for inclusion in a study (Burns and Grove, 1993).

It is feasibly impossible to conduct a study of the whole population and so a sample

population is used as means of finding analytical data about the whole population, and so

therefore the subjects in this research are people in the telecoms industry as well as

normal individuals, end-users to mobile telephones and its services.

The purpose is to collect and analyse the views about the 4G standard, consumer trends

and telecoms trends as well as the future of mobile telephony of individuals, this being

normal people users of Mobile phone services as well as people in the telecoms industry.

4.3. Data collection

The data collection process of this project, started with the analysing of technical

documentations of the mobile telecommunication standards discussed throughout the

research, furthermore, for the purpose of data collection for this project, data will be

collected by means of Online survey, questioner, observation as well as online and library

research.

4.3.1. Questionnaire

A document that is made up of predefined set of questions; and it is designed with the aim

of obtaining or producing information through the responses of the participants.

Information collected through questionnaire is similar to interviews, but the questions

tend to have less depth (Burns and Grove, 1993).

Questionnaires have be put up on popular social network, Facebook to seek participants

in order to give their opinion or responses on the questions in the questionnaires,

furthermore it will also be posted on LinkedIn to seek some expert opinions as well as to

fully utilise a tool that is only possible throw the great evolutionary strides in the

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telecommunication industry as well as part of the growing social networking trend that is

driving ever growing network traffic and pushing for a more robust ip network, capable

of handling this big traffic.

The questioners will be made up of a combination, of the below mentioned questioner

types, whereby the participants, will be required to give their utmost honest and unbiased

answers.

I. Types of questionnaires

We will be making use of open-ended and Closed-ended questionnaires.

o Open-ended: These are written questionnaires where respondents are allowed

to answers in their own words.

An open ended questionnaire has been used and set in a form of an opinion

poll, to gather user mobile trends information.

o Closed-ended: Unlike Open-ended, closed-ended questionnaires dot not allow

participants to give their own answers to the questioners as their answers are

chosen from predefined options set by the researcher. They are easier to carry

out and analyse, they are also more efficient as participants are able to

complete more open-ended questionnaires than closed-ended ones in a given

time period (Polit and Hungler, 1993:203).

The Closed-ended questionnaires have been set to gather information that can

be analysed without the need of any qualification methods, see 3.1.1

Qualitative research.

II. Advantages to questionnaires

o They guarantee high responses.

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o They require a smaller amount of time and energy to administer.

o They are less bias

o Easier to compare responses for each item.

For the purpose of this research, questionnaires will in a form of online, surveys. See

below for an explanation on online survey.

3.4. Online survey

The online surveys utilize the questionnaires format, conducted in a form of opinion polls

on social network sites. Predefined questions will be set and participants will be requested

to answer to them and the results will then be analysed and quantified.

One of the biggest mobile telephony trends as well as internet surfing trend is social

networking and so being that this research deals with the understanding of mobile

telecommunication evolution as well as user trends and the impact they have on that

evolution, towards the future of mobile telecommunication as well as the near future

which is 4G standards, the online survey will be conducted on popular social networks as

to utilise the tools that are driving towards the adaptation of 4G, as social networks

telecommunication towards more data consumption and subsequently pushes more

towards the need of an IP network.

The survey will be conducted on Facebook, using a tool called Facebook Survey, and it will

serve the purpose of analysing a few customer trends that could possibly be driving the

adaptation of 4G. It will be in the format of a closed-ended questionnaire, similar to an online

poll where by participants will be required to provide their opinion from selected answers.

3.5. Internet Search

The internet is a virtual library; it contains plenty of information that could serve the

purpose of our research. It contains previous work or research related to the research

problem in question that could help in direction and focus to take for the research.

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The internet will be used in this project, to collect valuable information, pertaining to the

topic of discussion, and subsequently incorporated into the finding.

3.6. Validity and Reliability

Validity examines if the correct procedures have been followed in order to reach to the

answer to the projects problem, while reliability is the quality of a measurement

procedures that provides repeatability and accuracy (Ranjit, 2005).

3.8. Unbiased and Objective

This means that the research has been carried out in the correct manner in an unbiased

manner and the conclusion has been reached to the best of the researchers’ ability without

the introduction of their own interests.

This means that there will not be any attempt in the part of the researcher to hide facts or

highlight certain information over another.

3.9. Delamination

This research seeks to investigate the 4G standard of mobile telephony, its benefits and

technological advances and the promises that it offers to the future of mobile telephony.

It is an unbiased approach that seeks not to exclude any subject, where every opinion, be

that expert or otherwise will be considered.

3.10. Conclusion

The purpose of this chapter in to indicate and give a description of the research

techniques to be used in the data collection and analysis process in order to draw findings

on the next generation of mobile telephony, the 4G standard and how it is perceived in the

eyes of the participants.

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CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction

The results and findings chapter has the aim of analyzing the findings or results gathered

through the research methods specified in the previous chapter with the aim of analyzing

public opinion as well as those of experts regarding the problem in question.

For the purpose of this research work, online surveys as well as questioners were

conducted and distributed on popular social networks, facebook and LinkedIn as well as

emailed.

4.2 Online Poll

An online survey was conducted in the format of an opinion poll, on popular social

network Facebook, to gather results regarding some popular customer or user trends that

might have some effect in regards to the research problem.

This was posted on the 4 October and by the 18th of October, a total of 30 people had

participated, below is a graph of the participation frequency during the days the poll was

active.

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4.2.1 Demography of Online poll

Request where sent to individuals on facebook to voluntarily participate on the research,

of the numerous requests that were sent from the researcher’s friends list and from there

they were asked to pass on the message invite their friend, those that accepted where then

required to answer to answer the given questions and therefore became part of the

research demographic.

30 people participated on the research, and below is the breakdown of the people that

participated in terms of Gender.

Futhermore of the 30 participants, majority participated using their mobile phones and the

remaining used desktops, this is similar to a recent global trend whereby users are

choosing to become mobile, are connecting to the internet etc. using their mobile devices

which gives them the ability to connect wherever they are whenever they are.

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4.2.2 Poll results and analysis

1. Do you still make use of landline phones?

This question was aimed at finding out if in this modern day people are still making use of

landline phones to communicate, being that mobile telecommunication as taken over in

recent times and mobile phones are more prominent.

From the 30 participants, 55 % which amounts to 17 participants said that they do not make

use of landline phones anymore and the remaining 45 % say they still use landlines phones,

This shows that although mobile phones are ever more popular and have long ago replaced

landline phones, there is still a place for landline phones and so there are still being used

albeit not in the same manner and as often as they were used before.

2. Are you an active user of social network site?

Social networks are a fast growing trend in how people communicate especially young

people; it gives people the ability to keep in touch with friends and family especially

those that are distant as well as meet new people and expand your contact with people

from all corners of the world.

As social networks become more and more popular, they take more and more of the time

people spend on the internet and subsequently they take a large chuck of network data or

- 36 -

traffic that is consumed by users and so the network of the future must be built with social

networking in mind.

The purpose of this question was to find out if social networks are indeed as popular as

they are by estimating how often the respondents make use of social networks,

From the people that responded, 90 % said that they make use of social networking as it

is a great way to keep in touch with friends, and only 10 % said they do not use it that

often, none believe social networking is a waste of time.

This proves that social networking indeed is a popular trend that is and will have great

impact on mobile telecommunication, the next telecommunications standard, should have

that in mind, 4G being an all IP network could be just the answer to keeping that trend

from not dying out as it will improve user experience and speeds.

3. Do you take time from your daily activities (School or work) to check your social

network updates?

This question is closely related to the previous question and is aimed at going further to

estimate how social networks are entrenched into consumer’s activities and how it then

leads to an increase in the internet traffic and network as users spend more time on these

social networks

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4. Do you use your mobile phone for more than just voice communication?

One of the trends that is driving the adaptation of 4G and subsequently the evolution of

the future mobile networks, is the fact that user, today don’t just use their mobile for

making voice calls, they do other task as well, that also take up network traffic.

The aim of this question was to find out if users do carry out other activities in their

mobile phones other than voice communication.

The following graph show how participants answered to the above mentioned question.

5. Do you make use of VoIP services such as Skype, viber, face time etc.?

The future mobile network will be one that will be dominated by IP traffic and that can be

seen with the development of 4G as an all IP network.

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There are already many applications that are used by consumers that take advantage of

the IP infrastructures in place in the current 3G networks, and as their popularity

ingresses they are seen as alternative ways to provide telephonic services to consumers.

The aim of this question was to gather how popular this application is already and if their

being used by users, as in 4G and the future subsequent mobile networks, VoIP services

and applications will they will take centre stage as voice calls will be delivered through

IP.

From the 30 participants, 24 of them (80 %) said that they already make use of these

applications and while a small group of the participants, exactly 6 of them, said they have

never used such applications before.

6. How often do you access the internet on your mobile phone?

More and more of internet traffic is driven through mobile phones as users choose

mobility over fixed and so one thing to be taken into consideration in the next negation of

mobile telecommunication is that, this trend will only grow as smartphones become

cheaper and more readily available to users and so 4G and the standards that come after

it, it should be able to cater for this ever growing trend.

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7. Do you utilise any music or movie streaming services?

Apart from making calls, and surfing the net etc, there are many other activities that

users, carry out on their mobile devices or computers that form part of a great network IP

traffic, one such activity is streaming.

This activity requires a lot of bandwidth and so puts a lot of pressure on network capacity

and so its growing popularity is one of those things that should be taken into

consideration when developing a next generation network as well as one of the driving

trends towards the development of 4G an all IP network.

From the responses given by the participants, it was possible to analyse that it is indeed a

growing trends although not yet mainstream, as majority from the online poll it does not

have an outright majority when it came to peoples responses, there no substantial

difference between the number of people that use and the ones that don’t, being a

difference of only 3 percentage points.14 people (48%) said they don’t and 16 people

(52%) said they do.

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8. Which devices do you use to access the internet the most?

In these days, people make use of multiple devices to connect and not only a mobile

phone or a computer, in many cases a combination of devices is used to carry out

different tasks.

The aim of this question was to determine which type of device people are using to

connect to the network.

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9. Do you use any M2M services (mobile to mobile services)?

Mobile commerce services are another popular trend and from the responses it is possible

to deduce that although they are not main stream they are picking up as it is a relative

new concept, but 40 % of the participants stated that they already make use of such

service, but still most have not used making up 60 % of the participants.

10. Do you use any cloud services?

In recent times, a trend has been developing where by data storage is done on the cloud

instead of hard-drives, and with the arrival of tablets it has made this trend even more

prominent as they have little storage and users utilise cloud services to store most of their

data. Enterprises are also moving to the cloud and many have their application and

systems running on the cloud and so a need for a

robust network fully IP enabled that can handle the

growing trend of cloud services.

As seen on the chart below, the responses where

evened out as an equal number of participants said

Yes and No.

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11. Do you download music from the internet?

This is a very popular trend that came with the digital age, many people do not purchase

music the traditional way, instead they download them from the internet this being trough

legal or illegal channels, there on the net many services that provide consumers the ability

to download music and it has become a big source of revenue for artists and record labels.

The responses provided show that indeed it is a popular trend and it does have a great

impact on mobile networks as it is a big data consuming activity and requires lot of

bandwidth.

26 people said yes they do download music from the internet while only 4 said they

don’t.

4.3 Open ended questioner

This was sent out as emails and also posted on professional social network LinkedIn,

utilizing an application called survey monkey.

This survey was used to gather the participants knowledge about how the research

problem.

Below are the responses that have been provided by the participants.

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4.3.1 Questioner 1

The first questioner was sent to a mixture of people that work in the telecoms industry as

well as those that don’t the respondents on LinkedIn where of majority telecoms

professionals and they made the majority of the respondents of this survey.

1. What is 4G?

The respondents showed that they possesses some understanding of what 4G is, answered

that 4G is fourth generation of mobile communication standards Technology developed

by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) that's designed to faster speeds than 3G

networks for mobile, it is the latest mobile broadband standard in the market place with a

focuses on data evolution that should provide users with a high speed internet connection.

2. Do you believe there are any benefits to better data rates? Please say yes or no and state

the reason why.

Participants believe that this would 1st bring benefits to consumers first and as well as to

providers as, it will provide better value for consumers money and reduce prices, which

in turn it will increase the number of users as providers will provide better services and

bring more money.

3. Are you satisfied with the current data rates provided by your local mobile service

provider?

In this question majority of the respondents mentioned that they are not satisfied with

their local mobile service provider.

4. Do you believe 4G will improve the way we telecommunicate?

To this question majority of participants replied the yes, 4G should bring a great

improvement to how we telecommunicate

5. How much bandwidth do you spend daily?

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On average respondents stated that they spend about 50MB daily

4.3.2 Questioner 2

This survey was conducted using survey monkey, questioners where posted on telecoms

groups on LinkedIn as well as emailed to some individuals, it was restricted to only

people with experience in the telecoms industry and 10 professionals participated in

answering the questions.

1. How fast is 4G compared to 3G?

In this questions as expected participants showed a great understanding about the topic in

question, but it was noted that their answers varied, but it can be concluded that majority

of them mentioned that 4G would be 2 times or 3 times faster than 3G, with 1 participant

mentioning that with current rates 4G is 2 times faster but once true 4G is achieved it

could go up to 1000Mbps which he mentions its 20 times faster than 3G.

2. What is 4G?

This question is repeated in the professional questioner

All the participants agree in mentioning that 4G is the fourth generation of mobile

networks, it will be a full IP based network, developed to succeed the 3G and 2G families

of standards.

3. What does 4G mean to mobile telephony?

In regards to this question, 1 point that was pointed out by most of the participants is that

4G will provide high speed internet connection.

I was further stated that it will mean an improvement to some of the trends stated on the

online poll, such as it will provide faster speeds for downloading movies, music, etc. as

well as enhanced VoIP.

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4. What does 4G mean to mobile broadband?

By consensus, participants have stated that 4G will provide higher data transfer speeds.

5. What are the 4G standards?

To this question participant, stated that a 4G standard is one that is based on an all

Internet protocol packet switching instead of circuit switching, and use OFMDA multi-

carrier transmission methods or other frequency-domain equalization (FDE) methods

instead of current spread spectrum radio technology, furthermore it should provide 100

megabit per second for a user on a highly mobile network and 1 gigabit per second for a

user with local wireless access or a nomadic connection and although some opinions

varied to which standards qualify as 4G, as some exclude Wimax as being 4G, they agree

that both Wimax and LTE are part of the 4G standard and as they develop they will be

fully compliant to the 4G requirements.

6. Why are Wimax and LTE technically not 4G?

Majority of participants stated that Wimax and LTE are technically not 4G because their

speeds are not high enough as defined by the 4G standard, as well as the fact that the

access technology type TDD and FDD which predominantly reside in the 3G world and

as such should actually be called 3.9G and NOT 4G.

7. Which 4G standard (Wimax vs. Lte) would offers the best rates, telecoms infrastructure

and customer experience?

For this question all participants mentioned LTE as their ideal choice.

8. What current trends in mobile telephony are driving 4G adaptation?

Below are the trends mentioned by participants as some of the driving trends for 4G

adaptation.

Smartphones with high data consumption.

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Data usage on mobile phones is increasing on an alarming rate and is now not

limited to pc's or laptops. There is a high demand for a reliable and high speed

data connection on the mobile device.

The need for data at high speed accessibility.

digital migration the constant need for advancement and portability or having

an entire pc in the palm of your hand

Social Networks.

9. What benefits could 4G bring to telecom providers?

One of the benefits mentioned by the participants is that as calls and data all are routed

through the internet the call cost to the provider falls cheaper, it will also generate a boom

in subscribers which in turn bring more business to the providers, will inspire lots of ideas

and innovations, and enable opportunities for new non-traditional devices, applications

and services.

4.4 Conclusion

This chapter served to show the demographics of the research as well as the results and

findings from data gathered from participants through, online polls and questioners.

A further analysis and conclusion of these findings will be discussed in chapter 5

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATION

5.1 Introduction

This chapter serves as the conclusion of the research conducted in regards to 4G the

future of mobile telecommunication.

Upon careful analysis, results were obtained, which give us the basis to provide the

concluding remarks and recommendations presented in this chapter.

Below are a few observations and conclusion arrived through the conducting of the

research and results from the surveys.

5.1.1. Mobility

One of the most important trends in the telecommunication industry is mobility, the need

to be mobile is the driving trend to why mobile phones have become so popular and

mobile penetration is increasing, landlines, have lost their place in the mind of

consumers, in today’s world almost everyone owns a mobile phone and many do not own

a landline phone. A true universal mobile system or standard has to focus on this specific

trend, 4G as the next mobile telecommunication standard and any future mobile standard

has to cater for mobility, and improve user experience in that regards.

In the current market, not only mobile phones are portable and mobile, even computers

are reducing in size and are becoming ever more portable, with the advent of tablet

computers, that allow users to carry out the work they currently do on their computers on

the move, 4G as an advanced telecoms standard, should be able to allow this devices to

connect into the networks and allow them to carry their work in a seamless manner.

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5.1.2. Not just voice anymore

With the advent of the internet and the development of broadband networks, mobile

networks, do not only cater anymore for just voice, advances in the telecoms industry,

have allowed for people to not only utilize their mobile devices for just voice, there new

applications provides users with more services, such as VoIP services, that allow users to

conduct video calls over IP protocol, was only possible with the introduction packet

switched networks to the existing circuit switched part of mobile networks.

As found from the survey, this is a technological trend and it’s where mobile networks

are moving, 4G and the future mobile networks, will be fully IP networks, capable of

catering the needs the data needs of users.

This packet switched networks allow users to be more productive, as their mobile devices

allow them to keep connected to a series of service, an individual is able to receive their

emails on their phones, conduct banking activities, surf the web etc. as well as have

access to applications over the internet that allow them to do many more other things.

5.1.3. Social networking and web content

Another trend is social networking, this an ever growing, two of the most popular social

networks, twitter and facebook, have high volumes of traffic going towards them as users

spend a lot of time on this sites, even taking time way from other activities to social

network and share information and interests on them.

Yet again this is possible because of the development of IP networks, allowing a

multitude of possibilities and giving users the ability to connect with family, friends and

new a quittance from all over the world through their mobile devices and others.

These social networks now allow people to make voice and video calls, and as they

become more and more popular, users could 1 day in the future utilize them as their main

way of telecommunicating instead of the traditional ways.

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There is also a lot of content on the World Wide Web that is consumed by users, videos,

music, movies, games etc. Those are some of the things users are exposed to through the

use of the modern and evolved mobile networks, an increasingly number of users, are

downloading music from the internet instead of the traditional way, of going to a store

and buy a physical CD, digital is the way and users are now as well watching and

downloading their movies from the internet and watching in their connected devices,

there are also the cloud services that allow users to their data stored online and they can

then have access to the anywhere and anytime as long as they are connected. All of this

takes a great toll in network capacity which the current networks can’t handle and which

in turn compromises on the quality that this services are rendered, with an IP focused

network such as 4G and the subsequent mobile networks of the future, the focus will be in

improving the delivery of this services, as they become part of networks increasing

traffic.

5.1.4. M-Commerce

This is a trend, whereby radio-based wireless devices such as cell phones and PDAs

Are used to conduct business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions over

mobile networks and the internet, utilizing web-based e-commerce systems

Although not yet universally adopted as seen by the from the survey, it is indeed a

growing trend and it provides users with the convenience of not requiring to carry cash

around, and with the advances of that are being carried out in this technology it will only

be enhanced with the 4G and the future mobile networks.

5.1.5. 3G

3G networks where the first real broadband networks and they gave rise to trends being

developed today and the possibilities that could be realized with 4G.

4G will be a complete evolution from 3G as it will be a fully IP enabled network, while

3G networks provisioned for both circuit switched traffic and data traffic.

4G will be faster and provide better data speeds than the current 3G networks.

Although the current iterations of 4G are not yet fully compliant with the 4G standards,

they already show significant improvement from 3G and the potential of 4G networks

such as Lte advance and future mobile networks that will develop after 4G.

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5.2 Recommendation

Although a specific model was not used in order to conduct this research, the

observations are based on subjective decisions provided by subgroup of participants in

question. Therefore, the results and conclusions reached through this research may

require further research in order to gain a deeper understanding and get the fundamental

reality in concerning with 4G, it evolutionary path, the trends that are leading towards it

and anything that comes after it.

This in turn would allow for a greater understanding for the researcher on 4G, the future

of telecommunication, consumer trends as well as the effects future effects of such

telecommunications technology.

With the rising growth of mobile technology such as the recent birth of 4G technology,

internet access on mobile devices is becoming more available. However, they have been

concerns with the high costs of internet access. If mobile operators could reduce the cost

of internet, this would reduce digital divide that exists between technical and non-

technical users.

5.3 Conclusion

As telecoms standards developed new trends developed with them, each brought with

them innovations and benefits to users, this trend are also one of the main pushes or

influences in the development of new standards and evolution of mobile

telecommunication.

What was once popular, the fixed line telephone is now turning obsolete, as users see

mobility as a great advantage and so the rapid adoption of cell phones.

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The evolution in technology is determined by what people need or want and in regards to

telecoms, they want to be connected, they want the internet faster and with more and

better services.

Voice traffic is being surpassed by data traffic, which in turn requires greater network

capacity.

4G being an all IP network, should provide operators with the answer to satisfying the

growing trend towards IP traffic, this would also help to reduce consumer call as well as

providers, as both data and calls routed through an IP network, reducing on the number of

equipment on a network as it won’t be needed to have separate networks handling the two

types of service, with 4G providers would be able to have all their traffic travelling in on

packet based network.

The possibilities provided by 4G which were not available in the previous other standards

will inspire lots of ideas and innovations, and enable opportunities for new non-traditional

devices, applications and services, this can mean a boom to the telecommunications

industry and a brig future for user telecommunication, in the future mobile networks will

enable user to be able to conduct endless activities, through the use of their mobile

devices, furthermore it could eventually lead to greater connectivity and access to

information for all people, as current networks will be replaced with IP based networks,

and all users devices will eventually be fully functional with this networks and therefore

anyone could have access to the internet and the content it provide.

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ANNEXES

ANNEX A: QUESTIONNEIR

Section A: Mobile telephony trends:

(Closed ended questionnaires)

This section of the survey serves to identify the current and future consumer trends in mobile telephony that are driving the adaptation of 4G and drive for evolution in the mobile telecommunication industry.

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SECTION B: Mobile telephony trends:

(Open-Ended questionnaires)

This section of the survey serves to identify the current and future consumer trends in mobile telephony that are driving the adaptation of 4G and drive for evolution in the mobile telecommunication industry.

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Section C: 4G General and Technical question

This section contains some general as well as technical 4G related questions and where targeted mainly at people, in the telecoms industry or with some knowledge about the industry.

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