Mobile Communication

System Evolution
1.1 Historical Perspective
The mobile phone has proved to be one of the most outstanding technological and
commercial
successes of the last decade. Since its introduction in the 1980s, the phones pla
ce in the
market place has rapidly progressed from a minority, specialised item to virtual
ly an essential
commodity for both business and leisure use. Over the last two decades, advances
in mobile
technology, combined with the significant reduction in operating costs and the d
evelopment
of new applications and services, have ensured a buoyant market. By mid-2000, th
ere were
over 220 million mobile subscribers in Europe and over 580 million mobile subscr
ibers
world-wide. In the UK, every other person owns a mobile phone; while in Finland
the number
of mobile phones per capita now exceeds that of households with fixed phone line
s.
As with most technological innovations, the mobile phones marketability is not ba
sed on
overnight success but rather a systematic, evolutionary development involving mu
lti-national
co-operation at both technical and political levels. In fact, the concept of a m
obile phone is
not new. As early as 1947, the cellular concept was discussed within Bell Labora
tories [YOU-
79]. However, it was not until the 1970s that technology had developed sufficien
tly to allow
the commercial implementation of such a system to be investigated.
The evolution of mobile communications can be categorised into generations of de
velopment.
Presently, we are on the verge of the third-generation (3G) of mobile systems. B
roadly
speaking, first-generation (1G) systems are those that paved the way and are gen
erally
categorised as being national networks that are based on analogue technology. Su
ch networks
were introduced into service in the 1980s. These networks were designed to provi
de voice
communications to the mobile user.
Second-generation (2G) systems are categorised by digital technology. They are s
upported
by international roaming agreements, allowing the possibility to operate a mobil
e phone across
national boundaries. With the introduction of 2G systems, in addition to digital
voice telephony,
a new range of low data rate digital services became available, including mobile
fax,
voice mail and short message service (SMS) [PEE-00]. Also at this stage in the e
volution, new
types of systems began to emerge which catered for particular market needs; not
only cellular
mobile, but also cordless, public mobile radio, satellite and wireless-local are
a network (WLAN)
solutions. 2G systems are synonymous with the globalisation of mobile systems, a
nd in
Mobile Satellite Communication Networks. Ray E. Sheriff and Y. Fun Hu
Copyright q 2001 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBNs: 0-471-72047-X (Hardback); 0-470-845562 (Electronic)
this respect the importance of standardisation is clear. For example, GSM, which
was standardised
in Europe by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), is now
recognised as a global standard, with its adoption in most countries of the worl
d. The final
evolutionary phase of 2G networks, in recognition of the importance of the Inter
net and as a
stepping stone towards the introduction of 3G technology, introduced packet-orie
nted services,
providing the first opportunity to introduce mobile-multimedia services.
Within the next few years, it is expected that mobile users will wish to access
broadband
multimedia services, such as those provided by fixed networks. This demand for b
roader
bandwidth services is driven by the need to provide services and applications co
mparable
with those presently available to personal computers (PCs). The phenomenal growt
h in the
Internet, with over 500 million users predicted by 2005, perfectly illustrates t
he need for
access to broadband services and applications. These types of services are beyon
d the
capability of present 2G systems, which offer voice and low data rate services.
The convergence
of mobile and Internet protocol (IP) based technologies is now the major driving
force
behind the development of 3G systems. The 3G mobile communications systems will
be
capable of delivering services and applications at data rates of up to and beyon
d 2 Mbit/s.
The standardisation of 3G systems comes under the overall responsibility of the
International
Telecommunication Union (ITU). Globally, this will be known as international mob
ile
telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) and will consist of a family systems providin
g cellular,
cordless, W-LAN and satellite services. In Europe, the 3G system will be known a
s the
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Although voice is still likel
y to be
the dominant application in the first few years of 3G networks, there will also
be the possibility
to operate mobile-multimedia applications, such as video-telephony, file transfe
r protocol
(ftp) file access, Web browsing and so on. As 3G technology evolves, new broader
bandwidth applications will enter the market to such an extent that the transmis
sion of
data will provide the greatest volume of traffic.