UMTS and Beyond

Prof. Hamid Aghvami

Centre for Telecommunications research-King’s College London

e.mail: hamid.aghvami@kcl.ac.uk

Both first generation mobile (analogue) and second generation mobile (digital) systems were designed primary to offer a single service, i.e., speech. They also have a limited capability to offer low data rates over voice channels using conventional modems. However, Third Generation Mobile Systems are expected to offer high-quality multi-media (multi-rate services) to convergent networks of the fixed, cellular and satellite components. They are referred to as Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) in Europe and International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) worldwide. The first commercial launch of 3G was announced by NTT DoCoMo in October 2001. Considering that it took nearly ten years from defining the concept to deploying these systems, it is now time to define and start developing the fourth generation of mobile system.

The talk starts with a brief description of UMTS and its requirements and then a vision for 4G will be given. Within this vision, 4G will be envisaged as “user driven, user controlled services and context-aware applications”. What we mean by “user controlled services” is that the user has freedom and flexibility to select any desired service with reasonable QoS and affordable price, anytime, anywhere. A context-aware application means the behaviour of the application adapts itself to user context changes. User context includes:

-user profile and preferences.

-user terminal and network capabilities.

-user environment and mobility.

This vision can be achieved by:

• Convergence/integration/interworking of all existing and emerging fixed and mobile (wired and wireless) networks including broadcast using IP technology.
• Simple to select and easy to use desired services using agent technology (mobile user and network agents).
• Universal low cost terminals that use reconfigurable technology.