Status of Next Generation Cellular and Wireless Local Area Network Services and Current Research Activities

With the rapidly growing demands for cellular/wireless communication systems, new types of user’s applications are emerging. These applications of mixed traffic of voice, data, and real time audio/video have challenged the current Third Generation service providers to respond with new generation of system specifications capable of providing increased data throughput. The next generation cellular/wireless communication systems need not only to provide a higher data throughput but also to support integrated applications with various Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Providing QoS control for the emerging Multimedia Wireless Generation (MWG) is a challenging task, due to the time varying and nonstationary wireless links. Being different from wired communication networks, providing QoS in the form of absolute guarantee may not be possible with current technologies. In this workshop, we will review the current status of cellular/wireless systems in the US and point out its deficiencies. We then will suggest some solutions based on our current research activities at Western Michigan University.