The Past, Present, and Future of Mobile Communications

Mobile communications have evolved through countless innovations that have resulted in massively improved performance and significantly lower cost with each technology generation. Beginning with the firm theoretical foundations for communications laid by Claude Shannon in 1948, successive improvements in cellular technology have been achieved through a combination of advances in communication theory, computing power, and analog radio frequency (RF) circuit electronics. In this paper, we chart the course of successive generations of mobile technology highlighting some of the key innovations resulting in the major performance improvements that have been achieved over the years. We begin with a high-level discussion of the key technology generations starting with the analog cellular systems deployed in the 1980s through to the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) system being deployed today. We highlight the 11 major technical advances that have led to the most significant improvements in cellular technology and then present a view of the future wireless evolution to the beginning of the 5G era.