User and business perspectives on an open mobile access standard

The Internet and developments in the mobile domain have fueled the first stage of what appears to be a paradigm shift of societal dimensions. Access technologies and standards are created almost daily, each taking a very specific view of user needs while generally disregarding the rest of the world. Radio spectrum may become, in a relatively short time, one of the most important economic commodities. Simple and fast access to this commodity will become a major issue. New service paradigms are bound to lead to cyclic infrastructure renewal, the investment volume of which cannot possibly support future widespread technical development and economic growth in this area. New technologies, enabling network evolution on the micro level and thus avoiding costly network infrastructure paradigm shifts, may be much better suited to adequately support the societal transition to the information age. In order to release the full economic potential of mobile communications, it is deemed worthwhile to research in depth possibilities, requirements, and performance of an open mobile access system, which is not yet another mobile access system but rather a fundamental set of scalable physical principles and parameters having the technical potential to satisfy any conceivable application in any conceivable radio environment, when combined with heterogeneous backbone networks and future enhanced versions of the Internet protocol. The authors have developed a coarse but integral view of a wireless access network which may satisfy the key requirements of a user- and business-centered radio access and service network.