Features in future: 4G visions from a technical perspective

Mobile communication is continuing to be one of the hottest areas developing at a booming speed, with advanced techniques emerging in all the fields of mobile and wireless communications. Currently, 3G mobile communication systems are just beginning to be deployed, while research on the next generation of mobile communications, 4G wireless and mobile networks, begin to pave the way for the future. This paper studies the visions of 4G from a technical perspective. After a brief review on the development history and status of mobile communications and related 4G perspectives, we present an overall 4G feature framework based on the kernel concept of integration, in which two key features (diversity and adaptability) of the three targets (terminals, networks and applications) are described in detail. The concepts of both external and internal diversity of each target are defined to illustrate the causes and solutions of the adaptability feature. Then, along the entire 4G domain, each feature in the framework is deeply discussed from a technical standpoint, in which promising techniques and possible research issues for sufficient support of adaptability are also proposed. Finally, a short summary on 4G visions is presented as a continuum of features in the development of the mobile communications world.