4.5G: A milestone along the road to 5G

Since 1980s, in every decade, a new generation of mobile communication appears with new features and characteristics. The performance indicators in every such new system are better than the previous. In between the two full consecutive generations, there exist incremental hybrid systems which is normally better than their predecessors. It has been observed in 1990s as 2.5G (also several other versions commonly known as 2.xG) which was better than 2G; and in 2000s as 3.xG versions which were incremental upgradations over 3G. In case of 4G too, such incremental upgradations has been observed. Recently proposed 4.5G cellular communication system is better than 4G in several aspects. 4.5G is the outcome of the LTE evolution whose legacy is LTE Advanced (commonly known as 4G). It is now considered as a version closer to 5G in terms of performance metrics. In this article, we present the features and characteristics of 4.5G cellular communication system and discuss its proximity with 5G.