Wireless World 2020: Radio Interface Challenges and Technology Enablers

Future pervasive communication system requirements for two to three orders of magnitude capacity improvement, flexible, fast deployment, and cost/energy efficiency are expected to revolutionize the way we design and use wireless networks. From a network infrastructure perspective, the emphasis is placed on achieving ubiquitous, real-time high data rate communications ?anytime-anywhere,? including at cell-edge, through Small Cell Network architectures and Heterogeneous Cellular Networks (HetNets). From a pervasive systems? perspective, the vision of the Internet of Things suggests the integration between ubiquitous computing and wireless communications targeting a reliable connectivity of things, i.e., computers, sensors, and everyday objects equipped with transceivers. From a backhaul bandwidth, network resource sharing, and optimization perspective, cloud-based processing and radio access network virtualization provide a revolutionary approach toward balancing the degree of centralization of physical and virtual resources management. In this article we analyze these three trends, present key technology enablers, and assess suitable performance merits in an effort to set the scene for the wireless evolution in the era beyond 2020.