Measurement Journal Issue 6

and commercial roaming agreements — that are outside the scope of traditional standards bodies. The prize, however, if these obstacles can be overcome, is that femtocells have the potential to deliver massive capacity gains and corresponding increases in average data rates for the nomadic data-using community — gains that could never be achieved with macrocell improvements alone. It will be some time before femtocells are as prevalent as Wi-Fi is today, but the outlook is good and the next two years will be key for this ﬂedgling technology. Conclusion The door is not yet shut on the deﬁnition of 4G, but it is closing fast. The extent to which 4G can address the capacity and coverage issues in a cost-effective manner will determine if it will be the enabler of the mobile broadband revolution — or if it will compound the issues that have hindered 3G. One thing is certain: The market will select, in Darwinian fashion, the lowest-cost way to realize the mobile broadband opportunity. If 4G does not address the bottlenecks in today’s systems then several alternative technologies — all based on existing and evolving 2G and 3G standards — are ready to step up and clear the way. In particular, femtocells (based on simpler, existing air-interface technology) and even evolving Wi-Fi technologies have the potential to deliver high-performance, cost-effective alternatives to enable the mobile broadband revolution. References 1. http://www.gsacom.com/news/statistics.php4. 2. 3GPP TR 36.913 V8.0.0: Requirements for further enhancements to E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced). 3. ITU-R IMT-Advanced website: www.itu.int/ITU-R/go/ rsg5-imt-advanced. 4. 3GPP RAN Tdoc RP-070466: LTE Performance veriﬁcation work. 5. ITU-R M.[IMT-TECH]. 6. ftp://ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran/TSG_RAN/TSGR_40/LTEAdvanced%20workshop. 7. R4-081344 Qualcomm: HNB and Macro Downlink performance with Calibrated HNB Transmit Power. 8. For more information, see the Femtoforum website at www.femtoforum.org. “WiMAX,” “Mobile WiMAX” and “WiMAX Forum” are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Offering a 4G prognosis Let’s repeat two key points. First, the provision of higher data rates drives up expectations but does not signiﬁcantly increase system capacity or median data rates. Second, with the projected efﬁciency and spectrum gains, median data rates in a loaded network may reach only one percent of the designed peak. If we accept these hypotheses, then it seems evident that 4G’s spectrum and efﬁciency gains are insigniﬁcant compared to what could be achieved by enabling a femtocell deployment. 4G is aiming to be a low-cost solution for mobile broadband, but high efﬁciency and high data rates mitigate against this. Ever-higher peak rates drive up the cost of infrastructure and terminals, and high-efﬁciency systems are inherently complex and therefore also drive up costs. If there is neither the demand for extreme high-rate services, nor the ability to deliver them uniformly, 4G could be in danger of becoming an expensive white elephant. In reality, subscribers pay for peak performance but experience the average. With current plans, the top end of 4G at 100:1 will have the highest peak-to-average performance ratio of any wireless system to date. The contrast with today’s most successful and ubiquitous wireless services — voice telephony with a 1:1 ratio and highly inefﬁcient text messaging — could not be starker. The pursuit of capacity gains through efﬁciency will have a positive effect — and the engineering challenge this presents is both fascinating and formidable. However, the question the industry must ask itself is whether efﬁciency should be a primary goal. The 100x capacity gains that might be realized using a high-mobility macro network complemented by a femtocell network for nomadic use in the locations of highest demand cannot be ignored. Agilent Measurement Journal 60 http://www.gsacom.com/news/statistics.php4 http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/go/rsg5-imt-advanced http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/go/rsg5-imt-advanced http://ftp://ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran/TSG_RAN/TSGR_40/LTE-Advanced%20workshop http://ftp://ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran/TSG_RAN/TSGR_40/LTE-Advanced%20workshop http://www.femtoforum.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Measurement Journal Issue 6

Measurement Journal Issue 6 Using a Few Words to Convey a Deeply-Held Spirit Charting a Unique Path to Technology Innovation Contents Announcing First Commercial GC/MS Metabolites Library Assessing Nonlinear Behavior Testing Combines Form and Function Testing Multiplay Networks Higher Sensitivity LC/MS Easing Military Radio Test Stepping Up Calibration Accuracy Increasing Spectrum Analyzer Bandwidth 3GPP Tool Supports TS 36 Standards The Olympic Story Spotlights Agilent's Continuing Contribution to Technology Innovation Ensuring a Level Playing Field in Competitive Sports GPS: Coming of Age Resolving Design Issues in HSPA Mobile Devices Achieving Accurate Results with Oscilloscope-Based Jitter-Analysis Software RF Handheld Testers Guarantee Traffic Stability Under Olympic-Sized Stress Conditions Utilizing LAN-Based Instrumentation to Measure Total Harmonic Distortion in Remote Facilities IMT-Advanced: 4G Wireless Takes Shape in an Olympic Year EPO Doping: A Speed Engine, Turbo-Charged by Chemistry

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