Introduction

The first mobile communication systems to see large-scale commercial growth arrived in  the  1980s  and  became  known  as  the  ‘First  Generation’  systems.  The  First  Generation used  analogue  technology  and  comprised  a number  of  independently  developed  systems worldwide (e.g. AMPS (Analogue Mobile Phone System, used in America), TACS (Total Access Communication System, used in parts of Europe),  NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone, used in parts of Europe) and J-TACS (Japanese Total Access Communication System, used in Japan and Hong Kong)).

Global roaming first became a possibility with the development of the ‘Second Generation’ system known as GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), which was based on digital technology. The success of GSM was due in part to the collaborative spirit in which it was developed. By harnessing the creative expertise of a number of companies working together under the auspices of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), GSM became a robust, interoperable and widely accepted standard.

Fuelled by advances in mobile handset technology, which resulted in small, fashionable terminals with a long batary life, the widespread acceptance of the GSM standard exceeded initial  expectations  and  helped  to  create  a  vast  new  market.  The  resulting  near-universal penetration  of  GSM  phones  in  the  developed  world  provided  an  ease  of  communication never previously possible, first by voice and text message, and later also by more advanced data services. Meanwhile in the developing world, GSM technology had begun to connect communities  and  individuals  in  remote  regions  where  fixed-line  connectivity  was  non-existent and would be prohibitively expensive to deploy.

This  ubiquitous  availability  of  user-friendly  mobile  communications,  together  with increasing  consumer familiarity  with  such  technology  and  practical  reliance  on  it,  thus provides  the  context  for  new  systems  with  more  advanced  capabilities.  In  the  following section, the series of progressions which have succeeded GSM is outlined, culminating in the development of the system known as LTE – the Long Term Evolution of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System).

The work represents review of historical and technical aspects of four generations of celular networks. So the main problems and possible solutions of LTE networks are discussed.

The paper consists of the following chapters:

• Chapter 1: Background and history of cellular networks