GSM - Architecture, Protocols and Services, Third Edition

Chapter 1. Introduction

The idea of unbounded communication

Communication everywhere, with everybody, and at any time – that was the dream and goal of researchers, engineers and users, since the advent of the first wireless communication systems. Today it feels like we have almost reached that goal. Digitalization of communication systems, enormous progress in microelectronics, computers and software technology, the invention of efficient algorithms and procedures for compression, security and processing of all kinds of signals, as well as the development of flexible communication protocols have all been important prerequisites for this progress. Today, technologies are available that enable the realization of high-performance and cost-effective communication systems for many application areas.

Using current wireless communication systems, the most popular of which is GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), we see that we have the freedom to not only roam within a network, but also between different networks, and that we can in fact communicate (almost) everywhere (unless we are in one of the rare spots still without GSM coverage today), with (almost) everybody (unless our desired communication partner is in one of the rare spots mentioned above or chooses not to be reachable), and at (almost) any time (unless we forgot to pay our last phone bill and the operator decides to lock us out). If there is one major aspect still missing in order to make our wireless experience flawless, ...