Mobile Handset Design

16

Next Generation Mobile Phones

16.1 Introduction

The mobile phone is becoming the most ubiquitous digital device across the world, and promises to reach two-thirds of the world's population by the end of this decade. Owing to the ever increasing demand for higher data rate, support of more complex applications (such as interactive TV, mobile video blogging), and seamless handover between various networks, the mobile system is continuously evolving from one generation to the next. Recent trends in the wireless market show some specific requirements, such as: (1) reconfigurability, adaptability, programmability, flexibility of the user terminal devices, (2) introduction of more and more power voracious applications, (3) shift towards bursty, high-speed multimedia (for example, streaming video) data traffic, (4) IP-based (wireless Internet), (5) demand for high spectral efficiency, (6) increased demand for mobility (higher speeds + wider range), (7) seamless, ubiquitous wireless (and wired) access across heterogeneous networks, (8) multi-layered ad hoc network structures, and (9) cooperation across terminals and sub-networks (for example, multi-hop relaying).

16.1.1 Limitation of Legacy and Current Generation Wireless Technologies (1G, 2G, and 3G)

2G systems are designed for voice centric services and are not suitable for data services. Hence 3G technology was introduced, which offers higher data rate and satisfies reasonable quality of service requirements. However, it has several ...