Radio Resource Allocation and Dynamic Spectrum Access

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Wireless and Mobile Networks

1.1. Introduction

This chapter discusses wireless networks, their functions, categories, types, etc. It also deals with mobile networks including their structures and the evolution from the first generation (1G) to the fourth generation (4G). The chapter also discusses the IEEE 802.22 standard, which is a cognitive radio (CR) standard.

“Mobile” and “wireless” are terms that are often used to describe existing networks, such as the global system for mobile (GSM) communication, IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. However, it is important to differentiate between the two types of networks, which cover the concepts of mobile and wireless, to avoid any confusion.

Mobile and wireless networks have experienced an unprecedented growth in recent years. This is partly because of local wireless networks that have become part of our daily life through the main standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and partly due to the development of several successive generations of telecommunication networks, essentially dedicated to telephony (second generation (2G), GSM) and then more oriented toward multimedia (third generation (3G), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS)).

Today, the majority of computers and almost all “mobile” devices (such as mobile phones and electronic diaries) have the means to connect to one or more types of wireless networks, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and infrared. Therefore, it is very simple to create a “wireless” network in just a few minutes, ...