W2A.

The Overview of the 4th Generation Mobile

Communication System

Toshio Miki, Tomoyuki Ohya, Hitoshi Yoshino and Narumi Umeda

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Wireless Labs.
3-5 Hikari-no-oka, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa, 239-8536 Japan
{ mikito, ooyat, yoshinoh, umedan}@nttdocomo.co.jp

Abstract— In order to satisfy the expectation of the users to have
more advanced wireless access even in the mobile environments,
research and development efforts for realizing the Fourth-
Generation (4G) mobile communication system has been
discussed. This paper outlines the requirements for the system,
technical challenges to be solved, and finally describes the
activities related to the standardization of the 4G mobile
communication system..
4G mobile communication system; standardization
I. INTRODUCTION
The users of the Third-Generation (3G) International
Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) [1] mobile
communication services, which was launched in October 2001,
has already reached about 34 million subscribers in Japan. The
system provides a variety of advanced multimedia services
such as video communications and high speed internet access.
It is expected that this will lead to the mobile communication
more important to our daily lives and will expand the role as a
lifestyle basis in the next ten years. It is also expected that such
an era requires a more advanced wireless communications
system, such as the Fourth-Generation (4G) mobile
communication system, which far surpasses the capability of
the existing IMT-2000 as shown in Figure 1. The development
process of the new mobile systems consists of developing the
requirements, providing solutions satisfies the requirements,
showing evidences for each technology to satisfy the
requirements, as well as building international consensus
through the standardization activities. In this article, we
describe a basic approach to the technical issues and system
1990’s 2000’s 2010’s
configuration involved in achieving the capability and
performance required of the 4G system. We also describe the
trends in standardization concerning mobile communication
systems.
II. SYSTEM OBJECTIVES
A. Applications for 4G systems
The improvements in media communication quality have
been one of the most perceptible advancements and only the
perceptible advancements noted by the customers. For example,
the size and resolution of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
screens, the number of pixels in built-in camera, and the wide
variety of ringer tones have been key to the popularity of
mobile handsets. However, current mobile terminals still have
much room in terms of improving communication reality. The
ultimate objective of enhanced-reality media communications
is to provide a transparent environment that is indistinguishable
from face-to-face communications.
The applications, which require more advanced wireless
capabilities, are discussed in [2]. In the article, three main
directions for enhancing media communication reality, that is
3D audio communications, 3D visual communications and
biological information communications, as shown in Figure 2,
were analyzed, and as a conclusion, it is expected that the
future customers will be able to full use of 1 Mbit/s to 100
3D Audio 3D Visual
Communications Communications

Generation 2G 3G 4G
Digital Cellular High speed access Ultra high speed access
Internet ATM Network Ubiquitous access Biological info.
Mobile Communications
Media Mobile Internet Mobile Ubiquitous Alter- Tactile
Multimedia ego sense
Services
i-mode, SMS
E-mail FOMA Broadband &
Web Video mail
Ubiquitous
browsing Visual phone Personalized communications
TV conference Reality communications

Figure 2. Three Main Targets for Enhanced-Reality Communications

Figure 1 Evolution of the Mobile Communications Systems

0-7803-9282-5/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 1551 ICICS 2005

 system, introduced the i-mode services, which enabled the
TABLE I REQUIREMENTS FOR FUTURE NETWORKS (TENTATIVE) [1] Internet access, electronic commerce and e-mail from mobile
Media Transmission Delay Connection Terminal capabilities
terminals, and mainly used for the text-based data
speed Latency communications. The IMT-2000 system offers high bit rate
Speech/
3D Audio
< 1 Mbps <50ms <1sec • 3D sound field control
• High efficiency loud
transmission service from 64 kbit/s to 384 kbit/s, and it is
speakers expected that the proportion of the amount of data traffic to the
Video/ 10Mbps (2D video) ~ <50ms <1sec • Real time hologram voice traffic would continue to increase. Moreover, the rising
3D video 30Gbps (3D video)
Enhanced < 1Mbps << 50ms N/A •Eyeglass display
popularity of broadband services such as Asymmetric Digital
Reality Should be •3D and multimodal UI Subscriber Line (ADSL) and optical fiber access systems and
predictable
Five senses < 1Mbps <50ms N/A •Five sense sensors
office or home LANs is likely to lead to a demand for
communications comparable services in the mobile communication environment.
Tele-existence <10Mbps (Robotic I/F) < 10ms <1sec • Alter-ego robot
< 1Gbps (Virtual avatar) < 30ms 2) Low Cost
< 100Mbps (Alter-ego < 5ms (Small and
existence) known jitter) To make broadband services available to the user to
exchange various kinds of information, it is necessary to lower
New service platform, charges dramatically in order to keep the cost at or below the
Capability
which enables;
- rapid deployment of new cost of existing service. The IMT-2000 system aimed at lower
services For the
New capabilities
- easy development of new
services
development of bit cost and economical charge rates, however for the 4G
Seamless networking among
different radio access
new services
system, a broadband channel and an even lower bit cost are
techniques
Peak bit rate:
both required.
100Mbps with high mobility
1 Gbps in Hot-spots
3) Wide Area Coverage
10 times higher
One feature of mobile communications is that it is available
1/10 to 1/100 per bit Improvement
Data rate：384kbps
of basic system for use anytime and anywhere. That advantage is important for
All - IP
System capacity -Can handle packet with
performance
future mobile communication as well. In particular, it is
Performance various QoS requirements
Cost
Transport： ATM（convergence of improvements System control
Reduce of NW
costs
important to maintain the service area in which the terminals of
circuit- and packet-
switched traffic）
according to mobility
（the amount of control
the new system can be used during the transition from the
IP-based packet in 3.5G

Mobility ：uniform
signals reduced to
1/10） existing system to a new system. It can be assumed that
control
Transmission delay Less than 50ms terminals that have relatively large display screens, such as
3G
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or personal computers are
Systems beyond 3G
used indoors rather than outdoors. Accordingly, better coverage
Figure 3 Requirements for 4G system of indoor service areas is needed.

1G - Break-
Break-through in Radio Interfaces is needed,
4) Capable for Wide Variety of Services
- Longer period of migration from IMT-
IMT-2000 to ４G 100M – 1G Mobile communication is for various types of users. In the
systems beyond IMT-
IMT-2000 is forecasted,
100M - Inter-
Inter-work would be a solution future, we expect to make the advanced system performance
Peak
Approx.
Break
through and functionality to introduce a variety of services not only the
ordinary telephone service but to transfer information about the
Data speed [bps]

10M
3G 14M

MAX sepc.
average
2M Super3G five sensual modes. Those services must be made easier for
2M
HSDPA
Reduced delay anyone to use.
1M 384k IP commonality
Break 2005 in Urban
through W-CDMA area C. Design Objectives
100k 64k Need deployment
2G & 2.5G 32k to accommodate Considering that the video communications and data
28.8k PHS increasing traffic
9.6k PHS
communications will be the main features, the 4G system must
10k PDC

2.4k
Packet
PDC
3rdG band (2GHz)
2ndG band (1.9GHz PHS)
provide even higher transmission rate and higher capacity than
PDC
2ndG band (800MHz PDC) IMT-2000. Also, considering that the video transmission
1k
92 95 00 05 10 quality in current broadcasting is achieved by the transmission
rate of several megabits per second, the LAN transmission rates
Figure 4 Evolution in Data Transmission Rate are from 10 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s, and the rate of ADSL is
several megabits per second, the design objective is a transfer
Mbit/s under the end-to-end latency of 5 msec to 50 msec as rate of about 100 Mbit/s for the outdoor mobile environment
shown in Table I. This seems a reasonable motivation for and gigabit class rates for indoors. It will not be possible to
discussing the necessity of the new mobile systems. accommodate future mobile communication traffic unless a
transmission capacity of at least ten times that IMT-2000 does
B. Requirements for 4G system attain as shown in Figure 4. To ensure throughput for
1) Broadband Wireless Access communication between terminals and achieve highly real-time
The traffic carried by mobile communication systems until communication, it is necessary to realize the low transfer delay
today was mainly for voice communications. The Second- time of 50 ms and even lower, and low connection set up delay
Generation (2G) system, the Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) time of 500 ms or less. Also, assuming that the future services
will be based on IP (Internet Protocol) networks, the efficient

1552
zMaximizing its capacity in multi-cell environments zMaximizing capacity in an isolated
cell environment, e.g. hot spot
frequency bandwidth using multi-level adaptive modulation
⇒Spectrum Spreading in Frequency Domain
- Spreading Factor > 1 ⇒No spectrum spreading in Frequency Domain
- Spreading Factor = 1, compatible with conventional OFDM
and demodulation is under development [3]. To achieve rates
that are several times to several tens of times higher than that, it
requires a new transmission systems that are suited to high-rate
Freq. Freq.
transmission.
System bandwidth System bandwidth
One of the candidate technologies that satisfies the
Capacity
Time
Code #1
>1 =1

Capacity
Time requirements is Variable Spreading Factor Orthogonal
Code #2 Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing (VSF-OFCDM) [4],
Variable
Spreading which is based on multi-career CDMA technologies with the
Code Factor
#N variable spreading factor scheme for increasing the system
Multi-cell
Freq.
Reuse of the same frequency
Freq.
capacity shown in Figure 5. The biggest advantage of the VSF-
Scramble code unique to each cell
#1
OFCDM is its flexibility in the spreading factor. When it is
#2
#3
#4
Isolated cell
applied to isolated hot spots, we can achieve its highest
#5
#6
#7 capacity by choosing a spreading factor of one to be compatible
with conventional OFDM. On the other hand, it works as a
Figure 5 Variable Spreading Factor Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division
kind of CDMA with a spreading factor higher than one under
Multiplexing (VSF-OFCDM) multi-cell environments to enable the same frequency reuse.
Then, a single air interface of VSF-OFCDM realizes
capabilities of OFDM and CDMA in an adaptive manner
Field trials of broadband mobile according to environments. It was reported that success in 1
access in Yokosuka-city, Japan Gbps real-time packet in-lab transmission experiments in
combination with MIMO technology was confirmed in Aug.
NTT Yokosuka
branch
（別館）
Macro Diversity among
multipe sectors 2004 [5], and also reported that the success of 1 Gbps real-time
building
Macro Diversity among
-Hand-over tests
packet field transmission experiment was confirmed in June
multiple cells
- Hand-over tests Sector Sector 2005 [6].
#2 #1

Base Station Equipment Mobile Equip.

2) Technologies for Cost Reduction
Sector
Kinugasa
¾Basic Radio Access Tests;
on vehicle The use of higher frequency band to achieve higher
Downlink: VSF-OFCDM
Uplink: VSCRF-CDMA
transmission rate with conventional system configuration
NTT
Kinugasa
- Test on targeted throughput
Downlink : More than 100Mbps， technology generally reduces the radius of the cell that one
Uplink: more than 20 Mbps
building
- Coverage aspects tests
¾Feasibility tests on key technologies in
base station can cover. To retain the original coverage area,
Transmission and MAC layers
¾Propagation measuring campaign more base stations are required and network cost is increased.
To avert that problem, it is necessary to expand cell radii by
Figure 6 Field Experiment for VSF-OFDM means of higher performance radio transmission and circuit
technology, such as improved modulation/demodulation
transmission of IP packets between wireless terminals is also a techniques that can cope with low S/N, the use of adaptive
necessity. While increased capacity is also effective in array antennas, and low noise receivers. There is also a need to
lowering bit cost, the cost per bit must be reduced to from 1/10 study diversified entrance links that connect base stations to the
to 1/100 of the current levels by reduction of infrastructure backbone network, autonomous base station control technology
equipment costs, operation costs and construction costs as well and multi-hop radio connection technology that employs
(Figure 3). simple relay stations, for further reduction in the costs of
system construction and operation.
The design objectives described above aim at services that
have higher performance than existing services, yet are easy to 3) System Interconnection Technology Based on IP
use. It is necessary to pioneer new markets, making use of the Networking
capabilities and performance of the 4G system such as When a new system is first introduced, it is generally
integration with indoor wireless LAN and wired systems, and difficult to fulfill the service area to the extent of the existing
the implementation of a mechanism for introducing new system. However, by implementing a terminal that has the
services in a short time, etc. capabilities of both the new system and the existing system, it
is possible to cover both areas. Also, giving consideration to
III. APPROACH TO 4G SYSTEM CONFIGURATION international roaming, a terminal that can be configured to
work with multiple systems based on Software Defined Radio
A. Technical Challenges (SDR) technology is an effective way to cope with periods of
system introduction and operating frequency bands that differ
1) Technology for Implementing High-capacity and High- from country to country and region to region. Furthermore,
rate Transmission future mobile communication services will be provided with
IMT-2000, which employs Wideband Code Division interconnection and integrated with heterogeneous access
Multiple Access (W-CDMA), achieves a transmission rate of 2 technologies, including wired and indoor area, access based on
Mbit/s with 5 MHz frequency bandwidth. Furthermore, IP networks. Accordingly, interconnection and handover
technology for transmission at about 10 Mbit/s with the same

1553
 WG-Technology WG- WG-Spectrum IMT-2000 standards already support up to 10 Mbit/s, and
Service further enhancements are being developed, possibly up to 30
- SWG1 (IMT-2000 aspects) -SWG Sharing Studies
- SWG2 (SDR) - SWG Market - SWG Freq. Arrangements Mbit/s by around 2005. So, the research targets for systems
- SWG3 (Radio Aspects) - SWG Spectrum - SWG Spectrum bands
Calculation - SWG WRC
beyond IMT-2000 for deployment after 2010 were set as “100
Liaison
Mbit/s for high mobility,” and “1 Gbit/s for low mobility,” as
WG-Developing IMT shown in Figure 8.
ITU-T
Satellite Coordination - IMT for developing countries ITU-D
Group WP8A
(of internal 8F activities)
AH-Workplan
WP8D
B. Activities in Japan
AH-Migrate
External Organizations In Japan, in 2001, the committee of future mobile
communication systems produced an action plan to realize the
Figure 7 Structure of WP8F
mobile IT environments, in response to the inquiry by the
between such various access systems are required in addition to Minister of the Ministry of the Public Management, Home
handover and roaming within one mobile communication Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications(MPHPT: currently,
system. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications(MIC)). This
report analyzes the trend of mobile communication in the 21st
century, presents a basic concept of future mobile
IV. STANDARDIZATION ACTIVITIES communication systems, and shows a comprehensive strategy
for promoting future mobile communication systems [9]. This
A. Activities in ITU-R report was the starting points for the discussion of systems
After the successful development of the IMT-2000 beyond IMT-2000 in Japan.
standards, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
began research on the future development of IMT-2000 and Then, based on the report from the committee the mobile IT
systems beyond IMT-2000, and the Study Group 8 Working Forum (mITF) [10] was established in June 2001. In 2003, the
Party 8F (WP8F) was established in November 1999. At the forum completed a document named “Flying Carpet” [11],
World Radiocommunication Conference -2000 (WRC-2000) which envisions the future mobile society. This report
held in Istanbul in June 2000, ITU-R resolved to conduct identifies future applications and their requirements from the
research on the future systems, including spectrum viewpoints of business, users, and social systems. It also
requirements, to investigate the research situation at WRC- identifies high level system requirements for the future mobile
2003 and to review spectrum requirements at subsequent systems. The contents of this report have been used for the
WRCs. As the first step, the ITU-R WP8F formulated a Japanese proposals to ITU-R through contribution documents,
recommendation M.1645 [7] regarding the future vision to give parts of which were included in the ITU-R Recommendation
direction to the future technological developments. The M.1645. Now, mITF is developing a reference model for future
recommendation was approved at the February 2003 meeting mobile systems, and also developing a new spectrum
of SG8. WP8F is currently studying spectrum related matters calculation methodology, part of which was proposed to WP8F.
for systems beyond IMT-2000 in preparation for WRC-07 to be The preparation group for WP8F in Japan is in the
held in 2007 (Figure 7). Association of Radio Industry and Businesses (ARIB), one of
The ultimate goals set in the recommendation M.1645 were the standards development organizations (SDOs) in
the system for anytime, for anywhere and for anyone. The telecommunications. The group consists of members, mainly
systems beyond IMT-2000 has extended and enhanced from mobile operators and manufacturers around the world.
capabilities to IMT-2000, which includes, “higher data rates,” The group drafts Japanese contributions to ITU-R WP8F and
“improved roaming,” and “true inter-system mobility examines other ITU-R contributions submitted to ITU-R from
management.” It is also expected that the greater flexibility to other ITU-R Members. The group is now preparing an answer
support many different types of services simultaneously to the questionnaires on market and services for future
(examples: symmetrical, asymmetrical & unidirectional development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT-2000,
services) should be possible [8]. from WP8F. The group is also developing a spectrum
calculation methodology in collaboration with the mITF Forum.
The recommendation also analyzes the necessary data
transmission rates. As the IMT-2000 original minimum C. Other Activities
requirements for radio technology evaluation were “144 kbit/s
for vehicular high speed,” “384 kbit/s for medium speed,” and The Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF), an
“2048 kbit/s for indoor and low speed.” However, currently the organization of mainly European vendors, is also producing
research results concerning a future vision for wireless
Systems beyond IMT-
2000 will encompass the
Rec. ITU-R M.1645 communication [6], and new research projects are being
capabilities of previous
New capabilities of
organized on the basis of those results. Also, the 3rd
systems
Mobility systems beyond Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which created the
IMT-2000 standard specifications through international
High
New Mobile
Dashed line indicates cooperation, has produced a road map for future functional
Enhanced that the exact data
IMT-2000
IMT-2000 Access rates associated with extension of IMT-2000. That road map includes study of a
systems beyond IMT-
2000 are not yet
Enhancement t
Enhancemen determined

New Nomadic / Local

Low
Area Wireless Access

1 10 100 1000
Peak useful data rate (Mbit/s)
Interconnection Nomadic / Local Area Access Systems Digital Broadcast Systems 1554

Figure 8 Target of Systems beyond IMT-2000

schedule for functional extension according to the ITU-R
vision recommendation.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper reported the 4G system objectives including
potential applications and system requirements, technical
challenges, and related standardization activities. Through the
discussion, it has been revealed that the major feature of the 4G
system capability should be its ultra high speed IP packet
transmission with reduced delay to meet a variety of
requirements derived from the two-way enhanced reality
communications such as 3D-audio, 3D-video, and biological
information media world.
It was also described that our technical challenges in radio
communication fields are likely to provide breakthrough
candidates to realize the above features. The local and
international standardization activities indicate a global strong
support toward this 4G direction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to give our thanks to all the fellows in NTT
DoCoMo Wireless Labs and Multimedia Labs for their fruitful
suggestions and discussions.
1555
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.itu.int/home/imt.html
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for 4G Mobile Networks,” The First International Conference on
Multimedia Services Access Networks (MSAN) 2005, Olrand, U.S.A.,
June 2005.
[3] F. Adachi and M Uesugi, “Latest Trends in CDMA Technology,” IEICE
Journal. Vol. 86, No.2, pp. 96-102, 2003
[4] M. Sawahashi, S. Abeta, H. Atarashi, K. Higuchi, M. Tanno and T. Ihara,
“Broadband Packet Wireless Access,” NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal,
Vol. 11, No. 2, Jul., 2003.
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[6] http://www.nttdocomo.com/presscenter/pressreleases/press/pressrelease.
html?param[no]=564
[7] ITU-R Recommendation M.1645, “Framework and overall objectives of
the future development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT-2000,”
2003.
[8] C. Cooke, “Systems beyond IMT-2000,” ITU-R SG8 Seminar, 9th
September, 2004
[9] http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/policyreports/joho_tsusin/bunkakai
/abstract.pdf (in Japanese)
[10] http://www.mitf.org/index_e.html
[11] http://www.mitf.org/public_e/archives/Flying_Carpet_Ver200.pdf