Not my best paper but a pretty good look at the standards and the possible outcome.

1. SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
4th Generation Mobile
Communication
Standards Competition
Manan Kakkar
4/9/2012

2. Manan Kakkar 1
IST 755
Table of Contents
4G and 4G LTE........................................................................................................................... 2
Network Effects......................................................................................................................... 2
Complementary Assets and Ecosystem ......................................................................................... 2
Competing Standards ................................................................................................................. 3
Outcome .................................................................................................................................. 4
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................. 5

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4G and 4G LTE
The rapid proliferation of smartphones, 47.3% growth in 2011 over 2010 (Gartner, 2012), has led to the
need for faster Internet speeds. The Internet usage has increased in proportion with the growth in
mobile users (eMarketer Digital Intelligence, 2011). The Internet speeds on the phones have improved.
The evolution has been from GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE, to 3rd Generation (3G) and
now the industry buzzword 4th Generation (4G).
The term 4G is being distorted by the telecom companies. According to the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations body, ratifies standards has not defined what is 4G.
As of now, there are two popular standards that are under the International Telecommunications Union
Radiocommunication Sector’s (ITU-R) consideration—Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced)
and WiMAX. According to ITU-R, IMT-Advanced is the 4G technical term (ITU Newsroom, 2010). The two
standards have technical differences and different groups backing the two standards. LTE has several
operators adopting the technology with more OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers).
LTE is being backed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). LTE Release 8 by the 3GPP meets the
ITU-R’s IMT-Advanced requirements. The technical specifications of LTE are mentioned further in the
article.
Network Effects
In the US, Sprint started with WiMAX but now has moved to LTE (Bonnington, 2011). In addition to
Sprint, AT&T and Verizon have deployed LTE (AT&T, 2012) and (Verizon Wireless). This has led LTE
having an edge over WiMAX when it comes to mobile phone Internet. The carriers have the leading
phone manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Nokia) developing LTE devices.
As more carriers adopt LTE and sell more LTE compatible 4G devices, the standard will have a network
effect resulting in other carriers opting for LTE.
The network effects due to the standard war will be moderate to high.
Complementary Assets and Ecosystem
As Internet on mobile devices gets faster, there is growing emphasis on battery needed to power the
devices. Additional phone batteries, battery packs and mobile chargers are going to play an important
role. Phone devices being designed to house bigger batteries is another option for the ecosystem
players. New phone designs and better battery life leads to newer phone accessories, more content
consumption which leads to more game and music sales; faster speeds compound to the possibility of
more content consumption.
As for the carriers, deploying LTE equipment and upgrading their existing infrastructure.

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Competing Standards
WiMAX is the biggest competitor to LTE. WiMAX is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard and the current
implementation is IEEE 802.16m. Sprint’s subsidiary—Clearwire has been the biggest WiMAX player in
the US. IEEE 802.16m meets the ITU-R’s IMT-Advanced requirements, however, the equipment
deployed is IEEE 802.16e—predecessor to 802.18m (Abichar, Chang, & Hsu, 2010). LTE uses OFDMA for
downlink (downloading content to the phone from the network) and SC-FDMA for uplink (uploading
from the phone to the network). WiMAX, on the other hand, uses OFDMA for uplink and downlink. Not
going into the technical details about the two, both standards use similar basic principles. The core
difference is in the frames (2 to 20 ms frames for WiMAX and 10ms for LTE). Besides, the frames, the
technical difference is in how data is uploaded. As phones run on battery, they have little power to
amplify signals. Extensive battery power being utilized for uploading content is harmful for device
performance. OFDMA as a technology needs signal amplification more than SC-FDMA, hence WiMAX
has a shortcoming. Since base stations have their own power source, use of OFDMA for downlink does
not affect mobile device battery consumption (Abichar, Chang, & Hsu, 2010).
While, both LTE and WiMAX, consume more battery, engineers have put in mechanisms to conserve
battery. In WiMAX, the deployment is called “Sleep Mode.” The implementation has three types: 1, 2
and 3. LTE Discontinued Transmission and Discontinued Reception (DTX and DRX). In LTE, the transceiver
radio module is turned ON or OFF. WiMAX has been commercially available since 2004 hence has a
considerable user base in industries other than mobile telephony.
Figure 1 LTE and WiMAX technical specifications (Abichar, Chang, & Hsu, 2010)
In the US, carriers are promoting HSPA+ as 4G. AT&T and Apple are displaying HSPA+ as 4G on the new
iPhone 4S devices (Kovach, 2012). T-Mobile, is promoting their 42Mbps HSPA+ (Release 8)

5. Manan Kakkar 4
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implementation as 4G. According to a presentation by Qualcomm, HSPA+ Release 10 will offer LTE
speeds (Qualcomm).
Outcome
Some existing WiMAX equipment can be made LTE compatible with software updates (Wireless, 2011);
this is a huge advantage for LTE over WiMAX. As a result, operators who deploy or have deployed
WiMAX, can update their infrastructure to LTE eventually. In addition to some hardware being
upgradeable, there are other technical solutions that bring LTE and WiMAX on the same chip.
Demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress 2010, Beceem Communications’ BCS500 supports WiMAX
standards 802.16e and 802.16m, and LTE Release 8 (Kassner, 2010).
WiMAX is gaining some adoption in countries like India for wireless broadband Internet (Kakkar, 2011).
The two standards can co-exist. With LTE and LTE-Advanced being deployed for mobile Internet
solutions and WiMAX being used for wireless broadband Internet connectivity.

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Bibliography
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Internet? ITPro.
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Bonnington, C. (2011, October 7). So Long, WiMax: Sprint Confirms LTE Rollout by 2013. Retrieved April
9, 2012, from Wired Gadget Blog: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/sprint-lte-rollout-
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eMarketer Digital Intelligence. (2011, August 4). Two in Five Mobile Owners Use Internet on the Go.
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http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008553
Gartner. (2012, February 15). Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of
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Kovach, S. (2012, March 8). The Ridiculous Trick AT&T And Apple Are Playing On iPhone 4S Owners.
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Qualcomm. (n.d.). HSPA+ is Everywhere. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from Qaulcomm:
http://www.qualcomm.com/solutions/wireless-networks/technologies/hspa-plus
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