IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference
Plenary Talk3
November 3-5, 2008 / Fukuoka, Japan
4G Wireless Technology:
When will it happen? What does it offer?
Bill Krenik
Chief Technical Officer, Wireless Business Unit
Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, Texas
Abstract
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This paper will explore what 4G technology is, as well as
some of the key factors that must be addressed to fully
comprehend the benefits and challenges of successfully
implementing 4G. Silicon level technology issues will be
addressed, such as next-generation applications processing,
modem technology, power management and integration.
Finally, the trends and predictions for 4G network deployment
will be discussed.
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Figure 1: Current 3G handset features
The move to 4G networks will allow service providers to offer
the impressive applications that will drive users to upgrade to
the new phones. Current downlink data rates are less than 10
megabits per second (Mbps); 4G systems will offer downlink
data rates well over 100 Mbps, an improvement of 10 times
over 3G. 4G systems will also have low latency, improving
the consumer experience. With flexible network connections,
efficient use of spectrum and impressive user applications, 4G
will offer what consumers want.
Introduction
Consumer expectations for mobile handsets and similar
products are becoming more and more sophisticated.
Consumers are demanding a better user experience along with
more advanced and useful applications on a more ergonomic
device. Devices continue to shrink in size while growing in
processing power. Next generation mobile networks, like 4G
wireless technologies, will need to meet these user
expectations if they are to succeed.
But bringing 4G to the market will have its challenges. Next
generation applications processors and modem technology will
be necessary as well as higher levels of integration and power
management. All of this, of course, has to be offered at a price
point that the consumer will pay.
What is LTE?
The current third generation (3G) offerings are a big
improvement over the previous 3G network products from
several years ago. Figure 1 demonstrates how mobile devices
have changed in the past 7 years.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is sometimes called
3.9G or Super 3G and has been developed by the Third
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as an improvement to
the current Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS). By using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple
Access (OFDMA), LTE will be able to provide download rates
of 150 Mbps for multi-antenna (2x2) multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) for the highest category terminals. For these
terminals upload rates in the 50 Mbps range will allow an
efficient transfer of data.
The current 3G devices are good, but they will have to
improve in areas like imaging and processing power to support
future 4G applications like three dimensional (3D) and
holographic gaming, 16 megapixel (MPixel) smart cameras
and high-definition (HD) camcorders. Applications like these
will demand more processing power than the current 3G
handsets offer, requiring more efficient applications processors.
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LTE makes very efficient use of the available spectrum with
channel bandwidths from 1.25 Megahertz (MHz) to 20 MHz.
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implemented in countries where 5 MHz is a commonly
allocated amount of spectrum. LTE will also co-exist with
legacy systems already rolled out around the world.
IMTAdvanced
UMTS/
TD-SCDMA
HSPA
GPRS/
EDGE
With less than 5 millisecond (ms) latency for small IP packets,
LTE is able to offer an Internet experience closer to a wired
broadband connection. In addition, LTE supports MBSFN
(Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network) for Mobile
TV broadcasts over the LTE network.
~ 200kbps
ƒ SMS, Internet
Browsing
Spectral efficiency (bps/Hz)
Spectral efficiency (bps/Hz)
1
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HSDPA (1X2) HSDPA (1X2) HSDPA (2X2)
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Context awareness will allow phones to sense and react to a
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shopping in a local mall. She passes by a poster of her favorite
TV star. Her phone and the poster sense each other and she
receives information directly on her phone about show times
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Another exciting future application is telemedicine. In the
future a patient will be able to take general readings, like
temperature, pulse and blood glucose levels and send them
directly to a doctor for evaluation. Or, imagine you are the
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heads off to school each day you must rely on the child and
school nurse to keep their diabetes under control. With
telemedicine applications, your child would be able to take
their blood glucose reading at school and that reading would
then be automatically forwarded to you, the parent, giving you
peace of mind. The possibilities are endless!
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0.4
0.3
0.2
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HSUPA release'6
(1X2)*
LTE (2X2)
MIMO*
LTE (1X2)*
Figure 4 shows some of the expected 4G applications and the
performance levels consumers demand. Consumers today
expect their mobile device to perform with the same or even
better standards than stand-alone devices. These applications
along with an intuitive, high resolution user interface will
deliver the 4G experience of tomorrow.
OFDM Benefits
ƒ High-spectral efficiency
ƒ Resistance to frequency
selective fading
ƒ Robust to multi-path
Show Time
7:30pm
As data rates have increased over the years, higher
performance applications have been enabled on the mobile
handset. Figure 3 shows the progression of these applications.
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0
video streaming
ƒ Mobile Web 2.0
4G Applications
LTE Uplink
1.2
display
graphics
ƒ High-resolution
OFDMA is able to deliver high spectral efficiency due to its
resistance to frequency selective fading, multi-path robustness,
flexible resource scheduling and its ability to take advantage
of MIMO antenna systems. With two times the spectral
efficiency of High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA),
OFDMA is able to provide the performance needed for 4G
systems.
Like latency, efficiency will be critical to 4G systems. The
large amounts of information flowing through 4G systems will
require high spectral efficiency. Figure 2 shows the relative
spectral efficiency of different 3G and 4G system modem
technologies.
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Preference-Aware
ƒ Advanced video
Figure 3: 4G Enables Higher-Performance Applications
Consumers want a connection experience like they get at their
homes using a wired broadband connection. LTE will
decrease latency to just 50 ms from dormant to connection and
a 5 ms one-way latency after that, delivering connection
latencies similar to a wired connection.
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video streaming
Song 2
Latency in a wireless network describes the time it takes
between when an action is initiated or requested and when it
actually begins. In 3.5G networks, when a phone is in
dormant mode and wants to initiate a connection, a several
hundred milleseconds (ms) delay is common.
For
transmission of data packets, 50 ms one-way latency is the
norm.
LTE Downlink
ƒ HD video streaming
ƒ Multi-view real time
~ 100 Mbps
to 1Gbps
ƒ Virtual reality
ƒ Context &
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Latency and Efficiency
1.4
~ 10 to 100
Mbps
Purchase
LTE is currently expected to be ratified in December 2008
with first products available the next year. An additional
upgrade, LTE Advanced, would enable peak data download
rates of over 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) to support 4G
functionality.
1.6
~ 300kbps
to 14 Mbps
ƒ Interactive 3D
LTE/
Wi-MAX
ƒ OFDMA allows flexible resource
scheduling
ƒ Well-suited to multiple antennae,
MIMO systems (diversity)
*: Based upon operator initiated LTE performance comparison in 3GPP RAN1
Figure 2: OFDM Offers the Best Spectral Efficiency
142
Camera
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2D/3D graphics
and gaming
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ƒ 1 s shot-to-shot
Browser
ƒ Full web page display
ƒ All plug-ins and fonts
Navigation
ƒ GPS based directions
ƒ Real-time traffic updates
Media player
12-megapixel
camera
Seamless connectivity
to WiFi, 3G,
WiMAX, GPS
Camcorder
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ƒ Image stabilization
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Figure 4: 4G Meets High Consumer Expectations
Figure 5: OMAP Delivers the Performance for 4G Systems
Mobile Internet Device (MID)
Integrated graphics and image accelerators enable new levels
of application performance for 4G phones, like HD camcorder
functionality and 720p HD video playback. A critical
component of this new generation of OMAP processors is the
integration of SmartReflex technologies for advanced power
reduction to give users the battery life they expect. Additional
interfaces and integrated systems on OMAP 3 processors are
shown in Figure 6.
A new class of mobile devices is emerging that is a
convergence of the Smartphone market with the PC market.
These new MIDs, Mobile Internet Devices, are low-power,
high-performance wireless devices, able to deliver a desktop
experience on a small footprint, portable device. MIDs deliver
an intuitive user interface with touch screens, as well as fullfeatured browser support, high resolution displays, broadband
and personal connectivity, a camera, camcorder, navigation,
media player, gaming and office productivity applications in a
small footprint that can operate all day on a single charge.
Integration and Power Management
To be able to deliver the performance needed for 4G
technologies, process technologies must continue towards
higher integration. The current 45 nanometer (nm) process in
use today allows up to two times the density compared to the
previous 65nm process. In addition to cost savings, the 45nm
process achieves a 25% performance increase over the 65nm
process. Continued integration will increase performance
while decreasing costs over time. But all this integration
comes at a price, namely the need for sophisticated power
management technologies. Shrinking the process technology
down to 45nm has an exponential effect on leakage power
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The OMAP 3 family of applications processors delivers a
whole new level of integration and performance for 4G
applications by integrating a multi-core technology along with
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social network
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Engine,
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Image capture and
playback.
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Bluetooth
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Signal
Processor
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The amount of processing performance needed to deliver these
new 4G applications will be large. Integrated, multi-core
architectures that deliver microprocessors and DSPs on a
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sophisticated and intuitive user interfaces and provide a web
browsing experience similar to traditional PCs. These multicore applications processors are smaller in size and consume
less power than PC-based architectures.
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performance, power and price needed for 4G technology.
Peripherals
Next Generation Applications Processors
L4 rnterconnect
With the ability to reuse software and hardware already in use
in Smartphones, MIDs will offer a whole new market for 4G
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investment and accelerate the time-to-market of these new
devices.
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image enhancement
and correction.
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accelerometers,
eye glasses
Digital still
camera
quality
imaging
Drive TV or
DLP direct
from phone
Figure 6: OMAP 3 High-Performance Applications Processors for 4G
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