5.14: Early Generations of Cellular Phone Systems

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The evolution of cellular communications is described by generations of radio. The major mobile communication systems are outlined in Table 5.8.1. No 0G and 1G systems remain and 2G systems are being phased out with only the 2G GSM system still in use. Third generation (3G) offers a significant increase in capacity and is optimized for broadband data access. The 0G– 2G systems were plagued by many incompatible systems. Even with 3G there were several incompatible systems but the system known as WCDMA became overwhelmingly dominant. With 4G the evolution coalesced and while there were many modulation methods a standardized interface was developed with the physical interface defined as common. The 4G radio, and also 5G, support many modulation methods and frequency bands and cellular radios support a large number of these combinations. In part this is because the bulk of the modulation is now performed in a DSP unit making the switching of modulation methods a simple process of using a different algorithm. The development of 4G, 5G (and beyond) has been guided by the Third Generation Partnership, 3GPP, which developed a plan called long term evolution (LTE) that ensured upwards compatibility as the capability of the systems were enhanced every year or two eventually becoming 5G.