Today wireless is becoming the leader in communication choices among
users. It is not anymore a backup solution for nomadic travellers but really a
newmoodnaturallyusedeverywhereevenwhenthewiredcommunicationsare
possible. Many technologies evolve then continuously, changing the telecom-
munication world. We talk about wireless local area networks (WLANs), wire-
less personal area networks (WPANs), wireless metropolitan area networks
(WMANs), wireless wide area networks (WWANs), mobile ad hoc networks
(MANETs), wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and mesh networks. Since we
can find today a multitude of wireless technologies we decided to group a
numberofcomplementarytechnologiesintoonedocumenttomakeiteasierfor
areadertounderstandsomeofthetechnicaldetailsofeachmedia.
Notwithstanding its infancy, wireless mesh networking (WMN) is a hot and
growing field. Wireless mesh networks began in the military, but have since
become of great interest for commercial use in the last decade, both in local
area networks and metropolitan area networks. The attractiveness of mesh
networks comes from their ability to interconnect either mobile or fixed
devices with radio interfaces, to share information dynamically, or simply to
extend range through multi-hopping.
This is a book on wireless communication. That usually means communica-
tion by radio, though ultrasound and infrared light are also used occasion-
ally. The term “wireless” has come to mean nonbroadcast communication,
usually between individuals who very often use portable or mobile equip-
ment. The term is rather vague, of course, and there are certainly borderline
applications that are called wireless without falling exactly into the above
definition.
During the past three decades, the world has seen signifi cant changes in the telecom-
munications industry. There has been rapid growth in wireless communications, as
seen by large expansion in mobile systems. Wireless communications have moved
from fi rst-generation (1G) systems primarily focused on voice communications to
third-generation (3G) systems dealing with Internet connectivity and multi-media
applications. The fourth-generation (4G) systems will be designed to connect wire-
less personal area networks (WPANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs) and
wireless wide-area networks (WWANs).
This book is concerned with integrated circuits and systems for wireless and
mobile communications. Circuit techniques and implementation of reconfigurable
low-voltage and low-power single-chip CMOS transceivers for multiband and multi-
mode universal wireless communications are the focus of the book. Applications
encompass both long-range mobile cellular communications (GSM and UMTS)
and short-range wireless LANs (IEEE802.11 and Bluetooth). Recent advances in
research into transceiver architecture, RF frontend, analogue baseband, RF CAD
and automatic testing are reported.
Mobile radio communications are evolving from pure telephony systems to multimedia
platforms offering a variety of services ranging from simple file transfers and audio and
video streaming, to interactive applications and positioning tasks. Naturally, these services
have different constraints concerning data rate, delay, and reliability (quality-of-service
(QoS)). Hence, future mobile radio systems have to provide a large flexibility and scal-
ability to match these heterogeneous requirements.
Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) are believed to be a highly promising
technology and will play an increasingly important role in future
generation wireless mobile networks. WMN is characterized by
dynamic self-organization, self-configuration and self-healing to
enable quick deployment, easy maintenance, low cost, high scalability
and reliable services, as well as enhancing network capacity, connect-
ivity and resilience.
This chapter provides extensive coverage of existing mobile wireless technologies. Much of the
emphasis is on the highly anticipated 3G cellular networks and widely deployed wireless local
area networks (LANs), as the next-generation smart phones are likely to offer at least these two
types of connectivity. Other wireless technologies that either have already been commercialized or
are undergoing active research and standardization are introduced as well. Because standardization
plays a crucial role in developing a new technology and a market, throughout the discussion
standards organizations and industry forums or consortiums of some technologies are introduced.
In addition, the last section of this chapter presents a list of standards in the wireless arena.
Welcome to the third volume of the book entitled Technologies for the Wireless Future, which
is produced by WWRF. The idea is to take the most important outputs from the working
groups and special-interest groups that compose the Forum and bring them together in a series
of one-volume surveys. The latest of these will give the reader a good overview of the WWRF
approach to analyzing the future of wireless and mobile communications, as well as an insight
into the trends themselves and the key technologies that will be deployed.
The wide deployment of wireless networks and mobile technologies, along with the
significant increase in the number of mobile device users, have created a very strong
demand on various wireless-based, mobile-based software application systems and
enabling technologies. This not only provides many new business opportunities and
challenges to wireless and networking service providers, mobile technology ven-
dors, and software industry and solution integrators, butalso changes and enhances
people’s lives in many areas, including communications, information sharing and
exchange, commerce, home environment, education, and entertainment. Business
organizations and government agencies face new pressure fortechnology updatesto
upgrade their networking infrastructures with wireless connectivity to enhance
enterprise-oriented systems and solutions.