Comparative Study on Wireless Mobile Technology:

1G, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G

K. Pandya
Gujarat Technological University, Gujarat, India
E-Mail Id : [email protected]
Abstract: Wireless communication is the transfer of information between two or more points that
are not directly connected by an electrical conductor. There is one of most common wireless
technologies uses radio waves. With radio waves distances can be short, such as a few meters for
television or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications.
Wireless communications use other electromagnetic wireless technologies, such as light, magnetic,
or electric fields or the use of sound.
In this paper we will show the evolution and development of various generations of mobile wireless
technology along with their significance and advantages of one over the other. In the past few
decades, mobile wireless technologies have experience 4 or 5 generations of technology revolution
and evolution, namely from 1G to 4G. Current research in mobile wireless technology concentrates
on advance implementation of 4G technology and 5G technology.
Index Term : 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
I. INTRODUCTION

The wireless network refers to any type of network that is not connected by cables of any kind. It is a
method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise (business) installations avoid
the costly process of introducing cables into buildings, or as a connection between various equipment
locations.
Wireless communications is one of the most active areas of technology development of our time.
This development is being driven primarily by the transformation of what has been largely a medium
for supporting voice telephony into a medium for supporting other services, such as the transmission
of video, images, text, and data. Thus, similar to the developments in wire line capacity in the 1990s,
the demand for new wireless capacity started growing at a very rapid pace. Although there are, of
course, still a great many technical problems to be solved in wire line communications, demands for
additional wire line capacity can be fulfilled largely with the addition of new private infrastructure,
such as additional optical fiber, routers, switches, and so on. There has been considerable research
effort in recent years aimed at developing new wireless capacity through the deployment of greater
intelligence in wireless networks. A key aspect of this movement has been the development of novel
signal transmission techniques and advanced receiver signal processing methods that allow for
significant increases in wireless capacity without attendant increases in bandwidth or power
requirements [1] [2].
Many years after the advent of wireless technology, the problem and hindrances of effective
communication is still present. Many people around the world are now using the wireless
communication and this has led to the congestion of network, low connectivity speed and low
bandwidth. Without wireless networks, internet browsing, the usage of cellular phones which are part
of everyday wireless networking that allows easy personal communications is impossible. Wireless
networking is also applicable in inter-continental network systems and the use of radio satellites to
communicate across the world. This technology allows for an alternative to installing physical
network mediums such as, coaxial and fiber-optic cables, which are expensive. Wireless networking

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helps save the cost of installation of cable mediums, save time from physical installation, and also
creates mobility for devices connected to a network [3].
II. EVOLUTION OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

 Classical 0G phones stood for the first generation of mobile phones i.e. Satellite phones
developed for boats mainly. Networks such as Iridium, Global Star and Eutelsat were truly
worldwide (although for physical reasons, think of a satellite as a fixed point above the equator,
some Northern parts of Scandinavia aren’t reachable), and everybody thought at that time that
satellite phones would become mainstream products as soon as devices got smaller and cheaper.
This vision proved wrong when the GSM concretely came to life in 1990-91 in Finland.

 1G: Firstly, there were analog GSM systems that existed for a few years. And then discover the
digital systems.

 2G: the second generation of mobile telecommunications still is the most widespread technology
in the world; you have basically all heard of the GSM norm (GSM stands for Groupe Special
Mobile in French, renamed in Global System for Mobility). The GSM operates in the 850Mhz.
and 1900Mhz. bands in the US, & 900 Mhz. and 1.8 Mhz bands in the rest of the world (eg did
you know Bluetooth stands in the 2.4Ghz. area, just like your…microwave!? But that is another
story, not related to this article) and delivers data at the slow rate of 9.6 Kbytes/sec.

 2.5G: For that last reason (9.6 Kbytes/sec doesn’t allow you to browse the Net or up/download
an image), telecom operators came up with the GPRS (remember all the hype around the Wap)
which could enable much faster communications (115Kbytes.sec). But the market decided it was
still not enough compared to what they had at home.

 2.75G: EDGE, which is a pretty recent standard, allows for downloading faster. Since mobile
devices have become both a TV and music player, people needed to be able to watch streaming
video and download mp3 files faster – that is precisely what EDGE allows for and that is for the
good news. The bad news is that if EDGE rocks at downloading, it is protocol is asymmetrical
hence making EDGE suck at uploading ie, broadcasting videos of yours for instance. Still an
interesting achievement thanks to which data packets can effectively reach 180kbytes/sec. EDGE
is now widely being used.

 3G: also called UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standard). Aimed at enabling
long expected videoconferencing, although nobody seems to actually use it (do you know any?).
Its other name is 3GSM, which says literally that UMTS is 3 times better than GSM. One issue
though: depending on the deployment level of the area you are in and your device, your phone
will (have to be) handle(d) from the GSM network to the UMTS network, and conversely –
making billing more complex to understand for the consumers. One of the major positive points
of UMTS is its global roaming capabilities (roaming is the process that allows you, at a cost, to
borrow bandwidth from a telecom provider that is not yours; you usually use roaming when
calling from abroad).

 3.5G or 3G+: HSDPA is theoretically 6 times faster than UMTS (up to 3.6 Mbytes/sec)!
Practically speaking, this would mean downloading an mp3 file would take about 30 sec instead
of something like 2 minutes.

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 4G: still a research lab standard, at least to my knowledge, that should combine the best of cell
phone network technologies with WiMax wireless Internet, voice over IP and IPv6 (a post about
the latter soon). Data rates are expected to reach 100 Mbytes/sec[4].

 5G : 5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems is a name used in some
research papers and projects to denote the next major phase of mobile telecommunication
standards beyond the upcoming 4G standards (which is expected to be finalized between
approximately 2011 and 2013)[5].

5G offers Peak per terminal throughput – 10 Gbps outdoors, spectral efficiency. – 5 bps/Hz/cell,
areal reliability – 99.5%, round trip delay < 1 ms, seamless coexistence with other radios. These
goals are significantly ahead of 4G performance. The new tools that can take us these goals may
include Opportunistic OFDMA, 20-60 MHz channel bandwidth, cognitive and opportunistic
channel structure, flexible ,variable reuse, cooperative methods, interference management, client
relay, hierarchical modulation, distributed MIMO and accumulative methods.

III. COMPARISON OF 1G TO 5G TECHNOLOGIES

Table1: General comparison of 1G to 5G technologies [5][7].

IV. CONCLUSION

Mobiles have become very essential part of our everyday life. Their current development is the
outcome of various generations. In this paper we review the various generations of mobile
wireless technology, their portals, performance, advantages and disadvantages of one generation
over other. This field is still full of research opportunities.

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 International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering & Research (IJRTER)
Volume 01, Issue 01; September– 2015 [ISSN:2455-1457]

REFFERENCES

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[5] J. M. Pereira, "Fourth Generation: Now, It Is Personal," Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Symposium on
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[6] H. Honkasalo, WCDMA and WLAN for 3G and Beyond,IEEE Wireless Communications, 9(2), 2002, 14 – 18.
[7] R. Berezdivin, R. Breinig, and R. Topp, Next Generation Wireless Communications Concepts and
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