Cellular Networks.. a complete story from 1G to 5G?

Cellular Networks Introduction

A cellular network is a communication network broadcasted usually by transeivers i.e. base stations. It distributes network over land areas called cells. These base station containing major transeiver provides the cell with network coverage for transmission of voice, data and other types of content. A cell uses different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, to avoid interference and provide guaranteed service quality. The frequencies used are often leased to Network Company by Telecommunication department.

By networking all the relative base stations, it provides radio coverage over a wide geographic area. The network enables different devices like mobile phones, laptops, tablets, modems, pagers, etc to communicate with each other via base station.

Development Phases of Cellular Networks

=> 1G Networks 

Probably very few are familiar with this term 1G Network as it was analog network developed a long while ago in 1979 in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone(NTT). During first phase, it was network system limited within Tokyo, then NTT gradually expanded its 1G Network all over Japan.

=> 2G Networks

With the development of MOSFETs, the first commercial digital cellular network, the 2G generation, was launched in 1991. The Global System for Mobile Communication  (GSM) Standard originally described a digital, circuit-switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony.

After 2G Network, the base principle is same but there has been a huge leap on data transfer rate which changed the scenario of Mobile Communications.

=> 3G Network

With the huge leap in data transfer over mobiles, 3G was launched with theoretical data transfer rate of 42Mbps but usally is limited between 384kbps for R99 Handsets and upto 7.2Mbps for HSDPA handsets. With the introduction of fast data rate, video calls & internet were embedded into mobile technology. It can be considered as revolution in Cellular Networks and a game changer for globe.

=>  4G / LTE Network

Long-Term Evolution (LTE) increased the bandwidth and speed of wireless data networks using Digital System Processing (DSP) techinques and modulation developed on late 90's. The LTE specification provides downlink eak rate of 300Mbps, uplink peak rate of 75Mbps and QoS provisions provisions permitting a transfer latency of less than 5ms in the radio acces netork. It has ability to manage fast-moving mobiles and supports multi-cast and broadcast streams.

=> 5G

It is the fifth generation of wireless communication technology supporting cellular data networks. 5G can support up to a million devices per square kilometer, while 4G supports only up to 100,000 devices per square kilometer. Speed is the main concern in this generation of network and will range from 50Mbps to over 2Gbps at the start, and is expected to grow to even 100Gbps i.e. 100x faster than 4g.