Wireless technology and radio frequencies have evolved since they were initially made mainstream in the late 1980's. The latest incarnation of wireless systems -- as of publication in September 2011 -- is 4G, which uses different modulation frequencies to manage the transmission data between wireless devices and the networks on which they operate. One of the key benefits of 4G wireless systems is its ability to transmit data at broadband speeds over-the-air, enabling devices on 4G networks to support features such as video calling, internet browsing, streaming radio, and other broadband services.
Technical Parameters
The 4G modulation frequencies are a range of wireless frequencies used in parallel to transfer data and facilitate voice calls. 4G's modulation frequency band ranges from 2 to 8 GHz and is capable of transferring data at a maximum rate of 20Mbps. It uses information packets to manage calls and data transfer requests, unlike 3G which uses a combination of packets and circuit-based switches.
Key Benefits
Relative to old generations of wireless technology, 4G offers a few key improvements. Its primary purpose is to enable mobile devices to smoothly handle streaming video, audio, and internet data at speeds comparable to land-based internet connections. It aims to provide higher speeds at a lower cost and is capable of working worldwide. It also allows wireless carriers to setup ad-hoc wireless networks to help ease strain on the wireless infrastructure in areas that seem temporary increases in wireless data consumption.
Disadvantages
As is the case with most technologies, 4G is not ideal, but is still a vast improvement over previous wireless platforms. Due to the high frequency of reuse, small data cells are being used in 4G, which can lead to interference and noise during device use. It also has no improvements in security over the 3G platform, so 4G's modulation frequencies remain just as vulnerable to the same points of weakness. Like 3G, it also has issues transferring calls to new cellular towers as the device user travels, causing calls to drop.
Modulation Across Multiple Carriers
Arguably the largest benefit of 4G is its ability to handle multicarrier modulation, which uses equal bandwidth across each sub-channel, or frequency, available in 4G. Each GHz channel between 2 and 8 in the 4G frequency spectrum is capable of hosting sub channels. This helps avoid interference from devices that use just one of the frequencies, and also allows bandwidth to be evenly spread across the channels provided by the wireless network.
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