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4G is the fourth generation cellular standard that is emerging to meet the growing data needs of today’s subscribers. It has clear advantages over 3G and earlier technology because it is based solely on IP (Internet Protocol), offers more bandwidth and is faster.

Two competing technologies have emerged as contenders for 4G. Since the international telecommunication standards body, ITU, wants to prevent the fragmentation and incompatibilities among competing technologies seen with 3G, the emergence of one 4G technology is encouraged. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is one such technology. The other is LTE (Long Term Evolution).

WiMAX started as fixed wireless Internet technology. Thereafter, mobile WiMAX (802.16e-2005) was developed, which is really a pre-4G technology. The version of WiMAX that is truly 4G is 802.16m, which meets the speed, bandwidth and spectral efficiency requirements of 4G.

4G WiMAX is an open standard developed by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering), therefore, it is the cheaper of the 4G technologies to build since equipment manufacturers do not have to pay huge licensing fees to make WiMAX products.

The two basic products needed to enjoy 4G WiMAX are the WiMAX network (cells, masts, and the entire backbone to the Internet) from the telecom operator and a mobile device from you that is capable of accessing WiMAX signals.

WiMAX-capable smartphones are just arriving in the market and they represent the first wave of mobile 4G devices that you can buy. The radio chip in your phone will lock on the WiMAX signal from the nearest mast in the 4G network. Unlike for fixed pre-4G WiMAX, you do not need a separate adapter (dongles or mini-stations) to make this connection. The connection is also maintained even as you move from the reach of one cell tower to another.

This 4G technology is based solely on IP (Internet protocol). Therefore, it has been optimized to seamlessly access the Internet. Even voice is managed by packet-switching mediated by IP instead of circuit-switching. This will give a faster and more reliable connection to the Internet.

When your 4G phone connects to a WiMAX tower, it sends and receives data through a chain of networks that go all the way back to the Internet backbone of the operator’s home network. Often, this data transport is very fast. The limiting factors are the width of spectrum, the bandwidth available and the amount of data requests the tower is handling at the moment. With 4G WiMAX, however, there is a wide spectrum frequency (up to four times what a 3G network can use) coupled with a higher bandwidth (more than 5 times the maximum you can get with 3G). This presents a fat pipe for data to be transported and prevents the bottle-neck in the network. This leads to a faster speed with WiMAX even while accommodating more subscribers and more data requests.

The speed gain with 4G WiMAX, therefore, lets you do more from your mobile device. You can now use bandwidth-intensive services fully knowing that your network can handle the load.

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