Overview

Throughout the book we have explored and discussed 4G from different perspectives. In this concluding chapter we briefly highlight the most important issues of 4G, summarizing what has been presented in previous chapters and drawing our attention to the prospects for the future, the challenges ahead, and finally some concluding remarks. This chapter will wrap up the journey started in Chapter 1 by presenting a fascinating and universal vision of 4G. We believe that such a vision can lead us towards a viable solution for achieving a true knowledge society as well as to serve individual users while simultaneously being attractive to industry, operators, and service providers.

Chapter 1 gradually introduced 4G by discussing several visions and possible definitions from several sources. In this introductory chapter we could see that there exists several somewhat different conceptions of 4G, though in most cases the visions share some commonalities. Coordinated efforts are needed not only to achieve a worldwide common understanding on what 4G will be, but also to identify and further develop the adequate technical solutions for its realization. In an attempt to provide a sound, rational, and flexible definition, Chapter 2 approached 4G from a user-centric perspective. The only way to guarantee the commercial success of 4G is by first understanding and fulfilling the users' needs and expectations. Chapter 2 discussed user needs and trends in order to identify the user expectations in 4G. Specific and detailed discussions on 4G scenarios and services were discussed. In our vision, 4G...