Introduction to Mobile Multimedia Communications

Abstract

In order to meet the ever increasing demand by people using mobile technology and its associated services based on multimedia elements in addition to voice, mobile communication technologies has since evolved from analog to digital and 1G to 4G. This chapter presents a contemporary review of all generations of mobile communication technologies, including their standards. 1G to 3G mobile communication technologies are mainly optimised for voice communication, using circuit switched networks. To provide high transmission mobile services at low cost in all levels of networks—personal, home, and cellular—it is imminent to exploit the merits of all existing technologies such as Bluetooth, WLAN, and HiperLAN, and use IP as a backbone network in 4G mobile communication standards. The key research challenges for mobile terminals, systems, and services for 4G networks are also presented in this chapter.