IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q1 2022 - 13

Multimedia
Digital Data
Transmission
Voice
Transmission
1G
AMPS
(Analog)
2G
GSM, GPRS...
(~kb/s)
Broadband
Telecom
Internet
Access
3G
UMTS,
W-CDMA...
(~Mb/s)
Sub-6 GHz Band
IoT
M2M
4G
HSDPA,
LTE...
(~Gb/s)
18-60 GHz
5G
C-RAN,
NOMA...
(~10 Gb/s)
6G
ITS, WMAN...
(~100 Gb/s)
73-140 GHz
Reduced
Latency
AI-Managed
Figure 2. Evolution of mobile telecom systems.
of IoT services and applications, with an estimated volume
of wireless data traffic 1000 times higher than that
achieved a decade ago. Among others, 5G allows the realization
of new multiple access techniques such as NonOrthogonal
Multiple Access (NOMA), as well as the socalled
Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) protocols.
In addition to its higher operation frequencies, 5G will
bring a notably reduction in latency. This feature provides
real-time interactivity for services where peer-topeer
communication must be almost instantaneous. This
is specially critical in applications like telemedicine, very
demanded to remotely monitor some situations like epidemics
or severe deseases where it is difficult to assist in
person to the patients [8], [10], [11], [23], [24].
B. Towards Software Defined Radio
Although most smart phones already present a great
number of the mentioned standards and applications,
the current addition mechanism of new operating modes
and services are difficult to sustain since they do not
scale. Every time a new communication protocol is developed,
it usually requires a dedicated RF and baseband
chipset to implement it on the device-conceptually illustrated
in Fig 3. There are a number of different System-in-Package
(SiP) technologies, in which the required
components are assembled by using ultra-dense packaging,
so that the physical volume of the electronic parts
of every new mobile generation either remains constant
or even shrinks. Moreover, it could be said that many
of today's cellphones are marvels of miniaturization although
fundamentally, they are still just plain radios.
FIRST QUARTER 2022
Even though this trend turns into a significant increase
in component count and Bill of Materials (BoM), the final
product price can be kept or even reduced, partially
thanks to the huge number of terminals sold. Indeed, the
celerity at which new functionalities are incorporated in
handheld devices is starting to exceed the rate of package
reduction and the trend towards Systems on Chip
(SoC) provided by technology downscaling. Addressing
this challenge implies redefining the concept of mobile
terminals, going from pure hardware-based to hybrid
hardware/software-based devices [6], [22], [25]-[28].
As envisaged by Mitola in 1995 [29], a Software-Defined-Radio
(SDR) is defined as a universal radio platform
which can be programmed to steer any frequency
band, and process arbitrary communication protocols,
while ensuring the required quality of service as well
as guaranteeing privacy and security [6]. An ideal SDR
transceiver-conceptually depicted in Fig. 4(a)-would
process all information in the digital domain, so that it
2G
4G
5G
Multi-Chip
Multi-Module
Chip/SiP
3G
2G 3G
4G 5G
B5G
SDR/SoC
Figure 3. Multi-standard chipsets embedded in mobile telecom:
from hardware-based multi-chip and SiP modules to
reconfigurable SDR-based SoCs.
IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
13
IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q1 2022

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