A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
3
1
1.1 Introduction
Wireless communication technologies are essential parts of our lives. From WiFi
home networks to sophisticated machine‐to‐machine communication in the robotics
industry, we live in a world of wireless connectivity and it is impossible to imagine a
single day without using any wireless devices. The blessings of cellular technologies
provided us with a great deal of mobility and thus made it possible to listen to the radio
while travelling in a car or on the beach. The cellular devices are also convenient in
that we no longer have to worry about the size of the cables to connect to the networks.
We are now living in a world where conferences for business meetings, distance and
online courses from universities, and medical help over long distances are considered
as part and parcel of our daily lives. We have greater access to information than ever
before and it is all possible due to the advancements and inventions in cellular
communication.
The number of cellular users increased dramatically over the last decade compared to
the other technologies and are still increasing. We can see from Figure 1.1 that the fixed
broadband or fixed wired subscription did not increase that much in a last decade,
while the mobile cellular subscriptions are increasing day by day. With the advent of
sophisticated technologies, such as tactile computing, autonomous vehicles, wireless
charging, smart living, etc., we can only envision how the use of cellular technologies
will grow in the future.
This chapter is dedicated towards the evolution of cellular communication. In that
respect, we start by discussing the initial developments and history of cellular systems.
We subsequently go through the different generations of cellular systems and have a
brief discussion about them. As the topic is broad, we try to confine ourselves to the
basic information related to the radio interfaces and network architecture of different
generations. We align the chapter with the focus of the book by discussing the evolution
of security measurements during each generation.
Evolution of Cellular Systems
Shahriar Shahabuddin
1
, Sadiqur Rahaman
1
, Faisal Rehman
1
,
Ijaz Ahmad
1
, and Zaheer Khan
2
1 University of Oulu, Finland
2 University of Liverpool, UK
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
3
1
1.1 Introduction
Wireless communication technologies are essential parts of our lives. From WiFi
home networks to sophisticated machine‐to‐machine communication in the robotics
industry, we live in a world of wireless connectivity and it is impossible to imagine a
single day without using any wireless devices. The blessings of cellular technologies
provided us with a great deal of mobility and thus made it possible to listen to the radio
while travelling in a car or on the beach. The cellular devices are also convenient in
that we no longer have to worry about the size of the cables to connect to the networks.
We are now living in a world where conferences for business meetings, distance and
online courses from universities, and medical help over long distances are considered
as part and parcel of our daily lives. We have greater access to information than ever
before and it is all possible due to the advancements and inventions in cellular
communication.
The number of cellular users increased dramatically over the last decade compared to
the other technologies and are still increasing. We can see from Figure 1.1 that the fixed
broadband or fixed wired subscription did not increase that much in a last decade,
while the mobile cellular subscriptions are increasing day by day. With the advent of
sophisticated technologies, such as tactile computing, autonomous vehicles, wireless
charging, smart living, etc., we can only envision how the use of cellular technologies
will grow in the future.
This chapter is dedicated towards the evolution of cellular communication. In that
respect, we start by discussing the initial developments and history of cellular systems.
We subsequently go through the different generations of cellular systems and have a
brief discussion about them. As the topic is broad, we try to confine ourselves to the
basic information related to the radio interfaces and network architecture of different
generations. We align the chapter with the focus of the book by discussing the evolution
of security measurements during each generation.
Evolution of Cellular Systems
Shahriar Shahabuddin
1
, Sadiqur Rahaman
1
, Faisal Rehman
1
,
Ijaz Ahmad
1
, and Zaheer Khan
2
1 University of Oulu, Finland
2 University of Liverpool, UK