Signaling Processes in Third Generation Wireless Systems

The laws of Nyquist and Shannon govern the world of data communications—the information carrying capacity of a channel is a function of the channel’s bandwidth and noise. In wired networks, we have developed ways to reduce noise and increase the channel’s bandwidth. In many respects, the bounded media of the wired world has almost boundless channel capacity. However, in wireless communications the properties of the channel are not as easily manipulated. Ironically, this seemingly unbounded medium of the airwaves has some severe limitations. As we move toward the information capacity required for 3G wireless communications, we need to develop signaling processes that allow high data rates in relatively small channels. Some people call these procedures post-Shannon architectures. This paper examines such architectures.