Universal and Ubiquitous Network Connectivity:   Technology
Challenge of the Second Wireless Century
Andrew J. Viterbi,
Chief Technical Officer, QUALCOMM Incorporated
Abstract
While the first wireless century provided universal broadcasting and widespread point-to-
point wireless services, early in the second wireless century, two-way voice and data
services will become the norm. It is generally accepted that the physical layer
implementation of such networks will involve digital transmission and will rely heavily on
digital signal processing.
Understanding of the preferable approaches to such realizations must be preceded by an
appreciation of the fundamental requirements of multi-cellular wireless networks. Chief
among these are frequency reuse, power control, handover among cells and time and space
diversity as well as source variability, antenna capabilities and base station locations and
interconnectivity. Both qualitative viewpoints and quantitative measures will be
presented.