Beyond-4G Cellular Networks: Advanced Radio Access Network (RAN) Architectures, Advanced Radio Resource Management (RRM) Techniques, and Other Enabling Technologies

4G has been the driving force behind a number of global research initiatives in the last few years (such as the WINNER Project). However, at the preparation of this paper (October 2008) authors have formal documents outlining 4G objectives (such as IMTAdvanced), and tangible standardization efforts towards achieving those objectives (such as LTEAdvanced and 802.16j/m). Therefore, 4G is moving from the research phase to the development phase. This paper discusses advanced Radio Access Network (RAN) architectures, advanced Radio Resource Management (RRM) techniques, and other enabling concepts, to facilitate the provision of very high data rates with virtually ubiquitous coverage in beyond-4G wireless networks.