Abstract
Mobile communication is one of the hottest areas and it is developing extremely fast in present times, thanks to the advances of technology in all the fields of mobile and wireless communications. Nowadays the use of 3G mobile communication systems seem to be the standard, while 4G stands for the next generation of wireless and mobile communications. This comparative study between 3G & 4G tells about the background and the vision for the 4G. We first present a review on the development history, characteristics, status of mobile communication and related 3G - 4G perspectives. An overall 4G framework features, having the basic keys (diversity and adaptability) of the three targets (terminals, networks, and applications). We present it in both external and internal diversity of each target to illustrate the causes and solutions of the adaptability feature. Then, the 4G domain of each feature in the framework is discussed from technical point, showing techniques and possible research issue