Editorial - Evolution of air-link technologies for futuristic wireless communications

It is expected that future IMT-Advanced wireless communication systems have the capability to provide 1 Gbps downlink transmission bit rate, 10 milliseconds radio access network round-trip delay, enhanced IP-based network architecture, and low operation costs. To achieve these goals, some improvements should be made on the evolution of air-link technologies (EALT) (i.e. in physical and medium access control layers) such as beamforming and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission, multiple user/cell interference suppression and coordination, coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP), multiple user diversity and radio resource scheduling and link adaptation. These advanced air-link technologies are anticipated to meet the requirements for the communications of air-to-air, air-to-ground, automation and sensor interlink in IMT-Advanced systems, and in the mean time to enable and create novel applications and services such as wireless video and social network services.