2nd National Conference in Emerging Trends in Informative Computing Applications (IWAY) - 2012 Proceedings published by International Journal of Computer Applications® (IJCA) 12 Research on M-Learning Supported by 3G/4G 1 V. Sujatha Bai, MCA, M.Phil Asst Professor MCA Department VelTech High Tech Dr.Rangarajan Dr.Sakunthala Engineering College 2 S. Hendry Leo Kanickam M.Sc, M.Phil, 3 N. Vijayaraj M.Sc, M.phil Asst Professor’s of IT Department St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Trichy – 2 ABSTRACT With explosive immersion of mobile technology supported by 3G/4G, it’s distinctive of being portable and online has injected new vitality to M-learning, people become to explore its potential under the surrounding of M-learning. Based on the technology predominance of 3G/4G, this paper first analyses current situation of M - learning. Then it discusses the teaching relations and learning surrounding of M-learning with support of 3G/4G technology. Then it expounds on the challenges which 3G/4G brings to M- learning. Wish this paper could play an active role in actual research of M-learning. Keywords: 3G/4G, mobile technology, M - learning, learning surrounding 1. INTRODUCTION On July 15, 2010, CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre) released the latest statistics report. It shows that by the end of June 2010, China’s netizens have reached 420 million. Internet penetration rose to 31.8%, and mobile phone users reached 2.77 billion. The percentage of netizens who only use mobile phones in whole netizens increases to 11.7%. A report in 2009 from federal investigation agency showed that more than half of the world’s population uses mobile phones, Coverage of mobile services in Europe was close to 100% (GSMA Europe, 2008), while 400 million Europeans (80% of the total population) can access telephone network. About two-thirds of people in developing countries use mobile phones, while in 2002 the number was less than half of the population. Reduced cost of mobile phones and uneven development of fixed line infrastructure in many developing countries made mobile services more attractive to consumers. A recent digital media index reported that search with mobile phone was increased by 30% compared to last year. Owing to rapid development of 3G technologies and optimization of mobile custom content in recent years, mobile phone and smart phone users are more and more interested in mobile Internet. In the past few years, mobile devices become flexible enough to deal with more functions of Internet. Expand continuously to meet needs of many notebooks and desktop computers. A survey from Anderson & Rainie (2008) estimated that by 2020, most people would use mobile devices as their primary method access to Internet. In summary, mobile technology and mobile devices have broad access to people's daily lives, used by people of all ages and socio-economic groups. 2. NEW GENERATION OF 3G/4G INTECHNOLOGY AND STATUS OF MOBILE LEARNING A. Advantages of 3G/4G technology Technological development of 3G/4G and wireless network technology and their explosive penetration into various fields of the world create infinite opportunities. Mobile services in social, cultural, economic and educational areas are constantly undergoing tremendous changes. 3G technology is the third generation mobile communication technology. Its representative feature is to provide high-speed data services and its rate is generally more than a few hundred kbps. With continuous development of 3G technologies, MMS (multimedia messaging service) and mobile video bring people with rich learning and life experience. As we expect 3G technology will bring excellent services, latest technologies of the fourth generation mobile communication system are in the study quietly. 4G is 3G and WLAN in one, and can transmit video images in high quality. So far, although there are not precise definitions about 4G, one thing we can be sure that there will be a more perfect wireless world with 4G communication rather than with 3G.Compared with traditional communication technologies, the most obvious advantage of 4G communication technology is its communication quality and data communication speed. As follows: (1) Faster communication speed Data transfer rate of the third-generation mobile communication system can be up to 2Mbps.Experts predict, the fourth generation mobile communication system can reach 10Mbps to 20Mbps or even up to 100Mbps per second to transmit wireless information, this rate will be equivalent to about 10,000 times the current transmission speed of a mobile phone. (2) Wider network spectrum In order to enable transmission speed of 4G communication reach to 100Mbps telecommunication operators must carry out substantial reformation and research based on 3G communication network. According to AT&T executives’ report, each 4G Communication channel is estimated to occupy 100MHz spectrum, equivalent to 20 times W-CDMA 3GNetwork. (3) More flexible communication Strictly speaking, features of 4G cell phone cannot be simply classified as “phone" category, after all, transmitting voice data is only one function of 4G mobile phones, so future 4G mobile phones can be regarded as small computers, and their appearance and style will be even more astonishing