of the information to be made available in a technology roadmap across different years tends to give a low fidelity, fuzzy abstract long view. The following observations of such a view will make things clearer before we revisit the same with an example: The duration covered by such a view could very well be a few years or more (like the next decade). It is low fidelity, as the accuracy associated with the items listed, being part of the actual technology down the line, is also pretty low. During such long time periods, it should be observed that the roadmap will have items that have more to do with forecasting and speculative positioning than what the markets and consumers would be wanting at those time periods. It is also clear that the expected commitment level to the items listed in such a view is pretty low. Hence, it would not be a surprise if items listed in a five-year plan do not actually make their way to the technology in those five years. The roadmap in Figure 4-3 from 3GPP is one such low fidelity roadmap view, which gives a summary of how different features were introduced over the years and gives information on what is planned for the next two years (at that time, in 2010). Access Technology releases All IP core Services HSPA+ LTE Advanced Figure 4-3. Example of a low fidelity long view roadmap CHAPTER 4 NETWORK ROADMAPS The high level view shown in Figure 4-4 gives more information on how the network capabilities are intended to evolve over time. Although it does not give much information on exact timelines, it is interesting for the discussion here. One can see here that speeds of 1000Mb/s are planned to be achieved in the roadmap, with LTE-Advanced in the future. Availability of Standards Edge + 384 Kbps 1Mbps W-CDMA HSPA+ 384 Kbps 18 Mbps 42 Mbps LTE-Advanced 100 Mbps 1000 Mbps Figure 4-4. Example of a high level view roadmap What Is a Network Roadmap? Briefly stated, a network roadmap provides information about how a network is planned to evolve over time, from a given position, referenced by v