LTE is the next major step in mobile radio communications. The goals for LTE include improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum and reformed spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open standards. The LTE architecture comprises of E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN) on the access side and EPC (Evolved Packet Core) on the core side together known as the EPS (Evolved Packet System). EPC is also known as SAE (System Architecture Evolution) and E-UTRAN is also known as LTE.

The advantages with LTE are high throughput, low latency, plug and play, Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) in the same platform, improved end-user experience and simple architecture resulting in low Operating Expenditures (OPEX). LTE will also support seamless connection to existing networks, such as GSM, CDMA and WCDMA.

LTE has the potential to transform the way mobile services are used. In establishing a set of standards for the evolution of high-speed mobile networks, it is essential to understand the range of services that those networks will distribute in the coming years. Mobile providers have expanded their portfolios to include such elements as television, video on demand, gaming and music in order to drive both usage and revenue growth. Due to the bandwidth-hungry nature of such services, widespread distribution to consumers is dependent on an effective delivery infrastructure.

The Promise

LTE provides downlink peak rates of at least 100Mbit/s, uplink peak rates of at least 50 Mbit/s and RAN (Radio Access Network) round-trip time of less than 10ms. LTE supports flexible carrier bandwidths, from 1.4MHz up to 20MHz as well as both FDD and TDD.

Drivers for LTE

• Requirements of today’s technologically savvy users have a great potential to expand their interaction with several networks and seamlessly move between them: home, office, mobile, and local or private networks (e.g. Wi-Fi at Airport etc.).For example, today, a voice call initiated on a land line cannot be easily transferred to a mobile phone while LTE will be able to facilitate this.
• LTE will also enhance the potential of reaching to rural areas in emerging markets with mobile broadband technology which will have a tremendous positive impact.
• The future telecom network, and what most operators are seeking to achieve in the long term with convergence plans, is a network that would provide subscribers access to any content, anytime, anywhere, on any device, at an incredible speed. LTE will further enable the vision of this Seamless Mobility.

Summary

LTE is an emerging technology standard that is being developed by 3GPP. Although the specifications of the LTE standard may be refined through ongoing work in the near term, ultimately, it will enable significantly improved throughput and download/uplink speeds (in excess of any existing mobile technology standards). It will also support the delivery of a range of services, some of which are available today, but many more that have the potential to transform the way businesses and consumers use mobile devices.

From an operator perspective, LTE will provide both technical benefits, such as more flexible spectrum usage and fewer nodes; and economic benefits, such as increased spectrum efficiency and optimized backhaul compared with current HSPA networks.

LTE Standards

3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) is considered as a prominent path to the wireless standards of tomorrow and this body is responsible for setting this next generation cellular wireless standard. 

Initiated in 2004, the Long Term Evolution (LTE) project focused on enhancing the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and optimizing 3GPP’s radio access architecture.

The following link provides access to 3GPP specifications: http://www.3gpp.org/Highlights/LTE/lte