LTE (telecommunication)


In telecommunications, long-term evolution is a standard for wireless broadband communication for cellular mobile devices and data terminals. It is considered to be a "transitional" 4G technology, and is therefore also referred to as 3.95G as a step above 3G.
LTE is based on the 2G GSM/EDGE and 3G UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by using a different radio interface and core network improvements. LTE is the upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks. LTE has been succeeded by LTE Advanced, which is officially defined as a "true" 4G technology and also named "LTE+".

Terminology

The standard is developed by the 3GPP and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9. LTE is also called 3.95G and has been marketed as 4G LTE and Advanced 4G; but the original version did not meet the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series for LTE Advanced. The requirements were set forth by the ITU-R organisation in the IMT Advanced specification; but, because of market pressure and the significant advances that WiMAX, Evolved High Speed Packet Access, and LTE bring to the original 3G technologies, ITU-R later decided that LTE and the aforementioned technologies can be called 4G technologies. The LTE Advanced standard formally satisfies the ITU-R requirements for being considered IMT-Advanced. To differentiate LTE Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced from current 4G technologies, ITU has defined the latter as "True 4G".

Overview

LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution and is a registered trademark owned by ETSI for the wireless data communications technology and development of the GSM/UMTS standards. However, other nations and companies do play an active role in the LTE project. The goal of LTE was to increase the capacity and speed of wireless data networks using new DSP techniques and modulations that were developed around the turn of the millennium. A further goal was the redesign and simplification of the network architecture to an IP-based system with significantly reduced transfer latency compared with the 3G architecture. The LTE wireless interface is incompatible with 2G and 3G networks so it must be operated on a separate radio spectrum.
The idea of LTE was first proposed in 1998, with the use of the COFDM radio access technique to replace the CDMA and studying its Terrestrial use in the L band at 1428 MHz
In 2004 by Japan's NTT Docomo, with studies on the standard officially commenced in 2005. In May 2007, the LTE/SAE Trial Initiative alliance was founded as a global collaboration between vendors and operators with the goal of verifying and promoting the new standard in order to ensure the global introduction of the technology as quickly as possible.
The LTE standard was finalized in December 2008, and the first publicly available LTE service was launched by TeliaSonera in Oslo and Stockholm on December 14, 2009, as a data connection with a USB modem. The LTE services were launched by major North American carriers as well, with the Samsung SCH-r900 being the world's first LTE Mobile phone starting on September 21, 2010, and Samsung Galaxy Indulge being the world's first LTE smartphone starting on February 10, 2011, both offered by MetroPCS, and the HTC ThunderBolt offered by Verizon starting on March 17 being the second LTE smartphone to be sold commercially. In Canada, Rogers Wireless was the first to launch LTE network on July 7, 2011, offering the Sierra Wireless AirCard 313U USB mobile broadband modem, known as the "LTE Rocket stick" then followed closely by mobile devices from both HTC and Samsung. Initially, CDMA operators planned to upgrade to rival standards called UMB and WiMAX, but major CDMA operators have announced instead they intend to migrate to LTE. The next version of LTE is LTE Advanced, which was standardized in March 2011. Services commenced in 2013. Additional evolution known as LTE Advanced Pro have been approved in year 2015.
The LTE specification provides downlink peak rates of 300 Mbit/s, uplink peak rates of 75 Mbit/s and QoS provisions permitting a transfer latency of less than 5 ms in the radio access network. LTE has the ability to manage fast-moving mobiles and supports multi-cast and broadcast streams. LTE supports scalable carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz and supports both frequency division duplexing and time-division duplexing. The IP-based network architecture, called the Evolved Packet Core designed to replace the GPRS Core Network, supports seamless handovers for both voice and data to cell towers with older network technology such as GSM, UMTS and CDMA2000. The simpler architecture results in lower operating costs.
Because LTE frequencies and bands differ from country to country, only multi-band phones can use LTE in all countries where it is supported.

History

3GPP standard development timeline

  • In 2004, NTT Docomo of Japan proposes LTE as the international standard.
  • In September 2006, Siemens Networks showed in collaboration with Nomor Research the first live emulation of an LTE network to the media and investors. As live applications, two users streaming an HDTV video in the downlink and playing an interactive game in the uplink have been demonstrated.
  • In February 2007, Ericsson demonstrated for the first time in the world, LTE with bit rates up to 144 Mbit/s
  • In September 2007, NTT Docomo demonstrated LTE data rates of 200 Mbit/s with power level below 100 mW during the test.
  • In November 2007, Infineon presented the world's first RF transceiver named SMARTi LTE supporting LTE functionality in a single-chip RF silicon processed in CMOS
  • In early 2008, LTE test equipment began shipping from several vendors and, at the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Ericsson demonstrated the world's first end-to-end mobile call enabled by LTE on a small handheld device. Motorola demonstrated an LTE RAN standard compliant eNodeB and LTE chipset at the same event.
  • At the February 2008 Mobile World Congress:
  • * Motorola demonstrated how LTE can accelerate the delivery of personal media experience with HD video demo streaming, HD video blogging, Online gaming, and VoIP over LTE running a RAN standard-compliant LTE network & LTE chipset.
  • * Ericsson EMP demonstrated the world's first end-to-end LTE call on handheld Ericsson demonstrated LTE FDD and TDD mode on the same base station platform.
  • * Freescale Semiconductor demonstrated streaming HD video with peak data rates of 96 Mbit/s downlink and 86 Mbit/s uplink.
  • * NXP Semiconductors demonstrated a multi-mode LTE modem as the basis for a software-defined radio system for use in cellphones.
  • * picoChip and Mimoon demonstrated a base station reference design. This runs on a common hardware platform with their WiMAX architecture.
  • In April 2008, Motorola demonstrated the first EV-DO to LTE hand-off handing over a streaming video from LTE to a commercial EV-DO network and back to LTE.
  • In April 2008, LG Electronics and Nortel demonstrated LTE data rates of 50 Mbit/s while travelling at 110 km/h.
  • In November 2008, Motorola demonstrated industry first over-the-air LTE session in 700 MHz spectrum.
  • Researchers at Nokia Siemens Networks and Heinrich Hertz Institut have demonstrated LTE with 100 Mbit/s Uplink transfer speeds.
  • At the February 2009 Mobile World Congress:
  • * Infineon demonstrated a single-chip 65 nm CMOS RF transceiver providing 2G/3G/LTE functionality
  • * Launch of ng Connect program, a multi-industry consortium founded by Alcatel-Lucent to identify and develop wireless broadband applications.
  • * Motorola provided LTE drive tour on the streets of Barcelona to demonstrate LTE system performance in a real-life metropolitan RF environment
  • In July 2009, Nujira demonstrated efficiencies of more than 60% for an 880 MHz LTE Power Amplifier
  • In August 2009, Nortel and LG Electronics demonstrated the first successful handoff between CDMA and LTE networks in a standards-compliant manner
  • In August 2009, Alcatel-Lucent receives FCC certification for LTE base stations for the 700 MHz spectrum band.
  • In September 2009, Nokia Siemens Networks demonstrated the world's first LTE call on standards-compliant commercial software.
  • In October 2009, Ericsson and Samsung demonstrated interoperability between the first ever commercial LTE device and the live network in Stockholm, Sweden.
  • In October 2009, Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs, Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories, the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institut, and antenna supplier Kathrein conducted live field tests of a technology called Coordinated Multipoint Transmission aimed at increasing the data transmission speeds of LTE and 3G networks.
  • In November 2009, Alcatel-Lucent completed first live LTE call using 800 MHz spectrum band set aside as part of the European Digital Dividend.
  • In November 2009, Nokia Siemens Networks and LG completed first end-to-end interoperability testing of LTE.
  • On December 14, 2009, the first commercial LTE deployment was in the Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and Oslo by the Swedish-Finnish network operator TeliaSonera and its Norwegian brandname NetCom. TeliaSonera incorrectly branded the network "4G". The modem devices on offer were manufactured by Samsung, and the network infrastructure with SingleRAN technology created by Huawei and Ericsson. TeliaSonera plans to roll out nationwide LTE across Sweden, Norway and Finland. TeliaSonera used spectral bandwidth of 10 MHz, and Single-Input and Single-Output transmission. The deployment should have provided a physical layer net bit rates of up to 50 Mbit/s downlink and 25 Mbit/s in the uplink. Introductory tests showed a TCP goodput of 42.8 Mbit/s downlink and 5.3 Mbit/s uplink in Stockholm.
  • In December 2009, ST-Ericsson and Ericsson first to achieve LTE and HSPA mobility with a multimode device.
  • In January 2010, Alcatel-Lucent and LG complete a live handoff of an end-to-end data call between LTE and CDMA networks.
  • In February 2010, Nokia Siemens Networks and Movistar tested the LTE in Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, with both indoor and outdoor demonstrations.
  • In May 2010, Mobile TeleSystems and Huawei showed an indoor LTE network at "Sviaz-Expocomm 2010" in Moscow, Russia. MTS expects to start a trial LTE service in Moscow by the beginning of 2011. Earlier, MTS has received a license to build an LTE network in Uzbekistan and intends to commence a test LTE network in Ukraine in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent.
  • At the Shanghai Expo 2010 in May 2010, Motorola demonstrated a live LTE in conjunction with China Mobile. This included video streams and a drive test system using TD-LTE.
  • As of 12/10/2010, DirecTV has teamed up with Verizon Wireless for a test of high-speed LTE wireless technology in a few homes in Pennsylvania, designed to deliver an integrated Internet and TV bundle. Verizon Wireless said it launched LTE wireless services in 38 markets where more than 110 million Americans live on Sunday, Dec. 5.
  • On May 6, 2011, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel demonstrated 4G LTE for the first time in South Asia, achieving a data rate of 96 Mbit/s in Sri Lanka.