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telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
, long-term evolution (LTE) is a
standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...
for
wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word ...
communication for
mobile device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physica ...
s and data terminals, based on the
GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
/
EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
and
UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
/ 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. Because LTE frequencies and bands differ from country to country, only multi-band phones can use LTE in all countries where it is supported. The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) 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 it does not meet the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series for
LTE Advanced LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standa ...
. The requirements were set forth by the
ITU-R The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is responsible for radio communications. Its role is to manage the international radio-frequency sp ...
organisation in the
IMT Advanced International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced Standard) are the requirements issued by the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2008 for what is marketed as 4G (or in Turke ...
specification; but, because of market pressure and the significant advances that
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...
,
Evolved High Speed Packet Access Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...
, and LTE bring to the original 3G technologies, ITU later decided that LTE and the aforementioned technologies can be called 4G technologies. The LTE Advanced standard formally satisfies the
ITU-R The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is responsible for radio communications. Its role is to manage the international radio-frequency sp ...
requirements for being considered
IMT-Advanced International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced Standard) are the requirements issued by the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2008 for what is marketed as 4G (or in Turke ...
. To differentiate LTE Advanced and
WiMAX-Advanced Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...
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 (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) for the wireless data communications technology and a 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 DSP may refer to: Computing * Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal * Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing * Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...
(digital signal processing) techniques and modulations that were developed around the turn of the millennium. A further goal was the redesign and simplification of the
network architecture Network architecture is the design of a computer network. It is a framework for the specification of a network's physical components and their functional organization and configuration, its operational principles and procedures, as well as commun ...
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 that it must be operated on a separate
radio spectrum The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 0  Hz to 3,000 GHz (3  THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are widely used in modern technology, particula ...
. The idea of base 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 (TE) In 2004 by Japan's NTT Docomo, with studies on the standard officially commenced in 2005. In May 2007, the LTE/ SAE Trial Initiative (LSTI) 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 Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in Sweden, MTV Oy in F ...
in
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
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 Metro by T-Mobile (formerly known as MetroPCS and also known simply as Metro) is an American prepaid wireless service provider and brand owned by T-Mobile US. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the U ...
, and the HTC ThunderBolt offered by Verizon starting on March 17 being the second LTE smartphone to be sold commercially. In Canada,
Rogers Wireless Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian wireless telephone company headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billi ...
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 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...
, but major CDMA operators (such as
Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...
, Sprint and
MetroPCS Metro by T-Mobile (formerly known as MetroPCS and also known simply as Metro) is an American prepaid wireless service provider and brand owned by T-Mobile US. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the U ...
in the United States,
Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
and
Telus Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services ...
in Canada, au by KDDI in Japan,
SK Telecom SK Telecom Co., Ltd. ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. ...
in South Korea and
China Telecom China Telecom Corp., Ltd. is a Chinese telecommunications company. It is one of the red chip listed companies of state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation. Its H shares have been traded on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 15 Nove ...
/
China Unicom China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd. () or China Unicom () (CUniq in short) is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator. Started as a wireless paging and GSM mobile operator, it currently provides a range of services i ...
in China) have announced instead they intend to migrate to LTE. The next version of LTE is
LTE Advanced LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standa ...
, which was standardized in March 2011. Services commenced in 2013. Additional evolution known as
LTE Advanced Pro LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standa ...
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 A radio access network (RAN) is part of a mobile telecommunication system. It implements a radio access technology. Conceptually, it resides between a device such as a mobile phone, a computer, or any remotely controlled machine and provides co ...
. 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 The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
to 20 MHz and supports both
frequency division duplexing A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two or more connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow ...
(FDD) and
time-division duplex A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two or more connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow ...
ing (TDD). The IP-based network architecture, called the
Evolved Packet Core System Architecture Evolution (SAE) is the core network architecture of mobile communications protocol group 3GPP's LTE wireless communication standard. SAE is the evolution of the GPRS Core Network, but with a simplified architecture; an all-I ...
(EPC) designed to replace the
GPRS Core Network The GPRS core network is the central part of the general packet radio service (GPRS) which allows 2G, 3G and WCDMA mobile networks to transmit IP packets to external networks such as the Internet. The GPRS system is an integrated part of the G ...
, supports seamless
handover In cellular telecommunications, handover, or handoff, is the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communications it is the process of transfe ...
s for both voice and data to cell towers with older network technology such as
GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
,
UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
and CDMA2000. The simpler architecture results in lower operating costs (for example, each
E-UTRA E-UTRA is the air interface of 3rd Generation Partnership Project ( 3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. It is an acronym for Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access, also r ...
cell will support up to four times the data and voice capacity supported by HSPA).


History


3GPP standard development timeline

* In 2004, NTT Docomo of Japan proposes LTE as the international standard. * In September 2006, Siemens Networks (today
Nokia Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Co ...
) 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 High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
video in the downlink and playing an interactive game in the uplink have been demonstrated. * In February 2007,
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
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 Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the former parent company Siemens AG were spun off. Infineon has about 50,280 employees and is one of the ten largest semicond ...
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 Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
demonstrated the world's first end-to-end mobile call enabled by LTE on a small handheld device.
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
demonstrated an LTE RAN standard compliant
eNodeB E-UTRAN Node B, also known as Evolved Node B (abbreviated as eNodeB or eNB), is the element in E-UTRA of LTE that is the evolution of the element Node B in UTRA of UMTS. It is the hardware that is connected to the mobile phone network that com ...
and LTE
chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components in one or more integrated circuits known as a "Data Flow Management System" that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. It is usually found on the mo ...
at the same event. * At the February 2008 Mobile World Congress: **
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
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 (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
EMP (now
ST-Ericsson ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...
) 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 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focused their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embe ...
demonstrated streaming HD video with peak data rates of 96 Mbit/s downlink and 86 Mbit/s uplink. ** NXP Semiconductors (now a part of
ST-Ericsson ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...
) 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 (multi-mode / software-defined radio) 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 LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered a ...
and
Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...
demonstrated LTE data rates of 50 Mbit/s while travelling at 110 km/h (68 mph). * In November 2008,
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
demonstrated industry first over-the-air LTE session in 700 MHz spectrum. * Researchers at
Nokia Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
and Heinrich Hertz Institut have demonstrated LTE with 100 Mbit/s Uplink transfer speeds. * At the February 2009 Mobile World Congress: **
Infineon Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the former parent company Siemens AG were spun off. Infineon has about 50,280 employees and is one of the ten largest semicond ...
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 Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
to identify and develop wireless broadband applications. **
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
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 Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...
and
LG Electronics LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered a ...
demonstrated the first successful handoff between CDMA and LTE networks in a standards-compliant manner * In August 2009,
Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
receives FCC certification for LTE base stations for the 700 MHz spectrum band. * In September 2009,
Nokia Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
demonstrated world's first LTE call on standards-compliant commercial software. * In October 2009,
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
and
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
demonstrated interoperability between the first ever commercial LTE device and the live network in Stockholm, Sweden. * In October 2009,
Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
'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 (CoMP) aimed at increasing the data transmission speeds of LTE and 3G networks. * In November 2009,
Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
completed first live LTE call using 800 MHz spectrum band set aside as part of the European
Digital Dividend The digital dividend refers to the radio spectrum which is released in the process of digital television transition. When television broadcasters switch from analog TV to digital-only platforms, part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has b ...
(EDD). * In November 2009,
Nokia Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
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 Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
by the Swedish-Finnish network operator
TeliaSonera Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in Sweden, MTV Oy in F ...
and its Norwegian brandname NetCom (Norway). TeliaSonera incorrectly branded the network "4G". The modem devices on offer were manufactured by
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
(dongle GT-B3710), and the network infrastructure with SingleRAN technology created by
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
(in Oslo) and
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
(in Stockholm). TeliaSonera plans to roll out nationwide LTE across Sweden, Norway and Finland. TeliaSonera used spectral bandwidth of 10 MHz (out of the maximum 20 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 ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...
and
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
first to achieve LTE and HSPA mobility with a multimode device. * In January 2010,
Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
and LG complete a live handoff of an end-to-end data call between LTE and CDMA networks. * In February 2010,
Nokia Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
and
Movistar Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, mobile services, and pay television ( Movistar+) in Spain. Movistar ...
test the LTE in Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, with both indoor and outdoor demonstrations. * In May 2010,
Mobile TeleSystems MTS (russian: Мобильные ТелеСистемы, МТС, "Mobile TeleSystems"), headquartered in Moscow, is the largest mobile network operator in Russia, operating on GSM, UMTS and LTE standards. Apart from cellular network, the compan ...
(MTS) and
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
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 Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
. * At the Shanghai
Expo 2010 Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the t ...
in May 2010,
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
demonstrated a live LTE in conjunction with
China Mobile China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited () and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (, formerly known as China Mobile Communications Corporation, "CMCC"), a Chinese state-ownedSt ...
. This included video streams and a drive test system using TD-LTE. * As of 12/10/2010,
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
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 (for data, no voice) in 38 markets where more than 110 million Americans live on Sunday, Dec. 5. * On May 6, 2011,
Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel SLT-MOBITEL (formerly known as Sri Lanka Telecom, si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ටෙලිකොම්, Śrī Laṃkā Ṭelikom, ta, ஸ்ரீலங்கா டெலிகொம்) is the national telecommunications services provide ...
demonstrated
4G LTE In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by us ...
for the first time in South Asia, achieving a data rate of 96 Mbit/s in Sri Lanka.


Carrier adoption timeline

Most carriers supporting GSM or HSUPA networks can be expected to upgrade their networks to LTE at some stage. A complete list of commercial contracts can be found at: * August 2009: Telefónica selected six countries to field-test LTE in the succeeding months: Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Czech Republic in Europe, and Brazil and Argentina in Latin America. * On November 24, 2009:
Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...
announced the first outdoor pre-commercial experimentation in the world, deployed in
Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...
and totally integrated into the 2G/3G network currently in service. * On December 14, 2009, the world's first publicly available LTE service was opened by
TeliaSonera Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in Sweden, MTV Oy in F ...
in the two Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
. * On May 28, 2010, Russian operator Scartel announced the launch of an LTE network in
Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
by the end of 2010. * On October 6, 2010, Canadian provider Rogers Communications Inc announced that Ottawa, Canada's national capital, will be the site of LTE trials. Rogers said it will expand on this testing and move to a comprehensive technical trial of LTE on both low- and high-band frequencies across the Ottawa area. * On May 6, 2011, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel successfully demonstrated 4G LTE for the first time in South Asia, achieving a data rate of 96 Mbit/s in Sri Lanka. * On May 7, 2011, Sri Lankan Mobile Operator
Dialog Axiata PLC Dialog Axiata PLC ( si, ඩයලොග් ආසිආටා පීඑල්සී, Ḍayalog Āsiāṭā PīElSī, ta, டயலொக் ஆசியாடா பிஎல்சி) (formerly known as MTN Networks and later Dialog Telekom), i ...
switched on the first pilot 4G LTE Network in South Asia with vendor partner
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
and demonstrated a download data speed up to 127 Mbit/s. * On February 9, 2012,
Telus Mobility Telus Mobility (normally typeset as TELUS Mobility) is a Canadian wireless network operator and a division of Telus Communications which sells wireless services in Canada on its numerous networks. It operates 5G, LTE and HSPA+ on its mainstre ...
launched their LTE service initial in metropolitan areas include Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton, Guelph, Belleville, Ottawa, Montreal, Québec City, Halifax and Yellowknife. *
Telus Mobility Telus Mobility (normally typeset as TELUS Mobility) is a Canadian wireless network operator and a division of Telus Communications which sells wireless services in Canada on its numerous networks. It operates 5G, LTE and HSPA+ on its mainstre ...
has announced that it will adopt LTE as its 4G wireless standard. * Cox Communications has its first tower for wireless LTE network build-out. Wireless services launched in late 2009. * In March 2019, the
Global Mobile Suppliers Association The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) is a not-for-profit industry organisation representing companies in the mobile communication industry. GSA actively promotes 3GPP technology such as 3G; 4G; 5G. GSA is a market representation partn ...
reported that there were now 717 operators with commercially launched LTE networks (broadband fixed wireless access and or mobile). The following is a list of top 10 countries/territories by 4G LTE coverage as measured by OpenSignal.com in February/March 2019. For the complete list of all the countries/territories, see
list of countries by 4G LTE penetration This is a list of countries by 4G LTE penetration. 2021 rankings The following is a list of countries/territories by 4G LTE coverage as measured by SpeedChecker in 2021. 2019 Q1 rankings The following is a list of countries/territories by 4G L ...
.


LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD

Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex (LTE-TDD), also referred to as TDD LTE, is a 4G telecommunications technology and standard co-developed by an international coalition of companies, including
China Mobile China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited () and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (, formerly known as China Mobile Communications Corporation, "CMCC"), a Chinese state-ownedSt ...
, Datang Telecom,
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
, ZTE, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Qualcomm,
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
, and
ST-Ericsson ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...
. It is one of the two mobile data transmission technologies of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology standard, the other being Long-Term Evolution Frequency-Division Duplex (LTE-FDD). While some companies refer to LTE-TDD as "TD-LTE" for familiarity with
TD-SCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
, there is no reference to that abbreviation anywhere in the 3GPP specifications. There are two major differences between LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD: how data is uploaded and downloaded, and what frequency spectra the networks are deployed in. While LTE-FDD uses paired frequencies to upload and download data, LTE-TDD uses a single frequency, alternating between uploading and downloading data through time. The ratio between uploads and downloads on a LTE-TDD network can be changed dynamically, depending on whether more data needs to be sent or received. LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD also operate on different frequency bands, with LTE-TDD working better at higher frequencies, and LTE-FDD working better at lower frequencies. Frequencies used for LTE-TDD range from 1850 MHz to 3800 MHz, with several different bands being used. The LTE-TDD spectrum is generally cheaper to access, and has less traffic. Further, the bands for LTE-TDD overlap with those used for
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...
, which can easily be upgraded to support LTE-TDD. Despite the differences in how the two types of LTE handle data transmission, LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD share 90 percent of their core technology, making it possible for the same chipsets and networks to use both versions of LTE. A number of companies produce dual-mode chips or mobile devices, including
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
and Qualcomm, while operators CMHK and Hi3G Access have developed dual-mode networks in Hong Kong and Sweden, respectively.


History of LTE-TDD

The creation of LTE-TDD involved a coalition of international companies that worked to develop and test the technology.
China Mobile China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited () and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (, formerly known as China Mobile Communications Corporation, "CMCC"), a Chinese state-ownedSt ...
was an early proponent of LTE-TDD, along with other companies like Datang Telecom and
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
, which worked to deploy LTE-TDD networks, and later developed technology allowing LTE-TDD equipment to operate in white spaces—frequency spectra between broadcast TV stations.
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
also participated in the development, setting up a LTE-TDD interoperability lab with Huawei in China, as well as
ST-Ericsson ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...
, Nokia, and Nokia Siemens (now Nokia Solutions and Networks), which developed LTE-TDD base stations that increased capacity by 80 percent and coverage by 40 percent. Qualcomm also participated, developing the world's first multi-mode chip, combining both LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD, along with HSPA and EV-DO. Accelleran, a Belgian company, has also worked to build small cells for LTE-TDD networks. Trials of LTE-TDD technology began as early as 2010, with Reliance Industries and Ericsson India conducting field tests of LTE-TDD in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, achieving 80 megabit-per second download speeds and 20 megabit-per-second upload speeds. By 2011, China Mobile began trials of the technology in six cities. Although initially seen as a technology utilized by only a few countries, including China and India, by 2011 international interest in LTE-TDD had expanded, especially in Asia, in part due to LTE-TDD's lower cost of deployment compared to LTE-FDD. By the middle of that year, 26 networks around the world were conducting trials of the technology. The Global LTE-TDD Initiative (GTI) was also started in 2011, with founding partners China Mobile,
Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, ...
,
SoftBank Mobile is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
,
Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...
,
Clearwire Clearwire Corporation (stylized as clearw˙re) was a telecommunications operator which provided mobile and fixed wireless broadband communications services to retail and wholesale customers in the United States, Belgium, Ireland and Spain. Clearw ...
, Aero2 and
E-Plus E-Plus was a mobile telecommunications operator in Germany. With more than 25 million subscribers, E-Plus was the third largest mobile operator in Germany, until the takeover from Telefónica Germany in October, 2014. Ownership E-Plus was ...
. In September 2011, Huawei announced it would partner with Polish mobile provider Aero2 to develop a combined LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD network in Poland, and by April 2012,
ZTE Corporation ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, opt ...
had worked to deploy trial or commercial LTE-TDD networks for 33 operators in 19 countries. In late 2012, Qualcomm worked extensively to deploy a commercial LTE-TDD network in India, and partnered with Bharti Airtel and Huawei to develop the first multi-mode LTE-TDD smartphone for India. In Japan, SoftBank Mobile launched LTE-TDD services in February 2012 under the name Advanced eXtended Global Platform (AXGP), and marketed as SoftBank 4G ( ja). The AXGP band was previously used for
Willcom Y!mobile is a Japanese mobile phone operator. Y!mobile is a brand used by SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Group Corporation, that provides mobile telecommunications and ADSL services. The current CEO o ...
's PHS service, and after PHS was discontinued in 2010 the PHS band was re-purposed for AXGP service. In the U.S., Clearwire planned to implement LTE-TDD, with chip-maker Qualcomm agreeing to support Clearwire's frequencies on its multi-mode LTE chipsets. With Sprint's acquisition of Clearwire in 2013, the carrier began using these frequencies for LTE service on networks built by
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a s ...
, and
Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
. As of March 2013, 156 commercial 4G LTE networks existed, including 142 LTE-FDD networks and 14 LTE-TDD networks. As of November 2013, the South Korean government planned to allow a fourth wireless carrier in 2014, which would provide LTE-TDD services, and in December 2013, LTE-TDD licenses were granted to China's three mobile operators, allowing commercial deployment of 4G LTE services. In January 2014, Nokia Solutions and Networks indicated that it had completed a series of tests of voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls on China Mobile's TD-LTE network. The next month, Nokia Solutions and Networks and Sprint announced that they had demonstrated throughput speeds of 2.6 gigabits per second using a LTE-TDD network, surpassing the previous record of 1.6 gigabits per second.


Features

Much of the LTE standard addresses the upgrading of 3G UMTS to what will eventually be 4G mobile communications technology. A large amount of the work is aimed at simplifying the architecture of the system, as it transitions from the existing UMTS circuit +
packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the p ...
combined network, to an all-IP flat architecture system.
E-UTRA E-UTRA is the air interface of 3rd Generation Partnership Project ( 3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. It is an acronym for Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access, also r ...
is the air interface of LTE. Its main features are: * Peak download rates up to 299.6 Mbit/s and upload rates up to 75.4 Mbit/s depending on the user equipment category (with 4×4 antennas using 20 MHz of spectrum). Five different terminal classes have been defined from a voice-centric class up to a high-end terminal that supports the peak data rates. All terminals will be able to process 20 MHz bandwidth. * Low data transfer latencies (sub-5 ms latency for small IP packets in optimal conditions), lower latencies for
handover In cellular telecommunications, handover, or handoff, is the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communications it is the process of transfe ...
and connection setup time than with previous radio access technologies. * Improved support for mobility, exemplified by support for terminals moving at up to or depending on the frequency * Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access for the downlink, Single-carrier FDMA for the uplink to conserve power. * Support for both FDD and TDD communication systems as well as half-duplex FDD with the same radio access technology. * Support for all frequency bands currently used by IMT systems by
ITU-R The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is responsible for radio communications. Its role is to manage the international radio-frequency sp ...
. * Increased spectrum flexibility: 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz wide cells are standardized. (
W-CDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Int ...
has no option for other than 5 MHz slices, leading to some problems rolling-out in countries where 5 MHz is a commonly allocated width of spectrum so would frequently already be in use with legacy standards such as 2G GSM and
cdmaOne Interim Standard 95 (IS-95) was the first ever CDMA-based digital cellular technology. It was developed by Qualcomm and later adopted as a standard by the Telecommunications Industry Association in TIA/EIA/IS-95 release published in 1995. Th ...
.) * Support for cell sizes from tens of metres radius (
femto A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or submultiple of the unit. All metric prefixes used today are decadic. Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepended to any unit symbol. The pre ...
and
picocell A picocell is a small cellular base station typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, stock exchanges, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. In cellular networks, picocells are typically used to e ...
s) up to radius
macrocell A macrocell or macrosite is a cell in a mobile phone network that provides radio coverage served by a high power cell site (tower, antenna or mast). Generally, macrocells provide coverage larger than microcell. The antennas for macrocells are mo ...
s. In the lower frequency bands to be used in rural areas, is the optimal cell size, having reasonable performance, and up to 100 km cell sizes supported with acceptable performance. In the city and urban areas, higher frequency bands (such as 2.6 GHz in EU) are used to support high-speed mobile broadband. In this case, cell sizes may be or even less. * Support of at least 200 active data clients (connected users) in every 5 MHz cell. * Simplified architecture: The network side of
E-UTRAN E-UTRA is the air interface of 3rd Generation Partnership Project ( 3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. It is an acronym for Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access, also r ...
is composed only of
eNode B E-UTRAN Node B, also known as Evolved Node B (abbreviated as eNodeB or eNB), is the element in E-UTRA of LTE that is the evolution of the element Node B in UTRA of UMTS. It is the hardware that is connected to the mobile phone network that comm ...
s. * Support for inter-operation and co-existence with legacy standards (e.g.,
GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
/
EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
,
UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
and CDMA2000). Users can start a call or transfer of data in an area using an LTE standard, and, should coverage be unavailable, continue the operation without any action on their part using GSM/ GPRS or W-CDMA-based UMTS or even
3GPP2 The 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) is a collaboration between telecommunications associations to make a globally applicable third generation ( 3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. In ...
networks such as
cdmaOne Interim Standard 95 (IS-95) was the first ever CDMA-based digital cellular technology. It was developed by Qualcomm and later adopted as a standard by the Telecommunications Industry Association in TIA/EIA/IS-95 release published in 1995. Th ...
or CDMA2000. * Uplink and downlink
Carrier aggregation Carrier aggregation is a technique that is used in wireless communication to increase the data rate per user, whereby multiple frequency blocks (called ''component carriers'') are assigned to the same user. The maximum possible data rate per user i ...
. * Packet-switched radio interface. * Support for MBSFN (
multicast-broadcast single-frequency network Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) is a Channel (communications), communication channel defined in the 4G, fourth-generation cellular networking standard called 3GPP Long-Term Evolution, Long-Term Evolution (LT ...
). This feature can deliver services such as Mobile TV using the LTE infrastructure, and is a competitor for DVB-H-based TV broadcast only LTE compatible devices receives LTE signal.


Voice calls

The LTE standard supports only
packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the p ...
with its all-IP network. Voice calls in GSM, UMTS and CDMA2000 are
circuit switched Circuit switching is a method of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel ( circuit) through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full ...
, so with the adoption of LTE, carriers will have to re-engineer their voice call network. Four different approaches sprang up: ; Voice over LTE (VoLTE): ; Circuit-switched fallback (CSFB): In this approach, LTE just provides data services, and when a voice call is to be initiated or received, it will fall back to the circuit-switched domain. When using this solution, operators just need to upgrade the MSC instead of deploying the IMS, and therefore, can provide services quickly. However, the disadvantage is longer call setup delay. ; Simultaneous voice and LTE (SVLTE): In this approach, the handset works simultaneously in the LTE and circuit switched modes, with the LTE mode providing data services and the circuit switched mode providing the voice service. This is a solution solely based on the handset, which does not have special requirements on the network and does not require the deployment of IMS either. The disadvantage of this solution is that the phone can become expensive with high power consumption. ; Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC): One additional approach which is not initiated by operators is the usage of over-the-top content (OTT) services, using applications like Skype and Google Talk to provide LTE voice service. Most major backers of LTE preferred and promoted VoLTE from the beginning. The lack of software support in initial LTE devices, as well as core network devices, however led to a number of carriers promoting
VoLGA The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...
(Voice over LTE Generic Access) as an interim solution. The idea was to use the same principles as GAN (Generic Access Network, also known as UMA or Unlicensed Mobile Access), which defines the protocols through which a mobile handset can perform voice calls over a customer's private Internet connection, usually over wireless LAN. VoLGA however never gained much support, because VoLTE ( IMS) promises much more flexible services, albeit at the cost of having to upgrade the entire voice call infrastructure. VoLTE will also require Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) in order to be able to smoothly perform a handover to a 3G network in case of poor LTE signal quality. While the industry has seemingly standardized on VoLTE for the future, the demand for voice calls today has led LTE carriers to introduce circuit-switched fallback as a stopgap measure. When placing or receiving a voice call, LTE handsets will fall back to old 2G or 3G networks for the duration of the call.


Enhanced voice quality

To ensure compatibility, 3GPP demands at least AMR-NB codec (narrow band), but the recommended speech codec for VoLTE is
Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) is a patented wideband speech audio coding standard developed based on Adaptive Multi-Rate encoding, using a similar methodology to algebraic code-excited linear prediction (ACELP). AMR-WB provides improved sp ...
, also known as
HD Voice Wideband audio, also known as wideband voice or HD voice, is high definition voice quality for telephony audio, contrasted with standard digital telephony "toll quality". It extends the frequency range of audio signals transmitted over telephone ...
. This codec is mandated in 3GPP networks that support 16 kHz sampling.
Fraunhofer IIS The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...
has proposed and demonstrated "Full-HD Voice", an implementation of the AAC-ELD (Advanced Audio CodingEnhanced Low Delay) codec for LTE handsets. Where previous cell phone voice codecs only supported frequencies up to 3.5 kHz and upcoming
wideband audio Wideband audio, also known as wideband voice or HD voice, is high definition voice quality for telephony audio, contrasted with standard digital telephony "toll quality". It extends the frequency range of audio signals transmitted over telephone ...
services branded as ''HD Voice'' up to 7 kHz, Full-HD Voice supports the entire bandwidth range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. For end-to-end Full-HD Voice calls to succeed, however, both the caller and recipient's handsets, as well as networks, have to support the feature.


Frequency bands

The LTE standard covers a range of many different bands, each of which is designated by both a frequency and a band number: * North America 600, 700, 850, 1700, 1900, 2300, 2500, 2600, 3500, 5000 MHz (bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 17, 25, 26, 29, 30, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 66, 71) * Latin America and Caribbean 600, 700, 800, 850, 900, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2300, 2500, 2600, 3500, 5000 MHz (bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 66, 71) * Europe 450, 700, 800, 900, 1500, 1800, 2100, 2300, 2600, 3500, 3700 MHz (bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, 22, 28, 31, 32, 38, 40, 42, 43) * Asia 450, 700, 800, 850, 900, 1500, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2300, 2500, 2600, 3500 MHz (bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 28, 31, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42) * Africa 700, 800, 850, 900, 1800, 2100, 2500, 2600 MHz (bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 41) * Oceania (incl. Australia and New Zealand) 700, 800, 850, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300, 2600 MHz (bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 40) As a result, phones from one country may not work in other countries. Users will need a multi-band capable phone for roaming internationally.


Patents

According to the
European Telecommunications Standards Institute The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standard ...
's (ETSI)
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
rights (IPR) database, about 50 companies have declared, as of March 2012, holding
essential patent An essential patent or standard-essential patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard. Standards organizations, therefore, often require members disclose and grant licenses to their paten ...
s covering the LTE standard. The ETSI has made no investigation on the correctness of the declarations however, so that "any analysis of essential LTE patents should take into account more than ETSI declarations." Independent studies have found that about 3.3 to 5 percent of all revenues from handset manufacturers are spent on standard-essential patents. This is less than the combined published rates, due to reduced-rate licensing agreements, such as cross-licensing.


See also

*
4G-LTE filter 4G-LTE filter is a low-pass filter or notch filter, to be used in OTA-reception installations (both collective and individual) if one is using an older/unfiltered TV antenna, without the risk of interference caused by the cellular transmitters on ...
*
Comparison of wireless data standards A wide variety of different wireless data technologies exist, some in direct competition with one another, others designed for specific applications. Wireless technologies can be evaluated by a variety of different metrics of which some are describe ...
*
E-UTRA E-UTRA is the air interface of 3rd Generation Partnership Project ( 3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. It is an acronym for Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access, also r ...
the radio access network used in LTE * HSPA+an enhancement of the 3GPP HSPA standard * Flat IPflat IP architectures in mobile networks *
LTE-A LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the LTE (telecommunication), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of t ...
* LTE-A Pro *
LTE-U LTE in unlicensed spectrum (LTE-Unlicensed, LTE-U) is an extension of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless standard that allows cellular network operators to offload some of their data traffic by accessing the unlicensed 5 GHz frequency band. LTE ...
*
NarrowBand IoT Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP for cellular devices and services. The specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro), in June 2016. Othe ...
(NB-IoT) * Simulation of LTE Networks * QoS Class Identifier (QCI) the mechanism used in LTE networks to allocate proper Quality of Service to bearer traffic * System architecture evolutionthe re-architecturing of core networks in LTE * VoLTE *
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...
a competitor to LTE


References


Further reading

* Agilent Technologies,
LTE and the Evolution to 4G Wireless: Design and Measurement Challenges
'', John Wiley & Sons, 2009 * Beaver, Paul,
What is TD-LTE?
, RF&Microwave Designline, September 2011. * E. Dahlman, H. Ekström, A. Furuskär, Y. Jading, J. Karlsson, M. Lundevall, and S. Parkvall, "The 3G Long-Term EvolutionRadio Interface Concepts and Performance Evaluation", IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) 2006 Spring, Melbourne, Australia, May 2006 * Erik Dahlman, Stefan Parkvall, Johan Sköld, Per Beming, ''3G EvolutionHSPA and LTE for Mobile Broadband'', 2nd edition, Academic Press, 2008, * Erik Dahlman, Stefan Parkvall, Johan Sköld, ''4GLTE/LTE-Advanced for Mobile Broadband'', Academic Press, 2011, * Sajal K. Das, John Wiley & Sons (April 2010):

', . * Sajal K. Das, John Wiley & Sons (April 2016):

', . * H. Ekström, A. Furuskär, J. Karlsson, M. Meyer, S. Parkvall, J. Torsner, and M. Wahlqvist, "Technical Solutions for the 3G Long-Term Evolution", ''IEEE Commun. Mag.'', vol. 44, no. 3, March 2006, pp. 38–45 * Mustafa Ergen, ''Mobile Broadband: Including WiMAX and LTE'', Springer, NY, 2009 * K. Fazel and S. Kaiser, ''Multi-Carrier and Spread Spectrum Systems: From OFDM and MC-CDMA to LTE and WiMAX'', 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, * Dan Forsberg, Günther Horn, Wolf-Dietrich Moeller, Valtteri Niemi, ''LTE Security'', Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester 2013, * Borko Furht, Syed A. Ahson, ''Long Term Evolution: 3GPP LTE Radio and Cellular Technology'', CRC Press, 2009, * Chris Johnson,
LTE in BULLETS
', CreateSpace, 2010, * F. Khan, ''LTE for 4G Mobile BroadbandAir Interface Technologies and Performance'', Cambridge University Press, 2009 *
Guowang Miao Guowang Miao is an associate professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, working on design and optimization of wireless communications and networking and the author of ''Fundamentals of Mobile Data Networks'' and ''Energy and Spectrum ...
, Jens Zander, Ki Won Sung, and Ben Slimane, ''Fundamentals of Mobile Data Networks'', Cambridge University Press, 2016, * Stefania Sesia, Issam Toufik, and Matthew Baker, ''LTEThe UMTS Long Term Evolution: From Theory to Practice'', Second Edition including Release 10 for LTE-Advanced, John Wiley & Sons, 2011, * Gautam Siwach, Dr Amir Esmailpour, "LTE Security Potential Vulnerability and Algorithm Enhancements", IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (IEEE CCECE), Toronto, Canada, May 2014 * SeungJune Yi, SungDuck Chun, YoungDae lee, SungJun Park, SungHoon Jung, ''Radio Protocols for LTE and LTE-Advanced'', Wiley, 2012, * Y. Zhou, Z. Lei and S. H. Wong
Evaluation of Mobility Performance in 3GPP Heterogeneous Networks
2014 IEEE 79th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), Seoul, 2014, pp. 1–5.


External links


LTE homepage
from the 3GPP website
LTE Frequently Asked Questions

LTE Deployment Map



LTE-3GPP.info: online LTE messages decoder fully supporting Rel.14
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