LTE for Broadband Internet

Long Term Evolution User Equipment (LTE UE) Solutions

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:58:10 +0000

The rapid proliferation of data-capable mobile devices, including Smartphones, Net-books and UMPCs, has fueled the growth of mobile broadband in an unprecedented manner, compelling device and chipset manufacturers to develop high performance, multi-technology devices in the shortest time possible.

Aricent offers a pre-packaged, 3GPP Release-8 compliant UE Software Suite, complemented by complete product lifecycle services. The LTE UE Software Suite is highly scalable, hardware agnostic, and includes protocol stacks designed for optimal power consumption and processor utilization.

Aricent’s LTE UE Software Suite for Devices

Select Customer Engagements & Partnerships

Aricent and CEVA collaborate to deliver reference implementation for LTE devices

Customer Challenges

Some of the key challenges faced by device and chipset manufacturers include:

Manage Complexity in Product Development – Constantly evolving specifications complicate the development of solutions that are interoperable with multiple technologies on a single platform
Balance R&D Investments – Chipset and platform manufacturers strive to balance investment between legacy and LTE, while creating cost-effective LTE solutions for multiple device types
Reduce Total Cost of Ownership – As the market becomes more fragmented, manufacturers look to control the total cost of ownership while capturing market share

Partner Testimonial

“Aricent’s leadership in LTE technology innovation make them a clear choice for LTE frameworks as we expand the third party software offerings for our 4G wireless communications DSPs.”

-CEVA

Pre-packaged LTE UE Software Suite for Devices

Aricent’s LTE UE Software Suite is a comprehensive software package which assists device manufacturers and chipset vendors in accelerating the development of LTE enabled devices. Its main features include:

High throughput – 3GPP Rel-8 compliant Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocol stacks tested for 50 Mbps uplink and 100 Mbps downlink data rates
Pre-optimized solution – Pre-optimized power consumption and processor utilization ensures stellar performance for LTE devices
Multi-platform support – Hardware and operating system agnostic solution with a modular and scalable design that enables ease of integration on multiple platforms
Layer 1 and Layer 2 support – Layer 1: PHY/Baseband IPR for FDD Mode; Layer 2: MAC, RLC, PDCP
Improved interoperability – A pre-tested solution with field proven interoperability on third party platforms
Standards compliance – Aricent’s UE Software suite is compliant with latest 3GPP Rel-8 standards
Future proof design – Modular and adaptable future-proof design supports continuously evolving standards

Aricent also provides implementation, optimization and integration and testing services including performance testing with other network components in a real-time environment, and conformance testing in simulated or real-time environments.

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) Support

Aricent’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution allows customers to leverage an IMS-based core network, upon which the carrier’s current services can be replicated. The solution allows carriers to exploit their investment in their existing circuit-switched mobile core networks, while providing next-generation services. Additionally, they can migrate to a full IMS solution to provide converged multimedia services and VoLTE. It also allows multiple applications to co-exist and can integrate with other SIP or IMS applications like presence, group/list Management, Messaging, Video Share, Push-to-talk, etc.

Product Lifecycle Services

Product Strategy and Design – Aricent’s services in the areas of product strategy, system design, and hardware engineering help vendors ensure a smooth transition of their products to carrier grade solutions. Additionally, Aricent’s UI innovation services can help device manufacturers develop elegant and effective user interfaces for their LTE devices.
Product Development – Aricent teams have executed multiple LTE development programs for both ODMs as well as platform vendors, helping them to rationalize their R&D spend on LTE without compromising the quality of products. Aricent also provides implementation, optimization and integration services for the LTE UE Software Suite.
Testing and Certification – Aricent has a rich history of customer engagements in product validation, interoperability, managed testing and certification services with complete test ecosystems, tools and global best practices including performance and conformance testing in simulated or real-time environments for LTE.

Key Benefits

Accelerated time to market – Aricent’s UE solutions, being pre-tested and interoperable, allow manufacturers to accelerate the development of multi-mode wireless devices including handsets, data cards, and USB wireless modems, as well as embedded devices for laptops, Ultra Mobile PCs and desktops. Additionally vendors receive support through advanced development, test and verification tools that further accelerate time-to-market.

Reduced total cost of ownership – Aricent takes complete ownership of the solution, from design to implementation, offering wireless, multimedia and application expertise on mobile platforms. This is complemented by design services from Aricent’s design house, Frog Design. Additionally, Aricent’s contemporary engagement models help reduce development and integration expenses, and facilitate customization and portability.

Aricent’s Long Term Evolution Practice

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:55:51 +0000

Overview

LTE is the next evolution for most 3G and 3.5G technologies. It is essential for device manufacturers and infrastructure vendors to be ready with differentiated and cost competitive LTE products so they can gain market share and compete effectively in the wireless ecosystem of the future.

Aricent’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) practice offers equipment manufacturers comprehensive end-to-end solutions including pre-packaged software and frameworks along with a comprehensive set of product lifecycle services to develop feature-rich and differentiated products while gaining significant time-to-market advantage at lower R&D costs.

Select Customer Engagements

Pre-packaged Software and Frameworks

LTE User Equipment (UE) Software Suite – Aricent’s LTE UE Software Suite is a complete software package for device and semi-conductor vendors including fully optimized Layer 1, Layer 2 protocol software with support for high uplink and downlink data rates.


	Aricent’s products have been optimized on several industry leading platforms

eNodeB Protocol Stacks and Framework – Aricent’s solutions for radio access equipment (eNodeB) range from pluggable stack software to pre-integrated and optimized product frameworks that have been benchmarked on multiple industry leading hardware platforms.
EPC Protocol Stacks and Frameworks – Aricent offers a comprehensive suite of products and services for the Evolved Packet Core(EPC). We offer pre-packaged solutions for both the eSAE gateways (the SGW and th

LTE

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:51:57 +0000

LTE (both radio and core network evolution) is now on the market. Release 8 was frozen in December 2008 and this has been the basis for the first wave of LTE equipment. LTE specifications are very stable, with the added benefit of small enhancements being introduced in Release 9, a Release that will be functionally frozen in December 2009.

Motivation for 3GPP Release 8 – The LTE Release

Need to ensure the continuity of competitiveness of the 3G system for the future
User demand for higher data rates and quality of service
Packet Switch optimised system
Continued demand for cost reduction (CAPEX and OPEX)
Low complexity
Avoid unnecessary fragmentation of technologies for paired and unpaired band operation

LTE Release 8 Key Features

High spectral efficiency
— OFDM in Downlink, Robust against multipath interference & High affinity to advanced techniques such as Frequency domain channel-dependent scheduling & MIMO
— DFTS-OFDM(“Single-Carrier FDMA”) in Uplink, Low PAPR, User orthogonality in frequency domain
— Multi-antenna application
Very low latency
— Short setup time & Short transfer delay
— Short HO latency and interruption time; Short TTI, RRC procedure, Simple RRC states
Support of variable bandwidth
— 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz
Simple protocol architecture
— Shared channel based
— PS mode only with VoIP capability
Simple Architecture
— eNodeB as the only E-UTRAN node
— Smaller number of RAN interfaces, eNodeB « MME/SAE-Gateway (S1), eNodeB « eNodeB (X2)
Compatibility and inter-working with earlier 3GPP Releases
Inter-working with other systems, e.g. cdma2000
FDD and TDD within a single radio access technology
Efficient Multicast/Broadcast
— Single frequency network by OFDM
Support of Self-Organising Network (SON) operation

LTE Release 8 Major Parameters

LTE-Release 8 User Equipment Categories

LTE Release 8 Specifications

LTE is specified in 36 series technical specifications
The latest version of the LTE Release 8 specifications (September 2009 version) can be found in On-line in the 36 series

LTE Historical Information

The technical paper UTRA-UTRAN Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE) is a good starting point.

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.

Targets were to have average user throughput of three- to four-times the Release 6 HSDPA levels in the Downlink (100Mbps), and two to three times the HSUPA levels in the Uplink (50Mbps).

In 2007, the LTE of the 3rd generation radio access technology – “E UTRA” – progressed from the feasibility study stage to the first issue of approved Technical Specifications. By the end of 2008, the specifications were sufficiently stable for commercial implementation.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) was selected for the Downlink and Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) for the Uplink. The Downlink supporting data modulation schemes QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM and the Uplink BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM.

LTE’s E UTRA uses a number of defined channel bandwidths between 1.25 and 20 MHz (contrasted with UTRA’s fixed 5 MHz channels).

4 x Increased Spectral Efficiency, 10 x Users Per Cell

Spectral efficiency is increased by up to four-fold compared with UTRA, and improvements in architecture and signalling reduce round-trip latency. Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology should enable 10 times as many users per cell as 3GPP’s original W CDMA radio access technology.

To suit as many frequency band allocation arrangements as possible, both paired (FDD) and unpaired (TDD) band operation is supported. LTE can co-exist with earlier 3GPP radio technologies, even in adjacent channels, and calls can be handed over to and from all 3GPP’s previous radio access technologies.

In the same time frame as the development of LTE, 3GPP’s core network has been undergoing System Architecture Evolution (SAE), optimizing it for packet mode and in particular for the IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) which supports all access technologies.

LTE Jumps Ahead in the Race to 4G

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:49:21 +0000

The awkwardly named Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology is pulling ahead in the race for the 4G wireless networks. If carrier plans are any indication, Ultra Mobile Broadband, the upgrade technology for CDMA networks, is quickly becoming a non-factor. Even WiMAX, which was at one point seen as offering significant cost and time advantages, has started to lose out to LTE.

Since so many industry insiders have started talking about the inevitability of LTE over everything else, I have started to keep tabs on different carriers and their 4G plans. Here are some notables that have made their LTE plans public.

Vodafone, the largest global carrier, has been an early champion of LTE.
AT&T plans to roll out its 4G network sometime in 2012 utilizing their recently acquired 700 MHz spectrum.
Verizon Wireless has plans to roll out its 700 MHz-based network in 2010.
Japanese carrier KDDI, which has been using CDMA technologies for a while now, is said to be favoring LTE over UMB.

This is not a complete list so much as a directional indicator. (If you have any carriers you want to see on this list, please send me an email.) China and India, the big gorillas on Planet Mobile, have yet to decide their 3G/4G destiny and so remain an X-factor. (More on India down below.)

As more carriers opt for LTE, the equipment makers can start planning for scale and thus bring down the cap-ex costs for these carriers. Lower pricing can have a domino effect, so we could see smaller carriers start to opt for LTE as well. Companies on the equipment side are already making LTE plans.

At the CTIA show in Las Vegas, which wrapped up last week, there were a couple of significant announcements:

Chinese equipment maker Huawei Technologies said it will have its 700 MHz products ready for launch in the first quarter of 2009, around the time the carriers can start claiming the wireless spectrum they bought. These offerings include UMTS, CDMA and LTE devices.
Ericsson, which is now a dominant wireless infrastructure equipment provider, announced its 700 MHz plans with its new M700 mobile platform, an LTE-capable platform with peak data rates of up to 100Mbps in the downlink and up to 50Mbps in the uplink.

Again, this is not a complete list. (If you want us to include you in future 700 MHz/LTE posts, please drop us a link or short informational blurb via our contact form.)

Our favorite wireless data analyst, Chetan Sharma, did the rounds at CTIA and his conclusion about LTE concurred with our reporting. “Without a doubt the operator community is rallying behind LTE, and there might be an opportunity to finally converge to a single standard,” he says.

Sharma points out that single standards, while nice and dandy, will soon become a thing of the past thanks to “advances in silicon” that now make it possible “to integrate multiple radios” on single chip. Of course, the potential of software-defined radios are finally beginning to be realized as well; Huawei, for example, will be using SDRs in its 700 MHz gear.

So what about WiMAX? Well in the U.S., things aren’t looking so good. Sprint’s Xohm Network has hit some snags and Clearwire is riding rough seas. A rescue in the form of a new, megabillion-dollar funding for a new WiMAX operator might emerge, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As Sharma notes, “WiMAX has forced acceleration of the LTE standardization process but is starting to lose its time (and cost) advantage.” From what I have been able to learn, WiMAX is the technology of choice in the emerging telecom economies. In India for instance, Tata and Reliance, two giant telecom operators, are spending a ton of cash on WiMAX, as is the incumbent Indian incumbent, BSNL.

Charlie Martin, CTO of wireless for Huawei, in an interview with Fierce Broadband Wireless, said, “We view WiMAX as different from CDMA and LTE in terms of the fact that WiMAX is a good alternative for emerging markets and alternative operators.” If there is one company that knows emerging markets, it is Huawei, so I give Martin’s comments a lot of credence.

LTE vs WiMAX: A Little 4G Sibling Rivalry

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:45:30 +0000

After writing up a storm about the next-generation cellular Long-Term Evolution standard a few weeks ago, I noticed that several commenters were confused, critical or just plain wrong about LTE and WiMax, the other 4G network. So I called a few people and tried to figure out the salient differences between the two. First, both are 4G technologies designed to move data rather than voice. Both are IP networks based on OFDM technology — so rather than rivals such as GSM and CDMA, they’re more like siblings. But sibling rivalry does exist, so there’s still plenty of differences to hash out.

Let’s start with the genesis of the two technologies.WiMax is based on a IEEE standard (802.16), and like that other popular IEEE effort, Wi-Fi, it’s an open standard that was debated by a large community of engineers before getting ratified. In fact, we’re still waiting on the 802.16m standard for faster mobile WiMax to be ratified. The level of openness means WiMax equipment is standard and therefore cheaper to buy — sometimes half the cost and sometimes even less. Depending on the spectrum alloted for WiMax deployments and how the network is configured, this can mean a WiMax network is cheaper to build.

If WiMax is the hippie, grass-roots parents on “Family Ties,” LTE is closer to Alex P. Keaton. The players determining the LTE standard through the 3GPP are comprised of carriers and equipment vendors who have been buying and selling the same proprietary boxes for years. The open, standards-based way of doing business isn’t exactly their modus operandi.

Fred Wright, an SVP that handles 4G networks for Motorola, believes LTE will be the standard chosen by 80 percent of the carriers in the world — good news for vendors such as such as Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, who have opted to stick with LTE. Of course, as GSM is the dominant mobile standard today, such a prediction isn’t all that surprising.

However, LTE will take time to roll out, with deployments reaching mass adoption by 2012 . WiMax is out now, and more networks should be available later this year. As for speeds, LTE will be faster than the current generation of WiMax, but 802.16m that should be ratified in 2009 is fairly similar in speeds.

So despite their differences in origin and current availability, the two siblings may grow closer with time, especially as newer iterations on the standard emerge. Wright said 85 percent of the work and technology for WiMax equipment will be reused in Motorola’s LTE equipment designs. The true battle isn’t between the competing 4G networks, but between wireless and wired broadband.

“The performance and capabilities of WiMax and LTE will only get better over time, and will represent a direct competitive threat to the existing broadband services,” Wright says. “People will make a choice, just like today when people are disconnecting their wired lines for voice.”

It’s an ambitious goal, and aside from the networking technology, things such as backhaul capacity, and availability of network devices will determine how wireless our world will become.

Next Big Wireless: LTE?

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:41:24 +0000

Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based services are garnering a lot of attention in the mobile broadband industry, despite the fact that they are at least two years away from being deployed. LTE, considered by many analysts to be the next big wave in 4G wireless technology, is due to be launched commercially in 2010 by Verizon and AT&T, roughly two years after the Clearwire coalition’s big commercial WiMAX launch slated for later this year.

Technically speaking, LTE is a modulation technique that is the latest variation of Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology. Its developers at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) dubbed it “Long Term Evolution” because they view it as the natural progression of High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), the GSM technology that is currently used by carriers such as AT&T to deliver 3G mobile broadband.

GSM is by far the dominant mobile standard worldwide, with more the 2 billion global customers. In the United States, however, the only carriers that currently use GSM are AT&T and T-Mobile. Carriers Verizon and Sprint both use the rival Code Division for Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, although Verizon is due to move over to the GSM side when it launches its own LTE network sometime in 2010.

While it is far too early to predict how successful LTE will be in the enterprise market, recent trends indicate that demand for the technology could get a significant boost as businesses demand ever-faster mobile broadband access. For instance, a recent survey conducted by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey reports that nearly half of all enterprises currently use 3G cellular services, and that more than one-third plan on using WiMAX technology within the next year.

The major reasons for deploying mobile enterprise applications, the survey finds, include increased employee productivity and increased employee availability, as more than 80% of corporate users list both of them as key reasons for using more mobile technologies. If demand for increased mobile broadband speeds continues to be strong, LTE could be in a good position to compete with WiMAX as a widely deployed mobile broadband standard when it comes to market in 2010.

“We’re seeing some indications that enterprises are beginning to look at wireless broadband as extension of the network itself,” says Mike Jude, an analyst at Nemertes Research. “They’re starting to think about how to enable mobile networks with access to company applications such as enterprise research planning, customer relationship management and inventory.”

What makes LTE so special?

Although LTE-enabled devices won’t hit the markets for at least two years after WiMAX-enabled devices, LTE does have some key advantages that could help bring it up to speed with rival technologies such as WiMAX and the CDMA-based Ultra Mobile Broadband. In the first place, LTE has been adopted as the 4G technology of choice by every major wireless carrier in the United States except for Sprint Nextel. Indeed, Verizon and AT&T think so much of LTE’s potential to deliver high-speed mobile broadband that they each plan to dedicate spectrum they recently acquired in the 700MHz auction to LTE deployment.

“LTE is a very natural evolution from where we are now,” says AT&T Wireless spokesman Mark Siegel, who notes that AT&T is the only major U.S. wireless carrier to currently use LTE predecessor HSPA for its 3G technology. “We still have a lot of room to build out our HSPA network before we have to go to LTE. When we do eventually make the switch, it will be backward compatible with our 3G technology, whereas Sprint and Verizon will need to make a much more abrupt transition from where they are now with their 3G technologies.”

According to Jude, the ability for AT&T and T-Mobile to simply transition from one level of GSM network to another gives them an edge over the Clearwire WiMAX network, which will have to be backward compatible with Sprint’s legacy CDMA technology. Jude also says that AT&T and T-Mobile also will have a slight leg up on Verizon, which will have to make the transition from CDMA to GSM for LTE.

And since it will take a long time to build and deploy LTE networks with nationwide coverage, says Forrester analyst Charles Golvin, it will be crucial that LTE users be able to seamlessly switch back to HSPA technology if they find themselves out of range of the 4G network. And since LTE will have the support of a large number of carriers that use the GSM standard, LTE users will be able to take advantage of trans-carrier agreements that could lessen their monthly roaming charges.

“That ability to hand off service is very important in today’s environment,” says Golvin. “We have an expectation in ubiquity in service.”

How will LTE stack up against WiMAX?

Before making any comparisons between LTE and WiMAX, says Golvin, it’s important to note a key distinction: WiMAX is able to deliver high-speed data today, while LTE is not. Thus, it’s difficult to compare a technology that is already up and running with a technology that is still in the standards process.

Additionally, notes Gartner analyst Phil Redman, LTE shouldn’t be compared to WiMAX in its current incarnation. In all likelihood, he says, LTE will be deployed at around the time that WiMAX has upgraded to the 802.16m standard, which is expected to deliver download speeds of 100Mbps for mobile applications. From this perspective, LTE and WiMAX stack up very well against one another, since LTE is also expected to deliver peak download speeds of 100Mbps.

The big issue, then, might not be which technology delivers faster data speeds but which one is most widely available. In terms of having more carriers to work with, LTE is clearly well ahead of WiMAX in the United States. Additionally, LTE currently has an advantage over WiMAX in that it’s designed to be compatible with both Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), the two main legacy techniques for dividing downlink and uplink communication channels on the same transmission platform. WiMAX, on the other hand, is only compatible with TDD so far.

Why is this important? Because, notes Golvin, LTE will have more spectrum at its disposal using both TDD and FDD than WiMAX will have with TDD alone. While TDD sends uplink and downlink data transfers through one single channel over unpaired spectrum, FDD gives uplink and downlink data transfers through two separate channels over paired spectrum.

This is crucial, notes Golvin, because many valuable spectrum licenses, such as most of those recently sold off in the 700MHz auction, are paired spectrum licenses that are only compatible with FDD. According to reports published earlier this year, the WiMAX Forum is quietly working on a profile for mobile WiMAX that incorporates FDD, although the group has so far been mum on when it expects this profile to be completed.

Even so, says Jude, WiMAX has at least a two-year time-to-market advantage in which it will be virtually alone in the 4G market. If the recently formed Clearwire coalition is successful at locking customers into high-speed mobile broadband contracts, and if WiMAX can expand the range of spectrum it’s available on, Jude says it could get a good head start before LTE comes along in 2010.

“WiMAX may find a niche in rural areas because it allows people to work extreme distances from cell sites,” he says. “But ultimately, it’s all about the footprint. The challenge for Sprint and Clearwire is whether they can get into a substantial number of big markets quickly enough to lock in subscribers.”

Wireless Firm Yota Chooses LTE Technology

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:38:12 +0000

Andrei Makhonin / Vedomosti

Yota says it’s following a global trend by choosing to adopt the LTE standard.

Wireless telecoms firm Yota said Friday that it decided to develop Long-Term Evolution technology, or LTE, dealing a major blow to competing standard WiMax.

Yota, which is already one of the world’s top WiMax operators, plans to spend $100 million on the rollout of LTE networks in five Russian cities this year, the company said in e-mailed comments. Total investments are estimated at up to $2 billion.

“The world’s biggest operators and device makers, such as Nokia and Samsung, have chosen the LTE standard. Following the global trend, we are seeking to give our clients the best solutions,” the company said.

“Yota is a services company; for us technology is an instrument. It’s clear that the LTE standard is becoming the main trend in wireless communications,” chief executive Denis Sverdlov said a statement on the company’s web site.

The first city to get LTE will be Kazan, followed by Novosibirsk and Samara, Yota said.

During 2008 and 2009, one mobile operator after another chose LTE, a natural evolution of their current 3G networks, over data-centric WiMax, for their next generation, more efficient mobile networks.

The company, founded in 2007, operates in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ufa, Sochi and Krasnodar. It is also active in Belarus, Peru and Nicaragua.

Yota had planned to launch WiMax in 15 more Russian cities, which will instead receive LTE service. The company will use the same 2.5-2.7 GHz frequency band in which its WiMax networks currently operate.

Yota has signed contracts for delivery of 1,000 base stations but declined to say who the equipment makers were.

It plans to launch LTE in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the end of 2011.

Long Term Evolution – A New Wireless 4G Technology

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:09:10 +0000

Mobile communication has seen the fastest growth in the past few years, different wireless technologies have come and have gone. But the peoples thirst for more speed has not gone. People still want more speed and bandwidth. Also the development of transistor technology in the 70′s had boosted this thirst for more technology.

The latest technology in wireless communication is Long Term Evolution or shortly called as LTE. Its a 3GPP project, that is third generation partnership project between the UMTS and other GSM operators. The most important thing about LTE is, it is downward compatible with GSM ( Global System for Communication). So the operators who have already deployed GSM can now easily upgrade their service to LTE with very less cost. LTE is a 4G (4th generation ) technology.

LTE claims to provide up to 100Mbps downlink speed and upto 75Mbps uplink speed. It used OFDMA or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access for downlink and SC-FDMA or Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access for Uplink. The base station in LTE is called as eNode B and the mobile station is called as UE or User Equipment. Downlink is from the eNode B to UE and Uplink is vice versa. LTE supports multiple bandwidths right from 1.4MHz to 20MHz, it is this flexibility of LTE that is attracting the operators from all over the world. The main reason for this is there is a tight lock in the spectrum now because of so many wireless applications.

LTE has been already deployed in some parts of the world. Companies like Ericson, Nokia Siemens, Tata Elxsi etc are working on the architecture of LTE and LTE is supposed to be deployed through out the world by the end of 2015.

LTE in Mobile Phones

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:00:40 +0000

Mobile phone technology is in a fast forward mode. Continuous process of innovations made the all pervasive mobile phone to spread its coverage to all nooks and corners of this vast universe. It is well known that the use of mobile phones is so widespread and it has become an unavoidable device for every one irrespective of their occupation or status. It has redefined the concept of telephony in the 21st century. Ever since it was invented and introduced for public consumption, mobile phone technology has been undergoing continuous process of evolution. As a result of this innovative upsurge, newer features got incorporated in the device periodically.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is one among many projects that caused substantial changes in the mobile technology. It is within the frame work of 3rd generation (3G) cellular service. The role out of 3G by the mobile network operators is expected to deliver bouquet of value added services. It will extend capabilities for higher speed data transfer and advanced video streaming. The LTE will contribute towards improving the universal mobile telecommunication standards, as well as spectral efficiency, lowering costs and enabling integration with other open standards. The project is known as 3GPP LTE.

In UK the first 3rd generation partnership project or 3GPP was introduced by Samsung whose model Kalima supports download speed up to 100Mbps and upload speed of 50Mbps within 20 MHz frequency bandwidth. The users will be able to download high definition movie files (800MB) in one minute at a speed of 100Mbps. This LTE modem is compatible with earlier standards. Samsung has also developed another modem named Broom which has capacity to download at 28Mbps and upload at 11.5 Mbps. These modems are based on the release of 7 standards with HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) evolution platform.

Nokia Siemens Network also has developed LTE mobile, claiming that it is worlds first call using next generation technology. They are expected to introduce it shortly. The prospects are brighter for the telecom industry. The new technology will render faster capability to the mobile phones and will enable faster uploads and downloads of movies, music and other data. The users will be able to download mobile broadband as faster as a computer having wired broadband connection.

Many other players in the telecommunication segment are expected to adopt LTE in their mobile phones. As LTE is the most advanced 3rd generation wireless technology and there is widespread expectation that it will be the spring board for the 4th generation standards for mobile telephony it is quite natural that more industry leaders will follow suit. Major players like Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson and NEC are now adopting LTE for their future plans. Experts are of the opinion that the adoption of LTE will become imperative in order to survive in the market. Ultimately the consumer will be benefited by the reliable and fast services.

The consumers can avail all information about innovative ideas that are being incorporated in this from the exclusive websites devoted to mobile phone technology. Product reviews periodically appearing in these websites are helpful for prospective buyers to choose the right products.

AT&T names LTE partners as it preps to deploy fourth-generation wireless network in 2011

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:54:42 +0000

Late Wednesday, AT&T announced agreements with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson for its upcoming fourth-generation LTE wireless broadband network, setting the stage for the next chapter of its on-going battle with rival Verizon. The carrier said it chose to extend existing relationships with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson after “testing equipment from multiple suppliers in the field and in a lab environment.” Both companies currently provide equipment for AT&T’s 3G HSPA 7.2Mbps network utilized by the iPhone 3GS and other high-end smartphones.

The carrier said that 3G equipment provided by its suppliers starting this year will be easily convertible to LTE. As a result, the company won’t have to install entirely new equipment to deploy LTE. AT&T hopes this will give them a much needed edge over Verizon which can’t easily upgrade its existing infrastructure since it’s based on CDMA rather than the GSM standard. Verizon expects to launch LTE in 25 to 30 cities by the end of 2010. According to AT&T’s president and CEO of operations John Stankey:

AT&T has a key advantage in that LTE is an evolution of the existing GSM family of technologies that powers our network and the vast majority of the world’s global wireless infrastructure today. As some competitors move away from their existing investment in niche 3G platforms, we are able to efficiently and quickly move toward LTE while enhancing our existing 3G performance and providing access to a strong ecosystem of customer devices.

Analysts estimate that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson cut multi-year deals with AT&T possibly worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Computerworld reported. An AT&T representative recently told Geek that the company plans field trials of LTE technology later this year, with commercial deployment scheduled to begin in 2011, coinciding with widespread availability of equipment and compatible LTE mobile devices. AT&T and Verizon have 85 million and 91 million subscribers, respectively. AT&T is also an exclusive iPhone carrier in the US. Apple revealed that AT&T will also offer 3G data plans to iPad customers in the US.

AT&T’s network enhancements arrive less than two months ahead of the iPad debut. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) warned that carriers like AT&T may be overloading themselves with the iPad announcement, explaining that additional traffic generated by future users of the iPad and competing devices could choke off wireless broadband services. Companies like Aspera claim custom solutions that can triple 3G data speeds for AT&T’s iPhone users.

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a preferred radio technology in fourth-generation (4G) wireless networks that promise data speeds up to 100Mbps, roughly matching the speed of a typical local network in your home or at work. The vast majority of wireless carriers in the US and worldwide have announced plans to deploy LTE networks, putting an end to incompatible standards that have prevented wireless devices being used on any network in the past.