LTE Advanced: 3GPP Solution for IMT-Advanced

1.1 Introduction

The huge popularity of smartphones and tablet computers has pushed the need for mobile broadband networks. Users find increasing value in mobile devices combined with a wireless broadband connection. Users and new applications need faster access speeds and lower latency while operators need more capacity and higher efficiency. LTE is all about fulfilling these requirements. GSM made voice go wireless, HSPA made initial set of data connections go wireless and now LTE offers massive capabilities for the mobile broadband applications.

The first set of LTE specifications were completed in 3GPP in March 2009. The first commercial LTE network opened in December 2009. There were approximately 50 commercial LTE networks by the end of 2011 and over 100 networks are expected by the end of 2012. The first LTE smartphones were introduced in 2011 and a wide selection of devices hit the market during 2012. An example LTE smartphone is shown in Figure 1.1: the Nokia 900 with 100 Mbps LTE data rate and advanced multimedia capabilities. Overall, LTE technology deployment has been a success story. LTE shows attractive performance in the field in terms of data rates and latency and the technology acceptance has been very fast. The underlying technology capabilities evolve further which allows pushing also LTE technology to even higher data rates, higher base station densities and higher efficiencies. This book describes the next step in LTE evolution, called LTE-Advanced, which is ...