LTE Advanced: 3GPP Solution for IMT-Advanced

3.6 UE Capability and Differences in Release 8 and 9

In Release 8 and 9 there are 5 UE categories defined. The UE does not signal individual capabilities but is according to one of the Release 8 (or 9) 5 UE categories. The data rates start from 10 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink with category 1, but the first phase UEs in the market are according to category 3 with 100 Mbps downlink peak data rate (with FDD mode) and 50 Mbps uplink when network has 20 MHz carrier available. The downlink MIMO capability is part of the all LTE UEs, except the category 1 devices, as shown in Table 3.3. The same UE categories are valid in both Release 8 and 9. The Release 9 enhancements did not impact the peak data rate of the UEs, but were mostly focused on enhancements to enable voice. Besides the UE capabilities captured in [3], on the smallest feature level the Feature Group Indicators (FGI) in [4] also informs the network whether UE has been tested against the network with particular a feature, such as certain channel quality feedback modes and thus whether the related feature could be activated in the UE. This allows introduction of the UEs in the market reflecting the features actually supported in the networks and facilitates then later feature introduction in the networks. Example of such a feature is Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) which is reserving resources for multiple transmission occasions (repetitive). Since the SPS is intended for reducing the signalling load when majority, if not ...