LTE Advanced: 3GPP Solution for IMT-Advanced

4.6 Band Combinations for Carrier Aggregation

The 3GPP is specifying a large number of band combinations to support LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation operation. Each of the band combinations is usually specific to a specific region or country, with the work progressing so that first the downlink band combinations will be defined. The first phase band combination examples discussed in 3GPP, and targeting finalization during 2012 for different regions are addressed in this section. It is worth noting that the downlink band combination being specified on top of Release 10 are release-independent and can therefore be implemented in the UE by following the Release 10 specs: additionally one just needs to handle the related performance requirements and possible band combination specific signalling. With the release-independent specification it is possible to add a frequency band later than the Release 10 milestone and then implement Release 10 compatible carrier aggregation band combinations. The implementation is then done on top of Release 10 specifications, taking only the band specific signalling extensions and enhanced performance requirements into account in the implementation from the band-specific work done at a later stage.

In Europe, a typical operator has a spectrum available from different bands, including 800 MHz (the auctioning process is taking place in many countries soon, if not already), 900 MHz (from original GSM allocation, now partly for UMTS as well), 1800 MHz (GSM ...