LTE and the Evolution to 4G Wireless: Design and Measurement Challenges, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1

LTE Introduction

1.1 Introduction

The challenge for any book tackling a subject as broad and deep as a completely new cellular radio standard is one of focus. The process of just creating the Long Term Evolution (LTE) specifications alone has taken several years and involved tens of thousands of temporary documents, thousands of hours of meetings, and hundreds of engineers. The result is several thousand pages of specifications. Now the hard work is underway, turning those specifications into real products that deliver real services to real people willing to pay real money. A single book of this length must therefore choose its subject wisely if it is to do more than just scratch the surface of such a complex problem.

The focus that Agilent has chosen for this book is a practical one: to explain design and measurement tools and techniques that engineering teams can use to accelerate turning the LTE specifications into a working system. The first half of the book provides an overview of the specifications starting in Chapter 2 with RF aspects and moving through the physical layer and upper layer signaling to the System Architecture Evolution (SAE) in Chapter 5. Due to limited space, the material in Chapters 2 through 5 should be viewed as an introduction to the technology rather than a deep exposition. For many, this level of detail will be sufficient but anyone tasked with designing or testing parts of the system will always need to refer directly to the specifications. ...