Chapter 2
LTE Standardization
2.1 Introduction
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standardization is being carried out in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), as was the case for Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and the later phase of GSM evolution. This chapter introduces the 3GPP LTE release schedule and the 3GPP standardization process. The requirements set for LTE by the 3GPP community are reviewed and the anticipated steps for later LTE Releases, including LTE-Advanced work for the IMT-Advanced process, are covered. This chapter concludes by introducing LTE specifications and 3GPP structure.
2.2 Overview of 3GPP Releases and Process
The development of 3GPP dates from 1998. The first WCDMA release, Release 99, was published in December 1999. This contained basic WCDMA features with theoretical data rates of up to 2 Mbps, with different multiple access for Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode and Time Division Duplex (TDD). After that, 3GPP abandoned the yearly release principle and the release naming was also changed, continuing from Release 4 (including TD-SCDMA), completed in March 2001. Release 5 followed with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in March 2002 and Release 6 with High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) in December 2004 for WCDMA. Release 7 was completed in June 2007 with the introduction of several HSDPA and HSUPA enhancements. In 2008 3GPP finalized Release 8 (with a few issues pending for March 2009, including RRC ASN.1 freezing), which brought ...
