LTE, LTE-Advanced and WiMAX: Towards IMT-Advanced Networks

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The Road Ahead

The contrast in capabilities between IMT-Advanced and its predecessor is remarkably exciting. Results from the various Evaluation Groups reporting to the ITU-R WP 5 continue to indicate that the two technologies more than satisfy the ITU-R requirements [1], which were designed to address the increasing demand for mobile traffic. To put the demand expectations into perspective, it is helpful to note that a 26-fold increase in mobile data traffic is expected by 2015, reaching a rate of 6.3 exabytes¹ per month [2]. With the world population estimated to grow to a range of 7.2 to 7.5 Billion people [3], an estimate is made there will be as much as 1 mobile unit or device per capita connecting wirelessly. Estimates are also predicting that 1.3GB per month generated per smartphone, with video taking up to two thirds of the traffic. In 2020, more than 50 Billion devices will be connected to the Internet and serving a population in the range of 7.5 to 7.9 Billion – almost six devices per capita [4].

Towards this vision, the earlier deployments of IMT-Advanced would have been made, with great advancements made in both the wireless and the wired Internet. The deployments will provide substantial understanding and experience of how OFDMA operates in practice, which is currently lacking. The use of heterogeneous access networks is also projected to be the norm, with different access technologies aimed at different connection requirements. In the meantime, policies and technologies ...