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

IMT-Advanced Market Outlook

At the time of writing this book, there remains strong speculation as to the future of IMT-Advanced networks. However, there are several strong indicators that the market has already sided with LTE and LTE-Advanced as the network of choice when it comes to evolving existing cellular infrastructures. For example, the GSA reports pre-commitments (trials) and commitments by 196 operators in 75 countries. GSA also reports, as of March 2011, the launch of almost 100 devices into the market, including 6 smart phones, 7 tables and 22 Modules. For WiMax, a commitment to mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e or 802.16-2009) comprises a commitment to the WirelessMAN-Advanced. Therefore, the above commitments noted by the WiMAX Forum, which include 150 deployments worldwide, stand as commitments to WiMAX's Advanced evolution. Most recently, Sprint has infused a 1 billion dollar investment into Clearwire (56% owned by Sprint), giving a strong thrust to Clearwire's WiMAX deployment [12]. Such infusion has muted expectations of Clearwire's support for LTE as it did announce in 2010 LTE trials. Sprint's own success with its WiMAX deployment and its signature EVO smartphone is being viewed as an indicator for the potential success for 4G networks. The status for the supporting WiMAX devices, however, remains unclear.

For a long time, it has been held that WiMAX has a definite and powerful time-to-market advantage over LTE and LTE-Advanced networks. This is because of WiMAX's maturity ...