The LTE/SAE Deployment Handbook

Foreword

Manually operated mobile communication networks were a huge success in all the Nordic countries in the 1970s but the popularity of the first-generation automatic networks (NMT) exceeded all expectations in the 1980s. It seemed impossible to estimate realistically the number of base stations needed to respond to the growing demand. Subscribers became accustomed to constantly improving service levels and coverage areas for voice calls. Gradually, during that decade, users adopted wireless voice communication and found that not only did it bring increased efficiency—it was also a highly liberating experience.

Then, along with the second generation in the 1990s (GSM), it became clear that there was a growing demand for more advanced services. International specification work on GSM formed a solid base and a favorable platform for new inventions like Short Message Service (SMS). GSM has been up and running now for more than 20 years. From the number of new innovations in 3GPP standardization it is clear that the evolution of GSM will be secure for a long time.

3G was introduced to the markets in order to provide a base for even more demanding multimedia. It provided additional capacity for voice calls as the 2G systems started to saturate. With its multiple generations and releases, the mobile telecom operators and vendors started to realize the challenges in the field as new services typically require support from both networks and terminals. On the other hand, the terminals' ...