Sunday, 21 April 2013

What is LTE

By Harry Noris


Many people are wondering what is LTE. This progressive technology is officially known as 3GPP Long Term Evolution for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (3GPP UMT LTE). The wifi broadband technology is structured to grant roaming internet access for handheld devices, like mobile phones, tablets and laptops. It has been devised with many improvements over the prior cell communication standards. The forum accountable for its growth and standardisation is the Third Generation (3G) Partnership Project.

The 3GPP was founded during December of 1998. Its contributors belong to worldwide based telecommunications companies which are known as the Organisational Partners. The first scope of the 3GPP was to develop 3G mobile phone systems which were universally pertinent. Since its inception, the scope of its commitments have expanded.

Currently, the 3GPP is responsible for developing and maintaining three main technological areas. Between them are the GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications), which contains the evolution of radio access technologies. It is also accountable for the evolved 3G and beyond mobile networks which are based upon the 3GPP core systems. The group also supports evolved IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems) which are access-independent.

The LTE technology can be put to use simply and can supply high data rates with low latencies across great distances. Known as 4G (fourth generation), it is superior over 3G systems. For instance, preliminary results show the 4G network can easily reach data download speeds of up to 16 Mbps, as opposed to around 1 Mbps for 3G connections. The average upload speed for the 4G system is about 1.5 Mbps, compared with 0.7 Mbps for the 3G.

LTE networks are much simpler to deploy than its predecessors. Its network architecture is considerably easier because it is merely a network that is packet switched. The system does not have the capacity to control SMS and voice calls natively. Those kinds of services are mainly handled by networks which are circuit-switched, such as CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM.

The Simplified Architecture Evolution (SAE) of the LTE is basically an easier kind of the architecture which is currently utilised by the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS). The UMTS dictates a comprehensive network system which includes the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), as well as the core Mobile Application Part (MAP) network. It also authenticates users through their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

The new 4G system is reliant upon two types of radio links. The downlink travels from the tower to the device, and the uplink travels from the device to the tower. Because two separate forms of interfaces are utilised, wireless communications in both directions are optimised.

The downlink technology is considerably more advanced than both the CDMA and the TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), which have been used since 1990. The newly developed radio interface is known as the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). It mandates that multiple in-multiple out (MIMO) technology is used. That means a device has multiple connections to each cell, which improves the stability of each connection and reduces its dormancy hugely.

For the uplinks, a scheme known as DFTS-OFDMA (Discrete Fourier Transform Spread, Orthogonal Frequency Division, Multiple Access) is utilised. It generates a superior Single Carrier Frequency (SC-FDMA) signal. Among other things, it has a higher power ratio for uplinking.

There are two subcategories within the LTE technology: the TDD (Time Division), and the FDD (Frequency Division. The more frequent type is the FDD. It relies on different frequencies for uplinks and downlinks in the form of band pairs. As a result, each band supported by a phone consists of two different frequency ranges. The TDD variation depends upon a single frequency range within a band. This band is divided into segments in order to support both the transmission and reception of signals within its single frequency range.

Wimax is an older technology which relies upon underlying wireless (wi-fi) networks. In contrast, within the UK, LTE is based upon a similar type of technology that is currently used by the country's 3G network. For this explanation, the UK plans to use the 4G LTE technology as opposed to Wimax.

To comprehend what is LTE may aid consumers make educated buying choices. Selecting new devices that support 4G networks are educated decisions. This technology is anticipated to command global telecommunications for years to come.




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