Tuesday, 9 April 2013

Understanding What Is LTE

By Harry Noris


A great many people are wondering what is LTE. This expanding technology is formally called 3GPP Long Term Evolution for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (3GPP UMT LTE). The wireless broadband technology is designed to grant roaming internet access for handheld devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops. It has been developed with a number of improvements over the former cell communication standards. The forum responsible for its development and standardisation is the Third Generation (3G) Partnership Project.

The 3GPP was set up during December of 1998. Its contributors belong to internationally based telecommunications associations which are known as the Organisational Partners. The first scope of the 3GPP was to develop 3G mobile phone systems which were globally pertinent. Since its inception, the scope of its responsibilities have grown.

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

The LTE technology can be deployed easily and can provide fast data rates with low latencies across great distances. Known as 4G (fourth generation), it is better over 3G systems. For instance, initial results show the 4G network can easily attain data download speeds of up to 16 Mbps, as opposed to around 1 Mbps for 3G connections. The mean upload speed for the 4G system is about 1.5 Mbps, compared with 0.7 Mbps for the 3G.

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

The Simplified Architecture Evolution (SAE) of the LTE is basically a simpler version of the architecture which is currently utilised by the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS). The UMTS defines a comprehensive network system which encompasses 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 innovative 4G system is reliant upon two forms of radio links. The downlink travels from the tower to the device, and the uplink travels from the device to the tower. Since two different types of interfaces are used, wireless communications in both directions are optimised.

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

For the uplinks, a project known as DFTS-OFDMA (Discrete Fourier Transform Spread, Orthogonal Frequency Division, Multiple Access) is used. It produces 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 FDD (Frequency Division), and the TDD (Time Division). The more common type is the FDD. It depends 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 inside a band. This band is divided into segments in order to assist both the transmission and reception of signals within its single frequency range.

Wimax is an older technology that relies on underlying wireless (wi-fi) networks. In contrast, within the UK, LTE is founded on the same type of technology that is presently used by the country's 3G network. For that reason, the UK plans to utilise the 4G LTE technology as opposed to Wimax.

To comprehend what is LTE can aid people make wise purchasing choices. Choosing new devices that support 4G networks are informed decisions. This technology is envisaged to command global telecommunications for many years.




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