LTE (Long Term Evolution)

News

lteTechnology Overview
UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) will ensure the competitiveness of UMTS for the next ten years and beyond and provide a high-data-rate, low-latency and packet-optimized system. LTE is also known as E-UTRA (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) and E-UTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network). LTE can be operated in either FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) or TDD (Time Division Duplex) mode, also referred to as FD-LTE and TD-LTE. Besides peak data rates of more than 100 Mbit/s in the downlink and 50 Mbit/s in the uplink, a significant increase in spectrum efficiency and capacity as well as a significant latency reduction are planned.

Deployment Scenario

E-UTRAN can be deployed as a standalone network, but integration with existing WCDMA/HSPA, GSM/GPRS/EDGE and CDMA2000®1xEV-DO networks is likely to become a more typical deployment scenario. Thus, mobility between the different technologies needs to be supported and handover procedures have been specified accordingly.

LTE focuses on the packet-switched domain and will benefit all applications with high data rate and low latency requirements.

Rohde & Schwarz Test Solutions

Rohde & Schwarz was the first supplier on the market with test solutions for LTE FDD and TDD. Flexible and easy-to-use solutions for LTE signal generation and analysis enable the testing of RF and physical layer implementations. A special highlight are the unique test solutions for MIMO. The versatile R&S®CMW500 wideband radio communication tester addresses all stages of wireless device testing, from early R&D up to conformance testing and production. Scalable RF test systems such as the R&S®TS8980 LTE RF test syste and the powerful R&S®TSMW universal radio network analyzer complete the Rohde & Schwarz test and measurement portfolio for LTE.

Key Parameters

3GPP LTE
Frequency Range Show / Hide
I)
UL: 1920 MHz - 1980 MHz
DL: 2110 MHz - 2170 MHz
II)
UL: 1850 MHz - 1910 MHz
DL: 1930 MHz - 1990 MHz
III)
UL: 1710 MHz - 1785 MHz
DL: 1805 MHz - 1880 MHz
IV)
UL: 1710 MHz - 1755 MHz
DL: 2110 MHz - 2155 MHz
V)
UL: 824 MHz - 849 MHz
DL: 869 MHz - 894 MHz
VI)
UL: 830 MHz - 840 MHz
DL: 875 MHz - 885 MHz
VII)
UL: 2500 MHz - 2570 MHz
DL: 2620 MHz - 2690 MHz
VIII)
UL: 880 MHz - 915 MHz
DL: 925 MHz - 960 MHz
IX)
UL: 1749.9 MHz - 1784.9 MHz
DL: 1844.9 MHz - 1879.9 MHz
X)
UL: 1710 MHz - 1770 MHz
DL: 2110 MHz - 2170 MHz
Modulation UL: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
DL: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
Multiple Access OFDMA (DL)

SC-FDMA (UL)
Duplex (Uplink/Downlink) FDD / TDD
Channel Bandwidth scalable to 20 MHz
Peak Data Rate 172 Mbit/s (DL, 20 MHz, 2x2 MIMO)
75 Mbit/s (UL, 20 MHz)

Standardization

LTE is being specified in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). Work on LTE started in December 2004 with a feasibility study, which was finalized in 3GPP Release 7. LTE specifications for the FDD and TDD modes form part of 3GPP Release 8. 3GPP Release 9 will bring further enhancements to LTE. Furthermore, a study item on LTE-Advanced as the next evolution stage has been started to investigate how LTE can become a true 4G system. The following link provides access to 3GPP specifications: http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/