Long Term Evolution

A GSM, and its evolution through GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and HSPA, is the technology stream of choice for the vast majority of the world’s mobile operators. Today’s commercial offerings which are based on this technology evolution typically offer downlink speeds in the order of 7 Mbps, with the expectation that 14 Mbps will become widely available in the near future.With such an improvement in 3rd Generation (3G) capabilities, there are obvious questions to be asked about what should happen next. From a standardization perspective 3G work is now well-advanced and, while improvements continue to be made to leverage the maximum performance from currently deployed systems, there is a limit to the extent to which further enhancements will be effective. If the only aim were to deliver higher performance, then this in itself would be relatively easy to achieve. The added complexity is that such improved performance must be delivered through systems which are cheaper to install and maintain. Users have experienced a dramatic reduction in telecommunications charges and they now expect to pay less but to receive more. Therefore, in deciding the next standardization step, there must be a dual approach: seeking considerable performance improvement but at reduced cost. LTE is that next step and will be the basis on which future mobile telecommunications systems will be built.