Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Understanding What Is LTE

By Harry Noris


Many consumers are wondering what is LTE. This expanding technology is formally known as 3GPP Long Term Evolution for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (3GPP UMT LTE). The wifi broadband technology is designed to grant roaming internet access for handheld devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops. It has been devised with many improvements over the previous mobile communication standards. The forum accountable for its evolvement and uniformity is the Third Generation (3G) Partnership Project.

The 3GPP was set up during December of 1998. Its participants belong to internationally based telecommunications associations which are known as the Organisational Partners. The initial scope of the 3GPP was to evolve 3G mobile phone systems which were globally applicable. Since its launch, the scope of its obligations have expanded.

At the present time, the 3GPP is responsible for developing and maintaining three main technological sectors. 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 maintains evolved IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems) which are access-independent.

The LTE technology can be put to use easily and can supply high data rates with low latencies across great distances. Known as 4G (fourth generation), it is better than 3G systems. For example, preliminary results show the 4G network can easily reach data download speeds of almost 16 Mbps, compared to just over 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 simpler to make use of than its predecessors. Its network architecture is much simpler because it is only a network that is packet switched. The system does not have the ability to control text messages and voice calls natively. Those kinds of services are usually 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 a simpler version of the architecture which is presently used 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 recent 4G system is reliant upon two kinds of radio links. The downlink moves from the tower to the device, and the uplink moves from the device to the tower. Since 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), 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 used. That means a device has multiple connections to each cell, which improves the stability of each connection and reduces its latency greatly.

For the uplinks, a project 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 elements, it has a greater power ratio for uplinking.

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

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

Understanding what is LTE may help people make informed purchasing choices. Choosing new devices that support 4G networks are wise choices. This technology is envisaged to command worldwide telecommunications for years to come.




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