LTE Advanced

LTE Advanced is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G system to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standard, and was standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in March 2011 as 3GPP Release 10.[1]

Background

The LTE format was first proposed by NTT DoCoMo of Japan and has been adopted as the international standard.[2] LTE standardization has matured to a state where changes in the specification are limited to corrections and bug fixes. The first commercial services were launched in Sweden and Norway in December 2009[3] followed by the United States and Japan in 2010. More LTE networks were deployed globally during 2010 as a natural evolution of several 2G and 3G systems, including Global system for mobile communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) (3GPP as well as 3GPP2).

The work by 3GPP to define a 4G candidate radio interface technology started in Release 9 with the study phase for LTE-Advanced. Being described as a 3.9G (beyond 3G but pre-4G), the first release of LTE did not meet the requirements for 4G (also called IMT Advanced as defined by the International Telecommunication Union) such as peak data rates up to 1 Gb/s. The ITU has invited the submission of candidate Radio Interface Technologies (RITs) following their requirements in a circular letter, 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 36.913, "Requirements for Further Advancements for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced)."[4] These are based on ITU's requirements for 4G and on operators’ own requirements for advanced LTE. Major technical considerations include the following:

Likewise, 'WiMAX 2', 802.16m, has been approved by ITU as the IMT Advanced family. WiMAX 2 is designed to be backward compatible with WiMAX 1 devices. Most vendors now support conversion of 'pre-4G', pre-advanced versions and some support software upgrades of base station equipment from 3G.

The mobile communication industry and standards organizations have therefore started work on 4G access technologies, such as LTE Advanced. At a workshop in April 2008 in China, 3GPP agreed the plans for work on Long Term Evolution (LTE).[5] A first set of specifications were approved in June 2008.[6] Besides the peak data rate 1 Gb/s as defined by the ITU-R, it also targets faster switching between power states and improved performance at the cell edge. Detailed proposals are being studied within the working groups.

Proposals

The target of 3GPP LTE Advanced is to reach and surpass the ITU requirements. LTE Advanced should be compatible with first release LTE equipment, and should share frequency bands with first release LTE. In the feasibility study for LTE Advanced, 3GPP determined that LTE Advanced would meet the ITU-R requirements for 4G. The results of the study are published in 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 36.912.[7]

One of the important LTE Advanced benefits is the ability to take advantage of advanced topology networks; optimized heterogeneous networks with a mix of macrocells with low power nodes such as picocells, femtocells and new relay nodes. The next significant performance leap in wireless networks will come from making the most of topology, and brings the network closer to the user by adding many of these low power nodes — LTE Advanced further improves the capacity and coverage, and ensures user fairness. LTE Advanced also introduces multicarrier to be able to use ultra wide bandwidth, up to 100 MHz of spectrum supporting very high data rates.

In the research phase many proposals have been studied as candidates for LTE Advanced (LTE-A) technologies. The proposals could roughly be categorized into:[8]

Within the range of system development, LTE-Advanced and WiMAX 2, can use up to 8x8 MIMO and 128 QAM in downlink direction. Example performance: 100 MHz aggregated bandwidth, LTE-Advanced provides almost 3.3 Gbit peak download rates per sector of the base station under ideal conditions. Advanced network architectures combined with distributed and collaborative smart antenna technologies provide several years road map of commercial enhancements.

A summary of a study carried out in 3GPP can be found in TR36.912.[9]

Timeframe and introduction of additional features

Original standardization work for LTE-Advanced was done as part of 3GPP Release 10, which was frozen in April 2011. Trials were based on pre-release equipment. Major vendors support software upgrades to later versions and ongoing improvements.

In order to improve the quality of service for users in hotspots and on cell edges, heterogenous networks (HetNet) are formed of a mixture of macro-, pico- and femto base stations serving corresponding-size areas. Frozen in December 2012, 3GPP Release 11[10] concentrates on better support of HetNet. Coordinated Multi-Point operation (CoMP) is a key feature of Release 11 in order to support such network structures. Whereas users located at a cell edge in homogenous networks suffer from decreasing signal strength compounded by neighbor cell interference, CoMP is designed to enable use of a neighboring cell to also transmit the same signal as the serving cell, enhancing quality of service on the perimeter of a serving cell. In-device Co-existence (IDC) is another topic addressed in Release 11. IDC features are designed to ameliorate disturbances within the user equipment caused between LTE/LTE-A and the various other radio subsystems such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and the GPS receiver. Further enhancements for MIMO such as 4x4 configuration for the uplink were standardized.

The higher number of cells in HetNet results in user equipment changing the serving cell more frequently when in motion. The ongoing work on LTE-Advanced [11] in Release 12, amongst other areas, concentrates on addressing issues that come about when users move through HetNet, such as frequent hand-overs between cells.

Technology demonstrations

Company Country Date Note
NTT DoCoMo  Japan February 2007 [12] The operator announced the completion of a 4G trial where it achieved a maximum packet transmission rate of approximately 5 Gbit/s in the downlink
using 12 transmit and 12 receive antennas and 100 MHz frequency bandwidth to a mobile station moving at 10 km/h.
Agilent Technologies  Spain February 2011 [13] The vendor demonstrated at Mobile World Congress the industry's first test solutions for LTE-Advanced
with both signal generation and signal analysis solutions.
Ericsson  Sweden June 2011 [14] The vendor demonstrated LTE-Advanced in Kista.
touch  Lebanon April 2013 [15] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor Huawei and combined 800 MHz spectrum and 1.8 GHz spectrum. touch achieved 250 Mbit/s.
A1  Austria June 2013 [16] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Ericsson and NSN using 4x4 MIMO. A1 achieved 580 Mbit/s.
Turkcell  Turkey August 2013 [17] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Istanbul with Chinese vendor Huawei. Turkcell achieved 900 Mbit/s.
Telstra  Australia August 2013 [18] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish vendor Ericsson and combined 900 MHz spectrum and 1.8 GHz spectrum.
SMART  Philippines August 2013 [19] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor Huawei and combined 2.1GHz spectrum and 1.80GHz spectrum bands and achieves 200 Mbit/s.
SoftBank  Japan September 2013 [20] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Tokyo with Chinese vendor Huawei. Softbank used spectrum 3.5 GHz spectrum band and achieved 770 Mbit/s.
beCloud/ MTS  Belarus October 2013 [21] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor Huawei.
SFR  France October 2013 [22] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Marseille and combined 800 MHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum. SFR achieved 174 Mbit/s.
EE  United Kingdom November 2013 [23] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in London with Chinese vendor Huawei and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum
and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. EE achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
O2  Germany November 2013 [24] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Munich with Chinese vendor Huawei and combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum
and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. O2 achieved 225 Mbit/s.
SK Telecom  South Korea November 2013 [25] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced and combined 10 MHz of 850 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
SK Telecom achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  Germany November 2013 [26] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Dresden with Swedish vendor Ericsson and combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and
20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Vodafone achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Telstra  Australia December 2013 [27] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish vendor Ericsson and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Telstra achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
Optus  Australia December 2013 [28] The operator trialed TD-LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor Huawei and combined two 20 MHz channels of 2.3 GHz spectrum.
Optus achieved over 160 Mbit/s.
Unitel  Angola January 2014 [29] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Luanda with Swedish vendor Ericsson. Unitel combined 900 MHz spectrum and 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Sunrise   Switzerland January 2014 [30] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor Huawei. Commercial service is planned for Q3 2014.
Telstra  Australia January 2014 [31] The Swedish vendor Ericsson trialed LTE-Advanced with American supplier Qualcomm on the Telstra network.
Nokia Networks  Spain February 2014 [32] The vendor demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 450 Mbit/s data speeds for individual users by using LTE-Advanced.
Elisa  Finland February 2014 [33] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with American supplier Broadcom and Finnish vendor Nokia Networks.
Elisa combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Elisa achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
Deutsche Telekom  Germany February 2014 [34][35] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Alzey using 4x4 MIMO. Deutsche Telekom achieved 580 Mbit/s.
Commercial service is planned for summer 2014.
Vodafone  Italy February 2014 [36] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Naples and combined 1.8 GHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum. Vodafone achieved 253 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  Spain February 2014 [37] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Barcelona using 4x4 MIMO. Vodafone achieved 580 Mbit/s.
Eta Devices  Spain February 2014 [38] The supplier demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress Envelope Tracking Advanced (ETAdvanced) for LTE-A over 80 MHz channels.
Base  Belgium February 2014 [39] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Hasselt with Chinese vendor ZTE. Base achieved over 250 Mbit/s.
Orange  Spain March 2014 [40] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Valencia and combined 10 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Orange achieved 222 Mbit/s.
Etisalat  UAE April 2014 [41] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Abu Dhabi with French vendor Alcatel-Lucent.
Etisalat combined 20 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Etisalat achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
China Mobile  China April 2014 [42] The operator trialed TD-LTE-Advanced in Chengdu with Chinese vendor Huawei.
Magyar Telekom  Hungary April 2014 [43] The operator demonstrated LTE-Advanced in Budapest with Swedish vendor Ericsson. Magyar Telekom achieved 250 Mbit/s.
Huawei  China April 2014 [44] The Chinese vendor Huawei trialed LTE-Advanced with Qualcomm. Huawei achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
Mobistar  Belgium January 2014 -
April 2014		 [45] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Mechelen with Chinese vendor Huawei. Mobistar combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Mobistar achieved 213 Mbit/s.
Hrvatski Telekom  Croatia May 2014 [46] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Varaždin. Hrvatski Telekom combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 10 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Hrvatski Telekom achieved 136 Mbit/s.
Telstra  Australia May 2014 [47][48] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish vendor Ericsson and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 40 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Telstra achieved 450 Mbit/s.
Orange  Spain May 2014 [49] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced again in Valencia and combined 10 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Orange achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Telecom New Zealand  New Zealand May 2014 [50] The operator trials LTE-Advanced in Auckland with Chinese vendor Huawei.
Telecom New Zealand combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Telecom New Zealand achieved up to 260 Mbit/s.
LG U+  South Korea June 2014 [51] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Chinese vendor Huawei. LG U+ combined 10 MHz of 850 MHz spectrum,
10 MHz of 2.1 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. LG U+ achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
Elisa  Estonia June 2014 [52] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Elisa achieved 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE. Commercial service is planned in Tallinn for the second half of 2014.
Vodafone  Portugal June 2014 [53] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced router (Vodafone B4000) from Huawei (Huawei E5186).
Vodafone  The Netherlands June 2014 [54] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Amsterdam and combined 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum. Vodafone achieved 225 Mbit/s.
Commercial service in ten cities, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Leiden, Eindhoven, Den Bosch and Schiphol,
and reach another 50 medium and small cities is planned around year-end.
O2  Czech Republic July 2014 [55] The operator trials LTE-Advanced in the southeastern part of Vysočina Region. O2 achieved 185 Mbit/s.
Telecom Italia  Italy July 2014 [56] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced in Turin with Swedish vendor Ericsson, Chinese vendor Huawei and Qualcomm.
Telecom Italia combined 1.8 GHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum.
O2  Czech Republic August 2014 [57] The operator trials LTE-Advance in Prague.
China Telecom  China September 2014 [58] The operator claims to demonstrated the world-first FDD-TDD carrier aggregation including a user device chipset with Nokia Networks. China Telecom achieved 260 Mbit/s.
T-Com  Slovakia September 2014 [59] The operator claims 300 Mbit/s in world's first over-the-air trial for intraband contiguous Carrier Aggregation in B7/2600 MHz 20+20 MHz in field environment.
SingTel  Singapore October 2014 [60] The operator demonstrated FDD-TDD carrier aggregation with Ericsson. SingTel achieved 260 Mbit/s.
SK Telecom  South Korea October 2014 [61] The operator demonstrated LTE-Advanced Tri-Band Carrier aggregation with Ericsson.
Ooredoo  Maldives October 2014 [62] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced.
Omnitel  Lithuania November 2014 [63] The operator trials LTE-Advanced in Kaunas.
Polkomtel  Poland November 2014 [64] The operator trialed LTE-Advanced with Swedish vendor Ericsson and combined 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum
and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Polkomtel achieved 300 Mbit/s.
Ericsson November 2014 [65] The Swedish vendor trialed LTE-Advanced with American supplier Qualcomm and achieved 450 Mbit/s.
Cosmote  Greece November 2014 [66] The operator trials LTE Advanced. Cosmote combines 800 MHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Vodafone  Portugal November 2014 [67] The operator trials LTE Advanced. Vodafone achieved 450 Mbit/s.

Deployment

Operator Country Date Note
Yota  Russia February 2011 [68] The operator launched the first-ever commercial mobile implementation of the technology, at 11 of its base-stations around Moscow.
However compatible handsets weren't available until the first-half of 2013.
SK Telecom  South Korea June 2013 [69] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced services.
LG U+  South Korea July 2013 [70] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network built by the Swedish vendor Ericsson. LG U+ combine 850 MHz spectrum and 2.1 GHz spectrum.
LG U+ provides up to 150 Mbit/s which is equal to category 4 LTE.
KT  South Korea September 2013 [71] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network. KT uses 1.8 GHz spectrum. KT provides up to 150 Mbit/s which is equal to category 4 LTE.
csl.  Hong Kong February 2014 [72] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network built by the Chinese vendor ZTE. csl. combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
CSL provides up to 300 Mbit/s which is equal to category 6 LTE.
MegaFon  Russia February 2014 [73] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi built by the Chinese vendor Huawei.
MegaFon combine two 20 MHz channels of 2.6 GHz spectrum. MegaFon provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
VIVA  Kuwait September 2013 [74] The operator announced to upgrade to LTE-Advanced.
Zain  Kuwait November 2013 [75] The operator announced to roll out LTE-Advanced.
AT&T  United States March 2014 [76] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network in Chicago and other markets.
AT&T combined 700 MHz spectrum and 1.7 GHz spectrum. AT&T achieved 110 Mbit/s
Safaricom  Kenya December 2014 [77] The operator begun the rollout of LTE Advanced in the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa , with speeds of up to 100Mbit/s.
SingTel  Singapore May 2014 [78] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network. SingTel combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
SingTel provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Swisscom   Switzerland June 2014 [79] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network. Swisscom combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
Swisscom provides up to 300 Mbit/s. A compatible device will be available from autumn 2014.
Bouygues  France June 2014 [80] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced network in Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lyon and the Paris suburbs of Vanves, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Malakoff and Rosny-sous-Bois.
Bouygues Telecom provides up to 220 Mbit/s. Two compatible device from Huawei will be available from 1 July 2014.
Orange  France June 2014 [81] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced services in July 2014. Commercial service is planned in Strasbourg and Toulouse.
Followed by plans to cover all of France's large cities by the end of the year.
T-Mobile  Czech Republic July 2014 [82] The operator unveiled an LTE-Advanced in Mlada Boleslav. T-Mobile combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
T-Mobile provides up to 225 Mbit/s.
Telstra  Australia July 2014 [83] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced in 2015.
Vodafone  Czech Republic July 2014 [84] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Karlovy Vary. Vodafone also combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.800 MHz spectrum.
Vodafone provides up to 225 Mbit/s and expects in the future maximum of 300 Mbit/s.
Orange  France July 2014 [85] The operator announced the roll out of LTE-Advanced in Strasbourg and Toulouse.
EE  United Kingdom July 2014 [86] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced in 2015.
Beeline  Russia August 2014 [87] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Moscow.
SMART  Philippines August 2014 [88] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Mandaluyong.
BITE  Lithuania August 2014 [89] The operator announced to roll out LTE-Advanced in early 2015.
EMT  Estonia August 2014 [90] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in the area of Kiisa. EMT provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  Romania September 2014 [91] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Vodafone provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  The Netherlands September 2014 [92][93] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Vodafone combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
KPN  The Netherlands September 2014 [93] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. KPN combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum.
Orange  Romania September 2014 [94] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Orange provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Optus  Australia September 2014 [95] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Optus combines two 20 MHz channels of 2.3 GHz spectrum.
Ooredoo  Kuwait September 2014 [96] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced in 2014.
Telkom  South Africa September 2014 [97] The operator announced to roll out LTE-Advanced in 2014.
Movistar  Spain October 2014 [98] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Barcelona and Madrid. Movistar provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  Spain October 2014 [99] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, with Seville, Bilbao, Málaga, Zaragoza and A Coruña to follow in December 2014.
Vodafone combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Vodafone provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  United Kingdom October 2014 [100] The operator has started rolling out LTE-Advanced in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Vodafone combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum.
EE  United Kingdom October 2014 [101] The operator announced that LTE-Advanced will go live by the end of October 2014.
Vodafone  Portugal October 2014 [102] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced services on 30 October 2014.
Vodafone combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Vodafone provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
SFR  France October 2014 [103] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Toulouse. SFR combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. SFR provides up to 225 Mbit/s.
Rogers  Canada October 2014 [104] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Windsor, London, Hamliton, Toronto, Kingston, Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John and Halifax.
EE  United Kingdom October 2014 [105] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in central London. EE combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. EE provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Telstra  Australia November 2014 [106] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Telstra combines 20 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum. Telstra provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
TIM  Italy November 2014 [107] The operator launched LTE-Advanced.
LMT  Latvia November 2014 [108] The operator launched LTE-Advanced.
Vodafone  Germany November 2014 [109] The operator announced to launch LTE-Advanced in Q1 2015.
Telekom  Germany November 2014 [110] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Telekom combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. Telekom provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
A1  Austria November 2014 [111] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. A1 combines 20 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum and provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Si.mobil  Slovenia November 2014 [112] The operator launched LTE-Advanced.
Vodafone  Italy November 2014 [113] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Vodafone combines 1.8 GHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum and provides up to 225 Mbit/s.
Tango  Luxembourg December 2014 [114] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Tango combines 10 MHz of 800 MHz and 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum and provides up to 225 Mbit/s.
M1  Singapore December 2014 [115] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. M1 combines 20 MHz of 1.8 GHz and 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum. M1 provides up to 300 Mbit/s.
Ooredoo  Qatar December 2014 [116] The operator launched LTE-Advanced. Ooredoo combines 800 MHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum and provides up to 225 Mbit/s.
Vodafone  Greece February 2015 [117] The operator launched commercially LTE Advanced. Vodafone combines 800 MHz spectrum and 2.6 GHz spectrum and 1800 MHz spectrum, offering up to 300Mpbs download and 50Mbit/s upload
Bell  Canada February 2015 [118][119] The operator launched LTE-Advanced in select communities in Canada.

Theoretical peak download speeds of up to 220 Mbps (expected average download speeds 15Mbps – 60Mbps).

Devices

At the time of it's launch in 2007, LTE-A didn't have compatibility with any Smartphone, but only with a small amount of 4G LTE Routers. The first LTE-A capable mobile phone or tablet, wouldn't arrive until late 2013. While no phone is capable of 1 Gbit/s+, there are phones that can reach 300 Mbit/s to 500 Mbit/s under ideal conditions. Requirements are that the device must either have 3GB+ of RAM, a 32-bit Quad core/Octacore processor, and multiple 4G-LTE antennas or a 64-bit Dualcore/Quad core processor with 1GB+ of RAM and at least two 4G-LTE antennas.

Manufacturer Name Max Download Speed
Motorola Nexus 6 300 Mbit/s
HTC HTC One M9 300 Mbit/s
Samsung Galaxy S6 450 Mbit/s
Galaxy S6 Edge 450 Mbit/s
Galaxy Note 4 300 Mbit/s on selected versions.
Galaxy Note Edge 300 Mbit/s
Galaxy Alpha 300 Mbit/s
Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE+ 300 Mbit/s
LG G Flex 2 450 Mbit/s
LG G3 Prime 300 Mbit/s
Huawei Ascend Mate 7 300 Mbit/s

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Stefan Parkvall, Erik Dahlman, Anders Furuskär et al.; Ericsson, Robert Syputa, Maravedis; ITU global standard for international mobile telecommunications ´IMT-Advanced´; LTE Advanced - Evolving LTE towards IMT-Advanced; Vehicular Technology Conference, 2008. VTC 2008-Fall. IEEE 68th 21-24 Sept. 2008 Page(s):1 - 5.
  2. ↑ Faster cell phone services planned
  3. ↑ "TeliaSonera launches world's first 4G mobile network". swedishwire. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  4. ↑ "Requirements for further advancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) (LTE-Advanced)"
  5. ↑ Beyond 3G: “LTE Advanced” Workshop, Shenzhen, China
  6. ↑ 3GPP specification: Requirements for further advancements for E-UTRA (LTE Advanced)
  7. ↑ Agilent , Introducing LTE-Advanced, pg. 6 , March 8, 2011, accessed July 28, 2011.
  8. ↑ Nomor Research: White Paper on LTE Advanced
  9. ↑ 3GPP Technical Report: Feasibility study for Further Advancements for E-UTRA (LTE Advanced)
  10. ↑ Introduction to LTE-Advanced Rel.11
  11. ↑ 3GPP News & Events, Dec.12th, 2012 and Apr.8th, 2013 entries
  12. ↑ "NTT DoCoMo Achieves World's First 5 Gbit/s Packet Transmission in 4G Field Experiment". NTT DoCoMo.
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  16. ↑ "A1 TELEKOM AUSTRIA DEMOS 580MBPS LTE-A SPEEDS WITH ERICSSON, NSN HARDWARE". Mobile Europe. 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
  17. ↑ "Turkish delight? Turkcell unveils 900Mbps transmission speeds in LTE-A trial". TeleGeography. 2013-08-02. Retrieved 2014-11-14.
  18. ↑ "World's first commercial LTE-Advanced call on 1800MHz and 900MHz". Ericsson. 2013-08-12. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
  19. ↑ J.M. Tuazon (21 August 2013). "200MBPS IN DAVAO - Smart tests LTE-Advanced system down south.". Interaksyon. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  20. ↑ "Softbank’s trial LTE-A in 3.5GHz band achieves 770Mbps". TeleGeography. 2013-09-13. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
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  28. ↑ "Optus tests TD-LTE carrier aggregation in Melbourne". iTnews. 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  29. ↑ "Unitel demonstrates first LTE-A in Africa with Ericsson". TeleGeography. 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
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  33. ↑ "Finland's Elisa Gets 300Mbsp Download Speeds Out of an LTE-A Network". cellular-news. 2014-02-11. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  34. ↑ "DT leads the way to LTE Advanced". Deutsche Telekom. 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  35. ↑ "Deutsche Telekom: Ab Sommer bis zu 300 MBit/s über LTE" (in German). teltarif. 2014-03-11. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
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