LTE - Long Term Evolution
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 system and the powerful R&S®TSMW universal radio network analyzer complete the Rohde & Schwarz test and measurement portfolio for LTE.
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:
