In this article I’m sharing a short overview of the LTE evolution, starting with its introduction within 3GPP Release 8 back in early 2009 up to LTE-Advanced Pro to be finalized in March 2016 within Release 13[1]. Timeline, main features and a maximum throughput calculation is provided for each of the LTE evolution steps.
LTE Rel-8 standard was frozen in March 2009. The goal for it was to prepare the mobile system to allow evolutionary change towards 4G as imposed by IMT-Advanced. From the technical point of view, initial LTE release was not a full 4G system.
LTE-Advanced was specified within 3GPP Rel-10. The corresponding standard was frozen in June 2011. LTE-Advanced was defined to fulfill IMT-Advanced requirements, thus is seen as a 4G technology.
“LTE-Advanced Pro” was agreed by 3GPP in October 2015 as a marker for LTE for Rel-13 onwards[2]. The Rel-13 freeze date is March 2016. The new name is used to mark a point where significant improvements with regards to LTE-Advanced are made.
Rel-8 LTE was initially standardized with the following main set of features:
LTE-Advanced is defined in 3GPP as Rel-10, but covers also Rel-11 and Rel-12 adding the following features to the baseline set:
LTE-Advanced Pro initial features’ set includes the following:
As we all know, to improve the attractiveness of each new system/release (but also to show the maximum capability of the technology) a maximum theoretical throughput in DL is provided.
For LTE it is ~320Mbps, for LTE-Advanced – 3Gbps and LTE-Advanced Pro is expected to extend it further to 4Gbps. An interesting question is: where are the magic numbers comes from?
Let’s take each of them and try to answer this question with simplified calculations:
LTE maximum throughput:
LTE-Advanced maximum throughput:
LTE-Advanced Pro maximum throughput:
LTE evolution is pretty exciting area where new features are added to improve current system’s performance and operability, but also to enable new services to be introduced. On the other side, the overall system’s complexity is increased with the new solutions.
What we can observe by looking in the presented features set is that the initial macro network based LTE using new waveform (OFDMA) and multi-antenna usage is evolving towards Heterogeneous Networks increasing used spectrum with the multi-point connectivity, unlicensed spectrum and automated network operation.
To elaborate in more detailed on the current standard status, once the 3GPP Rel-13 is frozen, a full article regarding LTE-Advanced Pro will be provided in this blog. Stay tuned!
(Update: the mentioned article is provided here: “LTE-Advanced Pro – what is this?”)
[1] Grandmetric Ltd is authorized to use the LTE, LTE-Advanced or LTE-Advanced Pro logos and the acronym LTE.
ETSI is the copyright holder of LTE, LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro Logos.
LTE is a trade mark of ETSI.
[2] The 3GPP press release about LTE-Advanced Pro can be found here.
Marcin,
Thanks for the nice and new information, I have a question.
What kind of deployment is required to have LTE advance Pro ?
I mean is it going to be new hardware ? software ? core side, eNodeB ?
what about handset capability as well ?
Regards
Hani
Hi Hani,
LTE-Advanced Pro is an evolution of currently deployed LTE/LTE-A networks, so:
– on the network side, this will be mostly software upgrade with new features, but also some enhancements on inter-site interfaces and new algorithms needed;
– on the handset side, it depends on the feature, but most of them would require new capabilities, i.e. to be Rel. 13 capable (e.g. for LTE and WiFi integration, LAA, D2D, DC);
Regarding the impact on the part of the network, as I was focusing on the radio part, this is eNB that is mostly impacted by the mentioned features, but there are functionalities that will require upgrades on the CN side (e.g. DECOR for MTC, or UPCON and ACDC as congestion schemes).
BTW a bit more detailed discussion on LTE-A Pro is provided in a separate article, namely: “LTE-Advanced Pro – what is this”
Best,
Marcin