3GPP Long Term Evolution – LTE

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a 4G wireless broadband technology developed by the industry trade group known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

3GPP engineers named the technology “Long Term Evolution” as it represents the next step (4G) in a progression from 2G-standard GSM to Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the 3G technologies based upon GSM.

LTE meets the requirements of next generation networks including downlink peak rates of at least 100Mbit/s, an uplink of at least 50Mbit/s, and RAN (Radio Access Network) round-trip times of less than 10ms. It supports flexible carrier bandwidths – from 1.4MHz up to 20MHz – as well as both FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex).

The combination of LTE’s increased spectrum efficiency, flexibility, greater capacity, and simpler network architecture results in lower Operating Expenditures (OPEX) for the carrier, and improved user experience and lower cost of ownership for the subscriber. Additionally, LTE supports seamless connection to existing networks, such as GSM, CDMA and WCDMA.