IT transformations - Capgemini Consulting Nederland

Figure 3: Commercial LTE Deployments and Technology Adopted
Operator Country Deployment Date Frequency Band Duplex Scheme
Sweden
Finland
USA
December 2009
May 2010
Sweden November 2010
September 2010
2.6GHz
1.7/2.1GHz
USA December 2010 700MHz
Japan November 2010 2.1GHz
Poland September 2010 1.8GHz
FDD
China May 2010 * 2.6GHz TDD
* China Mobile has deployed 11 LTE trial networks across China. The first of these trial networks was launched in May
2010.
Source: Capgemini TME Strategy Lab Analysis; Company Websites
efficiency and reduce OPEX. Thus,
LTE offers the best potential to
address one of the most significant
priorities of wireless operators,
which is, upgrading their capacity
constrained networks.
Having realized the potential,
telcos across the globe have already
taken the first steps towards the
deployment of LTE networks (see
Figure 3). In December 2009, by
launching services in Sweden and
Norway, TeliaSonera became the first
operator in the world to offer LTE.
In September 2010, Metro PCS, a
prepaid service provider in the US,
became the second operator to launch
LTE services. It offers its service on
the first commercially available 4G
enabled handset in the world, the
Samsung Craft 12 . While TeliaSonera,
which is a GSM operator, offers
its LTE services over USB dongles,
Metro PCS, a CDMA2000 player,
provides unlimited and contract less
LTE services over a handset. It is
noteworthy how LTE can be delivered
by both large and small operators,
irrespective of their existing wireless
technology, over multiple devices.
With over 100 commitments
by service providers around the
world to deploy LTE networks,
the worldwide LTE infrastructure
market is set to grow tenfold to
reach US$11.5 billion 13 . Going
by the trends, LTE seems to be
the technology of choice for most
operators across the world.
In this chapter, we evaluate the
technology options within LTE, the
most significant barriers regarding
its uptake, and recommend the best
approach for different operators.
Technology Options for
Operators
The technical advantages of LTE
which render significant benefits
over other wireless technologies can
be attributed to its superior access
and antenna technologies. The use
of technologies such as OFDM 14 ,
SC-FDMA 15 , MIMO, and multiple
channel bandwidths results in
attributes such as high throughput,
low power consumption, high
spectral efficiency, and improved
coverage and cell performance. LTE
can be deployed in both paired
spectrum for Frequency Division
Duplex (FDD) and unpaired spectrum
for Time Division Duplex (TDD),
and we witness a greater adoption
of FDD in initial deployments (see
Figure 3). In this section, we will
primarily focus on the TDD and FDD
technology deployment options for
operators.
Both FDD and TDD have their own
advantages and disadvantages (See
Figure 4), and decisions on which
duplex scheme to adopt can be taken
depending on the operator’s business
requirements. In the subsequent
subsections, we detail these choices.
FDD LTE
FDD LTE transmits the downlink and
uplink traffic in separate frequency
12 Company Press Release.
13 Infonetics Research, LTE Infrastructure Forecasts Up, Along With Operator Commitments to LTE Networks, November 2010.
14 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing: Used for downlink. The available spectrum is divided into many thin carriers each
on a different frequency.
15 Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing Access: For uplink. LTE uses a pre-coded version of OFDM called Single
Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) which reduces power consumption, improves coverage and the celledge
performance.
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