DL - 4G Americas

As operators evolve their networks toward LTE and EPS architecture and consider software solutions,
they can build upon the capabilities of their proven HLR to incorporate carrier-grade RADIUS AAA for
packet-switched traffic, Diameter-based AAA and HSS support for the IMS core. Inclusive functional
suites take full advantage of the communications and media software solutions to ensure data-level
coherence and behavioral consistency of the overall mobility management solution across all access
domains and technology generations. Linked with pan-generational mobility and data management
products that are able to service multiple fixed and mobile access domains, operators can leverage the
CMS Policy Controller to assure Quality of Service (QoS) and provide a fine degree of control for service
offerings consistent with the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and 3GPP Rel-8 specifications.
With the number of wireless devices already beyond five billion, and a growing percentage of
smartphones, the increasing traffic challenge for operators is how they will manage their network traffic.
Solutions are being offered for agile intelligent mobile networks, solutions like web optimizers that will
support Rel-8 and beyond networks by using compression, caching and transcoding techniques to
increase data transfer rates while decreasing the amount of traffic flowing over the network. Web and
media optimizing are intelligent, content-aware solutions that work to automatically trigger optimization
when the network reaches pre-determined thresholds. Media optimization will address the growing
richness of the mobile internet video content.
After 3GPP approved specifications for Rel-8 standards in January 2008, work continued throughout the
year, and in March 2009, the completed final standards on HSPA+, LTE and EPC/SAE enhancements
were published.
The first live demonstrations of the future-proof solutions that formed an integral building block for the
Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or System Architecture Evolution (SAE) occurred at the Mobile World
Congress and CTIA Wireless in 2007 including support for an integrated Voice Call Continuity (VCC)
solution for GSM-WLAN handover.
LTE lab trials between vendors and operators also began in 2007. In November 2007, LTE test calls were
completed between infrastructure vendors and device vendors using mobile prototypes representing the
first multivendor over-the-air LTE interoperability testing initiatives. Field trials in realistic urban
deployment scenarios were created for LTE as early as December 2007, and with a 2X2 MIMO antenna
system, the trials reached peak data rates of up to 173 Mbps and more than 100 Mbps over distances of
several hundred meters. Trials demonstrated that future LTE networks could run on existing base station
sites.
The first multi-mode 3G/LTE chipsets were sampled in November 2009, supporting both LTE Frequency
Division Duplex (FDD) and LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) including integrated support for Rel-8 CD-
HSPA+ and EV-DO Rev B, helping to provide the user with a seamless mobile broadband experience.
Many lab and field trials for LTE were conducted in 2008. By September 2009, one leading vendor
reported that it had already deployed 20 trial networks throughout the world while another vendor
asserted to having 16 active trials underway in November 2009.
As of the end of 2009, more than 100 operators had indicated their intentions to trial or deploy LTE and
that number grew to more than 250 operators by the third quarter of 2010 (for a complete list of LTE
commitments, see Appendix F.) TeliaSonera launched the first commercial LTE networks in Oslo, Norway
and Stockholm, Sweden in December 2009. By November 2010, there were ten commercial LTE
networks worldwide, with as many as twenty commercial launches expected by the end of the year.
www.4gamericas.org February 2011 Page 21