DL - 4G Americas

In 2008, a top vendor unveiled the world’s first commercially available LTE-capable platform for mobile
devices, which offered peak theoretical downlink rates of up to 100 Mbps and peak uplink rates up to 50
Mbps. The first products based on the LTE-capable platform were laptop modems, USB modems for
notebooks and other small-form modems suitable for integration with other handset platforms to create
multi-mode devices. Since LTE supports handover and roaming to existing mobile networks, all these
devices can have ubiquitous mobile broadband coverage from day one.
In April 2008, the first public announcements were made about LTE demonstrations at high vehicular
speeds with download speeds of 50 Mbps in a moving vehicle at 110 km/h. By August 2008,
demonstrations of the first LTE mobility handover at high vehicular speeds were completed and
announced jointly by LTE infrastructure and device manufacturers. T-Mobile announced successful liveair
testing of an LTE trial network, in real-world operating conditions with a leading vendor during the
month of September 2008. Data download rates of 170 Mbps and upload rates of 50 Mbps were
repeatedly demonstrated with terminals and devices on a test drive loop that included handoffs between
multiple cells and sectors.
The world’s first LTE handover test using a commercially available base station and fully Rel-8 standards
compliant software was conducted in March 2009. In the same month, another milestone was achieved
as the world’s first LTE call on Rel-8 baseline standard using a commercial base station and fully
standard compliant software was made. This is the first standardization baseline to which future LTE
devices will be backwards compatible. In August 2009, T-Mobile (Austria) demonstrated full mobility
capabilities on Europe’s largest LTE commercial trial network. In July 2010, the first LTE call at 800 MHz
was completed, moving the industry closer to realizing the potential of digital dividend spectrum.
Perhaps among the most exciting milestones in 2009 was TeliaSonera’s December 14 launch of the
world’s first commercial LTE networks in both Sweden and Norway. With network speeds capable of
delivering HD video services, this major achievement was supported by two leading vendors.
The readiness of LTE to deliver mission critical communications for public safety has been demonstrated
in the U.S. leading the way to the establishment of a nationwide LTE broadband network (Rel-8). An LTE
data call was successfully completed over 700 MHz Band 14, the spectrum earmarked for public safety
agencies in the U.S.
E911 calls over LTE are being supported by adding LTE node functionality to existing location service
platforms by a leading vendor.
The IMS Core in wireless and wireline networks began moving from vertically implemented services
towards common session control, QoS policy management and charging control in 2009. Additionally, in
2009, the first Voice-over-LTE solutions were launched with IMS.
Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is the IP-based core network defined by 3GPP in Rel-8 for use by LTE and
other access technologies. The goal of EPC is to provide simplified all-IP core network architecture to
efficiently give access to various services such as the ones provided in IMS. EPC consists essentially of a
Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (S-GW) that interfaces with the E-UTRAN and a
PDN Gateway (P-GW) that interfaces to external packet data networks. EPC for LTE networks were
announced by numerous vendors beginning in February 2009, allowing operators to modernize their core
data networks to support a wide variety of access types using a common core network. EPC solutions
typically include backhaul, network management solutions, video solutions that monetize LTE investment
and a complete portfolio of professional services.
www.4gamericas.org February 2011 Page 25