Unlocking Long Term Evolution (LTE): A Protocol Perspective

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is 3GPP's latest initiative, standardized in the form of Release-8 and targeted for completion by early 2009. LTE promises to get us to 100Mbps downlink (DL) speed and 50Mbps Uplink (UL) speed with 20MHz bandwidth. Fortunately, operators worldwide appear to be embracing LTE, and service providers and infrastructure vendors alike are gearing up for the next phase of telecom advancement. This paper is a primer on the technical aspects of LTE and illustrates various key features of this exciting new technology.