Should LTE Be Deployed Differently than 2G and 3G?
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the new emerging standard for 4G wireless networks. While purists would argue that LTE is still a 3G wireless technology because it’s part of the IMT-2000 family, there’s little doubt that LTE will represent a quantum leap for the telecom world. To wit: LTE deploys orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and multiple input / multiple output (MIMO) techniques to deliver peak data rates of 100 Mbps+ downlink and 50 Mbps+ uplink—a 7-fold increase from today’s 3G High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) networks delivering 14 Mbps max. That’s a big change, and subscriber usage and behavior patterns will likely morph in unexpected ways as a result.
