LTE Femtocells: Propagation and Interference Issues

Long Term Evolution

The LTE is a wireless technology dedicated to mobile, broadband networks. It lies halfway between the third and fourth generation standards with the objective to achieve wireless data rates higher than 1 Gbps. Moreover it is designed for low latency and high spectral efficiency in cellular networks and should cause less interference when deployed between multiple cells.

LTE is a radical step in the development of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) beyond the original 3rd generation Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) radio access technology.

Currently, the planned improvements compared to 3G technologies are summarized in:

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  At least 100 Mbit/s downlink peak rates

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  At least 50 Mbit/s uplink peak rates

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  Spectral efficiency (that is number of bit/s submitted for each Hz) three times than High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) one

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  Spectrum flexibility: LTE operates in 1.4, 1.6, 3, 3.2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz bandwidths

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  significantly reduced latency (less than 100 ms for the transition from idle to active state, and less than 5 ms for small IP packets)

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  At least 200 active users in every 5 MHz cell

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  High mobility

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  optimized for mobile speeds from 0 to 15 km/h

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  supported with high performance between 15 and 120 km/h

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  Mobility maintained at speeds between 120 and 350 km/h

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  Supported for voice and real-time services over entire speed range with quality at least as good as UTRAN.