E-UTRA

Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) is the air interface of 3GPP's Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. E-UTRA is the successor to HSDPA and HSUPA technologies specified in 3GPP releases 5, 6 and 7. Unlike HSPA, LTE's E-UTRA is an entirely new air interface system, unrelated to and incompatible with W-CDMA.

Features

E-UTRA has the following features:

* Flexible bandwidth usage with 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz bandwidths. By comparison, W-CDMA uses fixed size 5 MHz chunks of spectrum.
* Increased spectral efficiency at 2-4 times more than in 3GPP(HSPA) release 6
* Peak download rates of 326.4 Mbit/s for 4x4 antennas, 172.8 Mbit/s for 2x2 antennas for every 20 MHz of spectrum. http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-7898EN.pdf]
* Peak upload rates of 86.4 Mbit/s for every 20 MHz of spectrum.
* Sub-5ms latency for small IP packets.

Design

E-UTRA uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology to support more users, higher data rates and lower processing power required on each handset.

Rationale for E-UTRA

E-UTRA was designed to achieve the goals set by the 3GPP LTE project. The improvements in performance allow wireless operators to offer 'quadruple play' services - voice, high-speed interactive applications including large data transfer and feature-rich IPTV with full mobility.

Although UMTS, with HSDPA and HSUPA, delivers high data transfer rates, wireless data usage is expected to increase significantly over the next few years. The emergence of competitive technologies, such as WiMAX, is driving operators to upgrade their networks to support better data rates. E-UTRA also dramatically improves the capacity of the network.

As a part of 3GPP Release 8, E-UTRA is designed to provide a single evolution path for both UMTS and EV-DO service providers, providing increases in data speeds, and spectral efficiency, and allowing the provision of more functionality.

Technology demos

* In September 2007, NTT Docomo demonstrated E-UTRA data rates of 200 Mbit/s with power consumption below 100mW during the test. [ [http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2007/09/14/42179/ntt-docomo-develops-low-power-chip-for-3g-lte-handsets.htm NTT DoCoMo develops low power chip for 3G LTE handsets ] ]
* In April 2008, LG and Nortel demonstrated E-UTRA data rates of 50 Mbit/s while travelling at 110km/hr. [ [http://wireless-watch.com/2008/04/06/nortel-and-lg-electronics-demo-lte-at-ctia-and-with-high-vehicle-speeds/ Nortel and LG Electronics Demo LTE at CTIA and with High Vehicle Speeds :: Wireless-Watch Community ] ]

References

See also

* 3GPP Long Term Evolution
* System Architecture Evolution
* Fourth Generation Networks
* UMTS, UMTS-TDD, WiMAX
* List of device bandwidths

External links

* [http://www.3gpp.org/Highlights/LTE/LTE.htm 3GPP UMTS Long Term Evolution page]