Benefits

The improved speed and low latency provided by LTE will offer a much improved end-user experience for subscribers.

Benefits for corporate users

For business subscribers, benefits will be easily seen and felt in applications where data throughput is important, such as faster e-mail and file uploads, enhanced VPN connections, smoother access to the Internet; as well as in interactive applications where latency is crucial, such as IMS-based Voice Over IP (VoIP), mail and file synchronization with an on-line server, peer-to-peer applications such as "NetMeeting," SIP multimedia services including video and voice conferencing over IP, application sharing, and more.

Vertical markets where information accuracy, reliability and immediacy are key will also see benefits. For example, the healthcare sector will be able to deploy medical applications where latency and high-resolution imaging are important.

Benefits for mass-market users

Mass market users will benefit from improvements delivered by LTE as well, including smoother and faster photo and video downloading or uploading, better online gaming experiences, and improved on-the-go access to social networks such as YouTube, Facebook or MySpace.
On top of those improvements to existing services, LTE will also enable the introduction of new services such as high-definition audiovisual content formatted for mobile screens and UMDs (Ultra Mobile Devices); new multimedia services; geolocalization applications with graphical and contextual content; and multi-user interactive gaming.

Benefits for service providers

Beyond being able to better satisfy their subscribers, service providers can also make use of LTE to reduce their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The cost per byte of LTE is expected to decrease by a significant amount compared with HSPA today, thanks to network simplification, with a flat IP architecture and the enhanced capacity delivered by LTE radio technologies.

How it works

LTE will make the use of the latest technologies. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) (a technology well suited to achieving high peak data rates in high-spectrum bandwidths) will be used on the downlink. On the uplink, LTE will use Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access, (SC-FDMA), which offers advantages in power efficiency and terminal battery life as compared to technologies used today.

The latest antenna technologies will also be used, such as MIMO, which employs multiple transmit and receive antennas. This results in numerous data paths effectively operating in parallel and - through appropriate coding/decoding - significant throughput gains.

LTE is a "pure packet" system. This shift enables a significant simplification of the network, reducing the number of nodes and improving operational efficiency.

With LTE delivering even higher peak throughput and much lower latency, GSM, W-CDMA and CDMA mobile operators have a unique opportunity to evolve their existing infrastructure to next-generation wireless networks smoothly and with excellent service continuity from day one.

The 3GPP standardization body behind the LTE standard understands that radio spectrum is a scarce resource, and has as a result allowed LTE to be deployed in any 3GPP spectrum and in a variety of bandwidths (from 1.4 to 20MHz). In other words, 2G or 3G operators can, if they wish, allocate some of their existing spectrum to LTE.

This flexibility opens the door to different deployment scenarios, offering tailored solutions fitting operators' strategies and market needs. LTE can, for instance, share the band with a different radio access technology (CDMA, W-CDMA or GSM), as an inlay network; or it can operate on a dedicated bandwidth, as an overlay network.

And while LTE is a strong candidate for evolution to "4G", it is not the only one: WiMAX (specifically 802.16m) is also a viable option. In fact, both WiMAX and LTE share some common technological building blocks including OFDMA and MIMO. Alcatel-Lucent nevertheless believes that WiMAX and LTE serve different market segments, with WiMAX best suited to operators seeking to offer enhanced wireless DSL.

Our offer

Alcatel-Lucent is in a unique position to propose an efficient, easy-to-deploy, end-to-end LTE solution from day one. We have been involved in defining the 3GPP/LTE specifications since the very beginning, and we have many years of experience in both wireline and mobile broadband system deployments using similar technologies.

Alcatel-Lucent's innovative, cost-effective and future-ready LTE technology protects service providers' investments as they evolve. When you choose LTE from Alcatel-Lucent, you benefit from our years of experience and our well-established best practices with wireline IP and wireless technologies.

Furthermore, Alcatel-Lucent's LTE solution is cost-effective for both CAPEX and OPEX. The Alcatel-Lucent Converged Radio Access Network (RAN) solution provides the hardware versatility and the software flexibility you need to evolve your network, including our unique Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology, our unified Operations and Maintenance plus mobility features and a META transport architecture. Alcatel-Lucent pioneered the multistandard approach; with Alcatel-Lucent Converged RAN, operators not only protect their GSM, W-CDMA or CDMA investments, but also ensure a simple path as they evolve to LTE.

The Alcatel-Lucent Ultimate Wireless Broadband End-to-End LTE solution has already been selected by leading adopters of LTE, including Verizon Wireless.