LTE Becomes a Must but not Fast

LTE as next generation technology has become a hot topic since 2008. At present the LTE industry chain is at the starting stage and LTE system products are going to the commercial trial period. It is predicted that some tier-one operators will provide LTE services at the end of 2009 or at the beginning of 2010. The key factors operators concern to deploy a LTE network are competitive edges, spectrum resources, legacy network technology mode, terminals, future service evolution and financial status and so on. Now LTE gets support from many operators, telecom suppliers and terminal vendors. However, there are many problems and it needs time for LTE scale commercialization.

For mobile operators, GPRS/EDGE/HSPA network can basically achieve data services migration from narrow band to broadband and enable handsets or mobile PC online with high speed. With the development of data and video stream services such as VOD, video surveillance, real-time RGB, music downloading and mobile TV, the original EDGE/HSPA technologies can not meet the increasing demand, especially mobile portal terminals require the network support higher resolution images and HD videos. LTE introduction can not only meet the demands for HD videos in bands but support more broadband users and deliver the real wireless broadband services.　

With 2G/3G network operation experiences, mobile operators have high and strict requirements for 4G network in terms of TCO. The factors they mainly concern are easy installation and deployment, TCO-saving, all-IP transmission and smooth evolution while the flat-structure of LTE system makes it possible to evolve to LTE+ and LTE-Advanced

Three Organizations drive LTE

All the wireless technologies are converging to LTE and the LTE industry is developing quickly. Currently the main international organizations driving LTE industry are NGMN, 3GPP and LSTI, and their components and relationship are shown as below in Figure 1.:

Figure 1 NGMN/3GPP/LSTI components and their relationship

NGMN members and 3GPP SA1 group put forward functional requirements, and other 3GPP groups stipulate technical specifications corresponding to the above functional requirements. LSTI conducts LTE technical verification, IODT/IOT test and field trials, and LSTI is required to report related functional tests and the implementations to NGMN regularly.

NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks) is a non-profit organization initiated by 7 mainstream operators in 2006 with headquarters in Frankfort. Currently, NGMN consists of 18 mobile operators such as China Mobile, NTT, DoCoMo and Vodafone, as well as 29 network/terminal providers like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, ZTE and 3 research institutes. NGMN has 5 groups: Spectrum, IPR, Ecosystem, TWG and Trial, of which Trial group is responsible for putting forward test requirements to LSTI and evaluating LSTI test development.

RAN, SA and CT teams in 3GPP are responsible for LTE/SAE standard stipulation. RAN (Radio Access Network) is further divided into 5 groups, of which RAN 1 is responsible for PHY layer protocol, RAN 2 for Radio layer 2 and layer 3 protocols, RAN 3 for interface protocol, RAN 4 for wireless performance and RAN 5 for terminal consistency test. SA (Service and System Aspects) team is in charge of traffic and system standard stipulation and its 5 groups are respectively responsible for service requirements, network architecture, security, Codec and network management. CT (Core Network and Terminals) team is responsible for core network and terminal standard stipulation, and its 6 groups are in charge of smart card standard setting. 3GPP issued Release 8 in March 2009. 

LSTI (LTE/SAE Trial Initiative) is an LTE industry association initiated by some mainstream operators and telecom providers, and most of members are from NGMN, aimed at conducting LTE technical verification and speeding up LTE commercialization. Up to now the first stage POC for air interface and basic functional test have been accomplished. IODT and IOT tests are scheduled to be accomplished in 2010 and FCT test is ongoing now and scheduled to be finished in 2010 as well

Operators desire LTE

In April 2008, the LTE patent licensing fees were unified, which paved the way for patent architecture protocols. Top operators like AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, T-mobile and so on all expressed that they would adopt LTE technologies for their 4G networks and have made network evolution and development plans. It is predicted that LTE will be first commercialized in North America, Japan and Europe.

Currently many countries are busy allocating bands for LTE and prepare for the later LTE trial network and commercialization. The operators are struggling for frequencies. The first LTE commercial network have been deployed at the end of year 2009, and the mainstream operators have selected their suppliers and conducted lab and trial tests in 2009.

Now Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, Telefonica are quite active,  and invest significantly in LTE network development and construction.

The LTE commercial network will also be deployed in Japan and Western Europe by NTT DoCoMo and T-Mobile and other operators.

In China, 3 major operators just accomplished large scale 3G deployment, so the LTE scale commercialization will be impossible in the near future due to investment rewarding and government administration. China Mobile is predicted to launch small scale LTE deployment in 2010.

Industry Chain pushes LTE

Up to now the LTE industry chain has formed and it is composed of government organizations, and providers for chipsets, terminals and test instruments. For government organizations, there are ETSI, ATIS, CCSA, BMWi and other associations. The main chipset suppliers are Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson. LTE terminal development is determined by the chipset research, so some major handset vendors such as LG, Samsung and ZTE have expressed their support for the LTE terminal development. For tele-communication system vendors, such as Ericsson, NSN, ZTE and other suppliers follow closely the 3GPP protocols and have exhibited LTE prototype equipment, and the LTE commercial products have delivered in October 2009. The members of LTE industry chain are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 LTE industry chain members

Currently the LTE industry chain is mainly affected by the terminal chipset supply. Qualcomm chipset roadmap shows that CDMA/LTE dual-mode sample will be issued in the second half of 2009 and the commercial chipset can be released at the end of 2009. The GSM/UMTS/LTE multi-mode chipset can not be supplied until 2010. For another chipset supplier EMP, its chipset development is slow due to its merger with ST-NXP. Other suppliers, who had planned to release GSM/UMTS/LTE commercial chipset in the second half of 2009, have postponed their original plans in varying degrees.

Global Environment influences LTE

Financial Crisis

Global financial crisis reduces operators’ passion for LTE investment and further leads to slow LTE development, and some operators in Western Europe have announced their plans to postpone LTE deployment. Their LTE network will be launched after the year 2011 or 2012.

Telecom suppliers merging and restructuring

In the past few years, with the global telecom transformation, the telecom supplier merger and restructuring occurred. Ericsson acquired the assets of Marconi, Siemens and Nokia merged their communications equipment and service provider business, and Alcatel and Lucent merging created world’s leading communication solutions provider. Ericsson’s acquisition of Nortel is another sign that the merger trend is having an effect upon equipment suppliers.

WCDMA Experience directs LTE

LTE technologies need improving

Compared with Release 99 WCDMA, frozen Release 8 LTE specifications are much more perfect. Release 8 protocol, however, needs to be improved and it takes time to debug, modify, improve and interconnect before the commercial deployment.

LTE may borrow WCDMA experience

For earlier WCDMA deployment, operators faced the following problems:

• Unstable 3GPP specifications
• Interconnection problem: core network and wireless side, wireless side and terminal
• Low 2G/3G handover success rate
• Lack of 3G terminals
• Poor network coverage
• Short terminal battery standby time
• Fewer attractive 3G services

The above problems may be used as a check list for new technology deployment. For LTE network, the operators face more challenges in addition to these problems:

• Backhaul capacity (common problem for HSPA+ and LTE) Currently, E1 transmission ability 2Mbps~8Mbps of operator sites can not meet the demands for higher byte rate the LTE system provides.
• Inconsistent LTE voice solutions

Conclusion

It is predicted that in the year 2011 the LTE industry chain will become real mature and scale commercialization will be launched. The telecom development history also shows that there are few successful cases indicating advanced network technology can lead the market, on the contrary, many enterprises paid for it. In Europe and America many excellent telecom suppliers and operators once occupied the leading position in optical transmission, mobile communication and 3G operations, but they paid a lot for their “leading place”. But European operators who received their 3G license after the year 2007 are returned with best investment rewarding, and they will benefit from network construction cost and later evolution. Therefore, “early LTE deployment” is not a key factor for success, and we should pay keen attention to the market requirements and push LTE stably.