Beyond LTE

Abstract

Even though great advances have been made by LTE, further steps of enhancement are under development. While the first version of the LTE specifications is solidifying and equipment is being developed, requirements and techniques for the system beyond LTE are already being discussed in 3GPP under the name of 'LTE-Advanced'. LTE-Advanced will aim not merely to satisfy but to surpass the requirements set by the ITU-R for 'IMT-Advanced' (following on from the IMT-2000 family). This chapter identifies some possible areas of improvement compared to the first version of LTE, and outlines the challenging performance levels targeted by LTE-Advanced. Some candidate technologies by which LTE-Advanced may address these targets are introduced, together with their accompanying challenges.