Technological progression of LTE-advanced in release 11 [Guest Editorial]

As global deployments of Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based fourth generation (4G) networks are gaining momentum, the effective realization of a mobile broadband experience is facing new challenges and increasing expectations from the perspectives of both network operators and end users. Not only is mobile data traffic growing exponentially, but new multimedia applications on smart mobile devices and also the more stringent demands on the quality of service.