Looking Towards 4G: LTE‐Advanced

The baseline LTE radio access network (RAN) and evolved packet core (EPC) network were defined in 3GPP Release 8, which was functionally frozen in December 2008. This chapter summarizes important additions to the LTE specifications. These include the most significant changes to the 3GPP standard, which occurred in Release 10 for the support of LTE‐Advanced, 3GPP's submission to the international telecommunications union radiocommunication sector (ITU‐R) international mobile telecommunications (IMT)‐advanced‐Advanced (4G) program. Release 10 developed the 3GPP proposal for the ITU‐R Sector IMT‐Advanced program. It is worth pointing out that both of the approved IMT‐Advanced technologies are based heavily on pre‐existing standards and the modifications that were required of these technologies to meet IMT‐Advanced requirements are not considered major, in particular for LTE Release 8, which already met most of the IMT‐Advanced requirements.