4G‐Long Term Evolution (LTE) System

Widespread acceptance of the 3G/High‐Speed Packet Data Access (HSPA) system led to tremendous growth in usage of mobile data. These three key drivers, capacity, user experience and lower cost per bit, have led to the specification of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) of Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRAN) while mobile system core specification is defined as a System Architecture Evolution (SAE), also called Enhanced Packet Core (EPC). LTE together with EPC forms the evolved packet system (EPS). The EPS is made of the Evolved UTRAN (E‐UTRAN), Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and connectivity to legacy 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access and non‐3GPP access systems. The chapter shows the EPS for 3GPP access system built as an evolution to existing 2G/3G architecture and Quality of Service (QOS) architecture for the bearer service in LTE. It also shows the LTE User Equipment (UE) categories and respective theoretical maximum data rates as comes with modulation capabilities.