LTE‐A Radio Network

This chapter presents the Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE‐Advanced radio interface. It first explains the LTE spectrum. Then, typical LTE/LTE‐A band deployment cases are discussed, with the strategies of the band use at global and regional levels, including the advanced band use. A description of the LTE multiplex in the downlink and the uplink modes, that is, OFDM and SC‐FDMA respectively, is given, followed by an explanation of the LTE/LTE‐A radio interface reporting, radio resource management, link adaptation and scheduling. Finally, details of the specific LTE‐A items are discussed, including carrier aggregation, higher‐order MIMO variants, relay nodes, coordinated multi‐point operation and HetNet concept. The LTE radio interface is based on the frequency division multiplexing technique. LTE uses OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multi‐Carrier) in the downlink, that is, in the direction from the eNodeB to the UE. Single‐carrier frequency‐division multiplexing (SC‐FDM), LTE Radio Resource Management (RRM) are also discussed.