WiMax - P.2: WiMax and LTE

WiMax - P.1: WiMax overview WiMax - P.2: WiMax and LTE Picture 1

Network Administration - In the previous part of this series, we introduced the 3G wireless technology called WiMax. In this section, we will introduce you to one of its competitors, which is LTE. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and is known as 3GPP LTE, where 3GPP is abbreviated for Generation Partnership Project, an association responsible for the development and maintenance of GSM standards. LTE was previously misunderstood as 4G technology, but is it really? We will consider the problem in the lesson.

3G or 4G?

Many people mistake LTE as 3G or 4G technology. In the previous section, we introduced the history of WiMax, which began to appear in the mid-1990s and was quickly recognized widely. In fact, in recent years there are still many people who consider WiMax synonymous with 3G terminology. So why do people misunderstand that LTE is 4G technology? LTE was introduced after WiMax for a long time (in 2004) and has some advantages over WiMax (in the next section we will compare in detail to the two standards and these two technologies), this has made most users acknowledge that because LTE is newer, has many advantages, so it must be the next generation technology. However, in reality, LTE is not 4G technology because it does not meet the technical standards of this technology (standards set by International Telecommunication Union (ITU)). However, it meets ITU's 3G specifications, which is why we consider them 3G technology.

History

3GPP was formed in the late 90s with the aim of developing technical details for GSM technologies. Since that time, all standards associated with GSM technology have been developed and maintained by 3GPP. 3GPP is similar to its implied name, created by a number of partners. These partners are the standard organizations themselves around the world responsible for licensing and maintaining the 3GPP scope, distributing resources and implementing procedural issues.

WiMax - P.2: WiMax and LTE Picture 2 Initially, GSM was developed as a switching network, very good for transmitting voice signals but very bad for data transmission. It all changed with the emergence of the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) standard, currently maintained by 3GPP like all other GSM standards. The GPRS standard provides a method of routing data packets in the GSM network and is considered a 2.5G standard.

Data transmission capabilities of GSM networks have evolved further with the emergence of Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (abbreviated as EDGE). Introduced in 2003, EDGE provides three times the performance of GPRS and is itself a true 3G technology, based on ITU's 3G specifications.

Data transmission capabilities are further improved with the introduction of another 3G standard from 3GPP called High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA). While EDGE networks can only provide downlink data rates of up to 1MB / s (theoretically), HSPA networks can provide downlink speeds of up to 14MB / s. Therefore, HSPA networks have significant advantages in terms of throughput compared to EDGE networks, but in practice everything is not happening that way. For example, in early 2009 Vodafone completed a test for the HSPA + network, which was promised a downlink data rate of up to 16MB / s but eventually admitted that most users only experience it. Data rate up to about 4MB / s.

HSPA +, also known as Evolved HSPA, is an extension of the basic HSPA standard and provides a theoretical downlink data rate of up to 56MB / s. Another aspect of HSPA + is the appearance of an optional all-IP architecture. The all-IP architecture is an innovation in wireless communications and is essential for LTE. HSPA + also uses antenna technology called Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). Like all-IP architecture, MIMO is the technology used in LTE.

So if you look at the starting point of GSM as a switching network designed for mobile applications and currently with EDGE, HSPA, and HSPA +, you can see that 3GPP has developed interconnected. GSM standards continue to be effective for mobile data applications (including voice data). Along with the continuous and meaningful development of data rates, 3GPP has also gradually emerged with architectural changes, these are the changes that are required to meet their objects to increase darkness. Multi-capabilities of GSM technology in the third generation as well as step into the fourth generation.

Technology

As mentioned earlier, there are two major developments in LTE. The first development is the all-IP architecture. That means that this new technology has left behind previous strengths in the GSM switching network. This is a pretty difficult requirement for media companies that want to adopt LTE as their 3G technology. Meanwhile the advantage that 3GPP standards have is that they are simple upgrades for existing GSM networks, allowing for greater throughput and being able to transmit more data-intensive applications in the network. For example, in the field of software operating systems, you can understand, we can consider EDGE and HSPA as service upgrade packages for Windows XP, while LTE is a release of the version system. Complete operating system like Windows 7. HSPA + can be similar to Vista; technology is of little interest.

The second development in LTE is to use MIMO. This is a technology used in WiMax, and maybe someday every wireless technology will use it to improve communication speed as well as reduce interference (which is still considered obstacle of wireless transmission method. Basically, MIMO is a wireless data transmission system where the sender uses multiple antennas to transmit the same data or different parts of the same data, and the receiver side also uses a lot antenna to receive those signals. This setting can be used to speed up data throughput or it can be used to reduce the effect of noise; done when the sender transmits the same data on each antenna and the receiver will receive multiple copies of the same data so that it can compare them, this way can make the receiver decide what is the signal initially and what is noise.