3GPP LTE-A Overview

LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) is the project name of the evolved version of LTE developed by 3GPP as part of the 3GPP technical specifications 36.211, 36.212, and 36.213.

The information presented here is subject to change. The requirements for LTE-Advanced are defined in 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 36.913. These requirements are based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) requirements for 4G and on 3GPP operators' own requirements for advancing LTE.  

LTE-Advanced Key Features

In previous releases, LTE supports channel bandwidths up to 20 MHz. LTE-A provides wider bandwidths through the aggregation of contiguous and non-contiguous component carriers in order to achieve significantly higher data rates and increased channel bandwidth.

Carrier Aggregation and Component Carriers

Contiguous aggregation allows two 20 MHz channels to be located side by side and can be supported with a single transceiver. An LTE-Advance UE with capabilities for receive and/or transmit aggregation is able to simultaneously receive and/or transmit on multiple component carriers.

Enhanced Uplink Multiple Access

LTE-Advanced enhances the uplink multiple access scheme by adopting clustered SC-FDMA. also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM). This scheme is similar to SC-FDMA but has the advantage that it allows non-contiguous (clustered) groups of subcarriers to be allocated for transmission by a single UE, such as simultaneous PUCCH/PUSCH transmission.