Recently, when choosing a tablet or mobile phone, you may come across an incomprehensible LTE designation. Moreover, this is presented as if it were a superpower of a fantasy hero. Many mobile operators also talk with pathos about supporting 4G networks. Let's take a closer look at what LTE is in a smartphone. And in general, is LTE needed in a tablet?
The LTE standard (aka 4G, fourth generation networks) stands for “long-term evolution.” It combines all the best in the field of wireless data transmission using a modulated signal and modern local network technologies. It uses frequency modulation to generate a signal. At the same time, packet data transmission is used. This allows you to achieve several advantages at once:
- Higher immunity to interference;
- Increasing the range of stable communication;
- It is possible to use data packaging;
- Less redundancy of transmitted packets is applied;
- The channel bandwidth is significantly expanded.
Testing of the new communication standard has shown that 4G allows you to achieve a total bandwidth of 1 Gb/s for one device and a transmission range of up to 100 km in case of emergency. Such data were obtained using special high-power equipment.
Increase in indicators that the user will like
To briefly answer the question what LTE means, we can say that by using the new standard, the buyer receives a truly high data transfer speed. So high that it can outshine the offerings of some cable Internet providers. For example, the maximum transmission speed on 3G networks is 42 megabits per second. In reality, the user receives only 2, maximum 3 Mb/s. This happens due to the loading of the mobile network and a rather long response time.
The 4G standard beats all these indicators. Already now, at the dawn of the development of networks of this class, Megafon or Beeline users in Moscow can receive data at a speed of 20 Mbit/s. And this is far from the limit. And the very low response time and transmission stability make using LTE indistinguishable from cable. High-definition video streaming is guaranteed to be smooth, not to mention the Skype connection quality rises to unprecedented heights.
A little about devices
If you want high speed when using the network, but this leads to the purchase of a new expensive tablet, then you should first answer the question: LTE module - what is it?
In fact, everything is not so scary. Structurally, this is the same digital modem only with new functional capabilities. If your tablet doesn’t have them, you can easily use an external one. Megafon and MTS companies already offer devices that can use networks of all formats. The provider Scartel sells 4G modems that work on its network and the networks of other FDD format operators.
An LTE module or modem can also be used with a desktop PC. This is an easy solution for those who use a lot of stationary equipment (at work, at home, a laptop in the country, on the road) and want to get high data transfer speeds.
Current development and some pitfalls
It is worth immediately noting that the implementation of 4G standard networks is associated with high costs for equipment and information support for the network within the coverage area. Therefore, everything develops slowly. Today 4G exists in large cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and so on. Slowly but surely it is spreading to other regions. If you are going to buy a tablet or laptop with LTE support, then check with your local mobile providers to see if this feature is provided.
Another danger that a user may encounter is incompatible standards. Although the LTE module operates on a distinct technology, frequency bands and signal generation methods differ from country to country. Therefore, recently popular purchasing methods such as eBay, Amazon and various intermediaries for purchasing goods from Europe or China can play a cruel joke. A tablet equipped with an imported LTE standard simply will not work in mobile networks in the post-Soviet space. You need to buy a device designed for use in a specific country.
However, everything is not so gloomy. Upon purchase, the user receives a device that is capable of operating in the latest generation networks. In addition, it is completely backwards compatible. The 4G module will also work reliably in the network and older 2G EDGE/GPRS networks. There will be no problems with communication.
By purchasing a tablet with LTE, you can get guaranteed technical compliance with the latest communications advances. The LTE standard is not called “long-term evolution” for nothing. Let's take a closer look at what this means.
Prospects for building LTE infrastructure
So far, 4G networks are reduced to a data transmission structure for a mobile device. However, the sheer bandwidth and networking capabilities are such that global integration is expected in the future. LTE networks will connect almost everything:
- Cell phones
- tablets and laptops
- multimedia devices
- security and alarm systems
- city video surveillance structures
- traffic control services
- ticket ordering services
- online banking, ATMs and payment terminals
- emergency services, including with automatic notification.
We can continue for a long time. In the future, everything, including household appliances, will be connected into a single digital space using LTE networks. For example, now you can display a “video baby monitor” signal on a tablet and always be sure that everything is fine with the child. And after a few years, this will be perceived as natural as turning on the light after dark.
Answering the question: “What does LTE mean in?” can be said simply. By purchasing a device with LTE, the user gets the opportunity to keep up with the times for a long time and confidently. This is truly a new communication standard that will develop and be used for a very long time. It has every chance of becoming a means of global communications.
Wireless communications today, without exaggeration, is one of the fastest growing industries.
New technical and technological solutions appear literally every year, and what last year was a novelty and the pinnacle of technical progress today often turns out to be a necessity for every user. One of these new products, the significance of which has not yet been appreciated by all users, is LTE technology.
What does the word LTE mean?
We have all recently come across the letters LTE in advertising texts dedicated to modern communication systems. This is an abbreviation of the English expression Long Term Evolution, which translated into Russian means "long term evolution".
This is what today is called a new technology for data transmission in wireless telephone and Internet networks.
What is LTE on a phone?
LTE is not available for feature phones other than smartphones. Those. Those who use simple phones that provide only mobile communication and a few basic functions will not be able to connect to the LTE network. 
To do this, you need to buy a new smartphone that supports this technology. Since it is intended, first of all, to implement all the capabilities of the wireless Internet, owners of simple phones, in general, do not need it.
What is LTE in a smartphone?
If your smartphone supports LTE, you will be able to use this network, which provides much better communication services. To connect, you need a special SIM card that provides the ability to use the LTE network. Not all telecom operators can yet offer it, and it is not implemented throughout our country.
LTE provides high speed exchange of information packets, reaching 10 Mbit per second or even higher. Thanks to this, operators can provide wireless Internet services with high quality and at a significantly lower price.
Users of the LTE network from their smartphone have the opportunity to unlimited access to multimedia Internet content, online games, Internet television, Internet telephony, video communication, and all this in a quality similar to wired Internet.
What is LTE on iPhone?
The latest generations of iPhones, starting with 5C and 5S, have the ability to work in LTE networks. However, at first, iPhones had a restriction built into their software that prohibited them from connecting to Russian networks.
Only after Russian operators directly contacted Apple management did things move forward. Today, Beeline and Megafon subscribers have the opportunity to connect iPhones to their LTE network. 
It is quite possible that soon other Russian telecom operators, including regional ones, will implement connecting iPhones to their LTE networks. On the Beeline network, for example, the data exchange speed is an impressive more than 50 Mbit per second.
What is the difference between LTE and 4G?
Wireless communication standards are determined by an authoritative organization - the International Telecommunication Union. In 2008, it adopted standards for the new generation of 4G communications. In accordance with them, the network throughput should be 100 Mbit per second for moving devices and 1 Gbit for stationary devices.
LTE networks do not fully meet these requirements (except for LTE-Advanced), so they are, strictly speaking, not 4th generation (4Generation, or 4G) networks. However, today this is the most modern high-speed wireless communication standard, widely implemented not only in our country, but also in many countries in Europe and the world.
What is the difference between LTE and 3G?
Compared to 3G, the LTE wireless communication standard is much better and faster. It provides an increase in data transfer speeds of approximately 10 times, which undoubtedly provides greater comfort for users. 
The most advanced version of this standard, LTE-Advanced, is already a full-fledged 4G network, but regular LTE is head and shoulders above the capabilities of 3G.
Good day to everyone who is interested in this article! Today we will tell you about what LTE bands are used by mobile operators in Russia and which of them occupies a leading position, we will tell you about the features of LTE, and we will also explain what a “band” is and what it is needed for.
Without delay, let's quickly get to the main part of the article.
A few words about Long-Term Evolution and global indicators
This is what the abbreviation LTE stands for. And it is translated as “long-term evolution, long-term development.” However, we are more accustomed to calling this technology 4G LTE or simply 4G.
LTE is a modern standard for high-speed and wireless data transmission for smartphones and other devices. Today, in developed countries of the world, the standard under discussion is no longer an innovation that surprises with its speed.
Thus, for 2016, according to statistics collected by the OpenSignal agency, the top five countries with the best 4G LTE coverage are:
- 95.7% - South Korea;
- 92% - Japan;
- 84.7% - Lithuania;
- 84.5% - Hong Kong;
- 84.1% - Netherlands.
And the top five “nimble” states included:
- 50 Mbit/s - Singapore;
- 46 Mbit/s - South Korea;
- 40.6 Mbit/s – Hungary;
- 35.6 Mbit/s – Romania;
- 35 Mbit/s - New Zealand.
Let's return to the technology itself. The reason for the emergence of this type of standard was the goal of the developers to increase the speed and capacity of networks using a new method of modulation and digital signal processing, as well as to simplify the architecture of networks working with IP addresses.
Detailed overview of the functioning of the standard
The 4G LTE specification can provide upload speeds of up to almost 173 Mbps, and download speeds of up to approximately 326 Mbps! However, the maximum transmission speed varies from country to country, region, city and other locality depending on the distance from the station and the radio frequency.
As for bands, the 1800 MHz band is mainly used in the world.
It is interesting that the described standard comes in two types: FDD and TDD.
Frequency Division Duplex, which means “frequency division of channels,” gives part of the traffic for downloading, and the second part for sending data. This ensures parallelism, i.e. simultaneous work in two directions.
And in Time Division Duplex (“time division of the channel”) the channel is either completely given for sending information, or completely for downloading.
Now let's talk about frequency. LTE networks are not compatible with 2G and 3G networks. Therefore, separate frequencies are allocated for them, which your mobile phones must catch and support. Certain frequency ranges are divided into 4G LTE bands and are called bands with the addition of a serial number.
For example, band 7 for FDD loading corresponds to the range 2620-2690, and for uploading - 2500-2570.
LTE in the Russian Federation
Well, now we decided to tell you about the situation in Russia.
As for the mentioned state, the percentage of coverage almost reaches 70%, however, 4G LTE does not operate in all regions and not at full capacity. In some localities, this network covers only administrative centers.
However, Russian mobile operators are actively expanding their coverage areas and tirelessly participating in auctions for the sale of 4G frequencies. Thanks to this, as of 2017, the LTE specification is successfully operating in a little more than 80 regions.
Now let's understand the ranges and frequencies.
In the Russian Federation, the standard operates in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands. And the popular bands, as in Europe, are band 3, band 7, band 20.
The “big five” Russian mobile operators that provide their customers with 4G LTE include:
- Yota – uses band 7 and provides a channel width of 2x30 MHz;
- Megafon – uses band 7, 20, maximum channel width 2×10 MHz;
- MTS – uses all four LTE bands, maximum channel width 2×10 MHz;
- Beeline has band 7 and band 20, and the channel width reaches 2×10 MHz;
- Tele2 – still uses bands 20 and 7, maximum width – 2x10 MHz.
All networks are FDD.
It should also be noted that not all smartphones catch such a network. The best devices that support 4G LTE are the iPhone 6s, iPhone 5, 5s and 7th generation models.
So we told you all about the LTE standard and its development in Russia.
We hope that you have learned a lot of interesting and new things. We are waiting for you among the blog subscribers, and also do not forget to join our groups on popular social networks and services: Vkontakte, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. See you again!
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LTE includes an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) and an Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
The LTE network is built as a collection of new eNB base stations (Evolved NodeB or eNodeB), where neighboring eNBs are connected to each other by an X2 interface. The eNBs are connected to the EPC via the S1 interface. Figure 1 shows the interaction of new elements in the network architecture: S-GW (Serving Gateway) - serving gateways containing management software via the MM protocol (MME - Mobility Management Entity).
Rice. 1. Simplified LTE network architecture
In a radio access network, the radio interface between the UE and the eNB is implemented based on orthogonal frequency diversity technology ( O rthogonal F requency D ivision M multiplexing, OFDMA). EPC operation is based on IP technology. This structure is referred to as the All-IP Network (AIPN).
The structure of the LTE network is shown in Fig. 2. The core of the EPC (Evolved Packet Core) network consists of a service gateway S-GW (Serving Gateway), a gateway for accessing packet networks P-GW (Packet Data Network Gateway), a management structure using the Mobility Management MME (Mobility Management Entity) protocol , associated with the S-GW and eNodeB signaling interfaces.
Rice. 2.
eNodeB functions (Evolved NodeB)
eNodeB combines the functions of base stations and 3rd generation network controllers:
Provides traffic and signaling transmission over a radio channel,
Manages the distribution of radio resources,
Provides an end-to-end traffic channel to the S-GW,
Maintains synchronization of transmissions and controls the level of interference in the cell,
Provides encryption and integrity of transmission over the radio channel,
Selects MME and organizes signaling exchange with it,
Compresses IP packet headers,
Supports multimedia broadcasting services,
When using a structure with power amplifiers on an antenna mast, it organizes antenna control via a special Iuant interface.
InterfaceS1 , as shown in Fig. 2, supports data transmission from S-GW and signaling through MME. Note that the eNB may have connections to multiple S-GWs.
InterfacesX2 used to organize handovers between neighboring base stations, including when balancing the load between them. In this case, X2 interfaces can be logical, i.e. their organization does not require a real physical connection between eNBs.
Functions of the serving gatewayS- G.W.:
Routing of transmitted data packets,
Setting quality indicators (Quality of Service, QoS) of the services provided,
Packet buffering for UEs in Idle Mode
Providing credentials for pricing and payment for services performed.
S-GW is an anchor structure that provides subscriber mobility. Each operational UE is served by a specific S-GW. In theory, a UE can be associated with multiple packet networks; then it will be served by several S-GW servers.
P-GW (Packet Data Network Gateway) functions
Gateway for access to packet networks P- G.W. organizes an access point to external IP networks. Accordingly, P-GW is the anchor gateway for traffic provisioning. If the subscriber has a static IP address, then P-GW activates it. If the subscriber must receive a dynamic IP address for the duration of the communication session, P-GW requests it from the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server or performs the necessary DHCP functions itself, after which it ensures delivery of the IP address to the subscriber. P-GW includes PCEF (Policy and Charging Enforcement Function), which provides quality service characteristics on an external connection via the Sgi interface and data packet filtering. When servicing a subscriber on a home network, the P-GW and S-GW functions can be performed by either two different or one device. The S5 interface is a GPRS or Proxy Mobile Ipv6 tunnel connection. If P-GW and S-GW are in different networks (for example, when servicing a subscriber in roaming), then the S5 interface is replaced with the S8 interface.
MME (Mobility Management Entity) functions
MME control unit First of all, it supports the implementation of Mobility Management protocol procedures: ensuring the security of the network when connecting a UE and selecting S-GW, P-GW. The MME is connected to the HSS of its network via the S6a interface. The S10 interface, connecting various MMEs, allows UE to be served when the subscriber moves, as well as when he is roaming.
PCRF functions
Policy and Charging Resource Function (PCRF) In essence, it is a management server that provides centralized management of network resources, accounting and pricing of services provided. As soon as a request for a new active connection appears, this information is sent to the PCRF. It evaluates the network resources at its disposal and sends commands to the PCEF of the P-GW gateway that establish requirements for the quality of services and their tariffs.
LTE system was developed to provide users with access to all kinds of services, as well as to the Internet via the IP protocol. An LTE network consists of many nodes. All network nodes are usually divided into two categories. Nodes belonging to the radio access network and nodes belonging to the core network. The key element that determines the effectiveness of any radio network is the algorithms and mechanisms used to transmit data between the base station (BS, in English literature - eNodeB) and mobile stations (MS, in English literature - UE). Next we consider main characteristics of the LTE network, related to the radio access network.
Let's start with the cell radius. According to the requirements for the LTE system, with a cell radius of 5 km, all requirements for spectral efficiency, throughput and work with mobile subscribers must be supported. With a cell radius of 30 km, performance degradation is acceptable.
To ensure bidirectional data transmission between BS and MS, LTE technology supports both frequency duplex (FDD) and time duplex (TDD). For frequency duplex, 15 paired frequency ranges are defined (frequencies from 800 MHz to 3.5 GHz), and for temporary duplex - 8. At the same time, the width of the radio channel can be different. Valid values are: 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. LTE uses OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) in the downlink and SC-FDMA in the uplink as multiple access systems.
When using technology OFDMA the entire available spectrum is divided into subcarriers orthogonal to each other. Depending on the channel width used, the total number of subcarriers can be 72, 180, 300, 600, 900 or 1200. Each subcarrier can have its own type of modulation. The following modulations can be used: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM. Multiple access is organized due to the fact that one part of the subcarriers is allocated to one user per frame, the other part to the second user, etc. For more details, see the description of the physical layer.
The main advantage of OFDMA technology is that it allows you to combat the negative effects caused by multipath propagation when receiving a signal. However, this technology also has some disadvantages. The main ones are that this technology is very sensitive to frequency synchronization. Also, the generated OFDMA signal has a high PAPR (Peak to Average Ratio). This, in turn, affects the fact that the signal amplifier used will operate in nonlinear sections of its characteristics. Therefore, its efficiency will be low, which is quite critical for devices with limited energy reserves (mobile terminals). Because of this, the LTE uplink uses a different multiple access technology, namely SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access). The difference between SC-FDMA and OFDMA is that SC-FDMA uses additional signal processing to reduce PAPR. SC-FDMA uses the Fourier transform as such additional signal processing. Just like in the downstream channel, the following types of modulation can be used in the upstream channel: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM.
The LTE standard also supports MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) transmission technology, which can significantly increase the peak data transfer rate and spectral efficiency value. The essence of MIMO technology is that several antennas are used on each side when transmitting and receiving data. Different antennas can transmit the same data, in which case the reliability of data transmission increases, but not the transmission speed. Also, different antennas can transmit different data streams, thereby increasing the data transfer rate. LTE technology supports a maximum 4x4 scheme in the downstream channel. This means that four antennas are used on the transmitting and receiving sides. In this case, the data transfer rate can be increased up to 4 times (actually a little less due to the increase in the number of pilot signals).
Using MIMO technology and a channel width of 20 MHz, the maximum data transfer rate can reach 300 Mbit/s in the downstream channel and 170 Mbit/s in the upstream channel.
In the requirements for LTE values spectral efficiency are specified as 5 bps/Hz for the downlink and 2.5 bps/Hz for the uplink (corresponding to data rates of 100 Mbps and 50 Mbps). At the same time, high performance levels must be maintained for mobile users moving at speeds of up to 120 km/h.
If you did not find the information you are interested in on LTE/LTE-A in this article, write me an email about it at [email protected]. I will try to add it as soon as possible.
