Aspects Favoring the Deployment of 3G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Technologies Over Mobile WiMAX

Abstract:     
There has been much conversation over the past few years regarding the evolution of next-generation air interfaces supporting mobile broadband. One of the most talked about as far as promise is concerned is 802.16e, otherwise known as mobile WiMAX. In its advertised form, the standard can support data rates of tens of megabits per second while supporting many real-time user applications that cannot be supported by third-generation technologies. Although mobile WiMAX sounds promising as a next-generation technology, other factors do exist which will limit its overall success. Some of the factors that will be discussed in this paper will include the design challenges facing base-station architecture, competing third-generation long-term evolution (LTE) technologies, and costs to existing service providers to upgrade their networks. This paper is meant to demonstrate that from a service-provider's point-of-view, the upgrade path to mobile WiMAX may not be the correct solution.

Keywords: WiMAX, 802.16e, 3G, CDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSxPA, OFDM

Accepted Paper Series