Abstract

The demand for cellular communication services is expected to continue its rapid growth in the next decade, fuelled by new applications such as mobile web-browsing, video downloading, on-line gaming, and social networking. The commercial deployment of 3G. Cellular network technologies began with 3GPP UMTS/WCDMA in 2001 and has evolved into current UMTS/HSPA networks. To maintain the competitiveness of 3GPP UMTS networks, a well-planned and graceful evolution to 4G networks is considered essential [1]. LTE is an important step in this evolution, with technology demonstrations beginning in 2006. Commercial LTE network services started in Scandinavia in December