LTE release 10 advantages

[MacPCS]

Lots of folks are excited about an LTE Advanced network. Why not? It's the new hotness in cellular data technologies. I'm trying to get a better understanding of how in the real world it will impact us Sprint phone users. So the three key advantages of LTE Advanced (LTE Release 10) to my knowledge are as follows:

 

Carrier Aggregation

Improved Multiple antenna support

better handling of additional nodes

 

Not sure how much benefit from improved multiple antenna support we'll get on phones due to power requirements... maybe tablets and personal hotspots though?

 

Carrier aggregation seems like the major real benefit for Sprint users. I know Sprint is doing a 5x5 deployment but will they use this aggregation support to combine their 800Mhz spectrum as well as their 2.5G from Clearwire? I'd think Clearwire wouldn't be able to do it regardless given that it's TDD and not FDD, is this correct?

 

Most of you seem to have a far greater wealth of knowledge of all things cellular data, so I was hoping you could clarify some of the benefits we'll see in the real world.

 

Yes, I know there have been other topics about LTE-Advanced, but none seem to really address what I'm trying to find out.

 

Thanks.

[DaQue]

It goes almost to 11. <go search youtube for it goes to 11, spinal tap>

[lynyrd65]

Lots of folks are excited about an LTE Advanced network. Why not? It's the new hotness in cellular data technologies. I'm trying to get a better understanding of how in the real world it will impact us Sprint phone users. So the three key advantages of LTE Advanced (LTE Release 10) to my knowledge are as follows:

 

Carrier Aggregation

Improved Multiple antenna support

better handling of additional nodes

 

Not sure how much benefit from improved multiple antenna support we'll get on phones due to power requirements... maybe tablets and personal hotspots though?

 

Carrier aggregation seems like the major real benefit for Sprint users. I know Sprint is doing a 5x5 deployment but will they use this aggregation support to combine their 800Mhz spectrum as well as their 2.5G from Clearwire? I'd think Clearwire wouldn't be able to do it regardless given that it's TDD and not FDD, is this correct?

 

Most of you seem to have a far greater wealth of knowledge of all things cellular data, so I was hoping you could clarify some of the benefits we'll see in the real world.

 

Yes, I know there have been other topics about LTE-Advanced, but none seem to really address what I'm trying to find out.

 

Thanks.

 

The biggest jumps you will see speed wise is the better 4x4 MIMO and carrier aggregation (if we see it) but both of these require more antennae which could cause power issues. I think that we will eventually see all of these features integrated into handsets but it may be 2-3 years before we can use it.

 

Edit: on this, we will see a jump from at lease one of these in the short term (1-2 years), Iyad Azzi said we would see a jump with the release 10 update and these two features facilitate that.

 

Network wise it brings new management tools and better site-site coordination, for example when two sites cover the same area and an end user can use both sites the network can dynamically push users to the site with the least load and adjust power levels to better facilitate it. It also enables better coordination with small cells like Femtocells (airaves) or pico cells (look up lightradio).