Lte - The Other 4G - And Its Impact On Enterprise It

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LTE - the Other 4G - and its Impact on Enterprise IT

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LTE - the Other 4G - and its Impact on Enterprise IT | v.1 05.27.11 | ©2011 iPass Inc.

Table of Contents Abstract Introduction The current mobile broadband scene Long term evolution ofuniversal terrestrial radio access network LTE network overview The reasons operators like LTE The pretender to the throne – HSPA+ The Future of 4G So should you move to a 4G network? What to consider About iPass References Glossary 3 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 9 10 10 11

LTE - the Other 4G - and its Impact on Enterprise IT | v.1 05.27.11 | ©2011 iPass Inc.

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What is 4G and the Impact on EnterpriseIT
Abstract WiMAX, LTE, HSPA+, DC-HSPA, 4G, 3G. If this alpha- numeric soup is somewhat overwhelming, then you are probably not alone. Most people who are not part of the industry find the rapidly evolving mobile broadband market quite daunting. Not only is it influencing the way people work, it is impacting the corporate IT strategies you had carefully put together 2-3 years ago. This year alonethere will be over 300 new mobile broadband devices launched: laptop USB cards, smartphones and tablets. Already 100 new LTE devices have been announced for 2011. In this whitepaper we take a look at two 4G technologies that will need to be considered as you plan for the coming decade: LTE and HSPA+. Hopefully making the alpha-numeric soup more digestible. Introduction To paraphrase a now veryfamous movie… In a world far, far away, we have heard of 4G. Well now that world is far closer than you may think. For the last five or so years, industry leaders have been telling us that 4G is just around the corner. In the last few months, we have had a plethora of announcements about LTE from MetroPCS1 , Verizon2, etc. So it now appears appropriate to take a look at the new incumbent to the 4Gcrown – LTE. Much has been written about WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) in previous literature, and it is not the intention of this whitepaper to rehash any of those discussions. The purpose here is to present LTE in a format that is easily understood and can be used to supplement the decision process on mobile broadband data options going forward. The next 12-18 months aregoing to be a very dynamic time in the mobile broadband arena and setting a 2 or 3 year strategy could be quite challenging. In addition to LTE, we also discuss another alternative, HSPA+, which might be more readily and quickly available in some markets. Although LTE is strong in some areas, the European market is only now starting to get into motion to auction off the desired frequencies thatare optimum for LTE – with lower frequencies being better, in the case of LTE. For some, the HSPA+ route might be a very reasonable stop gap measure until LTE becomes more readily available.
LTE - the Other 4G - and its Impact on Enterprise IT | v.1 05.27.11 | ©2011 iPass Inc.

This paper will discuss the move to 4G, in terms of LTE, and the implications on enterprises making mobile broadbanddecisions in the near term. Even with the highly touted 4G appearing in markets, there are still commercial and technical data constraints, particularly as networks are pieced together to form enterprise mobility solutions. The current mobile broadband scene Currently if you have a mobile broadband card or smartphone, then you are probably using a 3G or in some cases, a 2G network. Most likely thisnetwork is one of the types listed in Figure 1. In these cases the data rates available just about satisfy the application requirements on a laptop and are more than adequate for all current smartphones. The delivery of vanilla email is easily addressed by 2G technologies; it does not need to be real time.

Figure 1: Evolution of the mobile data market

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