In Volume 3 (the LTE edition), we provide our deep-dive analysis of how LTE networks perform today as exemplified by operator deployments in North America and Europe. 

By analyzing the performance characteristics of Ericsson and ALU infrastructure, and to a lesser extent NSN and Huawei, we are able to identify important areas where vendors currently differentiate themselves with respect to their implementation philosophies and the list of features that they currently support.

Areas of focus include frequency selective scheduling, the choice of MIMO (OL-SM versus CL-SM) and the degree to which it is used, and the uplink performance (throughput and transmit power).  Chipset/dongle performance is another important focus area in the report.

Finally, we also compare the use of 64QAM in LTE and HSPA+, as well as the use of MIMO at 700MHz versus 2600MHz.

In this issue of Signals Ahead we provide results from what continues to be the only independent performance benchmark study of mobile devices and chipsets.  In the most recent round of testing, we went where no one has gone before and looked at the performance of commercially-available LTE devices/chipsets.

We have once again collaborated with Spirent Communications to get access to their 8100 test system and engineering support in order to obtain highly objective results.