Fundamentals of LTE Physical Layer and Test Requirements

As the deployments of 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks accelerate, engineers have their hands full developing and testing handsets to meet the extreme performance requirements these networks demand. From data rates of up to 326 Mbits/s, mobility expectations of 162 km/hr., scalable channel widths, 2x to 5x spectral efficiency, all-IP support, MIMO capability and low latency, it's clear that understanding the LTE physical layer is a pre-requisite to accurate and reliable test of user equipment (UE).

In this course, readers will be taken through the basics of cellular architectures, standards and organizations. After this run through the 'Gs', and comparisons to other standards, such as WiMAX, it will then launch into a description of LTE and its core technologies, including TDD, FDD, OFDMA, SC-OFDM and MIMO. This will be followed by an examination of two key signal characteristics: multipath and fading.

Finally, the course will conclude with a look at how to set up to test UE -- for both performance and standard conformance -- using the latest test systems and techniques.