The LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology was standardized within the 3GPP (3rd
Generation Partnership Project) as part of the 3GPP Release 8 feature set. Since end
2009, LTE mobile communication systems are deployed as an evolution of GSM
(Global system for mobile communications), UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System) and CDMA2000, whereas the latter was specified in 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2). An easy-to-read LTE technology introduction can be found in [1]. The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) coined the term IMT-Advanced to identify mobile systems whose capabilities go beyond those of IMT 2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications). 3GPP responded on IMT-Advanced requirements with a set of additional technology components specified in 3GPP Release 10, also known as LTE-Advanced (see [3] for details). In October 2010 LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) successfully completed the evaluation process in ITU-R complying with or exceeding the IMT-Advanced requirements and thus became an acknowledged 4G technology.
