Report on Feasibility Consideration

Course Title: MSc Advanced Telecommunication and Wireless

Engineering
Module: Technical Research and Professional skills
Name: Ali Sarmad
Student ID: 3325780

Lecturer: Dr. Goran I Bezanov

Date: 09/01/2015

LTE Mobile Broadband over WiMAX

Abstract

The trend of surfing internet is growing with startling pace, new generation need access to
internet everywhere which caused mobile broadband to come into existence. This report has
been prepared as to highlights the main features and benefits of the implementation of LTE
(Long Term Evolution) in Pakistan. The Mobile Broadband is the need for every country to
access internet and access information from anywhere in the world. WiMAX and LTE is
discussed to make comparison analysis between the LTE Mobile Broadband and the WiMAX
broadband services as both are 4G and having IP networks based on OFDM for data
communications.
In this report numerous applications and deployments have been examined. Pakistan the sixth
most populous country has enormous number of mobile phone users and has multiple cellular
operators and internet service providers. [1]Internet access within a building, house, office and
small apartments has been made possible by WiMAX along with other broadband service
provider who has tremendous record but when it comes to outdoor mobile environment
consumers encounter limitation. The ultimate solution to mitigate this limitation is the
implementation of LTE.

Table of Contents
Abstract
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 LTE and WiMAX ......................................................................................................................... 3

2. Mobile Broadband ............................................................................................................... 3

2.1 Why Mobile .................................................................................................................................. 3
2.2 Growth of Mobile Broadband ....................................................................................................... 4
2.3 Network deployment scenarios ................................................................................................... 4
2.3.1 WiMAX Network ...................................................................................................................... 4
2.3.2 LTE Network ............................................................................................................................ 5

3. Technical aspects of LTE and WiMAX ............................................................................. 6

4. Population and Mobile Phone subscribers ........................................................................ 8
5. Discussion............................................................................................................................ 10
6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 10
References

Introduction

1.1

LTE and WiMAX

Broadband wireless has brought a technological innovation to the broadband in wireless

environment, which allow consumers to gain several advantages and ease in utilizing
broadband services more efficiently and effectively. In Pakistan requirement for such
technology is the milestone towards the use of upcoming technologies which has been used
in other countries for ages. Consumers hunger for broadband increasing every day, need
internet for outdoor (travelling, walking, long journey etc) where fixed broadband is
incompetent to meet the demand and challenges of the consumers.
Telecommunication operators looked forward to switch consumers to mobile broadband
which is cost effective and scalable. To meet the demand of the massive populous country
requires analysis in different aspects, which is the approach of this report.
WiMAX (Wireless interoperability for microwave access) is the fourth generation
technology based on IEEE 802.16e standard. Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16e 2005 is the
advancement of the IEEE 802.16 (STD) to support mobility which is also called fixed
WiMAX. [2] The IEEE 802.16m standard is considered to be the core technology to advance
for Mobile WiMAX Release 2 which is capable of providing faster, effective and successful
data communications. [3]
LTE stands for long term evolution which is fourth generation technology offers dominant
user experience and simplified network for 4th generation mobile broadband. It is introduced
in 3GPP which is third generation partnership project release 8, a huge advancement in
mobile radio communication. The major reason to bring forth this technology increase the
capacity, soft and softer handoffs, speed of mobile cellular network and higher data rate
compared to previous network. TeliaSonera was the first telecommunication and network
provider who provided LTE service in two Scandinavian countries capital Stockholm and
Oslo in December 14, 2009. [4]
In this report, an approach has been presented to take into account LTE to facilitate mobile
phone user with a mobile broadband access everywhere in Pakistan.
2.0

Mobile Broadband

2.1

Why Mobile Broadband

The major features of the mobile broadband is that it provides connectivity

everywhere at anytime. In most of the metropolitan areas including capital traffic
condition is a chaos, waiting long hours in the traffic jam in rush hours everyone need
something to utilize that time into, where mobile internet is the solution.
In Pakistan consumers has to pay for the line rental on the phone barely used which is
compulsory to get broadband at home. Whereas with mobile broadband, need to pay
line rental can be avoided and save of money.

Exclusive packages and rates available according to requirement of the consumers

even in roaming.
Mobile broadband technology works on the plug and play principle where software
automatically installed when once the mobile phone is connected to the internet no
need to download or install new software at all.
A common hectic in developing country is electricity; same is the case in Pakistan.
Unreliable power supply limits consumer the use of personal computer which results
in unsuccessful tasks or activities.
Mobile broadband is therefore considered as the solution to meet limitations and with the
reduction in cost in the future.
2.2

Growth of Mobile Broadband

Mobile broadband has clear evidences supporting maximum usage in the future due to its
benefits and appreciated this technology. Broadband influenced consumers which led to the
3.4 billion subscriptions by 2014 and out of which 80 percent will be mobile broadband
consumers as shown in figure 1. [5]

Figure 1.0. Fixed and Mobile Broadband Growth 2007-2014 [5]

Mobile broadband is now turning to reality, as the new generation increasingly moving
towards internet accessibility everywhere, not just limited to home, office and institutions but
in long journeys, travelling, and walking through streets and so on. This generation want to
make their every single moment productive.
2.3
2.3.1

Network Deployment Scenarios

WiMAX Network

WiMAX officially rollout in Pakistan was in 2008 and increased promisingly to major cities.
The WiMAX broadband internet has brought a splendid revolution to the dial up connection
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internet which was very slow and a hassle to connect. The four major companies has taken
part in the deployment of WiMAX in Pakistan include, Mobilink, Wateen, Qubee and Witribe. The first joint venture was from Abu Dhabi Group, which was started in 2007.
WiMAX operators then began providing services with competitive offers and packages to
consumers with a variety of broadband internet services.
In 2010, market competition reached its height when UK based company stepped in and
deployed WiMAX in Pakistan known as Qubee with the investment of about $70 million.
But despite the entire competitor based on quality of service Wateen stood up at the first
position among the entire broadband internet service provider according to the survey
conducted by PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority).[6]
Witribe brought two shareholders from Qatar Telecom and another one is from Saudi
company to commercialise the network in 4 major urban areas. Qubee has penetrated in
Karachi to provide services to residential and business consumers. South region of Pakistan
is completely captured by Mobilink Pakistans second WiMAX network. One of the largest
nationwide WiMAX network was deployed by Wateen in the city of Lahore and has the
spectrum of 42MHz.
2.3.2

LTE Network

In Pakistan five cellular operators are providing their services to the 133.3 million
subscribers and these subscribers have grown with tremendous percentage of about 4.7 from
previous year till now as shown in the figure below. [6]
MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS IN PAKISTAN

Figure 2.0 Total mobile subscribers in Pakistan separated by operator, source PTA [6]
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Among five only two operators participated in the auction for 4G license held in April, 2014
and successfully secured. Warid telecom and Zong telecom are the less crowded cellular
networks lately swapped outdated GSM system by LTE. The services will be provided in
2015, because still both the companies have not initiated the roll out for 4G. As soon as Zong
and Warid ready to provide LTE will overtake WiMAX within a year. [7] It is strongly
believed that broadband services and infrastructures is the bridge to the economic growth and
path way towards the enhancement of job opportunities. Many government and private firms
have made development with the use of broadband services within the firms.

3.0

Technical Aspects of WiMAX and LTE

In most of the cities of Pakistan the dominant network that is currently deployed is WiMAX
standard IEEE 806.16e. Future approval of the standard IEEE 802.16m with high data rates
and enhanced features will also bring improvement to the existing WiMAX.
LTE will take time to roll out as it was recently launched in the previous year but there are
few features which compared to WiMAX can overtake WiMAX. The following table is the
comparison between 3GPP LTE-EUTRAN and existing IEEE 802.16e.

Aspect

Mobile WiMAX

Core Network

WiMAX
network

Access Technology
Downlink(DL)
Uplink(UL)
Frequency Band

forum

3GPP LTE
all

IP

OFDMA
OFDMA

UTRAN moving towards All IP

Evolved UTRA CN with IMS
OFDMA
SC-FDMA

2.3-2.4 GHz, 2.4-2.6 GHz, Existing and new frequency

3.3-3.8 GHz
band (2GHz)

Bit rate/Site
DL
UL
Channel Bandwidth

75Mbps (MIMO 2TX 2RX)

25Mbps
5, 8.75 and 10 MHz

100Mbps (MIMO 2TX 2RX)

50Mbps
1.25-20 MHz

Cell Radius

2-7 km

5 km

Spectral efficiency

3.75 bits/sec/Hz

5 bits/sec/Hz

Legacy

Up to 120 km/H
Optimized hard handovers
supported
802.16a through 802.16d

Up to 250 km/H
Inter cell softer handovers
supported
GSM/GPS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA

MIMO
DL

2Tx * 2Rx

2Tx * 2Rx

Mobility
Speed
Handovers

UL
No. Of code words
Standardization coverage

Roaming framework
Cell capacity

1Tx * NRx
1
IEEE 802.16e 2005 PHY&
MAC
CN
standardization
in
WiMAX forum
New (work in progress in
WiMAX forum
100-200 users

2Tx * 2Rx
2
RAN (PHY+MAC)+CN

Auto through GSM/UMTS

>200 users @ 5 MHz
>400 users @ larger bandwidth

Table 1.0 Comparison between LTE and WiMAX [9]

Highlighting few major points to bring forth the advantage of the LTE, if implemented in my
country can bring revolution to the mobile broadband users and to the mobile operators. LTE
has numerous advantages over WiMAX include the frequency bands which means, LTE can
use existing frequency band unlike WiMAX. The next feature LTE has to compete with
WiMAX is it is popular for its legacy, to deploy LTE it does not require deploying the whole
system again but this is not the case with WiMAX, which is expensive to deploy, no legacy.
LTE can provide bit [for downlink 100 Mbps and for uplink 50 Mbps] in contrast WiMAX
can provide [for downlink 75 Mbps and for uplink 25 Mbps]. Channel bandwidth is double in
LTE than WiMAX up to 20 MHz and can accommodate 200 users at 5 MHz and more than
400 users at larger bandwidth. Spectral efficiency refers to the information rate that can be
transmitted over a given bandwidth which 1.5 bits/sec/Hz higher than WiMAX.
Mobility which is the major factor to achieve efficient communication has two major parts
one is speed and second is handover. Handover can be explained if the user is moving from
one cellular area to another area, the call is transferred to that particular cell site user
travelling in to or driving in to as shown in the figure.

Figure 3.0 Handovers in communication network

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WiMAX provide hard handover whereas in LTE it has soft handover and in few cases softer
hand can be achieved. Hard hand over mean break before make which means if call is
handed to another cell, the call is disconnected first the previous cell than again established in
the next cell whereas softer hand over is make before break it can be understood that call
continues even if the user move from one cell to another without disconnection.
At last LTE is totally based on MIMO (multiple input and multiple output), the technology to
improve reliability of the system and can provide maximum capacity. Roaming framework of
WiMAX is still in progress unlike LTE has auto roaming through legacy systems
(GSM/UMTS).
4.0

Population and Mobile Phone Subscribers

Population in Pakistan within last fourteen year has shown marvellous increase as shown in
the figure 4.0 and 4.1.

Figure 4.0 Population of Pakistan in 2010

Figure 4.1 Population of Pakistan in 2014 [10]

Cellular subscriptions in Pakistan reached all time high mark of 136.5 million at the end of
March 2014, said recently issued stats by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. [11]

Figure 5.0 Mobile Subscriptions in March, 2014 [11]

As shown in figure 5, 80% of the population use mobile phone but are limited when it come
to mobile broadband because GSM cannot provide high data rate to meet the mobile
broadband.
Low-priced provision of mobile broadband data service interchangeably known as 3G
services can only be possible when mobile operators have enough access to radio resources.
3G has the 2.1 GHz band which is used globally which has been released in many South
Asian countries include India, Indonesia, Thailand and Middle East in last 5 years. [8] In
Pakistan mobile operator did not have access to 2.1GHz band before April, 2014 and
generally had very little spectrum as compared to other countries mentioned as shown in the
figure. [8]

Figure 4.0 Mobile Subscriber per MHz of spectrum assigned by country

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Therefore if LTE is implemented successfully more and more consumer will switch to LTE
mobile broadband to access broadband internet any and everywhere.
Recently license for 3G and 4G have been issued mobile operators might help operators to
provide mobile broadband but still just two operators have 4G and these operators will not
capture the market, all the operators have to advance the network to spread mobile broadband
services.
5.0

Discussion

LTE and WiMAX are not the technological rivals like GSM and CDMA. Rather with the
future up gradation of existing technology and the consumers interest is the major concern.
LTE and WiMAX tend to provide similar feature but LTE leading with few and it cannot be
denied that WiMAX has got certain advantage of earlier deployment in this wireless field.
But still most probably LTE rollout will start by the end of 2015. Again it has also an
excellent update i.e. 3GPP Release 10, known as LTE Advanced. So, if it will be deployed
then there will be no rival among the operators and vendor in the telecommunication field.
We can surely hope for getting perfect broadband solution for subscribers in this region. It
will also increase the choice of consumers in quality mobile broadband solutions.
6.0 Conclusion
LTE with it better specification can provide better service in Pakistan because from 185
million population 136.5 million users are mobile phone consumer and increasing day by day
where every individual require access to mobile broadband internet alongside cellular
services. LTE will be the best possible solution for this region.

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References
[1] Fundamentals of WiMAX: Understanding Broadband Wireless Networking by Jeffrey
G. Andrews, Arunabha Ghosh, Rias Muhamed.
[2] IEEE STD 802.16e-2005. IEEE Standard for Local Metropolitan Area Networks- Part
16: Air Interface for Fixed & Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Systems, 28 February
2006.
[3] IEEE STD 802.16-2004, Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems,
October 2004.
[4]

Long Term Evolutionist LTE News, LTE Deployment, LTE Devices, LTE Operators.
http://www.longtermevolutionist.com/ [Accessed: 2/12/2014]

[5] LTE vs WiMAX: A Little 4G Sibling Rivalry

http://gigaom.com/2008/03/05/a-little-4g-sibling-rivalry/ [Accessed: 3/12/2014]
[6] https://www.techinasia.com/3g-auction-pakistan-grow-broadband-subscribers-45million/ [Accessed: 8/12/2014]
[7]

http://propakistani.pk/2012/09/17/overview-of-wimax-in-pakistan/
[Accessed: 18/12/2014]

[8]

Marks P et al, A report for Qualcomm August-2013.

http://www.plumconsulting.co.uk/

[9]

WiMAX 802.16m: 1Gbps

http://www.dailywireless.org/2007/02/20/wimax-80216m-100-mbps/

[10]

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/pakistan-population/
[Accessed: 21/12/2014]

[11] http://propakistani.pk/2014/05/02/mobile-phone-users-in-pakistan-reach-136-5million/ [Accessed: 1/1/2015]

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