LTE, LTE-Advanced and WiMAX

There exists a strong demand for fully extending emergingInternet services, including collaborative applications and socialnetworking, to the mobile and wireless domain. Delivering suchservices can be possible only through realizing broadband in thewireless. Two candidate technologies are currently competing infulfilling the requirements for wireless broadband networks, WiMAXand LTE. At the moment, LTE and its future evolution LTE-Advancedare already gaining ground in terms of vendor and operator support.Whilst both technologies share certain attributes (utilizingOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in downlink,accommodating smart antennas and full support for IP-switching, forexample), they differ in others (including uplink technology,scheduling, frame structure and mobility support). Beyond technological merits, factors such as deployment readiness,ecosystem maturity and migration feasibility come to light whencomparing the aptitude of the two technologies.