Originally developed by Qualcomm, LTE-U is suggested for the usage of the 4G LTE in unlicensed spectrum. For instance, the 5 GHz band used by 802.11a compliant Wi-Fi equipment.
It will serve as an alternative to carrier-owned Wi-Fi hotspots.
The goal was to easily use the lower and upper portion of the unlicensed 5 GHz ISM band to create a wider data pipe.
LTE-U can be deployed in several ways:
- Downlink only.
- Uplink and downlink.
- FDD / TDD aggregation.
LTE-U depends on the existing CN for the backhaul and other capabilities such as security and authentication.
Some changes are required to the base station to align with the new frequencies and also incorporate the capabilities required to guarantee good sharing of the unlicensed frequencies.
In addition to this, the handsets or UEs will need to have the new LTE-U / LTE-LAA capability incorporated into them so they can access LTE on these additional frequencies.
Source: CableFree