Introduction to nextGen LTE : Gigabit LTE

Exploring the true potential of Gigbit LTE, US tech giants Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm broke the barrier of 1Gbps on LTE, as Qualcomm's press release notes on 21st September, 2017 on 21st August. This is industry first with commercial silicon and network infrastructure to hit over 1Gbps on LTE, 1.07Gbps to be precise. 

The testing process used Qualcomm'x X20 LTE modem, and Ericsson radios and LTE software and utilized 12 LTE streams on three 20 MHz channels of licensed Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) spectrum, alongside 4x4 MIMO and 256-QAM. 

The 1.07 Gbps speed was achieved using only three 20MHz carriers of FDD (Frequency Division Duplex using separate transmit and receive frequencies) spectrum, achieving new levels of spectral efficiency for commercial networks and devices. 

In the begining of August (to be specific 2nd August, 2017), the same trio - Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies had touched astounding 953Mbps in a joint commercial network deployment in Boca Raton, Florida. The demostration used network components from Verizon including a cell site, hardware, software and backhaul; most advanced radio systems from Ericsson (micro Radio 2205 for LAA) and Gigabit powered Qualcomm's Snapdragon X16 LTE modem (based on Snapdragon 835 mobile platform).