Two main segments of 4G LTE Network

Two main segments of 4G LTE Network

1. LTE EUTRAN

2. LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

The above two segments are major part of 4G LTE Network. Here we going to see detaily about  LTE EUTRAN and LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
eutran-epc

1. LTE EUTRAN

e-UTRA is the air interface of 3GPP’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. It is an acronym for evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access, also referred to as the 3GPP work item on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) also known as the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) in early drafts of the 3GPP LTE specification. E-UTRAN is the initialism of Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network and is the combination of E-UTRA, UEs and EnodeBs.

It is a radio access network which is referred to under the name EUTRAN standard meant to be a replacement of the UMTS and HSDPA/HSUPA technologies specified in 3GPP releases 5 and beyond. Unlike HSPA, LTE’s E-UTRA is an entirely new air interface system, unrelated to and incompatible with W-CDMA. It provides higher data rates, lower latency and is optimized for packet data. It uses OFDMA radio-access for the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink. Trials started in 2008.

2. LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is a framework for providing converged voice and data on a 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network.

2G and 3G network architectures process and switch voice and data through two separate sub-domains: circuit-switched (CS) for voice and packet-switched (PS) for data. Evolved Packet Core unifies voice and data on an Internet Protocol (IP ) service architecture and voice is treated as just another IP application. This allows operators to deploy and operate one packet network for 2G, 3G, WLAN, WiMAX, LTE and fixed access (Ethernet, DSL, cable and fiber).

The key components of EPC are:

  • Mobility Management Entity (MME) – manages session states and authenticates and tracks a user across the network.
  • Serving Gateway (S-gateway) – routes data packets through the access network.
  • Packet Data Node Gateway (PGW) – acts as the interface between the LTE network and other packet data networks; manages quality of service (QoS) and provides deep packet inspection (DPI).
  • Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) – supports service data flow detection, policy enforcement and flow-based charging.

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