Simulation Evaluation of LTE and UMTS Wireless Communication Systems

Abstract

The 3G communication standards (GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA) have problems of capacity, latency and low speed of data transfer, and these have led to poor quality of service (QoS) from the service providers and high customer complaints. The LTE-advanced is the latest communication standard employed to increase the capacity and speed of wireless communication using a different radio interface together with core network improvements. This work aims at evaluating the 
performance of the LTE network such as data rate, capacity, latency and mobility in comparison with UMTS network using a simulation tool, where the model of the different networks was evaluated. The simulation software used was ‘LENA, simulations were run with theoretical network parameters. The choice of network parameters was from typical values usually found in UMTS and LTE networks and consistent with MTN (Nigeria) networks for the purpose of this 
work. Results obtained show that LTE system using orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and scalable bandwidth, together with more advanced MIMO schemes, provides better 
data rates and improved overall KPIs than the UMTS.