Assessing 3GPP LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced Technology: The WINNER+ Evaluation Group Approach

[EN] This article describes the WINNER+ approach to performance evaluation of the 3GPP LTE-Advanced proposal as an IMT-Advanced technology candidate. The official registered WINNER+ Independent Evaluation Group evaluated this proposal against ITU-R requirements. The first part of the article gives an overview of the ITU-R evaluation process, criteria, and scenarios. The second part is focused on the working method of the evaluation group, emphasizing the simulator calibration approach. Finally, the article contains exemplary evaluation results based on analytical and simulation approaches. The obtained results allow WINNER+ to confirm that the 3GPP LTE Release 10 & Beyond (LTE-Advanced) proposal satisfies all the IMT-Advanced requirements, and thus qualifies as an IMT-advanced system.This work has been performed in the framework of the CELTIC project CP5-026 WINNER+. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of their colleagues in the WINNER+ consortium. The authors wish to thank colleagues from Ericsson, Per Skillermark and Johnan Nystrom, for their effort in leading the simulations part of the WINNER+ evaluation group. The work of David Martin-Sacristan was supported by an FPU grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education.Safjan, K.; D'amico, V.; Bültmann, D.; Martín-Sacristán, D.; Saadani, A.; Schöneich, H. (2011). Assessing 3GPP LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced Technology: The WINNER+ Evaluation Group Approach. IEEE Communications Magazine. 49(2):92-100. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2011.5706316S9210049