To enhance the performance of existing LTE/LTE-A system and to meet the demand of supporting new service types, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is currently in the standardization process of LTE Release 12 and investigating the future potential technologies (i.e. Beyond R12). According to the 3GPP TSG-RAN workshop on "Release 12 and Onward" in 2012, the requirements for LTE R12 and Beyond include capacity increase, energy saving, support for diverse applications and traffic types, and higher user experiences. This article mainly focuses on the important technology fields in 3 GPP R12 and beyond, including enhanced local area access, multi-antenna enhancement, new service type, and advanced receiver design, and provides further explanations for the key technology components of each field.
3GPP LTE LTE-A Small cell 3D Beamforming Massive MIMO CoMP MTC D2D Naics