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Networking Communications Network The Internet Wireless Networking News Technology

The Battle Between LTE and Wi-Fi May Have Left LTE-U Out In the Cold (networkworld.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the sweater-weather dept.
alphadogg quotes a report from Networkworld: After more than a year of rancor over whether it would hurt Wi-Fi, a technology that lets LTE networks use unlicensed spectrum may have already missed its window of opportunity. LTE-Unlicensed is designed to improve cellular service by tapping into some of the frequencies used by Wi-Fi and other unlicensed technologies. But almost as soon as LTE-U was proposed in late 2014, Wi-Fi supporters pounced. They charged that it would drown out Wi-Fi signals because LTE didn't know how to make room for other users. Now carriers may be getting ready to bypass LTE-U altogether in favor of another system, called LAA (Licensed Assisted Access), that does the same thing but with additional protections for Wi-Fi. The LAA standard is complete, and products are expected to start shipping later this year.
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The Battle Between LTE and Wi-Fi May Have Left LTE-U Out In the Cold More

The Battle Between LTE and Wi-Fi May Have Left LTE-U Out In the Cold

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  • Hey, all you jerks who claim that "complaining accomplishes nothing"? YOU'RE WELCOME. ;)

    • dammit! stupid keyboard keys! why can't i make a simple edit to my comment?! this is bullshit! you're welcome in advance, slashdot. ;)

  • How is this a bad thing? (Score:5, Funny)

    by pablo_max ( 626328 ) on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @01:33AM (#51897579)

    I don't really get the tone of this article. It seems to imply that it's not fair LTE-U isnt being used simply because it will ruin your WiFi connection.
    LTE-U never had a hope in hell.
    If you live in an apartment complex or even a crowded neighborhood, think about how many routers you can see from your laptop. The spectrum is already packed!
    Bring in LTE-U, which just blasts out a 20MHz bandwidth signal without respecting other devices and your already flacky wifi connection just died.

    Think of it like the Republican race.
    802.11 devices are like the normal Republicans all in a room debating about some thing two to a table. Everyone can talk to their partner without raising their voice too much.
    LTE-U is Donald Trump. He walks in and says , "Hey, wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?".....

    • Where does it end with you shills? Are they really paying you THAT much per post to inject political vitriol into every conversation on the internet? Fuck off.

  • What's the problem? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by el_chupanegre ( 1052384 ) on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @01:40AM (#51897587)

    Was I the only one left thinking this is a good thing, despite the article seeming to nudge towards the opposite?

    A new standard came along, some people pointed out a problem with it so it wasn't adopted and now a better standard has come along which is unaffected by those problems but retains the original benefits.

    Ermmm, what's the problem?

  • "Wi-Fi May Have Left LTE-U Out In the Cold "

    I use WIFI in my warm cozy living-room while I use LTE outside in the cold.

    At least until summer in a couple of months, then it will be warm outside with LTE as well.

  • Carriers won (Score:3, Interesting)

    by amorsen ( 7485 ) <benny+slashdot@amorsen.dk> on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @03:32AM (#51897925)

    LTE-U would have allowed yourphone to do 4G on unlicensed bands. That means you could legally make your own cell phone provider at home, and make your phone roam there for cheap calls.

    LAA is a way for carriers to steal bandwidth from the public, without having to give anything back. They just squat on the public bandwidth for the actual data, but all control traffic is on licensed bands. This means you cannot set up a carrier without licensing.

    The demise of LTE-U is very sad.

    • Re:Carriers won (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Thorizdin ( 456032 ) <thorizdin@lo t d . o rg> on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @06:38AM (#51898475) Homepage

      That's completely wrong on LTE-U. Part of the problem with the standard is that while the data channel is over the unlicensed bands the control channel is over licensed spectrum. Only companies who have licensed spectrum could have ever used LTE-U. I'm still looking at how LAA works, but LTE-U is a technology that only cell phone companies could use. Perhaps you are thinking about one of the other potential standards like MuLTEfire.

  • Is nothing sacred? (Score:3)

    by clonehappy ( 655530 ) on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @08:37AM (#51899121)

    Are we not even allowed to have our own slivers of bandwidth for open, public, unlicensed access without the carriers coming in to shit all over it in a thinly veiled attempt to make Wi-Fi less robust and reliable so they can sell more LTE connections?

    Stay the fuck off of the only bands the people have the right to operate our networks on. The carriers already bogart a huge chunk of public resource for profit, will they never be satisfied?

  • LAA is the 3rd Generation Partnership Project's (3GPP) effort to standardize operation of LTE in the Wi-Fi bands. It uses a contention protocol known as listen-before-talk (LBT), mandated in some European countries, to coexist with other Wi-Fi devices on the same band.

    Ah, if only people voluntarily used that contention protocol.

  • LAA is the new name for LTE-U, so umm... didn't the author have a clue? LWA is the new one as is the (currently) Qualcomm specific Multifire which is LAA without the LA.

                -Charlie

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