HSPA+ Evolution to Release 12: Performance and Optimization

14 Multimode Multiband Terminal Design Challenges

Jean-Marc Lemenager, Luigi Di Capua, Victor Wilkerson, Mikaël Guenais, Thierry Meslet, and Laurent Noël

The mobile phone industry has experienced unprecedented growth since it was first launched over 20 years ago using 2G/ EDGE, GSM, GPRS (EGPRS) technologies. Combined with 3G standards, such as WCDMA/HSPA, and more recently, 4G/LTE (FDD and TDD), mobile phone shipments have continuously beaten records, tripling volumes from 533 million devices in 2003 to more than 1.8 billion devices in 2013. Looking ahead to 2017, it is expected that shipments of mobile phones will then reach 2.1 billion units worldwide [1]. Put into perspective, this means that nearly 70 devices will be shipped every second! Beyond these impressive production volumes, the introduction of smartphones in 2007, unleashed by Apple's original iPhone, is the other major factor that has completely reshaped the definition of mobile terminals. A high-end non touch-screen 2009 device would today be qualified as “feature phone” or “voice-centric phone.” The year 2013 was a key turning point in the history of this industry as the “data-centric / do-it-all” smartphone shipments exceeded the volumes for these feature phones. Based on current trends, what are now collectively called “smartphones” are likely to transition to a market segmented into three retail price ranges: low end/cost (<100$), mid-end (<300$), and high-end super-phones (>500$). Given this expectation, ...