Video on LTE Networks
The explosion of video and multimedia content on the wired web has driven users to expect on-demand access to that content from their mobile devices. While 2G and 3G wireless networks have stumbled in attempting to deliver this service with an acceptable user-experience, new 4G technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) offer the levels of performance required to support streaming video and multimedia services to a large number of consumers simultaneously, with a quality that most will find attractive. LTE technology allows for significantly higher capacity at a lower cost per bit, improving the commercial viability of video services.
This white paper offers an overview of current wireless technologies and notable consumer trends related to video. It examines the demands that transport of video content places on a network, as well as key technology factors that are advancing to allow LTE wireless networks to meet the needs forecast by those trends. As these technology factors evolve, they are allowing a true revolution in new types of personalized, predictive, and mobility-aware multimedia services that can be offered over wireless networks. The paper concludes with some example network deployment alternatives for operators to consider and a discussion of the relative benefits they provide.