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The development of TD-SCDMA 3G to TD-LTE-advanced 4G from 1998 to

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ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 167
ACCEPTED FROM OPEN CALL
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TD-SCDMA 3G TO
TD-LTE-ADVANCED 4G FROM 1998 TO 2013
SHANZHI CHEN, JIAN ZHAO, AND YING PENG
ABSTRACT
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE-Advanced are two
global TDD standards adopted by ITU for the
Third Generation and the Fourth Generation of
mobile communication. TD-LTE, the evolution
of TD-SCDMA, is accepted by more and more
operators and manufactures leading to global
deployment in the world. As the global mobile
communication standards initially promoted by
China, a developing country, TD-SCDMA and
TD-LTE always attract much curiosity and inter-
est. This article reviews the standardization and
development history from TD-SCDMA 3G to
TD-LTE-Advanced 4G in the period 1998 to
2013. It is indicated that TD-SCDMA opened a
sustainable utilization era of TDD technology in
3G and 4G. It is believed that TDD will play a
more important role in 5G. Key factors promot-
ing the successful progress of standardization
and commercialization are analyzed.
INTRODUCTION
TD-SCDMA is the first TDD standard to be
deployed in wide area mobile networks on a
large scale. TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced are the
long-term evolution of TD-SCDMA. China
Mobile commercially launched TD-SCDMA 3G
in 2009. Statistics show that as of April 2014
there were already 230 million TD-SCDMA
users. TD-LTE 4G has been deployed globally,
and there are 36 commercial networks deployed
by Sprint, Softbank, China Mobile, China Tele-
com, and China Unicom, among others [1]. The
majority of WiMAX operators will upgrade their
WiMAX networks to TD-LTE [2]. Unfortunate-
ly, there are fewer papers [3-6] published on
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE in international con-
ferences or journals. Meanwhile, TD-SCDMA
and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced always attract
interest as well as questions, such as:
• How are TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE accepted
by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from
advanced countries?
• As a latecomer, how does TD-SCDMA keep
The authors are with up with the rapid development of commercial-
China Academy of ization of mobile communication?
Telecommunications • How will TD-SCDMA successfully evolve to
Technology (CATT). TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced of 4G?
IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014 1536-1284/14/$25.00 © 2014 IEEE
In order to answer those questions, we first
review the breakthroughs of TD-SCDMA and
TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced in the grand
scheme of mobile communication. The next sec-
tion introduces TD-SCDMA standard develop-
ment, including why TD-SCDMA was put
forward and how TD-SCDMA converged with
WCDMA and TD-CDMA from Europe. We
then describe how TD-SCDMA evolves to TD-
LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced. The following section
analyzes key factors promoting the successful
progress of standardization and commercializa-
tion of TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-
Advanced. The commercialization progress of
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced
are introduced in the second and third sections
respectively.
OPEN A SUSTAINABLE UTILIZATION ERA OF TDD
TECHNOLOGY IN WIDE AREA MOBILE NETWORK
Before TD-SCDMA, TDD technology was con-
sidered only to be suitable to use in the wireless
local area network, and FDD seemed to be the
only choice for the wide area mobile network.
Actually, FDD technologies, such as GSM and
CDMA (IS-95), were very successful in 2G and
showed many merits for voice services, as shown
in Table 1. However, as data services became
more important in 3G and beyond, problems
appeared from FDD caused by asymmetry that
is characteristic of data services in uplink and
downlink. In addition, the filter that is needed
for FDD at the front end of the transceiver in
order to overwhelm transmitting interference is
becoming more challenging in design and cost,
when more and more spectrum bands need to be
supported. TDD has advantages dealing with the
difficulties above by transmitting and receiving
in the same frequency and configuring a differ-
ent theme with different time slots. TDD can
flexibly support asymmetrical data services in the
uplink and downlink and has no need for a filter.
But TDD technology faces its fatal challenge
when deployed in wide area mobile networks.
The essential factor is that TDD must over-
whelm the issues from intra-frequency spectrum
between the uplink and downlink for terminals/
handsets and base-stations (BSs). The second
factor is that network synchronization is more
167
ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 168

LTE-Advanced are deliberately designed to

General Specific Duplex Key players/ Deployed in
maintain good balance between enabling fea-
standards standards mode contributors ***
tures and convergence with FDD. For example,
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced
Europe, Latin
Nokia, Siemens, adopt some TDD-specific design features mainly
GSM FDD America, China,
Alcatel
USA, etc.
in the physical layer to support TDD-enabling
2G
features such as smart antennas and uplink syn-
CDMA (IS95) FDD Qualcomm USA, Korea
chronization. Meanwhile the same network
architectures and protocols are adopted with
Europe, Latin FDD in the high layers. Thus, TDD and FDD
Ericsson, Nokia, can share the same radio access network and
WCDMA FDD America, China,
NTT DoCoMo core network leading to the same terminal
Japan, etc.
chipset platform implementation for TDD and
3G CDMA2000 USA, Korea, FDD. Thus the cost of a terminal/handset for both
FDD Qualcomm FDD and TDD can be significantly reduced.
(EV-DO) China

TD-SCDMA TDD CATT/Datang China SET A SUCCESSFUL PARADIGM OF COOPERATION

BETWEEN DEVELOPING COUNTRY FIRMS AND
Ericsson, Nokia- Europe, USA, MNES OF DEVELOPED COUNTRY TO
LTE FDD FDD Siemens, Alcatel- Korea, Japan,
Lucent, Qualcomm etc. DEVELOP GLOBAL STANDARDIZATIONS
4G Before TD-SCDMA, global communication
China, USA, standards were always put forward by MNEs
CATT/Datang,
Korea, Japan, from developed countries. But TD-SCDMA
TD-LTE TDD China Mobile,
India, Europe, broke this traditional institution. TD-SCDMA
Huawei, ZTE
etc. was put out and promoted to ITU to be adopted
as a global communication standard by Datang,
Table 1. Standards in mobile communications.
a Chinese firm from a developing country. TD-
LTE and TD-LTE-Advanced were initially pro-
moted by China and then were supported by
strict, especially uplink synchronization. The MNEs. During each phase of TD-SCDMA and
third factor is the delay in transmission in TDD TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced, Chinese firms
systems. Before TD-SCDMA, these fatal issues including Datang, China Mobile, Huawei, and
did not overcome the technology. By first intro- ZTE, cooperated closely with MNEs from devel-
ducing the novel technology of smart antenna oped countries including Ericsson, Nokia,
and uplink synchronization, TD-SCDMA effi- Siemens, and others. However, as a latecomer to
ciently solves the essential challenges. Also, the the 3G standard, TD-SCDMA is only deployed
successful deployment of TD-SCDMA in China in China, and the creation of TD-SCDMA helps
on a large commercial scale has proven the fea- with the accumulation of sufficient experience in
sibility of using TDD in wide area mobile net- global standardization between developing coun-
works. Owing to this breakthrough of tries and developed countries. This experience
TD-SCDMA in 3G, TDD technology is being has led to a close and successful cooperation in
developed for 4G. TD-LTE, the 4G global standard development.

SET A SUCCESSFUL PARADIGM TO TD-SCDMA STANDARDIZATION AND

BALANCE IN KEEPING TDD FEATURES AND
CONVERGING WITH FDD
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced
are probably the most successful TDD standard-
izations until now, converging with FDD stan-
dardizations while keep their individual features.
The global market with its economies of scale is
crucially important for commercial mobile
deployment to achieve low-cost terminals, equip-
ment, and services. FDD and TDD need to be
converged very well to gain the benefit from a
common global market. A careful and elaborate
balance between keeping the TDD features and
converging with FDD need to be considered for
TDD standardization, otherwise it may fail to
realize commercial deployment as expected. For
example, 3GPP HCR TDD lacks novel and
enabling technology such as smart antennas to
achieve comparable performance with FDD,
while IEEE WiMAX lacks convergence with
LTE. Neither of them achieved their expected
goal. In contrast, TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE/TD-
COMMERCIALIZATION FROM
1998 TO 2013 [7–10]
BACKGROUND OF
3G MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS (IMT-2000)
To guide the standard development of 3G after
2G, ITU completed the first release of perfor-
mance and quality of service requirements for
access networks in 1994 [11]. Four QoS classes
are defined, including a conversational class of
service, an interactive class of service, a stream-
ing class of service, and a background class of
service. Also, typical applications corresponding-
ly were voice, web browsing, streaming video,
and background download of emails. It is clear
that data services were becoming more impor-
tant and were more emphasized in 3G in addi-
tion to voice services. The data rate for the data
services up to 384k/bps was also defined.
In 1995 the discussion about 3G was initiated
among a joint group from the European Union,

168 IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014

ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 169
the United States, and Japan. By mid 1997 sev-
eral proposals had been created, and a lengthy,
difficult debate occurred in Europe about the
choice between an FDD proposal of WCDMA
by Ericsson and Nokia, and a TDD proposal of
TD-CDMA by Siemens. Finally, WCDMA was
chosen over TD-CDMA in the voting by 58.5
percent to 41.5 percent. In spite of the vote, TD-
CDMA was submitted to ITU as a TDD part
together with WCDMA by the group. However,
TD-CDMA failed in the competition with
WCDMA since there was no practical deploy-
ment of TD-CDMA after that.
In China starting in 1995 a novel wireless
local loop system called SCDMA was under
development. SCDMA introduced an advanced
technology of smart antenna which was used in
military and public wireless communication to
improve the performance of TDD technology.
The research was done by XINWEI, a joint ven-
ture by CATT/Datang from China and CWILL
from the U.S. founded by Chinese students
studying overseas. By 1997 the beamforming
algorithm and performance study of smart anten-
nas in mobile environments in TDD mode had
been finished. A TDD demo system of smart
antennas in mobile environments had been
developed, demonstrating the gain from smart
antennas in increased coverage, link budget
improvement, and interference reduction. The
feasibility of smart antenna technology of TDD
mode to be used in mobile communication was
proven in the field testing.
CREATION OF THE TD-SCDMA STANDARD:
FROM 1998 TO 2002
In April 1997 ITU sent liaisons to call for tech-
nical proposals for a 3G standard named IMT-
2000. In January 1998 a famous meeting for
TD-SCDMA was held in the Fragrant Hill
(Xiangshan) hotel in Beijing organized by the
former MII (Ministry of Information Industry of
China). In this meeting, CATT/Datang put out a
proposal based on SCDMA for ITU submission.
There were several strong reasons. First, there
should be TDD technologies in 3G and beyond
owing to the expanding requirements for data
services that were more suitable to be supported
by TDD technology. Second, SCDMA had effi-
ciently addressed issues from intra-frequency
spectrum between the uplink and downlink and
achieved obvious performance improvement
through the enabling technology of smart anten-
na and synchronization technology, giving TDD
a comparable performance to FDD in mobile
environments. Third, as the biggest developing
country, China should contribute to the develop-
ment of mobile communication, and its huge
market provides opportunity for innovative tech-
nology such as smart antennas.
After a long discussion and debate, an impor-
tant decision was made that China would submit
a technical proposal to ITU based on the pro-
posal from CATT/Datang. In the subsequent
months, with the support of the Chinese govern-
ment, CATT/Datang was busy making adjust-
ments of SCDMA to TD-SCDMA to meet the
requirements of IMT-2000. For example, the
bandwidth was increased from the initial 0.5 MHz
IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014
In 1998, China In 2001, 3GPP In March 2005, In March 2006,
formally submitted R5 version was
technology proposal
formally approved
released, IP based
R7 version was
TC-SCDMA released, further
named TD-SCDMA in R4. HSDPA was evolution to HSPA+
to ITU introduced
History of
TD-SCDMA
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 standards
evolution
In 2000, ITU
approved TD-SCDMA In October 2004,
as 3rd generation R6 version was
mobile released,
communication introduced HSUPA
system
Figure 1. TD-SCDMA standards evolution.
to 1.25 MHz and then finally to 1.6 MHz. To
guarantee rapid feedback of special eigenvector
in high speed, the length of the frame was
reduced to 5 ms from 10 ms. At the end of June
1998 China submitted a technical proposal
named TD-SCDMA to ITU before the submis-
sion deadline. After evaluation and consensus
building, TD-SCDMA was adopted by ITU as
one of IMT-2000 standards in May 2000.
In fact, close international cooperation relat-
ed to TD-SCDMA happened simultaneously
with the activities in ITU. In 1998 a significant
event in mobile telecommunication was the
founding of 3GPP (The Third Generation Part-
ner Project) organized by the main standards
development organizations (SDOs) in the world,
including ETSI from Europe, ATIS from the
U.S., ARIB and TTC from Japan, and TTA
from Korea; in 1999 CCSA from China joined in
3GPP. Those main standard bodies agreed to
develop the specifications related to their pro-
posals adopted by ITU. Thus, during the process
of evaluation of the candidate proposals in ITU,
the consensus building and convergence of the
proposals among 3GPP were ongoing. Since TD-
SCDMA was a newcomer in 3GPP, several spe-
cial workshops for evaluation of TD-SCDMA
were held. Delegates from Ericsson, Nokia,
Siemens, Panasonic, Japan Telecom, CATT/
Datang, and CATR (China Academy of Telecom-
munication Research) evaluated TD-SCDMA,
especially in the performance of smart antennas
and uplink synchronization. Then an MoU to
3GPP was reached in which the gain from smart
antennas and uplink synchronization technology
was indicated and TD-SCDMA was supported to
be the low chip rate TDD (LCR TDD) proposal
of 3GPP. In March 2001 TD-SCDMA was for-
mally approved by 3GPP. Meanwhile, much
work was ongoing in the convergence of TD-
SCDMA (named LCR TDD) with WCDMA
FDD and TD-CDMA (named HCR TDD) to
achieve maximum commonality. A group named
UTRA (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) was
formed including WCDMA FDD, TD-CDMA
TDD, and TD-SCDMA sharing the same system
architecture, the same core network, and the
same protocol architecture above the MAC
layer. Most functions and parameters in the
physical layer were almost the same except for
the enabling features of TD-SCDMA such as
smart antennas, uplink synchronization, frame
structure, joint detection, baton handover, and
169
ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 170

nal and terminal chipset from 2003 to 2005;

TD-SCDMA subscribers rapidly increasing phase 2 included field trials from 2006 to 2007;
250 phase 3 included pre-commercial network
TD-SCDMA subscribers (millions) deployment in Beijing and other cities during
the Olympic Games in 2008; phase 4 included
200 191.2 commercial network deployment on a large
scale after 2009.
CATT/Datang, the lead company, contribute
a great deal of effort to TD-SCDMA commer-
150
cialization as the owner and pioneer of the core
technologies, and was proactive in promoting
TD-SCDMA. In 2002, with support from the
100 89.7 Chinese government, CATT/Datang established
the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA) with
eight early members including Huawei, ZTE,
51.2
50 Lenovo, and others. TDIA has grown to 90
members, and it covers every segment of the
20.7
industrial value chain including system equip-
3.41 ment, terminal/handset, chipsets, and testing
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 instruments, and has brought along more than
(a)
200 local vendors in the supply chain. The TD-
SCDMA promotion group was established in
Number of TD-SCDMA base stations increased each year 2003 led by CATR, taking the responsibility to
120
112
create the roadmap of product development in
TD-SCDMA BSs (k) every segment of the value chain, field testing,
100 and so on, to guarantee coordinated progress of
TD-SCDMA development by participating
companies. In 2006 China’s telecom operators
80 conducted TD-SCDMA field trials in three
62 63
cities in China: Qingdao, Baoding, and Xiamen.
60 58 The overall system performance were evaluat-
ed. During 2008 TD-SCDMA was put into field
trials within the Shanghai Maglev high-speed
40 network environment with maximum train
26 speeds up to 431 km/h [12]. This achievement
20 proved again that TDD technology can be
20
10.8 deployed in high speed mobile environments.
Several innovations were made to deal with the
0 big challenges in cost and volume complexity
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
for smart antennas in practical implementa-
(b) tions. Dual-polarization smart antennas of 4+4
were introduced instead of eight antennas,
Figure 2. The number of subscribers and base stations for TD-SCDMA. decreasing the volume and weight of antennas
by approximately 50 percent. The integrated
design of RRU components inside antennas
so on. In 2002 3GPP UTRAN Release 4 (R4) improves the system performance by avoiding
was finished; it was the first Release of TD- 2dB feeder loss and saves the cost of adaptors
SCDMA and the second release of WCDMA and feeders. In April 2008 China Mobile
FDD and TD-CDMA TDD after 3GPP UTRAN offered TD-SCDMA service based on its pre-
Release 99 (R99). commercialization network in Beijing and other
cities during the Beijing Olympic Games.
ENHANCEMENT OF THE TD-SCDMA STANDARD: In January 2009, China government issued a
TD-SCDMA 3G license to China Mobile, the
FROM 2002 TO 2008 AND AFTER biggest operator in China. Then in early in 2009
The enhancement of the TD-SCDMA standard China Mobile created an R&D fund to subsidize
continued. The significant features of HSDPA, the TD-SCDMA handset development process,
HSUPA, MBMS and E-MBMS, HSPA and about $20 million per bid. By mid 2014 the total
HSPA+, and MU-MIMO were introduced in number of TD-SCDMA BSs deployed will reach
the subsequent releases 5 to 11. Those enhance- 450,000. By April 2014 total TD-SCDMA sub-
ments enabled the performance of TD-SCDMA scribers reached 230 million, nearly 50 percent
to improve steadily with that of UTRA FDD. In of 3G users in China, which is beyond the indus-
summary, the history of TD-SCDMA standard try’s expectation of a one-third market share.
and its enhancements is illustrated in Fig. 1. Some detailed TD-SCDMA deployment figures,
including the number of subscribers and BSs, are
DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF TD-SCDMA: illustrated in Fig. 2.
Besides China’s companies, the MNEs from
FROM 2003 TO 2009 AND AFTER developed countries contributed a lot to the
The development and deployment of TD- commercialization of TD-SCDMA. In the early
SCDMA can be divided into four phases: phase phase, Siemens devoted a lot in system equip-
1 included R&D for system equipment, termi- ment development and in the later phase turned

170 IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014

ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 171
to a joint venture with Huawei named TD-
TECH. Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, Alcatel-
Lucent, Qualcomm, Samsung, and other
companies participated in the development of
system equipment, terminals, and chipsets of TD-
SCDMA.
The Chinese mobile communication industry
has achieved significant improvement during
the commercialization of TD-SCDMA, espe-
cially the breakthroughs in terminal chipset
design and testing instruments. For example,
there was no Chinese firm that could develop
GSM or CDMA chipsets and testing instrument
in the 2G era. With the TD-SCDMA industry
development, two China IC design firms
emerged and gave a boost: Spreadtrum and
Datang Leadcore have occupied nearly 70 per-
cent of the TD-SCDMA chipset market, and
the rest of the market is shared by MediaTek
and Marvell. The two Chinese testing instru-
ment firms, StarPoint and Datang Link-Tester,
emerged and have occupied a dominant posi-
tion in the protocol conformance testing and
integrated testing market, and approximately 20
percent of the entire testing instrument market
for TD-SCDMA.
The Chinese government gives important
support to TD-SCDMA commercialization.
Early in 2002 the former MII announced the
allocation of frequency spectrum for 3G, in
which 180 MHz was allocated to WCDMA and
CDMA2000 in total, while 155 MHz was allocat-
ed to TD-SCDMA. In January 2009 the Chinese
government issued a TD-SCDMA 3G license to
China Mobile.
TD-LTE/TD-LTE-ADVANCED
STANDARDIZATION AND
COMMERCIALIZATION FROM
2004 TO 2013 [3, 14]
BACKGROUND OF
LTE (LONG TERM EVOLUTION) IN 2004
In 2004 the discussion of next generation evolu-
tion of UTRA 3G began in 3GPP. There were
several reasons to trigger the evolution:
• Data services based on mobile Internet and
smart phones were expanding so fast that 3G
was having difficulty meeting system capacity
and performance requirements for the long run.
• Spectrum for mobile communication was
becoming scarce, so high spectrum efficiency
over 3G was requested.
• A radio access technology of OFDM, which
can provide much higher system performance
and spectrum efficiency, seemed feasible to be
used in mobile communication.
• WiMAX, developed by IEEE based on OFDM
technology, finished its first standard release as
a strong competitor to UTRA and its evolution.
In December 2004 a Study Item of LTE
(Long Term Evolution) as the Evolved
UTRA/UTRAN was agreed in the 3GPP
RAN#26 meeting. The technical proposals were
called for both FDD and TDD evolution of
UTRA/UTRAN.
IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014
EVOLUTION FROM The Chinese government
TD-SCDMA TO TD-LTE FROM 2005 TO 2009 gives important support
In June 2005 CATT/Datang’s contribution took
the lead in presenting a basic framework of TD-
to TD-SCDMA commer-
LTE in the first 3GPP LTE Ad Hoc meeting, cialization. Early in
and CATT/Datang submitted two evolutional
strategies based on OFDM and multiple-carrier, 2002 the former MII
respectively. After a discussion, an OFDM strat- announced the alloca-
egy was selected for both FDD and TDD.
TD-LTE standardization basically started tion of frequency spec-
from a study of frame structures. LTE frame
structures comprised Type 1 (including FDD
trum for 3G, in which
and UTRA HCR TDD) and Type 2 (based on 180 MHz was allocated
TD-SCDMA, proposed originally by
CATT/Datang in November 2005), which differ- to WCDMA and
entiated each other mostly in physical layer CDMA2000 in total,
parameter designs. There was no further effec-
tive optimization of TDD in the Type 1 frame while 155 MHz was
structure, rather than Type 2 design motivated
by the co-existence and compatibility of TD-
allocated to TD-SCDMA.
SCDMA and TDD features. It is obvious that
two frame structures for TDD in standardization
are not good for the commercial deployment of
TDD in the future. Thus, CATT/Datang and
other Chinese companies promoted the simplifi-
cation the two frame structures into one frame
structure. Intense work was done on a different
level from technical discussion to high-level com-
munication. In September 2007 a contribution
from operators led by China Mobile proposed a
simplified LTE TDD frame structure and sug-
gested keeping only one optimized frame struc-
ture for LTE TDD mode. The target of TDD
frame structure optimization indicated higher
compatibility with FDD systems while allowing
for TDD optimization in performance and main-
taining co-existence with earlier TDD systems,
that is, TD-SCDMA. In November 2007 opti-
mization based on Type 2 frame structure was
agreed, which has the same length of basic
resource unit, called subframe, as that of Type 1,
and additionally has a special subframe including
DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS, compatible with TD-
SCDMA. A more detailed design comprising the
length of DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS, carried infor-
mation, reference signals, and related TDD
design, and provides TD-LTE various coverage,
channel reciprocity, and optimization for higher
efficiency according to TDD characteristics. Sim-
plifying two frame structures into one frame
structure is a significant achievement in the con-
vergence of FDD and TDD. It is also an achieve-
ment for the effective international cooperation
between China and Europe in mobile communi-
cation standardization.
Smart antenna technology is an advanced
technology in TD-SCDMA. It should be inherit-
ed as an enabling technology in TD-LTE. Con-
cerning the impact on the common design
between TDD and FDD, some FDD companies
were against introducing smart antennas in LTE.
After much discussion, agreement was achieved.
3GPP held a special LTE TDD Ad hoc meeting,
focused on specific TDD solutions, in April 2007
in Beijing. 3GPP accepted smart antenna tech-
nology using a short antenna distance, pre-pro-
cess in spatial domain, and a specific reference
signal, called beamforming, in LTE R8. There
had been two years of standardization effort
171
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The second release of
In November 2004, 3GPP
Release 9 (R9), which RAN organized workshop In June 2006, LTE
on long term development work item was
is not as big, was done of 3rd generation mobile approved
systems
during 2009 by intro-
ducing some features to
improve the system per- 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
formance. Then 3GPP
was busy preparing the In December 2004,
LTE study item was
In March 2008, 3GPP
approved LTE-Advanced
development of IMT- approved study item
Advanced (4G), trig-
gered in 2008 by ITU. Figure 3. TD-LTE standards evolution.
since the first proposal of this technology from
CATT/Datang. The natural characteristic of
channel reciprocity in TDD mode, that is, trans-
mission and reception on the same spectrum
carrier, sharing similar channel characteristics,
succeeding that existing in TD-SCDMA, pro-
vides the sufficient short-term channel information
to complete the pre-process, avoid unexpected
interference effectively, and reduce much feed-
back overhead.
After more than two years of hard work, the
first LTE release, Release 8 (R8), including LTE
FDD and TD-LTE, was completed at the end of
2008. The second release of Release 9 (R9),
which is not as big, was done during 2009 by
introducing some features to improve the system
performance. Then 3GPP was busy preparing
the development of IMT-Advanced (4G), trig-
gered in 2008 by ITU.
THE TD-LTE-ADVANCED STANDARD AND BEYOND
In February 2008, ITU-R WP5D (previously
WP8F) fulfilled the report M.2134 defining the
IMT-Advanced system minimum technique
requirement to motivate the process of 4G. In
June 2008 CATT/Datang’s contribution suggest-
ed adding 8x2 (eight transmission antennas at
eNB and two receiving antenna at UE) for smart
antenna technology in an IMT-Advanced tech-
nology evaluation document submitted to ITU-R.
In the following month WP5D completed tem-
plate report M.2133 for technology submission
and sent the circulation letter to call for IMT-
Advanced technology candidates.
In the ITU-R WP5D #6 meeting (October
2009), China submitted the candidate technology
named TD-LTE-Advanced as an independent
proponent. It came from the effort on LTE-
Advanced technology study and performance
evaluation by CATT/Datang and other Chinese
companies. Particularly, Chinese companies also
dominated the technology description, link bud-
get, and performance evaluation of the LTE-
Advanced TDD part in 3GPP. Performance
evaluation indicated that TD-LTE-Advanced
could completely achieve the performance
requirements of IMT-Advanced from ITU and
even far outperform a number of minimum
requirements, which showed strong technology
competitiveness.
After consensus building in ITU, two tech-
172
In December 2008, In March 2011, LTE-A
LTE R8 version was R10 version was
completed and completed and
started working started working
on R9 on R11 History of
TD-LTE
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
In November 2010, In June 2012, LTE-A R11
LTE-A was accepted by version of specification
ITU as a candidate completed and started
technology for working on R12
4G system
nologies, “LTE-Advanced” and “Wireless-
MAN-Advanced” (that is WIMAX), were
accepted to IMT-Advanced 4G Technologies
in 2010. LTE-Advanced is a set of RITs (Radio
Interface Technologies) consisting of one FDD
RIT and one TDD RIT designed for operation
in paired and unpaired spectrum, respectively.
The TDD RIT is also known as TD-LTE
Release 10 and Beyond or TD-LTE-Advanced.
Since there are very few implementations and
deployments of WirelessMAN-Advanced in the
world, LTE-Advanced becomes the dominating
4G technology. TD-LTE-Advanced becomes
the dominating TDD 4G technology to be
deployed by more and more operators in
unpaired spectrum.
Among LTE-Advanced, the dedicated bal-
ance of performance and commonality between
LTE-Advanced FDD and TD-LTE-Advanced is
continued. As a result, almost all designs in the
LTE-Advanced features, including carrier
aggregation, DL/UL MIMO enhancement, Het-
erogeneous Network, and LTE-Advanced
Relay, are the same except for some optimiza-
tions in TDD. In carrier aggregation, the differ-
ence between TDD and FDD is reflected in the
HARQ-ACK design. In the DL/UL MIMO
enhancement, reference signal design was
improved targeting TDD to fully use channel
reciprocity, increasing spatial gain, and to bet-
ter support higher spectrum efficiency, for
example, multiple user scheduling or multiple
data stream transmission for a certain user. In
the technique for Heterogeneous Network, a
design focusing on TD-LTE-Advanced was
specified according to its UL/DL configuration
and HARQ timing.
After the first release of LTE-Advanced,
R10, was completed for its standardization in
March 2011, 3GPP started R11. TD-LTE-
Advanced features in R11 included:
• TDD inter-band CA: supporting different
UL/DL configuration per carrier.
• TD-LTE CoMP/FeICIC/ePDCCH: avoiding
interference and improving system perfor-
mance; also additional resource allocation and
control design according to TDD frame struc-
ture and TDD feature.
A workshop was held for R12 discussion and
initialization at Beijing in June 2012. The weight
of TDD features was further increased in LTE-
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Advanced standardization. One of the core fea-

tures in R12 is small cell enhancement. Early in Number of TD-LTE e-NodeB in China
350
2010, a project of LTE-Hi [13] (i.e. LTE based Total
hotspots and an indoor solution) similar to the China mobile
China Telecom
concept of small enhancement, was initially put 300 China Unicom 292k
forward by CATT/Datang and other Chinese 266k
companies to address the challenges and require-
ments of mobile broadband systems. This project 250
225k
is supported by the MIIT of China. It triggered 207k
the industry’s interest in the research of 200
enhanced small cell and it contributed a lot to
the establishment of the corresponding work
items in 3GPP. Those work items are based on 150
further heterogeneous network study, including
physical layer small cell enhancement consider- 100
ing higher density small cell deployment, higher
layer dual connectivity to reduce unnecessary
cell switch, FDD/TDD carrier joint operation 50
achieving and dynamic TDD (eIMTA). The lat- 20k 20k
9k 9k 16k 10k
ter two work items are TDD features. In dynam-
0
ic TDD, the network can dynamically use 2012 2013 2014
resources for either uplink or downlink transmis-
sions to match the instantaneous traffic situa- 73 commercial TD-LTE networks launched and
tion, leading to an improvement of the end-user planned across the world
performance compared to that from the conven-
tional relatively static split of resources between
uplink and downlink. These R12 work items Russia
MTS
were planned to be completed in September Sweden
Hi3G
Megafon
Vainakh Telecom Canada
2014. Other features considering design accord- UK China
Sasktel
Poland
ing to TDD UL/DL configuration and TDD UKB Aero2 China Mobile
China Telecom USA
Spain China Unicorn
characteristics, for example, D2D, MTC, NAICS, COTA
Neo-Sky Bahrain
Japan
Softbank
Sprint

Saudi Arabia Menatelecom

are also being developed. Mobily
STC India
Cote divoire
Figure 3 summarizes the standardization his- YooMee
Oman
Bharti Airtel China
China Mobile HK

tory of LTE/LTE-Advanced as well as the histo- Nigeria

Spectranet Uganda
Omantel
Sri Lanka
Indonesia
PT Internux
Brazil
ry of TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced, indicating Swift Networks MTN Dialog Axiata
SLR Australia
SKY TV
on
Lanka Bell
that LTE/LTE-Advanced and LTE FDD/LTE- South Africa
NBN
Optus

Advanced FDD are on the same pace in ITU Telkom Mobile/8ta

and 3GPP.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF TD-LTE: AFTER 2008

Following LTE R8 standardization at the end of
2008, Chinese and major international manufac-
tures started equipment research and develop-
ment and the test phase. TD-LTE test validation
includes four phases:
• Proof of concept: from the end of 2008 to
August 2009.
• Technique test: from September 2009 to
September 2011.
• Scale field trial (six cities): from early 2011 to
the middle of 2012.
• Large scale field trial (15 cities): from early
2012 to 2013.
Most Chinese TD-SCDMA companies are
participating in the development of TD-LTE.
The TD-LTE promotion group was also estab-
lished, led by CATR, to guarantee the smooth
progress of TD-LTE development in every seg-
ment of the value chain.
In November 2012, China Mobile published
the TD-LTE multi-mode multi-frequency termi-
nal purchase results. TD-LTE eNBs are
planned to reach up to 350 thousand in 2014.
In April 2013 Ericsson demonstrated TD-LTE
uplink single user MIMO technology to China
Mobile. Qualcomm started participating in
MIIT’s 2.3 GHz test in November 2010, and
joined the 2.6 GHz large scale test of China
Mobile. Compared with TD-SCDMA, which
was lagging about eight years behind other 3G
Figure 4. The market progress of TD-LTE deployment.
technologies in commercialization, TD-LTE
roughly keeps pace with that of LTE FDD in
commercialization.
On 4 December 2013, the Chinese govern-
ment issued three TD-LTE 4G licenses to China
Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom,
which signalled the beginning of the commercial
deployment of TD-LTE in China.
The TD-LTE industry is robustly developing
globally. By May 2013, 104 TD-LTE licenses
had been issued globally, which covers more
than three billion people. There are more than
40 operators planning to provide commercial
TD-LTE services this year or next year [15]. In
Infonetics’ 2012 Q1 report, it estimated that by
2016, from a equipment sales perspective, TDD
and FDD market share would be up to 70 per-
cent. The latest market progress of TD-LTE
deployment in China and in the world is shown
in Fig. 4.
On 15 February 2011, during Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona, an organization called
the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) [16] was
established to increase TD-LTE technology
deployment in the world, promoted by China
Mobile, Vodafone, Softbank, and other opera-
tors. GTI is an open platform aiming to bring

IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014 173

ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 174
Pre-commercialization
network
Maturity
Large scale
field trial
Field trial
Lab testing
(technical)
Product
development Risk
Concept
validation
(simulation)
Figure 5. Scientific development processes for TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE.
major global operators together to promote the
TD-LTE standards as leading technology for the
next generation mobile broadband network.
WIMAX/WIMAX
ADVANCED MIGRATION TO TD-LTE
WiMAX (802.16e) is a mobile technology devel-
oped by IEEE on the base of 802.16d, which is
used in fixed/nomadic environments. WiMAX
Advanced is the evolution of WiMAX. WiMAX
was adopted to be the sixth radio interface tech-
nology of 3G by the ITU in 2007, seven years
later than TD-SCDMA. WiMAX Advanced
became 4G technology together with TD-LTE-
Advanced and LTE-Advanced FDD in 2012.
WiMAX and WiMAX Advanced mainly work in
TDD mode (TDD licensed bands). In some
sense, WiMAX and WiMAX Advanced are
TDD competitors of TD-LTE and TD-LTE-
Advanced. WiMAX and WiMAX Advanced cur-
rently face a host of challenges, ranging from
difficulty in procuring cost-effective devices to
securing funding for network development in the
face of uncertainty regarding the future of
WiMAX technology [2, 17]. Recognizing the sig-
nificant benefit from the economies of scale
associated the large ecosystem of TD-LTE, two
technology roadmaps of migration to TD-LTE
from WiMAX directly or upgrading to WiMAX
Advanced first then to TD-LTE are implement-
ing for WiMAX operators. In September 2011
the world’s largest WiMAX operator Sprint/
Clearwire announced their decision to upgrade
their network to TD-LTE. Till now all leading
WiMAX operators in Europe and North Ameri-
ca, almost all leading WiMAX operators in East-
ern Europe, Russia/CIS, Asia/Pacific, and Latin
America, have decided to upgrade to TD-LTE [2].
To accelerate the progress of convergence with
TD-LTE and migration to TD-LTE for WiMAX
and WiMAX Advanced, a Jointly Announced
Strategic Collaboration was formed between the
WiMAX Forum and the Global TD-LTE Initia-
tive on 25 February 2014 during the Mobile
World Congress in Barcelona, Spain [18]. Due
to the weakness of the WIMAX industrial chain,
it is estimated that 477 WiMAX networks in 150
countries will upgrade to WiMAX2.1, which is
TD-LTE [2].
174
SUCCESS FACTORS FOR
TD-SCDMA AND TD-LTE-ADVANCED
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE-Advanced are suc-
cessful experiences but a long and complex pro-
cess [7] which explores sustainable utilization of
TDD technology with a convergence with FDD
technology in 3G, 4G, and beyond. Besides the
technology innovation with heavy investment in
TDD-based mobile communications by CATT/
Datang, there are some other key factors that
contributed much to this success. First, Chinese
experts from CATT/Datang, CATR, Huawei,
ZTE, and China Mobile, who are participants in
ITU, 3GPP, and other international standard
organizations and know the process and rules,
provide urgency to the standardization activities.
Second, the establishment of industry alliances,
such as TDIA and GTI, is helpful for accelerat-
ing the development of an industry value chain,
including system equipment, terminal/handsets,
terminal chipsets, and testing instruments. Third,
scientific processes guided by the TD-SCDMA
promotion group and the TD-LTE promotion
group, including concept validation, product
development, technical testing, field trial, and
large scale field trial, are followed in the devel-
opment of TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE. Those
processes minimize the risks of equipment and
operations and maximize the maturity of novel
technologies. An experienced scientific develop-
ment process for TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE has
been proved to be very useful in practice is,
shown in Fig. 5. Fourth, open and effective
cooperation between international manufactures
and operators is very important. For example,
CATT/Datang and Siemens cooperated closely
in the early phase of TD-SCDMA. Huawei and
Siemens created a joint venture named TD-Tech
focusing on TD-SCDMA development. During
the early phase of TD-LTE, CATT/Datang and
Ericsson also established a joint lab to promote
the progress of TD-LTE together. Such effective
international cooperation facilitates mutual
understanding among stakeholders and speeds
up the standardization and commercialization
process. Table 2 gives the main firms, local and
overseas, involved in the industry value chain in
TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE. It shows that those
corporations achieved significant progress from
the period of TD-SCDMA to the period of TD-
LTE, especially with chipsets and terminal/hand-
sets. Fifth, the huge China market in mobile
communication provides opportunities for diver-
sity and converged technologies like TD-
SCDMA and WCDMA, TD-LTE. Finally, the
support by the Chinese government, such as the
spectrum allocation policy and license assign-
ment, promoted the development of TD-SACD-
MA and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced.
CONCLUSION AND
TDD ROLES IN FUTURE 5G
From TD-SCDMA to TD-LTE/TD-LTE-
Advanced, a sustainable utilization era of TDD
Technology in 3G, 4G, and beyond is opened. It
is a great contribution of Chinese firms to global
IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014
ZHAO_LAYOUT_Layout 12/18/14 4:13 PM Page 175

Chipset Terminal System Test instrument Operator

3 (Datang Leadcore, >140 (Huawei, 6 (Datang, >10 (Datang

Local firms Spreadtrum, ZTE, Coolpad, Huawei,ZTE, LinkTester, 1 (China Mobile)
TD-SCDMA MediaTek) Lenovo, etc.) etc.) StarPoint, etc.)
industry chain
2 (Qualcomm, >10 (Samsung, 3 (Ericsson, NSN, ª10 (Anritsu,
MNEs 0
Marvell) LG, Nokia, etc.) ALU) Agilent, R&S, etc.)

ª10 (Datang Lead-

>70 (Huawei, 6 (Datang, >10 (Datang 3 (China Mobile,
core, Spreadtrum,
Local firms ZTE, Coolpad, Huawei, ZTE, LinkTester, China Telecom,
MediaTek, Hisilicon,
Lenovo, etc.) etc.) StarPoint etc.) China Unicom)
ZTE, etc.)
TD-LTE industry
chain
>10 (Qualcomm,
ª10(Apple, >70 (Sprint,
Marvell, Sequans, 4 (Ericsson, NSN, ª10 (Anritsu,
MNEs Samsung, LG, SoftBank, Aero2,
Altaire, Intel, Broad- ALU, Samsung) Agilent, R&S, etc.)
Nokia etc.) etc.)
com, Samsung)

Table 2. The main firms, domestic and overseas, involved in the TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE value chain.

wireless mobile communication. The develop-
ment of TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE/TD-LTE-
Advanced also sets a successful paradigm for
cooperation between developing country firms as
latecomers and MNEs from developed countries
in the global standardization development, and a
successful paradigm for the cooperation and
convergence between TDD and FDD. Those
experiences and explorations are valuable to the
development of mobile communication in the
future. The benefits of the huge ecosystem of
TD-LTE/TD-LTE-Advanced have attracted
more and more WiMAX and WiMAX Advanced
operators to join in.
Thanks to TDD’s natural characteristics,
TDD is showing advantages in the feature design
of 5G, especially in Massive MIMO [19, 20] and
Adaptive-Beam Antennas, which are the key
technologies for 5G, including systems currently
in frequency bands below 6GHz and systems in
Millimeter Wave bands. For example, channel
reciprocity for TDD in the uplink and downlink
can be helpful to get accurate feedback of chan-
nel information in one link from another. Thus,
the signaling payload for feedback of channel
information is significantly decreased, especially
when the number of antennas is extended by
several times in 5G than 4G, and the perfor-
mance of Massive MIMO or Adaptive-Beam
Antennas can be significantly improved when
the fast and accurate feedback of channel infor-
mation is available for TDD. In addition, TDD
can use flexible and dynamic assignment in time
slots in uplink and downlink to meet the dynam-
ic and asymmetrical requirement of the traffic
data in an ultra-dense scenario. TDD can also
gain advantages by simplifying the design of
technologies for relay, Device-to-Device, and
multi-cell coordination transmission and inter-
ference mitigation.
In 2013 the Chinese government initiated a
program of IMT-2020 focused on the study of
5G. China appears to be in a position to play a
more prominent role in 5G standards, to benefit
from the ecosystem development and the experi-
ence of the global standard-setting game in the
TD-SCDMA 3G and TD-LTE 4G era. It is
believed that TDD technology will have a bright
future in the 5G of mobile communication.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank Mr. Wu Hequan from
the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Ms. Cao
Shumin from CATR, Dr. Li Shihe from CATT,
Prof. Gao Xudong from Tsinghua University,
and Prof. Liu Dake from BIT for their valuable
advice and comments.
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BIOGRAPHIES
SHANZHI CHEN [SM’04] (chensz@Datanggroup.cn) received
his Ph.D. degree from Beijing University of Posts and
Telecommunications (BUPT), China, in 1997. He joined
Datang Telecom Technology Industry Group in 1994, and
has served as CTO since 2008. He is a member of the steer-
ing expert group on information technology of the 863
Program of China and director of the State Key Laboratory
of Wireless Mobile Communications (CATT). He has made
outstanding contributions to TD-SCDMA 3G development
and TD-LTE-advanced 4G standardization. He received State
Science and Technology Progress Awards in 2001 and
2012, respectively. His current research interests include
mobile communication technology, Internet of Things(IoT),
and emergency communication. He is with the State Key
176
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Laboratory of Wireless Mobile Communications, China
Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Bei-
jing 100191, China.
JIAN ZHAO (zhaojian@catt.cn) received his M.S. degree from
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT),
China, in 1998. He joined Datang Telecom Technology
Industry Group in 2002. From 2003 to 2008 he participat-
ed in 3GPP meetings as a standards manager of Datang.
Since 2007 he has been acting in ITU meetings as a techni-
cal manager. Before joining in Datang he worked in
Huawei as a software R&D manager. His research interests
include mobile communication technology, spectrum, and
standards activities. He is with the State Key Laboratory of
Wireless Mobile Communications, China Academy of
Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Beijing 100191,
China.
YING PENG (pengying@catt.cn) received her M.Sc. and Ph.D.
in electrical and electronic engineering from the University
of Bristol, U.K. She is presently a senior standardization
researcher in the Wireless Mobile Innovation Center of the
China Academy of Telecommunication Technology (CATT).
She is a regular delegate in 3GPP RAN1 and ITU-R WP-5D.
Her research interests include 5G techniques, 3GPP/ITU
standardization, LTE/LTE-A physical layer design, D2DCoMP,
heterogeneous networks, and cognitive radio. She received
first prize on “4G TD-LTE-Advanced” of Science and Tech-
nology Prize from CCSA in 2011. She is with the State Key
Laboratory of Wireless Mobile Communications, China
Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Bei-
jing 100191, China.
IEEE Wireless Communications • December 2014