licensed assisted access (LTE) (LAA)

Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) involves the inclusion of WLANs in LTE mobile networks in order to be able to communicate via the license-free frequency bands of the WLANs. Similar technical approaches are LTE-WAN Aggregation( LWA), LTE Unlicensed( LTE-U), LTE WLAN Radio Level Integration( LWIP) and MulteFire.

Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) has been standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project ( 3GPP) under Release 13 for LTE Advanced Pro( LTE-AP). The LAA method uses carrier aggregation in the downlink and combines license-free frequency bands in the 5 GHz range with LTE frequency bands that require a license.

Carrier aggregation provides a more broadband frequency band for higher data rates and faster user applications. The LAA concept works with the Listen Before Talking( LBT) access mechanism and thus checks whether the carrier frequency is occupied by other services. In this way, Long Term Evolution (LTE) can coexist with WiFi.