Updated April 12, 2023
Difference Between GSM vs LTE
The global system for mobile communication is abbreviated as GSM. It is a popular wireless technology to determine the cellular network protocol implemented in mobile phones, which is shared by eighty percent of the global market. Whereas The Long term evolution is abbreviated as LTE, which is also the wireless broadband method used for high-speed communication and transfer of data in cellular phones. In this topic, we are going to learn about GSM vs LTE.
Head to Head Comparison Between GSM vs LTE (Infographics)
Below are the top differences between GSM and LTE
The key difference between GSM vs LTE
The major difference such as architecture, working mechanism, transmission lines, frequency of GSM, and LTE is briefly explained in this section.
History
GSM is the most famous digital network and which is developed by Europeans around 1982. The principle behind the mobile system can be employed across European Telecommunication Standards, and it is active around three hundred million subscribers. It attained tremendous fame become of its end to end effective network making of mobile communication, which is marked as de-facto calibration for mobile communication devices.
LTE is expanded as Long Term Evolution and is remarked for its wireless broadband services with maximum speed. It is coined from the term of the project Third Generation Partnership Project. This enterprise takes the responsibility to follow the standards of UMTS and GSM. The collaboration of UMTS and 3GPP framed an idea to restructure mobile communication’s core network, which is rise to LTE standards, and it turned to be an official part of 3GPP release eight.
Range of transmission on GSM and LTE
The GSM technology works with a combination of TDMA and FDMA. Eight-time slots are divided from every carrier frequency and establish a GSM connection. Then every user is allocated with each time slot and a unique frequency channel where the signal can be received or transmitted. LTE follows OFDM and SC-FDMA and the signal holder and their related access theories.
Range of frequency channels in GSM and LTE
The system frequencies of GSM involve dual bands such as 900 MHz and 1800 MHz which is popularly called DCS-1800 and GSM-900. The frequency division multiple access segregates 25 MHz of bandwidth into a carrier frequency of 124, and the width of the channel is measured as 200 kHz. Then every carrier frequency is segregated by using Time-division multiple access into eight-time slots. In DCS-1800 holds dual sub-bands such as 1710 to 1785 MHz and 1805 to 1880 MHz ranges. Here are a few frequency bands measured for LTE in various countries where every band is assigned with set limits. The one to twenty-five frequency band is allotted for FDD, whereas the LTE frequency band ranges from thirty-three to forty-one for TDD.
The architecture of GSM and LTE
The system architecture of GSM comprises of three significant subsystems such as core network, user equipment, base station subsystem. The interface layer lies between the system described and determined with the cooperation rules between the components. The LTE architecture is flat, where it is developed from the root of the previous UMTS generation. It comprises evolved packet core and has other eight-core elements such as E-UTRAN node B, access gateway, an entity of mobile management, and user plan.
GSM vs LTE Comparison Table
Let’s see some more differences between GSM and LTE through a comparison table for clear understanding:
| Characteristic elements | GSM | LTE |
| Definition | The global system for mobile communication is abbreviated as GSM. It is a popular wireless technology to determine the cellular network protocol implemented in mobile phones, which is shared by eighty percent of the global market. | The Long term evolution is abbreviated as LTE, which is also the wireless broadband method used for high-speed communication and data transfer in cellular phones. |
| Bandwidth of channels | The major frequency band is divided into four categories across the world, such as PCS1900, GSM 850, DCS 1800, and GSM 900. | LTE extends its support to the frequency band from one to twenty-five, and then it also extended from thirty-three to forty-three. |
| Bandwidth of frequency | The frequency of around 200KHz is supported in GSM. | The frequency of Release 8 supports bandwidth such as 20 MHz, 15MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, and 3MHz. |
| Principle of access | The principle followed by GSM is TDMA or FDMA | The LTE follows the principle of downlink in OFDMA and uplink of SC-FDMA. |
| Configuration topology | The physical layer of GSM is composed of many modules like forwarding error, interleaving, multiplexing, ciphering, and the building may contain differential encoding and modulation of GMSK. These modules are comprised of both subscriber and base station sides. The entire topology is based on a frequency division duplex. And these channels are segregated into physical and logical channels. | The entire topology of LTE follows the time division duplex and frequency division duplex. It behaves differently for UE and e-Node B. The UE also follows SC-FDMA in the interact, where e-node B follows OFDMA. Then it is segregated into three channels such as physical, logical, and transport channels. |
| MIMO techniques | The advancement in GSM follows 2*2 MIMO. | The standard of LTE follows 8*8, 4*4 MIMO and also supports co-operative MIMO and multi-user MIMO |
| Methods of modulation | The modulation method is Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying. | The modulation method is quadrature phase Shift Keying, 16 QAM and 64 QAM |
| Applications | It is used for voice calls, GPRS, and data calls and provides updated features such as SAIC, VAMOS, and MSRD. | It is implemented for data calls and supports for MIMO, Carrier aggregation, beamforming, and advanced release ten versions. |
Conclusion
The second generation of mobile phones is called GSM, which is popular and has well defined mobile communication standards. It is deployed to the network, which is uniform and followed by twelve European countries. On the other hand, LTE is defaulted to establish an open cellular mobile communication with maximum speed on wireless broadband technique implied in mobile devices. It takes the responsibility to ensure the definitions and standards of UMTS and GSM.
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