Carrier Aggregation: Status of Devices, Operators and Bands

Carrier aggregation shipped in more than 77 LTE-A mobile device models last year, and will ship in a growing proportion devices in the future, employing more bands in both the downlink and uplink directions. This will have a profound effect on RF front-end architectures in cellular devices, leading to more highly integrated front-ends and increased demand for antenna tuners, LNAs, RF switches, filters, envelope tracking and new forms of PAs.

1 Executive Summary
2 Carrier Aggregation Forecast
2.1 Devices
2.2 Band Combinations
3 Carrier Aggregation, Regional Operators, Devices
3.1 CA Notation
3.2 Device Configurations
3.3 Carrier Aggregation Challenges
3.4 LTE Operators, Bands and CA
3.4.1 China
3.4.2 North America
3.4.3 Europe
3.4.4 Asia Pacific / Other
4 Appendices
4.1 LTE Bands
4.2 Carrier Aggregation Combinations: Intra-band
4.3 Carrier Aggregation Combinations: Inter-band
4.4 LTE Operators Using Carrier Aggregation
4.5 Mobile Devices with CA
4.6 MIMO and Mobile Devices
5 Contact the author of this report