Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1066130
32 I ICT TODAY 3 2 MULTEFIRE The MulteFire Alliance is a member-driven consortium that defines and promotes MulteFire, an LTE-based technology operating solely in unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum. MulteFire offers end users the capability to deploy wireless networks with all the benefits of LTE and the simplicity of Wi-Fi. Because MulteFire is based on LTE, it will operate in bandwidths of up to 20 MHz, capable of peak data rates up to 400 Mb/s (using 4X4 MIMO). Additionally, the longer range of MulteFire when compared to Wi-Fi means far fewer access points and likely an overall lower cost than Wi-Fi. MulteFire offers much promise for tomorrow's wireless needs inside buildings. LTE AND LTE-U Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the standard for wireless communication specified by the 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE is the most current high-speed technology deployed by carriers and is somewhat synonymous with 4G. Networks that are LTE-based, including MulteFire and CBRS, offer high speed, very low-latency, and excellent security. The current LTE specification provides downlink peak rates of 300 Mb/s and uplink peak rates of 75 Mb/s, which gives mobile users the ability to use a variety of applications at high speeds. LTE is inherently secure because it is encrypted. While technologies, like Wi-Fi, are despite best efforts subject to hacking and intrusion, LTE is built around 128-bit encryption that provides an extremely high degree of assurance. Long Term Evolution in Unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) is the new standard in the U.S. and other countries that will allow carriers to go beyond their licensed spectrum and use unlicensed 2.4/5.0 GHz (Wi-Fi) spectrum to provide increased capacity and extended coverage for users where needed. Enterprise mobile users on LTE-U networks will be able to enjoy high speed and high security on devices throughout their building, enabled by readily available Wi-Fi frequencies. The LTE-U network could ride on a distributed antenna system (DAS) or it could be enabled by small cell technologies.