IJREAT International Journal of Research in Engineering & Advanced Technology, Volume 1, Issue 2, April-May, 2013 ISSN: 2320 - 8791 www.ijreat.org www.ijreat.org Published by: PIONEER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT GROUP(www.prdg.org) 1 Performance Analysis of 3GPP LTE Francis Enyi 1 , Chiadika Mario 2 , Ekoko Ujerekre 3 , Ifezulike N. Florence 4 , Kingsley Asuquo Charles 5 1 Computer Science Department, Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-uku, Delta state, Nigeria 2,3 Computer Engineering Department, Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-uku, Delta state, Nigeria. 4 ICT Unit, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria. 5 Information Systems Engineering Department, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, TRNC Abstract: One of the key concerns in identifying the technological innovation to involve in LTE, is the trade‐off between cost of performance and genuine advantages. The 3GPP LTE is a new standard with commendable performance targets, therefore it is necessary and urgent to evaluate the performance and quality of this new system at an initial phase in order to promote its smooth and cost-efficient introduction and implementation. This work therefore aims at evaluating the performance of LTE Downlink with different MIMO antenna configuration and techniques under different channel conditions and this evaluation is based on performance metric such as BER against SNR. Keywords: 3GPP LTE, BER, MIMO, OFDMA, SCFDMA. 1. Introduction Long Term Evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is a clear move in the field of mobile communications. It was necessitated by the constant increase in demand for high speed connections on networks, delay, low error rates and resilience because modern users and network applications have become increasingly dependent on these requirements for efficient functionality and performance. Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) promises high peak data rates for both downlink and uplink transmission, spectral efficiency, low delay and latency, low bit error rates, to mention but a few. LTE leverages on a number of technologies namely MIMO antennas, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (OFDMA) at the downlink, Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SCFDMA) at the uplink, support for Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16QAM), and 64QAM. During the last several years along with ongoing development of systems and devices technology and the globalization of 3rd Generation of Mobile Communication Systems, the support for voice and data services have encountered a greater development compared to 2nd Generation Systems. At the same time the requirements for high quality wireless communications with higher data rates increased owing to users demands. On the other hand, the conflict of limited bandwidth resources and rapidly growing numbers of users becomes exceptional, so the spectrum efficiency of system should be improved by adopting some advanced technologies. It has been confirmed in both concept and practice that some novel technologies such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems, can improve the performance of the current wireless communication systems. The high data rates and the high capacity can be attained by using the advantages of the two technologies. From a standardization viewpoint 3G era is now well innovative. While upgrades continue to be made to make use of the highest possible performance from currently implemented systems, there is a limit to the level to which further upgrades will be effective. If the only purpose were to provide excellent performance, then this in itself would be relatively easy to achieve. The added complexity is that such excellent performance must be delivered through systems which are cheaper from installation and maintenance prospect. Users have experienced an amazing reduction in telecoms expenses and they now predict receiving better high quality communication solutions at low prices. Therefore, in determining the following standardization phase, there must be a double approach; in search of significant performance improvement but at a low cost. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is that next phase and will be the basis on which future mobile telecoms systems will be built. LTE is the first