Carrier Aggregation (CA) is one of the Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) features that allow mobile
network operators (MNO) to combine multiple component carriers (CCs) across the available spectrum to
create a wider bandwidth channel for increasing the network data throughput and overall capacity. CA has
a potential to enhance data rates and network performance in the downlink, uplink, or both, and it can
support aggregation of frequency division duplexing (FDD) as well as time division duplexing (TDD). The
technique enables the MNO to exploit fragmented spectrum allocations and can be utilized to aggregate
licensed and unlicensed carrier spectrum as well.