LTE Advanced is a mobile communication standard approved as a candidate for 4G in 2009 and finalized by 3GPP in 2011, with commercial implementation beginning in 2012. It offers significant enhancements over LTE, including peak data rates of 1 Gbps downlink and 500 Mbps uplink, as well as features such as carrier aggregation and improved MIMO techniques. Key improvements include increased spectrum efficiency and lower latency, allowing for higher average user throughput and better compatibility with existing systems.