Nokia Siemens demos TD-LTE femto and standards-based 4G calls
Published: 21 September, 2009
READ MORE: Nokia | Nokia Siemens Networks | Femtocell | LTE
Ericsson and Huawei have so far scored most highly in the LTE headlines stakes, but the past few days have seen Nokia Siemens emerging into the limelight with two breakthrough demonstrations, one in the TDD mode that will be vital to China, and focusing on femtocells.
The vendor said it had conducted the world's first LTE call using a commercial base station and software that was fully compliant with the 3GPP Release 8 standard. While some operators have been conducting trials with pre-standard equipment, full compliance will be a prerequisite for the commercial roll-outs that some early adopters plan to start in 2010.
"This call is a significant landmark in building and strengthening our entire LTE ecosystem and shows our commitment to the technology," said Marc Rouanne, head of NSN's radio access business unit, though his comments also pointed to the fact that European upgrades, in particular, will focus on HSPA, in nearly all markets, for several years to come. "We see customers adopting LTE along differing timelines and we stand ready to meet the needs of early adopters of LTE as well as operators with extended migration paths from 3G/HSPA+ to LTE."
The data call was conducted in NSN's R&D center in Ulm, Germany, using its Flexi Multiradio base station and terminal emulators running standard software. The vendor says it has shipped LTE compatible Flexi units to over 80 operators for test or evaluation.
Over in China, the leading cellco, China Mobile, says it plans an early move to LTE, to compensate for the weaknesses of the 3G technology, TD-SCDMA, with which it has been lumbered by government policy. There are obstacles in its way - its strategy will depend on new spectrum rules being approved (and perhaps new frequencies altogether, though Mobile is interested in an overlay approach in its 3G band), as well as the development of a significant ecosystem around the TDD version of LTE. This is likely to have greater impact worldwide than HSPA in the TDD mode, as operators become more data-centric, but for the first few years, it remains probable that Mobile will be the only TD-LTE carrier and so face the same challenges that it has now, in creating a wide base of devices.
However, despite speculation that it will persuade the government to let it change track on TDD, Mobile is plowing ahead with tests, most recently a demonstration of TD-LTE femtocells with NSN.
The partners say this is a world first and important to Mobile, which plans to use femtos as soon as it goes live with LTE, to create 'hotzones' of coverage and improve indoor penetration. "User habits indicate that the majority of mobile broadband capacity will be consumed inside homes and offices where coverage it typically lower than outdoor spaces," said Huang Ziaoqing, general manager of the China Mobile Research Institute.
NSN's Beijing research team demonstrated a live streaming video downlink using a compact prototype femtocell from the operator's laboratory. The demo achieved throughput higher than typical xDSL, said NSN's CTO Stephan Scholz.
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