HSPA to top 300Mbps in next generation
4G Americas says 3G+ standard has long life alongside LTE, Samsung looks to multi-gigabit future
Published: 26 October, 2011
READ MORE: Spectrum | Standards | HSDPA
The wireless industry never takes a breath to enjoy its latest technologies. Instead, it is always looking longingly over the horizon to the next big thing. As operators start to discuss LTE-Advanced plans for 2013 onwards, HSPA suppliers are pushing that technology towards far higher speeds - as much as 336Mbps - while Samsung is outlining a multi-gigabit 'wireless fiber' future.
According to the trade body 4G Americas, HSPA will certainly not be eclipsed by LTE any time soon, but will remain a strong complementary technology. This is especially seen in Europe, where many cellcos plan to maximize the return of their hefty investment in 3G technologies by keeping HSPA as their core technology for many years. The latest evolution of the standard could deliver theoretical peak speeds of 336Mbps, said Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas. And subsequent iterations could hit twice that rate - peaks which have already been demonstrated in the labs by firms like Nokia Siemens.
The upcoming 3GPP Release 11 promises to double the 168Mbps peak of the current version of HSPA+, and work is already underway to evaluate possible additions to Rel-11. "Explosive growth of wireless data usage is driving the standardization of technical enhancements to increase throughput speeds and capabilities of HSPA mobile broadband networks," said Pearson at this week's 4G World conference. "HSPA will continue to be a leader in mobile broadband subscriptions for the next five to 10 years."
Looking further ahead, Samsung researcher Jerry Pi told another summit, Texas Wireless, that the millimeter wave spectrum - to date, mainly used for backhaul - could be harnessed for access too, delivering connections of up to 5.5Gbps. Conference host Ted Rappaport of the University of Texas said he believed such technologies were five years away from commercial readiness.
There are millimeter wave frequencies potentially available over a huge swathe of the spectrum, from 3GHz right up to 300GHz, but the main focus of regulators and standards bodies has been on the area between 30GHz and 90GHz. In the US and some other countries, the LMDS band has been opened up for fixed wireless, but permission to support mobility would be vital to realize Samsung's vision.
And as Pi conceded, while millimeter wave radios have been developed at lower cost with conventional methods and materials, networks would have to be designed differently because the high frequencies can only enable short range links and require line-of-sight. They may also consume high levels of power at device and base station ends. According to GigaOM, Pi said Samsung as experimenting with beamforming techniques to make such networks efficient and affordable.
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