Anritsu has announced a call-based LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation testing capability that can be integrated into its MD8430A LTE Signalling Tester. The software-only upgrade leverages the four available RFs in the MD8430A, and provides 300 Mb/s downlink throughput using two 2x2 MIMO Component Carriers (CCs).
Sub10 Systems has announced that it has signed a global supply and distribution agreement with Alcatel-Lucent, under which Sub10's millimetre wave Liberator radio links will be used by Alcatel-Lucent as part of its metro cell backhaul solutions, which are used to provide links to mobile network radios in densely populated locations.
Aeroflex is collaborating with the China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI) on testing technologies for LTE and LTE-A. This will include testing and verification of LTE functionality and performance, as well as LTE-A key technologies such as carrier aggregation, eICIC, UL-MIMO, etc., using the Aeroflex TM500 Test Mobile and EAST500 Capacity Test System product families.
Rohde & Schwarz is claiming an industry first with its test solution for 3GPP LTE uplink with MIMO technology. The R&S FS-K103PC software option is available for the R&S FSV, FSVR, FSG, FSQ and FSW signal analysers, and the company says it already meets one of the requirements of LTE-Advanced.
Tensilica has joined the Wi-Fi Alliance. The multi-standard 3G/ LTE and LTE-A modem core supplier says it plans to integrate Wi-Fi with its multi-standard radio capabilities. Several of Tensilica's dataplane processors (DPUs) are suitable for Wi-Fi, including the ConnX D2 and the BBE DSP (digital signal processor) product family.
Anritsu has released three new hardware options for its MS269xA Signal Analyzer series (MS2690A/MS2691A/MS2692A), with wideband FFT analysis functions for evaluating microwave systems such as satellite and radar, with the potential for measuring future wide bandwidth mobile communications systems. The new options enable analysis bandwidths of up to 125MHz to be realized at carrier frequencies up to 26GHz.
At Mobile World Congress, TI introduced a wireless infrastructure SoC which it says has ‘an ideal mix’ of processing elements for both high capacity small cells and macro base stations. TI’s TCI6636 is its first LTE Advanced (LTE-A) ready SoC, supporting 40 MHz LTE, making it a high performance solution for small cell base stations, while also serving as a WCDMA/LTE macro controller device capable of supporting a multi-sector macro base station. Capacity enhancing features include wider bandwidths, MIMO antenna configurations and advanced receiver and LTE user scheduling algorithms. The TCI6636 also supports simultaneous dual-mode.
One of the major themes at last week's Mobile World Congress was the progress towards LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), the standard that is intended to meet all the targets of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for a true 4G system. In particular the topic of carrier aggregation, and the challenges it poses for test and measurement, were much in evidence. Carrier aggregation is one of the new features that were introduced in 3GPP Release 10 to augment the existing LTE standard and allow it to meet or exceed the ITU targets for IMS-Advanced, aimed at raising the peak data rate to 1Gbps and beyond. Carrier aggregation—the ability to combine multiple carriers scattered around the spectrum—will be used to achieve the wider effective bandwidth, typically up to 100MHz, that will be required to achieve this data rate.
Vodafone had an impressive demonstration of LTE-A carrier aggregation operating in its courtyard pavilion, using 10MHz of 800MHz spectrum aggregated with 20MHz at 2.6GHz to achieve a peak downlink data rate of 230Mb/s. The demo used prototype Huawei user equipment (UE) with an on-site eNodeB, connected to a RAN located in central Barcelona.
UK Broadband has announced this week that it has switched on an LTE system in Southwark, London –the first TD-LTE 3.5GHz deployment in the world, and the first commercial LTE deployment in the UK. UK Broadband (UKB) is building its network using Huawei TD-LTE basestations.
UKB, the UK's largest holder of 4G spectrum, will work with partners to offer commercial services from May 2012 to businesses, consumers and the public sector. The network will initially cover London's South Bank and the Borough area of Southwark.
Today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Freescale launched its first large cell basestation-on-chip, based on its QorIQ Qonverge multimode platform. The QorIQ Qonverge B4860 baseband processor supports LTE, LTE Advanced and WCDMA and integrates high performance cores, application-specific accelerators and optimal power/cost ratios. This announcement, a year after the company announced its QorIQ small cell series, gives Freescale a portfolio of multi-standard products sharing the same architecture and spanning large and small cells. The QorIQ Qonverge portfolio is built on a common architecture, integrating Power Architecture microprocessors, StarCore DSPs and wireless acceleration on a single chip.
