RF&WirelessBlog

CMRI and Aeroflex collaborate on TD-LTE testing

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.

TriQuint SAW filters from TriQuint focus on LTE capacity improvement

TriQuint Semiconductor has released three new RF SAW filters that are aimed at improving network infrastructure performance cost-effectively in 3G, LTE and legacy system applications.

UK Broadband launches first commercial TD-LTE network in the UK

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.

MWC 2012: ZTE introduces commercial basestation for LTE-Advanced with inter-band carrier aggregation

Chinese infrastructure vendor ZTE Corporation has today launched an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) inter-band dual-carrier commercial basestation at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain.

The new LTE-A basestation is based on the company's SDR hardware platform, and introduces inter-band carrier aggregation and MIMO (multiple input and multiple output) technologies. These technologies can double peak rate for individual users, enabling high-speed downloads of up to 270Mb/s in the downlink and meeting growing data service demands. During the congress, ZTE also demonstrated the basestation's inter-band carrier aggregation capabilities on two bands: 20MHz at 2.6GHz and 20MHz at 1.8GHz.

As frequency resources are becoming increasingly valuable, carrier aggregation technology will help assist operators with separate and discontinuous frequency resources because it can aggregate multiple carriers and increase frequency utilisation rate. This technology also enables greater bandwidth, higher user throughput and can solve the problem of rapid throughput decrease in the cell edge.

At the same time ZTE launched a next-generation TD-LTE multi-mode picocell basestation, aimed at mitigating problems associated with rapidly increasing mobile service data requirements. It also provides comprehensive coverage and capacity offloading to supplement macro coverage - it can be deployed in hot spots, blind spots, cell-edge spots and indoors dependent on traffic. It is also compatible with micro, macro and femto basestations.

Based on ZTE's SDR platform it supports LTE and WiFi simultaneously. Because of this, operators can configure Pico to work in WiFi to attract users at the initial stages of LTE construction, and later transfer them to TD-LTE/WiFi dual-mode as the LTE network matures. Moreover, the Pico can work in CPE mode and use TD-LTE as wireless backhaul while simultaneously working as a WiFi access point. The relay-assisted product also enables operators that lack wireline backhaul resources to efficiently develop their advanced heterogeneous LTE networks.

ZTE's LTE products are in use with high-end operators in Europe, North America and Japan. As of the end of 2011, ZTE had won 30 LTE commercial contracts across the globe, including with CSL, H3G, Vodafone, Softbank, Zain and others. The company has also deployed test networks in cooperation with more than 100 operators all around the world, including in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.