Last month at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, Ericsson announced License Assisted Access (LAA), sometimes referred to as LTE-U, a mobile technology innovation that improves indoor app coverage for smartphone users.
LAA is live in Ericsson labs and is now supporting the aggregation of licensed and unlicensed spectrum for peak rates up to 450 Mbps and enabling fair sharing of spectrum between mobile and WiFi devices.
The technology milestone has been achieved in cooperation with Qualcomm Technologies. Leading mobile operators, including Verizon, SK Telecom and T-Mobile US, Inc. are already investigating the performance benefits that LAA can offer to mobile customers on their networks.
Ed Chan, senior vice-president, Network Planning, Verizon, says: “Verison is committed to researching and adopting new technologies that will consistently improve the performance of our network and ultimately the experience we deliver to our customers. We are encouraged by the headway that Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies have made in demonstrating the benefits LAA can provide.”
Park Jin-hyo, senior vice-president and head of Network Technology R&D Centre, SK Telecom, says: “SK Telecom is very active in the development of 5G technologies, which will be an extension and evolution of our LTE network. We are delighted to achieve the successful trial of the 450Mbps LAA and fair-sharing technology with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies and will continue to work closely with them to secure advanced network technologies.”
LAA, or LTE-U, extends the benefits of LTE to unlicensed spectrum, providing reliable and predictable performance. The licensed band provides an anchor to ensure a seamless user experience with full mobility while the unlicensed band provides incremental capacity and enables faster data speeds.
Neville Ray, chief technical officer, T-Mobile, says: “It is very encouraging to see License Assisted Access live in the Ericsson labs already delivering on the promises of both a better mobile broadband customer experience and the fair sharing and co-existence within the 5GHs band among wireless and WiFi devices. With over 500MHs of underutilised spectrum in the 5 GHs Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) band, LAA can provide our customers with superior network performance while effectively co-existing with other WiFi devices to ensure a better experience for all wireless users.”
Ericsson LAA incorporates fair sharing within the 5 GHs band to accommodate traditional WiFi users. Fair sharing works on the principle that WiFi and LAA users would have equal access to the spectrum.
The lab trials of both LAA fair sharing and licensed-unlicensed aggregation – 20 MHs on licensed band and 40 MHs on unlicensed 5 GHs band – were demonstrated in cooperation with Qualcomm, from the Ericsson radio development units in Ottawa, Canada and Stockholm, Sweden.
Neville Meijers, vice-president, Qualcomm Technologies, says: “Qualcomm Technologies shares Ericsson’s commitment to delivering groundbreaking technologies that could have a dramatic impact on mobile user experiences.
“Our co-operation on delivering this live LTE-U demonstration for leading mobile operators around the world is just the latest of many industry innovations where Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson have driven the interoperability efforts that are critical to commercialisation.”
Starting in the fourth quarter 2015, Ericsson is adding LAA to its indoor small cell portfolio, including the Ericsson RBS 6402 Indoor Picocell (targeted at smaller buildings under 50 000 square feet) followed by the Ericsson Radio Dot System (for medium and large buildings).
Thomas Norén, vice-president and head of Radio Product Management, Ericsson, says: “Carrier Aggregation was an important technology trend for mobile networks in 2014 and LAA is already set to be a key focus for mobile operators in 2015. Innovations like LAA that improve the user experience while increasing spectrum efficiency will be significant milestones that mobile industry leaders must both drive and support.”
5G standards do not yet exist but are expected to be an evolution of today’s LTE networks along with new radio technologies and use cases. LAA’s use of higher frequencies on small cell architectures and the aggregation of licensed with unlicensed spectrum bands reflect 5G technology focus areas.
These will be key to operators as they evolve their LTE networks to support increasing mobile broadband demand from consumers, businesses and the Internet of Things (IoT).