Mobile broadband data at 173Mbps by 2010

Stan Beer
Thursday, 20 December 2007 01:50

Business IT - Networking

A new trial has led communications developer Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to claim that by 2010 ultra high speed mobile data communications technology will be commercially available, enabling mobile broadband at up to 173 Megabits per second. If correct the deployment of the new technology could be a key game changer in the growing competition between between fixed and mobile communications networks.

According to NSN, it has completed the world’s first multi-user field trial in an urban environment using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology that offers mobile data rates up to 173Mbps.

NSN says that in recent years the wireless industry has made a series of progressive improvements in mobile data performance. However, end users now make increased use of mobile multimedia services and they stay online for longer periods. They therefore require faster data rates, quicker response times and longer battery life for services such as VoIP, mobile video, sharing and collaboration and rich multimedia telephony.

In 2006 NSN conducted the world’s first LTE demonstration in conjunction with MIMO (Multiple Input / Multiple Output) antenna technology. In that demonstration peak data rates of 160Mbps were achieved.

The new field trial, according to NSN, was conducted in a real urban outdoor environment with multiple users using the new 2.6 GHz spectrum. It confirmed that LTE performance requirements can be met using 3GPP standardized technologies and it realized data rates of more than 100 Mega bits per second over distances of several hundred meters, while maintaining excellent throughput at the edge of typical urban mobile radio cells, NSN claims.

”As the world continues to move closer to our vision of 5 billion people connected by 2015, mobile operators will need to use all of the available spectrum with minimum network complexity and maximum cost efficiency to handle a 100 fold increase in traffic,” says Stephan Scholz, CTO of Nokia Siemens Networks. “This field trial is an important initial proof of concept for LTE.”

The field trial was assisted by the Heinrich Hertz Institut (HHI), a world-wide recognized expert centre in the field of intelligent adaptive MIMO/Algorithms.

"We understand the complexity of the LTE and MIMO technology, and it is really amazing how far Nokia Siemens Networks has developed the LTE base station in such a short time," said Professor Holger Boche from Heinrich Hertz Institut.

To obtain data about LTE performance in an actual urban deployment environment, an LTE base station was installed at a typical base station site: the top of the Heinrich Hertz Institut building in the center of Berlin. Cars with LTE test terminals were driven up to 1km away from the base station to measure the LTE cell’s coverage and throughput.

“We can demonstrate that LTE meets the high expectations set for this new technology,” adds Matthias Reiss, head of LTE Radio at Nokia Siemens Networks. “Most importantly, we now have evidence that future LTE networks can run on existing base station sites and mobile operators can build LTE networks without requiring new antenna sites.”

The base station, supporting LTE with a 2 by 2 MIMO (Multiple Input / Multiple Output) antenna system having 120 degree sectors, has been installed to support continuous testing activities over the next year. It transmits with 20MHz bandwidth in the 2.6GHz band, for which Nokia Siemens Networks has acquired test licenses in major cities throughout Germany. The spectrum in this band will be awarded to mobile operators in the next few years.

Nokia Siemens Networks says it is providing an optimal evolution path for operators that currently have GSM/EDGE, WCDMA or CDMA cellular networks. End to end HSPA is currently available, Internet-HSPA (I-HSPA), commercially available in 2008, optimizes the existing network architecture for data services and LTE availability is planned for a 2010 timeframe.