Singtel and Ericsson hit 1.1 Gbps in new LAA configuration

singtel is amobee
Image credit: TK Kurikawa | Shutterstock.com

Singtel and Ericsson claim they have achieved peak speeds of 1.1 Gbps in a joint trial of a new configuration of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology.

Conducted in a Singtel laboratory, the trial delivered speeds that breached the 1-gigabit barrier by combining several key LTE technologies including 256 QAM, 4×4 MIMO, and aggregating two licensed and three unlicensed spectrum bands on a TM500 Test System device.

In the trial, four layers with 4X4 MIMO on licensed spectrum were used, as well as two layers on a second licensed band, and six layers with LAA (2 layers X 3 unlicensed bands). The Ericsson Radio System hardware used included Radio 2203 for the licensed spectrum and Radio 2205 for the LAA (unlicensed) spectrum). All radios were connected to a single Baseband 5216. The test devices were supplied by Cobham Wireless and Stellent Networks.

The unique 12-layered LAA configuration used in the trial will provide data speeds 2-3x faster than current peak LTE speeds, which will be especially beneficial to indoor coverage and usage, said Mark Chong, Singtel’s group chief technology officer.

“In Singapore, a large percentage of mobile traffic is generated indoors with more mobile customers browsing the web, streaming video and accessing cloud applications on the go,” Chong said. “We are now in a position to deploy LAA technology to boost our LTE mobile capacity to meet increasing traffic demand. This will allow us to deliver a faster and more reliable mobile connectivity experience even during peak periods.”

Chong said Singtel will explore the feasibility to deploy the technology on Singtel’s network.

Singtel and Ericsson say the trial is “an Asia-Pacific first in wireless technology”, which is a reference more to the configuration than the throughput speed. In June, an LAA trial by Ericsson and SK Telecom yielded throughput speeds of 1 Gbps. In August, SmarTone and Ericsson said their LAA trial achieved downlink speeds of 800 Mbps. Both trials used one licensed and three unlicensed frequency bands.

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.