Several mobile phone operators and equipment manufacturers have teamed to test high-speed LTE (Long-Term Evolution) mobile phone technology, says Network World.
T-Mobile International, Orange and Vodafone have joined forces with vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Nortel and Ericsson to begin trailing mobile broadband networks based on LTE technology, the companies said Thursday.
Virtual MIMO - also termed Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) - is used to provide more bandwidth efficiency. LTE is the proposed successor to HSPA technology but instead of W-CDMA, it uses OFDM. Strictly speaking, “real” 4G may not happen until the generation after both Mobile WiMAX and LTE.
Cellular LTE and Mobile WiMax are vying for dominance in the emerging market for 4G (fourth-generation) networking services.
The LTE trial, which will begin later this month, will test mobile broadband peak data rates of more than 100M bps (bits per second). The high data speeds will be achieved through OFDM modulation and through multi-antenna technologies.
Mobile WiMAX uses Scalable-OFDMA which allows different radios to use a different subset of subcarriers on the same frequency at the same time.
Radios far from basestations use stronger (but fewer) carriers, while radios near basestations can use more carriers (but weaker, with optimized modulation). Simultaneous access with multiple talk/listen channels and VoIP quality of service is enhanced using this Time Division technique. Proponents say OFDM can deliver enhanced data rates to the cell edge (in contrast to CDMA).
Mobile WiMAX may use 10 MHz per-sector (TDD) with a total throughput of over 35 Mbps per sector using MIMO and Beam-Forming. With three sectors, a maximum throughput of over 100 Mbps may be supported per basestation (using 30 MHz).
On Wednesday, Nokia Siemens demonstrated the use of “Virtual MIMO” in LTE networks. MIMO, of course, combines multiple antennas at each end to minimize errors and optimize data speeds. Participants plan to use the test results in their ongoing LTE development and standardization efforts. Commercial LTE service is planned in the 2009-2010 timeframe.
Intel is breathing down their back, of course. Sean Maloney told financial analysts at its spring financial bash that by 2008 there will be 400 deployments of WiMAX, providing access to 150 million people. By 2010, 650 million will be able to access WiMAX facilities and by 2012 Intel estimates 1.3 billion people will be able to use it.
Or is that baloney? DailyWireless has more on The Civil War in 4G.
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