LTE takes another step forward

LONG TERM EVOLUTION (LTE), the next generation mobile data access technology, is another inch to mainstream rollout with two significant milestones having been announced today.

Chinese telecoms firm Huawei revealed that it is working with Samsung on the world's first LTE Interoperability Test (IOT).

The IOT will be carried out next month and will use LTE modems manufactured by Samsung on Huawei's LTE trial network in Europe.

"The test bridges the most cutting-edge telecom technology with increasing demand for the ability to enjoy rich and compelling services anytime, anywhere," said Wan Biao, president of wireless for Huawei.

"Huawei is dedicated to accelerating the commercialisation of LTE technology through close cooperation with our industry peers."

In addition, Alcatel-Lucent announced that it has conducted a field demonstration of new technology to boost speeds on LTE-based wireless broadband networks.

The field test was carried out jointly with Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institut and antenna supplier Kathrein in Berlin as part of a joint research project sponsored by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) called Enablers for Ambient Services and Systems (EASY-C).

The test using a technology called Coordinated Multipoint Transmission (CoMP) and is designed to increase data rates while still providing consistent service quality and throughput.

The technology works by intelligently combining signals from multiple antennas and can be used on both LTE and 3G networks.

"The results we have achieved with this new transmission technology are built on our world-leading multi-antenna wireless research," said Gee Rittenhouse, head of Bell Labs Research.

"In the future as LTE networks become widely deployed we expect that CoMP will help enable our customers to meet the next wave of demand from users who expect to access all sorts of exciting high-bandwidth applications with their mobile phones."

With many existing mobile networks taking strain under the growing demand for mobile data services, many are looking at LTE and WiMax as ways of providing higher speeds and greater bandwidth to help improve performance. µ