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Qualcomm Extends LTE to Unlicensed Spectrum to Enhance Mobile Experiences and Help Operators Meet Network Capacity DemandSAN DIEGO, Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- To address the increasing demand for mobile data, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) is extending LTE to unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U), and today announced that it has integrated the technology into its latest small cell solutions and RF transceivers for mobile devices. Qualcomm Technologies also announced that it successfully completed over-the-air testing to prove co-existence between multiple LTE-U and Wi-Fi access points in the unlicensed spectrum under extreme load conditions. Qualcomm Technologies will showcase its new solutions with a number of LTE-U demonstrations at Mobile World Congress, March 2-5 in Barcelona, Spain. "As the Internet enters a new phase of growth, in which more devices are connected and share richer data, there is a need to cost effectively address the challenges of a 1000x increase in mobile data traffic. To do this, we need a combination of more spectrum, more efficient use of existing spectrum, and more small cells," said Matt Grob, executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and chief technology officer. "Our job is to help the industry make the best use of all available spectrum, using both LTE and Wi-Fi technologies, to increase capacity." Extending LTE Advanced to unlicensed spectrum helps operators meet increased capacity needs and enhance their mobile broadband services. LTE-U is designed to augment operators' services to use channels in the less crowded 5 GHz unlicensed bands, and uses several coexistence features to support fair share use among the multiple users and technologies that access those bands. Extending the benefits of LTE to unlicensed spectrum is designed to provide:
Integration of LTE-U into Qualcomm Technologies small cells solutions portfolio "The FSM99xx family is designed to bring outdoor, enterprise and small and medium business access points to the next level of value and performance," said Neville Meijers, vice president of business development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Adding LTE-U technology to our small cell solutions will provide additional capacity for operators to augment existing mobile broadband and deliver seamless connectivity experiences."
First announced commercial RF transceiver for LTE-U The WTR3950 extends Qualcomm Technologies' RF product leadership in LTE Advanced, which is based on successful commercialization of single-chip RF transceivers for LTE carrier aggregation. The WTR3950 pairs with the WTR3925, the first 28 nm RF for single chip Cat 6 carrier aggregation, to support up to 3x20 MHz carrier aggregation across licensed and unlicensed spectrum. The WTR3950 can also support up to 40 MHz intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation in the 5 GHz bands. Successful testing of LTE-U and Wi-Fi coexistence In its San Diego, Calif. headquarters, Qualcomm Technologies engineers deployed a state-of-the-art network comprising multiple Wi-Fi access points and LTE-U small cells – all operating in a single channel in the unlicensed 5GHz band – to evaluate real-life performance and interference in multiple scenarios. After extensive testing that replicated extremely dense radio conditions, the data concluded that LTE-U can not only provide superior performance than either LTE or Wi-Fi used individually, but fairly coexists with Wi-Fi. In many cases, shifting traffic from Wi-Fi to LTE-U can actually improve performance for Wi-Fi users, due to the efficient way that LTE uses the unlicensed spectrum. Testing scenarios included both "adaptive duty-cycle" based coexistence which is suitable for commercial LTE-U deployments in countries such as the US, China and Korea using LTE Release 10 and beyond, as well as Listen Before Talk (LBT) based techniques that are proposed through a work item for an upcoming release of the LTE standard, Release 13, which is expected to define a version of LTE-U known as Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), suitable for deployments in other regions such as Europe and Japan. LTE-U demonstrations at Mobile World Congress 2015 About Qualcomm Incorporated Qualcomm and VIVE are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. VIVE and FSM are products of Qualcomm Atheros, Inc. Qualcomm Contacts: Emily Kilpatrick, Corporate Communications Warren Kneeshaw, Investor Relations
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qualcomm-extends-lte-to-unlicensed-spectrum-to-enhance-mobile-experiences-and-help-operators-meet-network-capacity-demand-300042427.html SOURCE Qualcomm Technologies |