Alcatel-Lucent LTE Release (LR14.3) is Most Comprehensive to Date

We live in what I call “The Age of Acceleration” where the only constants are change and the speed at which it is increasing. This happens to be true in almost every aspect of information and communications technology (ICT) where the innovations are coming fast and furious. In fact, great examples of this is Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) where we are seeing the speed of concept-to-product realization and development of legacy and interoperability capabilities set records that are unprecedented in the history network operations and infrastructure. Plus, keep your eyes in the mobile world on how fast developments in 5G are moving. 

This acceleration in innovation on the mobile network side of things is exemplified by Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) (ALU). Back in February of this year, ALU launched a new LTE RAN portfolio whose centerpiece was the Alcatel-Lucent 9926 eNodeB – comprising a digital baseband unit and radio frequency (RF) platform – providing a smooth evolution path to vRAN and 5G. The BBU almost triples the capacity of previous generation solutions, supports up to 24 fully loaded cells and 16, 000 users in a compact d2U chassis with 50 percent less power consumed. In addition, it supports TDD/FDD modes and can be mixed with existing BBUs, it supports LTE/LTE-A and is ready for vRAN/5G. In fact, in addition to the eNodeB the company demonstrated only days later at Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) its NFV-based vRAN technology.

Yes, things are moving fast. Just how fast they are moving at ALU is once again front and center in conjunction with the 9926 eNodeB and the rest of the LTE (News - Alert) product line.

Selva Cromwel, Senior Manager Wireless Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent in an exclusive interview with me, shared that the company’s latest LTE software release in the form of LR14.3 is, “The largest content release by headcount, feature count and Lines of code significantly that we have delivered to our customers with 50 percent more features and lines of code compared to previous LTE releases.”  He added, “We have been fast-to-market meeting customer requirements without sacrificing on quality including making sure we were 5-9s when we went to field trials. 

He also noted Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise in this critical area citing that the company ALU has 80+ LTE contracts in 40+ countries, is in 8 of 10 of top global operators’ networks and has 142 commercial small cells contracts across all segments.

For our readers in the engineering community, it is also worth noting some changes in order to get what was a diverse group of teams working on coding for a diverse set of new components that needed to be backward and forward compatible, all working as a well-oiled engine of innovation. These included process, project management and technology enhancements for accomplishing what has been deemed by ALU and customers alike as a successful release—and so quickly and effectively. 

Just to name a few, Cromwel cited execution improvements in the areas of: 

• Better digital platform integration at the front end
• Improvements in definition of pre-integration testing to protect against stream breakage
• Integration streams designed per feature group to avoid code collision in ways that would cause issues on the mainstream
• Stronger reactions to main stream breakage
• Changes and investigations in FI, and ST baseline on how to improve the testing coverage overall and find the issues sooner rather than later
• Integration and capacity milestones mapped from deliveries in prior releases, prop times, and the path through feature integration for critical items.

In short, all aspects of enhancing the product realization journey were examined with an eye toward continuous improvement in processes and the deliverable.  

As noted at the top, this was a big release in any way you wish to measure it.  As Cromwel concluded: “This is a very large and feature-rich release that meets needs in terms of capacity, and performance. We are delivering new hardware, digital platforms and advanced features position us well for what comes next.” He added, “This is about having the right hardware, the ability to protect the customers’ investments, and a smooth transition, and we believe we have all of that including great glide paths to NFV and 5G.”