SK Telecom, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Altair Semiconductor showcased their jointly developed two-way handover technology that supports the FDD and TDD flavors of LTE in one device--the first time this technology has been demonstrated in a moving vehicle.
SK Telecom said it introduced the technology at an operating committee meeting held by the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) this week in Turin, Italy. The company noted enablement of bidirectional handover between LTE's FDD and TDD versions is expected to increase the use of dual-mode devices that support both duplex modes with a single modem chipset.
"The bidirectional LTE FDD/TDD handover technology will allow users to experience seamless LTE service even while on international roaming," said Kang Jong-Ryeol, head of SK Telecom's network technology R&D center.
The South Korean operator said that the technology demonstration verified that the handover between FDD LTE and TD-LTE achieved the same performance as single FDD mode handover. The demonstration also proved that the technology is capable of adjusting the coverage of LTE FDD and TD-LTE base stations as well as offloading traffic depending on the level of concentration in areas covered by both duplex modes.
In June, Ericsson said it performed the first bidirectional handover between LTE's FDD and TDD flavors on a live network. That handover was accomplished on China Mobile Hong Kong's Ericsson-supplied LTE network, which operates in FDD mode.
For more:
- see this SK Telecom release
Related articles:
ZTE devices support TDD and FDD flavors of LTE
Ericsson demos LTE FDD and TDD interworking
Report: TD-LTE to power 25% of LTE connections by 2016
Clearwire, Qualcomm team up on multi-mode LTE chipsets
Sweden's Hi3G announces first FDD/TDD LTE network