Now that NTT DoCoMo verified its Advanced C-RAN network in an outdoor commercial environment, it's free and clear to commercially deploy the technology with its LTE-Advanced network in March.
DoCoMo says its Advanced C-RAN network efficiently increases radio capacity and transmission speed, especially in train stations, large-scale commercial facilities and other high-traffic areas, by achieving a 240 Mbps downlink using 35 MHz bandwidth.
The verification was conducted using category-6 mobile devices capable of download speeds up to 300 Mbps in the Yokosuka area of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, beginning in November 2014. The purpose was to verify performance and optimize the Advanced C-RAN system for commercial deployment.
"Advanced C-RAN represents an important contribution to the evolution of LTE and will be a key technology for the realization of 5G in the future," said Seizo Onoe, DoCoMo's executive vice president and chief technology officer, in a press release.
DoCoMo says Advanced C-RAN is a network based on a concept it proposed in 2013 that leverages carrier aggregation (CA) technology to enable users to receive data simultaneously over small cells for localized coverage deployed in congested areas and macro cells that provide wider area coverage. This benefit, which will provide stress-free communications in high-traffic areas, will be achieved by using small cells that significantly increase throughput and system capacity while maintaining mobility provided by the macro cells, DoCoMo said in the release.
But others have been involved in C-RAN development in some way for several years. Intel began working with Korea Telecom during the fall of 2010 and was the first major chipmaker to support the technology. China Mobile has conducted numerous C-RAN trials and is expected to deploy C-RAN on its commercial networks between 2015 and 2016, according to ABI.
DoCoMo expects its LTE-Advanced users to enjoy stable, high-speed mobile experiences thanks to greater throughput and unbroken communication even in high-traffic areas.
For more:
- see the press release
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