Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) said its demonstration of LTE Advanced technology to the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency showed speeds more than 10 times faster than the existing LTE network in Sweden.
Using a test frequency provided by the agency, Ericsson said it demonstrated functionality such as carrier aggregation of 3 x 20 MHz over the air in a mobile environment for the first time.
Carrier aggregation, which is part of the LTE Advanced standard, allows operators to bond non-contiguous spectrum into a single, wider channel. That way operators can address the asymmetry of data flows between downlink and uplink channels. The type of data traffic that is growing the fastest is video, and it is asymmetrical traffic. As such, carrier aggregation helps operators efficiently manage these downlink flows.
The demo system was based on Ericsson's multi-mode, multi-standard radio base station, RBS 6000. Live traffic was streamed between the RBS and a moving van, from which network performance could be monitored. In the demonstration, 60 MHz of aggregated bandwidth was used--20 MHz is the maximum currently possible using LTE. In the downlink, 8x8 MIMO was used.
Ericsson said the first stages of LTE Advanced are expected to be in commercial operation in 2013.
For more:
- see this release
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