Nokia Networks says it has conducted the first live network trial of a software feature that improves smartphone performance on 3G networks by making browsing 20 percent faster while reducing battery power consumption by 40 percent.
Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies used the commercial 3G/HSPA network of a major unnamed European operator to test devices fitted with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that support High Speed Cell FACH.
Nokia says its Nokia High Speed Cell FACH cuts smartphone-generated network signaling by up to 80 percent and boosts response time by up to 65 percent. High Speed Cell FACH is the name that Nokia uses to refer to three 3GPP standard features: Enhanced Cell FACH Downlink, Enhanced Cell FACH Uplink and Enhanced DRX Cell FACH.
Qualcomm supports High Speed Cell FACH on its latest Snapdragon processors that are now commercially available to smartphone manufacturers. The live network tests produced substantial performance gains that exceeded Qualcomm's expectations, including beating previous laboratory test results, according to a press release.
Part of the Nokia Liquid Radio WCDMA Software Suite, High Speed Cell FACH is already available, so operators can prepare for the market when smartphones support the feature; it is not yet in commercially available smartphones.
Nokia Networks and Qualcomm have been busy of late. Last week, Nokia Networks and Qualcomm Technologies announced that they had completed interoperability testing of LTE-Advanced three-band Carrier Aggregation (3x CA), allowing more operators to achieve subscriber data rates of up to 300 Mbps in their network environments.
The tests used the Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, allowing operators, such as SK Telecom, which participated in the interoperability tests, to offer data rates of up to 300 Mbps to their subscribers using a network of three frequencies (20 MHz + 10 MHz + 10 MHz). 3x CA provides an alternative option to operators to reach 40 MHz carrier aggregation, as it was previously available only to the operators with at least two bands of 20 MHz bandwidth each.
For more:
- see this RCR story
- see this press release
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