Nokia Siemens Networks announced enhancements to its CDMA portfolio with the launch of EV-DO Advanced capabilities today. The company positions the new release as providing up to 40% more data capacity in heavily loaded cells.
The company pointed out that the new solution enhances spectral efficiency and device efficiency compared to existing EV-DO technology on a number of fronts. Specific enhancements called out by the company include:
- Network Load Balancing (NLB) that reassigns mobile devices from heavily-loaded sectors to lightly-loaded sectors.
- Carrier management algorithms that can assign one or more carriers to a device within the same cell or from an adjacent cell if another cell is less loaded or offers better coverage.
- Connection management algorithms designed to optimize device connections to the network depending on the type of application being used to improve signaling capacity and reduce latency.
- Adaptive frequency reuse that aims to improve coverage by reducing the interference in a capacity-constrained cell so the primary carrier frequency is optimized.
- Distributed network scheduling that prioritizes and allocates bandwidth to multiple users at a network level, to help maximize overall network efficiency.
- NSN also points to a scheme it calls Single Carrier Multilink, whereby two carriers using the same frequency can serve a dual-antenna mobile device from different cells/sectors. The user device can thus achieve the benefits of a multicarrier network, even if the user moves to a single carrier network.
Beyond network-based mechanisms, NSN’s solution also addresses device management through the following:
- Equalizer technology that looks to take advantage of uneven loading traffic to significantly increase cell-edge data throughput. In other words, in cells where usage is concentrated, capacity can be “spread” over the range of the cell thereby increasing aggregate throughput at the edges of the cell.
- Through the use of mobile transmit diversity, a mobile device can use an additional antenna to ncrease reverse link sector capacity and improve user data rates at the cell edge.
In its release, the company pointed out that the solution is commercially available and being deployed by a “leading operator”.
Market Impact
NSN’s announcement is important because it demonstrates the vendor’s ongoing commitment to improving the 3G experience for its CDMA customers. While much of the market’s focus is understandably on LTE, there is a fundamental acknowledgement throughout the industry that 3G will be relevant for years, if not decades. To this end, vendors such as ALU, Ericsson, Huawei, NSN et. al. remain active in highlighting enhancements to their WCDMA portfolios via successive iterations of HSPA. EV-DO Advanced represents NSN’s equivalent effort aimed at its CDMA operator customers.
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