KT uses Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 in its LTE network
South Korean operator KT and equipment provider Nokia recently conducted what the companies say is the industry’s first enhanced machine type communications field trial.
The trial was conducted on KT’s LTE network using Nokia’s Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station wherein EMTC utilized 1.4 megahertz of the 20 megahertz of spectrum supplied to the LTE system, leaving the remaining spectrum free for other LTE traffic. The two companies said the trial was targeted at the growing “Internet of Things” space, allowing for coexistence with the existing LTE network as well as providing extended coverage.
Also known as LTE-M, EMTC is a feature expected to be fully standardized with 3GPP Release 13, which is considered the evolutionary step from LTE-Advanced to LTE-Advanced Pro. EMTC is said to provide data rates of up to 1 megabit per second and up to four times better coverage, while reducing device complexity by up to 80% compared with conventional LTE.
“This trial, a world-first, offers a solid platform to promote the widespread application of services powered by IoT technology by addressing limitations that are hampering its spread and reach,” said Chang Seok Seo, KT’s SVP and head of its network strategy unit.
“With this trial, we have successfully demonstrated the capabilities of LTE as a veritable backbone for a growing range of IoT use cases,” added Andrew Cope, head of Nokia South Korea.
Nokia said mobile operators can deploy LTE-M technology with a software upgrade on their existing LTE networks.
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ZTE completes IoT tests with China Mobile’s research arm
In related APAC news, Chinese ICT services provider ZTE said it completed tests set up by the Big Data and IT Technology Department of China Mobile’s research unit China Mobile Research Institute for IoT docking and interoperability.
The Chinese vendor said completion of the test is a key step in the deployment of cloud-based network functions virtualization technologies.
During the NFV test, ZTE adopted management and orchestration and IP multimedia subsystem solutions, which fully satisfied China Mobile’s test requirements for a comprehensive range of IoT NFV including NE template management, fast and automatic service deployment, hot VM migration, failure recovery and dynamic scale in and scale out.
The Chinese firm also said MANO solutions support flexible orchestration of physical resources, virtual resources, virtual network functions and network services, providing end-to-end integrated management and O&M of NFVI, VIM and VNF layers to help customers shorten service time-to-market and reduce operating expenses.
ZTE has collaborated with several partners including VMware, Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat in a multi-vendor test environment designed to verify the interoperability of different configurations of hardware resource layers, virtual resource layers and VNF layers.