As we move into a fully mobile era, connecting to family friends, colleagues through multiple devices and even conducting business transactions over the cellular network, this results in an influx of devices, users and applications trying to access the network. The challenge that presents itself is providing the right coverage to indoor spaces.
Ericsson has therefore rolled out ‘Ericsson Networks Software 16A’ that features a new suite of LTE software upgrades. The new suite features advances in uplink and downlink performance, boosting network uplink speeds by up to 200 percent and downlink speeds by up to 30 percent.
Over the last few years a major shift in connectivity has been gaining speed. Laptops today have become of lesser use making mobile phones the most depended gadgets where we connect to our friends, family, and colleagues through multiple devices and where business transactions are often made over the cellular network.
Mike Sapien, Principal Analyst Enterprise Services, Ovum, says: “While operators have understood that they need to design mobile networks for increasing amounts of data now, Wi-Fi networks have traditionally been the solution of choice for indoor connectivity for enterprise customers. However, Wi-Fi cannot service the need for reliable and mobile voice services or text messaging, much less handle the business-critical applications that require the app coverage, voice services, and full mobility provided by cellular. Now, as we move toward 5G, both cellular and Wi-Fi will need to work together to offer differentiated and seamless service.”
Increase in Video uploads influences uplink enhancement
Increases in video and media uploads by businesses and consumers via apps like Instagram and Facebook call for better uplink speeds. Ericsson Networks Software 16A includes two uplink enhancements that will enable mobile operators to utilize 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) on uplink to provide 50-percent better peak speeds of 75 Mbps. In addition, it enables uplink carrier aggregation, which can double uplink data speeds. Combined, these improvements provide peak uplink data rates up to 150 Mbps, which is a 200 percent improvement.
Further enhancements focused on the indoor space boost download speeds by 30 percent using 256 QAM encoding. Earlier this year, in a live demonstration with Ericsson, Telstra achieved the world’s first download peak rates of 600 Mbps using this new feature. Devices that support these advances become available this year, in line with commercial availability of the Ericsson Networks Software 16A.
Networks Software 16A also includes LTE-U, to drive higher performance. LTE-U enables operators to combine the reliability of licensed spectrum with indoor data speed boosts provided by unlicensed spectrum.
To keep pace with mobile broadband demand from both consumers and industry, operators need solutions that deliver both high performance and efficiency. Ericsson’s indoor software innovations deliver both. And, these new features combined with Ericsson’s end-to-end solutions, flexible go-to-market and business models and proactive relationships with key device ecosystem partners, ensure that our leading operators not only keep pace, but set the pace.
Operators also get to choose their involvement with the system with easy to deploy hardware and installation tools. Ericsson Global Services offers a range of small cell services, from strategic network analysis through design, integration, optimization and monitoring, right up to a fully managed Small Cells as a Service (SCaaS) offering. With SCaaS, complete ownership of the hardware and deployment is handled through Ericsson Global Services, allowing for a simple and easy go-to-market model for indoor opportunities.
