New features aid WCDMA re-farming, helping operators make the most of finite spectrum
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has introduced two innovations that allow operators to deliver mobile broadband more effectively with their existing spectrum. They form part of the company's Liquid Radio GSM software suite, the industry's first complete offering for frequency re-farming that ensures exceptional flexibility in using limited GSM spectrum more efficiently.
Described by the company as Energy Efficient Coverage (EEC), the first innovation enables existing GSM spectrum to support up to double the amount of traffic. Alternatively, it can achieve the same GSM performance using less spectrum, thus freeing up more frequencies for WCDMA re-farming. In addition it can significantly improve network coverage.
The second innovation is Configurable Carrier Bandwidth for WCDMA. This allows WCDMA carrier bandwidth to be set in software configurable steps of 200 kHz from the very narrow 3.8 MHz up to 4.2 MHz, depending on an operator's spectrum. It gives operators full flexibility to allocate more GSM spectrum to WCDMA as it becomes available. The feature also allows co-location of GSM and WCDMA on the same frequency band for operators with extremely limited spectrum.
The two new software features will be available commercially in the second half of 2012.
'Mobile spectrum is scarce, and operators want to maximize the GSM spectrum they can re-farm to WCDMA and LTE,' said Dhruv Khanna, head of sales development for mobile broadband, North America, NSN. 'Our software suite addresses this challenge. Operators can re-farm using much narrower spectrum than before, deliver GSM and WCDMA with 30% less spectrum, and also lower total cost of ownership by 20%. Moreover, they can deliver a vastly improved user experience, and potentially attract more customers to increase revenues.'
Operators can deploy the features with NSN's Single RAN platform via a simple software upgrade to evolve their networks smoothly, and cost-efficiently manage the huge growth in mobile broadband traffic.
To help operators increase network capacity and improve network performance, NSN offers planning and implementation services for WCDMA and LTE re-farming. By supporting more than 65% of commercial WCDMA and over 50% of commercial LTE re-farming networks, the company is the leader in spectrum re-farming services.
